SPECIAL: Anime Review 1

So.... I've decided to write a little review on two anime that just premiered this week. =3

Special A: [English manga licensed by VIZ]
Special A, or S.A., is about the tomboyish Hikari whose goal in life is to beat her rival, Kei. However, she always come second... The two of them are the top two students in their school, and therefore gain special rights and privileges. Little does Hikari know that Kei has a crush on her...

I read a few volumes of the manga before I got bored from cliched, typical scenarios and lack of romance due to Hikari's sheer stupidity (it goes past denseness, my friends). The art is average at best.

Anime-wise? Not much better. As far as I can tell, it follows the manga pretty well for the first episode. The characters are waaaay too tall. xD It's like Skip Beat! only Skip Beat! has better plot. x3

I'm not going to bother following it.


Vampire Knight: [English manga licensed by VIZ]

Vampire Knight is a decent series. It follows Yuuki, a student at Cross Academy, who, with the help of good friend Zero, is in charge of maintaining peace between the Day Class and the beautiful Night Class. But what the Day Class (which is filled with Night Class fangirls) doesn't know is that the students of the Night Class are all vampires.

Normally I hate vampire romance stories. But this one isn't your typical vampire-boy-and-human-girl-fall-in-love manga. Kaname is in love with Yuuki, who has loved him since childhood, but is struggling with her puppy-love feelings for him and growing love for Zero. Zero is a vampire hunter, haunted by the murder of his clan by a vicious and sadistic vampire, but later becomes the one creature he hates the most. Yuuki is thrown into a world where she must try to remember the memories Kaname erased and stop Zero from losing his sanity.

Okay. Anime now.

The anime is... huh. The art is not unlike the original, but a little more... blocky. The coloring isn't as detailed as other series and there is a lack of black line. It's interesting. However, I had to stop watching half way as it was becoming an obviously KanamexYuuki plotline... And I'm ZeroxYuuki, completely. I could waste your time and tell you why I prefer ZeYuu, but I have decided not to.


Final verdict? Disappointing.

We need to see some better series as anime! Skip Beat! Most definitely would watch that! Kaze Hikaru! Again, would definitely tune in! I hope that the Japanese anime industry doesn't overlook some excellent stories....