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REVIEW: Brynhildr in the Darkness


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BooktapC



Joined: 13 Apr 2011
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:48 pm Reply with quote
I agree with the review mostly. The last two episodes were just everywhere. And pretty sure even speculating sorry butspoiler[ Kazumi should have been dead and a least a few of the other characters. Bringing them back just came out of nowhere.]

Having Kazumi wasn't exactly the best thing because she was the most annoying female character in the series, so when spoiler[saw she was alive though. Oh great.]

Started out good but concluded very bad, indeed.

[EDIT: Do NOT assume that everyone reading the review has seen the series. Spoiler tags are mandatory for stuff like this! - Key]
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:00 pm Reply with quote
Bolaum wrote:
I see. How long does it normally take until you guys post the last review for the spring season?

Oh, that can vary an awful lot depending on circumstances. For instance, this one (which was already one of the last Spring 2014 series to finish), got delayed for several days because it was nearly finished when a DVD arrived that I badly wanted to get done before the Preview Guide started, so I had to re-prioritize. You could see more Spring 2014 reviews pop up as the month progresses if we end up being light on hard copies to review, but right now I'm not expecting that to be the case for me.

On another subject: Boy, really not seeing the love for the first OP. The music was all right, but the visuals were handled terribly.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Oh, Dragonar Academy and your sudden spoiler["romantic" ending. Even though, in the episode before the MC was about to kiss another girl...but all of a sudden he is in love with his dragon (who suddenly realised she loved him before her transformation) at the end. Let's just shove that in to end the series.] Laughing

Brynhildr in the Darkness started as one of my favourite shows of the season. I really enjoyed the first 9 episodes, even though there were flaws.

I liked the original OP, so I can say that my enjoyment dropped off in the episodes with the OP I didn't like, 10-13. After it finished, I decided to look in on the last chapter available online, just to see where it was at. So, while the anime ended where it did, the manga has kept going.

Sadly, the rushed nature of the ending and the plot threads left unexplained. Along with the spoiler[other group that popped up in the last episodes...who seemingly had a boy witch(?)] just adding to the dangling threads.

Plot threads dangling, spoiler[the organisation getting away scott free], and the spoiler[mind wipe] left me with an ending that was unsatisfying.
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Cyclone1993



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 947
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:09 pm Reply with quote
BooktapC wrote:
I agree with the review mostly. The last two episodes were just everywhere. And pretty sure even speculating sorry butspoiler[ Kazumi should have been dead and a least a few of the other characters. Bringing them back just came out of nowhere.]

Having Kazumi wasn't exactly the best thing because she was the most annoying female character in the series, so when spoiler[saw she was alive though. Oh great.]

Started out good but concluded very bad, indeed.



From what I understand, and from the things I'm seeing online, and in popularity contests. Kazumi is the most popular and well liked out of all the characters. It doesn't hurt that she is my favorite of the female characters as well.

spoiler[The biggest issue I have with the ending was that they didn't show Hatsuna survive her melting experience, like they did in the manga. She was with them when they ran their attack on the base, so her saving Kazumi and herself, made a lot more sense from that perspective.]

Quote:
On another subject: Boy, really not seeing the love for the first OP. The music was all right, but the visuals were handled terribly.


Also, I have to disagree on this. I enjoyed both the music, and I thought that the visuals were complimented by the music, and used in a very powerful way. You can't really separate the two of them. That's what makes the first opening one of the best from the season.[/quote]
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 12:40 am Reply with quote
Cyclone1993 wrote:
I enjoyed both the music, and I thought that the visuals were complimented by the music, and used in a very powerful way. You can't really separate the two of them. That's what makes the first opening one of the best from the season.


I didn't like this show much, but I thought the first opening was great both visually and musically. Not to mention an unusual style for an anime theme. And getting me to like dubstep is no easy task.

The second opening... is like a metaphor for the mashed-up, ultra-compressed, repeatedly shark-jumping plot of the last few episodes.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:24 am Reply with quote
Cyclone1993 wrote:
Quote:
On another subject: Boy, really not seeing the love for the first OP. The music was all right, but the visuals were handled terribly.


Also, I have to disagree on this. I enjoyed both the music, and I thought that the visuals were complimented by the music, and used in a very powerful way. You can't really separate the two of them. That's what makes the first opening one of the best from the season.

Agreed. The visuals in the first OP really did match up with the music. This is probably the first OP that I can say I actually watched it for the majority of episodes.

I usually only see the OP once and then just skip it from then on.

Oh, and another plot thread left dangling that I didn't mention before is spoiler[the professor who was given the alien egg by Murakami]. Apparently it's being addressed in the manga now, but another thing just left there by the anime.
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junmaedaisjesus



Joined: 30 May 2014
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:36 am Reply with quote
I'd say a C- is the most accurate score. This anime tanked HARD, has more holes than Spongebob, and went a little overboard on the fan service at times where it makes me feel ill. The protagonist was generic miscellaneous harem-MC formula #253123213. There wasn't really anyone I absolutely disliked from the characters, but I don't really like any of them either.

It had a strong start and interesting subject matter, but it just turned into... well, a hot-melted mess. If this anime had a harnest, it would've ejected around episode 9. It was absolutely hilarious how stupidly convenient everything was spoiler[Oh, by the way, I happen to have photographic memory; I also happen to have a scientist uncle who has an entire lab and staff that are apparantley waiting for us to give them something to do for no money; I can heal others, but then I'll die (oh wait, no I won't)] and that's just scratching the surface.

I don't regret watching it, but I wouldn't consider rewatching or recommending.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1291
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:18 am Reply with quote
I personally loved the first OP. It set the atmosphere for the show well. The 2nd one, while interesting, was musically a bit too ... speed metal, I guess, for my tastes.

As for the show, it suffered from compression sickness. It is really hard to compress 100 chapters of manga into 13 episodes. Interestingly, they did it without really skipping huge amounts of plot, which left the pacing feeling like it was really bad. (I haven't read all of the manga available yet. I did read the Valkaria storyline ahead, since it was in the anime, but haven't read the 40 some chapters between.)

To be fair, I have always felt that the manga had a bit too much filler and episodic, non-plot-driven material. There is a lot of nothing in many of the chapters. Sometimes it is funny nothing, but others fall flat. The breast size jokes also wear thin in both the manga and anime.

All in all, I enjoyed Brynhildr, but it could have been much better.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:38 am Reply with quote
For me the core cast was fine I simply, thought the middle of the series focused too much on the fan service and the introduction and extremely fast removal of some characters felt like an escape for bad writing.

Than their's the complaint I heard from everyone "oh they skipped over so much of the manga so it's awful",

If it's not released in English you are reading a scan of the manga and that's a far from trustworthy source to try and argue things like canon or what was or was not left out but I digress. Overall this simply felt "okay" not good not awful just blandly competent in some places
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 10:49 am Reply with quote
Parsifal24 wrote:
If it's not released in English you are reading a scan of the manga and that's a far from trustworthy source to try and argue things like canon or what was or was not left out but I digress.

...even if I was reading the Japanese raws with zero knowledge of the Japanese language I would STILL be able to say what was and was not left out. Know why? BECAUSE THERE ARE PICTURES!!!!

Jeez, you must be stuck in 1996 if you think scanlations are "far from trustworthy".
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1291
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:00 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
Parsifal24 wrote:
If it's not released in English you are reading a scan of the manga and that's a far from trustworthy source to try and argue things like canon or what was or was not left out but I digress.

...even if I was reading the Japanese raws with zero knowledge of the Japanese language I would STILL be able to say what was and was not left out. Know why? BECAUSE THERE ARE PICTURES!!!!

Jeez, you must be stuck in 1996 if you think scanlations are "far from trustworthy".

Not to mention that they covered over 100 chapters of anime in 13 episodes. It isn't possible to do that and not skip stuff, unless the manga is all action sequences that take up less than three minutes of time per chapter when animated...
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Dr. Cakey



Joined: 13 Dec 2013
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Key wrote:
^Um, no. At the very least I'd still rate this above Dragonar Academy, which had no redeeming values. (And I'm limiting myself to the seven series I've actually finished so far.)

EighteenSky wrote:
Dr. Cakey wrote:
Worst anime of the season? Worst anime of the season. And it wasn't exactly lacking in competition.

Go watch Fuuun Ishin Dai☆Shogun, second most painful anime I've finished this year.


Great, I watched the first episode of both of these. Now do I have to watch the rest just to make my statement scientifically rigorous?
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:54 am Reply with quote
Shouldn't be surprised that people would question you on what you initially said. Coming out with a statement that this show was the worst of the season is the type of thing you'd expect to see some reaction to.

Of course people will throw up suggestions of anime they thought were worse. Laughing

And, now, I wouldn't be surprised if someone said, "How you can judge on just watching one episode?!?!?!?!"

Save yourself some pain, don't watch any more of either show. Laughing

Unfortunately, you need to add qualifiers to such statements. I wonder if reaction would've been different if you had said, "For me, worst show of the season"? The way it is worded, looks like a statement of fact rather than opinion...even though, most of the time, we are just stating our opinions...
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Bright Starsong



Joined: 09 Feb 2014
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:15 pm Reply with quote
I really don't see the flaws in a show when I watch it. Some times I think I'm the only person on the net that's not a critic. Yes it was rushed but I think I would rather have a rushed ending then be left hanging with no next season.
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CrisGer A.A.



Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Posts: 170
Location: 世田谷区 Setagaya Ward
PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:01 am Reply with quote
The reviewer gushes on about Elfin Lied as if it is some kind of classic, it is classically horrible, both disgustingly graphic with its needless gross violence and gore and boring as a story. I am amazed people still continue to glow about it and this series too suffers from horrible and cruel violence and horror that inflicts traumatizing and disgusting things on both the characters and the viewer. To make people watch such horrible content is both abusive and stupid. It does nothing for a story to go to such extremes and it only pushes anime off of the possible realm for many viewers who turn away in disgust. As they should. Some of the parts of this series are good, the art and animation are well done and the characters likeable. Just most of the story is awful without redeeming value.
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