Lemme just start this review off by saying this - God, this series was demotivating to watch. I had to take week-long breaks between episodes, to the point that I had almost forgotten about finishing the series, and as such, I am coming to you today, on the 4th of June, 2021, with a bit of booze in me cause writing something that actually makes me think, unlike my college essays, takes a bit of time.
Anyways, I was conflicted about the final score that I gave the series in the end - I'll probably get to that later. For now, let's take a quick dive into, well, what I actually thought of Vampire Knight.

Minor spoiler warning. If you haven't watched Vampire Knight yet, you know what? Give it a watch. You might never know. Don't blame me that I spoiled something for you in case you read the review and THEN watched the anime, though.

Vampire Knight looks fine for the year it released in. There's some decent art pieces, character designs are pretty cool and I am a fan of the uniforms, which look _just _about what I'd expect for this genre. However, actually looking into the characters' faces made me think that this released two years _before _it actually did, cause it's giving me a mid-2000s vibe with the kawaii sugoi desu eyes. They're fine, I am just not a fan of the style. But for the setting that this is, the mood is set pretty well with both the day and night scenes. A pretty competent job, though it was missing some more exotic designs or concepts.

The opening song is a bloody banger. I do really like the opening song. It's unfortunate that the ending song is the exact opposite for me, but I digress. Aside the opening and ending songs, I actually can't remember any of the music. It is genuinely that forgettable.
In my mind, I have this scale of forgetful anime soundtracks. Gundam AGE, despite being the mediocre disappointment ride that it is, has such a nice soundtrack that I cannot forget it. Vampire Knight may be the next competitor for the most forgettable soundtrack in anything that I have ever watched. Owari no Seraph was kind of the benchmark anime there, but from that I can at least remember a few tracks. Aside the lack of any memorable music, the sound is inoffensive and sounds perfectly fine.

I am assuming that this one will bring in the most question marks from people. I don't really like a considerable amount of characters, but not because they're one-dimensional a lot of the time. That is only one part of it. A lot of the cast hadn't been given enough time to develop itself, outside the main characters, like Yuuki, Zero, Kuran and a few others. Out of all of them? I probably like Yuuki the most, she tries to stay innocent and help others despite all she has to go through. I wasn't a fan of Zero at first, but he developed out to be actually rather conscious of his actions and went further down the road to become my probably second-most favorite character. It's disappointing, cause I expected a lot from the vampires. I expected them to be cunning, cold, merciless and such - how Castlevania made me think of vampires, to an extent.
However, only Kuran really applies to that. Kain is probably the most interesting of the other vampires to me, as he seems rather aware and calculated - he strikes me to be one of the characters I'd associate the most with a vampire.
And I think that these characters could've been brought out, weren't it for one glaring issue I have with the..

The only and really only reason I haven't dropped the story to a 4 or 3 is cause the final episodes redeem the entire thing to me. I do really like some of the lore snippets thrown around the episodes - I was kind of surprised, cause I'd expect it to go like "bite, haha, bige teethe, bam", but there's a little more to the process. And the story's development and pacing is actually pretty alright! Nothing fantastic, but it's good enough.
One thing that absolutely kills a lot of areas is the absolutely bizarre switching from dramatic to comedy within LITERAL seconds. I wish I was joking, cause this really detracted from my score for the initial eight to nine episodes. Something serious could've been conveyed, and within the next scene bam haha funni please laugh. This not only destroys my mood and desire to watch further, as I wish to watch a drama/mystery anime and not comedy, but it also hampers character development. The only real reason I think the main cast has actual development is cause they had the most on-screen time. And granted, mostly this comedy is cause of the headmaster, but that's his schtick! That's what his facade is all about, and if he doesn't do that, his character isn't much better! And it absolutely frustrates me. There is a good story here, and you can see it pretty often, but the comedic tone just tries to smother that with a pillow. The last few episodes thankfully have next to no of that, and the sequelbaiting is obvious. To the point it detracts as well, cause it's being extremely obvious about it.

Even though I just spilled my spaghetti all about the story, I did kind of enjoy watching some episodes. Granted, it was more of a coin toss, and the reason that the score is relatively high is cause the last few episodes were genuinely enjoyable, but I did have some enjoyment.

Vampire Knight tries to do a drama and mystery, and genuinely succeeds in a lot of regards there. But there's also so many areas it tries to undermine itself, damaging the overall fun I've had with watching it. I don't think the series is bad, and I've been motivated enough to watch the sequel as well. However, you should be aware of these flaws before you give it a watch.

Before I even start this pseudo-babble thing I wouldn't really call a review, I have to put out one disclaimer. The rating you will see at the bottom isn't really accurate. Most people would consider that as a fairly decent score – but, by my standards, this is so far one of the lowest scores I have ever given to a series. Note that it isn't horrible by any means, you can still get some enjoyment out of watching Owari no Seraph.

Also lots of spoilers. If you haven't watched the series yet, I recommend to watch it (or not) and check the review afterwards. I cannot promise you that it doesn't spoil absolutely everything. But don't come at me later complaining I spoiled almost the entire story, that's the point.

Oh boy, where to even begin. Let's say I wasn't already convinced by the ratings some people I follow have given to this series. Two or three stars isn't exactly, well, high. I started watching this mainly because I had little time to watch anything longer, and because the story piqued my interest.

To put this long and convoluted story short, this OVA has taken so much of my time I just have to write my thoughts out, because this is so far the most conflicting OVA I have seen, and in quite a long time. It's funny how I watched this because I had little time, and it resulted in me wasting the little time I've had brainstorming predictions for the next episode.

I'll try to segment this review in some bits that are easier to follow. Let's start with the art and overall appearance.

Owari no Seraph isn't outstanding. There are some moments where it truly shines (in my opinion, I think the uniforms are just rad and downright inspired), but in some areas, it clearly chokes hard. I don't think it's a spoiler to say the city gets real samey-looking after a few episodes. I always expected something more interesting than just, well, ruins to appear. Maybe I am too hard to impress, who knows. Details on characters and such are lost anywhere from two feet from the MC to fifty kilometers. Animations seem to be cut on a whim as well, but I really only noticed in the last two or so episodes. If there was more work invested into making it look better, I think I could easily give this an 8, but here we are. There's a lot of potential wasted. Which, well, brings me to another part...

Where's the sound? I really don't remember anything outside the intro and outro songs. If there is any soundtrack, it is extremely forgettable and that's not what you really want from an anime. In comparison, despite Gundam AGE being what it is, I have the entire soundtrack on my phone because some tracks are just real bangers. This? I can hardly remember how footsteps sounded. Nothing that I remember sounded bad, but that's the problem – was there anything that sounded good?

Dear God, this one was tough to write. There are a few characters I feel like they could have some real, legitimate, creme de la creme development. On the other hand, the MC is unlikable, at least by me. I don't know if you can relate.
The main character, Yu, starts off as a relatively innocent child in the first episode. From the third to the eight episode, I couldn't like him at all. All "power this, power that". Now, don't get me wrong. I like characters obsessed with power, but only if they're written well. Yu doesn't improve until the ninth episode. The rest of the squad are, thankfully, decently done over time, albeit there's not a lot of development there. There could have been so much more weren't it for the botched pace. Funnily enough, I consider Guren to be one of my favorite characters, because he just seems arrogant at first, but then he becomes a bit more detailed, understandable, I would call it.
This is the only part of the review that really sounds kind of positive. I'd like to tear the story a new one, but I cannot do that, as I did like some segments.

I feel the story was the thing that attracted me the most to Owari no Seraph. Vampires, post-apocalyptic setting? Sign me up, I'm a childhood Castlevania fan. The premise was really promising. I thought I was gonna be enjoying this OVA quite a lot, and that it'd be refreshing from the stuff I watched recently. Maybe it could also surprise me?

It surprised me alright. I just wish it was the good kind of a surprise.

My thoughts about the story were completely squashed once I got to the fourth episode. "Oh, wait, so they get their weapons just this late? I thought it'd be like the second episode or sometime earlier.." No, they absolutely have to bash it into your head that Yu was in an orphanage and he saw what was basically his family die, and that happens almost every episode. You can imagine how much that frustrated me, as the time for those segments could have been used for something far more useful. You know, introduction, rise, climax, conclusion/catastrophe? I know that Freytag's Pyramid is more of a literature term, but it could apply here as well. Even character development could have been improved with just these few moments from every episode. Subtlety would work wonders here.

By that I mean the pace is absolutely, at least in my opinion, botched. The real stuff starts happening so late in the OVA that I thought it was just gonna end in the middle of it all and continue in the sequel. Thankfully that didn't happen, but looking at it now, I believe I would have taken that rather than the fairly disappointing ending we got.
I understand it's meant to set up a sequel, but it leaves too many loose ends, very little gets tied up and I don't really see anything, well, changing too much after those twelve episodes. Everything looks the same to me. You'd expect actual payoff from such a big premise. It is possible, I have seen it in the past, and there was no baiting to be done for a sequel, either!

All I can really say that changed is my outlook on the vampires. I thought of them as a lesser evil in the first few episodes, but after that, they just turned way too negative to be really curious to me in any way. Just antagonists in a different shade of pale grey.

Despite all of this, I kind of enjoyed the OVA. Kind of. Nothing spectacular – a score of six is already very low for me, so you can pretty much ascertain if I liked a lot, not much or almost nothing.

The review summary pretty much described the OVA. On one hand, there are some clearly interesting concepts, ideas, characters, setpieces, so on. And then, there's so many failed attempts at improving at them, or the lack thereof. There is so much more that can be done with a setting as this, and I have ideas for that, too, but if those didn't make it here, then how did the sequel fare?
Well, I decided to spoil myself a little and I checked out at least the ratings of the people I follow. And..they're even lower. I'll watch it to see if my worry is warranted, but I think I know what the answer is.

Would I recommend to watch Owari no Seraph? I cannot say. It is such a hard question for me to answer. But if you are interested with the premise, the concepts, characters..I'd say to watch it, form your own opinion. Don't believe everything I say about Seraph.

I hope this review has been at least somewhat readable, if you can even call it a review. But it is how Seraph made me feel. Conflicted. So conflicted that I cannot write a reasonable, comprehensive review of it all.

Well...Gundam X had me interested the whole time. I know that's a bad way to begin a review, but please be patient, I'm making this using my vivid memories and poor structured writing.

Gundam X is easily one of the most underrated Gundam series, period. It is made really well, and the review I'm gonna be writing below this is hopefully gonna explain why do I think this way.
NOTE: Some of the things below may be considered spoilers. If you haven't watched X, then it's possible some of these parts will lower your joy when watching it. Those parts will be marked in spoiler text, but please make sure you saw X in its entirety before taking a look at this review - I'd hate for you to lose some fun thanks to this wall of text.
That being said, I'll try and structure the review somehow - the story and writing in general, art, audio quality and overall enjoyment. (I use the x.x numbering system - 5.5, for example. It's ideal for me.)

STORY AND WRITING: 8.5/10
The story in Gundam X is possibly the biggest grab it's trying to do. What if a war caused by humans ended up being so bad...that it will just take too long to recover from? X takes a look onto that, and the spin on a typical story of war is rather fresh and invirogating.
The story revolves around a group of Vultures captained by a man called Jamil Neate. While they seem like normal scavengers in the beginning, their new task to protect Tiffa Adill brings them to rather shocking discoveries.
The adventures of the crew are actually written rather decently, alongside containing some issues that remain since the pre-war days. Especially things like the use of Gundams, such as the Gundam X. All characters have a sense of motivation. They know why they're doing the things they're doing. And that's what I like about an anime - characters committed to their role and have their reasons to do so. Even the villains have some reasons - although that's where I deduct some points. The villains are...poorly done, let's say. Their motivations are clear, albeit what they want to do is pretty typical and kind of..mundane. Although the way they get there is rather nice and shows what they're capable of.
The thing that the story needs the most is extra time - apparently it received poor reception in Japan and as such had to be rushed, and that makes me wonder what the viewers thought of this.

ART: 8/10
For the 90s that were riddled with strange art decisions, this looks really good! I like the detail on the mobile suits themselves in particular. The characters could use some detail, they seem a bit pasted at times, but I have absolutely no qualms about the art. And all of the important stuff - shots, beams and such look nice!

AUDIO: 8/10
Probably what stands out the most about X's audio are the intro and outro songs, which are energetic and feel a considerable bit more electric. The sounds feel clear a lot of the time but there's some hiccups every now and then when they feel like they've been recorded through two walls of concrete.

ENJOYMENT: 9/10
Overall I liked X a lot - the only issues I have are with the series in general are the villains and the fact Sunrise had to rush the end, which is a mighty shame.

In the end, X is an anime worth looking into. It shows the troubles of a ravaged world, skirmishes and conflicts that are brewing behind the scenes.