Elfen Lied Review

Alright so here's review number two. This is a relatively unknown anime called Elfen Lied. This is one of two anime that actually brought a tear to my eye. Never has a show made me cry. Elfen Lied first off has the most beautiful song for an intro that I have ever heard, here is the link for that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaV6eDvgiG4
The song alone shows that this anime is going to have a very deep story line with some very sad moments thrown into it with different characters that contain their own unique stories. We have Lucy who is what they call a "Diclonius" (I will give a brief description about this a little later in the review) within the story line and has a very unique weapon due to being a diclonius. As Lucy begins her escape from the research laboratory she takes a 50 caliber sniper round to her head which is encased by a metallic helmet that shatters sending her over the cliff to the ocean below. This event give us our second character named Nyu who is Lucy's split personality that developed after receiving the sniper round hitting her helmet who has a very childish personality and can only speak her own name and unable to use her unique power as a diclonius. We then meet Kohta and Yuka who are cousins but Yuka has had a crush on Kohta since they were children (awkward huh?) and move into a closed-down restaurant owned by Yuka's family who lets them live there while they are attending college. Kohta has repressed traumatic memories of his families death which causes him to not remember a lot of things within the story line.

Overall impression of this anime, on a scale of 1-10, this gets a solid 9 from me. Great story, great character but however it doesn't give a lot of explanations until the end of the series which can be irritating in some cases. The anime itself is completed with 13 episodes, however the manga of Elfen Lied is much longer with a more extensive story line that keeps going while the anime stops.

This is definitively not an anime that you would want to show off to a young audience. This anime should be reserved for the more mature crowd due to the graphic nature of this show, a lot of gore, a lot of blood and some torture mixed in.

Our story starts out in a secret complex that is dedicated to researching the mysterious phenomenon called Diclonius that takes place at birth with a distinct birth mark that cant be ignored, a set of horns that look like cat ears but are solid bone. The diclonius race contain a unique set of arms called Vectors that are invisible to the eye but are extremely powerful. Each diclonius have a different set of vectors that have different powers than the other. Lucy somehow break free of her restraints and destroys everything and everybody that stands in her path to freedom using her vectors. After killing a vast number of guards in some disturbing ways, Lucy is shot from a tower with the 50 caliber sniper round that shattered the helmet that encased her head and sends her to the ocean below. We then meet Kohta and Yuka who see each other after 10 years of being separated. Kohta has a hard time remembering who Yuka is at first which is disturbing to her because she cares for Kohta so much and knowing that he doesn't remember her is crushing to her self esteem. She drags him down to the beach so they can reminisce about picking up sea shells with Kohta's younger sister. Then Lucy or rather Nyu washes up on the shore with no clothes or memory of what happened to her. Yuka decides to take her back to the restaurant where they live to take care of her for a while.

This anime is a must see for any anime fan. With such a powerful story line and in depth characters this anime is in my top 5 favorites of all time. I think this would be one of the few anime where you can watch than main character rip people to shreds and then make you cry. Well this is going to be bit for my second review, vote for the next anime that should be reviewed and I will post it when I get the chance to do so. See you next time.

http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/elfen-lied-english-dubbed-online-free

Hellsing Review

So first on the list for review will be the well known anime called Hellsing. Hellsing follows a very unique story line in which there are many different organizations including the Hellsing Organization whose goal in to protect Great Britain from the spread of vampires, the Vatican Section XIII the Iscariot Organization whose goal is to destroy all vampires within the boundaries agreed upon with the Hellsing organization (which they rarely follow) and then we have a group of Nazi's which is lead by a deranged major whose goal is to just simply create a war with the help of the vampires that he created from his own men.

My overall impression of this anime, on a scale of 1-10 this is the best anime I have watched so it gets a 10 from me. The story line is amazing and the detail put into it with the graphics is just amazing. And who can beat watching Nazi vampires ravage a city? There are 2 different version of Hellsing, there is one that was based on the graphic novels (manga) and then there is one that follows the manga perfectly. The one I am reviewing the version that follows the manga down to the last detail and it's labeled as Hellsing Ultimate. In my opinion the Ultimate version is much better than the regular one due to the what seems like low budget based on the graphics, and the story line is alright but nothing like the Ultimate version.

If you watch anime with your kids, this is not an anime that you would want to share unless your child is at least 16+. The graphical detail of the gore is very vivid which makes it pretty awesome to watch. This is far from a kid friendly anime.

Our story takes place with Integra Hellsing running from her uncle who is very upset that his brother left the Hellsing organization to his very young daughter instead of him. Her uncle is chasing her with a gun and plans to kill her and take over the organization. However she finds a corpse in a room that her father told her to go to if she was in trouble, who turns out to be our main character, Alucard, The King of Vampires. After getting some blood from Integra, he comes back to life and destroys her uncle. We then skip ahead about 12 years to a city called Cheta who is under attack by a vampire. Alucard shows up to destroy this vampire who has built an army of ghouls that are made by a vampire biting a de-flowered humans. This rouge vampire takes a young police girl name Seras hostage. Alucard asks if she is a virgin, in which she respond yes as Alucard shoots right through her to kill the vampire holding her. Lucky for her Alucard decides to make her a vampire. A new vampire is born when a vampire of the opposite sex sucks the blood from a virgin. The story then follows the Hellsing Organization through hardships of killing vampires and feuding with the Catholic Church. Then the Nazi general emerges with an army of vampires whose goal is to simply start a war.

This is a must see for anime fans everywhere. With a great story line such as this and the graphical detail included, this is my favorite anime that I have seen so far. The only problem with this anime is that it is unfinished in terms of the anime as it is finished within the manga. Well I hope you enjoyed my first review, I will have a new review soon for a powerful anime called Elfen Lied. See you next time.

http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/hellsing-ultimate-english-dubbed-online-free