Just for a Day - AMV

posting a review for this AMV here as well as on animemusicvideos.org

Lately I haven't been finding too many AMVs that just really blew me away. By combining perfect quality video and audio to some amazing scenes, Funky-kun has done just that in his AMV "Just for a Day". The song is Beautiful Day by U2, and he uses a multitude of anime, including Bleach, Tsukihime, Full Metal Panic, and The Girl who Leapt Through Time. You can grab it here (and I highly recommend you do).

Originality: 7/10 - While I don't believe I've seen an AMV use this song (or at least, use this song in this manner) the video uses some of the more popular scenes out there. A number of these particular shots have been used in at least a dozen different AMVs that I can think of off the top of my head.
Video: 10/10 - Amazing quality. Nothing ruins an AMV like bad visuals, glad to see the effort was put to keep the quality as high as possible.
Sound: 10/10 - beautiful; as another major part of an AMV, it's good to see that effort was put towards keeping high quality audio.
Sync: 9.5/10 - Everything syncs up beautifully; that being said I would have liked to have seen some different anime here and there other than 5 Centimeters Per Second, Beyond the Clouds, and so on. Regardless of my nitpicks on what i feel is the overuse of different series, the video clips fit absolutely amazingly well with the music.
Digital Effects: 9/10 - one or two effects were a little distracting, but overall they added greatly to the overall quality of the video.
Effort: 10/10 - amazing job, hope to see more soon!
Re-view: 10/10 - video is almost always on, I have sent the link to a few people, hope to show it to as many people as possible.
Overall: 9.5/10 - awesome, awesome video. The quality and overall feel of the video is just amazing. U2 is one of my favorite bands so it's nice to see a really good AMV done with one of their songs as well.

Mahou Sensei Negima 216

Plot/Story: 8/10 - nothing that made me super impressed, a good bit of this was a long time coming; that being said however, it was delivered well. A sweet chapter that sets up for some interesting developments later.
Art: 8/10 - No major improvements in art, but I've always liked the style for Negima, and this chapter continues to keep the same feel I have enjoyed since chapter 1.
Overall: 8/10 - good solid chapter, nothing ground shaking though.

Soul Eater OP/ED

The opening and the ending for Soul Eater have been released. I am currently enjoying the opening, Resonance by T.M. Revolution; awesome song, one worth listening to purely as a stand alone song.

Fairy Tail - Chapter 90

SPOILERS

Plot/Story: 7/10 - More in the Erza arc; it's interesting, but it's getting to the point where one chapter really just doesn't feel like enough. This isn't a case of "OMGOMGOMGIWANTMORENOW" or anything, it's a case of "wow, that's it?" For the past few chapters I've been left with the feeling of being jipped in all honesty. For 20 pages or so per chapter I feel like this arc should progressmore plot wise. That being said, this chapter actually had an interesting tidbit of plot info, and setup for what will hopefully be a good fight next chapter.
Art: 8/10 - I like the style still, but this chapter doesn't represent any groundbreaking leaps in quality for Mashima-san.
Sound: N/A [Wish my comics came with music]
Overall: 7.5/10 Not a bad chapter, not an excellent chapter, but a pretty good one.

Kurenai 10

SPOILERS

So, a few days ago I watched Kurenai 10. For those of you who haven't watched it, I strongly suggest watching the series. It's categorized under Martial Arts, Seinin, Tragedy, Underworld and Violence. On to the spoilers!

Story/Plot: 9/10 – Pretty bloody impressive if you ask me. This story is rapidly drawing to a close, I hope it ends well.
Episode 10 is about Shinkurou trying to overcome his feelings of defeat after losing to the Kuhouin henchmen. How does he handle the defeat? Much the way you can imagine a young adult male (in anime) would: he gets depressed. So, it's up to his friend's to cheer him up.
First, we have the person who has always been against Shinkurou guarding Murasaki, Yayoi. She's been in charge of watching over him and Murasaki, and she didn't believe in him. However, of course, she lost too so now suddenly they're all chummy. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and during the course of watching this episode this wasn't a problem to me. The show sort of integrates it rather well if I do say. Plus, we learn more about Yayoi; I think character development is one of the most important parts of any show, and it is nice to see it done.
Next Ginko and Yuuno (the female childhood friends of Shinkurou) give him something to think about. During his talk with Yayoi he feels that he has to just accept the past and basically forget it. So he puts on a smile and carries on as though he had merely made a mistake, and he had to work towards the future. Both comment on how he’s changed, and push him on a different path.
Finally, we have the two females in the apartment complex he lives in. Currently depressed after realizing that he couldn’t just accept what had happened as a mistake. Argument breaks out cause Shinkurou is being a whiny bitch, blah blah blah. Eventually he stops being a whiny bitch and decides that he will go to the Kuhouin mansion and rescue Murasaki. So he sets out, with Yayoi and his boss.
Art: 6/10 – Art is noticeably a lower quality than what the series started out as, which is a shame. First few episodes were truly impressive in the quality they presented. This is quite a downhill slide from there.
Sound: 8/10 – Not my favorite tracks, but the music continues to work well with the series. OST comes out July 2^nd, can’t wait to get my copy. Look for a track by track review once it’s released.
Overall: 7.7/10 – Episode was good, Kurenai raises the bar for anime once again, proving that you don’t need huge tits and lots of explosions to make a good series. The storyline is great, and with only two more episodes to be released, I for one am waiting with a mix of anticipation and dread. While I cannot wait to see the series draw to a close I worry that the ending will be lackluster in comparison with earlier episodes. Hopefully these fears will not be realized, and the ending will continue the trend that the show has followed thus far.

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to review various anime/manga/games/whatever that I happen to come across. As I am majoring in game design it is important to be able to tell what is good and why, so that's sort of what I hope to do here. There will be different types of blogs, based on what is being reviewed. For anime and manga there will be Episode/Chapter reviews, and a Series review once the series is over. Games, books and stuff can't really be reviewed in such a manner properly I feel, so they'll just be getting and overall review.