This is by far my biggest disappointment in anime!

This story is supposed to be about resistance against oppressive regimes, fighting for freedom, maintaining your ideals despite the circumstances, and redeeming your life. It's supposed to be a serious story seinen style. These are some of my favorite themes in a compelling story. By the time I tried to watch this abomination, it only had reviews of 9+ ranking (still most reviews are like that), so my expectations were quite high that I was going to like this one. I kept watching with the belief that it was going to get better but the opposite was true. Give back those 10 hours of my life dammit!

The Problem?

The execution of the story is extremely contrived, to the point the characters' personalities change completely as needed for the plot to advance in a certain way and 'make you feel' certain emotions.

The author should have done more research in the psychology of people in situations like the ones presented in this story. I have met people in lighter but similar circumstances and this is not the way people react, nor thinks. Yet, there are plenty of reviews calling this anime 'realistic'.

The only anime that I can think of with similar themes & setting is perhaps Attack on Titan, which is in a league of its own. There are no other animes similar to Rainbow that I can recommend, but there are plenty of films for better stories with similar themes:

• Sleepers
• Schindler's List
• The Power of One
• Life Is Beautiful This film is actually based on 'real life' and is perhaps the attitude that Rainbow's author was trying to evoke in one of the main protagonists.
• The Shawshank Redemption

Best anime movie of all time? No way, not in a million years!

That title belongs in my opinion to Ghost in the Shell. This film was so ahead of its time that even today fits perfectly at current anime standards. The intricate plot, the futuristic designs, and the philosophy and ideas presented in this work have created a timeless masterpiece that has influenced movies like The Matrix, Avatar & Surrogates to name a few. Not to mention its latest live-action adaptation with Scarlett Johansson. There is no question that this film has greatly influenced the sci-fi genre and helped bring anime into the attention of everyone. Ghost in the Shell - Watching Guide

The Problem?

It's just another movie with excellent graphics and smooth animation but terrible storytelling that is contrived, full of plot holes & inconsistencies. Having the protagonists forget everything they experienced completely renders their learning experience useless, so the movie ignores this when its convenient for the plot in order to continue the story, and you are just supposed to go along and numb your brain to all this?

I'll have to argue than while watching Ghost in the Shell makes you smarter, your name ask you for the opposite in order to be enjoyable :(

The title of best of all time usually depends on each person's preferred genre and what they feel is most important, but even for Adventure/Slice-of-Life/Romance there are better titles out there than 'your name.'

• Body Swapping was done much better and intelligent in Kaiba.
• You want a better movie about stopping war and caring for the environment try Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which despite for being quite old still is unsurpassed, and also one of the most important anime films of all time due to the fact that facilitated the creation of Studio Ghibli and all of their movies thereafter. 
• Do you want a better Sci-Fi? Try Time of Eve.
• Do you want a better mystery? Try The Garden of Sinners.
• Do you want a better love story with similar light-hearted adventure? try Eden of the East & Patema Inverted. 
• Do you want a better mystery-adventure with similar folklore? Try Spirited Away & Children Who Chase Lost Voices.
• Do you want a better slice-of-life with a more mature romance and even better animation? Try The Garden of Words.

Any of the movies I recommend far surpasses 'your name.' in my opinion.

This anime started great and it was on its way to awesomeness until the last case, at which point it just comes tumbling down to hell and left me wondering if someone was up to sabotage the story and I can't understand why they decided to throw everything away and stomp on their own work as a piece of trash.

The series' story is divided into small arcs called "Cases":

• Case 1: Los Angeles Connection is Episodes 1-5
• Case 2: Singapore Sky is Episodes 6-10
• Case 3: Snow of London is Episodes 11-14
  • Up to here, everything is almost perfect. I strongly recommend you stop here for the best experience.
  • If you decide to continue with the last case all remaining questions & backstory of the main protagonist will be answered, but it's so bad that it will destroy everything you see so far and you cannot undo that. It's like they stop caring about the story and just wanted to finish the anime without care or consideration for the character development, the cohesion of the story, and the message they were trying to convey. It will leave you feeling that the show was a waste of time.
  • I would rate the story up to this point an 8.
• Case 4: Wizard of Far East is Episodes 15-23
  • I have to wonder: if this last case is Filler Material? If it is, that will explain a lot, as it feels like it was giving to a different writer, and not just any writer, but someone either set on sabotage all the work they have done so far or an amateur writer with no experience nor care about the work.
  • It is even worst than the last Filler Arc of Gantz, and even worst than the ending of Game of Thrones, which seems to have the same kind of issues as this last case.
  • This is one of the most disappointing endings that I have ever seen in anime and any other format.

The first 3 cases are definitely worth watching, the story is not overly serious, it has a good amount of comedy and wackiness. As far as I remember this is the first anime about Con Artist, there other animes about gambling that also include some conning, but it's not the main focus of those shows.

The animation & sound are awesome, as expected from Wit Studio.

Overall, It's an interesting show with a different premise & style from the norm. It may not be for everyone but you should at least try the first 2 episodes before you decide.

The dub was good.

Arakawa Under The Bridge Anime Review

Why incompetent people think they're amazing

Don't get me wrong, I think this movie is great! It has excellent animation especially for its time of release in 1998, with a very realistic style. The plot is well developed and it conveys the feelings of thriller & fear quite well.

So What's The Problem?

Although this style is new in anime form, it has been done a lot in Hollywood movies and is perhaps not what anime does best. This story could have just as easily been created as a real-life film, in fact, I think it shares many commonalities with films like The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Psycho (1960), and perhaps thrillers like Se7en (1995).

I think anime has the advantage to go beyond imitating real-life and it should be used as such to bring our imagination to life, to tell stories beyond what could be told in a real-life film. So this is just my personal opinion, although I recognize Perfect Blue is a film that left its mark in the anime industry, and its a great film!

So I was very excited about this anime, it looked great with good animation in a fantasy setting until I discovered that this was essentially propaganda for whale hunting. It tries to romanticize and even elicit the desire for dragon/whale hunting for no other reason than 'they taste great and I want to eat them'. :(

You can read my full review here.

This was actually recommended to me as a Strategies & Tactics Anime and they were quite serious about that. Being myself a fan of such genres I couldn't wait to see these girls in tanks, but it turned out to be a moe series from the unofficial genre of Cute Girls Doing Cute Things like driving tanks? :(

Nothing wrong with moe, it's just not my preferred genre and I was expecting an intelligent strategies & tactics anime after all.

If you like moe & comedy then you'll probably like this anime. Try a few episodes to see if you enjoy it, the rest of the anime will be the same.

If you are like me and are looking for actual Strategies & Tactics then I rather recommend: 

• Kingdom
• Alderamin on the Sky
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes
• Code Geass
• Aldnoah.Zero
• Death Note

After committing to 276 episodes I learned that Ash was doomed to forever be a loser and teach kids that their dreams will never come through as long as the corporate overlords are making a profit out of you!

Why does Ash never win a Pokémon League championship?

I never watched another Pokemon show afterward and never intend to do so. I'm probably not the only one who thinks like this so that probably forced the corporate overlords to let Ash finally wins after 22 years! Not that I'm interested anymore in watching that.

I always was interested in seeing the progression of his story as he grows up but that didn't happen either.

If you are expecting the great characterization and a seriously driven plot like in "Stay Night/Zero" installments, then you'll be greatly disappointed!

This has great animation, especially with the use of camera movements, but nothing that sets it apart from other animes in 2019. The fights have amazing motion & eye candy, but the fighting moves often make no sense, and they are resolved using Deus ex machina. Why they are fighting anyway? The reasons make no sense either, characters just meet each other and start fighting. The excuse is often just a stubborn personality and silly misunderstandings. It has a lot of fanservice as well.

This may be entertaining but nothing more, it has a plotline & characterization made for kids, but it's too bloody to let them watch this and too silly for teens & young adults, so I'm not sure Who is the intended audience? They added a lot of comic relief and as in any comedy, some people laugh, some don't; I didn't so I can't recommend it for that either. You can try a few episodes for yourself, but in the end, I think it is just average and offers nothing new to the genre or the franchise. There are better animes where you can spend your time!

Fate/Series - Watching Guide

It's average at best.

The story is set in a parallel world (to the main Fate/Stay Night universe) in which the Grail was removed from Fuyuki City after the Third War, so the events of Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night 2006 & Unlimited Blade Works never occurred. The story focuses on the clash between the two opposing factions, Red vs. Black, with each summoning 7 Servants of their own, and the Grail itself summoning a special "Ruler Class" servant as a mediator of this Holy Grail War. Whether or not it can be considered canon has not yet been determined, but I'm inclined to say "no" as it's definitely "filler quality"! Just consider the servants: Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack The Ripper, Shakespeare? Common! LoL. Furthermore, the overuse of changing gender for famous male servants is ridiculous, taking away from the seriousness of the show.

The best part of the series is the music! Read the reviews if you are still curious.

Fate/Series - Watching Guide

If you watched Fate/Zero, then you'll probably remember Waver Velvet the Master of Rider (Alexander the Great, Iskander, King of Conquerors) and after being inspired by Rider you may have wondered how that meeting was going to change his life for the better and his personality, which we see improving a great deal during the war.

So this is a spinoff focusing on this character. After the events of Fate/Zero, he returned to the Clock Tower to resume his study of magecraft where due to the decline of the El-Melloi clan, Waver assumes the title of Lord El-Melloi II after agreeing to assist the true heir, Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, in restoring the clan until she is old enough to take charge. The story takes place 10 years after the events of Fate/Zero and 2 months before the events of Fate/Stay Night. 

I found the new personality of Waver Velvet quite disappointing and out of character for what we saw in Fate/Zero. I think this installment has a lot of missed opportunities to further develop this character and apply what he learned from Rider.

Fate/Series - Watching Guide

Very interesting and artistic animation, but uninteresting and boring stories.