Fate/Stay Night volume 1

I'm back and reviewing the first volume of Fate/Stay Night~!

A lot of information is established in volume one of Fate/Stay Night. We learn that every so often a war is fought between 7 mages (masters) and 7 spirits (servants). The last one of these was 10 years ago, but the war was called off after a disaster occurred. Now, another one is beginning to take place.

Shiro Emiya is just an ordinary teenage kid, except that he is obsessed with doing the right thing and helping people. Also, he has faint magical powers, mostly the ability to fix things. One day, when he finishes staying after school to clean a dojo (wow he's a do-gooder D=), he inadvertantly witnesses a fight taking place between two servants, Lancer and Archer to be exact. (Servants never reveal their true identities to anyone except possibly their master. It helps them to keep their strategies in fights less obvious). Lancer nearly kills him, but he is granted a 2nd chance. Though Lancer hunts him down, he manages to save himself by accidentally summoning a servant.

The servant he called was Saber, a young woman with a whole lot of fight in her. After fighting Lancer off, Saber and Shiro talk. That leads them nowhere. Rin, a girl in Shiro's class and a magus, shows up with Archer, her servant, and takes Shiro and Saber to Rin's mentor and the overseer of the Holy Wars so that he can explain the whole deal to Shiro. Shiro accepts his position as a master.

~ and that's all I'm giving on the plot. Here's my responses:

Wow. Just wow. The art is freaking gorgeous, the fights are exciting and fun to watch, the music is pretty (note to self: get this soundtrack), and Archer is eye candy. Put short, This is going to be one hell of a ride that I won't miss! I have seen this series referred to as a grown up version of Pokemon, and I agree for the most part. It's fun to put together different battle ideas and such. I also enjoy finding out who the servants are. My only complaints are that Shiro and his friend, Sakura are way too bland for my liking. And Sakura's dub voice needs to die.

In the enddddd~
-Art: 5/5
-Plot:4/5
-characters:3/5
-general appeal:5/5
-nitpicky stuff (now including music!): 4/5
-Overall: 4.5

Death Note Anime : 1st review by Pinkeh

Hello, Pinkeh here. I'm new to the blog, and will now be reviewing along with Mary. My first review will be the Death Note anime. My reviewing skills and pattern will be a bit different than Mary's, but yeah. Let's begin.

Death Note begins with Yagami Light (or Raito), a very intelligent 17-year old, who is bored out of his mind. And just as it happens, he discovers The Death Note, a notebook of death. Whoever's name you write in the note will die. (There are tons of other details and rules about how the note works, but you'll find that out as the story goes along). Light decides to use to note to kill all criminals and cleanse the world. The police, the NPA, FBI and so on, eventually notice all the killings as not quite a coincidence. Thus imerges L (and my ultimate fandom). L is an amazing detective who has solves many difficult cases before. And thus begins the chase, justice vs. evil.

Now, I really like Death Note. I had read the manga before the anime came out, so I had the chance to compare the two while watching the anime. The anime is very loyal to the manga (well, so far) with the exeption of a few add-on scenes which are pretty cute. The only major difference is the art, but of course the art in the anime always is different from the manga art. I find they gave L huge eyes, and Misa's face is screwed up. But the voices are perfect, so points to Japan for that.

Death Note is just a great manga/anime, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Go pick up the manga sometime! Viz has licensed the anime, so please wait patiently 'till it comes out.

Art (anime) 3/5
Story 5/5
Overall 4/5