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Kishin Hoko Demonbane TV
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Animation - 6.7 |
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Sound - 6.7 |
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Story - 6.0 |
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Character - 6.3 |
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Value - 5.6 |
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Enjoyment - 6.3 |
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Average - 6.3 |
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Roto |
(2008-06-10 06:44:07) 2008-06-10 03:10:51 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Demonbane TV is a serise that really can't stay consistent with its genre. Its supposedly suppose to be mecha/science fiction but sometimes make it into a harem/ecchi genre with battle scenes.
I feel like that this series is more into harem/ecchi with battle scenes instead of mecha/science-fiction. I say this because it feels like they are trying to show the audience some ecchi scenes whenever they get the chance. Mostly which happens in every episode. By making these ecchi scenes happen they try to bring humor into the series. Yeah there are some humorous scenes. However it does revert back to a science-fiction genre during the other half of the story.
There are couple of bad things about this series. One thing that ruined the story is that this series was rushed. Everything was going at a face pace. Which makes the series a very predictable one. A normal and random guy who becomes a powerful sorcerer whose basically a newbie. This was what rushed everything not to mention that we somehow get a giant CG robot out of nowhere from a princess' castle.
Another bad thing is the fighting. I notice that each battle scene that the main character never actually wins by using is own powers. He gets aid from an unknown source of power. It makes the outcome of the battle very predictable and not enjoyable. Not to mention some pretty bad fighting names which is funny.
I really don't want to question this series too much. But why is there ONLY ONE good sorcerer? Every other sorcerer there is just evil. Why does Kurou transform when he goes into magic mode? He gets white hair and has two red eyes. How come later he doesn't get white hair and red eyes when he transforms? What the heck? What else is a big problem for me is that why does Al turn into a chibi character when she gives Kurou power. Also how does Al become a normal being when she riding on Demonbane the mecha. Also how do they even get on Demonbane? Do they teleport there?
On to the story
The story is about a dropout guy name Kurou who studied in a magic school. But he gets hired from a princess to find a grimore. A grimore is a spellbook. Now these so called grimore take shape into cute girls. No guys really. Now he then finds Al a grimore and makes a pact with her or basically she makes a pact with him. Now we get Goku and have the super power Kurou whose a newbie however in controlling his powers and learning. Now here's the part where this story kind of reminds me of Gravion. One power mecha. And someone monitoring the mecha which is the princess along with her butler and maids. So he fights these guys called Black Lodge an evil organization.
Animation
I can't say it's really superb. The reason is because of the CG animation. The mech and the animation sometimes fit and mostly doesn't fit well with the background. It's sometimes hard to tell if the anime is really focusing on animation or CG. I really don't like how the mech has eyes like a human being. I guess I'm not really use to it. Also for the OP they used scenes from actual episodes than being an OP entirely of itself. That was disappointing as well.
Sound
Overall it's alright with the battle scenes. However the OP is very very very terrible. I could die from listening to it. There were some episodes that didn't even have an ED.
Character
Well personality they are all predictable. In drawing wise each character is different from each other in animation. They somehow don't balance the show that much. I mean some people have different eyes. It was quite troubling for me to get use to. I mean what's up with one of the maids who gets a plushie face? I really didn't like that.
Overall at first the anime was really laughable for its plot until it got to the second half. There are some parts that gets very confusing and hard to follow it up. I suppose this is an alright anime. Starts bad but then gets okay. I will say that the story ended strong. To others some may like it or not. Some may enjoy the game more.
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| Average |
8.7 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| This is an unusual anime, and deserves attention outside of Asia with characters that capture you in their story. Deux Ex Machina Demonbane is the best anime I've encountered in the last few years.
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| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Demonbane TV is an example of a mecha anime series that should have stayed with its tone consistently throughout if it truly wanted to be considered a satire, not just in the sense of referred gothic and Roman undertones in the form of works relating to H.P. Lovecraft (which it does quite a bit in terms of its references) but in the sense of not having a point on which it took itself too seriously. I believed it would continue to keep in step with poking fun at itself for the rest of the series until it turns heads midway. Granted, there were instances where action sequences turned tense in the beginning episodes, but it didn't feel like it meshed together well in most points.
Sure, it set itself up in the beginning not to take itself seriously, and it was clear cut that it was more humored (if Al's diaper chibi form doesn't convince you that this is blatant satire, nothing will XD) If this were a series that handled its characters and plot a bit better, I would be tempted to say it would work, but with Demonbane's progression and presentation, not so much.
I feel like Demonbane could have been a bit more expansive for its own sake so that the references had more merit in the eyes of the viewer. No doubt from reading some of the former reviews, the intended execution of this wasn't always clear.
I'll admit something though: Demonbane TV had me laughing in terms of its humor at times. I smiled in quite a few points because it seemed intentional that all of the characters weren't to be taken seriously and were somewhat there along for the ride, in addition to little bit references in the realm of mystical gothic lore. For those who felt jaded by the merge of settings from 19th century : I disagree, I thought it was a warranted mesh of old and new considering the contexts it drew upon. You have to pay attention to its backstory to understand it. I have to say that while the settings worked, the references to figures didn't always work in the same way.
Before I delve fully into the pros and cons of Demonbane TV, lets look at what it's intended storyline entails.
Introducing Daijuji Kuro, a down on his luck dropout sorcerer from a magic school who happens to be hired to find a powerful Grimore by an elite princess. What's a grimore? You could say that grimores are spell books of sorts based on traditional definitions, but somehow in this series, spellbooks take on the form of cutesy girls, with somehow a penchant for being in fanservice-esque poses. But that's for later expansion as well.
Having a keen eye for monetary benefits, Kuro hops to the task not really minding the fact it's a dangerous job. Enter Al Azif, who comes flying down after a pursive chase (ecchi scene in tow), and as fate would have it, she meets her man to merge with and fight the throes of evil in the form of an organization named the Anticross/Black Lodge. Also attributed to fate, they find their deux machina "god" to fight with in the form of Demonbane, a mecha superpower.
Add in your cast of neko hairstyled maids assisting the princess, a robotic maid girl whose sole purpose seems to be moe with how she adds "robo" to every line she speaks, the illustrious Dr. West (who's probably the best secondary character in this series for his humor alone...also one of the more interesting ones in the cast), and a seemingly buxom nun and the kids she cares for, and you have the cast of Demonbane in addition to Kuro and Al. Of course, it's not complete without the villains that are portrayed accordingly (interesting on their own levels, but in the scheme of the series could have been more developed.)
Granted, the secondary characters, save for Dr. West, are downright terrible. They're flatter than pancakes and completely miss the fluff. On a more serious hand, you could say they're simply for show. But watching them in the first half of the series makes you want to laugh for all the wrong reasons because it's typically picking fun at itself with its inclusion of numerous cliches and references. There are points where it becomes serious, of course, and it seems to work well for presenting the villains, it's just that the villains...really have no heart. :(
Now what's very good about this series: animation and the overall OST and voiceacting. Animation meets the standards of today fairly well, especially looking at the rather interesting OP/ED sequences. The OST has its share of ups and downs, while the VA work proves fairly consistent.
Overall, this is a hard series to recommend, I liked it after watching it a second time, but as a serious anime, it's rather bland. As a comedy, it doesn't really measure up either. Rather, it's some odd median in between that lends me to say: watch it, but take it with a grein of salt. If you don't know something about H.P. Lovecraft or loathe mecha cliches, stay far and away from this series.
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Caireen |
(2006-12-29 09:04:53) 2006-12-29 08:50:13 |
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| Average |
7.8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the origins of this anime are the influences of various Mythos writers of the past; the most noteworthy being H.P. Lovecraft! Demonbane is set on earth, but the main city Arkham is a fictional city created by Lovecraft and used in many of his stories.
The influences are rife throughout this anime, from the names of the various characters, to the actual monsters themselves that appear throughout. I suppose you could actually say it's more theft than influence, but somehow the creators of this (and obviously the game) got away with it!
I guess some of the more "unreal" elements of Demonbane can be explained with a quick N.B. here: H.P. Lovecraft's work was greatly influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, therefore many of those more surreal elements seeped into this story!!
So how does basing your story around works of H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries work for an anime? rather well actually! It brings into play an interesting sci-fi element that's mixed with myth and magic, a battle between good and evil, an interesting paradoxal storyline, some very interesting and fun characters and even a little romance along the way. Now although all of that sounds like it's going to make a very serious drama based anime, this is nothing of the sort!! It is infact a slightly ecchi satire that begs to not be taken seriously, there is an awful lot humour, very daft battle cries and if you don't believe me, just watch out for the "tentacle" monster scene when Kurou berates it with "Tentacles? That's so out-dated" *lol*
Anyway, you need to take this anime for what it is; satire! I'm not saying it doesn't have any seriousness to it, because it does and thankfully the few ocassions of seriousness blend well with the rest of the daftness!
It's definitely something worth checking out as long as you keep in mind everything I have said - you will NOT like this IF you try to take it seriously!!
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Saya77 |
(2006-10-29 22:12:52) 2006-10-08 20:16:19 |
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| Average |
1.5 |
| Animation |
3 |
| Sound |
2 |
| Story |
1 |
| Character |
1 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| Demonbane is trite, cliche, boring, and about as complex and deep as pokemon and Dora the Explorer or Sesame Street.
The story is completely predictable; random nobody becomes super-powerful mage who controls a giant robot and saves the world from an evil organization. The characters are bland and uninteresting, with the women serving mainly as eye-candy with either huge breasts or a lolita look. In fact, the majority of the scenes involving characters like the nun are mainly ecchi humor, with the grimoir playing the role of "angry girl who hits boy for looking at other girls". The main character is your typical "good-hearted fool who gains strength through the support of his friends" character, and is completely uninteresting.
Also, just as the previous reviewer stated, the setting is extremely contradictory; the buildings and mechanical devices in the day-to-day life seem to be from 19th century Britain, while at the same time there is super-futuristic giant robots and magic. There is really no background given for the setting of the story and we find out little about how the Demonbane world works. Also, the whole "little girl is actually a powerful object" thing was done much better in Scrapped Princess. Everytime I saw the grimoire in "flying baby with daipers form" I cringed.
Also, the anime never allowed for much drama because of the light-heartedness of both the heros and some of the wacky and non-threatening villians. Thus, even when the anime was supposed to take a darker turn or something dangerous happens, I found myself not really caring.
It is also hard to create a dark or dramatic atmosphere with the over-the-top animation (especially during battles) and bad soundtrack (including bad OP/ED songs). The wacky costumes and transformations and "special attacks" are all too childish for me to enjoy, and just made me cringe. I would not reccomend this anime to anyone. There are hundreds of anime better than this out there.
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| Average |
6.4 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| This is one heck of a bad series.
It would have been better if everything wasn't so fricking rushed.
All of the sudden, stuff appeared and this happened and this guy becomes the strongest mage class above everyone elses... and he's some poor detective who quit school half way. There's some eechi... like how the girl landed on Kuro and ends up showing a panty shot, a good clear shot up in front of Kuro's face anyway.
This anime needs reshaping in story and how it is being presented. The OP is bad and there is no ED.. not that I think.
This anime really allows focus to become loose and lost, because there's no emphasis in what the anime really wants to show. It displays inbalance, and informality. There was no good plot and almost everything was predicable...
The setting of this anime was taken in place was very confusing. Might as well be taken in modern society attitude but in a 1800-early 1900 living style. Nothing really makes sense.
They live in an old fashioned world, with crappy/antitique telephones, old homes-like, churchs that are poorly made. Yet in some parts, robots are already a common thing, they were advancely designed and were made out of metal with material that we never see back then. It's really unrealistic. It they can make robots that can shoot laser beams and use machines, then why the crap do people live in such an old living style? They have old cars, but they drive on highways like that golden suspension bridge you would see in New York, back then it doesn't look liek that! The first bridge looked like a beam bridge.. it wobbled and moved, but people liked it until it actually fell apart and the builders sought for a better way of building and designing it.
It's a bit mix of old and modern. So if you like that then that's okay for you that is. But for me, I prefere something that actually makes sense in setting time and place. Geez...
Characters are too predicable. You got your nun with big breasts, you got your dinky guy who's stupid but hot-headed, you got your innocent looking girl but is actually a genius or the strongest grimore thingy in the world... blah blahblah... so stupid.
I didn't really enjoyed it... but I'll continue watching it if I can.. just to see the outcome of this.. serie... GoodLuck to you guys~
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