Rockman.EXE

Anime: Rockman.EXE (aka Megaman NT Warrior without the censorship)
View Status: Complete
Number of Episodes: 56
Main Character: Netto Hikari, Meiru Sakurai, Enzan Ijuin
Net Navi: Rockman Roll Blues

The Story: Netto is a good net battler, he has the skills but his Net Navi lacks the power of a customized Navi. He receives a letter from his father containing a disk which he loads into his PET (Personal Terminal, formerly Personal Exploration Terminal), and after a good night’s sleep he finds Rockman has appeared on his PET. Slightly disappointed, for his new Navi’s lack in size and warriorness(not a word I know), but still happy Netto makes his way to school, challenging his friend Dekao to a battle after school. During this fight Netto realizes that Rockman is a lot more than he seems as he doesn’t even break a sweat while fighting Gutsman. After all of this the real story emerges as the enemy WWW, World Three, appears. The second enemy that appears in the second half is Gospel, which is an organization much more dangerous than World Three. As Rockman and Netto fight their enemies they make new friends and allies, and learn important skills such as the Program Advance and Style Change. These abilities and the strong bond they have with one another and their friends allow them to master event the greatest of challenges.

The Review: The reason this took so long is that I wasn’t sure whether or not I should include Rockman.EXE Axess as part of the same show. I decided not to do so as the storyline and events differ far too much to consider them the same anime.
I know this seems like a kids show, and it is, the English version more so then the Japanese. For me though, it contains one of the coolest concepts ever thought up. Advanced artificial intelligence and graphical interfaces in every electronic device on the planet. In addition to this your own personal handheld device with A.I. character customized to your needs and imagination. Ever since I saw this I have wanted one. Aside for this the anime is pretty standard though, a main character that learns with every fight, friends he gathers on his ‘journey’, a romance that is always there but never truly develops, am I missing anything? Oh right! The rival that becomes a friend of the main character. The drawings do get better with each season, and new abilities are discovered so the show doesn’t get too old too fast. For showing me a world where my dreams are reality I would give this anime Higher Plane but as this would be the only reason I am going to have to settle with Fun to Watch.

The Style: I am dropping the style section, not fully though, if a really interesting style comes up I will, of course, mention it.

Side Note: Who would I take? I would have to say a cross between Rockman and Blues.

Lex Out

The Twelve Kingdoms

Anime: The Twelve Kingdoms

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 45

Main Character: Youko Nakajima, Yuka Sugimoto, Shouryuu (Emperor of En), Rokuta (Enki), Taiki (Kaname Takasato/Kouri), Suzu, Shoukei

The Story: There are several storylines in this anime also known as ‘books’. For the most part it is the story of Youko Nakajima and her journey in the strange world of the twelve kingdoms. The starts out with two of her friends but they get separated early on, but are seen again later in the anime. Some of the books consist of a Sage or an Emperor telling a story of the past, sometimes not so distant other times very distant, to the new Empress of Kei. One story focused of the troubles in the kingdom of Kei as well as the journey of Suzu, Shoukei and Youko and their goals and development along the way, in which Ikuya Asano and Rakushun have important roles to play. Ikuya Asano is the missing one of the two friends of Youko. Rakushun is a half-beast that Youko met early in her travels.

The Review: I always thought that if you’re going to make a show, you have to make the characters likable. I disliked all of the characters in the first episodes, correction, I hated them, I hated the main characters so much I wanted them all to die. Now while this may seem harsh and maybe even disturbing please refrain from judging me until you have seen the first four episodes. The funny thing is that, for the most part, just when you start liking a character they do something that makes you dislike them again. I am not exactly sure on the intentions of the writers and I do not want to speculate over the possible reasons for this. The three characters that saved the entire show for me where Enki, Shouryuu (Emperor of En) and Rakushun. They are the only main characters that I liked throughout the entire anime. As for the storyline and the world, I found the whole thing to be a well thought out. The one point I would criticize the creators of the anime for is that the Taiki storyline was never truly completed and thus it made no sense to me to include it. Besides maybe making one understand where kirin come from and how they are raised. Making a two season anime good is quite hard as you either quickly run out of material or you start boring the audience. I liked this anime mainly because of the different stories it told in the format of ‘books’. I consider this a watch although it looked like a ‘run for the hills’

The Style: Style, well I truly have no idea what to write in this section for this anime. I guess it does have this dark drawing style, considering that some episodes are quite bloody and involve much suffering and death comes with no surprise. Most of the hair colors and clothing are pain with some exceptions including the main character Youko and the Emperors and Empresses and the kirin as well as the high officials and sages. There are some areas in this anime that seem to have brighter and happier seeming colors.

Side Note: I found the opening theme and ending song to be terrible. I did however seem to get used to the opening theme, or rather the first and last ten seconds as I skipped it every single time. I would guaranty that you will like the characters at the end of their journey but considering the world we currently live in I will not do so as I do not want to be sued.

Lex Out