Student Review contest #18 Finals

[C0MPL3X]

Personally, I think this contest has turned out pretty good. As a whole, competition is lot stronger than average contest imo. Discussions are encouraged. I've kept the same rule as previous contests, but I think 2-20 (aka de facto chairman of student review contests : D) had problem with anonymous voting and copy-pasta of reviews, so I guess he could address those problems to the community if he wishes. Voting ends in one week, winner makes new contest with new theme yadiyadiya...

*had to shorten the original title of TTGL and Higurashi Kai because of word count limit (including url)

[Kavik Ryx]

Personally, I don't feel too comfortable being critical about people I don't really know face to face, but I'll make an attempt.

TTGL: In of itself, the review is well written and covers all the necessary points. Though I have to admit that it's pretty verbose. It's something that I am trying to deal with myself, so I guess I should be a little tolerant, but change in action begins with change in thought. To be honest, I also found your grade to be a bit jarring. Often times very high or very low grades can feel a bit forced, not a disagreement as much of an observation.

Romeo X Juliet: Another solid review with a well portrayed sense of disappointment. Though like the Gurren Laggan review, it has some length issues, primarily from the opening two paragraphs.

Gundam 00: I'm totally jealous, I wanted to do 00, but since that's no excuse for my opinion on it I will admit that there are some flow issues to it. On the other hand, all the necessary points were made in a concise fashion.

Code E: Now for my favorite part, criticizing myself. Looking back, I can defiantly see where I could have improved it, especially in the grammar department and word choice. I'm happy that I was able to keep it short; however, it seems kind of thrown together at the last minute in a few ways.

Higurashi Kai: Nice, consistent, complete, and short. Good use of a comparative style with regards to both your expectations and where it didn't hold up in the ways that made the first so good. In all honesty; however, your second paragraph is a little weaker than the rest, but otherwise a solid work. Thumbs up.

[Shadowmage]

TTGL: This is a good review that does a good job promoting Gurren Lagann. The only beef I had with it is that some of the references made like "roh roh, etc" could only be understood by people who've watched it or are in the know.

Romeo x Juliet: The review flows very nicely and does a good job making numerous comparisons and drawing various analogies. Though a tad long, it did a good job giving a rough structure of what the show is about.

Gundam 00: Simply put, the writing comes across as pretty dry. I had a hard time coming up with a certain emotion about the show, so I wrote this review like a list of facts than a flurry of opinions.

Code E: This review is adequate, but I found that some of the transitions felt jarring. The first paragraph doesn't flow well because it tries to use a quasi-formal tone that often breaks down because of colloquial expressions.

Higurashi Kai: The review does a good job creating a nice, concise picture and isn't bogged down by abrupt shifts or failed attempts at wittiness and such. The catch 22 component of this is that not much of what is written sticks with the reader.

[animanic_critic]

I personally was in a dilemma over two reviews, TTGL and Gundam 00. TTGL's review manages to show the sheer impact TTGL possesses to smack the viewers right in the face. Plus, the review is more liberal than the latter review and flows more freely. Gundam 00 is very technical and structured, and I get the very idea on what to expect from Gundam 00, which I've never seen but planning to.

It's not fair that I compare two anime series where I haven't seen on one side yet, but I'm comparing the review based on the 'picture' I get from what each respective reviews are painting. Conclusively, the feelings poured into TTGL's review has more of that 'fire', albeit that unrealistically high score. From this point-of-view, my vote goes to Niner's TTGL.

Sorie, Shadowmage. I really want to back you up as a fellow NHRW reviewer but I need to be more neutral with reviews. This contest is more competitive apparently.

[Two-twenty]

This is awesome and it needs more attention.

Edit:
I've kept the same rule as previous contests, but I think 2-20 (aka de facto chairman of student review contests : D) had problem with anonymous voting and copy-pasta of reviews,

Whut?

[Akimichi Choji]

I was really caught between AC, Niner, and Shadowmage's reviews. All three of you guys made excellent reviews, raising the bar. AC had a very original touch with the quote for the summary, but I would actually consider Romeo and Juliet to be Shakespeare's most known work to be perfectly honest(in nitpicking fashion). Niner your review was great, especially for a first entry. I especially liked the rating you gave, because thats pretty close to what I would give TTGL. But alas, my vote went to shadowmage. I think you were a bit hard on yourself SM, your review was really good. Your summary(IMO the hardest part of the review) was quite enveloping and set the mood of the series. You had a couple of good comparisons as well. But most of all, you gave Gundam 00 the EXACT score I would give it. Better then average but not really here nor there.

[C0MPL3X]

Whut?
When I was making this thread I noticed the rules for extravaganza contest and previous contests were different, i.e. copy-paste wasn't allowed and voting was anonymous no more. There were also cases where people thought polls for contests shouldn't be anonymous. So I thought changing those rules in extravaganza suggesting something. Apologies if I made baseless assumptions.

As for the reviews...I'll just talk about Niner's and AC's cause I don't have anything particular I want to criticise on the rest.

TTGL: I think Kavik’s issue of the review being verbose comes from your second and fourth paragraph. Second one talks mainly about character and the fourth one about plot. Both paragraph says character/plot in this anime are so great because of the fact that GAINAIX wasn’t trying to be original, but instead used the tried and true formula by slowly increasing the scale. Maybe reviews don’t need to be structured in a typical intro-characters-aesthetics-plot-conclusion format (or other typical structures). Maybe second paragraph can use drill motif to talk about both character and plot. Then you could use fourth paragraph to talk about other interesting aspects of TTGL instead of semi-repeating yourself again.

Romeo x Juliet: Two things I didn’t like from this review. One is that you spent two paragraphs talking about GONZO and Shakespeare before you actually talk about the show itself. I think that leaves roughly 40% of your review dissecting the show. Also this might be just a biased view of mine, but I think it would work better if you swapped your second and third paragraph. Pretty unicorns and floating island is what we see first (probably why the show was received well in its early running), and its disappointing story and characters come after it, so maybe the review could also be structured in a way to reflect that.

I voted for TTGL because of its style, but I honestly thought the rest were great in their own ways. At very least, they were coherent, did fair analysis and weren't boring.

[Shadowmage]

Plus, the review is more liberal than the latter review and flows more freely. Gundam 00 is very technical and structured, and I get the very idea on what to expect from Gundam 00, which I've never seen but planning to.

My advice is to watch Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion before Gundam 00. It's great from the beginning unlike Gundam 00.

Anyways, unless by some miracle things change, gg Niner.

[animanic_critic]

One is that you spent two paragraphs talking about GONZO and Shakespeare before you actually talk about the show itself. I think that leaves roughly 40% of your review dissecting the show.
This is because, I admit, I was caught in between reviewing the anime itself (what I should be doing) and venting frustration over Gonzo's jarring inconsistency (what I endedup doing). Romeo X Juliet acts as my last stand towards tolerate the outrage on what Gonzo had done to a romance classic.

2-20 and I on the same page on Gonzo officially.

[C0MPL3X]

Kontest Ovarrrrr

[Niner]

Woot, I am weenarz. :3

Thanks to everyone who voted for me and all my competitors for a great contest.

New one will go up once I've figured out a good theme for it.

[animanic_critic]

I got second only to Niner. woo-hoo.

[Mouse]

gg Niner! I forgot to vote but apparently you didn't need it! You and me, we're both pretty forgetful when it comes to contests on AA, ain't we? :3

CONGRATS

[Kavik Ryx]

Mazal tov Niner. Congrats.