dtm42's Anime

Others have inquired as to whom this show is being aimed at, and I'm left wondering too. It is overly graphic and unnerving to be aimed at children, but everything else is clearly too childish and immature for most adults. There's absolutely nothing here that is fresh or interesting, apart from the setting and a few nicely-animated scenes. And the writing is head-scratching at best, while offering up some hugely cringe-worthy moments.

Forget the incomprehensible technobabble, the crude CGI, the uninspiring mechs, the outdated (even by 2003 standards) character designs, the limited animation, and the infamous torpedo breasts. Together those issues get the bulk of the criticism that is directed at this show, and they're all irritating to be sure. However, they aren't what makes this episode so awful.

It's simply not interesting. It's painfully boring. The characters weren't fleshed out at all and I was unable to care what was happening to them. And while holding cards to the chest is standard practice for a mystery story, the first episode explained nothing at all. With no information whatsoever about what was going on, there was no reason for me to be invested in the story.

I can tolerate - even enjoy - a mysterious and confusing first episode. That is, if it is well-made and shows promise. If it is well-directed. If it hooks me in. If I can be confident that all will be revealed, and that said reveal is logically sound and wraps up the mysteries. But on the flip side, I loathe and detest crap, and this episode is even worse than that.

I'll admit this ain't my cup of tea, but even so it's still a poorly-done effort. It's just a weakly animated and scored "I wanna be the best" shounen battle story, only with culinary skills instead of martial arts or sports. The only time it really deviates from the formula is when it showcases bizarrely over-the-top orgasm scenes instead of the more sedate fanservice found elsewhere. And of course there's a special school (which apes Kill la Kill of all things) that the protagonist must attend, where he'll have to prove himself to be the best in his chosen field.

So why did this show fail so hard?

Well, there are a lot of reasons, including the tonal shift where the villains turned out to be raving cackling lunatics, not to mention the change in focus away from the three characters we most cared about. But the biggest reason by far is that the show got messy. Real messy. Introduced too much too fast and attempted to juggle too many characters and too many plotlines. Not enough screentime could be given to any one character or plot thread and all of them suffered as a result. Trying to keep track of all the factions and characters and what was happening where, was confusing. Like I said, things got messy. Which while a big problem is not necessarily fatal . . . if there is enough time to tie up all of the loose ends. But a one-cour "read the manga" adaptation with a cliffhanger ending just didn't [i]have[/i] that time, and so nothing got resolved. To make it worse, a second season is practically impossible at this time because Manglobe went under as soon as the final episode aired.

This season of Garo gets a lot of (deserved) flack for its ugliness and lack of artistic merit, but my focus was on the substance of the show. Or rather, the lack of it. The writers really need to trim the expository dialogue and provide a far more compelling hook. Seimei is a blast to watch - Romi Park is brilliant as always - but the rest of the characters are middling at best. The Heian-era setting, whilst alright, is simply not as interesting as the Spanish-themed first season.

Episode five was particularly bad, but when even your beach then hot-springs fanservice episode is kind of "meh" you know you've dropped the ball with your production. Of course, it had been clear for a while that the show had systemic problems. The characters have little presence, the drama is forced and non-captivating, the game-making scenes are boring and uninteresting, and the humour is . . . well . . . um . . . actually, what is the deal with humour in this show? It's very low-key and a bit dry, which if that was a deliberate decision I can sort of understand (humour comes in all different flavours) but the execution is really lacking. While the episodes are generally easy-enough to sit through (i.e. aren't a chore), I don't think I laughed once.

The main character is actually tolerable - he's not the typical annoying loud-mouthed bratty shounen hero, which is good - and the action is kinda nice. Plus along with an unique art style the show also sports attractive female character designs, and who doesn't like those? But this poor video game adaptation cum Attack on Titan ripoff is just too stupid and too by-the-book for me to care about. Ufotable makes good-looking stuff but they should concentrate on their writing. Also, lose that obnoxious director.

I was disappointed that Himouto! Umaru-chan did not make a single Death Note parody during the overly-long potato-chip-eating scene. Not even one.

First three episodes were okay - not particularly good, but still quite watchable - and then the show veers into harem territory. And the "goddesses must be idols" gimmick is exactly that; a gimmick. And why does the male lead have to be thick-as-bricks?

What a waste of potential. Though a female director is a good thing and anime could do with more of them, I can't help but wonder what would have been if the show wasn't in the hands of someone as inexperienced and clumsy as Saya Yamamoto. If only her ideas and style could have been handed to someone who could've provided the substance.

Its goofiness and all the slapstick content make it difficult to take seriously. I wasn't expecting Section 9 levels of professionalism but come on . . .

"This is one hell of a hospital," moans a thug at one point before passing out. Yes indeed. And that's a problem. The hospital in Ray - where the series looks like it will be largely set - is so daft it ruins suspension of disbelief. The kung-fu practising nurses, and the (literally) "tempestuous" hospital director modeled off Blackbeard are also completely ridiculous. Then there's the medical "science", where apparently tumours can shrink at will and even retreat into an organ to to hide from the scalpel. It's like the original mangaka - Akihito Yoshitomi, who also penned the diverse Blue Drop and Eat Man - didn't even try to make the medical side of the story realistic.

Ray - the character - has magical eyes that allows her to see through solid objects (Superman-style x-ray vision, basically), and yet that's the easiest thing to accept in the show thus far. As a young girl she was in some sort of obviously evil facility, and the lingering trauma from that ordeal is conveyed surprisingly well. She was rescued and given those eyes by no less than Black Jack himself, which make her an ace at surgery and first-aid, and now she wants to use her ability to save others. Even having seen just one episode I found her to be likeable and sympathetic, someone who takes the job of treating people very seriously because she knows first-hand how life-changing a good doctor can be. That's actually a fairly compelling narrative, and Ray is by far the best part of her show. While that's not saying much, given how bad everything else is, the show would have been far far worse without a quality lead character such as herself.

It's smarter than the average otaku-targeted harem show, I'll give it that. But the two leads are the show's two biggest weaknesses. Megumi, the female lead (yes, I do consider her as such, and not just because she's the titular character), is bizarrely passive and creepily calm, to the point where she's not a character but more like a plot device. But while Megumi is weird, I could tolerate her. The bigger problem is Tomoya, the male lead, who pisses me off with his obnoxious over-the-top rants. One wonders how closely connected to reality; not very, I'd say. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka has unfortunately made a career out of playing badly-realised male leads in badly-written series, although he's certainly done well out of it. Anyway, whether it was his fault or the director's, his performance as Tomoya just destroys the character. It's pretty damning that - after four regular-season episodes - I have zero investment in Tomoya's goals or his character in general. And before you think that I don't like him because he's an otaku, think again. Keima from The World God Only Knows is very similar to Tomoya in terms of being a hardcore otaku who regularly rants about how things 'ought' to be, but Keima is interesting and sympathetic and funny, whereas I just want to punch Tomoya to shut him up.

In episode one the vampire is killed by Yu, Mika begs Yu to keep going to safety, and once Yu has gone Mika then passes out. In the episode two recap, the vampire is alive and sucks on Mika's blood whilst Yu watches, then Yu runs away. The events are fundamentally different, since the vampire being alive or not makes a huge difference to Mika's fate.

There are many forms of otaku wish fulfilment. Examples include - but are by no means limited to - a magical girlfriend dropping (often literally) into your life; being transported to a fantasy land where you get to become the hero who will save the kingdom and marry the princess; and being the sole male member of a wacky high school club. Now it's time to add another one to the list; using your otaku skills to become a fantastic teacher. Okay, so there was Outbreak Company, but that was an extremely fun and clever parody, and the teaching aspect was prominent but not front and centre.

In fact, Ultimate Otaku Teacher more closely resembles (to the pointing of aping) Great Teacher Onizuka, only with an otaku instead of a gang member. Does it hold up well? Kind of. UOT is more realistic than GTO, and the consequences are more serious. However it is so concerned with promoting otakudom that it forgets to be funny. And I usually like listening to Hiroshi Kamiya but his performance here got on my nerves.

Oh god, Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle gave me nightmarish flashbacks to Infinite Stratos. Clearly the PTSD still hasn't gone away...

Episode six was really good because it had a lot of heart and created a genuine emotional connection, but everything else was disappointing (at best). I was never a massive fan of the first series but compared to this it's a masterpiece.

The False Faces has:

* humour that fails at least as often as it lands (though there are some good jokes here, to be fair)

* almost zero character development (and the show did little to make me care about the characters in the first place)

* a lead character who was usually boring as heck and fit the otaku slacker stereotype perfectly (even Mr. Perfect Haukoro from the original series wasn't as bland)

* no meaningful world-building (and yes, we were getting some when I quit, but it was too little too late)

* a harem which was really forced together (and some of introduction episodes for the girls were painfully cliched)

* numerous main female character who were known to us primarily for one gimmick rather than being well-rounded characters (thinking of Rurutie and Atui here, but they are hardly alone)

* too many bathing scenes (not a sentence I'd thought I'd ever say about an anime, but here we are)

* very poor pacing (i.e. too much time spent on generic slice-of-life, painfully little spent on building up the plot, the setting and the characters)

And really, it is that last point which really sunk the show. The False Faces always came across as lacking motivation, as if it knew where it had to go but had too many episodes to get there so just wandered listlessly around to kill time. Which is kind of incredible considering that all that extra time could have been used to actually develop the characters and setting, instead of forgettable harem adventures and endless bathing scenes. I mean, how can you have such one-dimensional characters and so little character development in a show where the plot for any given episode rarely hogged up more than five minutes of screentime?

The real problem with VDM's first episode is not the trashiness of its premise but the awfulness of its execution combined with absolutely no semblance of plot.

So special girls are kidnapped and sent to an island. How are they special? Who knows. Why are they kidnapped? For reasons, that's why.

When the girls arrive they are to be tested to see how powerful they are and if they are Exters or Liberators. But co-lead Mamori had no idea about any of that.

And no matter which one she was, without a partner there was no way for her to actually fight, something the organisation running the island clearly should have and would have known.

To make things worse, both she and Mirei are attacked with live ammunition. The bullets and missile are clearly intended to hit them despite neither girl having transformed into a weapon the other girl could use. I thought the whole point was to test them, not kill them.

The original Wakaba Girl manga was written/drawn by Yui Hara, who also authored the manga for Hello!! KINMOZA. Now, the Wakaba Girl manga was written/drawn earlier and it shows, as the mangaka just hadn't quite mastered the formula when she made it. Sure, it is cute enough, but the jokes struggle to land (if they land at all) and the characters aren't all that well realised. I assume Wakaba Girl only got an adaptation because of the success of Hello!! KINMOZA and its anime series; maybe some executive thought there was an appetite for more of Yui Hara's work?

It's clear that BONES put a lot of effort into making this show. The backgrounds are detailed, the scenery is full of life, the music has a grand feel to it, and the attention to detail on buildings and machines is impressive. The level of animation in some of the early action sequences boggles the mind. If only as much care and effort went into everything else.

First off, the plot is a mess. While it's not unusual for a story to keep its cards close to its chest, too much about these episodes is confusing, which made it a huge effort to care about anything when I didn't know even the basics of what was going on. Nothing gets explained to the fish-out-of-water main character and therefore nothing gets explained to us either. Keeping important details from the viewer is one thing, but being deliberately obtuse about everything - to the point where the viewer gets tired of floundering in the dark and just switches off - is not smart. And worse, unlike in some previous BONES works, the writing here gives no assurance that everything will make sense with time. Peeks at reviews of the end of the show confirms this suspicion.

The other fundamental issue is with the characters, who would normally be expected to carry a show if the plot fails to fire. A few of them act normal and/or reasonable, as a normal person would given their particular circumstances. However, most of the cast act bizarrely, with unprovoked mean-spiritedness, out-of-place incompetence/stupidity and just baffling viewpoints being common afflictions. Characters act so little like actual people that at times suspension of disbelief is impossible and all I can see is these weird artificial constructs, like someone's warped facsimile of a human. With this in mind, I'd say at least two-thirds of the cast were completely lost on me, and anytime they were on screen the only thing I wanted was for them to get off it.

But anyway, onto the actual show itself. It's very lovely with a low-key but pretty OP. The music generally was good and fitting with the period. The animation was fine for a mid-level series, but the art was quite good. The planes (and there were lots of them) were very detailed, which I appreciated. I'm not that into 1930s aircraft, but it's nice to see that the fanservice was limited to the mechanical side of things. The stories were generally well done and interesting, but every single arc had plot holes, some pretty serious. I can forgive a lot of it, but then we get problems like the aforementioned fourth arc, where Treize and Lillia end up in a morally reprehensible trap that the authorities knew about and yet allowed to go ahead. It was never explained, just hand-waved. I felt cheated by that. Both Allison and Lillia looked convincingly pretty as children, with older Allison deserving special merit for how beautiful a woman she turned into. I liked their feistyness, although Lillia came too close to the Tsundere mold. It was nice to see Allison be the strong and capable one of her duo and her efforts to subtly seduce Wil were always funny. Wil did sound strange as he was played by a woman (for Lillia's arc), but I thought his cluelessness was a more annoying trait. Also, his decision in episode thirteen felt too rushed, especially for something of that size. Treize was a more traditional male lead and I do feel sorry for him being paired up with the often irritating Lillia. But those two just didn't have the same chemistry as Allison and Wil.

The omnibus format of this is quite unusual. Normally such adaptations focus on one girl's story arc, to the detriment of the others. You can just tell which girl will get the guy in the end by the first episode or two alone, and the other girls exist only to meet fanservice and fetish quotas. This series however decided to show all the girls have their turn at love by resetting the calendar every four episodes and giving each girl her own arc. Most episodes do give the other five girls at least a cameo, however every girl is relevant for at least the length of her own arc. And if one girl, or the general writing in one arc, is not doing it for you, you only have to wait four episodes for a fresh new start.

But as good as the omnibus format is, it does have its downsides. Although arcs you don't like only last four episodes, arcs you do like only last four episodes as well. The rigid episode count - four episodes per girl, no exception made until the bonus seventh girl appears - means that most of the arcs are either stretched or squashed to fit precisely into the allotted timeframe. And of course telling a complete Romance story in just four episodes is a hard task anyway, let alone putting in character development and a story. The girls are rarely relevant outside of their respective arcs, which is a shame. I barely knew anything about them until it was time for the arc, and then - with the exception of fanservice courtesy of Haruka - we hardly hear from them again, except for the cameos.

Here's something people may have overlooked; if the guy is so important in turning the girls' lives around, or has such a deep connection with them, then what happens to the other girls every time he picks one of them? And as unfair as this may sound, the omnibus format cheapens the notion of true love. If he can fall in love with a different girl each time round, and often so quickly and easily, then where's the true heartache and longing?

Following on, I thought the writing was very uneven, dependent on the arc of course. Also uneven was the male lead. In some arcs he was almost a completely different person, at least in terms of his temperament, level of perversion, and depth of feelings towards certain girls. Finally, we had to sit through the same moments again and again and again. And then some. Some people find the beginning of a new relationship to be cute and lap this sort of thing, but I usually find them to be awkward and that was the case most of the time here.

I initially picked Amagami SS up because I liked the visual style of some of the images promotional posters I saw of it, and I'm glad I did. I liked this series, and it was easy to watch. In most cases the relationships progressed way too fast to be all that believable, but it certainly wasn't horrible. The omnibus format was novel, and for all the complaints I had it did work, though whether it was the novelty or not I don't know. The show is also worth rewatching at some point, if only because I now understand the characters better and can make sense of all the cameos.

Like most people, I was surprised and more than a little confused when this season was announced. I wondered what was left to show? Five of the six stories had already ended with official couples, so where else could the stories go for another cour? Of course there was Rihoko's arc to wrap up - she really had been shafted in the first season - and indeed they did. But it was poorly done, just like the rest of the season.

Basically, the writing was pretty stupid this time round, trying to force drama into arcs for which we'd already been told the final outcome. This made for some really bizarre scenarios. It also made for character and relationship regression, with a couple of arcs just retreading similar ground to the first season.

So the positives. The music was, in short, superb. The opener ranks as one of the best I've ever heard, the closer is the perfect degree of mellow, and the insert songs rocked (often literally; hah). The show offered some inventive and intriguing ideas about religion, God and the afterlife. The show had a good mystery and knew it, feeding us tasty morsels which always made us come back for more. The humour was really well done; episode five will always be one of my favourite comedic episodes in any Anime, and TK was a gem. And there actually was a proper conclusion, which is uncommon enough in longer Anime; in a show of thirteen episodes that's quite an accomplishment.

And then we get to the negatives, and boy are there a lot. The biggest one would be the characters. No, I'm not talking about how the designs of much of the cast (Yuri especially) were blatantly based on the cast of Haruhi (although it does bug me a little). I'm referring to how most of the excessively large cast were one-note (if that) roles. This is okay in a comedy, but it just doesn't work in a drama. How are we supposed to get behind and root for such shallow constructs? How are we supposed to care? A couple of supporting characters got development, but they were the exceptions that proved the rule.

Related to that was the way in which the series cynically - and tried to manipulate the audiences' emotions via the various back-stories. Characters got manipulative and relatively absurd back-stories that had the reverse effect. Instead of making us care for them it just gave us the opportunity to glimpse at some of the many flaws in the writing. Yuri's backstory was the worst, as it was so far-fetched as to be unbelievable. Characters also suddenly changed their natures at the drop of the hat, with no apparent reason why other than because the writing needed them to. It wasn't just one or two offenders either, but a whole bunch of them.

The plot was an interesting one, with lots of potential for cool twists and interesting discussions on a variety of meaty subjects. (That said, I'll never get used to the ridiculous emphasis Anime places on all-powerful student councils.) But the story wasn't nearly as developed, explained and explored as much as it should have and could have been. Part of this is due to the writers continuing to throw in brand new concepts and ideas right up till almost the end, meaning there were many things that simply never got resolved. Important things too, not just little throwaway scraps.

And part of the problem was simply the pacing. We are thrown into the deep end straight away, so the start moves fast, and many things do happen over the course of the show. But the resolution to the plot is hurried, leaving an entire episode for the resolution of the characters. Which sounds fine, but in a thirteen-episode show you simply do not have the luxury of wasting an entire episode like that on the characters alone (it did try to resolve some loose plot threads but instead only raised more questions; lovely).

I can just see the meeting room for the production team. After the team has come up with four or five excellent episodes, I can picture one random guy throwing up his hands and crying "what now?" See, the series lost momentum in the middle, shoving most of the juicy emotional and plot-related developments into the final few episodes rather than spacing them all out. The finale was especially jam-packed, with so many emotional scenes and plot-bombs crammed in that I became worn out and it struggled to affect me. The characters never really developed until quite late, although there was the occasional hint.

The whole Anime came across as the work of someone who really struggled to turn their great ideas into a workable eleven-episode show. Perhaps a movie would have been better, in fact I'm sure it would. But, what we got was still a really, really good show, with a pair of beautiful themes for the OP and ED.

Geez there was a lot of crying in this, mostly towards the end. It's just too bad that I couldn't join in the characters. The show's premise had huge potential for emotional impact and yet inexplicably struggled to really move me in any notable way. I did seriously contemplate giving it a grade of Excellent, but I just couldn't justify it to myself. I could have forgiven the series for the general plot, pacing and direction problems if I had felt that all-important emotional connection, but the series never quite got me there.

The writing is sort of lame, as is the use of names from Greek mythology for no apparent reason (other than they supposedly sound cool. Well, not in this case). We are also thrown into the deep end in terms of story set-up. There is a rich world history to be told, and we hardly get any of it because of the movie format and the emphasis on numerous (awesome) fight scenes. There is quite a bit of politics and social commentary, but they take backstage to the action. That said, the story is still far, far better than what can usually be expected from big-budget CGI films, and on a recent rewatch in 2011 I managed to catch a lot more depth than I did when I first watched it in 2005.

First of all it was as beautiful as the first if not moreso, except that it wasn't as enthusiastic about showing it's technical merits as the first one was. Secondly, the writing was even worse than the first movie, which is kind of painful because that wasn't exactly known for it's impressive plot. In this movie I could see plot twists coming a mile away and I wasn't even trying; it was just so predictable. The story tried to include some more politics but it wasn't interesting at all. And Deunan was so fickle I couldn't really care about her.

The whole point of this show was the very quirky, even bizarre brand of humour it exuded. If the show ever tried to become serious, the humour would always bring it back down to Earth. Unfortunately, making the humour so important means that you've got nothing to fall back in the times when the laughs stop coming and the cringe factor sets in. As happened not infrequently in these thirteen episodes.

The show is filled with witty and clever dialogue; no surprise considering the writer of the original Light Novels. However, the dialogue sometimes - okay, often - got too rambling, overbearing, or just plain started to go in circles. I did appreciate hearing what Koyomi was thinking, but we didn't have to hear every little thought he had, even if most of them were funny or insightful. The dialogue also sported many Japanese puns, especially when talking about the nature of the Oddities afflicting people. I fully accept that I am not the target audience of the show, but my viewing experience was not as good as it could have been. That may sound crass of me, but I am unapologetic.

The visual style was unique, and no, I am not referring to how the first scene in the entire show is a slow-motion pantyshot. I'm talking about the art. Bare-bones to the point of being minimalist, but with an almost fantasy touch. I don't know if the style was dictated by budget concerns, but given that SHAFT made it I would go out on a limb and say yes. However, given that this was made by Akiyuki Shinbo, I would say no. Hmm. There are some scenes which seemed unfinished, and of course the infamous Nadeko "fight" scene was a clear case of QUALITY. However, the frequent cuts to still images and text was no doubt an artistic rather than a budgetary decision (it does help that such cuts were a great way to save money, but still). Anyway, what I can say for sure is that the art style is sure to get your attention, oh boy yes.

Perhaps the show's biggest strength - okay, definitely its biggest strength - are the two main characters. Hitagi is a Tsundere who actually becomes likeable, but never loses her edge. She has her cute girlish moments, and she has her no-nonsense "I wear the pants in this relationship" moments, and both feel so natural. She doesn't have manic-depression, she isn't bi-polar, and she certainly does not have a split personality. I say that because modern Tsunderes are practically depicted as being mentally ill, what with their violent and sudden mood swings and all. And then there's Koyomi. He actually exhibits typical harem-male-lead behaviour such as being perverted, being dense, trying to help everyone, and getting whipped around by the girls. However, he is also sarcastic, witty, funny, insightful, calmer (as in, less easily flustered), and when it comes down to it, he's got the balls to be decisive. Even his negative traits are given interesting new twists; how many male leads would beat up and grope an eight-year-old girl, and then boast about it? Trust me, it is a heck of a lot more funnier (and less perverted) as it sounds.

Okay, so the whole "let's not talk to one another until we have achieved our dreams" bit is a horrendous piece of storytelling, but that's not the fault of the Anime. In fact, from what I can tell, the show at least tried to address the issue as best it could, mainly by focusing more on the characters and their relationships rather than make the actual Manga-making the main focus of the story. And this is why the show worked so well. Delights such as the two boys and their girlfriends, Hattori, Nakai and Nizuma, but many other characters too, really helped bring a standard Shounen formula to life. The subtle twists kept things relatively fresh, while the show's narrative was impressively executed.

Let's start with Gen's voice. It was simply abysmal. The Seiyuu, who was just a kid, wasn't good at all and shouted most of his lines in a horrible and irritating voice. Kids can be rambunctious, but for heaven's sakes they don't speak like that. At least he was the worst (the others could hardly have eclipsed him), although as the titular character he was the most important role.

One thing everybody expects when reading about Hiroshima is a depiction of the actual bombing. And unless you are shown actual footage then what you are watching is someone's interpretation. "Ah," I hear you say. "The director was actually there. He knew what it was like". But he didn't. He was just a child after all. A stone wall wouldn't have protected him as well as it did given the events happening around him, and how close he must have been to the epicentre. The progression of the symptoms was not correct. The way Gen lasted so long before rapidly losing only his hair was not accurate.

Basically, much of the depiction of the bombing and the aftermath was at least partially inaccurate and riddled with mistakes. People do not instantly die from drinking fatal quantities of radioactive water; unfortunately it is much slower than that. Another mistake I noted was that the bomb detonated only seconds after being dropped instead of the forty-three-second-delay, which is clearly wrong. That mistake should never have come up if the writers had done their basic research.

But the biggest problem I have with the movie is how it did such a great disservice to the dead. The movie tried hard to get us to like his family, and by and large it did. But I'm talking about the wider dead. It turned the walking dead into mindless zombies (as opposed to the Einstein strain of zombies). It might seem like a logical choice to make, but it dehumanises the dead, making their suffering seem trivial. Sure, with their eyes burnt out of their sockets and their mouths fused shut they would have looked like zombies, but to completely show them without humanity is one artistic choice I cannot agree with. Also, when Gen met the dying soldier it was treated almost comically. "Hah, his hair is falling out. Oh, he's pooped his pants. Oh no, he can't stand up". Not only is this not how radiation sickness progresses, but it mocked the victims of Hiroshima, something I'd thought would be the last thing the movie would do.

Without the weight of expectation that comes with depicting the bombing itself, this movie was far more natural and flowed really well. What I thought was going to be a tired plot about street youths surprisingly turned into a rather sentimental and emotional story about survivors suffering all over again by the actions of their own countrymen. The movie nicely covered the discrimination and mental and physical scars that they faced, as well as how they dealt with their predicament.

Gen's voice sounded too old for a nine-year-old boy but at least it was a far better performance than from the first movie (although it couldn't have been much worse). The movie did look noticeably better, and I was never distracted by the quality of the visuals, although I did experience lag between the audio and video.

But why did I watch the rest? What an effing waste of my time. It got so moronic in places that I should have just stopped complaining and simply dropped it. The fanservice didn't help, quite the opposite (because it was so blatant). The battles past episode five were largely yawn-inducing AT BEST. And the characters were poorly done. Perhaps I stuck around for the first ED music, which was very catchy and always worth watching.

It is obvious that this was a low-budget show. Reused animation, recaps and constant flashbacks pad the episode count. The background art can best be described as 'quaint', which is to say it looks like it was drawn by children. It does add a slightly surreal and whimsical atmosphere, but it also is further evidence that this show had budgetary problems. The music is heavily recycled, with the same tunes played over and over again.

And yet, it could have been so good, even with a limited budget. The world-building was almost non-existent - we never learn about any other country except for one notable exception - but the country building was fantastic. We were shown how the different aspects of the country worked together (or not). Everything felt so real, with the monarchy claiming direct descent from a goddess, the two rulers at loggerheads with one another over how to fix the ever-widening and completely believable rift that was enveloping the country, and the citizens of both sides ostracising one another for being either too selfish or too barbaric. The political situation was very well crafted, and not just for a children's show either. Which, if I had to guess, perhaps stems from the source material being written by the same author as Moribito.

It was also very violent for a children's show. Much of the violence was stylised but I don't think little children would be into it. Which probably makes sense, since raising the beasts was shown to be a dangerous and largely unrewarding task. This show was certainly no Pokemon. Add in political assassinations, poisoning adopted parents, hints of suicide, parents selling their child off for gold, a member of the royal family being a shameless womaniser, a major character losing digits on one hand and another major character being eaten alive, this is NOT a children's show despite the storybook look.

What I was most disappointed with was how - spoiler alert - Erin reneges on her own morals, and without explaining herself. I thought this was especially stupid. Another problem was the feud between the two brothers, which seemed to be so pointless and was started in a truly bizarre way. One brother defends the Queen and the other brother overhears and lambasts him for insulting the Queen? WTF? Then there was that dude from the Mist People who followed Erin around and never did anything. He gave the important backstory to her but then never helped out at all when it really mattered, making him just a walking exposition device. Finally, and I bet most people agree with me, the two 'comic relief' idiots were absolutely horrible and should never have been used.

But despite its problems, this was a solid show. Erin was a strong and sympathetic lead with her heart in the right place. She is also a rare example in fiction of a genius being portrayed accurately, not just in her knowledge but in her very mannerisms. Things like interrupting the class to ask questions because she's never been in a classroom and always had an intelligent adult to teach her one-on-one. It's a small but memorable touch. As for the touda and beast lords, both were quite scary. These are not cuddly little animals, they're true beasts. Even when you can befriend one you can never tame it. I liked that, and I also liked Erin's methods for dealing with them. When was the last time a Mon show put that much thought into the living conditions and behaviour of its critters?

The animation and CG look have been vastly improved, so the creators obviously learned valuable lessons from the first movie. Another improvement is that while a lot has still been left out plot-wise, it doesn't feel like we are only getting the bare-bones story, even though we are. The movie's pacing is actually fairly well done, and the story is clear to follow, especially compared to the first movie. That said there were still some problematic areas. For example there are several quite large continuity issues that do niggle at the realism, and the members of the Band of the Hawk are not really fleshed out. Of course, the movie's main strength was supposed to be gory action, and it delivers. The fight scenes look fantastic, with the sort of quality choreography and smooth bloody savagery that we've longed dreamed for in the Berserk franchise, but which the first movie didn't quite deliver on.

After a relatively unimpressive first couple of episodes this show found its feet and told a moving story about emotionally-troubled teens learning to accept themselves. It wasn't just good but actually strong, with some finely-crafted and moving scenes. The show could easily have earned a rating one grade higher had we gotten some decent romantic resolution. An anime-original ending would have been preferable here and relatively easy to do, since the anime ended on a natural stopping point anyway. I'm not saying I am unhappy that we didn't get an official couple, but the way it was left hanging (with an interrupted confession and a new possible love interest for Futaba) was unsatisfying. In other areas, the story did wrap up Kou's family and self-esteem issues very nicely, and Futaba is also a thoroughly changed person (for the better). Which makes me wonder what sort of arcs both of them could have in the rest of the manga; haven't they already learned the life lessons they were supposed to?

Pretty much every little event in the first half is relevant in the second, when the pieces of the overarching plot come together and you go, "Aha! So THAT'S why..." And when was the last time you saw a show - any show, but especially an Anime show - invent an entirely new religion and have it make sense? Sure, it is not all that complicated, but the Church Of Drowning In God's Grace has a religious philosophy that is logical from their point of view, and they act on it accordingly. They are not all crazies, although they are inhumane (but then, few religions aren't), and they hold a dark secret. Which of course is linked to the Bantorra Library, and boy is it a big one. There's hidden depths to the plot as it slowly but surely reveals its secrets, and I can't say that about most shows.

The characters at first don't seem interesting either, but as they say, patience is a virtue. The action isn't the star of the show, and only acts as a complementary role. Which is a little annoying, given the wide range of powers and all the people who wield them, but it doesn't really detract from the show all that much. I certainly appreciated that the series was not another Shounen fight-fest, that's for sure.

This show is little seen, and the ratings given for it are not impressive at all. However, I wonder how many people were put off by the opening few episodes which were fairly confusing and seemed (but, we learn, were actually not) uncoordinated and irrelevant. Maybe the unfortunate choice of ALI PROJECT for the first opener was partially to blame; apparently, people really hate them. Or maybe the fanservicey character designs of Hamyuts and Noloty coupled with the Shounen-type powers had everyone running for the hills. I don't know.

The ending of Btooom! was alright on its own; it left a lot of threads dangling and there was a cliffhanger, but I still found it satisfying in how the characters had proven that they'd matured and also how the relationship was handled. However, this show absolutely bombed in Japan (pun not intended), and is unlikely to ever get a second season. Even though the ending we got wasn't too bad, it is holding the show back from a higher grade. If it did get a second season (big "if"), then the ending would no longer be a problem and I would be sorely tempted to bump this first season up to a Very Good.

The noitaminA block has always seemed to be a bastion of more . . . mature fare, intellectually speaking, but [C] incontrovertibly did its level best to destroy that sentiment. In it is a magical world so poorly conceived in purpose and intent that even the various incarnations of the Digital World from the Digimon franchise look like hard science fiction. The card battles are so bad they look like rejected prototypes from a Trading Card Game tie-in series; even Duel Monsters from Yu-Gi-Oh! makes more sense. And the economic "literacy" of the writers came across as even worse than high-school grade, a damning flaw in a show which wanted to be high-brow.

But those criticisms, valid though they are, are not the real reason I hated this title. It was just a crappy, crappy show. Not just mediocre, but actively bad.

The whole future versus present philosophical clash was mind-numbingly dumb in both ideas and execution, a final twist of the knife to a show which was already fatally wounded by that point. The love interest only existed to be a catalyst and was not a real character by herself. The male lead was all over the place personality-wise, so unsure of what to do with himself that the story suffered, which in turn did not know what to do with him. Classic chicken and egg scenario of fail. I guess the show's moralistic bent, that being financially responsible and having humble but fulfilling goals is something to be derided, probably didn't help matters. There was no rhyme or reason to anything that went on, we never really learnt what the [C] phenomenon really was or what caused it, let alone who ran the Financial Districts or even what the Financial Districts even were.

The first thing you notice is how good it looks. The animation budget wasn't very high but the artistry is simply amazing. Then you notice how it sounds, namely like a heartwarming Disney movie. And then gradually, as the episodes roll by, you start to realise that holy cow this is good. It's not in your face about it, it doesn't set out to deliberately impress you. The show is more concerned about assembling and fleshing out the characters (beginning with a highly unusual three-episode flashback), and it should be no surprise that they are its biggest strength. The actual game of karuta is nothing special, but because we care about the characters we can get into karuta, which admittedly is far more complex and interesting than the glorified game of snap it first comes across as. The humour is also a strong point, and not only the jokes funny but they are well-utilised.

Even after just four episodes Clannad was shaping up to be a great series, and the rest did not disappoint. Throughout the show there was an undercurrent of wry and often hilarious humour, which provided welcome breaks from the hard-hitting dramatical moments. And wow, the emotional punches landed on mark time after time, even though it was (usually) obvious that they were coming. The two biggest and most effective moments effectively bookended the show, coming rather early and very late in the series, but the rest were good too. Even a slightly subdued scene of the two Fujibayashi sisters hugging and crying had powerful weight behind it.

All this drama, and let's not forget all this humour too, and yet none of it depends on the Moe elements the series is so well known for. And that's what I think makes Clannad so successful. The Moe seen here is not a crutch to lean upon, it is merely a form of constant non-Ecchi fanservice for those so inclined. At first I hated the character designs as all the females look like they are some species of amphibious fish, what with their eyes so large and far apart. But once I got used to the designs (easily within the first five episodes), they didn't bug me anymore. I was too busy laughing and empathising with the characters to notice, let alone care.

There is more to Moe than just overly-cute designs. It often has a "normal" male lead who goes around helping several girls (all of whom are into him, to varying degrees) with their deep-seated problems. Except Tomoya was actually exciting and interesting to watch, Youhei always managed to be funny (at his own expense; hah), and the girls were not all damsels in distress. They often needed help, but they weren't completely objectified and came off as almost normal. Almost; this is still a Moe show. But I guess their personalities just didn't bug me, which is unusual since it so often does. I was a little annoyed with Nagisa's hesitation on the romance front, but her shyness is nothing that I haven't seen before. Heck, Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke was ten times worse.

Actually, the thought of romance leads me onto another point. Many harem shows attempt (very poorly) to tease the viewers about whom the male lead will choose, as if it is never obvious. Clannad always made it clear that Tomoya was only ever interested in one girl, and he didn't try to lead on the others. Even the other girls realised this fact, and it didn't take them until the end of the series. Nor did they pull out their claws or anything, trying to steal Tomoya away, so I was thankfully spared Shoujo-style antics. They accepted his decision - before he even made it, or was fully aware of his own feelings - and supported the couple, which I thought was really nice.

Please note that this has spoilers.

I rewatched much of this show roughly seven months later, skipping almost all of the first eight episodes which most people agree are pretty superfluous. Boy has my opinion of the series changed. I still believe that the show has some really, really strong patches of writing. But the gushing emotional impact is gone, and I don't see why I ever rated this as high as I did initially. It has some big flaws. Really big flaws. Like, almost fatal.

Now, I knew of the flaws when I was watching it, but I couldn't help be moved. I've since managed to get some perspective. The drama gets so forced it ain't funny. Or perhaps fake is a better word. Tomoya's quest to provide for his young family is very well done and still holds up magnificently. But Nagisa's school situation is even dumber than I first believed, and that's just the canary in the goldmine. Things really start falling apart from there. Nagisa and Tomoya are having sex - naturally, that's how she gets pregnant - but as far as the viewer knows they haven't even kissed for crying out loud. I don't even know if they've hugged, plus they sleep on separate futons and never shown to be entirely comfortable around one another. And all of a sudden Nagisa is getting morning sickness, even though onscreen they've done nothing except playing house (and awkwardly. at that). And then she gets very sick, and after much wrangling about where she's to have birth, she dies.

The melodramatic circumstances of Nagisa's death are tolerable, but quite simply, what happens next is not. Tomoya goes into a deep depression (okay, understandable) and his daughter is taken in by Nagisa's parents, with Tomoya playing no part whatsoever in her upbringing. What? Nobody extends a hand, and he basically has no contact with his own daughter for five years. For a supposed family-themed show it is disgusting how little help he is given. Sanae and Akio effectively told him that he was now a part of their family, and yet they never really stepped in and helped him. His friends too went AWOL and largely left him alone; guess they weren't true friends. Back in high school they never would have left him to mope and stew in his own misery for five days let alone five bloody years, and yet they all seem to not know what to do. Here's a clue; be there for him. Is that so hard?

Now we get to the most famous part of the show, the part where even many people who aren't fans agree that the show Gets Good. However, the circumstances of Ushio and Tomoya's bonding were contrived and poorly-written enough, but then we got her falling sick and dying too. This is possibly one of the dumbest twists I've ever had the misfortune to see. Just because we had that Other World business does not mean that Ushio's death and subsequent revival had been properly signalled and solid foundations. It just came across as stupid, probably because it absolutely was. It ruined any poignancy in Nagisa's death, felt cheap, and was unoriginal (no surprises there). It was just a horrible, horrible ending

It did have a very short run of episodes which were very, very strong, even though they themselves had instances of contrived drama. But with eight completely superfluous episodes, the weak Ushio arc and the clusterfuck ending, Clannad After Story has major issues. Although it looks strong, peel back the surface and you find gears and cogs rather than heart and soul. The emotional content is completely fake and manufactured.

But it is entertaining and engaging, and notably well-executed for a Sports Anime. The direction and the music are excellent, and the flashbacks are integrated in such a way as to not only avoid being annoying, but as an actual integral part of the show. I also commend the show for its unique character designs. Though at first they are confusing, it doesn't take long to learn to differentiate between characters; those Anime that insist on impossible hair colours could learn a thing or two about subtlety.

However, as good as their designs are, the handling of the characters themselves is actually a bit of a let-down. Kou and Aoba have many great touching scenes together, but usually, Aoba's ridiculous insistence on being antisocial around him gets really tiring. I also thought that many of the supporting characters were woefully underused, and then there's Akane, who's inclusion I just never bought. Additionally, we never get to see the characters have real lives outside of baseball and That Dream, which sort of makes it hard to properly like them or - especially - see them as actual people. Yeah, I know they're not, but that's no excuse. They are all passionate, I get that, but their sole devotion to baseball above virtually everything else is almost inhuman. How many times did we see Kou in the classroom? Hardly ever. How often do characters have lives outside of baseball, such as relationships? Until the later parts of the show there was Nakanishi and virtually no-one else. It is a show about baseball, I know that, but the characters - merely high-school age, remember - come off as being weirdos in their obsession.

I went into this show thinking "It's most likely going to be bad, but Shaft might surprise me". I resolved to just watch one episode, convinced that this was going to be a Loli-fest where the main character's trait of wearing Very Little would be designed with Otaku in mind. And you know what? It was exactly that. It was shameless, lacked decency, and Mina's habits and clothing choices were Otaku-bait first and foremost. But what surprised me was how good it ended up being, despite (and let's be clear here, it was very much despite) such puerile executive decisions.

The show as I saw it had two strong points. The first was Mina's Seiyuu, whose convincing portrayal of a sad and lonely girl - and yet a frighteningly powerful princess - did much to help mitigate the otherwise massive flaws in her character. Not just the clothing thing, but how she fell for such a cliched line as "I'll protect you" (it was something along those lines), given by a prepubescent boy.

The second strong point was the writing, which took what could have been - nay, by all accounts should have been - a horribly cliched and hackneyed story and largely made it fresh and interesting. We got interesting scenes regarding vampire politics, vampire-werewolf relations, terrorism, class struggle, economics, the fickleness of public opinion, and how most members of all three races just want to live peacefully and without fear. The first episode was really well done, quite a novel approach although somewhat bizarre.

However, the writing wasn't all good. I must mark the show down for two points on it; the first is that the student council was portrayed as supremely powerful in the school after Mina, which might have worked in a pure comedy series but not in this one. I just hate that trope. The second is that the show was incomplete in terms of story. Indeed, the show could have been stretched out to sixteen episodes (giving more time for the characters to develop) and then used as the first two-thirds of a twenty-four-episode series. It was annoying that it ended when it did, because it had just set-up a very interesting mystery which looked like it was going to be the next arc.

The characters did nothing to break out of their moulds, but they sufficed. Perhaps the one that came closest was Akira, who wasn't a wimp or a fool, and who wasn't as bland as many harem male leads are. As for Mina, she was almost completely in type (bar her gross penchant for stripping onscreen), but she did it so well that I can forgive that.

Despite the confusing start I was upbeat. I was sure that the creators had an overarching plan and that pretty much every mystery that cropped up would be explained in due time. Yeah, well, twenty-five broadcast episodes later and nothing got resolved. I really do mean nothing; the ending was not rushed so much as not even attempted. Gah. Of course, the writers had so often written themselves into holes - especially with regards to the Contractors, their powers and their prices, not to mention Pai - that it probably would have been impossible anyway to give a sufficient explanation at the end.

Darker Than BLACK is often considered as being in a state of gestalt, whereupon the whole is greater than its parts. But in reality, it is the opposite. Considering the talent and ideas that went into this, what we got is a shocker. A disappointing show which could have easily scored a negative grade due to its craptastic writing.

Let's see. There's the fact that this came out before the OVAs and yet is unintelligible without them. There is the extremely rushed and confusing ending that drops all of the plot bombshells in the last couple of episodes, most of which made no sense anyway. What was going on was not even explained. Saving all the powder for the ending meant that the rest of the show was still confusing (because we got so little information) and felt stretched, as nothing much happened. There really should not be filler in a one-cour show, and yet the Sapporo arc just dragged bloody on and on.

Except for Suo who had a sympathetic backstory and some spunk, the characters weren't all that great either. Hei was a complete douche, Mao was useless, July was naturally a bore, Kirihara never accomplished much, and Yin was suddenly the most important person ever. The goal(s) of Shion and Madame Oreille was never explained, and how they (the goals) related to the end-of-the-world prophecy I have absolutely no idea.

It is a very, very well-animated and drawn movie. Everything is very fluid (although some parts are noticeably more fluid than others, sometimes distractingly so), and even simple things like characters putting on or taking off articles of clothing (which happens numerous times) are all done properly with no corners cut. Quite a bit of effort went into depicting the faces, like Yuki's eyes shifting nervously and how Kyon's eyes get progressively more tired and desperate.

In terms of characters I loved how Haruhi herself was missing for quite a good chunk of the movie. I know she's supposed to come across as being utterly obnoxious but we are also supposed to like her. However I really don't like her; in fact I hate her. So at the halfway point when Kyon finds her I internally groaned, because she is the biggest weakness in the entire franchise. Kyon however I did like, although I don't know if I agree with his decision. He was undoubtedly the star of the movie though; the other characters were almost forgettable.

I didn't rate this higher because of two big reasons. The first was the length, and the movie did suffer because of it. Not a heck of a lot happened in the movie, not enough to justify that runtime at any rate. So it was kind of boring with everything stretched out too far. Secondly, the movie was made by fans for fans. Either you'll think the movie is absolutely fantastic, or you'll acknowledge that it has a good plot and a good main character and great technical merits but little else; there's nothing here to really hold your interest if you aren't massively into the franchise already.

Also of note was that this is the first time I have ever watched anything from the Dragon Ball franchise in the original Japanese, isolated scenes not withstanding. I must say it was fun to spot the differences between the Japanese and old English dubs, not just in what the lines were but also how they were delivered. It is obvious that despite the Japanese Seiyuu often registering either too high or too low for my personal tastes, they are far better than the old English dub. Which is why I look forward to buying the boxsets and seeing how the new English dub performs; I've heard some really promising things about it.

For one, there is no silly one-upmanship, and the battles are as humourless as they are brutal and intense. Mirai Trunks has a great backstory, one filled with desperation and hopelessness, and anger, and loss. This special shows us that backstory, one slightly different and yet far more fleshed out than in the T.V. series. I was a little disappointed with Mirai-Gohan, as he wasn't given enough screentime to truly shine. But Mirai-Bulma just steals any scene she's in, which sadly is also too few. The androids here seem much creepier, truly evil and sadistic, and they make excellent opponents.

The bad? Everything else, just about. The biggest one is that the show had no internal consistency. Episode nine killed the show for good, after that it was just a zombie stumbling around, clumsily piecing together the most ridiculous sequence of events I've seen in a while. "Trainwreck" doesn't do this disaster justice. It's roughly comparable to a jumbo jet hitting the Hindenburg which then falls on top of an orphanage, at least in terms of how badly the plot and entertainment value are burned by the shockingly incompetent writing.

That said, Durarara!! is much, much better than Baccano!. While Baccano! is a triumph of flashy but hollow style, Durarara!! has substance. It doesn't have as large a budget, but it has more heart, and despite its plot problems it is better put together as well. And the biggest advantage Durarara!! has is that it was not boring. Baccano!'s gore didn't turn me off, it was the confusing aspect to it. Since scenes often made little sense in their current context I got bored, even with all of the flashy visuals and larger-than-life characters (none of whom I liked). I found it really hard to finish the series. But in Durarara!! the gratuitous violence is gone, Isaac and Miria are gone - okay, so they do appear in a two-minute cameo, but that's it - and the show actually wasn't NEARLY as confusing. I like mysteries, I like trying to figure out what is going on, but Baccano!'s three timelines told in snippets was extremely unfair. Just like in the Haruhi franchise, telling a straightforward story out of chronological order does not automatically make the show better, it just is a fancy way to make an otherwise straightforward story look complicated. So I got confused for no real reason. Durarara!! didn't pull such a cheap trick on me, and I thank it for that. Where it did disappoint was in how it wove the separate plot threads together. At the two-thirds mark there was so much promise, and it looked like there would be one hell of a conclusion, but while the series didn't drop the balls of yarn (it was a pretty good effort actually,) the end result wasn't nearly as good as we had been promised.

The characters were a big mix of good and bad. Certainly the two lead boys - Mikado and Masaomi - were very sympathetic and likeable, but I can't say that much about Anri. She always came across as so strongly self-disparaging that I just couldn't relate to her. Shizuo is a fan-favourite, but as much as I liked him Celty was my favourite character. She was extremely cute at times, whether it be her over-reaction to the dreaded traffic cops or how she blushed when Shinra told her he loved her. She was very kind, always cool, and my favourite scenes of her was whenever she would "shake her head" (hah) in faint exasperation at Shizuo's actions. I have to give props to her Seiyuu Miyuki Sawashiro who did a wonderful job, giving her the right blend of womanly strength and girlish innocence and tenderness. Unfortunately, in the second half many of the other characters - most important enough to make into the second set of theme songs - were woefully underused. The blonde foreign girl in cowgirl attire, Shinra's dad, the traffic cop, Simon, Shizuo's brother, Shizuo's boss, Seiji, Mika and Yamie; they all either barely appeared at all or were shown frequently but never did anything to warrant that screentime. It seemed like a huge waste to introduce us to them and not have them do much, and it also bespoke of problems with the writing that could allow this to occur.

Speaking of problems with the writing, there are more than just a few plot holes here. The general story is quite well done, but the contrivances stretched disbelief. I get that in Anime if you are fifteen then it is almost expected that you live by yourself, but we got to see nothing of the three main children's home lives to compensate. Then a girl whose only problem is that she cannot walk stays in the hospital for eighteen months, and only ever gets two visitors. Never mind the incompetence of her doctors for not realising something rather odd about her (it's a spoiler, you'll have to watch it yourself). Izaya seemingly being omniscient and omnipresent is far-fetched, so much so that not addressing his information gathering abilities was an act of laziness on the writers' part. The origin of the Yellow Scarves was also odd; how does a middle-school student who must have been no older than thirteen at the time create a gang with so many older members? He is a good fighter, but it still seems strange to me. Finally, and most obviously, Izaya's whole plan involving Celty's head never actually happens. One can surmise that the kids stopped the war and therefore prevented the plan from being enacted, but there couldn't have been much more violence without the city erupting into civil war. How much violence did he need? And why was he even trying to do it in the first place; just to see if he could? His motivation was not properly explained, and "I love humans" isn't a motivation.

Let's start with the negatives. The episode where a girl caused a mass panic among the students was ludicrous and badly written. The male lead (well, the only recurring male character full stop) was too bland except at the very end. The blonde girl struggled to be relevant. It wasn't a problem when she was just comic relief but when mysteries started revealing themselves she wasn't useful. Kyrie with chips on both her shoulders was a bit hard to like. The fanservice was pretty And the characters claimed that it was weird that Yuuko never got angry when in fact she had gotten angry in the previous episodes, and when two of the other three characters had never gotten angry either. It seemed like less an oversight and more a case of bad writing.

Now for the positives. The music was good, and at times the art direction reminded me of SHAFT. The first episode is really funny and original, showing the same scene twice but in a fundamentally different way. I liked it. The revelations were almost perfectly paced. There was a good, dark reason why Yuuko initially came across as the perfect girl. The overall mystery was sufficiently explained and the show could be fairly creepy when it wanted to be. The male lead did eventually get a backbone. The final episode was very well done with great emotional impact.

But too often visual novels just wallow in a very stupid kind of tragedy where characters act in ridiculous and implausible ways and the story introduces absurd elements that make no sense. It is just so obviously artificial, with realism thrown out of the window because it's an inconvenience. The writers would rather tell a story that's stuffed with as much melodrama as possible than a story which is believable and populated with characters who act as normal humans would.

This is just my personal opinion, but good tragedies are effective because they expose the follies of human nature and just how thin the veneer is of our lives being happy and incident-free. In other words, the characters could be us - either as the instigator or the victim - living lives which could be our own. We have to get the feeling that our lives are but a single bout of plausible misfortune away from unraveling like those of the characters.

Chihiro's arc was easily the most interesting, as her condition and outlook on life - and Renji's struggle to come to terms with all of this - made for some genuinely good drama. I will say that Chihiro's eyepatch was unnecessary; a physical injury on top of her memory condition is a tad overboard. The unsettling but gripping story that Chihiro writes was very strong and well-used as a metaphor to the themes and plot of her arc. I would actually read that story if it were real, and it seems like something that could win a literary prize. Needless to say, my favourite scenes were to do with the novel itself.

The other two arcs were far weaker by comparison, although Hirono was probably the best male lead. Renji was too weak for too long, whereas Hirono - despite his unusual lifestyle - was more normal in personality. I never could understand Miyako - she was one screwed up girl - but at least she was more interesting than Kei, whose fixation on a childhood friendship was a bit been-there done-that. At least she showed spine I guess in trying to put a claim on Hirono. Would have been nice to see her arc with Kyousuke getting some resolution but the arc was not completed and took a back seat for the final three episodes. The three arcs did not mesh very well, which is a shame. Chihiro's arc is pretty much standalone and that's a problem given that we never get to see Kei handling Chihiro's condition. It's interesting that the worst melodrama happens in Miyako's arc, not Chihiro's.

Musically the show was fine - I like the closer with the harmonica, and the opener was alright. But the music only occasionally grabbed me and made me go "wow". The backgrounds and art style were both pretty awesome - this show is quintessentially SHAFT - and while they did not completely cover up the limited animation budget they did a great job on their own. Shots were framed quite nicely I thought, so I'd like to tip my hat to the half-dozen guys who worked on the storyboards.

This movie is great to look at, and the sound ain't bad either. It moves along at a fair clip, and I had fun spotting the edits and outright changes. This is the NGE I love, with great battle scenes, intriguing mysteries, iconic characters, and just a general sense of "dude, this is good stuff". I still am irritated by the complete lack of psychological, emotional, and physical support and protection for the pilots. They are only like the most important people in human history, ever, and yet you allow them to get beaten up at school, go wandering around on their own, and won't give them even the most basic of professional counselling. And then of course they get blamed when the inevitable mental and emotional problems occurs. Newer series also have this flaw - including RahXephon - but it could have been at least addressed some way in this movie; it wasn't. That said, Shinji does seem a little more stable here than in the series, but that's no excuse.

The dub managed to be both acceptable and subpar simultaneously; how you view Hikaru's voice will make a big difference there. The chemistry between the girls was good (and it had better been given the huge screentime they got), and the battles did get surprisingly inventive occasionally. The slice-of-life elements were very well done, and Hikaru was quite cute whenever munching on food (which was a lot).

An interesting world and good production values - especially with regards to the first-rate and beautiful OP - are more than cancelled out by a veritable mountain of plot flaws, mind-numbingly dumb characters, not nearly enough explanation to fill in all the technobabble (a lot of which came in the last two episodes), a fascist eco-luddite "let's live as noble savages" aesop, and generally incompetent writing.

There is a reason why the 80s are over, and it has nothing to do with the march of time. I'm not talking about the character designs, which were fine, but rather the outdated sensibilities and almost outright bouts of plagiarism of well-known films and works. To make matters worse, some of the worst modern tropes were thrown in, like the short outraged Loli who calls the lead male a pervert every three minutes, or the creepy guy with the bowl-cut whom you just know is going to be evil.

The melodrama was unwelcome (those who have seen the movie will know exactly what I'm referring to), and the story of saving the clubhouse was a bit simplistic. There was a bit of fat in here that never went anywhere, basically window dressing to the setting. Also, I found the romance to be a bit weak, especially compared to other Ghibli works. But otherwise this was a very competent movie. Natural Slice-of-Life scenes, mood-appropriate music, gorgeous scenery, realistic settings and superb attention to detail; these have always been Ghibli's strong points, and once again the studio uses them to provide an immersive experience. The movie is set in 1963 Yokohama and it is easy to imagine that we are there with the characters, so genuine are the scenes of bustling townsfolk and school kids and family chores.

Look, I was never a big fan of the first series. I just don't know why, but it never really grabbed me, and I kind of lost enthusiasm for it towards the end. That's not to say that it wasn't very good, quite the contrary in fact. I liked it, which is more than I can say about this version. Brotherhood is lucky I don't actively hate it, cause boy I came REAL close. I'm not harsh on it because I've seen some of the various big plot twists already in the first show. I have much more reasonable opinion about why it wasn't satisfying.

Much was made about how Brotherhood would be following the Manga the whole way, but what people overlook is that faithfulness does not equal superiority. Not if the original work is flawed. Not if the adaptation is badly handled. Both of these points ended up being true. I'm not going to go into a point-by-point analysis of what Brotherhood did wrong, as it would take too much time and invoke too many spoilers. Needless to say, I'll give an overview of the four main problems in Brotherhood:

The least problematic problem was the humour. I say that because as the series went on it got (spoiler alert: hah ha) darker, and therefore we got fewer and fewer instances of the absolutely crud attempts at humour. The Manga has often been criticised for the SD and the mood whiplash, but did we really need to see Edward getting annoyed at people calling him short for the third time in a single episode? Not really; it "grew" old, fast. Okay, my humour is not that good, but I'm not a famous Manga-ka gundammit. Still, the first series had a really good sense of humour in some episodes, but we never saw that in this version.

The pacing of the series was too fast in the first thirteen episodes or so, and then too slow during the middle and end. To have such uneven pacing is bad in itself, but rushing the start meant that some critical scenes - and I do mean critical - were poorly written and hurriedly stuck wherever there was space.

I flat out didn't like the characters by the end, although the final episode redeemed them a fraction (just a small one though). It is never a good sign when you begin rooting for the antagonists just because they are more interesting and less annoying. But then, the antagonists weren't treated very well

The amount of plot holes, scenes which broke my suspension of disbelief, scenes that just plain broke the internal boundaries of the depicted world, and instances of outright stupidity, were numerous and frequent, especially at the end. I just was not enjoying myself out there, because the show wasn't being internally consistent and that just pisses me off. In many cases it wasn't actively the writers' fault, as they were merely copying the Manga's storyline. They still should have tried to make improvements; it's not like there weren't plenty of legitimate areas.

You wouldn't think so just the the beginning, which is pretty standard and not all that impressive. It doesn't promise much beyond a typical children's adventure story with maybe a touch more darkness than you would allow kids today to see. Violence is pretty bloodless but it is there, and of course each episode opens with a seventy-second-long intro outlining how billions of people died in a war which sank the continents. But apart from the darkness, there wasn't much potential here. Or so I thought.

See, this was made by a couple of good mates called Miyazaki and Takahata. Yes, THAT Miyazaki and THAT Takahata; they are the founding men behind Studio Ghibli. Now, this show was made in 1978, six years before Nausicaa, but you can definitely see their prototypical ideas here. As such, the story starts off unassuming but grows into a multi-faceted Aesop about the horrors of war, the benefits of environmentalism, the spectre of greed, and a well-written arc of redemption for two characters (who, I'm pleased to say, have a wonderful scene together in a great final episode).

Anyway, I initially wasn't all that into the show, and then I actually liked it. As Miyazaki started to lay his cards on the table, I started to respect it. And then I began to REALLY respect it when he kept on laying more out. The writing is not particularly amazing and few of the characters are defined by more than just their respective personality traits; with a couple of notable exceptions there's actually very little character development.

However, Miyazaki and Takahata were experts in the art of storytelling itself even back then. With Future Boy Conan they kept things simple, accessible, and above all, fun. The spirit of adventure and wonder runs richly through this show's veins, and I found the show to be highly enjoyable despite it be ostensibly a show aimed at children. It also helps that despite all of the themes to the show, they are always naturally integrated and never detract from the impressive clarity of the story. The show is directed and story-boarded in what would become typical Ghibli fashion, with plenty of quiet scenes to let us take in the setting or the atmosphere. In other words, it's bloody good, far better than what you'll find in many shows made today.

I would encourage all fans to watch Future Boy Conan. Sure, it's old - 1978 was a while ago, before even Mobile Suit Gundam or Castle of Calgiostro - so it naturally looks old. Yet it doesn't look dated, except perhaps in the noses; the overall character designs are perfectly alright. The music is also fine, even if some tracks are frequently reused (but then show me a series where that isn't the case). So even if you are wary about watching old Anime you should still watch this; there's no excuse.

Ga-Rei-Zero is intriguingly enough a proper prequel to the Manga and not a simple adaptation, and what it does right is provide emotional closure to many of the characters, not just to Kagura and Yomi. What it completely, horribly and utterly fails to address is the plot, specifically with regards to wrapping it up. Instead, the show leaves open massive questions, never explains what Lag Seeing's doppelganger is doing let alone what the heck he actually is, and it teases us by introducing an important new character in the last couple of minutes of the final episode. Yes, it is a prequel, so it assumes that viewers will have either read or will read the Manga, but that doesn't help me now, does it.

It is a very nice looking series and quite easy on the eyes, with every character (male and female) drawn in a semi-distinctive realistic style. The animation is notably good for a weekly airing show; the show obviously had an appreciable budget and a production team who knew how to make the best use of it. The monsters weren't fabulous or innovatively designed but they served their purpose, and I did appreciate the military hardware. As for the backgrounds, you can sort of tell while watching that some had been based on real locations, which allowed for some non-standard camera shots. It is the sort of thing I would expect to see in a movie or Shinkai OVA, not an action/drama show.

Ah yes, the action and drama. The violence struck a nice balance between being graphic and keeping off-screen. Basically, you got all kinds of amputations and stabbings and whatnot, but not everything was shown (a lot was though). Off-screen violence is easier to animate, and can actually be a more effective storytelling device if done right. The drama was interesting, as we knew where this was all heading, and Kagura and Yomi's relationship was convincing. But I think a bit too much was made out of the "not wanting to kill" angle that Kagura and another character shared. It made me annoyed with both of them, and unlike say Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion they were trained as warriors practically from birth. Hesitation to kill is one thing, and is actually expected at first, but the director drew it out a bit too much. Unlike Vash in Trigun, who had a philosophy and stuck with it through rain or shine, the two characters here had no moral arguments at all, let alone convincing ones. They just didn't want to kill human-looking apparitions (and of course one apparition in particular), even though they had no compunction in killing all manner of creatures.

I can't believe I have gone this far without mentioning the first episode. I had heard it was infamous, even notorious, but luckily I didn't know in what way. Curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out; it is actually on YouTube courtesy of FUNimation. I quickly forgot about the controversy until . . . well, I really can't say. You'll know it when you see it. I'll tell you what though, you'll either be so angry that you will drop the series or be so baffled and intrigued that you will want to watch the next episode straight away. Actually, now is a good time as any to mention that this was a very easy Anime to watch. I don't know why, but it wasn't because the story or character drama was engrossing or anything like that. I just found it easy to start the next episode, and I never found myself looking at the clock hoping that the episode would end. I found it odd, but in a good way.

The show spends too much time talking about psychological theories which may or may not have any bearing on the plot and characters. Yes, the show was quite intelligent, and the staff were obviously widely-read, but I feel they were showing off at times. The plot and characters are quite good, but the ending was a little rushed. I find the oddly low episode count - twenty-two - to be a little surprising, and I wonder if it wasn't cancelled prematurely.

I liked how this show focused on the professional side of sports rather than be yet another high school Sports Drama. Featured were sports writers, camera operators, serious fans, various officials, team management and administration that went beyond the high-school pairing of manager and coach; there was even a PR department, and the club had financial issues and relegation fears. Even on the players' side they had to worry about regular injury and being subbed out, while high-school Sports Dramas often have a fixed team with little subbing, and the spectre of injury only happens when it will most affect the plot, if at all. So much potential, so many relatively new avenues to explore and flesh out, but the show was let down by poor writing. And I'm disappointed about that.

One of the themes was that people who have fun play better. While team morale is of course important, it isn't a silver bullet that will immediately solve all your problems or make your players advance three levels of skill. There was a distinct lack of planning too. Oh, Tatusmi did come up with an impressive game-plan for the big game - which went on too long - but that was the exception which proved the rule. And even then, it stretches disbelief that a team as accomplished, as skilled and as spirited as their opponents were didn't put five or six goals away against ETU, intelligent plan or not. As a side comment, I thought there were too many slide tackles made period (let alone successful ones), and not enough interceptions.

The CG was pretty good, a much better effort than what I saw with Cross Game for example. The music was repetitive, which is a charge I've been laying against quite a few shows recently. At least the OP was good; you don't often hear that sort of English or Scottish sound in an Anime. The character designs on the other hand were just odd. The hairstyles were done well and looked like what real football players might have, but the overly muscular legs, the pointy noses and the weird art style the characters were drawn in made for a disconcerting viewing experience.

The whole business of people speaking French and Dutch and English was handled very, very badly. I do have to give the directors credit for trying, but it just did not work, the Seiyuu simply unable to do those languages justice. Dulfer was the worst offender; his inner monologues were simultaneously both in Dutch and Japanese, and it just Did Not Work. At all. Speaking about inner monologues, oh god, the worst problem the show had by far was that the players would be dribbling the ball and have these long conversations with themselves. Three seconds (if that) of game time turned into a minute or more about a characters telling us how determined he is or whatever. I hated it, just hated it.

I found this movie to be thoroughly enjoyable, with great humour and drama, and a good cast of characters. The story itself was solid, while the intriguing twist helped to set it apart from otherwise similar stories of time travellers. The budget was good, with moving backgrounds and beautiful background art more than making up for a sad penchant not to draw characters' faces when the "camera" was just a bit far away.

Now for a few gripes. First of all, as Justin Sevakis mentioned in his review of it, there were a few plot threads left unresolved. The painting was important, but only because it merely was; we were not told exactly why. And while it is obvious that the Aunt knows more than she lets on, we never get to see where she fits into all of this. Secondly, I didn't really like Riisa NAKA's performance as Makoto, who usually - especially for the more serious scenes - gave an unsatisfying delivery. I don't know what it was exactly, but most of her lines sounded unnatural, and the performance as a whole was a touch monotonous. Angry, sad, embarrassed, contemplative, she always sounded the same. It was an emotional story, and the character was likeable, but NAKA's performance didn't do either the story or the character justice. Thirdly, regarding poor Makoto herself, she is going to have to learn at one point or another that time waits for no-one. Anyone who has seen the very end will know what I mean.

That said, it has limited appeal, some stories should have gotten more than one episode and the second half is indeed weaker than the first. A lack of any overarching plot is both a strength and a weakness.

If the top-tier visuals are the movie's strong point, the writing does let it down somewhat. The pacing is too slow in the first two-thirds and too fast in the last third. Now, that does mean there was time for some good world-building before the action, but unfortunately we got too many scenes of Sora getting used to the game and hanging out with friends rather than introducing us to concepts, people and places that would become important in the final battle. Plot holes were also prevalent, and the way the game affected both the real world and the players was ridiculous. On the positive side it was nice to see a spook from America actually being a Good Guy, and the grandpa was pretty cool for an old fella. Sora also had some realistic teenage spunk. It isn't the best writing but it's serviceable enough.

But I have two related problems. The first was that the series never fully ran with the ideas it brought up, which made it seem light and fluffy rather than an actual commentary. But hey, it is a Comedy first and foremost, so I could it some slack. However, the second problem is that it doesn't do anything else. There's no overaching plot, it's just a collection of jokes.

Some scenes were absolutely riotous - like the roller-coaster - and Rika stepped up as a character. But this felt disjointed and unfinished. Yes it's only the middle arc, but other shows have had good or even great middle seasons, so Haganai's writing must accept the blame. The screaming matches were quite stupid, as was the cliffhanger, and there are far too many loose ends (some of which were only introduced a few episodes from the end). The drama had sincerity, but it wasn't genuine. I know that sounds weird, but though the characters meant what they said their thoughts and actions were just bizarre. In another sense, the characters were well-realised, but they weren't utilised properly.

There is nothing here that hasn't been hashed and re-hashed to death, barring the key point that the main characters are little older than toddlers. And yet, it is rather sweet, somewhat touching, and VERY funny. And it does not come across as toddlercon, which is what I initially thought it would be. Even when you know what's coming because you've seen it dozens of time before, this show managed to make those tropes enjoyable. Although, the Yamamoto sisters have to be two of the most clueless females in Anime (still kind of funny though).

I have to give a shout out to the EDs. Every episode has a different one, music, visuals and all. There is a great variety, and most are pretty good. My favourite is the Sci-Fi one, but then I'm biased towards that genre anyway.

That said, some of how the wishes stack up is actually pretty intricate and impressive. It can be surprisingly clever and layered. Yet quite a few wishes have fundamental problems with how they work and create huge plot holes, as if the writer overreached himself or just ignored continuity whenever it didn't suit him. The show has other problems too. The theme of "being a pervert is a great thing" is lame, even as the affectionate "hopeless pervert" mantra was overused. Plus there were some bizarre aesops that can't simply be passed off as "LOL Japan". And it was kind of groan-inducing to see the lead female not being able to go five minutes without her trying to justify to herself why she's the best girl for the guy. She defined herself by how good of a girlfriend she would make and that was off-putting.

But the following is probably the biggest gripe from me, and it occurs in the middle episodes. The lead character treats the girls in a sickening manner, especially two of them. Male leads in Harem shows are usually very clueless, and they often hurt the girls around them by not making a choice. But they do so out of ignorance or accident or inattention. It is rare to see a guy who is this much of a prick, so cruel and manipulative and downright selfish. The lead male in HENNEKO pays just enough attention to these girls to string them along, but doesn't really try to understand them or help them.

So what did Heroic Age do right? Well, the character development for several characters impressed me, with many of the antagonists receiving better growth and development than the heroes. And they are only antagonists, as - minor spoiler alert - there is not a single true villain throughout the entire show. Although the show is fours years old the visuals are at times really impressive, especially when depicting alien worlds, the Nodos themselves or stupendously huge stargates. Hisashi Hirai's attractive character designs don't suffer from quite the same level of "copy-pasta" that he is (in)famous for, although you can still instantly tell he was the designer.

The show's mythos was pretty good, with god-like beings and a ship voyaging to find a legendary golden item. Ah yes, unashamedly the story of Jason and the Argonauts, but it worked well. It was at times fascinating, evoking a sense of wonder, and it knew where it wanted to go, as in, the show had a direction. I also appreciated the way the series would often take a step back and have characters consider things, whether it be their loyalties and duties, their grappling with emotions, or trying to piece together what the prophecies had in store with them. The contradictions between the various labors, the reasons for those contradictions, and the way the characters attempted to reconcile the various labors, genuinely impressed me. It showed a level of writing and wide base of thought that didn't need to be there to make the show "work" but was included anyway, and so was a big factor in why I rated Heroic Age as Very Good rather than Good.

I do have issues with the show, naturally. Let's start with the English dub, the version I watched. It was let down by Caitlin Glass's performance as a rape victim. Well, that's what she SOUNDED like. She used this really unnatural voice that I guess was supposed to sound all princess-like, but as it frequently had a constant tremor in it she came across as if she were begging for her life. I wasn't irritated by it all that much, in fact it was a great source of amusement as Glass filled scene after scene with unintentional innuendo. Still a negative though, no matter how funny it was.

Age, i.e. the main male character, wasn't much of a main character. He had no character growth or development, and therefore no character arc. Nothing seemed to bother him, ever. He was a happy-go-lucky guy in the beginning and stayed that way till the end. Although for a while his lack of angst was a refreshing change of pace to other Mecha and Space Opera shows, it became unnatural and then sort of grating. Additionally, he doesn't make appearances - at least as himself - for large tracts of time (often in multiple-episode blocks). He's the main male character but his screentime doesn't reflect that; something is a little wrong there.

I was annoyed and confused with the lack of any sort of internal consistency regarding timeframes, distances and the nature and origin of the powers that the various characters have. Some technical terms were not really explained properly, making it hard to figure out where they fit in. In most Anime the music is often repetitive; even titles in the Macross franchise recycled background music and insert songs every few episodes. However in Heroic Age it was very noticeable and a tad distracting. Especially the Doom Doors (google it), I noticed them every. Single. Time. (Luckily they weren't used all that often.)

Finally, while the almost inevitable expository dialogue wasn't too bad, I was a tad disheartened at how much of the early plot was simply given to us in the form of narration. I feel that the writers could have fit it in a little better. I realise that it is possible the story is meant to be "read" as an actual story of events gone by, with the narrator - Dhianeila - perfectly knowledgeable about most things. I mean, the style could be a linear story version of an Ancient Greek epic poem. Still, I wouldn't have minded the narration if it hadn't been used properly. I mean, it was the only source of information for what the heck was going on - and why - for quite a while until the various characters began filling in the details.

Obviously having BONES was a good step, as it meant good production values right the way through. Animation, art, music; all solid. And Stan Lee does have a formula which has been a winner time and time again. There's nothing here that is original or groundbreaking, bar the fact that Stan Lee is involved. But it was still entertaining, even though I'd seen everything here many many times before.

This could really work well as a Saturday morning cartoon. Being set in America helps, and the creators captured the feel of the good ole USA quite well. It is a little violent for young kiddies though, and the villain is not your bumbling idiot who fails each and every episode; he was one of the best parts of the show. It is too bad at how the end dumbed him down, turning him from a fearsome, cautious yet cunning leader into the the cackling arrogant stereotype we know and hate.

Speaking of the end, it didn't wrap up everything as well as it should have. Part of that was due to forcing an important flashback into the final episode when it should have been aired long ago. Joey's rival didn't get any closure, we barely got a scene with Joey and Lina, and there was a very dubious plot decision earlier on. Not to mention an impressive but largely unexplained powerup. Oh well. At least we got a juicy (although not unexpected) scene which leaves room for a sequel.

Okay, so it isn't boring all of the time. The show does tell a good story stocked with some intriguing characters, and it does sport a setting that isn't completely defined and is more interesting for it. Yet the style is so quiet, the pacing so slow that the show is almost - almost - sleep-inducing. The characters can be so unemotional at times (sort of an anti-angst) that it is hard to empathise with them. For all of their depth, they are very conventional. Also, the story is dragged out one or two episodes too long.

The character designs are quite ugly; I know it is a stylistic choice, but it is hard to take characters seriously when they look like that. The music however is uniformly good (except for the ED song), although a tad overused in my opinion. The OP and ED are fantastic visually, and the OP has a great song too. I usually watched both.

I say this without hyperbole; it is one of the best Anime I have ever watched. It is hard to voice why. When examined individually, most components are merely adequate, some even less so. It is impossible to find specific scenes which showcase its greatness. Each gesture, line of dialogue and sideways glance conveys weight only in relation to others. This is gestalt in action, humble imperfection quietly usurping dazzling spectacle.

But unfortunately, while the central relationship is strong, the show itself is far from it. Very slowly paced, entire episodes go by with little to no development and are pretty much filler. Too many side-characters are introduced and most of them are merely one-joke bit parts. The lesbian bodyguard, the big-breasted maid, the self-proclaimed delinquent tanuki; they (and others) were rarely more than superfluous and extraneous characters. The backstory of Miketsukami is withheld far too long and just dumped on us at the end in one big block.

It isn't amazing. It just isn't. Plot holes abound, the story is generic, the villains are monster-of-the-week, the final boss' identity is painfully obvious, Tony gets his arse handed to him in virtually every battle, people switch sides like this was social soccer, and scenes are ripped off of the recent two live-action Hollywood movies. But as Anime - or comic books - go it is pretty decent. There are numerous plot holes in this but no more than many (supposedly superior) titles I can name. The story is of a similar quality to what you'd expect to find in any American comic book, just set in Japan. They did use scenes inspired heavily from the live-action movies, but changed them up and gave them a slightly new twist. The monster-of-the-week episodes were set aside in the second half for a proper storyline, character designs were nice - a good blend of Anime style and comic-book sensibilities - and the voice work was passable at worst.

Katanagatari's rather unique release structure was both a good thing and a bad thing. Bad in that it was hard to drum up much enthusiasm between episodes with such a long wait between them. Episode twelve being the obvious exception, what with episode eleven's cliffhanger. That raises another (but related) problem. The first ten episodes were self-contained - one sword, one episode - although latter episodes did frequently mention earlier ones. It felt a bit stilted and formulaic as each story was wrapped up in the allotted timespan, and until the end there was not the drive to watch the next episode to see what happens next. Yes, the staff obviously intended for the structure to be this way, and they did take steps to mitigate the inherent problems with the flow of the show. The aforementioned nods to previous episodes helped, but only looking backwards, not when looking forwards to building anticipation to future episodes.

The structure did have its strengths. A whole month between episodes means the production team aren't under quite the same horrible time-pressure that bedevils most Anime series. Yes, it has double-length episodes, but each episode comes out a quarter as often. Therefore twice as much time can be spent on every episode - nay, every minute - of Katanagatari than on a normal TV show. Now you'd think this would mean much better art and animation, and I do have to say that the art was quite striking. Very simple, very basic, but incredibly colourful and vivid. Especially the design and colouration of the eyes. It seems as though every character either had a stock (but very odd) two-tone eye design but with their own colouration pattern, or they had their own personal brand of eye. Backgrounds weren't nearly as vivid, and I noticed at least two, possibly three instances of incredibly poor and exceedingly obvious recycled animated backgrounds, especially in the same scene. Y'ouch.

Speaking of the animation, generally it was quite disappointing. This was obviously a low-budget production, which happens. Some of my favourite Anime were made with little more than the smell of an oily rag, metaphorically speaking. But given the time that the animators had twice as long per minute, I expected better than this. I know I know, animators get paid per frame, so increasing the time allotted to them isn't going to automatically translate into better quality, but I was hoping, I really was. The fights are very basic, the action sequences being almost always very short with limited detailed movements. EVERY fight is padded out with dialogue. That is not too surprising, given who wrote the series of Light Novels this show is based on, but the exposition gets tiring in a number of fights. It's just another problem with the show's episodic nature. Sometimes you've got too much to fit into the episode, sometimes not nearly enough

This series has plot problems (not all the issues with the plot were holes, although some were). It has A LOT of plot problems. They piss me off but luckily do not detract enough from the show to make it unwatchable. Things depicted don't always correspond to the tech level of the intended time period; I'm not just talking about the blades here, as they are (partially) justified. Sure, there's magic, but the characters were the ones that brought physics into this, not me. (As an aside, I'm amazed that a feudal society would even know of the word "physics"; maybe it was just a mistranslation by the fansubbers.) And it may just be me, but I struggled to put together the actual behind-the-scenes plot, the whole point of the rebellion. But what was REALLY baffling were the show's finale and coda. They did not make sense. At all. Even someone with perfect understanding of the plot would not have understood - let alone forgiven - why the coda played out like it did. Shichika's decision in the finale was bizarre too, which when mixed in with some glaring plot problems did take a bit of impact away from the otherwise fairly exciting finale.

I liked Bakemonogatari. Nay, I loved Bakemonogatari. I knew that this show would be talky too. But twenty-five-minute long talky episodes are much easier to swallow than fifty-minute-long talky episodes. And Shichika and Togame struggled to match their counterparts. In fact they fell pretty far off. Also, for all of Katanagatari's uniqueness the general format of the series - a smart yet obnoxious girl paired with a guy akin to a fish out of water, who travel together to collect important artefacts - is actually pretty standard. Not tired, because there is some blending of different story elements, but it doesn't make a statement of "this is fresh". I fully understand and accept that most Anime are like this, which is why I haven't marked the show down for it. But I mention it because the execution is - 99% of the time - more important than premise. Yet by and large Katanagatari didn't try to supersede its not-so-special origins with great execution. It was good, don't get me wrong, but overall I feel it could have done better. That said, there were some notable instances which impressed me, and they spoke of the underlying quality of the show. No matter how dull or outright annoying the show got, there was usually a good reason to keep watching.

Worst of all, the emotional aspect was poorly handled and frankly AWOL on many occasions. There would be a huge event (a kiss, a fight, someone running away), and then a several-month timeskip. It happened not once or twice but obnoxiously frequently. It made the emotional tone of the series extremely disjointed and prevented us from seeing the immediate aftermath of all the highs and lows. It's hard to really care about a couple who have publicly confessed their love when BAM, three month timeskip. It is cowardly directing and cowardly writing from production staff who not only know better but ARE better than that.

That I watched Kimi ni Todoke right the way through should clue you in that this is a great show. Even though I knew (or thought I knew) how it would end it still seemed refreshing, funny, emotionally touching, and endearing. I wanted with all my apparently not-so-jaded heart that our two extremely likeable leads would get together. But, well . . . hmm.

And that's not all. The middle flopped very noticeably and very badly. The show's overall pacing was poor, extremely so in some places. There was too much screentime give to characters we just simply didn't care about as much as the two leads. It was simply too long, but also not long enough to give the audience the payoff we so badly wanted.

It would have been Masterpiece on the first three, maybe six episodes alone, and it could have still been Excellent if Kurumi hadn't wasted something like eight episodes on her lonesome. A great series that wasted even greater potential; so sad. So very genuinely sad.

I watched this because CLAMP has almost a reputation for starting out a series light and fluffy and then getting quite serious towards the end. This sort of followed the same formula, but the execution was not good enough. The connection between Kobato and Kiyokazu was kind of lame, the Yomogi Nursery storyline was not only poorly thought-out but wasted far too much screentime, and poor Ioryogi never had his background explained. Kobato was tasked with retrieving one-hundred candies in a year, which is one every three and-a-bit days. However, after several months she hardly had any, and then a couple of episodes later her jar is almost filled up with no explanation given. Here's a tip to CLAMP and/or the show's writers; don't set your protagonist a clearly impossible and easily definable task and then have that character basically achieve that task through events that could not possibly have happened under the clear and rigid parameters that you yourselves set. It breaks the audience's suspension of disbelief, surprisingly enough (that's sarcasm).

This can be a really hard show to watch at times, because apart from the one co-worker who is there for comic relief none of this material is played for laughs. Oh sure, there are some humourous moments, but anyone looking for typical Anime-style hi-jinks is going to be completely disappointed. When you have two such realistic leads and put them through the emotional wringer by way of a semi-taboo subject matter that makes many people uncomfortable, then it can be hard to struggle through several key scenes. I had to actually clasp my hands together at times because otherwise I would hit the pause button too often.

But you know, I'm glad I watched this show. It is so nice to see Anime actually treat such a subject matter seriously and with respect, instead of degrading it by playing it for laughs or introducing a cop-out ending. Real credit must go to the superb writing, which by the way was never judgemental, but the true star was the direction. I have read Theron Martin's reviews of the show's DVDs, and I strongly agree with him that every frame, every expression and even every line of dialogue is important, even if just to set the mood, foreshadow the future or provide some insight. The ending didn't actually do quite what I thought it would, and initially I thought it might have been a cop-out. I've come to realise (didn't take me long) that the ending I had in mind was not what they were going for. What we did actually get was something rather muted, but also rather satisfying. Keep that in mind if you ever intend to watch the show

Technically, this was never a show that required strong art or animation, and it kind of shows. They're serviceable and that is all they ever needed to be. However, I did notice how carefully Nanoka's hair was animated in some scenes, whether it be blowing in the wind or just slipping off of her shoulder when she turned her head, and the number of hairstyles and outfits Nanoka had was far more than what many newer series display. I liked the realistic character designs, especially Koushirou's. A lot of real-life men have that jawline and body type and yet most males in Anime are either very thin or rather ripped. As for the music, it was really good, but the true genius was knowing when to turn it off. The lack of musical cues means the audience has to think for itself. Some will find it just makes the show boring, but those who invest some concentration to interpreting the meanings behind facial expressions and body language will be rewarded.

Unfortunately I wasn't rewarded as much as I wanted, and that is because I never quite "got" the attraction between the two. I do applaud the writing for not making obvious scenes as to just where and when they fell in love. The siblings quite realistically just grow closer and closer, until they realise they have gone past a line that was never visible until it was crossed. However, because the line is not obvious it also feels that the developments in their respective feelings happens too fast in the second half. The physical attraction I can understand, especially on the behalf of Koushirou (Nanoka is rather cute), but actual romantic love? When did that happen? It is hard to reconcile Koushirou's Tsundere nature - yes, he's a rare male example, made even more rare by being an adult and even moreso by being played seriously - with Nanoka's feelings. I guess humans are really that strange, but it is disconcerting watching it on my screen.

To be blunt, I do not know exactly why I am not rating Koi Kaze a Masterpiece, only that my gut tells me it isn't quite there. But it is still an amazingly well crafted show, one of the best you'll ever see in Anime, or outside of it for that matter. The lack of powerful emotional punches I felt from it can be easily turned around to mean that it didn't go the cheap and easy manipulative route a la Clannad After Story, and I do wholeheartedly respect it for that. Maybe some day I'll rewatch it and find that I missed key clues the first time around, and I might adjust my rating. For now, it will have to settle for "just" an Excellent.

**********

Edit: I rewatched this June-2013 and wow, it was even better than I remembered. I think the reason is twofold. Firstly, I was better able to see the subtle details and hints in the early episodes, which meant that their relationship felt more substantial than in the first time I watched this. When they finally got together it didn't seem rushed anymore, because I could better see that their development and attraction started right from the get-go. And secondly, the subject matter doesn't bother me as much as before. I wasn't constantly going "ewww" and that meant my viewing experience was greatly improved. I was able to immerse myself more in the show and soak up the atmosphere. And because I could let the characters speak for themselves rather than overlay my prejudices over every action I could actually better understand Koushirou and Nanoka. I still don't think what they did was right, but I also am in no position to say that they were wrong either.

It's still a story that not many people are going to want to watch, and it isn't enjoyable in the traditional sense. But it has become clear to me that I cannot deny its quality any longer and so I am re-rating this as Masterpiece. If you want proof that Anime can be as good a story-telling medium as any other, look no further than Koi Kaze.

The director Tetsuro Araki also helmed Death Note and as we saw in that series he can do wonderful things with great source material. Unfortunately Kurozuka is not well written at all in its actual execution, although whether that's the fault of the source manga or Araki (he's also the screenwriter here) is difficult to tell. But he shouldn't have tackled the script unless he could have delivered a quality product, so ultimately it IS his fault, no matter what the original manga was like. The direction itself was quite spotty, which makes me wonder if perhaps he got distracted with the script. Even the animation courtesy of Madhouse suffered some clunkers.

As for the narrative, it was interesting that the show was presented out of chronological order, which allowed for some early gaps and mysteries to be slowly filled in as the show progressed. But most of the gaps weren't filled - in fact, not a hell of a lot was explained at all - and the unresolved mysteries became plot holes. Then the ending turns everything on its head and makes you wonder what the bleep you just watched. That's if your brain hasn't melted from overheating after trying to make sense of it all; it really is an ending that defies description.

This is a very Asian series. I don't mean in the sense that it has Asians in it, that's not it, duh. Rather, that the tone and the way everything is presented is so very . . . umm . . . hmm . . . well okay, let me put it this way: butterflies, butterflies, more effing butterflies. Pauses so long that they seem eternal, with whispery music that will put you to sleep. Heroes are boring as heck, with little dialogue and an expectation to just stand there looking pretty (even the guys. Heck, ESPECIALLY the guys). Bizarre over-the-top villains make random appearances, do nothing at all of any relevance to the overall plot, kill some minor unimportant characters before quickly disappearing from sight (almost always from being brutally killed). There's no chemistry behind the key relationship, nor any genuine comradeship between any of the supposed allies; worse, no attempt is even made in these areas. Apparently if two beautiful people so much as look at one another then that's all the chemistry you need for the romance that the entire freaking plot is based around. The narrative is highly obtuse and the negative, incomplete and plain baffling ending raises more questions than it answers. The humour is also low-key and sparse, with much of what little there is coming unintentionally, like a running gag about decapitation that probably wasn't supposed to be funny at all.

This was just an advertisement for the Manga. Except, because we get only the most hurried of explanations as to the backstory (the Anime does not start where the Manga does), the audience has not the faintest clue about what is going on. Why is he such a prick? Why does she like him? I don't know. And with such a short run-time there was no point introducing us to two secondary characters; at least Voices of a Distant Star knew where to keep the focus.

This OVA felt like the badly-done end of a twenty-six-episode series. But because we missed all of the previous episodes, we got no build-up, no explanations, no real chance for meaningful character growth, no enjoyment. The only bright sides were that the art style is easy on the eye, and that the setup does look like it has potential.

Baka Prince may have an extremely unlikeable personality, but he is hilarious as a character. The writing was generally very good, with the first and last arcs being absolutely top-notch and the rest ranged from alright to pretty good. The series was based on a fairly old Manga and so felt outdated with the Color Rangers episodes, but hey, even though they were the worst of the bunch they still had their moments. Both the OP and ED were solid, the production values were good, and the humour was a treat. And I just loved the intelligence and cunning the show displayed pretty much right the way through. As a viewer, getting successfully trolled - or in one stunning display of awesomeness, reverse-trolled - has never been so enjoyable.

And the magic/supernatural crap was unnecessary, unwanted and atrociously utilised with respect to the plot. Not that there was much of a plot anyway, just some random arcs interspersed with nonsense. The closest thing there was to one - the kidnapping of the sister - was left hanging, completely unresolved (not that the brother was all that interested in or affected by it). I thought she might have died as well as their parents, and the boy's subconscious made up some crap about her being abducted, and he survived because he ate her share of the flour. But nope, that wasn't it, which was extremely disappointing, though I would have taken anything other than what we got, which was nothing.

Let's look at Guskou himself some more. He was a boring and distant lead who showed no emotional depth or attachment until the end of the film where he decides to help people so that they don't share the same fate as his family did. Commendable, but sadly, it comes as way too little, far too late. And he must have had a deus ex machina button because how exactly did he make a volcano blow up by himself? He really does come across as the 1930s Imperial Japanese poster boy for hard work that he was in the original novel. Your family died and your sister got kidnapped? Well don't let that emotionally affect you in any way - you need to keep working hard for the good of the people! And you'll be able to magically save them by yourself even though it is impossible! The Japanese can make anything happen if they are willing to sacrifice their lives! Now excuse me, I'm going to go throw up for a while at such blatant and sickening nationalistic and fascist propaganda masquerading as a family film.

elevator music plays, minutes pass

Okay, back again. The art is gorgeous - especially the scenes of the forest in the first ten minutes or so - and the music could be very nice at times. It even had some strong scenes and a very promising plot outline with plenty of potential. But man was this a crappy movie (as if you hadn't already realised that). A lot of little-known movies deserve far better, hidden gems that ought to be brought out of obscurity to meet the light of day and be appreciated by a wider audience. This movie however should be consigned to oblivion, and I'm glad that it is so obscure. I realise that by telling people about it I am giving it far more press than it deserves. But, I do reckon that negative press is important and that people should be able to make up their own minds if they want - and dare; you could just end up wasting two hours of your life. That said, the movie does make a good case study for those who want to witness first hand how a fundamentally good story can be ruined by incompetent execution and bad narrative choices.

The proverbial elephants in the room is that one of the girls has a huge crush on the male lead, and the fanservice is a huge problem. It is hard to have a heartwarming story when the girls are the subject of this level of fanservice. Everything from cleavage on a three-year-old (WTF?) to a ten-year-old rubbing her budding breasts against the male lead to really badly-done 'walk-ins' to a couple of pantyshots, one of which (in episode ten's endcard) was a step too far. It just made me groan, and if it had been a little worse this could have dropped a grade or two, because such lowbrow stupidity undermined the message that the story was telling.

The whole "fate is good, free-will bad" crap was gagging, and there was the old "the hero mustn't kill evil because killing is wrong" garbage that we've come to know and hate. Alibaba is so pathetic that every time he gains new confidence he immediately undermines it, meaning he fell into self-doubt about a dozen times over the course of the series, and each time his friends had to pick him up. Got real old real fast; cyclical character arcs are never fun.

On the plus side, Morgiana was a true delight, easily the best character. She stole the show. Sinbad was also pretty cool. I also liked the good world-building done here, and I liked the settings - nice to see some Arabian architecture for a change in Anime.

I've heard that this series makes big (and many would say unnecessary and destructive) changes to the Manga, altering events, locations, and even personalities of important characters. I can only base my assessment of the Anime on what I saw in the actual show, but I do wish that I had seen the same story as the one the highly-regarded Manga told. As it is, this show really felt underwhelming. If it wasn't for Morgiana, the rating might be even lower.

It is impossible for me to avoid comparing this show to Kimi ni Todoke. Both are Shoujo which aired close together (Kaichou wa Maid-Sama began when Kimi ni Todoke finished), and both had lacklustre endings and repetitive music. Kaichou wa Maid-Sama was superior in animation, artistry, elements of its humour, and had a much more interesting male lead. It put its characters into a variety of refreshing situations, avoided sagging in the middle (also, thankfully lacked a recap), and had (spoiler alert) The Kiss, which the other didn't have. It even had a better rival.

But it lacked the emotional punch of Kimi ni Todoke, had a less sympathetic female lead, and both Usui and Misaki never developed at all, let alone because of their mutual friendship/relationship (which by the way wasn't as realistic as Kimi ni Todoke's). The ending, although it had the pair as an official couple, completely failed to wrap up numerous plot threads. And I really mean that; I can think of at least six different loose threads. One of the most intriguing was Usui's past, and the obstacles that their relationship faces. His past was given only the slightest nod in the second ED. The Anime brought up the issue of the obstacles in the penultimate episode, but if you want to find out what they are you'll have to read the Manga spoilers.

- The setup was great; not just novel, but actually intelligent and with incredible potential.

- Maoyu herself was a fascinating character.

- The themes were good, like what it means to be human.

- The areas focused on - like religion and war and capitalism and agriculture - were interesting.

- Liked how the characters were doing cool stuff in clever ways.

- The very pretty art style and period-appropriate music were enjoyable.

But though the show had so much going for it, so much potential and such good ingredients, it almost descended into a trainwreck.

- The timeskips were like WTF. Yes, a plan like Maoyu's takes years to come to fruition, but felt the timeskips were missing out too many important details. And the characters were not evolving, despite such large passages of time passing.

- Too many characters. For a short series there were far too many characters demanding screentime.

- What happened to Maoyu in the latter episodes was really stupid.

- All the main characters had pasts that were barely alluded to, except of course the two young maids. In the case of Hero it wasn't too important, although I would have liked to see more of his upbringing so that we could understand his idealistic naive nature better. Maoyu was a gross offender; here was this girl who perceived the world in completely different ways than everyone around her, and yet all we see of her younger self is one short scene? I wanted so badly to know how she came to the conclusions she did and what spurred her to come up with her plan. And of course there's her friendship with Knight, which just kind of happens out of thin air.

- Mage - a complex character - was incompetently handled, as was Hero's search for her.

- Maoyu and Hero lacked chemistry. Well, okay, they had some, but not enough. They make a cute couple but not a convincing one. What really irks me the most is that they claim they are so in love with one another despite so little screentime together, i.e. such a scant foundation for their love.

- Too many loose plot threads, including some cliffhanger bombshells. This story was obviously unfinished yet it didn't even wrap up the season tidily. I am annoyed it only got one cour, this should have been a twenty-four episode show.

- The story - and the storytelling - were all over the place. I hate to say it, because this is going to sound petty, but I can really tell that the story was written by a group of people. If I didn't already know it was from 2ch, if you told me now then I wouldn't be surprised. Too many ideas, too many characters (the one-eyed villain attacking the town was unnecessary), no consistency and overarching plan over what got covered and when. Reminds me of Toru Nanamine; if you've watched or read Bakuman you'll know what I'm referring to.

- I was disappointed that Maoyu tried to solve many problems by just porting over technology from the Demon World. Seemed like a cheating way to fix things rather than do it herself.

- Silly love rivalry. Didn't like it at all, it felt out-of-place, and it ate up valuable screentime.

First of all, the battles. Virtually the entire second half of the two hour-long movie was fighting, and it wore me out real fast. With half an hour to go I was tired, and the action only stepped up from there. It also stopped any sort of meaningful character moments. Action for action's sakes is nice in small doses, I will say. But as Mr. Plinkett pointed out in his reviews of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, without invoking an emotional response from the audience large action scenes are just empty and exhausting eye candy. That said, Setsuna really was quite useless in the battles here. I can sort of see why - it is a bad look in an anti-war movie to glorify machines of destruction. Oh, and the 00 Quan(t) was supposed to end war, so it's even more important not to glorify it. However, this movie is unashamedly about the fighting and selling new model kits, so there's a dichotomy that the franchise has grappled with since the time of its inception. Also, as a matter of principle, having the most powerful Gundam only entering the battlefield in the final fifteen minutes of the movie is a bit cheap. We waited all that time, and it hardly did anything.

There were too many characters, many of whom were brought back for no real reason other than to appease fans of the series. Even the more important characters had little time to do anything much. Marina was as useless as ever. Tieria didn't do much except for a brief piloting stint and wearing a suit so skintight around the butt that Ned Flanders would have been proud. The whole Feldt pining over Setsuna thing was not only extremely boring but it did no favours to her character; she literally did nothing else the entire movie. And what happened to her thing with Lockon? Kathy was supposed to be a tactical genius but she played no part in setting up the battle plan. Her only role was ordering the firing of the massive supercannon that has been around for as long as Veda but which we never even heard of until now. Louise and Saji were as useless as ever. Setsuna went to Earth for the sole reason of saving their sorry arses; why would he bother? Speaking of Setsuna, he was about as interesting as Rei Ayanami - i.e. not at all - but at least he didn't spout meaningless pop-psychology at us.

The story was ridiculous, just like it was in Season 2. People will not stop fighting just because they understand one another. Ever heard of psychopaths? Sociopaths? No? People will hurt one another even if they know what they are doing is wrong or they understand how their victim feels. It happens a lot in domestic violence situations, a cycle of violence that is very unfortunate but isn't going to be solved overnight. Magical pixie dust is not going to address the underlying problems, and the underlying human behaviour, that cause violence in the first place. It certainly will not help the aliens find a new home, although they seems quite content to abandon their search and just form a giant yellow flower. Speaking about their new home, they seem plenty capable to me of just making a new one from scratch, given their massive level of technology. Lastly, and it has to be said, the ending sucks. Setsuna ex machina? I was savvy enough to stick around after the credits, and it did try to tie up loose ends. However it begs two questions. If a quarter of Earth's sentient population are now innovators, A: how was the inevitable conflict between humans and innovators resolved or managed, and B: how did a quarter of people become innovators in the first place? What is driving the innovation? Maybe I missed the memo, but I really don't know.

"I sure do! Stupidest shit ever. What kind of real robot machine is powered by the souls of your fallen comrades anyway? Tomino should hang his head in shame for that."

"Yeah, well, he isn't the only one. There's this recent seven-part OVA series called Gundam Unicorn, based on a light novel series written by some dude named Harutoshi Fukui."

"I see. I take it that it isn't very good?"

"Well, in order to make it bigger and better than everything else, its gundams literally transform."

"Um, so? A lot of mobile suits can transform, especially in the UC universe."

"Huh? Oh, I don't mean transform into mobile armours, heck no. I mean these ones can actually transform into super saiyans, just minus the saiyan part. Emotional activation, glowing auras, telekinesis, invulnerability, super beams, powered by the spirit of your friends . . . think of the end of CCA but like that all of the time instead of just one scene."

"Wow. That does sound bad! I'll stay away from it."

"Plus the main gundam has a second and more powerful transformation, just like super saiyan 2."

It is claimed that it has "realism", but when I look at the badly conceived characters, the implausible plots, and the numerous incidences where the show made fun of physics and geography, I struggle to see where this "realism" is located.

Moshidora is a very rare breed; a one cour Sports Anime. Usually they go on for two cour at the very least, and some shows have over a hundred episodes. Lots of episodes means slow pacing and plots that are repetitive as they are cliche. But, it allows the characters time to be fleshed out and mature, with clearly defined - if labouriously executed - arcs. The matches can be exciting and filled with tension as even the opposing teams are given the spotlight, turning them from nameless opponents into credible rivals. And of course, the more we see the characters strive for their goals, the bigger the payoff is at the end when they taste victory.

This series does it the other way around. Each one of its ten episodes is filled with meaningful developments, and there's always a sense of progress, but it tries to cram in too much into so little. Three seasons - the nine months from Autumn to Summer - go past over the course of the first six or seven episodes, and we hardly get to see anything. Very little training is actually shown, and with so little time events just happen on screen that should have been given a better buildup. Character conflicts are especially hard hit, as they just magically fix themselves with but a few words, whereas in other shows there would have been a whole episode exploring it in detail. I fear that in adopting such a quick pace, we were only shown the highlights and not the full picture, and the story, characters and drama all felt incomplete.

All that said, the characters were quite serviceable and the story was surprising well told despite the small episode count. The drama was a bit forced in episode nine but overall it was good, and the final episode was particularly stirring. The ending was spoiled each and every episode by the thirty-second narration that appeared before the OP, but it didn't detract one bit from the show's gripping climax. But most importantly, and most impressively, was the show's refreshing focus. Instead of wanting simply to "be the best", these characters actually approach sport from an intelligent and analytical perspective, with emphasis on innovation, identifying problem areas and improving outcomes (often in unusual but effective ways). And the coach's strategy was a bold and innovative move, not just on his part but also on the part of Natsumi Iwasaki (who wrote the original story). Whether or not it would work in real life is not all that important; what's important is that a story, which combined Sports with the somewhat Otaku-centric idea of a girl managing a boys' baseball team, actually had a brain. Wow.

This entire season dragged on with little direction or purpose, despite being focused on Hasegawa. She served as the weak-willed damsel in distress (what happened to the sharp-tongued top-dog from the first season?), and so much unfairly hinged on her arc. Unfortunately it was poorly-written and the France saga fizzled out, not that it had ever really had much impact in the first place. Earlier pre-France episodes were not hat great either. For instance, the mystery that Sawaki investigated with Oikawa was pure inconsequential filler which didn't go anywhere.

I was a bit confused at why the microbes were toned down from the first season. They mattered little to the overall plot and only seemed to be there to provide infodumps. But if they were to have a lesser role then the show should have expanded the characters more. However, as I mentioned above the focus was on Hasegawa, so much so that half the cast got left in Japan. Even the brand-new Yuuki doppelgänger Marie got more development in her four episodes of screentime than most of the characters in the Itsuki Seminar.

The characters are like real people who live real lives, who hold real dreams and who make real mistakes. This is not a show for those viewers who want to see silly Anime hi-jinks, fanservice of the panty-shot or breast-in-face types, or who want action action action. It is a character study, and a bloody good one. Don't be put off by the Shoujo either; you will notice it but you simply won't care, it is so good. And the music; oh God is it good. Instant classic stuff. I could have done without the woman trying to hawk stuff at the end of each episode, but she can be skipped easily enough.

So why didn't I give it a Masterpiece? Two reasons. The first is perhaps unfair on my part, but it didn't finish. Well, it sort of did, kind of, but it is open to a sequel, and by that I mean it had better get a sequel cause I want more. That's more like a gripe though. The real reason that I didn't give this a Masterpiece is because of a relationship that wasn't properly conceived. Er, pun unintentional. Now, this would be nothing, if the entire second half of the show's plot (and 90% of its drama) didn't derive a huge part of their power from the believability of this one relationship. Because it wasn't set up properly - the two just suddenly decided they were in love, with no previous scenes to suggest that they felt anything more than a platonic affection for one another - everything that it influenced was cheapened. Not by all that much, because it was very well done, but the second-half always had that unrealistic pedigree hanging over it. If there was one relationship that the show needed to get right it was that one, which is a shame because it pretty much nailed all the rest. Er, pun once again unintentional.

As for the rest of the show, it was bizarre and wacky, but in bad ways. I didn't enjoy the humour very much. The characters were not quite right; Niea herself was too Out There, and the poor-college-student-can-barely-eat routine is kind of cliche. There was no real plot to speak of. This show did have potential, and what world-building that went on hinted at an interesting situation.

One of the problems this show had was the superpowers. First of all, they were generic. Secondly, by and large their limits and nuances were ill-defined, and no explanation was given as to how the cast came about them. Although care was taken not to overuse them, they still seemed too "broken". However, the powers also highlighted many situations where the team faced a problem that could have been easily resolved if someone had only bothered to remember that yes, they had a useful ability. And no, I'm not lambasting Kagura's stance here, but giving a more general critique of the writing.

The show was boring in the first half. I have the feeling that the writers didn't know quite what they wanted to do with the show. The characters were "cookie-cutters" in terms of personality, and pretty bland too. The story was very episodic, and there wasn't a sense of Cool Secret Agents that could keep a person hooked. The show wasn't bad, but one got the impression that huge amounts of potential was being wasted.

Now for the good bits. There were a few good twists, and characters actually started doubting themselves and their allegiances, resulting in some surprisingly good bouts of drama. The villain was better than most (and wasn't a total prick or lunatic either), and the plot picked up and got intriguing. Not only was there an excellent shell game concerning the issue of colonial independence, but the show offered a thought-provoking "what if" situation. What if certain parts of the Japanese military knew about the ending of World War 2? What would they do then to counter that future? That's a very interesting question, and the answer the show gave was a logical one. Also, the time period and setting began to show through more, with talks of revolution and the Chinese chafing at the overbearing Japanese rule. The ending wasn't too bad either; it did offer a sense of closure while still acknowledging that the characters' lives and the problems of the time did not stop there.

Finally, the production visuals. The music wasn't a standout but it was pretty good, and the animation was fluid enough. The character designs were very pleasing to the eye (I don't mean in a fan-service type way), and the characters themselves stayed on-model. The voice work was good (although perhaps a tad bland in the first half), except when characters tried to speak in a language other than Japanese. The staff should get props for trying to include English and Chinese, but like in Giant Killing, having Japanese Seiyuu speak languages they aren't fluent at just doesn't work. As for the backgrounds, they could be a little spartan at times, but were otherwise serviceable.

Which strikes me as being weird, because it isn't a spectacular movie. I'm guessing that to those people, this movie opened their eyes to how Anime can produce adults-only content rife with sex, violence, and everyone's favourite, sexual violence. How fans must have felt liberated, which is nice and all, but it does seem to have caused an undeserved amount of nostalgia. Gateway Anime can be quite mundane and mediocre, or even worse. It doesn't have to be great, only new. See, just because "mature" content is gratuitously shown does not mean the production itself will automatically possess quality in other areas.

This is a pretty generic movie as far as I am concerned. The plot is just an excuse for fights, the villain is uninteresting (bad for the sake of being bad), and the rest of the characters aren't all that great either. I never really cared for them, because no effort was made to make me care. The action - often the fall-to area in productions that are struggling - didn't really excite me, which is almost terminal. I didn't fall asleep during the movie, however I simply cannot remember large amounts of it. It was that unexciting.

This isn't a bad movie, and I do not hate it. But man, every time I hear or see some idiot run their mouth off about how "great" it is, well I get irritated. Not annoyed exactly, just irritated. I don't go around saying that Pokemon or Gundam Wing are great, even though they're two of the five key shows that made me an Anime fan.

It almost never gets better than mediocre, and frequently gets worse. Two episodes of recap - including the freaking finale - is bad enough, but the characters are mostly boring, and the villains are a joke. The battle scenes are not worth boasting about; they're rather dire in fact. The pacing is often akin to that found in a long-running Shounen show, even though there were only twenty-six episodes to work with. General writing sucks.

So why was it watchable? You can thank Yuki-Onna for most of that. It was a travesty that such an adorable character was put into a show of this middling level. She alone boosted the grade up a level. And more generally, the actual show was simply better than the sum of its parts, in a phenomenon called gestalt. However, the parts were so weak that being better than them is hardly a cause for celebration.

Let's first talk about what was good. The character designs for the females cast - especially Maya and Mikaze - were amazing. Maya's clothing may be impractical but she herself is extremely well done, very girlish and sexy at the same time. As a guy I appreciate these sorts of things. The range of expressions on Maya's face is notable too for being amongst the best I've ever seen in Anime. When she is surprised she actually LOOKS surprised in the way that a real person would. Same goes for boredom, exasperation, horror, and furiously thinking. Watching her face was always a treat. And then there's the OP, which is really quite good. Lots of vivid imagery (including a lot from the Occult) combined with very vibrant colour palates makes for a viewing treat. Okay, that's the good stuff done. So what else is there to discuss? Oh yeah, the bad things. Specifically everything else. You know, unimportant things like the plot, the characters, the pacing, tone, random stuff like that.

Maya, for all of her visual appeal, was not a very likeable character. She was too much Tsun and not enough Dere. or not enough "normal", should I say. Her physical violence towards Fumiaki was overbearing and made her seem like a bitch. Hey, I was spot on with my assessment of her. Cool. Also, her continued insistence during the first half of the show that the occult was not real (despite her knowing more about it than virtually anyone else) was not endearing, and just made her seem contrary. Fumiaki was a loser, at least until the end. He had a character arc, and was a better and more confident person at the finale, but that does little to excuse the earlier eleven earlier episodes (he didn't appear in episode one except for but a brief moment). His life was crappy up till then, true, but he was annoying as hell and couldn't even stand up for himself. A genuinely troubled teenager like Shinji Ikari I can forgive, but not a guy in his twenties who was a bumbling idiot most of the time. The question of how he managed to get the gig of saving the world is utterly baffling, such was his incompetence. Course, that's more a problem with the story, but it reflects badly on his character. As for the other characters were either little-used (Smile and JK), overused (Maya's friends), or, in the case of Mikaze, completely ruined.

The story, pacing and tone all sucked. For a show called Occult Academy, set in an academy nicknamed Occult Academy, I could have done with more of the occult. You know, cause it's in the goddamn NAME. Instead we got the most horrible mashup between War of the World-style tripod aliens, the occult, demons, and in the end, witches wearing either stripperiffic costume or a Bo-Peep-inspired outfit. The show couldn't decide on one of these things, or even two, so it threw everything in the pot and turned the oven onto Fail. Why did it include Science-Fiction elements in a show about the occult, and then throw in Magical Girl transformation sequences? Why? The show also could not decide on the tone it wanted, and that was an even bigger problem. Many Anime out there start off light and fluffy and then get darker as time goes on, which is fine. This one oscillated between goofy antics and slapstick scenes, and a dark storyline about preventing the apocalypse. The imminent apocalypse no less, and yet time is spent on annoying filler in a series only 1-cour long.

Which nicely segues into the issue of the pacing. It was gosh-darn awful. And I'm not just talking about the filler. In episode eleven two massive (and related) plot twists get revealed (they're also incredibly daft, however that's not the point I'm making here), but there was no foreshadowing. No build up. They just happened. Sometimes with good writing you can pull it off, but this show didn't have good writing from the start. If the pacing had been better there could have been some effort made to prepare the audience, so that it doesn't look like it just got pulled out of the writers' collective arses, but the pacing wasn't good at all. All that filler did help - marginally - with establishing and developing the characters, but it forced the real plot developments into the last three episodes.

In the end I decided on what this show was most of the time, and that was a plain and uneventful Decent. It had some nice ideas, although the setting and themes were largely ripped off from Higurashi, as was part of the plot. It also had music that get in the way but which didn't do too much either, and character designs that were as serviceable as they were generic. The characters generally were sympathetic, and none annoyed me, although they rarely acted intelligently and realistically. We learnt very little about them, and only Nemuru got any sort of development and growth. The motifs too tended to hit as much as they missed.

See what I was doing there? I have to qualify EVERYTHING. That is this series in a nutshell. So why did I give it a grade of Decent rather than something lower? Well, three reasons, although the first two are somewhat connected.

The first is that the show had a pretty good plot, which was interesting and not quite what I thought it was. It was also complete, although (another qualification) additional background information would have been VERY handy. So, I at least liked it, mostly.

The second was that the series knew how to pace itself. Relatively-speaking, a lot of information was given to us, but it never felt like too much. The show drip-fed us information, yet the drops were certainly interesting, and helped keep me watching. That said, I ONCE AGAIN have to qualify it by saying that the last episode was bizarre, an omake episode in the regular season.

The third, and the show's best point, was the "villain". He had a good reason to do what he did, he was smart, he was dedicated, and he had an excellent plan. If he hadn't been so cocky he would have "won" (he couldn't really have won anyway, but we're getting into spoilers). Yet his defeat was a good one, full of pain and pathos.

And yet, though in a lesser series those faults would be damaging, in this one they are really inconsequential nitpicks. One Outs is the most entertaining Sports show I've ever watched bar none, and also the most cerebral Sports show I've ever watched bar none. It completely ignores the standard formula of such shows which espouses the philosophy of believing in yourself and in your team-mates, and winning through perseverance, hard work and natural talent. No, this series doesn't do any of that. In fact, it flips such thinking the bird and shows just how meaningless such a philosophy ultimately is. What wins games is not touchy-feely team spirit backed by years of training, but outsmarting opponent to exploit their weaknesses and turn their much-vaunted strengths into liabilities. One episode (episode spoiler[eight]) has the scenario where it is explicitly stated as fact that the team who breaks the most rules will win (and that of course applies to the 'good guys' as well); this is not your typical inspirational baseball show.

Scientific-sounding terminology is thrown around at the drop of a hat without thought to making it sound plausible; how the heck is a "Quantum Transition Field" supposed to allow vessels to liquefy sand till it becomes like water? That's not remotely close to what the word "quantum" would imply. The protagonists' vessel is only around twenty (maybe twenty-five) metres long yet is shown to be quite sizeable on the inside, moreso than a modern ballistic submarine which is seven cubed (343) times larger. The Monokeros weapon does not act as initially described, and it is very far-fetched how a guy and his brother could build out of junk something that could defeat something as large and as long-lived (not to mention as technologically advanced) as an Ozma. Then there's the mind-implanting technique which was never explained. I thought it would be a simple brain transplant but oh no, it was just like copying a file apparently. I had a gut feeling that Dick's (yes, his name is Dick) personality would resurface, and so it did. Gack. Finally, what is the relationship between the Ozma and Maya? Were there more than one Ozma? Did the people who created the Ideal Children also build the Ozma and the Zones? None of this was ever explained, or even hinted at, even though they are big and important questions.

Characters are also badly written. Whatever time Sam isn't being loud-mouthed, impulsive and useless, he is gaping into space with a confused and/or surprised expression on his face. He certainly doesn't come across as any sort of hero or everyday guy, just a little punk out of his depth whom I want to punch every time he opens his face-hole. Maya spends the majority of the show as an almost-emotionless waif, an object that drives the plot rather than a character in her own right. Then she's this mysterious goddess who can communicate with the Ozma with no explanation why. Mimei is the typical b*tchy love-interest. The female captain is made out to be this cool and tough chick only for her to become a mess once she finds out the face behind Gido's mask (as if his hair didn't make it completely obvious). Seriously, she just mopes for the last quarter of the show. We also never find out anything about the Natura, which I thought was important. Never even saw a Natura town or community, just a bunch of louts on the ship.

It isn't nearly as funny as Seitokai Yakuindomo, another recent comedy which used sex jokes, despite being way more out there in terms of pushing the envelope. A lot of the content just came across as gratuitous, especially the cursing; it's amazing that I think the humour hit (slightly) more often than it missed. The funniest scene was a suicide-bomber sexbot; freaking hilarious in context. The story - as in, an overarching plot - only showed up in the last two episodes, and even then it didn't really make sense and wasn't all that interesting. We did however get a hint of something far more substantial; the final episode had one hell of a cliffhanger, a shocking one which probably exceeds the infamous one found at the end of Code Geass' first season. But with no lead-up to it - it just happens - fans were understandably outraged. The art style was quite unusual, and got even weirder in certain episodes (like the B part of episode five). The less one dwells on the various puerile types of ghosts and magical powers the better. Ugh. As for the action, the battle in episode six probably has one of the all-time best Anime fight scenes. It was, quite simply, epic (I liked the Equilibrium homage), and superbly animated. Best ten minutes of the entire show, period. Ten of the best minutes you'll see in Anime, period. Completely over the top, but it worked.

Now for the bad. I noticed the comments that said it was inevitable that Smile would give up so Peco could continue his career, but that was a red herring. The real lead was Smile's late comment that a hero has no weakness. I don't agree with that, and think it cheapened the ending. It's a little rich to have Peco be able to continue on with ping pong and be unaffected by his injury, especially after all the hype around it. See, like the hero he believes himself to be, Peco thinks nothing of sacrificing his knee to get Smile to smile again. Yet long-term he suffers no ill effects from it. He even goes on to becoming Japan's leading ace. I would have preferred there to be more pathos and consequences, like if Peco sacrificed his career for the sake of his friendship. What we got was having your cake and eating it too. I realise this show wasn't intended as a tragedy, but nevertheless it feels quite hollow, and very, very safe.

But as part of my compliment sandwich, now for some more praise. This show is known for being an unusual take on sports anime, but while that's kinda true it actually has little to do with the visuals (which is what everyone focuses on). Instead, the story is about how sport can change people. It can take hold of us and rule our lives, bearing down with incredible pressure and expectation and trapping its victims in a vicious cycle of pain and wasted effort. But sport can also free people, offering fun and fulfilment, allowing athletes to find themselves and also express themselves in ways most people cannot. Sport can damn you, but it can also save you. It's all up to what you are seeking to get out of it, and what you let it take from you.

However, the show's true genius was that most of the episodes and most of the jokes would have worked even if all the characters were human. In other words, the show did not need to rely on animal humour to spice things up, but was genuinely funny in its own right. The fact that the characters were animals was in many ways just a bonus. That doesn't mean the animal-specific humour was unnecessary, not at all. Often it was the highlight of an episode, or comprised a big part of some of the jokes. All I'm saying is that if you are afraid the humour is too childish or inaccessible then you have nothing to worry about.

Logic? What's that? The series is all over the place. There's too little world-building for starters. The story can't figure out what it wants to do, throws in as many different ideas as it feels like with no regard for making them mesh together properly (or at all), and actively undermines its own power levelling system and battle contract system. I've seen more sensible battle strategies in the Duellist Kingdom arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Problem Children should have been two cours long at least, not ten episodes, and really, really suffered as a result. Of course it was silly anyway, but some more time would have helped, at least to paper over some of the more glaring plot holes.

The characters are its strong point, but even they are not used too well. Izayoi steals the show as the cool over-powered anti-hero, but he has it too easy and the tension is low as a result. Jin is at the start of his character arc and will one day be a good leader . . . but right now he's overshadowed by the other characters. Asuka is more interesting with her struggle over her powers, but it tries to make her into an action girl when she isn't suited for it. Kasukabe on the other hand is a great action girl . . . when the show allows her to be. She's pretty much sidelined for the final battle for no discernible reason. Black Rabbit's personality is inconsistent, and at any rate she's mostly used as fanservice. Then there are the Lolis, each one is more powerful than the last. I am still wondering what Leticia, a supposedly super-powerful vampire, actually DID in the show's second half.

The initially bland characters are developed, the plot turns out to be quite fascinating and well-constructed once the one-shot arcs are out of the way (last one is episode six), there is actual detective work in this and it is quite good, the backstory is actually quite engrossing and holds some great twists, and the villain is deliciously evil. Whoa, I mean, DAMN. It got to be a very enjoyable ride. Final episode was really good, and I got a really nice and uplifting feeling from it, so much so that in a moment of madness I almost gave this show an Excellent grade. It isn't good enough to deserve that, mostly because the first half is pretty boring and not all that well written, but it is a solid show nevertheless. My biggest gripe - besides it taking so long to really find its feet - is that Nao was supposed to be deaf and yet on numerous occasions responded to people talking to her when she wasn't looking at them.

Yeah, that sums up this show better than a mere mortal like myself could ever hope to accomplish. I would still rank RahXephon higher, but there's not much in it.

But even stranger is the tone. Clearly a children's movie, it is also jarringly dark and serious. I mean, just look at some of the themes. Chronic and endemic bullying, the cycle of being hurt and then hurting others, parental neglect, child abuse, depression, suicide, death. Holy moly. However, the tone is ultimately very uplifting, very positive. Each negative trait is addressed, and not so much fixed as healed.

There were several key messages. The first was that people can be incredibly cruel yet also have the capability to be incredibly kind as well. Secondly, that people can change themselves if they're willing to and are given support; quite a number of characters undergo strong redemptions. Thirdly, that happiness is not found in getting good grades or meeting expectations set by society and family, but rather through a person's own self-worth and in their friends. Given that this is a Japanese movie, and one that didn't have superpowers and Shounen trappings, I was astonished by this stance.

I must make a note of the realistic way that the physically and/or mentally disabled children were portrayed. They weren't just suffering from a vague 'sickness' or 'illness'; all of them had afflictions that were almost certainly based on real-life syndromes and conditions. The movie did not take pity on these children, but nor did it gloss over the reality of their situation. It also didn't treat mental illness as somehow cute or Moe. No, this was a very respectful portrayal.

There was a decent story to be told here, but the writing effed it up big time. Most of the season was mired in crap or inconsequentialities, and nothing made sense because no effort was put in by the scriptwriter to do so. I'm left with no answers, only questions. Why is all of this happening? Why do the elections and rankings matter? What's the academy actually for? How exactly is Izumiko special? How does the U.N. fit into this? Why is the ruling magical system of power of the world situated in Japan? Where did the prophecy come from? Who made it?

Maybe if the characters had been a bit stronger then the show might have overcome the plot deficiencies. As it was every character was mishandled. We got an annoying lead female so limp and ineffectual she was unable to carry her own show (as an aside, I like Saori Hayami more when she actually uses a more natural voice, not the strained and affected voice she uses here); a lead male who made scowling and chiding into art forms but who never realised his potential, though he was kind of cool at times; a set of triplets who were creepily in love with one another, made even more bizarre by the fact one of them is dead; a villain whose plan was nothing more than simple world domination with no further goal or motivation; and a whole host of useless supporting characters.

I don't know how closely the Anime followed the novels. But the way I see it, there are two main possibilities. The first is that the Anime adapted the novels faithfully, in which case the source material is at fault. If true, the Anime staff should have made changes to improve on the novels. Adaptations are allowed to do that, you know; they don't have to be word-for word, idea-for-idea carbon-copies of the source material. Or secondly, the Anime tried to cram too much source material into this one-cour season. If that was the case then they should have been a lot more intelligent about what to adapt and what to leave out. Whatever happened it is clear that the Anime staff failed in their duty, because once you decide to adapt something you have a responsibility to make it work. If you can't adapt it properly then don't even try. Of course, if P.A. Works has no creative pride and then I can see why they wouldn't care if they produced flawed shows.

Anyway, chalk this series down as yet another example of why in a artistic work the script matters more than the direction. Yeah, I know, I just said that the direction was lacklustre, but the show's real problem was that it's poorly-written. What we got was a nonsensical plot-hole-ridden devil-may-care mess. I'm hesitant to lay all the blame on Katsuhiko Takayama - the screenwriter - as he may have been dealing with crappy source material. He's done some good work in the past, and I've liked many of the shows he worked on. But ultimately it's his responsibility to turn out a good script no matter what the quality of the source material and he clearly didn't in this instance. What happened to the kind of effort he put into Ga-Rei-Zero, where he actually made valuable improvements on the weak source material? Maybe along with Shinbou he was phoning his work on Sasami-san as well.

I realise that I haven't talked about the actual show itself. But what's there to say? It is asinine in its fetishistic fanservice of Sasami and how the brother acts towards her; he has to be one of the most annoying characters ever. The plot makes little sense unless you are very familiar with some of the finer aspects of Japanese mythology (I had to take a crash course in it myself), and even then is just plain weird and often baffling. Minor characters are sloppily handled, and it was even hard to care about many of the major ones. There were some nuggets in here worth watching - the arc with the mother was pretty good for example, as was Sasami's growth - but most of the time the show was written and executed so very poorly.

Many parody shows focus on stringing together scenes from individual works, whereas this one has in its sights the entire high-school Comedy-Romance genre, Ecchi or not. From the lyrics and visuals of the catchy ED to the hilarious "stamped" messages that come up, the more you know about Anime and its various cliches the funnier it is. It loves to break the fourth wall and poke fun at not only other shows but itself as well. And then it has a few passes at the actual Anime industry, like when it claimed that a certain censored scene would not be uncensored for the DVD release.

Watching Seitokai Yakuindomo was so refreshing. As has been said many times before by other people, the style is very reminiscent of the 4-koma comic strips in Japan. A short and usually innocuous setup, a crazy and/or dirty twist, and the reaction from the "straight man" (which in this case was usually Tsuda). With such short jokes, any that didn't work - and they were rare - were quickly removed from the screen and replaced with something else. That said, the show still managed to have plots (of sorts). It didn't feel vapid or unsubstantial just because of the setup; indeed, having so many varied and interesting scenes did provide the audience with a great insight into the mind of each of the characters. There wasn't any development per se, but this is a pure comedy show after all. Any time the show looked like it was getting too serious the scene was immediately stamped on, usually by gently laughing at a particular cliche or trope (a heartfelt confession, walking under the same umbrella, you name it). I also loved how although there were hints of romance in the latter stages, it deliberately never went anywhere. It is difficult to poke fun at cliches if you are using them in a serious way.

One thing that cannot go unmentioned was how risqué and just plain dirty this show was. Masturbation jokes (both male and female) were a dime a dozen, and there were frequent mentions of S&M and oral sex. But hey, as long as you are in your mid-teens or older, there is nothing here that should genuinely offend. I was a little shocked at the "maturity" of the material that made it to air, but I didn't mind it. And the dirty jokes were often so funny (or at least outrageous) I couldn't help but laugh anyway.

This was tagged on as a bonus feature to the disk of Voices of a Distant Star. That was the only reason I watched it. I did appreciate the relative originality of basing it on the cat's perspective rather than his female human owner. And I do fully understand that it was made by just one man on his home PC (except the music, if I remember correctly).

We were treated to episode after episode of horrible events happening, the vampires got their just desserts - well, mostly - but there was no point to this. The series ran for twenty-two episodes and although it could have done with another two or four to give it a "proper" ending, it was already long since the point of being broken. However, with no ending at all there was absolutely no payoff, and nothing was resolved. The journey itself was not a reason to watch, given how badly-written, horrible and gloomy it was.

Starting from episode eighteen onwards it got very satisfying, but about the same time the show also deigned to have the most moral character make the most immoral decision. Morality was brought up occasionally - is it alright for people to kill others just so they can survive? - but in the very context of this show the answer was clear; No IT IS NOT. Taking an innocent human life by force just to live another month - yes, that's all people, one life every few weeks - is NEVER justifiable. This is obvious to me and I am a huge Light Yagami supporter. The show tried to justify it by having the Shiki suffer from uncontrollable hunger, but that ignores what happened with Ritsuko, and that for 99% of the time that the Shiki are lucid and completely in control of themselves. They could have suicided any time they wanted when they weren't feeding. That there was supposed to be some big debate about the morality present in the show is ludicrous. Sunako and her followers are dead wrong, and no, that's not a joke, so don't laugh.

I also thought the whole "God has forsaken me" part to be extremely irritating. Although little Sunako pretends she is so smart for spewing pretty quotes she doesn't understand and which are clearly not correct, she cannot see that there is no God. Trying to turn to an imaginary person to ease your own guilty conscience is extremely childish; how old was she supposed to be again (I don't mean physically)? While I'm here I might as mention the other characters. The cast was far too big, leading many characters to only have one distinctive personality trait. There was no real main character, although Natsuno looked like he might be one (he never was) and Toshio came as close as any. There was also a dearth of sympathetic characters, since many of those who were victims then went on to hurt others, despite knowing what they were doing was wrong and able to commit suicide any time they chose. I felt eminently sorry for poor Kaori, although the ending really didn't address how she and Akira made it to hospital or why Akira hadn't been killed yet.

Also, this a modern vampire story, with a bit of effort put in to achieve some semblance of scientific and medical accuracy, and yet it incorporates many unscientific myths surrounding vampires. These include that they hate loud metallic noises, that they cannot stand wooden crosses or folklore charms, that they can use hypnosis, that they are best killed with a huge wooden stake to the heart rather than a spear or other instrument, that they have fast-to-the-point-of-being-magical healing powers, and that they are cold blooded despite the human body being adapted for warm blood operation. The especially worst one was that they cannot enter a house or other dwelling unless given permission (no matter how oblique the permission was); what the heck is that nonsense doing in a supposedly realistic show? The other problem was with the "modern" part. The show is obviously set after World War Two, and yet no-one in this rural community has guns (until the very end), no-one has a UV lamp or torch, and the governmental system is outdated to the point of being feudal. Where is the media? Where are the infectious disease control plans? This is not the middle ages, so why did the villagers feel the need to tackle this all by themselves? Hmm? On the flip side, this is a village with a scant 1300 residents in the middle of effing nowhere and it has its own mini-hospital complete with five nurses. It is odd in itself but even if the village was well equipped there was no reason not to call in outside help. And given the clinic, you would think more of the villagers would suspect an epidemic, or treat it seriously.

The show is set 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics. It is truly remarkable how much Japan had changed and improved in the scant nineteen years since the devastating war, and the Tokyo games proved that Japan had once again entered the world stage. The show strived to accurately capture the era, and it definitely succeeded. Showcased were period songs, dresses and other clothing, architecture and historical landmarks, the political turmoil and clashing social mores between young and old, Japan's new wealth and prosperity, and the shadow of the war which still loomed over the older characters. There was even a segment at the end of each episode which covered landmarks, shops and streets in the show and showing how they look today.

Even if the nostalgia doesn't do anything for you (and let's face it, it won't unless you are a Japanese senior citizen or Japanophile), it is still a good watch. The episodes were generally Slice-of-Life stories with simple messages, though of course the Olympics was always looming, with bunting and the like serving as visual reminders. Characters were well-realised and most made good use of their time in the limelight. However, Kohei - the young boy of the family - got the most screentime, which was unfortunate since his voice actor (fifteen years old at the time and a complete newcomer) was simply atrocious. To enjoy the show you'll have to learn to tolerate - more like survive - his absolutely painful delivery. But it can be done and is worth it.

But all that said, what really bumped the grade up from a Good to a Very Good was the enthusiasm. You could tell the staff and Seiyuu really enjoyed working on this Anime, and the script treated astronomy as almost its own character rather than just something to set the plot in motion, as a lesser series would have done. There was real respect and love for the stars and constellations on show, and that's what sold me. Fanservice was light, apart from episodes five and twelve there was only some pretty funny innuendo. On the show's one real downside, I wish there had been more of a resolution to the romance side of things (although it was implied one couple did hook up), but it was never a big deal, and I do not consider it important enough to drag the grade down.

Some of his biggest atrocities were barely even touched on, as were his biggest social and economic reforms. Apart from maybe one notable clusterfuck, he was like a Mary Sue. He wrote amazing poetry and seduced numerous women. He was a master huntsman, a strong tactician, a genius strategist, a born leader and a persuasive orator. He was also a swordsman capable enough of at least holding his own against the best, men who could and did kill dozens with a single swing. Where were his flaws? Where were his doubts? Where were his mistakes?

It wasn't a well-executed story, and the characters lack any real depth to them. But the show was plenty entertaining, I'll give it that. Seeing these larger-than-life personalities with their reality-defying superpowers was good popcorn-munching fun. It was easier to follow than I thought, mostly because it simplified a lot of things. But man, what a tease it was with some of the battles. There was a real dearth in superpower versus superpower action, although I guess that kept the show from descending into straight Shounen.

This show is a goldmine for hilarious animation mistakes. But it was a television series from the early eighties, so I'll forgive it for that. I won't forgive it for having one character die because he was too stupid to go to the hospital. And perhaps the most glaring error of the entire show was when our heroes try and escape the alien starship by slowly cutting through the airlock even though there is already a massive hole in the side of the ship which THEY made and which is in the same hanger as they are. It's such a mind-boggling error I can only surmise that the guy doing the storyboards was severely stressed that week. Maybe he found out his wife was cheating on him? Who knows.

Those two points aside, I have to say the plot was really interesting. I can see why this show became so influential in Japan (many Americans will of course know it as the first part of the famous Robotech). The Real Robot combat (not a single shred of psychic powers to be found: yay) plus a fascinating alien race that is so used to war it has forgotten "culture" makes this a huge breakaway from previous shows. Heck, if it was broadcast in the 2000s it still would be fresh. The scenes where the Zentradi expressed their various opinions on culture were always funny, but at the same time reinforcing how different their way of thinking was. I liked how the Zentradi weren't stock bad guys, and indeed feared humans as much as humans feared them.

Up to and including episode twenty-seven the show was very strong. Indeed, episode twenty-seven could easily have been the last episode with only a few minor changes and a couple of extra scenes at the end to wrap things up. But the show went on for another nine episodes, and I have to say it was a mistake. Continuing the story past the normal end point was a perfectly good idea, don't get me wrong. Seeing how the characters coped in the aftermath and the new direction humanity was taking was pretty neat. But the writers did not know how to handle it properly; it felt tacked on. So a good premise for the last arc was seriously let down by bad execution. I suppose this was the real big error in the plot, not the two I mentioned in the first paragraph.

In the last arc many of the characters got markedly snarkier and stupider; the ones who got shoved out of the way were probably the lucky ones. Kaifun became even more annoying than he already was, which I didn't think was possible. Minmay - saviour of humankind - just whined a lot while complaining that she didn't feel like singing. There was very little live singing in the final arc, and it was never important to the plot, which is a shame. Misa's only role was to fawn over Hikaru and be catty, although I liked her the most out of all the main characters. And Hikaru became a two-timing prick unworthy of either woman's affections and too immature to make up his mind. I can't believe how stupid and ineffectual the military became, making stupid decisions that caused several large towns and Macross City itself to unnecessarily suffer huge civilian casualties. It's the sort of military planning that even the Transformers would shake their heads at.

Yes the movie is very pretty, and yes it has good animation (but especially for its time). And yes, I greatly appreciated that - spoiler alert - Fokker got a vastly improved death scene and that Lynn Kaifun was relegated to the sidelines instead of being the sort of tumour he unfortunately was on the show. But ultimately this movie cut too much out that made the series good. You can't have a love triangle between characters who barely know one another, a bare bones of a plot and some random battles with enemies who only make short cameos, and simply call it a day. There's no substance to the movie, and thus it feels hollow.

On a side note it was extra disappointing after fans had hyped it beyond all rhyme and reason. For fans of a certain age this movie is an institution, a highwater mark, the Holy Grail. But looked at objectively without the nostalgia, it is just an early example of a recap movie. And like most recap movies it had to cut so much out that what we get is only the highlights, a window into a better stronger story. With the movie changing the plot and simply assuming that we've seen or somehow know the backstory of how the Macross and its crew came to be in that situation, it's even more bastardised and incomplete than most recap movies are.

This is actually a fairly predictable story. But boy is the ride fun. Watching the nameless protagonist get himself into all sorts of bizarre strife all the while giving us an ultra-fast narration of his own misfortunes is great. House of Five Leaves got a lot more coverage, but The Tatami Galaxy is by far a more enjoyable, watchable, and interesting show. Especially the way the different plot threads come together so well.

The majority of the stories were episodic in nature, with predictable plotlines and stereotypical characters, but they were like munching through a bag of potato chips. Each one is pleasant, but not in the least bit filling, so you keep on eating more and more and then they're all gone. Most episodes of Letter Bee were like that, lightweight comfort food at its most addictive. It helped that the episodes were shorter than the standard Anime length; I don't think any of them topped out at twenty-one minutes or more.

I've got to put in a word for the characters; Niche is just thoroughly awesome, Lag is a naive crybaby who surprisingly never got on my nerves too much, and I thought Steak managed to be quite brave (living with a name that constantly reminded him of his ultimate fate in life). The other characters were not all that well-developed other than Gauche (kind and composed) and Zazie (tough-guy with a soft interior).

Letter Bee is a rather unusual in that not only is it a Fantasy work (fairly uncommon these days), but often, it seems more intent on delivering a moral than showing us a big fight scene (even though there are plenty of them). It hardly ever falls into the trap of turning its moralising into preaching, which is nice. For a series about heart, it should not be surprising that it contains a warm heart of its own.

Too bad the almost complete lack of a plot and the flat characters drag it down, but the second season largely fixes those. And since the sequel is more a direct continuation, you can think of the two seasons as one fifty-episode production. Therefore, it doesn't matter if there are apparent deficiencies in this first season because it is only setting things up for the second half.

It pretends it is soooo deep by having characters who hardly speak at all (and for Ran, only then in riddles). But having characters who are mute most of time is just a way to hide the fact that there's almost no substance to this show at all. It isn't a case of "getting" it, because there's nothing to "get".

First of all the music, which I didn't really notice but wasn't that horrible (so it was serviceable enough). The animation was well done and far more fluid than television shows, which is what you'd expect from an OVA. The mechanical designs were also very good, although perhaps a little far-fetched.

The character designs on the other hand were incredibly good, and quite realistic. I mean, if I was going to make an Anime, that's how I'd design them, except I'd render the characters without the heavy CGI. See, the faces looked all "plasticky", especially in the first episode. I don't know if it is because it took time getting used to them, but they really put me off. And the lips were one of the biggest disappointments, as there was almost no effort made to match the lips to the dialogue. This was very disconcerting.

As for the characters themselves, we never got enough time to really know them, which was a shame because there was nothing stopping them from being interesting except for extreme time constraints. The plots (yes, plural, as both episodes had their own individual plots) were both interesting, with some great ideas, but the second episode executed its plot far better than the first did. However, both episodes were guilty of numerous instances of weak writing and obvious plot holes.

Once again, time constraints meant that we never saw the full picture. Expository dialogue hinted at an interesting and wonderful universe, but disappointingly we only saw glimpses. So yet another argument can be made for the OVA being a series.

The biggest and most fundamental flaw of this series is painfully obvious; it was too short. It affects everything; the characters, the story, the enjoyability of the show. The first half was too slow, and confusing because things were happening and we had not one clue as to why they were. It featured characters that I couldn't bring myself to care about, because we weren't introduced to them properly. Instead we got endless scenes of them walking down dark streets or whatever, instead of learning anything important about them. Akira came off as cold to the point of robotic, and Keisuke was whiny as hell.

The second half of the show was the opposite. It was too fast. It was confusing too, but in how events were happening with no real explanation given as to what the F was going on. Terminology and the names of factions were dropped with no help given to the viewer as to what or who was being talked about, and how they fit into the story. Characters now received development, but largely in the form of numerous flashbacks to events that were not previously depicted, or even hinted at until the flashback was aired. This storytelling method is a sign of a rush job, and lacks the emotional power that could otherwise be shown. Also, superpowers being thrown in with absolutely zero foreshadowing. Not good.

I did like the character designs; although Rin is far too girly for my tastes, having at least one girly boy is apparently a feature of Shounen-Ai. And the show did well in setting a bleak and depressing atmosphere. Too well, given how the characters were already so gloomy. But the animation budget was pretty gosh-darn small, and in the final episode much of the action was done while the camera pointed at the ground or sky. Um, that's pretty poor form. Reused stills are chronic in episode twelve.

This show is not even a commercial. It is a one-cour treat for fans of the game, since you would have to had already played the game to not be so utterly confused by the story and disinterested in the characters. I suppose there's always spoilers online, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone who isn't a Shounen-Ai fan, as it is a poor introduction to the genre.

Three other big complaints. We never really get the chance to understand the titular character and what makes him tick. The show ended half-way through a game (one which had already taken literally half of the show's running time). Finally, no attempt was made to ease viewers into the highly complicated game of Mahjong (thank God for fansub explanatory notes, without which I would have been completely lost).

It has themes like forgiveness, redemption, maternal love, tolerance, family and charity. And those are just the ones I can think up off the top of my head. The characters seem stereotyped but are always deeper than you first believe. They compliment one another, grow on you, and by the end you want them to be happy. The humour knows exactly when to turn up, and it is very funny. Even some scenes that you might think were supposed to be all dramatic ended up being funny in a way, like when the ambulance crashes and the driver gets out and says he needs an ambulance.

I have asked myself why I didn't rate this a Masterpiece, and there are three reasons. The first is that while the story is enjoyable, I did feel it meandered a bit too much. The second is that the humour knew when to show up but it sometimes stayed a little bit too long, mostly at the start of the movie. The third reason is more personal; as an atheist I didn't appreciate the religious overtones as much as others might. But don't get me wrong, that isn't a criticism of the movie, just a reflection of my personal feelings.

Manabe is hard to like, being a perverted moron whose dirty thoughts makes him the designated punching bag. The grandfather is in a similar boat, being such an over-the-top pervert that he doesn't come off as genuine. Mifune's plotline is just hurriedly resolved in a dissatisfying way. Kotoura goes round in circles, beating herself up over every little thing - her development is extremely messy and goes in circles, repeating the same things over and over. And Mori, she made one extremely baffling decision that was completely bizarre and obviously counter-productive and we never got an answer as to why she did it. The detective and her arc were weak, especially the conclusion. In fact, another plotline concluded very weakly as well, and that was Kotoura and her estranged mother. It's like the writers realised that they only had the final episode to resolve it and so crammed it in, with little to no regard for making it seem sincere.

But the show's worst part was undoubtedly the first ten minutes, which were so disgustingly manipulative and filled with the most over-wrought melodrama that I almost dropped it then and there. The stupidity of those ten minutes aside, it was all so fake. And that's the show's defining problem; it's fake. A very good fake, with some moments of genuine and touching drama. But even as it tells us that Manabe should be applauded for being honest and sincere, the show is so manipulative that Jun Maeda would be beaming with pride. All stories wants us to feel something, true, but there's a vast gulf of difference between showing us a sad scene or a touching story and actually shouting at the viewer "THIS GIRL SAD. YOU FEEL SAD TOO!". For those first ten minutes, and in several other scenes, the show was so intent on getting us to feel something that it forgot to actually make a genuine emotional connection. Instead of feeling sympathetic for Kotoura I could only seethe in irritation and disgust for how fake and off-putting the drama was.

The show's Ero-game roots are obvious, but it manages to do enough to avoid being bogged down by its heritage. The lead is bland but likeable, the initial setting fairly interesting for yet another feudal rendition, and the series does have some good humourous moments. The battle scenes showcase how a small budget can be expertly stretched without making the show look cheap. The science fiction parts didn't feel quite right, but the ending is a good solid one, always a treat in Anime. And the overall pacing is quite fast, especially at the start. The show doesn't slow down to catch its breath until episode eight.

So why would I give this a passing grade? Because of the visuals silly (the audio isn't nearly as good). And because it offers a new twist on humanity's relationship with machines. Many people liken this to Appleseed because of who made it but I actually think it is closer - at least in spirit and themes - to Ghost in the Shell. Oh, and a little bit of Dune, if only in a couple of obvious respects, but mostly the former. Vexille doesn't rip off that illustrious Anime franchise so much as be inspired by the ideas it raises. Sure, it only gives its themes a cursory glance, but at least they are there. And for an unabashed action movie in which the entire point was introducing mouth-watering visuals and mechanical designs, hey, it could have been so much worse.