Review Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders

Really enjoying those cherries

Jotaro Kujo locked himself in jail to avoid causing more trouble with the ghost haunting him. It turns out that the ghost is actually a power of his called a stand. The stand is caused by the resurrection of Dio Brando a century old vampire. Even though he can withstand the new power it will be eventually fatal to his mother, so begins an epic quest to defeat the evil Dio.

Those perverts are just animals

Jojo's bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders is a shonen action show. Even though this is the second season, watching the first season is not necessary to enjoy this show. This show is a very much a series of monster of the week episodes (although there are a lot of two episode long fights). There is a little humor on the side but this most definitely not a comedy.

Sometimes you just need to laugh

To put it simply this show is an exception to my belief in simply brainless action shows working as well as movies (for what I said read here ) primarily by being a string of monster of the week fights with little breathing space. The show works like catnip to a certain type of fan but unless you want supernatural fights and little else, Jojo's Bizzare Adventure has nothing to offer you.

Overall Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is sort of like Wolverine, it is the best at what it does even if the show is kind of a one trick pony.

Rating The silver over-sized sword (Berserk) for being a really neat brainless action show that is diverting as all get out. 

Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works

Some things never change

For ages magicians have fought in an contest called the Holy Grail Wars in which seven magicians each summon a heroic figure from history and fight to the death in order to summon the holy grail which can grant a wish. Shiro is a young man who has a bit of a hero complex who one night witnesses two people fighting and ends up entwined in the latest Holy Grail War when he ends up almost getting killed and summoning the servant Saber.

Berserker, complete with shoulder mounted loli

 Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works is a movie adaptation of one of the routes to the famous visual novel of the same name. As it tries to cram such a long story line into less than two hours of film time this movie is very fast paced and there was probably some stuff that was cut out to make for time. The movie probably is best watched if you have some familiarity with the Fate Stay Night franchise to understand all the details.

Shiro is so angry is practically besides himself

Although there is some character development in this movie they include all of the various servant battles so it isn't the focus of the movie. If you are looking for a bunch of nicely animated fights on the other hand unlimited blade works is what you are looking for. It's a bit better than calling it a mindless movie but It is best for it's fans and those looking for a bunch of action.

Rin Punch!

Overall I think this show is best for fans and those looking for some pretty pictures of fighting as anyone who remotely considers themselves a type moon fan

Rating the bronze sword on a string (ninja scroll) for being a delightful action packed movie to watch on just about any rainy day (and I live in western Washington so there are a lot of those).

Review Akuma no Riddle

It's a shame we have to waste the swimsuit episode with bomb defusal

Tokaku Azuma was trained to be an assassin since birth and is a formidable fighter. One day she is assigned to a special high school class called class black. In this class there are other assassins as well as one normal student called Haru. The objective for the students in this class is to be the one that kills Haru. Tokaku develops feelings for Haru and decides to protect her from the other assassins.

See my smile is only somewhat creepy

Akuma no Riddle is an action show with a Yuri (lesbian) undertone. This is also one of the show's main assets as just about all Yuri stories I have seen are slice of life shows and it is nice to see another genre. This also means that the protagonist is a rare strong female character in the vein of Utena who is really nice to see.
Also there is plenty of action and each of the assassination plots are varied giving each episode it's own unique spin.

Unfortunately the rest of the show doesn't measure up to the protagonist. A lot of the problems with the show stem from the assassin of the week nature of most of the show which means that characters aren't really developed until the episode that they leave the show. This leaves most of the show dealing with characters that aren't properly fleshed out and scenes of character back story that ends up feeling pointless because it is about a character that will soon leave the show.

Overall I found Akuma no Riddle to be a decent action show with yuri undertones although at some points I was left wishing the show was better.

The bronze cocktail dress of doom (madlaz) for efforts in being a good action show with a strong female lead. 

Memoirs of watching a One piece marathon

In an effort to do something else with my anime watching than to view an endless stream of thirteen or so episode long shows and review them one after another I decided to watch a big block of One Piece. Namely the first one hundred and thirty episodes or the first two major arcs in terms of plot progression. I did this over the course of four weekends watching about twenty six episodes the first two weekends comprising the East blue arc of the story and thirty nine episodes the second two weeks covering the Baroque Works arc. The following is my experiences with this experiment.

I noticed that trying to marathon one show to such an extent created sort of an anime burn out with me watching other shows. Even when I had the free time to watch other shows I had little desire to do so. Hopefully I will recover by the time that the season ends and I will have a decent amount of season end reviews. If not you now understand why.

I watched the episodes in English from the Funimation dub. Even though I usually watch my anime subtitled I found that it is easier to marathon a show if I am watching it in English.

I have already read the One Piece Manga to the end of the Water Seven Arc (which would probably require me to watching another four or five weeks of One Piece anime at the same pace I had been watching to reach) so the anime contained almost no plot suprises for me as I have consumed all of the material before in another format a couple of years ago. However One Piece is a show that depends on emotional appeal more than intelligent plotting so It is worth reviewing every so often.

The one plot addition that the anime had over the manga was the Apis arc which is something just confirms my distaste for anime filler be they single episodes or entire plot arcs. If you haven't had the misfortune of watching this particular group of episodes it is about a little girl and her old dragon friend. The dragon is supposed to be sympathetic but fails to be so probably because it sits there for the most of the time it's on screen like a lump on inanimate matter.

Even with it's bad points One Piece is a good show overall. A couple days after the Apis arc I managed to make it to the Drum island arc and watch it in one night. The result is that One piece is now of the shows that has made me cry.

About the Alabasta arc I think it is one of those high points that every shonen manga aspires to and usually hits maybe once in it's run. It has a bunch of the shonen tropes including one I think that everyone who at least tolerates the genre loves, the part where everyone in the main cast pairs off when a corresponding antagonist and there is a series of fights. The other main point that I would like to make about this story arc is the amount of denouement that it had, as it had three episodes between the defeat of the main villain until the time that the characters left for their next adventure. It is almost as if One piece is not a single anime of manga but a series of such shows with a good leaving off point every so often. The end of Alabasta is one such point so I feel fulfilled in my watching experience even if I decide to take the show up again at a future point.

Review Sengoku Basara

Too manly for one horse

The era of the warring states was a chaotic time when many great warlords fought over who would become the new ruler of Japan. Yet even this bloodshed pales in comparison to the depredations of the devil king Oda Nobunaga. Can the other warriors of the realm muster up the courage and power to overcome the monumental threat of Nobunaga?

 

Samurai snickt

Sengoku Basara is an anime show based on a video game of the same name. From what I gather the game was a 3D beat em up game with super powered versions of people from 16^th century Japan fighting armies and each other and that translates well into the anime show. So this means this show is mostly an action series with any other genre being secondary at most.

 

With link not appearing in this show the forces of Hyrule were quickly routed

The characters in Sengoku Basara act in a generally exaggerated manner which could be slightly funny to some viewers. Personally I found most of the cast to be decent and somewhat interesting although not especially compelling. Think of this show as light entertainment and little of anything else. Needless to say using this show as a history primer is an easy way to get an F.

Overall Sengoku Basara a fun turn your brain off action show but don't go in expecting too much out of it.

Rating The bronze gunmen (Gurren Laggan) For being an average but crazy and over the top action show

Review King of Thorn

The main character and her sister

A long time ago I read the King of Thorne manga and thought that this would be a pretty decent movie it made into one.  Turns out my expectations were not entirely met when I actually saw the movie adaptation.

Things don't turn out so well for him. 

In the year 2012 the world is ravaged by a strange virus which turns people into stone. It is called the Medusa virus. Amid the panic a shadowy corporation called Venus gate has a plan to place 160 people into cryostasis in an old castle that has been converted into a laboratory until the disease can be cured. One of the people picked is a teenage Japanese girl by the name of Kasumi Ishiki. When they went to sleep they expected to wake up to a peaceful world where they would be toward not a strange version of the castle covered in vines and inhabited by monsters.

The best and the worst of the animation, side by side

King of thorn is a straight up action movie with monster horror elements. Even though the main character is a teenage girl with no combat ability most of the movie centers around either fighting or running away from monsters. The finding this mostly facilitated by Owen one of her fellow patients who appears to be a convicted criminal but has an interesting past. Even though the main character is definitely over her head I find her still somewhat compelling as she gives the movie  the chance to be something other than a brainless monster bashing flick.

The guy that does most of the action stuff in this movie

Even though this is an action movie and one does not generally watch such movies looking for deep characterization I found the character serviceable. The pacing of the movie is decent as well although the first 20 minutes is mostly set up. Animation is a bit iffy at times as it seems so fluctuate between being very good at doing still shots and backgrounds but often degrading into jarring CG animation for action scenes.

Overall I find this to be decent movie best suited for rental like many action movies but not thing really more than that.

Rating The bronze Tetsuo cape (Akira) or being a decent action scifi movie adaptation of manga.