Bihada Ichizoku

Story: 5/10 The story was rather other done, the whole "contest fighting" has been repeated many times before and frankly better done in other animes such as "Angelic Layer" for example. The story is also rather predictable, you can easily foresee the end it hardly keeps you in suspense but it had it's moments so thereforth it gets a 5/10. Art: 8/10 I have to admit I'm an art snob, if it's not drawn well I typically won't pay it any mind. Art plays a big role in weather I watch an anime or not, and I have to say while the style was rather flamboyent itwas subtle and beautiful all the same. The women's chest weren't overly emphasised, their bodies slinder yet elegent. Their expressions were enough just to see the emotions behind them but not be overwhelmed by it. Though I will say the whole "blank" eye thing was rather scary at first but you sorta get use to it, I get the feeling that it was meant to portray an extreme emotion like, "jealousy" or "anger". It hit it's mark either way. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the lips, they were rather overdone, which took away from the art quality abit, but not enough to notice. Sound: 4/10 Another part of an anime that often attracts my attention and can sometimes be just as important as the art - music. The music it uses to help you get into the mood and make you feel what the characters are feeling. Music is vital to any great anime (can anyone say Princess Mononoke? Joe Hisaishi was brilliant!), either way this was SEVERELY lacking unfortunately. Even the ending was annoying and really "bubbly" to a very sickening point. There was little background music which is all find but sometimes it's necessary and where there was background music it felt like it was recycled stuff (stuff we've all heard before in animes) no originality to the BGM music and the ending was atroious. Characters: 5/10 They were just too stereotypical, nothing you can really connect with unless of course you're rich. Otherwise their just sorta bland. Enjoyment: 6/10 I gotta say it was an easy going anime (extremely short too each eps was like 8mins long) it was easy to watch, but just not as much fun as the animes that keep you in suspense. It was mostly feel-good, if anything else and you do find yourself at times rooting for the main character even though she's a cliche wrapped in a stereotype. Overall: 6/10 I was a little generous with the overall, but I gotta admit it is not an anime I would recommend. Yet the art was beautiful, and despite it's flaws it wasn't the WORSE i've seen but it's certainly not the best, it was inbetween the two somewhere in limbo. It's definately the anime of choice if you feel like killing some time without taking a piece of your soul with it. Overall, I'd never watch it again, but if someone wanted to see it with me I probably wouldn't say no. Hope you enjoyed this review, and I really hope it was helpful, thank you for reading it!