Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Random Pokemon CAP Battle
Just a random Pokemon Battle. In an effort to produce more content, I may be doing some of these types of posts. It was actually a really close one that came down to the wire. My account TeltuoM8008, just in case it puts me on the other side. Feedback would be appreciated!
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/cap-42192632
Recommendation System
To make it easier to decide on animes to watch and those not to watch, I have created a ranking system for recommendations. Below is how it will all role out, starting out with those not to watch.
F:
This ranking is basically self-explanatory. Never watch this anime. This is absolutely terrible; I almost died watching it, because it was so bad.
I don't expect myself ever giving this rating, because usually I just drop these types of anime, but anything is possible.
E:
This type of show might have a few, a few positive aspects to it, but it has too many flaws to be even remotely watchable. This rank is reserved to those shows that have many flaws. This flaws have to be big and annoying to those watching it. Once again, I probably won't be giving this rating out too much, but I might give it to "Level E" if I ever end up watching that and then reviewing it, just as a lolz thing, though who knows, it actually deserve the ranking.
D:
This ranking belongs to a show that has some flaws. This show probably isn't too good. What differentiates this from E and F is that the show will not have too many major flaws. It will overall just seem as an anime that has everything below average.
C:
This type of show has some flaws and some high points. They usually balance out 1 for 1, with their usually being still more flaws. Other anime that could fall in this category are those that are not for everyone. Though I haven't yet watched any of these yet, I here that Casshern Sins is one of these.
B:
An average anime that is watchable, but anyone who watches it shouldn't expect too much. This is the basic average for an anime. This anime should be enjoyed by most people, but there are probably many anime that can be enjoyed over this.
A:
A definite above average anime. One again anime that should be enjoyed by most people. It's plus's outweigh its flaws and its definitely a good watch. Not a must watch but can be surprisingly good.
AA:
A great anime that will be enjoyed by most people. It's a very good anime that shouldn't be overlooked and is almost a must watch. It is a must watch, except it may not be as universal as it could be. This means that there are some people who won't watch this show because it is too heavy in one type of genre and it doesn't have that specific person's. Otherwise a very strong anime that should be watched.
AAR:
An amazing anime that can be enjoyed by anime. It may appeal to fans of multiple different genres or it may just be really good to which everyone can enjoy. This is a rating that is definitely reserved for the best and any anime that gets this rating is a must watch.
Plus/Minus:
+:
An anime that is better than its assigned letter, but doesn't achieve the next level. Also anime that provide a surprise factor in that they exceed expectations may receive a plus. Another instance is when the anime can be enjoyed by almost everyone. This will only be used as a criteria in lower ranks. (B-->)
- :
An anime that is worse than its ranking. It achieves many aspects from the higher ranking, but also has some from the lower one. It can also help to depict an anime that doesn't appeal to a large crowd of people. An anime with notable flaws can also obtain this ranking, if it also has some good upsides.
F:
This ranking is basically self-explanatory. Never watch this anime. This is absolutely terrible; I almost died watching it, because it was so bad.
I don't expect myself ever giving this rating, because usually I just drop these types of anime, but anything is possible.
E:
This type of show might have a few, a few positive aspects to it, but it has too many flaws to be even remotely watchable. This rank is reserved to those shows that have many flaws. This flaws have to be big and annoying to those watching it. Once again, I probably won't be giving this rating out too much, but I might give it to "Level E" if I ever end up watching that and then reviewing it, just as a lolz thing, though who knows, it actually deserve the ranking.
D:
This ranking belongs to a show that has some flaws. This show probably isn't too good. What differentiates this from E and F is that the show will not have too many major flaws. It will overall just seem as an anime that has everything below average.
C:
This type of show has some flaws and some high points. They usually balance out 1 for 1, with their usually being still more flaws. Other anime that could fall in this category are those that are not for everyone. Though I haven't yet watched any of these yet, I here that Casshern Sins is one of these.
B:
An average anime that is watchable, but anyone who watches it shouldn't expect too much. This is the basic average for an anime. This anime should be enjoyed by most people, but there are probably many anime that can be enjoyed over this.
A:
A definite above average anime. One again anime that should be enjoyed by most people. It's plus's outweigh its flaws and its definitely a good watch. Not a must watch but can be surprisingly good.
AA:
A great anime that will be enjoyed by most people. It's a very good anime that shouldn't be overlooked and is almost a must watch. It is a must watch, except it may not be as universal as it could be. This means that there are some people who won't watch this show because it is too heavy in one type of genre and it doesn't have that specific person's. Otherwise a very strong anime that should be watched.
AAR:
An amazing anime that can be enjoyed by anime. It may appeal to fans of multiple different genres or it may just be really good to which everyone can enjoy. This is a rating that is definitely reserved for the best and any anime that gets this rating is a must watch.
Plus/Minus:
+:
An anime that is better than its assigned letter, but doesn't achieve the next level. Also anime that provide a surprise factor in that they exceed expectations may receive a plus. Another instance is when the anime can be enjoyed by almost everyone. This will only be used as a criteria in lower ranks. (B-->)
- :
An anime that is worse than its ranking. It achieves many aspects from the higher ranking, but also has some from the lower one. It can also help to depict an anime that doesn't appeal to a large crowd of people. An anime with notable flaws can also obtain this ranking, if it also has some good upsides.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Anime Review: Shikabane Hime: Aka
Welcome to another glorious anime review. Today we will be looking at the anime: Shikabane Hime or Corpse Princess. I know there are 2 seasons, but this review will only consist of the first season and if it is requested a second season review will be done.
Honestly, the only reason I decided to watch this is because it was by Gainax. I searching for something from Gainax to watch and the reviews for this show seemed to be pretty average, so I decided to check it out.
The most basic standout characteristic to this show is that: "Corpses' Come Back To Life". Basically, when a corpse dies, if it has any regrets it can come back to life as a Shikabane, and starting killing everyone. A religious/cult organization named the Kougon Sect is here to stop this problem. They have defeated and covered up any signs of these Shikabane from the public for years. The Kougon Sect consists of an extremely confusing hierarchy of f monks. These monks have the ability to bond with some of the dead corpses before they die and turn them into Shikabane Hime. These Shikabane Hime are for some reason only teenage girls and they need to kill 108 Shikabane in order to go to heaven. This story follows Ouri Kagami, his brother Keisei, and the Shikabane Hime Makina, in Makina's quest to get revenge on those Shikabane that killed her.
Plot:
This was a very enjoyable show!
That aside, the plot was not bad. The first few episodes employ a standard monster-of-the-week style, where one episode is its only plot. It is however rewarding with little bits of "the cat", and Ouri finding out about this undead world, sprinkled around the episodes. I would have preferred just straight out plot, but you can't have everything. Anyways, the next episodes all the way to the end are pretty well paced. The decisions made throughout these episodes felt like a really safe and basically expected decisions and results. I would have loved to see them take some risks and definitely didn't like the decision made in episode 8. I say that if Ouri made made "it" I would have been much happier. This would have been a huge risk, and I'm not really sure if it was worth it, but I would have loved to see it. Anyways, the plot at times was somewhat confusing, in that there really isn't one until the last few episodes. Another flaw that really annoyed me was that the different titles for the monks in the Kougon Sect were never really explained. In fact if I remember correctly, they are not even explained until the first or second episode of season 2. Speaking of the second season, I didn't like the decision for them to create a second season. The biggest flaw here, is that when I saw the second season, I was really hoping for a new opening. If haven't already seen/heard it, the opening is really, really good. In fact, I think I'm going to leave a link to the intro write here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mOqwhbLUZw
Back to my point, I really wanted them to take a risk and make a new opening. A new season should always entail a new opening and this series didn't provide it. I don't care if it isn't as good, at least produce a new opening with new pictures/animations.
Otherwise, the plot feels somewhat confusing/slow and more of an introduction to lead into the second season that is more accelerated and faster-paced.
Overall: An interesting plot as they are not exactly "zombies", but it's slow and at some points confusing. Seems like somewhat of an introduction that lays the foundation for the second season.
Score: 6.8/10
Animation:
Personally, I felt like this was definitely the weakest part of the show. The animation is sub-par and their are many aspects that are just not right. The first thing to point out is the animation in general is not too great. I was not expecting, Evangelion Rebuild quality, but I really felt that it wasn't that great. Next, the expressions are very big-eyed-esque, I guess, but they aren't really that good. This means that they have the expressive eye and mouth feature for the expressions, but I think that these really hinder the show. After a huge and exciting fight, it ends with some weird comic relief and the expressions are weirdly placed and appear for basically 1 second. It's hard to explain, but hopefully you'll see it and understand. Once again, I have to fault the anime for not having any new animation scenes in the intro. Having the same music is somewhat acceptable, only because the music itself was very good, and perhaps the producers didn't want to ruin this. But, if you come out with a second season, you should at least have new animations for the intro. It felt very lazy and wrong to me. If they were going to keep the same into and everything, they should have just made it into one season. Finally a last thing that I really didn't like was the injuries. When Makina gets injured in a battle it's always the same cuts of red all over her body. Honestly, they don't look like actually sustained injuries, because they are pretty equally balanced out and very proper. Real injuries should be more rough and different every time.
Overall: A seemingly lackluster job, and probably the worst part of the anime.
Score: 5.8/10
Sound:
The top few sections were rather low and highlight the basic low points of the show. The next few sections are where the show changes from lackluster to a show that is worth consideration.
First off is the sound. The definite best part of the show. The opening is amazing and prime reason why it is one of the few animes that I didn't just watch the first episode's opening and then start skipping it for the rest of the episodes. (though I can't guarantee I watch the opening each time. Otherwise the show has a solid soundtrack for all the combat scenes. The insert songs are all very fitting and well put. The ending song is also very well done and fitting for the shows assumed, dark atmosphere.
Overall: Very solid soundtrack, with an excellent opening and great ending.
Score: Opening: 1.18/1.3
: Ending: 0.61./0.7
: Soundtrack: .61/8
Overall Score: 8.69/10
Characters:
The characters in this anime are...good. I felt with that the more developed characters were all very interesting and I really liked them bar Ouri, kind of. I guess it's just that to me he looks pretty close to Kaworu, from Evangelion. I never really liked him too much, and if this is a what Gainax sort of intended, then it wasn't a good idea. Having said all of this, I will not be docking any points for this. The rest of the character designs are nothing special and only okay.
Next, are the characters. Like I said the developed characters are admirable, but that isn't saying too much. Many of the characters that I felt should have been more developed just simply weren't. Some of the supporting characters that are seen pretty often, felt like random characters that were just there to move the plot along.
The main character, Ouri, is a satisfactory character. He really develops throughout the story in a fine way. The only real complaint I have here is that his voice is kind of annoying. Next, is Makina. She was an exceptionally badass character. Always very cool and not afraid to fight the next enemy. She is very driven by her one and only goal; the goal that decided her fate as a living corpse. Keisei was probably my favourite male character. He's funny, smart, and courageous. He believes in the protection of his brother, Makina, and all the people at the orphanage. He was overall a great source of comic relief, with all of his anime girl jokes with Ouri.
A final mention goes to Minai. She was not only my favourite female character, but definitely my favourite character throughout the whole series. I'm never really a fan of the "nice girl"-esque girl, but she was definitely a win to me. There was just something about her that I really liked. Maybe, it was her backstory; maybe it was her fighting with the huge gloves; who knows? She was just a really solid character, but I liked her in particular.
Least Favourite Character: Shinze... or whatever the name of the Di-whatever... the leader of the Kougon-Sect.
Favourite Male Character: Keisei
Favourite Female Character: Minai
Overall: Solid backstory and development for some characters. The problem is that some likable characters are truly underdeveloped.
Score: 7.6/10
Enjoyment:
Honestly, I really enjoyed this anime. It was a fun series with some interesting characters. It was definitely an enjoyable 13 episodes. I might have changed some events, like those in episode 8. Though I feel like this is just a personal change, and that not many other people even care about this. If you are looking for an enjoyable action anime, then it is definitely enjoyable
Overall: Not much to say. An admirable action anime. (Try saying that 5 times in a row)
Score: 7.9/10
Ending:
Though it should not have ended, it did chose a good time to end. I felt like it was definitely the best time in the anime to end. All the development of characters was laid out, and then we could finally start progressing into the actual story with the second season.
Overall: Solid place to end it, but should have continued instead.
Score: 7.3/10
Overall:
Story and Plot: 6.8/10
Animation: 5.8/10
Sound: 8.69/10
Characters: 7.6/10
Enjoyment: 7.9/10
Ending 7.3/10
Overall: 7.35/10
Recommendation: B+
Although, I would recommend this anime to a good amount of people, I just feel like it has a bunch of flaws that should be noted. Going by the graphs, this should actually be an A-, but I just feel that this anime doesn't deserve the A. Definitely watch this anime if you like action anime, but note the following flaws:
-You will probably watch the second season, so beware of the atrocious ending to the second season.
-Be ready for some really lackluster animation.
-Don't expect any extremely amazing scenes at any point during the show.
If you are looking for another good action anime or another Gainax-produced anime, look no further. Otherwise this might not be for you.
Conclusion:
It was a fair anime that was relatively short. If you watch this definitely check the second season, because it is arguably better than this one, except for the ending. There is nothing that really stands out about it, but it is definitely a commendable job by Gainax to give us their spin on the living dead. As always, Comment, Like, Follow, And CYA!
Honestly, the only reason I decided to watch this is because it was by Gainax. I searching for something from Gainax to watch and the reviews for this show seemed to be pretty average, so I decided to check it out.
Story and Plot:
Story:The most basic standout characteristic to this show is that: "Corpses' Come Back To Life". Basically, when a corpse dies, if it has any regrets it can come back to life as a Shikabane, and starting killing everyone. A religious/cult organization named the Kougon Sect is here to stop this problem. They have defeated and covered up any signs of these Shikabane from the public for years. The Kougon Sect consists of an extremely confusing hierarchy of f monks. These monks have the ability to bond with some of the dead corpses before they die and turn them into Shikabane Hime. These Shikabane Hime are for some reason only teenage girls and they need to kill 108 Shikabane in order to go to heaven. This story follows Ouri Kagami, his brother Keisei, and the Shikabane Hime Makina, in Makina's quest to get revenge on those Shikabane that killed her.
Plot:
This was a very enjoyable show!
That aside, the plot was not bad. The first few episodes employ a standard monster-of-the-week style, where one episode is its only plot. It is however rewarding with little bits of "the cat", and Ouri finding out about this undead world, sprinkled around the episodes. I would have preferred just straight out plot, but you can't have everything. Anyways, the next episodes all the way to the end are pretty well paced. The decisions made throughout these episodes felt like a really safe and basically expected decisions and results. I would have loved to see them take some risks and definitely didn't like the decision made in episode 8. I say that if Ouri made made "it" I would have been much happier. This would have been a huge risk, and I'm not really sure if it was worth it, but I would have loved to see it. Anyways, the plot at times was somewhat confusing, in that there really isn't one until the last few episodes. Another flaw that really annoyed me was that the different titles for the monks in the Kougon Sect were never really explained. In fact if I remember correctly, they are not even explained until the first or second episode of season 2. Speaking of the second season, I didn't like the decision for them to create a second season. The biggest flaw here, is that when I saw the second season, I was really hoping for a new opening. If haven't already seen/heard it, the opening is really, really good. In fact, I think I'm going to leave a link to the intro write here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mOqwhbLUZw
Back to my point, I really wanted them to take a risk and make a new opening. A new season should always entail a new opening and this series didn't provide it. I don't care if it isn't as good, at least produce a new opening with new pictures/animations.
Otherwise, the plot feels somewhat confusing/slow and more of an introduction to lead into the second season that is more accelerated and faster-paced.
Overall: An interesting plot as they are not exactly "zombies", but it's slow and at some points confusing. Seems like somewhat of an introduction that lays the foundation for the second season.
Score: 6.8/10
Animation and Sound:
Animation:
Personally, I felt like this was definitely the weakest part of the show. The animation is sub-par and their are many aspects that are just not right. The first thing to point out is the animation in general is not too great. I was not expecting, Evangelion Rebuild quality, but I really felt that it wasn't that great. Next, the expressions are very big-eyed-esque, I guess, but they aren't really that good. This means that they have the expressive eye and mouth feature for the expressions, but I think that these really hinder the show. After a huge and exciting fight, it ends with some weird comic relief and the expressions are weirdly placed and appear for basically 1 second. It's hard to explain, but hopefully you'll see it and understand. Once again, I have to fault the anime for not having any new animation scenes in the intro. Having the same music is somewhat acceptable, only because the music itself was very good, and perhaps the producers didn't want to ruin this. But, if you come out with a second season, you should at least have new animations for the intro. It felt very lazy and wrong to me. If they were going to keep the same into and everything, they should have just made it into one season. Finally a last thing that I really didn't like was the injuries. When Makina gets injured in a battle it's always the same cuts of red all over her body. Honestly, they don't look like actually sustained injuries, because they are pretty equally balanced out and very proper. Real injuries should be more rough and different every time.
Overall: A seemingly lackluster job, and probably the worst part of the anime.
Score: 5.8/10
Sound:
The top few sections were rather low and highlight the basic low points of the show. The next few sections are where the show changes from lackluster to a show that is worth consideration.
First off is the sound. The definite best part of the show. The opening is amazing and prime reason why it is one of the few animes that I didn't just watch the first episode's opening and then start skipping it for the rest of the episodes. (though I can't guarantee I watch the opening each time. Otherwise the show has a solid soundtrack for all the combat scenes. The insert songs are all very fitting and well put. The ending song is also very well done and fitting for the shows assumed, dark atmosphere.
Overall: Very solid soundtrack, with an excellent opening and great ending.
Score: Opening: 1.18/1.3
: Ending: 0.61./0.7
: Soundtrack: .61/8
Overall Score: 8.69/10
Characters:
The characters in this anime are...good. I felt with that the more developed characters were all very interesting and I really liked them bar Ouri, kind of. I guess it's just that to me he looks pretty close to Kaworu, from Evangelion. I never really liked him too much, and if this is a what Gainax sort of intended, then it wasn't a good idea. Having said all of this, I will not be docking any points for this. The rest of the character designs are nothing special and only okay.
Next, are the characters. Like I said the developed characters are admirable, but that isn't saying too much. Many of the characters that I felt should have been more developed just simply weren't. Some of the supporting characters that are seen pretty often, felt like random characters that were just there to move the plot along.
The main character, Ouri, is a satisfactory character. He really develops throughout the story in a fine way. The only real complaint I have here is that his voice is kind of annoying. Next, is Makina. She was an exceptionally badass character. Always very cool and not afraid to fight the next enemy. She is very driven by her one and only goal; the goal that decided her fate as a living corpse. Keisei was probably my favourite male character. He's funny, smart, and courageous. He believes in the protection of his brother, Makina, and all the people at the orphanage. He was overall a great source of comic relief, with all of his anime girl jokes with Ouri.
A final mention goes to Minai. She was not only my favourite female character, but definitely my favourite character throughout the whole series. I'm never really a fan of the "nice girl"-esque girl, but she was definitely a win to me. There was just something about her that I really liked. Maybe, it was her backstory; maybe it was her fighting with the huge gloves; who knows? She was just a really solid character, but I liked her in particular.
Least Favourite Character: Shinze... or whatever the name of the Di-whatever... the leader of the Kougon-Sect.
Favourite Male Character: Keisei
Favourite Female Character: Minai
Overall: Solid backstory and development for some characters. The problem is that some likable characters are truly underdeveloped.
Score: 7.6/10
Enjoyment:
Honestly, I really enjoyed this anime. It was a fun series with some interesting characters. It was definitely an enjoyable 13 episodes. I might have changed some events, like those in episode 8. Though I feel like this is just a personal change, and that not many other people even care about this. If you are looking for an enjoyable action anime, then it is definitely enjoyable
Overall: Not much to say. An admirable action anime. (Try saying that 5 times in a row)
Score: 7.9/10
Ending:
Though it should not have ended, it did chose a good time to end. I felt like it was definitely the best time in the anime to end. All the development of characters was laid out, and then we could finally start progressing into the actual story with the second season.
Overall: Solid place to end it, but should have continued instead.
Score: 7.3/10
Overall:
Story and Plot: 6.8/10
Animation: 5.8/10
Sound: 8.69/10
Characters: 7.6/10
Enjoyment: 7.9/10
Ending 7.3/10
Overall: 7.35/10
Recommendation: B+
Although, I would recommend this anime to a good amount of people, I just feel like it has a bunch of flaws that should be noted. Going by the graphs, this should actually be an A-, but I just feel that this anime doesn't deserve the A. Definitely watch this anime if you like action anime, but note the following flaws:
-You will probably watch the second season, so beware of the atrocious ending to the second season.
-Be ready for some really lackluster animation.
-Don't expect any extremely amazing scenes at any point during the show.
If you are looking for another good action anime or another Gainax-produced anime, look no further. Otherwise this might not be for you.
Conclusion:
It was a fair anime that was relatively short. If you watch this definitely check the second season, because it is arguably better than this one, except for the ending. There is nothing that really stands out about it, but it is definitely a commendable job by Gainax to give us their spin on the living dead. As always, Comment, Like, Follow, And CYA!
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