AnimeRevolution

Sword Art Online Review

2012-07-31T19:06:00.001-07:00

Sword Art Online is still on the 4th episode but since I fully read the light novel I thought I should make a comment of what has already been shown. There are spoilers in this review so please wait for the full anime review of this when the first season is finished if you do not want to read spoilers.
After reading the novels I had great expectations of this anime. Despite this, watching the first episode made me think that it they are trying to rush into the climax of the novel and skipping the details.

Episode 1

Kirito's first kill. :D

What made SAO so popular was it's execution. In the first episode, who didn't feel nostalgia when Kirito and Klein started out attacking the boars and gained exp points? Gamers all know that feeling when they first start a game and not know what to do, just admiring the scenery. It may have been a bit weak in plot but it was presented in such a way that it makes you forget about all that. I feel that execution is just as important as the plot so this made the plot that wasn't all that great into something you could expect great things of. Episode 1 was great and at this moment my expectations turned into joy.

Episode 2

Asuna being awesome!

This episode was a bit disappointing for me as I loved the novels. If any of you read the novels you should immediately notice that they skipped a lot of content in this episode. This will not be noticed by first time viewers so they can feel assured that they can watch without worry. This is the Aria in the Starless Night side story in the second volume of the novel for those that wonder. If there is anyone that is wondering "When did the anime get to the second volume?", the books weren't in chronological order. On the first volume it only had the main story and it put the side stories into another volume. The anime is going in chronological order and I like that as there would be no point in making OVA's just for these side stories. I just feel that they rushed it a little too much as they could've went on with the main story for a few more episodes before introducing the side story.

Episode 3

This made me feel that this is episodic as the second and third episodes are both two different side stories. But one thing I felt uncomfortable about was that in the second episode he boasts about going solo and puts on a black coat to show that but turned 180 to join a guild in this episode? This episode was better than the last one as it introduced a new character and also showed some more romance. It was obvious what was going to happen but it still surprises you when you see them get killed like that. This episode was truly sad but I feel that it could've been better if they made finished this in 2 episodes instead of 1 as we couldn't see the guild members enough to feel much emotion when they got killed. Another thing is when we saw the guild leader suicide. You would expect that he would be a bit nervous and start to chicken out but he calmly did it with no hesitation.

This is Santa in a MMORPG

Sad moment to see...

I know that these side stories are done in order to fill in the 2 year time lapse in the light novel but it this anime might lose some viewers by the time they get back to the main story as finishing the side stories will take up to episode 7. It seems like SAO will run for about two cours(one cour is roughly 12-13 episodes which takes a season) as they are also going to do ALO as well. ALO is the 3rd book but I don't want to spoil what happens. 5-6 episodes should be enough for them to finish the main story to start ALO.

Episode 4

This episode might've been my favorite episode since episode 1. Kirito was more kind hearted here than in the light novel. This doesn't keep up his solo look as it was supposed to be right now but I felt that it was a good change. I am guessing they made him more kind because Kirito said she resembled his sister. Also, when he gave Silica a set of armor and items I felt nostalgic as I gave new players in my guild my hand me downs. Not only that, there was also the power-leveling Kirito did for Silica when he weakened the monsters and let her kill it. I did that a lot when I was a high level, either helping my friends alts or just new players.

There was more fan service in this episode and it doesn't hurt now and then but I felt like the tentacles were unnecessary. What I seriously thought was great about this episode was that it showed Kirito's abilities. It showed how powerful Kirito really is and that he wasn't even trying. Another thing is that the author decided to introduce Player Killing here. It chose to not explain it later but to show what happens with a real case. If my memory serves me right, in the light novel it just explained it without him being involved in a PK incident. This also hints at why Kirito didn't tell them he wasn't a beater in episode 2. They could hunt him down and that would cause trouble, especially for a solo player as he could be ambushed while being attacked by a strong monster.

Overall Review

Plot

Not the best plot and it could've been better since being trapped in a game isn't the newest idea around but we shouldn't forget that the author was 15 when he first made this. If I had to explain the anime to a person that didn't watch or read this yet I would say :
"It is about a teenager that is madly in love with gaming and was one of the lucky few to be a beta-tester for a VRMMORPG. He played this game non stop every day. The beta finished and when the finished game came out they sent him the game for free for being a beta tester. Of course he started up the game instantly and was one of the first 10,000 to login to the game. But in this case, he was unlucky. While trying to log out of the game he couldn't find the logout button in the menu. Everyone thought it was a bug until they got teleported the the starting city. All 10,000 people were here and to their surprise the GM showed up. He explained that they were stuck in this game until they finished all 100 floors of the game. If in the 2 months of beta testing they had gotten up to only the 7th floor with 1,000 players, who knows when they will be able to finish this game. The catch is, when you die in the game, you also die in the real world."
When explained like this, you find it simple. Not an unpredictable plot. But, as I said in the episode 1 review, the execution here made this anime much more better. I don't want to go into what I already said but the execution is important for any anime. No matter how good the plot may be, if the execution of it is bad then you will not feel anything about that plot at all. If I put it into efficiency then let's say there is an anime with mediocre plot and there is one with an amazing plot. If the one that is mediocre is executed well then it can use it's plot at about 90% efficiency, maybe more or less depending on how well it got executed. However, if the one with an amazing plot got executed badly, it will only be 40% efficient. I hope that you guys will understand from that as I think that I just sounded idiotic when I introduced physics into anime.

Artwork

When I started watching this I was amazed by it's visuals. The art is great and the animation is amazing. I thought that the character designs were all done very well but it seemed to me that the background needed a bit more animation. In some fights though, you can notice they skip some frames. These two animation errors I found are probably due to the fact this is budgeted. I hope that they can get more budget after a few more episodes as I love the art and wonder how much better it would be.

Music

Anyone that knows who Yuki Kajiura is will already know that the music is amazing. Yuki Kajiura is one of the best and she didn't let us down in SAO either. The music fit the scenes beautifully adding another layer of excitement. The OP/ED were generic but who says generic is bad? I think that they fit the anime very well and hope that the next ones are also just as good or better.

Additional Comments

Watching this anime after having read the light novel made me reminisce about the things I read. I immediately knew when some content of the light novel was skipped or not and even what was changed. Another thing that I would like to say that shows the difference of a light novel and an anime IMO is that I felt the feelings that the author was trying to convey more in the light novel but in the anime I felt much more excitement.
One thing that I would like everyone to know is that this anime being rushed, the way that in some scenes you can see still frames and the background being barely animated is all due to the fact that this is a budgeted anime. This is a problem with many anime and due to this the anime will not be able to completely follow the light novel. I hope that people will be able to understand this and not end up hating this anime for those cons.

Thank you all for reading all this. Longest review I made up till now as I just loved the SAO light novels. Even if you didn't like the anime, I hope you will still read the light novels.

My review for these 4 episodes is 8/10. I expected to give better when I compare it to the light novel but I just can't simply overlook the rushing and the things that made me sad to see.

Darker Than Black Review

2012-07-30T08:39:00.002-07:00

Source from wikispaces

Story

About 10 years ago Hell's Gate opened.
Hei, the main character is a very powerful Contractor. Contractors are people that pay a certain price for having special powers. The thing is, Hei is special. He is the only one that doesn't have to pay a price. Living in Japan, he takes down Contractors that are causing problems from rival syndicates in Tokyo. Helping him is Yin, an almost blind girl, an old man named Huang, and a cat that can talk named Mao. As Hei takes down other Contractors, he also slowly unlocks the secrets of his past, including Hell's Gate.

Review

Darker Than Black is an anime that you would make someone else watch that is new to anime. Since it has superheroes, supernatural powers, syndicates, etc... The fight scenes are likely to get that person into anime. But for older anime watchers this is the kind of stuff you are already used to. I will say that the fights were definitely great and fun to watch but you have to watch it till the end to even understand the story.

Sure, the fights are great and there is plenty of fights as well but you also have to think why they are fighting. Why is Hei fighting? It doesn't tell you anything about Hei's background at all till the last episodes.

The art is very good, as expected by the Studio BONES. Though the animation needed a little more work. The character design was very good, you can discern every character from each other.
As for the music, Yoko Kanno's score sheet perfectly fit Darker Than Black's mood and it's story.

Overall, this anime is very solid and recommended for people that are starting into anime. As for old anime watchers, if you haven't watched this kind of anime I would recommend you to watch it for more experience but it is only optional.

7/10 for Darker than Black.

Yu Yu Hakusho Review

2012-07-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yu Yu Hakusho is a very old anime that started in 1992 and finished in 1995. I absolutely love anime in the 90's era and the same thing goes to this but there are some things that could've been better.

Source is digilander

First of all, this is an old '90s anime. The art was normal for that time, however the animation and effects were very good for the time. Despite this, the story was a bit bland. A 14 year old kid dies in a traffic accident and becomes a ghost. Then the demon king's son revives him only to become someone that beats the evil spirits on earth? Out of the millions of people that die only he got a second chance? Well, I found the start of the anime to be boring but when it got to the dark tournament arc it was great.

The character development in this anime is what keeps you going. At first you see that Yusuke is a delinquent, but he has a caring heart, Kuwabara is shown like he is stupid but he really isn't, Hiei may seem unbelievably cold but he actually has a warm heart, and Kurama being too nice. As the story develops so did the characters. You learn more about the character as the story goes, mostly in the last arc which is also my favorite arc.

Source is Giantbomb

This show is usually compared to with Dragon Ball. Sure, it has some similarities but I would never compare the two. What Dragon Ball is trying to do and what this anime is trying to do is completely different. OR it might just be me misunderstanding what people are comparing the two for. If anyone has an opinion please tell me.

If you can hold on to the anime till the dark tournament era I strongly recommend this anime, which is around the 26th episode of the anime. It is also shorter than most popular shounen fighting anime for being 112 episodes. This anime is romance/action/shounen/comedy/drama/supernatural. If you like any of those genres, please do watch this anime. If not, try to find another anime I put on here :).

7/10 for Yu Yu Hakusho.

Daily Lives of High School Boys Review

2012-07-27T20:14:00.001-07:00

This anime made me laugh almost every single minute. It got rid of any stress I had while watching and made me relaxed. It doesn't have a story but it covers that up with amazingly funny and unpredictable humor.

I recommend this anime to everyone. Even if you aren't a huge fan of slice of life anime, I guarantee that you will love this anime. The animes voice acting and jokes totally fit the characters. The jokes were so unpredictable and done at moments you wouldn't expect them to be done.

The voice acting... AMAZING. I love the voice acting in this anime. It makes it three times as funny. Changing their voice to fit the character and the mood is an amazing thing to do. What made it much better is because the voices of Gintoki from Gintama, Renton from Eureka Seven and other great voice actors.
Rather than having a story, it takes something high schoolers like and puts it into a single episode. Like games, girls, skirts, friends etc... and makes them as funny as possible. This is why this anime doesn't need a story however important it is.
There was MANY scenes I just laughed like I never have in my life. Mostly because I probably had the same moments happen to me. Just in a less funny way. Like when they were playing Dragon Quest in their room. I had done the same thing with my friends even if it wasn't Dragon Quest and we didn't put so many characters in it. I will try to update this post with a video of it so everyone can see what I am talking about :).
Hopefully you guys understood what I was trying to say. I would simply write "Watch it" without any explanation for this as it really is hard to explain and is really that good.

9/10 for the humor. Seriously, the humor. It doesn't need a story at all.

Eureka Seven Review

2012-07-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

Eureka Seven is a great anime that I recommend to many people. I have loved this anime and have re-watched it several times since then. Other than the fact that the main character is whiny, I loved the story, art, mechs(I don't like mechs that often), animation and everything about it. I especially loved the story.

The story is very unique. I loved how interesting it was and how good BONES studio was able to animate it so well according to the story. I congratulate the author of this for being able to imagine such a vast world. From the trapar to the boards, the very unique mechs to the corals and everything that just made the Eureka Seven world so much better.

There were scenes where they joked around, scenes they were serious, scenes when they were having fun and scenes with romance. This anime has about everything. Normally this would make an anime hard to understand but Eureka Seven did this perfectly by spreading each genre within each other.

The music... What can I even say about it? The soundtrack of Eureka Seven is just beautiful. It fits the anime so well and it makes us feel so excited of the anime at the same time. I absolutely love the soundtrack and know that you guys will too.

Eureka Seven gets a bit confusing sometimes but it explains everything until the end. I really don't know what to say about some scenes gets pretty confusing. I loved every bit of this anime and I just hope they make the second season "Eureka Seven AO" much better.

I am going to leave the AO season's review for when it finishes as of right now it is very confusing. I think that it is trying to build up our excitement for the story and then suddenly show us something great like in the last episodes. It is slowly starting to explain what happened though so please be patient for that review :).

9/10 for Eureka Seven.

Hunter x Hunter Review

2012-07-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

This anime is one of my all-time favorites. It may seem a bit childish but it did what other shounen anime couldn't do. It keeps on unraveling the story bit by bit each and every episode. It also doesn't focus on a single character and shows some of the other characters stories as well, and does it in a way that it actually doesn't get boring.

It has everything that you probably dreamed of when you were a child. Powers, freedom, friendship, rivals, and well just about everything. The story is simple yet great at the same time. I just hope that HxH can continue to be such a great anime for the time to come.

It starts with a boy named Gon. His dad abandoned him when he was still a baby in order to follow his dream as a Hunter but Gon was proud of him instead of being angry. He wanted to know what it was that could make a person abandon his own child so he himself became a Hunter seeking out his dad.

Sounds childish, but it definitely is for all age groups. Well, maybe 7+ for some scenes.

Hunter x Hunter has 4 seasons.
1- Hunter x Hunter
2- Hunter x Hunter OVA
3- HxH Greed Island
4- HxH G.I. Final
After these 4 seasons which ended in 2004 they decided to reboot the anime in 2011 in order to follow the manga more accurately which is called Hunter x Hunter (2011).
It is currently on the 40th episode at the time of me writing this and even though some stuff in the original anime was better such as voice acting, some stuff is also better in the new one like the art.

I hope they can follow the manga as closely as possible as I like the manga which is still ongoing very much.

9/10 for Hunter x Hunter

Kara no Kyoukai Review

2012-07-16T01:48:00.001-07:00

Cover of Kara no Kyoukai

An intense Horror/Psychological/Mystery/Drama/Supernatural/Romance, that has great characters, animation and plot. It's a movie series made up of 7 movies. I don't give 10/10's very often but this definitely deserves it. Now this is something I recommend EVERYONE to watch.

The first movie might be a little confusing as it doesn't really explain anything, the second movie and the rest will cover what you were thinking when you said "What the fuck...".

The animation and the fight scenes are amazingly beautiful and so are the characters design. The story is built so that it kinda relies on the watcher but I found joy in unraveling what the author was trying to do.

There might not be much humor and emotion but there is something about it that keeps you clinging and BOOM goes when you get to the last movies. It was amazingly presented and I love this movie series.
The writing was good, if a little strange. Much of the speech was philosophical, and the movie makes fun of it by having a character refer to the themes as 'something from a cheap novel' but like everything else, the script served to enhance the tone, both where it was and wasn't there. The main character, Shiki, caught my heart the second I laid my eyes on her and never let go. She's intense, serious, but still very emotional. The supporting characters didn't play that big of a roll in the film, but none were unnecessary.

Shiki with her knife being awesome

The film's soundtrack was made by the extremely talented Yuki Kajiura (.hack, Mai-Hime and other great anime) and was perfect for the film's dark and intense moments. It wasn't the best of Kajiura's work but it still was certainly impressive.
It might not be for people that don't like complex stories but this was an amazing watch and I would still recommend them to watch it.

WARNING: This movie series is very gruesome. Please be at least 16+ to watch this.

Fairy Tail Review

2012-07-15T14:17:00.000-07:00

Back to popular titles now. I'm going to be a bit harsh on this one though.

Fairy Tail is that kinda anime that you watch just for fun. It's character design sucks, it's story is interesting but still not good enough since it is predictable, animation is average but the characters in it have fun a lot of the time so you can also get into the mood. The manga was much better but I can't say that I absolutely loved it either.

The art is totally the same with Rave Master. They could have at least changed it a little. Well, if you like these kind of anime go for it but I do not really recommend it. It is average at best and you could be watching much better anime than this instead of wasting your time on it.

I mean even though it is mediocre and basically geared for a slightly more simple minded crowd, it is somewhat pleasant and entertaining. The CG and battle scenes were also not bad. The humor in it was the only thing that I moderately liked.

If any of you care at all for the voice acting in the anime like I do you probably already noticed that Kugimiya Rie and Hirano Aya is in it. These two voices are amazing and makes the anime they play in so fantastic. I absolutely love these two voices but if they could only play in better anime then this I would be so happy. The fact that they were playing in this anime was what made me start to watch it.

Also the music. The music varies between many genres and probably the thing I liked the best in this anime. It has outstanding background music and it is probably what kept me going. Every piece of music in this anime was very well written. It is what keeps the moderate fights exciting.

Like I said, a bit harsh on this one.
6/10 for Fairy Tail.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? Review

2012-07-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, this anime is a bit crazy. By that I mean it is pure senseless humor.

Story

"Aikawa Ayumu is a normal boy that was trying to live his life normally. But, one day he got killed only to be revived by Eucliwood Hellscythe as a zombie. After being revived he was forced to serve Eu as a protector. While all this was happening he stole the mahou shoujo Haruna's powers. Since Haruna's powers were now in the hands of Ayumu, Haruna asked Ayumu to destroy the anti-mahou shoujo system 'Megalo' in her place."

Review

This was made by Studio Deen so I was expecting good art and animation and I was correct. The character designs and the character personalities are rather interesting. The only thing I didn't like was that the art ranged from below average to great in different scenes.

The plot is where it has problems. It makes no sense at all. It does a great job at jokes and even made a joke right at the end where most comedy anime have problems doing. This anime is just for pure laughs and doesn't try to be serious(except for in the middle of the anime but they immediately abandoned that). I loved it for the laughs and hope you guys like it too.

If you are having a bad day and need to lighten up with a few laughs this is the anime for you. Maybe your dog died, your girlfriend/boyfriend broke up with you or something happened to someone close to you. Watching this anime will not make those bad things go away but it will surely keep your mind off of them and make you a little bit happier. Plot is very important for me and I certainly am not saying this anime is an exception but sometimes these kind of anime is needed. Hopefully an anime like this with a great plot in the future will be made as that anime would become a masterpiece.

4/10 if you are someone that likes serious anime,
8/10 if you like comedy :)
If you like both then it is anything in the middle of that.

Summer Wars Review

2012-07-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

Source from imdb

This anime is a Action/Adventure/Comedy/with a bit of Sci-Fi and some well placed Emo and Romance too.

Summer Wars was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, the same person who directed Girl Who Leapt Through Time and an anime favorite of mine, Eden of the East. If any of you have watched either one of those you probably already know how good this is. For the unlucky few who haven't watched those I made this review :).
Summer Wars was made with the ideal of becoming as real as possible. The characters expressions, the way they interact, the family and their relationships, gaming etc... But at the same time it is very far from reality like the AI, OZ etc... All of these keep this anime very entertaining. Especially if you are a gamer. For example, a final boss. This draws in the audience as people that watch anime most likely play games as well so it is like hitting two birds with one stone.
What I meant above by saying the family when I was saying examples of what made it real was that you can understand each character like it is your own. The grandma is fiesty, the men of the family have quite a bit of pride and the children are annoying/nosy. This creates a great effect and helps the storyline strongly as it shows how important family relationships are.

Summer Wars shows that without the obsession humans call technology, society would crumble. This is relayed as real as possible by the amazing director Mamoru Hosoda. Mamoru is known for making anime that shows the obsession of humans; like Eden of the East was with money and power, Summer Wars with technology.

In my opinion, even if you only see one anime film this year, you should go see Summer Wars!

9/10 for this. 1 off for intro and CG. The CG was a bit weird in places so I just couldn't take a huge like at it.

One Piece Review

2012-07-15T10:45:00.002-07:00

One Piece is different from the other popular shounen anime. For one, One Piece is actually fun. By this I mean it doesn't keep on changing its storyline. The main character has a set goal and fights strongly for it. It also doesn't lengthen the fights unnecessarily either. It could introduce a super strong character yet get defeated in 1 episode. But at the same time, it could be a weak character and get defeated in 3-4 episodes.
Another thing that makes the story strong in One Piece is that it teaches everyone to cherish their friends and even if they are far away from you, to hold the memories you had with them dear. By teaching us, I mean it never forgets about people that have become friends with the Straw Hat Pirates. These people that come back brings us a memory of an old part of the story and ties it with the current story.
In a lengthy anime such as One Piece there are bound to be fillers. On other popular anime like Bleach or Naruto, most people hate the fillers. But in One Piece the fillers are very entertaining. The fillers in One Piece are worth to watch as they are funny and keep us entertained till the filler is done.
For an anime that has so many episodes you would guess it would have become repetitive but this isn't true. In every arc it introduces new people with a new story while upholding the main idea of becoming the Pirate King. Also, in One Piece the important person isn't the main character. It is the whole world. It doesn't simply shove off unnecessary characters, it even tells their story. Each and every person in the Straw Hat Pirates have an individual dream that plays a part in the storyline.
I think that by the time One Piece actually gets finished, it would have created a full world. At first look the story may seem simple but when looking at what keeps that simple look together you can see that this is probably one of the most complex stories that an anime has.

Bleach Review

2012-07-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my last review of this anime. I was just angry as it was a recommendation from a friend when I said I didn't want to watch it. Edited it to make it better.

Story

"Ichigo Kurosaki is 15 years old an he has a special ability, the ability to see ghosts. But it is something that he considers more of a bother than a gift. One day he met a Shinigami (Death God) named Rukia, who's on the run from a Hollow—a monster ghost that still has unfinished business.

Without anything else to do, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo, whose enormous supply of spirit energy makes him a far more able Shinigami than she ever was! Soon Ichigo is taking Hollows down left and right, and has the help with other friends at school that have similar abilities. However, Rukia's transfer of power isn't allowed by the Soul Society (the name of the spirit world), and when their agents called Shinigami come to Earth to punish Rukia, Ichigo finds that he might have to challenge the entire Soul Society to save her."

Review

This is one of those animes that are aimed for those that like a simple plot. It is straightforward in what it does so the watcher doesn't have to think so much and just watch the animation. The Art is mediocre in this anime, courtesy of Studio Pierrot. The animation(such as the attacks) are pretty good and fun to watch.

The thing about this is that I couldn't stand it. I cannot say the same for everyone and there is definitely a lot of people that will not agree with me but this simplicity is what I think is bad. I love thinking about the anime like why the MC said what he said or what is going on. On Bleach they simply have fights while adding some extra detail like kidnapping as a reason for it. Another thing I didn't like were the first episodes. A kid in his mid-teens suddenly meets a shinigami girl that kills him and he becomes one himself with powers. After that he fought the hollows(monsters in this anime) so that he could save the shinigami world. I couldn't really make much sense out of that but some people think otherwise so that is why I said it had a simple plot.

The characters are all unique. They have characteristics that are special to their own character and it makes them much more distinguishable. Like the funny logos on Ichigo's t-shirts, Rukia's single bang hanging over her face, Ishida's glasses, Orihime's hair clips, Chad's scraggly features, Urahara's striped hat, Renji's visor that looks like a sleep mask, etc... This is a very good thing as it makes most anime much more enjoyable. The character design gets an A+ from me.

As for the soundtrack, I loved it. It had music that supported the battles mood. Even though they were made from a synthesizer it sounded great with its electronic instruments making the watcher more excited and feels what the anime is trying to do.

6/10 for Bleach. I am giving this score as an average based on people that could and couldn't like it. I hope that this review is much better than the one before. Sorry again if I made some people angry with the other one. Thank you for reading.

Naruto Review

2012-07-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

Naruto is an anime that has been in hype since it first came out. Unfortunately, even if I don’t think poorly of this title, the buzz that is present in Naruto is plainly more hype than substance.
If you ask me where this hype all comes from I will say watching the first episode is more than enough. Even before ending the first episode you can know what direction this anime is going to go towards. Naruto wanting to become the Hokage(strongest ninja).

Plot
Naruto is just like a typical Shounen Jump manga. First of all, you need a hero. Hero here is Naruto. Naruto is similar to the other popular shounen anime/manga. He is trying to become stronger, cares for his comrades and fights for his dreams. Based on this we can give Naruto an OK. But, the characters around Naruto are what really makes it too cliche; a rival, a girl the hero likes but she likes the rival, comrades, villain, an idol and someone that teaches the hero. These are all in Naruto and also in most popular shounen anime. Plot is nothing new and will probably never be new.
Despite this, I absolutely love the different moves. How they combined the different hand styles to create such unique(some aren't like the kage bunshin) techniques. Hoping they can refine this and it might be able to make the anime a bit more interesting.

Artwork

The art is fine for the year it came out in but even though it is 2012 they kept the same style. I had hoped that they would add some more details and make the art more alive but the art only gets a 6/10 from me.
As for animation, at some points it is great and at others it gets painful to even watch it. The animators get sloppy at times and can't keep a constant performance while making the anime. With such an enormous budget I hope they can make the animations much better.

Music

Naruto doesn't have the best OP/ED's but the background music is just fantastic. It totally fits the mood of a ninja anime with it's drums and Japanese feel to it. I would watch the anime just to listen to these great musics.

I recommend this anime only for preteens(though not any younger as it has the occasional violence). This anime would definitely and is popular in CartoonNetwork which is mainly watched by preteens.
As for older people I shall say that I give a 5/10 to this anime and leave if they want to watch it up to theirselves.