Jeoffrey

The beginning of the Magi: Adventure of Sinbad anime series is better than the five-episode original video animation from 2014, in my opinion. It is more fleshed out and detailed, with Sinbad's childhood being given a whole episode instead of just a small mention of it as the plot goes along. Plus, a few new elements (like the spy) support the narrative and give it more depth. Also, all those familiar faces at the beginning of the first episode were a treat. To spare me further unnecessary reflections, I am going to offer a "profound" yet general truth - if you have more extensive material, it can only benefit from longer adaptation. I find the animation better than in the original OVA. Oh, and the other episodes were pretty good too. The characters are likable, the show is quite witty, and it has a fascinating narrative. I am therefore satisfied with the result. 8/10.

So I once again indulged in a proper spoiler. Before watching the anime television series adaptation, I watched this slightly shorter but probably more intense OVA version of Magi: Adventure of Sinbad. Well, I cannot complain too much, as I am familiar with both seasons of the anime series Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic with Ali Baba and Aladdin. Even the character Sinbad is familiar, so I more or less knew what I was getting into. It flowed nicely; it has a fascinating narrative, Sinbad is a likable character, and even Drakon was a pretty good character. So I got what I expected. While I am not enthusiastic, I am satisfied with this movie. 7/10.

According to the premise, Harmony looks really interesting, even though the truth is that this movie is definitely not for everyone. There is a fair amount of philosophizing and dialogue in those two hours that are sometimes really quite heavy. The narrative drags incredibly in places, and if you are not interested in the ideas addressed here, you are probably going to be bored most of the time. The action is minimal, while Tuan Kirie, the main female protagonist’s musings, flashbacks, and conversations with other characters regarding the investigation and the state of the ideal society are more than enough. So if you are looking for an action movie, you had better stay away from this one! However, you might be interested in this, and if you like the ideas elaborated in this movie, you might even be very satisfied. You might enjoy this if you can and want to think a lot, are a passionate philosopher, psychologist, political scientist, or your favorite anime is something like From the New World. I, for one, end up more or less in the middle. I have seen it, I have hopefully understood most of it; I found it tedious at times, a little too thoughtful at times, and while I cannot deny that it has some thought-provoking qualities, it did not strike me as anything other than mediocre. The animation was interesting, although there was perhaps too much CGI. I quite liked the fact that the "ideal" city is dominated by shades of pink, which I thought was a metaphor, associated with the proverbial "rose-colored glasses" although somehow I do not know if that was the intention. I had no problem with the main character, Tuan Kirie, and I thought that the way her profound relationship with Miach Mihie was portrayed was quite good. On the whole, I had no significant problem with the psychology of the characters, which is quite important in a movie like this. Even the ending was quite good. All in all, this anime is definitely not just your average boring anime movie. I reckon that the reactions to it will be very contradictory because, as I wrote in the introduction, this is not for everyone. Unfortunately, it was not able to elicit any stronger response than 6/10 from a lazy ignoramus like me.

This show contains huge amounts of action, gore, violence, some psychic powers, terrorists, a special security force, and a "Robocop." It is pretty good and absolutely insane, and is well-paced, with something going on almost all the time. The narrative is not brilliant by any means, although as a complement to all the action-packed scenes, it is quite sufficient. You do not get a chance to get to know the characters well enough to form any sort of attachment to them, and honestly, I was rather annoyed with Angel for the most part. I think I liked Hacker, Peace, Asura, and Freya, the "pyrokinetic" girl, the most. I liked the animation, although I was not so happy with the soundtrack at times. All in all, this is a pretty decent action-packed show. 7/10.

For something that was probably made in 1907, Matsumoto fragment is actually a pretty good filmstrip.

The first impression I got of this show was not so great, it seemed so chaotic, and somehow it just did not seem to make any sense to me. The main male protagonist was not very good, and his special powers and abilities were not very impressive. The only thing that caught my attention was that the main male protagonist had his abilities cut down to a hundredth of a percent (or whatever). Despite that, he still seemed incredibly pompous, even though his ability to control anyone who gets near him reminded me a lot of something else. After the second episode, though, I was quite intrigued; I thought the narrative could be very interesting because someone accidentally almost destroys the whole world and subsequently gets to lead a movement to control it, and that sounds quite interesting. I do not know why that reminds me of something else. However, in the following episodes, my interest gradually waned again. The whole thing became very rushed, the plot twists felt increasingly strange, and the moments that should have shocked me did nothing to move me at all. Either there is something wrong with me, or the style in which the narrative unravels and the surprises the anime's creators present us with does not work. The initial excitement of following another political-action storyline with Code Geass-style attempts to take over the world disappears after a while like the “baby” in Iyo's pregnant belly, and the censored fan service in episode five took away from the beauty of it because this is just evil! I am not sure why they have fan service if they have to cover it up for TV in such a stupid way. Oh well, at least a few people will have a reason to buy the DVD. I just shook my head in disbelief as the conclusion tried but failed to be shocking, emotional, and epic. The last episode seemed stupid, ridiculous, over-the-top, and weird. It killed any positive impression of the anime series that I previously had. So, in the end, Big Order is an anime series based on a pretty good idea; however, the execution is completely stupid and rushed. It is obvious that the premise is from the same guy who created Future Diary because it is similarly cheesy, and some of the characters are just as insane. Unfortunately, I could not develop any intense relationship with the characters. That meant that I was not extremely impressed with their fates. The way they handled the relationship between Eiji and Sena was rather outrageous (I guess I am getting older and more of a puritan, however, a thirteen-year-old girl calling someone "onii-chan" and being a love interest does not feel right). In the end, I thought Big Order did not work, even though the potential was there. Also, after the overblown ending, which I thought was terrible, I cannot take this anime series seriously. 3/10.

I thought this show was incredibly fun with a bunch of really hilarious and completely crazy girls playing "survival games." Everything is so awesome, ridiculous, and over-the-top. I had a great time. This show is a combination of cute and funny just the way I like it. There are a lot of hilarious allusions to other different movies and personalities (like the Matrix-style pillar fight, the Predator-style jungle fight, Alien, Ben Kenobi, Michael Jackson, and of course, Chuck Norris), and so you get a hilarious show. The best character is Momoka, a girl who declares it a draw and then coldly shoots you in the head. That is something I would never expect. However, the other girls are great too, whether the crazy masochist, the reticent cosplay fan, the model who usually "dies" first, or the enthusiastic lady president. I even quite liked the platypus. I enjoyed the animation and soundtrack, and I even liked the opening and ending, which does not happen all that often. In my opinion, this show is excellent. 9/10.

The Case of Hana & Alice is a relaxed and enjoyable movie about the lives of some young people. The soundtrack is very good, the animation is also quite respectable, although I was not fond of the animation of the characters and some of their movements very much. The narrative has quite a nice pace, so I had a very good time watching this movie, and I did not find it boring. Anyway, it is a really interesting depiction of the naivety of youth. I sometimes wondered if fourteen-year-old girls and boys could be this stupid until I remembered my silly adventures at that age and then I thought “OK, fine”. All in all, this is a pretty good movie. I liked all the mysteries like "a guy called Yuda (“Judas”), who somehow had four wives and who then mysteriously disappeared and was probably murdered" which were explained in such a nice, understated way. 7.7/10.

I am going to start with what anyone could notice almost immediately, and that is the animation and the soundtrack. My first impression of this when I saw the incredibly colorful, bombastic, and beautiful Psychic School Wars was that it is simply breathtaking. Plus, the soundtrack was great too. The problem is that when it is so bombastic and flashy throughout the entire movie, it starts to hurt your eyes after about thirty minutes. After an hour, you begin to find it rather over-the-top, peculiar, and irritating. Sure, some of the shots are truly magical, and I sighed sadly as I looked at the night sky, remembering how monotonous and uninteresting the one I see outside is. On the other hand, if it were the same as in this movie out there, I probably would not be able to fall asleep for all the greenish light. So the animation is nice and colorful and magical; however, they just overdid it, so the magic is lost after a few minutes. The feel-good music was really catchy and memorable, they chose that well, and some familiar themes suited the scenes quite beautifully. As for the characters, they were not very sophisticated, and some were just completely clichéd, like the energetic childhood friend in love with the main male protagonist. However, this movie was not a completely creepy and unwatchable clichéd movie like some soap operas. Oh, and I could write a whole chapter on the narrative. In the beginning, I felt like the movie dragged horribly; I kind of kept waiting to see what would happen and how the science-fiction theme would develop, and whether they would eventually stop with the boring, mundane stuff and the love story. At some point, when I felt like I had spent an awful lot of time on it, I had to go out for a smoke and was surprised to find that I had only seen thirty-two minutes. Then it gradually started to unravel, and I have to say that for most of the middle part, I found what the screenwriters had done to be believable regarding both the love story and the science-fiction elements. My impression of this movie suddenly improved, and I even thought about declaring this movie above average until the moment of the final confrontation. Instead, all I got was "Shall we go to the beach tomorrow?" That sentence caught me off guard and killed all my expectations. Then the ending itself is another thing I will probably be bothered by for a long time, wondering what that was all about. All in all, this movie had a few strong moments and a few things that unpleasantly surprised me. So actually, it is a very inconsistently average movie. 5/10.

I have an idea to promote your multiplayer online role-playing game - make an anime series about it. Unfortunately, with such shows, there is often a risk that the viewer who is not familiar with the MMORPG will not get the full context or will be put off by the fact that it is just an advertisement for the MMORPG. It is also rare that anything meaningful, good or interesting comes out of such an idea. Onigiri, however, is unique because it draws attention to the game in a funny and non-violent way. So we have an anime series that people can be entertained by occasionally, that has a fairly straightforward plot and that, thanks to its running time, does not get boring and can also entice both boys and girls to try and play. I think Onigiri works quite successful as an advertisement. However, what do I think about it as an anime series? I did not find the animation too impressive, I did not find the soundtrack too bad, and I thought some girls were quite likable. As I mentioned, it has quite a straightforward narrative. I liked some parts, such as the two episodes focusing on the main female protagonist's encounter with a Kamikui who had amnesia. On the other hand, it was too short, so there was no deeper experience, even though it was not boring. Although I do not think I can remember any really good ones, there were some jokes. However, a few moments managed to put a slight hint of a smile on my face at times. In conclusion, Onigiri is an anime series that does not feel that intense or interesting. So my final impression I got from watching it was probably that it is an interesting idea to present its product. However, otherwise, it makes for a slightly below-average anime series. 4.4/10.