07-Ghost - Reviews

As a note of reference, I have not read the manga, though I intend to at some point.

Story: The story follows Teito Klein, a military slave, who escapes the military and takes refuge in the 7th district, a holy ground. There, he begins to learn about his past and about his powers with the aid of the Bishops, while being hunted by Ayanami. The story also tells of the 7 ghosts (where the title comes from) that protect the earth from the forces of Verloren. With a vast lore, the story is intriguing and enchanting.

Animation: The animation has a solid mix of light and dark elements. Everything from the eyeball-fish soup to the robes of the Ghosts is wonderfully detailed.

Sound: The soundtrack is full of intense moments and lulling interludes, following the course of each episode and enhancing the action.

Characters: The cast of characters is pretty unique. Each character has a story behind them, and a web of interactions. I guess you could call the Bishops "Bishies with attitude" because it's really the only way to describe them. You also have the un-gendered Kuroyuri, the tsundere Hakuren, and the malignant Ayanami. The cast is well suited for an anime that straddles the border between shoujo and shounen.

A poorly written series that appeals mostly through erotic aesthetics rather than good directing and character immersion. It had a big fandom when it aired, most of which were fujoshis. It was also made by DEEN, the studio anime went to die, with lazy production values and poor directing by the guy who ruined Record of Lodoss War and Beelzebub with his dull handling of the source material.

A blend of medieval fantasy and science fiction, visually it can be attractive with its fairy-talelike aesthetics. It combines clergy life, occult mystery and military super-soldier projects for some rather surreal backgrounds. It’s also a series full of bishounens, so it will be extra captivating to the fujoshis; everybody is made to look like a hot dream boy dressed in cassock, any fangirl would kill just to touch his hair. They have glances and smirks that can lure you into their arms in less than 3 seconds. There are some women and old people as well but they are just background decoration or cute mascots, like a perky mermaid, a pink fuzzy critter and a trio of aloof sisters.

The series can look awesome when you focus on still frames, but when you notice how terrible the animation is, then things get messy. Action scenes and visual effects are your typical DEEN crap, with battle choreography being a joke, explosions never damaging the background, and magic attacks existing on a different plane of existence since they were computer generated instead of drawn along with the background. The characters move very little, flapping mouths is most of what is moving, and jumping is just a static picture that slides across the screen. I can go on for hours, but you can just check the opening and see that Teito fellow sitting on a spiky rooftop without it somehow sticking in his ass.

So yeah the series disregards physics, making all battles completely boring and fake-looking. Just imagine that most action is limited to characters shaking their hands and magic stuff appearing that doesn’t affect the environment or other characters. If you are going to make it so bad, don’t make it at all.

The script seems very interesting as a concept with military black ops, mystical temples, scary ghosts, gay innuendos, a sort of detective feeling, and a lot of daily life in a fantasy setting. The overall ideas are mighty interesting, but when you watch it, it's so darn slow. Most episodes don’t even seem to progress the plot and the rest give you only a few seconds of important info. They could have taken out half the total duration and it still wouldn’t feel rushed.

It is also verystraightforward, since despite its events affecting the lives of millions it centers on five people at the most. It focuses too much on the military base and the temple, and it completely ignores every other location of an otherwise huge and complicating setting. You often forget there is supposed to be a plot about the fate of the world and you just look at hot choir boys walking elegantly. There is no pay-off at the end either, since it escalates for many episodes and ends with the story left incomplete.

Just like playing a date sim, the series is full of ero/moe archetypes you are supposed to like for their variety in looks and mannerisms and not for their personalities. Most of the cast was useless to the plot anyways; it was just there to increase your possible dream boyfriends that you would pick to date in some erogame.

The only characters the series needed were Teito and Mikage (the main couple… er, I mean pair), any one of the priests, and Ayanami the psycho military man. The rest were dressing. The only thing you are left to gasp at are the pretty faces of the males. More specifically, their frozen still faces with smirks full of erotic innuendo, while their hair and clothes flap in the wind with a few repeating frames.

TL;DR: Neeext! If you are a seasoned viewer this series will offer you nothing. It’s not even remotely interesting. The plot is snoringly slow and the characters are too generic. It was only made for horny fujoshis, and even then it’s a one-time watch at best, since it doesn’t do much with its content and was left incomplete. It was forgotten fast and is now buried under some pile of equally mediocre anime.

The story was great, i enjoyed watching. 07-ghosts is quite a hand full with all the action taking place i really loved it but at times i cried when certain characters died which just added more enthusiasm in watching the anime. Overall, its really fun to watch!!!!!

This was a very good anime.  The biggest negative about it however, is the fact that it wasn't finished.  So, I can not give it as high of marks as it probably deserves.  It is a fairly original story with lavish settings and a compelling plot.  It clearly draws inspiration from Christian traditions and the bible.  The Japanese studios often seem to love using a reverse set of antagonists or protagonists like making demons good guy characters or angels bad guy characters.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing.  There are bad guy angels in the bible too, you might have heard of the most famous fallen angel.  Perhaps in the East, demons are not seen as manifiestations of evil as mostly considered in Western cultures but maybe just manifestations of spirits.  Though some asepcts about what this church is in the anime are still left unanswered, viewers are given plenty of background and detailed setting information.  I kind of myself doubt his ultimate destiny is as a priest and you may agree or disagree by the anime's end.  The biggest drawback as listed above is not only is the story basically unfinished, but I even dare say it was left hanging on a cliffhanger plot point.  Viewers want to know what happens next but probably never will.  One of the priests is a bit of a perve and there is plenty of teasing and humor alluding to that however, unlike most animes, they do not over do it nor do they do it in atypical cliched fashion.  Though the story is mostly original there are a few tried and true cliche-ish plot points, such at the opening when the main character faces his first crisis delimna from his own people.  And one of the main early characters is also a childhood friend (cliche), but again it is not done quite as cliche as usual.  It reeks quite closely of a hidden power factor, though in kind of a layered way.  

While the main character can more or less fool most people, the 7 major characters revealed as part of a powerful group are not as easily fooled by anything and it might be said the elder priest is likewise atune to the main character's past.  There is plenty of magic and elaborate use of powerful magic and magical figures in the series.  There are also secrets yet to be revealed though hinted at in the description and manga if you ever read either.  It is difficult to go far in reviewing such an anime, but what was there was quite enjoyable.  He falls about as low as one can go and gradually rises up again. That is always a pretty fascinating type of story.  Part of the appeal maybe the glimpses of one or more puzzles that drive the storyline.  Some of that is revealed and other new parts create new puzzles to solve.  There is a overhanging threat of danger, war, and pursuit that also help fuel the action.  

I really do wish I could watch the rest of it however and the fact that its unfinished may well drive viewers away.  Such is often the way for some of the best though shortlived anime series.

Warning this review may contain spoilers-

07Ghost was an anime I would normally avoid however I was dragged into watching it and ended up enjoying it, so no complaints in this area. So brief summary Teito was a slave, he is being held captive in a school and the story just develops from that surrounding Teito and his best friend Mikage who end up on a path they wished they could have avoided.

STORY

The story is based on a small part of the manga so my expectations weren't as high as if it was created nearer today's times (being the manga has now finished). However the story did have some plot holes, some areas were rushed and some character development really needed to be improved but other than this it has a decent story. And even though I've listed these things as being wrong they are only minor elements that could be improved to make this anime any better than it was. 

ANIMATION

Honestly the animation was also decent, personally, I liked the style and I think it added some uniqueness to it as it wasn't too similar to other series that aired around the time but it still isn't too unique in the grand scale of things. Once again I haven't got much to say due to my lack of knowledge in this area XD

SOUND

So the sound, we have a pretty cool opening which I personally think fits the show quite well but the opening animation is quite simple (but that's for a different section). The ending is quite peaceful and a big contrast to the opening but I suck at explaining things so I'll leave it here.

CHARACTERS

So...the final section now, now as I mentioned in the story section it needed more character development and this is one of the major things that made me rank it lower than 10/10. The characters itself were sweet, all had good qualities but they also have bad qualities just like any other human being.

The only real problem I had was the ending, they left it wide open for another series but they didn't use it to make another one which is disappointing. So, in the end, I recommend it but keep in mind that the ending is left open, this is when you have to read the manga.

-AngelBeatsYui-