Posts Tagged ‘ Supernatural ’

Monogatari Series: Second Season Review: Conclusions, Shifts, and Self Discovery

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Since I had watched through the rest of Monogatari last summer, it’s no wonder that I decided to pick up the (at the time) ongoing second season (which, in actuality, is more like the fourth season given the weird release nature of the other installments) when it was only a few weeks in.  Keeping up with Monogatari weekly for the first time had been quite a bizarre experience and I was quite impatient since I had gotten so used to being able to watch the previous seasons at my own pace without having to wait every week.  In spite of that setback, however, Monogatari S2 proved to be an absolutely fascinating watch that built tremendously upon the foundations of previous seasons and truly made the most out of a majority of its characters.  Monogatari S2 ultimately proved to be by far my favorite installment of the series and impressed me in a variety of ways.  While there are some complaints I have about some parts of S2, they are quite minimal in comparison to the great enjoyment and fantastic developments I received from the watch overall, and I’d say there’s no doubt in my mind that those who enjoyed previous installments of Monogatari will find something to love from this season.  Monogatari S2 remains one of my favorites of 2013 and there is but one 2013 anime that I enjoyed more (and I do plan on writing about that as well in due time).  Monogatari S2 has so many merits and it’ll be difficult for me to explain just how much love I have for this season of the series without giving spoilers, but it must be said that Monogatari S2 really is a brilliant story and, in my opinion, the epitome of the Monogatari experience as of yet. Continue reading →

2014
06/24
CATEGORY
Anime
TV
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean Review: Prison Breakout and Jotaro’s Successor

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It seems my winter break was filled with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which can never be a bad thing.  Along with having watched through the glorious TV adaptation of JoJo parts 1 and 2 over winter break, I also caught up to the manga material that I hadn’t completed and it was quite a wonderful experience.  The last part I had completed was part 5, which I read through something along the lines of 4 or 5 years ago.  I did read through about half of part 6 (Stone Ocean) in middle school but for one reason or another I never got around to finishing it until a couple months ago.  And it’s truly a shame because Stone Ocean was just as phenomenal as the other JoJo parts and truly has a lot going for it.  As enjoyable as parts 4 and 5 were, they did have more of a side story feel to them and in the grand scheme of things they could probably be removed without having too huge an impact on the story’s continuity (though it would be a shame because both parts do add a great deal to the whole package).  Stone Ocean ties in much more closely to part 3 (Stardust Crusaders) than parts 4 or 5, in large part because many elements of part 3 are actually plot relevant (whereas parts 4 and 5 do have characters and/or character relations that, while in some form connecting to the rest of the story, are largely isolated from the main plot of JoJo in the grand scheme of things).  In many ways I would say that Stone Ocean is the true sequel to Stardust Crusaders and it’s very significant to the series, arguably one of the most crucial parts at that.  While most of my hype for what remained of JoJo was dedicated to all I’d heard of part 7 (Steel Ball Run), I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Stone Ocean was more than just a disposable addition necessary to move on to SBR.  In fact, I might even say that I enjoyed Stone Ocean more, though that’s not to say that SBR is bad by any means.  Anywho, enough about SBR, Stone Ocean is the topic at hand and I can save my words about SBR for when I actually do get around to reviewing it. Continue reading →

2014
02/17
CATEGORY
Manga
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012) Review: The Fabulous Beginning of the Joestar Tale

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So it seems that I’m still very much behind on blogging about the series I’ve completed (as there are a great many I’d love to write about, one in particular that recently blew me away like no other), but I’m slowly catching up (or at least, I’d like to believe that I am anyway).  Like I said before, I’m gonna be writing about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012) this time around.  I mentioned that JoJo 2012 is a JoJo adaptation done right, and that it truly is.  I still remember first hearing the news about a new TV anime for JoJo at the time and I was utterly shocked, I simply could not believe the news.  Of course, I was in no position to complain as JoJo had been one of my favorite Shounen manga (interestingly enough, one written as far back as the 80s, at that) and it was finally going to get a full-length, serious adaptation from the very beginning.  Almost a year ago I watched the first 7 or so episodes of the anime with some friends for my birthday, and I was very much impressed with the anime’s take on Phantom Blood.  Unfortunately, with a lot of other series I had to complete at the time, I was distracted quite a bit and didn’t get back to it for a while.  Back around October or November, a friend came to my house and (as huge fans of the manga) we decided to give some more of those JoJo episodes a good watch and we got through a decent bit of the Battle Tendency episodes, and it was amazing as always.  Having gotten through more, I decided that, once and for all, I had to watch through the rest of the 2012 anime and I did just that at the beginning of winter break (which seems very far from me now, and a big sign I’m really slow about my posts….).  JoJo 2012 was a fantastic way for me to relive the nostalgia days of early JoJo with flashy new animation, and it really is one of the best ways for newcomers to jump into the JoJo series. Continue reading →

2014
02/09
CATEGORY
Anime
TV
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2000) Review: JoJo’s Prequel OVA

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So this time around I’m going back to JoJo (and as it happens, I have a few other JoJo posts ahead too, though it might take quite a while to actually get to them), this time focusing on the 2000 OVA.  As I mentioned in my post about the original OVA, JoJo (2000) is the second installment of JoJo’s OVA series that actually covers the material prior to the first OVA.  For some reason, there was a 7 year gap between the two, and this clearly shows in the 2000 OVA’s presentation.  The graphics have a much newer feel to them and even the art style itself is different in comparison to that of the original OVA.  In any case, I enjoyed the 1993 JoJo OVA, though it was far from a perfect adaptation.  As for this one?  I’d say for the most part my impressions of this one are about the same as its predecessor, though I can’t say the exact same things about both.  Both of the OVAs have their different strengths and weaknesses, and while I probably enjoyed this one a slight bit more, it wasn’t by such a huge margin that I would consider it significantly superior to the other OVA. Continue reading →

2014
01/27
CATEGORY
Anime
OVA
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Kyoukai no Kanata Review: Confronting One’s Inner Demons

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Slowly but surely I’m catching up on my blogging, and at last I’m writing about one of the ongoings from fall 2013 that actually finished.  The first one of those that ended was Kyoukai no Kanata.  Kyoukai no Kanata was one I was curious about since, for starters, I tend to enjoy Kyoto Animation anime a good deal.  Having watched and loved Chuunibyou, I wondered about seeing KyoAni handle an action-based anime considering how glorious the chuunibyou fights were.  Learning that Kyoukai was going to be a KyoAni action series, I was incredibly delighted and had high hopes for what was ahead.  Now that I’m finished with it, I can definitely say I feel a bit conflicted about this one.  As expected, the fights looked really nice and there were some fantastic ideas from this series, though there were a few reasons I was more disappointed with Kyoukai than I wanted to be. Continue reading →

2014
01/19
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA Review: Stardust Crusaders and The Bizarre Release Order

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So this winter break I’ve gotten around to quite a bit of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and as it happens, the very first thing I finished of it over the break was the 1993 OVA.  I’m a huge fan of the JoJo series and I first began reading the manga a few years ago when I was in middle school, really loving it.  For some reason or another, I got distracted/lazy/a number of other things and just didn’t get around to catching up to it.  I read the first 5 parts and got halfway through 6 but stopped and just didn’t get back to it (which is quite a shame because part 6 and beyond are indeed great as expected of the JoJo name, but that’s for another day).  Much to my surprise, the JoJo anime of 2012 came out and did a brilliant job of covering parts 1 and 2 (again, more on that is also for another day).  I ended up watching through a little over half of the 2012 anime with a friend but didn’t get around to finishing that for some time either, though nowhere near as long as the many years between my part 5 and parts 6-8 run.  Since I got through a good portion of the 2012 anime already, I decided I might as well finish that before jumping into the remaining manga content.  Some of you probably already know that I’m a bit of a picky person about watching order and almost always stick to release order, and to no surprise I did this with the JoJo anime adaptations as well and I think it was ultimately for the better.  That said, I would not recommend others do the same for a variety of reasons, with the exception of those who (like me) are familiar with the manga, or at least parts 1-3.  Since I’ve rambled a bit about my history with the fantastic series that is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I suppose I should get back to the main topic at hand: What did I think of the 1993 OVA?  Well, it didn’t do a bad job with its material, but it’s certainly not the strongest adaptation out there and could probably be skipped on, even more so with this year in mind than in the past. Continue reading →

2014
01/12
CATEGORY
Anime
OVA
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Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai Review: The God of Conquest and 2D vs 3D

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I mentioned before that I’ve been watching Haruhi for my school’s anime club, and this time around I’ll be talking about the other series I’ve been watching there.  A week before the club actually got around to finishing it, I watched through Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, also known as The World God Only Knows, on my own.  It has been a while since I finished TWGOK, as it has been nearly a month since I finished it myself, though I am definitely catching up to my series as far as the blogging goes, even if that list continues to increase as I see more series.  Just like Haruhi, TWGOK ended up being a pretty enjoyable watch for me.  The two definitely had their share of humor and both were great ways to spend some time relaxing after a long day of school.  Of course, the two series are very different aside from that.  TWGOK is, well, an interesting case.  I suppose one might consider it an unconventional harem, though I would need to provide more elaboration on that as this is a very vague description.  It’s often a silly series but it does have its share of touching moments when necessary. Continue reading →

2014
01/06
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Anime
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Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei Review: Spirits in the Sky

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So about two weeks ago, a couple of friends came over to my house and we decided to just watch a bunch of random anime episodes (well, the friend who watched anime and I at least, my other friend didn’t really care all too much).  Most of it was just a bunch of random first episode stuff: my friend showed me the first episodes of Yuru Yuri and Watamote, while I insisted on watching the first episode of Chihayafuru because another friend has told me a great deal about how amazing the series is.  I still have a lot I’m planning to see, so I probably won’t finish up on those for some time, but I do intend to return to them in due time.  That said, there are two things that I made pretty decent progress on, the first of which would be Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei.  Well, to be honest, this was a first episode too, but considering this is a set of seven movies I figured it doesn’t count in quite the same way.  It’s something I’ve been meaning to get to for a while and the movie has its own entry on MyAnimeList, so why not?  Anyway, having finished the first movie…..I wasn’t really too sure what to think.  It’s complicated, and probably supposed to be that way, but it’s still pretty strange. Continue reading →

2013
09/15
CATEGORY
Anime
Anime Movie
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Soul Eater Review: Human Weapons and Madness

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It seems that an era of manga conclusions really is upon us, as not too long after Deadman Wonderland, another one of my ongoings has also finished.  About a week ago I read the final chapter of Soul Eater, and it’s sad to think that another series I’ve kept up with for a good amount of time is actually all done.  I didn’t enjoy this series quite as much as Deadman, but it’s still awesome in any case and to begin with, those two series are hardly comparable anyway.  Soul Eater is quite an interesting case, as one might describe it as a Shounen action but it’s hard to compare it to a lot of the other popular ones out there and it really does have a style of its own. Continue reading →

2013
08/17
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Nekomonogatari: Kuro Review: The Hanekawa Backstory

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Well after about a week or so I’m at last making another post.  In truth I finished Nekomonogatari: Kuro a while ago, but extreme computer issues and many failed attempts to restore lost data have occupied a lot of my time for the past few days so I didn’t get around to writing about it.  Luckily that’s all done with, so I can at last give my thoughts on the third installment of the Monogatari anime.  Anywho, I can say that it was good for exposition and giving more insight on the details of what happened with Araragi and Hanekawa before Bakemonogatari.  It does a good job of setting the stage for the beginning of Monogatari Second season, though I can’t say I enjoyed this arc nearly as much as some of the other arcs from Bake and Nise. Continue reading →

2013
08/09
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