Asura Cryin Season 1 Review

Story 6/10

Asura Cryin is exciting from the start. It doesn't take long for things to really pick up. Since there are only 13 episodes per season, that's a good thing. It pulled me in immediately and it kept me watching. As interested as it kept me and as exciting as it could be, it's certainly not the best anime I've ever seen. The characters aren't much different from the usual but they are fine. They lack development, but so does the entire story. And there in lies the problem. The plot is as holy as a catholic church!! (Okay, that was a bad pun, but I couldn't resist. No offense to the Catholics.) What I mean is the plot is full of holes. I haven't watched the second season, but so far, it's not developing, and if they spend the second season trying to fill in all the holes, I imagine it will be very boring. I still enjoyed the first season, but I had to not think to hard about what was going on and not try to make sense of things. 
The situation isn't that strange at first, though I wouldn't call it normal. The main character is a boy, Tomoharu, who is about to start high school. He is moving into this big house without his parents and he has a ghost who follows him everywhere. Not normal, but ( I want to continue the pun...but I won't) not too holy, especially considering it's not even ten minutes in to the first episode.

Then a strange classmate brings a trunk case to his house. Apparently she knows his brother who is supposedly off studying abroad. Again, nothing too weird.

A strange girl with fire abilities crashes through his window demanding he hand over the extractor, the trunk, except he doesn't know what she means so he doesn't think he has it. Interesting, but the only a few holes to fill and twelve episodes to fill them.

Then it gets a bit crazy. Suddenly there are two different groups at least plus the girl, Shuri, who brought the trunk, that show up at his house demanding he hand the trunk over. They are blasting holes in the walls and guns are popping out of Shuris body and people are shooting. They start talking about a "Dark Society" and religious war and what all. And now it's weird. But wait, there is more!

Tomoharu opens the case and some black dark evil thing that looks like slime starts oozing out of it, and end of the first episode. Now it's weird and it's holy, but we still have twelve episodes for explanations.
The next episode starts, it should continue the fight from previously right. Wrong! It fast fowarded. We did get a bit of a flash back to a small part of what happened, but that's about it. It felt very choppy to me. So now someone is going to explain this "dark society" thing right? Nope. Well then they will at least explain what came out of that case right? Nope, not really. So what do they explain? Not a whole lot. It continues on and Tomoharu is asked to join the science club by Shuri who is also the president of the third student council.

Then Tomoharu meets the first student council president, Saeki, who is one of the people who destroyed his house. Saeki wants him to join the first student council. Now why are there three student councils (we meet the second one later). Is Japan that different from America that they have three student councils? Is anyone really going to explain any of this? Shuri explains a teeny tiny bit about Dark Society, but not enough to mean much. Still, I'll bite. Then Tomoharu learns that Takatsuki is the one who broke into his house originally. Takatsuki is a demon and the first student council is responsible for destroying demons. So we get a conflict with that.

Before long, we have mechas that appear from a dark hole in the shadow of their handler and run on the souls of a sacrafice. We have Misao the ghost who died and is the one in Tomoharus Mecha.

We have demons that look like normal humans and contracts with demons and familiars etc.

We have Shuri who has guns in her arms and legs, litterally, and reminds me a bit of Revy from Black Lagoon. We GD's which I don't really know what the point of them is. We have Dark society and light society and second student council, I forget what they are. And very
little of this is explained. Oh, and since when were guns allowed at school...or swords, or you know, ANY WEAPON?

To add to the confusion, Misao the friendly ghost is apparently visible and ghost like and also not. See she isn't at first. But then she eats a stabalizer thing and she is. At first it seems like this whole Handler and demon and ghost thing is kept secret from the general public. And then it doesn't. Misao floats around with her feet off the ground and is supposedly visible, but if she was visible, wouldn't people have an issue with the whole floating thing. I mean she walks in school, but other times she just floats down the street or sits in the air in public. Also, apparently sometimes she can touch things and sometimes she can't. She starts school with Tomoharu, so one would assume she can pick up pencils and stuff. Plus she hangs out with other girls and one would assume she is able to appear alive, except then at a party, she tells a woman that she can't touch anything and to demonstrate puts her hand through the chicken. If she can't actually touch or move things, how does she handle school? It's like the rules are constantly changing. The transition from episode to episode was rock at best for the first several episodes. Very little was ever explained. The characters don't feel very developed to me because I have no idea what this dark society and three student councils etc is. As for Tomoharus brother, that's a whole different bag of questions. We don't really know what he has been doing all this time or just what he is involved in and how deep, except that it has to do with the third student council. We don't know why he seems to be in league with the enemy sometimes. We don't know why doesn't contact Tomoharu directly, all we know is his name really. As for the action, it's not bad, but battle scenes tend to be rather short and sometimes a bit too convenient. Also, if everyone doesn't know about demons and handlers and mechas, then WHY ARE WE HAVING A BATTLE IN FRONT OF THE FREAKIN SCHOOL? Don't you think someone will notice. It's not like we have a shield or whatever its called like in Shakugan no Shana. There isn't anything stopping normal people from seeing this. And yet, somehow, no one seems to notice or care. Consistency is seriously lacking, and I mean SERIOUSLY!It's entertaining, but you can't try to analyze it too much or take it too seriously. I like to have full understandings and I tend to over analyze a lot, but if you just sort of accept the plot for what it is, and ignore all the holes, it's a fine story.6 might be a bit high, but it kept me interested so I don't want to go lower than 6, even though it might deserve it.

Animation 9/10
The animation is done pretty well. I don't really understand why Tomoharu has this one piece of hair that is longer than all the rest. It's a bit inconsistent with how solid and clear it makes Misao look. One of the characters looks like he has one vampire tooth, but overall, the animation is well done. It doesn't really subtract to the story. I give it a 9.

Sound 8/10
Sound is fine as well. There isn't an opening or ending song, at least not on the sites I've watched it on. That's a bit odd to me, but whatever. I don't think there was a huge amount of effort put into this anime anyway. I thought they did pretty well with the sound when the kids were in the plane towards the end, but that's the only part where it really stood out to me. It just sounded a lot like being in the plane. On the other hand, I disliked some of the voices because they sounded too alike in a couple cases. It wasn't overly bothersome though. Overall I give it a 8. It's not too impressive, but it's average.

Characters 6/10
As I said before, the characters are average. Nothing is too peculiar.  Most of the characters remain pretty static, but it's not too bad. What bothers me is we know more about some of the minor characters and secondary characters than we do the main character. We know how some of the handlers who are secondary and minor characters came about to possess the Asura Machina's than we do about how Tomo did. We know Tomoharu was on a plane with most of the other secondary characters, but we don't know what happened to him and Misao. It's a bit messed up. Because of that, I give characters a 6.

Overall, I give it a seven. It's about average. Nothing to impressive.


Oh, but we do get this explanation! It just takes us 13 episodes to get it.....

Shangri-La Review Episodes 1-10

The beginning was a little confusing as far as the characters go because I didn't really get what they were or who they were.

For instance, I sort of guessed one was a tranny but you know in anime you think it's a guy, but it's a girl and vice versa. So I wasn't sure and they took their time in confirming my thought.
Personally, there is way too much finance/stock/math talk for me to completely follow. All this carbon index and markets and stuff, yeah, I'm just a psych and dance major. I don't know anything about that stuff. It can make some moments very frustrating or very boring because I don't understand and all their words are basically meaningless to me. All their strategies for doing whatever with whatever market are completely lost on me as well. I feel like I need to go take some finance and business and economics classes to figure out what on earth these people are fussing about. Who the hec wrote this stuff?

The other thing I don't really get is this whole "slaying monsters" thing and the little snake medusa thingy and her "feeling" the markets change. Like what the hell?! Feeling the markets change? What genius came up with that. -_-   That second half of episode six when Kuniko and her grandma are watching some change in markets and whatever and the girl is analyzing and then "feeling" it's just totally weird. It's not cool, unless you are a financial adviser maybe. It just sounds stupid. I think somebody got a little carried away with this whole market thing.
It's not a bad anime, it's just I don't get the whole market thing and stuff and they get really carried away with it in the anime. Like I'm not even sure my mother could explain this to me. I sort of know what carbon index is, but as a market, I have no clue. They should have tried to dumb it down a bit. I don't like trying to google half of what is said in an anime trying to figure out what it means.
Well, I've carried on long enough about that.
More than a couple things in this anime just don't quite make sense.

For instance, in episode 7 (spoiler alert) when Kuniko is put on death row, Kunihito acts as if he cares about her. The two had fought a couple times and did spend a short time in some abandoned place during a halestorm, but there was never any real sign that Kunihito cared about her much. I'm not saying he should have been indifferent, but to try to actually go and talk to her or get upset over her being sentenced to die was a little much. I felt like there was some missing buildup or some missing scenes. It just wasn't developed right.

A lot of the characters seem rather disconnected and random as well. Like the sickly little girl. What is her purpose? Her connection to the rest of the story seems to be rather slight. And the kid in the room with all the eyes and red, what of that character. The characters aren't very well introduced nor very well developed.
I have to admit, I didn't think this show would show much in the way of blood and violence, or anything rather. It seemed pretty pg as far as what was shown for a while, at least until the end of episode 9.  (SPOILER ALERT) I can't say that I felt a huge connection with any of the characters, but it's still not okay for a bunch of young girls to be gunned down in a prison yard.

There wasn't a whole lot of detail in the scene. Again, they worked it so you didn't really see more than some lifeless faces and some spattered blood. So far I think that is a downside to this show. They keep it pretty tame. I don't know, maybe no one wanted to draw the detailed scenes. It's just you look at how detailed other scenes are, and then you look at how detailed the sad scenes or bloody/violent scenes are and there is a huge difference. The scenes of the buildings where nature has taken over and of the cities are all very detailed. Then you look at the scene in episode 9, and if you didn't know what had happened from clues earlier on and what was said, I'm not sure you could figure out what it was supposed to be. Maybe it's just my computer but I doubt it. I don't really care for shows that avoid the bad stuff. It takes away from the emotional aspect of the show. It also makes it more bland in my opinion. You don't really get the same experience as you would if you saw what the character saw.
On the other hand, there are some good parts of the show. Some of the characters can be funny at times like Momoko. The plot isn't terrible either, though it's carried out a bit roughly. Overall, so far the show is average. It's nothing to rush to go watch. It leaves out a lot of details and development and there are a lot of things not explained. There are a lot of characters to keep up with too, something I've never been especially good with. 

No. 6 Review

Awesome anime!! It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it's surprising, it's a lot of things. I'm not saying it's perfect. It was too short for one thing. I want more. A lot more. Preferably with Sion and Rat and more kissing and wait wth since when do I want that kind of thing in anything. But this isn't anything. It actually was nice. Wow, I think I should shut up now. That's how good this show is. It makes you want to see more of the normally annoying uninteresting things. Okay, on to the review.
The two main characters are Rat and Sion.
Sion lives in the place called #6. After much of the land was destroyed by wars, what was still considered habitable was seperated into at least 6 sections. They don't tell you a lot about these places but they are large cities. #6 was designed to be a sort of utopia. The government keeps track of all the citizens though identification bracelets. These bracelets also produce holographic screens which tell news, make calls, etc. Basically it's a utopia as long as you follow the rules, love and take pride in the city and don't be an inconvenience. Aka, not really utopia.

Rat is from outside the city. When he was just a child, #6 set fire to a group of people in the woods known as the forest people and Rat was the only one to survive. He meets Sion one stormy night after escaping the government and wandering into Sion's room through an open window.

At first he attacks Sion and looks as though he plans to use force, but Sion sees his wound and offers to fix him up. So then we have some kid sewing up another kids arm. Uh.....yeah. Anyway, Rat and Sion talk and Sion gives Rat food and clothing. Shortly after, Rat leaves.
For harboring a known fugitive, Sion is stripped of his apparently high standing position and him and his mother are forced to move to another district in the city. He is also unable to enter the gifted program at school. He ends up working in a park using robots to patrol the park and pick up trash.

That's when they find the dead guy.

Afterwards, he and his coworker find out the death was never released to the public and Sion mentions being suspicious of the government hiding things. Then suddenly his coworker begins to age rapidly and within seconds is dead. As Sion stares, he watched a bee come out of his coworkers dead body. I'm guessing he faints because the next thing is he is arrested for being a malcontent.

Luckily, the boy Rat that he met four years ago comes to the rescue and frees him and then helps him escape to outside the city.

Anyway, I won't spoil the rest of the story, just giving you the beginning.
The series is only 11 episodes long, but it still does a great job with character development. It's not overly violent or sexual or anything explicit. The two main characters kiss, but it's just a small light kiss. It's not exactly pg but it's not bad.

Normally I'm not into the whole kissing scenes or romance crap but in this case, it was kinda cute. It's two guys, but still. You have the badass, serious, mysterious Rat and the innocent, caring, intelligent but sometimes ignorant Sion. The two are kinda sweet. Especially how Rat protects Sion.


WARNING :SOME MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD.



 

Rat doesn't want Sion to change. He doesn't want Sion to have to get blood on his hands or to have to see terrible things. Even when the two are in an awful situation in an awful place, Rat wants Sion to stay innocent and tries to do all the fighting.

Unfortunately, Rat ends up in trouble and to save him, Sion kills another man. It makes Rat cry, which is a rather odd sight to see. The guy that doesn't show much emotion and fights so well and is so calm, is crying..because Sion shot a gun. I mean Rat does tend to be more emotional when Sion is involved but the crying was just odd to watch as if I shouldn't be watching Rat cry.  And then how Rat sorta knocks Sion out when Sion starts talking about all he said was just a dream and that he wanted to destroy #6. Rat didn't want Sion to say those things because he didn't want him to change. Talking like that wasn't the innocent idealistic Sion he knew. But it was just so touching how much Rat wanted to protect Sion and keep him kind and innocent.


Anyway, I'll do a better review later, but I highly recommend this anime. I give it a 9.5 out of 10, mainly because I pretty much never give a ten and because the series is too short. I want more because it's awesome. Also, I didn't really get the point of Safu's character and some of that stuff at the end. So it's a 9.5.
GO WATCH IT!!!!

Jormungand Review

This show reminds me a lot of Black Lagoon. While the groups aren't exactly in the same business, there are a lot of similarities. Both main characters don't like guns, and yet both are in a gun crazy group. Black Lagoons character never uses a gun, but his feelings towards guns are the almost the same. In Jonas case, he didn't really have an option, and he actually knows how to use them. Both main characters struggle with their identity and with their present situation. Their current life seems a bit crazy, but they can't seem to leave it, and ultimately choose the path filled with the thing they hate. Both shows have very weak plots and the endings are lacking. The shows are mostly built on action with a bit of comedy. Both shows involve a group working with and among the criminal underground and are involved in some not quite legal business. I would say that the arms dealers are as much criminals as the shipping company, but still.

I also find the style of animation and the colors to be similar. Black Lagoon has more colors than Jormungand, but neither are dark. Jormungand is just a little more bland and less flashy that Black Lagoon. The scenes mostly consist of white, blues, greens, browns, and greys. Not dark, but not a mardi grass party either.

I think my favorite thing about the show was how crazy the characters were. Koko reminds me of myself a lot. She's insane. She has big ideas. She kind of hides her feelings behind a mask. She isn't very patient. And she totally spazzes sometimes, but she is cool and collected sometimes too.

On the other hand, I felt sort of connected to Jona too. I don't care for guns, though I'm fine with most other weapons. I also tend to be very quiet and keep to myself until I become more comfortable with people. I don't smile a lot either. He is very protective, he tries to protect people, Koko, the orphans, his "team mates", Velmet, etc. I also have a hard time with the idea that a bunch of people may have to die to keep even more people alive and to bring about peace. Lastly, I hate math and I completely agree with all his answers to mathematical questions!

Anyway, back to the rest, as I mentioned previously, the plot is weak. Actually, the plot is almost nonexistant in the first 12 episodes. There is a little bit going on with Jona and some of the characters pasts, so it does develop the characters, but it doesn't really have a plot throughout. In the second season, it's not as weak, but it still isn't a big focus. The anime is basically built on action. I don't hate it, but it does leave me longing for something with a story.

Ghost Hound Review

As of right now, I am reviewing this after only watching the first episode. I may try to watch the rest if I have nothing better to do one day, but as of right now, I see no point.
It's slow. It lacks a major quality for any story or form of entertainment, called a good first impression. Whether you are making an anime, performing a play or dance, writing a book, or writing an essay, the beginning is supposed to draw the audience in. The first impression is supposed to make the reader or watcher want and/or need to see more. I often find myself criticizing stories for failing to do so. After all, this is something I learned about by at least 6th grade, maybe earlier. Aka, it's not that complicated. You are supposed to learn about the parts of a story and how to write a story in grade school, and yet, I see so many stories that lack some of the most basic things. This is one of those stories.
The first episode is just so dreadfully slow. I watched for twenty minutes and barely got any information about the characters, the scene, the plot, or anything. The dialogue is scarce as well, which isn't always bad, but in this case, it did not help matters. Most of what was said was rather random and offered very little insight into the characters. The whole thing dragged. Nothing was explained. Nothing really happened. Ten minutes in and I'm considering turning it off. I watched the rest anyway, though I think it was a waste of time. The end of the episode didn't make me want to click on the next episode either. There weren't any questions I was dying to have answered. There wasn't anything going on that seemed worth continuing. I didn't relate to any of the characters or even know enough about any character to relate to them. It made a very poor first impression. If the beginning isn't good, what reason do I have to think the rest will be any better? None. The writer and directors job was to pull me in at the start. If they couldn't do that, then why should I expect they will do a better job with the next episode. I don't want to waste my time watching 22 episodes just to find them all to be as boring as the first! I don't want to waste another 20 minutes for that matter. I have no reason to believe it will get better. It's disappoingting because when I found it, I thought it  sounded interesting and I was expecting to enjoy it. Instead, I found boredom.

The slow beginning isn't the only problem I have with it. Though I may have been able to overlook it if the story was better, I don't like the animation style. The characters are very simple. Their clothes are off looking too as if all their clothes have a bunch of padding in them or something. It's all very flat too. Even the colors are simple. Not everything is simple though. There is a scene where the eye lashes on a face look far more complex than anything else on the body. In other words, it doesn't all match. It's like they had different artists with different styles drawing different parts of the characters and scenes. Some of it is very detailed but a lot of it is very flat and simple. It doesn't fit together. I should mention though that their are a few characters who aren't drawn as simply or strangely, and whose clothes don't look like they have foam padding in them or something, but they are minor. Like I said, if the story was better, I could have dealt with it, but as it was, it bothered me too much.

Honestly, this review is kind of a waste of time, except that maybe it can save someone else from 20 minutes of pure boredom. I would not recommend this anime to anyone. I give it a .5 since I don't think I can really give it a zero. It does exist.