Nanatsu no Taizai Review

Review:

Nanatsu no Taizai, honestly I think this is one of the great action shows of the past few seasons. This was a manga adaptation that had a goal in mind as to where it wanted to finish in the source material and it did everything it had to in order to get there. Normally this can lead to some questionable adaptations (like say Deadman Wonderland), but in this case it worked out fine. Any changes made compared to the source material in my view were minor while they still managed to hit the key points in spectacular fashion. In terms of adaptations I’d consider this a pretty strong one.

At its core Nanatsu no Taizai is an action show. But an interesting twist is that instead of the main cast starting out as wimps and having to spend a whole show training or something….the cast starts out pretty awesome. In some ways they gain strength, but in others they really don’t and it’s more dealing with the situations they are presented with. With this show it’s not as simple as saying one side is stronger because they have more energy or something. There is a mix of physical strength, special abilities and magics that really decide who might come out on top in a confrontation. The first episodes start off showing how damn strong the main cast are and giving some context for when the stronger characters for their opposition start to crop up. I just found it rather refreshing that we didn’t have to wait 20 episodes to start seeing characters do something impressive.

Action wise I’d say Nanatsu was quite good. It manages to get a bit bloody which sometimes can be rare in action shows these days. Shows being a bit hesitant and just having minor scratches if anything on characters. That somewhat comes into play because of the special property of one of the main cast in which they can show a lot of extreme damage without it actually killing the person. The fights can actually feel pretty impactful with some weight behind the strikes. A fair amount of movement and dodging. You could feel that these characters are actually pretty powerful and are able to do serious harm.

The show has a lot of interesting visual abilities. Because the cast members are all pretty powerful they can do some impressive things and make the action scenes rather intense. All the main characters have different kinds of abilities and some fairly creative. Seeing how those abilities clash with the special properties of their foes makes for some interesting encounters and even at times when the main cast has their own internal conflicts. As the show went on the battles got more hectic and some rather brutal situations started to come up. The last few episodes started creating threats that even a cast as tough as this one ran into trouble against.

The cast itself was a pretty good strength in my mind. Meliodas isn’t my favorite character, but he’s a good lead. He mixes things up between being a rather perverted character and a serious one. A guy that certainly doesn’t mind having fun with the lead female character, but also carries his own burden. Underneath the silliness he does have a lot weighing down on him and that slowly gets revealed as the show goes along. All the main characters (the Sins) have their own burdens and difficult pasts. That’s part of why they ended up in a group called the Seven Deadly Sins in the first place. Meliodas carries a darker and more mysterious side to himself than most and is a major part of the group’s fighting force, he’s a guy all those powerful people acknowledge as their Captain.

Elizabeth….is a nice girl. Honestly she’s not the strongest of characters, but she’s not annoying either. She’s a fairly normal person with her own mystery, but someone who’s going from princess to dealing with super powered people. In a normal situation she’d be the weak link, but in this situation she’s surrounded by very capable people. It’s hard not to stand out for not having great combat abilities. But in the end she’s the catalyst for the show, nothing starts if she doesn’t begin the effort to assemble the Sins. And really she does tough out some situations where her life was on the line and I can respect her for that.

Ban is easily my favorite member of the Sins. Normally I probably wouldn’t be so hyped about that kind of character. He gets into a great deal of trouble has a thieving element to him and frankly is not the most polite XD. But he’s also got one of the more compelling backstories that gets revealed in the show. A guy living a tough life with a Sin he’ll never be able to let go of. His behavior actually makes sense by the end, why he has that kind of personality and takes those kinds of actions. He’s also got some of the more interesting combination of abilities and powers which makes him interesting to follow in a fight. While Ban may do stupid things, he’ll come through when needed. He’s also got some of the best emotional and dramatic scenes in the show at least in my view. One of the Sins you’ll get a good understanding of.

In a sense King and Diane are pretty well linked with King having a hard to hide romantic interest in the girl. A strange combo to say the least with the giant (literally) girl and the fairy. Both are very powerful members of the Sins with their abilities. King has a ton of weight on his shoulders with what has happened in his past. It makes him really sympathetic since he’s gone through a lot and had to give up a lot along the way. An extremely kind person, but also one that really will blame himself heavily for things. Plus combat wise he’s not a brawler, but his abilities are devastating and make him one of the most dangerous when upset. Diane’s Sin isn’t really all that strong, but she fits in with this group of misfits being a Giant and having her own reasons to fight. Someone very dedicated to the people she cares about and will throw herself into dangerous situations and take the harm that comes from that. She really grew on me as the series continued and had good scenes throughout the show. She’s a very passionate person. Once she’s your friend she’ll be on your side no matter what. Her power is actually pretty amazing to see in action. All the Sins are pretty spectacular in their own right, but Diane still is up there in having one strong magical ability.

There are a ton of good characters in the show. The non-Sin characters are pretty interesting to some degree. It’s not just the Sins who are powerful which makes the conflicts spectacular. The villains are good threats as well and by the end you will be enjoying seeing all the forces just clash in a big way.

The story itself is pretty straight forward in a sense. It’s one of those big journey kind of situations. The Sins have got to reassemble to take on a threat and that takes time. With a group as odd as this the tricky thing is just tracking them down. But the more Sins they get the more entertaining it gets just because they are all really weird. This is a group fairly low on normal humans, but that just adds to the fun. There are a few surprises in terms of what is really going on, but at the core of it this is an adventure. And for me that’s not a negative and rather a fun aspect. Watching this weird group of people travel, run into trouble and assemble their group once again. There isn’t a lot to say on the story other than that. The ending arc is really quite fun and full of action. They manage to make the struggle one the Sins are very emotionally invested in.

The biggest deviation in the show is just in the last episode. They didn’t make huge changes, more like just accelerating the events so the episode would end on a good note. Unfortunately they are only 20 chapters or so behind the source material so it’s unlikely we see a second season for a good while. The end itself was still really good though, an excellent last battle as you’d expect from a show like this. Honestly, in terms of a last battle for this anime it was pretty darn fun to watch all the craziness going on.

In terms of the audio side of things the show held up pretty well. I was hesitant on Diane’s voice casting initially, but the choice turned out pretty well. The rest of the cast seemed spot on casting wise which made for a good listening experience. The soundtrack was good with the music fitting for the scenes they were placed in. I did like the tracks they used for the action scenes which I’m glad to say since those are some of the most important for a show like this with quite a few fights. They didn’t just have one song for a fight, but a fair amount of options. I really enjoyed the soundtrack and thought they added to the scenes nicely. You knew whether this was going to be an awesome scene or a tense one from how things were sounding. The two openings and endings fit pretty well and were good ways to start and end the episodes. I wouldn’t say they’d be my favorites for the whole year on those fronts, but they were good.

Really the show didn’t seem to slack off in terms of visuals. They made sure that when someone got killed or really injured that it left some kind of impact. Though I will say there wasn’t an obscene amount of death. The abilities actually looked pretty good from explosions, to electricity, to abilities that would be spoilers to talk about XD. The cast all looked good from the small King to the giant Diane. It’s a group that definitely stood out in terms of their appearance. There wasn’t that much CG in there, but what was done fit well for the specific situations. As a whole I would say it was a solid looking show. They made sure the action looked good and there wasn’t any major incidents of butchering the quality. That’s a pretty solid result for me.

In the end Nanatsu no Taizai was quite the good adaptation. Sadly the manga really isn’t that far ahead of where it ends so there’s little chance we’ll see a second season in the immediate future. But at least we got to enjoy a good show in the present. The cast was a fun one to watch, the action was good, and it was just an enjoyable ride. The only downside to the show was that it got so little attention. It struggled at times to get quick and reliable subbing which might have dropped it off people’s radars in a time when most of the new shows end up on Crunchyroll or somewhere else. But I will say this is a show worth watching. If the idea of a good fantasy adventure sounds like a fun one, then I’d give the show a few episodes to see how it looks. It’s a really good show and one of the more enjoyable fantasy action shows we’ve gotten in a while. A great cast, some fun battles, and just worth checking out if you enjoy those types of shows.

Bleach

Ichigo Kurosaki is a 15-year-old boy with the ability to see spirits, something that he considers more of a bother than a gift. One day he meets a Shinigami (Death God) named Rukia, who's on the run from a Hollow—a destructive spirit with unfinished business on Earth. As a last-minute measure, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo, whose abundant supply of spirit energy makes him a far more potent Shinigami than she ever was! Soon Ichigo is vanquishing Hollows left and right, and meeting other friends at school with similar abilities. However, Rukia's transfer of power is forbidden by the Soul Society (the official name of the spirit world), and when their agents come to Earth to dish out the consequences, Ichigo finds that he might have to challenge the entire world of the dead to save her.

Review:

If Naruto is Dragon Ball Z with ninjas, does that mean Bleach is Narutowith dead people? The colorful characters, numerous fights and high episode count make such comparisons tempting, and fans of one are often fans of the other. With the acclaimed Studio Pierrot handling animation duties, a storyline that dishes out cliffhanger after cliffhanger, and a rapidly growing fanbase, Bleach is clearly the Next Big Anime License. It doesn't aspire to be high art, but it doesn't need to—this is high entertainment, swords out and spirit energy blazing, ready to bring a modern sensibility to the classic shounen themes of friendship, challenge, and victory.

The story starts out like most others of its kind: take a boy in his mid-teens, bestow unique abilities upon him (a cool sword helps, too), and send him out to fight some nasty monsters. For the first several episodes Bleach goes through this methodical hack-and-slash, with sprinklings of comedy for good measure. Things start to pick up when Ichigo meets fellow classmates with Hollow-killing capabilities, adding some firepower and variety to their battles. Generic and boring so far? Good. That's when the real challenge kicks in, and boy does it kick: Soul Society infiltrates the human world, stirs things up, and suddenly Ichigo's on a mission to save Rukia. If you want to know where the series gets really good, it's right here. Ichigo isn't fighting souped-up spirits a few blocks away from his house anymore; now he's in the underworld with only a few friends as allies, facing trained warriors who could damn well kill him. With all of Soul Society as a battleground and no limitations on fighting style or attacks, it takes the familiar tournament formula to the height of creativity. This isn't just training and fighting anymore. This is adventure.

But wait, isn't there plenty of fight-centric adventure anime already? Yes, but Bleach sets itself apart with a cast of characters that couldn't exist anywhere else. Imagine the usual stereotypes, but skew them with odd traits, and give their personalities an extra edge of attitude: that's what makes these characters special. Ichigo isn't just an excitable, sword-swinging hero—he's a hero with a smart mouth and a chip on his shoulder. Rukia's equally strong personality is the perfect complement to that; together the two of them exchange some of the snappiest dialogue in the show. Ichigo's allies are just as interesting: pretty boy Ishida is cool in every way, from his attacks to his demeanor; girly-girl Orihime discovers her power through fashion accessories; strong and silent Chad proves that the only thing bigger than his frame is his compassion. Call them two-dimensional if you must, but these are some very unique dimensions. And that's not even bringing up all the entertaining side characters and opponents, like stuffed-toy sidekick K-ON!, eccentric shopkeeper Urahara, the thirteen battle squads of Soul Society (learning them all is easier than you think), and that shining example of modern-day parenting, Ichigo's father.

Studio Pierrot makes this show visually pleasing with a bold, mainstream style that most eyes will appreciate. Like the story itself, the animation doesn't pick up until the later episodes, where the budget increase becomes apparent: the second opening sequence is a flurry of high frame rate showboating, and the fight scenes become increasingly elaborate and dynamic. Through it all, the storytelling is always clear—if someone swings a sword, you know exactly who swung it and where it's headed. There are still plenty of shounen clichés like speedlines, special effects and time-dilated multi-episode fights, but the look of the show is one that isn't easily reproduced. Chalk that up to manga-ka Kubotite, whose artistic style still shines through despite being watered down for the sake of animation. Who can forget the funny logos on Ichigo's t-shirts, Rukia's single bang hanging over her face, Ishida's rectangular glasses, Orihime's hair clips, Chad's scraggly features, Urahara's green-and-white striped hat, Renji's visor that looks like a sleep mask... well, this could go on for a while. Although the staff does try to match some of the manga's style in the angularity of the artwork, their true strength is capturing the sheer energy of the series through animation technique.

The soundtrack also has its own distinctive style, employing electronic instruments and modern genres in a way that's easily as effective as a symphonic, full-orchestra track. Even if it's just waveforms out of a synthesizer, the music of Bleach is diverse enough to support the many moods of battle: tension to confrontation to all-out attack. The oft-changing theme songs also make for a fine primer on the world of J-pop; many fans can attest to discovering mellow-voiced singer/songwriter Rie Fu through the first ending theme.

So is it really just Naruto with dead people? Or is it an epic saga in its own right? The unique characters and look of Bleach guarantee that it will, at the very least, rise above the muddle of interchangeable shounenseries and march on with its own unique vision of the afterlife. There are plenty of cool guys with swords out there, plenty of spirit worlds to explore, and plenty of Death Gods to vanquish, but there is only one Ichigo Kurosaki, one Soul Society, and one incredibly entertaining anime that will grab you and refuse to let go. For classic adventure with a slick, modern attitude, go no further than Bleach.

Cage of Eden

Returning home from a school trip to Guam, the third year students of a Japanese middle school suddenly find their world turned upside down. When all of their plane's instruments fail, it crashes on a mysterious island filled with prehistoric monsters who would love a human-shaped snack. Akira Sengoku, a boy who always sees himself as lacking, discovers that he must come to the fore as his classmates and the other passengers give in to the temptations of uninhibited freedoms...and not in a good way.

Review:

If William Golding, Richard Connell, and the writers of “Lost” got together to pen a manga series, this is the script they might have come up with. Part Lord of the Flies, part “The Most Dangerous Game,” and taking place after a plane crash on an uncharted island in the Pacific, Cage of Eden sets out to examine what happens when all the rules just disappear. While it is not as accomplished as either Golding's or Connell's works, it still packs a punch and makes you question just whose role you would be playing if you were in the same situation.

The story takes a little while to get to this point, unfortunately. After an intriguing first line, Yoshinobu Yamada takes the better part of the long first chapter to get to the good stuff. This conceivably functions as an introduction to the characters and their relationships at the unnamed middle school, but feels a bit stale for the story we are promised by the back of the book. Akira Sengoku, we learn, is an alternate on the volleyball team, best friends with the school heartthrobs, and generally considers himself second best. His teachers think of him as one of the two class troublemakers, although given that the other one, Yarai, seems to have spent his time in Guam beating up soldiers, this seems an overstatement. His friend “Eiken” is a self-proclaimed videographer whose works consist of the girls in various states of undress. This allows for Yamada to indulge in a few cheesecake shots complete with outlined labia and bulging vulvas, a piece of fanservice that, while it doesn't really detract, certainly isn't needed. Both Akira and Yarai wish that their worlds could be different somehow, just moments before the plane begins to shake and the world goes dark.

When Akira wakes up, he is alone on a tropical island. At first he thinks he is the only survivor of the crash (and that a prehistoric rodent is a beaver, reminding American readers that the species is not native, or even present, in Japan), but soon he meets up with two more. Together the three try to piece together what happened and how they ended up on the island in the first place. Eventually they do find the downed plane, and with it Eiken's camera. This is where the story really picks up, a little more than halfway through the volume. It would be fair to say that this is definitely a book that gets better as it goes on. The first chapter is relatively mediocre, but by the third it is nearly impossible to put down. If you're a reader who needs to be grabbed instantly, you may have some trouble getting into this, but if you can hang on, it's worth the wait. Yamada shifts the mood from standard adventure fare to shocking and horrific in a matter of panels, bringing out the ugly side of human nature in the blink of an eye. One double page spread of violence and the worst that humanity has to offer is chilling, calling to mind the gruesome reality of newspaper headlines in lurid black and white.

For all of his balloon breasts and detailed female groins, Yamada's forte is actually these scenes of stark terror. While his character designs are firmly rooted in old-school shonen manga, Yamada has a flair for the gruesome and horrid. A fly on a dead man's unblinking eyeball sticks in the mind much longer than a scene of a flight attendant bathing. The plane is drawn realistically, which helps to emphasize the horrible acts that take place there. Prehistoric animals show clear research and are immediately recognizable to anyone who has studied them and the tropical paradise they live in is also well-detailed. While male characters come off as much stronger than the females, there is still a hint of independence to the girls – they are happy to have another body around, but they will also do their parts. This is much less true of the grown women, who seem perfectly happy to depend completely on the young teen males, almost to the point of stretching the reader's belief. This is not the only slightly off point in the story. Readers may find themselves wondering why Yasai was allowed on the trip to begin with if he's the kind of kid who beats up armed men. And why were the flight attendants, and teachers, for that matter, allowing the kids to run rampant around the plane in the opening scenes? One male teacher is shown reading a magazine titled “Orgasm Rush” - are we really supposed to believe he wouldn't be fired for bringing such a thing on a school-sponsored trip? But then since the whole premise of the story is a plane crashing on a prehistoric island, it does seem like some bizarre details could be, if not forgiven, at least overlooked.

Despite its slow start, Cage of Eden becomes deeply engrossing, so that once a certain point is reached, it is nearly impossible to put down. Although Kodansha USA has a few odd translations, mostly in terms of passive versus active voice, the text reads smoothly. The central mystery may be something we've seen before, but in this case that doesn't matter. As Akira and his fellow survivors set out to solve it, we are filled with a foreboding that the most dangerous animals that they will face on the mysterious island are not the prehistoric beasts that inhabit it, but the humans who have dropped from the sky.

Eyeshield 21

Poor, shrimpy Sena Kobayakawa: he's spent his entire school career being an errand boy for bullies. On his first day of high school, Sena's childhood friend Mamori says that he ought to make some real friends, and he does—in a very unexpected way. When the monstrous, chestnut-headed Kurita begs Sena to join the school's American football team (membership: two), Sena just can't say no. He figures that he won't have to play if he's the team manager, but when another incident causes Sena to dash through a crowd, team captain Hiruma discovers the secret of Sena's lightning-quick legs. Suddenly, Sena is the star of the team, and to hide his identity from rival schools, Sena has to wear a helmet with a tinted eyeshield! Can "Eyeshield 21" take his team to Japan's high-school championship game? More importantly, can Sena survive Hiruma's insane behavior?

Review:

Oh, those crazy Japanese! What will they think of next? A manga about football—and not the one with the round, black-and-white ball, but the American game with the oval ball? There is no way this could work. It's not even a popular sport in Japan! How could they possibly create a manga about a sport that's so... American?

Believe it or not, Eyeshield 21 meets the challenge. And in doing so, it proves an essential truth: that with appealing characters, an entertaining story, and quality artwork, you can create great manga about anything. Even football.

No one's going to question the originality of Eyeshield 21's premise—how many other manga series are there about football?—but the sports genre is full of pitfalls when it comes to plot and structure. Anyone can write a story about a talented underdog hoping to take his team to the top, and writer Riichiro Inagaki tries to avoid predictability by adding some interesting turns and details. Sena's extraordinary speed doesn't just come out of nowhere, for example; it's the result of years running errands for school bullies. His complete ignorance of football also helps readers who are unfamiliar with the sport, as they'll be learning the rules of the game along with him. On a larger scale, though, this first volume is a typical sports story, and the outcome of Sena's first game is no surprise. What really pushes this series above average are its well-defined cast of characters and strong artwork.

It all starts with Sena—the archetypal shounen protagonist, perhaps, but one who steps into his role reluctantly at first. He may be an instantly likeable underdog, but he's also the polar opposite of those talkative, obnoxious, up-and-at-'em heroes that populate so many other series. In order to get Sena involved in football, it takes the maniacal efforts of Hiruma, and if his demonic face doesn't stick in your mind, then his antics will. Despite his sheer ruthlessness, it's hard not to laugh as Hiruma enthusiastically resorts to blackmail in recruiting students for the team. Fortunately, Sena's other teammate Kurita is a much nicer guy, but he's so kind-hearted and huge that if he ever gave Sena a hug, it would end the series because the main character would suffocate. Such striking characters make it easy to tell who's who, and even the supporting cast is memorable: you've got the guy who once stole the panties of the girls' swim team, the guy who kisses a poster of His Favorite idol singer every morning, and a rival team ("The Cupids") that brings their girlfriends along to every game. Sadly, the one exception to this is Mamori, the lone girl in the cast; although she's Sena's childhood friend and potential love interest, she doesn't get enough face time to develop a real personality.

Anyone who's ever found actual American football boring (line up, pile up, repeat for two and a half hours) may change their minds after seeing the action sequences in Eyeshield 21. Sena's explosive takeoff as he dashes through the crowd in Chapter 1 is just the first among many other panels that fly off the page with their sense of motion. Manga-ka Yusuke Murata uses any number of artistic devices to capture Sena's speed: blurred outlines, exaggerated perspective, dense speedlines, and freeze-frame techniques. Watch out, too, for the panels where Sena visualizes his routes—it's a clever way of portraying what a star athlete might see on the field. Murata's imagination isn't just limited to action, however. His character designs are equally imaginative, and there's no confusing the three main characters: Sena with his small frame and spiky hair, lanky Hiruma with his demon-like appearance, and Kurita, whose immense size is a hilarious contrast to his simple face. And yes, Murata can draw girls, too, as proven by Mamori's effortless good looks.

Viz puts in a strong effort with their translation and adaptation of this manga. The lively, natural dialog matches the tone of the characters and story, with just the right balance between slang and formality. Although there may have been a strong temptation to "Americanize" this series, Japanese pop culture references stay exactly as they are, so if you don't know who Ai Kago is, you will by the end of this volume. Viz's handling of sound effects—which consists of replacing Japanese effects with their English equivalent—may still be abhorrent to some, but their sense of graphic design keeps on getting better. This time, the sounds blend in with the artwork so well that I didn't even realize the Japanese effects were absent until page 33. Viz also does a good job with the extras, keeping all "Bonus 21" pages that were in the original tankoubon, as well as a profile page with caricatures of the manga artists and staff.

Think about the 60,000 spectators at a typical American football game and ask yourself: how many of them are interested in comics, much less manga? Then think about the 20,000 attendees at a high-profile anime con and ask yourself: how many of them are interested in professional sports, much less football? There's probably not a whole lot of overlap, but if there's one thing that can bridge the gap, Eyeshield 21 might be it. Yes, there are readers out there who have no interest in sports manga and probably never will, but for curious fans who like to try new things, this is a series that promises plenty of thrills and laughs. In the immortal words of Hank Williams Jr.: Are you ready for some football?!