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Reviews
Erufen rîto (2004)
Lots of Pros, Lots of Cons
This was a very hit and miss series for me. There were a lot of things that I liked about it, but there were also quite a few things that really missed the mark. I'll start with the things that I liked about the series. I thought that the premise of the Diclonians was interesting. To have a race of super beings that are primarily hot woman isn't the most original anime idea, but I suppose the way they pulled it off made it interesting. There were a lot of really emotional points in the series as well. Elfen Lied sets itself up to be a very dark, painful, and tragic anime and it does these things very well. The opening music combined with the chosen artwork also do a great job of setting the mood as well as creating a very original intro
The list of things that I did not like about the series however is a fair bit longer. I think they could have done a lot to make the characters more interesting. Lucy showed no regret for all the killing that she did for the most part, making her a hard character to empathize with. Also the whole Nyu thing was just really annoying. I think they were trying to make her cute and likable, but it really just came off as irritable to have her only say "Nyu!" all the time. I also thought that there was just way too much nudity in this series as a whole. Like was there any reason whatsoever that Lucy had to be nude in the first episode when she is escaping the facility? If anything it would have made more sense if she was wearing a straight jacket or something. All across this series, there is tons of nudity, and 95% of the time it adds absolutely nothing to the scene. Not to mention a lot of it are characters like Nana who are like 14 or something?? That's just messed up. The eye animation was also really weird in this show. I get that they were trying to juxtapose the extreme violence with the cuteness of the characters, but it just looked ridiculous to have characters like Kohta have eyes that take up like half his face. It often distracted from the emotions they were trying to have him convey. Overall, Elfen Lied ended up lacking the depth it sought to create because of numerous flaws and an ambitious plot with, at times, poor execution.
5/10
Kôdo Giasu: Hangyaku no Rurûshu (2006)
Overrated
*MINOR SPOILERS WITHIN*
I'm not really sure why Code Geass is so positively rated. There are definitely some good parts, however the show has so many pitfalls that they completely cancel out any good qualities. The first thing that I really didn't like about it was the plot structure. Many people compare this show to Death Note, and side by side, Code Geass absolutely pales in comparison. On average each individual episode did very little to forward Lelouch's goal of taking down the Brittanian Empire. The majority of the episodes felt either like filler, or they would follow a predictable formula like this: Lelouch plans something sneaky, he totally destroys the empire's forces, then right as they are about to win Suzeku rolls in and undoes absolutely everything. Seriously, this happens over and over for the entire first season. Then in the middle of the season Mao shows up, with absolutely no explanation and starts causing Lelouch to do an even more pitiful job then he is already doing of forwarding the rebellion. The season finale was absolute rubbish as well. It did nothing at all to conclude the plot of the first season and left such an inordinate number of cliffhangers that it just felt like a cheap gimmick to trick you into watching the second season. After the first four or five episodes out of twenty five in R1, it felt like nothing significant to the plot really happened at all besides minor character development.
Besides the plot, I really hated the fan-service in this anime as well. Any show that has to rely on huge boobs or pantie shots to garner the attention of the audience is not one worth watching. There were two nude scenes with Kallen, one where Euphemia takes off her clothes for literally no reason, and a scene where Nina is straight up masturbating to pictures of Euphemia. All these scenes did very little if anything to add to the plot, and in some cases detracted from it.
Code Geass does have very good action and does a great job of creating suspense. I admit that when I watched this show it had me hooked for the first season. In retrospect however, there are just so many problems with what could have been an absolutely amazing anime that it completely counters everything that this show does well.