Change Your Image
sonikuu-706-744452
Reviews
Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998)
Entertaining, but somewhat lacking.
The original Yu-Gi-Oh anime loosely follows the first volumes of the manga, and is considered as being a darker anime than the duel monsters one, released two years after.
The show is not without merits, the scenarios are quite entertaining and they try to keep things fresh, however they do milk some running jokes and formulas (like the attraction between Honda & Miho, the latter being much more present in the anime than in the manga, even though she mostly serves as comic relief and fan service). Some of the characters are indeed more flanderized than their counterparts from the 2000s series, Honda is especially lousy and annoying. The voice acting, being of course only in Japanese, sounds weird when you make the transition from the 2000s series to this one, mostly Yugi who is clearly voiced by a female in this version, Yami/Atem as well who sounds like a sassy teenager, it isn't bad by any means, but it takes some time to get used to. The music is mostly generic, some tracks do stand out though, like Yami's theme when he emerges is always a treat to listen to.
What I like about this anime compared to the more recent one is that the games/duels don't take 3 episodes to end, with the exception of the last arc, in which case it's not much of a problem. As such, the pacing is much better. However, since this is the pre-Duel Monsters era, the card game we're all accustomed to nowadays makes almost absolutely no sense in the 1998 anime (during the 1st season of the Duel Monsters era it was still unpolished, but this is so much worse), it's like a prototype without much rules and filled with Deus Ex Machinas, dueling is probably the worst part of this anime. But still, I like that the stakes are always pretty high, even though sometimes it just doesn't make sense to have some characters being threatened by death.
This series is animated by... ugh... Toei. As a result, the animation and quality of the artwork is probably the worst thing about this anime, being only available on VHS doesn't help. It's incredibly stilted, poor, and it's inferior to the 2000s series in every way. While Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters has aged surprisingly well by today's standards (it's not without flaws, it has badly animated episodes), Yu-Gi-Oh by Toei looks bad and old even by 1998's standards and makes early Sailor Moon look like a masterpiece. The series would indeed be much more bearable with better artwork and animation, the colours look odd as well, being washed out, but I'd blame the VHS quality for that.
It's nothing spectacular, but I think Duel Monsters fans and non- fans alike can give this series a fair shot. This series is only 27 episodes long and isn't linked to the Duel Monsters arcs, so you can watch it as its own thing.
Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)
Spider-Man Ultimately dumbed down.
Ultimate Spider-Man is best seen whenever it's taking itself seriously, the whole problem, is that it is NOT.
Some people have already compared this to Deadpool, and while I'm not a comic book fan or even watching most of the adaptations on TV, I can totally see how this comparison is spot-on.
Spider-Man just acts as a goofball most of the damn time, his character is supposed to be likable, but even the partners do a better job at it.
Speaking of the partners, it makes you wonder why it isn't called "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends 2", without the campy feel of the first.
Spider-Man from 1995 was watchable by adults and children alike, this is barely even watchable from the point-of-view of a 20 year old guy, this show is clearly meant for teenagers, but it is too shallow to appeal adults.
It pains me to write this, but even Unlimited Spider-Man which was 13 episodes long and ending up with a cliffhanger has more appeal to me, at least if the plot was... different, it had a serious tone and a refreshing theme. (for the Spider-Man series at least)
There is more ; Ultimate Spider-Man the TV Series, DOES NOT resembles its comic book counterpart nor its video game counterpart, it is clearly another product.
So why is it called "Ultimate Spider-Man" if it's not based on the comic book ? Why is it that the character Spider-Man became a spoof ? The answer is : to appeal to a wider audience.
That's sad, but it could have been much better had they not tried to make Spider-Man more "family friendly", the animation is good, the story is okay, but half of the lines are cringe-inducing and it is just... not the Spider-Man that we know.
Chaotic (2006)
Wasted potential.
If you go past the cheesy voice acting, Chaotic is actually not that bad of a TV Show, but my main gripe with it, is how the universe seem to have been dumbed down in order for the show to target kids.
It needed a more dark, gloomy atmosphere, like the Animated Series from the 80s, instead we have the most annoying kids as protagonists traveling around the world of Chaotic battling each other and getting involved into the Chaotic's universe with other major characters... or not so much.
The problem is that the human protagonists, apart from being annoying, are almost always doing something in relation to Chaotic, but the interactions with the beings from Chaotic are very limited, so most of the episodes are just filled with 10 minutes of battling between humans (sometimes the whole episode is like that, rarely it doesn't involve battling), and at best, the rest being "plot development". If there's any plot ; Season 1 has more like stand-alone episodes rather than being plot-focused. Season 2 & 3 however are more plot-focused but not entirely.
Chaotic is the complete opposite to Digimon on that aspect. (by the way watch Digimon in its Japanese -read original- version to see what I'm talking about, not the 4Kids dumbed down version, it's actually not bad at all) The art direction is not bad at all for the creatures, but terribly lame on the humans. Season 1 uses flash animation, it works well on the creatures but it only makes the human protagonists even more ugly. Season 2 & 3 use traditional animation, I like it better than flash, but it's not as fluid.
The music is so-so in my opinion, some themes are damn good, but others are just plain bad, some of the most aggravating ones comes when a "mugic" (some sort of power-up) is activated. Usually the better themes are those that conveys a serious/epic feel, others however just underlines how dumbed down and sometimes even childish the show is.
All in all, the artwork of the card's game may completely mislead you into thinking that this show is actually quite mature, or at least for mid-late teenagers, but this show has been butchered and toned down so much, that it would hardly get a 5/10.
I give it a 4/10, but I'm sure if it had been transcribed in its original state, it would deserve at least a 7/10.