Shingetsutan Tsukihime Review

I was taken by Kara No Kyoukai so much, I had to know about the guys who made it. That’s when I came across Type-Moon’s other works, including Shingetsutan Tsukihime.

I’m no fan of vampires and bloodsuckers – I even considered dropping the show after knowing there were such characters! But no sir, I gave it a shot and I’m glad I did as this heavily heartrending piece is well justified. Don’t expect cheesy lines nor ridiculous abs here!

Originally a Japanese eroge dōjin visual novel game, the immense reception it acquired paved this first-born of Type-Moon its very own anime adaptation – not to mention the financial resources for their future projects such as Melty Blood, Canaan, Kara No Kyoukai and Fate/Stay Night.

Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners Review

Kara No Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners, goes to the top of my list, no doubt! In my opinion, this show certainly makes anime for what it is in its untainted form. I’ll try my best to explicate things the best I can, and without spoilers.

The series falls under Type-Moon’s Nasuverse (Also the same universe of Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night) so if this is a first time, the concepts, theories and even how reality is interpreted in that universe will be daunting at first. Kara No Kyoukai is composed of 7 animated films, all of which should be watched sequentially even though they aren’t chronological in order.

Synopsis: The first movie introduces Ryougi Shiki, who possess a rather special ability called the Chokushi no Magan, or Mystic Eyes of Death Perception where it allows the user to see the “death” of everything in existence as lines. A cut along any line will bifurcate the object no matter the sharpness of the cutting tool used, and a stab at the point destroys the object’s origin, causing instant death. This is due to her 2-year comma after an accident, where her consciousness was able to understand death after dwelling in it for so long. The ‘eyes’ are portrayed by having a rainbow-like color.

Welcome to the NHK Review

I’m still two episodes away to the finale, but I really had to write about this already!

If there’s a show that can be considered both depressing and motivating at extreme levels in terms of comparing it to real life, this is it. The story focuses on the lives of young adults in Tokyo, wherein the main theme encompasses concepts on anime otakus, hikikomoris, and those who suffer from intense depression, loneliness and paranoia. “A common theme throughout the story deals with the hardships of life and how people must deal with them in their own way.“

Synopsis: Tatsuhiro Satō, a 22-year old college drop-out, has been living his life as a hikikomori and NEET (Not in employement, education or training) for four years now. Although living alone in his apartment, he’s still financially dependent on his parents. He shuts himself from society and only goes out at night to buy food. Often over-imaginative and paranoid about conspiracies to a ridiculous degree, he believes that the Japanese TV group NHK really means “Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai / Japanese Hikikomori Association“: a conspiracy of a higher entity to create more NEETs and hikikomoris.

Higurashi: When They Cry Review

I never really watched anime that much anymore after high school, but this got me hooked me up again. I found out about Higurashi when a friend who went to Japan gave me Deformation Maniac Figures of some of its characters. I got curious on what kind of anime it was, and voila! I was watching again before I knew it.

Synopsis: The story is set in a fictional rural village of Hinamizawa of 1983. Our protagonist Keiichi Maebara, who recently moves in, befriends his new classmates (Rena, Mion, Satoko and Rika) and participates in after-school club activities comprised mostly of card and board games. The village may seem peaceful and ordinary at first, but that all comes to an end at the village’s annual Watanagashi (Cotton-Drifting) Festival – to pay homage to their local god, Oyashiro-sama – when Keiichi discovers that for the past four years, one is always murdered and one disappears on the day of the festival. Keiichi is then drawn to the strange events happening, and the truth is slowly revealed.