Genre: Action/Adventure
Age Appropriate: Teen+
Emotional Response: Excited followed by disappointed
Notable Features: gods, magic, fan service
Language: Japanese
Length: 11 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Disappointing
"I'm his wife!" - pretty much all of the girls
Godou is a young man who is sent on a delivery run by his grandfather. With nothing better to do, Godou goes out to return something to his grandfather's acquaintance and ends up falling into a bizarre world of girls, swords and gods. After running into a swordmaster girl, Erica Blandelli, and managing to defeat a strange god, he is now the Campione. His new job is to defeat evil gods as the show up in the world, attempting to take power for themselves. Through his defeat of Verethragna, a Persian diety, his new status of campione comes with special abilities to help his cause. Each of these abilities is gained through different means and they all are attributed to 10 different representations.
In this harem adventure, Godou collects young ladies interested in fighting the good fight. They all have different personalities and different motivations, but they have one thing in common. They all fall for Godou. This is completely despite his awkward fumbles of accidental impropriety. The series ends with a cliffhanger as to where the group will go next (but it appears the manga keeps going).
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There is a good reason that the series ends in a cliffhanger. It didn't get enough viewership to bother with a second season. I was really excited when I first started watching. If there was anything I was into when I was younger, that wasn't vampires!, it was mythology. You can blame TV for that one (yay Hercules!). I did jump into mythology quite quickly and it carried all the way through high school ancient history. So, when I found this anime, I was really curious about how it was going to work out.
I was sorely disappointed. I don't usually expect a lot out of a harem anime. I've seen a number of really engaging ones that simply use the awkward boy/pretty girl thing as a good comedic vehicle. This one had so much potential! For me, it fell short. Basically, I don't recommend it. I was sad when it was cancelled, but only because I hoped it would find a way to redeem itself. I may consider giving the manga a chance though. I suppose it's possible that it could be better in print.
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Kid fun!: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Loveless
Genre: Sci-Fi-ish? Shonen Ai? I have no idea
Age Appropriate: Teen
Emotional Response: Interested but confused
Notable Features: magic, tragedy, coming of age, yaoi/shonen ai
Language: Japanese
Length: 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good
"I don't really understand what's going on at all." - Ritsuka
Ritsuka has a very complicated past. Two year previously, Ritsuka turned into a different personality. It happened due to the gruesome murder of his brother, Seimei. Now, he's started at a new middle school, but has no tolerance for people. He's become a bit separate from everyone, and desperately tries to hide his pain. The story becomes wildy more complicated with the addition of his brother's "Fighter," Soubi.
In the battles between Fighter/Sacrifice duos, there is one person who fights for the other, using magic instilled in words. The Sacrifice takes the physical pain and damage of the fights. Those duos share a "real" name. Soubi insists that he's Ristuka's fighter, despite Ritsuka's complete ignorance about the things happening around him. It seems that Soubi was actually sent by Seimei, to follow Ritsuka as his fighter. Ritsuka doesn't know what to do in the situation and is more hurt by learning that his real name is "Loveless" versus his brother's "Beloved."In between all of this confusion, it appears that Soubi might be a bit in love with Rituska despite their huge age gap. He promises Ritsuka that he'd so anything for him, except give him the answers he's looking for. The questions always remains, at least for Ritsuka, whether or not this love has more to do with Soubi's actual feelings or feelings instilled by Seimei.One of Ritsuka's most difficult battles is deciding who to trust in this his search for his brother's killer.
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Loveless is actually pretty good, and sad. There are definitely a few comedic bits here and there, and they're certainly needed. The only drawback is how much you may be turned off by Soubi's love for Ritsuka. On that level, Soubi seems to recognize that it's a little bit wrong, never does anything about it - and it's questionable about it being "love" or "affection," - and his roommate gives him no end of grief about it. It didn't bother me too much, because nothing ever really happens, but I've heard it's bothered others. Enh.
I like this anime. I kinda wish there was more of it, but the manga was sadly short as well. I just think there was room for more character development in there. However, since I feel the same about the manga series, I imagine that it has more to do with following the series more closely than anything else. I really want Ritsuka to find all of the answers that he's looking for, and have a more satisfactory ending. I guess we can't all get what we want, though. I'd hesitantly recommend this. I should say, there is a number of people I would definitely recommend this too, because I understand they're appreciation of other shonen-ai/yaoi/weird stuff. Everyone else might find some interest in the idea of going outside their comfort zone, but I'm not sure how I might present it. This is one of those anime that I've seen multiple times, but I have to be in the mood for it - hence "pretty good."
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Next up: Campione!
Age Appropriate: Teen
Emotional Response: Interested but confused
Notable Features: magic, tragedy, coming of age, yaoi/shonen ai
Language: Japanese
Length: 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good
"I don't really understand what's going on at all." - Ritsuka
Ritsuka has a very complicated past. Two year previously, Ritsuka turned into a different personality. It happened due to the gruesome murder of his brother, Seimei. Now, he's started at a new middle school, but has no tolerance for people. He's become a bit separate from everyone, and desperately tries to hide his pain. The story becomes wildy more complicated with the addition of his brother's "Fighter," Soubi.In the battles between Fighter/Sacrifice duos, there is one person who fights for the other, using magic instilled in words. The Sacrifice takes the physical pain and damage of the fights. Those duos share a "real" name. Soubi insists that he's Ristuka's fighter, despite Ritsuka's complete ignorance about the things happening around him. It seems that Soubi was actually sent by Seimei, to follow Ritsuka as his fighter. Ritsuka doesn't know what to do in the situation and is more hurt by learning that his real name is "Loveless" versus his brother's "Beloved."In between all of this confusion, it appears that Soubi might be a bit in love with Rituska despite their huge age gap. He promises Ritsuka that he'd so anything for him, except give him the answers he's looking for. The questions always remains, at least for Ritsuka, whether or not this love has more to do with Soubi's actual feelings or feelings instilled by Seimei.One of Ritsuka's most difficult battles is deciding who to trust in this his search for his brother's killer.
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Loveless is actually pretty good, and sad. There are definitely a few comedic bits here and there, and they're certainly needed. The only drawback is how much you may be turned off by Soubi's love for Ritsuka. On that level, Soubi seems to recognize that it's a little bit wrong, never does anything about it - and it's questionable about it being "love" or "affection," - and his roommate gives him no end of grief about it. It didn't bother me too much, because nothing ever really happens, but I've heard it's bothered others. Enh.
I like this anime. I kinda wish there was more of it, but the manga was sadly short as well. I just think there was room for more character development in there. However, since I feel the same about the manga series, I imagine that it has more to do with following the series more closely than anything else. I really want Ritsuka to find all of the answers that he's looking for, and have a more satisfactory ending. I guess we can't all get what we want, though. I'd hesitantly recommend this. I should say, there is a number of people I would definitely recommend this too, because I understand they're appreciation of other shonen-ai/yaoi/weird stuff. Everyone else might find some interest in the idea of going outside their comfort zone, but I'm not sure how I might present it. This is one of those anime that I've seen multiple times, but I have to be in the mood for it - hence "pretty good."
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Next up: Campione!
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