Anime Review List
H2O footprints in the sand - review 1
H2O footprints in the sand is a rather long title for anime with the exception of Bobo bo bo bo bobobo or however you say it. This one didn't strike me as an anime that i would be on the edge of my seat for just by the title sequence , but boy was i wrong. The first episode introduces the main guy who apparently blind but perfectly healthy and no reason for being blind (which they never explain that very well). He gets himself into awkward positions with most of the cast as fast as they were all introduced. But, the first ep. focuses on character introduction and making you question a few oddities in the behavior of the village towards this girl in the corner named Hayami. Hayami seems to have pissed the entire town off and gets beaten up alot by the minions of a twintailed little pest of a girl. They are vague on details for as much as 6 episodes as to build up the suspense of why Hayami is so hated and will make you simply watch the whole thing in a marathon anime watching contest , in which you only wind up screaming at each episodes cliffhanger wanting to know what happens next. Overall the animation wasn't bad and for a drama anime i can definitely put this at a top point in my list of Romantic comedy anime. 8 out of 10 stars
To Aru No Railgun
To Aru No Railgun" or A certain scientific railgun is, to say the least, an unexpectedly good anime. The story starts off with a brief introduction to the how and why of the city in which this series takes place. Academy city is apparently a place where 80% of the population are students and all of them posses a unique power all to their own. The main heroine of the show is a girl by the name of Misaka Mokoto , who has a level 5 (the highest level) power named Railgun , she can shoot out a burst of electricity in the form of a canon from flipping a coin in front of her. Along side is her roommate who is helplessly infatuated with her, Kuroko Shirai, who is a member of the organization Judgement ,which is basically the city's police force without child labor laws. Shirai has the ability to teleport and is assisted by her Judgement partner Kazari Uiharu to protect the city. Kazari is Shirai's subordinate and frequently scolds her on messing up with her duties but her close friend Saten is always protecting her. Saten is kazari's roommate at their school on the poorer end of the city while Misaka and Shirai live on the richer side. They all meet one day when a few delinquents decide to blow up a local shop and the four of the girls heroically save the day. After this the group begins to talk and eventually become good friends after alot of visits, outings and all the usual activities that accompany most romantic comedies. Including, the swimsuit episode, the lunch scenario, the cafe, the beach even. However, the peace and boredom eventually cease and the girls find themselves in way over their heads when a device named, "Level Upper" causes criminals to become massively powerful and they start running amok in Academy city. The tables turn though when all those that were using Level Upper , start to collapse and fall into a coma. What will the girls uncover a conspiricy theory, an evil plot, a fault in the device? Who knows, you'll have to watch to find out. In conclusion ,each episode of Railgun, for short, brought it's unique flavor, while hitting all the predictable spots of anime.Also, it brought to the table a surplus of action, comedy, romance, and mystery which is a hard thing to do. And, you should know if you're an anime fan. My overall rating for this anime is 8 out of 10 stars.
Shakugan No Shana
Shakugan No Shana,
hmm now where do i begin on this? Well lets first begin with the character design by Ayato Sasakura. Ive noticed that he seems to favor a round-headed, big-eyed, thin-necked, and petite-framed anime style that's slightly more caricaturish than the norm for anime. But, nevertheless the animation is solid , and the little fluttering flames over shana's head was an art in and of itself. The writing for this series was done by Yashichiro Takahasi and ,as far as the typical action/magical anime goes, he truly has outdone himself. Shakugan No Shana has breathed new life into this genre which is flooded with magical girls, lame poses, predictability, and overly moe characters dressed in what can only be compared to a tutu thats been run through a paper shredder. The story hinders around Shana ,"a flame haze" whose job is to retain the balance of the world by killing Crimson Denizens. And, Yuji , a "Mystes", which is a special type of (torch) with a treasure inside. A torch is what replaces humans after crimson denizens eat their souls and Yuji just happened to be eaten. However, Yuji has a treasure inside of him that allows him to never disappear like the other torches after a certain amount of time. It is this reason that Shana partners up with Yuji to fend off the hordes of Crimson Denizens coming after this treasure inside him. Honestly, i think they could have done a better job on the romantic interest between Shana and Yuji. Yuji is always completely oblivious to shana's feelings despite being told straight to his face that she loved him. And, Shana seems to develop feelings for him without any participation on yuji's part. It litterally just jumps from i hate that stupid mystes, to I LOVE YOU O_O in about 5 minutes. All technical stuff aside, i can recommend this anime to just about any hardcore action/anime fan and i won't be criticized for showing them a romantic comedy.
To be honest, I am now a complete fanboy when it comes to Shana. I recently went to an anime convention and all i came back with was an empty wallet and plethora of Shakugan no shana wallscrolls. In conclusion, i don't think it would be fair to this series if i reviewed every last detail and nit picked at every flaw because, i would like to think i review with an unbiased opinion on anime. And, with this series i can only say i love it...so your just gonna have to go on that...or watch it yourself of course :P.
Im
not sure whether or not to classify Sketchbook Full colors as a comedy
or a sleep aid. Let me elaborate , erhermm... First of all its boring,
droll, dull, suicidal perhaps? no...none of these things truly describe
it in a fashion in which im looking for. Lazy, thats more like it The
story is bland and has few plot twists, most of the time the main
character found herself ogling a moving object (insert bird, train,
leaf blowing in the wind here), then coming then coming to the
astounding conclusion that ITS HARD TO DRAW MOVING OBJECTS. However she
actually did cover this in the first episode when she casually walked
by a shop selling video camera's, and said she just wouldn't find using
a video camera satisfying enough. So now we've established that their
is clearly brain damage here. As if it weren't blatently obvious from
the constant bobble head reaction she makes when agreeing to anything.
But before i get ahead of myself on all of the con's, lets take a step
back and review the pro's shall we. Of course this is a slice of life
anime and i can't criticize it too much for being not being all that
and a bag of chips, if you'll pardon the expression, it clearly
illustrates that it is nothing more than a snapshot of life. That is
what the director was going for. At the end of the day i can't complain
(shut up >: ) that it doesn't make me extraordinarily happy, whose
to say it won't tickle your fancy.
This anime is meant for escapism and relaxation and by all means it does accomplish that and quite well i might add. All in all it wasn't a bad anime by as it is an anime based on art and thus you can expect the ART to be pretty good and the slow aspect of the whole thing was kinda calming. I even added the opening song to my ipod i found it so relaxing.The whole thing had a kinda calming and whimsical air about it, one of those anime's that made you change your behavioral patterns to ones that resemble the characters while you found yourself walking down a dirt road . What im getting at is that , YES it's boring, Yes it's dull yes it isnt all that funny but it doesnt try to be anything it's not, and what it is , is a calming, fun , relaxing snapshot of what life would be like if we all took a little time to draw the things we thought we couldn't. 6/10
This anime is meant for escapism and relaxation and by all means it does accomplish that and quite well i might add. All in all it wasn't a bad anime by as it is an anime based on art and thus you can expect the ART to be pretty good and the slow aspect of the whole thing was kinda calming. I even added the opening song to my ipod i found it so relaxing.The whole thing had a kinda calming and whimsical air about it, one of those anime's that made you change your behavioral patterns to ones that resemble the characters while you found yourself walking down a dirt road . What im getting at is that , YES it's boring, Yes it's dull yes it isnt all that funny but it doesnt try to be anything it's not, and what it is , is a calming, fun , relaxing snapshot of what life would be like if we all took a little time to draw the things we thought we couldn't. 6/10