The hand that starts all the trouble.
This series, one of my favourites, is finally over, and here is the review.
Story:-
Our protagonist Zed is transported from his boring world to an alternate dimension (sound familiar?) and finds out that he has been chosen by Amil Gaoul, the most powerful of all 6 key spirits, which if collected, will save or destroy the world, depending on how you look on it. Basically, the story revolves around on collecting the key spirits, amongst all other normal spirits that dwells on the dimension.
In a previous entry, I have said that Kiba is one of the best anime in 2006, and yeah it still rings true at the end. This anime is one of the better ones I have watched in 3 or 4 years. Kiba is not your typical shounen anime, with its hero Zed being one of most realistic hero characters I have ever seen. Zed has everything I want from a shounen anime protagonist, and more. Brash but articulate and decisive but does not really act before thinking. Do not give sh*t to the ‘good and evil’ thing and always lusts for power. Zed is the main reason why this anime is truly spectacular.
Writers of this anime also tends to take high risks with some parts of the story. For example, they like to introduce a new characters, then killed them a few episodes later. This is repeated quite a few times in the series, which actually can cause the series to stink. But nonetheless, they pull this stunt cleverly and actually make the series much better in the end.
This anime lacks 2 things, and they are filler episodes and elements of romance. For me, the non-existence of these 2 things are truly a god-send.
Nevertheless, the anime does have weakness.The last 10 episodes or so seems to be rushed. For example, in one episode, Mirette was kidnapped at the start of the episode but by the time the episode reached the halfway line, she has already been rescued. If this happen in Naruto, such rescue attempts will at least take 10 episodes muahaha.
The storyline is not exactly spectacular with no expansive plot-lines, but for the factors mentioned above (and below) the series is still excellent.
Character design:-
This is another of this series main strength. Zed seems to be sloppily designed, giving him the look of a normal person that does not stand out. This actually make Zed more believable, as someone who finds out that he controls a massive amount of power. Other characters such as Roia, Elmeyda and Zico are appropriately designed to play the role they are assigned to.
Voice acting:-
Zed’s voice acting is great, but not excellent. That sums up the voice acting in Kiba in whole.
Music:-
The OST is great, no question about that. Already have them on my Winamp database. For themes, only the first OP theme and second ED theme are good.
Animation and direction:-
The direction complements the story and makes the series great. You can’t really complain about the directing. Meanwhile, about animation, they are fluid even in fast-paced action scenes but honestly speaking, they are not as good as, let’s say, One Piece HDTV.
Conclusion:-
9 out of 10. If not for the rushing in the last 10 episodes and also normal-quality voice acting, this will get full marks.
FIRE!!
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But I will give this anime credit where its due. I find myself watching it consistently, despite what I said prior. The anime captivates me and draws me in fr some unknown reason. I was a little disappointed how even Zed’s own mother aimed to go after him, even going so far as to try and poison him. Why is it no one else had such an extreme desire fr the spirits, to the point of exhaustion and eventually death? And what was with the tentacles that came out of her shard-generation point? I would’ve also been more pleased if there were only 3-4 key spirits, not 6. By the end, it seemed everyone had a key spirit at one point or another: dead, alive or otherwise. I prefer an anime where the hero has trouble fighting off his foes, not ones that suffer from Gundam disorder where they have a ‘super mech’ and can slice through swaths of enemies, despite their lesser skills. Maybe I should try taking this anime with a spoon of sugar and give it another try.
I’m sorry, but Kiba seemed like an anime of random-out of the blue plot points. I got a little sick when the fourth important character died off. It suffered from chronic ‘Don’t love the characters’ disease, because in the end, only three of them won’t die or become evil. It got a little bad when friends were killing friend. Although, I did like their comments on governments, with Neotopia as a Dictatorship, Templar as a Democracy, Zeimo as a Communistic Gov and Tusk as a Militaristic. It was a nice comment on the different governmental systems, but the anime as a whole failed to meet up to expectations. Oh and on a side note; Bakugan! Brawl!