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| 5.
Iodine 
A relentlessly sweet girls' adventure show about a trio of
schoolgirls who get transported to another world to fight monsters and save the
world. Color-coded Hikaru, Umi and Fuu follow the usual formula of finding weapons
and upgrading after each big battle, but it's really friendship and courage that
save the day, as is hammered into the audience's heads, episode after repetitive
episode. The first season is quite dull in this respect, but ends with a good
jolting twist. Keeping the intended audience in mind, the show does what it's
set out to do. The girls are heroes in both the modern and the romantic senses,
and the empowerment messages are obvious without being too obnoxious. The
animation is limited, but the designs are great. Bright, colorful, and fantastic,
Cephiro and its
inhabitants are a treat to look at. The girls are individuated
without falling into cliches, and their development is gradual and balanced. For
the right age group Rayearth is a fun watch, but for everyone else an indulging
mind is definitely necessary. The dialogue is probably much too banal for anyone
over the age of twelve, and the girls' high pitched voices take some getting used
to. |
| 4.
weasl  
During the course of the 20 episode season my opinion of Rayearth
fluctuated between boredom and indifference. Just about everything about Rayearth
screams mediocrity. The main characters weren't very likable, and the majority
of minor characters that were interesting were underused. The story did contain
an interesting RPG slant, but even that couldn't save me from 19 episodes of repetitive
monster of the day storytelling. The ending however was decent, and actually sparked
a minor interest in picking up the 2nd season to see how they handle the story
this time around. A forgettable series that I doubt I'll ever have any interest
in seeing again. |
| 3. bremmi
I only saw one episode of MKR... No, wait, I saw all
the episodes, they were just all the same, so it's impossible to tell them apart!
It really is a shame, considering how cool the actual concept is. I thought I
was really going to enjoy this anime when I watched the first episode. I've always
liked Clamp's artwork, and this series is no exception. My biggest complaint,
though, is that none of the three main characters are very likable. In fact, I
found myself rooting for the bad guys. The magic is cool, though, and so is the
idea, so it's worth watching a few episodes. |
| 2.
Jeneki
This series goes to show what happens when you take too little
manga and stretch it into too much anime. There's the first two episodes, the
last two episodes, and 16 episodes of filler in between. This is quite a shame
considering MKR has one of the best endings I've seen in a while, and lots
of thought-provoking hidden meanings when I examined it closer. The characters
are very likable and develop quite a bit as the series moves along, but it just
doesn't have enough to fill all the episodes. I highly suggest you read the manga
instead of watching the anime, as the manga simply kills the anime in all respects. |
| 1. Tempy
While the characters are nice enough (I like Mokona a lot),
the story is well, a bit standard. MKR is very repetitive and predictable,
and suffers from monster-a-week syndrome. There's still enough here to keep me
mildly entertained, and the ending is quite a surprise! Apparently the second
season gets better, so I'm looking forward to that. |
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