Anime: Boukyaku no Senritsu

This is one of those animes that tries to cater both sides of the spectrum. You know, there are the A types and the B types, one wants a good story and an interesting cast, the other wants action and boobs, and when they meet they usually mock each other’s tastes because they know better...
Anyway, this series tries to have both. Both spectacular action and fan service that would thrill mr.B and nauseate mr.A and still throw in a good story and developed characters that would interest mr.A and make mr.B stare at the ceiling.
Did the mix work? Yes and no. It did make the series to be more than just brainless action and bare legs, yet it never took itself too seriously to actually present fully the whole deal, thus it ended in a very open way and turned off most who watched it. It had the potential for greatness but failed to implement it (wow, same story for most anime).

So, the animation is half decent as it has some really WTF backgrounds for a great amount of time and still uses the tired but always successful ecchiness we all hate to love... Or is it the other way around?... Anyway, I was personally pleased with most of it as the color palette was nice, the weapons and equipment the fighters were using rocked, and the sceneries were interesting in themes and allusions. What I didn’t really like were the dumb looks the characters had. I mean, they seemed so spaced-out and it felt like a cheap amateurish production. Which is as I said all part of the problem that plagues most anime; good ideas but bad implementation. But as long as you don’t mind the stupid looks of the main cast, the rest is nice to look in overall. Just don’t go in with the mindset of expecting Mushishi or Mononoke level of atmosphere. It is essentially a series for teenagers who like superpowers and is simply heavy on the LSD moments. Neither the action, not the visual effects are really anything spectacular and this is true for practically any anime made by J.C. Staff. That studio cares more about making you stare at simplistically drawn boobs than actually trying to make a serious and well made show. They did it here as well and it surely damages the overall.

The acoustic part was an interesting surprise. I must say, the music is overall the best part of the series and even worths getting a copy of the soundtracks. I must have listened to the opening theme at least 200 times (without looking at the screen, because as I said the characters have lame looks) and the BGM is generally contributing a lot to the otherwise half-baked attempt at a good story or ecchi comedy or whatever… Stupid anime plague; one moment the talk about the meaning of life and the next they do sex jokes… Overall an ok work.

The story was better on paper than in actual presentation. Directed by Nishikiori Hiroshi, a guy who has taken over some very famous shows (Azumanga Daio, Planet of the Beast King, Toaru Majutsu no Index) but in all cases he just never manages to create a great storyboard. He just doesn’t have the talent to make proper use of any premise, of which in this case looks at first to be like a case of typical rebellious teenagers with superpowers versus generic ruthless status quo monstersTM. But it soon escalates to something far more than just that and I must say I f-ing loved it! For example, the leads never actually fight the main baddies themselves. They are too damn imba to do so! They only take on their lackeys, which are basically human collaborators with circus cloths and cool mecha. The villains themselves turn out not to be the usual “evil without a cause” bunch. Heck, their leader is even more than just the epitome of evilness. Shoot, his flying talking parrot is far more than just a token character. Hehe, damn aruhoto-naruhoto birdy; you got me by surprise there! Even the protagoninists and secondary allies begin as archetypes (the meak, kind-hearted boy, the oversexualised girls, the emo lone wolf and so on) yet as the episodes go on you get to see far more to their personalities than just that.

Imba villains, cool weaponry and colorful protagonists, yeah, good sh*t to watch. So far so good; but unfortunately the story still suffers from some basic ever-present shounen BS and self contained stories that leave the whole deal in a mess. For starters, the series is separated into almost stand alone story arcs, featuring its own special monster of the week baddie in it… No, wait, make that Monster Union Member of the week because as I said the main baddies are simply untouchable for the most part (and following the cheesiness of the trope, their official name is Monsters… duh). So we get this crazy person going Viva Monster Union and taking the leads before the next pops up and repeats the process. Been there, done that. But at least each arc leaves small bits of information regarding the state of the world and the upcoming events so it is not really totally disjoined and skippable. And each arc really brings more light to the characters and the world around them. Tiny bits as I say as most of the time it flows in quite the typically expected formula of random beams blowing sh*t up during the action and sexual frustration in the later half.
As for the ending, it is far too open to please most as it is only the end of a strong baddie who wasn’t even close to the level of the Monsters. Duh! It feels complete in its initial goal but hell, it had enough material to make two more seasons. But you know what? The last episodes are really a drug party as they were such a mess of allusions and crazed up sh*t that I almost though I was watching the final episodes of the NGE series. It was such a trip! … And yet such a letdown as apparently they never bothered making a sequel and wrap the damn thin.

In all, it was an interesting experience. Not really just a generic teenagers with superpowers anime and yet not close to a masterpiece of cinematics and atmosphere. I blame J.C. Staff for that. It is by far not a must see anime but it still worths the watch as long as you have seen a bit of both sides of the A – B spectrum and don’t want a thrilling viewing experience. I personally kept it around and plan to watch it again; that means something for someone who got fed up with the usual stuff.

Here's my review after watching the whole anime. I saw it some 2 years ago.

Animation

Quite good animation and very good character/machines design, I really enjoyed the animation work in MOO. frankly that's what pushed me to finish watching it. I gave it an 8 because other animes like Last Exile were better in that domain.

Sound:

The strongest point in this anime is it BG, it's clearly a masterpiece (esspecially the openning my favorite song). The whole BG is very enjoyable and help bear with the wierd anime story.

Story:

What should have been a very interesting and a bit ecchi story in the first episodes turned out the weirdest story i've ever seen. Frankly, sometimes I didn't get shit from the episodes that looked all but following a logical story. Very disapointing for me since the first two episodes were really promising.

Character:

The characters weren't bad but only some (the main ones) got some real detail on them. The rest looked to me as just fillers.

Value:

Exluding the animation work and the sound this anime has no value to my eyes. The ending episodes sucked the most especialy their plot.

Enjoyment:

I watched this anime because at that time If I started an anime (even a crappy one) I had to watch it till the end. Right now i would say MOO gave me no real enjoyment I was able to withstand this pain sue to the good animation. I also had the wish that maybe the story will get better but I just lost my time. In a sentence "Avoid this anime".

Personally this anime is neither perfect nor is it incredible bad. The general story of this anime includes two groups as always the bad guys "monsters" and the good guys meros soldiers or warriors or w/e. The story runs alot of twists and turns so its fairly hard to give a general jist of it.

Animation
The animation was fairly well done for the most part. They choose to use a different kind of background then most animes to set a certain mood. Sometimes it worked well and fitted nicely... Other times it was a little excessive. On the bad side though near the end of the anime they did start over using some frames which made it kind of annoying/boring. They also tried a bit to provide fan service. I mean I have no problem with it... but some parts were kinda weird i.e. ranch.

Sound
The sound has to be the best part of the anime. I loved alot of the music i.e. the opening + endning and almost all the background music. The OST is definitely worth getting and listening to one of my favorites.

Story
The story is fairly odd. It is fairly complicated in some aspects because bits and pieces are revealed in various places of the anime. I liked it for the most part except the mediocore ending. The last few episiodes weren't up to par but overall it gives for a fairly interesting run.

Character
Only the two main characters were focused on heavily. Most of the development and effort was put on them. The side characters had little or no change throughout the series. As for most of them they are likeable and good characters.

Value
It did carry some value cause some parts made you think. They had some themes that weren't the normal everyday anime themes. So it is worth a sit down.

Enjoyment
I did enjoy this series since it is quite different from many others. As was said in other reviews before me... this is a Gainax work and they do make out of the ordinary animes. It is fairly slow though soo its not an anime for everyone. I would say its more for ppl who enjoyed bee train works but even then... they are pretty different. Well I guess if you like other Gainax works it would be a decent watch.

This has been one of the worst anime I have ever had the displeasure of seeing. While I've seen series that are objectively worse than this, they were at least non-intentionally funny, which is far more than Melody of Oblivion can claim to be. My snap reaction to the series (along with that of everyone else in the room when we watched it) can be summed up simply as "Fucking GAINAX."

Animation:
The designs of important or semi-important characters are done well and have reasonable amounts of detail packed into them. However, GAINAX tried to set the mood for the series by not animating or animating as caricutures most of the 'people' in the background. The landscapes and buildings were reasonably well done, but an almost comical overuse of a red filter to attempt to set mood and tone kills the effect.

Sound:
The opening is probably the best part of the entire series. The voice actors all do their job reasonably well, filling their party admirably (especially Koko). Unfortunately, the background music was a bit spotty, at times matching the scene perfectly, at times really overbearing and/or serving no purpose at all. The ending didn't stand out terribly much.

Story:
Judging the series as a whole, I have to rate MoO very poorly in the story section. While the story works reasonably well at the start as a monster of the week/arc show where the main character, Bocca, learns about the world around him, it quickly collapses in the final few episodes as GAINAX decided they needed an exciting ending and abruptly changed genres, introduced semi-important characters with no warning in order to get certain plot points set, added backstory and connections to existing characters which was never hinted at, and then tosses in an absurd ranch apparently just for the hell of it.

Character:
If there could be anything resembling a strong point in the series, it would probably be with the characters. Between Kurofune, the cool loner; Toune, the emotionally troubled one; Koko, the cheerful little girl; and the crazy mechanic, we get a memorable cast of side characters on the hero's side. On top of that, we get a set of likeable/cool villains in the monsters and a set of...unique Monster Union leaders. Unfortunately, the series really suffers under the male lead, who is incredibly annoyingly angsty (as opposed to Toune, who angsts for hysterical reasons).

Value:
Having watched the series, if I was offered the choice of watching it again or having a visit to the proctologist, there's a fairly good chance I'd take the visit to the proctologist. The last 4-5 episodes, where it appears as if the production team just stopped trying and/or ran out of budget and were forced to hire hobos from the nearest street corner, made my eyes bleed.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed watching the Monsters do their thing, because humanity sucks. I enjoyed watching Toune work through her problems of acceptance, because it was hilarious as she moved through each stage (intentionally or not). I enjoyed watching Koko and the Armed Theatrical Group Chentauro for their fun interactions among themselves (and for Koko vamping on Sky Blue and Bocca). I didn't particularly enjoy much else, and I would give negative ratings specifically to anything and everything involving Bio-Concerto, that goddamned farm, the overuse of the red filters, and most of the cool characters not partaking on the finale.

*updated*

Just watching a few of the previews makes you automatically think of the weird, abstract, and surreal. Melody of Oblivion is certainly one of these types of anime. With some of the most trippy backgrounds and strange ways of animation, it feels sorta like the original ending to Evangelion, but not quite. With the intro out the way, ONTO THE REVIEW!

Animation
The animation was smooth and, in my opinion, really, really, cool. A number of people will probably be turned off by the weird and surreal and high WTF factor in the beginning, but I got used to it quite quickly and have taken quite a liking to it. The use of strange surreal STILL images may turn off some people, but if you look carefully, there are many strange things going on in the background. It looks like the animation staff really took a lot of thought in creating the backgrounds. The actions, however, are very well done and well done.

Ah... Sound
Possibly one of the best bg music I have ever heard in my life. The voice acting wasn't exactly flawless, but I can't really complain about it. Each of the characters had a voice that seemed to fit (japanese version, I cannot stand english voice acting at all). However, I just can't get enough of the awesome background music. The OP and the ED are also worth downloading/buying. The collection of electric violin, acoustic violin, guitar, and keyboard among others turns out to be the coolest soundtrack of the year. But that isn't that important to most of you...

Story
The story is also quite, how should i put it, surreal? But thats only in the beginning. It steadily just gets better and better, with startling revelations and shocking events. It hooks you completely. I JUST CANT GET ENOUGH OF IT!!! AHHHH!!! It only got an 8 because it was so abstract. However, the whole three episode arc is somewhat of a turnoff. Practically every little story arc was predictable in some way, but the way the puzzle pieces fit together at the end makes it beautiful. HOWEVER, the ending wasn't exactly the best, but then again, it was probably the best it could have gotten.

Characters
The characters are interesting characters in themselves. Each of the characters have their own colorful personalities. However, I have to say though, not much really develops with exception of the main two characters? Even then, not much developement in general. But they are likable so i gave this an 8

Value/Enjoyment
I could just watch this anime over and over and over again. IT is the subtle details that the animators placed in every scene that I would enjoy watching. Rice-box did an amazing job of making notes for the series and it is rather fun to read up the little minor things such as the origins of names, places, allusions, etc. But overall, it's just because it's so dang cool! Get this now! Or at least get the soundtrack! Highly recommended by me.