Garo - Honoo no Kokuin - Anime Review

I honestly never watched Garo before. Heck, I'm not even familiar with it at all! But I only know "Yeah dude, this is an Adult tokusatsu series, by adult I mean, there's a lot of cleavages!" when it comes to Garo. So, when it showed up on Fall 2014, I didn't really check it out. Until my friend told me "dude you have to watch it!". So I've watched it, It is a 24 episodes series long with normal air time done by Studio MAPPA. How was it? Let's just jump into the review!


Story
The story took place in a medieval ages, In Valiente Kingdom, Some kind of Spanish inquisition.  where witch hunt is a thing on that era. Witches are perceived to be a bad thing. But in actuality, they are not bad! Witches are keeping the order and peace in secret. In this world, there are monsters called "Horrors". And the witches which are Alchemist and Makai Knights are the one who destroys them. The king's right hand, Mendoza, convinces the king to urge the witch hunt and kill all of them by burning them alive. One day, there's a pregnant witch that is being burned alive, and then suddenly a Makai Knight named German, saved the child from that burning pregnant witch. And then 17 years has passed, the saved child is named Leon. He is under German's supervision and training to become the proper Makai Knight. And both of them hunt the Horrors together and looking for the source where those horrors come from. Will they succeed?

My thoughts on the series

1. When I watched the first episode of this series, I'm hooked instantly! It feels like the first chapters of Berserk Manga. But less serious than Berserk. This series is quite dark and I must say the theme is very mature. Now I understand why this is a series for mature audiences when it comes to Tokusatsu series haha
2. This series has unique and interesting characters. I care for all the characters in this series, (well except the main villain, because I hate him!). And from the first episode alone, German is insta-best character for me! He is a badass character but laid back at the same time. He feels like Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop but the main difference is that he is a womanizer. 
3. Speaking of characters, I really like the character arc for Leon. I hardly can like him as a character at first episodes because he is like this angry teenager at all time. But in the end, he makes a good differences and have a great character development. 
4. This series' is almost episodic at first. But later on, it continues on as a series. Which is great for world building and giving us the exposition that we need to understand how their world looks like and how their world works. 
5. The animation is done by Studio MAPPA. And my god they did deliver! the animation looks solid and cool! Especially eps 18. I won't spoil it for you, but the fighting animation is so good! SAO's fighting animation can go to hell and cry watching this super good animation! When they "henshin" wearing Makai Armor, the animation became 3D CG, it could be jarring for some people. But for me, it looks good for this anime! Mostly people will complain about 3DCG because it feels out of place in anime. But it works in this anime since Makai Knights and Horror are "out of this" world. 
6. The soundtrack is awesome! There are a lot of outstanding tracks for this anime. Especially when they fight as Makai Knights. Every Makai Knights have their own theme song, and when the music cues in, it is sure impactful! My favorite track would be Rafael's theme. The song has choir and my god it is beyond epic! Just listen to this track! 
7. The Opening is done by JAM Project. There are two songs and I think both of them nailed the feel of the series. And for me this two Openings are the one that I won't skip when the episode plays. Because JAM Project always deliver great and epic songs! As for the ending song, they also are good!  

Actually I don't really have problems with this anime at all except for the plot which is somehow predictable for me but still doesn't ruin the experience and my enjoyment for this series. But I think people would be have some problem with the 3D CG Makai Armor. Because that's what people in anime community mostly complain in anime hahahaha!

So final thoughts? Should you watch Garo : Honoo no Kokuin? A solid yes for me if you enjoyed dark fantasy. It's a brilliantly written and crafted animated series that you should be watching right now! It has great animation, great story, great characters, and amazing soundtracks! XD

That's it from me guys, I hope that you will find this review useful for you. This is Reikichi, signing out! 

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! - Anime Review

Hey guys! This time I'm going to talk about an anime which airs on Winter 2016, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! or KonoSuba for short. I watched this anime after I finished with Re:Zero (which I already wrote here). I heard that this anime is a parody of Isekai genre itself. So I think watching this series is perfect for me who feels "meh" after watching Re; Zero. So how was it? Let's just dive into it!

Story
The story starts on our real world, where we meet our main protagonist, Satou Kazuma, He is a hikkikomori. But on that day, he went outside to buy some game. On the way home, he saw a girl and a vehicle is rushing to her. Seeing that, Kazuma tried to save her. And then he woke up in the "after life". Enter Aqua, the goddess who told Kazuma that he is already dead. Kazuma thought that he died heroically. But apparently he didn't. He died horribly and pathetically. Aqua laughs when telling him that, even the doctor who tried to save him laughed at his corpse (seriously tho ^__^;). So Aqua offers Kazuma two options. Sending him off to the heaven, or reincarnate once again in a different world while keeping his current memories on his life. She gave a little heads up that if he chose heaven, it'll be boring because everyone in the heaven doesn't have any physical body and just wandering around the heaven for eternity. Listening to that, Kazuma chose to be reincarnated in the other world instead. And then Aqua told him that if he manages to kill the Devil King in this other world, he will be granted one wish. Anything will do. So before he goes to the other world, he must chose anything that he must bring something to that other world in order to defeat that devil king (it could be weapons or anything). Since Aqua is being a jerk to Kazuma by laughing to his death and so on, Kazuma chose to bring her to the other world. So Aqua must live together with Kazuma in that other world. And of course that pissed Aqua off. And thus began their life at the other world living their lives in order to defeat the devil king. Will Kazuma and Aqua be able to defeat the Devil King and get out from that other world?


My thoughts on the series 

1. We all know that anime with isekai genre is quite popular these days, and this anime is a perfect parody of that genre. This anime is genuinely funny and enjoyable for those who are really familiar with that kind of genre. 
2. Even though it's a parody, their world building on the first episode caught me off guard. They really nailed it on the world building, And yet again, this anime only have 10 episodes. Unlike the other isekai anime that I just review couple of weeks ago. *cough* Re:Zero *Cough*. The mechanics of this other world is just like mostly MMORPG where there's some stats. And I can see some "Monster Hunter" like system. Where there's a guild, and they posted some quests for the adventurer's to take. And then they report back and get some rewards. But it's different from MH of course since it tackles the "Exp" system and it has various jobs like any other MMORPG would have. 
3. What makes this show entertaining are the casts. Aqua is a stupid goddess. She is a arch-priest who has good healing abilities, but as she levels up, she spent her skill points for cheap party tricks. While Kazuma, he learns a lot of type of skills from thievery and dark magics. At first, he used thief skill and accidentally become panty thief. Everything gets even more interesting when Kazuma and Aqua finally starts recruiting other members to the party for some quests, But all of the party member (just like Kazuma and Aqua), are good for nothing characters (for comedic purposes). Like Megumin, a crimson demon who can only use one type of spell, Explosion. But after she used it, she will be out cold since it took all of her magic power. She only master that kind of magic because she believes that kind of magic that is important other than other skills and she refuses to learn other magic skills without thinking about her survival after she casts that magic. And the other party member is Darkness, a crusader, but she constantly misses when she attacks, but she loves to take damage from enemy and enjoys being a tank in the team since she is a masochist (^_^;)
4. Continuing from last point, every flaw of all of the party members are exploited brilliantly for comedic purposes. This is a stupid show with stupid characters and they are self aware of it. It's not trying to be so serious about it which is good for this kind of parody. Every ordeal that they overcome are because of sheer dumb luck, since that's what Kazuma is good at. His luck is the best stats among other party member. 
5. However, among other characters, Darkness' character trope is gets old quite fast. And she didn't really have some meaningful act on this series (in the anime, so far).
6. The voice actor are great, they really deliver the emotion and the comedic value of the series.

Minor Problems that I had with this series

1. The animation is done by studio DEEN, and they have this kind of reputation of "standard" and "quarity" anime studio. The quality is are good at the first 7 episodes even though there are a lot of repeated animation scenes. but episode 8 is the worst looking episode among them all. But I must say, whenever Megumin cast the spell, the animation looks pretty. I think this series' budget went there ^_^;
2. Speaking of animation, the fanservice animation on this anime is quite distracting. Every time a boobie woman moves, it has some intense boobie shake. For me, it's an unnecessary fanservice animation. It feels like the animator was like "What kind of animation to make it more interesting? I know! JIGGLE DEM BOOBIES EVERYTIME A BOOBIE CHARACTER MOVES!" ^_^; 
3. The pacing are actually good until we reach eps 8. Where there are some context that we don't get to see and the anime decided to tell us on a quick flash back and skipped it. IF they manage to tell us the story, this anime could have been 12-13 eps long rather than 10 eps

So here comes the final verdict, should you watch KonoSuba? If you are a fan of isekai genre or at least familiar with it and need some good laughs, you should check it out. They announced the 2nd season of this anime. But it worries me if they will be as good as the first season if they don't add some characters or new party members to the plate. 

So that's it from me, I hope that you'll find this review helpful, this is Reikichi, signing out! XD

Boku no Hero Academia Season 1 - Anime Review

"I love superheroes! I love anime! Is there any anime about Superheroes?" Well, you are in a perfect place. After One Punch Man hype in 2015, and here we are now at 2016! Another Anime with Superhero theme! This time I'll be talking about Boku no Hero Academia season 1 which has 13 eps and normal episodes run time. So without further ado, let's just dive into it!

Story
The story sets in our world where people somehow developed superpowers, or in their term, it's called "Quirks". 80% of the population of the world have quirks. Our main protagonist, Midoriya Izuku or Deku as his friends called him

Midoriya Izuku/Deku

He aspires to be a Hero, and he idolized the no. 1 Hero of all time, named All Might.

All Might, the no 1 Hero!

But all of that hopes and dreams get crushed when he found out at the age of 4. He is fallen into the minority. He didn't have any Quirks (aka a normal human being) 10 Years have passed, In his Junior High school, Deku got bullied a lot by his childhood friend, Bakugo Katsuki,

Bakugou Katsuki

Deku is usually get bullied by his schoolmates because his friends thought that he is just a "normal people", "A person without quirks is an useless person!" as they say it. (Generalizing and Stereotypical person, never liked them lol). But even though Deku acknowledged himself as a normal person, he never surrender and always try his best to become a hero. Because he believe that a normal person can be a hero! A great hero just like All Might!

On his way home, Deku suddenly got attacked by Villain (which means a Villain, duh) and he is saved by his idol, All Might, Later on he knows that All Might is actually have a really bad condition. He is injured from his previous intense battles but despite of his condition, he tries so hard to keep his hero's duty because he is the symbol of peace and he doesn't want every body know about his weakness right now. And then the villain that captured Deku before, managed to captured Bakugo. All of the superheroes available assemble to fight this villain, but none can fight him and saved Bakugo. Despite of his "normality", Deku rushes to the villain and tries to save Bakugo, because that's his instinct. And then All Might do the finishing blow and saved the day. Witnessing Deku's bravery, All Might saw a great potential on Deku. And he told Deku that "Even normal person can be a hero too!". All Might decided to train Deku in order to pass on his powers to Deku. Because he needs a successor.

In order to be a professional Hero, Deku must enter the UA, the Hero Academy. Deku won't be able to receive All Might's power with his current physical condition. So All Might train him for 10 months so Deku would be "strong" enough to receive his powers. Will Deku be able to enter the Hero Academy? Can he be a Hero?


My Thoughts on the series 

1. The setting and the plot is actually not new (Superheroes, an academy of superheroes) and very predictable, but damn, I'm enjoying myself when I watch this. Just like any other superheroes, what makes this series entertaining is the characters. Deku is a crybaby but he has the desire to be a hero and he acts heroic. After receiving the power from All Might, I thought he would be instantly as strong as All Might, He does, but he can't control it, yet. Because right after he did his quirk, he is incapacitated. For example, he punch a person, but his bones are broken. So every action that he did would be a high risk for him. That's where he shines as a character, he did some strategic analysis and work things out with his wits. As a shonen main character, it is definitely entertaining to see him grow.. 
2. Again with the characters, I like Bakugo's character arc. He has this inferiority complex. In Junior High school, he used to be the no 1 person and no one can beat him, but later on he realized how small and inferior he is compared to the world. I think he is quite possible become either the main villain (since it's kinda foreshadowing the battle between Deku and him). or become the powerful rival/friend. Just like Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. 
3. The animation is done by Studio Bones! And my god they did deliver! You can't never be dissapointed with Bones' animation when it comes to "Action" sequences. All Might's Plus Ultra is one of my favorite moments in 2016 (so far as this blog published). And it's announced that this show will have season 2! I hope Bones will handle the 2nd season as well! XD
4. Opening is done by Porno Graffitti. The last time I hear them is on Fullmetal Alchemist (2004). which is a long time ago hahahaha! But damn, their song is good! The ending is also good, it's done by Brian the Sun! Their song really captures the emotion of the series, 
5. The BGM soundtrack is so good and Heroic! I mean, just listen to this track! So epic! 

The problems that I had with this series

There are so many characters in here, And most of them didn't have the time to shine. I'd love to see and know more about them. Because this series mainly focuses on Deku and All Might's relationship. I hope that we will see more of the other side characters and anything that similar to Bakugo's character arc in the future seasons to come

And now for the final conclusion, should you watch Boku no Hero Academia season 1? If you love Superhero, you'll love this anime and I definitely recommend this one for you. This show is worth your time! But mind you, this is just a prologue and a slow burner. And I think it nails as a setup season for many awesome things that will happen in the future (hopefully), It's been awhile for me to be excited watching a shonen series like this. I can't wait to watch Season 2! 

That's it from me guys, I hope that you'll find this review useful! This is Reikichi, signing out!