Munich 1923. Two years have passed since Edward Elric's sacrifice ripped him out of his world and into ours, separating him from his younger brother, Alphonse. In that time, Ed's continued research into rocketry has allied him with Alphonse Heiderich, a fellow researcher who oddly resembles Ed's brother. Progress has been slow, however, Ed has become discouraged. But when he saves a quiet Gypsy girl with the power to read minds, Ed is quickly pulled into a plot by the Thule Society and the burgeoning Nazi Party that could drag both worlds into a terrible war. Back in his own world, Al has been unlocking new secrets of alchemy and gaining incredible powers, all in the hopes of finding Ed. You're unable to use alchemy in the real world so they wait for someone from the Alchemy to perform a transmutation circle that will be some kind of gateway between each worlds. And when that happens it'll be a battle to the finish. The fate of both worlds are in the hands of the Elric Bros. This movie features a lot of familiar characters from the series, including alter egos in the real world. Those who like the TV series might like this movie. It has action, suspense, and it tries to tie up all the loose ends that were left off in the last episode. What I really didn't understand was why in the mother of fuck would they add Germany and Hitler?? That is the stories biggest fault. Adding WWII and Hitler... WHY ?? The series was not perfect but at least it was making sense..well, kind of...and didn't need Hitler. It didn't even need Germany. The animation and voice acting were great, but with an idiotic plot, dull setting (most of the movie takes place in dull WWII Earth rather than the Alchemy world), and disappointing ending (Ed is useless for the rest of his days in a world with no alchemy). Decent shit turned into a bad movie. Nothing new here, moving on.
This time I’m reviewing another mecha, and I think this one is one of the most brilliant mecha productions out there. Gundam SEED. No… no it’s not about Gundam jerking off and releasing his seed. SEED refers to some kind of evolution, but I will let you reveal that for yourselves. At first it seems kind of standard, kind of ,,been there done that”, nothing special… but as you continue, each episode gets more and more interesting and the story gets more intense. If you haven’t changed the screen yet, then I think you might be interested in what I have to say, so here are my thoughts on this one.
The story is set in the Cosmic Era. The series begins with the Bloody Valentine War between Earth and the colonies. On one side is the Earth Alliance, and on the opposite are the space colonies that form ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty). Mankind is divided over human genetic engineering, with normal humans known as "Naturals" and the genetically altered humans known as "Coordinators", which have enhanced physical and mental capabilities. While ZAFT has a head start on mobile suit design, the Earth Alliance quickly catches up with its five prototype Gundams. With ZAFT having stolen four of the prototypes, young Coordinator Kira Yamato pilots the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam and is forced to fight his old friend Athrun Zala. Little do they know that there exist sinister forces working to bring events that go far beyond their worst nightmares. One thing that I complain about in most mecha anime, and it’s nothing major, but… why in the name of holy fuck do they have teenagers pilot giant-ass robots, and kill a lot. I mean it’s not something rare in mecha anime, to have teenagers pilot mecha suits, so it gets old and you’re like ,,Well that’s a fucking surprise… haven’t we seen this already?”. It also makes me think that anyone can do it, even I. Imagine I just go in one of those things, pull something and the robot will… play… frigging Mozart or something like that. And the pilots instantly go from ,,I can’t handle this” to ,,I’m a fucking expert”. There is nothing in between; they get accustomed to it so quick that it’s almost ridiculous. But anyway, that doesn’t mean that this is a big complaint, it’s just a minor detail I encounter a lot, and I’m sure you encounter it a lot as well. Still this thing influences the story a lot cause it shows how Kira gets troubled about many things (e.g. Can’t protect someone) since he is at an age that doesn’t have much life experience, and it also helps at character development and how he interacts with others.
So there are enough plot twists and drama to make an intriguing story, but it’s the war, the epic battles and the awesome action that attracts you to this. Cause that’s what you expect from it, right? Giant robots with guys inside piloting them, pushing God knows what to make them tango if they have to, and battling each other to the death. If you expect mind numbing action and great battles, then Gundam SEED delivers exactly what you expect. One minor problem is that the battles sometimes get too repetitive. You see the same bad guys fighting the same good guys and the outcome is always the same… bad guys flee, good guys win. And when somebody actually gets hurt or killed (yes, we have such moments… we must have such moments), the pacing changes a bit and you feel like you get a breath of fresh air. Sometimes the enemies change as well, and the battlefields (it’s not always in space), and you get something new. But repetitiveness remains an issue. Imagine you play basketball with the same friends, with the same outcome… 10 TIMES IN A FRIGGING ROW. But aside from that, the battles are awesome, and even if it gets repetitive, you’ll still watch every one of them. The character cast is big, but not so diverse. It has a lot of characters that don’t influence things much (e.g. Kira’s friends) and are there just for shits and giggles. Sometimes they help for character development, sometimes they actually do something worthy, like helping Kira in battle, but most of the times you get the feeling like you can do without them. And worst is that they don’t have anything worth mentioning and act the same, like they all do and say the same things. Also some of them feel like they were copied from other anime. But at least they don’t interfere much, and the story focuses on what it’s supposed to focus… Kira and Athrun: the 2 friends that have to battle each other. These 2 you focus your attention the most on, and the other characters feel like they are there just to help these 2 progress. It’s hard to explain, but… it’s like if you think about your life as an anime series, then all the other characters in your life are there to help you progress in the story. But even though I think that some characters are useless, I also think that they did a good job with the cast, and I’m sure that very few (if at all) share my opinion about uselessness. Presentation is flawless. You have to remind yourself that it’s 2002, so naturally if you watch it now it will feel outdated, but for 2002 it is well done. Character models are good, but feel copied while some feel like they are the foundation for future models. At least they are distinct amongst each other, and don’t get repetitive. But what makes this one good is the coloring. Not just special effects but also characters and objects get the same coloring treatment, which reflect personalities and make things eye pleasing. Voice cast (I’m talking about dub) is believable, even though sometimes feels forced, and sound effects are realistic. The opening(s) and ending aren’t memorable for me, but the music that accompanies the action always feels in-place.
Overall, this is a must see for all of you mecha or sci-fi fans, and I promise that you will not be disappointed. And if you don’t believe me, as proof, look at its ratings and read forums. It’s not just a winner for male viewers, but also has a lot of girl fans. So if you’re busting your balls (or something else if you don’t have balls) on what to see next, you should give this one a try.
So, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto… couldn’t they have picked a longer and harder to pronounce title. I mean it’s not the longest, I’ve seen longer (this ,,I’ve seen longer” talk sounds like I’m gay), but the ideal title is one that you can pronounce 5 times. Try saying Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 5 times. Well anyway, this is one of the requests we got for the ,,Do you know crappy-shit-ass anime” post, but unfortunately I can’t classify this one as such. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s no masterpiece and it has some critical flaws, but it’s not retarded and I found myself enjoying it, although that started happening after the 6th episode, but we’ll get to that. The story is about a guy named Youjiro Akidzuki and his destiny. He is an Eternal Assassin and an excellent samurai, and he must find and seal (or destroy) The Head of The Lord. No, not Jesus Christ. The Lord is some guy from China that was killed 2004 years ago and his head haunted and brought chaos, war and death to the land until he was sealed and brought to Japan. So of course now he was unsealed, and he starts spreading chaos. Akidzuki meets a traveling actor troupe that he kind of befriends. I’m not going to start naming them, it was hard enough to memorize them, but they play an important part in the story, especially the girl they call Chief. The story seems simplistic and boring at first, but that’s only for the first 6 or 7 episodes. These are the episodes that start the story. Here you have to struggle memorizing each character, understanding them and their purposes, and figuring out Akidzuki and the Lord’s Head, which is hard considering they don’t talk a lot about that. But if you get past these episodes the story starts accelerating and different twists and turns appear, which aren’t the most genius things, but are unexpected and work out well. Also, what I can promise you is action. The anime delivers good fight scenes, and there is one that I particularly like and that is Akidzuki’s fight with a guy wielding 2 pistols like a cowboy. What I’d like to address is the ridiculous amount of characters. I mean the troupe alone makes up a quarter of the cast that is presented in the first 2 or 3 episodes, and that list grows every episode. Some of them die, but there is always someone to take his place. While I always welcome big and diverse character casts, here they went a bit overboard because it gets confusing and the fact that you have to memorize their names and background doesn’t help at all. Plus there are a lot of historical figures that play important parts in the story so it gets even more confusing. Reading about it you probably are thinking ,,Oh, he’s just exaggerating” but believe me, if you watch it, then you are gonna see a lot of screens that have names on it. Not like in the subs, but next to a characters face like saying ,,This is him”. And since I’m talking about history know that this is the second fuck up. As the name implies the action takes place in the Bakumatsu era. When is that? ,,Well go figure out yourselves” is what the anime implies. I mean it doesn’t give you a specific number. It’s confusing enough as it is, why not give me a historical time I don’t know about. And how could I? I never learned that at school and I’m sure neither have you. But you quickly see two guys with pistols fighting samurai so… I guess they present different visual clues and auditory facts that obviously hint you to the year 1856 or so. I’m guessing it’s the time that Japan got out of its political seclusion (yeah I know a little history). But… I welcome the fact that they try and mix history with entertainment, but… why in the love of fuck are they presenting me a FUCKING THESIS. I mean the narrator (yeah we have one of those) almost constantly presents you different historical facts that don’t influence the story and you don’t need. I mean it gets annoying, and it just takes up time. It’s confusing enough as it is, and plus if you’re gonna talk about some historical stuff, then present it to the end, don’t just go ,Because of this event, shit happened” cause I’ve no idea what the event consists of. Also there are a lot of historical characters, which is bad, but I think they did a good job with those. The fictional character are uninspired and it seems like the were copied from other anime and only had their shape and personal background changed, but they act and have the same personality as other characters from other anime. I mean this guy Akidzuki is a painfully obvious copy of Himura Kenshin from the OVA Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen also known as Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal. Watch Bakumatsu and Samurai X in parallel and you’ll be convinced. The only difference between them is their appearance and the fact that Akidzuki’s eyes glow a lot like he’s about to go Super Sayan. But the historical characters are better. It’s like… you know they are copies, but they are supposed to be copies, and excellent copies they are. I read about many of these characters on Wiki and was astound of how well they represented these characters. I saw some pictures and they even look the same (the real and the copy). It’s like they made ,,copy paste” from history directly into the anime. There are a lot of useless characters as well. But they try and make every one important. For example there was a messenger who averted a battle thanks to his speed and the message he delivered. But after a couple of episodes, when I forgot about him, they show a scene after a battle and some guy looks for his friend. Turns out his friend was the messenger, and he died in battle and the narrator suddenly comes in and starts talking about this guy saying ,,This guy, who did this, and thanks to that this did or didn’t happen, died like this on this day”. But even worse is when he (narrator) talks about certain characters that haven’t but WILL die. It’s like ,,This guy, know as this, who did this, and thanks to that this happened, will die like this after this much time”. It’s like they are spoiling. You don’t see that happen, but you know it, so it’s something like spoiling. And does this sound like fun, hearing the narrator talk a lot about shit you don’t care ?(unless you’re Japanese, which I apologize for saying such things) It’s like they wanted to include different stuff just to make the series longer. The presentation is good. Although the characters have copied personalities, their models look good and rich in color and detail. Background is a bit fucked up, but only in night scenes, and those are few and usually have a lot of action going on, so you don’t pay much attention, but it’s like the background has one color scheme and that is a darkish blue. It’s monotonous, but I say again, you don’t pay much attention to it because of the action. The sound department didn’t slack of as well. They deliver believable voice acting, realistic sound effects and nice music, particularly the opening. In conclusion this one has a lot of flaws but if you get past the first 6 episodes and accept the history lessons, you get a nice and fun experience that you might enjoy. Let’s put it this way… Although I don’t recommend it as a ,,must see", I’m not against you downloading it and giving it a try.
p.s. Although i found the full version of this song on YouTube, it contains a lot of spoilers for those that might be interested in checking this one out, so i put the short version, but know that the full versionn rocks.
