FISH WITH FACE FOUND! Named Ponyo. SAVES WORLD (Day 6)

Anime Review II: Monochrome Factor

[Plot summary, genres, and themes from animenewsnetwork.com]

Plot Summary: The story revolves around high school student Akira Nikaido, a typical slacker living a normal life. That is, until he meets the mysterious Shirogane, a man who suddenly appears and tells him to meet him at the school that night. Though he is skeptical, he goes anyway, and subsequently gets attacked by a shadow monster. Shirogane convinces him that the balance between the human world and the shadow world has been distorted, and that Akira must become a "shin", which is a creature of the shadow world, in order to help restore the balance.

Genres: action, comedy, fantasy

Themes: shounen-ai

Review [contains little to no spoliers]

So I was skimming through anime lists and came across Monochrome Factor. The year it came out was 2008 yet I have never heard of such an anime before. I decided to go to my usual place (animenewsnetwork) and look up what I have been missing. That's when I saw it: shounen-ai.

Me: Huh? How come I've never seen this before?

Being somewhat of a fan of everything and anything that is anime, I was unsure to why I skipped over this one (especially since my friends are fangirls of shounen-ai and yaoi) so I click 'watch'.

The first thing you see is water, and voices, and this guy with brown hair that suspiciously looks like mine and an obnoxious orange shirt. Then, opening theme.

Now let me tell you. This! This is beautiful. You have to see for yourself: (CLICK THE BOX!)

Now I believe that the art is the opening is different compared to the art out of the whole anime. But that is just me. See for yourself.

In this 'kid-show-gone-semi-adult-show', you meet this guy:

Meet number one cool guy Akira Nikaido. His hobbies are doing nothing and not going to class. His dislikes are... well... if you are a guy who thinks everything is boring what don't you dislike?

Now he doesn't have many friends. When you find everything boring and like to be a loner who has time for friends?

Especially with her:

She's not a happy camper. He name is Aya and she is the school disciplinary, otherwise known as a "Perfect". Who wants a friend who always yells and beats up on you?

Or this annoying guy:

I like to call him "foreign friend" since I could never remember his name when talking to my friends about the show and he had to be the odd one out with the obnoxious blonde hair. He is loud, annoying, never shuts up, obnoxious Kengo. Does anyone really want a friend who just wouldn't shut up and shouts "AKIRA~" and tries to hug you all the time?

Or him...

Shirogane. The guy who wears lips gloss. Would you really want a friend that molests you?

....

Right. I didn't think so.

And the mysterious little kid who wouldn't leave you alone.

Remember? The one who does all that dark magic?

....
Yeah, I don't want to get on his bad side...

But I guess being with a crowd like that is okay for Akira when he has this up his tail:

These gross looking things are called Kokuchi. And this is what we do to Kokuchi we don't like:

Yeah, that happens to be all of them.

The whole invasion started when Akira bumped into Shirogane one the street one day. Shirogane--out of no where--asks for Akira to go somewhere with him but because Shirogane's direct approach, Akira refuses and basically runs away.

While Kengo and him are at an arcade and saves a little kids from being bullied

Creepers. I know, right? Pay close attention to the young boy, he becomes important later.

Aya soon catches them and tries to beat them up for being out so late on a school night. As the boys try to run away, Aya soon strikes a deal with them: "come with me back to the school and be my bodyguards". Even though she is the most violent one in the school and didn't need bodyguards, Akira and Kengo join her.

You find out that she just left her plushie at school (why she brings her stuff animal to school is beyond me) and as they walk, everything gets creepy as if someone turned up the notch on the "creeper scale".

With strange noises, Aya freaks out and beats up Kengo (she thought he was a ghost).

And out of nowhere Aya gets attacked by these shadows.

Or her plushie. This causes her to faint.

Now Akira is all alone with these monster... I feel slightly bad for him. But don't fret my anime fans, he is saved by none other than creeper number one Shirogane.

Shirogane tells Akira weird things like Shirogane is a shin and that the balance between light and dark is crumbling and these things called Kokuchi are from the shadow world and must be destroyed.

Akira runs away and in doing so he made one big uh-oh. Akira gets soon swept into darkness and in order to save him Shirogane turns him also in the shin... by... kissing him.

Don't ask me how that worked out.

So now you realize that the boy in light brown hair from before is now this guy:

And the fighting is fast, somewhat dizzy, and fuzzy,

Like honestly, how can I get a good still frame when I have THIS to work with

But even this serious sounded anime has it's light hearted moments. Seriously, a lot of light hearted moments. I mean in the middle of a battle you have a chibi sequence

I believe this is what the anime is most famous for

With most of the comedy your receive from this show it couldn't be complete without on fan girl. This is where Kengo's older sister Mayu jumps in.

She is in love with hot boys no matter what age. She even has a "hot guy radar".

You find out for yourself whether you will be able to stand this character or not.

Akira surely doesn't.

Now if you think a fan girl is bad, try dealing with a fan boy.

He is not as annoying and gets drunk every night like Mayu. Kou-nii just flirts... with everything that moves.

"You can call me onii-chan"

AYA RAGE!

As I watched the 24 episode series I noticed something. I kept trying to think of an anime it reminded me of but I couldn't think of it nor could any of my friends think of it. We all just came up with one answer: Sailor Moon. The anime reminded us of Sailor Moon. Don't believe me? Watch for yourself... or I can explain it right now.

In almost every episode you have this:

First step: meeting a character you've never seen before

Second Step: getting to know that character

Third Step: He or she comes along and screws things up

Fourth Step: the character you've come to know and love in less than one episode gets possessed by a Kokuchi

Fifth step: Some ass kicking time with the same transforming sequence every time

Sixth Step: Parasite Kokuchi extracted and killed

End. ... And you never see that random character ever again.

For some time I was getting bored of it and I felt like I could pick out any random episode and watch it and still know what was going on. But boy was I wrong. At one point episodes string together and you get confused about who is who.

Like who is this guy?

And who is she? I want to say that she is bad but...

There is actual plot after a while and it gets very intense, suspenseful, and interesting without loosing much of it's light comedy charm.

There is still a lot of action and A LOT of twists

This is another anime that I strongly advise not to get close to any of them (I make them sound like real people).

There is a lot of implied in this anime, especially since it's a shonen-ai.

You have Akira and Shirogane (unrequited love)

Akira and Kengo (implied -- just a really strong friendship or something more? xD)

Akira and Aya (implied)

In the end, Monochrome Factor is a light hearted comedy with an original plot that will take your breath away. And if you still stomached through this shounen-ai filled review and find it interesting but don't want to see boys flirting with each other than I would totally read the manga. There is no hint of BL what so ever. Why they placed it in the anime is beyond me but I'm not complaining.

It has loads of action

Romance (uh, implied romance xP)

Though is this still considered implied?

And comedy.

Just slightly inappropriate xD

All in all I give this anime a 6 out of 10. The constant repetitiveness of the episodes annoyed me but when they got somewhere with the plot it was fantastic!

That is all I can think of at the moment.

Till next time!

Oh and if you want to see the first episode:

This is part one, go onto my youtube channel to see the rest! :)

Apocalyptica Beautiful

Anime Review I: Black Butler

[Top picture, plot summary, genres, themes, and objectionable content from animenewsnetwork.com]

Plot Summary: To what extent must a housekeeper do things to be acceptable. One of the noble families of England, Phantomhives butler Sebastian Michaels has got unquestionably perfect knowledge, manners, talent with materials, martial arts, et cetera: but is also able to serve a 12 year old master. Wearing a grey tailcoat, gracefully brewing the worlds strongest red tea, please read on to see how such a perfect butler copes with such a master...

Genres: comedy, mystery, supernatural

Themes: bishounen, demons, detective, historical, shinigami

Objectionable content: Significant (bloody violence and/or swearing and/or nudity)

Review [contains little to no spoliers]:

So I randomly saw this anime almost a year ago when I was looking up similar anime to Blood+ (it just came as a suggestion, have no clue why). The plot sounded... eh, but it was set in the Victorian times--my favorite time period--so I clicked 'watch'.

The story starts out kind of vague... almost like crack. You see a young boy

Ciel Phantomhive. Sounds pretty impressive and from the first shot of the house, being a mansion, I'm pretty sure we can all assume that he is rich. He even has someone waking him up, and it's not his father! It happens to be this guy:

Well, this is his butler. A pretty young one. And here I always thought butlers were those old guys with grey hair, glasses, and mustaches. No, that's Tanaka...

So the show starts out making this guy (butler, Sebastian-- how unoriginal is that name for that time period?) seem like such a hot shot compared to these guys:

I mean, I guess anyone can look better than them when Ciel has to deal with this everyday:

Yes, that is his gardener... in a cat suit.

Now since I mentioned these comic relief morons, time to explain them!

Here is Finny:

I totally believe he is gender queer. I mean come on! Look at this:




Absorb the cuteness!



Both my friend and I thought he was a SHE for the longest time (until a flashback where he didn't have clips in his hair nor the obnoxious eyelashes). Now if you were like me and just went: "wait... that's a boy?!?" well, join the club. No, seriously. There is a club for this.

Next is Bard (or Bardroy):

Funny guy (in English, his voice is what makes the show in my opinion) who likes to burn things with his flamethrower... even himself! (why does he never wear his goggles?)

Finally, you have the maid May-Rin:

A total klutz and lewd, you have #1 great shot May-Rin. Yep. She knows her way around a gun. You never really get to see her eyes so much. Sad.

So! Back on to the story. At first, the whole thing seems like a major crack. There isn't so much of a plot per say in the first couple of episodes. I showed the anime to Hoshi once and by episode three he was like:

"WHAT IS THIS SHIT?!"

But he soon became addicted like me (excluding a few minor details that he just cringed about).

Soon you realized that the hot, young, perfect butler Sebastian isn't so perfect after all. No, he didn't spill the milk during breakfast time. The audience finds out that he is a demon. *over dramatic gasp* such a big shocker *sarcasm sarcasm*. Sebastian hinted it perfectly well in the first episode and the audience definately felt something off about his creeper face.

So now that you found that out, welcome to the plot. Ciel wants revenge on whoever killed his family, burned down his house, and made him get tortured (and suggested rape? and possibly killed?). Sebastian takes full opportunity and snatches the little boy (someone call Amber!). Sebastian will kill whoever did it and, wait for it, gets Ciel's soul in the end. Oooooh, never guessed that one!

Now that there is a plot, it is just like Yami No Matsuei or other anime that I can't think of right now in the sense that the show has "arks". Here you meet random people that you would probably never see in any of the other arks!

Look! A character you hardly ever see. I think they are called, minor characters? Eh? Haha.

The first ark, it's basically the background of Ciel and his work being the queen's "guard dog" (other wise known as "the bitch that follows orders"). He is sent to get rid of Jack the Ripper. Yes, that creeper that chopped up pros.

Here you meet a reoccurring character named Grell (a boy... woman... thing), a shinigami. (Note: some subbed version mention this creeper guy named Greil... it's the same person)

Fail to mention that Grell is in love with Sebastian or, er, "Sebby"?

Grell is a confusing, cute, funny, and odd character in the series. This is where all the suggestive themes start. Whether it's Grell's obsession with Sebastian (yaoi/shounen-ai) or total implied Sebastian and Ciel (previous plus shota). (Grell once says: "Oh Sebastian, are you asking me a favor? Then, when we kiss it will be... with tongue.") So this is where Hoshi cringes and says:
"If Kuroshitsuji didn't have this crap... then it would be amazing."
Then read the manga sweetie...
(Oopies, lied there. I'm pretty sure it's a lot worse)

In the first ark, it's where the shinigami's come in (they become important later).
And you get to see this:



Yep... Ciel dressed as a girl xD

Next "ark" is all about dogs (and Sebastian HATES dogs so it is entertaining). In the end, you get this fluff ball:

Om Nom Nom?

It may look like a human to you but in my magical eyes-- Just kidding, it's an actual demon dog that turns into a cute little man (cute... little... man? What am I on?) when he is excited and that he is also in love with Sebastian. But I liked to use the excuse that they are both demons and this is what demons do to greet each other (picture) but Sebastian doesn't join in because he is trying to look cool.

Then you have a few fillers (which are just great by the way).

The next "ark" finally gets to the good stuff. The "puppet" ark I like to call it. It isn't all puppies and sunshine anymore! Here you have twists and turns and you suddenly start getting to know what happened to Ciel! ... Oh, and some stuff happens with Elizabeth but who cares!

In the next ark, you met this guy:

Ah! Holy crap! Indian! When are they EVER in anime?!

And some strange stuff happens like women turning purple.

Maybe too many red onions?

She obviously didn't have her bowl of Total that day.
In this ark, you finally see the queen and this shady looking guy:

The queen magically went to a curry tasting competition... well, I don't see the president of the United States doing that...
CURRY!
*cough* Well, anyway...

When Queen Victoria entered, everyone started singing this song about her. It had the beat of Star Spangled Banner and they all sung in English (which sounded so creepy) and SOME people didn't sing! Obviously they hated England.

Then a filler episode.

Next ark! Final ark! It's all about this creepy cult and how everyone not in it is "unclean" (though one of those woman has sex with Sebastian. Guess whose unclean now?!)

And where this old lady:

Is magically this... girl...?

There is a lot of information and closure in the ark (since it goes to the last episode) so I won't ruin it.

Black Butler is an anime with a original plot and a un-original concept which makes in a semi-amazing show. There is a lot of suggestive themes (as mentioned before)

Yeah... pretty sure that is his sister.



and some creeper moments.

See? He is a total creeper!

There is a lot of action.

Sebastian rescues the day! .. As always

I would suggest not getting too attached to any character. There is a lot of death

See? Funerals!

So... that is all I can think about the anime. It is great! I give it a 9 out of 10!

Till next review!