Date A Live Episode 1 Review

WARNING: These are my opinions on this episode. You do not need to agree with or like everything that is said in the review. Please enjoy.

Alright. Episode 1 of Date A Live was a decent first episode, but I expected a lot more to be honest.

Shido is a boy in high school trying to live out his life normally in a world of 'space quakes.' However, when a space quake alarm goes off in his city, the whole place goes awry. One thing that irks me is that there is basically no security. Shido is able to run off back into the city and none of his classmates give a shit. He does this because he believes his little sister is in the middle of town still, and panics at the thought of his crying sister, however, this is not really the case.

Shido's middle school sister, Hitori, going from totally dere to super cruel and bad towards her brother is annoying as hell. I want to strangle the life out of her, no joke. Also, why is she the captain of the whole anti-Spirit network?

A middle school student leading a military force that is fighting against beings that are destroying the world? lolwut Japan? At least the ending showed a little more suspense where Tobiichi (I hate how its pronounced) said her parents died.

Also, who in their right mind got the idea of dating the people who destroy the planet to stop them? Again, lolwut Japan?

The appearance of the spirit and the battle with the AST is pretty cool however and it is seen how the spirit is sad that the AST's are coming to kill her. That is the most sympathy I have given anyone in the whole episode. Woah.

Overall, this first episode was VERY meh. I could not sympathize with the characters at all and it gave me a terrible first impression of the characters as well. The show itself has decent quality animation and sound overall, and I like the effect when the Spirit first appears.

Episodic Score: 5/10

Hopefully, the show elevates from just ecchi and a cruel imouto captain of the armada, to a more meaningful, action-y, and engaging story. Please do not make me give my hopes up.

Again, just a note, these are my opinions and thought and you are by no means obligated to agree. Feel free to debate and discuss with me below in the comments. Thanks!

~Azrael

Anime Review: Sankarea

Anime: Sankarea
Episodes: 12 Episodes
Original Run: April 2012 – June 2012

Well, I guess it’s time to start off a series of reviews! You can call me Azrael from now on! As you can see from my title, my first review will be on Sankarea. I recently watched the show (in one day actually) and I fell in love.

Sankarea is a romantic comedy with a little darkness behind. The general story follows Furuya, a High School student who is obsessed with everything zombies. He stumbles upon the title character Rea Sanka, who has been sexually harassed by her father and is wonder what a normal life would be like. Furuya’s resolve to revive his deceased cat Babu mixes him into her problems and, well, not to be too spoilerific, but she dies, reviving as a Zombie with Furuya’s seemingly failed potion. Now enough of the plot, let’s get into the review, shall we?

Story:

Most of the story of this anime was focused on either finding a way from stopping Rea’s body from decomposing or battling against Rea’s pedophilic father. The story was told well, but looking back at it, there was a lot more that could have been told and I seriously think it would have been better to make this a 22-26 episode anime to better explain and add plot points.

Score: 7/10

Characters:

To be blunt, I fell in love with all the characters. Each one of them had a unique characteristic to be explored. Whether it was Furuya’s sister’s stoic attitude, his grandfather’s senile (and hilarious) state, or the rowdy cousin who had fallen in love with him, each character was fun to learn about and made me want to keep watching

Score: 9/10

Audio:

I absolutely could not stop listening to the opening song when I heard it, and the ending was great as well! Mixed in with perfectly designated character voices, there wasn’t much you could criticize audio-wise.

Score: 10/10

Visuals:

The colors and animation used in this anime were vibrant and colorful, yet they were also at times, dark and monotone, which matched whatever time or trouble the cast of characters was going through. It was also kind of cool seeing Rea’s zombie form with her pale white skin being contrasted by her red eyes.

Score: 9/10

Entertainment:

Sankarea was very entertaining, keeping me at the edge of my seat due to the constant cliffhangers at the end of every episode. This is what drove me to watch it in just a day (almost one sitting actually :3). This series made me have fun watching each episode when watching interactions between characters and what was going on around them.

Score: 9/10

Overall, I adored this show to no end and firmly believe that it needs a season 2, considering it ended at a rather large cliffhanger, with almost nothing except the relationship between Rea and her father being resolved. I hope to see more of this series and will probably begin to read the manga as well.

My final verdict on this show is:

88% B+

Thanks for reading my first review and I hope you all enjoyed it and stay on this train ride of reviews to be coming up!

~Azrael

Welcome to Ani-A to Z!

Welcome to Ani-A to Z!

In this blog, you will be able to read reviews of different anime from our perspective! Be sure to stay tuned for more reviews!

~A and Z