Intro...Some books decide to take human form and with evil mages about wreck havoc on the world...(at least I think that's about it!)Story: 2
D is for Dreadful
D is for Dire
D also happens to be for Demonbane…
…notice the trend.
I rarely ever say this about an anime, but this is perhaps one of those
ones out there that never deserved to have the time and effort wasted
on making it. The plot tries to mix mecha and magic together,
ultimately failing in a quagmire of typical power-ranger style
fighting, whereby they fight each other with magic before retreating
into their vast mecha to continue on from where they left off…this time
just surrounded by a flimsy bit of metal.
It wouldn’t have been so bad had the story been anything other than
this, but alas, the makers must have thought they were onto something,
or maybe not, since it’s only 12 episodes long (that’s 12 episodes too
long). Poor excuses with the typical style hero doing typical style
fighting against your typical style bad guys who are just there to do
their typical taking over the world.
Script-wise, the show is exceptionally poorly written. It seems that
the writer thought that every character should be shouting either the
enemy who they are fighting name (must be because they’ve all suffer
from exceptionally poor memory and thus have to keep reminding
themselves) and also explaining exactly what they’re doing (because
telling the enemy the moves your performing is a really sensible thing
to do). As a result, the show lacks any form of surprise, interest or a
true direction.
The magic book that take a human form is perhaps the only interesting
aspect of the series. This series lacks everything, with entire
episodes built solely around getting to the mecha stage. Seriously,
it’s dire, dreadful, disastrous and whatever other words of general
badness that could be strung together.
Plot was like a worn piece of string, so thin that you could predict
what was going to happen and so fine that it often didn’t account for
anything.
Animations: 3
The animations are average, with some parts lacking desperately while
others are just plain ordinary. Even the mecha fights don’t really show
the true appreciation of “3D modelling” instead, the attempts just look
bad and flawed, failing to blend CGI with the normal animation. You can
tell parts where they clearly didn’t put any effort into it. In
addition to this some of the lip syncing is off with the Japenese
speaking, which is again just poor effort in the production of
Demonbane. I wouldn’t have minded had it been an old anime, but
released in 2006, it must certainly be one of the poorer end of the
spectrum.
You just wished that the fighting wasn’t so repetitive, but it seems
that the visual effects seem to mimic scripted style of the fighting,
with the same moves accompanying the action.
Sound: 6
Perhaps with the rest of the slating that Demonbane has received from
me, it comes as a surprise that the only redeeming feature of this show
is the soundtrack. It’s not absolutely brilliant, but it does what is
needed to support the action on screen. The ending song is actually
rather nice and seems to be like a hidden gem embedded within something
that truly doesn’t deserve it.
The voicing within the series is not what I could truly say is the
usual standard offered by animes. Certainly, they are dreadful, but
they aren’t that good either and sometimes you wish that they’d
actually written the show in a way that made the voice actors/actresses
actually work for their money instead of just repeating the same phrase
time and time again.
The opening was rather standard and plain and although it might have
helped get you in the mood for the anime, it wasn’t that much of
interest to sit through and listen to.
Characters: 1
Welcome to the world of your general typical characters. Introduce the
main hero - a man who never really finished becoming the mage he could
have done and likes to act like a hero. The heroine a book who is just
your plain female who falls deeply in love with the hero despite their
differences. Your young female general, who likes to feel important in
a command room and whine a lot about numbers and things that shouldn’t
be done. A mad scientist who, like all mad scientists, builds upgraded
versions of robots to continue coming back to annoy the hero. And
lastly, but not least, your good old evil bad guy who likes to do his
evil things and merely extend the lifespan of the hero for some
unknown-not-ever-told reason.
Because of this, it doesn’t really matter what you’ve seen before,
you’ve seen all these characters before and they’ve got the depth of an
ironing board, and probably the consistency of one as well.
Overall: 2
One of the very few shows that I wouldn’t recommend, unless you enjoy
something to heckle at. The script was exceptionally poor and you
wished that it would get away from the game style element that it was
based upon to actually producing something original than being tided
down by the original game it was taken from. In addition to this, the
animation quality is below average for a show made in the year that
brought us Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
I was tempted half way through to start a drinking game, downing one
every time someone said anothers name, since the entire show loved
shouting it at the top of their voices. If there wasn’t any other show
of this type made, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, but a blessing, since
few could achieve this level of badness even if they tried. So fine
something better to do instead with your time, perhaps re-watch a
series you have only recently seen or if that seems boring, stare at
the wall for 4 hours…it’d be a more constructive use of your time.