Reviews of The Shonen Trio (myanimelist)

Review by Maxine

454 of 567 people found this review helpful

There are two responses I get, without fail, every time I try to get someone new to watch this show. "I don't like the art style," or "I've seen the dub - NO THANKS." I'm guilty of both of these myself. But if there's one thing I need to stress before even getting started on this review, it's that the 4Kids dub is NOT One Piece. For the love of god, PLEASE do not think it is. If you've suffered the misfortune of seeing some of the 4Kids episodes, just erase them from your mind and start fresh. They butchered it, there's really no other way to put it. They cut episodes, changed the dialogue to fit a MUCH younger and apparently far less intelligent audience (almost insultingly so), gave the characters RIDICULOUS voices, and pretty much watered down the entire series. FUNimation has done a much better job so far from what I've seen, but regardless, watching it in its original Japanese form with subtitles is really the way to go.

As for the art style, it's true, it's completely different from almost anything else I've seen. Much more "cartoonish" and maybe not what you'd expect from an anime. Despite that, you end up loving it. I wouldn't even say that you have to "get used to it" because it's not something that detracts from the rest of the series in any way. It didn't even take me two episodes before I was thoroughly enjoying it and seeing it as a fresh, new style, exciting almost and unlike anything I'd experienced before. Now, some 300+ episodes later, I can't remember ever NOT liking it, or even why I would have. Especially now with One Piece being aired in high definition, the art is crisp, clean, colorful - VERY sharp and wonderful to look at.

Now that we've got those two points out of the way...

One Piece is actually one of the best shows I've ever seen, anime or otherwise. The plot is pretty basic at first. Monkey D. Luffy has just set out on his own to find the legendary treasure 'one piece' and become Pirate King, and he's looking for a crew to sail with him. You'll find yourself falling in love with each and every new member as Luffy finds them. They're all extremely well developed, with interesting backgrounds and unique, fun personalities. They form one very quirky crew that's always discovering new adventures and somehow getting themselves into trouble as they strive to achieve their dreams. Each main story arc introduces new minor characters as well, and they're just as much fun and easy to fall in love with as the Straw Hat crew. Not one character is left out or feels like they're there for no reason. Everyone has a purpose and adds to the storyline, and one of the really cool things about One Piece is that these 'purposes' often resurface at later points in the series. No detail is left untouched, and you'll seriously be amazed by the way Oda threads together plots and characters and blends all their stories perfectly the more the series progresses.

The plot itself, though fairly straightforward at first like I said, quickly evolves into something HUGE. Much of the beginning of the series is dedicated to forming the crew and letting you get to know the characters, though it's definitely never lacking in action, but once they reach the Grand Line, you're swept up in adventure after adventure and following some of the most fantastic story arcs you'll ever watch. The battles and fights are well-paced, with the final boss fight almost always being completely EPIC. But even through the action, One Piece never quite loses it's lighthearted, humorous edge. The episodes are sprinkled with PLENTY of funny moments, never too many and never too few. There's always a wonderful balance of action and humor.

One Piece also has its fair share of heart-wrenching moments, which may take you by surprise! There are some EXTREMELY powerful scenes and episodes that kind of blindside you and leave you wondering when you became quite so emotionally attached to certain characters or other things. I've definitely found myself near tears or actually crying at more than one point. One Piece has it all - amazing characters, the never-ending yet never TOO over-the-top humor, exciting battles, fun adventures, heartbreaking moments with quick to follow touching moments. And underneath everything, there's always the theme of friendship and teamwork, of working to reach your dreams and helping those closest to you achieve theirs, of growing and maturing as a person and discovering the power within yourself to overcome obstacles of any sort, of just BEING THERE for the rest of your crew when they need you - of being NAKAMA.

In a word, One Piece is perfect. And perhaps I'm just biased, being an obviously OBSESSED fan at this point, haha, but what can I say? It's been running for 344 episodes so far and not ONCE have I wondered or hoped that it would start to reach an end. It is, simply put, amazing.

So why should you watch One Piece?

Because you're missing out on one hell of a fantastic show if you don't at least give it a try.

Review by Llama_Guy

259 of 360 people found this review helpful

To be honest, Naruto is the most overhyped show in existence. Everyone goes on and on and on about how great it is; and my expectations for this show was equally high. However, I was really, really let down. Really. This wasn't the best show ever, as I had thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the show is enjoyable, but it's definitely not among the best shows out there. I hope Shippuden will better than this... much better.

The concept of this show isn't that hard to follow. It's an alternate world in which ninjas live. The ninjas fight by using various skills, and they have this power flowing inside of them called chakra. Chakra is used to perform powerful attacks which (usually) belongs to either of the five traditional elements of earth, fire, water, air and lightning. Of course, since they are ninjas, they fight with weapons like shuriken and kunai as well as hand-to-hand combat. As expected of this kind of world, there's evil people, having different goals and reasons behind their evil.

The story follows Naruto, one of these ninjas, as he grow as a ninja, from being a stupid little prank-playing brat to becoming a fine ninja. Along the way, he interacts with and makes friends with many fellow ninja, fighting his way towards his dream of becoming Hokage (the leader of his village).

The story isn't nearly as good as the concept would indicate. Sure, a lot of the characters has some nice background stories, won't complain about that, but they manage to drag out everything so much. It really annoys me. Some fights take several episodes when they could've been done them just as good in one or two. There's also way too much fighting. The story goes like fight, fight, background story, fight, fight, even more fight, half an episode's worth of resting or journeying, fight, fight, and so on. I mean, it's cool to watch fights, but there are just way too many fights, and they drag most of them out to unnecessary lengths. The only really enjoyable fight was the one between Sasuke and Naruto right before the fillers began. Which brings up another thing...

Fillers! Agh, I normally don't mind fillers, but Naruto had some really, really stupid ones. Sure, there was the occasional diamond among the charcoal, but that doesn't excuse the high amount of bad fillers. I mean, just because they are fillers doesn't mean that they have to make them bad. Several shows have actually made decent and at the same time long fillers (especially Bleach, with its 40-episode long Bount arc), but Naruto failed horribly here.

Also, I feel that Naruto is very silly at times. Silly is usually good, but not when it's immature silly. And guess what+ Naruto is silly in an immature way. It's so dreadfully stupid at times that I had to close my eyes, take a deep breath and wait until it got serious again. Now, it did have some good comical moments, but those were far and wide between.

Another thing I feel like releasing my rage on is the animation. It barely manages to get the description “average” to me. At its best, it's slightly above average. However, a lot of time it's slipshod galore with the animation. I still have many very bad memories from having to watch lots of errors in the animation, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get rid of those memories. While the amount of errors decreased as the episodes passed by, at least every second episode before the 100s had one or more moments of slipshod animation. Wonder if they ever considered firing the animators.

As a side mention, they should do something about Rock Lee - even though I've slightly gotten used to his horrible looks, I still feel a burn in the back of my eye every time I see him.

The music is pretty good, though. A lot of great tunes (especially the sad ones are great), and the first few OPs and EDs were pretty awesome. It has some really bad music parts too, like the tribal voice-ish song, and sometimes they could've used better themes during the fights. As the series progressed, the quality of the OPs and EDs decrease too.

The characters are fairly okay, I guess. Some of them are really annoying, like Naruto, because he's so stupid. Agh, he annoys me to no end! Some other characters are annoying too, because of things like their looks (Gai and Lee), or because they are failed attempts at comical relief (at least in my eyes, you might find them funny), like the all too perverted Jiraiya.

That's the negative about them. However, they have some really nice background stories, some which are elaborated more upon than others. Many of the characters also get fair amounts of screen time, which for some people can seem too much, whilst others will be content with it, because their favorite character from the show gets an episode for him/herself.

I also like the fact that most of them have dreams or aspirations, and motives for what they are doing and how they are acting (usually it's tied together with their background stories). The growing relationships between them is also nice, their maturing, and how Naruto is slowly getting accepted by more and more people through hard work.

Basically, they've portrayed the characters very well, and not too over the top, but some of them act stupid and silly from time to time, which drags the character rating down.

I have some mixed feelings for the show, which kind of drags down on the enjoyability factor of it. Great concept, not as good story, both good and bad music, horrid animation at times, many characters with background stories, some of them great and some not-so-great; it's hard to completely make up my mind, but I believe the ratings I have given shows my feelings towards the different aspects of the show.

Of course, even though there was things I didn't like, I can easily see why this show is so popular as it is; it has humor that the kids may find funny, as well as lots of fights which appeal to the teenagers and adults. I personally didn't like it that much, though. I'm looking forward to Shippuden, because I’ve heard it was much better… I really hope so!

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

Review by Xyik

281 of 402 people found this review helpful

After an endless wasteland of filler, Naruto returns! Joy! Happiness! Frowns turned upside down! I couldn't believe it when the fillers ended. I was ecstatic.

Now I'm ready with a pillow whenever I tune in every friday. Question mark? I'll tell you why I'm prone to falling asleep while watching Naruto:Shippuuden - it just isn't Naruto anymore. It just isn't the same series.

Story: Don't get me wrong, Naruto didn't just magically start stabbing me with disappointment because the story started to totally go downhill. In fact, the first episode's preview with Naruto's future encounter with Sasuke had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn't believe it: Naruto was back! No, the story continues and follows through adequately as a continuation of the original Naruto. The great elements of the original story are still here: the theme of an everlasting friendship, the importance of maintaining hope, the need to endure and persevere .. these themes are all still there! Naruto is still a great guy and he still strives to protect his friends and 'save' Sasuke while taking on Akatsuki at the same time. So what happened to Naruto? Well, story-wise, nothing. I still love the story. I love the world of Naruto, the ninjas, the techniques, the weapons, the themes, the plot. Although the story doesn't present the viewers with anything deep or complicated, I still like it. But the story isn't the problem. The story as it is and as it continues, gets a 7.5/10 from me.

Characters: It was great to see how much the characters changed from the original Naruto. Character development in this aspect, was great. Pretty much everbody had a new design and they all looked great. In terms of personality, well, they were the same loveable characters, unique in their own way. In terms of Naruto and Sakura, they really developed. Although he still acts like it, Naruto isn't the same happy loudmouth he used to be. He's been deeply scarred from Sasuke's betrayal, and despite all thats happened, he's still obsessed with saving him. Of course, Sasuke's betrayal affected Sakura too and she's really toughened up. She isn't the useless twist she used to be, and shes really grown to respect and care for Naruto. Character development is great, the characters are great, old and new. Sai for example, is an interesting add on, he brought the funnies and kept the comedic aspects of the show alive. The characters aren't the problem either: 8/10

Art / Animation: Here is where Shippuuden starts going downhill. In terms of the new characters and their new character designs, I love em. But Naruto just isn't animated as well as it used to be. There is a lot of repeated animation in Shippuuden. This ranges from terribly animated tree jumping scenes (it actually looks more like they're flying instead of jumping half the time, lazy much?) to staring faces and overused flashbacks. I can understand the need to repeat the frames from things like the tree jumping scenes that are filled with dialog, or the occasional flashback to remind us of what happened in the original Naruto or something a couple of episodes ago. But the extent of it is teetering on the cliff side. The quality is just going downhill. Kakashi's new Sharingan attack for example, was terribly done in my opinion. I could have done that effect in photoshop. To make it worst, they drew it out for minutes on end ... completely destroying the 'cool factor'. There are also several still scenes that consist of pure eye to eye combat with wind blowing in the background. Cool? I think not, not when pointless staring takes up about 15% of the episode's air time. Asides from this, the coloring and detail of the characters in terms of shading and such also seem to be lacking in contrast to the original Naruto. Looking at the two, they just aren't on the same level anymore. Maybe it's because I've gotten so used to the series, or because I've watched so many more series since the original Naruto, but the quality has definitely deteriorated. Of course, some of the big fights are still animated quite nicely: 7/10

Sound: Things just get worst from here. While I loved the new opening and closing songs, the episode bgm just isn't the same. The upbeat action music heard in the original Naruto has been replaced by lame 'lets make this fight seem really tense and epic' music that fails horribly. I want the old soundtracks back! Granted, the series is alot more serious now, but the background soundtracks really can't shake the excitement meter up to where it used to be: 6/10

Ok, so it's the same story, continued. The same characters, with some cool new additions are there. The animatiors are getting a bit lazy, and the soundtracks aren't making me chew my fingernails anymore. Does this really warrant a 6?

Pacing: This is what has killed Naruto. Not Akatasuki, Not Orochimaru, not Sasuke, not Sakura's poundings - the pacing has killed our beloved hero, Naruto. This is the sole reason that the plot development seems slow and nonexistent, this is why character development is hard to note unless you really love the series, this is why animation is being reused, repeated, or not done at all, this is why I can no longer enjoy Naruto like I used to. So much time is deliberately wasted on mundane scenes such as staring, or camera panning that there are often many awkward pauses that make you wonder, 'did my computer freeze?'. This should NOT be happening in an anime! The amount of still scenes and overused camera panning should not be in surplus and evident enough to deteriorate the quality of a show! There are so many episodes that had amazing potential to be jaw-droppers, but they weren't. Intense battles like episodes 41-43 are completely ruined due to horribly SLOW SLOW pacing!

Arguably, the animators want to avoid killing its viewers with a plauge of fillers, but is it really worth it to completely destroy such a potentially satisfying anime? In my opinion, they're ruining the series. We waited and endured just as our hero taught us to - only to be attacked by this monstrosity. The pacing effectively destroyed my love for this show. You may argue that fillers are worse and thats debatable. What isn't however, is that there is enough manga material for at least another 50 FAST paced Naruto episodes. Thats a year! Probably more when you consider that by the time 50 episodes are released, there could be enough material for another 20 or so potential episodes.

Overall: Same enjoyable story with great potential. But the pacing needs to change. That pillow I mentioned at the beginning of this long, terrible review? It wasn't for sleeping. It was to stop me from killing myself from bashing my head against the desk as I watched a potentially good series slaughtered before my eyes. 6/10

Review by Llama_Guy

245 of 322 people found this review helpful

Bleach is one of the three so-called "mainstream shonen animes"; together with Naruto and One Piece these three are immensely popular, and the topic of endless comparison among their fans set out to prove that their favorite is the best out of them. They simply refuse to exit their fanboyism to view the series in an objective light, which is a shame, because they are probably missing out on great adventures, which is the case of Bleach in many ways. If you want my review short and good, give Bleach a try no matter what people have said, as it, despite a lot of shortcomings, presents a most interesting and enthralling universe.

The concept seems pretty basic at first; there's the Soul Reapers (Shinigami), empowered souls who guide departed human souls to Soul Society, the afterlife deimension, formed after a Feudal Japan. They also fight Hollows, evil and malevolent spirits, to protect living humans and souls alike. So, I assume you have read the plot summary, which covers the basics of the first story arc, which is basically the arc where we are introduced to the main main cast of Bleach; the standard, headstrong, rash and protective teenage shonen hero, his voice of reason in the form of a girl, his arrogant beglassed rival, the ditzy klutz girl with big boobs, and the large, stoic type.

Towards the end of said arc however, a real plot appears, events are set into motion, and before long, it has escalated into an assault on said Soul Society a rescue mission from our team of 4-5 heroes, who fight their way through shinigami of all kinds trying to reach their goal, conveniently placed in the middle of this Society. In this arc, you'll get lots of great action and meaningful fights, bottled together with an extremely large and colorful cast of characters, flashbacks and an interesting plot. It all builds up one hell of an end to the arc, 60 or so episodes into the show, where a most intersting twist takes place. And said arc ending is in each and every way the climax of Bleach.

Which is its problem. From there it goes steep downhill to two arcs of slow-paced filler, which lowers your excitement a great deal of levels, and from there the show never manages to get you hooked as much as it did during the Soul Society arc. It does get some interesting new aspects and revelations durign the following Arrancar arc, but it never gets really exciting, nor does it get that much greater during the Hueco Mundo arc. It's just too much fighting, and a re-used "save the damsel in distress" plot. The colorful cast is not seen as much anymore, and aside some interesting emotional developments courtesy of the former klutz girl, there's not a lot to it, and most fights don't have the same enthralling depth to them which made the fights in SS so unique. Now it's more a display of unique powers, and whatever motivations the bad guys had for their fighting is revealed only after the actual fights, which in ways ruins things. Also, there's a few plot holes to speak of, but nothing large.

However, aside the completely random filler arc (which re-used several plot elements from the story), Bleach has shown potential for improvement lately, and it keeps expanding its cast endlessly, which makes the universe seem living in many ways, so we can all only hope that Bleach will improve gradually. However, I sincerely doubt that it will ever be restored to how great it was at its peak, namely the Soul Society rescue arc.

It does have a lot of shortcomings, yet it is a most enjoyable watch still. Now, why is that? The answer is the unexpectancy factor it has. Due to its vast cast and great universe, you can't really know what comes next, only make qualified guesses. What kinds of powers will that character have? What is the villain really up to? And what's with that guy? What will happen next? Who knows, who knows. So one could say that the true strength of Bleach lies in its cast, which can bring about mysteries, plot twists and other aspects of awesomeness, and cover up for a somewhat lacking storyline.

So what about the asesthetics? there's plenty of people who believe that the visual and auditory aspects of anime are just as important as any plot or character development. And Bleach delivers here, in many ways.

The animation quality is quite the hassle to discuss, because it is so varying in quality. At its worst it has low frame rates, offset character designs and framed action, while at its best it is vivid, meticulous and full of soft motions and beautifully animated special and lighting effects. Most of the time however, it is decent. Not average, but not in any way anything bragworthy. Expect some ups and downs in this department.

The soundtrack however, is very great. It is greatly varied, and is renewed per story arc, introducing new tunes often whilst keeping the old ones around too, and this variation is intrinsical of any above-average soundtrack. It stays perfectly in tone and atmosphere with the current events, and feature everything from upbreat, adrenaline-pumping electric guitar pieces to melliflous piano pieces, and standard comedic moment tracks. The opening and endign themes feature a lot of types and genres, from the serene and sentimental to rap and rock. And pop, of course.

I said it in the beginning, and I'll say it again; try out Bleach at least once, desptie what Narutard, shonen haters or anyone else have said. It's pretty enjoyable despite its lacks and faults, mostly in thanks to its great cast.