Well it might be at the end of the month, but we’re getting quicker! Welcome to Bulk Lot Anime reviews, where we play catch up with the monthly anime releases thanks to Madman Entertainment Australia. This month gives us 7 titles to look at but only 3 series to review? Confused? Well that’s because in Australia, you’ll sometimes get releases in multi-season sets like Is This a Zombie? or in multi-part releases like Erased and Assassination Classroom. Gotta make that money son! So let’s jump into the anime reviews for August 2017!
Title: Is This a Zombie? Complete Series (Season 1 and 2)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Magic, Supernatural
Details: 22 episodes
Release Date: August 16, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 4 (DVD)
Runtime: 625.0 mins (24mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD)
Special Features: Video and Audio Commentaries, English Language Trailers, Textless Opening and Closing Animations
Rating: MA15+: Strong animated violence, sexual references and sexualised images
One night while walking home from the convenience store, regular high school boy Ayumu Aikawa is killed by a serial killer, and is just as suddenly brought back to life by a necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. One small caveat: he’s now a zombie. Things get even weirder for him when he accidentally steals a magical girl’s uniform, and thus her powers! Haruna, the ex-magical girl, orders him to fight evil creatures known as Megalo in her place until they can figure out a way to get her powers back to her.
God damn this one was weird. A zombie that ends up being able to turn into a Magical Girl, complete with the usual pink frilly get up, makes friends with a vampire ninja and a demon all while having fantasies about the armor ladened girl who made him a zombie in the first place… Yep, it’s one of those anime series that is going to test how far your mind can stretch before the damn things snaps and you go crazy. The character alone for Is This A Zombie are enough to do your head in, but at the same time they are all very amusing characters, even if this show does waft into Harem territory for a while. While this series does tend to spend a lot of time putting these outrageous characters in pretty normal situations and letting the comedy come naturally, it is very lore heavy with it’s own terms for things that really does make you think you have to do a little extra research in order to understand every single joke that is thrown at you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o4PAHbqBd4
Is This A Zombie? is a great little collection who like a bit of supernatural in their slice of life style shows. The whole concept of a male Zombie who can turn into a Magical Girl is pretty out there and worth a few giggles, but the gag does tend to wear itself out after a few episodes. Luckily there is a slow enough trickle of new characters and situations for the group to handle that it makes the 24 episode dual seasons go pretty quickly and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Is This a Zombie is a series that is worth a weekend watch, but once you’ve seen it, it loses most of it’s magic.
©2011 Shinichi Kimura・Kobuichu Muririn／Fujimi Shobou／Korezon Partners
Title: Erased (Part 1)
Genre: Mystery, Psychological, Seinen, Supernatural
Details: 6 Episodes
Release Date: July 19, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 1 (DVD) / 1 (Bluray)
Runtime: 150.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Audio Commentary, Textless Opening & Closing, Promo Videos
Rating: MA15+: Strong animated violence and child abuse themes
Title: Erased (Part 2)
Genre: Mystery, Psychological, Seinen, Supernatural
Details: 6 Episodes
Release Date: August 16, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 1 (DVD) / 1 (Bluray)
Runtime: 150.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Audio Commentary, Textless Opening & Closing
Rating: MA15+: Strong animated violence and child abuse themes
When tragedy is about to strike, Satoru Fujinuma finds himself sent back several minutes before the accident occurs. The detached, 29-year-old manga artist has taken advantage of this powerful yet mysterious phenomenon, which he calls “Revival,” to save many lives.
However, when he is wrongfully accused of murdering someone close to him, Satoru is sent back to the past once again, but this time to 1988, 18 years in the past. Soon, he realizes that the murder may be connected to the abduction and killing of one of his classmates, the solitary and mysterious Kayo Hinazuki, that took place when he was a child. This is his chance to make things right.
I didn’t know what to expect from Erased. The idea of time travel always does my head in and I’m a Doctor Who fan. What sets Erased apart from the pack is that you follow along with Satoru and figure out the twists along with him… Except for the villain behind it all. Anyone with a logical mind and has a history of detective like mindsets will be able to work out who the villain is just by a process of elimination and just following the narration. The connection you have with Satoru is what keeps you grounded and connected to the overall story. The secondary plot about saving a classmate seems to be almost like the story writer had no idea what to focus on at once. Satoru should be solving his mother’s murder instead of keeping the child safe… Though the two could be connected. Then you have the third plot which is more about protecting people and stopping things in the timeline from happening how he knows them to happen.
Erased is something that you should take a moment to watch, over a weekend or something. The animation of Erased is a huge positive for the anime and is something that I would put akin to recent must-have anime productions like A Silent Voice and Your Name. Erased is a show that is worth the pick up if you haven’t seen or read something like this before like ReLife or Final Hope (The Light Novel by our own Joshua Piedra). However it might be something you want to stream a few episodes on Crunchyroll or some other streaming service before committing to a DVD purchase.
©2016 Kei Sanbe/KADOKAWA/Bokumachi Animation Committee
Title: Assassination Classroom (Part 1)
Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Shounen
Details: 11 Episodes
Release Date: June 8, 2016 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 2 (DVD) / 2 (Bluray)
Runtime: 275.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Episode Commentaries, Interview with the Cast, Episode 0 ”Meeting Time”, Textless Songs, Episode Previews, U.S. Trailer, Trailers
Rating: M: Animated science fiction violence
Title: Assassination Classroom (Part 2)
Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Shounen
Details: 11 Episodes
Release Date: October 5, 2016 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 2 (DVD) / 2 (Bluray)
Runtime: 275.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Episode Commentary, Top Ten Moments: Season 1, Textless Opening & Closing, Episode Previews, US Trailer
Rating: M+: Animated violence, sexualised imagery and sexual references
Title: Assassination Classroom (Part 3)
Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Shounen
Details: 13 Episodes
Release Date: April 5, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 2 (DVD) / 2 (Bluray)
Runtime: 325.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Textless Opening & Closing Songs, Episode Previews
Rating: M:
Title: Assassination Classroom (Part 4)
Genre: Action, Comedy, School, Shounen
Details: 12 Episodes
Release Date: August 16, 2017 (Australia)
Languages: English, Japanese
Subtitles: English subtitles
Number of Discs: 2 (DVD) / 2 (Bluray)
Runtime: 300.0 mins (23mins per episode)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen Full Height Anamorphic
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (DVD) (Bluray)
Special Features: Episode Commentary, Top Ten Moments: Season 2, Textless Opening & Closing, Episode Previews
Rating: MA15+:
When a mysterious creature chops the moon down to a permanent crescent, the students of class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Middle School find themselves confronted with an enormous task: assassinate the creature responsible for the disaster before Earth suffers a similar fate. However, the monster, dubbed Koro-sensei (the indestructible teacher), is able to fly at speeds of up to Mach 20, which he demonstrates freely, leaving any attempt to subdue him in his extraterrestrial dust. Furthermore, the misfits of 3-E soon find that the strange, tentacled beast is more than just indomitable—he is the best teacher they have ever had!
Assassination Classroom is one of those shows that has a great and simple plot that morphs into something greater. The fact that the loser class of the school is secretly being retrained as Assassins to take down a mysterious alien that no army can stop is great, but then you get deeper into some of the kids, watch their improvement in school work along with their assassin skills, then learn more about Koro-Sensei and where he came from and you end up with a series that really grips you from beginning to end. Once the end comes around and you know what is going to happen, you can’t help but feel the weight of the emotions that have developed over the two seasons. However there are parts of the series that felt either tacked on or just slowed the pace of things down a bit too much in order to fill the exceedingly long 48 episode run. Outside of that, everything else is done really well, including the English dub… But you’ll want to hear the Japanese original soundtrack first as Koro-Sensei sounds soooooo much better with that than he does in English.
Assassination Classroom is one of those anime series that deserves to be popular, but a lot of people either felt it was too over hyped for it’s own good, then adapted too quickly into a couple of live action movies and given a parody sub series. However when you sit back and watch Assassination Classroom as just the anime, then you’ll understand how good of an anime it really is. From humble beginnings to one of the more heart-felt endings in anime history, Assassination Classroom is one of those anime shows that belongs in every collection.
©Yusei Matsui/SHUEISHA,ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM Committee
Yeah yeah, I know it’s early September. I thought I would have this out a few days ago but at least the times are getting shorter. Next month will see only 2 anime releases reviewed: Dragon Ball Super Part 1 and Food Wars Complete Season 1. October will see a marathon of reviews with October becoming Dragon Ball Z movie month: 17 movies over 17 days. Will it all happen as planned? Well come back next month and see what goes on.
As usual, all of the releases reviewed for Bulk Lot Anime Reviews are provided by Madman Entertainment Australia. You can buy all of these releases from the Madman Entertainment website. If you believe that anything you read on The Outerhaven in regards to our reviews or items sent to us from companies, please take a look at our ETHICS STATEMENT AND REVIEW POLICY and contact management through the form and we shall look into the matter. Till next time, jaa ne! *^_^*
Read more at The Outerhaven: Bulk Lot Anime Reviews: Madman Entertainment July 2017 Releases http://tohvn.com/2geb2U4
Madman August 2017 Releases
Summary
Is This a Zombie? Complete Series (Season 1 and 2) – 4.0 Stars
A fun and enjoyable romp in a twist on the usual magical girl formula. The characters are funny and interesting with the fanservice and annoying comedy kept to a minimum. Worth a good weekend watch.
Erased – 4.5 Stars/4.5 Stars
A time travel mystery that tends to get lost in itself more often than not. Something to stream first before investing.
Assassination Classroom – – 4.5 Stars/4.0 Stars/4.0 Stars/4.5 Stars
A great series that follows the development of a class of losers into impossible assassins that are going to take down their dangerous alien teacher. Not everything is as it seems with a lot more layers to it than you would expect. A bit long winded but well worth the watch, especially on Bluray.
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Is This a Zombie? Complete Series (Season 1 and 2)
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Erased Part 1
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Erased Part 2
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Assassination Classroom Part 1
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Assassination Classroom Part 2
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Assassination Classroom Part 3
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Assassination Classroom Part 4
