Monday, June 18, 2012

Manga4life's "Guin Saga" anime review!

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It's been a while since I've sat down and written a review for an anime series, so I figured that today would be as good a day as any to write a review for a series that really grabbed me from the first episode and carried me on the edge of my seat to the very end. That anime would be Guin Saga, which was an absolute delight!

First off let me just say that I love stories such as this, you know.... palaces, swords, armies, medieval times with arrows, armor, long journeys and.....well, you get the idea. It has a feel to it that would appeal to the Lord of the Ring's fan in you. If you've ever been into the realm of fantasy than you should be right at home with Guin Saga, a story that puts you right in the middle of a fantasy world filled with dastardly villains and heroic saviors who find themselves engaged into a deadly battle to kill a pair of white haired twins (Rinda & Remus) and to conquer the land in which they become heir to. It sounds like a typical medieval story until you get to know the main character Guin, who wakes up out of a deep sleep with a leopard mask fuzed to his head and absolutely no idea who he is or what he's doing. He decided to take the two kids under his arm and protect them from their captors and they decide to travel to another city to find shelter. Instead they end up fighting in epic battles along the way and make friends with a tribe of monkey-like creatures and a few other people along their journey, and everyone assembles to take on the massive army hellbent on finding and killing the twins. One of the people Guin befriends named Ishtivan, was one of my favorite characters in this entire show. His story was very entertaining and the result of his battles within this series were really fun, he could have used a sub-series all his own. The action in this series is really quite awesome and a lot of the fight scenes are really complex and interesting, this isn't just another hack and slash anime where people are just fighting for no reason whatsoever. One fight in this show has Guin becoming the ruler of a small group of barbarian's, while another has a guy trying to prove himself to the woman he loves, Lady Amnelas, so that he could impress her and get a higher rank within her army. Whenever there is high stakes involved in a battle it always makes it more interesting, or at least I think so anyway.

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One thing that really made Guin Saga stand out was the remarkable music, without the strong music many of the epic scenes would have not had the effect that they did. Everything from the awesome opening theme to the sweet ending theme and everything in between was just perfect, I loved how most episodes would end with a cliffhanger that would have this one amazing track playing that just pumped you up for the next episode. When the music in an anime is spot on than you know you're in for a treat. The animation side of things was fine, I wouldn't say this was one of the most beautiful anime's I've ever seen but it certainly wasn't bad or anything like that. It just had your standard run of the mill animation and it worked for what they were trying to do, you won't be raving about it when it's all said and done but you won't be shaking your head either. I'd say it's as good as any major anime production out there. All in all the overall production on Guin Saga is pretty darn good and shows no major faults, it's certainly a series that's story driven and very character based and I highly recommend it to people who really love fantasy style storytelling. Along with Tears to Tiara, I'd say that Guin Saga is one of the better fantasy anime's of the past several years, everything from the music to the storyline was pure genius and some of the characters will just reach out and grab you without letting you go. My only complaint is that it's only a 24 episode series and not a long running anime like a Naruto or One Piece. At the end of the day if your only major complaint is that the anime you're reviewing is shorter than you would have liked than I guess you don't really have much to complain about to begin with, so I guess it's time for some ratings....

Art/Animation – 8.0
Music and Sound Effects – 9.5
Story and Writing – 9.5
Fun – 9.0
Overall – 9.0

As always I want to take the time to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated. Also, you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and CBR, feel free to say “hi”.

Take care,
Manga4life

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