Dienstag, 19. Februar 2013

Code Geass~ Lelouch of the Rebellion 反逆のルルーシュ

 Spoiler warning! >______< !!!!!!
 First of all I must mention, that I am not a big fan of Clamp Arts, which is why I put off watching it until now. But since all the anime fan voices are praising it so much, I watched it anyway. And I was positively surprised:  Not only was there a "double-hero" theme stretching throughout  the whole story, but was the main focus on what you would normally call the "antagonist", a 17 year old boy, Leolouch, with a sad past, who seeks revenge and a better future for his sister, Nunnally, with an newly obtained power called "Geass".
His Geass enables him to force his will on others (when they look directly into his eyes), thus they will do as they are told, even if the order might be to kill them self. Moreover his intelligence and  theoretic skills make him a master in planning intrigues and battle tactics, and he starts setting up a personal army, hiding his identity behind a mask and calling himself "Zero". Leading a double life as a school boy and on the other hand as the leader of a terrorist organisation, he tries to get back the autonomy of Japan, which has been stolen by his father, king of the so-called "Empire of Britannia".                                                                   
When his character was firstly introduced and the story started to evolve, I couldn´t help but think about Death Note and it´s maincharacter, Light. But after a few more episodes, it became obvious, that Code Geass was just a lot more superficial than Death Note, which I wouldn't say is a bad thing. It´s just that the setting, a future Japan with Battle Robots makes it a lot more difficult to have a "realistically calculating" character. But still it was sometimes really annoying how Lelouch could lead a battle led in the ocean with a map and a radio transmitter into victory....
On the other hand, we have Suzaku, former childhood friend of Lelouch, who joins the Britannia Army to change it from within. 
The following plot develops as one could expect under those circumstances: Lelouch trying to hide his identity, intrigues, miraculous won battles, political problems etcetc. The kind of things, that make you wonder how everything is gonna turn out. But well then, I had my special highlight far too soon in the whole anime: When Euphemia (whom Suzaku serves as a knight and whos Lelouchs princess sister no. 20282- I dont really know, he has way too many siblings Oô) tries to create a special zone for Japanese people within the country, and all problems seem to been have solved, Lelouch makes the random mistake of using his Geass on her and commanding her to kill all the Japanese People, which end in a grand scale genocide.....well, I thought that was a bit to much for an unexpected turn-over, so I stopped watching for a while. xD I mean, come on, how stupid can you be, Lelouch....
And then everything came to an decisive battle between Zeros army, the "Black Knights" and the Britannia Empire, which was lost while Lelouch ended up being somewhere completely different and arguing with Suzaku. Each fired their gun at each other and puff, Season ended.
I was quite surprised, since the second season started with "1 year later", so I thought I accidentally skipped the last episode of season 1...but no. Lelouch had returned to living as a normal student, suddenly having a younger brother, and everyone seemed to have lost their memories. I was confused. After a while, Lelouch regains his memories and everything starts to make sense....In the end, I think it was an awesome way to start a new season, in complete confusion, and you only learn what happened a year before bit by bit. 
Lelouch starts to lead a double life again, as a Lelouch who still has not his memories back and as Zero, commanding his Black Knights again against the Britannia Empire. Fast Skip forward: he ends up being able to kill the Emperor (who actually was immortal and tried to kill the gods- wft?!)....and then there are 4 episodes left, after a scene where, again, Suzaku and Lelouch have a showdown, but the outcome is unsure. 
At the beginning of the next episode, Lelouch reappears, with Suzaku at his side, declaring to the world that he will be the new Emperor. The last few episodes were the worst, really. I had no idea what was going on, or what he had planned. He conducts war against his last struggling brother, putting him under his Geass and taking his beloved Nunnally as a hostage... which was when I finally had no theories left of what he wanted to do. xD 
(!!!!!!!!! WORST SPOILER EVER!~ so don´t read if you haven´t watched XD)
And then, final episode, he gets killed by a man masked like Zero, whos actually Suzaku....which was all planned to make Lelouch the "evil" that everyone projects their hatred on and to lead the world to peace....I must say, I don´t really see, how these things are connected, really, but well. It still was a worthy ending, somehow. 
To sum it up, I think it was a great anime, although not one of the best I have ever seen. Sometimes, I was not even listening to the explanations and political-war talk anymore, because I was like "well yeah, whatever", and the fact that Lelouch had a harem of girls in love with him around him was quite an annoying fact aswell, but it was not too bad, as to stop midway.  xD  After a few episode, one gets easily captivated. Having a main-character with a basically good goal, approaching it by committing murder and crimes though, makes it quite epic. "All hail Rurusyu!" xD








Donnerstag, 7. Februar 2013

DArKeR tHan bLaCk ~黒の契約者~

Although I had tests coming up, I started watching this Anime in one go from last weekend on. 
I might have failed my book trading-history class, but it was totally worth it.
~
Meet Hei, our masked protagonist, who is working and killing people for a organization yet unknown to the audience. We learn that he is a so-called "Contractor", a former human, who obtains supernatural powers in exchange for their human feelings. Heis comrades include a "doll", an old man and a speaking cat. Not much of a catch you think, but it results in the perfect mixture to get where this anime is going:  A obscure, present-age, steam-punk like Tokyo, with the police, the syndicate and other organizations using the contractors to fight their bloody battle. 

I took a great liking to Mao, the speaking cat, who is also a contractor with the ability to switch bodies, and lost his body in an former incident (only gets uncovered in the 2nd season and is not as spectacular as I was hoping for XD). With his dry humor, sarcastic comments and sometimes loosing himself into being a cat, he is  the perfect side-kick. And well, he is just simply adorable. ♥



Concearing our maincharacter Hei, or Lei ShengShung, or The Grim Reaper, or BK201 (ALL THE ALIASES! XD)...well, what can I say, except for: All my love for you.


 In the beginning it might be quite confusing, because you don´t really get to know for whom he is working or on what side he is on, thus I basically lived through the confusing first few episodes because of the atmosphere and his lovely schizophrenic character, but after a while you can draw connections from is past to the main events in the plot and finally understand the bottom line of his actions.

The Soundtrack was composed by none other but Yoko Kanno, the master of steam-punk-jazz music. It creates the perfect atmosphere for an decaying Tokyo and a moralistic question, drawing itself through the whole plot: "Can beings without feelings, still be human?"
Might remind you of "Gunslinger Girl" or the likes, but although the basic idea might overlap with several other stories, I still think it is quite original, especially because of the rich characters. 
~
Well so much about the first season.
The 2nd season is...quite different. Not necessarily disappointing,  but the dark atmosphere, which was mostly the best part of the whole story, was just...gone forever. XD
A strange love entanglement between Hei and the doll, Yin leads to utter ridiculous events, and then the new protagonist, Suou, 13 year old, read haired girl, constantly crying and nagging about her feelings, although she turns into a contractor is not an expected occurrence.
She gets picked up by Hei 2 years after the events of the first season, and he starts training her in using her power (which is a gun appearing out of her chest in a sailormoon like transformation scene >__>) and fighting skills.


Hei by that time has grown a beard, lost his powers as a contractor in what, episode 2?, and became an alcoholic, wearing an ugly purple sweater and durping around in hokkaido. The fuck. XD





And this squirrel is Mao. Fuck that shit. XD I was pissed and amused at the same time. But well eventually he stops drinking, cuts his hair and gets back to work, but by that time the magic of the anime was already gone. 
Well what can I say, I was still hooked through the whole second season, so was not too bad, especially because it was exiting to see how Hei got by just fine without his powers. 

And Suous story...well, it didn´t really leave that much of an impression.
So conclude, first season pure awesomeness, OVA (whichs episodes were like a bridge to the second season) love smorfe, second season so-so.
Still I want to recommend it from the bottom of my heart. |D Just because it´s epic and...
the Grim Reaper rules.

!**********Spoiler************!
There´s just one thing I still don´t quite get.
In the first season it was mentioned, that Heis sister, Bai, had the power to grant the powers of a contractor to a human. Which was what she did to Hei, I guess, since it was always only mentioned that Bai had become a contractor, and there is also no real remuneration Hei has to fulfill when he uses his powers...so Hei is actually human, right? It´s just that it has never been really clarified and Hei keeps on spouting stuff like "I´m a contractor. Contractors have no feelings. I don´t dream because I´m a contractor" blabla. So he´s only doing that to camouflage himself as one? Oô
.....the end. XD


doumo

Doumo, I am Sapporomogry.      m(_ _)m
In this Block I shall reveal my deepest and most recent Obsessions...
...so basically I will be writing  reviews and the sorts. >___>
yoroshiku onegaishimasu.