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Uta-Kata
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Animation - 9.2 |
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Sound - 8.9 |
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Story - 7.4 |
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Character - 8.2 |
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Value - 8.2 |
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Enjoyment - 8.1 |
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Average - 8.4 |
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Encu |
(2007-03-07 04:00:49) 2007-02-22 04:27:53 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Uta-Kata seems to be a hidden gem. If you have the opportunity to stumble upon this anime, and allow yourself to get into it and past the flaws, you won't be disappointed.
The series was difficult to get into for me, as I found the explanations of what was going on unsatisfactory and rather poor for the most part.
But, Uta-Kata turned out to be an interesting and moderately deep anime delving into the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
As such, I would recommend this anime to most of you looking for something with a good bit of undertone and depth packaged around a short magical girl style.
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shin |
(2005-11-18 15:13:31) 2005-11-18 15:08:05 |
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| i started this anime along time ago but lost interest really fast. i saw two episodes then gave up since there were more interesting anime like bleach that came out. but i ran across this anime again an ended up downloading the batch. the first episode always throws off my impression for i thought this anime wouold end up somewhere in the lines of card captors or angelic layer. hahaha the fan service alone should have told me otherwise.
that being said what more can i say...the adult themes with the super lolicon appearance gives off the wrong vibes imho. the story line is very slow to pick up but when it does it does hold some merit. it could have been done a lot better though, but as it is not too bad. again like the story line, the character development is very slow and it seems only very few have real developments. as for sound, it has a very childish feel to it which frankly does not much with the mood being portrayed. i would rate this somewhere between average and decent. the value that i most appreciated, is the chracter design. although the lolita appearance is a turn off, the outfits created by the various artists are superb. i would recommend this for its artistic value.
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| This is a hardly-followable anime!
It has unique design, as it is very-very deep, but you have to wait 'til the end to know how much it really worths!
The characters are so cute you will start to love them...and the best is Manatsu, I think, as you will find out who she is, you will love her!
Well, both OP and ED are PLEASURE to listen to! The animation too! ^^
While watching, I was a bit frustrated about the mysterious things, but i was really looking forward to watch the next episode!!!
---side note: flipping_heck, i think you haven't finished this anime, when you reviewed it! otherwise you would know that what is the thing about the whole homework-mystery! I hope no offense was taken, as I didnt mean to. ^^
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AK-47 |
(2005-12-29 21:34:04) 2005-08-13 02:29:34 |
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Basically a magical girl show with morals in it. I am not a girl myself but I already have a good idea of how tough a teenage girl's life is like. It's not one of those incredibly dramatic anime or those romance based anime. However, this slow-paced series deals with everyday life with everyday conversations and emotions from a girl's perspective. I must say I am quite impressed at how this was presented, taking many details into effect. You learn a little about a girl's mind and what she encounters as things get complicated and experiences feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. I really enjoyed this despite nothing special being shown. Watching this series leaves warm feelings, so I recommend it.
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| Average |
9.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| First of all I'll warn you all because this is my first review on AnimeNfo. Please don't yell at me if I do something wrong.^^
At first I didn't see anything special in Uta-Kata but after a few episodes I couldn't stop watching. This anime series is very good if you like drama and I strongly recommend it.
There isn't much bad about this series which is quite unusual for an anime. But one thing could be the ending. I thought it was quite sad and I was a bit disappointed... but only at first... When I finally got to see the 13:th episode, the OVA, everything went well again.
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0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Uta-Kata is a very relaxing and atmosphereic piece akin to Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu that deals with people's interactions with one another and some of the basic human emotions that we are forced to deal with in everyday life. Not fast paced or terribly exciting, the story relies on you to think things through and relate the lives of Ichikawa and her friends to your own. An excelent piece of work.
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Overall If ound this anime had potential but didn't quite give much. The whole point of transformation scenes had no point in all. The only cool part was that well known artist's designed some outfits.
The music was good to listen too I enjoy the artist very much.
The art design for the anime is decent and the characters weren't well develeoped.
Basically if you like a semi orginal plot with some small noted fanservice and some drama. The story seems deep in some parts but gives you a shallow feeling.
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Judas |
(2005-04-22 18:55:07) 2005-04-22 18:54:41 |
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| Average |
8.6 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| quite a unique anime... at first i thought it would be one of the usual mahou shoujo series and well it was mahou shoujo... but in a very different way. You are thrown into the mind of ichika, a normal 14-year-old that is growing up which is exactly the theme of this series for me. being confronted with your own problems and those of your friends and trying to solve them to become more like an 'adult'. Uta Kata uses this theme in a quite honest and direct way especially by developing the character of Ichika which is a really unique mahou shoujo. It's not easy to say something about Uta Kata's content... well the animations were really good i think and i all in all i enjoyed watching the anime, especially after the first part of the series when Ichika started to develope drastically. I'll not say something about the music since there isn't a single track from the OST in my head... i definately need the OST to remember the tracks i think...well it's unusual for me not to remember the OST from an anime even without having the OST so the OST might have been not that good... however i really liked the OP and ED so i will just not value the sound ^-^° i definately recommend Uta Kata to those who are searching for something fresh and unique with interesting chara developement and ending!
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| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Uta-Kata is like Air TV, very abstract, very nice, and unlike AIR this is something that has a good ending, and not spawn into another movie. There are two ways to rate it:
1. For those who want instant action, lack of thinking, than the score will be 5
2. For those willing to think, appreciate the depth of the character, this will get almost full score.
This is the main problem with the anime, its great, but its not for everyone.
Its not superficial and really quite deep.
One note is that each ending has a different animation, something quite refreshing.
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|
|
| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Uta-Kata is best enjoyed like Madlax, as an aesthetic piece. Those looking for baroque plotting, deep philosophy, high drama, and saving the world should go somewhere else; Uta-Kata is about fairly slice-of-life incidents and beautiful character designs.
Uta-Kata is set in the real location of Kamakura; the work utakata refers to bubbles, particularly their ephermerality and transience, however in a clever pun the kanji used in the title mean "song fragment".
The OP and ED are great, and the animation is wonderful. In particularly the character designs are just irresistable! Glossy hair, huge eyes, and elaborate costumes by guest character designers: it's super-kawaii. There is the ecchi side to it, but I wasn't really turned off by it there's a lot more that that to this series.
The story is rather more interesting than it seems; while the plot isn't particularly revolutionary, the characters are deeper than you'd expect, and there is a permeating atmosphere of darkness. Ichika is a serious, almost neurotic girl, in a world where things frequently don't turn out right and where other people aren't particularly kind or fair. Despite having a number of friends, she's never completely comfortable, always on the brink of self-critical unhappiness. And amongst her friends, their own problems are hinted at in flashes.
The supernatural aspect was less interesting to me than the everyday life side, and it leans quite openly towards an excuse for the costumes and incidents. However it's also unusual that Ichika isn't trying to defeat evil, recover magic items, or the like; she just uses the powers from time to time, not always for a clear purpose, sometimes just to comfort herself.
One significant aspect of the series is the characters' vulnerability. As adolescent girls they don't have the experience that adults do of dealing with the world, and still get pulled around by them, though they have to make their own way. Ichika with magic still can't fight, is still worried about finding her identity and preserving others' esteem of her. Even being wronged, they just have to put up with the subtle rift; there aren't any showy confrontations.
It's a bittersweet but enjoyable anime. Take in the scenery and the character interplay, the sights of Kamakura, Manatsu trying to stop Ichika from being hurt by the world but not being particularly powerful, the little social discomforts among Ichika's wider circle of friends.
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Pellissier |
(2005-03-20 04:58:04) 2005-03-20 03:31:10 |
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| Average |
6.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Uhm.. now Uta~Kata has got to be a difficult one to review.
I start from good points: the animation is pretty nice and accurate, maybe the eyes of some characters are weird (very big, and you merely see the pupils), but overall there's nothing to complain about.
An amazing Opening Song, "Omoi wo Kanadete", that I really loved since the first time I listened to it. The same song is heard as bgm during some episodes, giving a good feeling.
Besides the amount of flaws this show had, I quite enjoyed it, I mean, it wasn't boring, I was always wondering on what was happening next.
I'll speak of the flaws in the full review.
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Ridian |
(2007-01-12 00:13:09) 2005-03-08 01:04:39 |
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Uta-Kata has got to be one of the most blatant wastes of potential I've seen in a long, long time. The plot and general premise aren't anything really special, sure, but where this anime's strengths could have really shone are in its presentation. The series is occasionally highlighted by this dreamlike, almost ethereal feel. Episode 12, in particular, feels like it was ripped straight out of the head of a sleeping 14-year-old. Unfortunately, there are too many things holding Uta-Kata down to allow it to realize this potential; instead it is relegated to a mediocre magical-girl anime filled with bad lolicon.
The animation is the strongest part of Uta-Kata, and in particular, the character designs. Most of them look generic, but Ichika's twelve outfits are designed very creatively and appealingly. In fact, I was interested enough to watch the Costume/Character Design liner notes that were included with the bundle I downloaded. The Djinns, spirits of the elements, look great as well. Design aside, the anime looks solid; nothing outstanding, but simply a consistent job on all fronts.
The opening theme is good in a 'I've heard this all before but I still like it' sort of way; the ending theme, however, is probably something you've heard before and didn't really enjoy. Insert music involves a lot of piano playing and generally works well with the scene, but doesn't take a whole lot of risks. Voice acting, similarly, is unspectacular.
The story is mainly just a melange of things that work, but not quite as well as I'd hoped they would. First I'd like to tackle how Ichika got into her situation in the first place: after leaving her cell phone in an abandoned schoolroom while cleaning, she returns to get it and is promptly accosted by a mysterious girl who promises her the phone back on one condition. Ichika has to use all twelve stones that have suddenly appeared in a charm of hers by summoning Djinns and writing about it, effectively doing her 'homework'. Now, if random girls started coming out of mirrors while I was putzing around all alone, then I'd say 'screw the cell phone!' and get the hell out of there without looking back. The developers could have fleshed out a slightly more creative way to introduce the situation to the anime. The rest of the anime is rife with this kind of illogicality and generally strange behavior on the part of most characters, but in an attempt to keep it spoiler-free I'll just say you'll see it when it comes. But things only get stranger, and frankly more stupid, from there. The first six stones (and therefore the first six episodes) Ichika uses are total wastes of time; I might as well have just watched Pokemon for all the emotional resonance and usefulness that they imparted. Seriously, if I had the power to summon big ol' elemental spirits, then I'd be doing better stuff than looking for report papers or finding a person at a fireworks festival.
Fortunately, the anime takes a turn for the meaningful within the second half, and Ichika is actually faced with a sense of urgency versus the dawdling and retarded pace of the first six episodes. Of course, this half works better than its predecessor, but a big issue still remains: we don't know anything more about the plot. And the viewer is kept in the dark until the very final two episodes, where EVERYTHING is dumped on them quite suddenly...especially the final episode. Instead of slowly uncovering bits of the story piece by piece, we are instead force-fed it within a combined span of fifteen minutes. Of course, the anime is too busy preoccupying itself with bad fanservice to worry about other less important stuff like the storyline. Throughout the span of Uta-Kata, the viewer is treated to three -- count them, three -- bathing suit episodes in a 12-episode series. Could I stress how much more this is a waste of time? The entire series is fueled by poorly-placed fanservice; crotch shots, panty shots, boob shots and tight two-pieces abound, and with that we reach an interesting paradox. Though this anime seems to be geared towards the typical sweaty loli-fan, why does it seem like it's constantly insulting the intelligence of anyone above five years old? The few aspects of the plot that we actually do know about are shown to us over and over again through flashbacks or other means, as if to suggest that we hadn't actually been paying attention to the plot. If all of the flashbacks and all of the bad lolicon had been removed from Uta-Kata, there would have been so much more room for important stuff like character development or story development. Then again, I was hardly expecting much from the creators of Kiddy Grade.
On the topic of character development, the only one who really gets any of it is Ichika. To Uta-Kata's credit, they really tried with her, but a lot of her inner reflections and pontifications also fell flat. In Episode 5, she tells herself how futile her powers to see are because she can never actually do anything about what she's seeing. Unless we throw out her finding of a valuable watch and saving two endangered friends, I don't recall her power being that unhelpful, though...It's pretty strange. She also gets fed up with herself for telling so many lies, but when you're placed in such a nonsensical and pressing situation isn't it only natural to cover up your tracks? It's not like anyone would have believed her or have been any help if she had confessed...and from this, more cheap Ichika angst is born. That's basically all she gets, and it doesn't really work. Everyone else is really just a poorly-explained waste of time. Manatsu's entire presence in the anime was unnecessary at best, Keiko and Satsuki's backstories were vaguely interesting but not at all complete, and Michiru had nothing to her name at all. Why could she see strange things, and what is her purpose in everything? No one can say. Their personalities are generic and their antics are boring.
Uta-Kata is generally just frustrating to watch because all it does throughout eleven episodes is bait the viewer with 'we'll explain this later!' To the anime's credit, it does explain, but it does so poorly and with a great deal of rushing. Tragically, it was very clear that the priority was given to fanservice and fun instead of plot and characterization. This is not worth plodding through, unless you're interested in the costume designs. They really are great, trust me.
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| Average |
5.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| What a potential little anime,but all in all, the end product was far from satisfactory. Read on if you want..
Firstly, this anime does well with its music and its animation, ok, good enough, today's anime have usually good animation and good OP/EDs are few and far between, so these give it good marks.
Now the bad things, just about everything, the story is far too weak and under developed to be satisfactory and happens to trip up on itself far too many times. Not good at all.
The chemistry betwen the characters were rubbish, Ichika and Macharu (sp?) were weak as partners as it was forced and there was no real cohesion between them, i mean, Why did Ichika do Macharu(sp?)'s job for? So she could return her mobile phone accessory back to normal.. how very lame.
Ichika's friends are ok, and though not hugely developed, i liked their mini-stories more than Ichika's adventures in battling Life's problems. Though the fact is, i cared more about the side characters more than the main character, not very good at all.
But maybe im going off to a tangent, you see the point of this anime was to describe problems and superb things about life, like Love or Telling Lies... how very predictable and the fact that they didn't explain ANYTHING until the very last episode just made this anime even worse.
You would expect some entertainment from this cheery-looking anime, well apart from the character designs, not much is entertaining here. Jokes are short and unfunny, action is nicely presented but pointless and the overall drama of things is very mixed up.
Overall, One terrible anime in more ways than one, Quite literally one of the worst i've seen, and im usually a bit lenient on anime.
4/10
Grade: N/A
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| 10/10 cause the anime is great!
the animation is wonderful! i've never seen such a excellent fanservice! it's used with perfect timing. not too much not too less. and the girls are wonderful too.
the sound is great. very nice piano ballads and the intro and outro are gorgeous!
at first the story seems to be a harmless plot. but at episode 6 it turns out to be a nice, serious and scary story! excellent!
the characters are nice too!
overall a very good anime, worth watching!
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|
Splitter |
(2005-04-09 16:59:18) 2004-12-23 21:57:55 |
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| Average |
9.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Uta~Kata is the one of the most heartwarming and heartbreaking anime of all time. Now that I've finally completed the series, I can give a real review that is deserving of this sad, sweet, beautiful, and utterly bittersweet show.
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|
kaoru |
(2004-11-29 00:49:37) 2004-11-01 01:18:05 |
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Creates a beautiful mood. The characters are very well portrayed by the animation, by the script and by the voice actors. The look and animation are first-class. Keiji Goto has taken the Kiddy Grade character design one step further. Those huge eyes really do work as windows to the soul. The OP and ED are dangerously excellent: after four episodes, I can't get them out of my head.
There is something special about this series that is more than the sum of its parts. It's not exciting. The events don't add up to much. But there is a mystery in the background that, coupled with the touching insecurity of the main character, creates a special mood.
And the girls are just totally kawaii, in a special Keiji Goto way. As people have said, however, there is some fanservice of these anime 14-year-olds, so if that bothers you, be warned.
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|
|
| Average |
8.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| It is nice that Gimik decided to do something a bit different for the follow up to Kiddy Grade, making it easier to enjoy this show on its own merits. Personally, however, I find it a little sad that Goto Keiji has jumped fully onto the 'lolicon' bandwagon that seems to be becoming an influence in so many new anime. I don't want to be 'titilated' by repeated shots of 14-yr olds crotches, and remain deeply sceptical of the 'cultural' etc explanations put forward for this. To an aging fan it seems an all too recent trend, which I can tune out to, but drags my enjoyment rating down slightly.
Other than my above rant, this appears to be an intriguing little show, which I do not doubt holds some major twists ahead, based on what I have seen. And, for sure, more panties.
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|
|
| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| It looks as if it is a mahou shoujo type of anime, however there's more onto it. There sure are hidden elements in the plot, even in episode one. It's a great start to hook people up for more. The first episode doesn't tell you much but developed well to introduce the main 14 years old heroine, and the magical shoujo.
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|
|
|
| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Has anybody who saw this watched Kiddy Grade? Well, I didn't notice at the very first, but once the opening songs starts, I saw that the original story is by Gimik (a person or groups that also did the original story of Kidday Grade). After that the resemblance is just striking. Another look at the first main girl, Ichika, shows that she really looks a lot like Eclair. The second main girl, reminds me strongly of Luminere. Well of course they look alike since it's the same person who did the character design, Kadonosono Emi. At the end of the opening song, I can see that the director is also the same person who directed Kiddy Grade.
At any rate, on to the real review. This show has cute girls, very cute girls, and I like the style of the character designer. I've heard someone say that Eclair is simply one of the cutest, prettiest anime girl, and Ichika is just like a younger (and even cuter due to her behaviour) version of Eclair. Even if the story sucks (well, I don't really understand of like the story of Kiddy Grade, but it did keep me watching all the way to the end), I'll still watch this show all the way to the end, just for the bishoujos!
Bt the way, did any one notice the kanji (Chinese characters) that part of the Uta-Kata title? The first character means poem, and the second means piece/shard/part. Uta-Kata seems to be the Japanese pronounciation of those kanji. Just thought this might be a point of interest.
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