Episode 1
I had a bit of a job deciding whether or not to cover this series, there have been Battle Spirit anime's before but I've been told this isn't a continuation of any of the older series so I decided to give it a go.
Before anyone says anything I DO tend to like games based on card games so I have high hopes, plus from some of the screencaps I've seen it looks interesting.
Should be a keeper?
***SPOILERS***
So yeah I do like this style of anime so looks for me start off on a good hand. We are instantly given a name I must write right now before I forget, he is called Rei. Let me not forget this.
The opening credits give me hope, it looks..... Sweet. It looks like something out of a computer game and that is something I look for. I do like things like this (as I keep saying) so my hopes are sky high right now! Not sure on the music though, I guess it fits the feel of the credits but never mind.
I quite like the blend of the animation in the openin fight, the very bold outlining of the cartoony people and the very CGI'd looking monsters/beasts/fighty things. It is a nice blend and worked well.
So Ultimate Fighter Zero the Silver is using Ultimate-Odin who is at level 5 much to the heart ache of his opponent who just seconds before thought he'd beaten him.
Silver's little battle friend is quite cute in cartoon form. Mugen is the name of the battle spirit and the Ultimate fighter is actually Rei.
We find out that they are all out to find the Ultimate Battle Spirits out in space somewhere. Rei seems to have a very cute robot as well as his small Dragon Battle Spirit. The robot is called Salt, what a cute little name!
In the bar and they end up sitting next to the strongest member of the guild, obviously that means that they have to battle each other. Kiriga The Shooting Star. They get stopped by a call for help from Earth, the guild is causing problems for someone and she is asking for someone to help so Rei goes to help. Laila is the name of the girl and she's being attacked by three rather weird people. She gets the space ship if she wins they get her brothers compass if they win and she has a Penguin! Lots of Penguins. Penguin girl. She is now my ultimate favorite person in the universe! She loses though.
Watari the Flowing, Hashibuto the Angry and Tsuruhashi the Waking. They really are bloody weird.
So it is Rei up against Hashibuto the Angry for the compass. Whilst fighting as himself he has a different outfit then when fighting as Zero the Silver. Well now he's Zero the Red.... I don't get him he's a bit funny in the head I think.
It ends just as the fight is getting good! So next week we know we'll be starting strong!
Well I like it, very kiddified but that just really means we get a simple story being told.
The best way to describe the actual animation is Pokémon Colosseum. The funky graphics with the normal cartoonish elements blending nicely.
You have to like simple stories, if most of these series are going to be full on with deep and meaningful stories and dark and light elements fighting for the spotlight it'll be nice just to have something simple. It really is like Pokémon, nice easy and fun. You don't have to engage your brain the whole premise of the show and the whole point of it comes pretty easy even to dunderheads like me.
Plus... Penguins.
You can't lose with penguins.
I enjoyed it, I enjoyed everything about it. The characters are quirky and interesting, the battles are fun to watch and different, the difference in both the animation styles stops it feeling samey and gives it an extra feel of retro-ness to it and the overall story is a simple one. It is something you can sink your teeth into because it isn't too hard, its like a piece of fruit that you can just pick up from the fruit bowl and start eating right away, not like the pizza in the freezer that needs to be cooked.
And what is wrong with that?
Simple characters with simple motives, over the top and quirky with their own little ways. Easy to identify amongst their peers because they have their little unique ways (Rei and his ever changing name, Laila has her penguins and so on) and good guys (I guess) that you can get behind quite easily. It has set out a simple background for this series and one you can't help but like.
You can be picky and say that we shouldn't be watching something that seems to be aimed for younger viewers but why not? They are usually the most rewarding because we aren't looking for the depth we'll be looking for in other series so if they fail to tell a deep and meaningful story who cares? As long as the characters go on an adventure that will be all that matters to us.
And so far the adventure looks to be an upbeat and very colourful one and one that I am enthused to go along with to the bitter end.
Good start!
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