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[General Discussion] Anime and Manga Recommendations
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Rockgamer
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Old Mar 12, 2006, 11:48 PM Local time: Mar 12, 2006, 10:48 PM #1 of 87
Those Who Hunt Elves
Type: Anime
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure
Year: 1996
Length 12 episodes
Setting: Alternate Fantasy World

Those Who Hunt Elves is your typical fantasy story about a group of people trapped in a fantasy world full of fantasy elements...sort of. Okay, not really.

Airi, an award-winning actress, Junpei, a martial artist, and Ritsuko, a gun-obsessed high school student (who is transported along with her tank), are transported from Japan to a magical world, full of elves and...magic. Celcia, the leader of the elves, attempts a magic spell to try and get the trio back home, but it somehow gets messed up, resulting in the spell being broken into five fragments. The problem is, these fragments are scattered throughout the world. Even worse, they are imprinted onto the bodies of random elves. The only way to find the fragments is to strip every elf they can find naked!

This show works on all levels, as a comedy, an adventure, and a fantasy story. The show is full of jokes and other funny elements, though the english dub changes some of the jokes. Even so, it still manages to be as funny (and sometimes funnier) as the original Japanese version.

The animation was about average for its time, and still holds up today. There's nothing spectacular about it, but it's not bad either. The same could be said about Hideki Tsutsumi's soundtrack for the show. It fits the show, but it's nothing you're probably gonna remember too much after the show. The exception is the opening theme song, "Angel Blue", by Naoko Hamasaki. I found myself listening to this song a lot, and playing it in my mind when I wasn't actually listening to it. Sometimes I skip theme songs just to get to the show faster, but this was a show where I didn't do that.

But overall, the main draw here is the story. Though it has a few flaws, it's pretty good for the most part. The fantasy elemets are incorporated into the story very well, as are the adventure elements. If you want a comedy with more meat to it than just being funny, then Those Who Hunt Elves is the show for you. 7/10





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Rockgamer
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Old Mar 14, 2006, 07:49 PM Local time: Mar 14, 2006, 06:49 PM #2 of 87
Gungrave
Type: Anime
Genre: Action, Drama
Year: 2003-2004
Length 26 episodes
Setting: Modern

Gungrave is one of the best video game based anime series out there, if not the best. It manages to not only adapt the story of the game in a greater way, but also manages to expand on it in a way that makes it even more superior than the game. This ultimately makes the series great regardless of whether or not you've played the game.

Gungrave is the story of Brandon Heat. When the series starts off, he's the quiet, tough guy of a group of friends. Among this group is his best friend, Harry McDowell. They're basically just a group of thugs, getting into to fights and scrounging on what little to have to get by. However, after getting mixed up with some of the wrong people, everyone except Brandon and Harry wind up dead. Also winding up dead is the father of the girl that Brandon loves, Maria. After these events, they all get involved with the mafia organization Millennion. Maria is involved because the leader of the organization was friends with her father, so he takes her in. Harry joins in attempt to gain power, and Brandon joins at first to follow Harry, but stays because of Maria. This is what starts a story of friendship, love, and ultimately, revenge.

Though that last paragraph gives you a general idea of how the series starts, it in no way tells you all the exciting things that happen within the entire run of the series. The story takes many twists and turns, and most of those are tragic. This is at heart a dark story, and as such is full of violence among other dark themes. But violence is not the focus of the series, but rather a way of enhancing the main draw of the story, the character relationships.

The animation in the show is superb for what it is, a TV series. The action scenes are stylistic, and everything just flows fluidly as well. The colors are bright while still being dark enough to keep with the dark mood of the show. And while the show employs the use of CG, it fits in pretty well with the rest of the animation, and isn't that intruding.

Tsuneo Imahori's soundtrack for the series is excellent. A few sentences can't describe its greatness, as it deserves its own review itself. But to sum it up, from the smooth, jazzy feel of the opening, "Family", to everything else in the series, ranging from western to rock, there is nothing in there you won't like. All the music compliments its scenes well, and nothing really feels out of place.

In closing, I can find no faults in this series. It does different things (especially its transition to the second half of the series) but it does them all well, all the while being complimented by excellent music and animation. One thing to note, this series, along with the game it's based on, was created by Yasuhiro Nightow, who is also the creator of Trigun. While I enjoyed that series, I feel that Gungrave is the better work of his. Overall, I give this series a 10/10. Truly a masterpiece.









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Rockgamer
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Old Mar 14, 2006, 11:40 PM Local time: Mar 14, 2006, 10:40 PM #3 of 87
Yeah, that's the one downfall of being based on a video game. However, comparing that part of the anime to the source material, I'd say they did a pretty good job of adapting it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.
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