Monday, October 10, 2016

Anime Three Quick Shot Reviews

I happened upon a list of horror appropriate anime. This was based on graphic violence and the whole October Halloween Theme.

Not so good. Watched three series. Let me quickly go through them.


High School of the Dead




12 episodes, censored, on Hulu.

The idea of the Walking Dead in Japan is an interesting one.

This is not that.

Starts off in a similar manner. Sick individual (actually a zombie) pounding on a private school gate. Student witnesses the staff attack said individual to remove him from the property; only that doesn't go so well.

In this zombie setting, the disease spreads quickly.  The kid figures out there's something wrong. He goes to grab his ex-girlfriend, a spearfighter, and well, it quickly goes from there.

It's a harem style anime where there are multiple women main characters, one 'desirable' guy character. There is another male character, who at least in this sequence of events, despite his aptitude with all things projectile, including nail guns and high powered assault weapons, is the comedic relief.

Is it violent? Yes.

Is it pandering to men, probably young teens? Yup.

Worth watching? Nope.

Blood C




I've seen a few series in the 'Blood' vein. The original movie, Blood, The Last Vampire, is my favorite because I saw it many moons ago. Then there was the first TV series, Blood +. I enjoyed, although it did tend to drag.

Then there's this 12 episode bit.

Watched it on Hulu, where again, it was censored. The ultra-violence was white lighted out. You can catch the clips on Youtube if you're so inclined.

Story wise, at least it tends to be aware that the main character, Saya, has some awareness problems of her own. Saya's issues come home in the last episode, but the build up to it has zero resolution in the series. If you want to watch the fighting sequences, which are okay but on Hulu, edited, its worth watching.


Btoom!




Also on Hulu and of these three, the most enjoyable.

The main character, Ryuta,  starts off not knowing where he is as he wakes up on a tropical island. He's suffering from short term amnesia and he's sarmed with timed grendaes. Ryuta's main skill in life? He's a great player of a game called Btoom. It's an online game where you play against others, but its big draw is you use different types of grenades as opposed to guns or swords.

The corporation that makes the game, kidnaps people volunteered by someone else. The main character, Ryuta for example, is volunteered by his own mother for money. These kidnapped people are then flown onto a tropical island, armed, and have to play a real life version of Btoom!

It's like Sword Art Online but in reverse. Instead of getting sucked into a video game, the video game comes to the real world.

You have to get eight crystals to get off. Said crystals are embedded in a person's hand and can only be removed upon that person's death.

While it does have a bit of fanservice of its own going on, it's not obnoxious about it, unlike High School of the Dead.

More interesting to me is that Ryuta grows quite a bit during these 12 episodes. His flashbacks to his home life showcase him as a loser with no job and rude to his parents, selfish to the point of excluding them from his world, which is boiled down to being good at Btoom. Seeing him acknowledge that is powerful.

The series also has more use of common sense and strategy than the other two. There are deaths, surprises, and other events that made it far more interesting than the others.

It, like High School of the Dead, ends on an appropriate note which if sales and viewership warrant it, could easily lead into a new season.

I've never seen any of these before nor have I read any of the anime.

As the Halloween season isn't over and I'm still loolking for work, I suspect I'll be able to knock a few more of these anime series off of my Hulu watch list.

Anyon love any of these or think I'm way off base?

Have any Halloween anime series to recommend?

Hit me up in the comments!



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