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Previous Reviews
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Recommendations
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I'll constantly be adding to this section as I watch more animes. For now It will just be one big pile but eventually I might work up enough anti-lazy to organize them by episode length or something.
-Kara no Kyoukai
-Neon Genesis Evangelion
-Boogiepop Phantom
-Hayate no Gotoku!
-Serial Experiments Lain
-School Rumble
-Cowboy Bebop
-Samurai Champloo
-Haruhi
-Lucky Star
-Code Geass
-Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
-Miname-ke
-Nausicaä
-Spirited Away
-FLCL
-Golden Boy
-Full Metal Panic? Fomoffu! (Season 1.5)
-Ghost in the Shell (All of them)
-Death Note
-Akira
-Ergo Proxy
-The Place Promised in Our Early Days
-Paprika
-Tekkon Kinkreet
-5 Centimeters Per Second
-Kannagi
*WARNING* - THIS DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS, HOWEVER IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER SINCE THE ANIME IS AWFUL
Chaos;Head - 12 Episodes
This is a visual novel adaptation of a story revolving around a high school guy with a lot of delusions. A psychological / Romance / Sci-fi thriller type of deal (thanks wikipedia).
Well, let me first inform you that I have a deep, deep hatred and prejudice against visual novel/eroge adaptations for anime. I have not watched a single good adaptation since I begun watching anime. Somehow, someway, every single and last fucking time, they will manage to create a terrible anime. Without acception. Always. This likely stems from the fact that they always combine story arcs and choose the main female protagonist ending. (See my thoughts about Clannad for further emphasis)
This anime is actually quite refreshing, unfortunately this break from status quo is in the area of how it achieves to be a bad anime.
Normally you can tell right away that "Oh god I better stay away from this awful work," but when I first started this anime, I thought to myself, "Wow, this might actually break the trend!," However, I was as disillusioned as the main character and horribly mistaken. This actually continued up until around the 8th episode, where it became painfully apparent that I was in for another endurance run of bad anime. Instead of the normal "Hi I'm a bad anime," flier you normally receive upon double clicking the first episode, Chaos;Head shows up disguised as a possibly decent anime and progressively gets ridiculously awful.
You think you're in for a psychological anime from the amount of delusions hes having, however in the end what you get is some fucking stupid quest to destroy a magical machine and old guy with 6 other chicks you at least get to bang in the game, using invisible swords to shoot molecules at each other so you can laugh at how scared they are of mirrors and dogs. What the fuck?
Furthermore the ending completely fucking sucks, however, again, surprisingly not in typical shitty anime fashion. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put the epilogue right before the fucking ending...........????? Honestly, just think about that for a minute; you would think someone would have half a brain to speak up and say, "This won't work, why are we putting the epilogue in the middle of the last episode," but no, no one does this. It's not even remotely justified in the slightest, its just fucking hanging there. You think you're going to see the final battle or whatever and then bam, its the epilogue. Then you go back to the final battle and the mood is ruined. Nice shot.
Another thing that bothered me was how they built up the New Gen shit soooo much, and then completely ended it in the most anti-climatic and unfufilling way possible. The perpetrators are actually the people you expect least for like 10 episodes, and the entire conclusion overall feels half baked and discarded. This is clearly a case where the visual novel media would be advantageous, as you aren't pressured to have 24 minute episodes.
The same poor logic that created the shithole of a final episode also shows its hand in other places. Normally, I don't care how ridiculous things get, I don't care how logic things are, but when it's so apparently awful you point it out and "wtf?" silently to yourself, you know you're doing something wrong. Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime.
Overall the animation and sound were OK but seriously, it was made in LATE 2008, this kind of stuff is to be expected. What wasn't OK was the ED which was completely unfitting for 10 of the 12 total episodes. You finish watching some of the psychological scenes in the early episodes, then all of a sudden you're greeted with "SUPER SPECIAL" in a high pitched happy ED I would have expected in a 2 man production of a shitty romantic comedy.
Overall, this could have turned out to be a decent anime, but whoever made this shit really dropped the ball. Things like Taku's annoying voice made it impossible for it to be a satisfying psychological anime, which apparently the anime creators gave up on halfway through anyways.
[4/10] - Really now, I'm being generous just for the sake of the fact that it COULD have turned out ok, unlike its other brothers.... I'm sure all visual novels turned anime are great games (Otherwise they wouldn't have garnered enough money to create an anime), but seriously they just can't break the curse of being really bad, every time. You know you want to avoid an anime when it's so bad that the only things you're laughing at are how bad it is.
+ Show Spoiler +For the record, I did find one part funny, and that's when he randomly has a delusion of getting a footjob in like the middle of the street.
I'll probably end up watching Gintama next so look forward to that.
Gintama is too long, watching Baccano! next.
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the list you recommend is really diverse
what would be the one anime that i have to see that is not mainstream? I really want to dedicate couple days of my life to something like that
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For the record, his voice isn't any manlier in the visual novel.
Also, how are you going to actually review Gintama, are you aiming to go through the over 120episodes there is out? -.-
...and what is that thing about the "epilogue", I don't know what kind of screwed up translations you are watching, but that was not an epilogue, that was a world he created at that point in a desperate attempt to distance himself from reality.
Really, reading your review, I can't help but wonder if we saw the same product. Maybe my brain automatically fills in gaps because I read the original, but Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime. is completely justified in the anime, far as I can recall. Not that I think the anime did the visual novel justice (at that I thought it blew considering the original's quality), but a lot of your issues seems to be about something that appears to be explained readily in the anime...like, the point of it was that he in fact had the ability to do all that, it looks pretty retarded when they draw it out like that, but justifications are given.
Oh, and PC version is all age, single route, I recall hearing about 360 version being 18+ though.
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i saw the poster for this anime and was like "omg best anime evar!?!" then i realized it was shit after a few episodes and stopped watching, i saw the last episode when it came out though.
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haha... thnx for watching it before us...
would hate to wast time wasting time watching anime.
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On March 10 2009 12:57 Ecael wrote:For the record, his voice isn't any manlier in the visual novel. Also, how are you going to actually review Gintama, are you aiming to go through the over 120episodes there is out? -.- ...and what is that thing about the "epilogue", I don't know what kind of screwed up translations you are watching, but that was not an epilogue, that was a world he created at that point in a desperate attempt to distance himself from reality. Really, reading your review, I can't help but wonder if we saw the same product. Maybe my brain automatically fills in gaps because I read the original, but Show nested quote +Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime. is completely justified in the anime, far as I can recall. Not that I think the anime did the visual novel justice (at that I thought it blew considering the original's quality), but a lot of your issues seems to be about something that appears to be explained readily in the anime... Oh, and PC version is all age, single route, I recall hearing about 360 version being 18+ though.
Hmm, isn't the game, as well as other dating sim type games, all japanese so you can't really play them? I'm sure there isn't an english version out there, is there?
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you dont have honey and clover or nodame cantabile in your recommended list
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Try Baccano! and Ga-Rei Zero 
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Baccano is excellent, when I get around to reading the light novels after getting through FMP and perhaps Scrapped Princess light novels I might write a review based on both the anime and text version.
Ga-rei...well, the first episode managed to keep me going for a long time just to see why the hell they pulled that stunt.
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On March 10 2009 13:05 ilovezil wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2009 12:57 Ecael wrote:For the record, his voice isn't any manlier in the visual novel. Also, how are you going to actually review Gintama, are you aiming to go through the over 120episodes there is out? -.- ...and what is that thing about the "epilogue", I don't know what kind of screwed up translations you are watching, but that was not an epilogue, that was a world he created at that point in a desperate attempt to distance himself from reality. Really, reading your review, I can't help but wonder if we saw the same product. Maybe my brain automatically fills in gaps because I read the original, but Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime. is completely justified in the anime, far as I can recall. Not that I think the anime did the visual novel justice (at that I thought it blew considering the original's quality), but a lot of your issues seems to be about something that appears to be explained readily in the anime... Oh, and PC version is all age, single route, I recall hearing about 360 version being 18+ though. Hmm, isn't the game, as well as other dating sim type games, all japanese so you can't really play them? I'm sure there isn't an english version out there, is there?
What makes you think I can't read Japanese 
I might have to bug Haji for help when it comes to more technical stuff but I do fine otherwise!
Oh, as for Chaos;Head, I saw an English patch out the other day from fan groups, I can't guarantee for the quality though, at that I think that patch is at RC1 right now, so people giving them feedbacks could be helpful.
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Hmm, you've put Lain on your list. If I remember correctly, my brain was mushed for a few days after watching that acide trip/anime.
It was a good anime.
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On March 10 2009 13:09 Ecael wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2009 13:05 ilovezil wrote:On March 10 2009 12:57 Ecael wrote:For the record, his voice isn't any manlier in the visual novel. Also, how are you going to actually review Gintama, are you aiming to go through the over 120episodes there is out? -.- ...and what is that thing about the "epilogue", I don't know what kind of screwed up translations you are watching, but that was not an epilogue, that was a world he created at that point in a desperate attempt to distance himself from reality. Really, reading your review, I can't help but wonder if we saw the same product. Maybe my brain automatically fills in gaps because I read the original, but Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime. is completely justified in the anime, far as I can recall. Not that I think the anime did the visual novel justice (at that I thought it blew considering the original's quality), but a lot of your issues seems to be about something that appears to be explained readily in the anime... Oh, and PC version is all age, single route, I recall hearing about 360 version being 18+ though. Hmm, isn't the game, as well as other dating sim type games, all japanese so you can't really play them? I'm sure there isn't an english version out there, is there? What makes you think I can't read Japanese I might have to bug Haji for help when it comes to more technical stuff but I do fine otherwise! Oh, as for Chaos;Head, I saw an English patch out the other day from fan groups, I can't guarantee for the quality though, at that I think that patch is at RC1 right now, so people giving them feedbacks could be helpful.
Teach me some japanese then :p
Seriously, I really should learn to read/write the language. Haji recommended some basic stuff a while back, but I never made it a habit to learn. All I know is random vocabulary from the sheer amounts of anime I've seen
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On March 10 2009 12:57 Ecael wrote:For the record, his voice isn't any manlier in the visual novel. Also, how are you going to actually review Gintama, are you aiming to go through the over 120episodes there is out? -.- ...and what is that thing about the "epilogue", I don't know what kind of screwed up translations you are watching, but that was not an epilogue, that was a world he created at that point in a desperate attempt to distance himself from reality. Really, reading your review, I can't help but wonder if we saw the same product. Maybe my brain automatically fills in gaps because I read the original, but Show nested quote +Apparently, man now has the ability to slap a chick from ten feet away. Apparently, the main character can climb down a giant crater to save his friends in half a second, faster than I could ever set a up noose in order to lynch myself for continually watching bad anime. is completely justified in the anime, far as I can recall. Not that I think the anime did the visual novel justice (at that I thought it blew considering the original's quality), but a lot of your issues seems to be about something that appears to be explained readily in the anime...like, the point of it was that he in fact had the ability to do all that, it looks pretty retarded when they draw it out like that, but justifications are given. Oh, and PC version is all age, single route, I recall hearing about 360 version being 18+ though.
Thanks for the heads up, somehow I got it into my mind that there was only like 24 episodes, but I just double checked and I now realize that i have like 90 episodes sitting on my hard drive, I'll save that one for the summer or something...
As for climbing down faster than its possible to fall down, I literally saw nothing that would justify me interpreting it as him doing whatever he does. One second hes looking down, and the very next scene hes there. I know he can pretty much do whatever he wants but come on, that's just poor decision making. At that point I don't even know how much control he has.
The slapping was equally as bad. The evil guy just slaps the chick, and the next scene hes ten feet away. The scene would have been much improved if they spent the extra 5 minutes drawing him taking a couple steps backwards or something. The ambiguity shows a lack of quality to me, despite whatever powers these people may have.
Hmm. As for the ratings, that is very surprising. Clearly it has the foundation of an eroge from what I observed in the anime. Maybe I'm jumping the gun with my visual novel analysis, however the critique still remains accurate, despite my inferences being inaccurate.
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On March 10 2009 13:06 SpiritoftheTunA wrote:
you dont have honey and clover or nodame cantabile in your recommended list
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Because... I haven't watched them. I'll get around to them.
On March 10 2009 13:16 cosiant wrote:
Hmm, you've put Lain on your list. If I remember correctly, my brain was mushed for a few days after watching that acide trip/anime.
It was a good anime.
One of my first and favorite animes.
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I can't really say much if you are simply going by your observations, the show has constantly reinforced the idea that what you see is not necessarily true, thus the many completely confusing moments (Footjob in open~). This doesn't only apply to the delusion triggers as they were called in game, but also to what you are shown. I am fairly sure that they have explained sufficiently in words in terms of what's involved, because I remember watching and thinking that it was shit in terms of animation, but never having any issue in terms of the causation of all these things. The ambiguity that you observe when she was slapped is again an example of the point that they are trying to drive in, when the giant machine of evil can teleport wherever by magical means I don't really see that as a lack of quality. That they have explained the sources of these powers sufficiently is enough, the rest simply falls to you as the observer to properly catch what is going on, that you didn't note things that were explained many times though doesn't really bear well on your observation. Not that I'd blame you, at that point I am finding myself being distracted by any small thing that didn't have to do with the anime, and I have knowledge of the novel, so the poor quality of the show is certainly not to be denied.
EDIT - And it doesn't have what it takes to be an eroge, if you want to make those snappy decisions, you might be better served starting to actually read the eroges in question and then watch the anime adaptations to see what would show.
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On March 10 2009 13:49 Ecael wrote:
I can't really say much if you are simply going by your observations, the show has constantly reinforced the idea that what you see is not necessarily true, thus the many completely confusing moments (Footjob in open~). This doesn't only apply to the delusion triggers as they were called in game, but also to what you are shown. I am fairly sure that they have explained sufficiently in words in terms of what's involved, because I remember watching and thinking that it was shit in terms of animation, but never having any issue in terms of the causation of all these things. The ambiguity that you observe when she was slapped is again an example of the point that they are trying to drive in, when the giant machine of evil can teleport wherever by magical means I don't really see that as a lack of quality. That they have explained the sources of these powers sufficiently is enough, the rest simply falls to you as the observer to properly catch what is going on, that you didn't note things that were explained many times though doesn't really bear well on your observation. Not that I'd blame you, at that point I am finding myself being distracted by any small thing that didn't have to do with the anime, and I have knowledge of the novel, so the poor quality of the show is certainly not to be denied.
EDIT - And it doesn't have what it takes to be an eroge, if you want to make those snappy decisions, you might be better served starting to actually read the eroges in question and then watch the anime adaptations to see what would show.
You don't seem to understand the fact that I DO realize what you're saying, however the scenes in question are not similar to the common delusions and instances of sending particles or whatever. Its just funny that they skip from one thing to another at the speed of light with no logical basis whatsoever, and by logical I mean its not parallel with what consistently was shown in the show.
If what I'm seeing isn't necessarily true, is Taku really going into the hole to save his friends? If not, is he just saving them from above ground because he's too lazy to go down, but concerned about his image so much so that he would spend what I would assume costs him energy to project himself as going to help his friends? Does he even save them? Is he even there? If so, then why even draw the damn scene. I don't think I'm wrong to base my opinion off of observation in this case.
Clearly you're misunderstanding; I'll upload some videos tomorrow to show what I'm talking about.
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Yeah Baccano is great, thanks for the awesome reviews, watching Karas now =)
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I actually liked it a bit better than other adaptations and stuff in a similar genre. I quickly realised it wasn't going to be amazing after the first few episodes so I lowered my expectations a lot. That's probably why I liked the ending, the same way you like it when a boring movie finally finishes.
At first I expected it to be more focused on the psychological thriller aspect, basically just the main character being insane and trying to figure it out. But when it was obvious there was some magical hocus pocus going on I guess I just turned my brain off and enjoyed it for what it appeared to be.
With something like FLCL you can watch it as it is on the surface and explore the deeper meanings, but I think if you try that with this one you'll hit rock pretty quickly.
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On March 10 2009 14:33 xmShake wrote:Show nested quote +On March 10 2009 13:49 Ecael wrote:
I can't really say much if you are simply going by your observations, the show has constantly reinforced the idea that what you see is not necessarily true, thus the many completely confusing moments (Footjob in open~). This doesn't only apply to the delusion triggers as they were called in game, but also to what you are shown. I am fairly sure that they have explained sufficiently in words in terms of what's involved, because I remember watching and thinking that it was shit in terms of animation, but never having any issue in terms of the causation of all these things. The ambiguity that you observe when she was slapped is again an example of the point that they are trying to drive in, when the giant machine of evil can teleport wherever by magical means I don't really see that as a lack of quality. That they have explained the sources of these powers sufficiently is enough, the rest simply falls to you as the observer to properly catch what is going on, that you didn't note things that were explained many times though doesn't really bear well on your observation. Not that I'd blame you, at that point I am finding myself being distracted by any small thing that didn't have to do with the anime, and I have knowledge of the novel, so the poor quality of the show is certainly not to be denied.
EDIT - And it doesn't have what it takes to be an eroge, if you want to make those snappy decisions, you might be better served starting to actually read the eroges in question and then watch the anime adaptations to see what would show. You don't seem to understand the fact that I DO realize what you're saying, however the scenes in question are not similar to the common delusions and instances of sending particles or whatever. Its just funny that they skip from one thing to another at the speed of light with no logical basis whatsoever, and by logical I mean its not parallel with what consistently was shown in the show. If what I'm seeing isn't necessarily true, is Taku really going into the hole to save his friends? If not, is he just saving them from above ground because he's too lazy to go down, but concerned about his image so much so that he would spend what I would assume costs him energy to project himself as going to help his friends? Does he even save them? Is he even there? If so, then why even draw the damn scene. I don't think I'm wrong to base my opinion off of observation in this case. Clearly you're misunderstanding; I'll upload some videos tomorrow to show what I'm talking about.
So essentially, the directing sucks and can't make you think the way that you are supposed to when you are watching a scene? In that case we agree and I'd be compensating off the knowledge from reading to know exactly why things are happening instead of looking at a scene and finding it completely pointless.
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You should do a review on Wolfs rain or Vision of Escaflowne. I think they should be added to your recommendation list  .
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i liked baccano!
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I'm sure all visual novels turned anime are great games (Otherwise they wouldn't have garnered enough money to create an anime), but seriously they just can't break the curse of being really bad, every time. I never saw this show, nor have I heard of anyone who liked it. But I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. Did you really dislike Air, Kanon, Ef, Higurashi, etc?
And watch Baccano, it's great :D
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On March 27 2009 13:10 triangle wrote:Show nested quote +I'm sure all visual novels turned anime are great games (Otherwise they wouldn't have garnered enough money to create an anime), but seriously they just can't break the curse of being really bad, every time. I never saw this show, nor have I heard of anyone who liked it. But I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. Did you really dislike Air, Kanon, Ef, Higurashi, etc? And watch Baccano, it's great :D
Admittedly, Higurashi was a nice change of pace. Haven't seen the others, but from what I can blankly recall for random sources I've heard good things about them as well.
I guess I came off too strong as "ALL VISUAL NOVELS WILL SUCK IN ANIME FORM" but generally it holds true (in the VAST majority of what I've seen). While not all visual novels -> anime suck, using the rule as a general guideline sure sifts through a lot of shit for you. In any and all cases though, proper investigation is needed before judgement is passed.
Bacanno put me to sleep.
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Read the visual novel(although quite a while back) but never saw the anime. Other than the main character, I really liked it. The story itself was quite nice.
On March 27 2009 13:18 xmShake wrote:
I guess I came off too strong as "ALL VISUAL NOVELS WILL SUCK IN ANIME FORM" but generally it holds true (in the VAST majority of what I've seen). While not all visual novels -> anime suck, using the rule as a general guideline sure sifts through a lot of shit for you.
In what order do you usually watch/read them? Adaptations will almost always suck if you read the original, longer, more detailed source material. This applies to other things too, like movie adaptation of novels. Or anime adaptation of light novels.
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