Category: Anime Reviews

Yumekui Merry Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Yumekui Merry




If you’re looking for eye candy, then this is an excellent recommendation. Yumekui Merry is a piece of art, with some of the most artistic direction. Jut about every camera angle is interesting and dedicated to make its cast stand out. Every single background drawing is utterly gorgeous. With a rock-solid that brings a ton of life into the cast, this is a great show to watch, though it has its problems.

Shigeyasu Yamauchi‘s influence is all over this series. The camera-angles, the timing, the intonation, all is very carefully planned out really put some emotions behind them, and the animators and artists only back this up. If anything, this show is immersive and a terrific example of what can be done with the animation medium.

The bugs in this show are in the story. Most notably in how it’s way too short for 13 episodes and it failed to really understand what that means. In the first half we get a very interesting series that questions the nature of dreams, what would happen if they were taken hostage and the main characters are put on a wonderfully gray moral scale.

In the second half, though, the creators realized that the manga that this series is based on is in no way going to fit in 13 episodes and that there wasn’t going to come a sequel. They then try to wrap this show up with their own story arc that fails to wrap up anything, has a bad one-sided villain that doesn’t allow the story to go anywhere and specifically seeks out cliches, even when it has to resort to Deus ex Machina to get there. The delivery is still as good as ever, but the story that the second half of this series is trying to tell is just… unimpressive. It reduces a complex moral question back to cliches.

do bother to check out the first half if you have the time, though. It’s a wonderful little series with excellent characterization. It’s always nice to see Shigeyasu Yamauchi’s unique style of directing, but I do wish that he had been put on a story that… actually had the potential to show itself off. The big victim of this syndrome for the next season will be Deadman Wonderland. Seriously, don’t screw up yet again on a flaw that has struck so many series by now! It’s really getting annoying seeing so many shows end without ever getting to their potential.

Storytelling: 7/10 – Excellent timing and atmosphere, but loses points for the lazy way in which it tries to wrap itself up in its second half, especially with one heck of a deus ex machina ending that could have easily been avoided.
Characters: 8/10 – Excellent characterization, and really well animated. A few cliches here and there holding them back, though.
Production-Values: 9/10 – A visual feast. Period.
Setting: 8/10 – A very interesting premise, however the second half doesn’t use it as well as it should have been used.

Suggestions:
– Digimon Movie 3 – The Golden Digimentals
– Casshern Sins

Black Jack OVA Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Osamu Tezuka is an utter genius. With that I don’t just mean that he single-handedly fired off an entire new medium; he’s also a masterful storyteller. Especially his stories that aren’t aimed at children rock. But what’s more, due to his legacy his stories also have been adapted by some of the best directors imaginable. Ryouruke Takahashi, for example: I may be a huge fan of Votoms, I still consider his masterpiece to be his adaptation of Hi no Tori. Rintarou meanwhile delivered brilliant renditions of Metropolis and again Hi no Tori. The Black Jack OVA meanwhile is Osamu Dezaki’s chance to shine. And again: this was undoubtedly the best thing I’ve ever seen from him.

There have been more adaptations of the Black Jack franchise, but all of them just seemed to be missing something. This however is a perfect adaptation. It’s an epic that took eight years to be fully created. It has only ten unrelated episodes, but each episode is fifty minutes long, and that turned out to be the perfect length: long enough to include some deep storylines, yet short enough not to drag on.

This show… completely took me by surprise. Every single episode has a deeply imaginative story that tests the boundaries of medical science. Every episode is somehow combined with either political, military, corporate or some sort of other intrigue. Seriously, the stories here put in a lot of effort to set themselves apart. Stories are often multi-layered and just keep building up with all kinds of plot twists, in the true fashion of Osamu Tezuka’s best works.

But beyond that, when you look at this show with a more technical view, it’s amazing to see what the creators did here. The attention to detail in all of the medial procedures is stunning. They even got a number of medical advisers in order to make sure that everything is accurate (or as accurate as possible when dealing with made up diseases). It’s well known that Osamu Tezuka used to be a doctor and that he wrote Black Jack with a ton of medical knowledge in mind, but it’s also the way in which this series is animated that is just stunning. It’s all completely uncensored: this show doesn’t shy away in the slightest to show Black Jack’s operations in full detail, whether this is ranging from a simple medical check-up to a brain surgery.

The result is a show that seriously gave me a new interest in medical science, even though this usually doesn’t interest me in the slightest. This show did justice to both inexperienced doctors, and geniuses. It shows that there are many different kinds of doctors, and how even the best surgeon in the world is powerless in some cases. And furthermore it also is brilliant in portraying the actual victims: the people who contracted these bizarre diseases and the people close to them. This show shines like no other portraying the agony that these people go through, and it does so with strength and conviction, (courtesy of Osamu Dezaki’s unique style), instead of cheese.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Just brilliant. Always knows when to deliver its next plot twist. Its stories sparkle with creativity.
Characters: 9/10 – Terrific voice acting, amazing characterization, both for the doctors and the patients in this series. Even Pinoko was adorable this time.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Gorgeous artwork, but granted: Akio Sugino‘s style is completely different from usual anime.
Setting: 10/10 – An amazing medical background, even compared to the other Black Jack installments.

Suggestions:
– Black Jack Special (Don’t get me wrong: the Black Jack Special is crap compared to this OVA; it completely got Pinoko’s character wrong. But it does contain the very important episode on Black Jack’s backstory. This OVA assumes that you’ve seen that, even though it aired at a later date…).
– Hi no Tori
– Metropolis

Level E Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Level E




My favourite comedies are the ones that don’t just make me laugh a lot. They also truly excel in another area, whether this is its cast of characters (Kodocha), storytelling (Law of Ueki, Gintama) or subject material (Excel Saga). It’s been a long while, but with Level E I can finally add another series to my top 10 of favourite comedies. This show is an absolute delight to watch.

Adapted from a manga from the same writer as Hunter X Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho, written in 1997, Level E is a brilliant comedy. For one, it is hilarious to watch. It’s got a fantastic comedic timing that plays together brilliantly with the chemistry between the different characters. This show really has a knack for getting under the skin of its different characters, with hilarious results.

Beyond that, though… this series is also just a fantastic storyteller. It basically consists out of a number of unrelated arcs, ranging between one and three episodes, all of which focus on alien life on earth in their own way. Some arcs share similar characters, but apart from that they just all have their own focus and story. This creates a ton of variety: every episode is different. And on top of that, they’re all really well told. They make excellent use of their momentum in order to both be hilarious, and actually tell some serious and interesting stories here, with a ton of well built up plot twists. It all comes together wonderfully in the end. While the stories have nothing to do with each other, they do all build up to the same atmosphere and universe, leaving an excellently fleshed out series behind, especially considering how there are only 13 episodes.

Beyond that, this show also has an amazing sense of characterization. Every character here is likable and original, miles away from the usual stereotypes. Both the males and females set themselves apart, with especially Yukitaka, Kraft and Miho. Due to the nature of this series they have relatively little airtime aside from perhaps the blonde prince, but they still stand out as amazing and down to earth characters who refuse to act like idiots just for plot convenience. the second biggest flaw of this show is really that we don’t get to see more of its awesome characterization.

The biggest flaw meanwhile is that it’s one big tease. The thing is, that it has an absolutely fantastic first arc. If the rest of the arcs would have followed in its example we would have had one of the best comedies ever made here. Instead, the rest of the arcs of this show do take a step back, but even then there is more than enough to like here. The amount of cliches in this series is really the bare minimum of what you can get and due to its rock-solid characters and storytelling it’s even enjoyable when it’s not funny, something quite rare for comedies.

Storytelling: 10/10 – Extremely witty and an amazing comedic timing. It’s a show that is constantly changing, even within its own arcs and that makes for a really diverse 13 episode series that leaves no moment wasted.
Characters: 9/10 – Amazing characterization for a 13 episoded series that focuses on different characters in each arc. It’s not that these characters are well developed. Instead, they’re the type of characters that are full of life, yet are down to earth and compelling to watch throughout the entire series. They’re the perfect example of how you can also get an amazing cast without a ton of drama.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is average, but even this is made excellent in a few episodes with some excellent camera angles and visual ideas. The CG can be a bit obtrusive, though the soundtrack is excellent.
Setting: 9/10 – An excellent look at the concept of aliens on earth. The stories all feel fresh and a lot of imagination has gotten into creating a simple, yet over the top, yet consistent setting here.

Suggestions:
– Ooedo Rocket
– Sexy Commando Gaiden
– The Law of Ueki

Star Driver Review – 85/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Star Driver




Out of all the series that premiered during the past Autumn 2010 season, Star Driver stood above the others, promising an epic mecha story; completely original, not based on anything and animated by Bones. It really looked to be the classic of the season. In the end though, that did not happen, but it still has enough to like.

It’s a series that combines school life with over the top mecha battles. It has quite a large cast of characters, all of which it tries to flesh out. And to be honest, it does a pretty good job there. Star Driver’s cast is fresh and dynamic, and the characters that do get the chance to show their stories are well fleshed out and interesting to watch. The school life moments make this a fun and cheerful show to watch, with a good balance between drama and light-hearted stuff.

Where Star Driver falls down is in its ambition. It both tried to have a huge story and cast, and tried to take its time and make this an enjoyable slow paced storyline. It just didn’t manage to do both and instead of focusing on one, both ended up a bit too unfinished. The story knows how to build up to to its final climax. In fact the final episode is excellent in how it brings a lot of build up from the entire series together. But at the same time there are a ton of plot devices that it never uses, the story is full of plotholes, and half the cast never gets its time in the spotlight, leaving them kindof wasted and especially making the scenes that focus on them rather pointless.

The nasty thing here is that tar Driver could have become an utter classic if it had more episodes. It’s good, but it has left a ton of potential lying around by not being able to focus on everything, and focusing on too many characters (even though it created a good reason for trying to do so). The mecha battles also get less and less interesting as time goes on. Both because in the end they serve no real purpose to the storylines, but also because of how they just get more and more repetitive.

So does that make this series worth watching in the end? I’d say that it does. It definitely has a great storyline and characters; it’s just not as good as what it could have been. The creators did succeed into creating a fun and original series to watch and keep you busy, interested and excited. Just don’t expect anything amazing.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Tries to do too much in too little time and ends up unbalanced because of it, but it still is able to write good scenarios and climaxes.
Characters: 9/10 – Takuto never really established himself as an excellent lead character, but there are quite a few excellent side-characters here. And the cast is very versatile just consistently interesting to watch.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Amazing looking mecha battles and soundtracks, with the animation outside of the mecha battles being quite good as well.
Setting: 8/10 – A bit incomplete, but it’s definitely inspired and original, and requires a lot of reading inbetween the lines.

Suggestions:
– Revolutionary Girl Utena
– Macross Frontier
– Baccano

Bakuman Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Bakuman




Bakuman was the slice of life series of this season. It shows the struggles of two guys as they aim to get their own manga published in Shounen Jump (or Jack, as it’s called here). It’s slow-paced and really not much happens for the standrds of a 25-episode series, but if you like the kind of series that take their time to tell a story the nit has nice things to offer.

Bakuman is slow, but never stagnates. It is a shounen jump adaptation itself, and in the same veins it’s constantly pushing its own story forward, albeit with tiny steps at a time. Moritaka and Akito grow into solid main characters, and also the side-characters all have their charms. The show also offers a nice look into the process of making a manga, along with the process of getting such a thing actually published.

Nothing really stands out for this show aside from a few select episodes, but it’s a perfect series to just sit back, watch and relax to. Its content and plot are definitely interesting to keep your attention, though it is a hard show to get into. It takes quite a while for the characters to get some signfiicant development to the point where they’re actually interesting enough, and this show is full of shounen cliches until that point. Becuase of that, I can’t fully recommend this series yet before having gotten the chance to judge its second season (because yes, that ending does leave you hanging a bit without resolving much or making much come together).

Overall Bakuman should have used its time a bit more efficiently. I know that the screenshots above make it seem like really exciting, but that’s just because the manga it’s based on is fast-paced. The anime isn’t. There are really few series that can claim to have as much time as Bakuman to tell their stories, and with that in mind the pacing does move rather slow and overall, too little happens for a 25 episode series. It does a lot of thing sirght, though.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Slow, but solid.
Characters: 8/10 – The cast of this show is dynamic and interesting to watch… as soon as they’ve received some development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Neither impressive nor flawed, the animation is simple but does what it needs to do.
Setting: 8/10 – The analysis on the manga making process isn’t anything deep, but interesting nonetheless.

Suggestions:
Touch
Glass Mask 2005
Hikaru no Go

To Aru Majutsu no Index II Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Despite its faults, I liked the first season of Index. It had an interesting backstory that looked at science versus magic, It was a bit inconsistent, but that was parrt of its charm. Every arc was different and interesting in its own way, which always made me guess what it would focus on next. The second season, though… I just can’t call it as good as the first. There were just too many things that feel half-assed.

Index II still follows the format of various arcs, ranging from two to six episodes. It’s just that the short arcs feel too short, and the long arcs feel way too long. This show has become completely unbalanced in the process, and it somehow lost its ability to determine how much time each arc needs. The short arcs still have their own charms in the way that they are concise and to the point. The problem really lies in the long arcs.

In order to fill up space the creators bring up endless strings of fanservice. The fanservice in this series in particular is terrible because it just keeps repeating itself with exactly the same set-up over and over. In just about every episode we are forced to sit through some horribly forced set-up where a guy (most often the male lead Touma) walks into a naked girl. It’s completely pointless, and even worse these scenes are so numerous, poorly timed and written that they just keep destroying the atmosphere that the rest of this show was trying to build up.

Beyond that, though, when you look at the big picture I also just can’t help but wonder what the entire point of this second season was. During most of its arcs, I just get the feeling like the creators are stalling or time and waiting for a hypothetical third season to wrap everything up. The different arcs all accomplish relatively little in both character and setting development. After this series, we hardly learned anything new about the cast of characters, aside from some introductions. Meanwhile, the purpose of most of the arcs in terms of the setting was establishing that the Roman Catholic Church is the enemy. It has completely lost the variety of the first season as well.

It does have its moments where it redeems itself, though. A few arcs are actually quite good, especially the shorter ones, but also near the final episodes the show picks itself up again. Index remains an action series, and when the action does pop up, it can get really good and creative. Purely interms of suspense, there’s nothing wrong with this show. It just fails at telling its story. Have I also mentioned the way that it tends to resort to Deus ex Machina with wrapping up its stories?

Storytelling: 7/10 – As a thriller it can work pretty well. It just is completely unbalanced, way too long and way too repetitive.
Characters: 7/10 – Doesn’t really add much upon the cast. Plus, they can get really annoying and repetitive during their “light hearted antics”.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Not as good as in the first season, but it still has a number of excellent-looking action scenes.
Setting: 8/10 – It doesn’t do much with it, but granted: when it does it shows that research was spent on making this into an original and unique setting here.

Suggestions:
– Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
– Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra
– Shikabane Hime

Fractale Review – 77,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Fractale




Noitamina is an excellent time-slot that is about to enter its seventh year now. Throughout all the series that it showed, I can only name two series that I really consider to be worse than Fractale: Library Wars and Jyu Oh Sei. Fractale is an enjoyable adventure-series. But it SO has no idea what it’s doing.

The thing with this show is that it completely lacks any sort of vision. It advertises itself with the “unique” Fractale-system: a system where people are separated and lost the need for physical touch. It’s a fascinating setting, so of course this show doesn’t bother to spend any time at all on what SHOULD HAVE BEEN the central theme of this show.

Instead we get a generic adventure plot surrounding a bunch of annoying teenagers that sometimes from out of nowhere receives a huge mood whiplash into dark plot turn of events. At any point where this show introduces a new interesting concept or idea, you can bet your hat that it’ll only get abandoned quickly, in favour of its main cast, and BY GOD are they annoying. Especially Clain suffers from the “bad main character”-syndrome with his whining, but also the rest of the cast doesn’t really get their full chance to shine in this series.

The solve salvation of this series is that it did have an excellent team of writers and animators on board. The animation is consistently excellent, especially for TV-standards. There are really few still frames, if any. And as annoying and short-sighted as the characters sometimes are, the consistent animation does give them a unique dynamic. This show is also great at building up tension, telling climaxes and making its graphics, music and storytelling all come together in one whole. Especially episode 7 is an amazing example of this.

This show knows how to tell a story. It just completely fails at deciding what story it wants to tell and so we have to sit through episodes at a time of nothing happening, only to rush through other actually good and interesting parts. This show doesn’t fit 11 episodes. Heck, I doubt whether 26 episodes would have been enough for all of the ideas that it just skims over. At the end, it’s just another adventure. It’s quite an enjoyable adventure, but don’t expect much more.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Nice sense of adventure in terms of the small picture. In terms of the big picture though… not so much.
Characters: 7/10 – Decent characterization, but the characters themselves are really, really annoying.
Production-Values: 9/10 – Excellent vibrant animation.
Setting: 7/10 – Had potential. It just never uses it.

Suggestions:
– Laputa: Castle in the Sky
– Shangri-La
– Popolocrois Story 1998

Hourou Musuko Review – 87,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Hourou Musuko




The past season had three series that really stood with head and shoulders above the rest. They were all genuinely good and took their genres into new and fresh directions. Hourou Musuko takes a look at cross dressers. Most of time when they’re portrayed in a medium, they’re portrayed for laughs or flamboyance. Hourou Musuko however is entirely built around showing the issues that boys who feel like they are girls (and vice versa) run into while growing up. And it does so brilliantly.

For starters, this is one of those series that has a slow pacing, yet somehow manages to make a ton of stuff happen in each episode. It’s full of subtlety, and because of this it can get a ton of genuine drama out of the characters using its limited time of only 11 episode excellently.

This show actually made quite a bold statement by not animating the first X volumes of the manga it’s based on, but instead starting somewhere in the middle. The great thing about this show is that despite this, it still doesn’t feel incomplete. Characters sometimes refer to things that have happened to them in the past, but it’s apparent enough to the viewers to figure out what happened. This method gave the characters both a rich past and future and it gives the impression that there really is much more to them than what we see in the series. It’s a terrific way of characterizing them, and the entire cast of this series pretty much feels incredibly genuine and believable. Oh, and finally we’ve found another show that takes a realistic look at romance, as opposed to the overly sappy view you see in nearly every anime.

It’s a series for which I’ve had hardly anything to criticize for. The story is perfectly balanced, the plot twists are amazing in their subtlety, the cast is amazing, the animation brings both the cast and setting come alive and there is hardly anything that this show does wrong. If I had to nitpick at something then it’s that the characters are portrayed a tad too mature for their age. But so what? This is a wonderful portrayal of growing up. The cross-dressing is only a tiny part of this series. There’s so much to this show, and it’s only 11 episodes long.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Wonderfully subtle, with some amazing plot twists.
Characters: 10/10 – Amazing portrayal of young teenagers growing up,and their issues dealing with it. Wonderful development.
Production-Values: 8/10 – This show is really good at far away shots, with restrained animation, still bringing its cast to life.
Setting: 8/10 – Excellent portrayal of a school in japan. This show knows how to ring its environments to life.

Suggestions:
– Aoi Hana
– Asatte no Houkou
– Sasameki Koto

Kimi ni Todoke Second Season Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kimi ni Todoke




Each year, before the start of each Autumn Season, I hold a little poll in which you can all force me to blog a series I wouldn’t normally even consider to cover. The only time at which I could not complete such a series was in 2009, with Kimi ni Todoke’s first season. It had very solid production values; Production IG made sure of that. However, as a romance it just had no idea what it wanted to do. Any scene that focused on Sawako’s (the lead character) growth as a character was overshadowed by its romantic drivel that refused to go anywhere.

It really was the classic syndrome of romance shows, where the creators just refuse to let relationships play out normally, in favour of forced and artificial cheese and drama. It’s because of this that I wasn’t looking forward to its second season. But lo and behold: it actually redeemed itself a bit. The biggest surprises of this season definitely lie in its sequels.

This second season really shows that the creators took a good look at what happened to the first season, with the intention to fix its major flaws. They put aside the romantic nonsense and simply constructed a series with the sole purpose of resolving the romantic relationship between the two lead characters. It’s an in-depth look at how the relationship between the two lead characters grows. It’s no longer another simple “will they won’t they”-story, but instead the series changes into a “when, how and why will they hook up”. A much more interesting premise, and to make matters even better: the creators also figured out how to use slow pacing. Instead of using it for stalling, they use it to slowly build up everything they need, deliver one hell of a climax, and afterwards carefully wrap up everything that needed to be wrapped up. It’s a massive improvement over the first season.

At the same time though, I wouldn’t say that this is the second coming of White Album. The fact remains that the first season just left a lot to be desired, and it didn’t even seem to build up for this second season. The second season does make use of some of the things that happened throughout the first season, but it mostly feels like the creators went “oh crap, we actually need to develop these people”. Kimi ni Todoke still is an overly pure portrayal of teenaged romance: great to swoon away, but at the same time it’s not like the story behind it is really deep and thoughtful. The characters remain one-sighted teenagers who only seem to think about romance and the drama still is based entirely around the fact that they refuse to talk to each other. They’re just much better written and portrayed than in the first season.

Storytelling: 8/10 – Has exactly what the first season lacked: focus. Carefully builds up its simple but effective romance.
Characters: 8/10 – They refused to develop in the first season. In the second season however, they do, and IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Production IG is solid as expected, though there are too many distorted faces.
Setting: 8/10 – Nothing special nor nothing bad here aside from an overly idyllic portrayal of teenaged life. But then again, something tells me that was very much intentional.

Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– Aoi Hana
– True Tears

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka Review – 70/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?




That’s it. With this I’m done giving these generic looking moe shows a benefit of doubt. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka is not as bad as Dragon Crisis. In fact, it has a few parts that are actually good, especially in its first half. It lead me to believe that, in fact, we might get a very enjoyable fanservice show here. Unfortunately though, this show then proceeded to run all of my hopes into the ground.

Let me start with the good stuff: this show is quite creative when it wants to be. When it wants to, it can use its cliched ingredients, insert some good chemistry between the characters, throw in some crazy plot twists and create an excellent tension. There really are a few excellent episodes in this series, especially the first and the one about the slasher. It’s just that there’s just so much crap in the rest of this show.

Zombie is at its best when the chemistry around its characters is dynamic. It’s got well written banter that works well with its nonchalant zombie main character. It’s quite enjoyable when it doesn’t take its own cliches seriously and instead tries to put them into a creative scenario. Most of the time though, it just forgets this and devolves into dull moe hi-jinks. Eventually, it just gives up trying to be interesting and just opts for lazy slice of life that’s just there to fill up time. The characters in this show are nowhere near well written enough to remain enjoyable when they’re not funny.

The big nail in this one’s coffin though is that it has no bloody clue how to tell a good story. The drama in the first half can actually get quite good when the show still is a collection of random episodes about the important characters, but it completely falls apart when it tries to build up for some overall storyline. The drama gets incredibly cheesy, and the worst part is that the creators don’t even realize this, so they just keep stretching the cheese ad nauseum.

The entire second half of this series is based around complete stupidity from one character that ends with one heck of a Deus ex Machina (several of them, actually). And then, when the climax is over and you thought that things couldn’t get any worse… episode 12 will destroy any good memories that were still left with one giant middle finger to both its audience and cast of characters.

Studio Deen. Please put some people who can actually tell a story on your next series. I mean, you’ve showed in the past that you can make genuinely good moe shows with Touka Gettan and YamiBoushi. Why so much laziness?

Storytelling: 7/10 – When it wants to, it can be very enjoyable and dynamic, but this doesn’t happen often enough and gets ruined by some terrible episodes and drama.
Characters: 6/10 – Try to be serious, but fail. Try to be enjoyable, but fail as well. Only when they try to be themselves they work well.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Pretty decent animation. Certainly not the worst.
Setting: 7/10 – Has nice ideas, but doesn’t use them often enough.

Suggestions:
– Touka Gettan
– Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
– Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito