Descendents of Darkness - Complete Series Review

Yo, Gyt here again. It’s been a while now since it finished it’s Sci-Fi run, but I finally got around to digging around in my DVR, and finished watching Descendents of Darkness.

Now when I first started DVRing this, I had no expectations. I’d never even heard of the show before. But when an anime comes on that I’ve not heard of before, I tend to DVR it. It’s free, so why not, I might just find a gem hidden in the coals so to speak. Sadly, that’s not what I found here.

Let me start out by warning everyone – this show has yaoi hinting. Ok…more than hinting, it all but shoves it down your throat. It never actually shows anything (unless the Sci-Fi version was edited), but there’s a lot of near miss kisses, male-on-male hugging (although that in-of itself isn’t yaoi, but the way it’s done in this show is), and awkward situations and conversations. Throw that in with one bloody restraint scene that reeks of bondage, and this show isn’t for those who can’t deal with this kind of stuff. I myself found it unnerving at times, but managed to stick through it until the end, but I was prepared to drop it if it got too weird. I have nothing against homosexuality, yaoi, or yuri; if that’s what works for you, then it’s fine – but had the show gotten any odder, it wouldn’t have been for me.

Beyond the yaoi-ness, this show is another of those that’s hard to get into. It offers a basic description of what’s going on, but never delves deep enough into how things work or why things are the way they are for you to truly understand what’s going on. Thus, it’s really hard to get to care about the character’s and their trials.

The back-story, what basics we’re given, is this. There exists an Agency of Death, and the people who work there are known as Agents of Death. They are sent out to deal with the occult and protect the lives of normal humans while doing so. The only Agents that we really get to see are Kasumi and Yuoh, The main story revolves around their conflict with Doctor, who not only killed Yuoh once before, but wants Kasumi for his own purposes – as well as in his bed…so they like to imply every time the two meet at least.

That’s basically it, other than the little mini story arcs that compose this thirteen episode series. There are four stories shown here – the first three all last for three episodes each, and the last is four episodes. The first and last arc directly connect to each-other, I guess in an attempt to “wrap up” all the loose ends. The problem with this idea is that the story itself has been a loose end ever since the beginning. It almost feels like the show was made simply to satisfy the needs of new yaoi fangirls – the ones who are into it, but not quite ready for the harder stuff. Even the interaction between Kasumi and Doctor supports this, since it seems like Rule #1 of Yaoi is ‘If they want to kill each other, than what they really want to do is BLEEP each other.’ That certainly explains the number of Naruto x Sasuke fans out there.

In the end, I can’t really say I’m glad I watched this, even if it was free. It wasn’t a profound waste of my time, and I really can’t bring myself to hate it. I can’t be bothered to work up the energy to hate it, it’s not even good enough to get me worked up for that. If yaoi is your thing, then maybe you’ll enjoy it for it’s moments. If you’re the kind of person who loves those stories that just drops you in without much explanation at all, then maybe you’ll get more out of this than me. Either way, I just don’t care for this one at all. If it sounds good to you, go for it, but it won’t change my mind.

I give Descendents of Darkness a 2 out of 10. I’m never going to watch this one again, it just didn’t suit me. But if it’s one of your favorites, more power to you.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X Review

Gyt again, and I just got done with the latest book to catch my interest. I’m not a huge fan of James Patterson, but I fell in love with his Maximum Ride series shortly after reading the first few chapters. Because of that, when it was announced he would write another series for kids, I was immediately intrigued. So when my mom finally found a copy of it, I jumped on it just as soon as she got done with it – The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

Just like Maximum Ride, Daniel X for some reason just reeks of Animorphs-likeness. I don’t know if that’s an actual influence for either series on James Patterson, or if it’s just me as a fan drawing the connections, but either way they do flow very similarly. However, Daniel X, though good, doesn’t stand up to either series.

Let’s get to the story. Daniel X is the story of it’s titular character as he hunts down aliens. Thirteen years prior to the book, Daniel was just an extraordinary two-year old playing with play-doh in his basement. Then, a man with a gun came to his house and mercilessly slaughtered his parents when they don’t give him ‘The List’ he demanded from them. Knowing Daniel was in the house, and still looking for ‘The List’, he revealed his true alien form as The Prayer, a huge praying mantis. He leaves the house when he is unable to find either the boy or ‘The List’, setting it on fire. Just how did Daniel get away you ask? Simple. He transformed into a tick.

Ok, fast-forward thirteen years later and Daniel is using his powers to hunt aliens on ‘The List’. I suppose now is the best time for an explanation (since this is mainly when we get it in the book). See, Daniel himself is an alien. His parents came to Earth to protect the planet from the aliens of ‘The List’. The List itself is a computer laptop, over 5,000 years old, with the names of every bad alien on the planet listed in order of their danger and strength. Back to Daniel, his powers are pretty amazing even for an alien of his race. His power is something that those who destroy can only dream of – the power of creation. In addition to changing his body’s form into that of a tick or anything else he wants, he can almost literally bring people back to life temporarily. He can make matter form into the exact being of his four best friends, his mom, his dad – even his unborn little sister.

This is the first book of a series that as far as I know is undetermined, so naturally a lot of it is spent on explaining what Daniel’s powers are and his quest for vengeance and to finish his parent’s work. I assume the next book will be even better, but only time will tell. In the end, Daniel is a likeable enough character, which is always a good thing in a book where you only see from the main character’s perspective. Getting through the book is as easy as any in the Maximum Ride series as well (and maybe James Patterson’s books period, if The Jester is any indication to his normal style), being written in plain English that anybody can understand. And you can easily get through it in a day if you have the time – the reading goes really fast as the chapters are never more than two and a half pages at most.

So in short, I’d recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of kid’s adventure stories, especially those who are already fans of Maximum Ride. So far it doesn’t hold up to the standard that MR has set, or even to the best kid’s adventure story of all time (IMO at least, though I’m sure few people nowadays even remember Animorphs).

I give ‘The Dangerous Days of Daniel X’ a 6 out of 10. It’s got a ways to go before I’m going to be singing its praises from the rooftops, but it’s definitely off to a good start.

Ouran High School Host Club - Complete Series Review

Welcome to Rouge Force Host Club, where we make all your dreams come true.

*Clears throat* Sorry about that. Gyt here, and I’ve been in a Tamaki mood ever since finishing watching the Ouran Host Club anime. And now, I’m here to tell you why.

Let me start out by saying three things. One, I watched the dub by FUNi so I can’t make much comment on the original Japanese version. Two, I’ve long been a fan of the manga, so I’d been waiting to see this ever since it was announced. And three, you have GOT to see this anime.

To start, I should give you a premise for the show. Ouran Academy is an institution of extravagance and prestige where learning comes secondary to luxury. As such, only the extremely rich and powerful are normally allowed to attend. However, studious Haruhi Fujioka manages to get in on a scholarship. Shortly after getting accepted, Haruhi is trying to find a quiet place to study. Haruhi eventually finds Music Room 3, and decides to give it a try – and that’s when it all goes oh so right. Haruhi stumbles upon the Ouran Host Club! Their unusual antics causes Haruhi to accidentally break an extremely expensive vase, and to pay it off the Host Club decides to make Haruhi their dog. However, they shortly discover Haruhi’s looks, and decide to make Haruhi the newest member of the Host Club! One thing leads to another however, and they soon learn that Haruhi is actually a girl! Now, not only does she have to stay in the club in order to pay off her debt, they must keep her gender a secret so she can stay a member. Tamaki Suoh, the Princely Type; Kyoya Ohtori, the Cool Type; Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachin, the Little Devil Types; Takashi “Mori” Morinozuka, the Strong and Silent Type; Mitsukuni “Honey” Hanninozuka, the Loli-Shota Type; and now, Haruhi Fujioka, the Natural Type. The Host Club is finally complete!

And so begins many random adventures with the Host Club, and a lot of other interesting characters. Seriously, there is a character for everyone here. Haruhi’s father Ranka is a doting dad and a Transexual crossdresser all in one; Renge is a demanding Otaku girl who won’t take no for an answer; Nekozawa is the president of the Black Magic Club and is afraid of any kind of lighting; and Chika, Honey’s little brother, is a strong fighter who won’t give up until he’s taken his brother down!

From the very beginning, this show is an absolute delight that you have to see to believe. Not a single episode is uninteresting, and the story is almost verbatim from Bisco Hatori’s manga – barring a few changes made to the ‘Wonderland’ episode. The animation by BONES is absolutely stunning, and the soundtrack is nothing to be sneered at either.

Now to touch on the dub itself for a bit. The voices picked were just right on almost every count I can think of, even the ones that I didn’t think would work in the beginning. I had my doubts about Caitlin Glass as Haruhi from the very beginning – partly because I really wanted her to be Renge, and partly because I could just NOT hear her for this role. But I was very pleasantly proven wrong, she is AWESOME as Haruhi. And as for Vic as Tamaki, I wanted him from the very beginning, so I knew I was going to love it. But I had no idea just how much I would, he is the perfect Tamaki. J. Michael Tatum did a wonderful Kyoya, appropriately scaring the crap out of me (so to speak) at times. Todd Haberkorn and Greg Ayres also pull out all the stops for the Hitachin twins, and I had my reservations about them from the get-go as well. They sound surprisingly perfect in sync even though the actual voices are completely different apart. Luci Christian is ADORABLE as Honey, enough said. And what little actual lines Mori says, Travis Willingham delivers them with the utmost of his abilities. Even the supporting cast is great – Monica Rial, Patrick Seitz, Mike McFarland, Chris Sabat, Brina Palencia, Aaron Dismuke, and Sonny Strait all give us their best with their respective roles of Renge, Nekozawa, Ranka, Kasanoda, Hiro, Chika, and Misuzu.

Where the dubbing suffers a bit is the opening and ending themes, which while good enough to keep me happy, aren’t near what they could have been. In the end, I’d have to give the dubbing a 9 out of 10.

To conclude, Ouran High School Host Club is an absolutely amazing anime that you just have to see. The entire series is out now in Part One and Part Two boxsets and can be picked up for a fair price at RightStuf or DeepDiscount. I give Ouran Host Club a 10 out of 10.

The Rouge Force will be waiting for you. See you then!

Hellsing Ultimate OVAs 1 & 2 Review.

Today I’m going to review of the first entries of the Hellsing Ultimate OVA series, which I've been putting off for a long time. I watched about 6 episodes of the original Hellsing TV series. While it certainly had a nice style and atmosphere, the production values were quite poor. At the time, I also read the first volume of the manga, I knew that there was an OVA series in production that had better animation, and that apparently the ending for the TV series sucked. So I decided to drop it and watch the “real thing”.

The 1^st OVA episode covers the first volume of the manga and as such suffers from a slightly choppy plot. It starts off with a flashback scene of how Integra meet Alucard and then goes right back to the present to the town of Cheddar where Alucard meets (and by “meets”, I mean kill and resurrect) up with the person he makes his partner, Seras Victoria. After that the main characters are sent on another mission where they have to kill a few vampires that have been killing people, where the writers take the opportunity to further build upon the relationship between Seras and Alucard. And to end the episode, while on a mission to exterminate a vampire in Northern Ireland, Seras and Alucard run into Father Alexander Anderson who works for the Iscariot Organization.

The 2^nd OVA is much more linear. It starts with a flashback that features Alucard being defeat by Van Helsing. It’s a nice piece that wasn’t in the manga, but it works to show that the series is set in the same continuity as the original Dracula novel. After that we’re shown that Integra is at a Round Table Conference to discuss the findings of the recent increases in vampire attacks. While on the outside, the Valentine Brothers prepare to make their assault on Hellsing Headquarters with the help of ghoul army. At the end of the episode, we’re left with the introduction of the Millennium Nazis, which were not introduced at all in the TV series, but they are present in here so it gives a promise of fresh new content in the 3^rd episode, and it leaves no room for direct comparison to the TV series either.

While the production quality is indeed high, if you take away the gory violence from Hellsing, you’re really left with a shallow plot and your enjoyment of it will greatly depend on how much you can enjoy and tolerate graphic violence and action. The fights are pretty exciting, but once you learn that Alucard is presented as a demi-god, then you might find the ones involving him to be anti-climatic. The musical score in the OVA often looked down upon by fans of the TV series, whose punk rock style is replaced by a more techno and orchestral type of music. Personally, I find the overall score for the Ultimate series to be far more fitting.

Another big difference between the 2 series is the change in tone. While the original series took itself very seriously (except the next episode previews), these OVAs retain the oddball humor that’s present in the manga. To be honest, it does not work very well. It’s placed in some pretty bad places, though it does amuse but in a “this doesn’t really belong here” kind of way. The art style for both do provide a good haunting atmosphere, but the OVAs stick closer to the original art style and stays much more consistent in terms of quality, except in a few spots in the first OVA where it gets to be a bit choppy.

The English dub for Hellsing is one of the best out there. The show is set in England, so New Generation Pictures went the extra step in hiring actual British talent for this dub. The high points of the performances are Father Anderson (complete with a Scottish accent) and Jan Valentine, who both bring a great deal of energy and life to the show that it wouldn’t be the same without them. I don’t really want to comment on the Japanese version too much except that from what I can tell the performances are pretty good in their own right, though there’s quite a bit of mangled English. If you prefer to watch to your anime in Japanese, then it won’t disappoint. The script follows closely to the original Japanese version, but overall I’d recommend listening to this one in English.

Like with most anime that feature Christianity, its religious (and sacrilegious) symbolism is just there to look cool. It may offend some, or make other roll their eyes, but you do have to keep in mind it’s merely being used as style and has no meaning otherwise.

And I think that really sums up Hellsing so far. I look forward to upcoming volumes, though they’re released at a snail’s pace, but it’s better slow and good than what Gonzo came up with.

Dub (overall) B+

Sub(overall)B+

Art:B+

Animation: A-

Music:B+

Story:C