Anime Review

[Psyquis52]

I started this on another forum a while back and it didn't enjoy much success there. I was kind of hoping it would do better here.

So, I'll post all the anime reviews I've made so far on here.
Also, feel free to comment or add your own reviews for animes as you see fit.

[Psyquis52]

Azumanga Daioh

Essentially the show is about a group of high school girls.
It's incredibly wacky, a little hyperactive and fairly entertaining.
The show is pretty funny and not at all perverted...
Which is a little bizarre but not entirely unexpected.
Not every comedy you pick up nowadays will by FLCL...yeah.
This show banks on the cute department and the friendly. There aren't any interesting plot twists or really any action whatsoever but the show does have some good characters.
It's a nice break from the frustrating situations in most shows.

I'd give the show a 4 out of 5
It can be a little too random at times

[Psyquis52]

Blue Submarine No. 6


Premise for the show is that a mad scientist invented a new race of underwater creatures that were intelligent.
Then he successfully flooded the planet so the underwater creatures could have somewhere to live.

He then threatens to flood the remainder of the planet and a crack squadren of Submarines from all over the world attempt to stop him.
Eventually it comes down to one captain saving all of mankind.


Here's what I think:...


It's crap. Total crap. It's animation is okay and it's characters are not bad but it totally sucks. I was 100% uninterested from the get-go. Don't watch it.

I'd give it a 2 out of 5. I'd give it a lower score but the animation's really not that bad.

[Psyquis52]

Gunslinger Girls

Premise: Young women who are diseased or otherwise emotionally crippled are given to a government program. This government program turns them into cybernetic assasins or anti-terrorists.

I can sum this up in one word: SHORT.
Too short. Just when you're getting used to the politics and the characters it ends. 13 episodes long. Barely worth the effort. It was intelligent and semi-intriguing; but really all it had was lost potential. It could have been great but fell to just...so-so.
Hopefully someone will pick this idea up and run with it the right way.

2 out of 5.
As is it's not really worth your time as it is.

[Psyquis52]

Trigun

Premise: In a desert planet with a Wild West theme there is criminal worth 60,000,000,000 double dollars. He's known as the Humanoid Typhoon. Vash the Stampede. But Vash isn't the criminal everyone thinks he is.

If you are looking for a reason to start watching Anime or are uncertain of where you should start this is as good a place as any.
It's fun and action packed. It's hard to find an anime as entertaining as this. You'll find Vash to be fun and incredibly impressive with his skills. The villains are nearly as interesting as the heroes. And tell me if you can think of something cooler than a priest with a gun filled crucifix?

5 out of 5.
Practically perfect.

[Psyquis52]

Gungrave

Premise: Brandon Heat was betrayed by his best friend a long time ago. Now he's back from the dead to get revenge on him and his entire organization.

Written by Yashiro Nightow the same person that made Trigun. It's also animated by Mad House the same people that animated Trigun. It carries on some of the feel of Trigun in an Off-handed type of way.

It's much darker and more serious than Trigun. It's split into two parts:
Brandon's past up to his death ---- Brandon's revival and his revenge.
I enjoyed it. I wouldn't say it's as good as Trigun but it is a complete story and very satisfying on many levels. Also a few of the gunfights are amazing. I wouldn't recommend it to newbies but for a lot of anime veterans or even fairly experienced people it's pretty darn good.

3 out of 5. Just because I like it doesn't mean it's good, but it's not bad.

[Psyquis52]

Outlaw Star

Premise: Gene Starwind runs a business with his partner Jim Hawking where they fix everything from machines to relationships. Sometimes they are willing to take on more questionable work. Their real money comes from bounty hunting. However, a new client has entered his life that would change everything.

This is my favorite anime of all time. The music rocks, the characters are interesting and fun, the action is awesome, the animation is spectacular, and the plotline is great. Of course...I might be biased.

I give the show a 5 out of 5.

[Psyquis52]

Gundam 8th MS Team

Premise: The 8th Mobile Suit team has acquired a new captain and some risky missions, but the captain has never actually piloted on earth before. The captain attempts to keep everyone on the team alive while succeeding at all his missions.

The show is my favorite of all the Gundams although I have yet to see Gundam Seed. It takes a more militant approach than past ones as well as involving some interesting perspectives on the wars that are constantly going on in the Gundam universe. Ordinarily you take a look at the wars from the perspective of the latest in technology Gundam pilots or the crack squad of mercenaries. In this show you take a look at the wars from a regular soldier with some better skills and knowledge of his Gundam. Very good show but short.

3 out of 5. It has an excellent plot, however the script could've used some work.

[Psyquis52]

Kino's Journey

Premise: Kino wanders from country to country with a talking motorcycle :huh: and hears stories from all kind of unique places. This is more of a hi-tech fantasy...kind of. Actually it's really hard to tell what it is.

Dark and thought-provoking. It takes you at least 4 episodes to figure out that Kino is a girl instead of a guy and about 3 more episodes to find out that she really kicks butt! Not that it matters how good her skills are. The show isn't about her skills and it isn't about life and death situations. Well, it is kind of life and death situations but she doesn't have to fight to get out of all of those. Some of the episodes don't make sense and one or two may have left me emotionally scarred for the rest of my life, but I would still recommend it. My only real complaint is that it's too SHORT!! C'mon! Would it kill these people to make a show longer than 13 episodes?

4 out of 5. For as long as it is it's damned good. I might have given it a 5 had it been longer.

[Psyquis52]

Grave of the Fireflies

Premise: It's WWII in Japan and two children are escaping their home town to find help elsewhere.

I bet you're feeling pretty good about yourself aren't you? You aren't sick. You aren't poor. You aren't horribly crippled in any sense. You aren't emotionally scarred...yet. Watch this and all of that will change. You'll never feel good about anything ever again. Slight exagerration there but for at least a few hours you'll feel just about awful for sitting there and watching these two children slowly starve to death. It's so depressing that it would be more humane to shoot yourself in the head.
By far the most depressing movie I have ever seen and I've seen some depressing movies (Mystic River). I'm still trying to force my wife to watch this that way I won't have to suffer alone anymore.

5 out of 5. Spectacular...and incredibly devastating. It may be depressing but it serves its purpose perfectly. I'd recommend it...despite the effect it has.

[Psyquis52]

Akira

Premise: Umm...there's stuff...and...Oogedy-boogedy it. Kaneda is a bike gang leader whose close friend Tetsuo gets involved in a government secret project known as Akira. On his way to save Tetsuo, Kaneda runs into a group of anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader. The confrontation sparks off Tetsuo's supernatural power leading to bloody death, a coup attempt and the final battle in Tokyo Olympiad where Akira's secrets were buried 30 years ago. (pasted from Amazon.com)

It was probably the first anime movie I saw based on the advice of many, many people. These people said that the first 4 animes I should see if I was starting was Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, and Princess Mononoke.
Princess Mononoke you should see. The other three you can avoid and not miss a thing. It does give you a wide spectrum on the anime world but Akira was not my cup of tea...at first. Believe it or not I had to watch this thing 3 times to like it. "Why on earth would you watch it again if you didn't like it the first time?" you might ask. My answer is you wouldn't understand unless you've already seen it.

4 out of 5. Spectacular story...but a little too odd. Unnecessary at times.

[Psyquis52]

Metropolis

Premise: Metropolis is a story of how important emotions are and how they separate humans from everything else. The movie follows a young boy and his uncle (a private investigator). The story is set in the far future where humans and robots live together, unfortunately not in harmony. Many robots are forced underground and are terminated for entering unauthorized areas. They are more or less servants to humankind. The plot starts to unfold when the boy meets a robot named Tima and they get in all kinds of trouble. Never a dull moment when you've got a robot by your side.

I like it...........................................................
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That's about all I have to say.

3 out of 5. Meh. Could have been better.

[Psyquis52]

Samurai Champloo

Premise: Two samurais bump into a strange girl who tricks them into helping her search for a samurai that smells of sunflowers. The two samurais are as different as night and day and are constantly looking for an oppurtunity to have a duel to the death.

It's entertaining, but a little unnecessary at times. I wouldn't know how to put it. The show is popular and I'd be lying if I didn't say I liked it, but I wouldn't put it on my list of shows to own. I've seen it all the way through. That's enough for me.

3 out of 5. Still fun.

[Psyquis52]

Full Metal Alchemist

Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse were living quite happily with their mother... until she died. So Edward and Alphonse decided to try to raise her from the dead. The resurrection failed, leaving Edward without an arm and a leg and Alphonse's soul attached to a suit of armor. Now they roam around the country trying to find a way to restore their bodies.

I don't know why anybody would not like this show. It's got everything!
Great action, hilarious comedy, suprising twists, and every once in a while something that is genuinely heartwarming.

I give this show a 5 out of 5.

[Psyquis52]

Cowboy Bebop the Movie

A tanker truck is blown to smithereens in the middle of a busy street, and a deadly viral infection is released with the explosion. The Bebop crew - Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV - are instantly after the culprit when the gargantuan reward of 300,000,000 woolongs is announced. But the case gets stranger and stranger as the cold-blooded Vincent Volaju, who supposedly has been dead for ten years, seems to be the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Spike encounters the dangerous Electra, who too seeks the madman. Conspiracies and secrets better left alone are uncovered, and Vincent's reign or terror is nowhere near over yet...

I've never been a fan of the Cowboy Bebop series but I'm a big fan of this movie. The villain is great and the fight scenes just rock.

4 out of 5. I highly recommend this movie but that doesn't mean it's the best.

[Psyquis52]

Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals

The premise goes something like this: An unknown entity is stealing the four crystals of the elements so that he can make himself immortal. One girl and her friend Pretz seek to gather the crystals beforehand to stop him and collect some unusual characters along the way.

This is what Final Fantasy should be. Big monsters, wicked swords, and chocobos. I'm not going to say anything bad about the other two FF movies but I feel this one better represents the FF series overall.

3 out of 5...it's also the most poorly made movie out of the 3 but it's still entertaining and funny as all get out.

[Psyquis52]

Hellsing

Vampires and ghouls stalk modern-day England, hunting the oblivious populace. Only the Hellsing foundation stands between the evil undead and the innocent humans who would be their prey. But there's something new out there - chips that give humans vampiric ability and bloodlust are being sold as the latest designer drug. With a new wave of evil creatures rising, Hellsing must rely on its two most unlikely recruits - ancient master vampire Alucard and the newly turned Celes Victoria - but can even they stand in the face of such overwhelming odds?

I'm probably the worst person to write a review for this show. It has an extremely large fanbase and for very good reasons. The show has some of the most excellent music and art that I've seen in anime. It also has an incredible ambiance that resonates throughout the series.
HOWEVER...(that's a big however) it's not that good.
I actually said it. The fact is that it falls short of greatness.
There was something missing from the show that it never quite grasped. I couldn't tell you what that is but it feels incomplete somehow.

4 out of 5 Still a good show but not a great one.

The soundtrack gets a 5 out of 5

[Psyquis52]

Street Fighter Alpha

Ryu struggles to overcome the dark hadou when a strange boy shows up saying he's Ryu's brother. As characters roll in and out of the movie a darkness begins to unfold as Shadowloo scientists attempt to gather fighter data to create the greatest fighter in the world.

The art can be a little odd at times...like what the Oogedy-boogedy is up with Ryu's feet. They're the size of watermelons for crying out loud.
The action is awsome though. I only wish it allowed more fights from actual SF characters. Still, it's a good story.

3 out of 5

[Psyquis52]

Street Fighter II the animated movie

Bison, the ruthless leader of the international terrorist organization Shadowlaw, has been desperately searching for the greatest fighter on the planet for years. He finds it in Ryu, a young wanderer who never stays in one place long enough for Bison to find him. He does, however, get a fix on Ken Masters, an American martial arts champion who studied with Ryu as a child under the same master. Meanwhile, Major Guile of the United States Army is forced to team up with Chun Li from China in hopes of apprehending Bison and putting a stop his international ring of crime.

The soundtrack rocks! You've got a lot of great rock bands on there, including one of my all-time favorites: Alice in Chains.
The action rocks! The plot...is...well it's a freaking SF movie! What do you expect? A lot of cameos and quite a few decent fights. Also - and this is important to note - VEGA IS FREAKY!!!

4 out of 5 - Not exactly spectacular but definately good.

[Psyquis52]

Street Fighter Alpha Generations

Ryu, Ken, Gouki and Sakura return in this thrilling prequel to Street Fighter™ Alpha. When Ryu returns to pay homage to his deceased mentor, Gouken, he is tormented by disturbing memories of his master s killer. In a quest to become a true martial arts master, Ryu sets out to hone his street fighting skills and to deliver himself from the haunting legacy of the Dark Hadou. But the ultimate test of his new power can only be accomplished through one last fateful confrontation with his arch-nemesis, Gouki.

One question:





Why?

I mean could there possibly be a valid reason for this? I don't think so.
But hey! It's not all bad. I mean there's at least ONE fight in it....but it's not very good.

1 out of 5. Read a dictionary or something. Unless you're a hardcore SF fan (and I am) then there's no reason whatsoever to watch this.

[Psyquis52]

Steamboy

Rei is a young inventor living in the U.K. in the middle of the 19th century. Shortly before the first ever World Expo, a marvelous invention called the "Steam Ball", behind which a menacing power is hidden, arrives at his door from his grandfather Roid in the U.S. Meanwhile the nefarious Ohara Foundation has sent men to acquire theSteam Ball so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.

Okay...you remember that guy that did Akira and Metropolis? Well, he's back and he's better than ever. This movie was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I want to know if we should expect a series or another movie or something because it kind of left you hanging.

4 out of 5 - It could be better but it's not easy.

[Psyquis52]

Ghost in the Shell

The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.

Fascinating. I can't seem to come up with a better word to describe it than that.

4 out of 5 Very good.

[Psyquis52]

Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence

Batô is a living cyborg. His whole body, even his arms and legs, are entirely man-made. What only remains are traces of his brain and the memories of a woman. In an era when the boundary between humans and machines has become infinitely vague, Humans have forgotten that they are humans. This is the debauchery of the lonesome ghost of a man, who nevertheless seeks to retain humanity. Innocence... Is what life is.

I believe this one to be more intelligent than the previous but what it gains in intellectual stimulation it lacks in other stimuli. Meaning that the action is odd, the plot is odd and the whole thing lags slightly.

3 out of 5.

[Psyquis52]

The Castle of Cagliostro

Reknowned international thief Lupin III (known as "Wolf" in the English dub) comes to the small European duchy of Cagliostro to investigate some excellently-forged money and stumbles across a national conspiracy going back some hundreds of years. Lupin and his friends must rescue the beautiful Clarice from the hands of the evil Count Cagliostro and solve the mystery of a hidden treasure dating back to the 15th century.

If you like your Lupin (and I do) then...you'll be slightly confused by this movie. It's too serious. I was expecting more Lupinish humor but they didn't do it quite right. Still good but not very Lupin.

3 out of 5 Smart movie but not Smart enough.

[Psyquis52]

The Cat Returns

A young girl rescues a mysterious cat from traffic and soon finds herself the unwelcome recipient of gifts and favors from the King of the Cats, who also wants her to marry his son, Prince Lune. With the assistance of a fat, grouchy real cat and a an elegant cat statuette come to life (both characters featured in Studio Ghibli's earlier anime "Whisper of the Heart"), the girl visits the Cat Kingdom and narrowly escapes again

Well, the cat's are funny.

3 out of 5

[Psyquis52]

Spirited Away

Chihiro and her family are on their way to their new house in the suburbs when her father decides to take a shortcut along a lonely-looking dirt road. After getting out of the car and walking along a path for a while, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with food but with no workers or customers present. Mom and Dad don't hesitate to sit down and dig in, but Chihiro senses danger and refuses. As night falls, she is terrified to see the area fill with faceless spirits, but when she runs to find her parents, she discovers that they have been turned into pigs. She is found by a mysterious boy named Haku, who promises to help her. He gets her a job working in a nearby building, which turns out to be a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits. Though the work is hard and the people strange, she does as well as she can. Her parents, however, are still waiting in the hotel's stockyard, and Chihiro must find a way to break the spell on them before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner.

A little twisted but damned good. I'd put this in the top 5 best animes I've ever seen.

5 out of 5 Must see.

[Psyquis52]

Princess Mononoke

A prince is infected with an incurable disease by a possessed boar/god. He is to die unless he can find a cure to rid the curse from his body. It seems that his only hope is to travel to the far east. When he arrives to get help from the deer god, he finds himself in the middle of a battle between the animal inhabitants of the forest and an iron mining town that is exploiting and killing the forest. Leading the forest animals in the battle is a human raised by wolves, Princess Mononoke

I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Also in my top 5.

5 out of 5. Must see.

[Psyquis52]

Castle in the Sky

A young boy stumbles into a mysterious girl who floats down from the sky. The girl, Sheet, was chased by pirates, army and government secret agents. In saving her life, they begin a high flying adventure that goes through all sorts of flying machine, eventually searching for Sheet's identity in a floating castle of a lost civilization.

I'm getting exhausted here. All these Miyazaki movies. It's ridiculous and I'm still not very close to finished with them all.

It's a good movie...just like all the damned Miyazaki movies but that doesn't mean you should watch it.

3 out of 5

[Psyquis52]

My Neighbor Totorro

Two young girls, Satsuke and her younger sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuke and Mei discover that the nearby forest is inhabited by magical creatures called Totoros (pronounced toe-toe-ro). They soon befriend these Totoros, and have several magical adventures.

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!! How is a giant demon cat supposed to be cute? It scares the living crap out of me! It would also scare the crap out of anyone with any common sense.

3 out of 5 - still good...it is Miyazaki after all. Hmph.

[Psyquis52]

Porco Rosso

Take flight with "Porco Rosso," a valiant World War I flying ace! From tropical Adriatic settings to dazzling aerial maneuvers, this action-adventure from world-renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki is full of humor, courage, and chivalry. When "Porco" -- whose face has been transformed into that of a pig by a mysterious spell -- infuriates a band of sky pirates with his aerial heroics, the pirates hire Curtis, a rival pilot, to "get rid" of him. On the ground, the two pilots compete for the affections of the beautiful Gina. But it is in the air where the true battles are waged. Will our hero be victorious?

Michael Keaton rocks! I didn't think this movie was going to be any good...but it was. Oh well.

3 out of 5