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Kemono Zume
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Animation - 7.3 |
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Sound - 7.1 |
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Story - 7.0 |
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Character - 7.6 |
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Value - 7.0 |
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Enjoyment - 7.6 |
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Average - 7.3 |
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| Average |
9.3 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Kemonozume's story from a distance seems familiar. The heir of a family of monster hunters falls inlove with the daughter of the monster family. they fall in love and try and live together regardless of their innate natures. it seems cliche, i know... it seems silly i know. but the execution is supremely phenomenal.
What we have come to expect from animation is thrown away. the director choses to be drastic and original and use animation in away we have never seen. this action made many people discard the show, but in truth that is the brilliance of it. because the animation adds an edginess that brutality to the story to causes it to transcend expectations. imagine if casablanca and schindler's list were filmed in color how would that change the movie? imagine if mary poppins and vertigo were filmed in black and white? these are the fundamentals that show how art affects story telling. this is why kemonozume is genius.
the music is solid, very good. its pure acid Jazz. not a note wasted. every note serves every emotion and every action of the characters.
if David Lynch and David Cronenberg came together to make an anime, Kemonozume is what we get. this is bar none one of the most original and overwhelmingly insane things i have ever seen. and i loved every minute of it. Then again if you like your anime bland and formulaic... this isnt for you. if you have a soft stomach, this isnt for you either. if you've been dying to seen the boundaries of art pushed, this is for you.
All in all, i loved this show. it made me want to love anime again. it renewed my fading love for anime. it reminded me why i love anime in the first place. i love anime because of how directors use art to tell their story, and in a time where everyone was to tell the same story the same way, and the masses dont care anymore and eat it all up, it was amazing to see a director knock all expectations on their asses. he created a phenomenal show in doing so.
open your mind, embrace kemonozume.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Wow. This anime is grotesque, a bit confusing, tragic, heart breaking, exciting, and very worth watching. This anime is unique in every way. It's plotline is surprisingly deep and never lets up with twists and turns. till the end this anime will not let your attention waver. To its very gruesome bitter end, this anime is a true magnet of a kind.
But somethings must be said... the animation is really weird. It is sketchy, lacks details, merged real life shots everywhere, bloody, grotesque, sick, and I can go on and on. One thing good about this sketchy animation is that it really lessons the impact of all the violence to an extent. It makes it a little comical. But beware, if you want like blood splattering fun, this will really make you feel uncomfortable.
Now to the best part of this anime... This storyline is superb. It just never lets up with the twists. Once you think you know what's happening you won't. and till its brutal end it will continue to throw interesting develops at you. This is what really drives the anime. this anime uses every minute of its air time to develop keep the viewers entertained. There are animes that are driven by characters, but this one is driven through its story. characters are a garnish to the complex storyline it has.
Character is more of a side note although they are interesting. They product of the events that happen. It's not like Honey and Clover, or Planet EX, where characters really drive the story. But certainly what happens to them is more then interesting. just beware, this anime is unforgiving towards its characters. Many will die and be eaten up.
As the reviewer below mentioned, the last episode is something of catatrophy. It's way too out there. The ultimate bad guy is like... I can't explain. He is like a play dough... with sharp claws. you will see when you watch it... but it really is chaotic by all means.
Even with its absurd animation, you shouldn't avoid this anime. If you are ok with blood, I think you will find a very interesting anime with tons to offer for its viewers. I sure had fun watch this anime. It will not let up on you till the very end.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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petran79 |
(2008-01-14 19:50:46) 2007-01-19 05:16:12 |
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| Average |
6.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| (Animeforever & Yoroshiku fansubs, XVID version)
Kemonozume was one of the animes of 2006 I had to watch. I wasnt sure as to whether I'd adore it but it would definitely be diffent than the rest of the series.
First the things that impressed me:
Animation was unique, reminding me of Mind Game and Windy Tales. If it wasnt for the filtered nudity scenes it would have been better but still...Very original show regarding animation, even if very few frames were used. Whereas technological advancement in animation makes some viewers more demanding, some minimalism and experimental animation wont hurt. For a 13 episode series animation of that kind was good.
Also the soundtrack had some nice blues, funk and jazz tunes here and there that added to the atmosphere. Not very memorable but not that bad at all.
Where I have complaints is the first and the last episode. Especially the last. I think that was so bad that it shattered every positive impression I got from the rest. The villain was so ridiculous and awfull that I felt I was watching Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh regarding villain characters. Also what he did in the final episode made absolutely no sense, considering the series was starting to build a plot in all the previous episodes. So I wonder why it falls flat in the last episode.
So excluding the mediocre villain the rest of the characters were from good to impressive. Note that an adult approach was chosen so they're not your typical anime teenagers. I too agree that the protagonist could have been better developed (in comparison to the villain he excells) but his brother, Yuka, Rei, the giant all adequate. Not many animes for 2006 offer such good characters.
Most of the episodes had good pacing, though 3-4 episodes I felt were boring and the last one was a failure.
Despite that if you look for good and original anime titles for 2006 Kemonozume is one of the titles to watch. If you liked Mind Game it will not dissapoint you, though it is not as good and original as Windy Tales. But it is much better than Blood+ regarding the story.
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Ridian |
(2007-01-19 17:26:18) 2007-01-18 18:38:17 |
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Yeah, I'm just going to say it now: if you don't like it, there's a high chance that you don't get it. I don't mean to sound pretentious or overreach my anime analysis skills at all, but Kemono Zume is one of the most unexpectedly deep titles of 2006. Considering that this has been a very important (if not only moderately strong) year for anime, this is certainly a compliment.
It would do Kemono Zume a massive disservice to write it off for its animation. Despite the fact that it's difficult to miss the hideous line-work and the sloppy character design, this was clearly an intentional move on Madhouse's part. They didn't animate the series like this because they had a shoestring budget. In fact, there's a ton of absolutely breathtaking imagery and innovative camerawork - Yuka and Toshihiko in the pool, for instance, a rooftop covered in a paper-thin layer of rainwater, a giant man sitting in a field of vibrant flowers. The animation exists as it does to prove a point: though it's full of beautiful moments, humanity is never truly beautiful. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't completely undisturbed by the animation; the style takes a lot of getting used to, and it won't be everyone's cup of tea. To call Kemono Zume "ugly" on all fronts is just insulting. Madhouse's work on this series is downright meritorious and deserves far more attention than it has gotten.
Kemono Zume oozes with style, which is to be expected from a Studio 4C director. The series manages to make moments where absolutely nothing happens into unforgettable sequences. Episode 3, where there is nearly no action and no Flesh Eater bloodletting, is one of my favorites in the series. Our main duo, Toshihiko and his girlfriend Yuka, grow exponentially in character through the simplest of actions. Not only that, but a short action scene that would have been by-the-books in any other series is made vivid and entertaining through some really great artistic decisions.
I was a little reluctant to watch past episode 1 of Kemono Zume because I found it the worst in the series. There was a really long and uninteresting conversation to start the episode, and everything about it just seemed to meander. Perhaps it was because I hadn't acclimated myself to the style yet, but in any case, the show does get a slow start. Episode 2 is splendid, however, and past that it's all gravy.
The brunt of the series's plot is readily apparent. At its core, Kemono Zume is a fairly simple love story with some sleek modern embellishment and a lot of vulgar, edgy content. Think "Romeo and Juliet's crack baby" and you'd come pretty close to what we have here. The anime showcases the relationship of Toshihiko, a man who has dedicated his life to eradicating sinister Flesh Eaters, and Yuka, who herself is one. It seems like a pretty cut-and-dried moral play, and the viewer's alliances will start pretty simply, but as other characters weigh in and reveal their true intentions, these alliances will change radically. Nearly every character in this series has a deeper purpose than what they put forth, and the communication of such agendas is really subtly done. Rie and Kazuma, for instance, are absolutely excellent side-characters.
The writing and pacing of Kemono Zume are possibly its strongest aspects. As I said before, every episode past 1 is enthralling, with plenty to say and reveal about the plot or its characters. I can't believe how much development they managed to stick into a 13-episode series. The one weak character in the equation is Toshihiko himself - despite his superbly-written romance with Yuka, he is lacking in distinctive traits of his own. He's a fairly typical hero who would lay it all down for the woman he loves. Similarly, the main villain of the series is good, but I wish they had started really developing his character a little earlier. I didn't think he'd be important until past halfway in the series.
Like other reviewers before me, I'm not going to recommend this to everyone. I wish that all anime fans could see the merit in this series, but that's simply not possible. Kemono Zume isn't perfect, but it is an excellent - and most importantly unique - anime.
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| This anime is like the FLCL of the horror-romance genre. The entire anime has a surreal, wacky, and crazy feel, while at the same time there is massive amounts of gore, monsters, sex, and violence. To give you a feel for the crazy and surreal things that happen: at one point a head is running around with legs, a monkey is an expert martial artist, and one of the characters in the show is a private detective who is 2 stories tall. It is very hard to take this anime seriously at times, but then you are jarred back into the seriousness of the anime after a character's arms are bitten off. The entire anime is a surreal experience, and as I said, is very similar to FLCL in the random and wacky things that happen.
The animation style is extremely wierd: it is very similar to the animation style from Kill Bill. I don't particularly like the style: the backgrounds are extremely stiff and 2D, the characters' limbs seem twenty feet long at times in fights, and the monsters are just as funny to look at as they are frightening. In fact, though I can understand that the animation isn't *bad*, it ruined the anime for me. I think the story and characters of this anime were great; but honestly I found it difficult to truly enjoy and recognize that with the distracting nature of the animation.
The soundtrack isn't too good: the music contrasts well with the events during the anime (fast-paced jazz vs. monster eating a person) but on the whole the music feels out of place or isn't very good. The voice actors did a good job though, especially the actors for Ouba, Toshihiko, and Yuka, who played their characters perfectly.
The story is a Romeo and Juliet type story about a monster and a person from a group which hunts the monsters, the Kifuken, falling in love and running away. Toss in sinister motives from someone plotting to take over the Kifuken and you have a pretty interesting story. However, the story seemed a bit rushed in the final few episodes, and several important things happen (which I can't give away) that leave you wondering why they just occurred. Also, the use of a monkey as an important character in this anime is so unrealistic and stupid that it pretty much ruined every scene the monkey particpated in for me.
While in the beggining the story focused on the Romeo and Juliet aspect, towards the end the anime focused on the villian who was taking over the Kifuken, and the anime takes a turn for the ultra surreal. In the final few episodes, the anime is extremely gory and has an Alice in Wonderland type surreal creepy feel throughout.
The characters were a mish-mash of extremely weird personalities and craziness. The two main characters, Toshihiko and Yuka, were well developed, especially their relationship and the problems they faced as they fought to stay together and overcome Yuka's inner monster, all while the Kifuken struggled to find them. However, the ultimate villian was over-the-top insane, and seemed more like an Alice-In-Wonderland villian (wide smile, crazy outfits, changes colors at times, creepy dialogue) than your normal anime villian, even though the villian performed dozens of dispicable acts.
The characters' pasts and the history of the Kifuken is also explored, and turns out to be important to the story, not to mention is pretty interesting (especially the connections between characters).
I might rewatch this anime, I might not. I would reccomend this anime to anyone who wants an anime with more mature themes (extreme violence, graphic sex/nudity (often), and gore) and doesn't mind the weird and off-putting animation style. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but the animation decreased my enjoyment a little bit.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| The style is a matter of taste, but getting beyond that, Kemonozume is a solid story of forbidden love and demon hunting.
Not for the faint, as there is gratuitous violence along with sex and nudity.
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sebke |
(2006-11-11 19:19:53) 2006-11-11 19:05:11 |
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| After watching all 13 episodes:
Amazing Story, Original animation and really cool characters.
It is not your every day anime, and perhaps that's the reason why some people dislike it. I enjoyed the original looks of this anime and the jazzy music is also grate.
If you like unconventional stories and weird characters (specially the monkey master and the giant) this anime is for you.
This anime does not compromise with the audience that’s why people might love it or hate it. But the lack of compromising is also a valued feature for this anime.
It is hard to relate it with another similar anime but it might become a style in itself (at least I hope it does).
After the first couple of episodes I got used to the weird animation style, so it is normal to be unconftable with the animation at first. But believe me, the animation style grows into you and you start enjoying it.
If you only expect big round eyes girls with purple hair and harem type stories then perhaps this is not a good choice.
Just be aware that there is a big amount of gore and violence and also some nudity.
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Caireen |
(2006-09-28 02:59:57) 2006-08-21 07:46:42 |
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| Average |
1.8 |
| Animation |
1 |
| Sound |
3 |
| Story |
2 |
| Character |
2 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| Now based on the first 3 fansubbed episodes (I've done my 20% and there is nothing in this world that will induce me to watch anymore of this fmugly and unbelievably boring anime!!)
Do you think later Picasso works are great? Do you think Van Gogh was more than just a nutter who couldn't actually draw? do you like ugly graffiti strewn all over the walls? Then you may like the animation of this. If no, then do not bother.
Ugly is one way to describe it, refreshingly different only if you enjoy looking at toilet graffiti.
The storyline is trite, but not in a good way and the characters are somewhat wooden and unconvincing.
To sum it up in one word - crap!
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0 of 3 people found this review helpful.
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