Bakuman Review

Posted on December 27, 2014 by dreager1

Bakuman is a very unique Shonen Jump manga that decided to try and get some success without the typical action formula. There are no real fight scenes so would this really work out? Well, it manages to be very interesting like Death Note was and the continuity is very important here. I can safely say that it was much better than I had expected and it shows that Shonen Jump can succeed in any format!

Mashiro and Takagi are the main characters of this story. Mashiro had always liked drawing ever since he was a kid and Takagi enjoyed writing stories. One day, Takagi asked Mashiro if he would like to partner up to create a manga and that’s when the whole thing really started. They have to move up the Shonen Jump ranks if they want to catch up to famous authors like Kishimoto and Kubo. Along the way they meet many other aspiring authors and friends. They go through several editors although one of them ends up staying longer than the rest. They even get a rival in the form of Eiji. It’ll be a tough road, but these guys can hold their own!

Mashiro may technically share the lead role with Takagi in the series, but I’d say that he is definitely the true main character here. A large part of the plot is the fact that he proposed to Miho at the beginning of the series and they promised not to speak with each other again until Mashiro drew a hit series that got an anime and Miho got to be the voice actress for the main heroine. A rather lofty goal, but one that they decided to stick too. Naturally, this is an impossible deal that is broken several times, but they try to keep to this throughout the series and it’s a good subplot.

Mashiro is very determined and he can be pretty stubborn once he has made up his mind. He’ll never be the guy to crack first and he’ll hold his ground to the bitter end. His uncle died from overworking himself and it’s a trait that Mashiro shares with him. He ends up working on manga well past his limits and it comes back to hit him several times. He’s a pretty solid lead although he’s not nearly as good as the average Shonen Protagonist. To an extent, he’s meant to act as the reader. So, he has some personality to keep him interesting, but not too much so that you can still put yourself in the manga instead of him. He’s basically just your average joe who wants to succeed. He’s likable though and that’s what counts.

Takagi is more reasonable than Mashiro on most things. He never overworks himself, although he certainly takes his job seriously. He trusts Mashiro’s opinion when it comes to anything manga related and he’ll keep on creating new stories until he makes one that has Mashiro’s approval. He’s the guy who initiated the team up and you can tell that he is definitely more confident in his movements. Mashiro was rather timid at first and he was still known as a pretty quiet person til the very end. (Although he certainly got braver) Takagi was brave from the start although he didn’t gain rivals quite as quickly. He “cracks” a little more often than Mashiro when the pressure starts to get to him and I do think that he probably has the tougher job since he has to come up with a new story each week, but both are certainly difficult. Mashiro just does a better job of handling the pressure and I do think that he is a better character than Takagi.

Eiji is the big rival of the series and he certainly gets a lot of screen time. He’s basically untouchable though since his series manages to outlast just about every other one and it surpasses Naruto and Bleach at one point. Naturally, those two aren’t mentioned by name, but Crow managed to be in 1st place for over 10 weeks straight so you know what that means. I don’t blame the readers either since Crow sounded pretty awesome. Eiji is a fun rival even if his personality does a 180 sometimes. For no reason he’ll just become antagonistic before reverting to his cheerful self once again. It seems to just be a quirk of the author’s here though as characters tend to act a little out of character when it’s not from their point of view. He’s still one of the better characters in the series.

Miho’s the main heroine of the series and she doesn’t get as much screen time as most of the main characters, but she’s always around. The main reason for her lack of screen time during some of the sections is due to the fact that she is keeping up her end of the bargain to not see Mashiro until their goals have been met. She quickly rises up through the ranks of the voice actress ranks so that she can be ready when the anime has arrived. She’s a good character, but not quite as interesting as most main heroines. She’s very polite and also pretty quiet like Mashiro so this unfortunately means that we don’t get a lot of tough lines from her. A “Watch me win this role” 2 months in advance would have been an awesome line to really get the shonen blood going, but it was not to be. So, she’s a good character, but she could have been better.

Kaya is another one of the big characters and she serves as the other main heroine since she’s with Takagi. Unlike Miho and Mashiro, they get together pretty early on in the series. Kaya helps the team out with art and other duties when the heroes are in a pinch, but she usually just tries to remind them that they should have a life beyond just working on manga. Time usually flies by for them so they can basically go a whole day just working after all. She’s pretty nice and she helps to keep the heroes together. She doesn’t have a lot of misunderstandings with Takagi unlike the other pair so that’s pretty good.

Fukuda is a character that I could never really like. He’s decent to be sure, but he’s one of the rivals to the main characters and he just never seemed that talented. His stories had some good concepts, but he could never execute them and the art simply wasn’t there. He talked really big and he got a big following on his motorcycle series, but I can’t really say much for him beyond that. He was probably the most vocal member of the team from the main characters, but he was never really a threat and he eventually just became an ally for the heroes.

Nakai is one of the worst characters in the series and he goes from being a decent character to being downright antagonistic. By the end of the series he has lost all of his morals and he’ll stoop down to just about any level. I definitely grew tired of his plot and I would just wait for him to go away only to see his character return. The author makes sure that you will dislike him so don’t expect any redeemable qualities from the guy.

Aoki almost feels out of place amidst the other authors because she is not loud and determined like the others. She feels more like royalty and she’s very cautious in all of her moves. She simply very polite and she wants to make a nice manga without cheap Shonen tricks like fanservice and action every other chapter. I disagree with the latter, but I’m glad that she avoided the former. Unfortunately, the series does send a pretty sad message since she is eventually forced to throw those into her story. That was pretty sad and I wished that she could have held her ground a little more. She’s definitely a nice character, but maybe just a little too perfect. Considering that everyone is basically in one large drama, she doesn’t really add to it like the others. That’s why she should have defied the authors, it would have given her a pretty cool subplot.

Hiramaru is one of the more desperate members of the main authors since he doesn’t even like drawing manga. He used to be a professional at something and he was making a lot of money, but he thought that manga writing would be easy to he decided to focus on that. Turns out that he was wrong, but his editor manages to keep him around by promising to get him a connection with a lady at some point. Hiramaru falls for this trick for most of the series and eventually his character arc comes to a close. I don’t agree with him teaming up with Nakai towards the end though and I think that this was definitely a bit much. Nobody should have to work with Nakai after all of the things that he has done. Hiramaru has his charm, but he’s still not one of the better characters.

Iwase was a pretty good novel writer who wondered why Takagi would sacrifice his great grades and writing abilities to join the manga world. She was so interested that she decided to get involved as well and she quickly became a rival of his. She’s also a story writer so she needed to find someone to do the art and the situation intensified when Eiji volunteered to help. In the end, Aoki proved to be more talented at writing novels since manga typically use less text per page, but she held her own for quite a while. She’s pretty proud and believes herself to be above such things and that’s one of the reasons why I would say that she was one of the more interesting members of the group. She eventually learns the value of being a manga writer or course.

Nanamine is probably the only villain in the series. Nakai may as well be one, but this guy makes it clear that he is on the side of injustice from the get go. He comes complete with his own sob story about how he used to be a fan of the main characters. Now he believes that the end justifies the means so he comes with a pair of tricky strategies in order to guarantee his success. They are pretty ingenius methods, but at least one of them is not practical unless you are already rich…and it just so happens that Nanamine is rich so it works out. As a character Nanamine definitely isn’t great, but I was glad that he came around. It brought the Shonen Jump effect on the series to a whole new level and we got some pretty cool cliffhangers out of the whole thing.

Hattori is the main editor for the two main characters and he’s pretty good. He can be a little annoying at times though as he is very cryptic with his advice and he tends to panic a lot. Every series has “that” character who panics about how strong the villains are and tells the heroes that they should quit while they’re ahead. (Brock, Krillin, Chopper, etc) Whenever a new character shows him the manga that they are working on, he makes an incredibly exaggerated face (That is recycled a lot) and he mentions how it may be impossible to top this work. He sticks up for the main characters sometimes, which is pretty good, but he’s certainly not one of my favorite characters in the series. If it helps, I’d say that he’s probably the best editor in the series, although the editor in chief is cooler than him.

The art looks very good throughout the series. The artist has to be able to switch his artwork several times as he showcases very different series from the authors/artists within the series so that definitely takes a lot of skill. The artist is definitely experienced and my only complaint with the art would be that a lot of the characters use the exact same expressions from time to time. It may not be very evident if you were reading this series on a weekly basis, but I basically marathoned through the entire series so I would even read 2-3 volumes a day at one point. At that quick pace, you tend to notice things like this a lot easier. The face expression that I never liked was when the editor’s nostrils would turn huge and steam would come out as he exclaimed how good a series was. It’s a little exaggerated and it makes him look bad since he says that about almost every big series. A random newcomer who turned evil made a series about wrestling and he had that reaction. I can understand him reacting that way for an Eiji or Mashiro story, but that should be the extent of it. For the most part, all of the other characters suffer from this as well and I think that it may just be one of the weak points of such a story. Since the main characters are in a pretty similar setting in similar circumstances many times, it makes sense that it would be harder for the artist to resist using such a tactic. Nevertheless, the overall art is pretty solid.

This is the kind of series that you would certainly expect to get a 7 or less, but it was just too interesting to deny it an 8. Whenever there would be a new batch of manga for me to read, this one got top priority. The only series that I would choose over it at the time would have been Soul Eater and Kenshin. Beyond that, Bakuman was the series that I was most eager to read. It’s a real page turner and that’s mainly because of the big cast and all of the subplots that are going on. It takes the typical Shonen routes and throws some drama in there and there is certainly a lot of tension because of the deadlines and the fact that only a certain amount of series can run in the magazine at once. No matter how you look at it, that means that some of the main characters will have to take a loss at some points when their series is cancelled.

The series does unfortunately have some fanservice in it. Typically it doesn’t have anything to do with life outside of the manga, but some authors believe that you should add it into the series and there is the whole subplot about having Aoki add it into her series. It’s a sad running gag that the guys naturally enjoy seeing those kind of scenes as well, which doesn’t help their case. There are also two perverted characters in the series whose every line is just cringe worthy and it makes you wish that they were not there. Luckily, one of them does get punched…maybe both of them. That was pretty fun and satisfying. So, the discussions can be a little much at times and it’s never enjoyable when they’re talking about things like that. It doesn’t happen all that often at least.

The series certainly has a lot of romance since it is like a drama during a lot of the volumes and many pairings happen. Miho and Mashiro’s is probably the best one since they decide that they won’t even talk until their goals are met. Now, that’s a safe and happy relationship if I ever saw one. Naturally, they break down and allow texts to be sent to each other during the series and by the end they are willing to phone each other, but they stay true to their goals. For the others, nothing unnecessary happens so I’ll give credit to the manga for that. The romance is handled a whole lot better than most other series.

One of the fun parts about the series is getting to see the various series that the authors are writing. It’s cool to see the actual manga artist adapt his style so many times to see what they are like. The best series that we get to see is probably Crow since it’s your average Shonen filled with a lot of fights and cool characters. The main characters created several series, but their best one was definitely the one that they closed out with. Reversi was its name and it was a mix of D.N. Angel and Deathnote. It had a pretty cool concept and the ending was certainly intense. Their other two big series were PCP and Detective Trap. Both of them were mysteries while Detective Trap was played seriously and PCP was basically a kudomo in disguise. Both of them sounded good, but not quite as good as Reversi.

Their rivals naturally had others, but they weren’t quite as good. We had +Natural…which sounded really boring and I have no idea how it lasted so long. There was a Beaver series and it was basically a comedy that I also thought should have been doomed. The Classroom of Truth was a great series and it’s one that they should totally make in real life. The concept is incredible and it could really have a bright future. Road Racer Giri also sounded fun as a racing series, but it was lacking something. Many more series also get to appear throughout the manga so it’s fun to keep an eye out on those.

The series is very heavy on continuity, which is fun since you get to age alongside the characters. Several years pass as you go through the volumes and they make sure to let you know where some of the series rank just about every week. Keep in mind that we are supposed to believe that Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach are around even if we have to stretch our imaginations a little to actually believe that they would lose to these titles…consistently. They lost just about every week, which is kind of sad for them. The series may have been better off just ignoring those titles, but I guess this series is also meant to be pretty informative about how to write a manga so they wanted to keep it in.

It’s one of those series where you just need to read it to fully capture the size and scope of it all. The plot is pretty linear and it always continues from the last point, which is why it’s impossible to mention all of the plot lines. They just keep going and going as they transition into other things. There are also a lot of other characters who come and go during the series. Many of them are forgettable while some of the others can be fun like the other editors. They definitely get competitive with the series. Bakuman is very realistic so just about all of the characters can be annoying from time to time as they try to downplay some series and upvote others with some personal bias, but that just makes the whole thing more exciting.

Overall, Bakuman is a pretty great series. As I mentioned, it will naturally not be as exciting the second time around since that is a weakness for series that don’t contain action, but the first time is good enough. It’s a series that will make you want to keep reading from start to finish and most of the characters are likable. I do think that they reuse too many expressions throughout the series, but I guess it’s tough to not do that when you’ve got a series like this one. I recommend checking out the series because it is not as dull as it may sound. (Although I love these kinds of plots myself) This is still Shonen Jump after all so you can typically expect a high quality piece from them.

Overall 8/10

Naruto Mission Protect The Waterfall Village Review

Posted on December 8, 2014 by dreager1

This OVA will always hold a special place in my heart since it was at the origin of my venture into being a Naruto fan. I always get a retro feeling from watching this film (Even if this is only my second time watching it) and the climax never disappoints. It’s a fun venture back into the old Naruto days and they did a good job with it. It had its flaws of course, but the pros outweigh the cons.

Naruto and friends have been assigned to protect a man named Shibuki. Shibuki is the leader of the Hidden Waterfall village. The very location of this place is a secret from just about everyone for security reasons. Shibuki then convinces Kakashi to have his team pick up the trash for some extra money. Kakashi gladly agrees to this and he quickly heads back to the Leaf Village. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are to follow once they have completed their mission, but the three shinobi are attacked by some rogue ninja. Will our heroes really be able to deal with this?

Well, it’s pretty interesting to see them try to fight these guys since our heroes were very inexperienced back then. From their power levels and the way that they fight, you would guess that this was either right after Zabuza or right before the Chunin Exams. (Not much of a gap there anyway……) Sasuke has mastered his Sharingan, but he definitely doesn’t have the speed that he acquired to fight Gaara. Naruto is in his clone spamming days and he doesn’t seem to know the Rasengan at this time. This was probably the toughest point in Team 7’s career. The heroes were actually more grounded than the average main characters after 5 or so volumes. (Bleach volume 5- Ichigo is already a supersonic warrior of legend, Yu Yu Hakusho volume 5- Yusuke is already getting familiar with his spirit gun and his abilities would possibly be around Kakashi level or slightly lower, etc) Sakura doesn’t fight at all so it’s hard to gauge just how prepared for action she is.

Nevertheless, the villains couldn’t have picked a better time to attack. It’s unfortunate for the Waterfall Village because the secret location is pretty easy to guess. The village is….behind the local waterfall!!! I don’t know whether that’s ingenius or just sad, but it evidently tricks most ninja. The villains only find out about this because the main one used to be a ninja there. The location of the village also provides a lot of questions. How can kids and seniors be expected to hold their breath for the reeeeeally long swim to and from the village? We see a possible answer since one of the old ladies just walks out of a forest claiming that she’s from the village, but then what’s the point of the shortcut? It seems like you can enter the secret way or you can just go all around through the forest. If that is the case, the writers really didn’t plan this out…..at all.

Back on point, the villains aren’t very interesting. Suien is the main villain and he’s just a corrupt ninja who fled when the going got tough. He wants the Hero’s Water so that he can live a glorious (and short) life. It increases a person’s chakra levels by 10X after all. (It also shortens a person’s life by 10X) We are never given any scenes to develop the villain, which aren’t typically necessary, but then the villain at least needs a cool design to fall back on. This guy has none of that and I can’t say that he’s that impressive without the enhancement. Once he has it, Suien’s super strength certainly looks good…which I found to be interesting to say the least. I’ll make the DBZ comparisons in a moment.

Suien had some partners, but none of them really appear all that much and they look terrible by the end. A single shot takes them down in an instant. The main filler character of the film is Shibuki and he’s pretty bad. He doesn’t want to risk his life and he’s the type of guy who won’t admit it either. He’ll act pretty ungrateful all the time and it’s really hard to root for him. He’s clearly not much of a fighter and he only became the leader because his father was the former (cooler) leader. He has his big moment towards the end, but he still almost let one of the kids die about 3-4 times before he stepped in. That’s pretty unacceptable so he gets a thumbs down from me.

Naruto looks pretty great here and it reminds me that he always has the potential to be a great character even if he doesn’t always live up to that. He stays determined to win and save everyone even while he is being pounded into the ground. It’s hard not to root for Naruto since he really looks great here. I dare say that he is probably the best character if we’re just judging from this OVA. He looks pretty weak if we’re talking about power, but he doesn’t let that stop him. Naturally, Sasuke will always be the better character….

Sasuke still looks pretty great as you would expect. He’s very confident and his abilities speak for themselves. He’s considerably stronger than Naruto at this point in time, but that also means that he has to lose since that will give the film some shock value. I don’t really agree with how he lost, but at least Sasuke dealt a lot of damage first. I have no problems with his portrayal and it was as good as you would expect from him.

Sakura doesn’t look very good and her fans will certainly be disappointed with her portrayal. She doesn’t fight at all and even the villains comment on how weak she is. That’s not what we expect from someone in the Haruno clan! Luckily she got some abilities after the 3 year timeskip, but this was certainly a tough time to be a Sakura fan. It’s hard to find any positives for her in this OVA….better luck next time I guess.

I felt like the writers had watched more DBZ than Naruto before they made this OVA. Chakra levels are treated completely like Ki from DBZ. The more chakra that you have, the greater that your speed and power increases. Suien is practically able to fly by the end and his punches can send his opponents into the distance with ease. He punches Naruto through a mountain and he can break someone’s bones by casually stepping on them. Chakra is good to have, but it doesn’t necessarily increase your physical stats or at least not by such a noticeable amount. It just means that you can use more ninjutsu, which is why your chakra level isn’t a downright huge factor. It’s still fun to see how much chakra a person has since it tends to show how skilled they are, but this felt more like sheer aura power than chakra.

My only negative would probably be in how much the villains get to pound on the heroes because it really makes you wince at Kakashi’s decision to leave. The heroes really take a beating in this OVA and the villagers are not safe either. The kids actually absorb their share of damage, which was a bit much. We don’t need to see the villains hurting the kids do we? Keep it to the ninja! (Who are kids, but they’re fighters so it’s different) That’s the only real negative for the film and the rest of it was classic popcorn fun.

The OVA also follows the concept of Naruto a little more than the show did. Team 7 basically act as mercenaries who simply aren’t holding back. Sasuke terminated nearly 10 of the enemy shinobi without a second thought. It’s not unheard of since that’s what ninja do, but it’s not something that you expect to see from them. Luckily, Naruto doesn’t destroy anyone so he’s still on the path to heroism while Sasuke’s foreshadowing got to start a little earlier than expected.

The animation is pretty good, but it’s not great. It’s basically at the TV show’s level and it looks better than the Zabuza arc, but not as good as the Chunin Exams. The fight scene between the two sword fighters at the end was pretty great and I liked the final battle as well. They were brief, but the animation really gets to shine in the fights. The soundtrack is from the show so it’s pretty great. I think that an OVA for a show should always get an original soundtrack or at least a few new tunes, but you still can’t fault the classic themes. They help to get you pumped up for the battles that are ahead.

Overall, This was a pretty fun OVA. It would have been nice to see Naruto put up a better fight in round 1, but he made up for that performance by the end. The animation is good and the soundtrack is pretty solid as well. It’s not very long (around 40 minutes) so the special will be over before you know it. This is a decent way to get into the Naruto franchise and I recommend it to any action fan. Just try not to wince when Kakashi leaves the main characters to fend themselves off in an unknown land while he heads all the way back to the village by himself…

Overall 7/10

Chunin Exam on Fire! Naruto vs Konohamaru! Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time for a review a pretty short OVA. This is probably the shortest thing that I’ve reviewed since the Superman shorts! It’s only about 13 minutes, but that’s still decent I suppose since it’s mostly about a fight. (30 minutes is still the minimum length that is acceptable for an OVA though) This OVA is pretty good and it definitely beats most of the other Naruto shorts…even if the ending is a little predictable.

After all these years, Naruto has finally decided to retake the Chunin Exams. This will help him to finally move past the Genin handle that has haunted him for so long. Unfortunately for our proud shinobi, Naruto is faced off against Konohamaru in the first round. This will certainly be a fight to be remembered and Naruto is going to have to use all of his techniques. After all, Konohamaru has been waiting for this day for over 3 years!

It’s cool to see Naruto actually take the Exams again, but that’s even more of a reason for this short to have been longer. Wouldn’t it have been cool to see Naruto participate in all of the trials up to the fight? That would have been pretty fun, but I guess they didn’t want to squeeze all of that in. I’m not sure if you guessed the ending yet, but you should realize that Naruto was still a genin in the manga at the time….so it would be hard to move up.

Nevertheless, Konohamaru puts up a fight and I’m happy to say that Naruto takes the fight a little seriously as well. He says that he can’t hold back since it would make Konohamaru feel bad. To an extent, Naruto has to be holding back since his first punch didn’t shatter Konohamaru, but we get the overall message of what he is trying to say. Konohamaru tries a lot of different jutsu and apparently he even knows the Giant Rasengan. That’s pretty cool for his fans since he is definitely learning at a quicker rate than Naruto. Technically, this means that he should be able to surpass Naruto at some point, but I don’t see it.

One thing (There is Always one thing) that I found the writers to have made a mistake on was Naruto’s Rasengan barrage. We get that he’s not holding back, but attacking Konohamaru with dozens of Rasengans is a little much. If any of those hit the poor kid..he’d be dead. There’s no way he could survive a full encounter with one of those devastating attacks. It looks cool to see Konohamaru dodging them the whole time, but that was definitely a bit much.

The animation is decently good for this OVA. It’s basically TV show quality, but considering some of the episodes during the War arc, I guess this is still an improvement. At this point, we’ll take what we can get. Also, it’s not like the OVA had a big budget to back it up so I’m sure that they did what they could with it. As long as the animation doesn’t look bad, I’m fine.

Overall, Naruto vs Konohamaru is a pretty fun special. It’s certainly not something that is going to keep you talking for a while, but who doesn’t like to see a fight scene? Naruto got to prove that he may be a Genin, but he can still hold his own against anyone. The ending is pretty cheesy and a little sad, but it’s unfortunately one of the only paths for the writers to go. I would have gone with the “I surrender” route, but that wasn’t in the cards. I recommend checking this out one of these days when you have the time. It’s brief and fun, which is all that you would expect from this. After that, check out Shippuden film 3!

Overall 7/10

Dragon Ball Z Cooler’s Revenge Review

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dreager1

It’s been a while since I went back to watch one of the old DBZ films. What better time than Christmas season right? This has always been one of my favorite DBZ films and it’s certainly the best one that didn’t feature Vegeta. It’s pretty short, but it makes for a pretty great film to check out.

The plot takes place after the battle against Frieza. Goku and friends decide to go on a camping trip to have some fun. It’s a chance to get away from it all and relax. After all, they may not get a chance with the Androids coming along to fight soon right? Things are going smoothly until Cooler and his minions arrive. The Z fighters are going to have to fight extra hard if they want to win this round!

This film is under 50 minutes so things have to happen very quickly. Cooler and his minions attack within the first 15 minutes and the fights really start heating up once Cooler joins the fray to fight Goku. Let’s face it…we’re all here to watch these two titans face off. It’s like watching a Justice League film. It’s great to see the other fighters get involved, but you can’t beat a scene with Superman fighting the powerhouse of the month. Titanic clashes like those are not easily forgotten.

The fight does not disappoint as Goku and Cooler wreck the area pretty badly during their fight. Cooler ends up punching Goku so hard that the water all leaves the ocean for a few minutes. That’s certainly impressive and it’s the type of physical feat that reminds me why DBZ is a cut above the comic franchises. They also get to display their speed during this endeavor and then we are treated to a classic beam fight at the end. The fight really had everything that we could have wanted from DBZ as it even included the “This isn’t even my final form” routine.

The animation is pretty solid since Toei always knew what they were doing with DBZ. It naturally won’t look as polished as some of the latter films, (The first Broly film is the only one that was at a total theatrical level compared to the rest) but the animation is certainly above average. You can really feel the blows and the energy attacks look great. I still miss this classic animation from the 90’s. It was solid in just about every aspect of the word.

The soundtrack isn’t so great, but it’s tough to count it as a negative for the film per say since it changes depending on where you saw it. I recently saw it in the DVD (Movie Pack) version and the music is mostly uninspired. We don’t get the techno/rock themes that you’ve probably heard on Youtube and it just can’t keep up with the fights. They’re the kind of themes that make you think you were watching a silent film afterwards. They aren’t bad, but they just aren’t memorable. Of course, it could be that I’ve just heard them so many times while watching DBZ that they fail to register sometimes. Upon closer inspection, they do work sometimes…just not for the fights.

Cooler makes for a pretty great villain. He’s definitely likable and it’s hard to say whether he is…cooler than Frieza or not. They’re both pretty similar in various aspects although Cooler definitely has the better design thanks to his final form. Cooler’s ambitions are clear and he does want to beat Goku in a fair fight instead of just destroying the planet from space. His power is considerable and he wants to bring honor back to his family’s name. As far as the film villains go, he could be second or third. (Broly is naturally number 1)

Cooler’s minions are not very memorable. They strike a lot of poses like the Ginyu Squad, but they simply aren’t very charismatic. They’re seriously outmatched against Goku and even Piccolo can easily subdue them. I do like the concept of a Ki sword, but that’s definitely not enough to turn them into serious threats.

Piccolo is the only ally of Goku who makes himself useful here. Gohan unfortunately tends to get in the way and Krillin doesn’t even try to fight back. Piccolo definitely earns his keep though as he takes out several of the villains. This clears the way for Goku to deal with Cooler. Piccolo definitely looked good here and his fans would be proud.

Goku also looks even better than usual here. This was back during the Arc 1 days so he’s still a super nice guy who cares about the animals. I don’t think we ever see him get worried about the animals safety after this, but I suppose that it simply isn’t brought up. The movie did a swell job of punching the average film in the face by having an anti animal violence scene. That’s just one of the many things that makes this film a pretty big cut above the rest. You don’t really see that kind of thing typically. A bird gets injured and Goku quickly heals him before going off to fight against Cooler. Now that’s what a call a hero! He even gives Cooler a chance to back off before things got serious.

The one thing that is a bit of a stretch is the fact that everyone mistook Cooler for Frieza. They seriously do not look that similar at all. I can understand Goku mistaking him to an extent….or I can at least conceive the idea. I do not believe that Piccolo would ever make that mistake though. I guess they really wanted to cement how similar the two villains were, but that was just too hard to swallow.

Overall, Cooler’s Revenge is still one of the elite DBZ films. It’s only real negative is in how short it is, but that means that the film is mostly just one large action scene. We actually don’t have any annoying Roshi scenes to bog the film down either. This is basically a perfect film and it’s a model for how films should strive to be today. Goku’s Super Saiyan form never ceases to impress me and he looks virtually unstoppable while he is in it. After seeing his strength and speed I don’t see how anyone could say that Superman can defeat him. It’s hard not to bring that topic up whenever I talk about Goku. Either way, I definitely recommend checking this film out since it’s so great. It’s an easy 9 star film and it’s not even the best DBZ film! Stay tuned because I’ll be reviewing another DBZ title in the near future.

Overall 9/10

Sword Art Online Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Sword Art Online is one of those Mega titles that we shall never forget. For better or worse, it’s basically ingrained in society at this point. I started the franchise out with the anime before checking out the novels and then the manga. This actually doesn’t bode well for the manga since the designs are pretty different and I consider the anime to have the true ones. That being said, I like to think that I wouldn’t have been crazy about the art either way. It’s a decent take on the show, but I think it could have been better.

In case you are not familiar with the plot, I shall quickly explain it. Sword Art Online takes place in the future and virtual games are all the rage now. One in particular is called Sword Art Online and it is the first big MMORPG. Everyone is hyped and resident computer whiz Kirito decides to buy it. Suddenly, the players become trapped in the game and they can’t get out unless they complete the title. 2 years later, the story begins as Kirito must try to become the best. Can he really do it as a solo player or will he end up joining Asuna’s (Main heroine) group? Only time will tell!

The actual plot always sounds great no matter how many times I write or hear about it. You simply can’t beat a good sci-fi plot like this or not very easily. Being stuck inside of a video game is a concept that appeals to me in part because it sounds like it would be a fun experience in real life. (To an extent of course) I think that it might be a missed opportunity for the series that they quickly skipped the first two years, but we still get a lot of cool moments so it still works.

The main problem with the series is that the art isn’t very good. The characters just don’t look like themselves and it’s like they’re half chibi. If you’re going to make the characters tiny you’ve got to go all the way or leave them in their normal size. It can also be hard to follow some of the fight scenes although the art gets better as the series progresses in that respect. It’s still pretty below average though. It’s hard to say if I would have liked it more if I had read the manga before the anime or not, but it’ll just be one of life’s mysteries. Either way, I doubt that I would have called it anything above average.

The characters are pretty in character since a lot of the dialogue is almost word for word from the novels/anime. Kirito is still as hardcore and intense as ever. Aside from his unnecessary and disheartening one night stand, Kirito has proven that he has what it takes to be the main character. He doesn’t back down from a challenge and he’s pretty confident in his abilities. That’s why the art always gets me. He just does not look tough! He looks like a kid and his serious scenes just don’t come off as cool as they should this way. It’s not the character’s fault, but the art.

Asuna also makes for a good heroine. She’s probably in the top 3 highest leveled players in the game and her speed is certainly good. She is lacking in attack power as seen in the boss fight, but she always gives it 110%. The one night stand also hurts her character development, but luckily that’s pretty much the last that we’ll see of that. Klein is one of Kirito’s old pals (AKA, they met in the game for like 5 minutes) and he’s actually pretty decent. He’s a nice guy and he actually doesn’t hold it against Kirito that Kirito left to be a solo player. Klein ended up reaching a decently high level himself so it makes you wonder how things would have been if Kirito had stayed with the party. He’d probably be a little lower leveled, but Klein’s group would be higher leveled than they were. Ultimately, Kirito made the right decision, but who doesn’t like hypothetical situations.

The main villain naturally gets to appear since he locks them in the game, but don’t worry…he has plans for them! He’s a pretty good fighter even if he cheats sometimes, but he does fight with just his talent in the end so we know that he’s for real. He’s decently cool and easy to root for. They try to play him off as a sympathetic villain by the end, but it still doesn’t work considering how high the casualties were. You can’t really forget that, but he is still a pretty neat villain. His plan was also intriguing, but I think that the final boss would probably be too much for the heroes.

The speed at which this manga goes is very quick, which can be a good or bad thing. You really breeze through the arc since there are only two volumes and they have a whole lot to adapt. Some scenes are simply breezed over while others are long enough to essentially match their alternate (Novel/Anime) versions. The pacing works for this series although I wouldn’t have minded stretching it out to 3 volumes and extending some of the fights. You can never go wrong with longer fights since they just add to the overall epicness of the series.

In the end, there are to real negatives to this story aside from the one night stand. There’s also a dicey moment that doesn’t make a lot of sense where Asuna falls out of a portal and Kirito essentially panics. That was pretty sad, but at least it’s an extremely brief scene thanks to the pacing. Those two faults are there, but that’s not a whole lot so you may wonder why it didn’t crack the classic 7 rating. Well, the art keeps it from that. Art is more important in comics/manga than in any other medium except for maybe TV shows. (It’s just not typically an issue there) Bad art can overpower good writing just like bad gameplay can override graphics in a video game. That being said, it’s still a good manga, it just could have been even better.

Overall, it’s ironic that this version gets a higher score than the anime even though the anime does a much better job with arc 1. Ah well, it is still a pretty fun premise to play around with and the art may have taken away some of the enjoyment that I could have gotten from it, but there was still enough to go around. Kirito makes for a good main character and there are several fight scenes here. Since this is basically two volumes merged into one, it’s also a pretty nicely sized volume that should last you long enough to really be worth the value. I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a classic fantasy RPG or for anyone who wants to see a cool main character.

Overall 6/10

Pokemon Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction Review

Posted on November 10, 2014 by dreager1

The next Pokemon film is finally upon us! This one introduces us to the World of Pokemon Kalos, but it fails to leave a grand impression like the previous films. It’s a fun watch, but it ends up being a very brief experience and you’ll be left wanting more. Pikachu finally gets his props here, which still makes it a must watch for all fans. Time to see what really went on here.

The plot involves a princess Pokemon by the name of Diancie. Her kingdom is falling into ruin because the jewel that brought harmony, peace, and life to everyone there has finally faded. Diancie is the only Pokemon in existence who can recreate the crystal, but she doesn’t have the power needed to do it. She must now search for Xerneas so that the legendary Pokemon can awaken her true power. Some hunters decide that they want to capture her so Ash and friends quickly get involved. They decide to escort her through this perilous journey, but are they really strong enough to accomplish such a feat? Looks like they’re about to find out!

I’d say that this was a pretty standard Pokemon film as far as they go. It was pretty light and fun, but the duration really hurt it. The film is barely over an hour and it really shows. It doesn’t help that the TV airing seemed to have to quickly end a few scenes as some just abruptly end in a rather awkward fashion. Most notable was the tournament scene where two trainers are about to face off and a scene where the main villain is talking to his daughter. By and large, it was really just the film’s fault here. Even for an animated film, 90 minutes should really be the bare minimum.

The animation is pretty good here, but it’s not exceptional. I would actually say that the animation in almost all of the other films was better. The fact that a large part of the story takes place underground doesn’t help since that naturally makes the animation worse, but the day scenes weren’t extraordinary. They lacked the depth that we have seen in titles like the Genesect film as well as the Entei installment. Pokemon’s strength has always been during the battle scenes and that continues to be the case here. The large energy blasts from Yveltal look very impressive and I like the universe effects that they use when a Pokemon is summoned as opposed to the classic stream of red light.

One thing that definitely works in this film’s favor is that the stakes may be the most personal yet. The body count in this film is incredibly die and there are several fatalities. A particularly emotional scene is where one of the main characters is taken out so the hero yells his name a few times before giving way to despair. It’s not something that you typically see in Pokemon and if not for a certain figure helping out..it may have been a pretty tragic ending.

Another positive that I give the film is the fact that I have not seen the Power Levels this realistic in a long time. Obviously, there are still some pretty iffy moments, but the film did a decent job. Pikachu finally looks like the pro that he is. He takes out one of the enemies in a single shot and he fights off two champion level Pokemon by himself. Topping this off is Pikachu’s masterful performance against Yveltal. Pikachu’s Thunderbolt is able to match up against a legendary Pokemon’s blast! You have to admit that this is pretty awesome and the writers have definitely come a long way.

The iffy part of the situation would be Diancie’s portrayal. She’s a decently powerful Pokemon and even without her crystal abilities, she should still be able to deal some damage to the villains. Unfortunately, she just spends most of the film running or getting kidnapped. It’s not a very accurate depiction of this fighter and her lack of speed is the most alarming part. No Pokemon should be that slow and the whole point of levitating is that you don’t have to hop. She hops on the air to get by and that’s not cool.

As for her personality, I was pretty mixed on it. On one hand, Diancie ends up being used as a plot point that I’ve never enjoyed. She is new to Earth customs so she doesn’t know what a friend is or how to engage in quality shopping while on the run. We’ve seen this with other shows and films like Starfire in Teen Titans or (to a lesser extent) Nia in Gurren Lagann. I’ve never found it to be amusing or entertaining since it just slows down the plot as the heroes have to explain basic fundamentals. I think a show should try to turn this trope around by having a character know all the basics, but being forced to ask a lot of questions because she lives in an inverted world where the laws of reality has changed. Now that would be interesting, but I don’t care for the current trope as it is.

On the other hand, Diancie definitely works as the picture perfect main character. She’s very polite and she loves to help others. This is sort of how I would picture the main characters from My Little Pony so it was pretty interesting to see how it was handled. If not for the naive part of Diancie’s character, this would have been able to shine even more. I do think that Diancie should have defended herself more, but at least she gives Pokemon a good name. There is one scene that does destroy most of her character development (Abandoning her kingdom for pleasure) but I’ll assume that this was just something that the writers forgot to take out of the script.

Yveltal was definitely very good and he’s one of the best new Pokemon to be introduced. He really means business and he lives to destroy all who oppose him. Just by being around others, he can drain their life force and one of his blasts will destroy his opponent. (By draining all of their life energy) The very concept of this Pokemon is very dark and while it’s all part of the natural cycle…you could say that he’s the closest thing to a villain. Even Ash doesn’t sympathize with this Pokemon as he rushes to the offensive. It was good to see a legendary Pokemon who could live up to his name and no human was going to capture him. I do wish that he could have continued to demolish everyone, but he’s technically not evil so the ending still makes sense. Yveltal has his own roar and what other Pokemon actually gets to smash a plane by jumping on it and blasting the pilots at point blank range? Yveltal’s scenes are some of the most epic scenes that we’ve ever seen in Pokemon! He’s definitely awesome.

Xerneas is the counterpart to Yveltal and while she may be more heroic….I can’t say that she’s extremely impressive. She’s more of a pacifist and we only get to see her fire off an attack or two. The attack does look powerful, but I was definitely hoping to see more of her abilities. Now that the ending has rendered her immobile for a little while, that chance may have slipped away. Xerneas isn’t a bad character, but she definitely can’t be considered to be Legendary level until she proves herself.

Ash Ketchum is already pretty established so I was confident that he would be as cool as always. Ash doesn’t disappoint as I dare say that he flies off the handle much quicker than he used to. As soon as he sees a threat, Ash charges in with his good ole Pikachu. He helps Diancie on her quest without a second’s hesitation and he even heroically decides to stay back to fight off one of the villains while the other heroes went off without him. Ash’s heart is always in the right place and his confidence is well placed since he has Pikachu.

Unfortunately, Ash’s Pokemon all look pretty bad except for Pikachu. He has a flying type Pokemon that I don’t really care for. It’s supposed to be some kind of superhero or wrestler, but it’s definitely not my favorite fighter. Ash also has a small water type frog Pokemon at his disposal, but it loses rather easily to a random opponent so I quickly lost my respect for it there. As expected, Pikachu is the only Pokemon who can really pull his own weight around here. Pikachu looks pretty impressive from the get go as he easily takes out an opponent’s Pokemon. He follows this up by taking on two Champion Level Pokemon on at once and then his best scenes were against Yveltal. Can Pikachu really take on a legendary? But of course! Pikachu trades blows with this monster and it’s a fairly even fight. Considering that Pikachu has the massive speed advantage, we know who would have won if the fight had kept going.

Ash had a few new friends here so let’s look at how well they performed. Bonnie is a little kid and she’s sort of like Max from Advanced. She’s here to remind us that she’s a great character and she helps Diancie realize that she is already pretty special. It may be heartwarming for some, but I still don’t care for kids being main characters. (In this case, Ash is not considered to be a kid because he’s not really portrayed as such) Bonnie just isn’t my kind of character and I didn’t enjoy any of her scenes.

Clemont isn’t much better. “The future is now!” isn’t the greatest catchphrase in the world and he could barely control the ladder. He also lost immediately when it came to a Pokemon battle, which was fairly disappointing. Cmon Clemont…we expect more from you. He’s probably the worst male sidekick to Ash yet since I actually prefer the food themes guy from Pokemon Black and White.

The main heroine is also the worst one yet (Passing Misty) as Selene just isn’t a fighter. Dawn and May had fun with their contests, but they were still A-S rank fighters. Selene gets a brief action scene and she doesn’t do very well in it. She’s not quite as obnoxious as Clemont or Bonnie, but she hasn’t really provided us with any reasons to really like her so far. I’ll definitely need some more convincing at any rate. If she had only scored a single hit against the villain, this paragraph probably would have been a lot more positive. Being a tough trainer is the bare minimum requirement for even being considered as a solid character in Pokemon.

The main villain of this film is basically a parody of himself. He wants to get rich and that’s really his only motivation as he eats a bunch of chocolates. (Snacks are a big thing in this film as Ash and friends even go to a dessert buffet) He barely appears at all and his screentime may be around 10 minutes total. You can imagine that things don’t go very well for him once Yveltal arrives. His daughter is also a minor villain who ends up betraying the heroes, but she had only appeared for a scene or two before the big twist so it wasn’t much of a surprise. She was fairly generic as far as villains go. There really isn’t anything to say about her. She’s not comic relief like Team Rocket, but she doesn’t even accomplish as much as those villains…which isn’t a good sign.

Team Rocket actually gets a bigger role than usual, (Keep in mind that it’s still a small role) but they ultimately do not accomplish a whole lot. They back off when the going gets tough and that was pretty sad for them since they could have made a name for themselves there. Finally, we had two new villains for this film as well. A pair of hunters by the name of Marilyn and Riot. Riot is the calm ninja who is always quiet as he unleashes deadly moves while Marilyn is basically Jessie with a fire motif. Neither of them end up being a match for Ash Ketchum, which was admittedly awesome. They just aren’t good characters and while I actually liked them for a while, the rushed ending completely wrecked their characters. They were ready to ditch their Pokemon and they basically panicked when the going got tough. That’s not what I expect from the big villains!

The soundtrack is pretty uninspired. You’re not going to find the next big battle theme here as there really isn’t a battle theme. The intro during the credits reuses music from the previous Pokemon films and there is nothing unique to be found. It’s sad since the action scenes would have been even better if we had gotten some good tunes to listen too. A good example of this is when Yveltal is dodging a lot of rockets and attacking an airplane. It’s pretty intense stuff, but there is no music to complement it.

Again, the main drawback with the film has got to be the length. Many of the film’s weakpoints could have been fixed had the film been longer. The uncut version would likely help to an extent, but we still need like 40 minutes of extra footage. Ash’s battles against the thieves are pretty short and some are off screen to save time. They should have all been shown and the battles should have been longer. The film ends up just ending since the film’s duration was about to expire so it wasn’t as glamorous as it could have been. The short length meant that we got to the meat of the plot pretty quickly, but everything was rushed. The whole film felt rushed and that really ended up hurting it. (The only positive of this is that the film never ends up dragging on as you get to have fun from start to finish)

Overall, This is definitely a solid Pokemon film, but it ends up feeling more like a 1 hour special than a full length movie. The fights are solid and the power levels were really accurately portrayed here. Ash Ketchum continues to light up the room with his presence and Pikachu is finally showing off his true power. Unfortunately, the film is too short to really contain the content within it so bits and pieces are filled with lost potential. This is definitely a good way to start your Pokemon career, but I’d sooner recommend checking out the previous film with Genesect. That’s still the best Pokemon film out there and I highly recommend it.

Overall 7/10

Accel World

Posted on October 23, 2014 by dreager1

Now, I seen Accel World in three mediums. The anime is still the definitive version and the book will likely be more detailed, but the manga is pretty faithful thus far. The art is pretty easy to follow and get into. It’s pretty clear so it doesn’t seem like an early creation for the artist and it holds up well as a tie in. They wrecked Ash Roller’s design, but you can’t win everything. It’ll be fun to see the fight scenes that are coming up! I’ll have a review for the series up once it finishes…which could be a while.

Overall 6/10

Slayers Review

Posted on October 6, 2014 by dreager1

There aren’t many TV shows that really deal with the fantasy genre. Or at least, most of the titles I would not consider to be a true fantasy title. A true fantasy title means that the heroes must go to the wilderness or to towns/cities that look as if they were created in the olden days. Of course, this is a risk since it is basically impossible to pull off in a live action movie. An anime can achieve this though and that’s what Slayers sets out to do. It’s like an old fashioned RPG or what Sword Art Online would have been if it came out 20 years ago. It’s a pretty fun anime with its ups and downs.

The story revolves around an experienced sorceress by the name of Lina Inverse. She is always on the lookout for some extra money or jewels to obtain and she doesn’t mind being used as a mercenary to obtain such treasures. She meets up with a gallant bodyguard by the name of Gourry and he decides to escort her to the next town since he thinks that she’s just a little kid. The two of them have many adventures until the plot finally begins.

Rezo, The Red Priest, is one of the strongest beings on Earth. Or at least, one of the strongest humans. He is supposed to be a wise sage from the past, but he seems to be pretty shifty and he tells Lina and Gourry that they possess an item that many villains are after. They will stop at nothing in order to get the object and Lina doesn’t even know which one it is! The heroes may be outgunned here.

The second half of the show’s plot is pretty similar to the first one’s or it at least builds off from it. Lina, Gourry, and some new friends are having a decent time when they find out that someone is attempting to unleash another power on the planet. The culprit responsible for this wants to destroy Lina and her friends because of something they did in the past and he has framed them. Lina cannot earn money freely because of this situation so she has to get to the bottom of this and fast! Luckily, she has made friends with a Prince’s daughter so she does have some more connections now.

It’s an intriguing plot summary, but many of the episodes are pretty episodic so it all works out. The series mostly acts as a comedy/adventure title, but the climax typically adds some more action to the mix. The series is very light toned and the violence is also kept at a very low level so it’s a mainstream title that you can easily recommend to someone else if they are looking for a fantasy title. Things just tend to heat up during the climax. The final batch of episodes is the only place where you will really see a big blood puddle like in Bleach or a character getting stabbed as an instant KO. The rest of the action scenes borrow elements from DBZ while maintaining a hit and run tactic so it is rare that any serious damage is dealt to any of the characters. If a character is burnt, they will typically look more like a Pokemon Trainer when he gets zapped.

So, I would consider the action segment to be a pretty good positive for the show. They’re fun to watch although the comedy can be a bit much at some points. The timing is crucial for such a thing and a character can go from being very powerful to very weak in a short amount of time depending on what genre the show is currently operating on. I’ll likely address this more as we go into the review.

Lina Inverse is the main character and she’s debatably the strongest hero on the planet. She is also one of the strongest beings on the planet not counting the big deities like the Lord of Nightmares. Unfortunately, the comedy tones of the show can make it a little hard to say just how strong she is. Sometimes Lina will casually take on a planet buster and other times she will attempt to run away from your average batch of minions. The inconsistency can definitely be more than a little tricky.

Personality wise, Lina is definitely not your average lead. That’s because she really not even a hero! She just does whatever she wants whenever she sees that there is some money to be earned. One running gag in the series is that she loves to use her Dragon Slave attack, which can instantly wipe out a city. She actually does wipe out a few towns and mountains using this attack and there are typically a lot of casualties. It’s played for laughs of course, but the amount of innocents that she ends up taking down is a pretty large number. At least that does say something for Lina’s abilities. It’s why I always find it a little hard to believe when she just runs away and barely puts up a fight sometimes. Lina typically acts tough and likes to insult Gourry a lot. He makes it pretty easy for her to be honest, but he’s a good guy deep down. Lina is a charismatic lead though so despite her not heroic actions, you can typically root for her. You just shouldn’t look at her as a hero and then you’ll be okay. She’s not the next Medaka or Kirito, but she’s much better than Harayuki and Sailor Moon.

Gourry is Lina’s main sidekick and he’s an “interesting” character. Have you ever met a character that you found pretty entertaining while on screen, but the character was technically pretty bad and you would have to root against him? Gourry’s like Furuichi in this case, but I’m not sure that many of my readers will understand the reference. Gourry spends most of his screen time being pretty unaware of the situation and making rookie mistakes whenever possible. However, he balances this out by also having some moments where he goes a little too far in his teasing about Lina being a little girl. The latter is why I ultimately can’t like Gourry. He acts a little perverted in that sense even if he’s really just not bright enough to fully understand what he’s doing. Ignorance is still no excuse so that ends up dropping Gourry. He’s still a lot of fun to watch when he’s on screen, but it just goes to show that a few bad scenes can really destroy a character.

When he’s a gentleman, Gourry is definitely at his best. He can turn his “hardcore face” on and off very quickly. He gets a rival in the second half of the show so Gourry will have to keep on switching between acting casual and intense in the blink of an eye. “Light come forth!” is his catchphrase and it signals that Gourry is going to use his legendary Sword of Light. While Lina is a magic specialist, Gourry is a more traditional fighter. He uses his swordsmanship to attack opponents and he wasn’t really aware of demons and monsters before the series began. Ultimately, Gourry tries to be a nice guy whenever possible, but things don’t typically work out for him.

Zelgadis starts off as a fairly intense villain and he slowly starts to warm up to the heroes by the halfway mark of the series. His skin is that of a golem’s and he wants to find a way to turn himself back to normal. To do this, he must defeat Rezo and possible use the philosopher’s stone. It’s going to be tough though and his journey could be a long one. He makes for a decently good ally, but I prefer when he meets up with the heroes from time to time instead of travelling with them. He just ends up being the straight man in all of the jokes and he just brings the humor down. He works better as a rival figure than as an ally. He’s definitely one of the better characters in the show though and he’s possibly the only other hero who can fight alongside Lina as a magic master.

Sylphiel joins the cast towards the end of the show and she has known Gourry from back in the day. She’s very soft spoken and is a Hinata type character. If you don’t know about Hinata, just know that Sylphiel always starts off her sentences by saying “Gourry dear” and she typically doesn’t fight when the going gets tough. She did have one really good scene where she blocked a huge blast that Lina and Zelgadis couldn’t stop with their combined effort, but it was just another outlier since she never shows that level of ability again. Towards the end of the show, she can barely muster up a fire arrow, which was a little sad. She’s definitely not my kind of character and she really blew it at the end of the show when she tackled Lina to protect the planet at the cost of her friends. That’s not a good trade off and especially when you realize that the planet likely would have been okay anyway.

Shabranigdo is one of the big villains from the first arc. He gets a whole lot of hype from one of the very first episodes and it never dies down. I was one of the first people to jump on the hype train so I was really hoping that he would end up looking impressive. Luckily, I was not disappointed! His character design is decently similar to Zorc’s and this beast is worthy of the term “Kaiju.” He doesn’t get to fight the heroes while at full power, but he still puts on quite the display. He’s above the usual spectrum of emotions so he’s pretty detached from everyone when he appears. He actually congratulates the heroes at one point so you know that he doesn’t take these things personally. He was easily the best character in the series and I hope that he returns someday.

Rezo is the main villain of the series and he is basically around for the whole series in a sense. The first arc shows how he became mad in his quest to heal his eyes. He decides to resurrect Shabranigdo so that the monster can help him so he naturally crosses paths with the heroes. He’s known to be incredibly powerful, but we don’t get to see him use that many attacks before the arc is over. His design is very interesting and he’s as sinister as they come, but I still preferred Shabranigdo.

Arc 2 changes things as Rezo’s goal switches. The heroes are shocked to see that he is around since the end of Arc 1 was pretty dicey. He decides that the heroes must die and his powers have grown by a considerable amount. Arc 2 was more action packed than the first half so the fights were a lot better and we really got to see his abilities. With a single attack, Rezo was able to take down the entire city and he consistently beats up the main characters with ease. He also grows to be a lot more confident as he challenges Lina to use her strongest attacks on him so that he can prove his superiority. I definitely gained a lot of respect for the character and Arc 2 Rezo is much better than the first half Rezo in just about every area.

Eris worked for Rezo and she was pretty distraught to see him go down the path of evil. Unfortunately, her loyalty to her master is pretty misplaced since it ends up turning her into a warrior for darkness as well. It’s hard to gauge her abilities since she rarely fights, but it would appear that she is a decent sorceress. I can’t say that she is too likable though and her goals are pretty hard to sympathize with. She appears out of nowhere and then gets thrown back out of the spotlight just as quickly.

Amelia is another addition to Lina’s party and it’s safe to say that she’s easily one of the better characters. She’s always talking about justice while striking really dramatic poses. She’s not all talk though since she also has access to a wide variety of light and fire magic spells. She can hold her own in a fight and she can prove to be just as dangerous as Zelgadis and Lina when she’s serious. (Which is very rare I’m afraid) She helps the team to stay light during serious moments and the heroes could really use the firepower. It’s also ironic since she may be the only heroic member of the group besides Gourry until Sylphiel joined up. Amelia is also very polite so she’s really the polar opposite of Lina and she could easily pass for the main heroine of the show if you didn’t know better.

Prince Phil is Amelia’s father and he also strongly believes in Amelia. Their character personalities are very similar, but Amelia pulls it off a lot better than Phil. Phil gets insulted by the heroes a lot since he’s not the prince that they had been expecting, but he has a strong bond with Amelia. A running gag is that he may just be a human, but he can still hold his own against all kinds of monsters and demons. Phil is not to be underestimated and I may not have been a huge fan of him, but he was still a good character. He’s just better in small doses so he shouldn’t appear too much.

Zangulus is Gourry’s rival in the second half of the show and he’s a pretty decent character. He fights with honor and he may be a villain, but he’s not downright evil. He just wants a good fight and you could argue that he basically turns into a hero by the end. It all depends on where he goes from that point of course, but I definitely wouldn’t mind if he stayed as a hero. He’s very determined and he follows the heroes across the whole world until he finally gets his big fight. His sword is able to shoot blasts of wind that are very dangerous and Gourry may have been done for if not for his sword of light.

Vrumugun is Zangulus’s parter and he was a decent character at first, but he quickly dropped after a certain plot twist. He can give Lina a good fight when necessary, but it’s clear who the better fighter is. He doesn’t have much of a personality though since he basically lives for the mission. Even when the heroes are heading to the place that Vrumugun wants them to go, he can’t help but try to fight them some more. He also gets humiliated during a play that the heroes performed, which was pretty sad for him.

One of the negatives for Slayers would be that there can be some heard fanservice. “What’s heard fanservice sir? I don’t believe that’s a real term…” Well, it is now! Basically, “heard fanservice” is when you talk about something fanservicey without actually showing it. For example, Lina gets teased about her chest a lot and I would still consider that to be fanservice in a sense. Luckily, the show does a good job of not really showing it. There are the occasional moments where Gowry will fall on Lina and make a grab, but luckily they are few and far in between. “That time of the month” is also a running gag for about 2-3 episodes, which can get a little old. This is an area where the light nature of the show really helps since the moments are really used for humor. Unfortunately, it’s definitely not my kind of humor, but the show glosses over this as quickly as possible so the scenes don’t last for as long as they could. This does hurt the show, but it won’t actually cripple it. This is nowhere near as bad as many other titles and the 90’s animation also helps since it’s so old school. Shows had more class back then…

The animation for Slayers holds up pretty well. It’s fairly old so you shouldn’t expect it to look like Accel World or something like that, but this show did come during a pretty good time for character designs. The 90s were fun in that respect and all of the characters should be instantly iconic. Memorizing the names is pretty effortless as well since they’re all straightforward. You can see how the show was inspired from DBZ as it shares many of the same sound effects and the energy blasts look fairly similar. One of the fighters even powers up before unleashing his strongest attacks in very DBZish moments.

The soundtrack is good, but I wouldn’t call it great. The tunes aren’t extremely memorable and I mostly just remember the To Be Continued music as well as the title theme. Others I would recognize if I heard them, but I probably couldn’t keep them in mind from my head. They fit in pretty well while you’re watching the show, although I wouldn’t mind if they added some fast paced rock themes. (They would just need to extend some of the fight scenes)

The dub voices definitely need to be mentioned. Most of the dubs in the 80s to 90s can sound a little interesting at times since they are so old at this point. There is typically a lot of gravel or a hoarseness in the voices as the transition wasn’t as smooth as it is now. That being said, Slayers takes it to a new level and you can argue that the voices are the worst or the most unique that you’ve heard before. There’s nothing wrong with Lina’s voice, but let’s take Gourry. He takes the oblivious strong, but not very smart guy voice to a new level. His voice is completely flat and he talks in a way that will purposely make you chuckle. Sylviel’s voice is the kind of voice that you know you would never hear in real life. She doesn’t put emotions into her words and her voice is way too light. Zelgadis talks like he’s half whispering in the first half and his voice ends up being flat as well. Amelia is the opposite as her voice is very high and it can almost sound like screeching. To an extent, I have to imagine that this was done on purpose. Maybe the voice director just thought that it sounded really cool or something. So, it depends on how you use the word “worst.” Technically, I would probably say that it is, but the voices actually help to make the show more entertaining. It fits the comedy undertones of the show so I’m actually glad that the dubbing is not more refined. If it is intentional, then I have to give the show some major props there. It’s an interesting tactic and it’s one that really works out well for the show.

There are several other side characters that I did not mention, but they are pretty unimportant. We had a fish man whose design was creepier than you could imagine. The voice made him appear to be quite the threat. Zelgadis also had two minions and one of them was pretty bold. He mentioned how humans have surpassed monsters and his speech is pretty brilliant as he attacks Shabranigdo. It’s a moment that you can probably imagine ending pretty badly for the guy, but at least he gave it his all I suppose.

Going back to the inconsistent power levels for a second, it can be a little jarring. Lina is able to go up against one of the four legendary priests in one scene and then she’s having trouble with your garden variety monsters in the next one. It appears like Lina just likes to troll her allies sometimes, but it goes a little far. We know that she’s immensely powerful and she somehow seems to know just about every spell so they may as well play it straight. There are quite a few third wall breaking moments to also make sure that the show doesn’t get too serious. It’s pretty interesting since the show is very direct on this approach. Gourry also suffers from this since he is usually an expert swordsman, as seen when he faces his rival, but he can also be pretty helpless at other times. For better or worse, it’s just the kind of show that Slayers is I guess. Every show has its weakness so having a minor one like this isn’t bad.

Overall, Slayers is a pretty fun anime. If not for the chest insults and other bits of mild fanservice, I probably wouldn’t have any issues with the show. It’s a light hearted adventure where it’s easy to get into the show after only a few episodes. It helps to remind me why I miss the 90’s and the show brings back most of the elements that you just don’t get in today’s shows. The cast is pretty likable and the villains are also pretty interesting. The second half definitely ramps up the action and we also get one or two scenes that are decently violent, but it’s a good trade off. (You still will be shocked when one of the characters dies since it just doesn’t feel like Slayers for a while there) Of course, the show can definitely work on its transition between action and comedy. The show needs to be a little more subtle about it since it can wreck the overall power levels. Slayers is a big franchise and this is just the beginning so I’m sure that it won’t be the final review that we’ll see on the blog. I recommend this show if you’re looking for a fun adventure or a nice, retro anime. You should be pretty pleased with the experience and I can see why it is so popular. Time to see if the next show can match this one!

Overall 7/10

Fate/Zero Review

Posted on September 15, 2014 by dreager1

The Fate franchise has always been one of the more intense series. Fate Stay Night is probably the only anime that I’ve seen that I would consider to be part horror. (Mostly action) Now, a case can be made that it doesn’t deserve to be called a horror and that I should count Serial Experiments Lain as a horror as well. Both are compelling arguments and they would be interesting to debate, but Fate Stay Night wasn’t your average tournament series. Fate/Zero is known as the superior prequel that shatters Fate Stay Night in every way. Fate/Zero did have some strong points, but I would say that they ended up getting a little too extreme in their quest to be the grittiest mainstream anime. Want a series that’s darker and more filled with despair than Attack on Titan? You’ve come to the right place!

I can confirm that this won’t exactly be the most positive anime review that I’ve done in a while so the fans who think of Fate/Zero as the greatest anime of all time (Or one of them) may want to brace themselves. Instead of dividing this review up into all of the goods and then all of the negatives, I’ll try to spread it around a bit so that the review doesn’t completely tilt to one side to soon. First off, let’s look at the plot.

Naturally, Fate/Zero is a pretty complex anime so this is just a summarization for the overall plot. I’ll get into the character motivations in their individual sections. There is an item by the name of the Holy Grail and once every 20 years it appears to grant the winner of the Fate tournament. 6 candidates are chosen and 6 servants are summoned. Everyone gets a partner and the matchup is based off of a person’s true feelings. The Saber class is supposed to be the strongest, but each of them have their own pros and cons. Will the Grail be used for good or for evil? Nothing is black and white in this show of course, but you will likely figure out who you aren’t supposed to root for. (Caster) Let the games begin!

Now, I could have talked about more of the rules and such, but there are a bunch of them. The important thing to know is that you must destroy the other servants to win and get the human masters to abandon their command seals. If they don’t want too, then you have to take them out as well. The winner gets to make his wish on the Holy Grail and that’s how the tournament works. A church is also there to make sure that everyone is following the rules and not allowing civilians to find out about this secret tournament. (Although the humans wouldn’t be able to do all that much about it) Since the human masters may be a little outmatched if they are bi themselves or something, you are allowed to use one of three command seals to command your servant to appear at your side or for any other order that you need to win the tournament. (Although, some of the masters can fight) This show has a huge cast so let’s discuss some of them.

Saber isn’t the main character, but she’s easily the most iconic figure in the franchise. It’s easy to see why since her design really stands out and her drawing Excalibur is probably the best poster for the show. She wants to win the Holy Grail for her own purposes, which aren’t really stated very clearly here because she has no real reason to trust the humans all that much. We really see her goals in the Fate Stay Night show where she finally begins to trust the humans. We can’t blame her though because every time she tries to trust someone..it backfires. Her master is Kiritsugu after all and he backstabs people for a living. Saber’s ideals clash with the other 2 great kings and it makes for some pretty interesting dialogues that I will mention later on. Saber’s a very good character and she’s easily the most heroic from all of the characters. (Most of the characters in this series don’t really possess that quality)

Unfortunately, I do have one big problem with Saber. She is of the Saber class so she is supposed to easily be the strongest servant in the entire tournament, but she never shows this. We saw how often she lost in the Fate Stay Night anime, but I somehow figured that she would look a lot better in this show. She loses more times than she wins and she’s always on the defensive. She easily crushes one Rider in their spar, but she doesn’t look good against Lancer, (X2-3) Caster, Archer, Berserker, etc. It’s okay if she isn’t the strongest, but she should definitely not be one of the weakest. Only Assassin appears to be weaker than her and that’s not really how this is supposed to work out. She’s almost a parody of the main fighter in that respect, but at least she keeps her ideals throughout the tournament. Her disdain for Kiritsugu is appreciated and it’s too bad that she needs to win the Grail so badly or she could have tried to betray him so that she could save more lives. In the end, Saber is easily the best hero in the show and she deserves to be remembered as the most popular character from the Fate franchise. I just wish that she could get some kind of power up.

Kiritsugu is the main character and he’s easily one of the worst ones that I’ve seen in a while. To start with, I don’t consider him to be a hero in the slightest. You know the kind of villains who believe that they are bringing harmony to the world and that they’re the true heroes? That’s the best way to describe Kiritsugu. All that he does is to “save the world” and he really believes in his conviction. Whether that makes him more sympathetic or even more despicable is up to you, but it didn’t do any wonders for me. I consider him to be one of the big villains and at least Fate/Zero doesn’t try too hard to convince us otherwise. Other shoes would really force us to see a heroic side of him, but Fate/Zero loves showing us the gray areas, which turned out to be good in this case. There wasn’t almost anything that would help me change my opinion of him. It’s a case of “The more information that you know, the more that you are responsible” Kiritsugu knows about all of the other competitors and you have to wonder just how much he knows. If he knows about what is happening to Sakura and the other people in the Matos then he is pretty guilty for not stepping in to help. When he finds out that Caster is a mass murdering child killer, he decides not to help since a few (dozens) of kids aren’t worth his time since he has the world to save. Sacrifice the few (Thousands) to save the many. (What’s left of the 6 billion) That’s his basic philosophy and it’s why I could never see him in a heroic light. Almost every other main character learns that this isn’t the case and they try to save everyone that they can. Ichigo showed this in one of the first episodes of the Bleach series after all!

It got worse for Kitisugu when we saw his sob story. We all know that I can’t stand zombies right? Well, his story involves zombies as the girl that he liked ate from the forbidden magical plant thing and infected the whole village. Kiritsugu found out that his father meant for this to happen to he murders him. (I forgot if “our hero” murdered the girl as well or not, but I mostly tried to forget about these flashbacks) Next up, Kiritsugu and his newfound mentor went around the world to destroy people for money and that sort of thing. After years of becoming close and finally developing a bond, Kiritsugu sucker killed his mentor (Who was 100X more likable than Kiritsugu) from behind. In one of the few scenes where the show tries to get us to sympathize with him, he pulls off a Superman (Man of Steel post Zod) yell to show us how much he didn’t want to do it, but he had to do it to save the people at the airport.

Don’t worry, it’s not over! Kiritsugu threatens one of the masters to force his servant to commit suicide or he will destroy the guy’s fiancé. The guy naturally orders his servant to do this since he wants his fiancé to stay alive, but Kiritsugu basically just grins as his minion murders both the wife and the master. So much for heroic honor and decency right? The fiancé wasn’t innocent, but Kiritsugu didn’t know that so he basically just murdered someone who was only mildly assisting in the battle. Anything to achieve his goals! The very end presents us with another scene that is very Kiritsuguish. The Grail reminds him that it’s been suckering the mere mortals for years and he shows Kiritsugu just how evil his wish is. Kiritsugu responds my murdering his wife and kid in the dream world to show the Grail that he was not going to use his wish anymore. There are dozens of other ways that Kiritsugu could have refused the Grail without doing something so extreme. A simple..”I wish for ___” would have used up his wish and everything would have been okay, but he decided to destroy them for no real reason.

I could go on and on about Kiritsugu for quite a while and you can tell that I really didn’t like his character. He does get a lot of hype about what a great strategist he is though and it’s true that he’s very formidable. He has spells that allow him to speed up his movements by 2-4 times as well as slow them down and he has a gun that disrupts magic. He’s tough to be sure, but he has absolutely no honor and he’s about as deluded as your average villain like Creed or anyone else who thinks that they are the true heroes. It’s safe to say that he also dragged the show down since he’s the main character and you are supposed to root for him. After all, if he’s the most heroic..what does that say about the others!?

Natalia is an assassin from Kiritsugu’s origin story. She’s pretty likable and she’s definitely not a hero, but she’s one of the few villains/anti heroes that you can possible root for. She’s basically a gun for hire so it’s safe to say that she’s more of a villain since she is likely taking people down on both sides. However, she does seem to have some morals about her so she hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. She had started to bond with Kiritsugu and she did a good job while aboard the plane. Unfortunately, you can’t last for too long when your partner is a Benedict Arnold. (She doesn’t really blame him for her untimely end since it helps to save some lives, but it’s definitely a stretch)

I really think that shooting down Natalia’s plane wasn’t the only way to save everyone. It’s sketchy since the cops would complicate things and the zombies would certainly move out very quickly, but the damage would likely be contained. Natalia would run out guns blazing and I’m sure that she could prevent people from entering the plane long enough for the heroes to blow it up. Kiritsugu’s solution just seemed rather drastic.

Rider is pretty unique since he’s the only servant who’s really having a good time during the tournament. He tries to end things diplomatically before going into battle, but this never works since it would be under the condition that the opponent ends up serving him. Rider seems to be a benevolent king, but the other servants are figures of notable skill and reputation so it is out of the question to serve another. I disagree with Rider’s condescending attitude towards Saber (especially since he is constantly outmatched) and he can be a little too casual at times. He should have had more of a sense of urgency during the whole Caster debacle. Nontheless, he is better than some of the other servants and he was not a bad character. His scenes with Waver were a nice distraction from the more serious plots at times. His goal upon acquiring the Holy Grail is certainly not as intense as the other fighters.

Gilgamesh was one of my favorite characters from Fate Stay Night. His character arc went down towards the end since he was way too obsessed with Saber, but he isn’t like that here. This is Gilgamesh at his finest and he was my second favorite character of the series! He has an air of arrogance about him and it is very befitting for a king. He is the King of Heroes and he is shown to be on a different league from the others. The only servant who seems to be a match for him is Berserker since Gilgamesh is able to take on Saber and Rider with no effort whatsoever. His Noble Phantasm is possibly the deadliest one in existence since he can summon an infinite amount of weapons to strike his opponents down. Gilgamesh also has a cool spaceship, which resulted in the best fight scene in the series.

Gilgamesh feels so superior to the other fighters that he doesn’t want them to even look at him without permission. He always treats the rest of the cast as if they are his slaves and they typically humor him. (Since they could die if they didn’t) Gilgamesh loves to toy with Kirei and he constantly goads the villain on for the entire series. Gilgamesh is definitely epic and the voice actor did a good job of expressing his smug demeanor. He is easily one of the highlights of the series and every action scene with him tends to be epic.

Lancer is one of the better servants and he was in the runnings for best hero during the show. Saber eventually increased the lead between them though and it was partially due to Lancer’s ending. It wasn’t quite as disheartening as Berserker’s, but it didn’t really help him a whole lot. Blaming Saber for the events that unfolded didn’t make a whole lot of sense and he should have noticed that she was pretty surprised as well. Aside from that, he was definitely pretty great. We finally have another character who believes in honor and chivalry. His twin staff style definitely gave Lancer the edge over Saber and he proves to be a very tough fighter throughout. I don’t think he would have really been able to match Gilgamesh or Berserker, but it would have been nice to see such a fight.

Kirei is the main villain of Fate/Zero. The anime makes sure to give most of the characters a lot of screentime, but I would say that he is the big villain since he is Kiritsugu’s rival. He wants to find out what his purpose in life is and Gilgamesh tries to help him find a negative answer. Kirei joins the tournament with the weakest servant of the group, (Assassin) but he gets a lot of them to help even the odds. The show tries to develop a contrast between him and Kiritsugu. They are similar in several aspects, but Kiritsugu is at least trying to go towards the heroic side of things while Kirei continues to seep into the darkness. He was intriguing in Fate Stay Night since he turned evil out of nowhere and he was actually pretty tough. In terms of combat ability, Kirei is a lot more impressive in this show. I don’t know how a human could be so powerful, but he really slices through his opponents. He never gets to fight one of the Servants, but that would have been one sided in the other direction. Kirei’s character development is really to show us the dark side of humanity and he’s completely evil by the end although it’s implied that he was always evil and didn’t know it. He was definitely a more interesting villain than the others and I didn’t really mind him for most of the first half. After that, I think he overdoes it in his attempt to understand Kiritsugu and he drops, but he is still an improvement over most of the other antagonists.

Assassin is one of the worst servants. He’s not a bad character, but there’s just no point to him. Even referring to Assassin as “he” is incorrect since there are dozens of them. Thing is..they’re so weak that it takes a large number of them to challenge a single servant. Rider takes out a bunch of them without effort, which wasn’t a great showing for those stealth warriors. Assassin’s role is also very small and you can refer to them as throwaway characters. If they even had a Noble Phantasm, I forgot what it was. (They have no real goal upon acquiring the Holy Grail either…or at least it was never mentioned)

Rin was one of the better characters in Fate Stay Night and she’s also pretty good in this series as well. She gets a whole episode to herself where she gets to save the day and put a dent in Ryonosuke’s plan. That in itself helps her character a lot, but she was already cool. It’s good to have another hero on board and she would have been a great main character. She jumps into the fray to save her friend and you must keep in mind that she’s still pretty young. True heroes start early and at least Rin doesn’t have to go through some of the hardships that the others try to survive. (Although, her ending is also pretty sad in a different way) Unfortunately, she never finds out the truth about what happened to her father so she gets tricked on that part for the rest of her life. (Although she may suspect at the end of Fate Stay Night…hopefully)

Irisviel is Kiritsugu’s partner and she publicly acts as Saber’s master to draw attention away from our fearless main character. She is in charge of meeting up with the enemies and being the target while Kiritsugu is away. Arguably, she could be in a safer position since she is with Saber, but I would argue that Kiritsugu’s job is easier at times. She is a pretty good character and she holds on to her convictions to the very end. It’s unfortunate that she was paired up with Kiritsugu since she really could have done some more good in the world. Since she is with Kiritsugu and Irisviel is such a nice person, she decides to believe in his ideals until the bitter end. She is pretty brave amidst the war and she was definitely a good character.

Illyasviel is the daughter of Irisviel and she’s a pretty nice kid. Her fate isn’t quite as bad as Irisviel’s or Sakura’s, but she is forced to have some pretty bad nightmares since she is the next in line to be the vessel for the Holy Grail. I’m not sure if she will have to end up serving the same role as Irisviel, but I believe that her future may have been averted. I certainly hope so since that would make her ending a lot better. Otherwise, it’s another pretty sad ending since she won’t get to see her parents anymore.

Tohsaka is one of the big shots here since he is one of the favorites to win the tournament. His family has been a key player for generations and his family helped to start this whole competition in the first place. He has already prepared his daughter to win the next Grail War so he can focus on winning this one along with Gilgamesh. He’s a strategist so he never goes out to the front lines with the others. As a result, Tohsaka only gets one real action scene and it barely counts since he’s just blocking the whole time. As expected, he’s not a likable character. Trading away Sakura so that he could have two chances to win the tournament is pretty awful and his nice scenes with Rin just seem phoney. They’re real since he really believes that winning is everything so he treasures Rin as his successor, but it doesn’t make him any more likable. Rin was in trouble during her episode and Yohsaka never even found out about this. His minions also make a lot of plans and have suspicious meetings behind Tohsaka’s back. He needs to be a little more aware of what is happening to him. He talks a pretty good game, but he’s just another “elite” who believes that he is superior to everyone else.

Waver is the master of Rider and he is probably the only “normal” one in the group. He’s just a kid who loves to study, but he doesn’t like that nobody will take him seriously as a magician. It’s because his family line has only been around for a few hundred years and Waver enters the Grail War so that people can respect him. It’s not a very grand wish and he is mocked for it. He’s a pretty decent character for most of the series, but one of his first scenes involves him murdering some animals for the ceremony. It’s really hard to bounce back from something like that and I can’t say that he ever did. He gets a whole lot of development in the show though. Waver realizes what true courage is and he decides to start living a little more. He’ll continue to study and all, but Rider has shown him Earth in a whole new light. Why is Rider essentially the only character to get a happy ending in the show? Maybe it’s because he almost could have been The main character in almost any other show. Still, I can’t say that I really cared for him.

Maiya is a major supporting character in this show as she helps Kiritsugu take out their opponents. She is only a human who has some decent hand to hand skills and a gun, but she does give Kiritsugu a lot of help. It helps that most of the opponents aren’t really prepared to deal with someone else and they just don’t see her as a threat. Of course, it is safe to assume that it’ll be tough for her to live through the entire series. She wasn’t a bad character, although she ultimately didn’t seem to have much of a presence in the series. She gets a handful of action scenes, but that’s about it. She does help Kiritsugu take out two unarmed masters, but she never claimed to be a hero. She just follows his orders for better or worse. (They briefly hint at her origin, but it’s only a passing line or two)

Kariya is the master of Berserker and he’s another guy who gets a pretty tragic origin. To save Sakura from her cruel fate, he enters the Grail Wars. He allows himself to go with the worms in order to get some more power to win the tournament at the cost of his mind. The worms slowly deteriorate him and he has no chance of living past the month/months. His body just won’t last and his mind may go first. It’s really too bad since he was actually a very nice person at the start of the show. He really didn’t want to enter the tournament, but he did it to save Sakura. He should have just tried to break in with some weapons to save Sakura since it would have been a lot less painful, but the odds of success would likely have not been very high. He eventually becomes pretty insane and he deteriorates rapidly. He has a pretty bad scene where he really shows how evil he has become in a church. He tries to go back to how he was later on, but it’s really too late at that point.

It’s time for one of the candidates for worst character of the series! Ryunosuke gets an elite voice actor in the english dub, but that can’t even come close to saving such a terrible character. He’s a mass murderer who typically aims at kids and he really just loves pain and anything that is sadistic. He’s basically a sadist in every meaning of the term and there’s nothing good about him. He totally lives for evil and he’s the kind of guy who would look up to Hitler. He’s fully embraced every sin of the world and he has the gall to talk about how God enjoys his actions. It’s rather painful to listen to this guy speak and he gets way too much screentime as it is. I can’t believe he lasted so long and it’s frustrating to see the heroes just let him be. (At least Saber tries to stop him as soon as possible, while Kiritsugu plays the villain and decides that it’s not worth it) Ryunosuke is another character who lives to drive this anime down the ranks.

Kayneth is the master of Lancer and he doesn’t get a whole lot of character development compared to the others. He wants the Holy Grail, but his goal seems to be rather petty and he’s not a great strategist. He’s proud of his magical upbringing and he’s confident about his chances in the tournament. Unfortunately for him, he’s not a great judge of character and his partner isn’t someone who should really be trusted. He is forced to make a tough choice at the end and both answers led to a negative outcome anyway so it’s rough to be him. He was really unlikable anyway so he’s just a character who was doomed from the start. He’s nowhere near as bad as the characters above and below him, (In the review) but he’s still not a solid addition to the show. It’s too bad since Lancer was actually pretty good.

If you thought Ryunosuke was bad, it’s time for another evil being. Zoken Mato is one of the big players in the magic world and he’s in charge of the worms that exist to destroy this series. He wants to win the Grail during his lifetime so he trains the next successor (Sakura) from very young as he makes a deal to adopt her. Then, he basically throws her to the worms and permanently wrecks her life. He never even gets to die in this series although I’ll assume that someone destroyed him off screen. He’s just terrible and every scene with him is a very bad one.

Sola (Really long name so I’m just abbreviating it here) was Kayneth’s partner and she’s a pretty despicable character as well. She loves to hit people when they’re down and she’ll betray anyone at the drop of a hat. She has no real reason to get the Holy Grail and she’s likely just doing it for status and wealth. She’s just another unlikable character to add to the pile and she doesn’t get any good moments. The only interesting mystery involving her is why Kayneth would ever pick her as a partner. Whatever he saw in her must have been seen when he was barely conscious since she was a bad apple from the start.

Sakura easily has the worst fate from all of the characters in the series and it’s one of those fates that is so tragic that it drags the whole show score down. The instant that this occurred (in the first episode of the series) I knew that the series wasn’t going to be as good as Fate Stay Night. It was really the beginning of its ultimate demise and I’ll get into the “worms” negative a little as the review goes on. Sakura’s story is one of hopelessness where she is powerless to alter her fate. It’s the worst kind of fate because nobody can save her since they don’t know her plight and she can’t do anything about it. It’s one of the ways that Fate/Zero can achieve the dark tone that it was aiming for. Sakura is just a little girl so there’s nothing bad with her character and it’s pretty tough to watch. Fans of her definitely won’t appreciate this turn of events.

Now, it’s time for my favorite character in the franchise! Berserker is way better than his Fate Stay Night version and it’s enough for me to overlook the CGI in his design. Picture Dark Samus or Bass EXE. Berserker is basically an embodiment of darkness and rage as his fury has consumed him. He only lives to fight and destroy at this point, which also results in his fearless nature. He takes on several of the servants at once and he looks very impressive in the process. He is the only character who is actually able to not only damage Gilgamesh, but score a “win.” (It’s highly debatable, but he essentially claimed victory in one of their rounds) That’s a feat in itself and Berserker is just awesome. He doesn’t need to talk and he shows that a cool design mixed in with great action scenes can really help a character.

Now, his ending could have potentially dropped him a whole lot, but I tend to block it out. His final appearance really nerfed his character so that Saber could have one more victory before the series was over and we got an unnecessary plot twist about Berserker. It came out of left field and it didn’t help his character. Luckily, it’s a small scene and I can’t let it wreck such an intense villain! This guy’s still a highlight and he continues to gain strength in all of his appearances until the final one. This guy is great!

Oh no….it’s now time for one of the worst characters in the series! In most anime, this character would be the very worst by a clear margin and the fact that he competes with some of the others is pretty scary. I’m talking about Caster and he has no redeemable qualities. He is another character who is pure evil and he lives to destroy as many kids and people as he can. He lives for fear and the opportunity to deliver pain. He is also completely insane and he seems to be living in a delusion as he mistakes Saber for someone that he probably never even knew. Every scene with Caster is cringe worthy and he’s the kind of character who can wreck an entire episode with his presence. It’s hard to even talk about this guy without being saddened at the prospect of the show without him and some of the other cheap characters. This guy is as third rate as you can get and you can expect him to fight on this site at some point. Needless to say, I haven’t met many characters who are quite as despicable as Caster.

Okay, we’ve gone through all of the major characters. Some of them were negative influences on the show, others were positive ones, and others were so bad that I can barely believe that any writers/producers would want to add them in. (It goes back to the novels first I suppose) One of them is bad enough, but having up to 5 characters who are some of the worst in existence? Now that’s definitely excessive! For a change of pace, let’s talk about an area that was completely positive. I’m referring to the animation! I like googling searches along the lines of “Best animation in an anime” to see what pops up. Fate/Zero is a show that pops up on just about every list along with other big titles like Evangelion. Typically, there are always a few that I don’t recognize and I’ve never seen Megaman or DBZ make the cut. That’s too bad, but they can’t all make it. Is this the best animation in a show? Well, that’s always extremely tough to say since there are many great anime, but I will say that the animation was excellent. This is the kind of show that will still look great 20 years from now and it’ll likely still pick apart other shows from the future eras. The character designs are all streamlined and it would be tough to find an episode where the quality really deteriorated. I would argue that the first half of the show had a higher budget than the second, but it’s tough since it really depends on the episode. Everything about the animation is great and it really shines during night scenes. (Not coincidentally, all of the best animated moments take place at night.)

While I’m not sure about the best animation of all time, I do think the show has the best animated fight of all time. That would be Gilgamesh vs Berserker when they fought in the hi tech planes. It was awesome for many reasons and one of which is the fact that it was totally unexpected. It transformed from a very grounded (No aliens anyway) show about planet busting servants to one where spaceships could actually be used in the fight. The fight was really great and it helps that Gilgamesh and Berserker are my two favorite characters in the series. It’s one of those fights that you can’t really appreciate until you watch it in its entirety and it was the high point of the series. This was also the point where the government got involved to fight and show the world just how tough they could be. The music really complimented this scene as well since the opera theme came up and it’s my favorite theme in this show. It was a battle of titans!

The show had some other pretty great fights as well. Berserker vs Saber and Gilgamesh in round one was pretty great. It was epic for other reasons that I will go into in a second, but the actual fight was fun. Berserker was really the underdog throughout the whole series so it was always good to see him show everyone up. Finally, Saber’s battles against Lancer were great since they were the only really intense blade battles that we got. (Berserker had a brief scuffle as well) Those battles likely had the biggest budget in the series. Every swing was powerful and the colors that emanated from their blows looked very nice as they clashed. Blue and red are colors that naturally compliment each other and the fights did a good job of showing this. The choreography was great as well and the fight felt very real. They were easily some of the best fights out there.

I mentioned that the best fight in the series was the aerial battle, but what was the best moment? I did mention that the fight was the highlight of the series and I stick by that, but this moment was even more influential and it’s the type of scene that really gives you the chills. Remember when the main 3 Avengers first met or any other big group scene like Naruto facing off with everyone at the Chunin Exams? This is that kind of scene as everyone meets up at the docks for the first time. It was the first time that we got to see all of the servants (Minus Assassin since he was busy hiding and getting destroyed and minus Caster since he’s a cheap character) converge at one location. It was really the only time as well that they all got to talk and discuss matters. It was a very interesting moment and it played to the strengths of Fate/Zero. Fate/Zero spent a huge amount of time developing the characters so this is the kind of scene that really benefits from that. It’s definitely a moment that I won’t forget and it was awesome. We’ve never really seen a scene quite like that one or at least not on this scale. It’ll be nice to see if another show can ever top such a gathering of intriguing individuals in such an explosive setting.

Gilgamesh, Rider, and Saber have their own beliefs on what a true king should be like. Gilgamesh believes that he ruler over everything on the planet and his vassals should be happy just to serve him. He seems to actually be a very benevolent ruler and he treats the servants well as long as they remember who is on top. Crossing him would mean your demise. Rider believes in ruling over the servants, but letting them share in the pleasures of life. His dream becomes theirs and they don’t fear him. His underlings actually look up to him and they are glad to die during the journey if it will help him. Saber believes that a King’s path is a solitary one and it’s up to her to destroy all of the enemies in her path so that the Kingdom will be saved. She never developed a bond with any of her underlings so they were safe, but they didn’t really know their King. Which version is correct? Well, I wouldn’t say that any of them are downright bad, but I did find myself on Saber’s side the most while agreeing with Gilgamesh a little. Rider’s ideal isn’t bad, but not terribly realistic. When it works, it ends up being great for everyone since it’s good to be enthusiastic. Ultimately, I would be on Saber’s side since I agree with her that the King should be the one eliminating all of the opponents in the way of the Kingdom. She didn’t develop any bonds with her kingdom’s inhabitants, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. She didn’t seem distant in the flashbacks and it’s more that she just didn’t understand what they were thinking. I wouldn’t say that it was her fault and she was easily the most just of the three Kings. Everything she did, she did for the Kingdom and they just couldn’t accept it in the end. I don’t place any of the blame on her and her ideals are sound.

One of the biggest negatives in the show is the mere existence of the worms. They are mentioned in the first episode and it’s where we find out Sakura’s tragic history. They also come into play for Kariya’s subplot and they last throughout the whole series. They aren’t a big factor in the show, but once we know why they are there and what they are doing to Kariya and Sakura, it’s just a huge negative. You can’t help but be reminded of it whenever those characters appear as well as Zoken. It really crosses the line of how dark a show should be, but Fate/Zero does that a whole lot.

Fate/Zero’s soundtrack is pretty good. It’s nowhere near as memorable as Fate Stay Night’s, but it tends to fit the scene. Unfortunately, it’s pretty forgettable in retrospect, but I won’t be forgetting the main opera battle theme anytime soon. That was perfect for the fight scenes and it made each moment even more epic than it would have been without the music. The openings are decent I suppose, but I can’t say that I cared for them all that much. At least, they really couldn’t stand up to Fate Stay Night’s second opening and both of Fate/Zero’s focused too much on showing all of the characters so we didn’t get as much action as we could have gotten. The second opening is also surprisingly soft considering that this is where most of the action should be. (Although it is actually fitting in that regard)

A noticeable weakness for Fate/Zero is that there is a significant lack of action in the final half of the show. After the fight against Caster, there is a short bout between Saber and Lancer. We don’t really get a real fight again until one of the final episodes where Saber challenges Berserker and Kiritsugu fights Kirei. That’s pretty unacceptable since this is a span of 13 episodes. There are other action scenes, but they’re all just very short. Gilgamesh’s hyped battle against Rider is supremely underwhelming since no hand to hand blows are struck at all. It can barely be called a fight since Gilgamesh doesn’t even need to move and the fight barely lasts for 2-3 minutes. It really can’t be called a fight since it was such a blowout. Gilgamesh vs Saber? That fight lasts for about 5 seconds and I also wouldn’t call it a fight. It’s just surprising that the action died down as it ended.

From those two fights, only Kiritsugu’s match was actually a lot of fun. Saber’s battle against Berserker was much worse than the first round and it’s because Berserker decides to use a gun this time. Bullets/Energy Pellets don’t work on any decent fighter and it’s not quite as exciting to see Saber just running around to dodge the attacks. Berserker does take out his sword, but then he looks very weak while using it. I still cannot forget how weak the writers made him look in that battle so that Saber could take the win. I forgot to mention it earlier in the fights section so I will say that Kiritsugu’s action scenes were pretty good. His fight against Kirei is definitely interesting since it’s pretty strategic.

Now, I do have to wonder how Kirei put up such a good fight. He’s still a human right so how is he moving so fast? Kiritsugu speeds up his movements by 4X and Kirei is still a lot faster than him. I’m assuming that Kirei must be using some kind of spell, but it’s never stated. Nevertheless, the fight was pretty great and the animation was really good as well. I guess you can say that this battle was the true series finale clash and it was a solid way to end things. Kirei’s short battle against Kayneth was also good for most of the same reasons as the Kirei fight. I may not like Kiritsugu at all, but his action scenes were very interesting.

It’s time for a comparison paragraph for Fate Stay Night and Fate/Zero. It’s a bit of a blowout overall, but it looks a little more even on paper even though Fate Stay Night wins many of the big battles. Fate/Zero has the better animation and it makes the universe a little more interesting than Fate Stay Night. Berserker, Gilgamesh, Rider, and Saber (The way that she speaks is just so much more eloquent in this version and I love the polite pretenses that she and Lancer put up when they are bantering) were improvements over their FSN counterparts as well. However, Fate Stay Night’s Assassin, Caster, Rin, and main character (Shirou) beat the FZ versions. FSN had a better soundtrack and it managed to avoid most of the negatives of FZ. FSN had a little more fanservice than FZ, but it was still very minimal. FSN did a better job of making the ending exciting, but FZ did have the edge for animation. FSN did a good job of achieving a dark tone atmosphereically through the backgrounds and how it was animated without having to resort to dark content to make it dark like FZ. There are definitely points that could be darker if they were totally shown, but FSN knew when it was time to make those moments appear off screen. That’s something that could have benefited FZ a lot. It may sound pretty equal from here, but the lack of negatives is the critical part. I have already touched on some of FZ’s negatives and FSN didn’t really have a problem with them. Of course, you can check out my review for it to really get the full story.

One of the major negatives is that I wasn’t able to really enjoy almost any of the episodes because just about every one of them would have a big downer. A scene or multiple scenes that would really just wreck the episode because of how sadistic or unnecessarily violent they were. It’s because we had so many terrible characters like Caster and Zoken. They are characters that are so bad that they guaranteed that the show would get a 5 or less and they could spoil an episode. Likewise with the Worms, who just added onto the pile. Fate/Zero did everything in the darkest/most violent way that it could in just about every situation. The show had very few happy moments and that’s never a good thing. Having a serious tone can be a nice change of pace and it can make some scenes more exciting, but you still need to be enjoyable. Ultimately, shows are supposed to be pretty fun/enjoyable and while the fights were great, they aren’t enough to save a show where so many negative events happen. Also, if you thought Attack on Titan was intensely violent, I dare say that Fate/Zero matches it if not exceeding AOT.

For the death scenes, it would always happen in very unpleasant ways. When Kirei takes out Irisviel, he does it in a very painful way that is rather unnecessary. Her first defeat isn’t any better. The fact that we have to watch Caster perform so many sinister acts is another strike against the show and the list goes on and on. Fate/Zero seemed to really want to be the darkest/most violent series that it could be while still being mainstream enough to also have a lot of shonen action scenes. I have seen it labeled as one of the greatest anime of all time so it appears that this approach worked, (It did for Attack on Titan I suppose) but it’s also what doomed it for me. We are used to having many characters experience traumatic origins and upbringings, but Fate/Zero loves to take it a step further. It just goes way too far on all accounts.

Overall, Fate/Zero is definitely nowhere near Fate Stay Night in quality. It barely scores a 3 to be honest. The animation is undoubtedly some of the greatest that I’ve seen and the soundtrack was solid. The fight scenes were good and the show did a good job of fleshing out the characters and giving us a lot of interesting plot points. The problem is that these positives are completely overwhelmed by the onslaught of negatives. You could really make a case for a 2 or a 1 here. I still find the Fate franchise very interesting and I do like Fate Stay Night a lot, but this was just a really poor way to make a prequel. All of the reasons above are why I would never recommend it to anyone and I would strongly recommend staying away from it. The sheer amount of content and violence make it unsuitable for any audience. It’s really regrettable because this is a show that really could have been good. Take away Caster, Ryunosuke, Zoken, The Worms/Sakura’s plight, Kariya’s meltdown, Waver’s unnecessary animal violence, and get rid of some of the excessive violence, and this could have been a 7-8/10 show. The show’s positive elements would have really been able to shine and it definitely had the elements needed to challenge the big guns in the anime world. Alas, this is a ship that has sailed and I can only hope that the new remake of Fate Stay Night doesn’t lean towards Fate/Zero’s style or that it only captures its positive attributes. The Fate franchise still has a lot of potential and it’s a great universe that can continue to expand. Even if they only stick to the two Grail Wars, there are a lot of different ways that they can handle the event. As long as they don’t resort to such extremes like in this series, the Fate franchise can definitely have a worthy successor that is just as good as the original FSN. In the end, if you want a compelling action series with some horror, just skip this prequel and watch Fate Stay Night.

Overall 3/10

Tsubasa Spring Thunder Review

Posted on September 11, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to review the second Tsubasa OVA, which is also the final one to ever be created. For better or worse, the franchise ended (On TV anyway) with this installment so does it provide us with a lot of closure and such? No….not quite. Luckily, this turns out well for us in the sense that it is basically nonstop action. This OVA raises the stakes from the last one and we have less exposition so more time for fights. As you can tell, this one easily defeated the last OVA!

The plot continues after the heroes saved Fai from the sorcerer….is that really how the last OVA ended? Wellllll…maybe not, but they assume that you guys read the manga so it’s okay to jump a lot! Kurogane loses his arm and someone goes to get him a replacement when an old foe appears. Remember Seishiro, Syaoran’s mentor? Well, he’s back to keep on searching for the vampire twins and he also decides to intimidate the heroes as a consolation prize. Syaoran isn’t having any of that and he attack the man. He shall get the feather at any cost! Unbeknownst to the heroes..the other Syaoran also approaches! (The original Syaoran who was with us for the whole series before turning evil…that Syaoran)

Now, this OVA can be a little cruel to longtime fans of the series who didn’t read the manga since it skips a whole bunch of story arcs while including flashbacks that reference them. It’s an intriguing strategy and one that many will not really appreciate. It’s probably a lot more fun if you’ve never seen Tsubasa before since it’ll be a mystery. (I said something similar for the last OVA) Starting off with the heroes escaping from a dying world after murdering the magician who had been hyped as one of the ultimate villains since the very first episode is rather anticlimatic as well. I’d be pretty disheartened if Frieza or Aizen had been taken out off screen like that. We also don’t really hear the plot twist about Fai’s name. (Tsubasa loves its name twists…..just wait for Kurogane’s!)

So, the continuity of this OVA is definitely a little dicey, but if you read the manga everything will still make a lot of sense. At first, I was pretty skeptical about Kurogane losing his arm since it seemed to be counterproductive at the time. It would just reduce his chances of escape right? Luckily, we just find out that he had to sacrifice his arm to save Fai and escape. (Fai’s always getting rescued now and that’s a trend that won’t end anytime soon) Tsubasa saved itself from that small stumble.

This OVA is only two episodes so it’s extremely short. Luckily, it tries to make up for this with all of the action and its a winning strategy. The first episode mainly deals with Syaoran’s fight against Seishiro and it’s nice to see how Syaoran’s improved since their last encounter. (Different Syaoran, but same fighting techniques) However, Syaoran has not improved nearly as much as you would have thought and he’s still losing pretty badly in this fight. I love his determination, but it’s disappointing to see him so outmatched here. Things get even dicier for him in the second episode since he goes up against Dark Syaoran. (I’m going to just say Dark before his name to make it easier to tell them apart) Dark Syaoran is much stronger than Seishiro in my opinion although I’m sure that many would disagree on that. Syaoran puts up a brave fight, but I seriously don’t see him posing much of a threat for the experienced villain. The fight scene is fun and it’s nice to see the contrast of fire vs thunder.

I definitely enjoyed the action scenes in this OVA more than the last one’s. They weren’t rushing and the fights were allowed to really develop. The energy attacks from Seishiro’s blade as well as the two Syaorans also helped since energy attacks tend to look pretty great when they’re used in such a high budget OVA. One area where this OVA lost to the last one is the theme song. The last one was lacking in images, but the overall atmosphere helped it and the green circle was ominous. There really isn’t anything redeeming in this opening and it’s just very boring. I don’t know what happened, but it feels like it was created as an afterthought. There’s no action scenes or anything and it just shows all of the characters a bunch of times. Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z has openings over 20 years ago that were better than these. There’s no excuse for a bad opening these days since so many anime produce great ones every year!

Aside from the opening, the soundtrack is pretty good. Naturally, most of the selections are from the show so they are tried and true. They never get old and it’s very well rounded. I’m pretty sure that my favorite theme didn’t play this time, but I suppose that it can’t make the cut every time. (Even though it is the best theme….)

I would almost say that Syaoran is a 5 star protagonist in this OVA. (5 out of 5 of course) However, there is one scene that holds him back and it is near the beginning. Seishiro starts to intimidate the heroes and he beats up on Fai for a while…and nobody helps. This is actually worse for Kurogane (Since he does nothing, but Syaoran should have done something. Syaoran does challenge Seishiro to a match, but it’s only because he wants the feather. He seemed to not care about what was happening to Fai, which was pretty out of character. Aside from that brief moment, Syaoran was basically perfect.

At this point, Sakura is basically avoiding him (As seen in a new flashback) so he is basically alone. He’s still intent on getting the feathers so that Sakura can have her memories back, but he’s going to have the short end of the stick either way. He’s still very resolute in this decision and he’ll face anyone to get the feathers. He never backs down and Syaoran is just a great hero. He’s certainly more heroic than your average fighter and he doesn’t even need any comic relief scenes to balance his personality out. He’s completely serious and stone faced the entire OVA and it works for his character.

Dark Syaoran mainly appears for the second episode, but he does get a pretty epic cliffhanger for the first episode. He definitely means business and to be honest…I’m basically rooting for him. I try to root for both Syaorans equally, but Dark Syaoran is technically the character that I’m more used too and if you didn’t see the last OVA, you wouldn’t know just how evil he is. From this perspective, he seems more like an anti-hero, although a strong case can be made that he’s the villain since he’s willing to destroy the other Syaoran. Regardless, his goal is to help Sakura get her feathers back and the main difference is that he doesn’t take no for an answer. His design is epic and you can tell that he’s more on the dark side than the regular Syaoran. Dark Syaoran definitely helped the series excel to new heights!

Sakura is a lot better here than in the last OVA. She is typically awake…well, she’s awake inside of her dream anyway. It’s an interesting moment since she has a meta conversation with Watanuki and it’s all very deep. (Literally since they’re basically underwater) It can be a little upsetting to see her avoid Syaoran, but we do find out the reason for it at the very end and it’s explained more at the end of the manga. It makes sense to an extent since we wouldn’t want Syaoran to get any false hopes. Her final moment is not that great though since it’s something that we’ve seen a lot of characters do in the past and it’s always a clock stopper. (Not in a good way…I want my action scenes to keep on going!) She doesn’t fight in this OVA, but we can always hope that she’ll grab her gun and take on a villain someday.

As mentioned earlier, Kurogane looks really bad here. Not only does he freeze up when Fai is attacked, but he has been reduced to sitting on the sideline for all of the battles. Gone are the days when he was a big fighter. (He does get a big fight soon, but it is not animated at this point in time) He does have some scenes with the princess where we find out new twists and such, but it’s not really going to help him rise up the ranks. I like him as a character, but I just didn’t care for him here. Just counting this OVA and not the previous one + TV show, Kurogane just wouldn’t be that great.

Although, Kurogane would still be better than Fai. Now that Fai is basically powerless, he’s really no help to the team. He tags along and gets beat up by the enemies, but that’s about it. We know that he’s a very good hand to hand fighter from the TV show…unless he was just amping up his abilities with magic. Still, I would expect him to do better and I’m sure that he would have some good moments in the future. This OVA just happens to take place at a time where he doesn’t really have a role to speak of. It’s a sad time for him and Kurogane.

It’s good to see Seishiro appear after being gone for so long. He’s easily one of the best characters in the franchise and his character is still a mystery. He seems to have joined the side of the heroes in this OVA sine he’s a lot friendlier then he once was, but you still have to question his goal. What will he do with the vampires once he finds them? It’s too bad that Seishiro won’t stick around to help since he could definitely do a lot of good. He may be the strongest hero at the moment and that’s saying something! I guess he’ll just have to let the main characters do their thing, but it would have been nice if he had stayed with the party.

The tone of this OVA is a little more like the show. There are still a lot of twists, but it’s a little lighter. The stakes haven’t gone down, but these two episodes feel like they could have been in the animated series. Maybe the director changed or it’s just a coincidence in the story. The Kamui arc was likely darker in the manga as well. This one had more nostalgia for me in that sense and that’s always a nice plus.

The ending may be more than a little dicey for Tsubasa fans and for those who just picked this OVA up on the fly. The ending gives us a huge cliffhanger with the heroes deciding to take out the main villain once and for all as they make another dimension jump. After all of the adventures, we are finally at the final battle! Only to find out that the series was not going to be continued and that you would have to read the manga and try to decipher the fight scenes to see it! On one hand, it’s not cool since you’ll never see the ending, but I do have to admit that I’m a sucker for a good cliffhanger. That type of ending really makes me jump on the hype train! It’s just so intense and it’s one of the ultimate cliffhangers! (Another example of an ultimate cliffhanger is Goku finally arriving to his allies’ aid against Frieza or Sasuke preparing to fight Gaara after some intense training. Shonen Jump is full of these scenes and it’s one of the reasons why they are awesome!)

Overall, Tsubasa definitely ended on a high note with this OVA! It’s a mixed bag since it doesn’t really tie up most of the loose ends and it doesn’t really end, but it was still a very fun ride. We had a lot of action and the soundtrack/animation will hold up very well for many years. Bringing back Seishiro and Dark Syaoran was a good way to bring in most of the villains and Fei Wong got his little cameo. Kurogane and Fai looked really underwhelming and this is their last animated appearance to that could be a little disheartening to their fans. (Not quite as bad as being a fan of the evil sorcerer though…) I definitely recommend this OVA to Tsubasa fans and to anyone who enjoys a nice anime fight! It doesn’t really have any negative qualities and it fixes the mild issues that I had with the first OVA. (I’ll miss the Angelic Layer crossover from the manga, but I suppose that this was how it had to be. Hopefully it’ll get animated someday) This is something that you’ll be glad you saw!

Overall 8/10

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