Otaku In Kenya

Ben~to Review



BEN-TO looks like one of those animes you would compare to the rest of the season then decide not to watch it but if you do that then your really missing out of some of the best laughs and entertainment for a long time.

Sato and the Wizard

Story:
Sato Yo is just a normal teenager who likes video games,he wakes up on the floor of the grocery store not remembering what had led him there,then he finds out though a girl who was in the store that he was beaten up because of the war games where students fight to get half price BEN-TO,interested Sato Yu joins in and try's to become a "Wolf"(top fighter).

What I like about the story is that it is very funny and overdone in a good way like the first season of Baka to test and Sato Yo isn't one of those characters who is a loser that would take the whole season just to win just one fight,and the actual fights are really cool,there a mass of people punching and kicking each and getting severe injuries over BEN-TO ! XD and I like how these is a whole system of ranks and special names for the top fighters.(Great 9)


Art:
The art isn't "OMG look at the animacion" but ain't bad either,all the characters faces and eyes are in the right places,you can't complain about it becuase it's better then average with all these lazy animators nowadays,it looks good in high quality on the TV.(Great 9)

Ice Witch

Sound:
The opening is cool while the ending song is a nice slow one and the backgorund music when there fighting is a up beat song that is just the right one for the mood of the anime.(Great 9)

Character:
The reason I picked up this anime was because one of the main girl characters Sen Yarizui(aka the Ice witch) caught my eye and that rarely happerns with me,she's cute and unique looking and I also liked the look of Yuu Kaneshiro(the wizard),so far there isn't a character I don't like.(Outstanding 10)


Enjoyment:
I don't even understand why I enjoy this anime so much but I can't help smiling and getting exicted rooting for the characters! Very very funny and I don't get bored at all which is something to say for me.(Outstanding 10)


Overall:
Very enjoyable :D (9 Great)

Add this to you MAL list now and don't miss out on the laughter and enjoyment of this anime! BEN-TO ! BEN-TO ! I won''t forget you !

Un-Go Review
Un-Go is probably one of the many sleeper hit series to come out of the extremely jam packed Fall 2011 season. With an amazing story, unique characters and stellar production values, however, its definitely one to take note of! Un-Go is actually based on the noted Japanese intellectual and novelist Ango Sakaguchi’s novel Meiji Kaika Ango Torimono-chō. In a time where story is often thrown off into the back burner in favor of more flashy animation or fan service, Un-Go focuses on masterful storytelling, truly complex plots and a strange mix of Japanese culture, fantasy and sci-fi to create one of the most unique detective anime to come out from the anime industry.

 UN-GO features Shinjirou Yuuki , a man nicknamed the failed Detective, and his partner Inga. While Shinjirou is a normal human, Inga is actually some supernatural vampire that can change genders, and force anyone to answer a single question. Shinjirou often finds himself solving crimes that relate to a certain chairman of a software company, Rinrouku Kaishou. Kaishou serves as the antoganist to the series, and one, who while always losing to Shinjirou’s detective skills, is able to cover himself with his immense wealth and resources. He’s as unique a villain, as Shinjirou is a hero.

Adding to the already impressive hero-villain dynamic is a very interesting and diverse cast of supporting characters that really add to the show. While the plot of the series is definitely’s its biggest strength, the characters definitely serve to elevate the show to near greatness.
The  productions values for the show are also excellent. The first, and most striking thing about the show is its different kind of art style. It’s a unique blend of the semi-realistic style of the recent Lupin the Third animation projects and the extremely elongated Clamp style. That too is a very loose description of a refreshingly different but still familiar art style.

What really shines through, are the character designs and backgrounds. The world comes to life, with some truly amazing and unique locales that the anime takes place in, that seem reminiscent of modern Tokyo, but at the same time, feel like they are set a bit farther in the future. The character designs, are simply put, amazing. Shinjjirou himself definitely supports the cool, modern take on what a detective would be in this day and age, Kaishou definitely seems like a “nice on the outside, but evil on the inside” software company CEO. Every character’s design really brings a lot to the table, and really adds  personality to some already endearing characters.

Finally, there’s the sound work, which is also hard to find faults with. The series features a really edgy trance soundtrack, which fits perfectly into the semi-futuristic fantasy world. The voice acting is definitely one of the high points of the anime industry, with exemplary work from all the sieyuus. All in all, production wise, its hard to find much fault with Un-Go, so props to Studio Bones for another job well done!
What then? is the fault with Un-Go…. It actually lies in the episode length, and the fact that its another one of those series that doesn’t resolve the entire story. As a production, and adaption, UNGO is amazing, given its length, which is only 11 episodes.  At the same time, one of the series biggest themes, the clash between Shinjirou and Kaishou, is never really fully explored in the series. There are teases and hints in the series, with the last arc even being a major cop out, but it never really comes to fruitation. There is progress, indeed, but the major crux of the series is never resolved. If anything, it feels that there needs to be a second season, of another 12 or 13 episodes which adds another set of cases and brings out the big battle between Shinjirou and Kaishou to a close.
What is sad, is that the series really doesn’t feel unsatisfying. It doesn’t, the last arc in particular, progresses the story farther enough and provides enough of an ending that you don’t feel the burn that is generally felt by series that end without completing the story. At the same time, there is some room left for the story to continue, either in a potential sequel or in the manga itself. Either way, the story feels unresolved, and though it’s not horribly done, the ending  leaves the main issue hanging.

At the end, the story, which is the major reason for this series entertainment value, doesn’t feel complete, and prevents this series from truly achieving greatness. Un-Go is a series with many strengths, with excellent production values, writing and pacing, but its also a series that’s doomed to be forgotten unless a second season comes in and truly wraps up the story. Must watch for Mystery Lovers

Jigoku Shoujo(Hell Girl) One Of My fave anime

This anime series is the beginning of an epic story about damnation.
This series can be divided into three acts, like a play, but when the third act closes, the story has just begun. Until the end of the third act, you don't know anything at all about the heroine, even though you've seen her in every episode.

The first act is a long series of terribly similar stories. The moral of every one of these stories is identical, and that moral is: Revenge is not worth its horrible, inherent price.

Many viewers have voiced dissatisfaction after the watching the first two or three episodes. They have complained that there is little characterization of the recurring characters, that the stories are all the same horror story of revenge, and that the artwork, while striking, gets re-used too often. Do not heed them. This series just uses the first act to break down the viewer's resistance.

One-third of the way into the series, the second act begins the real story. The real story centers on the heroine who has been carrying out supernatural justice in exactly the same way for the entire first act. Her name is Enma Ai, and she is beautiful and she is terrible and while her outward manner is calm, there is a horrible disquiet lurking in her large red eyes.

Enma Ai is the Hell Girl, a supernatural spirit or goddess who can be contacted only by those whose hearts are burning with hatred. At the stroke of midnight, those who seek revenge can find her website and enter the names of those who have wronged them.


Those who seek revenge are always the same. They are always suffering terribly, and they are always making the wrong choice. It is not exactly an easy thing to sit through ten or sixteen episodes of horrible revenge stories -- many of those who seek Enma Ai have suffered rape, abandonment, torture, betrayal -- but if you want to see the brilliance of hellfire, this series expects you to look at the faces of suffering -- which are, incidentally, mostly very well-drawn and well-animated.

Enma Ai herself is depicted with an august elegance. Her bearing is much more dignified than her childishly young body. She can take on any appearance, but in her unguarded moments she affects the dress of medieval Japan. The hell she serves is a medieval Japanese hell -- it is the torture-dungeon of cruel Shinto gods with little regard for Buddhist salvation. It is nastily personal hell, and whenever Enma Ai drags another soul into it, the viewer is struck by the fact that her outward politeness cannot entirely conceal her personal, childish malice. This is not a hell of just punishment: this is a hell of personal revenge which sometimes effects justice by accident.


Enma Ai's loyalties are feudal -- she serves and she is served. Her servants are three: a young man, a seductive woman, and an old man. When Enma Ai so wills it, these servant-spirits can transform themselves into straw dolls resembling the cursing-dolls which were traditionally nailed to the trees of Shinto shrines with special nails. She gives one doll, bound by a red thread, to each persecuted person who asks for revenge. If that person unties the red thread, the soul of the persecutor will instantly be dragged down into hell; but the person who sought revenge will be dragged down to hell at death, and will never be allowed to know paradise.

This series depicts a hell that is profoundly unjust, and the viewer may well come to hate Enma Ai for serving such an unjust hell. In the second act, a much more sympathetic set of recurring characters come into play. A journalist and his young daughter begin to investigate Enma Ai. They provide a much-needed moral center to this otherwise nihilistic series. The journalist is mature enough to understand the suffering of life and the inevitability of death. His pursuit inconveniences Enma Ai and her three servants, thus leading inevitably to the third act.

In the third act, Enma Ai can no longer pretend to be a perfectly calm and dispassionate servant of hell. She is forced to reconsider why she obey the terrible mission of vengeance. And in the end, when the viewer has seen what drives Enma Ai to destroy unceasingly, the story has just begun.

Students of Japanese culture will have their hands full with this series. Enma is the Japanese transliteration of Yama, the Sanskrit name of the Lord of Hell. Ai can be translated as "harmony" or "love." Enma Ai is depicted as participating in traditional rural customs and mythological traditions with equal frequency, so the significance when she is shown as piling up flat stones on a riverbank is profoundly Japanese. (Japanese children in hell piled up stones on a riverbank, and were horribly cheated -- but the secret of that symbolism has not fully been explained, even in the second series.)

From a technical standpoint, this series has a number of shortcomings. The first act, lasting for perhaps eight episodes, is too repetitive for most audiences. The series as a whole is morbidly depressing, and yet it tells a complete story, so the viewer is obliged to watch the second season to see the real story. The series sets a high standard with the visually stunning first episode, only to repeat the same images over and over again for the next few episodes.

A few problems exist in the first season but not in the second, e.g.: The opening theme is too vulgarly popular for such a serious series. The three servant-spirits are not given opportunities to characterize themselves. A few episodes seem to have been animated by interns and are far below the standard of quality set by the other episodes. All of these problems seem to have been polished away in the second season, which is titled: "Jigoku Shoujo Futokomori."

A few problems seem to be systemic: the exact nature of hell is not explained for the entire first season. The series leads viewers to believe that hell ought to be other than it is shown to be. Major questions are introduced and blatantly left as mysteries, forcing the viewer to watch the later seasons in the hope that everything will be explained. It may be that these problems will never be resolved, but no story is perfect.

This is not a series that will be enjoyed by everyone. If you are babysitting six-year-old children with a tendency to have nightmares, show them Sugar Sugar Rune and pack them off to bed before you watch this show. If you are watching with impatient young boys who want to punch everyone, show them Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari, which is a more masculine interpretation of similar mythological images. But if you watch TV with girls and women who often feel that they cannot resort to violence, by all means watch this show. It masters the most difficult part of horror fiction -- it combines the beautiful with the ugly, it draws the viewer in while repulsing the viewer at the same time. In the end, even if you had wanted to look away, you find that you cannot, and your attention is brought to the message of the story.