Score: 2

"Overall? Rather forgettable..."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 19

date: June 5, 2008

So, having watched the entire series, I'm pretty unimpressed. Not with the technical side of the production so much - I absolutely acknowledge the time and effort it must have taken to create Minushi, and certainly praise the author for having the skill and willpower to finish the project. The animation and artwork, while not overly spectacular, are above average and sufficient to express the author's ideas. The first few episodes were promising, but the project quickly began to go downhill.

I felt there were a lot of flaws in this work: the storyline was meandering, insipid, and felt like the author lost his handle on focus and pacing about halfway through. The story didn't explain any of the mysteries and questions the earlier episodes indicated would be important, and the Tinker/medallion subplot that initially seemed to be a key feature was turned into a laughably meaningless and irrelevant side-issue (as I mentioned in my review of episode 18). In addition, the tedious, drawn-out military action, the childish good/bad distinctions, and Trixi's repetitive whining to her brother about how the giants "weren't bad" were poorly thought out, especially as in the latter situation she'd only just encountered them and there was never a straightfoward answer given as to whether the giants were actually good, either. Also, the author wants us to believe that *nobody* in power ever considered that the giants might not be overtly hostile? Seriously?

The voice acting for the main characters was okay for the most part, but the secondary characters (especially the woman in the destroyed town earlier in the piece) ranked from bad to awful-beyond-belief.

As for the ending, it is no surprise that the speech given in the epilogue is a generic, cheesy, cornball "after school special" message, mostly because the story itself doesn't really have any meaning to it, or expressed within it.

I will finish by venting for a moment: For the love of all that is holy, whose idea was it to use that god-awfully amateurish, offensively off-key wailing as the end-credit song? I had to make sure my ears weren't bleeding after hearing that untalented tripe.

Will keep an eye out for other projects by this author; I have faith that experience and feedback will lend themselves to superior results in subsequent narratives. ^_^

Score: 3

"Hmm..."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 18

date: June 4, 2008

This penultimate episode was better than many of the preceding ones, but unfortunately revealed the truth of something I had thought might be the case. Whether it was a lack of focus over the years it took to put this project together, or just that you just hadn't ever fully written the story, this episode gave away the fact that most of the narrative was being made up as it went along.

It is evident right back at the start of the story that the writing on the medallion Khal possess is intended to be some kind of riddle to be solved, and that Tinker would be a key feature in Minushi, but by the end his whole subplot has been lazily thrown aside, with the riddle turned - in an outrageously hamfisted and hilariously awkward retcon - into a literal set of phrases to be spoken. When it becomes obvious that Tinker's entire role has served no purpose whatsoever, it is disappointing, as even the too-small part which we did get to see was more interesting than Trixi's insufferably whiny, banal quest that dominated the rest of the cliched story.

You need to focus on pacing your stories better, identifying which parts of the narrative are worth pursuing in more depth and, as has been stated before, it is important to develop characters that aren't untouchable one-note caricatures. Otherwise, effective animation and artwork as usual.

Score: 10

"Interesting."

submission: Head's Rush

date: May 23, 2008

10/10 for the graphical style and interpretation of the game, and also to counteract those morons who don't realise that their own incompetence does not warrant the game being given a 0 or 1.

Don't review things until you've actually had some experience with them, dumbasses.

Score: 1

"Meh."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 17

date: May 21, 2008

Glaring plot holes and unrealistic actions? Check.

Deus ex machina? Check.

Bad guy getting his comeuppance? Check.

Yawn? Check.

1/10? Check.

Score: 2

"Ye gods..."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 16

date: May 21, 2008

Could Trixi possibly be any whinier? The constant bitching and unwarranted attitude problem are intensely wearying; this is made worse by the fact that she doesn't demonstrate any other qualities - good or bad - worth mentioning.

The art is fine, but what's the point? This series has gone exactly nowhere since it began; the main characters have had no development and have not achieved anything, the plot is basically non-existent when it isn't blatantly ripping off some other movie or television show, and for a series that is about to end, *something* should have happened by now.

Score: 1

"Ick."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 15

date: May 21, 2008

Ugh, from the endless pseudo-philosophical whining, to the tiresomely predictable fight scene, this series is just dragging a metric crapton of dead weight and cliches at this point.

1/10 for the animation and artwork.

Score: 4

"Meh."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 14

date: May 21, 2008

Next week on Minushi: Trixi and Griffin will escape, naturally, probably via Hogarth's deus ex Iron Giant. Tinker will still be doing his same "eeeeevil" schtick, which hopefully will be explained when he gets his hands on the medallion, because no doubt he'll only have it for about five seconds, just long enough to turn into the uber-whatever, then abruptly get destroyed by the nursery rhyme engraved on it because the series ran out of time by getting sidetracked by too much trivial nonsense on the way to the climax. :P

Also, please be more discerning in your choice of voice actors.

Score: 4

"Meh."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 13

date: May 21, 2008

Can't say much more than I already have in other reviews, but ye gods is this ever tiresome. One plot path is the uber-annoying Ninja-trixie and her robotic brother doing their whiny didactic soap opera schtick, and the other is ersatz-Hogarth and the faux-Iron Giant doing their best to rip off the much more effective and successful tale of the same name.

I can only assume you had another direction in mind when you first started writing this series, because surely nobody would ever willingly bring it to this point. The only real point to the story that has been expressed in the 13 episodes so far is, "Oh my god! The giant robots *aren't* trying to kill us." Wow, really?

Art direction and animation style is perfectly acceptable, as always.

Score: 5

"Guh. :P"

submission: Minushi - Chapter 12

date: May 21, 2008

I thought they'd run out of giant-robot-related deus ex machina a couple of episodes back, but nope, here we go again. The "revelation" and exposition about the boy's mother came out of nowhere and felt hamfisted in the extreme, and by the gods, if that's really the way Tinker is written out of the series, it is another pretty obvious indicator that not a great deal of thought went into the plot of Minushi. Guess we'll see.

The quality of the artwork remains very high, as usual.

Score: 5

"Meh."

submission: Minushi - Chapter 11

date: May 21, 2008

For the love of all that is holy, could somebody just kill her already? I haven't seen a less charismatic - or more annoying - lead character since Neon Genesis Evangelion; I'm surprised she isn't named Mary Sue.