Otaku Experience

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Elemental Gelade review - Disappointing, short, full of fluff

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I first started watching this anime. All the warning signs were there, and I should have avoided it, but I figured I'd go ahead and watch it. What puts Elemental Gelade below greatness isn't any single thing, but more a combination of mehs and boring concepts and executions. But I digress, because we both know I put myself through this just to procrastinate. On with the show.

In the world of Elemental Gelade, there exist humans, and alongside them exist the Edel Reids. The Edel Reid are simply put, living weapons. They look just like humans, and their only distinguishing feature is a gem somewhere in their bodies, called an elemental gelade. These gems give them the power to transform into weapons when they React with a human, who is thereafter called a Pleasure. Reacting forms a contract between the human and the Edel Reid, so no other two can React as long as the pleasure is alive.

The main character, Coud van Gireut, has the good luck of Reacting with the most powerful of all the Edel Reid, Reverie Metherlance, who likes to be called Ren for short. Of course, many want the power of this Edel Reid, so Coud's life is often thrown into peril by those seeking to kill him. Along the 26 episodes this anime has, Coud meets several other Edel Reids and Pleasures, in a typical quest format that doesn't really create any lasting impressions or bond between the viewer and them. As is the usual for these type of series, Coud and Ren reform those who they run across, thanks to their deep bond of love.

Coud and Ren's entourage are Cisque, Rowen and Kuea, members of the Guardians, a group that seeks to protect the Edel Reid by giving them a safe, protected place. At first they try to steal Ren away, but eventually settle in with Coud and Ren on their journey to find the Garden of Eden, a place where Ren yearns to go, as she feels some strange sort of connection. This is spoilerrific, but the Garden of Eden is the base of the Chaos Choir, the main "antagonists" of the series. I put antagonists in quotation marks, because the show tries to draw parallels between them and the Guardians...and fails at really doing so. One of the methods the show uses to accomplish this is the appearance of the Edel Reid Hunter Wolx, the typical bad boy who gets reformed by the good guys. He only appears for about 2 or 3 episodes, so again, doesn't create a lasting impression, other than showing the perpetuation of yet another cliche in this type of anime.

This anime gets 6/10 from me, the concept is good, but the execution fails because of the many cliche developments this anime goes through. Good to see if you already watched better anime like Kiba, but you won't miss much if you skip it altogether.

Innocent Venus #anime review

Wow, where to even start? For a 12 episode anime, this was pretty solid. I admit I was expecting it to match up to Jyu-Oh-Sei, and on that it fell short, but this amazing anime stands tall in the land of anime so short most people forget.

Innocent Venus is the the story of Sana, a strange, pink haired little girl who is watched over by Jin and Jo, two ex-members of a mysterious and deadly military group known as Phantom. They're tailed by an annoying little shrimp named Gora, who is in what appears to be a Santa suit. This fashion statement isn't explained, but considering this is your typical almost-post-apocalyptical world we can cut the kid a little bit of slack.

Sana has an attachment to Jin, a charismatic white haired man with a tragic past and a strange obsession. Jo is a bit more of a mystery throughout most of the anime, not having as much as a backstory as Jin, so we can assume he was a member of Levinas, the lower class in this world.

Though the first couple of episodes are just spent running away from Phantom, much of the 12 episodes of this anime are spent trying to find out why the military has such interest in Sana. Towards the last two episodes, we see Sana growing through this ordeal, standing up for her right to know her own origin instead of running away. This mystery isn't quite as suspenseful as it could have been, and leaves me wanting for a bit more depth, though there is one character in this series that was always entertaining.

That character that was always worth watching? Drake, the leader of Phantom. Though we know he's the main antagonist, we're not quite sure what his end goals are, or how we wishes to accomplish these. After Jin's betrayal (come on, after like the 3rd episode you know that's coming) we see him occasionally interact with Jin, each time revealing a bit more of his plans, and we see what almost appear to be the trappings of a madman, but alas, the rather anti-climactic ending sees his end in less than 15 minutes.

Is it worth watching? Only because it's 12 episodes long and you could finish it in a week or two fairly easily. The plot feels as if it is executed with a bit of originality, which is rare in an anime like this, though it would probably lag if it were as long as the Gundams or Bleachs of the anime world. Go watch: http://www.animeseason.com/innocent-venus/