lgrrf Reviews

Digimon: Digital Monsters (1999–2007)

Children's fantasy

[10/10 · 1 August 2010]

This anime hides a huge value behind of what it appears to be: a show to sell in the children's market. Indeed, unlike Pokemon and BeyBlade, Digimon presents a surprisingly interesting story, which meets perfectly the dreams of any child (and even of some adults). The heroes of this story do not live a life of futile pokemons capture and collection or fighting to see who has the most powerful spinning-top. Instead, they have a normal life like any ordinary child, but they were chosen to save the Digital World – a parallel world that has resulted from a mysterious expression data. To do so, they will find their digimons, with which they will create an everlasting friendship and that will help them to defeat the Evil that has taken this world.

The drawings are extremely beautiful and the plot is unusually interesting, with a brilliant mixture of reality and fantasy. The soundtrack is one of the best ever (if not the best!), presenting themes ranging from well-done Japanese music to very powerful melodies like the Bolero of Ravel. The only flaw of this show is the fact that the story is not always told with the quality that was intended.

Children, and anyone who wants to relive the wonders of childhood, will find a fantastic world in this anime to fill their imagination and they will learn or recall important values such as friendship, sincerity, trust in others and hope.

Score: 9/10

PS: This review only refers to the first season. My ratings for the other seasons are: Season 2 – 6/10; Season 3 – 7/10; Season 4 – 4/10; Season 5 – 4/10. Overall score: 9/10 (watch the first season and ignore the others)

Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac (1986–1989)

The Show that inspires me in the important moments

[10/10 · 3 April 2009]

Saint Seiya - The Sanctuary Chapter is a treasure not only in the anime world, but in fiction in general. With features of unusual quality, it is more like a show to enjoy and admire than to entertain us. The only thing that is in contradiction with this is the high number of episodes, which makes the series losing quality sometimes. But these few low moments are easily forgotten when you look at the series as a whole and you can get its real value.

The technology, although not excellent (as the series dates from 1986), can present us with splendid effects of light radiation involving the bodies of the knights. The drawings are the most beautiful I have ever seen: characters, armors, environments – they have an outstanding creativity and beauty. A wonderful story, which uses the tireless theme "Good versus Evil", is based on a perfect combination between the Greek mythology and the world today. The fights are spectacular, with diversified moves and strategies that almost always have something to teach us. The knights are often invaded by memories of training with their masters, through which they apprehend important lessons and motivation for the battle, and they have a carefully written (sometimes Epic) speech, through which they explain their ideals.

The bronze saints have a strong spirit of sacrifice, and thus can bring me a huge energy and willpower to face the difficulties of day-to-day and to achieve my goals (you can make an analogy between their combats and the obstacles that come in lifetime).

Another analogy that I found is the fact that Seiya, a little guy, can defeat Cassius, when the latter presents a physical condition disproportionately higher. Indeed, the Cassius muscles are only due to a superficial and repetitive training that relies on brute force, while Seiya achieves a high energy level (the cosmos) because of the passion that he deposits in training and in combat and the noble ideals it stands for. Therefore, we should also get interest for our work, by doing something that is really good for the society we live in, even if it does not result in better personal profits (such as money and credit), because only the passion for what we do can move us to the level which Cassius was unaware.