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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
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[series:3111#628] | ||||||
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(Six-and-a-half episodes watched): The original Seraph series was a show I had mixed feelings about, and wasn't completely certain I wanted to watch more of it. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly this sequel caught my attention and drew me in. There's a quick reintroduction of the characters and situation to bring us up to speed, then the story takes off at just as rapid a pace. A startling revelation is made about how Guren acquired his mystical weapon, which involves Shinoa's late sister. We learn about infighting and back stabbing going on within the Demon Army, which sometimes makes us wonder if it is much better than the vampires. The Hiiragi family, which dominates the leadership positions of the army (and which Shinoa belongs to) has a definite grudge against Guren, although exactly why isn't made clear. Mika is struggling against his descent into vampirism, and Yuu is trying to figure out a way to save him. Yuu also has to make a choice about which faction within the Demon Army he will side with. The end result was that as these new (or refreshed) plot strands took off, I became intrigued with the story once again and was eager for more of it. Perhaps for all it's faults, Seraph has interesting characters who we can care about. And perhaps a break from it was just what was needed. The struggle that Yuu and others must undergo to make peace with the 'demons' that are contained within their weapons is kind of neat. If all goes well, they'll be greatly empowered, but if something goes wrong they may wind up dead (or worse). It was amusing how easy this was for one member of Yuu's squad while it is anything but easy for him. Yuu and his comrades wonder who they can trust, and whether Guren's motives to train them to use these awesome demonic weapons are really good. For instance, will he expect them to do anything other than fight vampires? Support a coup attempt, perhaps? However, after the fast-moving first episode or two, the pace of the series slows down somewhat as the forces mass for a presumably major battle in Nagoya. The story kind of wanders away into fights with 'Horsemen of the Apocalypse' (whatever the hell those are) and magical weapon doodads. And I don't think the Seraph tale as a whole will end with this series, so I can't expect a really rousing conclusion. Now I'm remembering why I had mixed feelings for this show in the past. There has never been much of an explanation where vampires came from and what caused the disaster which devastated civilization. They're just here; and their smartass attitudes annoy me. There is so much magic and counter-magic that I have no idea whether blows which land during a fight will do anything. 'Let's go fight!' just seems to be the theme. A war is being fought in an almost gladiatorial style; awesome martial artists square off in tag team-like duels and duke it out. But nobody important, nobody that we have gotten to like and care about, ever seems to get killed or seriously injured. So, I hardly care anymore how the battles will work out. What was the main conflict again? Oh yeah, Mika is struggling to resist losing his last vestiges of humanity, and I assume Yuu still wants to rescue him. But Mika seems pretty distant now, as if he has already become brutalized, and I don't feel nearly as sorry for him as I once did. Apparently his idea is that the best thing for Yuu would be if he became a vampire like he has; but I can't be sure, because it hasn't been made clear. Too much fighting-of-the-week and not enough of Yuu and Mika's story. Mika seems cruel and distant now, as if he has indeed given up the last vestiges of his humanity and gone over to the dark side--how am I supposed to care about how things end up for him now? The fairly interesting infighting within the Demon Army has been dropped as well. Things got to the point where when a new episode of Seraph came along I would feel weary and wish I could watch something else. And I was having trouble converting new episodes to DVD format. Ultimately, I just said to myself 'I might as well dump this show'. Last updated Tuesday, March 22 2016. Created Friday, October 16 2015. | ||||||||
