STORY: 6/10
CHARACTER: 5/10
ART: 9/10
SOUND: 9/10
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
OVERALL: 7/10
‘Gin no Guardian’ is an anime that resorts to ‘Not overexerting itself’, meaning they go ahead with everything they are comfortable with while leaving out the rest for later! The story is a little confusing in the beginning since the show makes a point of jumping around with their narrative. You start at a strange place with the MC, who’s in this ‘Cool and OP’ stage, as he’s wiping out enemies left and right after which the story jumps right back to its opening where the said MC is just another typical student! These ‘Jumps’ aren’t used a lot, ... but they are pretty jarring! The biggest complain everyone had is the freaking run time of the show, for they are about 13 minutes long including both the OP and ED! Yeah, I am not kidding! This leads to the anime trying to cramp so much due to its short run time, thus resulting to a very rushed and incomplete experience! By not taking time with their content or their characters, it’s hard to care or emotionally attach to something. Sadly, even the plot isn’t particularly unique, so it becomes that much difficult for the anime to make any kind of impact! You have your archetypal ‘Game’ genre situation where the MC is somehow stuck inside a game and must survive by playing as a guardian in order to save the world and the girl of his dreams.
Suigin (MC) is your plain looking, basic student who’s enrolled into an expensive school and makes ends meet by doing multiple jobs. Nothing about him really stands out whether it’s his expressions or his hairstyle, though his red scarf becomes very interesting once it’s seen in action despite the fact it is very distracting at first! The other main character, Rei, is even more generic and cliched than Suigin because she just happens to be side-lined to the one note role of Girlfriend 101! Literally nothing stood out about her! Her display of emotions, personality and expressions were all standard which is sad since she’s the other main romantic lead. I mean you are told great things about her, like how’s she so and so but we never actually see it to believe any of it! And how can you when they have less than 13 mins to demonstrate everything! And I guess the cat is cute so it has that thing going for it.
The art style is very bland and boring with nothing striking, whether it’s the background settings or the character designs. But the animation is a whole new story! I liked the depiction of his scarf even though it doesn’t suit with Suigin’s overall getup. But I liked how it changes colour based on Suigin’s emotions. And if this show succeeds anywhere, it’s the way the action scenes are illustrated! The latter part of those fights is pretty good but the opening battle with that army is simply Spectacular! Despite its use of 3D in the opening, I was blown away by it! You never got that lagging effect, rather the 2D was perfectly incorporated with the 3D which resulted into one smooth Badass fight as Suigin goes dashing into the Army of Skeleton! The OST is another achievement worth mentioning, especially the ED, which was simply Amazing! It’s not just another great music set piece, Nope! It also perfectly sings the overall main arc of the anime’s story! Yes, you heard it right because it harmonizes about the dream and struggle of romance for the characters of this show!
The short yet epic battle at the beginning get your hopes up into believing this will be an exciting anime, unfortunately it never manages to surprise you like that again! The common complain are the short length of episodes which really sucks but what I found frustrating was the direction of the story! It seems to move in one track at first but then suddenly changes course towards the end. Initially the story’s about Suigin and Rei finding each other in real life and a start for romance but then the last few episodes introduce a whole lot of new plotlines and characters which I found annoying. I understand they need to set up for the next season and further expand on the story but with such short episodes, I kinda wanted more closure. The other thing I would like to mention is the unfair kind of reaction this anime is receiving because it seems like people had insane expectations which the anime couldn’t deliver! Totally fair since the 1st episode almost blows you away with how good it is. But in my defence, it also becomes quickly apparent the rest of the anime won’t be following the same route, so people should really tone down your optimisms as well, after all the episodes are only 13 mins long! Since this is made by a Chinese company, I am willing to ignore its faults for now, but they better make big changes for the next season because now they have our feedback of what we liked and what we didn’t like! In the end, I liked the simplistic approach towards ‘Gin no Guardian’ and despite its flaws, I am willing to encourage others to give it a try!
 Alternative Titles Synonyms: Gin no Hakamori Japanese: 銀の墓守り〈ガーディアン〉 Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Apr 1, 2017 to Jun 17, 2017 Premiered: Spring 2017 Broadcast: Saturdays at 21:00 (JST) Producers: Emon Licensors: Funimation Studios: Haoliners Animation League Source: Web manga Duration: 13 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 6.211 (scored by 44,266 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #87952 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1929 Members: 111,773 Favorites: 130 Available AtResources |
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