Chrono Crusade PG14

Chrono Crusade

Storyline *****
Graphics ****
Character Structure ***
Soundtrack ****
Entertainment *****

I apologize first and foremost that I didn't review for awhile. It's been busy where I live and I haven't had all that much of a chance to sit and write a review. But, here is one, and old one, but a review none the less.

Considering I haven't used up five stars for any of my ratings yet, you have to expect this one to be good. I honestly didn't think I would like it when I first started watching it but it won me over completely at the end.

I hate it when animes deal with religious icons. Evangelion, for example, was one of them. I loved the story but hated the imagery. Chrono Crusade has a thumbs down from me for it being so religious imagery oriented. However, if I were to look at it with no biases at all, I'd have to say it was ingenious how they used the Bible in the whole series.

The story is about a nun in the Magdalene Order named Rosette Christopher and her demon sidekick Chrono. The time is somewhere in the 1920s. The World War just ended and many new changes are happening in the world. In such state of change, demons and devils appear and the Catholic Church organization "Magdalene Order" is there to exorcise them.

The story was amazing. You take an unlikely heroine and put her with an unlikely partner in a setting that would normally reject both of them and you've got yourself an interesting setup. What church allows a demon to exorcise demons? None! Even the Magdalene Order didn't want Chrono. Where in the world do you find a nun that destroys everything? Nowhere!

The story just moved forward at an amazing pace without rushing things. It did a great job keeping viewers on their tippy toes and stirred up emotions left and right. The characters that so easily clashed with each other added to the storyline and jerked or pulled the story making the whole thing unpredictable yet not annoying. The action scenes were well done as well as they weren't too chaotic but not too short. Overall, story and execution were done beyond my expectations.

The graphics for an early 2000 anime wasn't bad at all. In fact, I think it was incredibly beautiful. The cinematic setup of backgrounds and actions scenes made this whole thing eye candy to people like me. When the atmosphere was gloomy, the shading matched as such and the saturation was muted. When they are in the sun, the entire screen shines with heavily saturated colors and lush greens as well as highlights in every which place from the sun. The occasional flashback transitions were also done very artistically. My only disappointment for the graphics would have been that every once in awhile, the angles and sizes didn't seem to line up. I also give a thumbs down to the big breasted lady with too much aerodynamics to her breasts. Sorry, it doesn't really work like that in real life.

The characters were made beautifully. Each character was independent and stood out with their own personalities. Rosette was the hard headed girl with one goal but with a sense of righteousness. Chrono's character was the man who hid himself but is a nice guy in reality. Satella was cause driven and very mature. Azmaria's character grew and flourished as the series progressed. All characters just screamed personality without habitual change and all characters matured. Why did I give this three stars? Because many of the characters weren't explained well enough. The viewer finds out so much about Chrono and Rosette, who are the main characters but I know I was disappointed not fully finding out Azmaria's role and about Satella's inner feelings. When you lack a good back story to side characters, that's when it does nothing more than meet expectations. So for the lack of well rounded character development, I gave this part of the review three stars.

This also happens to be one of those animes that I want the OST for. It was operatic and dramatic. It had a song for each and every mood. Some songs, to this day, I well up with tears in my eyes just by listening to it. I don't know how to say that it was amazing, I can only say that it was. I wish I could write more about it, but it's hard to transcribe emotions via music into writing. Either way, well worth the listen. It's emotionally written and well executed.

I really did love this show. Some of my non-anime friends watched it to the end and loved it as well. It ran the typical 24 episodes so it required a bit of investment in time but not all the episodes were cliffhangers either. I took a good week and a half to finish this but the story stood out to me so much that I probably could have waited longer between episodes and remembered where I left off. Overall, I recommend this to anyone. It works for the girly girls and the action boys. Seriously, go watch it.

Dance in the Vampire Bund (PG14)

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Storyline ***
Graphics ****
Character Structure ***
Soundtrack **
Entertainment ****

Oh boy do I have mixed feelings about this one. Just bear with me as I try to make this review linear and un-hypocritical. And to note, the picture to the left is from the manga. I was too lazy to find the anime-specific title poster.

To start, this is a lolicon show involving vampires and werewolves. The story centers around the vampire Mina Tepes who looks to be about twelve or even possibly younger. She is the vampire queen who has recently developed a 'bund' or a safe haven for vampires, especially the fangless (vampires who gave up their fangs to give up drinking blood, thus alienated from vampires and humans alike). With the help of a werewolf named Akira who has lost most of his memories, Mina brings her plan to have vampires thrive as civilized people to life. Many oppose her like the humans who have wealth and power and an organization by the name of Telomere.

There are only twelve episodes and the series ends on a cliffhanger. I suppose it's because of this that the show suffered a bit as far as the story progression went. This show lacked satire and was serious for most of it. And sadly, because the show's set up in a way where the timeline goes back and forth in a vast array of flashbacks and story reiteration, it was confusing to watch and keep up with. I don't suggest watching this in an extended period of time, I personally suggest doing it all in one sitting or two. Don't get me wrong, the story was interesting. The technique is what gave it its mediocre grade.

I've never really heard of the animation studio 'Shaft' before but after looking it up, I gotta say that this wasn't their first gorgeous anime. I personally didn't like the design of Mina Tepes, but they did a great job making her beautiful. She is shown in multitudes of outfits, all of which I thought were beautiful. The animation studio didn't skimp out on the outfit designs, always making sure they had much detail to them. The whole show had a very dramatic cinema feeling. The animation alone really made up for much of what was lacking in the show.

I have to admit that the characters lacked a bit. They all met the standard expectation of establishing a certain stereotype and keeping to their character. However, this -as usual- made the characters predictable. In rare cases, the characters did things that were a bit out of character and that just threw me, as the viewer, out of the loop and just made the story very confusing. Also, there were no real satirical characters. Everyone was quite serious all the time. The one time I can think that was funny was when Mina cooked. However, in a sense, even that was serious. But like I said, all the characters did what they needed to in order to get the story to move forward.

There is a great lack of soundtrack. It may have been because there were so many serious moments but I can't remember much of the soundtrack. There were a lot of dramatic eye scenes where they zoom in on the eye and you'd hear noise from the background or a monologue. There was no real music that brought the show alive. This show disappointed in the soundtrack department.

For a very 'serious' show, it was quite entertaining. It kept me at the edge of my seat most times and because it was so short, I didn't mind watching it. Many parts of it, like the soundtrack, the lack of character development, and confusing story should probably have made the overall entertainment rating drop down to three stars at best but I have to admit, I was truly entertained watching this. Again, it's a short anime so you shouldn't expect too much so I would suggest you watch this if you don't mind the lolicon genre. I say "if you don't mind" because the lolicon wasn't the biggest part of the show. It was barely ecchi at all. I think many would enjoy this show if they have a fascination towards vampires and werewolves.

On a random note, I hope I'm not the only one who noticed that Mina Tepes looks like Rachel Alucard from the game BlazBlue. I put the two pictures below so you can make judgement yourselves. They're both 'vampires' and they're both loli. They look so similar...
The left is Mina, the right is Rachel.

Ladies X Butlers (TV-MA)

Ladies x Butlers


Storyline ***
Graphics ****
Character Structure ***
Soundtrack ***
Entertainment ***


This show took me by surprise and it's not because of it's ecchi content. I'm going to warn people ahead of time that if they plan on watching this, they'll have to note there is a good amount of nudity. Considering that this show is ecchi, I doubt many would have a problem with it.

The show is about a boy named Akiharu who is a clumsy man. He transfers in to a school called Hakureiryou where the richest of the rich come to learn to be nobility and the rest come to learn to be maids and butlers. He finds himself in tricky, suggestive situations and... I'm just not going to explain anymore because it's ecchi. It's all ecchi and was made for fan service so nothing really matters.


With that being said, the storyline was actually decent. The rivalry between the two female protagonists Selnia Flameheart and Tomomi Saikyo helped advance each episode. This show plays out with no cliff hangers until the end and features the minor characters each episode. Because this show is intended for fan service, all the characters are very cute. I was only disappointed by the fact that there was no real intended point of the show and no one is a winner or loser in the end. Stalemates are a turnoff.


The characters, main and tertiary, really all stand out and hold themselves up well. You have the busty ladies, the elder, the teacher, the otaku girl, the shy girl, evil girl, proud girl, the girl next door, the maid (dur), the cross dresser, and even the lolicon. If you can think of some kind of common Japanese hentai character, they're all here in this little school. Each character is also very true and faithful to their roles. The lolicon acts more childish as the episodes progress. The proud girl gets humbled. The cross dresser falls in love with the main male protagonist. The otaku is girlxgirl obsessed and will make it happen. However, despite all these characters being together, they fit in well together and are still cute overall. However, the characters themselves are not capable of twists and turns in the plot and thus there's always something unexpected happening... if not, it's cliche and expected. Just about the only downside to the characters thanks to their traits.


The soundtrack was just as cliche. Typical anime music and very typical background music play all throughout the show. You see the characters having tea, hear some violin ensemble play in the background. You see a wacky 'comedic' scene, you hear odd percussion music play in the background. There's no real transition between music either. However, the songs get their jobs done and meet the requirements set before them. No more, no less. Slightly disappointing.


The graphics were great. Shading and highlights in areas were typical but for a fast paced, short anime, it was done well. I've seen animes with 20+ episodes failing at decent artwork. Also, the background scene to foreground was nearly seamless. I really appreciate it when animes can do that. You have the painted background that the editors knew wouldn't move with action in the foreground that's cell-shaded. That's how most animes like doing their full scenes. However, it's difficult to transition cell-shade to paint style. This anime did it rather well and I applaud them for it. I can go on with my personal thoughts into the anime's character design but I'd have to blame that on the manga's author and not the animators themselves. I actually liked all the character designs... except for one. And that one, despite being the center joke of the anime, made me angry and disappointed. I just dislike protagonists to be unappealing. If you couldn't guess, it's the character 'drilling' the male protagonist on the right. The design is so absurd that the center joke of the show is that her hair style looks like drills.


As entertaining as an ecchi show could get, this met the basic expectations. However, I felt that it didn't meet more than that. I also couldn't help but feel like I was watching a perverted, busty version of Lucky Star because the art style was so similar. Imagine Lucky Star girls in a high society school being trained in etiquette. I think the adaptation would be easy. The whole school only has five (technically four) boys anyway. Either way, it's a show you could watch if you're into the whole fan service thing. I warned about nudity so all precautions are out of the way. This isn't a show I'd recommend but it's not a show I'd discourage. If you're not into ecchi, like myself, you wouldn't watch it after reading this review. If you're into that stuff, I guess this is your thing.