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coffeebreath

  • Dorset, UK
  • Joined Jan 15, 2009
  • 35 / F
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Chi's Sweet Home

Nov 4, 2010

One of my favourite quotes goes: "Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious." It can be easy when you get caught up in the philosophical twists and turns of your daily encounters for one decision to become an entire blockade that stops you progressing in your life. You look left and right, you assess the possible outcomes and decide that any decision you make will incur a sacrifice! Life is fine just as it is, why do you have to make a choice at all?! However, you are shackled by responsibilities that you don't recall having primarily taken upon yourself and the... See full review

7/10 story
8/10 animation
10/10 sound
9/10 characters
9/10 overall

Boys Over Flowers

May 23, 2011

Story Adapted from the best-selling shoujo manga of all time the Hana Yori Dango anime has big shoes to fill. The initial premise of the show is that Tsukushi Makino comes from a very poor family but attends a school for the wealthy members of high-society. This opens up a sandbox of possibilities for a great mix of school life and drama. So throw in the romantic connection between Tsukushi and the two richest boys in the school and you have an obvious yet clever setup. The execution is surprisingly rife with cliche. There are contrivances and misunderstandings, the script is full of angst, and many... See full review

8/10 story
4/10 animation
6.5/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
8/10 overall

Massugu ni Ikou (2004)

Apr 16, 2010

In the midst of high-paced action titles, ongoing shounen classics, and sickly sweet romance tales comes a small series with a big heart! Massugu ni Ikou weaves simplistic episodic stories about the bonds of friendship and love to both promote the welfare of dogs and provide some warming comedic moments.StoryMassugu ni Ikou is only five episodes long and very much a quintessential slice-of-life series, thus there is no overriding plot detail to speak of. However, this is not about high school romances, plucky young teenagers, or impoverished wanderers - this is about dogs! "Ah, so this is for the dog... See full review

7/10 story
5.5/10 animation
8/10 sound
6.5/10 characters
7.5/10 overall

Gokinjo Monogatari

Mar 16, 2011

Story Despite its manga serialization in the long-running shoujo monthly Ribon, the Gokinjo Monogatari anime adaptation feels distinctly mature enough to widely appeal to the josei demographic. The premise of Gokinjo Monogatari is remarkably unoriginal and employs various cliches for a yawn-worthy introductory arc that should be better. It will make you wonder at what point the unique spark that Ai Yazawa is known for was snuffed out or if it was even... See full review

8/10 story
4/10 animation
4.9/10 sound
7.9/10 characters
7/10 overall

Diamond Daydreams

Jun 24, 2010

Story Split into small character-based arcs, each individual story was very personal and interesting to follow, a couple of them being a far shot from anything near cliche. However, I felt that if Diamond Daydreams had used a linear structure focusing on one main character for its 12 episodes then I would be sitting here writing about how mundane the show was. Fortunately, that possibility did not remain unforeseen and a great job was done on providing enough variation to keep people like me interested. Diamond Daydreams is quite a heavy romantic drama with rare moments of comic relief; however, the... See full review

7/10 story
7/10 animation
4.5/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
7/10 overall

Kimi ni Todoke - From Me To You

Apr 27, 2011

Story Kimi ni Todoke is heavily touted as one of the best romance anime to be seen in recent years, but referring to it as such is somewhat of a misnomer. It takes Sawako somewhere in the realm of 12 episodes to even understand the nature of her feelings to be 'romantic' and the ending is disappointing in regards to them. What Kimi ni Todoke has to offer is an innocent tale of first love and friendship wrapped up in a package of drama and school life. Unfortunately, the execution of all these elements left me with a very sour taste in my mouth. Far from being the relatable and clever high school romance I... See full review

5.5/10 story
7/10 animation
8/10 sound
5/10 characters
5.7/10 overall

Buso Renkin

Apr 10, 2010

Busou Renkin can only be described as a remarkably average anime that attempts to step outside the box at parts, but essentially remains a slave to the shounen demographic that it desperately wants to please. I read somewhere that this was an anime that only loyal Shounen Jump fans should follow and whilst I do think this is a fair thing to say the anime deserves a bit of extra credit. The story is painfully generic, boy discovers superpower, boy wants to use the superpower to become stronger and to protect the ones close to him, boy gets more than he bargained for and has to fight his way out of every... See full review

5/10 story
6.5/10 animation
4.5/10 sound
4/10 characters
5/10 overall

The Dark Myth

Apr 13, 2010

Since no one has said anything about Dark Myth yet, I feel obliged to warn potential viewers not to go into this with high expectations. Or any expectations. Or sober.StoryTo begin with the story... hmm, the story... see, I was unfortunate enough to pick up the English dub of Dark Myth and all I can say is that the story became utterly indiscernible thanks to some poorly-crafted dialogue. Characters incoherently rush their explanations of the various legends and history surrounding the plot, throwing in a Japanese name every other word. It was completely impossible to follow, for me, without the visual... See full review

3/10 story
5/10 animation
5/10 sound
2/10 characters
2.8/10 overall