The review will have 6 Sections: Animation Audio Characters Story Enjoyment Spoiler Dedicated Section Each section aside from the Spoiler Dedicated Section will get rated from 0 to 100 and the overall rating will be the average of those 5 scores. This will be the format for all my reviews. Some Links Before We Start Anilist Pagehttps://anilist.co/anime/101317/BLACKFOX/ Crunchyrollhttp://www.crunchyroll.com/blackfox/blackfoxblackfox789392 Official Websitehttp://projectblackfox.jp/ Trailer https://www..com/watch?v=0ock16inw Synopsis After Isurugi Rikkas family is murdered for her fathers research to get her revenge Rikka abandons her name to become a ninja just like her ancestors. But when she meets another troubled girl named Mia Rikka finds that revenge can be a very difficult choice. Can Rikka keep her vow for revenge when she finds new truths? Or will her newfound friends be more important after all? Animation BLACKFOX is animated beautifully by Studio 3Hzhttps://anilist.co/studio/6069/Studio3Hz the animation is bright and colourful. The fight scenes are very fluid and at the same time you always know exactly whats going on with the characters. I am personally not familiar with any of Studio 3Hzs previous work but the animation quality of BLACKFOX tempts me to go and watch some of their other series. There is a CGI robot in part of the film which especially feels clunky and doesnt move properly in the environment. I believe BLACKFOX would have benefited as a whole to not use any moving/lifelike CGI such as whats in the anime. It would have looked so much better to be traditionally animated. Although it probably saved them a lot of money since BLACKFOX was intended to be a series and only transitioned late in development to be a film. If there were any other CGI elements in the movie I didnt spot them so... The Animation is on par with many famous series and while it may not rival some of the more famous animated series such as several works by Ufotablehttps://anilist.co/studio/43/ufotable or Kyoto Animationhttps://anilist.co/studio/2/KyotoAnimation for example but it definitely stands its ground against most series. 87 / 100https://anilist.co/review/101317 Audio The audio was nothing special. But in that the use of music was for lack of a better word correct. By that I mean the music was designed to draw out specific emotions in specific scenes/situations and it did just that. Not so good that it would merit high praise like Made In Abysshttps://anilist.co/anime/97986/MadeinAbyss/ for example but it was always on point with the mood. It may not seem like much but music quality in anime lately has declined generally with exceptions of course. The voice acting was done very well Ayake Nanasehttps://anilist.co/staff/119626/AyakaNanase who voices Isurugi Rikka the main character does an exceptional job of bringing her character to life. Every line has some kind of feeling in it however subtle. Although I was much more impressed with the voice of Mia Haruka Tomatsuhttps://anilist.co/staff/95890/HarukaTomatsu. Her voice portrays Mias complicated emotional state perfectly especially towards the climax. Overall the voice acting was exceedingly good while the music was simply there good enough to not be noticed but not amazing enough to be noticed if that makes sense . Characters The characters were mostly ok. Rikka Mia and the AMD Series Robots were excellent and believable characters however I found that Professor Laurens madness was not very developed. The focus in BLACKFOXs characters was mostly in the relationship and interaction between Rikka and her friends Mia Oboro Kasumi and Madara. In particular the relationship and emotions between Rikka and her murdered family Isurugi Allen and Isurugi Hyoe. While Rikka loved her father and grandfather it shows that she develops a great respect for her grandfather Hyoe attempting to follow in his footsteps and become a ninja. Whereas inversely she had an immense amount of love for her father Allen. Somehow Studio 3Hz manage to put a large amount of precedent for Rikkas personality and the reason behind her actions in the first 15 minutes alone and then setting up her development throughout the movie in the next 10 minutes. Aside from Lauren who felt slightly incomplete as a character almost all the characters are great. They are introduced into the story in a good way and then develop through their interactions with Rikka. Slightly higher character development and better design than I had expected considering the genre and plot. 78 / 100https://anilist.co/review/101317 Story The plot is very cookiecutter. In that I mean its a very commonly used plot and doesnt have any large differences from anime of similar genres. For more casual viewers the plot is fairly decent. But more seasoned anime viewers will pick out the easy to predict plot and might even be bored by it. I think that Studio 3Hzs focus was heavily on character development rather than the story. I believe that the story is built around the characters development. If you can look past the fact that the story is cliche it is wellexecuted and everything feels like its progressing the story even if only by small amounts. There isnt much to say about the story if youve seen an anime of a similar genre then you are probably very familiar with the plot already and should just focus on the characters and animation. 54 / 100https://anilist.co/review/101317 Enjoyment I am personally a semicasual anime viewer. I watch anime in waves of binging and then I get bored and wait a couple of weeks before finding new series. Seasonal anime is usually the only thing I watch and not many because I dont like most of them except for now and then when I go and find a classic to watch for the culture. Because of this I didnt notice the bland predictable plot and I quite enjoyed the movie. The movie does have small bits of comedy sprinkled here and there to make the film feel more lively. But I think if you like deconstructing anime and especially if you enjoy riveting stories then BLACKFOX is maybe not for you. I would definitely recommend this to casual viewers or anyone looking for some anime to pass the time without watching trash. 70 / 100https://anilist.co/review/101317 FINAL SCORE 72 / 100https://anilist.co/review/101317 Thanks for reading my review. If you want have a short look at my list which Im currently updating and suggest something for me to review next I would very much appreciate feedback as I would like to get better at reviewing anime. Thanks for reading this far xoxo beyond this point is the Spoiler Dedicated Section so read that either if you want my complaints about BLACKFOX . Spoiler Dedicated Section Firstly the hologram projection and suit towards the end of the film that Rikka finds. Like how is it still sitting on the bench after the raid? Maybe I missed something but I doubt the assaulters would have left it there. Secondly the suit design itself. It looks great right up until butt jets... Why? Why are there butt jets? not really a complaint but it sticks out to me so yeah why butt jets... Thirdly I wish there was more information about Laurens research. They sort of just go hey supernatural powers because... science. Even a couple lines of dialogue to vaguely explain away why no one else has discovered this technology or why no one knows about it. Surely Lauren would have had to report his research to GRADSHEIM right? other than that my only other complaint is the battle drone... why CGI? It doesnt look right in the setting with that style of animation. And also when Rikka is fighting Mia at GRADSHEIM how is it she manages to dodge what appears to be lightning. And while its believable that this mysterious power moves slowly why is it then when she lost control due to the collar almost none of that power was aimed at Rikka even though I can only assume the collar was trying to get Mia to kill Rikka. the end and stuff xoxo
72 /100
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