Karas

Great anime!! Its got everything an anime should have. Great story that you can reflect on with "what ifs?"; delivered in a partially non-linear form, superb animation, you have to see to believe it, great sound with a fitting score, characters that grow even in just 6 eps. Its starts of with a bang and ends in a satisfying yet quiet way. The story may be confusing in the beginning but everything slowly irons out and its all completed at the end. I personally like the references to japanese folklore, it made it modern with an traditional twist.

STORY: 7/10 In my opinion, I thought the story plot was the weakest part of Karas. It took me until two episodes or so to understand what even went on, although once you get the hang of the characters and such, the plot does come together. Perhaps one of the reasons why the plot is so difficult to understand is that the series has been condensed to a mere six episodes. If it were spread out like other anime (13 or 26 episodes), if anything, I think the plot would have been amazing. If you really do pull all the story lines that weaved Karas, they'revery intense, with the idea of what's good and evil, and the obvious supernatural. ART: 10/10 For those that hate complex story plots, but still have the curiosity of watching Karas, I really do recommend that you do, because the art is beautiful. The combination of 2D and 3D animation really makes Karas more than a series, but a beautiful piece of work. The way they fused many Asian cultures together (I swear, I had moments where I thought I was looking at Korean signs instead of a Japanese city, ahaha) for the setting, and the characters are beautifully created. The details are just unbelievable. If you REALLY don't like the plot, then really... just turn the sound off, turn some intense music on, and just watch it. It's just that good. SOUND: 8/10 The music for Karas was beautiful, and fit very well together. I found the ending song for the first half fitting so well, sung by RURUTIA, who puts on a very mysterious and ambient air in her song "Selenite". The background music for the series also was well produced, as it really helped add to the intensity. The seiyuus were also very well chosen. They really helped bring out some of the personality of the characters that they voiced. CHARACTER 7/10 The characters suffered as well as the plot. Due to the whole six episodes only situation, it was hard to really see what they were like, especially since they all have an extremely complex personality and background. It took me forever to understand the situation of Nue and Otoha, two main characters of Karas, and it could just be me, but I found that it was really difficult to follow the characters, and at the same time, follow a very complex plot. It just added to the confusion. But the seiyuus did, like I mentioned before, help bring out some of their personality, but if anything, it was difficult to understand the characters until the very end. ENJOYMENT 7/10 I kind of see Karas as one of those anime where you either enjoy it, or you don't. Personally, I loved it. It was probably due to the fact that the art really captured my attention, as well as the sound. But if anything, it's going to be the graphics that will capture you. The fusion of 2D and 3D is something you don't see, and as someone who has a deep interest for art, it truly was a wonder to see this. The plot on the other hand, I struggled immensely with, due to the confusion, and that took away some of the enjoyment of Karas. OVERALL 8/10 So, I guess you could say that I advise you to watch this, knowing that the plot IS confusing. I don't care how brilliant you are, it will throw you off a bit, because it's one of those "in media res" moments. I advise those that really don't care much for the graphics, but really the plot and characters to NOT watch this... unless you have some odd love for abnormally complex stories, then in that case, go for it. But if you're someone who really appreciates computer graphics and art, as well as sound, then I do recommend watching it, but caution the fact that the plot is hard to follow. Those who don't really like blood and gore may want to be a bit cautious to starting this anime, as umm... they definitely took Karas above and beyond with the blood and gore, ahaha, and it may cause some distress for others who aren't very good at handling graphic violence. [Just so you know: This is my first review on MAL, so any critique, feedback, suggestions, etc. are greatly appreciated and accepted. Feel free to message me, or leave a comment on my profile. I will be more than happy to hear what you have to say!]

Story: I guess it's better to say there was no real story. I was completely confused throughout the first half, we were plunged into the middle of the story with no explanation and no idea what was going on. The second half was filled with predictable cliches and I found it was more stimulating to have no idea what was going on as it drove me to continue to watch in order to figure out what was happening. Overall, the plot was boring and something we have seen a thousand times before, only a lot more vague. Art: The series is undeniably beautiful, the animationranks up there with the likes of Gankutsuou. I'll even go far as to say that Karas, just like Trinity Blood, doesn't deserve such beautiful animation. If you want to watch this series then just mute the DVD, listen to your favorite CD, and enjoy the beautiful imagery. Don't worry, like I said before there's no story to pay attention to. Sound: the music was all right, once again nothing special. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy the OST. The dub wasn't anything exceptional, Echo's voice actor in particular was very bland and unemotional. Character: The characters are just as cliched and vague as the plot. There's little to no development and hardly any explanation as to what their motivation might be. Everyone is shallow and two-dimensional. Overall this was a huge disappointment. It was as if Tatsunoko Productions simply wanted to show off their animation skills and threw together the story as an afterthought. With more focus on developing a plot and interesting characters this could have been an excellent series, unfortunately they forgot that good animation does not make a good series. Just like video games, it doesn't matter how amazing the visuals, it is the story that is truly engaging.

Karas Karas or Crow was a surprise for me, i really thought that it was going to be good but turned out to be great with amazing fighting scenes and amazing visuals. Story Karas tells the story of Otoha, a former yakuza living in a fictional version of Shinjuku Tokyo populated by humans and Yokai (Japanese spirits). He is one of the titular Karas, humans appointed as superpowered agents of the land. Able to transform into a car, an aircraft, and an armored crusader; The story presents themes on the conflicts between cultural traditions and modern society and the relationship between people. The story is fast paced, maybenot in the first 2 eps. but it could be complicated for some people to follow what's going on with the story after that, but if you get to understand it right away like i did you will find that the story is great, there were unpredictable elements that may surprise you but in a seinen you expect everything to happen, there's a lot of fighting scenes and they are amazing, there are some sequences in the story that are not explained like, the final 10 seconds of the final episode, who is that? another antagonist? we'll never know because there's no manga to research who is that and that part made a room for a full 2nd season. Very good story. Art & Animation The art style was the best and even more in the fight scenes, with a combination of 2D seinen art style and smooth and fluent photorealistic 3D fighting scenes and character models was amazing, it has a dark atmosphere with the ep. 5 being the darkest one, it was outstanding. Sound The music matched the anime very well, the VA was good but with flaws, the background music was very good; The OP was really good and very fitting and the ED song was like if a movie ended, it was good to hear it and there were different ED songs, overall very good. Character They were very good but i felt that the anime was too short and there were characters that were a mistery and i wanted to know more about them, like Nue or his brother, why was he that important? was he really powerful? who knows, Eko could have been given more screen time and for some reason i liked the Yurines but liked more Otoha's Yurine, i felt that she could have feelings because from where she came meaning she could be a different Yurine, and Otoha was great but they never explain that Otoha is from an incestuos realation between his father who is his older brother who fu**ed his mom, making him his brother-father, and this is not well explained but it's hinted in a weird way. Overall very good. Enjoyment I was really loving the 2D/3D combination, the fighting scenes, the story, the sound, the dark fantasy atmosphere, the badass characters, the plot twists, i wanted more from this but that won't happen, not even a manga to follow and that's sad, it was too short but it was an outstanding enjoyment.

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