Finite-Dream

Physically painful.

The whole concept of the show smacked suspiciously of a widely known (I believe) anime that's been around for *several* years, syndicated, and anyone who has watched five seconds of Cartoon Network would probably run right into it. Hello people, "Outlaw Star"? Come on, there has to be somebody else that sees that they are practically the same show... the "Chick In The Box" routine is a direct steal, and there's no way that this show came up with it first. The characters seem to be copied over, only with a couple of extra people in there for no reason.

And I'm told the show aired without a first episode.

(As you can tell, I'm not exactly a fan of this series.)

Every commercial spot that I saw for this series had the fact that it was from the same creator as "Buffy (TVS)". Yeah, that's great, I don't care. I wouldn't care if this was made by Coppola. If a series is being pitched with a big name behind it, I automatically assume that the show couldn't stand on it's own.

Unfortunately, my mother disagreed or disregarded my suggestions to *run* *away* *screaming* and forced me into watching the first (or should I say second) episode. It was boring, slow, etc etc and I still had that nagging feeling that I'd seen it all before....

Because I had! Twice! At first I thought it was just "Outlaw Star" but then I saw some "Cowboy Bebop" in this also. Bounty hunters... My God, they couldn't even think up new professions for these people. I suppose they couldn't out and out call the main character Gene, even though they are the exact same character type... (deep, calming breath) so now I see "Jane". Gene... Jane... And this "space hooker" or -whatever-, that's obviously Faye Valentine.

And so, "in conclusion", I might have liked this series more if I didn't perceive it to be a total and complete rip of two of my favorite anime titles.

Who can't love this series? The animation is beautiful! The characters are amazing!

And Tsuneo Imahori does the music... ::swoon::

And of course, it doesn't hurt that Vash-san is a sexy, sexy beast (as far as bishounen go). ^^

So what can I really say about this? The people behind this obviously put a lot of hard work into it and had a fun time. The whole series is a trip.

Watch it! Watch it now! ^^

Yeah, so I'm going to admit that this review is just a bit preliminary, considering I've seen... 2 episodes.

But, here goes.

The human race is separated into Inners and Outters. The Outters are normal human beings, but the Inners are certain people with super-human abilities, or "Alter Users". Basically, an Alter is what you'd think it is--like an "Alter Ego"; the Alter is something (different for every person) the user can call up to do his bidding. Which, of course, in anime, means that they're used for fighting spectacular battles.

But Alters aren't just terrible excuses to make this show a shounen title. Alter Users have what we would call ESP abilities... things fly around the room, things blow up, the user has superhero abilities, etc. etc. (Like "Straight Cougar", who can make things go faster, or Kazuma, who can land on a building without a parachute.)

The "Alter Users" were created with the "Lost Ground", a small part of Japan that broke off from the main island. A small percentage of the people born on this lost ground have the Alter abilities.

So, with all these Neo-generation punk kids walking around aimlessly with destructive powers, there inevitably has to be the huge, benevolent organization to control them all.

Enter HOLD.

(Or HOLY, if you will. The organization is called "HOLD" and the foot soldiers are called "HOLY". And they get spiffy uniforms, too.)

So anyway. To the review.

The animation is, at times, dull, flat, and cheap. For instance, a rather simple scene panning the passangers in an airplane. It looked kind of like how I would draw a scene--the little circle for the head and the little semi-circle for the body and hope to hell that no-one will notice that I did my art project at lunch. Oh, and a little smiley face and the two little eyes.

And Kazuma, when in his strange, "Black Motion Lines Freeze Frame Scary Face" mode, looks like he's trying to be punk/mad/intimidating (and looks rather silly) instead of his cute-as-a-button cream puff Lead Male appearance.

Other than that, the character designs and the over-all appearance of the show are just squeak in at above average. Not good, but not necessarily bad, either. I especially like the outfits on everyone. Very ultra-modern.

The music is another story, but it's not too distracting or weird. To try and describe it, I would have to say something like early 90's wanna-be rock, and/or early 90's wanna-be rock ballads. (Just picture "Gundam Wing" music.)

Again, not good, but not bad.

The story is good, intriguing, but it was really annoying that the first episode ended with Kazuma's cliffhanger and then starts all over again with some other character. The Mildly Annoying Female Lead, no less. Which was a disappointment, because the episode was entitled "Ryuhou" not "Mimori (Mildly Annoying Female Lead Backstory)".

So I waited for 20 minutes for there to be some resolution to what happened to Kazuma and... the episode ends with *another* Kazuma-related-cliff-hanger. Needless to say I felt rather jarred.

But, it is promising. The premise is something that I'd actually like to see resolved and the characters are interesting enough.

Thumbs up.

Yes, it's confusing. No, it's doesn't make much sense and no, it's not going to later on. However, that's -not- a reason to be turned away from this series.

Though this series isn't the be all and end all of everything and-it's-the-only-animeyoushouldeverseegowatchitnow (not that you should listen to the masses, anyway), neither was Akira or Ghost in the Shell. Or Evangelion, or Cowboy Bebop, or any of these new greatest-show-of-the-week things that I'm seeing. It's a good show. It's not the best. But it's good.

Everything is perception in this series. The art is amazing. The soundtrack, or lack there of, enhances the scenes just so. The care given to this series is subtle and perfect.

I've heard complaints about the characterization in this series. Why does the series need it? The characters have easily identifiable personality types. I know a Lain, a Taro, an Juri, etc etc.

It's basically about one girl's experience with communication and her place in the world. If you aren't looking for something more in SE: Lain, you aren't going to find anything.

What else is there to say but "It's Gravitation!"

Once getting over the gimick of "Hey! Look at the gay guys!" this show still has some neat stuff to offer. The singing is amazing, just check out the OST. The characters are amazing. The songs are great. It's histerically funny. The background music is superb. The animation is -very- pretty. And did I mention the music?

Get used to The Rage Beat, though, because you're going to hear it a thousand times. And you better like random English, because at -least- a quarter of this completely forsakes Japanese.

Which is really, really funny. ^^ After Sakano-san's random outburst of "Oh my sweet baby" whilst spinning his head, I had no respect for my own language anymore.

If you're looking for plot, though, go far far away. There's really nothing more than the band thing and the Yuki nonsense. Yeah, you finally learn what happened in his past. Ta-da.

Rather, this show is driven by the characters. Especially Ryuchi! Kumagoro BEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!

((You might want to check out the OAV for that one.))

So if you're a shounen-ai fan and you want something cute and fluffy, this is the show for you.

((Also recommended: FAKE))

First off, EVA clone. This show could not be more like Neon Genesis Evangelion if it tried (and this show doesn't try very hard to do anything). Instead of Evas there are "Goddesses", whatever the hell that may mean, and who seem to change their names every week (at least in the God-awful American dub I was subjected to). Instead of Rei, we have... well, Rei, but he's in Shinji's role. Newbie pilot automatically compatible with the mecha... bleh. Cliched, now.

The dubbing is terrible. I've honestly never seen worse, even in say... DBZ. The show was cut to run in the regular Toonami block and stayed edited for the Adult Swim because they were too lazy to put the cuts back in. Or the plot back in. Or the characterization. Or any cohesive sense. There are cut scenes where I can only imagine there used to be something sensical. But you never know, there might not have been.

The anime is based on an as-of-yet incomplete manga, and the idea carries over into the show... it has absolutely no sense of direction. The series is totally pointless. It would take at least 5 seasons to get into the explanation phase of the manga in the show-universe's naggingly slow pace. I so wish that they had explained the EX or how each pilot has his own ability or why girls magically don't have it or... just... something! They didn't explain a damn thing!

This is the Hamtaro of the Adult Swim block. I'm thinking they were somehow forced into playing a girly (shoujo) anime. Every vibe from this show--the pretty boys, the flowing animation, "Goddesses" etc etc seem to say "bishounen" instead of "shounen", which I suppose someone didn't understand along the way.

Perhaps they honestly thought it was a show suited for the 12-25ish male demographic they have with Adult Swim. That's why in the first episode, they cut out the compromising few frames with Zero and Hiaed. Then they left in the Ernest/Gareas nonsense. And then they leave in all the strange, creepy weird things that Hiaed says to Zero about them being the only ones alike and so forth. ::Head slams against desk at this point.::

If you are looking for a good animated adaption of an excellent manga, stay far away from this one. Wait for D.N.Angel. If you are looking for a fluffy-mecha-pretty-boy anime, you're still looking in the wrong place, go watch Gundam Wing.

There is nothing for this show to offer, unless you really want to try and collect every anime title, ever. If the story intrigues you, or you just want to know what just happened, by all means save your sanity and get the manga.

Pretty Boys? .... ::Jeopardy Music:: .... *ding* .... What is the only good thing in Gundam Wing?

*ding* *ding* *ding!*

Yes, Jeopardy, you have served your purpose well.

The only thing that Gundam has to offer is pretty, pretty boys. And a plot that is really easy to make fun of, and God-awful music. But mostly the pretty, pretty boys.

For instance, Quatre. Go on, someone tell me why he is even in the story.

Or, for another instance, how about Heero's infamous spandex shorts. Completely unnecessary. Or Duo's braid and shiny cobalt (and/or purple) eyes.

Of course, one look at about 50% of the fandom will tell you why this series is so enduring. Yes, that's right, the Yaoi-fangirls. Pretty boys in a bad series must be snogging each other. Fantastic.

Really, the only thing that I like about this series is how much it made me giggle, and I don't think that was the original intent. Wufei's character is little more than a cariacture. He's hilarious. I find myself laughing more than I'm feeling indignant. What was his purpose, anyway? Was he supposed to alienate the female viewer (i.e., me)? Or was he really supposed to be funny?

We may never know.

However, there are some other good things about this series. Zechs is cool. I wish I had his hair. Also, Treize is really funny, also in a very bad, unintentional way. Man, look at those eyebrows.

But those are possibly the only things that I could pick out of this series, all hiding under the awful menance that drives me to hit the fast-forward button:

Relena.

Ah, her name strikes fear in the hearts of men.

I hate her, with an honest passion. I went into the series hoping that maybe all the awful slander about her character was false, but alas, it was true in thousandfold.

Could this girl get more annoying, clingy, or in the way of everything? My God! Everytime Heero was about to shoot her I started to cheer! And yet she lives through all 49 episodes and into the movie!!

::dies from a severe brain aneurysm from pent up rage::

(Weepily) She makes my brain hurt...

But anyway, I can console myself that not all females in this series suck as badly as she does. (Gestures to Lady Une.)

::Sigh::

If you can stick through the series picking out what doesn't make -your- brain hurt, then you might survive. Good luck to you.