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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 10 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2011#2279] |
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With an awesome cast, amazing artwork and cool music, this one is one of my pics of the year. Art, Animation & Character Designs Wow! Artwork is short of amazing! Let me first clarify. This is "not" CG, rather, most of it is not CG, but instead, just plain old fashioned animation. But the quality, the rich & vibrant colors and level detail almost takes your breath away. I mean, by no means is this a "EF tale of memories", but it comes pretty darn close. Character designs were just top notch. Not only were they illustrated excellent and smooth, but each stood apart from one another. They weren't carbon-copies with various hair colors and eye colors. Music The OP was a sorta electronic-pop, techno-ish piece. It wasn't all that bad. The animation sequence worked well with it. The music throughout this series is mostly techno to electronic pieces as well. Not bad at all really. Now the ED was actually really good. I actually enjoyed it... which is pretty rare of me. It was a rock - alternative piece. Series and Episode Story Somehow, this series ends up being one of my favorites. Although you had the typical male antagonist surrounded by cute girls who are in love with him, it doesn't slap you in the face with it and the rest of the story and plot actually overwhelms that all-too-common theme. In all honesty, the plot was nothing special however, it was the episodes that made this series very fun and interesting to watch. The interactions between the dozens of characters, the battle scenes and really cool cast of unique character attributes or abilites was more than enough to keep me glued to the screen. In between some episodes, there were odd black & white cutscenes that seemed out of place and in horrible english. This I still haven't figured out what it did for the series or it was suppose to relay to our viewer. Okay, so for some gripes. First off, there was just too many cool characters, at least as seen in the 1st episode. But nearly none make a presense from then on. I was let down by the last episode. Second, the plot is sorta confusing. There's a lot to digest and most of what's in the series is not explained so you just gotta go with the flow and ignore the dozens of questions popping up in the brain. With that said, the episodes themselves were great! Overall, It's a really cool series to watch as long as you don't question half of what's going on. For the, the cast of characters and their abilities is what made it fun. Last updated Saturday, November 21 2009. Created Saturday, November 21 2009. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Forbin
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[series:2011#1573] | ||||||
Analysis : All 24 Episodes Watched
Now this was my front runner for 2008/2009. I loved the idea of some strange world that these guys live in and the whole 'electronic fairy' thing. Conclusion: Now too bad they ended with only halfway. They REALLY didn't explain Saya's purpose in all of this. Thoughts: This show REALLY reminded me of  Rental Magica. A boy who got into trouble in an earlier life who is now surrounded by girls who all love him while he goes out and defends his 'land' from some mean old monsters. Throughout the whole show I was wondering about the B&W sequences that kept showing up (in really bad Engrish too!) Later they made you 'think' that it was a TV show that the boys watched in their free time. NOPE! The B&W sequences appear to be history lessons and at the end the main character of the TV show was in one of the Regios.Even though it kept me going, I do consider the whole show a bit weak. This is why I only give it a RENT+ for now. And on to the girls of Layfon's Harem:
Last updated Tuesday, June 23 2009. Created Thursday, March 12 2009. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:2011#628] | ||||||
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(Rent- or Watch+) (All episodes watched): The synopsis above tells you infinitely more about the plot of this show than the first episode does. Early on I was thinking that this was another show which the viewer was expected to already be thoroughly familiar with the plot of, and consequently the anime wouldn't bother to explain things. My first impressions might be summarized as "something about fighting giant insects". The main character arrives at an Academy and after displaying spiritual fighting skills is offered a sweet scholarship deal if he'll also join the "17th Platoon". His fellow platoon members seemed like they might be interesting and colorful. Anyway, my interest picked up after my negative first impression. Sometimes the first episode of a new show doesn’t explain a whole lot, and you have to wait for later ones to do so. And sometimes the show simply never does explain much, and you are on your own. Episode two sees a series of platoon training exercises--or are they gladiatorial combats? They look pretty dangerous at times. What exactly platoons are used for was still unclear, however; it's sort of like the characters are both college students and ROTC members. The bit about "electronic fairies" left me scratching my head—I think I would’ve remembered an explanation of those. Likewise, the fact that the entire city-on-stilts walks around, was something which hadn't dawned on me until episode five, when it stepped on something bad. Episodes sometimes start with a black-and-white sequence with Engrish speaking actors--at first I thought this was a comical parody of some movie which the characters might be watching, but after awhile I began to wonder if it might be some sort of flashback to past events which had had some effect on the way things have turned out. What, I wondered, is the ratio of things-to-be-taken-seriously versus things-that-are-just-jokes here? Hey, I caught a Japanese VA using the word f*ck for the second time! Appropriately enough, it was during one of those cheesy movie clips But although I never did completely understand what was going on, Regios was fun. I got a number of good laughs out of each episode and was left eager for more. Each time I watched the show, the term "colorful characters" came to mind yet again, and that was one reason why this became one of my favorite shows of the season. The platoon members get a good deal of development (I especially liked Felli). Layton's beliefs really are surprising in some ways; he has done some things which would never be done by a stereotypical anime hero. It's both original and unsettling, in a way. Anyway, episode 11, in which Platoon 17 takes some time off at a swimming pool was great. Right from the start I was saying "this one looks like fun", and so it was. "Have you not thought about how absurd this world that you live in is?" At last, a character seems to connect to my own confusion about what exactly is going on here. Regios remains confusing what with all the different factions that have emerged--platoons, royalty, mercenaries, criminals, etc. As it got more serious and less humorous towards the end, my inability to completely understand it became more of a problem. During episode 22 Felli's brother makes the comment "Are we being jammed or are we being refused?" --and it struck me that I had no idea what either term meant. Clearly there is some sort of complex story going on, it just isn’t explained very well. This late in the series, I still had little idea what a "General City", a "Lance-Shelled City", or for that matter, a Slime Monster was. It's so bewildering (the Haikizoku takes the form of a golden goat?) that I gave up trying to completely understand the plot long ago. Again, it's the interesting, eccentric characters which held my interest. In the final episode I was just kind of riding along, understanding the plot as best I could. I really had no idea that Savaris was a major villain until now. I also had no idea that a person could “steal” the Haikizoku’s power. I don’t recall the show ever explaining exactly what “Heaven’s Blades” are and why they are important. What was the link to the movie clips? What’s Sacred House? Dying Slave? Ignasis? Considering the countless characters and plot strands, very little was actually resolved. About all I knew at the end was that Zuellni wouldn’t be destroyed—and that it was implied that the story was still far from over. My favorite line: "Well, you could think of it as psychokinesists peeing in their sleep" --Sharnid Last updated Tuesday, July 14 2009. Created Thursday, January 15 2009. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Series Web Site | http://anime.webnt.jp/regios/ |
| English Language WIKIPEDIA entry | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_Shelled_Regios |
