Friday, July 3, 2009

[Season One Ended] Asura Cryin: Equivalent Exchange


Although everything is still vastly confusing, I do like the ending of this first season. This is the type of ending of a story (in this case, a season) I really like. It demonstrated a very important concept that many story writers nowadays seems to simply ignore: the equivalent exchange.

Too often we see stories where characters struggle against problems throughout the plot only to find out in the end, deus ex mechina is used to have them resolved at little or no cost to anybody. In Asura Cryin', even though the pressing issue met a resolution in the end, people involved also paid a hefty price. To me, this is a much more satisfying ending than those miracles endings.

At this point, there are still too many questions left unanswered. In fact, they haven't even explained how the system works yet. Normally, I'd burn a series on review for the lack of explanation. But in this case, since they have ensured us that the second series is already in production, I would go easy with it.

Drama: 83 (Some parts are just plain cheesy)
Comedy: 80 (Not its focus)
Action: 85 (Ok, nothing special)
Art/Animation: 83 (Slightly simplified, took a bit to get used to)
Sound/Music/Voice: 85 (Not bad)
Character: 85 (Lots of mysteries)
Plot: 80 (Still confusing)
Ending: 90 (Not a conclusion, but I like the way they ended it)

Re-watch value: 70 (Maybe there are something need to re-visit after seeing the second series)

Overall: 83 ~ Average

Recommendation: There are many WTF moments in this first season due to the lack of explanation of the background. I think if the second season explains what we need to know to understand the system, it'd be a much better anime. For now, I'd put this one on the low priority list. Depending on how the second season is, this might change.

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