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Reviews
Erufen rîto (2004)
Moving and Beautiful
This show was amazing. An engaging, romantic, touching, and beautiful story about love, innocence, forgiveness, and tragedy; and how these feelings all correspond with each other in the relationships of the people who deal with them.
Elfen Lied had some of the best animation I've seen in a long time. The colors are vibrant, the character designs are superb, and the environments are well drawn and realistic. The animation flows very smoothly and it's a joy to behold.
The series is presented in both English and Japanese 5.1. The English voice actors did an actually decent job of representing the characters and there weren't very many "painful" listening moments in the dub. It's an understatement to say that the music is absolutely phenomenal. The opening theme "Lilium" is great and it really sets the emotional mood for the show; the song itself is gorgeous and is actually very touching in how beautiful it is. The rest of the music in the series, minus the ending theme, is also very touching and well composed.
I won't go on and explain the whole story behind Elfen Lied, i'll just kinda highlight the main points. The story is essentially about the characters finding out where they belong in the world and how they deal with the situations they're faced with. The show deals heavily with the concepts of love, romance, innocence, promises, discrimination, and acceptance. It essentially sums up with that despite all the evil that there is in this world, there is still innocence and love to be found.
The characters in Elfen Lied were superb. They all acted like anyone else would in their situation. They all changed according to their circumstances. They were all REAL characters that people can relate to; and they were very fulfilling to watch.
This anime will go down as one of the best in history because it speaks to the heart of the person watching it. It takes you into the world of the characters to where you can actually feel for them. Elfen Lied accomplishes what most anime doesn't, it actually hits you right in the heart and moves you.
Saishû heiki kanojo (2002)
Disappointing
I must admit, I had very high expectations for this show but it didn't turn out at all how i had thought it would.
Saikano is a Gonzo production and it's complete some gimmicky stuff. The characters are all very basic and none of them really seem to be exceptional. Shuji and Chise are the only ones who really have any distinguishing art in them, the rest kinda look like "Fillers" with blushed cheeks that will not go away. The backgrounds are alright; still the same kinda linear style of animation with no real flare to it. Their isn't a whole lot of action in the show so the characters don't really get to move around a lot; and when there is action, it's just basically little explosions in the sky with an occasional plane crashing toward the ground. Chise's "ultimate-weapon" animation was kinda poor, and underdeveloped, especially when she would "transform" into it. Overall, the animation is really very average and kinda half-baked; very disappointing.
The series is presented in 5.1 audio (at least the version I watched was) so it sounds crisp; but there's not really much to it besides that. The voice actors on both ends of the spectrum don't really accomplish much and, despite the few good moments, the music is pretty boring as well.
The story is Saikano is extremely half-baked and very confusing, even though it has such a simple core. The basic root of the story is Chise and Shuji's vow to fall in love and always be in love despite their terrible circumstances. That being said, if you only focus on that side of the plot, then you'll at least get a partly enjoyable story about a young couple searching for true love. But so much of the actual plot is left out that you don't really have a reason to care about what happens to Shuji and Chise and their relationship with themselves and others. Chise is the ultimate-weapon. Why? Japan is fighting a terrible war with other nations. Which nations? And why? When did the research for the ultimate weapon begin? What is it capable of? What are all its abilities? Why have it be incorporated into a young like Chise who has no military profile or reason to be in the war? Why? Why? Why? These questions are never answered in the series of Saikano and the plot suffers greatly because of it.
I did find, some of, the characters, and their relationships to one another, in this series to be enjoyable. Shuji's relationship with his old lover, Fyumi, and Chise's best friend, Akemi, are interesting and actually, at the end of them, have some substance. But that's about all there really is. There are several, too many in fact, characters, including the two leads, that simply display nothing more than teen angst. While this is not necessarily bad, because angst makes for some quite incredible film making, it's just not approached in the right manner. All of the characters just seem to be floating on, they don't really have purpose in their quest and that kinda makes the whole thing seem pointless because they don;t really have a reason to achieve anything. But despite all of the bad, there is some good character development in Saikano. Shuji changes from being a complete moronic teenager, to actually knowing, at least a little bit, about true love and relationships. Chise develops from a weak schoolgirl, to appreciating the value of love and knowing the consequences of her actions. There is also a great moment in episode 9 with Shuji and Akemi that really spoke to me more than any other part of the show.
Saikano had a lot of potential; it really did. But it just wasn't done correctly and, therefore, it fell to the wayside. So, in the end, i couldn't recommend this show to anyone, not with titles like Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days around, because it just doesn't get the whole love/romance/war/tragedy formula quite right.
The Crow: City of Angels (1996)
There will be another...
OK, the original Crow was an extremely good movie that is worthy of the pedestal it's placed on.
That being said; it's time to put that thought up for a while and open up our minds to the potential of the second film, The Crow: City of Angels.
I admit, this movie is definitely not as good as the first one, but it's still a great film. The original Crow was geared more towards the action, the vengeance, and the intensity of the unfolding story of Eric Draven's revenge. Brandon Lee was very much an action star who had quite a legacy given to him from his father. He was the perfect candidate for a film like the Crow because they wanted to blow people away with the theatrics of it all. City of Angles does just the opposite. Vincent Perez is a silky smooth, romancer not an action hero (just look at the guy, he has an innocence about him that institutes sympathy for his character, while Lee, being very much an opposite, is a hard edged man with a mission that gets your adrenaline going as you cheer on his character). Also, the whole look and feel of the film is very different from the first. The Crow was very dark and shadowy, it had a sort of cool (as in temperature) feel to it, like the scene where Eric saves Sarah from the car and they talk on the curb for a bit, you could almost feel the coldness of the environment; the film portrayed beauty through a realistic and stark cold darkness. The Crow: City of Angels was lighter and more mesmerizing and dreamlike. The environment feels like something from an elaborate dream, and that's a huge reason why this film does not fail, because its atmosphere is very captivating. It's warm and refreshing. This feel goes great with the second film because it's more of a romantic style, while the first film was more of an action/vengeance movie (which is why it's so awesome).
City of Angels is an atmospheric movie (rather than a thriller) that adds a new flavor to the Crow series by using the same base with a different formula.
The only way to really enjoy this film is to watch it with an absolutely open mind free of any wandering memory of the original film. Vincent Perez is not Brandon Lee, Los Angeles is not Detroit, Sarah is all grown up now, Tim Pope is not Alex Proyas, A son is not a fiancé', and The Crow: City of Angels is not a sequel it's a new chapter in the life of a series.
The Crow and The Crow: City of Angels are two branches from the same tree; they may look similar, they may act similar, but, at heart, they are two separate things.
Gantz (2004)
Seriously think before you watch this.
Gantz is something of a confusion. It goes back and forth and in the end it reveals something of an unsure director who really doesn't have it all together. It dons the mask of a drama and of a satire during the course of its duration and it can get a bit unclear.
Does this make Gantz bad? well it depends on how you look at it. There is some very offensive material in this anime and it definitely doesn't justify it completely. There also isn't a lot of plot fluency or direction and the ending is very uncertain. Not to say that Gantz doesn't have it's good moments, cause it does and they shine quite brightly; but it's just what you have to go through to get there.
I would never recommend Gantz, being how touchy it is. In the end it's something only to pursue if you really have your own mind made up.
Seriously think before you watch this, it could make or break you.
7.3/10
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Don't even look at the cover of this movie.
if you've seen the original Dawn of the by Georgie A, you know that this movie completely sucks.
it's straight up bad horror film, for three main reasons: there's NO PLOT at all, the characters are all a bunch clichés and stereotypes, and the zombies don't even look like they're deceased.
I can't believe how terrible this movie was, i had such high expectations.
Okay, so this movie opens up with the main protagonist of the story, she's a nurse that apparently works in the emergency room during the late hours of the night and (by coincidence) there happens to be a lot of "strange" patients coming in. She finishes her shift and goes home to her loving boyfriend who then takes a shower with her, they go to bed and are awakened by the neighbor's daughter who has been zombified. Her boyfriend checks it out only to be bitten (of course) and then tries to attack the only living flesh left in the room. Our woman escapes through the bathroom window and then manages to meet up with a rogue cop, and a gangsta with his pregnant (not to mention European) wife. They proceed to find shelter in a shopping mall and are apprehended by three security guards who are complete dicks and lock them up for no apparent reason. More characters proceed to flood into the mall and they're all stupid and worthless. They include an old woman, a teenager, a snobby bitch, a rich man, a priest, and a few others. I don't even remember all of them because they were so dumb. Anyway, they go through days and days of wasting supplies and arguing with each other. A few found their s at the hands of zombies (though there was one awesome scene with the gangsta and his wife, but i won't spoil it for you :)). After all the supplies seem to be used up, out heroes decide they have to find a place to go. They formulate a stupid plan and then proceed to carry it out. Oodles of gore and dismembermment later, the movie ends abruptly with an incredibly dull and obvious ending that just left you going... "why did i waste my time?" and "I thought zombies were supposed to be slow." there were some cool moments and a ONE (notice i say ONE) cool character (i won't spoil them for you), but that isn't nearly enough to redeem this movie of it's sheer pointlessness and stupidity. If you want a good zombie film, watch Shaun, Land, or 28 days later (where the zombies have a right to be fast, unlike this movie). Don't waste your time with this piece of junk. it sucks.
Zack Snyder failed.
Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)
well done
This movie is wonderful. Even though it is short, it didn't really need anything else. Mamarou Oshii and his team did a wonderful job at simplifying a potentially aspiring story into great characters and great animation. At first i wondered why the film was so short but the more i thought about it the more it made sense. The film didn't really need any extra story to it. It fits nicely into the package it comes in. They paced it so well that it didn't seem like it needed anything more. The animation was very good as well, Oshii really knows how to use his animation to relate to people. His characters look like normal people, they (for the most part) act like normal people and they have a great deal of time and emotion put into them. His characters were also developed well. Some argue that there was not enough background story in the film but there really didn't need to be. It seems that, Oshii likes to put mystery around his characters. He doesn't give you every little bit of information on them he lets you wonder and examine them so that you can draw your own conclusions about who they are. I highly recommend this movie.