The moment I see her eyes, I know I have to make a screenshot so that I can put it up with this review.
More manga reading prevents me from watching the short 10-episode Hatenkou Yugi straight away. I did get around watching this series yesterday, and immediately I regret doing so in the end. This is a 2008 anime, thus it will challenge the 7-out-of-10 H2O footprints in the sand for the provosional Anime of the Year 2008 title but suffice to say early in this review, that this anime has failed to do so.
Story:-
Our main female protagonist with EXTREMELY BIG EYES was told by her father to haul her ass on an endless journey. She was then accompanied by 2 handsome hunks (one of which appears out of nowhere just like that) as they move on from town to town doing their thing.
This anime is basically the 2008 version of Myself, Yourself, that’s how awful the story is. While it does seems that this series is just a precursor to a bigger story (in a second season?), I have to say that this precursor stinks badly. The story, for what it worth, actually flows and develops nicely but other things such as ridiculous attempts at humor degrade this anime further. I wonder why this anime has only 10 episodes (not a normal episode count). Maybe the director sees sense and decided to castrate this anime early from its normal 12/13 (or god forbid, 24/26) episodes run?
Character development is also not that good if you ask me (and no outstanding characters). For starters, where the hell Baroqueheat comes from, and how did he join the main protagonist and Alzeid? This anime just repeats the mistakes done by the second season of Comic Party anime. The anime did try to give more perspective on each of the three main characters, but within only 10 episodes, there’s not much that can be done. The ambiguous ending strongly hints of a second season, which I definitely will not watch.
Character Design:-
The big eyes that the main female protagonist has really creeps me out. I have spent years watching Japanese anime, inclusive a fair amount of hentai too but the size of her eyes really takes me aback. Anime like DiGi Charat do have big eyes too but they at least do not really shock me to the extent her eyes did. Is this the kind of eyes Something Awful reviewers say that can be seen by orbiting satellites? (warning: this SomethingAwful link may scar you for life).
Anyway, the character design in this anime is actually excellent, if you omit those big eyes of hers. Would have been a positive aspect of this anime if not for that pair of eyes she has.
Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is just average, nothing else I can say about this.
Music:-
OST and OP/ ED themes, none of them actually interest me.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation of this anime is quite good, even in fast-paced scenes. The choreography is just average though, with a considerable amount of action happening off-screen. The directing is good though, although with this story that this anime has he/she can only do limited things with it.
Conclusion:-
4 out of 10. H2O can keep the award for a little bit longer. Will read some more manga, before going around to finally watch Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (hoping for more neckstabs) or Records of Lodoss War, depending on my mood.
One of the very few humor attempts that actually succeeds.
