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Anime First Impressions

KIBA – Anime First Impressions

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KIBA appears to be this Spring season’s popular shounen anime. Do the magic balls and summons put this show into the kid’s category, or does the art and plot make it something more?

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KIBA appears to be this Spring season’s popular shounen anime. Do the magic balls and summons put this show into the kid’s category, or does the art and plot make it something more?

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Personally, I wasn’t really looking forward to KIBA as one of the upcoming Spring anime. After reading about it, I figured it would be a generic shounen show about a kid thrust into a magical world. After watching the first episode, I have a feeling I was right.

KIBA follows the story of Zedd, a delinquent kid who smashes gates and generally goes against the flow of society. His mom is in some kind of mental hospital and his childhood friend, Noah, has a neat exoskeleton! Anyway, when we meet Zedd, he’s in quite a bit of trouble with his school.

Exposition occurs (forgive me for not writing a full episode synopsis; I don’t do those), and Zedd discovers he, his mom, and his teacher (and probably Noah) are all “shard casters.” I believe the job description involves throwing magical balls around and summoning androgynous winged dudes to help you in battle. At the end of the episode, Zedd jumps into a portal and ends up in the middle of another shard caster duel.

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So as far as the story goes, I think it feels really generic. A lot of the plot has yet to be revealed, but I’m already getting the feeling that this anime will be a bore to watch. At then end, when the evil ninja-esque guy summoned his monster, I literally yelled “Scyther! I choose you!

The character designs range from okay to “hey, you’re my mom!” to “is that Dr. Light?” The only character design I really like is the one of the girl who is sparring with Dr. Light in the middle of the episode.

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The animation during the action scenes was actually quite good. This is the first episode, though, and I’ve noticed that lots of anime pad their first and last episodes with good animation while the episodes in the middle suck. Hopefully the production values will remain high for the rest of the series. This is an action anime, after all…

The OP for this anime is okay. I’m not going to be listening to it in my car or anything, though. The ED is great, but not for the right reasons. It’s full of funny engrish: “very very much, very catchy.” Unfortunately, I don’t find the song very catchy at all…

Download the OP: Sanctuary by Nami Tamaki
Download the ED: Very Very by Afromania

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Overall, the mediocrity of the first episode coupled with the sheer number of anime coming out this Spring means that I probably won’t be following KIBA. If it does end up being good, be sure to let me know by way of comment or in the forums, yeah?

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20 replies on “KIBA – Anime First Impressions”

I thought the second episode was a little better than the first. you are right though does seem a bit generic.
the action seems to be very good, people may stick to it jus for that.

I have watched the first 12 episodes of Kiba, and yes there is 12 incase you didnt know, but back to the subject the show gets quite interesting later, the first episode is a bit of a bummer yes but I really am getting to like that show.

I’ve watched the first 20 episodes. I don’t know why I keep watching. People go OOC at completely random times. Well, more specifically, they all go insane at random times. I’m not to fond of this anime, but when boredom strikes I’ll watch an ep. Animation mainatains a pretty good level, and the story is somewhat interesting, but it’s just annoying when characters pull 180s for no reason.

I agree with Sarah. I’ve watched 21 episodes and there’s really good parts in it that really sucks you in, but sometimes the characters do really nonsensical things – which is annoying. I feel like the characters are not developed well enough and they don’t give much explanation for whatever is going on. Still there’s very good parts and it’s actually quite dark/mature in terms of storyline, not like say Pokemon, MAR etc. which is good.

Overall I think it’s worth a go. The main character is interesting, as he’s quite antagonistic and very much not one of those happy, nice heroes which seems to be the generic (Naruto, HxH etc.) The art is beautiful as well, which is always a plus.

I’ve seen 23 episodes of KIBA now, and I’ll say this:
If you’ve determined you’re not going to like something, it takes something very unique to reverse that pre-conceived notion.

KIBA isn’t that something. To be fair, very few things could be.

If, on the other hand, you are prepared to enjoy something based only on its own merits, then rarely will you be truly dissapointed.

KIBA does not dissapoint. I started off questioning whether I would like it or not. As with all things, if you give it a chance, you find more gems in the rough by continuing to look for the hidden ones than you do passing them by in favor of the more obvious ones. Ironically, that makes them even that much more valuable to those of us who savor our secret finds.

I will continue to watch KIBA because I enjoy it.

My advice: watch 3 episodes. If, after that, you find it sucks then don’t waste any more of your time on it. If you didn’t like it by then, chances are overwhelming that your opinion won’t improve. Otherwise – I’ll see you at Season 2!

This, incidentally, is the same logic I applied to “Elfen Lied”, which after the 1st episode I turned my back on. A friend convinced me to give it a second viewing – after 3 episodes I was hooked, and I’m glad – it was one of the most interesting anime I think I’ve ever seen.

Good Luck!

ZD

The comments given are a pretty fair summation of this show, its enjoyable but not brilliantly executed.

It always manages to please the eyes and maintain your interest so what more could you ask for?

Well actually its not without its flaws, some characters personalities seem to change without warning and its often confusing as in most cases the characters are pretty 2-dimensional. The characterisation isnt great, most of the characters are tired cliche’s but still manage to be endearing thanks to great character design, although they lack the depth found in some of the better anime’s (although this criticism can be made of many shows).

My second gripe with the show is the number of un-resolved plot elements(E.g. SPOILER::The chest that gave Noa his spirit and who were carrying it, why Noa changed so drastically etc), there is always a possibility that these will be explained later on but some events dont make much sense at all.

Some have commented that the action is good, but i dont agree. There are no tactics or twists during battle -the spirits tend to just punch each-other until the stronger wins- and they only seem to happen to prove how weak/strong the characters involved are and reveal info about their spirits.

Overall not a bad way to waste 25 minutes.

I gotta say, I just love this show! It’s very fun to watch, and I will definately be watching the second season. The character designs, art, characters, and animation are all good. Can’t wait for the next episode!

I watched the episodes 1-31 and I must admit I really love this anime. It has a very twisting storyline which I like. I love the fact that the characters in this anime somehow go their own way with eachother.
Every episode is part of the big story which seems to get more and more interesting (not like pokemon poof and their team rocket flies away AGAIN -_-).
I really love the complex fantasy-like story line and if you like fantasy and action this is a anime you really must see…

I love it …it reminds me of frank Herbarts Dune + equlibrium/v for Vandeta elements.. i really love it…

I have only watched the first 10 ep and that was a while ago, I think I will watch it now.
Oh! but first can anyone tell me how many episodes are in season 1 and 2?? please.

i like this show ive seen all the episodes and to me the last episode was so good that i cried at the end!!

Gosh! i really love watching Kiba, especially the Zed-Noah Fighting stuff!!!! It’s so hard to determine who’s who… But still, we know it’s Zrd that’s much better and a lot stronger… Isn’t he?

I have finished watching all the episodes. The artwork is great but some parts of the storyline were weak. Also, it’s annoying that some of the mysteries in the story were not answered. Having watched the last episode, I was kind of dissappointed with the story’s ending.

ok i just finished watching kiba i gotta say overall it was bland in storyline and character personalities but in the way most characters died except for a few was intresting i thought hugh would last up until the end (the opening help make you believe that though i think they should have changed it after he died now that i’ve watched the whole thing i understand about why most characters died and flipped the key spirit most who flipped were because of the key spirits though i wish to see a second series explaining half the stuff they didn’t explain or a mythology for that world (or worlds cause it feels like they are completely different worlds) i loved the end even though it is cliche zed’s eyes and those wings were cool

i agree its so annoying then they don’t provide the characters motivation or provide us with what that motivation is because we have no idea why they act the way they do or what drives them a little bit of backgroung and character setting always helps

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