Alberenza's reviews discussion

[Metal]

So i need you to review tenchi muyo war on geminar now. Ive already seen it but still

[Deleted]

Please post in the appropriate thread from now on metal.

Also I have no idea what that show is.

[Metal]

My bad i didnt know this was here.

Anyways its about tenchi muyos masakis younger brother. Who gets ditched by his family magical teleported to the planet geminar and his interactions with his own harem of women all of whom come to love him foe whatever reasons. Basically its tenchi muyo with mecha esque things and not staring tenchi. But it only has 13 episodes as opposed to the typical 60+ tenchi series are infamous for.

[Deleted]

alberenzaanime.blogspot.co.uk/

Started a blog. Will place my new reviews here from now on... so perhaps these threads will slowly decline in relevance, unless you guys still want to use this thread to talk about the reviews outside of the comments section on the site.

Only my recent Btoom review is on the site right now, but be sure to check back for stuff like my psycho-pass and Robotics;notes reviews among many others when I finish them. I'll also put my older reviews on the blog, but I'm going to restructure them to fit my 'subheading' format.

I'm very interested in seeing responses, and how the blog page might be improved. I'd like to add better colours and pictures in the future.

[Indigo]

Gunvarrel anime pls.

Dang, it seriously needs at least an OVA... Gunvarrel may be my favorite mech ever from what little we see of it... Man. It's just so awesome, like they meshed what I like about all of my favorite mechs into one perfect design (with awesomely beautiful energy wings), along with my favorite mech color scheme. It's not just hype from having just watched the anime... But the characters in Gunvarrel also look pretty awesome, it'd be such a great mecha anime.

Spoilers post. Well, I was pretty disappointed. I think the Gunvarrel clips throughout the anime and OPs were better and would make for an amazing actual anime. The thing is, Kai was a terrible main character. I've never been much of a 'character judge,' as in, I don't really think of characters as well or badly written, and just see them as how they are, but... Kai is the most illogical and inconsistent thing I've ever seen in an anime. At the start, he's an useless lazy guy who plays an online game all day (despite the fact that Kill Ballad looks AMAZING, I don't think it's actually possible for someone to literally play one fighting game all day for weeks/years [but okay this is just an overly technical complaint]). He doesn't seem to give a crap about anyone or anything else (and cops out of everything people ask of him with said game), which is a typical and unfavorable but acceptable character archetype, except...

There's a supposedly amazing massively anime, and Kai's favorite game is based just on that. And he barely even recognizes the anime, much less care about it. So, the robotics club is in danger of being disbanded, but... There's nothing he can do about that (and actually doesn't care either), oh well. Why is he in this club again? Oh, because it's the perfect place to play his game. To save the club, the awesome club president proposes to win a robotics contest, and Kai is the only one with the capable controlling skills for it. So, here's his chance of a lifetime! He'll get to fight with an actual real robot! But, he refuses to do it at all costs. Except until by some miracle, he can control the robot just like his game! And even then he's not fond of it...

Skip ahead a bit, and the GunPro-1, the real-scale massive robot, based on his favorite mech from his favorite game, is finally built and functional (let's just avoid the fact that he was completely useless towards this despite being in the robotics club for now)! And it's no other than Kai that will get to pilot this real-life mech! But... He absolutely refuses to do it, and ends up only piloting this massive pain in the neck because he's the only one who can do it for some reason, despite how simple it is to just press a button like he did. Man, piloting a real-life mech based on the game of his life (or life of his game actually) is such a massive chore.

What is wrong with this guy? Even if mech games and mechs are totally unrelated (but seriously, there is some connection), what kind of gamer, or even, what kind of person would absolutely be against controlling a robot and a REAL GIANT ROBOT for no apparent reason?

There's too much more I could complain about (like initially even a real moe girl only appearing over Iru-Q is a pain to him), but if Kai was as enthusiastic as he was at the expo, this anime could have been really good. Unfortunately, I forgot at many points that this was a robotics anime. It was more about a mystery that randomly seems to be the one thing in the world an useless main character cares about, and his friends happened to be robotics fans. In the end, Kai is really only the main character because chance upon chance keeps falling straight into his hands.

It's not towards the end where Kai somehow became decent main character, and seems to be interested in helping people, and even robotics (slightly). But throughout the anime, he had this bipolar attitude of sometimes not caring about anything, and sometimes going out of his way to help. But even when he tried to help Airi at first, he just had to go outside climb and activate that one tower during a huge storm masochistically instead of just waiting it out.

Too many complaints...

But it would have been a really good anime if, say, Akiho was the main character, or Kai was a least a normal human being. For some reason, it was just really irritating me that he was the one fighting in Super GunPro-1 to save the world, when every other character gave so much more effort. And at the end... The end... Just, what?! Kai managed to somewhat redeem himself as a new, rational character, but then, he randomly deletes Kill Ballad. Kai, are you doing this intentionally?! I mean, you're gonna download it again later, right? You just can't think straight because you took three shocks from a machine (that almost killed you just a night ago from one shock) like nothing to activate your stupid plot armor ability, right?

Well, rest in peace, Robotics;Notes. Hopefully Subaru made up with his father and will be the true main character of a robotics anime some day. It's kinda depressing how unrobotics-like the anime became after Subaru had to break his robot, and that was never resolved... I really liked the start of the series, where the robotics part really shone and it was about contests. The whole reports stuff was just so unrelated and felt unbelonging.

I have to admit the confession scene was pretty nice (at least very untypical). Kai's lines were pretty cool and nice, and Akiho reacted so cute, but it didn't really seem like Kai actually liked Akiho with how bold and confident he was, and little relationship interaction throughout the anime. And after that they still seemed the same, not that we got much of an after-story, but on the way back on the truck, I totally forgot about the love story.

And now I realize just how much I've typed up complaining about Kai. So there you have it. My review essay on Robotics;Notes' main character. I'll leave it at that for now. But Robotics;Notes really had some nice moments, and would have been so much better off with a different main character. It's unfortunately ruined by tacking on one guy that goes against the entire premise of the anime and hogs all the screen time.

Akiho was awesome and Gunvarrel is amazing, though.

[Deleted]

I generally didn't see Kai as too insufferable... merely a realist. As in, he's ok with playing games and such, but he would never believe that he'd actually get to pilot one and probably thought it pointless to try. I guess he still admired Akiho's spirit though, and has clearly liked her since before the beginning of the anime hence why he still turns up to robotics club. When he gets to pilot the giant robot, I saw him as kinda humble.
Bah, those are my only defenses. He just seemed typical to me in all honesty, but not someone who ruined the show nor its worst aspect.

The worst aspects were the structure of the show which tried to be Steins;Gate without understanding Steins;Gate, (weird because it's done by the same guys) lack of focus, some pointless unfinished characters, and unresolved plot threads. It defineately felt like a mecha anime translated into the real world though, it's not like Gurren Lagann or indeed Gunvarrel in which the technology already exists, and that the characters have easy access to, meaning that they only have to believe and such, and instead focuses more on the hardships and technical logic (monopole was dumb though)
Gunvarrel its self was so great because not only was it an awesome mech from a high powered show, but because it literally encompassed everything about mechs, and the clubs dream. Well, Aki's dream. Seeing it in action only towards the end- albeit in a much simpler form then what was in the show- is one of the best feelings, and the AR used to present it is genius. It may be a hunk of junk, but seen through a certain lens it represents everything about mechs, and looks as awesome as envisioned. I have a hunch that this is why your favorite mech, Claxus, and it may not be your favorite were it not presented in this manner, for all I know.

I still wonder how the robotics club managed to avoid copyright issues with the thing though... unless Frau owned them.

[Indigo]

Kai did seem like more of a realist, but I think it's undeniable his lack of interest has no justification. I just don't get it, if he loves a Gunvarrel game so much, how can he be so oblivious to the massive-hit Gunvarrel anime? He reacts to controlling Tamagashimachine like it was a bad thing, and doesn't care either way even once he can control it like Kill Ballad. And even as a realist, why would he be so against piloting the GunPro-1 when it was already reality, up and running, and Akiho was depending on him?

I just don't get how he can be so disinterested in robotics and Gunvarrel, while enjoying Kill Ballad like no other. It's clear he's a gamer, how can he not see controlling a hobby robot or an actual mech as appealing in any way? He seems to be against them and only does so due to Akiho's constant pleads.

Around the second half of the show I have to say he became much better, he actually stopped complaining about not wanting to be a pilot or help the club or anyone else. I liked his second-half self. Interestingly enough, this seemed to be the turning point, right at the halfway point, episode 11. After this he seemed to become more involved, with helping Jun and Airi, having fun controlling GunPro-2 at the expo and even ankh striker posing, his outburst to Akiho after the chaos at the expo, and everything else he did for everyone.

But that's the problem. If he was a consistently like that during the first half, it would have been much better anime. I mean, he was pretty much just a lazy jerk before who didn't even seem to care about Aki that much, considering how he only ended up controlling the hobby robot for her because by some miracle he got a free game-dev Kill Ballad control program for it just by asking someone he didn't know yet out of the blue, and piloted the GunPro-1 at the last second only when Aki was forced to (almost) do it herself. Honestly, I wouldn't call that humble... And then on one episode, he suddenly becomes this more involved and caring character that suddenly enjoys robotics.

I did like the anime, pretty much everything except first-half Kai... But his first impressions were so notorious that I didn't like him much even after his character improved, since I didn't really realize his values shifted until around the expo. The other thing I didn't like about the anime was how the whole robotics thing majorly took backseat after the start of the Kimijima mysteries early on, up until the very end. Probably wouldn't have minded it much if the anime had a different name...

On another topic, though... You're almost right about why I like Gunvarrel. To me, it was love at first sight. Mainly the first episode, when Akiho explains to Kai about the anime, and there's some clips of the Gunvarrel anime. And the various spread out Gunvarrel clips throughout the episodes, as well as the BOKUTACHI WAAAAA part of the first OP and the last quarter of OP2. And its name.

I just think its design is amazing, the bulky yet smooth arms that resonate with energy like Gundam AGE-1 Titus, symbolic energy wings like a cross between Wing Zero Custom's angelic wings and Lancelot Albion's shining wings, some similar qualities to Gurren Lagann and some appearance traits like Nirvash, and to keep it short, overall with its colors and head crest, makes me think of it as my favorite gundam Kyrios (and one of my favorite mechs in general), idealized with traits of all of my favorite mechs.

Did I mention there's a depressing lack of Gunvarrel in general? I mean, a picture of a shirt is the closest thing to a full-body picture of Gunvarrel on the internet! There's not that many pages of pictures either. And nothing related to Gunvarrel if you search it on YouTube, but if you search "Gunvarrel" with the quotes, it'll come up as one of the lower results, a video of the full version of the first OP.

But again... You're right. As I kept watching, as GunPro-1 and 2 were built, especially the second with the Iru-O, I also came to love it even more than as an amazing super robot design from an anime I'd pay to watch (if it was real), but also as an ideal and symbolic mecha image that it represents. It's what may set it in stone as my favorite mech...

The very end was so beautiful and symbolic... With a real Gunvarrel standing and overseeing a shuttle launch... Which apparently, the astronaut at the end is Kai. The anime completely averted the fact he wanted to become an astronaut in the visual novel. I thought it was just showing how Gunvarrel became a positive and popular image again until I read that... Although, I'm confused as to if that was an actual Gunvarrel they built at the end, or just Iru-O.

Anyway, I wonder more about Iru-O. That's some pretty insane technology with detecting three dimensional people/objects and producing lagless and flawless 3D images... And lastly, Kill Ballad should be a real thing. Man, every time I post here it's always such a big tl;dr.

[Deleted]

I like them, I crave discussion.

It was overlooked but I always thought that when he was a child he looked at that rocket from the island all the time. I think there are a few flashback scenes that take place on an observation deck near it, too, may be wrong.
Iru-O seems a little too optimistic for 2019, then again we pretty much have AR which is pretty good already and the pokecoms just seem to be the perfect fusion of ipads/smartphones/PSP/DS anyway, so not too bad. No, what gets me is that someone can copy his mind onto the internet as early as 2019. Now that isn't going to be possible as early as then, I'll tell you that.

[dillybar64]

Bump for revival?

Have you been reviewing the things that you have been watching/playing in your free time?
Or have you been taking requests?
(probably a silly question, I feel silly while typing this, but wanted to ask anyway)

Also, if you liked Welcome to the NHK so much I recommend you pick up the 1 volume light novel that the animu was based off of.
If you do read it, could you do a comparative review between it and the animu and what you saw as the strengths of each?
I guess this sort of turned into a request post, but you don't have to view it as such if you don't want.
Think of it as a recommendation?



Edit: Also, speedily scrolling through this page to try and reach the bottom is horrifying.
I keep seeing

just flash by again and again.
Stupid spooky avatar...

[Deleted]

Be sure to post in the appropriate thread in future, please. I'm sorry if you didn't see this thread.

Anyway I review things from my blog now, the link to which you can find in my signature, although yes that has been slowing down recently.

I have nearly completed a review of psycho-pass but I haven't found the energy to do so recently.
For know I'll just say that psycho-pass is damn amazing.

I also plan on doing a comparitive on Dangan Ronpa and Virtues Last Reward, two very similar visual novel adventure games both made by Spike Chunsoft, albeit different divisions of each, Dangan Ronpa made by 'Spike' and VLR made by 'Chunsoft' although they are one company...
Where was I?
Anyway so yeah this isn't dead yet.

I'm glad you like my avatar.
Try looking up Dangan Ronpa sometime, the character in my avatar is from the sequel.
Don't look up the sequel though.
It has huge spoilers for the first game.
Just look at the thread I made and you'll be fine...

Can you see why I can write reviews now? I CAN'T STOP TALKING!

However I believe I have said all I wanted to say.

[dillybar64]

Apr 28, 2013 20:33:08 GMT @alberenza said:

Anyway I review things from my blog now, the link to which you can find in my signature.

+

Apr 28, 2013 20:33:08 GMT @alberenza said:

Try looking up Dangan Ronpa sometime, the character in my avatar is from the sequel.

All right, I will check these things out.

[Stove]

That was a really nice "review," I'm glad to see your views on X and Y's story. I was very dissapointed that you didn't even mention AZ, but it was still nice.
While you will disagree, I like Black and White's story better (and B2W2 expanded on it well) because, as you said, it covers a very real issue parents have tacked on to pokemon (and the PETA of pure evil) since it began - Teaching children(or trainers) to use animals to fight. And, while Lysandre's goals were more just than Cyrus, they're very similar.
No mention of AZ still bothers me.

[Indigo]

AZ is just... So thrown in. He's just standing there and walks away when you first see him. Then, you fight your way through thugland, and he's just there behind lazer bars. And what happens? "Hello, random kid. I'm just going to tell you the story of my life right now out of the blue for no reason." Except, he barely even says that, he just starts spouting his story... And then the story finishes.

<cue back thugland base music>

Talk about lack of immersion. Yeah, then that's it for him, 'till the end when he just randomly stands in your way again saying he wants to understand the meaning of being a trainer. I wrecked him in a relentless and depressing kind of way, and we nod at each other. The end. I can't complain much about that last part, though, because Golurk vs. Golurk in the middle of the championship carpet covered in confetti surrounded by the crowd is an understandably amazing season finale that could make anyone understand how awesome it is to be a trainer.

[Deleted]

I don't believe I forgot about AZ! Despite what Claxus says I really liked AZ. His inclusion in the story was rather haphazard but he was pretty great.
That said pokemon B/W does have the better story. I believe X and Y have the better antagonists, however.

Here are my mini-thoughts on AZ.
He serves as a parallel to Lysandre because they both used (or tried to use) the exact same weapon of mass destruction to achieve their desires. AZ shows what Lysandre might become if he decides to become immortal, in other words, AZ lost his floette because of his madness and has regretted it ever since. If Lysandre made pokemon extinct and became immortal, several thousand years down the line Lysandre might be in a similar position of eternal regret.
AZ was a bit weird in how he suddenly started telling his life story, but being 3000 years old in a state of permanent regret would make anyone like him, desiring company and focusing only on that one moment where they screwed up.
Floette arrving at the end suggests that all the pain and suffering associated with the pokemon war has finally been put to rest by the player's defeat of Lysandre, AZ, and Yvetal/xerneas.