Reviews for Absolute Duo (3.11)
3 Reviews
1. -
seravy
Nakayama Atsushi
Sano Keiichi
Tanaka Kii
As you can guess from the tags, this is another generic harem with superpowers anime, however, it`s way below average even for one of those. Story : In short, the anime is about chara...
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02.06.2015 21:18 - direct link
(rs9524)
As you can guess from the tags, this is another generic harem with superpowers anime, however, it's way below average even for one of those.
Story :
In short, the anime is about characters having superpowers and fighting a lot for...well, pretty much no reason at all. There are antagonists, whose motivations were never explained or justified, or made any sense. Due to that, battles against them feel a bit pointless, it's feels no different from defending yourself from a pack of stray wolves. Or NPCs. When that isn't the case, then they fight each other with no actual consequences, as part of the school's activities. During the times when they aren't fighting an uninteresting battle, ecchi kicks in. This is pretty much the usual thing, girls climbing into the main characters bed, falling onto him in weird positions, etc...nothing too extreme or disgusting this time but I don't watch shows for ecchi so that's a plus for me.
In the few cases the characters actually do take a relevant action to the story, it's probably the complete opposite of what any sane person would do. (See spoilers below if you want details)
Story? What story? You mean cardboard antagonists being cut down by the lamest main character ever -or- more often, his harem? 2/10, Try again.
I could have accepted the anime not having a story and going for just the harem instead, since that can be enjoyable on its own if the girls are all well done and/or the show has some comedy, but this one clearly went for the part of trying to pretend there is a story. Half the screentime is filled with battles afterall.
Characters :
First of all the main male is - as usual - special. Too bad this time his special powers make him...lamer than everyone else. Afterall, not being able to attack in an anime full of battles is quite lame, isn't it? Now this is where it gets cheesy...everyone only has one "ability" and no other superpowers in the show, besides the physically more powerful bodies, but the main character can...do..umm..let's call them Ki punches or something on top of his normal power. It's never explained why or how, he just can, because, you know, we can't go anywhere with a protagonist who cannot fight so he needs to...
His behavior is the crappy harem standard, if a girl gets close, he runs away as if it was a disease to...be interested in girls or something. As others prefer to sum it in one word : "gay". But no, it's worse. Not having interest in girls would be still fine...but clearly having interest then acting as though that was a totally bad thing is just stupid. Especially in a HAREM show. I rather have the guy actively trying to touch the girls and receiving some kicks in the face for it than this, and that isn't very fun either.
The main girl Julie looks good, has a nice personality, and is totally my type, can't complain there.
The rest of the characters were...pretty much extras, considering the pairing was already done in the very beginning, so there is no choice here whatsoever. I wasn't particularly interested in them, and they felt generic.
Overall 4/10, Julie was great, the guy was horrible, the rest didn't matter.
Animation :
I didn't have any complaints here, the girls looked attractive, so it did its job. Wasn't particularly special but didn't notice any major problems 7/10
Sound :
I generally don't care much about this one, but for this anime I actually noticed how annoying the BGM was quite a few times. I didn't notice anything I could list as positive unfortunately, the rest was acceptable but not outstanding, so that's a 4/10.
Value :
Absolutely nothing. Seriously. Just don't watch. If you like the looks of any of the female characters, download some pictures of them and you are still better off. Saves time, too. If you would watch it for the ecchi alone, just fast forward to your preferred scenes and ignore the rest of the show. 1/10
Enjoyment :
I clearly didn't enjoy watching this. It wasn't unbearable, and Juliet was one of the better harem girls I've seen recently, but overall it wasn't really worth the time. 3/10
Story :
In short, the anime is about characters having superpowers and fighting a lot for...well, pretty much no reason at all. There are antagonists, whose motivations were never explained or justified, or made any sense. Due to that, battles against them feel a bit pointless, it's feels no different from defending yourself from a pack of stray wolves. Or NPCs. When that isn't the case, then they fight each other with no actual consequences, as part of the school's activities. During the times when they aren't fighting an uninteresting battle, ecchi kicks in. This is pretty much the usual thing, girls climbing into the main characters bed, falling onto him in weird positions, etc...nothing too extreme or disgusting this time but I don't watch shows for ecchi so that's a plus for me.
In the few cases the characters actually do take a relevant action to the story, it's probably the complete opposite of what any sane person would do. (See spoilers below if you want details)
Story? What story? You mean cardboard antagonists being cut down by the lamest main character ever -or- more often, his harem? 2/10, Try again.
I could have accepted the anime not having a story and going for just the harem instead, since that can be enjoyable on its own if the girls are all well done and/or the show has some comedy, but this one clearly went for the part of trying to pretend there is a story. Half the screentime is filled with battles afterall.
Characters :
First of all the main male is - as usual - special. Too bad this time his special powers make him...lamer than everyone else. Afterall, not being able to attack in an anime full of battles is quite lame, isn't it? Now this is where it gets cheesy...everyone only has one "ability" and no other superpowers in the show, besides the physically more powerful bodies, but the main character can...do..umm..let's call them Ki punches or something on top of his normal power. It's never explained why or how, he just can, because, you know, we can't go anywhere with a protagonist who cannot fight so he needs to...
His behavior is the crappy harem standard, if a girl gets close, he runs away as if it was a disease to...be interested in girls or something. As others prefer to sum it in one word : "gay". But no, it's worse. Not having interest in girls would be still fine...but clearly having interest then acting as though that was a totally bad thing is just stupid. Especially in a HAREM show. I rather have the guy actively trying to touch the girls and receiving some kicks in the face for it than this, and that isn't very fun either.
The main girl Julie looks good, has a nice personality, and is totally my type, can't complain there.
The rest of the characters were...pretty much extras, considering the pairing was already done in the very beginning, so there is no choice here whatsoever. I wasn't particularly interested in them, and they felt generic.
Overall 4/10, Julie was great, the guy was horrible, the rest didn't matter.
Animation :
I didn't have any complaints here, the girls looked attractive, so it did its job. Wasn't particularly special but didn't notice any major problems 7/10
Sound :
I generally don't care much about this one, but for this anime I actually noticed how annoying the BGM was quite a few times. I didn't notice anything I could list as positive unfortunately, the rest was acceptable but not outstanding, so that's a 4/10.
Value :
Absolutely nothing. Seriously. Just don't watch. If you like the looks of any of the female characters, download some pictures of them and you are still better off. Saves time, too. If you would watch it for the ecchi alone, just fast forward to your preferred scenes and ignore the rest of the show. 1/10
Enjoyment :
I clearly didn't enjoy watching this. It wasn't unbearable, and Juliet was one of the better harem girls I've seen recently, but overall it wasn't really worth the time. 3/10
2. -
Zaku88
Nakayama Atsushi
Sano Keiichi
Tanaka Kii
Who wouldn`t want to attend a school where all living expenses are paid, and they hand out credit cards for the students to use? Is that not enough to convince you? How about adding a few tr...
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- Unrated
22.04.2015 04:31 - direct link
(rs9499)
Who wouldn't want to attend a school where all living expenses are paid, and they hand out credit cards for the students to use? Is that not enough to convince you? How about adding a few trips to tropical islands and luxurious cruises with a class full of bishoujo classmates? Ok... so there is a catch, you have to be injected with a mysterious serum and agree to train for battles with and against your classmates and teachers. Welcome to the world of Absolute Duo.
Once more, we find ourselves with a series where a male protagonist enters a school seeking power, only to be overwhelmed by a room full of already powerful girls. Absolute Duo feels very similar to oh so many action-centric harems such as Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and Trinity Seven. The lightly-ecchi show centers around Tooru, a typical harem protagonist with some guts and a lot of spare niceness, who is tormented by a tragedy that he blames on his own weakness. He, as well as many other students, is able to harness the power of his soul through a means called blaze. The school is set up by the loli devil er... chairwoman for achieving "absolute duo", something that isn't terribly fleshed out in the school.
If you're into action-based harems know that this is one of the weaker ones. Some annoyances include a protagonist who is often just a meat shield, extremely generic antagonists, and weak character development. Not to say that the show doesn't have any redeemable value, but the show and its protagonist have low ratings here for a reason.
Animation:
The show itself is well animated with vivid, saturated coloring and an overall modern look. Backgrounds are adequately detailed and some effects, such as falling sakura petals, are particularly well done. Character styling is fairly nice overall with a nicely rounded (no pun intended) group of heroines. Emotions are a bit stunted in this show, though perhaps a bit intentional as the main heroine isn't very expressive.
There is substantial action in this show, ranging from sword battles to ranged projectiles. Expect plenty of blood and some pretty serious wounds. That being said, I think that serum somehow impacts recoveries as well as people seem to recover as fast as the protagonist in Unbreakable Machine Doll does. The action is on par with that found in other action-based harems though CGI is grossly abused. The ecchi is rather on the light side. There are substantial amounts of boing and upskirts but clothing actually stays on mostly and the protagonist isn't an overt pervert. A lot of the ecchi material is due to misunderstandings caused by the primary heroine, Julie.
Sound:
The show starts with an energetic, action-centric light rock piece that fits despite not having much of a central melody. The EDs are much nicer in my opinion with lightly electronic touches and more palatable melodies, on top of being performed by the VAs. The BGM is present with a variety of tunes but not particularly memorable.
The primary heroine VAs all haven't really had breakout roles, most have just done a lot of supporting roles. Haruka Yamazaki probably gets the standout award though her character by nature has a bit more of a distinguishable personality. Yui Horie makes an appearance, though limited to a supporting role. Overall, not bad but nothing particularly great either.
Story:
The show follows our protagonist Tooru as he learns to harness his blaze along with his foreigner duo partner, Julie, and their classmate friends. Our protagonist is unusual in that his blaze takes on the physical shape of a shield, rather than an offensive weapon, thus giving "meat shield" a whole new meaning. The gang is repeatedly challenged by the school as well as external antagonists who use Crysis-inspired suits rather than harnessing the "power of the soul".
Absolute Duo has a rather simple plot with very few branches. There are sub arcs that span various episodes and culminate in minor climaxes. Though moderately entertaining, the show suffers from an unambitious, shallow plot and poor explanation of the overall setting and its mechanics. It is apparent that this is a harem first and an action show second. Unfortunately, the harem aspect is likewise weak, as I'll get to next.
Character:
Supposedly, this is one of the simpler harems, with only five-ish candidates vying for the protagonist. The protagonist, obviously dull when it comes to relationships, can barely fend off the girl's attempts for his attention. However, the show manages to undermine even this simple harem by forcing the Duo pairing system. Tooru is almost immediately paired with Julie (and apparently is the only cross-gender Duo in the class), and you pretty much can guess how that will affect the rest of the "candidates." Don't expect much competition from the rest of the crew except for a few instances of horrifically bad plot exploiting a character's jealousy.
The relationships are very shallow and basically can be summarized by Tooru saving a girl who then joins the bandwagon. Despite their being other insignificant male characters in the show, our protagonist mysteriously gets all the attention. As for actual personalities, don't expect much from the show. Lilith is probably the strongest in that regard, and by strong I mean average for a show. Julie is emotionally stunted and is only marginally entertaining when she mispronounces things or accidentally says something that causes misunderstandings. The other girls just aren't even worth mentioning. Furthermore, the antagonists are as plain as can be, often spewing out generic nonsense with virtually no background or explanation of motives.
Overall, this was the most disappointing aspect of the show. The cookie-cutter heroines lacked development and depth and no one was really relatable.
Value:
This is a generic action-based harem with a weak plot and even weaker characters and relationships. Absolute Duo is a shining achievement in how wrong a harem can get. The entertainment value is present but greatly diminished by the events in the show, and given how simplistic the plot is there isn't much re-watch value. I would absolutely avoid this unless you are a masochist and like watching painfully bad works.
Once more, we find ourselves with a series where a male protagonist enters a school seeking power, only to be overwhelmed by a room full of already powerful girls. Absolute Duo feels very similar to oh so many action-centric harems such as Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and Trinity Seven. The lightly-ecchi show centers around Tooru, a typical harem protagonist with some guts and a lot of spare niceness, who is tormented by a tragedy that he blames on his own weakness. He, as well as many other students, is able to harness the power of his soul through a means called blaze. The school is set up by the loli devil er... chairwoman for achieving "absolute duo", something that isn't terribly fleshed out in the school.
If you're into action-based harems know that this is one of the weaker ones. Some annoyances include a protagonist who is often just a meat shield, extremely generic antagonists, and weak character development. Not to say that the show doesn't have any redeemable value, but the show and its protagonist have low ratings here for a reason.
Animation:
The show itself is well animated with vivid, saturated coloring and an overall modern look. Backgrounds are adequately detailed and some effects, such as falling sakura petals, are particularly well done. Character styling is fairly nice overall with a nicely rounded (no pun intended) group of heroines. Emotions are a bit stunted in this show, though perhaps a bit intentional as the main heroine isn't very expressive.
There is substantial action in this show, ranging from sword battles to ranged projectiles. Expect plenty of blood and some pretty serious wounds. That being said, I think that serum somehow impacts recoveries as well as people seem to recover as fast as the protagonist in Unbreakable Machine Doll does. The action is on par with that found in other action-based harems though CGI is grossly abused. The ecchi is rather on the light side. There are substantial amounts of boing and upskirts but clothing actually stays on mostly and the protagonist isn't an overt pervert. A lot of the ecchi material is due to misunderstandings caused by the primary heroine, Julie.
Sound:
The show starts with an energetic, action-centric light rock piece that fits despite not having much of a central melody. The EDs are much nicer in my opinion with lightly electronic touches and more palatable melodies, on top of being performed by the VAs. The BGM is present with a variety of tunes but not particularly memorable.
The primary heroine VAs all haven't really had breakout roles, most have just done a lot of supporting roles. Haruka Yamazaki probably gets the standout award though her character by nature has a bit more of a distinguishable personality. Yui Horie makes an appearance, though limited to a supporting role. Overall, not bad but nothing particularly great either.
Story:
The show follows our protagonist Tooru as he learns to harness his blaze along with his foreigner duo partner, Julie, and their classmate friends. Our protagonist is unusual in that his blaze takes on the physical shape of a shield, rather than an offensive weapon, thus giving "meat shield" a whole new meaning. The gang is repeatedly challenged by the school as well as external antagonists who use Crysis-inspired suits rather than harnessing the "power of the soul".
Absolute Duo has a rather simple plot with very few branches. There are sub arcs that span various episodes and culminate in minor climaxes. Though moderately entertaining, the show suffers from an unambitious, shallow plot and poor explanation of the overall setting and its mechanics. It is apparent that this is a harem first and an action show second. Unfortunately, the harem aspect is likewise weak, as I'll get to next.
Character:
Supposedly, this is one of the simpler harems, with only five-ish candidates vying for the protagonist. The protagonist, obviously dull when it comes to relationships, can barely fend off the girl's attempts for his attention. However, the show manages to undermine even this simple harem by forcing the Duo pairing system. Tooru is almost immediately paired with Julie (and apparently is the only cross-gender Duo in the class), and you pretty much can guess how that will affect the rest of the "candidates." Don't expect much competition from the rest of the crew except for a few instances of horrifically bad plot exploiting a character's jealousy.
The relationships are very shallow and basically can be summarized by Tooru saving a girl who then joins the bandwagon. Despite their being other insignificant male characters in the show, our protagonist mysteriously gets all the attention. As for actual personalities, don't expect much from the show. Lilith is probably the strongest in that regard, and by strong I mean average for a show. Julie is emotionally stunted and is only marginally entertaining when she mispronounces things or accidentally says something that causes misunderstandings. The other girls just aren't even worth mentioning. Furthermore, the antagonists are as plain as can be, often spewing out generic nonsense with virtually no background or explanation of motives.
Overall, this was the most disappointing aspect of the show. The cookie-cutter heroines lacked development and depth and no one was really relatable.
Value:
This is a generic action-based harem with a weak plot and even weaker characters and relationships. Absolute Duo is a shining achievement in how wrong a harem can get. The entertainment value is present but greatly diminished by the events in the show, and given how simplistic the plot is there isn't much re-watch value. I would absolutely avoid this unless you are a masochist and like watching painfully bad works.
3. -
DeadFish
Nakayama Atsushi
Sano Keiichi
Tanaka Kii
Every season in every year in these hard times for the anime industry has to have a light novel adaption that is Romantic/Harem/Magical school genre so why should i be suprised that this is ...
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- Unrated
18.04.2015 18:01 - direct link
(rs9498)
Every season in every year in these hard times for the anime industry has to have a light novel adaption that is Romantic/Harem/Magical school genre so why should i be suprised that this is shit? You ask well let me explain why exactly first lets start with
Animation:
I WAS FOOLED BY THE COVER IMAGE AND OP THE ACTUAL ANIMATION ISNT AS NEAR AS GOOD AS THOSE ARE.The art in this series is fu*king hideous,or atleast i found it unappealing.the animation is done by 8-bit who have produced such monstrosities as Infinite Stratos and Grisaia no Kajitsu so again why would i expect anything amazing from these guys? Well because the animation in the mentioned animes had ACCEPTABLE animation if not for a few bad uses of CGI here and there but still it was OK here however its horrendous i didnt give it a 1 because some fights were below average
ANIMATION=1
Sound:
I tend to not really care about sound in a series but since this is my first review i payed attention a little bit The OP is actually very well and as i said above DONT LET IT FOOL YOU the ED is nothing worth mentioning BGM isnt really anything worth mentioning as well And voice acting isnt that good either(ANOTHER FUCKING PROTAGONIST VOICED BY MATSUOKA SERIOUSLY STOP)
SOUND=3
Story:
Read the synopsis,yeah its cliché yeah its corny yeah its SHIT its yet another Magical school harem anime lets just review the first episode:
We are introduced into our protagonist COCKonore Tooru going in the exam of Magical highschool #7875579 in the Anime world where he sees silver-haired harem girl#1 and then meets harem girl#2 and agree to be partners in that stupid duo system and then gothic loli principal comes in and shit goes down and protagonist uses SHOCKWAVE
ATTACK even though the series made it clear the he could only do defense and then a bunch of charchters are introduced theyre all one dimensional cardboards so i wont even bother and the remember that silver haired harem girl she gets partnered with COCKonoe and then Bunnygirl Sensei? Ah Just go with it is introduced and is obviously a villain that gets beaten with Nakama power later in the series and thats the end.yeah the story is shit it has zero quality(if only anidb had zeroes)
STORY=0
Character:
Im not gonna talk about them.all i have to say is that they are lazy one dimensional cardboards with (do i really have to say this) zero development there ya go
CHARACTER=0
Enjoyment:
I take enjoyment VERY personaly and my personal recipe for a good enjoyable ankme is of course COOL SHIT and this series IS VERY LAME,LAME to horrendous extents no matter how much i tried to enjoy this I JUST COULD NOT GET MYSELF TO GET OVER THE ABSOLUTE LAME(NESS) of this series SERIOUSLY FUCK THIS AND FUCK ANYONE WHO EVEN GIVES IT ANYTHING ABOVE A 2.0
ENJOYMENT=0
Value:
It has zero rewatchability value,and will probably be forgotten by the next 5 animes coming out like it next season so ZERO memorablity
VALUE=0
OVERALL:
It is one of theveorst anime ever created even on light novel standards my immense hate for this series can only be matched with series like Black Bullet or Infinite Stratos AND ABSOLUTE DUO'S FINAL VERDICT GETS A*drums*:
1.0/10 ABSOLUTE SHIT
Anime to get this piece of shit out of your memory:
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Samurai Champloo
Baccano
Animation:
I WAS FOOLED BY THE COVER IMAGE AND OP THE ACTUAL ANIMATION ISNT AS NEAR AS GOOD AS THOSE ARE.The art in this series is fu*king hideous,or atleast i found it unappealing.the animation is done by 8-bit who have produced such monstrosities as Infinite Stratos and Grisaia no Kajitsu so again why would i expect anything amazing from these guys? Well because the animation in the mentioned animes had ACCEPTABLE animation if not for a few bad uses of CGI here and there but still it was OK here however its horrendous i didnt give it a 1 because some fights were below average
ANIMATION=1
Sound:
I tend to not really care about sound in a series but since this is my first review i payed attention a little bit The OP is actually very well and as i said above DONT LET IT FOOL YOU the ED is nothing worth mentioning BGM isnt really anything worth mentioning as well And voice acting isnt that good either(ANOTHER FUCKING PROTAGONIST VOICED BY MATSUOKA SERIOUSLY STOP)
SOUND=3
Story:
Read the synopsis,yeah its cliché yeah its corny yeah its SHIT its yet another Magical school harem anime lets just review the first episode:
We are introduced into our protagonist COCKonore Tooru going in the exam of Magical highschool #7875579 in the Anime world where he sees silver-haired harem girl#1 and then meets harem girl#2 and agree to be partners in that stupid duo system and then gothic loli principal comes in and shit goes down and protagonist uses SHOCKWAVE
ATTACK even though the series made it clear the he could only do defense and then a bunch of charchters are introduced theyre all one dimensional cardboards so i wont even bother and the remember that silver haired harem girl she gets partnered with COCKonoe and then Bunnygirl Sensei? Ah Just go with it is introduced and is obviously a villain that gets beaten with Nakama power later in the series and thats the end.yeah the story is shit it has zero quality(if only anidb had zeroes)
STORY=0
Character:
Im not gonna talk about them.all i have to say is that they are lazy one dimensional cardboards with (do i really have to say this) zero development there ya go
CHARACTER=0
Enjoyment:
I take enjoyment VERY personaly and my personal recipe for a good enjoyable ankme is of course COOL SHIT and this series IS VERY LAME,LAME to horrendous extents no matter how much i tried to enjoy this I JUST COULD NOT GET MYSELF TO GET OVER THE ABSOLUTE LAME(NESS) of this series SERIOUSLY FUCK THIS AND FUCK ANYONE WHO EVEN GIVES IT ANYTHING ABOVE A 2.0
ENJOYMENT=0
Value:
It has zero rewatchability value,and will probably be forgotten by the next 5 animes coming out like it next season so ZERO memorablity
VALUE=0
OVERALL:
It is one of theveorst anime ever created even on light novel standards my immense hate for this series can only be matched with series like Black Bullet or Infinite Stratos AND ABSOLUTE DUO'S FINAL VERDICT GETS A*drums*:
1.0/10 ABSOLUTE SHIT
Anime to get this piece of shit out of your memory:
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Samurai Champloo
Baccano
3 Reviews
