-_- Otaku Poiiiiiiiii

HEY! I’m not dead!

I apologise for the lack of posts, had a lot of distraction. ^^;

So, moving on: I’ve just finished a marathon of watching Elemental Gerade. Why did I watch it? Cos’ I was curious. Why did I marathon it? Cos’ it caught my attention. Believe me, it’s hard for a whole series to catch my attention.

So now that I’ve watched it, should I say I’ve wasted 520+ minutes of my life? Well…read on.

Ok, here’s a rough intro the series.*takes deep breath*

We’ve got a boy for a main character(typical), Coud Van Girete(Cou for short…sounds like coup! XD) and he’s part of a group of sky pirates(futuristic setting) called the Red Lynx. At one of their looting sprees, they found a huge chest thing which, unsurprisingly, contains a girl named Reverie Metherlance(Ren for short).

And when Cou opens it and throws away a seal thing, Ren sits up and scares the heck out of Cou. She walk out of it, passes Cou and says:

“I hate you.”

How’s that for a start! XD

Anyway, she continues on to say: “You smell like a human.” And soon after their airship gets visited by 3 people from an organisation called “Arc Aile”, who want to collect the “Shikouhoujuu”(that’s Ren) and attempts to buy her from them!

Cou, who went to where they were, got pissed off and proceeded to say that she isn’t an object that can be bought over. Soon after that, before the 3-man team(actually, 2 women and 1 man) could resort to force:

they get attacked by a team of ninjas(HUH!?), who also want to capture Ren!

Cou was assigned the duty to protect Ren ,and pretty much sucked at that, until:

BOOM! Ren turns into a nice looking sword for him!(Wait, sword again!? Well, at least it looks cool.)

So the ninjas got PWNED, but the ship went boom too. So Cou, Ren, and the Arc Aile people, Cisqua, Rowen and Kuea, escaped and landed, er….somewhere in a forest. Cou met up with Ren again, introduced themselves(yup, they only knew each other’s names in ep 2) and began their journey to Edel(Eden, depends on the subs) Garden(no, this does not follow a religion, though there are references), cos’ Ren wants to go there.(Don’t ask)

So, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, here are my views, which shall be categorised accordingly:

STORY

This, I feel, is not for everyone. If you’re looking for excellently choreographed battles, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for romance, by all means watch it!

The battles are so…predictable! This is really bad cos’ good battles catch people by surprise or have that something that keeps us at the edge of our seat. In Elemental Gerade, I found myself predicting whatever would happen. Good news, though, there are some elements in the battle that support the another side of it and the last battle had some pretty nice animation.(I’ll get to that later) Furthermore, the “system” this series has for it’s battles is pretty decent. An Edel Raid(like Ren) or Sitting Raid(humans with a stone that gives them powers of an Edel Raid) “Reacts” with a human to become a weapon that the human weilds(or the gets controlled by). They can both do a “song”(that sounds more like casting a spell), which makes…some stuff happen. This is kinda like Shaman King with a living being instead of a ghost.

The romance in this is conveyed rather well. Sure, there’s plenty of things that are pretty much seen anywhere else, but it’s not something that make me smack my head in frustration. Nice and slowly, we see that relationship between Cou and Ren progress, and it kinda makes for a “feel good” sort of show. Furthermore, the whole “fighting together” thing adds on to that, so the battles help rather than drag down the show.

The theme of friendship is also well done out the same way as with the romance aspect. No other comment, though.

And then, the most important part of most series, THE ENDING! That’s where this series shines: a splendid ending! No major question goes unanswered, and alls well that ends well!

SCORE: 8/10 (Mmmmmm, romance story.)

CHARACTERS

Hmmmm, I don’t see any astounding characters. Well, maybe Ren since there’s quite a lot of character growth for her. Cou’s pretty much a typical reckless shonen protagonist, but at least he’s not too annoying. He got plenty of character growth too.(his character’s no match for Asakura Yoh from Shaman King though) I must say, though, they aren’t badly thought out since each of them are rather crucial to the story and non of them take up wasted time. The character designs are not bad either, except IMO a certain pigtailed girl with glasses.(You’ll know when you see her) It’s just my opinion, but I can’t stand the look she has…but hey, she played her part.

SCORE: 7/10(Rather good, but only a few gained my fancy)

ANIMATION(done by XEBEC)

Well, this is a 2005 anime, so it’s not bad for it’s time…but then again, it’s not excellent either. Not many comments except that the “React” scenes have rather nice effects and the last battle was done pretty well…for a few minutes. A complaint of mine is the number of times a few scenes are recycled. But other than that…it’s kinda mehh. Still, the effects are good!

CHECK IT!

SCORE: 6.5/10(I’ve seen better, try Bleach)

SOUNDS

2 words: pretty good. The seiyuu’s did a bang up job, and the voices all sound correct. The soundtrack was not something I would hear over and over, but the use of string instruments is pretty refreshing.

The OP and ED are not bad either, especially the OP. =D

OP ED

SCORE: 7/10(Only OP got my fancy, though the soundtrack itself was nice and suitable)

APPEAL

Hey, my very own thought up category! *ahem*

Personally, I find that Elemental Gerade doesn’t have much you cannot find anywhere else, but still it had enough to keep me watching it till the end. It could possibly be because of a decent to good cast of characters with not enough unique stuff. Fortunately, this anime wins with a good story.

SCORE: 7/10(Good if you’re looking for romance)

And so, I give this anime a score of 71%!

BUT! I must note that this one focuses more on the romance and friendship aspects of the genre. So if that’s not your cup of tea, DO NOT DRINK IT.

Coming soon: Manabi Straight! 6 episode impressions!