Reviews for Witch Hunter Robin (7.43)
ThatAnimeSnob
Murase Shuukou
THE STAFF - Animated by studio Sunrise, which is very good in making shows full of cool robot action. But since this is not a mech show, it is not a good show. - Directed b...
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- Unrated
28.04.2011 09:50 - direct link
(rs7876)
THE STAFF
- Animated by studio Sunrise, which is very good in making shows full of cool robot action. But since this is not a mech show, it is not a good show.
- Directed by Murase Shuuku, who is mostly a character designer than a director. He did a nice work in Ergo Proxy but other than that he is not someone important.
This was so boring, I will just stick to basic information because of it.
1) The emo characters.
Although the term is a bit off since everybody was mostly emotionless and not exactly cutting his wrists. Anyways, the characters in this show don’t show much emotion. I guess being an uncaring prick was a trend back then. But beyond that, how can you like such emotionless characters unless you are an emo? I sure didn’t care about them; they quickly became boring. They are not even complicating or too developed. Plus, they are treated as expendable units too; the heroine is a witch brainwashed to hunt her kind and her kind is monster of the week mooks. Her boss is a scheming bastard and the only plot twist in the entire show. And… that is pretty much all there is to them. One could say “How about Robin gradually realising she is being manipulated and rebelling?” Oh sure, that counts. Too bad it is ALL TOO BASIC AND EXPECTED to matter. Do you know how many anime with assassins there are and the premise is exactly the same? Requiem for the Phantom comes to mind above all and although I was also bored with it too, it still had the same premise with a lot more meat to it. Not to mention Neon Genesis; everybody was emo there and yet in the same amount of episodes you would be offered a hundred times more stuff about each one of them to care.
2) The story.
It is as I said about an organization using witches to hunt other witches, which are considered dangerous for humanity. And if you think that is all it takes to fill a 26 episode show, then you have nerves of steel. For 90% of it is almost stand alone missions of hunting some mook monster with anti-witch guns and watching Robin being all emo. It gets boring very fast, as the characters are emotionless and the plot is slow, simple and predictable. The only worthy thing in it is Robin’s gradual turn heel, but even that happens in a snail slow speed and eventually it feels expected and too simple to care.
3) The action.
It is nothing great in terms of choreography, plus Robin gets out of each situation with minimum injuries. This is no Mazinger Z to expect some cool robots blowing stuff up in every episode and in a storyless fashion. As for the super-powers of the show, it is nothing Darker than Black didn’t offer in a lot more variety.
4) The production values.
They are nothing great in terms of animation, OST or artwork. There are many other shows that used as much dark as possible to show how emotionless and depressed everybody is, but that is hardly enough to deem the show worthy. I mean just look at Robin’s favourite hairstyle. Isn’t it weird; almost ridiculous? And if I wanted to watch emo people dressed in black, I would be watching Naruto Shiippuden instead of this; more action and more variety in themes too.
In all, this show is a fail in all aspects. Not because it has a terrible story or crappy production values. It simply came out in a time where most other anime had all its (few) interesting elements and a hundred more on top of them. I do not recommend it to anyone because it is all too basic, dull and lasts a lot more than it should.
And now for some excused scorings.
- Animated by studio Sunrise, which is very good in making shows full of cool robot action. But since this is not a mech show, it is not a good show.
- Directed by Murase Shuuku, who is mostly a character designer than a director. He did a nice work in Ergo Proxy but other than that he is not someone important.
This was so boring, I will just stick to basic information because of it.
1) The emo characters.
Although the term is a bit off since everybody was mostly emotionless and not exactly cutting his wrists. Anyways, the characters in this show don’t show much emotion. I guess being an uncaring prick was a trend back then. But beyond that, how can you like such emotionless characters unless you are an emo? I sure didn’t care about them; they quickly became boring. They are not even complicating or too developed. Plus, they are treated as expendable units too; the heroine is a witch brainwashed to hunt her kind and her kind is monster of the week mooks. Her boss is a scheming bastard and the only plot twist in the entire show. And… that is pretty much all there is to them. One could say “How about Robin gradually realising she is being manipulated and rebelling?” Oh sure, that counts. Too bad it is ALL TOO BASIC AND EXPECTED to matter. Do you know how many anime with assassins there are and the premise is exactly the same? Requiem for the Phantom comes to mind above all and although I was also bored with it too, it still had the same premise with a lot more meat to it. Not to mention Neon Genesis; everybody was emo there and yet in the same amount of episodes you would be offered a hundred times more stuff about each one of them to care.
2) The story.
It is as I said about an organization using witches to hunt other witches, which are considered dangerous for humanity. And if you think that is all it takes to fill a 26 episode show, then you have nerves of steel. For 90% of it is almost stand alone missions of hunting some mook monster with anti-witch guns and watching Robin being all emo. It gets boring very fast, as the characters are emotionless and the plot is slow, simple and predictable. The only worthy thing in it is Robin’s gradual turn heel, but even that happens in a snail slow speed and eventually it feels expected and too simple to care.
3) The action.
It is nothing great in terms of choreography, plus Robin gets out of each situation with minimum injuries. This is no Mazinger Z to expect some cool robots blowing stuff up in every episode and in a storyless fashion. As for the super-powers of the show, it is nothing Darker than Black didn’t offer in a lot more variety.
4) The production values.
They are nothing great in terms of animation, OST or artwork. There are many other shows that used as much dark as possible to show how emotionless and depressed everybody is, but that is hardly enough to deem the show worthy. I mean just look at Robin’s favourite hairstyle. Isn’t it weird; almost ridiculous? And if I wanted to watch emo people dressed in black, I would be watching Naruto Shiippuden instead of this; more action and more variety in themes too.
In all, this show is a fail in all aspects. Not because it has a terrible story or crappy production values. It simply came out in a time where most other anime had all its (few) interesting elements and a hundred more on top of them. I do not recommend it to anyone because it is all too basic, dull and lasts a lot more than it should.
And now for some excused scorings.
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