I keep on seeing all these exuberant descriptions of this anime, like "Better than Advent Children" (yea right), or "OMG this anime is like SO AWESOME!!!"
So I go and rent the first DVD (after over a year, where's the second?).
I'm not saying it's a BAD anime, it's just I found so many flaws with it. First off, many of the battles suffer from various flaws. Like excessive slow-mo and bullet time. Or the fact that many battles in this anime are chaotic at times, with shakey cameras and camera angles changing so fast it makes Michael Bay cream his pants. As much as some people like the chaotic type battles like Bay creates, where the camera's all over, I perfer battles where you can easily tell exactly what's going on (which, btw, Advent Children did very very well. In fact, I still think AC is a good example of how a modern action film should be done. American Directors, especially Bay, take note!).
Second major problem, besides the fact that this appears to be created solely to cater to those who like shows with lots of flashy CG and crazy ass action scenes through the entire movie, is the storyline. It's very hard to tell what's going on, or who's who, or what their purpose is. The way this anime is produced is confusing. We have a main character who transforms into Karas, but we barely know about the character himself, or what motivates him. We're not entirely sure why the villian is choosing to do what he's doing, since he barely appears at all in the series. We're not sure why the guy with the golden gun(s) is fighting. There's too many scenes that are extremely short, as if they're trying to condense a 26-episode anime into 6. I found myself confused at many points to what exactly was going on.
However, the series did seem to be redeeming itself a little closer to the end of the first DVD. A story, still vague, was emerging. The story's starting to have some twists. And it was starting to look a lot less like Power Rangers the CG movie, or an action movie where the superhero fights henchman after henchman of the villian and ALWAYS WINS EASILY.
Meh. I like action but I need more substance. I need more storyline. I need more hot girls.
