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Stratos 4
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Animation - 8.4 |
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Sound - 7.7 |
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Story - 6.5 |
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Character - 6.9 |
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Value - 6.6 |
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Enjoyment - 7.2 |
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Average - 7.2 |
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| Average |
8.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| A fun short series set on a military base on a remote island, where a group of girls train to be pilots. The premise of meteors threatening earth is a bit stupid, but it doesn't really hurt the series. The aircraft are quite realistic, their designs are based on real existing models or abandoned prototypes. There's also some nice fan service and basic slice-of-life stuff. The only problem is that the pacing is quite slow and there's not that much happening all the time. Recommended to aeroplane afficionados and people who just like cute girls.
The Good:
+ Very good animation, not much CGI.
+ Cute characters.
+ Nice aircraft designs.
The Bad:
- Is quite slow paced.
- A couple of sub-par episodes (the cat episode, and a few others).
The Ugly:
- There are many sequels or spinoffs that are not available.
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| Average |
7.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| This anime is something, it has lots of quality. There should be an ecchi category for this but then this is alot similar to Stelvia and Gunparade march only in a different setting.
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Villain |
(2006-08-02 00:35:03) 2006-03-29 07:02:02 |
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| A relaxed "feel-good" series about four girls shooting down meteors and dreaming about flying into space.
As a series, Stratos 4 does not aim high. It never pretends to be a perfect anime, it never even tries to achieve greatness. But it certainly surprised me by how well it is made for such an unambitious series. It has pretty looks, nice uplifting mood, more than a decent storyline and appropriate amounts of tasteful fanservice. Even though Stratos 4 never rises to compete with true anime masterpieces, it keeps itself just a notch above the "average anime level" in every aspect so that I must applaud the creators for their consistency.
Overall Stratos 4 was a very positive experience for me, and I would recommend it to the average anime fan. It is way better than the majority of series that came out in 2003.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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petran79 |
(2007-11-30 05:18:05) 2006-02-23 15:24:27 |
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| Average |
4.5 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| I got the name of this anime by chance when I browsed the web page of Animax (unfortunately not available in my area). I thought that it would be a good title. I didnt read any reviews so as not to be biased.
After watching this, to sum it up, some of the episodes were decent (the first 5 and 10-13) and the rest were mediocre and painful to watch.
The story was original and if properly developed it could have been a decent anime. huge comets and meteors fall to earth and it is up to the comet and meteor busters to prevent this. Now there isnt any better prerequisite for an excellent scenario. It could be full of action and agony as to what will happen next and if millions of human lives could be saved. Indeed this thing occurs in the first episodes. But suddenly this process stops after Mikaze's disobedience not to fire. From then on the characters stop chasing meteors and comets and the series focuses on their daily lifes and events in their base and restaurant where they work. Really that was unnecessary and takes many points of the anime. Only the final episodes are decent but with a rushed ending that failed to rouse any feelings.
It is obvious that they overdid it with the fanservice. Change that camera angle for once! Also in 50 years the vast majority of pilots will be female. Judging from this anime, men are doomed.
I wouldnt recommend it as an introductory anime to anyone or else it might make the viewer have a negative opinion about animes. Watch this title only if you have tolerance and have watched some better titles.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Stratos 4 is a very odd series. After watching all 13 episodes, I'm still asking the question: Why the title Stratos 4? In fact, you won't find out ANYTHING about Stratos 4 until halfway through the series (if not later). IMHO, the title is just meant to be "Catchy" or "Interesting", while not having anything to do with the story.
Now, back to my review. The animation/graphics for S4 is good, if not awesome. Great mix of cel and cg art. Character and props design were above average as well. Characters are easily distinguishable, and the special effects... top notch.
Sound was alright. Never really noticed them. But when I do, they're always very true to the theme/context. Of course, they're not as great as the ones in .Hack, but hey, at least you don't hear them in the wrong places.
Story is a hard one to judge. Stratos 4 *was* special. But then, they decided to make it even "More" special by introducing a twist to it(for the sake of ppl who have NOT watch it, I'm not going to spoil it for you. There're a few reviews below that already do that). But let's just say that when I found out about it, I's basically laughing my head off. But why below average? Because I'm penalising heavily it for its ending. The ending was too rushed, and I was constantly re-checking the total number of episodes for the series. Another fault would be Stratos 4 constantly shifts focus from one issue to another, introducing side-characters who COULD've been better elaborated.
Characters were great. Some ppl may complain about how the characters do not stand out, but I beg to differ. All characters were well designed, and were given solid personalities. Perhaps the biggest fault is there were too little time to develop any of the characters. But even then, I've already learned to love and hate a bunch of em.
Value and entertainment... VERY hard to rate. Stratos 4 will leave you breathless and intrigued, but at the same time, puzzled and confused. Without its good looks, I'd prolly have gave Stratos 4 1 for its Value. Enjoyment, however, is a different story. Recalled the terms I've used? Breathless? Intrigued? Awesome? Ok, maybe not awesome, but it's great (no wait! I DID!).
In a nutshell, Stratos 4 is a show that everyone MUST watch, but NOT collect (unless you're filthy rich, or think REALLY highly of the series after watching it).
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| Average |
5.5 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| A through-and-through mediocre series. Starts off benignly enough with the 'young kids learning to blow up comets to save the Earth' angle, borrowing from the oft-combined pools of sci-fi and school/academy life settings. After rambling through a couple of forgettable episodes, the story develops promise with a few tantalizing hints of dark secrets while still maintaining the "regular old business" facade. It's somewhat cleverly done in that you know something's up behind the scenes and they're stringing you along by not getting to the meat of the matter directly, but when the (laughably simple X-files ripoff) payoff does come, it comes all at once and rather anti-climactically in a fashion that is truly representative of the show as a whole.
Despite a few good performances (Karin's is rather endearing) the cast is rather flat and uninteresting, with basically every character fitting solidly into the molds they are based on rather than trying to break free and become anything new or novel. Mikaze in particular became rather obnoxious to me by the end.
So, to sum up: Colorful yet bland art? Check. Uninteresting characters? Check. Subpar humor? Check. Onsen episode - absolute necessity for any series intending to provide mindless sexual titillation - Check.
In sum, an essentially forgettable show that does not rise above average in any respect. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of average anime. Those who want something with substance would do better to invest their time/money elsewhere.
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| Average |
4.3 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| One of those let's try to hype the mood up by flashy animation, CG graphics, blue haired girls, etc etc, in order to make up for the character strengths and an interesting plot.
Stratos 4 failed to catch my attention in the first 33% of the anime. I had no intention watch it after it was going nowhere.
One of the biggest qualms I have with this anime is the overly simplistic animation and the common themes of space, machines women, and more women. I dont know how many animes similar to this I've seen and I've learned that space anime like this with only 13 episodes can't go very far. This is no exception.
Well as for the characters. They are the usual run-of-the-mill I have to work hard to get into space type that you find in Gunbuster or even Outlaw Star. One of the main characters has a problem with her past, how cliche, there really is nothing 'original' in this anime.... except for maybe the semi-impressive CGI graphics.
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Renzoku |
(2005-05-30 08:28:10) 2005-05-02 19:36:47 |
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| Average |
3.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
2 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| The animation is great but the story is not good. I don't get the story much other than the fact that they are working in a non military facility designed to prevent meteors/comets to hit earth. What I don't understand is the sickness thing in the latter part of the show. How did they get it. Where did it come from. These are some questions not answered or even tackled by the show.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| A nice little show about the joys of destroying meteors before they fall to Earth. Stratos 4 is a pretty good anime that's worth a spin.
Animation: Studio Fantasia does a great job with the visual presentation of the show. The backgrounds are clear and vivid. The animation is smooth and rather fluid throughout, but there's a lot of re-used scenes in a lot of the meteor destroying sequences. And while I enjoyed the fanservice, it really wasn't needed.
Sound: Standard BGM that's really nothing special, but I do really like the opening ^_^
Story: I wouldn't have had such a problem with this category had the anime not flip-flopped from one plot to another so rapidly. Just when I had gotten comfortable with the whole Meteor Sweepers bit and the girls striving to be Comet Blasters, a whole conspiracy formulates near the middle while the girls find a new hobby in repairing an old spaceship, but they soon seem to forget about it when the plot turns into another alien invasion attempt deal in the last few episodes. The pace was obviously hurried and jumbled. It just didn't fit with me all that much.
Characters: Jeez, there were a lot of characters. So many it was a little difficult to focus on the four main heroines the whole time. While most of the characters were placed into the story decently there were a few that I wished they had just left out, like the cat which had no purpose to the show and still got it's own episode. I hated that cat.
Value: Rent it if you can. It's a pretty good anime that most will enjoy, but it's nothing you're gonna want to watch twice.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| I liked the idea on how the alien infects people who would have thought kissing was so effective way to spread the virus. Hehe I'm sure everyone got a wrong impression at first when you see the kissing scene yes that shot. For me I only think ecchi >_< thing for sec. then I knew for sure it wasn't it look like lol.
Animation was great, lot of cutes but still this is 21th century so it wasn't anything news.
The sound is ok? I knew I have no problem with all the Voice Talant but op/ed/insert song were all kinda standard.
Story... well I don't want to spoil(more I already had ^^) or else you have nothing to watch for this short series.
Chars are fine, but as so you notice from the op song, the chars, the BGM imppression that this series is light-hearth and not serious-defend-earth-or-all-will-die kind. Don't expect any serious moments althou there's some but not deep that will make you use a tissue.
Value? I know I didn't buy it. Let's say try watch it first then if you like then you can go buy for collection or something.
I enojoy it to the end, in some moment I wish it just give me the clear answer already so I could just know for sure what happening(you oftens see the scene shift from mystery to childish) but what keep me watching till the end.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| If its one thing I should have learned from watching Avenger, its that when youre wishing for an anime to stop, you should just stop watching it. 10 episodes in, I did, because, you know what, I just wasn't being very entertained. This anime was just so....boring.
The animation was fairly average by todays standards...which means, although its crisp and might use some CGI, it still all looks bland. Yep, thats certainly how I'd describe it - crisp, cgi elements, but bland character designs and backgrounds.
The sound was not only nothing special, but the music was probably below average by replacing it with the caceda sound a little too often. Call me critical, but with some animes out there with excellent music scores, ya gotta start weeding out the failures here.
The story was a little unique, which was its saving grace as far as I'm concerned. Comet Blasters is a new idea or concept that I cant think of another anime reproducing...yet. However, two things - I didn't like the change in character focus, and it all seemed very generic. The whole conspiracy thing that was coming into play near the end wasn't enough to keep me going with it - especially since cutting out all the fanservice in this anime would leave it with about half the episodes.
The characters were very generic and hackneyed. Its the quiet girl, its the gung-ho girl, its the girl whos stupid but applies herself when it counts (usually the main character). Its all been done before, and although this isnt the worst thing in the world, it's just not fresh...but boring.
It was hard to watch episode to episode since it felt like I was forcing myself. But, I could feel that near the end the "suspense" and mystery they were trying to hook me with just wasn't working this time around - make everything a little more interesting and less cliche, and you might actually have something with this whole "blasting comets out of the sky" idea.
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Bloodforge |
(2004-08-26 06:38:07) 2004-08-26 06:35:19 |
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| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| I really enjoyed this series. The animation is great and i liked the op and ed songs as well. The story was pretty interesting as well having just spent the last 5 or so hours watching it from start to finish. It has its serious moments and funny moments and they bring them together quite nicely. Characters are all nicely done as well and the fat cat is pretty funny, i especially liked the "cat speak" which was in a few episodes. Ditta and Meia{Vandread) showing up for a few seconds in ep8 was a real suprise to, if a little odd.
All in all a very enjoyable series, give it a go if you are looking for something entertaining.
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Innotech |
(2004-08-19 22:36:10) 2004-08-19 22:33:02 |
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| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| a solid 9 so far ^^
Its not all that much of a standout show, but it isnt a harem show and its not extreme with the ecchi (although it definitely has its share, including the nose-bleed causing way the girls straddle their seats in those planes..whoa)
What Stratos 4 is though, as far as I can tell, is a story similar to the blockbuster Armageddon live action movie. a group of elite astronauts called the comet blasters fly missions to destroy comets headed towards Earth. This is because Earth has entered an enormous asteroid field, and this organization was created to keep Earth from becoming a fireball.
The 4 girls, all with their own personality (and of course all cute) have the job of meteor sweepers, actually Earths last defense and backup for when comet blasters fail to completely destroy the comets and pieces of a certain size fall towards Earth.
The characters themselves have their own quirks.
Mikaze-green haired and downright lazy, Mikaze doesnt have the initiative or desire to really become a pilot at first. she was basically forced to join by her parents, who are wealthy. Eventually she does come around, and is an arrogant but pretty skilled pilot.
Shizuha- the one with the licenses. what licenses? Pretty much any license you can think of. She collects them (but shes very skilled obviously to obtain them)
Ayamu- generally headstrong, she doesnt stand out asm uch as the others to me, but shes a good all around character
Karin- Karin has that really cute blue/purple hair look and shes the reserved, shy, and very intellgent one. She can calculate trajectories like a human calculator and has a lot of great ideas.
The space planes and method of destroying comets are well done, with CG being a prominent element of this show.
The girls work when they are off duty, in a chinese restaurant (with FANTASTIC costumes)
All in all, Stratos 4 is a pretty good sci-fi anime, with some great CGI, cute characters, fanservice, and as far as I can tell, a nice developing story (hinted at near the end of vol 1)
Its not the best youll find out there, but this show is good enough to warrant a buy in my opinion, and its definitely entertaining.
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| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Get past the whole fuel for fanboys and rampent under germent shots the story is deep and very touching. Its about best friends and the trials they go through as pilots fighting for the future of mankind and living everyday life. The main character Mikaze is highly expected to become another topgun pilot from her family who are/were elite pilots throughout the generations and she is next in line to take the torch, but its tough for her to have such weight on her shoulders, though with her friends help she gradually accepts that she is herself and thats all that matters. Her dream to one day go into space keeps her going. the story twists and turns near the end with conspiricies and betrayel as the comets that these girls fight may be more than just huge rocks tumbling towards earth. Not much romance especially for the main charcters but there is a love triangle in the background with the side characters you can see if you pay attention. I found this series refreshing, the fan service is low yet still very much there and it was out of place in this series imo, but the characters are attractive and the voice acting is top notch, the animation is very well done and the story is well thought out.
check it out
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| For an anime that is all-around average, I found Stratos 4 to be quite fun to watch. It's comedy, some fanservice, flight anime (which dosent happen all that often), and a sci-fi story that actualy gets pretty intersting at the end. It makes me wonder if they ever planned on doing a second season but couldn't due to popularity or budget.
Anyway, Stratos 4 more then likely wont make your jaw drop in awe, but its no pushover either. Plus, it has cameo appearences by 2 characters from Vandread...that's got to ammount to something, right? ^_^
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De Baer |
(2006-03-29 07:06:55) 2003-10-17 18:42:44 |
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| Average |
4.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| Ich habe mich während der Show immer wieder gefragt was Stratos4 eigentlich sein will? Action? Nein, zu wenig. Comedy? Nein, zu wenig. Ecchi? Nein, zu wenig. Science-Fiction? Nun ja schon aber weniger als ich erwartet hatte. Nun, wenig ist ja normalerweise besser als nichts aber Stratos4 enttäuscht dennoch in allen oben aufgeführten Punkten. Die Story ist unglaublich langweilig und dreht sich in den ersten 10 Episoden komplett um den Hauptcharakter der aber mindestens genauso flach und uninteressant ist wie alle anderen Figuren die in diesem Anime eine Rolle spielen. Ich musste mich regelrecht zwingen mir die nächste Episode anzuschauen und das passiert bei mir nur selten. Ab Episode 11 jedoch scheint der Anime auf einmal all das nachholen zu wollen was er in den ersten 10 Eps versäumt hat und es entwickelt sich zu guter Letzt wenigstens so etwas ähnliches wie "Spannung", was aber die enttäuschenden vorangegangenen Eps nicht ungeschehen machen kann. Alles in allem würde ich Stratos4 niemandem weiterempfehlen, nicht Fans von Action, nicht Fans von Comedy, nicht Fans von Ecchi und selbst denjenigen nicht die auf Science-Fiction stehen.
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0 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Stratos 4 is nice and the storyline builds up well but the characters lacked something.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Asmodan |
(2004-05-06 14:41:37) 2003-08-27 05:21:13 |
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| Average |
3.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
1 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
3 |
| I have a bit mixed feeling with this.
The setting (animation, back-ground music and so on) is very good and slick. But the story is totaly bogus (the first 4 eps I thought I was watching topgun the movie). Second the characters are very blend.
Last but not least what was it with the fanservice?, I am not against it (in some cases I am for it :) ) but does every modern show need at least 10 up close panty shots each ep these days? a bit more content would be nice (espacialy since the show had very little content).
See the detail review on my views of the story and characters.
The lousy story (and story build up) and characters nuke this flick for me so I wouldn't recommend watching this.
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Stratos strikes me as a toned down Ramurio Senkitan with a plot. That doesn’t make it good though. Stratos still strikes me as depending heavily on fanservice and the story did not appear to me much better than Ramurio. At least it doesn’t come off blatantly fanservice. I think that the costumes are just plain distracting (not enticing, but it reminds me that the animators need a life). The music is okay, the voices too. I only got through 3 episodes so from what I’ve seen the story does not strike me as anything special. Overall, a subpar production but it’s not at the very bottom.
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0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Hmmm... where to begin.... Please keep in mind that the views i represent are mine and mine alone. You may see fit to do with them whatever you please. I've notices many people complaining that the ending was too short. Let me offer my view on this. This, like all other 12 and 13 episode series, was flawless in execution. The first 7 or 8 episodes are all back filler. Character introduction (not necessarily development). Story setting. The last 5 or 6 episodes are like a movie. They even add up to the same ammount of time. I know that I, for one, have been in a movie theater and wondered "what led up to this? how are those people connected? what's the meaning of this?" Well, not really like that, but you get my point. Short series are like a movie with more buildup, development, and more chances to catch your attention. It's a movie that wanted us to enjoy it... not just spend money on it. That being said, I liked the animation alot, for many reasons. Up until episode 8, I was only half heartedly interested in it... but the rest I watched all at once. It was a good movie. If I didn't have some of the back story, i would have hated it, or even worse, been indifferent to it. I guess not everyone can appreciate that anime studios still do things for fan loyalty and enjoyment.... that's too bad...
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