Review of Absolute Duo
Man, this anime was a let-down. This could be so good but it's so... bad. Let me explain why. Animation was meh. It did not blow me off my seat, it did not make me cry in disbelief at how badly you can mess up. Motion was captured just fine, but the last 2 episodes suffered from the Dragonball Syndrome. Namely - dots for eyes and lines for mouths in combat scenes etc. Writing 2/10(for effort): This was a pitiful attempt, at most. No backstory explained. I'm trying to keep this spoiler free, so I won't point out the most obvious stuff, I'll just say the storytried so hard to find focus that it ended up all over the place. Detour after detour, failure after failure until you realize that this story is just a random blob of flashbacks, "mastermind" plans, motivations, trying to explain how soulpower works and excuses to throw in more fighting in-between your fighting and fan service. Not to mention efforts to make this battle royale with the story progress at times. This story would put any swiss cheese in shame.
Characters 2/10(for effort): Bland, cliché and boring when explained(main cast) but most of them aren't even touched, they are just decorations to make you feel this is actually happening in a school, with classmates and all. Length of this anime and its heavy focus on action left no time for character development - which is almost nonexistent, and if it's there it's always circled around the "development of their soul"(or how powerful they've become, and even that is inconsistent AND even that focuses on the main cast of like 5 characters). The only character that wasn't like the rest was Imari, and she was mercilessly shoved aside by the creators only to be brought up halfway through the series. And don't even get me started on the MC, a person this stupid and clueless in real life would be deemed as borderline autistic. Not to mention he looks exactly like the MC of Sakurasou(hairstyle, eye color and posture), but I'd like to think that's an accident. It has to be, since the characters are your generic huge boobs/small boobs and hairstyles thrown together to cover up the fact that they all lack any depth.
Sound 5/10: That was bad studio work - voicing was ok, but the way it was edited to somewhat fit into this whole thing... sound effects from battles sounded like they were taken straight from first mortal kombat at times(certain loud thump in 11th or 12th episode or sword clashing sounds when stuff hits a shield...)
SUMMARY: If you enjoy anime battles and do not like complicated lore, this is an anime for you. However - if you are on a crusade to point out mishaps and mistakes or you just can't help being pissed off at incompetency - you'd be better off without this stroke you'll be getting from watching this.