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Rating: 7.8/10 & 7.5/10

Impressions:

Ok, so this show hasn’t exactly turned out how I expected it would. It’s not how the butterfly dude comes back or anything, it’s just that this show is completely whacked up and so does not take itself seriously. It’s a bit too light-hearted for my tastes, since not even the battles are serious anymore. Papillion talking with Kazuki, Tokiko and Bravo is just outrageous – no way something like that would ever happen. I really don’t know what to think of this show. Bravo is simply hilarious, as well as the revived version of Papillion. The only serious fight has to be attribute to Tokiko’s bout with the wave-frequency-mind-controlling homunculus. Her flashback really changed the entire mood of the episode, creating the same feeling a murder mystery would give off. It’s fairly odd how the character’s mentalities can change so easily. Bravo and Kazuki make an awesome combination too, since they are equally crazy. It does get me thinking that Bravo is not all that witty and carefree, and perhaps will play a larger role in the future.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

I guess this means Chouno’s reign as enemy ends, thus also concluding the first arc of the series. There is nothing spectacular and it lacks uniqueness, as quite a few scenes a fairly cheesy and overused. Overall though, it’s not a bad start. It seems that Tokiko had been saved by another alchemical warrior, so I hope many more characters are introduced soon. The ‘community’ within the show needs to grow, and it has limited time to do that with the planned twenty-six episodes. However, as an opposite to that, Kazuki and Tokiko are becoming more attached to each other faster now, which makes me wonder whether one of them will confess or something to the other halfway through the series. What I can definitely say is that Busou Renkin is an action-shounen and I watch it purely because of that. The best way to improve this series is to better the action scenes, since they are currently quite lacking and dull. However if that’s not possible, blossoming some love-interests could make the show more enjoyable. Anyway, the other thing I feel compelled to mention, as anyone probably would, Chouno is disgusting. However, he does provide the basis for the enemies to come. The typical scaling factor is used for when it comes to power/strength levels. Everyone gets stronger as the show progresses (enemies, allies etc), and each time the strongest guy of that ‘phase’ is made to look extremely significant. But then a few episodes later, that guy is forgotten when something much stronger appears. In this case, it seems like a lot of human type Homunculi are going to appear soon.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

Impressions:

Phew, I’m finally up-to-date on Busou Renkin. I was quite surprised to see that torrents for this series are getting just as many peers as D.Gray-man. I thought this anime was meant to be not very popular. Oh well, D.Gray-man isn’t that popular currently anyway, but by the time Busou Renkin is coming to a close at twenty-six episodes, I’m sure D.Gray-man’s popularity would have skyrocketed (unless it stops at the impossibly low episode count of twelve or thirteen). Anyway, this episode, Kazuki and Tokiko destroy the bird homunculus, who turns out to be a homunculus derived from a…bird! The bird also has extreme loyalty to his ‘master’, the Papillion Mask guy, but in actual fact he’s just a lab-rat, uh, bird, to him. In the end, he is defeated by Kazuki, who wrapped the sash around his lance to increase his firepower. Man that took too long for him to figure out. You’d think that once you realise your sash is pure ass-kicking energy, you’d try to use it as soon/much as you can. Oh well, it was an enjoyable episode nonetheless. There was that issue with Kazuki getting pierced through the chest again, but somehow his shirt managed to stay intact and his insides (not even blood) weren’t spilling blood. Eh, shounen anime will always stay the same…

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Impressions:

This anime is shaping up to be one of my more favoured ones. The jokes are fresh and I hope they stay that way. The anime is still quite early in its story, but unlike a lot of other manga-shounen converts, it is limited to 26 episodes. I believe the series can stay strong until then. Currently, there seems to be quite a few good shounen series out there. The best one so far would have to be D.Gray-man, as both Naruto and Bleach are in fillers and most likely suck compared to D.Gray-man. I have to say Busou Renkin has no chance of topping something like Bleach in its prime, and right now the fillers are better than this show. However, if you like shounen you should at least give this anime a try. The action is getting better and the characters are being developed quite nicely. It’s good how everyone is involved in some way, and hopefully their significance to the story will increase over time. I understand that the manga wasn’t very popular, so it’s no wonder why the anime adaptation isn’t either.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Impressions:

Sorry for the late post; I didn’t realise episode 3 had been subbed until 4 came out! Anyway, I’m a bit disappointed with this show, as the stupid enemy designs really piss me off, as well as their nature. It’s similar with D.Gray-man, where the monsters all look and act like idiots. Although it’s unconventional for a shounen show to have these, but I wish just once that all the monsters looked like really monsters with no wacky personalities. Then maybe the higher-up villains can act all retarded; I wouldn’t care as long as they don’t die easily. The fight scene this episode was also a bit bland. Nothing spectacular happened and the frog guy’s weapon was shit. There was also the problem of Kazuki being unrealistic with his wound. Ok, so he can’t die, but he was pierced through his chest several times! Even if he doesn’t die, he should’ve at least started screaming in pain or blacked out from trauma. I guess the reason why Naruto never appealed to me is because I heard there was quite a few of those sorts of moments, though I can’t be sure. Apart from that reason though, the number of episodes is also a bit daunting so I never attempted to catch up.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Impressions:

Ahh, I finally see Hirano Aya’s voice in Mahiro. It’s so different that I didn’t realise until I read it somewhere. Anyway, this episode is better than the first mainly because there was more action and it was faster paced; just how a shounen anime should be. The real villain is also introduced, but I can’t help but think he’s not one of the big ones and will die pretty soon, thus the OP will be replaced by a more appropriate one that includes shots of the new villain. Okay, I honestly don’t know about that theory but I want it to happen because the evil dude right now looks so ridiculously gay that it’s worse than the Millennium Earl from D.Gray-man. Why can’t the bad guys in shounen anime just look like normal people? These days people try to spice up generic looking characters but they end up wrecking it and making them look worse. Think of Aizen from Bleach; sure he’s bland with no striking features, but at least he looks better than this butterfly dude. Speaking of villains, why do the homunculus have to be mechanical? Is there a rule that says anything relating to alchemy must be robotic? Where’s all the blood and guts flying everywhere?!

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Busou Renkin「武装錬金�?~ “Arms Alchemy”

Episodes: 26
Genres: Action, Fantasy, Shounen
Studio: XEBEC
OP: “Makka Na Chikai” by Yoshiki Fukuyama
ED: “Hoshiakari” by Jyukai
Official Site: http://www.busourenkin.com/

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Popularity: 11% [?]