Gokukoku no Brynhildr

I'm sorry Ollie, my opinion was unchanged. :/

reviews
"**UPDATE Damn this anime is getting bad reviews xD I get that it's similar to Elfen Lied (that's one of my favs) But you should never heavily compare the two even if it is by the same person who wrote it.

This isn't Elfen Lied. This is a completely different anime. Jeezz people."

"First off this isn't Elfen Lied. Yes it's by the same author and has various similarities but it's not meant to be a duplicate and doesn't necessarily appeal to the same crowd. This isn't even really a horror/gore series, Inuyasha had more gore and it isn't considered a gore series. Brynhildr is primarily a dark drama with light comedy(despite not being tagged comedy)."

"First of all, I've never seen Elfen Lied so I will not mention that in the review at all. I will review based on just Gokukoku no Brynhildr."

If you have checked MAL of this anime, you probably have noticed a similarity with the reviews there. Elfen Lied seems to be a going motif there. Why? Why do people bring up Elfen Lied whenever talking about this anime, to either show off how similar it is or how you shouldn't compare the two? Well, their reasons being one thing, I, for one, will not speak in a similar manner. Why? Because for me, this title is nothing more but a discount Elfen Lied wannabe. Which puts me somewhere in between those people. I don't love it and won't defend it from EL comparisons, but I don't hate it for being similar to EL either. I just hate it because it deserves it. Still, I feel the score won't be nearly as harsh as my feelings regarding this anime are.

Let's start with the visual aspects. At first glance, the anime looks pretty. The backgrounds, despite being notorically overused, impress with the amount of detail, the animations are smooth enough and the climate feels how it should. There are two really major issues, however. The first one has to do with the level of the visuals - they are really inconsistent, in all aspects. The detail amount drops significantly after the few episodes, followed by awkwardly looking frames and odd animations. It's a small thing to point out, but for someone with keen eyes it can really be pesky. The second issue is a lot more major, however. For the type of anime this is, one would think the censorship wouldn't be too big a problem... Imagine my surprise when I found out that each gore-y frame has those black bits hiding the vital parts, that each frame containing a body melting is as bright as the sun with the lens flare... These elements are pretty much the key element of this anime, and yet they present themselves really poorly.
Graphics: 14/20

Sound might actually be one of the aspects I liked here. The melodic-dubstep-based first opening was quite an innovation, and really good in a sense. They also did a great job on the visuals of it... well, only a part, though. Sometime around the half of it the nice visuals turn into a pointless slideshow with no coordination whatsoever. The second opening, while only shown for three (or four?) episodes, was way better... or would be, if they didn't decide that cutting the very last second of it was a good idea. Seriously, the sound just stops existing literally a second before it should. Which feels really awkward. The rest of the soundtrack is fitting, but in some places feels rather out of context. I can't really bring myself to whine much about it so I won't.
Sound: 4/20

Two children, Kuroneko and Ryouta, observed stars as kids, when Kuroneko claimed to have seen an alien. Ryouta wanted to see it too... and on the way to it, Kuroneko falls down from a dam and dies, leaving Ryouta traumatized and feeling guilty for it. A few years later, a mysterious person closely resembling Kuroneko transfers into Ryouta's school just to warn him that he'll die soon and she's there to prevent it... That's how the first episode welcomes us. Seems interesting? Pretty much. Sadly, the promise the first episode seems to make about the anime doesn't get fulfilled in the least. Over the course of the anime, so thirteen whole episodes, we are presented with many unique opportunities that can move the plot forward into a well-directed masterpiece. And I'm not even exaggerating, the potential this anime had early on is enormous. Those opportunities I just mentioned, however, tend to disappoint rather than impress, since they all lead to the most cliched mechanism of all to make things happen - Deus Ex Machina. Most, if not every, event in this anime tends to get solved not by the wits of our so potent characters, but rather the hand of God itself.
Discouraging, isn't it? Let me add a few bits and pieces then. The one thing Ryouta remembered the best about Kuroneko was the moles she had under her armpits. Oddly specific detail for an anime, right? Seems just like they planned to do something with it from the start, right... Okay, okay how about this - the transfer student that resembles Kuroneko is named Kuroha Neko. I'll let the 'cat' name slip on that one, but seriously, Kuroha Neko? The way Japanese language works, 'ha' can pretty much be voiceless in some words. That's pretty much spelling out the giant potential late anime reveal to you in the first damn episode! And you know what? Ryouta, being a typical dense protagonist, didn't even get it!
Okay, I'm done being picky. The rest of the anime revolves pretty much around 'witches', the man-made magicians, each with their own special power. Leaving alone the fact each magician is for some reason a female, let's focus on what the anime tells about them. They have something in their necks, that's one thing. A device on this thing, if pressed, will melt a witch, that's another thing. And, if the witch doesn't take a special pill everyday, she will die within 30 hours of her last pill intake. If this is your thing, you will be pleased, since that's the only thing that keeps the watcher in high hopes until the very end. 'I know they did not do their best this far, but we can still hope for an awesome ending, right?'. Or so I hoped...
Plot: 22/20

Our main character, Murakami Ryouta, is not too much of a main character. He's, to put it bluntly, a wimpy kid who wants his friend back. And I do mean wimpy, since he won't fail to use an opportunity to cry here and there about this and that. True, he might have been 'heroic' in some cases, or so the witches percept him, since he's 'unique' enough as to not leave them alone. But that's pretty much the only good thing going for him. Kuroha Neko, on the other hand (again, KUROhaNEKO everyone, I'm so sorry it's uncontrollable), is rather mysterious - but that only limits to her origins, since she's pretty much curious of the world, trying to appreciate every bit of time she has. Tachibana Kana, her companion, is rather stationary. She's paralyzed, so she only talks using the small machine to make sounds that sound like voice... hang on, it doesn't even sound like Microsoft Sam, am I supposed to believed it's that calculator-sized machine that produces those sounds? Also, speaking of which, how convenient only her hand isn't paralyzed so she can even use it... argh, I'm done. She's pretty much accusing Ryouta, our (not so) lucky pervert, of being a pervert everytime he's on screen. So label her as an annoying main love interest's friend for all I care. Shlierenzauer Kazumi, one of their fellow witches who just so happens to be what they needed in a certain point in time, is more than anything obsessed with losing her virginity. Takatori Kotori, the definition of klutz, is... a klutz. Pretty much all you need to know about the characters.
Characters: 21/20

Enjoyment? I had some, yeah. Mostly due to the nature of the anime and how I hoped for this to be partially as good as I thought it would be after some opportunities. This has, however, proven the punch to hurt twice as bad with all the disappointment I experienced. Well, all in all, as I said - the scores do not really do my opinion a favor, but that's a good thing - a reviewer ought to be objective rather than subjective, right?
Enjoyment: 18/20

Total score: 79/100
Judgement: SIGRDRIFA