Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
shovelkun_
Being a fan of Madoka Magica, I was looking for another dark mahou shoujo anime to get into. When I came across Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou it was described as a very dark mahou shoujo that hit hard and had no reservations. I was a little skeptical that it might just be an attempt to jump on the hype of Madoka Magica but I gave it a try. What I didn't expect was for the first episode to hit me like a semi truck with the grim nature of the magical girls and their fight against the Daemonia. As I watched, I was drawn in by the unabashed chuun, the unique tarot card based approach to magical girls' abilities, and the unusual characterization of some members of the cast and their families, including the main heroine Akari Taiyou. Some other characters were not as original but were strong enough to…
Read at the sourcePROTOTYPEE
I think it is an alright show. I can see why people said it is heavily influenced by Madoka but I also find the two shows being quite different.
The plot is fine. It is basically about girls having magical powers and they have to defeat monsters that can take control of people with "bad" emotions such as envy, hatred. The fights are pretty repetitive. The main character always tries to chat with the monsters first, then just kill it because the monsters always want to die. The ending is a bit rush IMO.
The art style probably will take time to get used to. The characters' appearances are more on the cute side and all of them looks very skinny. I don't mind it too much after a few eps.
I quite like the characters. They are unique and have quite interesting backstories, even the main villa…
Read at the sourceAgent_Redacted
Don't ever trust the MAL rating. A 6 for others may mean a 10 for you.
Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is one of the biggest hiddem gems I've ever discovered. Despite its low rating on MAL, the anime was actually fucking lit and I couldn't find any flaws in it except from the mediocre voice acting.
It has Yuri. Its dark and edgy. What else could you possibly want?
I can't explain the story. My brain doesn't work anymore. But I'll tell you something. It's all about emotions and choosing to move forward. Something along that line.
Incredible OP, great story, kawaii, edgy. Recommended to those who are looking for a good and dark magical girl show. Also. Don't fucking compare this to Madoka.
Read at the sourcemouthpiece
Ah, another one of those dark mahou shoujo that try to cash in from the fad Madoka Magica created with its hype and financial success. Although it does a fine job at having polarized imagery of happy moeblobs on one hand and creepy murderous monsters on the other, it still fails to accomplish the thing that actually made Madoka Magica such a hit. Which one is that you may wonder? Could it be the deep characterization? The elaborate storytelling? The amazing analysis of its various themes? HELL NO, that show sucked in all that.
… It was the production values, ok?
AIC is no SHAFT. They can’t throw a mountain of money at it, nor do they have overrated anime creators in their disposal to hype the damn thing six months before it even begins to air. And this is why despite all the good efforts…
Read at the sourceTheBrainintheJar
Horror comes from inside and is directed inside. People who want to kill us are quite scary, but they’re a very specific problem. True horror is in realizing that we can be the killers, that we can be what we hate. It throws a big wrench in our grand narrative and shatters it to pieces. That’s why we limit our consciousness, assume the patriarchy or the media or the government is to blame for it all. Negative feelings are bad, but the true problem must be outside us.
Obvious comparisons to Madoka spring up, but these are superficial comparisons. The latter is more existential and philosophical, less concerned with the emotions of its characters and relying more on structure and mechanics to deliver its philosophical idea. Daybreak Illusion is far more emotional, fantastical and wild. Each…
Read at the sourceMorningStorm64
To be honest, I get a kick out of this new wave of dark magical girl shows that try to be grim and dark and sometimes gory. Even though they're only emulating the more superficial aspects of the acclaimed Madoka Magica and don't often have a superb story to offer, they can still be greatly entertaining. Unfortunately, this was not the case for me with Day Break Illusion.
Story: 3/10
The story starts off as a semi-interesting Madoka clone but all of the potential for an interesting outcome is wasted and it just devolves into an incredibly generic friendship story that's masked by its attempts at being dark. And me personally, I'll watch dark, depressing, gory, etc shows even if they lack any real depth to them because it can still be entertaining, but the darkness and drama in this show is…
Read at the sourceBBlade-From-Gaia
This series is a poor pretencious trying to make a dark maho shojo series. This series is a guide for not make a dark maho shojo.
For those peoples what criticizes Puella Magi Madoka Magica for contain "lazy characters"... in Daybreak Illusion finds the true definition for lazy characters. That's not joke: the name, the design and dressing is a memorandun of the tarot title for each girl. The personalities are boring and lazy. Is hard empathize with several main characters, with exception of Ginka.
The villain is a idiot. Why he don't know that could corrupt tarot users? Why don't idealize a better plan for mate with Akari having a temible power in your hands? Come on: he could transforms in any male/female character or expect that she have 16 years old for this! The script is very bad.…
Read at the sourceAuralice
TL;DR - If you drop this show early you'll probably regret it.
Note: I will not be comparing this show to Madoka like many others have, because I can not.
After watching this show to the very end I'm left confused with my own feelings for it, probably because this show itself is confused over what it wants to do.
It started out fairly dull, there was no real impact, nothing that really made me feel like it was worth watching past the first few episodes.
The characters started off rather shallow, none of them got adequate development and were merely there to do their own thing simply because that's how they were instructed to.
Design-wise the characters look lazily done, my biggest gripe in this is the fact that they all have the same disproportionate and scrawny build, despite their dail…
Read at the sourcekitkat17720
Honestly, I don't know why everyone compares this to Madoka Magica, the two are completely different except that they share the magical girl genre. If that's the only reason, go compare it to sailor moon too. Now, the art for this anime is amazing, it has its own new style that no other anime that I've seen has really been anywhere close to. The sound was amazing and linked up with the ever-building story perfectly. All the way down to the opening as well. The character's each had there own unique backstories that weren't copied and pasted from other shows. Overall this anime was a pleasure to watch and is one of the few I can keep coming back too again and again.
Read at the sourceotaku_horrorhime
This would be my second review on here, so please proceed at your own risk. I will try not to write any spoilers, but they may end up happening without me even realizing it.
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Story: (8)
For a 13 episode, it was a very enjoyable series. It was unique in its own sense; it basically was a happier version of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika. If you haven't seen that anime, it's basically a darker version of this one. This anime is a bit happier with a happier ending. All the episodes had a flow to them even when they were on an episode that wasn't about the main prodigy. They told each story of the individual stories of Akari, Seria, Luna and Ginka without going all over the place like some anime do. The plot was well placed throughout the whole series, meaning; They didn't j…
Read at the sourcewhiteteeth
I'm going to be sincere, i heard of this anime because everyone on the internet kept saying that it was a "Madoka Rip-off". But as i believe you can't judge before watching it yourself, i went on and watch it.
My conclusion: people really exaggerate, it definitely isn't a rip-off. It does have some common grounds, but Genei Wo Kakeru Taiyou has proved to me that it stands as it's own series.
Genei Wo Kakeru follows the same formula that most Magical Girl shows have, the only difference it's that, apart from the grim factor, it handles very mature topics.
Each character that is infected by the villain by accepting a contract with him suffers from a human problem: Jealousy, anger, sadness, isolation... we all have experimented that once, and maybe sometimes, if someone came to us in our da…
Read at the sourceDiamondparka
Oh, DayBreak Illusion.
*Oh*, DayBreak Illusion, you poor, poor, poor, soul. Why did it have to turn out like this?
Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is the prime example of how not to do a dark magical girl anime- No scratch that. Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is the prime example of how not to do anime collectively. It's not absolutely dreadful, but it should have never turned out how it is.
The anime has a collection of six actually good episodes, where there's emotions and development that seem realistic. And then there's the rest of the anime, which is unable to decide what it wants to do with itself as it hoplessly meanders through the plot, trying to grab as many plot points and characters as it can but only getting the most minimal grasp. That's not even mentioning all the down to earth, heavy, rea…
Read at the sourcehayatokan
First of all, ill pretend this is a universe where Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica doesn't exist; be it inspiration, based upon or plain plagiarism, let's be fair: this is a site to review series as individual works.
Without further ado:
Story:
The first half of the story is fairly good due the fact that you are exposed to the tragedies of the girls: Akari and Seira's experience the tragedy of the loss of a loved one, Ginka's Harsh life with her father and the self-confidence issues of Luna.
We also learn about the Daemonia and how they originate from and you get to see glimpse on who's the series villain during the chapters.
However, one of the the main problems with the story is on the second half it begins to be not so good:
Luna becomes excessively jealous for very dumb reasons and he…
Read at the sourceihateeveryone
Alright, let's face it. After the ever famous and successful "Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica," a want and increase in demand for dark magical girl shows have been prevalent in the anime community. Now, I'm not going to be comparing this show to Madoka 24/7, because trust me, this show is bad on it's own, but I will be using Madoka as a basis for what a dark magical girl show should try to succeed, and what it shouldn't.
Day Break Illusion is, absolutely, what it shouldn't.
If the promotional art and the opening wasn't a dead giveaway, it should be well-known that this show is going to be pretty dark. And well, it definitely is. The story pretty much revolves on young tarot card users who fight against "Daemonia" - demons created when humans contract with them and eventually succumb into desp…
Read at the sourceEnglishOtaku
STORY:
Daybreak Illusion has a fairly unique basis, being based around tarot cards, something I have never seen in an anime before; however DBI turns into your typical magical girl anime with a group of young girls being able to turn into magic girls, in a sense, with their powers being based off their personal tarot card. I thought the story was slightly interesting, there wasn't alot of development except the story being centered around the main character being able to hear the voices of the "daemonia" and the girls fighting these daemonia. Although I initially found the story interesting, it turned a little repetitive and was slow to speak.
ART:
The art in DBI isn't exactly bad, the character designs in general were fairly cute before turning into a more serious style of animation whil…
Read at the sourceMistyBlue
At first, I was skeptical about this anime. It received mixed ratings. Some were 9, while others were 4. The ones who rated this anime to be low were mostly those that kept comparing it to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Critique the show, not compare! It's not a perfect anime, but it doesn't mean it cannot be enjoyable.
Story: The first episode took me by surprise,with me thinking that it escalated pretty quickly with very little background to the story. It made me prepare myself for the upcoming episodes, as there were more grim. The tarot cards were a cool component of this anime; I just wished that they described them in more detail, especially with the cards that the 4 girls have. They don't really explain the organization that they work for either.. The battle scenes were nice, they sh…
Read at the sourcepageprophet
GENEI WO KAKERU TAIYOU: Promising start, but that’s about it
I must admit that the story interests me. The idea of Tarot cards, Daemonia, and magic in general, has its appeals. What make it even darker are the video effects, eerie soundtracks, and blood. As for the story itself, I think it is executed very well. There is much progress in the overall plot and the development of the main character to keep things interesting. However, this good execution doesn’t last very long. It is consistent only up to episode 3.
Episodes 4 to 6 are so character-driven that they almost have zero development in the overall story. These episodes seem to be episodic, and the only reason why I can’t say that they’re filler is that they have been used to introduce certain plot elements, like Cerebrum, Ginka’s…
Read at the sourceCheapShotFail
A failed attempt at an interesting concept.
Day Break Illusion (avoiding the tedious title) is a show that started off with potential but a prime example of dropping the ball halfway through.
The story synopsis is above, so I'll just give my perspective on it. Basically, it is unique at first but does not explore its total potential by the end. There are many loose ends not tied up by the end and many things introduced lack clarification (such as the Daemonia). I found the story to be a bear to watch as it quickly became redundant, focusing on several things only and not answering many of the viewer's questions. I give the story a 4.
Art was decent enough, really colorful to suit the magical girl genre but dark when it needed to be. Art doesn't normally make a difference to me though u…
Read at the sourceKingArthur13th
Day Break Illusion is a series that could of joined Madoka Magica in building the dark magical girl sub-genre, instead it simply copied it with little originality. What little originality this series does contain comes from its Tarot Card Reading theme which doesn't effect the progression of the series as much as you might think. Day Break Illusion can be exciting at times and deliver emotional scenes here and there but overall, it's a disappointment. Not a failure but a disappointment. Everything is actually really predictable except for what happens to Luna or the information dump in episode eleven. Day Break Illusion's story is centered around young girls who are called upon to sacrifice themselves and save the world as magical girls. In the beginning that was actually well performed, w…
Read at the sourceeverfeather
thoroughly terrible anime. It's only saving graces were, character designs, tarot, ED, and transvestites.
The story seems incredibly forced, has pacing issues, unresolved plot points and more.
The character designs are extremely tryhard, but it was in a way I quite appreciate.
All of the battles were incredibly uninspired, usually revolving around someone getting grabbed suddenly
The characters had little depth, but they did a half decent job with branching off into some of them A lot of deus ex machina brought it together as a very uninspired show trying to ride off the coattails of madoka
Read at the source
