Finding the Most Powerful and Hopefully, the Absolute Duo! Literally.
Hi, people. Welcome back! It's the time of the year again! Wait, what?! No, I just kidding. I just wanted to say that. No special day. Anyway, back to the topic. The anime that I had watched a long time ago but I didn't get to write about it since I got a lot of things going on.
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| Isn't she cute? |
The anime is that I will be talking about Absolute Duo! And yes, I have
talked about it before. Not once but
twice! Anyway, it is been a long wait for this anime review to be actually written in this blog. It's the time! Let's go!
WARNING:-
SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't watched it and plan to watch it without anyone being the spoiler, please DON'T CONTINUE READING!!!
P.S. If you want to be spoiled, well, go ahead and read it. You HAD been warned. Don't blame me for being spoiled if you INSIST on continuing to read this post.
Introduction
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| The anime poster... |
The anime, Absolute Duo (in Japanese, アブソリュート・デュオ) is adapted from a Japanese light novel series of the same name by Takumi Hiiragiboshi with illustrations by Yū Asaba. This LN is published by Media Factory since 2012 under their MF Bunko J imprint. This LN is also has given a manga adaptation by Media Factory. As for the anime, of course, it's not done by Media Factory! Because...they are not an animation company. The animation is done by 8-Bit (and merely licensed by Media Factory), which was aired in 2015 between January 4 and March 22.
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| The light novel... |
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| The manga cover...but translated. |
Plot
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| The cliche scene where the MC sees a pretty girl when the sakura trees are blossoming... |
The story starts with Kokonoe Tor entering into his new school, in a new school and also, sakura trees are blooming. Blah, blah...so cliche. Anyway, again cliche, he saw a pretty girl looking the blooming sakura tree. Wow...it is so cliche. Can it get any more cliche? Well, it could!
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| The headmistress starts the opening ceremony with a fight |
Anyway, putting that aside, our dear MC, attend the opening ceremony with the rest of the fresh students in Koryo Academy (
昊陵学園), a high school to train Blaze users (and also to obtain the Absolute Duo). OK, before I get further into the story, let me talk about the terms that are used in the story. Like in Shakugan no Shana, there are several terms you need to know but they are more Chuuni than in SnS and much lesser. There is a Kanji for it but it is read like English in Japanese. In this post, the format of the terms in Japanese will be "[Kanji]/[Katakana reading for it]". Damn it, man. Inou Battle again! Chuuni...Anyway, I will talk about it at a later date as I have finished watching Inou Battle.
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| Getting the Blaze... |
Back to the topic. In this story, the weapon that created from the soul of someone with superpowers is known as Blaze (焔牙/ブレイズ). Since it is created from the soul, it reflects the soul in the form of a weapon. As for people who have a weapon that is not usual attacking melee weapon, they either called Irregular (異能/イレギュラー) (for Tor's case) or even Exception (特別/エクセプション) (for Lilith's case, you will see her later). Damn it, man...the chuuni-ness of the author. To be honest, other terms are in the anime like Exceed (超えし者/イクシード), Astar Mark (星紋/アスター), Duo (絆双刃/デュオ) or even the Awaken Ones (醒なる者/エル・アウェイク) but I won't go through them.
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The fight that caught Julie's attention...
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Anyway, back to the story. During the opening ceremony, the speaker, which is the headmaster of the academy instructs the students to fight for their qualification to attend the academy. And then, they fight, of course. The winners who still stand strong after the given time. Of course, with the power of the MC, Tor wins by defeating another pretty girl that he met on his way to the school, Nagakura Imari. So happened that the beautiful girl that he saw in the morning is one of the winners. Who is she? She is Julie Sigtuna, a silver-haired girl from Scandinavia. This girl took an interest in Tor's special weapon and his special final hit punch.
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| Well, that is a surprise temporary partner for Tor... |
Through some circumstances, Tor became Julie's temporary duo. Yes, Duo or 絆双刃/デュオ is a pair of Blaze user and the pair lives together as it is part of the special Duo system executed by school rules (to have them bond together and of course, obtain Absolute Duo) Why did he get to be her temporary duo and stay with her in the same room? Well, it's because it is required for a duo and so happened that Julie is sitting beside Tor. You will need to watch it to get the context.
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| With that,...Tor's official partner is officially Julie! |
Anyway, the pair decided to split up but with Julie failed to get one, Tor decided to get her to become his Duo. Anyway, from here on, it was kind of the usual skill improvement course and challenges, which includes a bunny girl teacher who is found to have a case of duo personality, Tsukimi Rito and a girl who is called the Exception and wanting to pair with Tor, Lilith Bristol. The MC Duo grows as they improve their skills through those challenges. And also their relationship with each other grows too. Like DUH! Obviously, it will!
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| Oh no...the battle...a.k.a. the killing game is starting |
OK...there is ONE BIG CHALLENGE upcoming. The fight between the two members of the Reign Conference started because of the dispute between the two members in the Reign Conference. They are the old man and a scientist, Edward Smith who is called as the Equipment Smith, and Sakuya Tsukumo who is the academy headmistress and is also called the Blaze Diabolica. From the looks of it, it looks like the rivalry go backs to even Sakuya's grandfather. Wow...well, they didn't fight directly but they fought with the army that they have. Yes, the students in the academy are Sakuya's army, in a way. The academy is to train an army of Blaze user. For what? To obtain the Absolute Duo. I will talk about the subject of Absolute Duo later.
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| The two sides of the battle... |
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| Miyabi's madness... |
Anyway, back with the fight. The academy's student will fight against Edward Smith's army that wears Unit suits, who is led by K. And then...Hotaka Miyabi, the girl who is in love with our MC and part of Tor's circle, joins K's army to fight against the academy. With Miyabi's partner, Tachibana Tomoe successfully gets Miyabi back to them. The rest of Tor's circle also got to defeat the final boss, K. Not just once but TWICE. Why twice? K kills his boss out of anger and takes his equipment to try to defeat Tor (and probably wants to kill him too). Well, it's a happy ending for most of them. Oh yeah, Absolute Duo is a title for the Duo that is the most powerful. How does it look like? I dunno. This will probably have the answer in the final volume of the LN (maybe).
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| Miyabi is back! Of course, it is after she has been defeated. |
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| The enemy's commander is defeated not just once... |
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| ...but TWICE! |
Anyway, for me, the story feels like a shallow as it has a theme of revenge in it and the story is not that thought-provoking. It's just a simple story. Although it has some change theme after that, the story dun feels like it should get a second season after giving it a good thought. Some people do say that the ending of the anime is literally begging for a second season. But for me, the story deserves only one season regardless of the ending or any other reason. Well, you and I can read the light novel if you and I wanna go deeper into the story. OK! Let's move on!
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| The oath renewed between them once again... |
Anime Rating
Story (Rating: 6/10)
The story is a typical harem show where the MC is surrounded by girls. To be honest, most of the story didn't give me much of an impact on me. Although the story is not all about harem, the thing is that the story didn't gain traction to get a second season. Anyway, what is the other thing? The rivalry between the different factions. That rivalry even boils up to a point where the two factions (which involves the headmaster, Sakuya Tsukumo and Edward Walker) starts fighting each other. Well, other than that, there are some minor skirmishes and nothing more. Quite plain, to be honest. Maybe the next few volumes of LNs (which are not animated) will be more interesting. Who knows? And yeah, I've forgotten! This anime is fanservice heavy. You can see it from the screenshots later.
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| The destructive weapon... |
Art and Animation (Rating: 7/10)
The art and animation are quite good. The scenery and characters are well-drawn and the movement of the characters are not too bad. There is a cute Julie to behold and to protect! Protect the lolis!!!!! Ahem! No, dun call the police, you deviants!
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| Nice sakura trees...they are blossoming |
Sound and Music (Rating: 7/10)
Ahem! Back to the topic! The opening song was one of my favourites at one point in time. As for ending theme songs, there are three of them and just kinda mediocre to me, tbh. Anyway, the music in this anime is overall fine.
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| The scene from the OP. |
Characters (Rating: 6/10)
A Yamato Nadeshiko character, a shy and no self-esteem character, a cute and innocent character and a princess-like character surrounds the MC...not a fan really. I like Julie most of all. Other than that, not really. The characters changes and development are mostly about skill (even with that, it hardly shows). There is not much on the change the character-building type of changes though. The anime is too short in my opinion.
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| Tor's potential harem team? |
Enjoyment (Rating: 6/10)
I dun remember much from those time when I first watched it but there are some funny scenes to watch. To be honest, I was chasing after a lot of anime and was very passionate to watch anime before being forced to let it die down a bit. BUT now, I'm back!!!! Anyway, to be honest, the anime is just fine and is not very thought-provoking. Plus, I never thought of revenge story as a good story. In fact, this kind of story is quite shallow just like the theme of revenge. Well, that reminds me of Unbreakable Machine-Doll. Anyway, that's another story. Let's move on.
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| That sounds lewd here...NO, DUN CALL THE POLICE, you deviants! |
Overall Rating: 6.4 (6.5)/10
Screenshots
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| Another pretty girl, Nagakura Imari. |
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| Julie incoming! |
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| O.O...uh, oh...Dun call the police, you deviants! |
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| Uh...Usagi sensei cute side? Is that even considered cute...? |
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| Oh...Usagi sensei madness side. That suits her better, tbh. |
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| Another pretty girl appears, Lilith Bristol. |
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| Cute Julie! |
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| That is cute too! |
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| Cute! Julie is so cute!!!! |
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| That is cute too!!!! |
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| Bikini and beach fanservice!!!!!!!!!! |
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| And also those of you who like big boobs...Hotaka Miyabi! |
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| Onsen fanservice!!!! |
PV/Trailer
Conclusion
With the end of the post, I would like to congratulate you on NOT being the TLDR race. OK, putting that aside. Anyway, this post took me a while to write because it has even a LONG while since I last watch it. So, I need to at least skim through recall the scenes from the anime. I hope you all enjoy it as I have tried my best to write it. And I hope to see you once again. Goodbye, and God bless you!
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| Hi! Aren't they cute? BTW, hope to see you again! |
i have a brand new anime or manga featuring a normal fourteen year old boy named Adam lee he lives in Tokyo japan his father named Dr Seth lee is a archaeologist while his mother named Esther is a ordinary housewife one day his dad finds a ancient vase inside this vase is a demon named Evangelina.
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