Friday, December 31, 2010

[Ended] Otome Youkai Zakuro: Just Great


Rarely, had there been an anime that not only had I considered it to be the best anime at season opening, but also remained on my #1 spot throughout the season till the end.

Otome Youkai Zakuro is a very interesting story, both in terms of story and characters. For starter, each episode has something going on that advance the story, either by introducing new element to the overall plot, or by developing characters. And once a while when the atmosphere gets too dull or overly intense, it always manages to find some quick comedy to lighten things up.

Although the chemistry between the main pairs mostly came from the typical love/hate relationship, I have to say they implemented this simple concept extremely well. It doesn't matter how many time it keeps pulling the same trick, for whatever reason, it always end up being refreshingly funny. Maybe that's more of a personal preference than anything else.

As for the story, while you can't help to notice certain common plot devices show up here or there, overall, the story is quite unique. On top of that, maybe it's just me, completely out of my mind, but I can't help to notice there is a somewhat of a sly undertone in the story which is very similar in nature as what they where trying to portray in movie The Last Samurai.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 96 (Great)
Comedy: 98 (Brilliant)
Action: 94 (Nicely done)
Art/Animation: 98 (Pretty, with great deformation)
Sound/Music: 96 (Great Opening, and very interesting fighting theme )
Character: 97 (Best character chemistry I've seen lately)
Plot: 93 (Pretty unique)
Ending: 94 (Very well done)

Re-watch value: 65 (Still somewhat fun)

Overall: 97 - Great, Just Great

Recommendation: Like I said at the beginning of this season, this is the best anime of the season, and could well be the anime of the year (I'll decide later in my year in review post)
. If you're going to watch one anime from this season, this would be it. So naturally, it gets the award

Anime of the Season for October 2010 Season

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