Kyoukai no Kanata

Kyoukai no Kanata:  B

This image doubles as a useful 'shut up and take my money' image macro.

So, series for this season are ending and that means I have opinions about them and I write them here.  This particular series is Kyoto Animation's offering for this season.

Unlike practically everything else Kyoto Animation has done in recent memory, it's a series with a lot of supernatural elements and a lot of action.  The cute girl above is actually a demon exterminator who uses her blood as a weapon (thus the bandages on her hand), and several of the other characters are as well, in addition to a number of demon characters (the japanese word being used is 'youmu', which doesn't translate particularly well into english, they're creatures made from the negative emotions of humanity, though they don't seem to be intrinsically evil).

And not to spoil anything, but the male protagonist is an immortal half-demon.  Kyoukai no Kanata (which translates as "Beyond the Boundary") earned points with me early on for, despite him being an immortal half-demon, he is demonstrably not a badass, he's pretty much just a dude with a thing for girls in glasses.  Except it turns out there's a bit more to it than that and his circle of friends is a bit more messed up than that.  And all in all, it's pretty good.  The ending is competent and doesn't bother explaining itself, but whatever, it's at least an ending.

Also there's a random basically OVA-style heavy fan service episode in the middle of the series, but it doesn't ruin anything it's just kind of weird and acontextual.

Kyoukai no Kanata is beautifully animated, but its writing is merely competent.  It's not genius, though it's is fun to watch.  I don't have a lot bad to say about it other than that it's just not amazing.  If you want some good supernatural romance comedy drama action, go ahead and watch Kyoukai no Kanata.  Really, the only people I wouldn't recommend it to are people who dislike anime tropes, because they're pretty present, but if you don't like anime, why are you reading my opinions on it?

Just Walk Away, Internet

Sorry I haven't posted anything here lately, I haven't finished any new series lately.

Also it's the holidays, so I'm kinda busy, and the Kickstarter I'm doing for my job has launched so that's eating up attention.

Anyway, I wanted to share the internet giving me the following random ad:

Walk away Internet, you're entering a world of pain.

WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!

Though I have to admit, I haven't actually seen... any of those.

Lucky Star

Lucky Star: B

Really hard to give a rating to this show, since it's about nothing.  Lucky Star is a slice of life show by Kyoto Animation with a number of notable qualities: it was one of the first major discussions of otaku culture that gained significant popularity in the west, the art style is highly recognizable and the series was wildly successful.  Personally, it was the series that taught me the words 'moe', 'lolicon' and 'fujoshi', as well as introducing me to tsurime.  It still remains the only series I have seen with a character who is an American otaku.  If you're familiar with the 'X is mai waifu' meme, Lucky Star fans originated that during the show's first airing, proclaiming otaku loli Konata to be their waifu.

But really, it's about nothing.  The characters talk about whatever's on their minds.  Though doing so they reveal quite a bit about their personalities and what they think various things and each other, and that's kind of fun.  But there is no drama, no plot, no progress and no development.  If it weren't so deliberate I would criticize this, as it is it's more a factor that prevents the series from being 'genius' and leaves it as simply 'entertaining'.  It features dozens upon dozens of references to other anime, most especially the Haruhi Suzumiya series, which it aired shortly after, and shares a number of voice actors with (not to mention being made by the same studio).

Lucky Star is the sort of show that so long as you know what to expect (and are interested in that) you'll probably enjoy.  The writing is clever, the characters are entertaining and even a westerner will have a lot of moments of thinking 'yeah, that totally happens, heh'.  If the idea of just watching girls talking about whatever doesn't appeal to you then you shouldn't watch it.

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

Everyday Lives of High School Boys: B

Man, between this and what'll be my next review I'm kind of left without much to say.

It kinda does what it says on the tin.  There's these three high school dudes and they talk about stuff and make each other do stupid stuff and get involved in weird situations.  It stands out among slice-of-life series for having a primarily male cast and its humor being wacky without quite crossing into inappropriate, at least most of the time.

It's pretty darn funny, but really, what do you say about everyday lives anime?  There's no plot to speak of, though there's a lot of wackiness and backstory and a fairly large cast that you won't get tired of.  The jokes and situations are often embarrassing as hell.  The girls (who are fairly present, despite the high school in question being all-boys) are variations on terrifying, rude or crazy, but in a way that feels honest (these particular girls are crazy) rather than derisive (this is what girls are like).

I should also admit that I'm a fan of the voice actors involved, who are probably best known as Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Zack from Final Fantasy 7 and Kyon from the Haruhi Suzumiya series.  They've all done lots of other work but those are the ones most likely to be recognized to a broader western audience, and they're all clearly enjoying themselves in this piece.

If you want something really random and silly that isn't trying to appeal to anything except your humor, the Everyday Lives of High School Boys is pretty much the perfect slice of life series for you.  If you want romance, plot, development, or emotions other than laughter then find something else.

My Cred

Due to having made the list, I decided I'd publish it for posterity.  This is every anime series that I've finished.  If I only name a franchise without specifying particular series, I've seen all of it that I'm aware of.  Obviously I haven't reviewed all of these, and a lot of them I watched before I started this blog, but maybe I'll get back to them so they can all have letters someday.

This Season!

So while I figure out how I'm going to even try to describe Everyday Lives of High School Boys, I figured I'd do a quick post on the shows I'm watching and not watching this season.

Infinite Stratos Season 2:  I know I said I'd watch a second season if they made it, but oh my god is it bad.  Provisional D.

BlazBlue Alter Memory:  As a fan of the franchise I appreciate the new medium and perspective the anime provides, but the animation quality is positively embarrassing.  Provisional C.

Kyoukai no Kanata:  Kyoto Animation's work is as usual gorgeous, and now that we're about halfway through the season we're coming up to what the story is about, and it's working for me.  Not a piece of staggering genius, but certainly fun to watch.  Provisional B.

Kyousou Giga:  I have to admit, the ONA confused the crap out of me, but the actual series proper is proving to be a really awesome eastern fairy tale, a story about magic and family.  Kind of hard to follow, but definitely fun to watch.  Provisional A.

Kill la Kill:  Being the spiritual sequel to Gurren Lagann and containing a lot of girls in skimpy clothing, it's an extremely divisive series.  Some interesting hypotheses on its meaning here, and I hope that this person is right.  It's definitely starting to pick up now that we're about a quarter of the way through, and I think it definitely has the potential to be A or even S rank.  Even if it doesn't live up to that, I'm still enjoying it.

Unbreakable Machine-Doll:  I haven't been able to get into it yet, much as I like the idea of cute steamagic robot girls, I was kinda turned off by them going to a high school for arcanotech.  Maybe I'll give it another try later.

Strike the Blood:  Tried to watch the first episode, couldn't get through it, the premise felt hackneyed as hell.

Sekirei

Sekirei (Both Seasons):  F

This is actually the most clothing I could find a picture of them wearing.

I am a firm believer that people are free to like whatever they like, and that not everything is for everyone.

Sekirei is bad and if you like Sekirei you are bad.

I watched one episode and I knew it was pretty bad, but I had to watch three to make sure.  And at that point, I had to watch all 26, because once I'd committed that much time, I might as well do the world a service and explain exactly what about it is so terrible.

So, Sekirei is a harem/panty fighter with superpowers.  I will be spoiling some things, but trust me you're better off this way.

Accel World

Accel World:  C

In the future, virtual reality and neural-integrated computers are as common as smartphones today, and there is a growing generation of children who have never been without them.  And now a new program is spreading, secretly, among such children: Brain Burst, a program that lets you accelerate yourself in time, allowing your mind to work at 1000 times the speed of an unenhanced human.  The creator of this miraculous software added an extra part to it: it's a fighting game, and you gain points by winning and lose them by losing and using the acceleration.  But what is the purpose of the game?  What is was the creators goal?  What experiment are they performing by making this power?  The answer can only be found by reaching 'Level 10' and defeating the greatest members of the game.

The story revolves around fat, short, game obsessed loser Haruyuki, who finds that the beautiful upperclassman who goes by 'Snow Black' is in awe of his AR skills and believes that he can be the one to learn the truth, and an awkward relationship blooms between them.  Haru, however, wonders if the only thing holding their relationship together is this game, and his concern is natural and human.

In short, the series starts out as a pretty interesting pre-transhuman romance set in a futuristic high school setting.  I was impressed, I wanted to know why this thing existed.  Was there some great lesson about growing through conflict?  Something to be learned through putting this gift on the line?  It had a lot of potential.

And it went and screwed it all up by devolving into a pointless parade of cheating villains, broken rules and video game superpowers for the entire second half of the series.  It came together for a decent finish, but the initial wonder of the concept and the transhumanism of the story are completely lost, as if it felt like it deserved a second season to wrap itself up.  Except at the pace it was going, it wouldn't have.

I can't be too harsh on the series, because the anime was based on a light novel series that's incomplete and in the process of being milked until it sucks, and I guess that's what you do with popular franchises, but it was still a really disappointing crash down around episode 13 as they struggled to make a villain last for the entire second half of the series.  It wasn't terrible, the characterization was good (I especially liked the character of Chiyuri, Haru's childhood friend, who managed some really heartrending moments during the later arcs), the animation was pretty, the story held together if you didn't engage your brain on how science and computers work.  But it was a disappointment, one of the biggest disappointments I've seen recently.

If you want a show with some good fights, pretty girls and interesting relationships, you could do worse than Accel World, but be sure you watch it knowing the second half kind of sucks.  I think if you know that it'll be fine, but like so many series, if you ask too much of it, it'll leave you very disappointed.

Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen

Rozen Maiden (2013):  C+

A third season which doesn't directly continue from the second season.  Overall it's a decent story if you're familiar with Rozen Maiden as a franchise but a weird one if you're not.  I personally felt a little shortchanged because I liked the villain and she didn't get a very satisfying ending, and the finale implying additional seasons based off this series' weird timeline.  But I guess with my warning you that's goign to happen you might not have the problem I did.

This story takes place in a parallel universe, except it also doesn't, because the parallel universe is sort of distantly connected to the original universe, and that connection is very important to the plot.  I found myself relating to the Unwound Jun much more than the Wound Jun in the original series, but overall this one was less slice-of-life comedy and more weirdly-paced drama with less payoff.  I did enjoy it and I felt it came together, but it wasn't as good as the high points of the original series, though it wasn't far below it, either.

If you want more Rozen Maiden and won't mind them screwing with pre-established events fromt he anime then knock yourself out, but if you either didn't like the original Rozen Maiden or don't know it, this isn't where you want to start.

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo

The Problem Children Seem to Have Come From Another World:  D+

I really want to say that if it weren't for the one problem with this series that it would be a C, but the more I think about it the more it's not true.

So Mondaiji is about three teenagers ('problem children') with truly ridiculous BS superpowers who get transported to a magical world where power is determined by victory in games and where you can wager anything from favors to lives to your very superpowers to the ownership of fantastic creatures to lifetimes of servitude.  They are met by a bunny-eared girl who explains the nature of the world and tries to get them to help her and her community, who have fallen on hard times.  Due to varying reasons, the problem children accept, and embark on a relatively disjointed journey to conquer the world.

That, on its own, is at least competent.  Not genius, but you could make something out of that that wasn't just sighingly bad.  And Mondaiji isn't offensively, facepalmingly, turn-it-off-ew bad, it's just completely lacking in particularly impressive qualities.

Of the three problem children, two are girls (the two on the left), and their powers are fairly clear: one has a supreme geas ability (it's implied though not demonstrated that with practice she'd be able to issue commands that the laws of physics would have to obey) and one can both talk to animals and receive the skills of animals she's befriended as gifts.  In practical terms she's a kung fu ninja with supersenses who can fly.  They both have personalities, flaws, are friendly if childish and troublesome and are set back at various times in the story.  Then there's the male problem child.  His superpower is classified 'Unknown' and appears to just be super-everything (but mostly speed and strength).  He is a jerk, he's a delinquent, he orders people around based entirely on the fact that they need him and he's just that good, and people, while they aren't totally happy with it, suck it up.  Even all that could be forgiven if he suffered a setback at some point, had to grow as a person, or needed help.  But unfortunately he's extraordinarily educated about even obscure topics and so he seems to know the answer to every major mystery (despite being a delinquent).  So he basically waltzes through the entire story undefeated and barely challenged.  Certainly never threatened.

Now, if the story were otherwise good and just had that, I could probably have given it a C, but the story is otherwise meh.  There's the occasional mythological reference, which is cool, but it all gets spelled out by Super Protagonist when he solves it needing only an occasional bright idea which someone else spouts out by accident, so it's not like my personal experience with mythology made me feel involved.

So what is good?  Um, the art's pretty good all around.  I liked the opening sequence.  And there's a great moment of meta-discussion of fan service and why panty shots are inelegant.  Seriously, that was the best moment in the series, when one of the characters explains how showing off underwear ruins the mystery, it's far better to make the viewer use their imagination.

So, if that's what you want to see, by all means watch Mondaiji-tachi.  Personally, I'd steer clear, though.

Houkago no Pleiades

Afterschool Pleiades:  A

This is a bit of a weird 'series'.  It's about 25 minutes long, in four 'episodes'.

It is excellent.  It is about the shortest magical girl story you could possibly have.  It has everything a magical girl anime needs: a transformation sequence, a cute mascot, a mysterious pretty boy, and a normal, clumsy girl who risks everything to protect her friends and try to tell him that he's not alone.

And it's good enough that it makes me tear up a little bit at the climax.

I love it, for being a story that is able to tell itself so quickly and so elegantly.  If you've ever wanted a reminder that you are not alone in the world, that someone else has seen what you've seen, take a half hour and watch Afterschool Pleiades.

Stella Girl's Academy High School Division C³ Club

Etc etc C³ Club: C+

So this is apparently what Gainax has been up to: a show about cute girls doing cute airsoft things.  While it falls into the trap of superpowered sports skill and AIRSOFT IS SERIOUS BUSINESS in a couple places, it's ultimately a show, much like Free!, about competition and the purpose of competitive activities, with a bit about personal development and finding a place thrown in.

Also lots of cute girls.  And guns.  Seriously, if you don't at least kind of want to buy an airsoft gun after this show something is probably wrong with you.

This show falls a little bit on the side of 'boobs' in the continuum of 'genius' to 'boobs' that makes up the shows that Gainax creates, and there's not a whole lot more to say about it than that it's another sports anime that manages a discussion of a deeper topic.  It doesn't come out as clearly about it as Free! did (and the final episode, which could have done so was instead just a fan service parade), so I have a tough time calling it 'good', but it's also definitely not bad.  It's not presumptive, it's not pretending to be deeper than it is.

So if you want to watch a bunch of cute girls shooting airsoft guns at each other and maybe getting a little serious about it in places, this show's fun.  But if that sounds kind of shallow or uninteresting then you can probably skip it and not feel like you're missing out.

Love Lab

Love Lab:  A

Love Lab is a comedy series about middle school girls who have mostly no idea how romance and dating and boys work.  This sounds like it would be vapid and terrible.  It's actually the most intelligent and clever anime comedy I've seen in a long time.

I could tell you about the five main cast members and how they're all recognizable, but have unique quirks and characterizations that endear them to you, or how the humor isn't afraid to use double-entendres, misunderstandings and genuinely clever situational awkwardness without resorting to predictable bit gags (characters do have their 'bits' but they remain creative about them), or I could even talk about how the series manages to avert a number of major tropes: there are male characters who are important to the plot, there are at least four teachers with distinct names and personalities and we meet multiple characters' parents and families.  But instead I'll say that the main story's plot is actually really heartfelt and well-executed, maintaining a sense of tension while remaining believable and having an adorable but still humorous resolution.

Overall, Love Lab is an extremely well-crafted shojo (I think it's shojo?  It doesn't have the fan service or all-female cast to be seinen) comedy that doesn't fall into the normal slice of life trap of no plot and no progress.  Basically, anyone who wants a laugh and was ever a junior high school student would probably enjoy Love Lab.

Free!

Free!:  B+

Kyoto Animation doing their thing, only this time rather than adorable girls we have lovingly animated young men swimming.  You will rarely see so many muscles animated quite this realistically, and Kyoto Animation's stunning animation is in full force.  They also clearly wanted practice drawing a lot of water.

The story itself doesn't slouch either.  While it isn't truly inspired, it is a solid story about motivation, competition, teamwork and loving what you do, I was actually surprised at how well it comes together.

I feel like I should say more about the series, but there really isn't a lot more to say.  It's gorgeous, full of tasteful manservice, but a good, heartful story about sports, in the way where you don't have to love sports to get into it.

Oh, I guess I could talk about the yaoi.  Which isn't really there.  I mean, you don't really have to stretch to say that there's homoerotic undertones, but it feels unfair to the actual good story there to say that it's a major element.

If you want to watch a show with either a lot of really well-drawn muscular young men or a good story that'll make you want to go for a swim sometime, Free! is a good watch.  It is thoroughly grounded in realism and all the tension is emotional, so you won't get much out of it if you're interested in magic or sci-fi or explosions.

Minami-ke

Seasons 1 and 2 (2007 and 'Okawari'):  C
Seasons 3 and 4 ('Okaeri' and 'Tadaima'):  B

Minami-ke ('the Minami family' or 'the Minami household') is a sitcom anime about three sisters and their friends, it's been around for a while and keeps getting more seasons, which is good, because the first couple were kinda weak.

So we have Haruka, the eldest, who's responsible, beautiful and competent but occasionally snaps and gets furious with her sisters or slips into self-indulgent laziness.  Then there's Kana, the hyperactive, impulsive and thoughtless middle sister, who despite her mountain of faults is friendly, silly, forgiving and likes everybody, so long as they're entertaining.  Finally we have Chiaki, the youngest, intelligent, diligent and serious, though clumsy, and absolutely adoring of Haruka and intolerant of Kana.

The series doesn't bother explaining where the girls' absent parents are, or where they get the money to finance their existence, or why they're time-locked at the ages they're at, which they also don't explain.  Also, every so often characters are able to have conversations about people sitting next to them without them noticing.

There's also a fair amount of gender confusion among the younger members of the cast, with one elementary school boy crossdressing so he can hang out with Haruka and a boyish girl who Chiaki adopts as her 'little brother'.

The first season starts with some kind of poor introductions, and the depth of the characters doesn't reach the fullness of things until well into the second season.  The first two seasons also suffer from poor animation and a bit too much fan service respectively.  The third and fourth seasons (and the OVAs) both very much come into their own, but even then, the series is never uproariously funny, just good for some giggles.

Overall, if you need a sitcom that actually has male characters and don't actually want or need a story, Minami-ke is the closest I've actually found to a true Simpsons-style timelocked family-type comedy (aside from Sazae-san, but that's another topic for another time).  If you want a show with action (beyond snowball fights), anything supernatural (besides tying up your little sister to use her as a talking good-weather charm) or drama (besides panicking that you broke your big sister's jewelry) Minami-ke doesn't have it.

The Japanese School System for Anime Viewers

So, schools in Japan are an extraordinarily common element in anime, and there are enough differences from Western schools and have a number of visual conventions associated with them that I decided to write a short informational essay about them.  Since I just watched Minami-ke (which I will review forthwith), which has multiple characters across most of the main levels of primary school, this is on my mind as something that a viewer should be familiar with to make discussing schools a little easier.

Rebuild of Evangelion: 3.0 - You can (not) redo

You don't get a letter grade on it, because while it is a movie and a coherent unit, it is also part of a greater series and that series is important to its context.  So this is a bit of a different review.

Let's start by talking about Rebuild of Evangelion 1 (You are (not) alone) and 2 (You can (not) advance) real quick.

Rebuild 1 was essentially a retelling of the first six episodes of the anime with dramatically improved animation and a few minor changes.  In all, it was great.  It was what people wanted.

Rebuild 2 moved away from the original anime plotline, introducing a new pilot (Mari) and rearranging events so that certain characters were more and less important and events occurred in different order with different characters.  Relationships progressed faster, and practically every character was much more emotionally open.  Rebuild 2 was beautiful and made a number of intentionally complex and flawed characters relatable, then ended on a point of extreme shock and tension.  The end of Rebuild 2 is a total curveball for viewers of the anime.

In short, Rebuild 2 was excellent and put us in a place where we had no idea what to expect.  Rebuild 3 had a lot to do: these characters we knew very well and this situation that was completely foreign to us, and build a story we could understand out of them.  It's a tall order.  I think it succeeds, but at the cost of its non-metaphorical narrative.

Rebuild 3, for me, felt like, while it wasn't the direct expositional version of Instrumentality that the original anime had, it definitely was encouraging you to think about what each of the characters and situations represented in a symbolic framework.

And honestly, I think a lot of people won't like that, and the actual movie itself doesn't feel quite as awesome as Rebuild 2 was, though the symbolism and metaphor, a necessary part of the Evangelion franchise, were back, and strong.

Finally, Rebuild 3 ends in a very similar way to how Rebuild 2 did: a situation we, the viewers, recognize as parallel to the end of End of Evangelion, which leaves us absolutely no frame of reference for what to expect from the final installment.

I'm quite curious what the critical reception for 3 will be, I enjoyed it, but I really wonder if other people will.

A Certain Scientific Badly Written Story

Caught up on Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S, the second season of Railgun.

Was once again struck at how outstandingly bad the scenario design of this series is, despite how much fun it is to watch.

Made this to try to get across the story in brief:

Martian Successor Nadesico

Martial Successor Nadesico (Including "Prince of Darkness"):  B

This was actually a really hard series to grade, because it's a very up and down series that I have a history with.  I first watched it when it was just hitting the states, back in 99 or 2000, long before I had seen enough anime to understand what it was referencing, only that it was an anime about anime, and that alone was amazing and hilarious to me.  I very much enjoyed it, though I understood then that it wasn't genius.

Nadesico has aged well, but it bears the scars of its time.  It first aired Winter 1996, six months after Neon Genesis Evangelion finished, and before the full effects of the revolution that particular series sparked had come to fruition.  The single greatest problem with Nadesico is that it is both a parody and a drama, and being that it is both of these, it requires that the viewer give it the credit it is asking for.  This will be a challenge, as the series is too silly to be taken seriously, but too serious to be treated completely light-heartedly.

If you can get into its wavelength, though, it's actually a remarkably well-thought out story that resolves its main plots (though fails to resolve many others), discusses a number of complex topics in a very intelligent way (mature relationships vs childlike relationships, the difficulty of being friends with people you love, the conflict of idealism vs interpreted idealism) and ultimately is about coming to accept things you dislike about things you love, especially through the lens of children's perspectives vs adults perspectives.  The line between Children and Adults, and the time of life when they blur, is another major theme, mated as it is within Nadesico with Super Robots vs Real Robots.

The movie, Prince of Darkness, adds to the story, and becomes somewhat darker and more serious, to the story's overall benefit, though I didn't find the ending as satisfying as the series'.

Nadesico is an old series that is often overlooked.  It requires a lot of patience and to be given credit, and a lot of people won't be able to muster the investment in the series to appreciate it for what it really has to offer, which is a lot of discussion of being human.  It lacks the depth and genius of a work of true brilliance, but you could do a hell of a lot worse than Martian Successor Nadesico.

What I'm Up To

So after a break from anime during which I was playing League of Legends for several months, I'm back to watching.

Partially the reason for the lack of updates is that practically nothing that aired during Spring was worth watching or reviewing in my mind.  I've been keeping up with Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S, but it's so far been a different-perspective retelling of one of the arcs of first-season Index, and keeps with that series' general sense of 'if you don't look closely, it's pretty fun.'  I also watch Nyaruko-san W, which doesn't deserve it's own review, it's more of the same.  I reviewed Oreimo 2 (though it's not completely over, it's got 2 more episodes to air) and Red Data Girl, and that's pretty much everything I was actually watching.

None of my favorite studios, Shaft, Gainax and Kyoto Animation did anything last season, is really what I'm saying here.  So it was pretty slow.

This season, though, is looking up, especially with Monogatari Series second season, which is 4 episodes in and already shaping up to be amazingly well-written and crafted, as I've come to expect.  I haven't gotten into Kyoto Animation's new series 'Free' (which looks to be very man-servicey), but I'm also keeping up on the new Rozen Maiden, which I'm enjoying despite its slow build up in the first few episodes and the weirdness of the whole alternate universe plotline, which is being handled much better than I was originally expecting.  I watched the first two episodes of WataMote, but I found them profoundly depressing, so I haven't kept going with it.  Maybe I'll be in the mood later.

There's a second season of Symphogear airing, and I'm not yet willing to say it's a worthy successor to a diamond in the rough first season.  I'm also watching Tamayura season 2, but that's really just slice of life fluffiness.  I think that's everything that I'm actively watching that's airing currently.

Finally, I'm rewatching Martian Successor Nadesico, as an experiment in how well it holds up, I last watched it about fifteen years ago.  First impressions are ambivalent, it's got some great moments and characters, but it's trying very hard to be a serious parody, and it's not quite working out for it.

I'll have some real reviews for you all soon.

Vividred Operation (And a rant about Fan Service)

Vividred Operation: D+

This is official art, by the way

So this series is ostensibly kind of about techno-magical girls, but in truth is really about underaged girl's asses.  And to a lesser extent their breasts.

So there are these girls and for reasons which aren't entirely well explained they wind up wearing jet suits and fighting invading aliens.  The Jet suits are powered by this cool new reactor that we built that runs on extradimensional magic.  Why we didn't give the jet suits to trained military professionals isn't well explained but probably is due to one of the girls' grandfather, who would be creepier if he didn't get brain-swapped with a stuffed animal in the first episode.  Naturally there's hijinks as the full team of four gets together and the mysterious girl who appears to be working with the aliens, and starts out cold and not wanting to be friends but warms up eventually because she's lonely and the main characters are the only ones who have ever tried just being friends with her.

All that's pretty formulaic, but I am not going to say that something that is formulaic is inherently bad.  It can be well-executed, and the fact is that I do kind of like several of the characters and the execution in places.  The show has enjoyable moments and is fun to watch and listen to, but it's flat.  There is no spark, no risks taken.  No great lessons learned, no moving moments of understanding or betrayal.  Even that would still earn it the C, that were all I had to say.

What ruins it for me, and rarely will I say this, is the fan service.  Now, I want to go on record with saying that I enjoy the lovingly animated female form as much as the next creepy nerd on the internet.  Fan service is not inherently bad for me, and can be used to enhance storytelling while ALSO providing titillating content for viewers.  To this end, I categorize fan service occurs into three varieties:
1) Integrated Fan Service.  This is the fan service where we're shown cleavage, jiggling boobs or panty shots for a good reason within the story.  Often it's because it's what a male character present in the scene is focusing on, and it's shown to help us sympathize with his horniness, and the awkwardness that ensues from that.  It might be deliberately sexual to showcase a character's depravity or innocence, based on their reaction.  It's also meant to titillate, but it serves a significant purpose: the fan service is fully integrated and justified by the story and setting.  Bakemonogatari and Haganai are full of this, and Speed Grapher had its fair share as well.
2)  Tongue-in-Cheek Fan Service.  These are the humorous panty shots, the fourth-wall breaking moments where other characters block the camera, or where circumstances contrive to cause the characters to get into situations that result in clothing being lost or undergarments being shown off far too often for it to be taken seriously.  Koihime Musou is full of this, as is Dog Days.  The fan service is not integrated into the story necessarily, and probably could be left out, but it is given a nod from the characters themselves, and so is contextualized, usually as humorous.
3)  Straight-faced Fan Service.  In this form, we get acontextual shots that showcase a character's body purely for the sake of titillation.  Its use has no impact on the story, and nothing to do with any character's portrayal or perception of others, and nobody in the story seems to notice or care, much less comment.  It often seems as though the cameraman just happens to be putting himself somewhere where we get a shot of a girl's magnificent ass, or rack, or whatever.  This type is present only for the audience's benefit.  The lack of integration causes mood whiplash, desensitization to further uses of it and an overall weakening of the audience's ability to engage with the story.

Type 3 is the kind in Vividred, and it's the kind that offends me.  It marks a story as being weak, because if you feel the need to have lovingly animated ass jiggle for no reason other than to show it off, it makes me as a viewer feel like that's all the show has to offer.  And that's why Vividred is probably not worth your time: because pretty much all it has to offer is several barely-teenage girls' butts in short shorts; nothing original or creative, or even particularly noteworthy.

Tamayura ~hitotose~

Tamayura ~hitotose~:  B

I heard about this show because the second season is airing now and I was curious.

Uh, it's a slice of life show, and so, by tradition, it's about four girls, with some extra hangers on.  And by tradition, it's hard to talk about.  The main character, Sawatari Fuu (above), is an amateur photographer, and the show makes use of the camera and photographs as both a symbol and a pursuit.  "Tamayura" means "a fleeting moment," the title is probably plural.  "Hitotose" means "one year," and, indeed, the series takes place over the course of the girls' first year of high school.  So, "A year of fleeting moments."

Compared to the other slice of life series I've reviewed (Hidamari Sketch and K-On) I would say that Tamayura has more heart, but less humor.  It made me tear up in a couple places, but it never really made me laugh.

The cast are unique and characterful and all have their issues (some more than others), and the series is pretty much completely fan-service-less, for you people who can't stand that. However, while it does have some very heartwarming moments, it lacks action, and much in the way of genuine plot or conflict.  But I did say it was slice of life, so that shouldn't be a surprise.

If you're looking for a good calm smiling ride to make you feel like you're among friends, as well as possibly make you want to pick up a camera, Tamayura is cute and completely non-impactful.  If you need action, shock value or development from your anime, this won't quite cut it.

Oreimo Season 2

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga nai Season 2:  B

For those of you with short memories or who haven't read the entirety of my reviews, the series' title translates to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute," and I gave the first season a B.  It was better than I'd been expecting.

A good second season, deepens and adds complexity to the relationships between the characters and give us a greater sense of depth and development.  And in that sense, Oreimo's second season succeeds.  For the most part, we learn the motivations and desires of each of the characters, and not too many new characters are introduced to dilute the action.

You may notice I'm not praising it particularly strongly.

Oreimo, both seasons, are not bad.  They are in fact, good, and there are a number of situations and scenes that I really, really liked.

But a lot of it is uninspired.  What started out as an interesting story about otakuism, coming out, and trying to make things work with your family evolves into a harem series.  A harem series with minimal fan service, well-written situations and high production values, but ultimately feeling weak due to the series' need to give every girl her own shot at the main character.  Several gain leads, and the interactions of the girls are humorous, characterful and interesting by turns, but the series vacillates a little too hard between comedic violence and serious characterization for my tastes.

If you liked the first season, you'll like the second.  The characterization continues, there are a number of truly excellent situations (the Kuroneko arc in the middle of the series is one of the most brilliant I've seen anywhere), and frankly, you'll probably have a difficult time criticizing it unless you're just not into otaku jokes or have been spoiled by truly amazing character development and writing.  If you were on the fence about the first season, the second will push you into liking it if you fixate on the high points and hating it if you fixate on the low points.  If you didn't like the first season, the second definitely won't fix everything for you.

Speed Grapher

Speed Grapher: B

An older series (2005) that I watched on an acquaintence's recommendation.  It was recommended glowingly, and I understand why, it has interesting characters, a lot of intrigue, some delightfully grotesque moments and a lot of mature content.

In short, an ex-war photographer gets involved investigating some strange exclusive club for the exceptionally rich, and winds up getting kissed by their 'goddess,' which gives him the power to blow things up with his camera.  Rather than going 'this shit is awesome,' he instead tries to find a cure, and along the way agrees to try to give the goddess her first taste of real freedom, trying to save her from her abusive mother and the criminals who run the club.  We soon learn that her kiss can bestow superpowers, and the club calls in debts to various empowered sybarites to try to hunt the pair down.

The plot thickens and thins in several places, and while it slows down a few times it keeps rolling and reaches a quite satisfactory conclusion.  It's certainly entertaining.

On the negative side I'd the mature content is used to an extent that is probably unnecessary.  The personalities of and relationship between the hero and heroine is rather dry and they both receive no development outside of their relationship.

The series reminded me a lot of Blood+, for taking a somewhat supernatural idea, playing with it, applying pseudoscience to vaguely explain it, and taking a little bit longer than it needed to tell its entire story.  The animation style and the long-term development of secondary characters also resemble Blood+, on the more positive side.

If you're interested in some fairly graphic violence and a well told action anime (and age differences don't squick you too badly), Speed Grapher is a pretty good story.  If cranial explosions, humans distending and worlds where the majority of people are just awful bother you, it's probably not for you.

Red Data Girl

Red Data Girl: B+

Wow, I haven't written in here since April?  Sorry about that, guess I better dust the old blog off.  Despite that, it's really just because we were mid-season, and so now that the spring anime are finishing I can review them, starting with this series.

Yet another modern-setting series with strong ties to Japanese mythology, spirituality and mysticism, Red Data Girl is about a girl, Suzuhara Izumiko, who, in addition to wanting to change and grow up as she enters high school, also very clearly has some powerful but uncontrolled connection to the supernatural.  Exactly the nature of her abilities is a mystery for most of the series, which follows her casting away the both physical and spiritual trappings of her childhood (which are often the same thing) and experiencing friendship, love, betrayal and growth.

It's a good show, intelligently written with a cast just small enough to get to know everyone, mostly drama but with some dashes of humor and a good mysterious subtext.  Despite the strong presence of the supernatural, magic is strange and mysterious throughout the story.

It doesn't get an A because it's a little predictable in its main arc and because it doesn't feel like it has the depth that it really could have.  It is intelligent and engaging, though, if a little dialogue-heavy.  Don't watch this if you're not intending to deliberately follow what's going on, you'll get lost.

About the only people I wouldn't recommend RDG to are people who are tired of stories about Japanese kids in high school.  Other than that, it's actually a pretty fresh and interesting story.

Kamen no Maid Guy

Kamen no Maid Guy:  C

MM! inspired me to watch more series that I love but don't think are very good.  Also I've been playing League of Legends again and working on a major project, so I apologize for the two week hiatus.

Kamen no Maid Guy (Mask of the Maid Guy) is a show that is basically about boobs.  Not in a sexy, turn-you-on kind of way, more in a 'man, these things sure get a lot of attention from both genders, and isn't that weird?' sort of way.

Kamen no Maid Guy is also about a monster of a man named Kogarashi who is a Maid Guy (the dude with the shark teeth and the mask above), and has all the superpowers and wears the most terrifying maid outfit in the history of ever.  Fujiwara Naeka, the 17-year old 'normal girl heiress' whose grandfather paid some exorbitant but unmentioned sum for Kogarashi's serving and protecting his granddaughter is technically our protagonist, but really, the Maid Guy is who we're here to see.  Naeka is most often in her underwear, and usually inflicting some sort of illogically violent revenge for that.

The series is extremely screwball and very weird, and watching it will make you feel bad for watching it fairly regularly.  It will also make you laugh if you enjoy childish humor.  It's not a good series, but it is a funny series.

If you want to watch something truly absurd and ridiculous and have a strong tolerance for borderline sexism (whether it crosses that line depends on the episode and the viewer), you will laugh and ask 'what the hell' a lot at Kamen no Maid Guy.  If you want... really anything 'good' besides gags, this show is not for you.

MM

MM!: C+

Oh, hey, a C+.  I give those out more than I give C's.  It really is a problem, but unfortunately, I feel like I have to say it's about as good as all the other C+'s, even though really, they've all kind of standardized into the overall 'C' category, but I'd feel weird going back and editing all my previous reviews to make my C+'s into C's.  Anyway, the show.

MM! is a romcom with harem elements built around comedic masochism: our main character, Sado Tarou, goes into a state of perverse ecstasy when he is hurt by pretty girls.  Naturally, this plays well with traditional Tsundere tendencies (represented here in Isurugi Mio, the blonde), who, out of the goodness of her heart, offers to cure him, but can't really think of any better ways to do it other than coming up with more and more extreme tortures, which Tarou of course enjoys.  She is assisted by Tarou's classmate Yuuno Arashiko (purple hair), who has violent androphobia (very similar to Mahiru from Working!!), who at least feels bad about hitting Tarou... though he enjoys that too.  These two both develop romantic attractions to the main character, the real eye-rolling harem-y bits come from the supporting cast.

And really that's all there is to the series.  Here's these girls, they're cute, here's this boy, he's a sweet guy despite his perversion, they're gonna beat him up and he's gonna enjoy it.  If it sounds like a giggle (and it's good for giggles), you'll probably like it.  If you want an intelligent discussion of being a member of The Lifestyle, joining it or an honest look at what living life thinking you're fucked up, MM! has very, very little for you.  If you're looking for outstandingly well-written characters or storylines, MM! has nothing for you.  At a couple points, though, I found myself thinking "That's nice, a reminder that even freaks just want to be happy."  The series doesn't come to any sort of real conclusion, but manages a satisfying enough ending anyway.

Overall, MM! is a predictable romcom with a slightly off-beat premise that handles itself adequately.  If you're curious what Japanese dominatrixes sound like, you might get a kick out of it, and if you want something to put on in the background at a party; it's not particularly fan servicey (except for the 'specials', but if you don't know that 'special' means 'excuse for us to show these girls inappropriately' you're behind the anime times).  If you're looking for series that are genuinely 'good' though, this is not where you want to spend your time.

Sasami-san@gambaranai

Sasami-san@gambaranai: B+

Our seasonal offering from Studio Shaft and Akiyuki Shimbo, who, as you will recall, I have an Akiyuki Shimboner for.  Despite that, grading this show was difficult because it's SO WEIRD.  Like, makes Bakemonogatari seem coherent in comparison.  "Sasami-san is a character, the @ is never adequately explained and 'gambaranai' is a word which literally is a negative form of the verb 'to do your best', probably best translated as 'lazy, slacking' or sometimes 'not trying'.

It's... well, let's start with this:  In the first episode, clearly for a reason, but without explanation, the entire world turns into chocolate, and three sisters, whose names are very clearly references to the Three Treasures of Imperial Japan (the sword, the mirror and the jewel) have to fight a giant demon dragon thing made of chocolate.

I mentioned Bakemonogatari, and another reason that's a valid comparison is because if Sasami-san@gambaranai is about anything, it's about Japanese mythology, in a very interesting way: the idea of generations of gods, and transitional periods between old gods and new gods, and holding on to the past.  That's a very poetic way of talking about the series, which is also a lot about being a shut-in and never going outside, and also is a lot about the Japanese as a people and how weird they are (and by extension, how weird their gods probably are).

At the very least, it's solid evidence that the Japanese don't just treat Christianity as being fun to twist into knots for the mythology, they'll do it to themselves as well.

If you'd like a very odd look at Japanese mythology which manages to be, by turns, very light and meaningless and also very deep, dark and thoughtful, Sasami-san is a strange but fun watch.  Really the only reason I would think people couldn't get into it is because it's just so weird and out there, and because to really fully understand what's going on you'll need to do a bit of reading up on wikipedia about some of the more obscure shinto mythology.

Love Live! School Idol Project

Love Live!: B

Another series I watched because the sub group I was following was subbing it, Love Live is about a pack of girls who learn that their school is closing down due to lack of new applicants and decide to become School Idols (apparently this is a thing?) in order to rekindle interest in their alma mater and save the school from being closed.  Naturally, this involves building a group and an audience, not to mention getting in shape enough to perform, having songs to sing, and being good enough to not make their school look bad by association.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't really get 'Idols' (I'm using the term here entirely in its Japanese Pop singer starlet connotation) or why people would get all otaku about them, but despite that, I found myself caring about the characters here.

The series is actually quite good at surprises despite its simple premise.  The cast is a little too big for everyone to get proper screen time, but what we see is all fun and cute.  Music is obviously an important part of the premise and if you can get over the engrish, it's pretty catchy.  The only thing that consistently twinged my eyes is when they cut to a very high-performance version of I think Miku Miku Dance for some of the choreography animation, the shift is jarring and always glaringly obvious.  I consistently tried to figure out what it was about that animation shift that bothered me but never could, it just kinda hurts to watch.

Despite that, the series manages itself well and gets its point across without feeling like any real magic happens besides friendship: a major theme is that doing what you love is hard work, and only hard work gets you anywhere.  Overall, the writing is solid but not outstanding, the plot doesn't feel contrived, and the characters are (mostly) believable and cute.

What Love Live! lacks is anything truly amazing.  And that's really the harshest thing I can say about it, the rest is all surprisingly good.  It's fun, it's sweet without being saccharine, it's teaching some good lessons about hard work and guts.

If you need male characters or if occasional weird not-quite uncanny valleyish animation bugs the heck out of you or if engrish in music drives you up a wall, don't watch Love Live.  But if you need some girls being absolutely adorable and emotional and dressing up in cute costumes and singing, it's not a bad way to unwind, and it will make you smile.

Maoyuu (Maou Yuusha)

Maoyuu: C+

Our story begins like the end-game of a classic RPG.  The hero (in japanese, 'yuusha'), having set off to slay the Demon King (in japanese, 'maou'), leaves his party of adventurers behind to face his nemesis alone, so that the others will not be in danger.  He arrives at the strangely empty castle of the Demon King, and is prepared for a trap.

But the Demon King turns out to be a beautiful woman, and instead of challenging him in battle, she instead explains to him, completely honestly, why the war between demons and humans is beneficial to both sides, and furthermore, how ending it would be devastating to the economies of both the human and demon realms.  Finally, she also mentions that she has been watching him from afar, and that she is maybe just a little bit in love with him.

And so, the Hero and the Demon King agree to work together, to try to move beyond the senseless fighting, to bring about a real and lasting peace, with countries that are moving forward and supporting themselves.  It is a story very rooted in economics, scientific discovery, agriculture and political philosophy, set in a fantasy world of characters who are all called by their titles, none of the characters' names are mentioned.

And it's a good story, with fun characters, some excellent writing, truly moving moments, sociopolitical commentary, humor and drama.  I really liked it.

It gets a C+ for not ending.  It's perfectly set up for a second season, and a second season would result in it getting a much better grade: with more explanation and development, it has the makings of an A-rank series, but it starts out very slowly and rushes itself toward the end, and the ending it comes to is sudden and inconclusive.

If you like watching fully-developed worlds where the storyteller has strongly considered all the gears that are turning in the world intertwined with personal drama and intelligent discussions of economics and politics, Maoyuu is good, but far too short.  If you want a lot of action, or if you need a good ending, or if characters not having names would drive you up the wall, avoid this series.

Nanoha The Movie 2nd A's

Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's: A

So I wrote in my original Nanoha A's review that A's is an extremely well-told story with excellent pacing, characterization and a well-crafty story about good people.  The Movie version of the same is also excellent, though, frankly, weaker for the exclusion of certain elements in the interest of cutting down on the time.

Since the original series was so excellently paced, the exclusion of anything takes away from the story, but only slightly, the newly redesigned story is still completely functional, better animated, and expands on a few confusing issues from the original story, expanding on the role of a very minor character and giving a name to a character that previously had simply been a plot device of unclear nature and relationship to others.  A few moments, however, had their emotional impact dulled slightly by a few choices made differently in the movie. Not enough to make it bad, but enough for me to say 'no, you really want to see the series first, because it handles the surprise reveals better'.

For people who want to get into Nanoha as a series, I recommend watching the first movie, then series version of A's, then the A's movie to understand the full interwoven canon (since things make the most sense if you take both of them and kinda interweave them together).  Then watch StrikerS, if you absolutely have to, which you probably will after the A's movie.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT: A

Yeah, I thought it was about that good too.

So we've had a lot of sequels lately, and some have been good and some have been not so good.  Haganai season 2 falls into the 'really excellent' category, the kind of sequel that improves its parent series through its existence.

Season 1 of Haganai introduced us to the characters as their roles in the neighbors club: Yozora was the clever, possessive but shy and maladjusted leader, Sena was her rival/sidekick who usually got the short end of the stick, Kobato and Maria were also engaged in a rather brutal hate/rivalry relationship, Rika is a lascivious genius pervert constantly trying to get Kodaka to have sex with her and being rebuffed, and Yukimura is a boy being made to dress like a girl both to make him 'more manly' and because Yozora is a bully.  Of course, Kodaka is our straight man in this crowd, the guy who actually just wants to make friends and winds up at the center of a complex romantic web which he appears to be ignorant of.

Season 2 of Haganai takes every single one of these roles and turns them on their respective ears: situations change, we learn new things about each of the characters and they learn new things about each other, we explore what makes each of them do what they do, their motivations and what the Neighbor's club in general and its members in particular mean to them, developing their relationships and injecting the stress that comes of deepening relationships.  The series manages to take its original concept and grow it into an intelligent commentary on friendship, progress in relationships and fear of commitment.

Even more amazing is that it manages to do it while remaining humorous, silly and full of fan service.

Haganai's second season makes the series as a whole, pretty much the best series with harem elements I've ever seen, mostly because it becomes a meta-commentary on the idea of having a bunch of girls in love with one guy, and also because it avoids the pitfall of story stasis.  While the second season does not wrap things up, it ends in such a way that the situation has not only irrevocably changed, but that change has been accepted by the cast as a whole, and THAT is what makes it unique.

This series really cements my general theory that the less new characters are introduced in a sequel, the better the sequel will be.  We have 3 new named characters this time around; all of them have minor roles and one of them doesn't even have dialogue until the very last episode.

If you liked Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Season 1, Season 2 is a blast.  If you want to see a winkingly naughty exploration of romance, friendship and difficulties of finding your place while remaining yourself, Haganai is both funny and moving.  Pretty much the only people who won't like Haganai are those who can't stand people being creepy, awkward, rude or cruel (though almost universally played for laughs) to people who are (though they might not admit it) their friends.

Tamako Market

Tamako Market: C

Kyoto Animation's offering for this season.  The story of a girl whose family runs a mochi shop in a small-town shopping arcade, and her visitation by a talking bird from a foreign land, searching for his prince's bride.

It continues KyoAni's standards of amazing animation, but also, unfortunately, their traditions of harmlessness and being non-threatening.  Tamako Market is a rather extreme example in this, and is probably the most harmless and least risky series they've ever done.  It's absolutely adorable and very sweet, but, like cotton candy, it lacks substance and is, perhaps too sweet at times.

Every episode has a pithy moral to it, but they are not particularly well-executed or demonstrated, though they are quite heartful.  Overall the series simply lacks punch.

If you need a calm, pretty, sweet little story to cleanse your brain of anything but cuteness, Tamako Market has you covered.  If you're looking for substance, action, drama, emotion or even conflict, there really isn't any here.

Macross 7

Macross 7:  C

Man, Macross as a franchise just keeps making me do this: it's classic and did a lot for the industry but the truth is that the majority of its constituent series have been kinda meh.  I want to like Macross 7 for a number of reasons, and it's OKAY, it's just not GOOD.

Macross 7 is a mid-90s sequel to the early-80s original series that maintains a number of aspects of the original series: a definite sense of space opera rather than science fiction, transforming mecha, a love (sort of) triangle among the central characters, music being used as a weapon in self-defense and the singers doubting the purity of the military's intentions.  Macross 7 changes the formula in a number of places, though, our love triangle has a girl as the central point, and she ultimately comes across as our main character, the story very much revolves around her growth and growing up (She begins the series at 14, which you need to constantly remind yourself of, since she's not in school, drives a sports car, plays in a popular rock band and her two romantic options are both clearly in their late teens or early twenties).  Also, the series turns up the 'magic' quotient considerably, with the villains draining human life force and weaponized music being able to turn into energy beams.

Very underaged heroine and ridiculous laser rock music are forgivable, though, but what I couldn't stand was the male protagonist, the front man of the rock band our heroine plays in.  Here, I have to admit that my prized reviewer neutrality breaks down, because he slides into Mary Sue territory for me: people almost universally like him and those that don't tolerate him despite him being moody, self-centered and self-righteous.  He never suffers any serious setbacks, is never given cause to doubt himself or his choices, and is essentially an invincible, unstoppable ace pilot rock star in a super-mecha who is so awesome he doesn't even need to fight to win.  As the series progresses he becomes slightly more tolerable, but not due to changes in him, mostly due to his superpowers becoming recognized and useful, therefore justifying his attitude better.  Through 49 episodes and 8 bonus episodes, Basara receives absolutely no character development.

I like most of the rest of the cast, and while the story (humans fight demonic life-force eating god-aliens with giant robots and the power of rock) isn't as interesting as the original series' (humans fight giant battlesuit-wearing aliens with giant robots, love and pretty girls), it holds together well enough and maintains a 90s JRock-ish charm.  I can't honestly call it BAD, but when one of (if not THE) main character consistently aggravates you, it's difficult to recommend a series.

If you're curious about Macross and like early 90s JPop and transforming robots and have an extreme amount of patience for lack of character development, Macross will give you quite a few scenes to make you smile and plenty of characters to love.  If you're looking for anime that gets to its point quickly, has an intelligent, deeper meaning, or if you just want a series that comes close to comparing to Macross Plus, Macross 7 will leave you frustrated, bored and possibly hating the whole franchise.

Spice and Wolf

Spice and Wolf (Both Seasons): B

Since we're nearing the end of the Winter 2013 season a bunch of series I've been following are about to get their final episodes, so I'll have like 4 reviews to do over the course of the next two weeks (Haganai Season 2, Tamako Market, Love Live and Maoyuu).  In the mean time, though, I'll review a series I first watched like a year and a half ago but didn't review due to Circumstances.

Spice and Wolf is a thoughtful, dialogue-heavy series primarily about economics.  While I wouldn't exactly call it action-packed, its fairly small cast (two main characters and only a handful of recurring supporters) receive a remarkable amount of depth due to the continued interactions and the length of time we spend with them (the series runs 2 13-episode seasons).

The series is technically fantasy, but stays very grounded in the simplicity of trading, emotions, and the slightly different perspective of a centuries-old wolf spirit.

It is, however rather slow-paced.  This is not to say it is never exciting, but it is certainly not action-packed.  The series relies on the audience developing an understanding of the characters, but if they do so the story payoff is actually quite good.  It only gets a B and not higher because of the relative dryness of it, and because the lengthy dialogues will put anyone with a shorter attention span asleep.

If you like pensive, intelligently-written stories with a solid grounding in reality (despite being fantasy) and are interested in the idea of making the life of a merchant somewhat thrilling and interesting, Spice and Wolf provides a mature and clever look at the more interesting side of a trade economy.  If any of this sounds boring, it probably will be (for you) and you should probably skip it.

Clannad & Clannad After Story

Clannad: A
Clannad After Story: B+

The third of Key Visual Arts's Visual-Novels-Turned-Anime made by Kyoto Animation, Clannad has the distinction of being the only one to have never been an eroge (hentai game).

Having watched it, I can see the pattern of what Key is doing with their stories emerging more clearly.  Each time they pick a theme and create a number of stories within it, using each of the character paths to explore this theme in various ways.  Air explored suffering, Kanon explored memory.  Clannad explores family; After Story continues this exploration from 'finding a family' to 'building a family'.

This series is heartwrenching and emotional in a way that's difficult to convey in words: the exploration of the characters as a family results in extremely deep and powerful relationships and watching those relationships grow and change is extremely moving.  After Story follows characters considerably further than most romances, we see our characters not only finally get together, but also grow into adults, get married and even have children, accompanied by challenges, hauntings from the past and normal, human tribulations.

Clannad is much more coherent than Air, and has many of the things I liked about Kanon, though I consider Kanon to be better overall, and a far better Visual Novel adaptation than Clannad, due to the ending of the final episodes of After Story.  After Story, as a Visual Novel (and like many Visual Novels) has both a "Standard End" and a "True End."  After Story's Standard End is actually quite heartbreaking, and so the anime also provides the True End, but since they are separate timelines, they had to find a way to make both somehow happen, and the way they do so (not that I can come up with a better one) makes the emotional consequence of the Standard End (which I personally found to be some of the most moving and deep in the entire series) feel cheapened.  This, plus the thinning of the cast as most of the high school gang goes out to live their own lives, leads to After Story's lower rating, despite the fact that I will also say that After Story's high points are higher than the first series', and its emotional payoff is bigger.

Clannad is, in the end: cute, funny, sweet, thought-provoking and extraordinarily emotional.  Anyone who can stand a calmly-paced but heavy story that explores a theme of 'family,' in all its varying definitions will probably like Clannad.  If you need action, suspense, violence or anything more unbelievable than a few small miracles, the series will put you to sleep.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Senki Zesshou Symphogear:  B+

So, another series I picked up because a sub group I frequent had done it.  It had pretty girls in bodysuits and they sang, so I figured what's the worst that could happen.  I got what I was expecting, but what I wasn't expecting was an actually pretty good story, combining fragments of mythology from around the world, culminating in Babylon and Mesopotamia.

The overall concept works: a secret organization to fight demons called 'Noise' has developed a technology to synchronize humans with ancient sacred relics through the use of music.  The story starts off on a dark note, and has a quiet underlying theme of sacrifice, in addition to a discussion of survivor's guilt, and, in the end, a discussion of music as a language and a universal part of human society.

The quite harsh start, plus the relative brutality and occasional horror of the more deleterious effects of the Symphogear system and the 'Zesshou' ("Superlative Songs," translated as "Swan Songs" in the version I saw) makes it a series a cut above what I was expecting, though the ultimate villain is fairly easily foreseen, the final showdown is appropriately epic.  The series is also short and, like most shorter series, doesn't have time to faff about much, so the story keeps moving and is to-the-point.

If you're interested in watching a show that reaches about .4 of a Gurren Lagann in terms of epic awesome and is both lovely to watch and listen to, you could do a lot worse than Symphogear.  The only real things I could see putting someone off are the modest predictability of the story and the occasional oddness of pacing, this series is something of a diamond in the rough.

Idolmaster: Xenoglossia

Idolmaster: Xenoglossia: C

Probably not the most appropriate picture I could find.

Uh, it's like Eva if Shinji were a cute girl and Unit 01 were his boyfriend.  No, really, it's a series about sentient alien robots and the girls who love them.

A bit more background, the Idolmaster series is a video game idol management simulator that's been around in Japan for quite a while and is pretty popular.  Xenoglossia is a redesign done by Sunrise (who do all the mecha anime ever) to make the series... uh... have giant robots, and considerably different character designs.  I chose to watch it because  the word 'Xenoglossia' is badass, so why not.

The plot holds together okay, but the mecha designs are kind of weird and it borrows pretty heavily from what I'm now seeing are time-honored tropes that Evangelion was probably not the originator of, but certainly was my first experience of, and its strange language of symbolism lacks the depth and meaning of other series like it, not to mention the ending is pretty meh.  Good voice acting with some big names, though notably different from who the characters are voiced by in alternate continuums.

If you like a bit of friendly fan service, odd robot design, a mostly female-cast and not a whole lot of explanation of what is going on or why, Xenoglossia fits.  But if you're hoping for some intelligently-crafted story or symbolism that isn't basically just made up to go with your girls and their kind of dickish robot boyfriends, then you're probably not the sort of person who would enjoy Idolmaster Xenoglossia.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Nekogami Yaoyorozu:  C

So, I needed something to wash the toxic out of my brain after Mirai Nikki, and I found this show because the fansub group I frequent had done it.  I'm not really sure why they subbed it, but I suspect it's because one of them has a creepy otaku crush on Tomatsu Haruka, in a similar way to how I have a creepy otaku crush on Ueda Kana.  *ahem*  ANYWAY.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu (Which, like most titles, doesn't translate well: Nekogami refers to the divine cats, Yaoyorozu is a poetic term referring to 'myriads', in the context of gods, the countless native gods of Japan) is a light-hearted high-cuteness show about a Guardian Cat, Mayu, who is expelled from heaven for being a slacker, gambling, and generally being a disappointment to her parents, and, through a series of circumstances that aren't explained until late in the series, she begins living with a human girl who runs an antiques shop.  Mayu has a number of... let's call them acquaintances, who are also gods of varying motivations and levels of competence.  Hijinks ensue.

There's not a lot more to it than that.  It's fun and cute and silly and insubstantial.

There's not a whole lot of people I would or wouldn't recommend this series to.  If a light-hearted and silly show about nothing in particular is what you need, go ahead and give it a watch.

Mirai Nikki

Mirai Nikki:  B++

There is a category of story that I've seen in Japanese media that I haven't seen in American media.  I'm not sure that's because we don't make it, it's more likely that I simply don't consume enough American media to be aware of our version of it.  This is the kind of story wherein we see humanity at its worst.  We see senseless cruelty, we see betrayal from every angle, we see how a vicious world breeds vicious people (I think it might be exclusively japanese because it's so very Buddhist).  Bokurano is the series that, prior to Mirai Nikki really encapsulated the genre for me, but Higurashi no Naku Koro ni comes close (especially without its second season to explain everything).

Mirai Nikki means "The Future Diary," and it is about Amano Yukiteru, a boy who, under odd circumstances, suddenly finds his diary of everything he sees (which he keeps on his phone) writing itself, and ahead of time.  He quickly learns that he is not the only person with such a diary, and then is informed by the God of Spacetime (who he thought had been a figment of his imagination) that the twelve diary holders will be fighting to the death for the right to become the next God of Spacetime.

He also finds out about Yuno, a pretty, smart girl in his class who has been keeping an obsessive stalker's diary of everything Yukiteru does... which is now one of the Future Diaries.  She swears she will help, love and protect him, and her diary of everything that happens to him happening in advance makes that very easy... but it becomes immediately apparent that she is unhesitatingly violent, amoral and occasionally psychotic... and what will he do when, at the end of the game, one of them has to die?  Not to mention that he doesn't have any feelings for her at all.

The story revolves around the survival game (think "Battle Royale"), and Yukiteru and Yuno's relationship.  The body count is high, visible and brutal, and numerous other very bad things happen or are threatened to happen, but the characters are fascinating studies in psychology and emotion, and truly amazing to watch.

I really want to give it an A rating because I enjoyed it a lot (even the weirdness of the ending), but A's are reserved for shows I can recommend to anyone, and I definitely cannot recommend Mirai Nikki to anyone who has a trigger for rape, throat slitting, stabbings, children being killed, child abuse, dismemberment, eye torture, cold-blooded murder, murders of passion, deep betrayal by family or emotional abuse.  All these things are treated with gravity, but they all happen, to one extent or another, sometimes performed by the people whose side we are on.

If you're interested in a very dark story about, ultimately, love, Mirai Nikki is very, very good.  But if anything this dark or disturbing might bother you, you should probably skip it.