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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Avoid | 8 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 5 |
 Devil Doll
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[series:298#752] |
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[Score: 43%]
Four people run away from hundreds of pursuers, protecting against their arrows - everything looks like a real threat. But when they are surrounded, they draw their weapons, hit into the air (!), and those hundreds of enemies die within seconds... jeez, this is not fantasy, this is Pacman! And these four people are even considered the good guys! Then again, their next opponent will be much more interesting: Two cute little butterflies... Maybe I'm biased, but for me fantasy is something on the level of Dungeons & Dragons (single digit levels only), Lord Of The Rings or Lodoss Tou Senki (OAV) - not Gods with an IQ of a marshmellow. To understand who and what these lead characters are, one must at least have read the synopsis of the first three manga volumes (which I did, thanks to Kaitou Juliet's review), as the anime is not going to explain anything that had happened before. The manga itself presents some High Fantasy story with a lot of fighting, thousands of people killed every now and then, and a very one-dimensional bad guy - but it does contain some story development, while the anime does not. RG Veda part 1 is volume 4 of 10 manga volumes. A nice little episode, basically some chat that's meant to be funny plus three fighting scenes, overall nearly irrelevant for the development of the whole story. This amount of content could have been presented in one third of the time. RG Veda part 2 seems to be vaguely related to volume 9 of 10 manga volumes but with a totally different story development. That scenario (copied from Conan the Barbarian IMHO) plays inside a city now, so there might be are other things important than just fighting, or that's what one might expect at least. Surprisingly, this part now provides some additional information from the first volumes, especially about Ashura's past (otherwise we wouldn't understand the nature of another enemy). But then, the final attack plan - talk about stupid! And when they actually have the chance to end the story, they run away? Good heavens... I am disappointed much more that I was about X (Movie) or Tenshi Kinryouku (even Kyuuketsuki Miyu (OVA) might suffer from similar flaws but was a lot better IMHO): This is some improbable high fantasy scenario with a lot of senseless slaughter, very stupid characters and nice but aged eye candy. If you do want to watch this anime then probably for the pyrotechnical effects... and for the [notable:CLAMP] character drawings which earned my 8 points rating for Art. Last updated Tuesday, November 22 2005. Created Tuesday, January 27 2004. | ||||||||
| Watch | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
 Kaitou Juliet
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[series:298#137] | |
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This is an early CLAMP work, so the art is gorgeous even though it's a bit old. As for the story ... well, once again, like so many fantasy anime series, it's unfinished. In fact, it barely gets started. Not that it's badly done; on the contrary, there's some very interesting stuff here. But it's incredibly frustrating that it leaves off just as we get to the good bit, especially since the manga isn't available in English. This was based on a manga series which was originally just as long, dark, and violent as X. However, the anime is a little more upbeat, if only because it stops before they get to the really dark stuff. The second OVA makes a lot more sense if you read a detailed synopsis such as the one linked below. You may even want to read the synopsis first, since there are no more episodes of the anime to spoil. Bottom line: Seek it out if you like CLAMP's artwork and don't mind an unfinished story. Otherwise, you won't be missing much.Last updated Tuesday, September 23 2003. Created Monday, May 21 2001. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
|---|---|
| Very detailed synopsis of the manga | http://www.aestheticism.net/visitors/manga/rg/synopsis.html |
