Author: psgels

This another one of those typical shounen series. With long fights, hugely powerful people and, of course, a male protagonist. I kept watching for the first ten episodes, just because the world, setting and magic system the creators created for this anime is hilarious. Every single nickname of every single warrior is horribly clichéd. So much that it actually becomes funny (for example, the strongest fighter in the kingdom named himself Scarface). When special martial arts techniques are executed, not only do the people executing them say the technique names once or twice, it also appears in huge lettters on the screen, in order to make sure that the viewer knows the name of the moves (which make no sense, by the way). The magic system is even more hilarious. Magic is sealed in cards, and when those cards are summoned, the cards start talking with an excessively overdramatic voice, telling who they are and what they do ("I am a flame! I scorch my enemies!"). When I saw these for the first time, I really couldn’t stop lauging.

This series surprised me even more when around the tenth episode, an actual story began to form, which is very rare among most shounen series. We saw some really interesting character interactions, motives and developments. Unfortunately, there were still the extremely long fights and sometimes, the scenes became a bit too dramatic, which didn’t do the series any good. The ending, also was (as expected) a horrible mess.

The character art itself looks a bit messy, and mostly typical for a shounen anime. I didn’t really care for it. EXCEPT when a character was either extremely beat down, or full of despair. At these moments, the creators managed to produce some of the most awesome-looking images ever, which really grab you, and take a while to let go. The music in this show is also awesome. The tunes realy give a reason to sit through the battles, and they really set the mood for the anime.

Why you should watch this: if you’re into shounen anime, you should watch this. But this is also a few good laughs worth for the ones who love shounen-parodies.

This is the sequel of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, another anime I really liked. The series starts out pretty decent. A new enemy appears, who defeats Nanoha in a fight. The premisse of another one of those action series.

Well, those predictions get totally trashed into the ground by the next following episodes. The creators managed to create the most amazing person for the "antagonist" of the show, and the other bad guys have some of the most depth ever seen. Especially the middle episodes are just too sad to watch, and they only get better and better as the story unravels.

But yeah, with a show like this, there was no way for the ending to be not predictable, and yes, the last two episodes indeed seem to go right the way you suspected it. Still, the creators manage to make something decent out of it.

The characters, as I’ve already said, are extremely well developed. The main characters may look a bit like other main characters, but all the other characters totally make up for it (after all, Nanoha already got her screentime in the first season, so now it’s time for the other characters to shine, the creators made the right choice for that).

As for the graphics and sound department, this show certainly delivers. The art looks great, the character art is extremely cute and the CG looks amazing. If you however, compare it to the prequel, it’s very hard to see any improvements in it. You would expect that the creators would put a bit more time in the show to make the graphics even better. The music also is wondeful, fitting each and every scene. Well, almost every scene. The ED and the commercial tune really break all of the tension the series had been building up. That is a bit of a pity.

Why you should watch this: If you like cute character art, a heavy dose of morality and furthermore a great story, then you should watch this.

Paradise Kiss doesn’t really rely on heavy cliffhangers or tensions. It’s mostly a love story, with people acting, a couple of unstabilities in the relationships, with all of it revolving around a fashon show. The show just has one climax, at the second last-episode, but apart from that, it’s just a very laid-back anime, focused on character interaction, no more, no less.

Some people may enjoy this, but I became a bit frustrated by it. The only reason I kept watching was because of the amazing OP and ED. I was looking forward to them every time I watched the anime. But I guess these kinds of shows don’t really appeal to me. The first episode was also a bit delusional, as there are a lot of wacky things going on, which had me smirking quite a few times. This really gave the impression that we’re dealing with some kind of love-comedy. Well, the comedy stopped entirely after the beginning of the second episode.

Overall, it had its interesting moments. The climax was really enjoyable to watch, the character art is different than other anime, but it looks awesome, and the ending deserves a few thumbs up. I’m just not the type of viewer who enjoys these kinds of love-shows, and twelve episodes long may have been a bit too much.

Why you should watch this: If you’re into fashon or romance shows, then this is the anime you should watch.

Shuffle! is another one of those popular harem shows. According to a lot of people it’s one of the better ones. The setting is a modern-like world, but in which the gods and the devils have made contact with the humans. This doesn’t really have an huge influence on the storyline though, except for creating the excuse to include some magic in the show.

The show is basically one guy who gets to have five different girls around him, who are all in love with him. The first half of the series shows us a peaceful pacing, with Rin and the others just having fun with each other. In the second half of the anime, each of the important characters gets their own airtime to reveal, explore and solve their own storylines, with Rin, of course, in the middle. I was very amused when I noticed one episode entirely devoted to two unimportant side-characters.

The problem with this anime is that all goes a bit too easy, and there are lot of events who need some kind of reason, but are based on coincidence. While other events with a reason were better off based on coincidences. Also, the fact that the characters keep telling Rin that they love him gets annoying after a while. Sure once is okay. But ten times, per episode, per character really is a bit too much.

About the individual stories of each of the characters. Some were very interesting, while others a bit disappointing. I also felt that the climax already came in episode 20. The climax itself was extremely awesome, but it did make the last four episodes seem like some sort of epilogue. The story presented in the last three episodes didn’t have the power of episode twenty, and it’s also very predictable. I also felt that, at the epiloge of episode 24, the only one who changed in comparison to episode 21 was Primula, while her role was extremely small during that period.

This show, of course, also has lots of good points. Each of the characters act very natural among most circumstances, and it’s enjoyable to watch the whole bunch just having fun with each other. The side characters all have something unique in them, so that’s something to watch out for. The drama moments are also mostly greatly executed. Overall, it was a decent watch.

Why you should watch this: If you’re into fanservice and cute girls, you will like this.