The story was good, I just don't think
they did a good job protraying it...they could
have done better with the whole thing but for
a 24 episode long series, lets not bash on it too much I suppose..
Karin tv Review
Karin Maaka is the middle child of a family of vampires which immigrated to Japan 200 years ago. Karin, although technically a vampire herself, is very different from the rest of her family. Instead of lacking blood, her body overproduces it. In order to get rid of the excess blood, once a month, she must give in to her urges and find someone to bite. Instead of drinking their blood, she gives them some of hers, leaving both her and her "victim" feeling refreshed and energetic.
Despite these troubles, she still goes to school and holds down a part-time job. Everything is going reasonably well for Karin, until a transfer student, Kenta Usui, joins her class. For some reason, her body instantly reacts to him, and begins producing more blood than she can stand...
Story & Characters
For story originality, it recieves a solid 9. I mean, how many stories about a blood making vampire are there? Seriously? (At least I haven't heard any of them.)
Clearly, the producers really wanted to hit us with everything in the hopes of baffling our senses to pulp and
increasing their ratings. Let me explain this, they include a modern day story (It's okay and has good
development.) with a super-natural love story that really pushes the boundaries of cliques and conventions. (A real plus
for this show. +20 pts for the show.) Now, for all you that seriously thought that I was going to drive home something
bad, oh just wait, you might see that coming in a little bit.
Here we see a clique has gotten through! The Older Brother protecting his little sister ploy. (Oh me! Oh my! -2 pts for
the show!)
All in all, though, it was an enjoyable story. (It really helped with the nosebleeds that made Keitaro's head
geyser seem puny /insignificant. [Love Hina reference]) So, I'll be fair and venture to give this portion a 7.
(They really good have pulled the ending in a better way to answer the story progression up to it.)
Yeah, let's look at the characters. Alright, I'll be upfront with you, it's not easy to find too much
fault with the characters. Seriously, the family is strange, but they mean well, don't they? And don't they
have the right to be wierd, I mean they're vampires! However, I will note some things that really had me going,
"Huh? Why is that part of their character."
Karin had only one thing that I found to the previously mentioned state, that is her constant use of "That is
embarassing!" or some form of that. (You'll hear more about the "Embarassing" lines from me in the
Presentation section.)
Usui had some serious density issues that really held up the story in some places and in consideration of the way it
ended, he really made it hard to pull off. In my opinion, they really could have done something with him.
Karin's family was very entertaining, although somewhat disfunctional. (Pay attention to their subtle differences
over certain things and their histories.)
Winner...was...well...interesting, if not misunderstood and stupid. He was definitely just another pretty boy in the
series, and be it fate or karma...he doesn't get that which he wants most...
The characters definitely could have been more refined and perhaps better planned prior to the story. But they were in
no means less than good. I will give this portion a fair ruling of an 8.
So on the overall, I give "Karin" a fair 8. (If you don't understand, go back through what I just said and average the individual scores.)
Rating:
Art
The art was definitely nothing less than great. Though they could have worked a little bit more on refining the bats that they used. I believe it would be fair to give this portion an 8.
The character designs...I honestly don't think I can be one to judge this one. It has "Slice of Life" written all over it and in such a way, that the character designs are meant to reflect that. For this, I leave it as unscored.
Let me say this now, that was a lot of blood for a single nosebleed! Was it really necessary to draw ALL of that smeared like that? (That being my biggest complaint.)
Overall, the art of "Karin" was good but it had imprefections. So, I will be fair and leave it at a 7.
Rating:
Sound
The voicing and sound effects were great, I could not find fault with them. The tones really hit where they needed to for the effect they wanted. They get a perfect in this area, 10!
I don't remember too much about the OSTs, just that they were generally well placed. So, I leave this as a nice descriptive 8 for the result.
The opening was good, the closing wasn't. (In terms of sound and appearance.) The closing brought too much of a bright feel with it and conflicted with the darker nature of the opening. They get a plain 6 for this portion.
So overall, "Karin" gets an 8 for sound and voicing.
Rating:
Presentation
Humor was definitely a disease that was let run through out this anime series. (At least for me, this seemed so.) For this, they get +4 for this aspect.
The anime was enjoyable, for the most part. +3 for this.
Okay, now for the "bad" stuff.
The constant use of "...is Embarassing" got fricking annoying after a while, even if it was cute for the first few episodes. So (Cute factor +3) (Nuissance factor -4)
And what's worse, is that I found that the story was naturally leading towards a different ending than the one they choose to give. (Ending Factor -2)
Adding up these numbers, I believe that I get a plain 4 as my result. And that is what I will give this show for it's presentation.
Rating:
Final Verdict
6.5000 (above average)
Reviewed by Hasaki-Keissi, Jul 02, 2007
Comments
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Kitaan Retired Moderator Jul 03, 2007
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fuuiin Jul 09, 2007
it was refreshing that the main character guy role was not the pretty boy winner. it was a refreshing anime and i enjoyed it very much. The "embarrassing" thing got annoying after a while though as you said.
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ShadowDreamer16 Sep 13, 2007
It wasn't horrible, but it could have been better. I mean they could have done so much better with that plot, it had such an original idea. I don't want to sound too melodramatic, but there was so much potential, that the end results are a little dissapointing.
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SchRita Oct 31, 2009
Thanks for the review!
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404UserNotFound May 31, 2011
yeah I guess your right about the anime. I just hate how different the anime is from the manga. I don't remember Karin saying the word "embarrassing" that much or maybe I learned to overlook it? And Winner annoyed me because he's not even a real character from the manga and his character annoyed me to death. Good review though ^w^
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