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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Watch | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:1789#1552] |
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By the looks of it, Glass Maiden was trying to be a mash up of comedy, action, and sci-fi mystery as the oddball residents of a slum in the city get caught up in a conspiracy involving illegal experiments on teenage girls that mutate them into "glass maidens". While having an interesting premise on paper, the series is rather bland and generic as far as anime titles go with all the characters fulfilling your typical character types in one form or another and not getting much fleshing out, as well as the plot being rather cliched with the enemy group's experiments and the influence they hold to keep their operations secret. In addition, the presentation's nothing too memorable either with subpar visuals, underwhelming animation, and a low-key soundtrack that's not fitting for the action-packed mood that Glass Maiden attempts to pass itself off as. Overall, this is mostly a rather forgettable romp from the 2000s.
Last updated Wednesday, April 04 2018. Created Wednesday, April 04 2018. | ||||||||
| Watch | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
 Dreamer
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[series:1789#2279] |
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This one was refreshingly different. It had a nice storyline and keeps you interested. Art, Animation & Character Designs Artwork seemed better than average. Character designs were especially well done. Details were high in appearance and were refreshingly unique between characters. Backgrounds were well done as well with rich colors, high level of details and almost breathtaking at times. Lighting effects were another plus. Music The OP was a pretty cool jazz-like piece with female vocals. It fit the series well. The soundtrack had some basic and typical spy or detective types of background music. Other times, there would be some jazz pieces with light pianos. Nice little mixture. The ED was another nice piece with female vocals that reminded me of something that would play in a late night club with a mobster setting and a hot singer on center stage. Series and Episode Story As mentioned above, this series was a refreshing change from the norm. It has some great characters, great artwork and the plot was believable. Speaking of artwork, it was more a western flavor... the animation style that is. The one gripe I had with this series was the annoying character "Manami". Her voice, her mindless... no, plain stupid actions really got on my nervers quickly. Her only saving grace was she was kawaii.... in appearance. By the end of the series, it wraps up nicely and concludes the loose ends with a nice happy ending. Overall, this was a mild entertainment that throws enough at you to keep you interested and watching. Last updated Saturday, January 08 2011. Created Saturday, January 08 2011. | ||||||||
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 Stretch
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[series:1789#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): Crystal Blaze struck me as verging on an American style tale rather than the usual anime one--perhaps because of the man-with-a-gun main male protagonist, and the conclusion with multiple crisis(s) resolved simultaneously (with a fair share of jokes). The result was a fairly original and fun show. After watching the first episode and reading the synopsis above, I wondered if it was really refering to the same show I'd watched, since the synopsis was about one called "Glass Maiden". In fact, this series has two distinct titles for some reason.* The Middle East setting was news to me; at first I'd thought that maybe this was happening in the US, but later I concluded that it was Japan after all. That's kind of symbolic of this show, at least so far: you don't really know what's going on! Crystal Blaze seemed to get off to a good start with a bizarre incident in which a woman seems to burst into flames then is preserved in a statue-like golden crystal form. The OP sequence was snazzy and encouraging. But at the end I wasn't all that impressed. Considering the amount of airtime they'd gotten, all characters still seemed distinctly undeveloped. Who are these people, I thought, and why should I root for them? The show seemed to be trying to be cool by including shootouts, except they were animated in a lacklustre and unexciting manner. I still had little idea what was going on with these Glass Maidens, and didn't really care all that much. Not exactly a brilliant opening episode, and I fear for the series as a whole. But Crystal Blaze can't be all bad, since I was still watching at the midpoint. It's definitely not a high priority series, but has a certain charm; sort of a corny, campy show (corny and campy because that's what it wanted to be, not because the makers did a crappy job). Or, a second class show which is kind of fun nevertheless. These plucky characters in what's almost an excuse for a private detective agency are fairly likeable after all. Shu especially, reminds me of Ryo from City Hunter; he's an expert whereas the rest of the staff are little more than teenagers. Their frequent client Porilyn is an interesting character, if you know what I mean. No doubt Sara and Shu will wind up in love. Not much info about the whats and whys of the Glass Maidens, except the usual illegal-secret-weapon-being-developed-by-evil-people plotline. I was frustrated that I got little idea of what the secret conspiracy was about, or whether it would be at all surprising when I did. Somehow, I felt confident that the way things would wrap up wouldl leave me pleased and satisfied. The show strikes me as a remix of familiar plot elements, but done with some skill which makes it fairly original and enjoyable. The final episode was slightly anti-climactic in that the main crisis passes in the first half of the episode. Still, I liked it; except for what exactly happened to Sara at the end, every plot thread was definitively resolved--again, not what I'm accustomed to in anime. The stunts were a little absurd, but I don't care--it was fun anyhow. Crystal Blaze could have been much better, but could have been much worse as well. *Apparently a rock group in Finland has already copyrighted "Glass Maiden" as their name! Last updated Saturday, September 27 2008. Created Friday, April 18 2008. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Language Series Web Site | http://anime.biglobe.ne.jp/crystal-blaze/ |
| Project Site for "Glass Maiden" by Fuji Creative | http://www.fujicreative.co.jp/intldept/new/glassmaden/Top.html |
