Arcane Reviews: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Hello ladies, peolpes, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer! Here to bring you another anime review. Well I'd be lying if I didn't say that I have been looking forward to this review. An anime that has taken people by storm when if first released in Japan and an anime which is a brilliant deconstruction of the magical girl genre of anime. I bring you my review of, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Let get started shall we?

Story:

The story centers around a young girl named Madoka who is relatively a normal girl. She has a loving family and two very good friends as well. Everything changes though when a new student named Homura Akemi comes to her school and she seems to know Madoka in some strange way. Later on she meets Kyubey, a cat like creature who ends up offering Madoka and her friend Sayaka to become magical girls. But little do they know, a dark destiny awaits young Madoka and her friends. A destiny that will change Madoka and all of her loved ones, forever. Madoka Magica's story is truly a very amazing thing to see. The story is a deconstruction of the magical girl anime as a whole. It takes the normal lay out of what happens in magical girl anime and just shows all of the dark reality that comes with it. This show does not pull any punches when it happens either and the story is more character focused as well. Sure we get surprisingly well animated action scenes but that's not really the point of the show. You get the real meat and the real action from all the dialog and character interaction we see. This my friends is why the story is without a doubt the best part of the show.

Animation:

Production wise this show looks great. Don't let the art style fool you, just because they have all this cutesy light hearted art style and character design doesn't mean that they don't get dark and heavy on the visuals for the story. The animation just looks so freaking great all throughout the show and it never drops quality through the whole 12 episodes. The show starts off fun and happy like what you would expect from a magical girl anime but then when the show gets fucked up, the animated does a damn good job to make everything seem even darker. Studio Shaft does a great job here and make Madoka a wonder for the eyes.

Music:

Oh my fucking god! The music......the music!!! The music in this show is just plan out amazing. I absolutely love the music in this show and the music just goes hand and hand so well with every event that happens in the show. The music just pulls all of the heart strings to just make you feel all of the ways of emotions that the show throws at you. Also you get a great amount of badass battle music when a fight goes down! All of the music in this show is just oh so wonderful to listen to and I love it all.

Characters:

If I could wish for anything to see in all other anime that I watch, I wish that all anime that I see in the future will have such a strong and fleshed out development as all of the characters in this anime. The characters in Madoka are the strongest part of the show. They all get enough development and there personalities and back stories are given so much care and attention to that I just couldn't believe that I could get so invested into a character this much in only 12 episodes. The character that I feel is the true start of the show is Homura Akemi. She's just a completely well made, well developed, well thought-out character that I just fell in love with her. Her back story is also amazing too! Without giving away any spoilers I'll just say that after watching her back story, the show left me in tears. That's how damn good she is.

Nitpicks:

Once again I find myself in a awkward position because it would be a sin if I say anything bad. I loved everything about this show so much that I couldn't find anything that I disliked. So once again I suggest that we move on to the overall section.

Overall:

If it wasn't obvious from this whole review I guess I'll just say it here. I fucking love Madoka Magica. This is one of the best anime I have seen and it stand with some of my favorites like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Elfen Lied, and Evangelion. I highly recommend this animes to anyone who's a fan of anime. It's an amazing treat and it's one of my favorites.

Arcane Reviewer gives Puella Magi Madoka Magica a 10 out of 10.    

Arcane Reviews: Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer, here to bring you a brand new anime review. Oh boy I've got a special treat for you guys. Considered an anime classic I bring you, Serial Experiments Lain. An anime that I feel has won a special place in my heart. But enough of all that I think I should tell you just what Lain's all about.

Story:

Lain takes place in a cyber punk future in which mankind has the Wired. What the Wired is basically is the internet but on steroids. The Wired is such a huge part of everyone's life that it pretty much is a whole world in of it's own which is crazy at times. In this cyber punk world we see a high school girl ends up jumping off a building and no one knows why. Later we're introduced to Lain, a very socially awkward who is so disconnected from society that she doesn't even know how to work her computer. She learns from her fellow classmates about the young girl's suicide and finds out that everyone's been getting emails from said dead girl. Finding this very odd, Lain jumps on her computer for pretty much the first time ever she actually gets in contact with the dead girl. She soon figures out that the reason for her suicide was because she's found a God in the Wired. This all leads Lain into a spiral of deep madness and cyber punk goodness. Lain's story is really a gem of a story, really because it doesn't follow the conventional means of story telling. Lain takes the the linear way to tell a story and plays with it to the point of a story that feels like you're missing something but you don't know what. Like while a story goes into a straight line with all pieces falling into place nicely, Lain goes into the line but decides to rip large pieces of that line out and leaves you wondering where the pieces are. It's a show that you need to pay attention to because you'll be lost if you don't. It's a really interesting story that if you give it time you'll be sucked into the story but you will be very lost until you put the pieces in yourself.

Animation:

The animation here is pretty freaking good. Mind you I have the remastered version that FUNimation re-released on blu-ray so of course it's gonna look good. But that being said the animation style is very gritty and unpolished but this look works for the mood that the show gives across. The show having a very dark and very unclear mood that the show gives across so in response the style goes hand in hand with the mood. It was a very nice thing to see but I will say that it's pretty ugly at times. While I understood why it looked like this I do feel that some people will be turned off by the it because the show was in made in the 90's. So no matter how much you clean up animation it will always looked aged and Lain's animations has aged. While it hasn't aged badly I still feel as though people that are too used to the animation of today they might not like this animation.

Music:

Now this is gonna be a little tricky of a topic to talk about here. The reason being that Lain has very little music that it's almost pointless for me to talk about. Now the show does have music that really isn't anything to talk about in full length. Now the music that is presented in the show does match the feeling and the mood of the scene and the overall mood of the show I have nothing to say that isn't note worthy. So music is not Lain's biggest strength but I don't think that's a bad thing.

Characters:

This is also a tricky thing to talk about as well. The characters are very hard to talk about here but not because of little scene time or even because they're bad but because they don't have one particular character trait or even one character type. The show will introduced a character and that character might changed their personality by the second episode. Lain is the only real clear cut character as well as her friend Alice and at the same time these two go through so much crap and mindfuckery that by the end of the show they're completely different characters. I do fell that the characters are great because they're just as lost as you are while watching but they do have a better understanding of what happening but not by much. So I feel that the characters are great but they are a bit out there and might not be easy to grasp at first.

Nitpicks:

This is going to be a tough one for me. I really like this show but to be completely honest the biggest nitpick here is that the show is too weird and misleading for it's own good. The show is not and I mean is not for casual viewers, you be lost and you will want to turn off the T.V. Also the voice acting is just okay, In thought is represented the very lost feeling of the show I do think that people will just see it as the voice actors just sucking at their jobs. The show is a bit of a mess of a show and it will turn poeple off which hurts the show a lot.

Overall:

To end my review I will say this, I love this show but not everyone will. If you're a person who loves anime that has deep philosophical and is very open ended with the way it portrays it's story telling and the way we see society. The show tells a very interesting story that brings up a lot of meaningful questions that I feel still hold up today, which is why I love it so much. But for everyone else I have to say you should pass on this one. It's a show that demands you're attentions or else it will leave you in the dust.

Arcane Reviewer gives Serial Experiments Lain a 7.5 out of 10.

Arcane Reviews: Trigun

Trigun

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer here to bring you another anime review. Now I feel as though that I have enough experience to review an anime classic........okay maybe I don't but I feel as though I can probably handle one of the most beloved anime of all time. I am talking of course of Trigun. So can this anime stand the test of time? Well lets find out.

Story:

The story of Trigun takes place on the fictional planet of Gunsmoke where we follow the two lovable business ladies Meryl and Milly as they are sent on a business trip to come in contact with the Human Typhoon Vash the Stampede. A man who's so dangerous and merciless it's said that he took out a whole city full of people all by himself. Vash is so dangerous that he has a bounty on his head that's almost unheard of, sixty billion double dollars! Why they're called double dollars is something that I always wanted to know but at last it's never explained. But anyway, Vash is a monster of a man......or so Meryl and Milly though. It turns out that Vash is nothing more then a loud mouth, doughnut eating, womanizing, idiot.The is so much of an idiot he actually forgot that his gun was empty........while being held at gun point. So we follow Vash, Meryl, and Milly as they go on little adventures all through out the desert covered land of Gunsmoke. Now I know this story doesn't seem like much at first glance but trust me, once the ball starts rolling it will not stop. The anime starts out very light hearted and fun! Then it takes a nose dive down into some really dark stuff. Now I won't go any farther as to not spoil the rest of the story but i will say that it not only gets intense but it gets really emotional.

Animation:
The animation it actually quite good here. Now I will admit that this show is pretty old so it might seem a little weird to people who are used to the really slick and clean animation of today. But all that being said I love the the animation in this show. Everything moves very nicely and while the show may reuse old animation from time to time they never really over did it with the reusing it. I felt as though the whole show was very well animated and does indeed stand the test of time by still looking very good even to this day.

Music:
The music from Trigun is pretty awesome. The music in this show is actually very different from what you'll see in other anime. The music is very western and comprises of guitar and drums, all of the music is really sets the atmosphere perfectly to the whole setting of the anime. Also it has one of the best opening theme songs in anime history. The whole theme is just played in guitar with drums and bass. No lyrics are needed here my friends this opening is just so damn awesome the thought of lyrics in this intro would just ruin it. So music is really freaking awesome here and it puts you in the mood for some Trigun action.

Characters:
Characters is Trigun's strongest and weakest point. To starts off the main character Vash is probably one of the most well written characters in anime. He has a character arc that flat out just stomp on every other character arc I've ever seen in any anime. We also have a very good supporting of really three. The characters being Meryl, Milly, and Wolfwood a badass priest who caries around a giant cross that doubles as a machine gun and a rocket launcher, also it has a whole set of pistols in stock just in case.......Wolfwood is awesome! We also have really cool villains that I can't go into sadly for two reasons. One if I were to talk about them I would have to spoil the plot because two of them are very tightly nit together to Vash's story that I would have to go into Vash's story which I won't. Reason two is well, none of them are really given enough focus like at all. They are pretty much one episode villains that do tie into Vash as they learn something from him. But they don't ever come back after that one episode. That being said I still enjoyed them because I still feel that the main cast more then makes up for it.

Nitpicks:
Little things that I didn't like about the anime was really just what I said up on top. The villains aren't given much a lot of episodes to show up in and I feel as though it would've been fun to see more of them through out the series. A side from that I have no real nitpicks that break the show, just those that miner one.

Overall:
In conclusion I feel that apart from my nitpick, Trigun is an amazing anime to watch. It has such a great story only made even better by having a great main character that if you're an anime fan and you haven't seen it yet, shame on you. You are doing yourself a huge injustice by not watching this anime. So to end this review I will leave you with this; go watch Trigun now.

Arcane Reviewer gives Trigun a 9.5 out of 10.

Arcane Reviews: Pokemon: The Origins

Pokemon: The Origins

Hello ladies, peoples, and animals it is I, the Arcane Reviewer here to bring you a brand spanking new review. Now I'm gonna level with you guys, I love pokemon. I know what a shock indeed but this is true I love pokemon so much so that I was super excited when I heard that they were making a brand new anime about the pokemon video games! The anime was not going to be related to the already exciting show which would be going into it's new season anyway so I was hyped. A anime that was set to follow the first original two pokemon games? Say it an't so, oh but it is so! But the question is, is it good? Let's find out.

Story:

Our story follows the young up and coming pokemon trainer, Red. Red is on a journey sent by the always awesome, Professor Oak to finish his pokedex. Seeing as how he's an actual scientist you'd think he'd already have the thing completed but I digress. But Red isn't the only one to be sent on this journey, his rival and the professor's nephew, Green (seriously what the fuck is up with these names?) is also sent on this journey. So now Red and Green are off to complete the pokedex, in a whole new world filled with strange pokemon they've yet to meet and evil that plans on doing horrible things to said pokemon! So yeah the plot is pretty much Pokemon: Red and Blue or Green if you're in Japan. The story is nice and simple and doesn't require much thinking. It's just a nice easy to follow story with a whole lot of fun to come along with it and I enjoyed it very much.

Animation:

Productions wise, this anime looks great. Everything is nice, smooth, and very clean to boot. Everything moves fluently and the animation never drops. The show also had a funny little gag in the beginning of every episode, in which the text boxes from the game would pop up and every episode began and ended with the save menu from the original games. It gave the show a nice little feel to it that was pretty funny to see each time.

Music:

The music in the show was pretty "meh" at points. Don't get me wrong the music wasn't bad but nothing in it really was rememberable. Most of the song from what I can tell were from original games. Now I haven't played the original game in like years so I can't really say. The only tune the was worth while was the Lavender Town song in episode two. But that's really only because it's the Lavender Town theme, any pokemon fan would get a kick out of that. So sadly music wasn't this shows strongest suit.

Characters: 

Character wise the show pretty much covers the basics when it comes to it's characters. Red is the strong headed main character that ends up learning about pokemon in the end. Green is the rival jackass that gets his come uppings in the end. And the rest of the cast is pretty much just characters from the games. Now to be fair, almost none of the characters get any real character development. And if any character does get any development, it's pretty damn rushed. That's really the shows downfall sadly, it's pacing it really quick. So you end up going from place A to place B really fast without any real time to get to know the characters in said places. But saying all of that I think it's time we disused that.

Nitpicks:

Now for as much as I like the show there is one little problem that hurts the show to the point of almost completely ruins the show and here it is. It's too damn short. The show is only four episodes long. The show crams all of the first two game's story into only four half hour episodes. This really hurts the show's story. The story is so rushed that you almost can't take it. They actually skip the Elite Four, yes you heard me right. They skip the Elite Four! The show just skims over them and jumps to the battle with Green......also the Green battle isn't even that long. The show is just too rushed for it's own good. while I enjoyed it very much I couldn't help but feel like I missed a lot of the journey because of the length of the anime.

Overall:

So in conclusion to my review, how do I feel about Pokemon: The Origins? Well while the show is a great time for fans of the games I can't really say it'll sit well for casual watchers of Pokemon. With all that I have said I can't really give Origins a high rating seeing as how it has some major flaws, but taking that fact that this show was made for fans of the games I will say this, If you love Pokemon then you must watch Pokemon: The Origins. It's a great treat for long time fans and you won't regret it, seriously it's a great show for you guys. But for anyone who doesn't care for Pokemon, I suggest that you look else where because this show is not for you.

Arcane Reviewer gives Pokemon: The Origins a 6.5 out of 10.