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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 |
 Dreamer
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[series:2259#2279] |
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I liked what I read as the synopsis above, thus picked this one up. I've always been a fan of history so I figured I'd enjoy this one. However, it wasn't exactly what I expected. Art, Animation & Character Designs Artwork seemed a bit on the western style. It wasn't your traditional anime artwork. But it was pretty good with a good amount of details to boot. Animation itself seemed a bit below par. Framerate must have been slightly below the norm. Character designs were decent but at times seemed to lack detail. Other times, they were good. Music The OP was a japanese rock piece with male vocals. It wasn't too bad really. Not my flavor but accceptable and passable. The soundtrack definitely gives off a sense of spy novels, smoke filled bars and ladies with red lipsticks and stockings. There was some occasional violins thrown in as well, which sounded pretty nice. The ED was a nice soft piece with female vocals.... alternative. Beautiful voice for vocals. Series and Episode Story The synopsis above is sort of misleading (as of this review 2011/02/23). I was expecting a real-world spy drama or suspense but instead, I get an almost superhero style of spy vs spy. Our characters has "superpowers" such as clairvoyance, telekinesis and the like. This isn't to say it was bad, no, quite the contrary. It's pretty good with interesting characters and partly based in real-world events (history). Speaking of history, this series doesn't portray history as accurately as one would expect, but it does pretty well with bits and pieces here and there. It made me want to bust out the history books to learn how much of what the series tells is historically accurate. As the series progresses, many things are revealed... some of which were pretty obvious. But at least it wraps up loose ends by the end of it all. The end itself was a sort of let down. I almost want to say it was anti-climatic how, our antagonist goes out with a fizzle.... a small fizzle at that. But still, we end up nicely concluded with everything in place and with a bittersweet ending. Overall, it was a fair entertainment with a bit of a history lession..... even if it wasn't historically accurate. Worth watching at least once for sure. Last updated Thursday, February 24 2011. Created Thursday, February 24 2011. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2259#1552] | ||||||
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(Watched 1 episode) I feel like I got duped into seeing this. Seeing the trailer for Senko no Night Raid had me thinking it was gonna be a down-to-earth spy action title in 1931 China before I took notice of the special abilities of the spies during their missions. This, combined with the creative reimagining of history to create a black-and-white moral focus with China as the pure enemy, has me dropping this without caring for later episodes. Last updated Friday, April 23 2010. Created Friday, April 23 2010. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:2259#967] | ||||||
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The Japanese government has long been accused of ↗creatively revising history to diminish ↗the atrocities that happened in WW2. And I don't think that too many people are aware of the ↗Rape of Nanking. The "Sakurai Kikan" (Cherry Tree) spy group is probably part of the Japanese ↗Kempeitai. A unit of the Kempeitai known as the Joho-Kikan (Japanese Army intelligence) had a number of special services groups such as the "Matsu Kikan" (Pine Tree) responsible for reconnaissance missions in Australia and the "Minami Kikan" (Little Tree) tasked to spy on the Burma National Army. Last updated Tuesday, December 29 2009. Created Saturday, December 26 2009. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2259#628] | ||||||
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(Preview watched): It seems to me that the Japanese-Chinese wars of the 1930s would be about the last topic that an anime would want to draw attention to, what with all the Japanese atrocities (Rape of Nanking, etc) which created a deep-seated hatred between the two countries which still exists to a certain extent today. I'll be watching this, but my hopes for historical accuracy are not high. Ah, I get it--the preview describes Shanghai as a "demonic" city. So this won't really be historical at all, rather a fantasy/alternate history story, sort of like Baccano. No doubt the agents of the Sakurai Kikan will be fighting against demons rather than the Chinese people. This makes more sense, in a way, but is kind of disappointing, too, because I was curious about how history would be re-branded by this show. No, it turns out that the only supernatural powers in episode one are those of the Sakurai Kikan members. The episode claims to be "based on real events" with fictional characters, which is pretty obvious when they can do things like mentally deflect bullets. On the one hand, claims that the agents are working to prevent "useless wars" from continuing are absurd, given actual history; on the other a Japanese businessman is partially to blame for the situation. The problem is that if this pretends to be actual history it is nonsense, and if it is some sort of alternate reality history, then I have little idea what's going on. If the main characters are going to be a sort of Fantastic Four I'd like some semblance of an explanation for their powers. This seemed like the usual "look how cool we are!" intro, but if they are invincible and undefeatable it will be hard to feel excited. Thus, I had some trouble establishing and maintaining interest. It wasn't make any easier by the fact that things were going on at night and it was hard to tell what was happening and who was who. The characters haven't established much interest or likeability yet in my mind, and I'm not sure if I can find much point in watching this. Last updated Friday, April 09 2010. Created Saturday, December 26 2009. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| 閃光のナイトレイド (Japanese) | http://www.1931.tv/ |
| Official Japanese Series Web Site | |
