Hi all and first off a belated welcome to 2014, a positive year as opposed to the negative 2013
I've been busy at university, so haven't had time to do any new year journal.

With that said I decided to discuss about some new phenomenon going on--the anime Future Card Buddy Fighter.....yeah that's one mouthful of a title

I know many of my regular watches would be a bit surprised to see me review an anime, after I said about my dislike for most of the genre. But you know what, sometimes you just have to go in and look at something you might not like....sometimes it may surprise you.

Also this review is for fun

....this did not surprise me. Here's the episode if you want to watch it:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OO1-MXCLhE)

Now I had no idea what to expect going in, all I knew was that it was about some boy and a dragon. And hey, it has dragons in it, which could at least keep my attention.

We open up with some exposition dialogue. This anime is based on a card game....which isn't a very good sign. A great chunk of anime based on games and similar stuff usually tend to be mediocre such as Monster Rancher, or bad and boring like YuGiYo. The only two exceptions I have are Digimon and Pokémon. Digimon has pretty rubbish animation, but some good character development and some cool monsters. The Pokémon anime is just hilarious thanks to Team Rocket who make the series. I always laugh at their motto and the voice performances in English are funny.

The exposition dialogue man tells us that there are children's cards that link Earth to another universe and bring back monsters for children to fight with and I have to pause here. If you had the power to cross a dimension, would you really use it to bring creatures over to fight? Why not use it for something else, such as going across to the other dimension and finding out new stuff. You never know what you could find, like a cure for cancer or secrets of magic. But no, you just have to make little kids dreams of killing other things a reality.

Then we get to see two dragon in some sort of ruined ancient Greek temple. Its the stern farther scolding the rebellious son scenario, but honestly I like these characters. They're designs are good, even though the animation on them is pretty stiff....and no, I'm not going to yell "Bara kawaii!"....if anyone says that I will drag them off to my temp pyramid for some Aztec-style open heart surgery.....GOT IT?
Anyway the dad dragon tells his son that he must choose some human to be the next in line to be king. Why they are so depend on humans is a mystery, why should these dragons care about humans? Also they keep saying the word "buddy" all the time....ok friendship.

After that we get the intro song......I hate it. I don't care if I annoy people who like Jpop, but this song is annoying. I can't get into it.
Its during this song that we're introduced to the main character who has ridiculous hair. He does judo and honestly there's not much to say about him. He's hot-headed and cocky, but that's a trait seen in most other main characters in shows like this.

Also on a funny note one of the lines is "Neverending story" a move I so wish I was watching instead of this and I could just play that song over this title......oh yes......(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vf2sDgeu7k).

Ok so afterwards we get an inappropriate image of a blue haired kid driving a police car who then leaves that car and summons a dragon via a card. I just have to ask now, what is with the cards in anime? Why are they so special? They're everywhere, with characters shoving them in your face and saying how awesome they are.

Anyway he flies up to a tall building where some other kid with a robot is. He sets up a...*sigh* "Buddy Police Barrier"....god that sounds stupid and they shout at each other.
And then they fight. In these types of anime there is a lot of fighting...a lot. Fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. Whether it be animal cruelty in Pokémon or taking a card game way too seriously.
Now in Digimon it makes sense that there is fighting, its a dangerous world full of predators and things wanting to kill the main characters.
Here its more along the lines of Pokémon--send another living creature in to fight for entertainment. In most countries this would be considered animal cruelty. In Buddyfight its just as bad as Pokémon since you send a sentient being to fight something. That's like me picking a random commenter and telling them to fight an enormous creature D:

I don't even get battles like this. The protagonist usually just stands to the side and does nothing while something else does all the work.
Now I'd probably do something different, such as.....

What James would do here

Generic anime character (GAC for short): "I challenge you to a fight, because it is my destiny" *insert pose here and holds up a card* "Behold, the mega ultra goodie good card. This will give my pet dragon the ability to--
James: "AHHHHHHHHH!" *slices with a short but mighty Celtic sword, cutting down the GAC with ease* "Well that was easy!"

But because we don't live in that reality, the blue haired kid gets some advice from some organisation who look kind of evil and then uses a giant death hammer and the 2 opponents he faces disappear.....great kid, now you are a double murderer!

Next we see the dragon dude using some sort of crystal-bubble video at all the kids he can choose from....and note how they're all white/Japanese (they look white) and they look well off. I bring this up because it seems odd that out of all, ALL the children in the world, he picks one of these ones. You know I think there could be some poor little children in some sad parts of the world who would love a friend instead of fighting....but no he goes for some generic person.

We then meet our main character from the opening song, his name is Gao. He's a headstrong boy who wants to get a rare monster and be cool.....just like how Ash wanted to be the very best. He's a basic stock character, not much else to him. The only other thing I can say is that his mum is a judo teacher in a very stereotypical Japanese setting.

Oh and he saves some dweeby turquoise haired kid from some of the most unthreatening bullies ever.
This is an example of what I call a "sunset scene" which is common in many anime. Its usually set in a place during a sunset or late noon and usually leads to character development.....depending on what type it is.
And the dragon is grumpy because the kid uses self-defence, whilst the turquoise haired kid fanboys about how great he is and then the Gao threatens the bullies....honestly this part is a little boring.
Oh and then Gao is late for training and is punished by his mum. Of course.

The next day Gao is on an elevator smarting from yesterday and meets up with two friends, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger.....oh wait sorry, I mean Kugaru and Baku, such memorable names.
Well Kuguaru is a bit like Hermione, smart and supportive and spouting plot points, Baku is.....there. The only thing I can say about him is that he's always got something in his mouth. On the elevator its a lollipop thing, later its ramen. Why is this? ....I have no idea. Oh and he and Gao argue and have Over the top expressions, cause that's funny ain't it? Huh huh huh!....no its really not funny.

They chat about abducted poor mythical creatures and forcing them to fight. Apparently there 3 worlds to choose from:
-dragon world
-magic world
-danger world

.....they have a world named danger world. Well that makes no sense! What is more dangerous than dragons or magic that could turn wild? Why not just have it all in one fantasy world?

Well anyway they enter a mall or something and I'm going to warn all my dragon friends out there.
The next scene has a lot of dialogue that is insulting to dragons. I'm sorry

So they go into the mall and are chatting when some blonde haired person on a second floor starts sneering at them:

Gao: "Dragons are the only way, trust me"
Blonde kid: "Hah! You like dragons huh?
Gao: Huh? Naboru? (oh great another character to remember)
Naboru: "They're ok, but dragon knights are way cooler. Dragons are nothing without their masters." (ouch!)
Gao: "What is a dragon knight?"
Kugaru: "They're humans who ride the backs of dragons and fight alongside them."
Naboru: "Dragons are just dim-witted monsters that couldn't even find their own tails without being ordered to be a dragon knight

....Jesus. This blonde is a douche! Also nevermind the fact they are in a public area and they're some distance away so would have to use raised voices. Wouldn't they get awkward stares?

Alright, so we kind of have our basic roles:
Gao= Hot headed protagonist
Kugaru= Hermione Granger
Baku= supportive weirdo
Naboru= Draco Malfoy dragon racist.

Of course the dragon dude is angry at Naboru, who wouldn't be? The guy has an annoying voice and dumb looking hair. I want to smash his face with a maccana! And worst of all Gao agrees with him!

Anyway, they go to a classroom where the teacher tells them to write essays based on Buddyfight cards and making characters from them. That's not an essay, that's a fan fiction.
Naboru Malfoy boasts about getting something good (its just a card, shut up. If you were in my school, you would have been punched in the face--Scottish schools hate show offs)

But Gao gets a glowing card, so he's special....woo! It flies away and he follows it outside via a giant slide and---WAIT A MINUTE!
That school has a giant slide? W-why couldn't my school have a giant slide?! I would have gone on it time and time again .

Well that aside, the evil cooperation headed by some creepy creep in a chair with creepy creep glasses....yuck, well he nods to send in someone to see the commotion.
Meanwhile the dragon appears in front of Gao, and he's not a happy reptile! Also Draco Naboru, not satisfied with being anti-dragon on the side-lines, joins him and starts complaining, so Gao delivers a hammy speech about effort. Yay I guess :v

Then the creepy blue haired kid arrives on his poor CGI dragon. Then a new report arrives who is pretty annoying and has crap animation. And she has the dumbest hair in this anime! It defies gravity!
I give her the Most Stupid hair award.
She yells plot exposition about who the blue haired kid, who gives Gao a Pokédex, I mean Digivice, I mean card tray thing, I mean dangerous spinning top, I mean magic box thing that does monster stuff.

There's some awkward staring scenes and "Mouth breathing scenes", which are common in anime and often creepy D:

and then the blue haired kid says:
"Ok see you later!"
But Gao being the utterly friendly person he is, challenges the blue haired weirdo to a fight.

...this is where I got a bit peeved off. This is a sell out. It shoves random action to draw audiences in. Its forced in as a cliff-hanger.
On top of that, it gives the main character a bad interpretation. It just comes across as being a bit of a selfish action. He's just met the blue haired guy and says "Fight me!", that's like punching someone you just met. And on top of that, he's just met the dragon he's sending into battle, that is just harsh! And remember this is the protagonist we have to follow.
I may be reading too much in here, but I don't care, this bugs me. So I'm trying to get it out.

And then we end on a note of creepy stares and silly dialogue and double annoyance--with more of that damned news reporter and a song on a level with Rebecca Black's Friday......GOOD SWEET MERCY! I ended the video as soon as I heard the first lyric

Overall

So in conclusion, how was this.
well....in a word.....generic. Painfully generic. The characters we have seen before and there's nothing added to them.
The animation was ok for anime, not a lot of movement and it goes over the top a lot. The dragon designs are cool, but the humans seem to be vying for who can have the dumbest looking hair, Final Fantasy you have competition!
Voice acting was passable, but the young dragon has got a pretty cool voice, its a voice I can relate to, unlike the screechiness of the Gao's

The main beef for me is of course the fact that its mindless fighting which seems to happen a lot in anime of this genre. Just the thought of transporting creatures from another world to fight for whiney kids is just as bad as the Romans capturing people for the arena.
There's no real connections yet between characters--Gao and the dragon have just met, but I think he should have some consideration. This is a being who has declared him to be your friend, are you going to just push him into the ring so suddenly? Its just wrong.

It also doesn't work as a pure fantasy. I'm not saying all fantasy should be the same, but most fantasy tend to have main themes, examples being:
-Neverending Story: humans loosing their imagination and needing to rediscover it
-The Last Unicorn: mortality and how our myths shape us
-Princess Mononoke: Humanity and nature's cycles

This along with things like Pokémon and Digimon and YuGiYo have themes of friendship.
Though in Digimon's case its genuine, in the others its pretty much forced.
So yeah, another cliché to this is the shoved in friendship theme.

This is why most of these sort of shows fail, its more product placement and more a fanfiction.

This is just the first episode, but sometimes the first episode is the most important--it sets the scene for the show. Some first episodes are great, for example An Unearthly Child, the first ever episode of Doctor Who. This Buddyfight on the other hand is a bit blasé. Maybe it will improve, but I doubt it.

So in a score I give this
2 stars out of 5
Not terrible, but not that good.


Now if you don't mind, I'm going to send anyone who comments on this into meaningless battles! >:D
Muhahaha!