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Gasaraki - The Summoning (Vol. 1)

Gasaraki - The Summoning (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Close to perfect as it gets....
Review: The first thing you'll think when you watch this DVD it is: "What the heck are they doing with those robots". But by the fourt episode you will fully understand the story and will get into it.

I'm a fan of big robots and military stories, so if you're into this type of anime go ahead and get it. The main character is misterious and instantly drags you into the plot, and without you thinking about it you'll want to know what the purpose of the TA system really is. I give it four stars since the anime is a little too old for me.

Over all Gasaraki is one of the best looking anime of recent years and any fan of big robots and well chorographed action secuences will more than enjoy this series.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must have
Review: After religiously watching Neon Genesis Evangelion, and then watching this i can truly appreciate the work done on this anime. Gasaraki takes a far more serious tone than Evangelion throughout the film, this leaves you to enjoy the film without interjection of sometimes inappropriate humor from the more annoying characters. The voices for the characters fit like a glove and the animation of the TAs is excellent. Tied up with a very compelling storyline so far equivalent to that of NGE makes it a must have for the more intellectual anime fans as well as all others.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Starts off strong but goes nowhere slowly
Review: As far as overall review: not worth paying for. (but watch it on TV or borrow it from a friend)

`Gasaraki' starts off slowly but has a nice narrative hook. A very original universe. The UN sends in troops to stop ethnic war in a Bosnia type country. A real life universe! (with only the names changed) But American armored units, Abrams Tanks and Bradley APCs (for those of you not up to date in war news, Abrams and Bradleys are light years ahead of any other tank) suffer a drastic defeat at the hands of enemy mobile suits. That's right, real life mobile suits!!! In a real army!!! In a real war!!!

Fortunately for the UN a giant Japanese corporation Gowa has been developing giant mobile suits for just such a war. But now Gowa has its sights set on more than just being soldiers for hire. Gowa wants to AVENGE JAPAN'S LOSS IN WWII.

The plot is further complicated by the mobile suit pilots' digging further into the Gasaraki mobile suit program. It turns out that mobile suits are not entirely the result of science. They are the result of conjuring Japanese demons and giving them physical form.

`Gasaraki' starts off with some very original concepts, what if mobile suits really did exist? Would evil dictators try to take on the UN and fear no one? Would global corporations fear no one? And most importantly, with enough power, would the Japanese ever try to avenge WWII? These are the burning questions which kept me interested throughout `Gasaraki'. It was very realistic; I recall only one joke during the entire series.

None of these questions are answered by `Gasaraki'. The story slowly goes nowhere. There is no war, there are no battles. `Gasaraki' degenerates into a boring mindscape into the human soul. If Cartoon Network ever runs this, it might be worth your time but `Gasaraki' is not worth your money.

I strongly recommend `Full Metal Panic.' It's a similar story, except a comedy.




Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great series not to be missed
Review: At first I was sceptical,After seeing 6 episodes I am impressed, Just because this is a release by ADV alot of novices do compare this to neon genesis ( also in my collection all 13 volumes ), it shouldnt be! The storyline is good if not best, ignore the fact that most mecha anime is all about weapon development by some group of elites inspired by either personal hunger for power or some age old belief to resurrect the past, In my opinion I think that this is more of whats going on within those secret organizations, instead of " they are the secret(evil)organization that we know nothing about,that keeps on developing/building those evil weapons every week". Artwork is great not a last minute drawing..and finally how ADV released this series to U.S. viewers! The VHS release is only dubbed version, the only subtitled ( purist preffered ) release is on DVD, I think they did this to make sure that we dont miss how different/good gasaraki is..

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not too bad.
Review: At times the plot can be a little hard to follow and the characters are similar to Neon G, but I found that I quite enjoyed it. The characters for the most part are likable and there is a healthy dose of intrigue.
This first DVD is a little slow, especially the first 2 episodes. But if you can stick with it, you may enjoy them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The most intelligent anime in years
Review: Breathtaking. It's about time that somebody one-upped Evangelion and created a truly epic "giant robot" series with both a thoughtful, intelligent premise as well as spectacular animation. Like Eva, Gasaraki takes a few episodes to get up to speed (the third and fourth episodes on this tape are where the action really kicks in) and the audience, like the series central character Yushiro, is initially forced to figure out what's going on at the same speed that the hero is. This may bother those with short attention spans, but be advised that this series is well worth the time put into viewing it. Thus far I've seen the first twenty episodes in the original Japanese and the first four episodes in ADV's excellent dub, and believe me, every time you think you've got the next plot development figured out, the writers come up with a new way to knock your socks off. Add in the best animated mecha battles in any anime tv series and you've got one of the best giant robot show ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The most intelligent anime in years
Review: Breathtaking. It's about time that somebody one-upped Evangelion and created a truly epic "giant robot" series with both a thoughtful, intelligent premise as well as spectacular animation. Like Eva, Gasaraki takes a few episodes to get up to speed (the third and fourth episodes on this tape are where the action really kicks in) and the audience, like the series central character Yushiro, is initially forced to figure out what's going on at the same speed that the hero is. This may bother those with short attention spans, but be advised that this series is well worth the time put into viewing it. Thus far I've seen the first twenty episodes in the original Japanese and the first four episodes in ADV's excellent dub, and believe me, every time you think you've got the next plot development figured out, the writers come up with a new way to knock your socks off. Add in the best animated mecha battles in any anime tv series and you've got one of the best giant robot show ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a must HAVE
Review: Don't just SEE it. Any serious anime fan should have this series. I've seen up to disk 5, and it is one of my favorite animes (and I have a huge collection on DVD). I highly recommend it for older viewers, but make sure you have toys for the young 'uns, because they will get bored pretty quickly. It takes the level of appreciation that you only get from maturity to enjoy anime like this. The action is amazing, but there is a lot of politics, and quite a lot of old Japanese tradition in it as well. It's very rewarding anime for intellectual crowds in the college-and-up age levels. Think almost of the Rurouni Kenshin OVA's (but with big friggin machines and lots of tanks).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a must HAVE
Review: Don't just SEE it. Any serious anime fan should have this series. I've seen up to disk 5, and it is one of my favorite animes (and I have a huge collection on DVD). I highly recommend it for older viewers, but make sure you have toys for the young 'uns, because they will get bored pretty quickly. It takes the level of appreciation that you only get from maturity to enjoy anime like this. The action is amazing, but there is a lot of politics, and quite a lot of old Japanese tradition in it as well. It's very rewarding anime for intellectual crowds in the college-and-up age levels. Think almost of the Rurouni Kenshin OVA's (but with big friggin machines and lots of tanks).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Intriguing storyline, awful storytelling
Review: Finally viewed the first two DVDs after seeing all the hype about it and was sorely disappointed. Overall, it feels like there is a lot behind the story and much promise in the rest of the series, but the telling of the story is very painful. Here are my problems with it:

1. Story pacing - Much, much too slow. It feels like the story tellers are stretching out the story to fill a preset number of episodes. Minor plot details are repeated multiple, multiple times. Unnecessary scenes are inserted. I mean, do you really need to see three different characters repeat three times in succession that they are being attacked by fighter jets? Some of the sequences are also rather bizarre (hello? She was right in front of you and nothing was attacking you. Why didn't you just talk to her for a minute instead of leaving and anguishing over her later?)

2. Characters - I do not like them, do not identify with them. I loved Rei from NGE, but the moodiness of the main character is something totally different. Other characters seem too hostile, etc. There are the efforts at cutesy, perky female characters, but compared to the general moodiness/seriousness of everyone else, they do not seem to fit. Ultimately, a third of the characters are just annoying while the rest fail to make any connection.

2. Animation - Beautiful art. Horrible animation. Too many scenes have nothing but a moving mouth. This may have been acceptable quality 10-20 years ago, but looks awful compared to many of the others out there today. It looks like too little effort was spent on the animation, too many shortcuts taken. Even the credits sequence suffers from this. There's a 1 second animation that is looped for like 15-20 seconds. Compared to the quality of animation that went into NGE or even Nadesico, Gasaraki looks very poor.

Overall, the first two discs were a severe disappointment after seeing all the positive reviews on this series. What may have been an excellent storyline appears to be handicapped by awful execution.


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