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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
 Devil Doll
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[series:2879#752] | ||||||
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Dark contemporary fantasy story with occasional light elements, much like Elfen Lied.
Last updated Wednesday, May 14 2014. Created Wednesday, May 14 2014. | ||||||||
| Rent |
 Stretch
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[series:2879#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): Well, the first episode of Brynhildr definitely got one thing done. That thing was to intrigue me with a host of questions which I wanted answers to: How does Kuroha seem to be able to forsee the future? Why is she so strong? Who's she communicating with on her walkie-talkie? What's with that thing in the back of her neck? And, above all, is she really Kuroneko or not? I got the feeling that if we move forward towards finding the answers at a fairly brisk pace, and the answers are halfway decent when we get to them, this ought to be a fun show. Murakami seems to have a personality to him, and you can't help wondering how the mysterious and odd Kuroha thinks. Perhaps what I liked is that a lot of shows would have just handed us the answers without making much of an attempt to intrigue us, in an attempt to quickly thrill us with sexy character designs or techno-magical nonsense. Or, they would withhold the answers for too long, and frustrate us. Brynhildr seemed to strike the right balance and therefore be off to a good start. I got a major scare regarding my expectations for Brynhildr when Kuroha admitted that she's a magician at the start of episode two. I can't help feeling that all too often magic is used as an easy way out, a cheap substitute for an original and intriguing premise. I worried that magic might mean that all the questions that episode one raised wouldn't be given plausible answers, because magic is the catch-all answer. Fortunately, the show remained interesting afterwards. This 'magic' has a sort of semi-plausible explanation to it; it's more like the fantastic abilities of a superhero than the sort where people recite spells and point magic wands at targets. You might picture them as psychic powers that have been developed in a secret government program--stuff like teleportation or the ability to get accurate premonitions of the future. A couple bizarre twists are introduced, like a paralyzed, doll-like girl who can only communicate via a keypad. Strange stuff like this is generally a good idea in order to spice up what would otherwise be an unexceptional show. The show continued to intrigue me, with unanswered questions which I was confident would have fairly interesting answers when they were finally revealed. Better yet were the twists in episode three, in which we learn that the amazing powers which Kuroha and her companions possess have come at a heavy cost. It's almost always much more fun when there are strings attached to fantastic powers, and using them involves risk, than when they can simply be bandied about as the magician pleases. Perhaps it helps make the magicians seem more like ordinary people who we can identify with--they haven't just been granted an immense gift, no, there's a downside, just as there seems to be to almost everything in life. I don't know why it is so hard, but somehow for the most part Brynhildr managed to do something which most anime can't, namely tell an engaging story which kept me entertained and which I looked forward to the next episode of. Perhaps it's because the story is continually expanding in a largely unpredictable manner, instead of setting up an unremarkable premise then telling an unremarkable story. There's a touch of humor, but the story is mainly serious: Kuroha and her fellow rogue magicians are doomed unless they can somehow overthrow the secret organization which is relentlessly searching for them. Alas, even Brynhildr couldn't resist the temptation to include things like an 'Oops, I grasped your breast' scene in almost every episode. But this remained probably my second favorite new show of the Spring season, after Sidonia. One thing I like about this show is that the characters are given some definite personality and I can care what becomes of them. For instance, it becomes clear that the girls' only chance of survival will be by learning more about the secret organization that is hunting them, infiltrating it, and destroying it. But they don't leap carelessly into that option; first they attempt a perfectly rational, and much less dangerous, way of securing the vital medicine they need, but that doesn't work. Most shows would just bypass that step and hurl the characters into a deadly situation, but Brynhildr takes the trouble to assemble a much more plausible plot. As a result, the characters here seem like real-live people who don't want to risk their lives if they don't have to, like you and me. We can identify with them, especially since some trouble has been taken to give each of them a personality. I appreciate stories which takes these extra steps rather than slapping together a quick and unremarkable tale. I like the way that while Murakami has no magical powers, he can come up with good ideas and isn't just a fifth wheel. Any show with one guy and lots of girls could easily be one where the guy is personality-less, so that viewers can more easily picture themselves as replacing him in the harem, but that's no fun at all. The quality of individual episodes was a bit uneven, with some being noticeably more fun than others. In episode seven (or was it eight?) I was unimpressed by how Murakami makes an escape from trouble, while Maybe the basic premise of this show is better than the details. But in episode nine the actions which were taken by him and the others were clever moves which I wouldn't have thought of myself, rather than the usual predictable stuff that we usually get from anime. The strange powers which a magician/assassin possesses are used in a neat way which makes perfect sense in the end. I was pleasantly surprised yet again at how much better Brynhildr is than most of the stuff I watch. But all good things must come to an end. Dammit, I don't like the sudden twist that the plot takes in episode twelve. Just when it looks like the climactic fight between Murakami's girls and the heartless super-assassin 'Valkyria' is about to begin, a previously unknown faction barges in and throws us for a loop. But it is more annoying than intriguing--the shocking revelations these people bring about the relationship between Magicians and Aliens is so sudden and so far-fetched that they are hard to take seriously. I wish the show had just kept on the track it was already on. A story which had been going so well suddenly seems likely to fall to pieces--that's definitely not a sign of a good plot twist. And the conclusion is a disaster. After taking a reasonable and pedestrian pace for most of the story, the show basically leapfrogs forward at lightspeed into a radically different situation. There is so much change so quickly that it's hard to remain connected or take it seriously. If I hadn't heard that the anime bypassed literally volumes of the manga to get to the conclusion, I'd assume that the anime people were given a license to create whatever ending they pleased for an as yet unfinished manga. Also, the conclusion is terribly melodramatic and simplistic. Characters which have been carefully developed seem to be thrown away pointlessly. Or maybe not, because the way the show ended left me scratching my head. It makes no sense whatsoever. Concepts like a 'micro black hole' made me laugh rather than be thrilled. It's hard to believe that the same author as wrote the bulk of the story had anything to do with this conclusion. With the benefit of hindsight, the show should have abandoned the alien link altogether and concentrated on the fight to secure 'Death Suppressant' medicine and defeat Valkyria. The alien business could have been saved for a second season if the show did well. As it is, there's little left to salvage. That's a shame, because this show definitely had a good deal of talent to it up until things ran away near the end. In the end I'm not angry at Brynhildr, I just regret that a good deal of it went to waste. Maybe I'll compose an alternate ending of my own (or read the manga) to salvage something. Last updated Tuesday, September 09 2014. Created Wednesday, April 09 2014. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Offical Website (Japanese) at VAP | http://www.vap.co.jp/gokukoku/ |
