S-MAC’s Anime Review: Rosario+Vampire

You know what? I actually had a lot of fun writing a review for a bad anime. So, I’ll try it again. And just to let you know, this is probably the only fanservice bomb I will ever watch/review. So, here we go!

Genres: Romantic Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, School life, Slice-of-life
Synopsis: Tsukune Aono accidentaly enrolls in a school for monsters, isolated from the human world. He'a about to leave when he meets a sweet girl named Moka, who happens to be a split personality vampire. Pretty soon, he's got monster girls going after him left and right. How's he supposed to hide his human identity now?

Story and Characters:

After being a part of the anime community for about a year and a half, I have come to a safe conclusion that Japan will come up with ANYTHING to ensure a harem situation (One guy, several female romantic interests). And this is the case with Rosario+Vampire. While this doesn’t have the most obscure premise, I didn’t think a harem was necessary, honestly. The story is set at Yokai Academy, a place secluded from the human world to educate all different kinds of young monsters to coexist with humans. Now, one such unlucky (or rather, lucky) high school student named Tsukune, happens to enroll, without knowing what he’s in for. He ends up “saving” in a sense, many young female monsters, who all end up vying for his attention and romantic interests.  The anime does include some ridiculous lovey-dovey scenes, 30 second action scenes, and essentially, an episodic presentation (until, like, the last 2 episodes of both seasons). What I’m saying is that there is no coherent plot, and that this show is a romantic comedy with (not so extreme) fanservice.

As for the characters, well, I really didn’t like many of them at all. Pretty much all of the characters were annoying or a jerk. For a main character, Tsukune is rather bland, but he’s at least got a good heart. He’s also NOT a pervert, unlike many fanservice harem animes out there. Outer Moka, in my opinion, was the best character in the entire series. She treated Tsukune nicely, tried to “share” him, and was very kind and sweet overall. But for the other characters, I kind of hated. Kurumu: Loud, annoying chick with big boobs. Yukari: The loli-shojo with an annoying, shrill, high pitched voice (Good job, Monica Rial) Mizore: The weird, creepy, annoying stalker girl. Ruby: The wonder-struck, somewhat annoying who is probably at least 10 years older than Tsukune (I might be wrong, here). And, OH MY GOSH, KOKOA WAS THE WORST. So was her annoying bat. To top it all off, there needed to be one other male character (so Tsukune doesn’t get all the action) who happens to be a pervert. At least Gin was kind of good looking.

Art and Animation:

Rosario+Vampire was produced by studio GONZO, which, from my previous experience with anime, have a very generic style of art for anime. (My previous experience was from the anime Kaze no Stigma. I’ll write a review for that later.) And when I say generic, I don’t necessarily mean in a bad way, just that it doesn’t add or take anything away from the anime itself. Nothing in particular stood out to me art-or-animation wise.  But, it’s just the way it is. Animation wasn’t sloppy, either.

Voice and Music:

I only watched the dub for this show (I’m more of a dub fan than a sub fan). And after watching many titles from the dubbers at Funimation, I think I’ve safely come up with an idea of what their usual treatment for a dub looks like. I’m going to call it SFF, or Standard Funimation Fare. And that’s pretty much exactly what this show has. But, trust me, the dub IS NOT BAD. I think it worked out pretty great, actually. Everyone’s voice suited the characters almost perfectly. There was no over or under-acting, and the script isn’t shabby, either. High points for this dub.

The music, however, is a bit of a different story. None of the OST tracks that play during the anime were terribly memorable (It’s a fanservice romantic comedy, what do you expect?). I will say differently about the 2 opening and ending themes. All sung by Nana Mizuki (Popular Japanese voice actress and singer), they really did resonate with me, and matched the two sides of this anime quite well. The opening themes are peppy and colorful (song and animation), while the ending themes are dark, dramatic, and rich (Again, song and animation). Now if only the anime could’ve done that nice 50/50 with the actual show. 

My enjoyment:

I will be honest, here. I actually enjoyed this anime somewhat. I know, even though I’m a girl, and there was no purposeful plot, this show was mildly interesting. And I think it was this that made me watch this whole series. But I don’t really have an idea what that “force” was. Now that I look back, most of the “annoying” characters weren’t so annoying when I was watching this show. They were irritating, instead of “I-want-to-punch-them-in-the-face” kind of way. But I had to bash them for review purposes.

The Score:

Averaging all four values of the categories listed above, I give Rosario+Vampire a 6.0875 and would recommend this to anyone who wants a lighthearted romance/harem with fanservice. For similar anime, I suggest (Keep in mind I have only read the descriptions for these online and haven’t seen them) To Love Ru and Is This A Zombie. Sorry if these are bad suggestions.

UPDATE 3 MARCH 2014 Scores
Story: 4.0     Characters: 4.0
Art: 5.5     Animation: 6.3
Voice: 8.0     Music: 6.2
Execution: 7.9     My Enjoyment: 6.8

There is a manga review to come (All 18 volumes of Ouran), one (or two) rants, a few fandom posts, and more anime reviews. I hope I am getting better at reviewing anime!

You can find me on MyAnimeList! My username is: GeekFangirl99

Last Updated: 8 April 2014
Originally Posted: 23 December 2013

What a fandom does to you...

Due to my enthusiastic watching of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, the "mini-fandom" took it's hold on me. And evidence of this can be seen with my Engineering and Design project. We had to model a train exactly to specifications, then we had to modify it. So, here's mine:

So, what do you think?

I will be doing a review of the original series FMA OR brotherhood. It is plausible that I will do both. 

Right now, I am currently drafting my first anime rant. NO I WILL NOT TELL YOU WHAT THE TOPIC IS. 

All the best, 

~Selena

Something interesting to check out!

Hi there, Selena here with something quick for you. The website Anime News Network runs something called "The List" and it's pretty interesting. It's updated about every week. Here's the link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-list/ 

ANN is a really great place, with a lot of interesting and insightful posts! It's also a great anime community!

~Selena

Last Updated: 5 December 2013

Originally published: 5 December 2013

S-MAC's Manga Volume Views: Special A (S.A)

Okay, another thing I will be doing on this blog is "volume views". These are my first looks at the first manga volume in a series, though I may do other volumes if I feel like it. 

Story:

Very similar to another shojo manga series Ouran High School Host Club, S.A has a poor girl at a rich kid's school. Our main female character, Hikari, is in the Special A class, or the top 7 students in the whole academy. Ever since childhood, she has wanted to beat a boy named Kei Takishima, in every "contest" possible. Now the catch is, Kei is almost perfect, resulting in Hikari being No. 2 in school placement. And that Kei is in love with Hikari. Now, I like the idea of an academic-centered shojo manga. The starting romance isn't implied too heavily, but rather a bit more realistic (but Kei doesn't have to yell at Hikari all the time for making him worry. Seriously...) The manga uses each chapter to form a separate small plot, instead of having one continuous flow. 

Characters: So here are my thoughts.

Hikari: Here, we've got a gutsy female lead determined to succeed over a "rival" (Kind of reminds me of Kyoko from Skip Beat) She also lets her temper loose whenever Kei calls her "second place". 

Kei: He's basically supposed to be perfect. Seriously, who has a photographic memory???

Megumi: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? Hope they explain why she doesn't talk.

Akira: Is she lesbo?

Nagi: Reminds me of Kagura from Fruits Basket.

Artwork: 

The art didn't leave an impression on me, really. It's not super-"flowery", like Ayuko's art (It's beautiful, by the way), but it isn't "shonen" style either. I hope this turns out like the manga of Ouran did, with art I didn't really like at first, but it either gets better or I get used to it. The one thing I noticed about the cover, is that Hikari's face looks more like a guy's, and Kei's bishi face looks kind of feminine. But the artwork inside isn't like that. Maki Minami probably put more effort into the cover art. 

Overall:

Well, I think I may enjoy this series. Aside from having the common plot that almost all shojo manga (the exception is Fruits Basket) have of the lead female or male character in the story being completely oblivious to their romantic feelings, I think this will be interesting. I loved Ouran, so this sounds pretty similar. There is an anime, but it's dubbed by Sentai Filmworks, and the dub just doesn't sound right. Plus, the manga is the complete story, while the anime is only 26 episodes. So, try this series if you like shojo school life romantic comedies. 

Have fun reading!

~Selena

Follow me for more volume views to come!

Last Updated: 4 December 2013

Originally Published: 4 December 2013

Netflix's streaming trend with anime!

If you are a subscriber to Netflix’s streaming service, you may or may not know that Netflix has a selection of instant anime titles subbed and dubbed. You may have also noticed that some titles disappear, and new ones come in. Well, I have noticed this, and I have seen a pattern. Here is what I have found out:

1) New titles (almost) every Monday!
That’s right, as of a few months ago, (around July of this year) almost every Monday, there is 1 or 2 new titles up for streaming. However, this means that some titles may be taken off. I have noticed over the past year, the selection is very different, with only the “best” staying there.

2) If one title suddenly disappears, and it had no sub option, Netflix will (most likely) put it back up in a few days with the option, and even English closed captioning.

3) Funimation titles only.
I know, other licensing companies have their stuff for streaming. But I’d say the vast majority of the instant titles are licensed by Funimation. There used to be stuff from other companies, but those have all been taken down. So if you’re hoping for an anime to reach streaming and it’s licensed by a different company, chances are, it’s not coming to streaming anytime soon,

That’s about it for now. I’ll update this list if I notice anything new. Just keep your eyes open for any title says, “Available until…” That means it will be taken off instant.

I do not have the DVD service, so I think I’ll check that out later.

Cheers,

~Selena

UPDATE 20 FEB 2014: This trend has stopped for now, sorry. 

Last Updated: 20 February 2014
Originally Published: 29 November 2013

S-MAC’s Anime Review: Angel Beats!

Now, I've done a review for an anime that was fairly neutral with me, and one that I really didn't like. So, for my third starting review, I will be reviewing one of my first anime series, as well as one of my favorite.

Genres: Action, Supernatural, Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance, School Story
Synopsis: Yuzuru Otonashi wakes up in a purgatorial world and finds out that he has died in the real world. He then joins the SSS, a group of lost souls who fight against Angel because of their unfair lives. Oh, and there's an awesome all-girl rock band called Girls Dead Monster in SSS. 

Story and Characters:

The story starts off as hard to grasp, with everything coming at you with little explanation. But, starting at the second episode, things slowly start to build, and you learn more about the strange world of Angel Beats in every episode, almost all the way to the end. Angel Beats has action, comedy, romance, drama, sad moments (it was created by Key, what did you expect?) and great music (I’ll get to this later.) Once, I tried to explain the story of this series to one of my non-anime fan friends, and that took about 5 minutes and ended with a lot of confusion on both sides. I've heard that there are many plot holes in the series, but honestly, they really didn't bother me at all. My one complaint about the story is that it’s too short. Angel Beats was supposed to be a 26 episode anime, but budget cuts resulted in the show being only 13 episodes (Probably explains the plot holes). But when you look at what was accomplished in those 13 episodes, I’d say this was a really good job. Overall, the story is quite powerful, and teaches many wonderful things. You do have to pay attention to some things in order to get the most satisfying ending. 

And now, for the characters. You have Yuzuru Otonashi, the main male protagonist, who actually seems somewhat lackluster in the beginning, but once he remembers his past, and he realizes his feelings for Angel, he does develop a little, and I did grow some sort of attachment or feelings towards him. Then you have Yuri, the awesome fighter, leader of a somewhat dysfunctional “(Barnacle) Battlefront”. Again, she did seem a bit 2-D in the very beginning, but she does develop over time, after learning her story, and why she’s here. Lastly, you have Angel. I think she developed in the most interesting way compared to all of the characters. There are actually many supporting characters, but the series only focuses on a few of them. Now, that may not sound good, but the way this show pulled it off, it was actually quite satisfying to me.

Art and Animation:

Being a series created by Key (Clannad, Kanon, Air), you’d expect this to have tons of moe girls. But that’s not the case, as this was never a visual novel, and the studio was P.A Works. There are some Key elements in this series, such as the floating lights seen in the opening. A very nice job, but my minor complaint was that the art and characters looked halfway between 2-D and 3-D. Action scenes are done well, but not SUPER-GOOD.

Voice and Music:

I have only seen the dub, and I have to say, this is one of Sentai Filmworks’s better dubs. (At the time I watched this, I had not heard their other dubs.) But comparing this to dubs such as Clannad or Special A, this was actually done well. I will say there was a bit of lack of emotion in the voices during key (no pun intended) points in the plot. But what they were saying, oh, here comes the feels train.

The music in this series is actually different than that of most series. I don’t recall any super-epic tracks for, say, the action scenes, but I really did appreciate the many tracks (there’s around 10) from the fictional band Girls Dead Monster. The opening is beautiful (visuals and music), and the ending is peaceful, moving, and can give you goosebumps when you realize the meaning of the ending in the last episode. Man, that was deep.

My Enjoyment:

To be honest, I was turned off by this anime after about 6 minutes of the first episode. It was that fateful night, when I was anime surfing on Netflix, when I officially became an anime fan… (Okay, I’ll get to this story later.) But once I gave this show a chance, I actually enjoyed it. After the second episode, I got an idea what the show would be like. And my expectations were met, if not exceeded. While I did have trouble keeping track of the minor characters and their names, I certainly did remember all of their quirks. One more confession I have to make: This did not make me cry. Sure, it made me gasp, clench my hands, and say, “No!” but I did not cry. I have not cried at an anime yet, but I have come close.     

The Score:

Averaging the values of the four listed categories above, I give Angel Beats an 8.675 and would recommend this to those who like Key stories, and those who would like to see a little bit of everything in anime. As for similar shows, I point you towards the Key three (listed above). Honestly, I can't think of an anime that has a little bit of everything as of this moment. 

UPDATE 3 MARCH 2014 Scores

Story: 9.7     Characters: 8.8

Art: 7.2     Animation: 8.0

Voice: 8.2     Music: 9.6

Execution: 9.2     My Enjoyment: 8.7

Average: 8.675

Please follow me for more anime/manga reviews, first looks, rants, otaku news, and general thoughts!

Last Updated: 8 April 2014
Originally Published: 29 November 2013

S-MAC's Anime Review: Vampire Knight (26 episodes)

Also known as the Twilight of anime. Time for me to get a little ranty here. In short, this anime made me very fangirlish at times, and “WTH IS HAPPENING???” at other times. Plenty of spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk. Not like this was worth watching…

Genres: Drama, Romance, School Story, Action
Synopsis: Yuki Cross and her adoptive brother Zero Kiriyu arethe "guardians" of Cross Academy. Their job is to protect the Night class, made up entirely of vampires, and to keep their secret. But a turn of events and a love triangle will test everyone's loyalties and bring back a thousands-year old conflict.

Story and Characters: 
At a elite academy with a night class full of vampires, Yuki Cross and her childhood friend Zero Kiryu protect the day class, keep the night class in check, and keeping the night class’s secret safe. Now, of course, things get a little complicated with a love triangle, and a plot that became hard to understand around when  Shizuka Hio showed up. Things got even worse with Yuki’s “awakening”. Now as for the characters, my review is about to get nastier. Yuki is a pathetic crybaby, cookie-cutter shojo heroine who only serves as a source of food for Zero and eventually Kaname. She is extremely indecisive, and I RAGED at the fact that she chose Kaname, even though “her heart is with Zero, but she belongs to Kaname.” Oh, please SHUT UP! And for Kaname, he is a jerk that always has an “ultimate plan” who claimed to do everything “for the one he loves”. He is abusive, secretive, and more than willing to kill Zero. He wasn’t even that good looking! And last but best of the three, we have Zero. Okay, I liked him because 1) He was hot (and had a hot dub voice) 2) He was better than the previous two mentioned, and 3) He wasn’t a complete jerk. (Key work complete) My only fault with him is how he dealt with his twin, Ichiru. The secondary characters (night class) aren’t much better either. I hated Ruka, Ichijo, and Aido.

Art and Animation:
The art is okay, and the animation quality isn’t too bad. I’m actually not too fond of Matsuri Hino’s art, but the transition from manga to anime art-wise was actually kinda good. The only thing I found disappointing were the fight scenes. In almost every supernatural anime (that I’ve seen), there are fight scenes, ranging from absolutely epic, to just plain bad. Vampire Knight falls closer to the latter, but it’s not the worst. Ironically, the anime with the worst fight scenes is another Vampire anime, Rosario + Vampire. (Bleh…)

Voice and Music: 
When I was starting this series, I was rather conflicted between sub or dub. The sub voices sounded more natural for the characters, (this is often the case) but I couldn’t stand them pronouncing “banpaia”. As for the dub, I liked Zero’s voice (who doesn’t like Vic?) but Kaname and Yuki’s voices were bad. Mela Lee (Yuki) pronounced his name “Kanameh”. Ugh. The OST of this anime is mostly serious, as this is technically a romance/drama anime. What I find interesting is that one of the soundtrack’s names is “Still Doll”. And I thought, “That perfectly fits Yuki!” But I do have to give props to the two opening themes. Both sung by twins ON/OFF, hearing the first one really got me geared up for a dark, dramatic romance. Of course, I was very disappointed.

My Enjoyment:

Okay, I admit it. There were times when I fangirled, screaming, “I love this anime!” Boy, that didn’t last long. The whole time, I was kinda angry at how slow the plot was progressing. And when something DID happen, it usually wasn’t what I wanted to happen. I spent much of the second season trying to figure out what the heck was going on. That led to me not focusing what was happening NOW, and, well, the domino effect came into play. And finally, when Yuki became a vampire, she had the chance to make things right with Zero! But, NOOOOOO, she had to leave and become Kaname’s wife. At least she kissed Zero in the manga!

The Score:

A bad, somewhat trashy romance/drama, Vampire Knight left me very disappointed. I don’t even think this was a better story than Twilight! I give Vampire Knight a 4.8 and would recommend this to anyone who liked Twilight. (Are there still any more of those people out there???) As for similar anime, I suggest Diabolik Lovers, another awful vampire reverse harem with a wimpy female protagonist. If you want manga, I point you towards Black Bird, an even trashier romance with plenty of smut. Enjoy.

UPDATE 3 MARCH 2014 Real scores:

Story: 2.2     Characters: 2.2

Art: 6.5     Animation: 6.0

Voice: 4.0     Music: 6.2

Execution: 5.2     My Enjoyment: 6.1

Average: 4.8 But seriously, don't watch it.

This has been Selena, and follow me for more anime/manga reviews, rants, otaku news, first looks, and general thoughts!

Last Updated: 3 March 2014
Originally Published: 22 November 2013

S-MAC's Anime Review: Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin)

EDIT 29 APRIL 2014: I WILL REDO THIS REVIEW ONCE I SEE THIS AGAIN DUBBED.

Well, this is my first blog post, and I hope you guys enjoy it. So I decided to review a wildly popular anime with a lot of praise and not too much hate going for it. So, here we go.

Story and Characters:

I have to say, the base of this story is so simple, but it’s presented in a way I haven’t seen before. The world of Attack on Titan is completely based on the fact that Titans are human’s natural predator. this also provided for some horrifying scenes, such as the end of the first episode. But after the first few episodes, around when we realized Eren could become a Titan, the “arcs” got kind of long, dragged out, and it was a little hard for me to keep track of what was going on. There were also moments where I wasn't paying close attention to the subs, so then I had to replay the last minute or so. And once I saw the ending, I was like, “That’s it? There had better be a second season!” It left many questions unanswered (including the basement key!) For the characters, I would like to note is that I had some trouble remembering character’s names in this series. It took me a whole 3 episodes to say “Mikasa” instead of “Misaka.” I was about halfway through the series when I finally remembered Connie’s name. Many of the military higher-ups I could not remember the names of either. And yes, I did call Sasha “Potato Girl” until I could remember her name. The one thing I did not understand was why many others perceived Mikasa to be absolutely devoted to her brother. I honestly didn't see her that way.  

Art/Animation:

Attack on Titan’s art and animation really suited the series well. (It's better than the manga.) The neutral colors of the landscape & buildings, the art styling of the characters, and the fantastic action sequences all brought the manga to life pretty well (aside from the loooong parts in the series.) I could tell studio WIT wanted to make this look semi-realistic, gritty, and a bit horrifying by the amount of blood. I honestly expected this series to be a bit bloodier, almost like Elfen Lied. (Okay, bad reference.) 

Voice and Music:

If you haven’t seen or heard the show’s first opening, DO SO NOW. I cannot describe the intensity of the opening animation, or the sheer EPICNESS of the song. The second opening was a bit of a letdown compared to the first, but it’s still good. As for the OST, there was a good mix of dark, moving, hopeful, goose bump-y, and blood-pumping songs in the mix (Probably not all of those in one track). As for the voice acting, I did like the choices for the main characters. But, I could not find much distinction in the other’s voices. I guess that should be understandable, though. My message to Funimation is, “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT BOTCH THIS DUB!!!”

My Enjoyment:

I gave into the hype and watched this. I was even impatient to watch it while it was still airing. It was an interesting experience, but I didn't think it was the “BEST ANIME EVAAAAAAAHHHHH” I can certainly see why so many people reeeeaaallly liked this anime, but I honestly don't think this series is worthy of it's large fandom. So what I’ll probably do is I’ll wait until the dub comes out, then re-watch it (assuming I have time, of course.) There were some parts where I was like, “Yeaahhhh!” and “Oh, that’s nasty!” but my enjoyment of this series was actually fairly neutral to me.

The Score:

With all things considered, (even a potential second season) I give Attack on Titan an 8.3 and would recommend this series to action fans, people who are relatively new to anime, and those who want to join in on all the hype-conversations about this series on the internet. And as for a similar anime, if you liked the concept of humanity being forced to live in a small space while giant beings roam around on Earth, I suggest Chrome Shelled Regios. But I will say the similarities ends there.

Story/Characters: 7.75 

Art/Animation: 8.5

Voice/Music: 8.9 (There is no dub at this point, so this may change.)

My enjoyment: 8

This has been Selena, and follow me for more anime/manga reviews, first looks, rants, otaku news, and general thoughts!

Last Updated: 29 November 2013

Originally Published: 21 November 2013