Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
XTheChosenOneX26
If you always wanted to watch a shonen turn into dark psychological horror that includes extreme violence than you have come to the right place.
This anime suffers from a dated animation that does not really hold up today. Which is why would like to see a modern remake. The story remains unresolved and rather feels like an anthology. At times the pace is rather slow and I felt bored. You probably wonder at this point why I still rated this 8 stars. The answer is that this anime really feels unique despite its shortcomings. Ofc I also might be a bit biased and maybe more accurate would be to rate this 6 stars. Or lets meet at the middle and say 7.
The mix of supernatural power vs modern military was intriguing.
The violence feels more like it was meant to offend viewers rather than bein…
Read at the sourceplebrepel
[JP, subtitle quality was ok, Triad_&_AonE recommended]
The purpose of this review is avoiding having you skip something you may enjoy under the illusion such a stacked not-recommended count incurs upon you. The one single shortcoming of this animation is it only had 13 episodes and never continued. This is not a condensed or summarized of compacted or rushed show. It moves at a pace matching what is happening which is what makes it good. Thanks to that pace it is unfinished because there is no way that would fit into 13 episodes, but because there was no maniac scramble to try and wrap everything up it maintains its consistency from beginning to end. This show is from a time when children's anime put hair on your balls. In my opinion this is what a proper manga adaptation should strive f…
Read at the sourcegami_blight
The anime's weakest point is its inability to adapt the entire manga story. This results in an ending with many unresolved plot points and an open conclusion. Also, the 13-episode anime attempts to adapt six manga volumes, causing the narrative to progress rapidly. Because of this, they omitted some scenes and dialogues that would make the story more understandable.
Despite these shortcomings, I really enjoyed the show's direction. Since the anime didn't want to fully commit to the manga's level of violence, it creatively adapted some of the manga's most disturbing moments without being totally explicit and that was impressive.
I recommend this anime as complementary material to the manga, but not as a standalone product.
Read at the sourcePhobossus
◆ If there is one show I really have "mixed feelings" about, that'd be Narutaru
Any connoisseur of genre deconstructions, or happy-go-lucky shows that unexpectedly turn grim/disturbing, will likely at some point stumble across Shadow Star Narutaru and ponder whether it's worth giving it a go despite its low score and mostly negative reviews. I'll try to brief you on what you should and shouldn't expect as you make your decision.
Shadow Star Narutaru has an interesting premise, but unluckily in the already limited time of 13 episodes it's been given, it tries to go in different, disjointed directions, and never seems to reach any destinations.
It raises more questions than it gives answers. The lore behind dragonets, the nature of relation between them and their owners, remain practically…
Read at the sourceBaka-bear
Narutaru is an anime that I became interested in due to some reviews that gave me hope that this was some kind of hidden gem that was similar to Evangelion. Little did I know it would be no where near that except maybe in tone alone.
Narutaru provides more questions than answers with various things that add some charm and direction, but never really ties anything off, and to that point, nothing really felt relevant to the overall plot despite it somehow progressing things. There are many times where you're introduced to new characters or information regarding the cast, only for that information to end there, leaving you confused not at the information, but rather what the point even was in revealing it if it meant that nothing of any real impact would come of it; not even a real, definiti…
Read at the sourcePhilTheJ
This author just can't get people to actually adapt his fuckin manga can he
To anyone interested in this author's work, all I can say is i recommend you watch the openings and go straight to the manga afterwards. Both this and Bokurano don't fully adapt the original manga and just do their own thing for most of it, which is a huge bummer, because it makes the stories seem like edgy pointless shit for shock value, which is far from what the author usually wants to convey. But anyways, one positive I had with this adaptation is that I really like how cheerful it's opening is, and how it subtly hints at character motivations and what happens in the plot while portraying the dark shit that happens in a jokey, childish manner. The theme song itself is also a catchy bop that i found myself humm…
Read at the sourceChris_Concept
Meh
Story 4: The story was okay, nothing special. I do like them having their own “pets”, but that falls short too.
Art 5: wasn’t great, but it was okay for it’s time, pretty basic.
Sound 2: Sound was okay at some parts, but man.. I cannot forget the sounds of that scene were Takano was driving.. the car was constantly changing gears. The background noise on some of scene where they were in the classroom and/or outside, the birds chirping was just laughable.
Character 3: I did not like any of the characters, there was hardly any character development. Character were very bland.
Enjoyment 4: I thought it was getting good at the end of the anime and then it left like nothing happened? I didn’t really enjoy it, but it wasn’t dragging.
Overall 3.6: I am surprise they left it like that…
Read at the sourceDigitalGangsta86
Wow that was really bad. First half is honestly a little entertaining and Hoshimaru is a good character imo. The rest of the characters are pretty bad it is hard to tell characters apart because they all look similar and you only get to know their names 3/4'ths of the way through the anime. The main character is particularly bad. This anime had some potential but it did not try. So many plot points they had but after the halfway mark the anime completely changes and is so dreadful. All of the plot points are forgotten. There are also no more super specific military references after the halfway point. I believe someone else took over production it really isn't the same anime.
Please don't watch this.
Read at the sourcecorky12
I am a huge fan of Madoka Magica, and I search for any and all deconstructions of stereotypical genres. Shadow Star Narutaru has been on my list as a dark deconstruction of the pet monster (Pokemon, Digimon, etc.) phenomenon. I recently saw Bokurano, which is by the same mangaka, and while it did feel a bit rushed, I really enjoyed it. Thus, Shadow Star Narutaru was next on my list.
Story: The idea for this show is great. The first half of the episodes had obvious antagonists and a good-and-evil back and forth. Then, we get introduced to some new characters whose stories take up an entire episode. This happens again. And again. Only for the finale to center on a secondary character who was only shown once or twice. The main villains and the overall "plot" was never resolved. I am planning…
Read at the sourceEugenefindit
How? How? How the hell did an anime adapted from a manga written by the same person who did Bokurano, one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had watching an anime, turn out to be easily one of THE MOST BORING EXPERIENCES I HAVE EVER HAD WATCHING AN ANIME? Seriously how?
I have not written a review on MAL in a while but I just cannot contain myself from having to talk about this anime. It really should not have been this bad. I for one freaking love mystery, thriller anime. Heck, my favourite anime of all time has been Monster for at least 5 years now. And to be honest, I didn't always feel that way about Narutaru. In the beginning, I was quite engrossed in the anime, since I have no idea what was going on other than the fact that I heard that the anime does get pretty messed up.…
Read at the sourceReviews-rants
Note: the following comes from a video review, links on my profile page.
Narutaru is about a sort of cycle of life, but it comes in fragments; at times shows it, other instances explicitly states it and questions affairs. It seems uneven on average, and often it is difficult to reconcile specific incidents to the story overall; some apparently more relevant than others, although in the end it seems they may have been connected - they still seem not coalesced ultimately. This is likely due to only half the manga being adapted.
Second episode had a few seconds of an existential sort of connection, but it did not pursue this further beyond the character's personal insecurities. The third episode had an Evangelion-like hint as the second one had (which is apt considering Mohiro Kitoh went on…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
This is less of a traditional review and more of a public service announcement.
DON'T. FUCKING. WATCH. NARUTARU!
This isn't a warning I have to issue to my offline buddies or any casual anime fans. Normal anime fans tend to watch stuff that they hear about from friends or that get super hyped online like JoJo or Academia. We MAL users are a bit different. We want to watch super old, obscure shit because Osamu Dezaki directed it or because Isao Takahata was in charge of storyboarding. Even if you don't identify as an "elitist", you'll find yourself doing this if you hang out on MAL for more than 6 months. That's just the culture here.
So why did over 8,000 MAL users watch NaruTaru with thousands more planning to watch it? The answer is Chiaki J. Konaka. One of the most beloved and celeb…
Read at the sourceHomuraPendragon3
The writers introduce characters that you expect to be main characters, only for them to completely dissapear for the rest of the show. Somewhere around episode 10, the show completely changes pace, and the dragon's children don't even really show up any more, and neither do any of the old antagonists. The last 4-5 episodes feel like a spin off of the original episodes, as there is very little plot or character overlap. The main antagonist is introduced with 3 episodes left as well, which is immeasurably odd, and there isn't even attempt made to tie up the massive loose ends involving the old characters either, they just expect you to completely forget all of the plot and character development for the first 9 episodes. This show will defy all expectations of any amount of cohesion that you…
Read at the sourceGrayRealm
Overall: 5/10
This anime has been sitting on my "to watch list" for 3 or 4 years before I finally watched it. I'm not sure if it was worth the wait.
Basically, it goes like this:
Episode 1: Family-friendly.
Episodes 2-10: Some slightly disturbing stuff.
Episodes 11-13: Shock content and heavily disturbing stuff.
The main issue with this anime is that it does not really give an impression of a solid work and feels really disjointed. It also isn't technically finished, because it ends at some point several chapters away from the end of manga. So... the anime pretty much drops several story arcs without finishing them in any way, and ends inconclusively on a strange note. At times it also looked like it tried to direct the events really hard towards the most disturbing conclusion possible,…
Read at the sourceFear_the_Reefer
Very few mythical creatures have dominated our imaginations the way dragons have. They’ve existed in our culture farther back than vampires, werewolves, and zombies combined. They’re practically an ancient idea at this point, having been an important element of both western and eastern folklore, and while there may be significant differences... One side of the pond sees them as four legged, giant beasts guarding hordes of gold and battling silver-clad knights over the rights to their most recently stolen princess, while the other side sees them as more serpent-like with sweet facial hair... The general idea has always been that they’re giant scaly beasts who may or may not be able to breathe fire. But what if our folk lore is wrong? What if dragons look nothing like what popular fiction su…
Read at the sourceMirluSaku
This is gonna be a really direct review. This anime was a weird ride.
Spoiler free review!
Story (4/10):
The plot was interesting at first but none of it was developed, its like they forgot halfway what the series was about. Like who whas the girl on the dragon? for what purpose do dragon child exist? etc... There was actual good episodes like the last ones that had amazing escenes that fucked you up... like seriously, specially if you started watching this like it was a kids anime like pokemon or something.
Art(1/10):
Terrible art style, out of porpotion and terrible animation (you could be staring at someone´s face for like 5 minutes... they had a low budget without a doubt..)
Sound(9/10):
The opening was incredibly good, the ending too.
But the music on creepy scenes was amazing, it…
Read at the sourceLibriLector
I'm not sure that this anime is very "amazing." But it is very different. I really enjoyed it. after watching over 300 different anime; they all start to feel the same. I often feel like I can see the future when watching them. Its like when something happens I can tell what "world line" the story is progressing down and what options are still open for the ending. Its like, "well, I guess this anime is going down that route."
but this anime was very different, and disturbing, and I'm going to go read the manga for the rest of the story.
you can read the other reviews for pretty much the rest of the stuff you might want to know.
Story: 7
Art: 5 was kinda childish so not that great
Sound: 10 Didn't really pay much attention but it had catchy op and ed. and the death sounds made me cring…
Read at the sourceRachaelLefler
Well, basically, I'm reading the manga right now because I feel like, while it is a cool and interesting story, the anime really doesn't do it justice. For one, the anime ends halfway through, and it also leaves out some details that you might find important. The manga has each story arc more interwoven, where in the anime it feels very much like they rush from one story arc to the next without resolution or consistency. Narutaru like other people pointed out, subverts the original sunny expectations built up by the first episode, kind of like how we see in Madoka Magica. However, since I was not a big fan of the clunky, low-budget animation or the lack of exposition relative to the manga, I would have to say it's probably better to just read the manga. One thing I like is how mature and g…
Read at the sourceConsumedAM
Narutaru is a disturbing attempt at deconstructing the pet monster genre that should be experienced just once in order to test your mental fortitude. The comparisons to school days are correct - both are shocking horrors under the initial premise of something innocent and non revolting.
This is relatively accurate to how I'd expect Pokemon to go if a real life phenomenon. It would not be a fun innocent adventure with millions around the globe exclaiming "gotta catch them all" each day. It would be a horror show with many people using the monsters to commit crimes, selfishly look to make their lives easier and most importantly - exact revenge.
Interesting deconstruction aside, the art style is ugly, the music forgettable and the characters insufferable. Akira Sakura is in so much torment…
Read at the sourceInsaneLeader13
"Cut yourself to fit the world? Or cut the world to fit you?"
Both please.
Ahhhh, Shadow Star NaruTaru. I sure do wish I could give you a Shadow Star rating. And here I thought Evangelion 3.33 was going to be my lowest rated anime that I reviewed.
Story: 1/10
The concept is amazing...on paper. Take the well beloved 'Mon' Genre and run it through the gauntlet of Deconstruction tropes!
Our main character, Shiina, is spending a summer at a relative's place at a beachside. During the August that she spends there, she ends up meeting, and on some level bonding with, a strange creature. She quickly 'adopts' the creature and proceeds to call it Hoshimaru, and take it back home with her. She ends up meeting other young teens that also have similar bizarre creatures, some which look similar to Ho…
Read at the source
