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Ghost in the Shell: ARISE, the newest installment of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell franchise, began airing the first of its films in theaters just a few days ago.  Set as a prequel to the stories fans already know, Arise will be four fifty-minute episodes. The first of the episodes, titled “Ghost Pain,” will be released on July 26 on Blu-ray. Long time series partner Production I.G. handles animation duties. When I noticed that ARISE was on the Anime Expo premier list I had to get this up before then. Production I.G.’s Kazuchika Kise and Mitsuhisa ishikawa is also on tap for attendees.  There’s even a panel where you can ask questions on Saturday.

Ghost in the Shell was one of the first exposures to manga I ever had (and also one of the first things I ever had confiscated, but that’s another story) so it holds a lot of memories for me.  Through it I purchased quite a number of Masamune Shirow art books and did all I could to track down as much of his art as possible (and back in those days it wasn’t very easy).  The franchise is one of my favorites of all time and it’s one of those things I just can’t get enough of.  When I heard early this year that Arise was coming I was immediately pumped.

So what we have is familiar yet unfamiliar for existing fans.  You have Batou, you have Motoko, you have Aramaki, but they’re different.  They’re veterans and yet they are not so much as we know them for.  Motoko has an all-new design with a haircut very unlike the one we’re used to. Her voice, along with many of the others, is different.  Maaya Sakamoto gives life to Motoko, taking over for Atsuko Tanaka.  This actually isn’t Maaya’s first time as Motoko; in the first and second films she voiced the Major in her days as a child.  For that matter, this younger brand of Motoko is a lot less the seasoned warrior as shown from her words and interactions with others.  She’s still as much a bad-ass as we remember in terms of combat abilities.

Ghost Pain opens with a standoff between the current personnel of Public Security Section 9 led by Aramaki with Major Motoko Kusanagi of Unit 501.  S9 is in the process of exhuming the body of 501’s Lieutenant Colonel Giichi, Motoko’s superior officer, who naturally takes offense to that and the corruption charges against him.  It devolves into a cybernetic melee when a third party jumps into the fray.  We then follow Motoko as she attempts to track down what happened the night Giichi died and whether or not he truly was corrupt.  Along the line We run into a frustrated Togusa while he is still working for the metropolitan police and Paz from his undercover days.  Batou even joins the fun and spars a little with Motoko (and handily gets his butt kicked).

Arise is set in 2027, a few years after World War IV. Full-body cyborg soldiers that were designed for the war are still learning to reintegrate with a peacetime world.  Motoko, as one of these full-body cyborgs, has much to deal with including the fact that the military outright owns her body and the technology contained within.  They are walking weapons and tabs must be kept on them.  This, along with other things, stood out for me as implications for the future of warfare.  If soldiers do become full cyborgs, what happens to them if they want to exit the service?  Do they have to pay back the costs of the body?  Do they have to buy a separate, “civilian” body for transfer (and how much will that cost)?

The walking bombs are another point of contention.  Suicide bombers are frowned upon today.  Once science advances to the point that robots have small self-contained power sources and high-speed non-wheeled mobility systems will robot bombs become more prevalent?  Right now the technology is far behind (see DARPA’s “Big Dog” which clatters along and requires a gas-powered engine) but that can’t hold forever. In Arise, both of these are non-issues.  Imagine a wave of robots whose sole purpose is to run at you and explode. Nothing quite as horrifying as that.  They can infiltrate at will into crowds without fear or need of extraction.  Oh, did I mention they can run like spiders and leap trenches? At least the controversial UAVs today watch more than they destroy things…

No Ghost in the Shell would be complete without a walking, talking, robot tank, and today they are the Logikoma or “Logistics Conveyer Machine.” Being in the past these are nowhere near as advanced as the Fuchikoma or Tachikoma we know and love but all the same they have that happy-go-lucky -koma flare.  When given the order to disappear it takes it quite literally and turns on its optical camouflage with childlike glee instead of the implied “go somewhere else.”

A partnership with Microsoft to help promote the Surface tablet was revealed a few months back and I was curious to see just how they’d be using it. The first bit of product placement happens less than a minute into the film (just a small flash on a digital billboard showing the Surface logo).  The tablet itself is used by Motoko as a data terminal.  It’s actually not that blatant a product placement; if I didn’t know that there was a partnership I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

In the meantime you can catch a manga version of Arise titled “Sleepless Eye (Nemuranai Me no Otoko)” written by Junichi Fujisaku (screenplay veteran of the two Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex seasons, Appleseed XIII, and Real Drive, all Shirow created works) in monthly Young Magazine.  It too depicts the early days of the people who would eventually come to be known as Section 9 including the first encounter of then-Ranger Batou with Motoko Kusanagi.

The next episode of Arise is titled “Ghost Whispers.”  A release date has not been announced.

Make sure you watch through the end of the credits!

As mentioned earlier, Anime Expo is going to show it this Saturday, July 6. If you’re in Los Angeles and have a badge you might want to check it out.

Karneval:

Karneval is an adaptation from a manga by Touya Mikanagi. If you did not know anything about the show going in, the first minute or two of the anime might confuse you into thinking it was some yaoi flick. The anime’s protagonist is Nai. From what he tells us, he and a character named Karoku have been living together for as long as he can remember. One day, Karoku ventures out and never returns. That is when Nai decided to go look for Karoku. From what he remembers, he saw a trail of blood on a beach that lead to the bracelet that Karoku wore.

Fast forward and Nai ends up chained up to a bed with some woman on top of him, at the same time in another room a thief named Gareki was stealing from the mansion. As if it was fate, Gareki drops down to the room Nai was being held captive and from there they make their escape, not without a little hardship of course.

After a few scenes they end up in a hijacked train and gets involved with a group called Circus. Circus is a highly trained defense organization that serves the government and helps deal with crimes and criminals. The people in the group use the same bracelet that Nai has, known as a Circus ID. After the episode with Circus, Gareki and Nai go on their ways together, of course, now they have some watchful eyes on them on their journey.

This anime started slow, but once the pace picked up and we got to see some action, the show was fairly entertaining. There seems to be a lot of mystery behind Nai, Circus and Gareki, which is intriguing and made me want to watch more. There is something dark brewing and I cannot wait to see how it turns out. I can do without yaoi elements though.

Hataraku Maou-sama:

This anime is another one of those the Hero versus the Demon Lord kind of shows… or is it? After some rather serious looking battle scenes and narration; the Hero drives out the Demon Lord from his land, and is transported to present time Tokyo, Japan along with his subordinate Alsiel. With limited magic powers left, they must now act out the lives of humans with the goal of dominating this world, as well as taking back the world they came from. I was totally not expecting the twist, but it felt refreshing, since it was only a week ago I was still watching Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (an anime about hero and demon lord).

Anyways, Sadao Mao (demon lord) works part time at a fast food chain to make ends meet for now, while Alsiel researches how to regain their magic powers and return to their world. At first, Mao does not look very pleased that he has to do what the lowly humans do, but as time passes he is enthralled in his work; striving to be the best so that he can earn more money, and promotion. On one rainy day as he bikes to work, he sees a girl running in the rain with no umbrella. He offers his umbrella to the girl without thinking much of it. It is until after his shift that he finds out that the girl he gave his umbrella to, was none other than the Hero he was fighting in their original world.

So far with what I have seen, I like this anime. There is comedy and some wackiness involved. I want to see how Emi Yusa and Sadao Mao will get along, now that they are in a foreign world. And while Mao resembled an evil demon lord back in his world, he seems like a hard working laid back individual in the present world. The show feels a like “Working” but with added elements. I will stay on the bandwagon for this anime as it does have potential to be something good.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge:

This title is pretty much accurate in what it truly is. It is a crime to have put me up with watching this bored out of my mind, sleep inducing, guy with a hair fetish anime. The show starts out with Kiri Haimura, a boy whom has a fetish with wanting to cut other people’s hair. One day he gets off the wrong bus stop and catches a glimpse of the girl (Iwai Mushanokoji ) who people claimed to be a ghost with long hair.

There is something odd about this show. Kiri just stalks the girl, and innately walks toward her and compliments her hair. He swoons over her hair with that hentai look and this girl does not see that this is one creepy guy? She lets him touch her hair and smell it, putting it all up in his nose? Comon, what kind of ridiculous concept of a show is this? As I was watching this show, I cannot help but think anything other than creep, stalker, hentai and whatever other term that relates to those I mentioned.

This show also resembled “Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi” in that the heroine of the show ends up constantly being the target of the Killing Goods owners and now Kiri is the person that will protect her and put an end to the curse, which is fitting, because it was his meeting with her that started the murder game to kill the “Hair Queen.” I honestly cannot recommend anyone be put through this torture, but then again, there are those out there who like this kind of stuff, you know, the people who liked Nazo no Kanojo X, the anime with the guy with the saliva fetish… yeah, no thanks.

Shingeki no Kyojin:

Attack on Titan began as a manga by Hajime Isayama, and the story is about a world where humans lived inside a society that is walled and separated from the beings that are called titans. These titans are a large human looking species with an appetite for humans and a never ending smirk on their faces. Not much has been disclosed as to why the titans do what they do, but the anime just gets off the floor running.

We are immediately put into the fears of the people’s faces when they saw their only sense of security broken and hopelessness was spread. A large titan appeared out of nowhere and is looking over the fifty meters wall the humans have built. After showing this griping scene, we are immediately flashbacked to our main characters Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman a few days earlier. Mikasa is the foster sister of Eren and looks after him, keeping him out of trouble. Eren is impulsive and dreams of exploring outside of the walls, he wanted to join the recon unit of the town, just so he can contribute and fight the titans.

After developing the story a bit we connect back to present time, when the sixty meters titan showed up. He destroys the wall and the town is flooded with titans eating and destroying as they go. When Eren and Mikasa are running away, Eren goes back to his house and finds his mother pinned down by the collapsed house. With a titan moving towards them, Hannes a solder, honors Eren’s mother’s request to take the kids and run. As if Eren does not already have a reason to hate the titans, he witnesses one killing and eating his mother. The episode closes and I just wanted more of it. The show certainly plays to a viewer’s emotions and the intrigue of what and who are these titans and how are the humans going to deal with their little problem… it is going to be a fun ride. Also with Production I.G in the mix, I have even more confidence in this show.

Mushibugyo:

Mushibugyo is not an anime for those who have entomophobia, the fear of bugs. In a world where samurais still exist, Tsukishima Jinbee travels to Edo in place of his father to join the Insect Magistrate. You see, along with samurais, this world has a big insect problem. No really, the insects are big in size and prey on civilians. For a long time, civilians lived their lives with no help for when the insects attack, but when the government decided to listen to civilian concerns with a suggestion box, the Mushibugyo was formed to combat the bugs.

Being a complete country boy, Jinbee meets Haru, a voluptuous and kind hearted girl who helped him find his way. When an insect attack happens, Jinbee runs to assist, but after the scenes, Haru ends up being kidnapped and soon to be devoured. When Jinbee finds the location where the spider hid Haru, he busts in and tries his save her. It is there, where he discovers what being in the Mushibugyo is all about, as the Mushibugyo members help do some pest control.

This show has a little bit of everything. Samurais check, girl with big boobs check, sword fighting check, comedy check and a plot that was somewhat interesting check. Overall, I feel this show will be worth the time for anyone looking for an anime that is not so serious and contains sword fighting.

Red Data Girl:

I had hard time getting started writing about Red Data Girl. This anime was slow and uninteresting. It felt like I have seen this kind of plot before. Girl grows up, has some special powers then gets protection from some boy who does not want to deal with her. Our heroine Izumiko Suzuhara grew up in a shrine. Her life has been pretty much sheltered. Other than attending school, she does not do much else. On top of that, Izumiko has an issue; she tends to break electronic devices that she comes into contact with and when she tried to do her own work with a school computer one day, the whole school’s power goes out.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere her guardian Yukimasa Sagara helicopters to the school and escorts her away. In the scenes after that, Yukimasa reintroduces Izumiko to Miyuki Sagara, his son. By the end of the episode, Miyuki transfers to Izumiko’s school to begin his duties as her bodyguard.

I cannot put myself through watching this show any longer. It was not entertaining and the pace was torrid. The characters are frustrating. Izumiko wants to change her personality, but all she could muster up was to cut her hair. Miyuki has a hate for Izumiko ever since she was a little girl. It is quite annoying that a kid continued to hold that hate towards someone even after many years. So far, there is no reason provided as to why Miyuki dislikes Izumiko; seeing how he did not even know that Izumiko was the priestess that he was born to protect… so having his own life taken away from him could not be the reason. Whatever the reason, I do not care to find out.

Devil Survivor 2:

What if a website existed where once you register someone in it you will be notified… when it happens that is, by an email with a link to a video and the video’s content is that of that person’s final moments? Kind of creepy and that is basis of Devil Survivor 2. As a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and Atlus, this anime got off the right foot with me from the start.

If you have not played the game, the story begins with our protagonist Hibiki Kuze and his friend Daichi Shijima. Discussing about the latest fad after their mock exams, Daichi introduces Hibiki to Nicaea, a website that notifies its users the moment someone that they registered dies with an email along with a video. As they wait on the train station, they receive an alert and proceeded to watch it. The victims that were in the video were none other than themselves. By the time they realized that the setting of the video was exactly the same as where they were situated, it was too late. After their “death” they were prompted by Nicaea, whether they wanted to die, or get another chance. Once they made the choice to get another chance, an app was downloaded to their phones and allowed them to summon avatars to fight for them.

If you have played the game, there probably would not be any surprises for you in the anime. Just as Persona 4 the animation did not stray from the game’s plot, I doubt Devil Survivor 2 will. As a viewer who has not played the game, I liked what I saw thus far. The avatars and the intrigue of what and who started Nicaea were good, although the avatars from the Shin Megami Tensei franchise really do not change much. Overall, I was entertained, and if it runs like the game, which has received great ratings, it should be fairly successful as an anime as well.

Ginga Kikotai Majestic Prince:

No way! A mecha anime? What a rare sight these days! Yes, Ginga Kikotai Majestic Prince is an anime that involves space and giant robots and while it did not blow my socks off immediately, I am excited to see what this show has to offer to this genre. The plot starts with an academy training children to pilot fighting robots for when the time is needed, they will be called upon. Our main character Izuru Hitachi is part of Team Rabbit, also known as the Zannen 5, due to their lack of success working as a team in the practice simulations.

When the alien group called Wulgaru attacked the Undina Base, out of nowhere and a surprise to everyone, Team Rabbit was summoned to counterattack and distract the Wulgaru while the people on the base escaped. Just when the mission was going smoothly things had to happen to derail it. When Izuru notices that there are still civilians that have not been evacuated, he decides to stand firm and fight, disregarding orders.

Majestic Prince looks like a decent piece, but I feel reserved in praising it or recommending it more. Usually with these kinds of light themed mecha shows, it is ecchi humor and/or harem based. With what I have seen, Majestic Prince seems straight forward, good versus evil with some team drama in-between. The story better support the show well, otherwise it will turn out to be just another one of those average mecha anime that had potential, but never realized it.

Yuyushiki:

An anime about high school girls and slice of life; if that is not enough to turn me away, I do not know what else will, oh yeah, comedy that is not funny. Yuyushiki was adapted from the manga by Komata Mikami and revolves around three girls that are just starting out in high school: Yuzuko Nonohara, Yui Ichii, and Yukari Hinata. Their first day of high school involves walking around the town shops and joining the Data Processing Club that has no members.

At the end of the show, I did not know what I had just watched. The girls were having conversations on the things they were searching for on the internet. Yuyushiki tried to be Nichijou, but fails miserably. How can anyone commit the time to watch something so boring, especially when there are better anime out there? Mystery.

More to come…

K:

When it comes to K, there is something oddly familiar, but yet different. While watching it, I felt I have seen something like this before, but this piece manages to change my perspective fairly quickly. K starts out with our main protagonist, Yashiro Isano just at school bumming other students for food. Surprisingly, every student seems accepting and offers him pieces from their bento. After a few calming scenes, where I started to wonder, “If this was all there is to this anime?” A member (Kukuri Yukizome) of the student council and secret admirer of Shiro, sends him off to run some errands for the council. Now this is where this ordinary, peaceful day becomes a nightmare for Shiro.

All of a sudden he finds himself being chased by members of the Red clan. When Shiro is finally cornered in an alley, a character by the name of Kuro Yatogami comes out of nowhere and “saves” Shiro. In the following scenes, it is shown to the viewers why Shiro is being targeted, as a video of someone resembling him maniacally claims himself to be the colorless king and proceeds to shoot the person (a Red clan member) holding the recorder, is displayed everywhere in the city.

K is a strange anime. There are different aspects of the show that I like, such as, the psychic abilities, the setting, and the animation. But I am having some reservations while I was watching this show and it is certainly not due to the fact that there are a lot of pretty boys featured here… okay maybe it is lol. Anyways, if you like action and supernatural powers anime based in a somewhat present looking setting, you should enjoy it. K runs 13 episodes long and is simulcasted on VizAnime.com; there is no excuse to not at least check out a few episodes.

Zetsuen no Tempest:

This anime is the first of this season that really got me excited. Could it be the homage paid to the works of William Shakespeare by this show’s characters? Or could it be the magic and plot behind this piece? Whatever it is, I definitely enjoyed what I saw. While Zetsuen no Tempest begins like a regular high school life anime, it progressively lets you know that it is far from it. The show had a Guilty Crown kind of feel, where people are being infected by a disease that turns them into metal statues. This illness if we could call it that, is caused by the Kusaribe clan’s plan to resurrect the Tree of Zetsuen.

After some dramatic scenes from the introduction, our main character Yoshino Takigawa is paired back up with his friend Mahiro Fuwa and from that point on, Yoshino is briefed on what is happening to their world. Mahiro is the brash character of the two and he is put into place by his sister Aika. Aika along with his parents were killed, which then lead Mahiro to set out and find the murderer himself, as the police were inadequate.

On one fateful day, Mahiro finds a message and a wooden doll in a bottle and proceeds to follow the instructions written on the message. It is there where he is connected to Hakaze Kusaribe, the magician of beginnings and the ex-leader of the Kusaribe clan, it is also there where he gains his magic power to help him on his quest to stop the resurrection of the Tree of Zetsuen and ultimately find his sister’s killer. Zetsuen no Tempest has the potential to be great. The action scenes were good and the plot certain twists and turns to give you a surprise. You really should not miss it.

Girls und Panzer:

Girls und Panzer runs a little like Upotte. While the girls here are not actual guns, they are weapons in a sense. In a world where sensha-do (art of battle vehicles) is accepted as a traditional art form for girls, our main character Miho Nishizumi is not particularly fond of it. That is the reason why she enrolled in Oarai Girl’s high school, where sensha-do does not exist in its school curriculum… Or so she thought.

On the day that she finally made some friends, the student council drops a bomb on the school by proclaiming that sensha-do is back and they are gunning for the national championship. After taking some time to deliberate whether she should participate in the class, her decision to ultimately join was influenced by her friends. And so the revival of sensha-do at Oarai high school begins!

While this anime is just starting out, I cannot envision where it will ultimately end up. The formula that makes up this show just feels awkward. I do not know how girls in tanks can be exciting or entertaining. Let alone making the whole show about tanks in a competition style environment. One thing is for certain though, do not mistake Girls und Panzer with Pumpkin Scissors as far as tank battles are concerned.

Little Busters:

Little Busters is one of those anime derived from a romance visual novel and is about a group of childhood friends whom are about to finally go their separate ways as their leader of the group, Kyousuke Natsume will graduate high school next year. Our main character is Riki Naoe. His childhood was tough, his parents past away and he was left by himself, until a group of kids calling themselves Little Busters came along and made him the fifth member. Ever since that day, all of them have been together; going on adventures and doing things that might seem stupid to some, but righteous in their eyes.

This series will span 26 episodes and I fail to see how the fun can last that long. Little Busters feel like the typical high school life anime where a group of friends are going for their last hoorah before everything is over… it just really is not all that interesting to me. There is some comedic relief, you will get a few chuckles here and there, but overall it is an average anime at best. You will not miss much by skipping this.

To-Love Ru ~ Darkness:

Ecchi humor fans rejoice, one of the best of this genre is back again and it is not shy to go even further than the bar its predecessors have set. Since the series was left off at Motto To-Love Ru back in 2010, nothing much has changed. Yuuki Rito is still the main character, he is still in love with Sairenji Haruna, and yes, he still has not confessed his love to her. On the other side, there is Lala Deviluke, the alien princess whom he has confessed his love for.

Now things are not that simple this time around. Not when Lala’s sister Momo has taken a liking to Rito and she is also set on creating a harem for Rito; with her included of course. There is an actual story that this show is trying to convey… but honestly? Anyone watching this show really is not in it for the serious stuff. I am just saying. Anyways, Sentai-Filmworks has licensed this show for the States and is due for a release sometime in 2013. Be sure to check it out if you are a fan of the show and genre.

Hayate no Gotoku: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You:

Hayate no Gotoku: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You is the sequel to the long original series. It has been several years since that series came to an end, but not much time has passed inside the anime’s world; only nine months. For those who are not familiar with the series, Hayate has never had much luck in life; the final straw was when his parents left him with a load of debt to pay off. One evening he meets Sanzenin Nagi and his life changed from then on as he accepts her offer to be her butler, as he pays off his debt to her.

For those who are familiar with the series, nothing much has changed. Nagi is still as NEET as ever. When every part of her life felt boring, she suddenly catches a documentary pertaining to aliens on the television and begins to fantasize about visiting Nevada the site of Area 51. When Maria and Hayate both try to persuade Nagi to not go to Nevada, she runs out of the house and similar to the first series, she is kidnapped and saved later by Hayate. But to end the show with a surprise, a girl by the name of Tsugumi Ruri claims to be Nagi’s little sister!

Sometimes I wonder, why I continued to watch this anime all through its first season. It was not great, matter of fact it was an average anime with the same old theme episode to episode. Now with this series, there is not much of a change to the tune. It is still about Hayate serving Nagi and saving her whenever she is in trouble, as well as, Nagi acting all tsundere. Sure, there are new characters to cause some drama, but overall the show moves at the same pace. It gets kind of boring.

Ixion Saga: Dimension Transfer:

Ixion Saga is an anime that is based on the video game by Capcom. The show revolves around Kon Hokaze an avid gamer. One night as he is playing the game, he is approached by a female player. If a character is a gamer in an anime, we can assume the stereotypical attributes for him. He is still a virgin and he rarely comes into contact with the opposite sex. In this case, he falls in line with all those attributes.

The female player proceeds to asks him for help and promises that if he agrees to assist her, she will give something to him that she holds very dear. With his mind in the gutter already, he jumps on the request without knowing what exactly she is asking him to do and is immediately transported to another world known as Mira.

When he arrives at Mira he makes an impact of a situation and joins Princess Ecarlate and her crew; Mariandale a cross dresser and Sainglain a well reputable swordsman. I do not want to ruin the things that will occur in the show. All you have to know is Ixion Saga is a cannot miss title; it is hilarious and a pleasure to watch. I liked the fantasy aspect and the fact that it is a sword play styled anime. I am definitely sold on this show and cannot wait to see what else this piece has to offer.

Magi: The Labyrinth Of Magic:

Honestly, I did not know much about Magi. I took a look at the show and saw the setting of it and was kind of turned off by it. An anime with an Arabian theme? What is this Aladdin from Disney? Of course, whenever I make quick assumptions, I end up eating my words at the end. Magi is an anime interpretation of “One Thousand and One Nights,” also known as “Arabian Nights.”

The show’s protagonist is Alibaba, a young man who is striving to be rich, by exploring a dungeon called Amon. These dungeons have been popping out of the ground randomly and is said to hold unimaginable treasures. Now when there are treasures, there are risks as well. There are dangers inside these dungeons and some adventurers do not make it back out at all.

In comes Aladdin, a kid with a special flute. When Aladdin is introduced in the story, he has the happy go lucky personality. Immediately he gets Alibaba in trouble with Alibaba’s job. It is also at that point we see the fake life that Alibaba lives. In order to survive and not make any enemies, he turns the other eye and acts like a cowardly dog. This act of Alibaba continues to persist until finally he was fed up with himself, and could not place human lives before some wine that was being offered to some other lord. His defiance was much to the delight of Aladdin, which then leads Aladdin to summon his djinn friend, Ugo, to save Alibaba.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic was quite entertaining throughout. The story tugs on the viewers emotions, and incite anger, and joy, amongst others. From the looks of it, there will be a deep story and it should be a good show to catch this Fall. Also, Magi has been licensed by Aniplex USA for release in North America.

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanajo:

Sorata Kanda is a normal student who lived in the normal dorm with other normal students. This life of normalcy is changed when he picks up a stray white cat and decides to take care of it. Since pets are not allowed in the normal dorms, his only other option was to move to the other dorm for special “troubled” students. The first thought that runs into any viewers mind is, “troubled students, meaning delinquents?” That idea is far from the reality. Sakurasou has a bad rap, because the people who live there are not normal; they have some kind of skill that separates them apart. Take Misaki Kamiigusa for an example. She is creative and creates her own anime shows in this series.

Anyways, Sorata is not happy about his life at the Sakurasou. Ever since he started to dorm there, his goal was to get back to the normal dorm as soon as Hikari (the cat), gets adopted or something… but his luck with stray cats never ceases to amaze as his collection of stray cats borderlines hoarding. One day Chihiro Sengoku, the teacher and resident of Sakurasou tells Sorata to pick up her cousin from the train station and this is the point where he meets, Mashiro Shiina.

Shiina looked quite normal at first, but there is more that meets the eye. When the next morning came, Sengoku told Sorata that he is now responsible for Shiina. Wondering if there was any extra meaning he proceeds to wake up Shiina for school. In the next scenes we get to see what the real deal is with Shiina. She has the talent for art and draws manga, but she has total lack of self care. She is unable to do anything without being told; she is like a child in that regards and now Sorata has a new “pet” to care for in a sense.

I enjoyed watching Sakurasou no Pet na Kanajo, it was amusing. I liked the romance and comedic aspects of this show. As I was watching this anime, I cannot help but think about the other “sou,” Hinatasou to be exact. While nothing can replace Love Hina as one of the top romantic comedies, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanajo will fill in nicely. I am all in on this one.

Code:Breaker:

Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist) is that you? Wait no? This is some other guy that plays with blue fire? Is this some kind of cheap rip off? Hopefully not. Code:Breaker is a manga by Akimine Kamijyo and is adapted into anime by Kinema Citrus, it is also licensed by FUNimation for release in North America. The show begins with Sakurakouji Sakura riding on a bus and as she is gazing out the window she sees a guy surrounded by a group of people lit up in blue flames. Immediately she alerts the police only to see no evidence of the burnt bodies as they arrived at the scene. The only thing left from the incident she witnessed was the charred ground, which the police casually put off as fire that was created and left by the homeless folks in the area.

In the next morning, Sakura, a popular student amongst the student body is put into a peculiar situation. The guy that she saw from the bus window is the new transfer student! Rei Ogami is an immediate hit amongst the female students and when Sakura takes interest in Ogami, because of the incident… the students gets the wrong idea. This is an example of the light moments that this show contains.

On the darker side, Rei Ogami serves the government by being a Code Breaker or in another term, an assassin. In this world that is overrun by corruption and the police turns a blind eye towards a gang known as G-Falcon, Ogami is a member of a secret organization that specializes in “taking out the trash.” Code:Breaker was decent. It was not anything out of this world extraordinary, but it is adequate enough to pass the time with. I did enjoy watching this show, and it looks like this would be a good one as well. I just hope each episode will not turn out to be a Rei Ogami barbeque special, in which, he just grabs people’s heads and torches them.

PSYCHO-PASS:

Well well, if it is not an anime from Production I.G. I did not have to prepare for this show ahead of time to realize they were behind PSYCHO-PASS, just by looking at the setting. PSYCHO-PASS is based on a world that resembles that of Ghost in the Shell. And in this futuristic world, you do not have to commit a crime to be prosecuted. You just need to have the criminal intent. Technology has advanced so much that the system that oversees the world is able to now quantify an individual’s mental state in separate scores. If that criminal coefficient gets to a certain level, an individual can be taken out by any means necessary as constituted by the system.

Right from the get go, we get put into the controversy of such a system as rookie Akane Tsunemori is immediately tossed into the fire having to work with a group of enforcers. Enforcers are people who have high criminal coefficients, but they use their skills to take out other criminals. Each group of enforcer is lead by an inspector to ensure everything goes smoothly. Each person of the task force is equipped with a “Dominator,” a weapon that will scan criminal intent and unlock certain features as the numbers change. For an example, a normal civilian will not be harmed by the Dominator as the weapon will be locked. If this civilian’s level rises, the weapon will release and open up paralyze mode and if the level rises even more, the weapon will unlock the eliminate mode… you can guess what that mode will do.

Back to the controversy, Akane Tsunemori is a newbie and because she is fresh from the academy her views on the situation are by the book. In the case that they are working on, they are tasked with stopping a kidnapper who has taken a hostage. When the opportunity arises, the enforcers tried to paralyze the criminal. When this did not work, it leads to a chase. As the kidnapper is dragging his hostage around, her mental stress state rises and she too becomes open for judgment by the Dominator. And this is where Akane comes in. She did not agree with eliminating the hostage even though the hostage did nothing wrong, other than being put through all the torture by the kidnapper. But the psycho-pass system did not see it that way. In the end, Akane stops Shinya Kogami, the main enforcer that this story follows, by firing her Dominator at him, to paralyze him of course.

PSYCHO-PASS is great. It is a dark themed anime with blood and gore just at the right levels. Egoist is also back with a new theme song as well, for those who have seen Guilty Crown, you know what I am talking about. This anime is definitely a must see for any anime fan. The characters are intriguing, the action is remarkable, the plot is awesome and the concept is superb. FUNimation has licensed PSYCHO-PASS and is available for streaming as well.

Robotics;Notes:

Seems like FUNimation is on a roll. Robotics;Notes is another series licensed by them for release in North America. It is also another Production I.G work and it feels like they can never go wrong right? I have a dilemma here. This show seriously put me to sleep. After being wide awake for PSYCHO-PASS, by the half way mark of Robotics;Notes I was out. Is this a sign of bad things to come for this anime? I do not know, but I wanted to give it a fair shot and re-watched it again next morning.

I have always had an issue with these “;” shows. The same happened with Chaos;Head, and Steins;Gate. Robotics;Notes starts out very slow. We are dropped into the world of Akiho Senomiya and Kaito Yashio the only members left of the robotics club of their school. Kaito is an avid gamer and it feels like nothing in the world inspires him much anymore. All he does is play on his tablet. Akiho on the other hand is an overly optimistic girl who envisions the revival and success of the robotics club. Her goal is to finish what the club started years ago, the giant robot, Gunvarrel.

With a robotics tournament and the club’s budget allocation talks coming up, Kaito and Akiho are given one last chance to prove the robotics club is worth it to continue to exist in the school. If they fail to place first in the tournament, the club will disband. That is the gist of the story here and it does not sound all too exciting. Even after re-watching it, I was bored. The dialogues are strenuous and feel like it is the same tune playing over and over a la Akiho’s overly excited voice and Kaito’s “I don’t really care” attitude. Hopefully it gets better once new characters are introduced and the club finally gets down and dirty to get their giant robot project going.

Suki-tte Ii na yo (Say, “I Love You”):

When she was a young child, Mei Tachibana was betrayed by her friends; framed as the person who caused the class rabbit’s death, Mei became a loner. Her group of friends abandoned her, which led her to follow a school life without seeking friendship. One fateful day, Mei bumps into the school’s popular male student, Yamato Kurosawa. While Yamato’s friend told him to leave her, Yamato became particularly interested in Mei because of her personality.

Let us be honest, we all know how this anime will play out. Guy breaks girl’s leave me alone barrier. Girl starts changing her perspective. Guy and girl start dating, etc. The formula does not change much in these romance anime, there may be some variations, but the gist is the same. That in no way means this show is not good, because I did have a great time watching it. This anime has a nice group of characters and you will enjoy their interaction throughout; I also liked the way the show is animated. If you are looking for a romance anime this fall, this is one you need to have a look at.

Tonari no Kaibutsu:

While we are at it, here is another high school romance anime. Tonari no Kaibutsu follows the life of Shizuku Mizutani and Haru Yoshida. Shizuku is a girl who has no interest in anything else besides school and studying, while Haru is a delinquent and has the ability to attain top grades with no effort put towards studying. These two characters are like oil and water; they do not mix.

When Haru is suspended from school after an incident involving seniors of the school, he continues to not attend even after his suspension period was over. This was when their class teacher stepped in and tasked Shizuku to go over to Haru’s and give him some class handouts. Upon seeing Shizuku, Haru immediately pronounces her his friend and sticks to her like glue.

This show will most likely be about the way Haru will influence Shizuku down the line to care about other things in life and not just to study. This friendship between them will also cause Haru to act less out of control and be more obedient towards high school life. After watching this, I was surprised that there are two romance titles that are truly entertaining this season.

Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai:

Eighth Grade Syndrome, that is what some kids are infected with in this anime’s world. The Eighth Grade Syndrome is not a deadly disease or anything. It is just a condition where the person affected believes they are living in another world, having magical powers and on an adventurous mission to accomplish whatever they have to in their own fantasy land.

Yuuta Togashi recovered from chuunibyou, those days are the most embarrassing of his life and he wanted to leave it all behind by attending a high school that was far away from his middle school; so that chances of people who might have known him in middle school are slim to none. Everything in his life was fine, until he meets Rikka Takanashi, a classmate who is suffering from chuunibyou. She believes she has magical powers and tries to get Yuuta to come back as the dark warlord that he claimed to be.

I thought this show was cute, and you know those eye patch girls are serious business in the anime world. I would not recommend this as something everyone should watch. Personally I will not be pursuing this show as it is just not enticing enough for me. Chunnibyou is just weird. Not the show, but the syndrome. Well, thinking about it, I guess this show could be considered weird as well for having characters that act “out of their own character.”

Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne!:

This show is for those who are into the onii-chan complex. Akiko Himenokoji is the “twin sister” of Akito Himenokoji, after living apart from each other for many years due to certain circumstances, she finally moves back to live with Akito for school. Things start getting awkward when Akiko, on their first night together, waits impatiently in the bath hoping that her brother will come in to have a look. In a shock of disappointment, she demands that he peek when she goes back into the bath again. Now Akito does not have any interest in that kind of thing. He views his sister Akiko, as his sister and obviously does not listen to Akiko at all.

Akiko does not have any qualms about her brother complex and takes pride in trying to seduce Akito any chance she gets. There is a twist in the story that will get revealed later on, but as of right now, Oniai is just about a devoted little sister who has a serious brother complex, trying to seduce him and block other girls from advancing on him.

Aside from the brother complex aspect of this anime, this show is just another romantic comedy with a harem of girls fighting for one guy. I am not sure why we continue to see types of onii-chan love anime. It is awkward and the thought of it is plain disturbing. Anyways, FUNimation has licensed this piece and is currently streaming it from their website.

Zetman:

Jin Kanzaki is not your average boy. From what you see in the show, he was a test tube baby who was “kidnapped” from the lab that was experimenting on him. From that point forward he has been raised as a humble young boy. Jin often plays with his friends, Kouga and Konoha Amagi. Their relationship is one that raises some eyebrows. You see, Jin lives with his grandfather on the banks of a river (Arakawa Under The Bridge style), while Kouga and Konoha Amagi are the children of the Amagi Corporation.

While their living conditions are complete opposites, their sense of justice is on par with each other. The kids formed a small team that went around helping people in the name of justice. During one of these seeking justice missions, Jin witnesses a woman about to be raped and killed by a group of men. Jin kicks their asses all over the place and left. The woman that he saved is Akemi Kawakami, who later plays a role in Jin’s life.

Right off the bat, this anime does not hide the fact that it is dark. Throughout the show I was expecting anyone who was on screen had a fair shot at getting killed, it was a matter of when. When you have these crazed monster beings known as Players roaming around the streets, no one is really safe. Who are these Players? Players are monsters created by the Amagi Corporation. They were created as a sporting event for the wealthy and powerful to view. These Players later developed their own sense of self and broke loose into the world. And in an effort to clean up their mess, the Amagi Corporation created ZET, a being that will hunt and destroy those escaped Players.

I am definitely looking forward to watching more of this show. It has the action and a story that is good thus far. I want to see how Jin develops with his powers and how the anime will play out. All signs are pointing in a good direction. You can watch the show on VizAnime.com. They are simulcasting the show on the same day as the Japanese broadcasts.

Saint Seiya Omega:

Saint Seiya, the anime that has deeply affected my childhood days. It was an awesome experience to watch this show every night. And as a kid I would go and reenact my own version of the Pegasus meteor fist. You see, Saint Seiya ended long ago for me and I felt it was good where it was left off. Upon seeing the Saint Seiya Omega title, I had my doubts. I questioned the seriousness of the show. In my opinion, some anime are better off left alone, rather than brought back. This is the case here.

I want to preface what I am about to say by saying that I did not have any rose colored glasses of nostalgia for this piece. I am looking at Omega by itself. Honestly from what I saw, I am disappointed. The show starts off rushed, you see Saori, also known as, Athena playing with a baby who is later revealed as Kouga, who will become the future Pegasus saint. An evil being known as Mars reveals himself and Gold Saint Seiya fends him off. After that event you are fast forward many years later when Kouga is going through the training to become a saint, much like Seiya did back in the day. Kouga is trained by Shaina and his motivation is just not the same. In a world of peace, he did not see the point of being a saint. That of course, takes a quick turn as several scenes later, Mars comes back and is after Saori again. In the state of panic, Kouga finds it in his cosmos to unleash his version of the Pegasus meteor fist.

I tried very hard to like this show. But I cannot and here are the reasons why. The pace of this show is fast. It moves from one scene to the next with little to no transition. It felt like the producers just wanted to get the episode over with rather than easing viewers back into the whole Saint Seiya franchise. I understand that Omega is meant to be different from the original and because it is based in the future, the technology has changed… but why would you mess with the armor? The new look armor looks like actual cloth. What made Saint Seiya awesome were the different types of armor and the way they looked. Now it looks like these skin tight suits instead of actual armor.

I really do not want to sound like I am bashing this show because of my feelings towards the original, but one more thing I noticed about Omega was how stereotypical of an anime it was. It looked like a new show, but they went old school with how it played out. The dialogue felt so, Gekiganger-ish, it was pretty amusing. If you are like me who feel that Saint Seiya ended years ago, do not ruin the view of the franchise by watching this. Unless you are dying to see more from the Saint Seiya universe, I would not go near this show again.

Ozma:

The last desert themed anime I saw was Desert Punk and let me just say I did not finish the show after watching a few episodes of it. Ozma follows our protagonist, Sam Coyne. As he rode through the lands searching for Ozma (the sand whale) he witnesses a chase that is happening. Sam rides in and helps the person being chased and it was revealed that this person is actually a girl named Maya.

When you take a closer look of Ozma, you can tell that this anime is a Leiji Matsumoto work, the person behind Galaxy Express 999. The character designs look the same and it was a disappointment in this day in age. When I saw GONZO in the introduction credits, I was expecting some very nice animation, but when you have two different contrasts between 70s-80s styled anime and new age it just looks weird. It might be a blessing in disguise that Ozma is a short show, six episodes. I do not have much to say about Ozma as it really did not leave much of a lasting impression.

Kuroko’s Basketball:

Teikou middle school had an amazing basketball team. They were so good that they were coined the “Generation of Miracles.” And now that they have graduated to high school, each of the starting five of Teikou moved onto different schools. But little do people realize, there is a sixth member of the “Generation of Miracles” and that member is Tetsuya Kuroko. Kuroko’s Basketball starts off with a relatively new school (Seirin high school), recruiting for new members at the clubs recruitment event. I am not going to bore you with the details of the events that happened, all you have to know is that at the end of the day, the basketball club of Seirin gained two extraordinary players, Kuroko and Kagami. Kagami played most of his basketball in America, so automatically he believes the basketball in Japan is not on par.

The show drills certain ideas into your head. Okay I get it that Kuroko has little to no presence; you do not have to constantly focus on it like its “Oh my god!” “Where’s Carl?” kind of deal. Kuroko does not look like a strong player, but his skills are not scoring. His strongest skill is his ability to pass. He is the Steve Nash of the team. From the first scrimmage you are able to see his ability to change the game, just by using the pass. For the first few scenes, I was impressed a bit, but when I looked long and hard, will a basketball anime really be based off of passing? There is only so much one can do with passing animations. Look, Kuroko’s Basketball is no Slam Dunk. I have my doubts about this show and do not feel it is all that great. I will look forward for it to prove me wrong though.

Fate Zero Season 2:

After leaving season one off of that cliff hanger, Fate Zero finally comes back in season two to continue this great show. I was not a fan in the beginning, but it has grown on me over the episodes. Here is what I thought of Fate/Zero last fall.

Kimi to Boku Season 2:

Was this show that good to have a season two? The slice of life anime of guys in their school days. Previewing season two is kind of pointless for Kimi to Boku, here is my view of it for season one.

Accel World:

Haruyuki Arita is your typical bully target. He is short and chubby with a low self-esteem. Based in the year 2040, neuro-technology has advanced so much that everyone uses a device over their neck called the neuro-link. The neuro-link allows users to access information on demand and allows the user to experience a virtual environment. If you have ever seen the Google glasses project, think of that, but even more advanced. Haru hates himself for being weak, and his only escape is to log into the school’s virtual network and attain the highest scores in the game. With his high scores, he catches the attention of the school’s student council vice president, Kuroyukihime (Black Snow Princess). After some commotion, the vice president introduces a game called Brain Burst to Haru.

In Brain Burst, the world feels like it is in a stand still. But in actuality, it only appears that way for the users, because their senses are being accelerated in the real world. At the end of Kuro-hime and Haru’s meeting, she warns him to turn off his neuro-link from the global net when he is out of school, but of course things happen and he eventually forgets about it. At the end of the first episode, Haru is thrust into the accelerated world as Silver Crow and will have to fight in order to stay in the game!

From what I have seen so far, Accel World looks good. The virtual game world and neuro-link are cool concepts. I am sure similar things have been used in other anime, but the characters and the way the story is told is interesting. The protagonist is not your usual male lead. I am kind of stumped in thinking of another short and chubby main character in an anime… not an easy task. If you liked shows like C: Control, this series is something you should check out. Like Zetman, VizAnime.com is streaming Accel World on the same day as it debuts in Japan.

Medaka Box:

Medaka Box is another one of those anime that focuses on the student council. Medaka Kurokami is a first year. She was elected as the student council president and her message to the students that earned her a 98% overall vote is that she will listen and fix any suggestions that are put into her suggestions box, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Medaka is the prototypical female protagonist; smart, large breasts (yes, the anime makes sure you notice), strong willed and a personality that affects others positively. And what would an anime like this be if she did not have a childhood friend who is also secretly in love with her? That is where Zenkichi Hitoyoshi comes in. He acts like Medaka is a bother and is always dragging him along, but deep down, he enjoys her company.

This is an average show at best. I was expecting something better, but was left with disappointment. What could be Medaka Box’s attractive points? It is not funny, Medaka’s personality could get irritating as the piece moves forward, Zenkichi’s secret crush on Medaka can get annoying, and will this show really just be about Medaka running around the school acting on the suggestions of her box? If it is, I do not see how this anime will make any mark this Spring.

Sengoku Collection:

Another anime dedicated to the generals of the Warring States period. The last time I saw an anime that relates to Sengoku Collection is Sengoku Otome… and that was a complete failure. Seriously, why do these anime even exist? It would be better off if new and original characters were created, rather than designing a character and then slapping on a historical name on the character. Really, it gets old, and unoriginal and honestly, stupid.

Anyways, as expected, there is nothing special with Sengoku Collection. Each episode is dedicated to a general and their interaction in the present world. Oda Nobunaga is the first batter up and as I was watching this show, I was embarrassed at how bad it was. Nobunaga dives off a building and gets transported to present time and she spears a poor guy in the gut while he was minding his own business on his moped. After that encounter, she follows him around, and the audience is supposed to be entertained by her reactions to the new world. Supposed. By the end, I was elated. Not because the show was any good, but because I do not have to deal with it anymore.

Kore wa Zombie Desuka? Of the Dead:

If you have seen the first season of Kore wa Zombie Desuka?, you can expect much of the same in the second season, but with the addition of new characters. From what I saw, things are wilder in this season, but I expect it to get serious towards the midpoint onto the end.

If you have never watched Kore wa Zombie Desuka?, our main character Ayumu Aikawa was killed, but later resurrected by a powerful necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. She is a silent character, because any words that she utters can hold serious consequences. A whole mix of different characters come in as the show features a vampire ninja, a maho-shoujo (magical girl) and more.

One thing I have always disliked about this anime is that Ayumu dons the maho-shoujo garb. UGH! On a serious note, unless you are a fan of this series, or have absolutely nothing else to do… I would not watch this. Kore wa Zombie Desuka? Of the Dead is subpar at best.

Sankarea:

Chihiro Furuya is a zombie freak. He loves zombies so much that he would rather be with a zombie girl, rather than a living one. When his cat, Babu, dies after an accident, he was grief stricken and decided to try and revive Babu. Using an old manuscript that he had, he did various experiments at an abandoned building. That is where he meets Sanka Rea.

Rea is a girl from a strict family. She would scream out her frustrations of her life at the well of this building. Scenes later, Chihiro meets Rea and he tells her what he is trying to do with Babu. Fascinated by the idea, Rea decides to assist Chihiro with his work. By the first episode’s end, you find out what Sanka Rea has become and it is up to the next episodes to explain why she end up the way she did.

Sankarea sounds like it would be a fun ride, and I am looking forward to see how Chihiro deals with Rea after she becomes a zombie. I liked the character design and interactions of this show. It certainly gave the show a personality. Studio DEEN did a nice job in bringing Mitsuru Hattori’s manga to life… no pun intended.

Acchi Kocchi:

If you have ever seen Nichijou, Acchi Kocchi feels pretty much like it. It is a comedy that is based on the lives of Io Otohashi and her crush Tsumiki Miniwa. Io and Tsumiki are close friends and everyone in their circle knows how Io feels about him, yet Tsumiki does not realize that fact. So the base of the plot is the interactions between Io and Tsumiki along with their friends sprinkled in. Acchi Kocchi is a light hearted romantic comedy; if you like this genre, definitely check it out.

Space Brothers:

Space Brothers is about the lives of Mutta and Hibito Nanba. As kids they would venture into the woods and explore. One night, while they were exploring, they witnessed a UFO hovering and then blazed to the moon. It was at that point where both of them promised each other that they would become astronauts when they grow up.

Years later, Hibito has realized his dream, while Mutta was just fired from his job in the auto industry. It was not like Mutta was not successful at his work, but obviously, that job was not what he really wanted to do. After living the unemployed free loading life at his parents’ home, he begins looking for other opportunities. It is at that point, where he realizes that all he wanted to do in his life was to become an astronaut himself.

Chasing dreams and the cold hard reality, that is what made Space Brothers unique. As I was watching this anime, I thought about what my dreams were and what I really wanted to do. There are people out there in the world that is in the same boat as Mutta. Working for a living, rather than working for their dreams. Not many people get to do what they love as an occupation and in Space Brothers we get to see how Mutta will struggle to become an astronaut.

I was certainly hooked by this show right from the get-go. Maybe it was because of Mutta’s weird hairdo or because of the Zidane maneuver. Whatever it was, I was truly entertained. The story is great; it brings up an issue that people are experiencing today. The comedy is to the point and does not go overboard. By the episode’s end you get a feel of what will happen down the line and want to see what happens next.

Jormungand:

Jormungand is an adaptation of the manga by Keitaro Takahashi. The manga is available in the States, published by Viz Media and the anime has been licensed by FUNimation. A second season of the anime has already been announced and that is scheduled to be released on October 2012.

The gist of the story is this. Koko Hekmatyar is an arms dealer. She sells weapons to other countries and uses various tactics to ensure that her plans all go through. Jonah is a child who lost his parents as a result of a weapons dealer. It is the reason why he has a dislike towards arms dealers and weapons in general. The pairing of Koko and Jonah is a strange one, as they are both opposites of each other. Jonah does not talk much; his personality has been altered by his early life experiences. Koko on the other hand is cheery and does not always act like things are serious.

As Koko is recruiting Jonah, it is revealed that Koko believes that she is achieving world peace with her actions and Jonah will help her along the way. I thought Jormungard was entertaining. The plot moves fairly quickly, yet I did not feel like I was lost at any point in time. The action was constant and the character interactions felt natural. This is definitely a good shooter anime to kill some time with.

Queen’s Blade Rebellion:

Queen’s Blade has been around for a while, and there is not much that changes from series to series. There are a bunch of fine looking girls, and they fight. During the battle they lose pieces of clothing and armor to reveal certain body parts that male viewers like. It is really as simple as that. Fine, I will dig in deeper. Queen’s Blade Rebellion is set after the first Queen’s Blade series. Claudette, the winner of the last Queen’s Blade tournament has become a tyrannical ruler. That is when Annelotte Kreutz, an exiled princess knight gathers up her own army to free the people from Claudette’s rule.

I have to admit, I like Queen’s Blade for its character design, not for the periodic boobs that might be on the screen. Can anyone take the fighting seriously when it is always about stripping down the combatants? I really cannot. If you like anime that feature sexy girls fighting with armor and weapons, that get naked as the fight goes on, Queen’s Blade Rebellion is for you. For the rest of you who do not care, you might want to chill out with something else.

Nazo no Kanojo X:

The concept of Nazo no Kanojo X has to be one of the worse anime concepts that I have ever seen over the years that I have been watching anime. Akira Tsubaki is a virgin, he dreams about who will be his first sex partner and it just so happens that the next day, a transfer student transfers to his class; that student is Mikoto Urabe. Mikoto is weird. Her hair covers her eyes, she sleeps during lunch, she laughs out loud in class and she is just anti-social in every way.

One day after school, Akira heads back to the classroom to retrieve something and sees that Mikoto is still sleeping. After he woke her up and she left the room, he notices that Mikoto left a small puddle of drool on her desk. Being as desperate for a girl as he was, he gathers up the drool with his finger and puts it in his mouth!!!!! That has to be one of the most disgusting things I have witnessed… ever. After a few weeks pass, Akira gets sick and it is shown that his sickness is really just a withdrawal effect from tasting Mikoto’s saliva. By the end of the episode, they become a couple.

Guys and gals, do I really have to express how awful this show was? The characters are not interesting, the story is dull and overall, this show is just painfully bad. Can I get a refund on the time that I spent watching this show? Please?

Upotte!!:

Upotte!! reminded me of Himawari; an anime that features a school that features a teacher who transfers to the school to teach a class of girls who are weapons. No, literally. The girls are weapons. They are anthropomorphized guns. The main protagonist of the show is FNC, also known as Funko. The anime will be about the awkward situations these guns get into and how ecchi the terms that are used for guns can be when it is acted out by these school girls.

Upotte!! is a simple anime with some aspects of ecchi humor. There really is not much story to dive into, you just have to watch it and accept it for what it is. There is no deeper meaning to the plot. Comparing Upotte to Nazo no Kanojo X, this is several times better.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia / Dusk Maiden of Amnesia:

Private Seikyo Academy has a horrifying legend. 60 years ago, a female student was left to die in the old abandoned school building. It is said that her spirit lives on, haunting the school grounds after her death… Tasogare Otome x Amnesia’s whole back story sure sounds a bit scary, but in actuality, this show is quite amusing. Teiichi Niiya is a normal school boy, one day he gets lost in school and ventures into the abandoned school building. Getting even more lost as he is finding the exit, he comes into contact with Yuuko Kanoe, the female student who died 60 years ago in that very building. After some interaction, Teiichi realizes that Yuuko has no bad intentions; she just aimlessly wanders the school halls, as she has no recollection of how she died.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia has ecchi humor in the right amount. It is not overly excessive and I enjoyed that aspect of this show. It is fun to see Teiichi get teased by Yuuko intentionally or unintentionally. Who knows what kind of awkward situations the characters will get themselves into as they try to find the cause of Yuuko’s death? But one thing is for sure, this anime is definitely one of the brighter shining releases this Spring. I enjoyed it tremendously. Also, Sentai-Filmworks has licensed this anime for those who want to own discs rather than watching from Crunchyroll.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san:

An anime that pulls out some inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is a show that features aliens, weird girls and some foul fighting styles. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san started out bland. It was kind of boring. Then as the show played out, I was having a very good time watching it. Nyaruko is the deity of chaos known as Nyarlathotep, she was sent to Earth to protect Mahiro Yasaka from alien attacks. Often, Nyaruko would use cheap fighting tactics to defeat aliens. Guys will cringe a little seeing how she fights.

In this early stage of the anime, all that is known is that Nyaruko is protecting Mahiro and begins to fall in love with him or at first sight, according to her. Obviously, other characters will be brought in and spice things up even more. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is a comedy and it has lived up to its genre thus far. It has been a while since I had a good laugh with an anime and I cannot wait to see what comes next!

Hiiro no Kakera:

This one is for the shojo crowd. Hiiro no Kakera is about a girl named Tamaki Kasuga. She moves to her grandmother’s home after Tamaki’s parents are relocated on business. Little did Tamaki know, the actual reason for her move was to be her grandmother’s successor and become the Tamayori Princess and reseal the weakened seal on Onikirimaru. In come five pretty boys to become her body guard and assist her as she works towards the goal. This looks like a solid title with mysticism involved. Shojo fans have something to celebrate this Spring anime season.

Sakamichi no Apollon / Kids on the Slope:

Sakamichi no Apollon or Kids on the Slope is an anime show that is influenced by jazz, but you really cannot tell until the moment Sentaro Kawabuchi starts drumming off with tree branches on his way to class. What would an anime about music be if the best of the best were not brought together to collaborate on it? Here is where director Shinichiro Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno come in. Their most notable works together include Cowboy Bebop and Macross Plus. Both titles had amazing music to accommodate the greatness of the shows. And with Kids on the Slope it is looking pretty good.

The story follows Kaoru Nishimi, a student who has transferred from school to school throughout his whole life. This time around he finds himself living with his relatives in Kyushu. From what I have seen of his relatives, they are not very nice people, and view Kaoru as extra baggage. By chance Kaoru meets Sentaro a delinquent type character of the show. Sentaro is brash, but one person that can keep him in line is Ritsuko Mukae, his childhood friend. Ritsuko’s family owns a record shop and after some dialogue, Kaoru visits her shop to purchase some classical music. A few scenes later, Kaoru ends up buying a jazz piece instead, and falls in love with the drum beats that Sentaro performed at the basement of the shop.

I would really like to see where this anime takes me. The element of jazz music along with school life and various life issues that may arise makes this piece quite interesting. This really is an intriguing anime, one you should keep an eye out for.

Amagami SS Plus:

Amagami SS Plus is the sequel to the first series of the dating simulation adaptation from the Playstation 2 console, Amagami SS. The series focused on Tachibana Junichi and his individual love interest of the different arcs. In the first season each girl had four episodes to shine, in the sequel; they will have two episodes to further develop where it was left off in the first season.

To start if off, Ayatsuji Tsukasa graces us with a bath scene with Junichi and I was wondering at this point, whether the series took a crazy turn for fan service that I did not know about. It did not, I was relieved. Anyways, because there is a continuing change of the story as the heroines change, it is hard to gauge what I really feel about the show. I am going by what I experienced in the first season, there will be some arcs that you like more than others, and some that you would hope, would hurry up and end.

If you are a fan of the high school drama anime and interested in watching one guy going on a mission to go out with different girls, with different story lines, Amagami SS Plus is for you. Heck, to be honest, this series had a weird grip on me the first season. I kept telling myself it was not that good, but continued to watch it to the end anyways. Judging from what I have seen thus far, I genuinely liked what I saw.

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki:

I have never understood these short anime flicks. And I have never met any five minutes or less anime flick that has given me a good surprise until this Winter season. Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki is short and sweet. It is cute and at the same time gets a laugh from the audience. I went into this show expecting a desire for a refund of my time, but after it was said and done, I really enjoyed this short piece.

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki is an adaptation from the manga by Ru Tatsuki and it will also be made into a game on the Nintendo 3DS in February 2012, where the player raises Poyo. The anime starts off with Moe Sato stumbling on a soft and round object on the ground. After falling asleep on it for a night she realizes that this soft thing is really a cat. Moe brings the cat into her family and raises it as a family member. In this show you will see how the family and the other people of the show react to Poyo. It is funny and silly and since it is also short, that makes it even better.

Nisenmonogatari:

Nisenmonogatari is the sequel to the series, Bakemonogatari, which is a light novel adaptation by Nisio Isin. If you liked Bakemonogatari, you will like Nisenmonogatari. The series is more of the same formula that viewers have experienced in the previous series. The anime is dialogue driven. There are a lot of face to face interactions and the background is often neglected… or should I say simplified.

While there is action here and there, it is very sporadic. The animation style is unique as it is a compilation of cut scenes. Because of how this show plays out, I always wondered what other people thought of it. Personally I got annoyed with all this talking. I started to feel it was reading me a visual audio book. Nisenmonogatari is not for everyone and unless you are prepared to listen to constant conversations with nothing much in between, you might want to stay away.

Recorder to Randoseru / Recorder & Randsell:

Remember what I said earlier in the Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki view? Recorder to Randoseru (manga by Meme Higashiya) is one of the other five minutes or less anime that has surprised me this season. This is unheard of! I always go into these kinds of shows with no expectation.

The plot of this anime follows Atsushi Miyagawa and Atsumi Miyagawa. They seem normal until you find out that they are not what they look they are. Atsushi is an elementary school boy in an adult male body and Atsumi is a high school girl in an elementary school girl body. The utilization of this confusion is hilarious. Judging from what I have seen thus far, this show will be quite a joy to watch. Give it a try, if you do not like it, it only cost you five minutes of your life, right?

Zero no Tsukaima F:

It has been a while since I last saw Zero no Tsukaima and if you have never seen this series before you can expect magic, comedy, fan service and action. The characters are nicely designed and grow on the viewers. That is particularly the reason why I have been sticking around this series for so long. Zero no Tsukaima F is the fourth and final of the series and will continue from where the story left off in the last series; Princess no Rondo.

In F, the producers have introduced a twist to the master and familiar relationship. After certain events in the show occurred, Tiffania decides it is time for her to summon her own familiar so that she can contribute more to the cause. This is also after finding out that she too is a void mage.

The episode ends as Tiffiania summons and Saito falls off a building and right through the portal created by Tiffania’s summon. How did I know something like this was going to happen? Anyways, I definitely will continue to support this series. It has been a fun ride every season of this show that I have seen.

Brave 10:

Brave 10, like other anime, such as, Sengoku Basara and Samurai Deeper Kyo, get its inspiration from the group of ninjas known as the Ten Heroes of Sanada during the late Sengoku period and early Edo period of Japan. In Brave 10, our main character Saizo Kirigakure is a skilled samurai who does not trust lords. As he was traveling, he runs into a shrine maiden, Nami Isa, who is being chased by a bunch of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s ninjas. Nami pleads to Saizo for help.

When the ninjas decide that Saizo needs to die since he witnessed this event, Saizo takes action. When it was over, Nami convinces Saizo to be her bodyguard until she reaches Sanada Yukimura, a lord that her shrine sided with. It has been a while since I last saw a good slice ‘em up anime and so far, Brave 10 is quite good. The pace of the show moves very fast. It feels like there is a rush to get from scene to scene. The action is very nice and the plot is intriguing.

The producers reveal to the audience that Nami has a hidden power that other lords would want to have at their disposal, and the fact that Sanada Yukimura is collecting his group of ten heroes for a samurai showdown adds to that excitement. This title has also been licensed by NIS America, be sure to follow the release details in the coming months.

Kill Me Baby / Baby, Please Kill Me:

From the moment I heard the opening theme, I was already expecting the worse. Kill Me Baby is an anime about the everyday life of Yasuna Oribe, the typical airhead and Sonya, the typical serious opposite of what her counterpart is. Add the fact that Sonya is an assassin and you get the comedic base for the majority of the show.

Kill Me Baby starts out okay. It was funny for a short moment. Then the comedy just got stupid, boring and repetitive. The kiddy styled animation contributed to its downfall as well. At the midpoint of the show, I was saying to myself how ironic the anime’s title was. I wanted someone to kill me, it was that bad of a train wreck of a show. Stay away if you want to keep your sanity.

Moretsu Pirates / Bodacious Space Pirates:

Marika Kato is a normal first year high school girl. She had lived her life with her mother without knowing anything about her father. One day, two mysterious travelers decides to visit Marika at her part time job at a maid café and when this incident was brought to her mother’s attention, everything else just falls into place.

You see, Ririka Kato (the mother) has not told Marika anything about her own past or who Marika’s father was. It was until the two mysterious travelers came to pay another visit to Marika’s house… that was when Marika was told about her father, Gonzaemon Kato who was the captain of the space pirate ship Bentenmaru. Since Marika’s father had passed away, the only rightful heir to the captaincy is the direct descendant of the previous captain, which means Marika is now thrust with the responsibility of Bentenmaru.

Morestu Pirates feels like it would be a very good adventure. The story thus far has been quite entertaining and with great character design and nice animations, I am excited at what the future holds for this series. Sentai Filmworks has licensed Moretsu Pirates, and digital and television releases will begin this February. Be on the look out!

High School DxD:

When the first line of the main character, Issei Hyodo, is that he wanted to fondle some boobs… you kind of know where this anime is going to go. High School DxD is this season’s ecchi humor, harem anime; there is no lack of boobs or girls on screen. Our protagonist is a pervert, and along with his friends, transferred to Komaou Private Academy, because it had recently been converted into a co-ed. With the number of females trumping over the number of males… Issei figured that he would have a chance at getting with a girl.

The problem is, his perverted ways has given him a bad rap in the school. One day as he walks home, a girl named Yuuma, approaches Issei and asked him to go out with her. Obviously he jumps at the chance and at the end of a date that they had, Yuuma asks Issei if he could die for her. Not knowing if it was a joke, Yuuma transforms into a fallen angel and kills Issei, yet Issei only thought about catching a glimpse of her naked boobs for a second or two.

As his life dwindles away, he wishes for a chance with Rias Gremory, a senpai who he had admired from the first time he laid eyes on her. Some more things happen and we end up learning that Rias Gremory is a demon and she had “revived” Issei to serve her. I think the story is not overly deep. The focus of High School DxD is obviously the fan service. If you like bouncing breasts in anime, then this piece here will satisfy your appetite. If you are looking for some spice of life drama, you will not find it here. I just hope this anime is not like Manyuu Hikenchou, where it gets excessive and to a point of disgust.

New Prince of Tennis:

I was never a fan of the original Prince of Tennis, although I have heard many good things about it from friends, my attitude towards this franchise might change after watching this new series. From what I have read this series is a manga adaptation and continues from where the original series left off. Ryoma Echizen starts off at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City and receives an invitation to the Under 17 tennis boot camp in Japan.

This boot camp consists entirely of high school tennis players from Japan but this time around, the U-17 decided to allow fifty middle school players to participate. Only the best will survive this vigorous training camp. The format is simple. The participants will have random matches to gauge which court or level a player will play on. The best players go to the lower numbered courts and the scrubs… you know, go to the high numbered courts.

The show is somewhat newbie friendly. I say that because even though I have not watched Prince of Tennis before, it felt like I have after they showed and featured the specialties of each middle school player in the Seigaku Academy tennis club during a challenge from some of the high school players. Of course, this does not mean that I am all of a sudden a Prince of Tennis guru; it just makes me feel less lost within the series. When it was all said and done, I enjoyed the time I had with this show, the drama, and the competition aspect of it were a real treat. It is no wonder why Prince of Tennis is one of the most favorite anime of the Japanese.

Area no Kishi / The Knight in the Area:

Football or soccer to some is the most popular sport in the world. In Area no Kishi or The Knight in the Area, we are shown what soccer means to a boy named, Kakeru Aizawa. Kakeru’s older brother, Suguru is a soccer prodigy. Kakeru is the manager of his brother’s soccer team. It is revealed that while Kakeru tells people that he is happy with his choice to be the team’s manager and has no urge to play soccer, he secretly practices in the evening at the park.

At this time it is also shown the reason for why Kakeru is hesitant to play soccer again. He had an injury to his left leg and does not want to embarrass himself or his brother. A gray alien challenges Kakeru at the park. Through their small match, Kakeru realizes that he does want to play soccer again.

Area no Kishi is one of those sports shows where the viewer will experience the good and the bad times of the character; the drama and the struggle with his love for the sport and dealing with his brother’s stardom. While I think this show has some good points, I do not believe I will follow it. The reason being that I feel the main character’s personality will get on my nerves and honestly, I am not a big fan of soccer.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear:

Anime that are based on singing are always a hit or miss for me. The successful cases are Macross Frontier and Guilty Crown, the not so successful cases are Uta no Prince-sama and The iDOLM@STER. Hopefully this anime will end up a success in my book. In Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Tsubasa Kazanari and Kanade Amo are idols known as ZweiWing and during a concert performance, aliens known as Noise, attack the venue. Tsubasa and Kanade bursts into action with their Symphogear armor to try and stop the Noise. When Hibiki Tachibana was wounded as a result of Kanade’s fighting, she decided to sacrifice herself to save Hibiki and put an end to the assault.

Two years pass , Tsubasa continued her ways as an idol by going solo and Hibiki was back to living a normal life. That is until she once again encounters the Noise. Her will to survive was influenced by Kanade’s last words telling her to not accept death. When she is finally cornered with nowhere to run, Hibiki sings the song that Kanade sung when she sacrificed herself. Suddenly Hibiki is engulfed in the power that Kanade had and the episode comes to an end there.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is somewhat confusing at the beginning. The show brings us to present time where Hibiki’s best friend arrives at Hibiki’s grave, then we go back two years and witness what we did at the concert, then we go back to “present” time where Hibiki is alive and kicking with said friend! I did a double take when I saw that. The story will probably explain the gaps later on, so I am not worried. As for the action of Senki Zesshou Symphogear, I really disliked the screen shots of a special move followed by the move’s name. It is just super lame in my opinion. Other than that gripe though, this anime shows promise. The music was not bad and the story is quite intriguing.

Another:

Horror mystery anime… you do not see this genre often, last one I can remember is Ghost Hunt and that was years ago. Anyways, Another is an anime that is based on Koichi Sakakibara and his experience after he had transferred from a private school in Tokyo to a public school called Yomiyama North middle school out in the middle of nowhere. On the day that he was supposed to introduce himself to his class, he suddenly fell ill and had to be hospitalized.

The scenes that occur after his hospitalization will make a viewer question what the heck is exactly going on. I know it is early and I should not expect the anime to tell me all the details, but at the end of the episode, I do not know what was going on. To simplify it, Koichi meets Misaki Mei (mysterious eye patch girl) in the elevator, and his interest in her sparked from that encounter. When he was healthy enough to attend school, you can see that the atmosphere of the class is not very lively.

It feels like they are reserved and hiding something even when they are casually having a conversation. It is then revealed that no one else can see Misaki Mei. In one scene her desk was clean when Mei was in the scene, in another scene it is shown that her desk is worn down and empty. At the end of the episode, Mei tells Koichi that the class associates his name with death… and that is it. So from what I have seen thus far, this show is complicated and the plot is dull. The characters are not great, but I will give credit to the animation for giving this show the mysterious and creepy feel. Personally, I would not waste my time with this anime.

Aquarion EVOL:

What kind of anime fan would I be if I did not love giant robots? A total fraud of an anime fan! Aquarion EVOL is the sequel to the series Genesis of Aquarion and to be honest, I have never seen it, although I have heard about it. Right from the start, I can tell this title will be very detailed. I loved the setting, the atmosphere of the world that they are in, the mecha designs are awesome and the scenery is quite beautiful.

Amata Sora is the protagonist of the story and our female lead is Mikono Suzushiro. Their meeting in the movie theatre that Amata works at is awkward, but works. I thought it was funny that Amata needs to put weights in his boots so that he does not fly away. Yes, he has the power to fly when he is excited. While on their mini date, the Abductors attack the town and in the chaos of it all, Amata decides to unleash his power of flight.

Several scenes later he ends up in Aquarion with Mikono. The Aquarion combination scene was exciting and the interesting twist to the combination was that it is forbidden for males and females to combine… or sync. So to see this vast display of power from Aquarion, it was an eye opener for all of the pilots. Aquarion EVOL is truly an astonishing piece visually, and the plot so far is very engaging. Giant robot anime fans, we have been waiting for this for way too long!

Daily Lives of High School Boys:

The title pretty much explains what you will see from the piece; it is the Daily Lives of High School Boys. Often times we get anime that are geared towards the females for the slice of high school life genre, in this anime we get to see what the guys do… and it is somewhat accurate, emphasis on somewhat. Daily Lives of High School Boys focuses on comedy, and it is a hit or miss.

This show tries too hard to get a laugh, going to various extremes. Dressing up in your sister’s underwear and skirt to get inspiration for what it feels like? Not sure how many guys actually do that on their chill time. Anyways, Daily Lives of High School Boys is an okay comedy, it is split into chapters and does not have a main story that it follows… other than acting a fool in school and out of school.

Rinne no Lagrange / The Flower of Rin-ne:

Madoka Kyouno is a member of the Jersey Club. The club’s activity focuses on helping others. As the only member of the club, she has her hands full with helping other clubs, and other classmates. One day she is approached by a girl in a strange outfit. Being the easy go lucky kind of person Madoka is, she immediately accepts her as her comrade, since Lan, the girl, helped Madoka by returning her clothes that she took off to save a drowning person earlier on.

Lan asks Madoka to help her by piloting a robot called Vox. Without any knowledge to how to pilot it, Madoka jumps in and wings it, all the while, trying to fight off an enemy robot that came from outer space. From my early view of this show, I thought it was entertaining. Madoka’s personality was attractive and a joy to see. Rinne no Lagrange seems to be a fun ride and I suggest you go over to VizAnime.com and watch the simulcasts! Also, if you are a fan of Megumi Nakagima you will enjoy the opening and closing themes.

Ano Natsu de Matteru / Waiting in the Summer:

Ano Natsu de Matteru or Waiting in the Summer felt familiar. I felt like I have seen these characters before and have seen something like this before. Not to my surprise, I found out that this anime was produced by the same folks that were involved with the Onegai Teacher, and Onegai Twins franchises. That to me, my friends, is very good news. I loved Onegai Teacher, although not so enthralled with Onegai Twins.

Ichika Takatsuki is an alien (Mizuho Kazami look-alike, anyone?) and Kaito Kirishima is an average student who lives with his sister due to the passing of their parents. One thing that he remembered that his father always did was take a camcorder to film everything. Kaito decides to go out during the night to scout for some nice scenes to film. All of a sudden a bright light engulfs him and he dies.

Okay no he did not die, maybe he did, but whatever. He wakes up perfectly fine in his house. When he got to school, he notices that a new student had transferred in, that student was Ichika. Kaito immediately had an interest in Ichika and begins to film her. When his friend helps him out by asking whether Ichika would like to join Kaito’s movie project, she accepts. And that is the base of the show.

Ano Natsu de Matteru started off slow, the protagonist was boring, the show did not pick up until towards the end of the episode where Kaito is “talking” to himself, but really he had been talking aloud to Ichika. During the conversation, he suggests Ichika live in his house and she took on his offer. As she gets out of the bath, Kaito faints and is affected by some kind of virus. When Ichika heard him collapse she rushed out of the bath and proceeds to save him. This involved her giving him CPR. At the same time, his sister returns home to witness a naked girl making out with her brother. This confusion felt very familiar with the Onegai series and that is what makes the franchise so great.

The smart mix of fan service and comedy is truly entertaining and definitely worth my time. This is ecchi humor at its best. Sentai Filmworks has licensed this series for U.S. release and it is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai / Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father:

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai or Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father was a light novel adaptation to manga adaptation to now an anime. The story focuses on Yuuta Segawa, a college student. His sister has remarried with another guy and Yuuta decided to move out and live on his own, kind of keeping his distance from the newly formed family, which consisted of a total of three children.

His college life was going smoothly until he gets kidnapped by the Street Observation Research Society. In the club, he was first tricked into believing that he got drunk and did something bad to Oda Raika, the sexy character of the show. Raika is the kind of character who has the body, but a lack of personality. She does not show her emotions easily and does not connect with many people. But somehow, a friendship formed between Raika and Yuuta and Yuuta began to fall for her.

The way the anime was going, I was wondering what the deal was with the title. It does not sound anything like it. Then it is shown that Yuuta’s sister has asked Yuuta to come over to her house to take care of her kids while she and her husband go attend to some matters. What happens after that is not shown yet, but you can figure out what happens if you just piece everything together.

Yuuta ends up having to take care of his sister’s kids and how will that turn out? How will this twist affect his progress with Raika? There will certainly be some amusing times with Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai. From what I have seen thus far, I am definitely hooked to this. The twist is appealing and the characters are attractive. The Street Observation Research Society kind of felt like Genshiken. The combination of this weird club in Yuuta’s college and his situation with his family is entertaining. I can just envision all those weird situations he is going to get himself into.

Fate/Zero:

I have always been a fan of Fate Stay Night, and when this piece came out, I was obviously excited. Fate/Zero is the prequel to Fate Stay Night. It is based on the Holy Grail war that occurred before the events of Fate Stay Night. In this version, you will get to see the family ties and more in-depth insight in the characters of Fate Stay Night, who played the role of extras.

So all this stuff should be good and dandy right? No. To my surprise, I was quite disappointed with what I have seen thus far. The dialogues were long and boring. The animation felt… like the kind I would see in dating simulation game. You know, the type with the high resolution backgrounds and then the character will be in the foreground, torso up, just talking.

It was quite sickening during one of the scenes where Kotomine Kirei was being recruited by Tosaka Tokiomi and Kotomine Risei; the scene was pretty much Kirei standing in the middle and Tokiomi and Risei playing duck duck goose, circling Kirei and informing him of the Holy Grail war. What kind of crap is that? Anyways, the first episode is 45 minutes and I was unimpressed. I was bored and just wanted it to be over. I certainly hope the future episodes will be different, because Fate/Zero has a lot of potential. Saber deserves better!

Working’!!:

In the second season of Working!!, the crew at Wagnaria is back and viewers are in for some comedic adventures. If you have not seen the first season, Working!! is about Takanashi Sota and his experience working at a restaurant named Wagnaria. Sounds pretty simple, but the cast of characters are all quirky and weird in their own way. Takanashi loves small things, Popura is a short girl who strives to be tall, Inami has androphobia and uses Takanashi as a punching bag and Yachiyo carries a katana around at all times. There are more strange personalities, but let us get to the actual show itself.

Nothing has changed since the first season; it felt like this series just picked up exactly where it left off. After watching the first episode, I did not feel the same enjoyment that I had from the first season. I guess, it was because I was no longer surprised by the things that happen at Wagnaria. But even with that, I will continue to watch Working’!! as I know there will some entertaining content in it.

Bakuman 2nd Season:

What is the life of a manga-ka like? What if you were a student with the dream of becoming a successful manga-ka? In Bakuman, the show will take you behind the scenes to see how some of the things are in the manga creation world. As a work that came from the creators of Death Note, you know Bakuman had some high expectations. Judging from what I have seen, the show is the slice of life types where you feel a certain connection with the characters as they are chasing their dream.

I have not seen the first season of Bakuman, and I guess I missed all the struggles Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi went through to get their manga “Detective Trap” serialized. Although that is the case, season two brings a new chapter to the two characters’ lives. Now that they are serialized, they need to work harder to keep it that way. How will they deal with the changes or failures? Guess if you are one of those viewers who love to see how some people’s lives play out, this show is for you.

C³:

C³ also known as C Cube or Cube x Cursed x Curious, was a light novel by Hazuki Minase, before it was adapted into a manga and anime series. One day, a package box arrives at the home of Haruaki Yachi from his father and thinking that it was just another one of his father’s weird antique collectibles, Haruaki dumps it in the storage room. On that very night, he is awoken by noise in the kitchen; that is when he comes into contact with a naked girl named Fear.

Fear is not your average girl; she attained her human form after years of hatred and murderous intents from people. She was “created” to accept these feelings and to deal with them. She will also cause problems for whoever is her owner, but as Haruaki reassures her, he is immune to curses, so Fear can curse him all she wants. Upon watching this piece play out, I kept having this thought in the back of my mind. This anime felt like Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, maybe because Fear resembled Erio Towa. Anyways, I enjoyed what I saw thus far in C Cube. The story seems interesting and the character exchanges were entertaining. I am definitely looking forward to how this show plays out.

Kimi to Boku:

After seeing a lot of these school girl slice of life anime pop up recently, we finally have an opportunity to see a male version. Kimi to Boku is an anime adaptation from the manga series by Kiichi Hotta and is about four childhood friends and their school adventures. I have to admit, I did not think much of the show seeing how it is mainly about school boys, but it was interesting. There were some comedy that made me chuckle, nothing too crazy though. Since I am not a big fan of this genre, I cannot fully recommend it. If you like to see how people go on with their daily lives, this one is for you.

Shinryaku Ika Musume Season 2:

Shinryaku Ika Musume is a cute show. But it is just that. For those who have not seen the first season, the anime follows a squid girl who vows revenge on humans, because of their pollution to the ocean. That sounds quite menacing, until she breaks a wall in the Aizawa household. After that she is forced to pay off the damages through work as a waitress at the Lemon beach house.

The story picks up from where first season left off; the viewers will see how this squid girl communicates with humans and her plans of revenge, it kind of feels like “Pinky & the Brain.” One thing that I found annoying is the way Ika Musume ends her sentences (geso), and after watching one episode of it, I do not know how anyone is able to withstand two seasons of that abuse. So if you are into kind of show, go for it. Otherwise, I would move on to something else.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle:

Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle is produced by Sunrise and is about a genius puzzle solver named, Daimon Kaito. Kaito is one of those kids that want a challenge, because through talent alone he was able to clear the so called difficult puzzles that other students took a long time to solve or could not solve at all. In comes Jikukawa Soji, the puzzle club’s president. He gave a device to Kaito with puzzles in it. When Kaito solved the puzzles one after another, he receives a message from someone named, Minotaur, through the device. It was an invitation to solve a complex puzzle that the Puzzle King could not solve; the Sage’s puzzle.

As I was watching this show, Zelda and Resident Evil games came to mind, since both of those titles contained puzzles for the gamer to solve. In the case of Phi Brain, you are not the person solving these puzzles, you are watching someone else do the job and I wonder how much amusement one would attain from doing that. Do not get me wrong, I thought Phi Brain was enjoyable, because I am a fan of puzzles. It also kept a rapid pace throughout, so I had to stay tuned to the screen. Overall, the show might not appeal to all viewers, but if you have nothing else better to watch, check this out. You might find it interesting.

Chihayafuru:

Chihayafuru is an anime adaptation from the manga series created by Yuki Suetsugu. The story follows a high school girl named Chihaya Ayase and her dream of becoming a Karuta master. That is a pretty weird dream to have for a high school student as the game of Karuta is not one that is very prominent in the modern world. But nevertheless, it is a dream that she has set for herself, unlike her previous dream when she was an elementary school girl, where it was that her sister becomes a famous model. The idea of having her own dream was brought up to her by Arata Wataya, a transfer student that the other students picked on. During a game of Karuta, Chihaya was amazed at Arata’s passion for the game and as a result, she developed her own.

As great of a job Madhouse did with the animation, I do believe that it is quite difficult to bring the game of Karuta any excitement on screen. You got players slapping cards away and they fly like ninja stars are thrown. Kind of excessive and dangerous if you asked me. Anyways, as I said, the animation was very lovely and while I will not keep this in my watch list, I do feel that there will be an audience for this show. I mean, take a look at the success of Hikaru no Go. Who would have thought a game like Go would produced the results it did as an anime? I sure did not.

Mashiro Iro Symphony:

Mashiro Iro Symphony is an eroge (adult game) by Palette. While it is in the genre of eroge, there really is not much gaming aspect to it, as it is a visual novel where the players read and look at the scenes and select certain choices. Now that it has been adapted into an anime, I am wondering how this will turn out. I sure hope it will not be like Yosuga no Sora, you know what I am talking about if you have seen that anime.

Mashiro Iro Symphony follows our protagonist, Shingo Uryu. In the first episode, most of the show was dedicated to Sakuno (Shingo’s little sister) getting lost and Shingo going out to look for her. After a while, Sakuno meets Airi Sena, a girl who is also lost and together they meet up with Shingo in the park. The Uryu siblings did not know who Airi Sena is and not knowing whether they will see each other again they bid their farewells. Fast forward some scenes and now the viewer is finally told the situation and the base the anime will build on. Shingo and Sakuno are both students of Kagamidai Private Academy and as a result of certain events; the Kagamidai students are undergoing a merger with an all girls school, Yuihime Girls’ Private Academy.

The episode comes to an end when it is revealed that Airi Sena is actually a student of the Yuihimi Girls’ academy who is fine with the girls merging, but opposes the boys from Kagamidai. It is up to Shingo now to get through to Airi that merging the boys to the school would not be a bad idea. I really do not know how this anime will turn out, and I will not recommend this show to viewers who are not fans of this genre, as certain parts of the show is torture for those who cannot stand these eroge turned anime.

Persona 4 the Animation:

Persona 4: The Animation is an adaptation from the video game for the Sony Playstation 2, and since I have beaten that game, I was exhilarated when I heard that an anime series was going to be produced. Okay, let us get into the anime now. If you have played the game, a lot of the scenes felt old. Maybe I was expecting a little too much, I thought it was going to be different somehow. But so far, the show follows the game to the scene. I knew what was going to happen, I knew what was going to be said in the dialogues and other than the fact that these characters are animated, there was nothing special about it.

When they said Persona 4: The Animation, they really meant Persona 4, just animated. If you enjoyed the game, you might find the animation less entertaining because there was nothing that was extraordinary. If you did not play the game, Persona 4: The Animation should feel fresh to you, but I would suggest that you do play the game sometime in the near future. I will still continue to watch this anime, as I am a huge fan of Persona.

Maken Ki!:

Maken Ki! is a manga by Hiromitsu Takeda, adapted into an anime. The plot focuses on Takeru Ohyama, your average high school boy without much focus in life. He decided to attend Tenbi Academy due to the fact that there were no interviews, no entrance exams, is a boarding school and just recently became a co-ed school after many years of being an all girls’ institution. Obviously, this is all too good to be true and within a few scenes he got to experience what Tenbi Academy was about. It is a school that focuses on magical martial arts combat battles.

Enough with the story, Maken Ki! is your typical ecchi humor show, with your typical characters and in this day in age, what is really original anymore right? It really comes down to how these perceived “typical” things are used in relation to the show. When it comes down to it, I liked Maken Ki!. There might be excessive panty shots, but that should not take away the fact that it was entertaining. The characters were nicely designed and animated, plus the battle scenes looked great. The interactions in the anime were paced well, so the viewer knows exactly what is going on throughout. Definitely check Maken Ki! out, if you like the ecchi humor genre.

Shakugan no Shana III (Final):

Shakugan no Shana III is the final series of the anime. Honestly speaking, this title is another one of those, “I forgot it never finished” kind of titles. I do not really remember much from the previous seasons as the last time I watched them were years ago. Anyways, Yuji Sakai is now gone, disappeared, he has moved on and reappears as the leader of Bal Masque. How is Shana going to deal with this battle? If this installment is similar to the previous series, it should be quite entertaining. There will be action, drama and the best of all, a conclusion.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!:

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai, which translates to “Do You Love Me Seriously” is an adult visual novel developed by Minato Soft and has been adapted into a manga and now an anime series. Right off the bat, you are put into a class war, also known as the Kawakami War; the battle between the S class and the F class (Some Baka-Test element to it?). Watching this show, reminded me of the aforementioned Baka-Test, an episode of Sora no Otoshimono Forte where there was a class battle and also characters from other shows in the form or similarity and exactly (Ex: Ageha Kuki from “They Are My Noble Masters”).

In Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai or Majikoi for short, we follow Yamato Naoe, the brains behind the operations. He wants to prove to Momoyo Kawakami (Shinra resemblance from “They Are My Noble Masters”) that he is worthy to be by her side. Their relationship is one of brother and sister, which for some viewers is a major turn off. I certainly felt disturbed, but as with Asian culture the term brother and sister is just a reference to someone who is close and older/younger.

I did not think this anime was entertaining. Matter of fact, I fell asleep and had to re-watch it after a coffee break, and still my mind set did not change. Majikoi is supposed to be a comedy but it was not funny; it is the usual harem type anime with no depth. During the whole run time of the episode, I kept questioning myself, “What is the point of this show?” Things kept occurring on screen, but I was tuned out, because it was boring and uninteresting.

Kyouka Senjou no Horizon:

Kyouka Senjou no Horizon, also known as Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere is an anime by Sunrise and was adapted from a light novel by Minoru Kawakami. The story takes place in the future where Earth was no longer habitable and humans have taken on space exploration only to find that they were not able to. Japan is the only area that was habitable. How is it that a small country, such as, Japan can foster the entire human population? Of course, that is impossible, so dimensions were created to solve the issue. When the original Japanese population was pushed out by the invading dimension forces, they created the city ship Musashi.

The city ship flies around Japan, looking to reclaim what was once their land. In comes Tori Aoi, our protagonist. He has the “Oh gosh” type of personality and very easy going. Because of this, he became the president of the student council. While he does not excel in any particular area, he is respected. From what I have seen thus far, the show will have a lot of boobs, a lot of tight fitting outfits from the female characters and some odd ball moments as a result of the other characters.

I cannot say that Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere is anything special; the whole first episode was dedicated to a chase, which really does not do much in terms of forwarding the plot. We will probably see more in the future episodes, but this anime has already set a pace and it does not feel like a good one, because if there were not any development at all from the first episode, what can we truly expect later on?

Mirai Nikki:

Yukiteru Amano is a member of the “Go Home” club. He has no friends, does not care to make any and enjoys documenting everything that he has seen or done in his diary. Kind of like Facebook status updates, because he will post even the most random things. Anyways, because he is a loner, he has learned to communicate with his imaginary friends in his mind; Deux Ex Machina and Murmur. Upon expressing how bored he was, Deux Ex, “helps” Yukiteru by giving him a mirai nikki (future diary).

The morning of the next day, he checks his cell phone and sees that his diary has already been filled with today’s events. Feeling suspicious and in a state of disbelief, he finds out from Yuno Gasai that he is not the only person with the future diary. He is also then filled in with the true purpose of the future diary. Deux Ex Machina was not his imaginary friend; he was real and has put Yukiteru and eleven other diary users in a survival game. In this game, the participants have to find and kill each other, until only one survives. The winner of this game will take the throne from Deux Ex as the God of Time and Space.

I thought Mirai Nikki or Future Diary was an interesting concept and that each of the characters in the show are twisted in their heads. There are some blood and gore aspect, but not extreme to the point of disgust. But how far can this show go? While I said the concept is interesting, it still feels somewhat one dimensional, and will get dull to a certain point. So let us hope that it will turn out well in the end.

Ben-To:

You are a poor high school student, you are hungry, and so you walk into a supermarket to pick up some food to eat. That ben-to over there looks good, so you make your way down the aisle to grab the last ben-to available. Next thing you know, you are on the floor, bruised, you are bloodied and your memory does not quite serve you correctly as you forget why you were in the supermarket and what events took place. Still fuzzy, you see a pretty girl mouth some words to you through the window of the supermarket and you begin to have fantasies, but that is besides the point, you are still hungry and now with whatever change you have left in your pocket, you had to grab whatever is left because the ben-to are all gone.

That is the life of Yo Sato. From what I have seen from Ben-To, this guy is in for some abuse; getting slapped by the class lead (Ume Shiraume) and getting kicked around by the girl known as the Ice Witch, Sen Yarizui. This anime is a strange piece. The main point of the show involves the protagonist going through battles of life and death in order to earn the right to purchase the half-off ben-to.

After consecutive failures, Sen Yarizui tells Yo Sato to meet her after school. It is then made known that he will be joining the Half-Priced Food Lovers club, where Sen will train him in order to succeed in battle. Ben-To is a ridiculous concept and I do not see how this series will be entertaining. You might get a few laughs here and there from the comedy, but seriously, fighting for ben-to? I do not comprehend the excitement associated with that. Let us hope, there is more aspects to the show, than just the supermarket battles.

Tamayura ~hitotose~:

Here comes the female slice of life anime of the season. Tamayura ~hitotose~ is a story about a girl named Fu Sawatari. She is still healing from the passing of her father and one day as she looks at the pictures that her father took when he was still alive, Fu remembered the joy that were in the photos and the happiness her father felt as he was snapping the shots. It is then where she decides to take up her father’s passion for photography. Utilizing his camera, she is on a mission to take pictures with light specks in them. These light specks are referred as tamayura by Fu and they only exist in pictures when there is joy around.

I am sure there is audience out there that will appreciate this type of anime, but I cannot bring myself to continue to watch this. The pace of the anime is slow, and from what I have seen so far, feels sad. I do understand that Fu Sawatari is going through the process of losing a loved one and that contributes to the gloomy atmosphere. Towards the end of the episode, Fu returns to her home town, where her father grew up to attend high school, and meet up with her childhood friend Kaoru Hanawa. Tamayura is your typical slice of life anime and if you enjoy those, then have at it.

Un-Go:

Un-Go is a detective anime. Shinjuro Yuki, also known as the “Defeated Detective” goes around crime scenes with his partner Inga to solve the mysteries behind the crimes. Right off the bat the viewers see that Shinjuro Yuki was dead or in the process of dying and Inga saves him somehow. Once the opening theme was over, we are immediately brought to the story and the characters involved. One issue I have with Un-Go is the constant introduction of characters by just captioning their name and who they are.

Honestly, I cannot remember all these names and their roles. If they did one or two, I can process that. But when they started to go down the list of characters I just tuned out, because quite frankly, the story did not require that all these extra characters be identified. All that was needed was the protagonist, Inga, Rinroku and Rie Kaisho, the criminal and the guy that died. Every other character, the anime would have survived if we did not know who they were.

Anyways, I thought Un-Go was good. It made me put on my detective hat and think about the incident, trying to solve the mystery myself. You rarely get anime like that anymore, where you have to put your brain to use. Most of the stuff these days are, just watch and maybe hope you enjoy it types. Also, Inga is strange. She mainly takes on the form of a kid, but when she gets anxious, she will take the form of a hot babe. Her special ability is that she can pose one question to anyone and they will answer her truthfully. With this ability, solving mysteries sure gets easier. I am looking forward to see what really happened with Shinjuro Yuki during the opening of the show and definitely looking forward to what kind of other mysteries Un-Go has in stored for me.

Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai:

Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai, also known as “I Don’t Have Many Friends” or Haganai for short, takes a concept that is often over looked in everyday life and brings it to light. When I was in school, there were the popular kids who had many “friends,” then there were the kids who were kept to themselves and did not care to make any friends. In the first episode of this show, we get to see three levels of why certain people do not have friends.

Our main character, Kodaka Hasegawa received a bad rap on the first day of school. His delinquent look scared the teacher and the students. From then on, everyone is scared of him and runs the other way whenever he is in sight. Next is Yozora Mikazuki, she makes no effort to talk to anyone in class. She often just sits at her desk and puts her head down during free time. From the “leave me alone” vibe that she gives off, other students just ignore her. Now we move onto Sena Kashiwazaki. She is the popular girl in school, often accompanied by a group of guys. But that means, she should have a lot of friends right? No. The people that associate with Sena are the people that want something from her, due to the fact that she is pretty and also the daughter of the board chairman of the school.

So things happen and Mikazuki decides to create the Neighbor’s club, where the main purpose of the club is to make friends. I thought the idea of the show was fun, but where can the story take us? Will it be another one of those shows where you see the characters interacting in the club all the time and getting little to nothing done? Quite a few anime titles come into mind. Or will Haganai actually accomplish something and become a title that I will want to continue watching. It is difficult to tell at the current moment as all I saw in terms of club activities were Mikazuki and Sena going at each other. I guess it is their form of getting acquainted as friends. Anyways, I do want to see how this show plays out, but I will be ready to hop off the bandwagon when things get rough.

Mobile Suit Gundam: AGE:

Out with the serious styled Gundam series (SEED, Wing etc.), in with the kiddy style series. While I would not say this is a first for the Gundam franchise, Gundam AGE takes the less eye candy route, but still manages to deliver with a great story line. In this edition of Gundam, we are placed in a war zone, the Unknown Enemy (UE) attacked the space colony Ovan and obliterated everyone and everything in sight. Our protagonist Flit Asuno was just a child when he was involved in all that mess and was given the responsibility (a device containing the blueprints to make a Gundam) from his mother, who also told him to entrust his fate to the Gundam.

Years have passed since the incident and humans lived with the fear of the UE daily. Having experienced the attack and lived to talk about it, Flit has always wondered whether the UE have an attack pattern. When a colony ship was destroyed by the UE, he believed that the next target would be space colony Nora. Of course, everyone laughs at his suggestion until the attacks materialized. With whatever firepower Nora had, they were fighting a losing battle. That is when Flit suggests the Gundam be used. And from that point on, Flit Asuno begins his journey as the savior of humanity piloting the Gundam.

From what I have seen, obviously, my first beef with the show is the animation. I am not a big fan of the kiddy style Gundam series and I am confident that I am not the only person on this boat. But at the same time I looked past that and saw the series as a whole. The story is, while not totally original, as there have been a few mecha anime with similar elements, it was still very good. The way the characters acted out and the action that followed was remarkable.

I have to be honest, this is the first Gundam I have watched since Gundam X and Gundam AGE has managed to pull me out of my state of trauma left by Gundam X. Okay, maybe not so serious, but AGE has really brought to me a sense of refreshment for the Gundam franchise. It could be the fact that I have not watch Gundam for years, or it could be the fact that it is genuinely a decent series. I am siding with the latter.

Guilty Crown:

If any series is a love at first sight this fall season. Guilty Crown takes the crown. The year is 2039 Shu Ouma is a high school student whom often kept to himself. He is a loner and as he was going to his secret spot, he meets Inori Yuzuriha the singer whom he adored (as he was listening, watching her music video and staring alone into the city night sky in the introduction). But the circumstance of the meeting was not ideal as she was injured from running from the GHQ.

The GHQ is an organization that took the independence from the Japanese people all while they were restoring Japan from the “Lost Christmas”; the period in time (2029) where a virus was spread in Japan, which caused many deaths and chaos. Certainly, this sounds like a noble cause by the GHQ, but their oppressive government and disregard for the independence of the people has lead a resistance group to develop, a group named, “Undertaker.”

When Inori was captured, Shu finally found the push for him to do something out of the ordinary chapters of his life. He decided to make a difference and listened to Inori’s words and brought the stolen goods to Gai Tsutsugami, the leader of “Undertaker.” As their meeting unfolds, the GHQ has launched an attack to the area with a kill anyone in sight order. Seeing this mayhem unfold, Shu runs and stumbles upon Inori. Hesitant at first to save her, he decides to run out there and when everything was said and done, he attains the king’s mark, which allowed him to withdraw a weapon out of Inori (looks like a Dantalian no Shoka moment). Anyways, he uses the power and halts GHQ’s attacks and the episode comes to an end. At this point, I was picking my jaw up from the floor.

Right when the episode began, we are greeted with one of the best insert theme songs (Euterpe) that I have experienced. The soft and calm vocals really put the viewer into the correct mood of the show. Both opening (My Dearest) and closing (Departures: Anata ni Okuru Ai no Uta) themes are written by Supercell and the performances by the respective singers are astonishing. I really enjoyed the sounds of Guilty Crown.

Next comes the animation and action. Superb details as expected by Production I.G, I was very happy with what I saw. The battle scenes and fighting scenes were explosive and hard hitting. Now the story, it was gripping. While Shu Ouma’s character is a bit frustrating due to his scaredy cat attitude at the beginning, he matures as the show goes on and became part of the resistance. The plot also manages to keep you on the edge pondering what is next. Guilty Crown is a definite hit and if you do not check this piece out, you are missing out!

Cross Fight B-Daman:

Where do I begin… Cross Fight B-Daman is one of these kiddy anime that focuses on a certain game. Kind of like Yu-Gi-Oh with cards, Digimon with the digi-devices and whatever anime that has that kind of aspect to it. This time around, we are dealing with robot looking pinball shooting pocket toys; B-Daman. Of course, it cannot just be that simple right? No way.

Ryuugazaki Kakeru is a normal elementary school student, whom has a heart for adventures. That is until his friend, Natsumi introduces him to B-Daman. After Kakeru helps out a toy store owner, he decides to give him a gift of his choice. Kakeru picks a B-Daman that was not for sale and a few scenes later he gets himself involved with the underground world of real B-Daman battles.

Personally, I do not like the show; I felt it was one dimensional with the pinball shooting B-Daman. Sure the animators can jazz it up all they want, but still, these are small mechanical devices that shoot pinballs… and all of a sudden special powers are introduced to the shots. I had a good time laughing at the show, not with the show, so that pretty much sums up what I think of this title.

Last Exile ~Ginyoku no Fam~ / -Fam, The Silver Wing-:

I have not seen the first Last Exile, so I am watching Last Exile ~Ginyoku no Fam~ or -Fam, The Silver Wing- with no prior expectations from the franchise. I am very happy with how GONZO is doing what I expect GONZO to do; great animation. The last GONZO title I came across I felt cheated, so from the animation aspect, Last Exile –Fam, The Silver Wing- looks amazing. The dog fights and the sheer size of the battles are sure to entertain the viewers.

From the story standpoint, this series is separate from the original Last Exile. In this show we follow Fam Fan Fan as she gets involved in the battle between the Ades Federation and the Kingdom of Turan. The feeling I got from Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- is that the plot will be very intriguing, and entertaining. The action will keep pace and continue to draw the audience in. The music is also very nicely done, especially with the singing voice from Maaya Sakamoto. All in all, Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- looks to be a solid title and deserves your views.

Blade:

When I first saw this title, I thought to myself, “Really?” Blade ended with me with the Wesley Snipes’ movies. Now that an anime is created, I wondered how good this can be. To my surprise, Blade the anime shows great promise. The action is superb with the animation by MADHOUSE. The story is based in Japan and if you do not know who Eric Brooks is, he is half vampire half human. What caused this condition? His mother was attacked by a vampire with four fangs while she was carrying Eric. As Eric Brooks grew up, he realized his powers and became a vampire hunter named Blade, vowing revenge on the four fanged vampire who killed his mother. From the first episode, you can tell this was not going to be an average anime about vampires. This was serious. The fighting scenes and the anime styled animation worked very well… and Maaya Sakamoto as Makoto was nice. I am definitely recommending people to check this out when they get a chance to.

Double-J (no website, yet, maybe):

I absolutely do not want to be harsh, because I know creating an anime takes a lot of work and effort. But I… I just wasted four minutes of my life on Double-J. In the four minutes, I wondered why I was putting myself through something like this. What was the meaning of this show? Exactly, what was going on? Double-J, from what I have seen is about two girls who join a club that focuses on preserving traditional crafts. It is supposed to be a comedy, but it was not very funny. The cel looking characters in the foreground and real life backgrounds make the show look cheap. This anime reminds me of Honto ni Atta! Reibai Sensei. Were the people behind this show lazy or just did not care? I am having a very difficult time looking for the official page for Double-J, and that is not a good sign at all.

Sacred Seven:

There is always that one title that many fans get hyped for, and Sacred Seven is that title this Summer. This piece boasts great animation by Sunrise, nicely designed characters, creative mechas and battle suits along with some nifty fight scenes. Although I am not feeling the wavy scarf, it looks too much like Strider Hyru. I do like the special ops maids though, they are always fun. From what I have seen thus far, there were not much story filler about Alma Nidoshi’s past, the show touched on it, and moved on instead of lingering around wasting an episode’s runtime. Maybe his history will be told later, but it was good that they did not force it on the viewers and just let us focus on the anime and what it will be about. Ruri Alba had a recognizable voice if you are a fan of Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier. Yep, Megumi Nakajima contributes to Ruri’s voice, which is a great plus. Overall, Sacred Seven has impressed me with the short amount of time that I have spent on it. I will be looking forward to more from this show!

Natsume Yuujin-chou San:

I read a synopsis from another writer about what kind of show Natsume Yuujin-chou was going to be about and I got interested in it, because the show pertains to spirits and demons. And what I am about to say is about this third sequel only. I have not seen the first or second series. What I saw was a wuss of a character who is scared of these spirits and demons that his grandmother would duel with. Instead of acting like his grandmother, Reiko Natsume, who challenged these spirits and made them agree to write their name in the “Book of Friends,” if they lost the duel, Takashi Natsume frees these spirits upon request. What is the entertainment in that? So to sum it up in a simplified form. Guy inherits a book with spirits’ names in them and he is not fond of spirits so when a spirit comes and asks to get their name back, he does some chanting and BAM the name is returned and they go on their ways. That is a pretty boring story to me.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel - Kyun Kyun Twinkle Paradise:

I knew what I was getting myself into when I was getting ready to check this title out, but I was not prepared for a Sailor Moon Tuxedo Mask wannabe named Misty Night. I just had to laugh when I saw that. Twin Angel is about two high school girls who study during the day and fight villains during the night. And that is the gist of it. While the picture I provided does not show any hint of kiddiness, but from what I have seen, Twin Angel tries hard to steer away from the childish factor by having Aoi Kannazuki run and show her bouncing jugs only to have her sidekick Kurumi Hazuki kill it with her immature personality. Also, there will be some fan service throughout. Just the first episode already featured the neko ears and tails on the two heroines. Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun Twinkle Paradise is certainly appealing to a select crowd and is not for everyone. You can be confident that I will not be revisiting this piece any time in the near future.

Nyanpire the Animation:

The story goes like this. This homeless black cat was dying. And as its luck was running out, a vampire comes along and gives the cat some of his blood so that it can “live” and become immortal. Hence the name, Nyanpire! Now I will take this show at face value. Nyanpire is nothing more than an entertainment piece for children. My five year old niece will enjoy it. The show runs about four minutes and change if you count the credits and in the show, all you see is Nyanpire trying to be cute. More time was probably spent with the end credits than the show itself. Save yourself the trouble of watching this, unless you are into titles, such as, Hello Kitty’s Animation Theater. I guess I expected too much out of GONZO.

Morita-san wa Mukuchi:

What is with these five minutes or less anime? Morita-san wa Mukuchi runs three minutes and in that time nothing productive comes out of it. The show feels like it wants to be Nichijou, but fails miserably as there is no substance. Is it trying to be funny? This anime follows a character by the name of Morita Mayu and that is it. When it comes to these short anime flicks, character introductions are reduced to a name shown on the screen only. I mean, other than the fact that she probably listens to her mother’s teachings; nothing else can be deducted from the equation. I am quite disappointed.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée:

Here we have another one of those a slice of life anime based in France. The twist is that the time period is not modern and the main character, Yune is Japanese. She is brought to France to work at a blacksmith shop known as the Galerie du Roy, by Claude’s grandfather. Nothing much has been exposed as to why Yune is doing what she is doing. This piece has a slow and mellow feel to it. I caught myself falling asleep on several occasions. Maybe it was the lack of Redbull or the show was just not very interesting. I have to give it credit though. Ikoku Meiro no Croisée has a nice atmosphere to it. The artwork was superb and there are bits of humor that derives from the fact that Yune is a traditional Japanese girl and her behaviors are not in line with the people in France. I am sure there will be fans out there that enjoy this piece, but if you are looking for the action packed anime, move on.

Blood-C:

I have pretty much grown up with Blood the anime. When something is good, there will always be different variations of the show. Blood has always impressed with each release. Now we have a Production I.G and CLAMP production, I knew I was in for a nice ride. Blood-C starts out with the klutz, Saya Kisaragi. Her character behavior is a complete opposite of what I expect Saya to be. Throughout the runtime there is a feeling of something is going to happen, but when? That suspense ultimately ends up with Saya’s father telling her it is time to take care of some business. He hands her the sacred sword and she goes out looking for the evil being. Blood-C did not do much as far as character introductions are concerned. Maybe down the line, but at the moment, Saya is the focus, as she should be. Anyways, the sword fighting and bloodiness of the fight scene was very impressive. At the end, you wonder who really is this Saya Kisaragi, and I was left wanting to know more. If you want to see bloody fight scenes with a great plot, you have to check out Blood-C.

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:

I was intrigued by this anime when I read about it during Spring time. Now that I finally have a chance to see what Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi is about… I am split on liking and disliking it at the same time. The characters seem very typical at the beginning. A kid named Taito Kurogane played with a girl named Himea Saito and in an attempt to keep Taito for herself. Himea bites Taito and instead of sucking his blood, she injects him with a poison that binds him to her and keeps him immortal. At that time, he wakes up from this dream and continues on his school day wondering what he just dreamed about.

I am certain; you have probably come across this kind of introduction on several occasions in other anime, where the main character wakes up from a dream and starts to wonder what the heck he just dreamed about. As he proceeded home, he tries to save a girl from an oncoming truck and gets run over by the truck in the process. He should have died right? His head was severed from his mangled body, yet he was still conscious. After his body healed itself and reconnected his head, he began to have flashes of Himea and finally remembers her. At the episode’s end, something crazy happens and leaves you on a cliff hanger! Of course, I know what happened in the episode cannot be the end of Himea… as there would not be a story then. Anyways, this anime should provide some drama and I will stay tuned to it to see how it develops.

Mawaru Penguindrum:

Mawaru Penguindrum has one of the most insightful introductions that I have ever witnessed in an anime. Fate. If everyone is predestined to do something and be someone, then what is the point of a future? As fate has already determined what you are. It is truly, some deep stuff. And then you wonder why the show introduced itself like that and immediately you discover why. Himari Takakura is a sick girl; she was not going to live much longer according to her doctor. Her brothers Shoma and Kanba Takakura, are very close to their sister and have a difficult time accepting the fact that their little sister is going to die soon. So in an attempt to make her happy in what could be her last days, they brought her to the aquarium, just like their parents did years ago.

It was a happy moment and they were having fun… until Himari walks off by herself and as Shoma and Kanba scramble to look for her, she has already fainted on the ground and she finally dies in the hospital. At the sides of their dead sister, something amazing happens. She pops up from the bed and yells out along with talking a bunch of gibberish to Shoma and Kanba’s ears. When her penguin hat falls off, she returns to the perfectly normal Himari, meaning she was no longer sick. I was happy by that fact and what comes after was comical. They receive a frozen package and inside contained three frozen penguins that only they can see. Mawaru Penguindrum shows potential. I liked what I saw, and the damn penguins are just too cute! I want my personal penguin helper too.

Uta no Prince-sama:

Uta no Prince-sama is not for everyone. It is a harem anime, but a male one. Right off the bat, the anime shows that the music will play an important part of the show as the group Starish begins with a singing performance. The protagonist of Uta no Prince-sama is a girl named Haruka Nanani and as she goes through her days at Saotome Academy, a school for performing arts, she begins to meet with these male counterparts. I liked the music of Uta no Prince-sama somewhat. The animation looked good and the character designs are nice. While I personally will not watch this show, due to my time constraints, this anime will appeal to the fans who are into the shoujo genre.

No. 6:

Honestly, I do not know where I should go with this. From what I saw, No. 6 the anime is about a kid named Shion. He is what people will call a prodigy. Since the age of two, Shion received all sorts of academic awards. Now it is his twelfth birthday and after celebrating it with his friend Safu, he returns home and is entranced in the typhoon that was about to hit No. 6 the city. After screaming out to the typhoon, Nezumi, someone who had escaped prison holds Shion up. And in a not so usual way, Shion offers to help Nezumi instead of fearing that his life was at danger. The first episode was purely character introductions and nothing too deep. If No. 6 the anime was a person who introduced himself to me, I would forget this person in a week. That is how much of a not so lasting impression this has made on me.

Usagi Drop:

As I watched Usagi Drop, I just kept having the thought of “unappealing” in my mind. As a Production I.G anime, I expected better animation. What Usagi Drop looked like was water coloring on a sketch pad for certain parts of the show. And even in the other parts, the animation was basic and simplistic. Some people might actually prefer that type of animation, but I am not one of them. The story follows Daikichi Kawachi a thirty year old single male who is on his way to attend his grandfather’s funeral. At the funeral, his family discovers that his grandfather had an illegitimate child. This quiet teenager, Rin Kaga, who nobody at the funeral wants any part of is suddenly in the care of Daikichi. How will this affect his life? Usagi Drop could be a case where the story of the show covers up the slack of the animation. As the story played out, I was a bit intrigued at the situation and how Daikichi will respond to having someone in his care. If you are into anime like Aishiteruze Baby, this could be a show for you.

Baka to Test to Shokanju Ni:

Baka to Test to Shokanju is back with a second season. I was a fan of the first season as the humor was great. Now what will the second season bring? Right from the start, a beach episode? Now that is what I am talking about! The way Baka Test meshes comedy with fan service is awesome. And it does not disappoint in this installment. Fans of the show should definitely check this out. If you were not a fan, you should start being one now!

R-15:

R-15 starts out like a scene from a school related eroge. Now that it has completely made you go what the heck is this? Taketo Akutagawa wakes up from his dream. You see, Taketo is not an ordinary student. He is enrolled in Hirameki Gakuen, a high school that only accepts those who have unique talents. Taketo’s talent is writing pornography novels. When he sees or hears any interesting situation, his mind wanders and puts the situation in a complete pornographic scene. So those of you who are ecchi humor fans will have a sure field day watching R-15. Now one issue I have with R-15 is that aside from the fan service and all, the story development and the character interactions were boring. It felt like it was talk, talk, talk, then, hey look, fan service time. I do not foresee any changes in that formula as the character of Taketo requires that kind of flow to the show.

Rou Kyuu Bu!:

Rou Kyuu Bu is not an anime that is for me. Any of you lolicon fans out there might enjoy this, but I did not like it at all. This anime is about an elementary school’s female basketball team. They are training and trying to win a tournament. The problem is their coach is away. In comes Subaru Hasegawa, a high school student, who had his basketball dreams put on hold, due to a scandalous situation that his team captain had with an elementary school girl. His sister suggested that Subaru should coach her school’s female basketball team. Now comes all the fun eh? The first day he walks into the gym, a row of maids greet him. After that event, the show does put an effort into the basketball story. Tomoka Minato is the obvious star of the team and she takes basketball seriously. But other than that, I am certain there will be some lolicon moments, and that in itself is enough to turn me off from Rou Kyuu Bu. If you like these shows go for it.

Nurarihyon no Mago Sennen Makyou AKA Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan - Demon Capital:

I have not seen the first season of Nura so I do not know how that turned out. Judging from what I have seen from season two, this anime is pretty good. I liked the yokai (demon) aspect. Nura was raised as a human and unlike other yokai he does not want the humans to fear the yokai. Nura’s perspective is skewed because he lives with the good yokai. When he was named the third heir to the yokai clan that was when he saw the evilness that some yokai possessed. Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Demon Capital has some nice animation, action and interesting character designs. I would certainly continue to watch how this season develops! Viz Media is simulcasting this show, so definitely head over there to watch it!

Manyuu Hikenchou:

Manyuu Hikenchou is a ridiculous concept at work. In a world of ninja and samurai, big breasts rule the world. All the flat chests suffer in poverty. Right off the start the viewer is put into a very sick situation. The slicing off of a woman’s breasts. This was called the breasts hunt and I guess the procedure is to keep the public at bay. Anyways, Chifusa Manyuu is the protagonist of the story and she is passed down the Manyuu secret scroll and technique. When she uses her technique, she “slices” off her opponent’s breasts and in the process, her own breasts will grow accordingly to the breasts of her opponent that she had just reduced. I am not going to sugar coat this. This anime is nothing more than for fans who like big anime boobs. I honestly throughout the whole show was saying to myself how stupid the whole idea was. I do not like the concept of breasts hunting and yes, I believe Manyuu Hikenchou is nothing more than a show about boobs. If you are that much of a pervert with a secret fetish for this kind of thing (slicing off boobs), go for it, otherwise, I will never go near this anime.

Mayo Chiki!:

Sakamachi Kinjirou is born with a rough condition. His nose bleeds when he is touched by girls. His condition is so bad that he is given a bad rap at school for it; they think he is a pervert. Now what occurs at the introduction of the anime feels like a waste of time; having Kinjirou’s sister go through a list of wrestling moves on Kinjirou. The whole show is most likely going to be about Kinjirou, Kanade Suzutsuki and Konoe Subaru the butler of Kanade. There is probably going to be some more characters sprinkled in, but the gist of the story I believe will be about Kinjirou keeping the secret that Konoe is a female and Kanade doing all sorts of scheming things to make sure it happens. I thought Mayo Chiki was entertaining. It felt very fun. The character voices and dialogue interactions were great. The ecchi humor was not overly excessive to the point of disgust. I will be sure to keep this one on my watch list.

Dantalian no Shoka:

You can tell this is a GAINAX title from the moment the show’s title is displayed. I went into this show not knowing what to expect. I did not know the story, did not know who produced it, did not know anything. Anyways, from the introduction I was given the knowledge that the anime will be about books, magical books. From that point, Demonbane came right into my mind. I hoped it was not a replica of an existing anime. My worries did not last long as GAINAX has always produced anime with intriguing stories, Dantalian no Shoka is not an exception.

Hugh Anthony Disward’s grandfather was a book collector. He has many rare collections in his library of books. One day, mysteriously, Hugh’s grandfather was killed during a burglary at his house. Hugh was surprised to find out that in his grandfather’s will, he was the person to inherit all his grandfather’s estate. The story really jumps start when Hugh meets with Dalian at his grandfather’s mansion and my summary will stop there. Dantalian no Shoka has a great story and nice animation as expected from GAINAX. The fight scenes with the use of the magical books stored in Dalian could be better. I am not really feeling the whole, “I will read this book and the monsters will die,” idea. Hopefully it will be different later on. Overall, I liked this anime and I am sure it will turn out well.

Kamisama Dolls:

This anime is one of those where characters control a familiar and they will use it to fight. There seems to be a lot of history that needs to be told to the viewer as we have no idea what happened in the past that caused Kyohei Kuga to quit being a seki and whether Aki Kuga was always a violence driven crazy guy. Now that Kyohei has left his duties as a seki, he tries to live a normal life as a college student in Tokyo. It was all going well, until he witnesses a corpse in an elevator. When he was about to get back to his apartment, he is stopped by his sister Utao Kuga and she informs him that Aki has escaped his imprisonment after he learned that Kyohei had left the village and Aki is responsible for the corpse in the elevator.

I thought this show has potential to be good, but I just cannot stand the singing of the Kamisama dolls. When they are summoned, they sing some kind of lullaby and when you are trying to focus on the show, the singing distracts you to the point of telling it to shut up already. Aside from that flaw, Kamisama Dolls should be entertaining. There will be a lot of action and a story that should be interesting.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu:

If I can just use one word to sum this anime up, that word will be… boring. But since I cannot just be that irresponsible and say something is bad, because I say it is simply bad. I will explain why I feel the way I feel. First off, Nekogami Yaoyorozu is about a mischievous cat god who is punished by her mother by taking away her divine powers and sent down to live an ordinary life with the mortals. The show from what I have seen is about the misadventures of Mayu and friends. That is all there is to it. The comedy is not very funny, the characters are dull and the plot is non-existent. I cannot recommend this, if you are a fan of this show, please explain it to me. Thanks in advance.

Yuruyuri:

Yuruyuri is a show about middle school girls, when Akari Akaza began her first year as a middle school student, she immediately joins the Amusement club where her two childhood friends were. The club was held in the tea club’s room so I was thrown off a bit from seeing this. Anyways, when Akari asked what the purpose of the amusement club was… there was none. Her friends, Yui Funami and Kyoko Toshino just used the club time to relax and hang around doing nothing. When Chinatsu Yoshikawa comes through the doors of the tea club’s room expecting to join the tea club, she is greeted by the amusement club and Kyoko pretty much forces her to join the amusement club because Chinatsu looked like the character she had been drawing in her doujinshi work. Chinatsu joins, but her goal is to revive the tea club as she is in this no goals club. Yuruyuri feels like a show about nothing in particular, and because there is no definite plot, the interest factor is low. At the midpoint of the episode I just wanted it to end already so I can move on. The show has bust written all over it.

Kamisama no Memo-chou:

Here is your dose of mystery and detective anime. Kamisama no Memo Chou is a show about NEETs. But not just any simple NEETs; these NEETs help solve mysteries that are occurring in town. And in the episode that I have watched, they solved the disappearance of a high school girl. Kami Memo starts off slow. It does not get into the thick of things until midpoint of the story. Narumi Fujishima does a full circle before coming back and meeting with the NEET group again. I thought this anime was filled up with a lot of boring dialogue and tries hard to do things the unconventional “NEET” way. So we end up with a show that feels all dramatic when the mystery unwinds, but the drama has already been watered down, because it has been dragged on for a length of time. Kamisama no Memo-chou is mediocre and it is adequate to satisfy only the less than average NEET.

The iDOLM@STER:

A show about idols, something that I do not care about… what better way to change my idea of idols than to watch an anime that depicts the struggles and the various types of idols; all thirteen of them. 765 Production is in the process of bringing up thirteen idols and that responsibility will fall on the new producer. I tried my hardest to give a dang about this anime, but in the end I cannot watch a show about aspiring idols. The iDOLM@STER is an adaptation of the Xbox 360 game The iDOLM@STER 2. From what I have seen, I do not feel anything extraordinary about this piece. I mean, each of them probably represents a different personality that might fall on the viewers and the viewers in turn will focus on that particular idol to see how she turns out. Other than that, I do not believe there will be a strong following for The iDOLM@STER, and I cannot recommend it, because it was just not very interesting to me.

Appleseed XIII:

This title was a title that I was looking forward to viewing. And I am not sure whether something changed about it, or my mindset changed from the last Appleseed that I have watched. While the Appleseed animation is great for the action scenes, scenic views and mecha technologies, the way the characters look feel so… fake. What I mean by that is that their mouth and body movements feel even more unnatural than if the piece was a regular anime. The story follows Deunan Knotts and her partner Brialeos as they fight to protect the city of Olympus from the Argonauts. But it cannot be that simple. An anime series adapted from the manga by Shirow Masamune has a deeper meaning than what is on the cover. The viewer has to pay attention to every detail and put the pieces together in order to understand the plot. I am interested in how this adaptation will turn out, but at the same time, I did not like this show that much to fully recommend it.

Nichijou (My Ordinary Life):

Wow. Keiichi Arawi’s comedic manga to anime is hilarious. Instead of an anime that tells a story, Nichijou is separated into parts. While some parts are better than others, the anime as a whole is laugh out loud funny. It has been a while since an anime has gotten me to actually laugh as if it was a stand-up comedy act. The gist of the show is about a group of high school students experiencing the weird occurrences of “Everyday Life.” There is a lot of promise in this anime. Hopefully, the comedy does not get old.

Steins;Gate:

As I was watching the first episode, I was lost. I did not know what was going on, what the story is going to be about and all I saw was a guy and a girl. They decide to attend some presentation and weird things happen and someone dies. At the end of the episode, the guy starts to have a revelation and everything began to make sense to him… but not to me. No wonder why this show is related to Chaos;Head another show that is a head scratcher. Steins;Gate is about a group of friends who discover a way to make their microwave into a device that sends text messages into the past. How will this show work? I do not know. But from my early view on it, this show is not one of my favorite shows in the world.

Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox:

Our protagonist, Hideyoshi Toyoomi is a normal teenage girl. One day she witnesses something in a shrine and accidently gets teleported into a world where feudal lords ruled and a world where only females existed. Once she is there, she meets Oda Nobunaga, a feudal lord who is trying to unite the nations. The show becomes about Hideyoshi and her quest to help Nobunaga’s goal. Hideyoshi brings a unique twist to the show because she is using modern techniques to approach issues. Overall, I think this show is not impressive. I was wishing something exciting would happen on the screen, but was disappointed. I do not like Sengoku Otome thus far. Hopefully it will turn for the better as the plot develops.

Hanasaku Iroha:

This anime is about a girl, Ohana Matsumae, who has pretty much relied on herself throughout her young life as her mother is usually concentrated on her work or… her love life. One day, her mother’s boyfriend runs into some trouble and they decide to elope without Ohana. Ohana’s mother decided to send her daughter to Ohana’s grandmother’s inn. Here I start to think Hinatasou? But no, she is sent to live at Kissuisō. When she arrived she thought she was just going to shack there, but as it turns out, her grandmother was not going to let her have any free lunches. Immediately she is told to work for her living expenses.

I honestly thought this show was very uninteresting when it began. But as the story developed, I started to change my views on it. The plot is about how a girl changes her life. From the first time Ohana is introduced, she was portrayed as a self reliant person. As the anime goes on, the situation she is in forces her to change and rely on others in order to gain friendship and in order to coexist with others, along with the different way of life when her work place is based on the philosophy that the customer is always right. This show has potential.

Dog Days:

From the moment the show began, I thought Dog Days was a serious anime. The war between canine (Biscotti) and feline (Galette) races must contain a lot of bloodshed right? We will get back to that point later. Dog Days is about a boy named Sink Izumi. He is athletic and loves to compete in competitions. The current direction of his life is no longer exciting. He lives to test his skills. Ever since he came in second in the national competition, he has been itching to get back on the grand stage. All this happens as the world of Flonyard is going through series of wars between the Biscotti Republic and the Galette Lion Army. As the losses pile up for the Biscotti Republic, Princess Millhiore, summons the legendary hero to save their nation, that hero, turns out to be Izumi.

From all that seriousness from the start I thought it was going to be real war and all, but only disappointed with the actual format of their so called war. It is an obstacle course competition with a few magic spells here and there. There are no casualties, no bloodsheds, only cute dazed fur balls when they are defeated. I felt totally duped, but in a way that may be a good thing. Dog Days is different and while I am not a big fan of it, it is a break from the usual fighting that usually occurs in these type of fantasy nation versus nation anime.

Tiger & Bunny:

The title name just sounds weird. It is the complete opposite of what the title suggests (Bunny girls, cat girls :D). Anyways, when I saw the show, I was immediately thinking of how it relates to Watchmen. You know, heroes being idolized and doing just about whatever they want. The twist here is that these heroes here actually represent large corporations. And as they are fighting criminals they are broadcasted on Hero TV, graded and at the end of a season a king of heroes is crowned. The protagonist of the story is Kotetsu T. Kaburagi, also known as, Wild Tiger. He is not the most popular hero out of the bunch and when his sponsor gets acquired by another, he is forced to join forces with an emerging hero, Barnaby Brooks Jr. The animation was very good, the story was entertaining and the action scenes were great. I liked what I saw thus far and look forward to more of Tiger & Bunny. Watch Tiger & Bunny at Viz Anime!

Toriko:

The first episode was interesting because the cast of One Piece joined Toriko on his first adventure on the screen. Upon watching it, I thought the series was moving in the right direction, but how far can it go? Will this get old? And with the cast of One Piece affecting my thoughts, I had to check out the next episode which was the actual start of the series. Komatsu is a chef and a representative of the International Gourmet Organization, he is given a job to gather the best ingredient for the IGO’s party and the ingredient that they wanted was the Galala crocodile. Komatsu finds Toriko, a bishokuya (gourmet hunters) who is on a mission to capture the best ingredients for his epic full course meal, and upon watching Toriko’s ability to capture his prey; Komatsu knew Toriko was the one and only person that would be able to handle the difficulty of catching the Galala crocodile.

As the show continued on, I was thinking how unique the concept was. It was like Cooking Master Boy meets Fist of the North Star, okay, maybe not so extreme as Fist of the North Star, but you get the idea. But at the same time the downfall that I can see right now is how long can this “catch a big animal and eat it concept work.” I hope the rest of the characters and story will solve that small issue as the series moves further along. But currently, I do like what I see; the show makes me want to down a T-bone steak right now!

Ao No Exorcist (Blue Exorcist):

I remember Viz Media sending out an email about this anime, and at that moment I was intrigued with what Ao no Exorcist would be all about. I have to say, I am very excited at what this show has to offer. An anime with demons versus exorcists and is combined with a great story to start? Sign me up right now. Blue Exorcist is about a character named Rin Okumura, he is a failure compared to his brother Yukio. One day as he gets into his daily scuffles with other teens he is told by a demon that possessed one of the teens, what his true identity was, Satan’s son. That sums up the first episode, but I am so looking forward to this series. The plot just glued me to my seat. You definitely have to check this series out, especially if you are into this genre. Catch the first episode here!

Dororon Enma-kun Meramera:

I have to be honest. I was not expecting much when I first saw this title. I thought it was going to be kiddy and another one of those guy catch ghosts shows. But, the name Go Nagai caught my eye and I had to at least take a peek to pay the man some respect. After watching it, I was very impressed with this remake. Dororon Enma-kun Meramera is a horror comedy that focuses on the ghost capturing adventures of Enma-kun, Yukiko-hime and Kapaeru (Yokai Patrol). As the runtime expired, I thought this show was somewhat like Ghost Sweeper Mikami in terms of comedy, and while it is hard to top the sexiness of Mikami, Yukiko-hime does not do a bad job at playing the sexy role of the show. So a show with good comedy and some fan service? Now that is a great combo. On a side note, I still cannot get over the scene where a monster used his manhood as a weapon and as a result, broke, from the fighting. I was laughing so hard with the monster’s reaction after that little mishap.

SKET Dance:

Support, Kindness, Encouragement, Troubleshoot. That is what SKET stands for. From the title alone, without doing any background research, one would immediately think this anime is about a bunch of kids going around break-dancing their butts off. Now after doing a bit of research, the show cannot be more opposite of the assumption. SKET Dance by Kenta Shinohara, in a way is like MM! and ÅŒkami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi. The SKET club is dedicated to assisting fellow students with any issues that they are having. Now when you mix in a free spirit like Bossun as the leader, a yankee like Himeko and a robotic guy like Switch, you have a weird mix of personalities there. I firmly believe that SKET Dance works because of this mix of characters. The comedy contained here is hilarious. The story is also a joy to experience with the mini twists within. With just one episode, this piece will grab a hold of you and will not let go. This one is a definite must watch for the Spring.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi:

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi is an anime adaptation from the adult bishojo game by Feng. I do not know what is with adult game adaptations, but why does it somehow always come down to characters from the city going back to their old rural town where they once lived and mingle with people there? I was hoping this show is not like Yosuga no Sora, but I cannot help but think of the relation because of the siblings going back to the country side, meeting new faces and old faces. Please do not turn out to be like Yosuga no Sora. Do not ruin it for me. As I have not played the video game, I do not know what happens with the story at all. From my early views on it, this is quite good, seems to be a typical ecchi humor harem anime. If you are into this genre, which I am… check it out.

Hen Zemi:

Abnormal Physiology Seminar by TAGRO is certainly not for everyone. The funny elements here require a much opened mind. I found it strange that within the first few minutes of the show Nanako Matsutaka, the main character, is put into a dilemma, to walk down the stairs with a pervert videotaping her up skirt shot or not. If she does not take the stairs, she owes Komugi Musashi a favor, because he told her about Hishiyasu Ichikawa’s little experiment. And if she did take the stairs, Ichikawa will owe her a favor for doing his so called experiment. So, which choice is she supposed to make? Now, that is just a tamer example of the anime.

Hen Zemi expands further into the oddity by often referencing sexual themes, eating worms, and crazy fantasies. I mean, to be a part of the Abnormal Physiology Seminar, the first requirement is that you have to have some kind of issue. I thought the show was not very funny. I was more amazed at how far it will go to express how weird these characters are. The character design feels too rounded, maybe it is done that way to show to the audience that whatever is on the screen is meant to be a joke and should be taken lightly. Unless you are dying to find an anime with some strange comedy, Hen Zemi is probably not for you. It certainly is not for me.

Honto ni Atta! Reibai Sensei:

Hmm… where to start. For starters, I think the best thing about this show was that it did not waste much of my time. It ran about five minutes. The worse thing about the show was the animation. I seriously cannot get over the fact that this piece looked cel-shaded. As I think about it, it actually looks like some of the Adobe Flash videos that I have seen on New Grounds. Now that we got the best and the worse things out of the way, let us look into the anime a bit. Kibayashi Juri is a new teacher, and her talent is to communicate with the dead. On the first day of class, she shows this ability to her students after Yoshii Akiko asked her what her hobby was. The class gets flipped upside down and the episode ends. I give credit to the voice actors and actresses featured in this anime. They had to work harder bringing out characters with the limited animation. Overall, I feel this anime is good if you have five minutes to spare, if you do not, then you would not miss much.

Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san:

Cute summoned demons eh? How is this going to work? From watching the first episode I thought it was short and entertaining. Akutabe is a detective who summons demons to assist him with his clients. In this particular episode, Akutabe’s assistant Rinko Sakuma practices her summon and calls forth Azazel and Moloch. I was a bit confused with the show because the pictures I remember seeing were of small cute characters. But at the start, the viewer gets to see how vicious these demons really look. When they are summoned inside Akutabe’s building an anti-demon barrier is set up so that these vicious demons turn into cute beings in the human realm. While not a lot is shown in the first episode, I can see myself continuing with this anime. It was definitely appealing to say the least, and I am intrigued at how these demons will help Akutabe in the future.

Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai:

Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai is brought to you by Navel, the same people that were behind Shuffle. As this is another eroge turned anime, I have to say, this one is my least favorite. Right off the bat there are too many characters introduced within the first episode, so many that at the end of the show I do not remember who is who. The flow of the anime is also very jumbled up. You will be shown one scene and then with no connection at all, go to another with different characters. Am I supposed to be connecting the dots here? At least give me some hints. For those into the ecchi-ness of Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, I was utterly disappointed. There was nothing much to see. The character designs were good and the animation looked up to par, but I just cannot understand what was going on. Maybe it will change in the latter parts of the show, but sadly I will not be staying on the ride to see it.

Astarotte no Omocha!:

Astarotte Ygvar is a succubus. Like a vampire, who requires blood to live, a succubus needs to ingest the semen of men. Judit, a guardian of Astarotte, suggested to Astarotte that she should start to build her own harem so that she can have an early start living the life of a maturing succubus. But the issue is Astarotte hates men. As a child, when she was about to go sleep with her mother Mercelída Ygvar, a member of Mercelída’s harem cuts Astarotte off and went into Mercelída’s room to commit the act… Astarotte witnessed the whole thing and her hatred towards men began from that day on. In an attempt to silence Judit, Astarotte states that she only wants a human male to be a part of her harem.

Astarotte knew very well that the Yggdrasill tree that connects them with the human realm has been dormant for a very long time. In an unyielding effort, Judit finally gets a reaction from the Yggdrasil tree and as her princess demanded, brought Naoya Tōhara, a human male into the realm of the succubus. That is as far as I will go with the summary of the story. As I was watching Astarotte no Omocha, I kept thinking of how similar this show is with Hayate no Gotoku (The Combat Butler), especially when Naoya becomes Astarotte’s “omocha” (toy). Well you really cannot fault me for the comparison because Astarotte is voiced by Rie Kugimiya, the same seiyuu as Nagi Sanzenin. Anyways, from what I have seen so far, I do not think this anime is anything special. As I have stated earlier, it feels completely like Hayate no Gotoku. And if you did not like that show, then you probably would not be interested in this one either.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko:

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko began as a light novel by Hitoma Iruma. It was later adapted into manga and began serialization in Dengeki G’s Magazine. And after that, obviously, it is now an anime. The plot follows a young man name Makoto Niwa who is transferring from the countryside to the city due to his parents leaving for work overseas. In the city, he meets his aunt Meme Tōwa, whom he has not seen since he was a child. At this point, I was saying this was a pretty typical story… until we finally get into Meme’s house where the viewer gets to witness a girl that is rolled up in a futon from her head to her waist; just laying there on the floor.

Now I knew she was not dead, because there would not be a story if that was the case. But it was quite amusing to see Makoto’s reaction and asking himself if he should mention this body on the floor to his aunt or not, as she seems to be completely oblivious to it. When he finally worked up the courage to ask his aunt, he discovers that the girl in the futon is his cousin, Erio Tōwa.

Erio is a strange girl. She mysteriously disappeared for a few months and came back with no memory recollection of the event and began to believe that she is an alien investigator monitoring the life of humans. Her total personality change inhibits her from attending school like a normal teenager. And as the story progresses, you start to discover more about Erio. Is she really an alien investigator or just a person with a high level of alien fascination? This series looks to be entertaining; I will definitely keep my eyes on it.

Hidan no Aria:

Right from the opening theme, I was captured by May’n’s signing voice. She is great! With that fact out of the way, Hidan no Aria or Aria the Scarlet Ammo involves our protagonist, Kinji Tohyama who attends a school called Butei High School. In this high school, you get to learn all your usual school subjects, but unlike the other schools, Butei High School’s other classes in its curriculum allow the students to become mercenaries of certain specializations, from intelligence, assault, infiltration and more.

I thought the plot was interesting. It is an action anime with hints of ecchi humor. I have enjoyed my time watching this series so far. It was funny to see how Kinji E class (lowest class of butei) can turn into Kinji S class (highest class of butei) from being aroused. Aside from his enhanced combat abilities, his personality will change as well. Once in his so called hysteria mode, he will do everything he can to protect the girl that he is with. But of course there is a twist to the story. Kinji wants no part of being a butei anymore, he has decided to transfer to a regular high school. That is when under certain events he meets Aria H. Kanzaki, a transfer student and an S class butei.

After seeing Kinji’s abilities, she tries to recruit him into the assault division, the very division that he had decided to quit. This anime is the one I have been searching for this Spring! Hidan no Aria is exciting and attracts viewers with its gun action and comedy. The characters accommodate each other very well. The plot is told in a way that is easy to comprehend. This title is just awesome. Watch the episodes here.

The World God Only Knows II:

If you have seen the first season or if you have read my views on the first season, I already stated this anime was one to look out for. Now we are one season in and the show continues to deliver. I like how this nerd of a character can pick up girls with his knowledge from dating simulations. He is the epiphany of a nerd’s role model. This time around, I am also more prepared for The World God Only Knows. I have read some of the manga and if season two follows the same route as the manga, it will certainly be a fun ride!

Kämpfer für die Liebe:

Now I have recently watched Sentai Filmworks’ Kampfer and although I do not really feel the whole Natsuru Senō turning into female deal, it is a part of the story that makes other things roll, so I will turn a blind eye to that. Kampfer the series is about characters that are given dolls, and after receiving these dolls, they attain a specific power. At the same time, they are also separated into the blue or red group. Yes, you probably guessed it; these two groups fight each other for a certain reason. As the series unwinds, the story goes from the fighting between red and blue to the cooperative fighting of red and blue against an unknown enemy. Anyways, these two additional episodes of Kampfer focus on fan service. For people like me, who cannot get enough of the show it really is great! The ecchi humor is superb, fans of this genre and series should not miss this.

Deadman Wonderland:

Deadman Wonderland is a theme park. You know, something like Six Flags? The twist here though is that the employees of this Wonderland are prisoners. The concept of Deadman Wonderland, a privately owned prison, derives from the need to spark the economy, in order to raise funds to restore Tokyo. In the world here, Japan has been hit with a massive earthquake, with Tokyo mostly destroyed. The plot follows ten years after that tragic event and focuses on a middle school boy named Igarashi Ganta.

On a seemingly normal day at school anticipating the field trip to Deadman Wonderland, Ganta all of a sudden sees a man in crimson red armor floating outside his third floor classroom window. Before the class can make sense of the situation, they are massacred. In his confused state, Ganta comes face to face with the man in the crimson red armor and the man proceeds to put a crystal in Ganta’s chest. When he awakes in the hospital, Ganta becomes the sole survivor, and the sole suspect of the massacre. He is given a death sentence and will continue to live the days he has left in Deadman Wonderland.

Once the viewer is put into the environment of the Wonderland, you could assume there are going to be a lot of drama. From my early experience with this anime, I thought the concept was cool, and it has been a while since an anime got me emotionally involved. Whether it is feeling Ganta being wronged in his suspected crime, or feeling like punching a prisoner in the face, the show does a very nice job in bringing out these emotions. I look forward to this series, it has nice action, drama, and a plot that is very intriguing.

[C]: Control: The Money Of Soul And Possibility:

Money troubles. Sound familiar? For Kimimaro Yoga, a college student who inspires to be a civil service worker, money is hard to come by. With his parents non-existent in his life due to various circumstances, Yoga has to hold down two part time jobs and watch his expenses carefully so that he can get by. One day, a jester looking man, by the name of Masakaki, appears at the front door of Yoga’s apartment like a salesman, and proceeds to sell the idea of the Financial District to Yoga.

After their meeting, Yoga went to the ATM like he would any other day and sees that his balance is substantially higher. Believing that this is a bank error he searches for advice on whether to tell his bank or use it. When he decided to take out the money, Masakaki shows up and brings Yoga to the Financial District, a realm where members who are called Entrepreneurs (Entré) along side with their Asset battle each other all while waging money for each attack. If you win, you get money. If you lose you go bankrupt. And the finances in the Financial District connect to the actual world. So if someone goes bankrupted, they are in serious trouble once they leave the Financial District realm.

After watching this anime, one thought came into my mind, evil. [C]: Control: The Money Of Soul And Possibility, pretty much shows the weakness in the hearts of people. Yoga represents the average Joe. He wanted his normal stable life with a normal stable family. But Masakaki shows that while he can get by working two part time jobs and hope the whole civil service thing works out, why not earn a tremendous amount of money now, without working so hard with the part time jobs and living a more luxurious college life. Most people will take the money in the fast lane; our protagonist is not an exception. I liked the show, it is very entertaining. The idea to incorporate finances with an anime that includes battles between owners of familiars was quite interesting. Also FUNimation is simulcasting this show, check it out!

Sora no Otoshimono Forte:

What do you get when you put angels and androids together? Angeloids. And if you add ecchi humor into it, you will get a fan serviced filled robots fall in love with human story that pretty much do not have to make a whole lot of sense, other than having some boobs on your screen frequently to keep the average perv, I mean, fan, interested. To strengthen my claim, an episode was dedicated to the main character using his special wrestling move to win (the boob squeeze). So from what I can tell at this early stage of the sequel to Heaven’s Lost Property, is that there will be some awkward parts of action, because they do have to have an actual story other than straight up fan service. But I do not believe the plot would be any good, because the show itself seems so focused on the ecchi stuff.

MM!:

I did not think this was ever going to happen, but making the protagonist of the show a masochist whose little issue only arises when a bishoujo inflicts pain on him (Slapping and punching him in the face, kicking and stomping him out as well as putting him down with a barrage of insults that will make a normal person feel like crap) is kind of unheard of. While the main plot surrounds the main character’s masochistic problem and his search to cure it through attending a club at school that specializes in helping people with dilemma. The sub plots hit other characters’ issues, because as we all know, not everyone is perfect, right? From the early stages of the show, the viewer is shown what it is all about, and continuance of watching the show would be because you either enjoy watching some dude getting tortured by bishoujo and watching the ecstasy that he is in or you have nothing better to check out. I think I am part of the second crew. :x

Psychic Detective Yakumo:

When I first saw the title, I thought Yakumo was Yakumo Tsukamoto from School Rumble… When you think a little, Yakumo Tsukamoto was a psychic and she did dress up as a detective! Anyways, this anime is completely different from School Rumble. Psychic Detective Yakumo is about a man who was born with the ability to see the supernatural in one of his eyes. Using this ability he charges his clients to solve their problems pertaining to the supernatural. Out of the shows I have seen from this fall season, this is the first serious tone anime that I came in contact with. I cannot say I am in love with it, but it is nice change from what I have been watching and I do enjoy it. I guess it is because of the psychic detective thing, there is just something with ghosts, demons, and mysteries that gets me intrigued.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls:

Another anime about our favorite Japanese hero, Yagyu Jubei. We have seen this happen in another anime Jubei-chan where the main character becomes Jubei with the lovely eye patch. Now comes a version where the animation is more “adult” and not cutesy like Jubei-chan, and instead of an eye patch this Jubei is activated by a kiss from her master or general. While the supposedly main point is about samurai, the beautiful girls in skimpy outfits that resemble a part of a school uniform says otherwise. Right off the bat you are thrown in the meeting scene between Muneakira and Jubei, from there you will be treated to some cool fight scenes and some fan service. I am pretty certain anyone watching this piece is not in it for the fighting. *wink wink*

Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto:

There is something about someone being called the Galactic Pretty Boy. The show from its early stages is about Takuto Tsunashi who transfers to this school on an island where all these rich folks go to. Somewhere down the line after extremely minimal introduction, I felt the show skipped a few episodes and all of a sudden, robots, people in weird masks and outfits along with their unnecessary habits of crossing their legs and switching legs after each sentence they begin and finish… (I mean seriously, what is up with that?) show up. From what I have gathered is that the “Order of the Glittering Star Cross” is trying to bring these cybuddies into the real world so that they can wreck havoc. But Galactic Pretty Boy comes out of nowhere and saves the day. What is even strange is that these characters act like they have no idea who each other are during the day in school… Even though they fight each other at night. (FYI they know who each other are). In the end, the show is just weird, a secret organization whose members clearly have issues and a main character that jumps into this cybuddy thing like he has done it before and became a pro at it through his grandfather’s teachings.

Yosuga no Sora:

Here we have an eroge turned anime. I am a fan of ecchi humor, but after watching the end of the first episode I had to stop and think, wait should I really continue with this? Because… It is just wrong on all levels. To prevent that much of a spoiler to anyone who have never came in contact with this title, our main character has a twin sister and sometimes he or they might get a little too close to each other on screen. Anyways Yosuga no Sora is about Haruka Kazugano and his sister, Sora, moving back into the countryside due to the passing of their parents and transferring back into a school full of his childhood friends. I will be honest; I have never played the game or heard of this title, but from what I have seen thus far the show will be about Haruka’s struggle to choose between his sister or the other girls out there. And with every thought he will always have to think about how his frail sister can survive on her own if he were to ever leave her side and not care for her. After all, they are the only family each other have. Hey maybe I am wrong, just making assumptions LOL.

Motto To-Love Ru:

If you have been following To-Love Ru since the first season and the OAVs then most likely you will be checking this out. Lala and gang are back and bolder than ever. I am a fan of the show and looking forward to its developments. Since this is a second season… Do I really need to go into the story? Okay fine, Lala is an alien princess who falls in love with a human named Rito. Rito, although having Lala at his side, likes Haruna instead. So along with a lot more fan service and comedy from Lala’s inventions, I am definitely interested as to how it turns out.

The World God Only Knows:

This anime is in the top two of my fall anime list. It details the life of a dating simulation game genius, Keima Katsuragi. While his character is ordinary on the outside, he was clearing dating sims on an easy basis. So with all this claiming that he is “The Capturing God” and can capture any girl’s heart, he receives a challenge email. Upon accepting the challenge he signs a contract with a demon from Hell (Elsie) to capture spirits. What does capturing spirits have to do with girls? Well, these spirits hide inside a girl’s heart and the only way to get rid of them is through the capturing of the girl’s heart. Making the woman fall in love, will free her from the spirit where Elsie will then bottle it up. What I like about this show is that it is a change of pace. Most of what I have seen recently have excessive fan service, it gets to be too much and the plot suffers from the lack of focus. The World God Only Knows has me hooked; I am excited to see what is going to occur next.

To Aru Majutsu no Index II:

Our super powerful magic books storage nun is back and the stakes are going to be higher. I cannot really say I love or like the show, but it is okay. I did not miss the first season. I almost forgot they left it as a toss-up ending until the second season came out. Anyways I hope you Index fans out there will be delighted with however this turns out.

Otome Yokai Zakuro:

This anime series is the first on my falls’ list. It combines comedy, with nice characters, drama and action all together with a yokai and human race coexistence. The plot is about the Ministry of Yokai consisting of human soldiers and half demons as they are tasked to solve issues where normal military cannot, demons. From the beginning, the opening theme pumps you up for the show and the way the story flowed was awesome. This will definitely be a must watch of the Fall.

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai:

Really? Another anime about onii-chan? Kyosuke Kosaka has a sister (Kirino) that is smart, pretty, athletic and close to flawless - Aside from the fact that they do not speak to each other and avoids all contact. One day he comes home, bumps into his sister and… Love Hina scene happened. Just kidding. So they bumped into each other and as she leaves in a hurry she drops an eroge on the floor that he happens to pick up. When he returns the eroge back to her, she reveals her secret to him; she is a “little sister” eroge otaku. As she tries to balance her school life with her otaku life, things are not as easy due to the negative views people have about otaku. After a life counseling session from her brother, she decides to attend a female otaku meeting where she gets to discuss about her hobby, rather than fashion and gossip. I really do not know how this show will turn out, as the whole sister brother thing is not my cup of tea. I just hope the fans of this show will be entertained.

Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku

Being Hasekura Kouhei can be hard. Ever since he could remember, he has been transferring from school after school due to his parents’ work demands. Finally, he arrives at Shuchikan Academy, where he is immediately welcomed by Erika Sendo, the student council vice president. After their awkward exchange, he finds out that things could perhaps be different in this school compared to the others, because his childhood friends attended this same school. From the beginning, Fortune Arterial felt like another anime where the main character gets involved with all the girls of the series one way or another. It is until they drop a vampire in the show, where things start to take a turn and make the viewer think for a bit. Now I have not played the video game, so I do not know how things turn out or how they might turn out from having a background of the characters beforehand. I thought it was going to be a straight forward shounen series. Anyways, although Fortune Arterial has a slight twist in concept, I did not think it was anything extraordinary. It feels pretty much like another anime series about a guy transferring to a school, where he finds new and old friends and developing relationships as he gets through the school years. Oh wait, that is what I said from the start! Doh! The girls are cute though, if you are into watching that. Hehe. (^_^)!

The worlds of humans and demons have overlapped since time immemorial, and a young woman named Yurine and her servant, Karas, have long maintained order and balance between the worlds. But humans have finally lost their fears of the denizens of darkness. Disgusted by human arrogance, Karas turns his back on the laws he helped uphold for so long, taking the name Eko and leading a group of mechanized demons in an attack against the human race.

Meanwhile, a detective named Kure who works at the police division in charge of demon-related incidents opens a case involving a series of bizarre murders that look like the work of a water demon. Elsewhere, the demon Nue, who came to town to fight Eko, spots a water demon disguised as a famous warrior and then Yurine shows up with a new Karas. This new guardian of the city is determined to stop Eko’s evil ambitions, but he has a fierce fight ahead of him.

http://karas-movie.com/ - U.S. Official Site
http://www.thekaras.net/ - Japanese Official Site

Licensed by Manga Entertainment

DVD release date April 25, 2006

Staff
Director: Keiichi Satou
Script:
Masaya Honda
Shin Yoshida
Storyboard: Kenji Nakamura
Music: Yoshihiro Ike (Composer)
Original Concept: Keiichi Satou
Character Design: Kenji Hayama
Art director: Hajime Satou
Animation director: Kenji Hayama
Mechanical design: Kenji Andou (Monster & Mecha)
Chief Writer: Shin Yoshida
Editing: Hirofumi Okuda
Executive producer: Keiichi Satou
Monster Design: Kenji Andou
Planning: Keiichi Satou
Sound director: Jin Aketagawa
Sound Effects: Yasuyuki Konno

Credit to ANN for the staff list.

Thoughts:

Stikz: I can see why Karas is one of this years most anticipated titles. Manga Entertainment presents, Tatsunoko Productions (The creators of Speed Racer) 40th anniversary feature animation. Having viewed the promo DVD containing only a sneak peek of the feature, I can tell you this, the production and presentation are stellar! I’ve seen 2D and CG together but there was almost always a sense that the two never meshed together completely seamless. That’s where Karas comes in. It looks amazing!

I think the reason it succeeds while others don’t is because the 3D scenes are still animated by hand. Motion capture was not used. So since the same style of movement is used, you’re never taken out of the film. The fights are a kinetically energized spectacle! With the epic soundtrack and the comic book superhero feel, comparisons to ‘Batman’ and ‘The Crow’ aren’t far off at all. From what I’ve seen, Karas deserves all the hype it’s been getting.

I do hope that in the full length feature, they kick up the character development. If that comes to be then this will be in every anime fans top five this year. April 25th is when Karas: The Prophecy hits the stores. I’ll be right there picking up my copy. The second feature, Karas: The Revelation hits this fall on DVD. (A fun side note: Tatsunoko Productions also made the anime ‘Zillion’. That was the first anime that I bought and it’s what got me hooked. Thanks guys!)

Kefkasou: From my experience with opinions regarding Karas, I’ve discovered that some people see it as an Anime revolutionize by its spectacular CG animation overshadowing all over aspects to what makes an Anime, Anime. With that said, there are others who harshly criticize it as having a dull plot and generic characters so horribly constructed that no CG graphics on earth can save this. So what is there to check out about Karas you ask? Well, regardless to what anyone says, every Anime excels in some area and indulges in a certain spotlight. In Karas case, we are talking about the animation. If certain people think characters are too dull and undeveloped, why is Azumanga Daioh liked so much? If Karas excels in CG animation, then watch it for the CG animation if that is what interests you. Who knows, maybe Karas could set up an example of what certain animation should evolve into? Anyways, I would definitely check out Karas for an experience. I don’t see why the negatives should negate the good qualities (whatever these “negatives” may be). Look forward to this piece of work. Who knows, maybe you will see the qualities of Karas that others can’t.

Dark Wind: Let’s get the formalities out of the way. Karas is a 6-episode OVA, a 40th anniversary title by the famous Tatsunoko Productions. Anniversary titles, if nothing else, have immense animation budgets and a lot of time to make and create. Last Exile, a 10th anniversary Gonzo title, is an example of this. So hearing it’s an anniversary title is promising. For the US, the release is being handled by the almost inconsequential Manga Entertainment, who have released almost nothing in the last few years and somehow still manage to screw up their DVD’s. In this case, they are releasing Karas over 2 DVD’s, 3 episode’s on each. Hopefully they won’t muck up the menus or anything this time around, as they have in the past. As for the actual show…well, it certainly looks nice. The two trailers I’ve seen indicate the animation, quality and fluidity alike, look really really nice. The story seems simple, which is perfect considering the length of the OVA, and the action looks to get the heart-pumping, just as it should. It should be a real blast to watch, I think. Let’s hope so.

Alpha:
I knew there was something about Karas that is different from the other shows that have been coming out lately. Its awesome action sequences can make any mouth water. Just watching the sneak peek DVD was enough to make me sweat profusely in the palms of my hands and when the full feature DVD came to my front door, you cannot imagine my reaction after watching the whole first volume. The blending of 2D and 3D animation is jaw dropping and when you take that and combine it with the sword fights, and other sequences you get a show that is going to be the next big feature. A super hero for Japan huh? It is certainly looking as bright as the moon shots in the show. Look forward to the release! Both manga and anime!

Karas Screen Caps: