My collection of short anime reviews

The main male protagonist, also the best character in this anime, wielding a personalized melee weapon that is popular in that zombie apocalypse multiplayer game Left 4 Dead 2.

In the last post, I’ve implied that Gosick is going to be the penultimate entry in the currently running ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition, but I’ve changed my mind and watched Kore wa Zombie desu ka? instead. I’ve heard good things about Gosick, especially from my family members, so let’s wait until the final entry of the audition to see whether the hype it has is really justified.

An apt title-defying description for the main male protagonist. Zombies? What zombies?

Story:-
The main title male protagonist was murdered by a serial killer when he tried to play hero to save a potential victim, and was reanimated into a zombie by a necromancer so that he can have his revenge. While searching for the serial killer, he inadvertently stole the magical powers from a monster-hunting magical girl. With his newfound abilities, he has to fight monsters too while biding his time for his revenge.

The storyline in this anime is surprisingly solid, especially for the first 6 episodes. The plot then peters out somewhat after that (the regression isn’t as bad as Fractale though), but the next 5 episodes will still make for a decent watch. The best parts of this anime comes when the main title MALE protagonist become a mahou shoujo. Despite the title of this anime, the zombie part of him is less important than his mahou shoujo part. In fact, his magical powers is his best trump card in battles, not the superhuman strength and immortality that zombification offered him. He doesn’t really accomplished anything with his zombie abilities alone, he usually has to transform to combine his zombie abilities with magic to achieve his goals. Note that his weakness to sunlight suddenly goes away after he switched modes.

His mahou shoujo mode is much more powerful than his zombie abilities.

Oh by the way, he has his own full transformation routine too, which even  Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica doesn’t have. This title may have more similarities to the mahou shoujo genre than the latter. This series has 13 episodes (I watch the unaired episode too), but the final 2 episodes are just fillers and you should probably skip them. This really applies for episode 12 which is just awful.

This anime truly ends at episode 11, and I feel that it is just average after the anime peaks at episode 6. The ending is structured to accommodate a second season, with some thing has been left unresolved. The presentation in this anime is excellent, if you ignore the final two episodes. The pacing is spot on throughout the first 11 episodes, and the flow of the story is seamless within the same time frame too. The final two episodes really tarnished the otherwise good overall package this anime would have had if the two final episodes doesn’t exist.

Unfortunately, unlike the presentation, the character developments in this anime is only mixed bag at best. The main title male protagonist is the best character in this anime in this regard, and actually I do think that he has more potential left unexplored. He only use one (grossly misleading) magical technique throughout the series after all. To a lesser extent, the same can also be said for the girl whose power the main title male protagonist has stolen. If this anime will ever have its own romantic moments, she and the main title protagonist has the highest chances of being paired up. The main female protagonist’s character development is static throughout the series (and to think her airtime is quite large too), while the two vampire ninjas performed only a little teeny bit better than she is.

One of the things he does in battles while in mahou shoujo mode.

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is typical for the genre, and black hairs are rare in this Tokyo-based title. It is just me who think that the main title male protagonist’s hair become lighter and lighter as each episode goes by?

Voice Acting:-
My main beef with the voice acting in this anime is the different voice actresses used for nearly each episode for the main female protagonist. She may be mute the way main protagonist of Shion no Ou does, but the difference voices used in those delusional fantasies of the main  title male protagonist are too inconsistent for my liking.

Otherwise, in general, voice acting in this anime is decent, but there are no outstanding gig(s) by any of the voice actors. At least no one does a sub-par job here though.

Music:-
The OP theme is decent and the OST is good but the ED theme is forgettable.

Animation/Direction:-
Japan reverts to its newly-found bad ways and used the blurry animation techniques in this anime, although surprisingly, only in slow-paced scenes like just like what is done in Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! (long titles like this is another thing Japan needs to cut down in usage – it makes writing reviews harder). It is non-existent in fast-paced scene, unlike the ones seen in Yumekui Merry or Infinite Stratos for example. Still, this anime cannot avoid having one point docked from its final evaluation.

Character animations in this anime is not up to par when compared to some other titles in the audition, like Fractale or The World God Only Knows S2, but general animation is solid, even in fast-paced scenes. Integration between 2D and CGI is seamless. Choreography in action scenes is just average. The directing is flawless, with no problems in presentation.

Being a magical girl is truly a very hazardous job to be in.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The next entry in this blog will be the conclusion for the ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ audition. Gosick will have a great chance to do so if only it avoids using the blurry animation technique, else Highschool of the Dead OVA will become the inaugural winner of the title.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-pH