Category: Monthly Summaries

#18 (15) – Persona 4 The Animation – (6,5/10) – This show is annoying to watch. As it turns out, instead of being action and mystery, this is just a show about school antics. While that on itself isn’t bad, although I’m not happy that it picked such an overcrowded genre, but the school life scenarios are really dull, badly acted, and most of the time just not funny. Especially the pee guy (whose name I still can’t remember) is bad here. #17 (12) – Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – (7/10) – Agh, what a shame. This show hit its shelf life. At the moment this show has completely run out of inspiration and is running on dull hijinks stories that are way too forced and just aren’t funny and don’t add anything to the series. What’s more: this show is becoming a chore to watch through. #16 (20) – Guilty Crown – (7,25/10) – Oh good lord. Who found it a good idea to make the male lead this bland? In fact, there is a problem with the entire cast of this series: none of the characters really seems to know what they want to be, and therefore keep switching personalities. What this show does is not getting to know the characters, it’s just changing their personalities, based on what is handy for the plot. #15 (11) – Bakuman – (7,5/10) I’m really not sure what happened to Bakuman, but it has turned into a complete soap opera, always turning from worst case scenario to other worst case scenario. I especially dislike how immature Moritaka handled when he came down with his injury. The balance in this show seemed lost: the first season moved too slow, but this season delivers its plot twists too fast. #14 (16) – Kimi to Boku – (7,75/10) Kimi to Boku’s big problem is the yellow-haired kid. In every single episode, this squirt finds new ways to annoy me. It’s a good thing that most episodes manage to deliver some good drama around some other character, otherwise I would have dropped this long ago, but this remains a test of patience. #13 (8) – Mirai Nikki – (7,75/10) Mirai Nikki at this point is still missing something in its characterization. It’s definitely fun, but at the moment its complete lack of subtlety is taking away a bit of the tension. I know that it aims to be like that, but for that it’s just not crazy enough to make up for that. I’m still missing something with this series. #12 (13) – Phi Brain – (7,75/10) This show is weird. It makes no sense whatsoever and every episode features some sort of weird thing that just defies all kinds of logic. But it’s fun. The puzzles in this show are always entertaining, and the drama around it also is surprisingly good. #11 (6) – Ben-To – (8/10) I’m a bit torn about this show at the moment. On one hand, this show is just hilarious and without a doubt the best comedy of the season. On the other hand however, it had one particular episode that was really bad, and went against a lot of what this show avoided so well up to that point. In particular the penis jokes have been too abused t this point. So that’s why I’m going to give it a safe rating at the moment, and if it can pull itself back up, then that’s only a good result. #10 (14) – Kyoukai Senjou no Horzion – (8,25/10) Thee is a ton of magic-babble in this series, but that’s also what makes it interesting. The premise and culture behind this series are very creative and while hard to follow, it’s definitely consistently interesting. And then there is the fact that everyone’s boobs are enormous and the male main character seems to think that groping them is a form of bonding. What the hell? #9 (17) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10) Well, finally we’re getting somewhere! It took a bloody long while, but now that Nurarihyon is finally delivering it has finally gotten interesting to watch. Finally there is a lot of stuff going on at the same time, instead of just dull and straightforward build-up. #8 (9) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10) Hunter X Hunter so far has been better than the first series in terms of pacing (scenes flow much smoothly into each other), and worse in terms of acting (most of the voice actors lack subtlety). It’s shown that it can deliver on the heavy scenes though, so everything is still possible at this moment. #7 (10) – Tamayura ~ Hitotose – (8,25/10) This series turned out to be excellent slice of life. It’s not dull enough for nothing to happen, and every episode feels inspired. The voice acting is excellent, the animation really brings the characters alive, and on top of that the setting also feels vibrant. #6 (7) – Fate/Zero – (8,25/10) This show has been steadily building up its story, and it’s gradually getting better and better to make up for its rather slow pacing. The themes of chivalry get slowly more and more meaning, and more and more characters start to get interesting. There still are some characters that need some work, like the Caster duo and Saber herself, but there is still plenty of time left with such a steady pacing. #5 (5) – Last Exile ~ Ginkyou no Fam – (8,25/10) In this month, Last Exile wasn’t exactly the most consistent series. There were time where it was a little too childish and panderish. The points where it delivered however, it REALLY DELIVERED, with absolutely gorgeous artwork, a fantastic atmosphere, and characters that are very easy to relate to. Especially Giselda stole the show in the latest episode. #4 (3) – Chihayafuru – (8,5/10) It’s a simple concept, but this series has really nailed its execution. This month introduced all of the side characters, and they’re all important to the main characters, rather than just being some token characters. The acting still is wonderful, and the Karuta matches are actually starting to get more interesting with each episode, thanks to the passion that the characters put in it. #3 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10) Overall this has been a very consistent series: consistently interesting, consistently silly, and consistently developing its plot. Things still are moving at a steady, albeit slow pace, and it still is a joy to watch this show even after 30 episodes. #2 (4) – Un-Go – (8,75/10) Out of all the new shows this Autumn Season, this is definitely the one that stood out. It has fantastic storytelling, combining terrific episodic stories perfectly together with a continuous storyline, and it makes sure to deliver every single week. The pacing is very addictive, the stories are really interesting, the mystery is excellent, and it doesn’t waste a single minute. I complained about the characters before, but even they turned out to be really interesting to watch. #1 (1) – Mawaru Penguion Drum – (9/10) Penguin Drum at the moment is really building towards its home stretch. This month was full of plot twists and character development. The direction still is really excellent, which makes every episode a joy to watch.]]>

#29 (new) – Chibi Devi – (2,25/10) – For me, this was the worst show of the season. Ridiculously cheaply made, really bad jokes, really bad acting and based on a very flimsy premise. Dropped. #28 (new) – Maken-Ki – (3,75/10) – Maken-Ki is stupid fanservice with a lot of boobs, panties and fighting. Dropped. #27 (new) – Mashiro Iro Symphony – (4,25/10) – With this series, Manglobe has exited my top 10 of favorite studios. Blacksmith and TWGOK were one thing, but this was just bad in every way aside from perhaps good inbetween animation. The drama is cheesy, the characters are one sided and stereotypes, and there’s nothing interesting about it whatsoever. #26 (36) – Shakugan no Shana – (5/10) – After watching the first episode of the third season, I am glad that I didn’t continue with it. It’s good to see that this series is evolving, but the direction in which it evolved was rather questionable. The twist around Yuuji in particular is such a cheese ball of a twist, especially considering the cast of this series. Dropped #25 (24) – Digimon Xros Wars – (5,25/10) – What surprised me the most about this installment of the Xros Wars saga is how incredibly hyperactive the new male lead is. Overall, Digimon Xros Wars is a show who downplays itself because it probably thinks that kids are idiots. It’s a huge change with the original Digimon series, but change alone isn’t always good. #24 (new) – Maji de Watashi ni Koi ni Shinasai – (5,75/10) – Now this was fun! Or at least, that’s what I thought after the first episode. The first episode made no sense, but it was over the top and every character was having fun in his or her role. And then the second episode came and things got really dull. and then the third and fourth episode came and this show degenerated into nothing but fanservice and dull repeated harem antics. This is what you get when you want to open with a bang, but have no intentions of putting in any other effort at entertaining your audience beyond it. #23 (new) – Sengoku Paradise: Kiwami – (6/10) – This one is good…. for about one laugh. If you’re really bored you might want to give it a chance, but in the end it’s not really worth it compared to the other comedies this season. #22 (new) – C3 – (6/10) – I like diverse shows. However, that doesn’t mean that I automatically consider any show that has it good. A very nasty example of this is C3: this set up would have been nice, if only the acting wasn’t so abysmally bad, it didn’t feel like the Shaft of three years ago, it didn’t force its drama and plot twists, and it wasn’t so damn cliched. These characters are in no way fun to watch. They’re incredibly stupid stereotypes with superpowers. #21 (new) – Mobile Suit Gundam AGE – (6,5/10) – At this point, I’ve gotten tired of Gundam shows, so I have very little patience for them. At this point I see too much potential for this show to become a boring repetition of random battles. The first episode just had too many things that made me tired of this genre. Wake me up if it does turn out to be different. Dropped #20 (new) – Guilty Crown – (7/10) – This one turned out to be the big disappointment of this season. It has an excellent pedigree, and yet it hardly takes any chances or risks. It’s full of cliches and characters who don’t know what they want to be. The female lead in particular is bad for doing absolutely nothing within the span of the first three episodes. The animation looks gorgeous, but even that turned out half-assed with the third episode. #19 (new) – Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai – (7,25/10) – In the end, I decided to drop this show. I just don’t get what’s so good about it. The only thing that I liked about the first three episode was that it has very solid dialogue. Beyond that though, it’s just another harem with too many cliches, forced characters and uninteresting drama. #18 (new) – Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi – (7,5/10) – I dropped this show. The biggest reason for this is lack of time though, but at the same time I also have to say that while the comedy in this show is nice and the characterization is good, I’d rather watch a show about actual gay people, rather than angsty bishies who keep raping each other. #17 (15) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (7,75/10) – Agh, this is my problem with most shounen series: how long did it take again for this story to take off? It’s been forty episodes, and Rikuo is put into yet another training arc that bogs down the story. Also, the entire set-up of this arc bugs me: it’s well directed, but when Rikuo created his Parade of 100 demons, I expected him to do this for the sake of creating a small army. What the past episodes have been doing is take random characters away from the others, and throwing them in predictable one-on-one or two-on-one battles. The big problem is that they tended to end with a very predictable save at the last possible moment that could have been seen from miles away. How much more of this build-up and random battles against waves of uninteresting enemies until things get interesting here? #16 (new) – Kimi to Boku – (7,75/10) – This one has potential. It has this boring atmosphere that at first sight seems like an instant failure, but then it comes and turns that atmosphere around again. The characters all have their moments that get on my nerves, thoug, but none are as bad as the blond kid. Will he ever shut up? #15 (new) – Persona 4 The Animation – (7,75/10) Persona has the potential to become great as it goes on. Its premise can get really good in terms of character development if handled well. At the moment it’s still a bit too stuck in its own formula to really take off, though. There is little time given to flesh out the characters, which is why the parts where they show their inner secrets lack the impact they could have had. #14 (new) – Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon – (7,75/10) This series’ biggest asset is its creativity. It’s set in an original world and the cast of characters is HUGE and very colourful. The overall plot feels a bit random and silly, but it’s definitely building up to something. The character designs themselves are abysmal, there are some definitely annoying characters and a lot of time is spent on just goofing off, but there’s some definite potential here. #13 (new) – Phi Brain – (7,75/10) This is a rather silly show about puzzles. In particular the antagonists make really weird decisions and have really strange motivations, but it’s worth it to see what kind of puzzles the creators come with, and the overall cast is eccentric, yet fun to watch. There is a very real chance for this show to become TOO eccentric, though. The key will be good variety in the puzzles from this point on. #12 (17) – Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume – (8/10) Overall Squid Girl’s second season has been a little step down compared to the frist season, but for comedy sequels’ standards it isn’t much of a step. The animation has gotten slightly worse, and some stories are too forced, but there still are a bunch of really hilarious stories. It needs to keep this up, because getting worse from this point isn’t an option. #11 (9) – Bakuman – (8/10) I do have to say that Bakuman is currently the best Shounen Jump series out there. Unlike Gintama and Sket Dance it isn’t throwing a bunch of random stories around in the hope that it’ll get lucky and strike gold, while unlike Nurarihyon no Mago it isn’t breaking up the flow with constant training arcs. The second season does have fixed some of its pacing issues, but on the other hand it’s not yet Hunter X Hunter material, and things have been rather monotonous. #10 (new) – Tamayura ~ Hitotose – (8/10) The two big slice of life series are both very, very different, but they’ve got one similarity: they depend on characters with annoying sides, and they somehow make it work. For me, Tamayura does it the best of the two at this point. It’s really well animated, and it actually uses photos really well to flesh out its cast. The drama around it isn’t random, but tells a lot about the characters. Some parts like the whistling and the shota fangirls can get annoying, though. #9 (new) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10) Here is the thing with this new season: it’s much faster than the first season. That has advantages and disadvantages. The story flows more, it’s easier to get into and as the result a lot of very interesting stuff has already happened in just four episodes. Now, the thing remains that this show skips a lot of time to flesh out the characters because of this. Out of all adaptations that feel rushed this season, this one actually does its best to hide it so far, but the real test for this show will be the point where the characters will actually show themselves off. Will these be as great as well? Right now, the only parts that really are worse than the first season are the music, and some of the voice acting. #8 (new) – Mirai Nikki – (8,25/10) Mirai Nikki is over the top suspense, and it realizes that. The characters are fun and well acted together, there’s a good whiff of romance without overdoing it, and the first three episodes have been very entertaining with a pretty good atmosphere. #7 (new) – Fate/Zero – (8,25/10) Fate/Zero stands out as the most solid series of the season. I refuse to watch Fate/Stay Night but this was completely different and much more interesting (and heck, we’re talking about actual adults this time). My big complaint about it is that it’s a bit boring with its exposition. There are long scenes of characters just standing in one place and do nothing but talking, and characters stop in the middle of fights to explain their moves. That breaks flow. #6 (new) – Ben-To – (8,25/10) What makes Ben-To so addictive is its direction. It has definite harem elements, but tis delivery is fresh and interesting. The jokes all work great, the timing of this show is perfect, and even when it’s not funny, the characters are interesting and well acted, rather than most other moe shows that have just boring characters. On top of that the fights are a lot of fun to watch, and the premise of fighting over half-priced lunches just kicks ass. #5 (new) – Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam – (8,5/10) If you’re planning to watch this series, I have one message for you: watch up to the second episode. Both episodes are completely different in tone. The first episode is rather childish, where the second is very serious. It actually manages to blend the two together very well and most importantly it knows when to ditch its silliness. What really impressed me is how much the creators put into the setting. This show is full of creativity and the world it’s played in actually feels alive. #4 (new) – Chihayafuru – (8,5/10) This show has the best characters of the new season. They’re really well animated, very dynamic (showing both their young and old versions in full details really helps!), plus the karuta matches were really made exciting. The big challenge for this show is making the karuta matches this way. It’s a very simple game, so keeping up this pace will be a challenge. #3 (new) – Un-Go – (8,5/10) I really like the storytelling in this series. This show knows that it’s Noitamina and tries to stuff as much into its episodes as possible. The result is that it’s really fast paced, but not in a bad way. Episodes do require a second watch-through in order to get everything, but for me that’s not a bad thing at all. My only gripe is that the cast of characters is rather flat. #2 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10) This month was all about character development. Naturally this was a great chance for the cast to shine, in a very weird arc that completely ditched the warfare in favor of esthetics. This is Bee-Train though, so I’m really looking forward to what they have planned for the ending. #1 (1) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9,25/10) Penguin Drum has definitely changed this month. I think that it’s for the better. It’s both become hilarious and the character development is really kicking in. It keeps finding new ways of showing symbolism and toying with its storyline. And yet, amidst the chaos, nothing is just thrown in at random. It would be awesome if the final third will be able to live up to the potential that has been built up so far.]]>

This month was not as good as what it could have been, because here the big flaw of this season really surfaced: the length. A lot of shows unfortunately were held down by it, but on the other hand: a lot of shows were not. We got to see some excellent finales, although granted, perhaps not as consistently good compared to the spring season.

In any case, I’m looking forward to the upcoming autumn season, because it really does not have the same problem: just about every show is planned to go on for more than 13 episodes. Instead, the major flaw will be the series composition writers: there aren’t many solid ones floating around, and a lot of them don’t fit the shows they’re assigned to. On the other hand though, this will be the perfect chance for them to really set themselves apart.

#23 (19) – Sacred Seven – (6/10) – For the final two episodes, the creators just gave up and went “what the heck, we know this is bad so let’s just overact the hell out of it in order to make it at least a bit fun”. It worked, in the way that the finale wa so bad that it was good. It was enjoyable, but it remains bad. Especially the main villain was an overacting mess.
#22 (new) – Battle Spirits Heroes – (6,5/10) – For the standards of kiddie shows, it’s not the best nor the worst. It’s still is blatant commercialism, but at least it avoided a few cliches here and there and it wasn’t as painful to watch as some of the other series of the genre.
#21 (16) – Ghakkyou Burai Kaiji – (7/10) – There were too many manly tears, there were too many moments who dragged out. It’s a shame, considering how hyped the pachinko arc was. If only this show was six episodes shorter, it would have worked a lot better and the creators wouldn’t have had to repeat themselves so often, but even then I have no idea what happened to the characters near the end. Here, they really reached the point of overacting and acting out of character.
#20 (new) – Busou Shinki Moon Angel – (7,25/10) – This one turned out to be decent. That however is not good enough considering the people who created this. It’s just a blatant commercial, unfortunately.
#19 (19) – Working!! – (7,5/10) – Well, I guess that the slice of life parts of this series turned out to be better than expected. That part of this show was nice to watch. This show completely lost me with its comedy though, with a lot of jokes that I remember from the first episode of the first season.
#18 (18) – Ao no Exorcist – (7,5/10) – The anime original material had potential. For most part it stayed true to its characters, and especially the episodes in which nothing happened were fun. For the climax however, the creators wanted to go too much with a “by the books” ending, which resulted in a very cheesy and predictable climax.
#17 (12) – Shinryaku! Ika-Musume – (7,75/10) – So far, I wouldn’t call the first episode of Squid Girl 2 among its better episodes, but it still had its funny moments. It will need to pay attention to not repeat its own jokes too much though. That’s by far going to be its biggest potential pitfall.
#16 (15) – Sket Dance – (7,75/10) – The Switch arc didn’t really work for me as well as I’d hoped. It probably has to do with how it was bound to have a twist: The really bad part of this month was the Gintama cross-over, though. It s big problem was that it had no idea what it wanted to be, so it jumped back and forth between Jump commercial, recap, Gintama-episode and parody. The pacing was just weird, and the second part of the episode was way too rushed. The random powers and plot twists that the creators pulled out of their ass was just way too much, and only served to remind me that I’m done with Gintama’s style of humour.
#15 (17) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (7,75/10)

The problem with Nurarihyon no Mago is that it’s still building up. Get down to business for god’s sake!

#14 (8) – No.6 – (8/10)

Right from the start it would be obvious that No.6’s problem would be its ending, but I really did not expect that it would be this BIG of a problem. Pulling just about everything out of its ass, it closed off with a very bad aftertaste. And that, while the episodes before it were so good!

#13 (13) – Blade – (8,25/10)

It was a fairly straight-forward ending, but really: I liked Blade a lot. I’m a bit baffled as to why AniDB‘s rating is so abysmally low; I mean, it had solid action, great characters, a terrific soundtrack. Sure, it tended to get a bit cheesy at times, but is that really a reason to give it such a treatment?

#12 (2) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,25/10)

It’s a shame, but the final month of Tiger & Bunny wasn’t its best. Overall I ended up enjoying the episodic stories of this series a lot more than the climaxes, with the best of the series taking place back in August. The final plot just wasn’t as interesting, and while the main villain was excellent, he was a bit underused, and his underlings were just one dimensional villains. The main characters however were still great to watch.

#11 (11) – Usagi Drop – (8,25/10)

And thsi show ended with quite a charming finale. Overall, I would have preferred a bit more character development, but it was a nice little series to watch, and very realistically told.

#10 (12) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

This show had an adorable ending that finally made Claude come out of his shell. It was a very nice climax for the main cast, and it was the emotional height of the series. Looking forward to Tamayura next season.

#9 (7) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,25/10)

Inconclusive, but at the very least a solid finale with a lot of focus on Kyouhei himself. Overall the new girl really was the worst character of the series, but even then the finale was as action packed as it should have been.

#8 (14) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10)

This month, this series surprised with a lot of very strong standalone episodes. There was of course the Osamu Kobayashi episode, but also the episode with the airplane pilot was really good and very atmospheric. However, after 11 episodes, what’s still missing is something that ties the series together. Why did the penultimate episode suddenly introduce a bunch of new characters?

#7 (9) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

Hana-Saku Iroha really delivered a wonderful ending with a lot of strong character development. The graphics also looked better than ever, and I’m really glad to see that every single character here received a satisfying conclusion.

#6 (6) – Kamisama no Memo-Chou – (8,5/10)

The show ended very strongly, even though this series is incomplete. The final story was excellent and used the main cast well. The solution to the mystery was tragic, yet made sense. The cast developed a bit, and overall I’m very happy… if it weren’t for the fact that this really needed to be longer.

#5 (10) – Blood-C – (8,5/10)

In the end, I do have to say that this is my third favourite series of the shows that premiered in the Summer Season. The characterization had its problem, but overall this was one heck of an emotional ride with an amazing conclusion that paved a great road for the upcoming movie to follow. I really hope that in the upcoming fall season, there will be a series that will take as many risks as this series did.

#4 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

Sasuke was on fire this month, which was especially dedicated to his rise as a daimyou. His antics still haven’t gotten stale, and he’s consistently evolving. The rest of the cast meanwhile is building up a very solid back-story, that has me really intrigued in where it’s going to take us.

#3 (3) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;Gate’s ending did pull a bunch of twists convenient for the sake of storytelling, but overall the ending was amazingly executed and short, but sweet. The story made great use of its red herrings and came together wonderfully.

#2 (5) – Natstume Yuujin-Chou – (9/10)

This show closed off with two wonderful standalone episodes that did an amazing job developing Natsume. They were wonderfully told and a perfect ending to the third season.

#1 (1) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9,25/10)

This show is amazing. And yet, in this month it even surpassed itself. It came with huge twists, huge character development, the graphics got wilder and more imaginative, the background art in particular was a very creative. And it just keeps on building intrigue. This was by far the top of the Summer Season

This month was an interesting one, definitely. There were unfortunately a few series who took a bit of a dip, or a bit of a wrong turn, but what charcterized the series who didn’t do that: charater development. Tons and tons of character development. Characters who one seemed one-sided gain a ton of depth, and just about every series turned out to be excellent in fleshing its cast out and giving more depth to it.

At this point, I won’t be able to tell whether or not this season really belongs among the best summer seasons we’ve had, because a lot of these series depend on their endings. The past spring will be very hard to beat in terms of awesome endings, but if there’s any season that can do it, it’s this one.

OVA Releases
#2: Carnival Phantasm – (5/10) – Okay, so I tried to watch this while not having played Fate/Stay Night. So obviously I did not enjoy watching all kinds of random references that flew over my head. Heck, I even have trouble imagining how those jokes would have worked if you DID know the meaning behind them. If you haven’t played Fate/Stay Night: don’t even bother with it. If you have though… prepare for something really silly.
#1: Milky Holmes OVA – (8/10)

This… was bizarre. It’s pretty much the same as the series, which is a good thing Its high energy just kept on going and going, with surprisingly good animation. It was incredibly cheesy, but knew it and played that for laughs, which worked nicely. My one complaint is that it was entirely fanservice. Especially turning one of the cast members into an is a very trite twist, but thankfully it was nowhere near as badly done as with series as Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka.

TV Series
#19 (20) – Sacred Seven – (7,25/10) – Sacred Seven: just take your characters, design a bunch of interesting looking monsters and just throw one monster at your characters for every single episode. That would have been more interesting than what the creators are currently doing, because the main plot of this thing is so completely and utterly boring. Apart from Arama, there really is nothing that stands out.
#18 (9) – Ao no Exorcist – (7,75/10) – Ao no Exorcist has gone off into anime original material, and I just have one major problem with that: I don’t care about the plot. It’s just not interesting. I’d rather wtach these characters interacting with each other. Satan? Who cares about Satan! Can’t the characters just all have a sleepover or something? That’s something that this show does really really well.
#17 (15) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8/10) – I’m a bit behind on this series and haven’t watched the latest two episodes yet. This has to do with business, but also because the show is currently building up and so we’re in the middle of a training arc. I do not want to watch yet another season that’s entirely dedicated to build-up! There are hints of things getting better though: the villain looks interesting at the very least. Now, let’s not let her derail like the last one, okay?
#16 (8) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8/10) – Aaand here is the point where this series lost my grip on it: in the end, the pachinko arc was too long. This month featured two episodes that just dragged on and kept repeating themselves. The thing is, that with so few arcs, this thing has lost its dynamic: it’s just waiting for the inevitable to happen. It’ll probably be an adrenaline fest when we get there, but Kaiji: you can also create series of 20 episodes long. It’s been done before. It’s even gonna save you some budget…
#15 (18) – Sket Dance – (8/10)

This month, Sket Dance was testing my patience, both in a good and bad way. The thing remains that it’s not as funny and dynamic as it used to. It however still is creative and is willing to try out risks. Just as I gave up on it, it pulls these strange episodes like the one entirely dedicated on bad jokes, or the double date. At first they may not seem much, but they’re surprisingly clever when you think about them afterward. I in any case want to see where the creators are going with this.

#14 (17) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10)

At first, Dantalian no Shoka seemed to have an excellent pair of main characters. Now, they’re the biggest weakness of the show, simply because they refuse to evolve. In Dalian’s case, she actually devolved. The rest of the cast, and the stories they run into are wonderfully imaginative, though. They’re incredibly far-fetched, but that’s what makes them fun and interesting. Gainax’s animation also helps.

#13 (16) – Blade – (8,25/10)

Yeah, something has to go really weird for Blade to not end up as the best Marvel series. Sure, its action isn’t as good as some of the other installments, but apart from that it has them beaten in pretty much every other category: the story takes actually interesting detours and has surprisingly engaging (albeit a bit cheesy) sideplots, the cameos are used in the best way so far, so that they actually enhance the characters playing a cameo, the characters have received much more depth than the previous ones and the bond between Blade and the people around him is much more interesting than that of the X-Men and Wolverine, and in terms of setting the characters aren’t wandering around random places, but instead are traveling all across southeast asia. Often visiting places that anime almost never (if they do it at all) touches upon.

#12 (14) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

Out of the slice of life series that I’m still watching, Croisee is the most overly sappy one. Because of that though, it can also get really genuine, which is an interesting trade-off. Its main selling point is its focus on cultural differences, which is really explored well. There’s a ton of interesting stuff discussed each episode, which very neatly relates back to the characters, instead of being just a kaleidoscope of random peculiar cultural differences.

#11 (10) – Usagi Drop – (8,25/10)

The interesting thing about the slice of life series this season is that they’re all excellent in totally different ways. For Usagi Drop, it’s the realism that really shines. Before I’ll fully judge this series though, I want to see how the creators are planning to end it. It won’t have the infamous trainwreck of the manga ending (which I thankfully have yet to be spoiled about) , but the anime still is going to have to tie itself together and I’m really curious how they’re gonna do that.

#10 (11) – Blood-C – (8,5/10)

It’s actually been a while since I’ve blogged such a controversial title. With that, I mean that Blood-C joins the ranks of series of which people have hugely diverging opinions. Personally, I’m at the positive side of the spectrum: I find this to be a very effective horror series with a gripping atmosphere and top notch fight choreography all around. The cast of characters admittedly aren’t the most interesting of the season, but they do really well in holding my attention and remaining plausible.

#9 (13) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

The thing that sets Hana-Saku Iroha apart? Its drama. The characters themselves are… annoying to watch at times, but the drama between them is excellent to watch. It’s creative, gets some terrific development out of them, it shows new sides of them, the script is surprisingly well written when tit wants to and it weaves its various sideplots surprisingly creatively together. Because of that I find this to be a very engaging series, desipite how much the characters may get on my nerves.

#8 (6) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Number 6 has only one problem. That didn’t change at all during the past month. It’s still wonderfully written, makes great use of its time to stuff as much plot and character development into its episodes, is really well animated, has an excellent plot and setting… but there still is no way that this one’s gonna end well.

#7 (7) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This still is rock solid entertainment: this month in particular upped the ante by giving the cast some depth to the main cast. Former one-sided characters actually were put in interesting situations and dilemmas, and gained a lot of depth. The storyline is also very effective and keeps making things interesting and entertaining to watch. Sure, there’s some badly placed fanservice, but that’s a minor issue.

#6 (12) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,5/10)

Finally in this month Kami-Sama n Memo-Chou stopped goofing off and showed one heck of a great storyline. Four episodes of undiluted awesomeness with a tight script, creative twists, excellent characters and a wonderful pacing. This is what mystery I expected from this series. It still has the JC Staff Cliches, but it executed them in a completely different manner compared to how they usually do them. Overall this finally lived up to its promise.

#5 (5) – Natsume Yuujin-Chou – (8,75/10)

There was one two episode arc and three episodic stories this month. The arc was great, but the episodic stories really stole the show here. The big advantage of the third season is that Natsume is developing like hell here. Every episode is dedicated to his growth. When you’ve also got heart-warming stories added to that, you’ve really got an amazingly charming series.

#4 (4) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

The one annoying part about Hyouge Mono this month was that it took a two-week hiatus, so we only got two episodes. What we got though, was absolutely wonderful. The acting in this series just gets better and better, and is without a doubt the best of the entire season. Just about everything is portrayed with the utmost subtlety, only to break that again with the bombastic emotions, and the cast plays excellently off each other. It’s still incredibly slow, so if you don’t have patience this really isn’t the thing for you, but for those who have it really is rewarding. But yeah, the dialogue is still incredibly complicated, so the chance that it will e picked up by subbers is very slim.

#3 (2) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;Gate showed itself as the series with the best plot of the season. It’s full of intricacies of time-travel and its multi-layered plot is really starting to pay off now, and I especially like how suddenly, the first half of the series gets a completely different meaning. The least impressive part still is its characters, but they are nowhere near bad. They’re well developed, but perhaps just not as dynamic as they could have been.

#2 (1) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

The plot with which Tiger&Bunny decided to go into its finale with was just awesome. Well built up, imaginative, but most importantly the characters were just awesome to watch. Just about every character shined during the past month and it’s incredibly fun to watch these people together. So yeah, it uses a plot device here and there. Who cares when it’s this awesome?

#1 (3) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (9/10)

Now this one without a doubt stood on top of all of the other shows this month. It’s got a rock-solid direction and just keeps throwing the viewer for loops over and over. It’s chock full of red herrings and symbolism, the animation has a ton of neat details in it, the acting is absolutely wonderful, the characters all stand out and are wonderfully fun to watch. Seriously, if the other episodes are as good as this, then it’s a very strong contender for the best show of 2011.

How good do I consider this season to be? Well, to put it like this: I’ve got eighteen series this season that I’d rate at 8,25/10 or higher. In other words, there are eighteen series that I really, really like airing at the same time. The last time such a thing happened was back in September of 2009, and this season we’ve only just started yet!

The main flaw of this season pretty much what has been the main flaw of every season for the past years: length. There are quite a few series that aren’t going t fit their stories in their allotted time, and there again are too few series that dare to go beyond 13 episodes. With the way that the anime sales have bloomed over the past years though, I really hope tat soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to this very annoying trend.

#33 (new) – Mayo Chiki – (2,75/10) – Now this was just horrible. Just one big excuse for cute girls and fanservice and nothing more. The premise is based around the entire cast being complete and utter morons, and it’s just another one of those really bad fanservice comedies that pop up every season. Ignore this one at all costs! Dropped.
#32 (new) – Manyuu Hiken-Chou – (3/10) – Look. I often tell fanservice shows to be a bit more creative. I have said before that I have nothing against creative fanservice that fits within the setting of the series. And yeah, I guess that Manyuu Hiken-Chou does get creative… but I DID NOT MEAN CREATING OUTRIGHT PORN!
#31 (new) – Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – (3,75/10) – What the hell happened here? I mean, the original OVA was decent: it was nothing special, but it had some nice morals and showed that being a mahou shoujo really isn’t as easy as it seems. Then this show comes along and it pretty much turns into a really stupid kaitou-busting show full of the most annoying moe antics and stereotypical characters. There’s nothing enjoyable about this: the characters just try to be as energetic as possible but completely forget to be entertaining or even remotely interesting! Dropped.
#30 (new) – Nyanpire – (4/10) – Unfortunately Gonzo’s first series in two years turned out to be Bad Gonzo. I mean, making a kids’ show is one thing, but this was just one huge commercial for a crappy J-Pop band who does the ED. The jokes are also completely unfunny: when I watch a comedy, I want to watch something that makes me laugh, not cringe! Dropped.
#29 (new) – Uta no Prince-Sama Maji Love 1000% – (4/10) – I prepared myself that this would be a campy series. But I never could have imagined the amount of stupidity and cheese that this show ended up delivering. Just about every character is hamming it up, and not to mention how ridiculously stupid the entire premise of this show is. I gave up at the point where the teachers actually forbade the characters to have any romances with each other. What the hell? Isn’t that why you’d want to watch this show in the first place? Dropped
#28 (19) – Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – (4,25/10) – I’ve seen this one recommended quite a few times, but based on the first episode of the second season, I really don’t get the appeal. It’s just a show about a bunch of idiots and cute girls. I did not find anything even remotely funny about that one episode I watched, and it was a complete chore to sit through. Was that just me, or was it really a bad episode for this series to start with? Dropped.
#27 (new) – Rou Kyuu Bu! – (4,5/10) – This is bad. I mean, for starters we have a show about grade schoolers with a ton of fanservice, but the creators also succeeded in putting together the most obnoxious cast imaginable. The five lead girls all try to act as annoyingly moe as possible. On top of that though, it tries to have a serious story. Those parts don’t mesh! Dropped
#26 (new) – R-15 – (5/10) – Now, there are shows about idiots. Those idiots however completely pale in comparison to the characters in this series: this is the epitome of stupidity. It’s just a bunch of morons pretending to be geniuses filled with random fanservice. It’s nice to see how creative it can get with that for just one episode, but after that it just gets repetitive and actually tries to take itself seriously. There’s no way in which that’s going to work. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Morita-San wa Mukuchi – (6/10) – So, this is nothing but various sketches around a shy girl, nothing more. While I can understand where the creators are coming from, you can’t just base your entire series around this; it’s way too one-sided and forced. Not to mention the utterly poor direction of this thing.
#24 (new) – Yuruyuri – (6,5/10) – At first it looked to be different, but in the end Yuruyuri unfortunately turned out to be exactly what it says on the title: very unsubtle lesbian jokes. It started off pretty decent, but after only three episodes they ran out of inspiration and just kept going with dull lesbian and boob jokes. Dropped.
#23 (new) – The Idolm@ster – (7,25/10) – The Idolm@ster is tolerable, but after three episodes I have to wonder: what makes this show worth watching? The interesting direction of the first episode was immediately dropped, and instead every episode so far has focused on one of the different girls. The first two being the Kugimiya Rie Tsundere and the really shy girl who is afraid of men. The drama around them was weak (especially the one around the tsundere) and the rest of the side characters only used their airtime to just further establish the fact that they’re a bunch of walking cliches. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Nekogami Yaoyorozu – (7,25/10) – So, this show is tolerable. Aaand… that’s a bit of the problem here: yes, it’s better than most of the moe antics shows out there, but still it only gets a chuckle out of me every few minutes. There really are very few reasons to keep watching this series. Only go for this one if you’re really bored. Dropped.
#21 (new) – Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Uragi – (7,5/10) – Okay, so right before I went on my holiday, I wrote up a quick first impression for this series, and published it. At least, that’s what I thought happened, but that post got lost somehow, so that’s why there is no first impression of it. In any case, beyond being the series with the villain with the silliest name, Itsuten is a very cheesy romance show with a lot of angst and moe. Its story does have some potential, but the annoying moe antics, overacting and fanservice certainly aren’t helping its case at the moment.
#20 (new) – Sacred Seven – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Sacred Seven is that it could have been so much more: it’s an original story, it’s got an excellent director, an excellent scriptwriter, and what do they come with? A school emo mecha series. So far in the past four episodes, the emo part is what hurts this series the most: the characters just aren’t well fleshed out and because of that they feel rather unengaging. There are moments where it really shows to be exciting (most notably the second episode), but so at this rate it’s not going to be amongst the highlights of this season. It does have a very good OP, though
#19 (13) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10) – Oooohh…. what the hell happened to that thirteenth episode? I’ve been waiting for ages now and still nothing. This show has had by far the weirdest airing schedule I have ever seen. As for this month, only one episode aired, and in terms of script it was very good. Overall the cast has received quite a bit of depth by now. The bad part is that Kouhei’s voice actor really can’t act, which really hurt during the dramatic bits.
#18 (10) – Sket Dance – (8,25/10) – The music arc was a bit of a disappointment and it lacked the whimsy of the rest of the series, though the other episodes were as fun to watch as ever. This series is really at its best when it manages to stuff in its high amount of energy.
#17 (new) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10) – After watching Gosick, it is refreshing to see that the main character here actually has a retort to all of his female companion’s insults. Dalian still is smarter than he is, but at least he can have a normal conversation with her without sounding like an idiot. Overall the mysteries in this series need a bit of work, but the atmosphere is really good, and the animation is also quite impressive. Will this work with only 12 episodes, though?
#16 (new) – Blade – (8,25/10) – You know, after the way in which the X-Men turned into a disappointment, I kind-of wrote this series off. Especially when it showed that it had Madhouse’s acting problem again. It’s indeed a bit of a cheesy action series and all, but I don’t know. This series has something, I just can’t put my finger to exactly what. In either case it still has the potential to become the best Marvel series so far if it pulls through: it wisely spends a lot of time on both its main character and villain, and on top of that the side-characters all wisely avoid some of their biggest pitfalls: the female side-kick is useful without hogging over the screen, the enemy vampires pose a threat by killing people actually very often, the main character is bad-ass yet not overpowered. Oh, and this show follows a black vampire slayer in the middle of the Philippines. Thank you, Madhouse for really trying to go around the world instead of just keeping with the same base setting over and over again.
#15 (20) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10)

A major improvement. The direction is snappier, the story is more interesting, the pacing moves along faster and the atmosphere is more varied. You can really see that a different staff is adapting this series this time, and alongside all the other flops of Studio Deen this year, it’s good to see that at least here they’re showing that they can still put out a good series.

#14 (new) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

This one turned out to be a series about cultural differences. It’s quite an interesting variation to the usual slice of life set-up, and I really have to praise Satelight for putting down a very authentic portrayal of France of a century ago. the background art in particular is just great. There are some problems in the character department (mostly because of one particularly annoying character), but overall it’s a heart-warming series so far,

#13 (6) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,25/10)

During the past month, Hana-Saku Iroha has been really good, but not as good as during June. This mostly is because the main cast didn’t receive that much attention and instead the side-cast was really well developed. What the next month needs to do is give the same treatment to the main cast.

#12 (new) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,25/10)

This series stands out because it had the best opening episode of the season amongst Penguin Drum. After that it dulled in a bit in order to focus on character building, but there still is a lot of potential here. It’s especially the dialogue that’s well written and the mysteries are well built up, but there are weaknesses. Some bad guys are just plain stupid, and it also has JC Staff-esque fanservice that is completely overused and often out of place.

#11 (new) – Blood-C – (8,25/10)

This show is definitely not for everyone, in top of being completely different in tone compared to the other parts of the blood franchise. It’s a simple series that really just planned to use its first four episodes to build up its atmosphere, but I really like it so far. The atmosphere works, the fight scenes are just completely amazing, and I’m really eager to get to the point where this show starts off for real. The big potential pitfall is that there will be too much build-up, but so far it’s heading into the right direction.

#10 (new) – Usagi Drop – (8,5/10)

This one’s by far the most realistic show of the season. It chronicles how hard it is to take care of a young child, without exaggerating this. There’s a good backstory due to the strange family construction that this series takes place in and the dialogue is all wonderfully down to earth.

#9 (12) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,5/10)

At this point, I’m really watching Ao no Exorcist for the characters: they’ve grown into a lovable bunch with excellent chemistry and the relationships between them are all really well done. So yeah it’s a shounen series, with its share of cliches, but that’s not important here at all.

#8 (11) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,5/10)

The past month has been a lot of build-up, but the tension was still very high and it was very entertaining to watch. There were times at which it took a bit long to get to its point, like with the old guy episode, but it’s not like we’re back to the really slow pacing of the first season. Now all that’s left is to wait whether or not it’s actually going to pay off.

#7 (new) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This turned out to be a very enjoyable and action-packed thriller. It’s all well directed and balanced, alternating between action, drama, comedy and horror quite nicely and while it does have some fanservice cliches, it’s got an intriguing and nicely fleshed out cast of characters and the exciting parts of this series are really delivering so far.

#6 (new) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Excellent music, excellent animation, excellent characters and an excellent setting. No.6 is a very solid adventure series with strong, constantly evolving characters in an interesting setting. There’s only one problem with this show, but it is a really big one: the length! There’s no way in which 11 episodes is going to be the right number for this one.

#5 (12) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,75/10)

The third season of Natsume Yuujinchou has had a wonderful start. Somehow, the creators actually managed to make it increasingly better with every single episode. The atmosphere is still really soothing, yet the stories it tells are strong and well thought out. It’s still a heart-warming story and what’s more: Natsume’s development is really kicking in now. It’s been a major theme of this third season and every episode seems to contribute to it in one way or another.

#4 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

This was a month for the plot to progress for Hyouge Mono: a lot of changes have been made, a lot of characters have developed, and risen up in ranks, giving a completely different feel to the series. On top of that, Sasuke is just as eccentric as he’s ever been, and this series is giving him more and more incentives to show that eccentricity. It’s still a rock-solid series with amazing acting and characterization that obviously isn’t for everyone.

#3 (new) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (8,75/10)

This is good. It’s by var the best series of the new season. The direction is wild, vivid and detailed with all kinds of references of which you’ll never know whether they’re symbolism or foreshadowing. The characters are great, the chemistry between them is awesome, the story is imaginative. Just about everything works here.

#2 (4) – Steins;Gate – (9/10)

What a plot! This month Steins;Gate really revealed how much thought went into its plot and narrative structure, and it was glorious. There are so many questions that it’s asking and the time travel plot is now really hitting some high notes with all of the interconnected twists and turns it takes.

#1 (9) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

At this point, Tiger & Bunny has become bloody brilliant. Every episode has delivered an amazing story that gave a ton of development to the main cast, the main storyline has gotten better and better, and just about every character ended up more enjoyable to watch.

This was one of the best months we’ve seen in a long while in anime. It may not look like I followed many series (there WAS a lot of crap this season), but the shows that were good were really, really good, and a ton of them were just amazing. This month showed some rock-solid endings, twists, turns and executions. It turned out to be an incredibly diverse season with series that all stood out in their own ways and not just one genre dominating. More seasons like this, please.

#22 (19) – Astarotte no Omocha – (7/10) – So I ended up dropping this, quite early in this month. It just went nowhere, it just devolved into a generic romantic fanservice comedy: the exact thing that it should not have done with such a premise. It was good when it still focused on drama, but in terms of romance it has nothing and just kept repeating itself. The worst were the idiot prince and the way in which Asuha completely devolved into someone who can’t stop talking about not wearing any panties. This all was really badly written.
#21 (21) – The World God Only Knows – (7,25/10) – The final teacher arc had the poor luck that it ended in a completely nonsensical way. After that the series decided to end with an episode that would have been good, had it any sense of comedic timing. The end result was a horribly forced ending that was a pain to sit through, and only cemented at how tired I am of this series.
#20 (20) – Inazuma Eleven – (7,25/10) – In the end, I decided to drop this. It’s indeed dark for a kids’ series, but my main issue was that the characterization left much to be desired. In five episodes it introduced like, 30 different characters. Now, who are these characters? Why should I care about them? What makes them different aside from their character designs? Only four or five of them really matter, and they are the typical shounen cliches. In fact, this mostly feels like a rip-off of the original Beyblade series (yes, I watched that one).
#19 (22) – Hen Zemi – (7,5/10) – After twelve episodes, was it really worth it watching Hen Zemi? Unfortunately, I have to say no. The reason why the OVA worked so well wasn’t just the fact that it had much better writing, but also because it was short but sweet. The TV-series now is just an endless string of gross things and fanservice: it gets boring once the shock factor wears off. By now we expect Hen Zemi to be disgusting. It is, and hardly brings any extra spice in that aside from that.
#18 (14) – Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San – (7,75/10) – I’ll get to more detail about this when the final episode airs, but what interestingly seemed to be the biggest pitfall for this series was that it ran out of inspiration for jokes. The otaku arc in particular just seemed to not know what kinds of jokes it should make. The final arc was better, but again: it was a tad forced and predictable in the way it played out.
#17 (11) – X-Men – (7,75/10) – When comparing the X-Men to Wolverine, I still like the X-Men better, but that’s just because Wolverine had a really simple story and had lots of issues with its acting. The X-Men unfortunately did dull in a bit in their final arc when the drama all boiled down to teenaged emo. The big problem is that the creators shafted the main cast in favor of Hisako and Takeo, who were by far the least interesting characters of the entire series.
#16 (18) – Gintama – (8,25/10) – The past arc of Gintama was a great one, although it ended rather xenophobic (but then again, that’s Gintama: the aliens are nearly all portrayed as mind-numbing idiots, punching bags for Gintoki or completely evil bastards). The arc however did deliver a lot of depth to Otose and the people from her past and it certainly was a major improvement over the comedy episodes of the previous months.
#15 (new) – Appleseed XIII – (8,25/10)

Forgive me, but I can’t seem to remember for the love of me where I managed to find the first episode of Appleseed XIII. I liked it a lot though. It’s chock full of symbolism to the ancient Greek mythology and the characterization is a lot better than in the movies. Deunan really acts like she’s on her period, though.

#14 (13) – Fireball – (8,25/10)

Fireball remained a great watch throughout its entire run. Now it’s of course not hard to remain interesting for only two minutes, but this did it with a style that I really enjoyed. The comedic timing and the graphics were still as great as ever.

#13 (11) – Showa Monogatari – (8,25/10)

Irregular releases are still irregular, but we’re nearing the end. This month showed actually some very interesting drama around Yuuko in quite a realistic way. Sure, the acting could have been better, but the themes, and drama really relate back to problems anyone could have had. Of course you have to like history in order to be able to enjoy this, but this by far doesn’t deserve the negligence in terms of fansubs.

#12 (16) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,25/10)

Ao no Exorcist at the moment is surprisingly enjoyable. The fleshing out of the earlier episodes has paid off and at this point there hardly is any boring moment left, despite the generic set-ip. Characters are used well, the banter has gotten funnier, the drama has gotten more sincere. This is the right direction, although it does need to stop putting so much stupidity in its filler episodes.

#11 (7) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,25/10)

The Pachinko arc was intense, but it did suffer a bit from Kaiji’s formula: again we have a set-up that consists out of a lot of money on the line, a seemingly easy game and a predictable outcome. What I liked was the introduction of the old man, who seems different from the other sidekicks that Kaiji had so far. Also, that daughter. What the hell are the creators building up to?

#10 (8) – Sket Dance – (8,5/10)

This month saw the best and the worst episode of Sket Dance so far, but the tournament arc really made up for it by being really fun, yet somehow taking its characters seriously. Now all that’s left is to wonder how long this series can keep up this excellent pace.

#9 (4) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,5/10)

This month we got to see the halfway climax for Tiger & Bunny. It;’s a solid story with a ton of character development, but it also spent a lot of time building up. There’s a lot of promise in this show becoming even better for its second half.

#8 (9) – Deadman Wonderland – (8,5/10)

It really is a bloody shame that Deadman wonderland doesn’t have the time to fully show off its story, because it’s still one heck of an exciting series inside an insane setting. The animation has its ups and downs but when it has its ups it really looks gorgeous, and beyond the insanity, the characters are still surprisingly good. There’s some nice character development, not to mention that the delivery also really knows how to make its scenes count. Only complaint is that Ganta at times may angst a bit too much. At others though, he’s a great lead character.

#7 (3) – Gosick – (8,5/10)

This month wasn’t as good as the previous one, but it really does come close to that. The climax was a wonderful one and the stories again were full of intrigue and imagination. At this point the character development has also really kicked in, which really paid off here.

#6 (15) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,75/10)

Now this is a major improvement! The past arc for Hana-Saku Iroha has been amazing, and chock full of character development. It kept pushing its characters into situations where they were forced to confront their flaws and weaknesses and especially the acting was just wonderfully detailed, both in terms of voice acting and animation. If this is the pacing that this show can keep up, we’re in for a major treat.

#5 (6) – [C]The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – (8,75/10)

C was really rushed, and yet it pulled off an amazing finale. The main themes and subplots managed to come together, the direction got better than ever and aside from the way its plot evolved, it was just a damn entertaining series to watch. Especially the ending was really well delivered and brought some great closure to this series.

#4 (5) – Steins;Gate – (8,75/10)

Steins;gate’s plot really got interesting this month, but what’s more is that the execution also got rock and rock solid. The animation makes excellent use of its limited budget, the acting just gets better and better, the pacing and atmosphere hardly ever show a weak moment and it looks like this series has only just started.

#3 (10) – Dororon Enma-kun Meerameera – (8,75/10)

The ending to this sereis was absolutely fantastic. It just released all breaks and delivered one absolutely crazy roller coaster ride full of old references and that just kept upstaging itself in terms of downright insanity. This was entertainment at its finest and I had one hell of a time. Oh, and the background music also was as solid as ever. I can’t wait to hear what the same composers end up delivering for No6.

#2 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (9/10)

This month showed an even bigger focus on politics than this show already had before, still with the rock-solid execution and acting of this series, combined with an amazing plot twist along the way. What I especially like about this series is how much balls the delivery has. There’s a ton of detail put in the way that these people interact with each other, making this an awesome “lots of talking”-series.

#1 (1) – Ano Hi Mita no Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – (9,25/10)

And with its final month, Anohana somehow managed to actually surpass itself. Its conclusion brilliantly weaved together everything this show needed and give every character a chance to show a bit of himself, leading to a heart-wrenching ending. It’s perhaps not entirely realistic and yeah, it had its share of overacting, but everything remained well within the boundaries of my suspense of disbelief thanks to the script that just kept pushing the characters forward and once again left no moment wasted.

This really is a season of building up: half of the shows are carefully preparing for later, so who knows what kind of season it’ll eventually become? Let me say this though: there are a lot of shows that really take good use of their premises. It’s perhaps not the best spring season we’ve ever had so far, but it is a very imaginative and diverse one. Oh, and the fact that there are so many shows that focus on adults also helps.

OVA Releases
#3 – Valkyria Chronicles III – (7,25/10)

Ah, what a shame. This one was really disappointing. I have to give credits for the creators in the way that they did make their main characters far, FAR less annoying than the characters of the TV-series… but they’re completely flat. Every character just has one side and that’s it. There’s way too much of them for just 24 minutes and they’re alll really poorly acted and fleshed out. The production values are also rather bad, and without knowing overall this just gets one big ‘meh’.
#2 – Norageki – (8,25/10)

This was only 20 minutes long, but it was really well told here. It’s a well paced mystery story with quite a nice ending. The characters, while not having any depth, still were interesting to follow as well.
#1 – Armored Trooper Votoms – Alone Again – (8,5/10)

Thankfully this actually turned out well. The story of Votoms got an excellent conclusion after all. Especially the end was great, but the entire OVA was based around a great idea that definitely fills in some of the gaps that the Gen-ei hen left open. This is simple but effective storytelling like it should be, and I’m glad that it really contributed to the Votoms Franchise again, unlike the abominations that were Case;Irvine and Finder.

TV-Series
#25 (14) – Denpa-Onna to Seishun Otoko – (7/10) – I dropped this show. It had potential at the beginning, but the endless discussions about nothing are badly drawn out and not interesting at all. Not to mention that the series was getting more annoying by the minute.
#24 (23) – A-Channel – (7,5/10) – In the end I dropped this. The biggest reason for this was that it was getting really repetitive; the characters just kept comparing boob sizes and they just kept talking about the same things.
#23 (16) – Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi – (7,5/10) – It’s a shame, but I just had to drop this after the fifth episode because I just couldn’t get through it. It suddenly introduced a bunch of completely new characters, but they were the example of how ridiculously forced shounen ai can get. It had no good characterization whatsoever and unlike the first four episodes, this was just there to get guys to kiss and feel embarrassed.
#22 (21) – Hen Zemi – (7,5/10) – Hmm, Hen Zemi has become a bit boring. It’s unfortunately as I feared: the current season is just a list of gross things, without the energy or timing of the OVA. Because of that, it just has a shock factor, and when that is gone I see few reasons to actually come back to this, unfortunately.
#21 (24) – The World God Only Knows – (7,75/10) – I think that because of the hype surrounding this series before it aired gave me the complete wrong expectations about this series. For a laid-back story that aims for modest entertainment… I guess that it could have done a lot worse. It still hasn’t grabbed me, though, but I do admit that the past arc was the best so far.
#20 () – Inazuma Eleven – (7,75/10) – Four episodes in, and I strangely enough haven’t dropped this one yet. It has something that keeps me watching. The characters are all boring and the animation also isn’t that impressive, but the energy with which it presents itself is commendable. Seriously, this is really dark for a kids’ show, and it actually created quite a bit of an atmosphere that retained my interest.
#19 (27) – Astaroote no Omocha – (7,75/10) – Here’s the thing with Astarotte no Omocha: it sounds like a really bad premise, but it’s surprisingly heartfelt. It’s nothing special, but the relationship between parent and child is surprisingly well done here. I originally dropped this, but after picking it back up I have to admit that it has surprisingly enjoyable characters.
#18 (10) – Gintama – (8/10) – The Sarutobi-arc was just bad. It tried to be way too silly for the sake of silliness, and was just painful to watch. One more episode like that and I’m going to drop this thing because I don’t want to sit through that any longer. The episode after that was a great recap episode though, but yeah: it’s a little early for that one and it only highlights the production issues that the entire sequel has been having.
#17 (19) – Moshidora – (8/10) – Okay, so the budget was bare-bones, Moshidora actually told a surprisingly good story that made good use of its time of only ten episodes. The end was a bit cheesy, but the premise of a high school girl reading Drucker’s Management was quite interesting.
#16 (9) – Ao no Exorcist – (8/10) – In a surprise, this month suddenly brought the character to Hogwarts and this turned into a school life series. Okay. It’s a bit weird, but in terms of building up it did its job by exploring the characters, discussing their motivations and preparing for all hell to break loose later. Literally, probably.
#15 (7) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8/10)

Lotsa building up here in this series. That unfortunately doesn’t really make this show as enjoyable to watch as it once was, but it’s still fun to watch the main cast together as they try to run the inn. Now all that’s left is to hope that that build-up actually pay\s off

#14 (20) – Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San – (8/10)

Moloch was awesome. He really saved this series from the same fate as Hen Zemi. But granted, the rest of the cast also is a lot of fun to watch here. It’s completely over the top, but surprisingly watchable.

#13 (18) – Fireball – (8/10)

This show still is random, but in a good way. I love these anti-climaxes that it just keeps throwing at the viewer, and its comedic timing is also pretty good here. Oh, and the graphics also look really good at this point. Recommended if you want to waste two minutes.

#12 (11) – X-Men – (8,25/10)

The visuals here are damn good: this show looks vivid and wild, and the action always is interesting to watch. the story leaves the most tings to be desired: it feels too random at this point. The characters aren’t the best, but they’re still pretty interesting to watch at the moment.

#11 (13) – Showa Monogatari – (8,25/10)

In this month, this series has continued to paint a surprisingly authentic picture of Japan in 1964. There were a few bad parts, like the animation or the drama around Kouhei, but overall the cast has grown quite nicely so far. The four preview episodes were weird, but they did show how the cast evolved in quite an interesting way. It’s got this great combination between random slice of life and meaningful drama.

#10 (26) – Dororon Enma-Kun Meera Meera – (8,25/10)

This show. Is crazy. It’s a fanservice show, but it delivers its fanservice in such a bizarre way that I can’t help but love it. It’s completely juvenile and yet fun to watch from beginning to end, with great jokes and a lot of creativity that will go with any idea, no matter how stupid ti is. Oh, and beyond that, the soundtrack is also much better than I expected here.

#9 (12) – Deadman Wonderland – (8,5/10)

This show is extreme. It’s complete balls to the walls in its themes and mood. But at the same time though, it doesn’t forget about its characters. This show has become surprisingly interesting to watch due to the cast of characters who are surprisingly well fleshed out for such a premise. Beyond that, it’s also the creativity that the setting has, and all of the things that it just keeps throwing at the lead character that have sold me.

#8 (15) – Sket Dance – (8,5/10)

After its first episode, I heard from several people that the different stories vary from really good to really mediocre. Now here’s the thing: after eight episodes, I have not seen a bad episode yet. Sure, it gets a bit far-fetched at times, but overall Sket Dance surprised me at what a sincere series it has become. Every episode so far has had its charms, and the best thing is that it’s also surprisingly varied: both the different arcs and characters stand on their own, and this series takes pride in its creativity, which seems a gimmick at first, yet ends up surprisingly well used.

#7 (17) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,5/10)

Well, it’s taken a while, but the current arc of Kaiji kicks ass! This arc was very calculate, which makes things pay off even more at the end. The creators really manged to crawl into the minds of these characters, and they really impressed me there. The atmosphere also really worked here. More of these arcs, please.

#6 (8) – [C] The Money Of Soul and Possibility Control – (8,5/10)

The great thing about C is how well it looks upon its subject material: it just keeps offering different views, motivations, people and opinions, some of which are surprisingly well fleshed out. It’s a shame that it doesn’t have the right budget to really animate what it wants, but it does know how to create an atmosphere.

#5 (6) – Steins;Gate – (8,5/10)

Steins;Gate is slow, but very solid. It has a great cast so far, its themes are really interesting, the plot is really well paced and the atmosphere rocks. Sure, it follows a bit of a harem set-up with a guy surrounded by many girls, but it has more tan enough to make up for it.

#4 (4) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,5/10)

If I had to summarize Tiger & Bunny with one word, it’d be lovable. Heck, the entire cast is a joy to watch, even when the main storyline is out of the picture. The bond between the different characters is always being developed, and the whole backdrop of superheroes working for sponsors is still working really well to keep everything together.

#3 (22) – Gosick – (8,75/10)

In this month… Gosick has become amazing. Seriously, the last episode that was even remotely mediocre was episode fourteen. After that, Gosick has been nothing but character development, breath-taking adventures and engaging thrillers. Finally everything has come together, but I seriously did not expect this show to become THIS good. Right now, this show has turned into a roller coaster ride that just keeps coming with interesting plot twists, and not to mention the characters, who received major improvements.

#2 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

This show can both be hysterical and serious when it wants to, and it just rocks at both areas. It has without a doubt the best dialogue of the entire season, even though it’s really difficult to try and understand. It’s a really authentic view at the sengoku era that combines politics, aesthetics, silliness and intrigue with each other brilliantly so far.

#1 (1) – Ano Hi Mita no Hana no Namae o Boku-Tachi wa Mada Shiranai – (9/10)

This turned out to be an amazing series, with exceptionally brilliant characterizations. Every episode pushes the characters forward and it leaves no moment wasted to give more meaning to them. It’s a sad show, focused on running away, but it has just the right combination between sadness and hope here.

The main reason why I run this blog is to praise stuff that I like. Criticizing once in a while is fun too, especially when an anime has both good and bad things, but I tend to not focus on hating. Having said that though: enter this season.

This season is huge, which has its pluses and minuses. The plus is that there are a lot of well written and interesting series, which either have great visuals, a compelling background, well written dialogue, excellent characterization or any combination of those. The downside is that there also was a lot to whine about. The result is one of the longest monthly summaries I’ve written in a long while, containing a lot of rants. This season had a lot of great surprises, but also a large amount of disappointments.

Oh, and from this month, I’m going to include most of my OVA impressions in these summaries, rather than doing an entire post about them. They just consume too much time.

OVA Releases
#6 – High Schooll of the Dead – Drifters of the Dead – (3,5/10) – Terrible, terrible OVA that had the entire cast act incredibly out of character just for the sake of fanservice (and with this show, that’s saying something!) and a whole slur of unfunny jokes.
#5 – Votoms Finder – (7,25/10)

It wasn’t terrible by any means. This just lacked ambition, and I have no clue what to recommend it for. Everything was simply decent at best, but nothing really was interesting to watch. The plot was too simple, the characters were likable, but too one-dimensional. Overall it was just a bit of a waste of time.

#4 – Tansuwarashi – (8/10)

The final part of the Young Animator Training Project. It was really adorable, and the creators got a surprising amount of character out of only 20 minutes.

#3 – Otona Joshi no Anime Time – (8,25/10)

Whoa, where did this come from? And why is it so good? This was actually a really interesting look in the life of a married woman with a kid of four years old. At only 20 minutes it really got some depth out of her character. I applaud the creators for actually making such a thing. Encore!

#2 – .Hack//Quantum – (8,25/10)

The finale of .Hack//Quantum was a solid adventure. Overall I expected a bit more about this series, though, but given its length, I’m happy enough to see that the creators actually came up with a full story for just 90 minutes. The third episode held little surprises, but it wrapped itself up quite nicely. It didn’t became anything amazing, but the climax itself was nicely paced and had a good atmosphere. A solid adventure overall.

#1 – Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi – (8,75/10)

Amazing direction and animation. This OVA was incredibly entertaining and a ton of imagination was put into the action scenes. The characters are all consistently fun to watch, and really brought to life. Only criticism is that sometimes the characters didn’t know what to talk about so they kept talking about their powers.

TV-Series

#43 (new) – 30Sai ni Hoken Taiku – (3,75/10) – This is the kind of show with bad sex jokes that all fall flat. Moronic characters, bad delivery, terrible animation. Dropped.
#42 (new) – Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai – (4/10) – Oretsuba is abysmal. There’s no way around it, but it’s bad in a completely bizarre way. It’s absolutely nothing but whining, pointless talking and fanservice. And I mean the kind of talking that’s nothing but filler, the type that just goes on and on between terribly written characters. Dropped.
#41 (new) – Hoshizora e Kakaru Hoshi – (4/10) – This was just nearly unwatchable. It committed just about every sin of the generic moe show, but worst of all was the utterly abysmal voice acting. Every time a girl appeared on the screen she was completely unbearable to watch, due to both the acting, the situations they were put in and the utterly contrived and cliched portrayal of these cardboard boxes. Dropped.
#40 (new) – Hidan no Aria – (4,75/10) – Oh god… the pain. Hidan no Aria was a total chore to sit through with these characters who do just about everything to get on my nerves. It’s a boring cliche fest with nothing original about it so far. If it’s supposed to get good later on, why can’t it do this immediately instead of forcing us to sit through yet another Kugimiya Rie Tsundere. This girl is probably the worst one she’s done. Dropped.
#39 (new) – Pretty Rythm – (5/10) – When will we finally get another GOOD shoujo adventure again? This one is terrible, it has all the tropes and isn’t even aware that it’s blatantly lying in front of its audience. There’s no build-up whatsoever, just a girl who randomly gets good at figure skating (at least, according to the audience in the anime. She still looks terrible). Dropped.
#38 (21) – Seikon no Qwaser – (5/10) – Okay, this show has completely stopped pretending. Just label it as porn and watch it for the boobs. Otherwise stay far away. Dropped.
#37 (new) – Fujilog – (5/10) – I really dislike most sitcoms, and Fujilog reminded me why again. It’s just another show about a whining middle aged guy who does random things in order to attempt to be fulfilled. It’s got no charm, no humour, just move on. Dropped.
#36 (new) – Sofuteni – (5,25/10) – There are the good slice of life series like Tamayura, which show the daily lives of the lead characters, making sure to create a versatile cast with characters who have depth to them. And then there is Sofuteni, which is just a collection of random moe antics, fanservice and characters who have just one trait to them. What’s even more annoying is that the lead character’s trait is ditziness, and she surely loves to remind us of that. I like the slice of life genre because it’s able to create really down to earth and life-like characters. It doesn’t really work when the entire cast is too busy desperately trying to be moe. Dropped.
#35 (new) – Dog Days – (5,75/10) – The premise of this show could have actually worked out. But not with such a flimsy delivery. The acting is terrible, the visuals bland, and the characters are all just boring. None of the scenarios are written to be interesting, and overall this was a big waste of time for me. Dropped.
#34 (new) – Sengoku Otome – (6/10) – Sengoku Otome’s biggest sin is its lack of creativity, or any other kind of ambition to do anything interesting. It’s just another bastardization of famous historical figures by reducing them to a bunch of silly cliches in the midst of a random adventure that somehow involves a teenaged girl. Nothing stands out and no attempt is made to make this setting any more believable due to bland characterizations. Dropped.
#33 (new) – Toriko – (6/10) – You know, I refuse to give this series a chance when it keeps testing my patience like this. I tried watching the first three episodes, but the first was a pointless one-piece cross-over, the second was exactly the same as the OVA and the third, while new, was as utterly boring as the other two. Toriko has the kind of charm that wears off after five minutes. Oh, and I also hate this show for making me hungry, only to show terribly animated people eating, taking away all this hunger again. Dropped.
#32 (29) – Jewel Pet – (6,5/10) – This show tries to be completely chaotic. While it is a step above the second Jewel Pet series, it does get old really fast. Dropped.
#31 (30) – Maria Holic – (6,5/10) – I refuse to touch anything more of this sequel unless I see a lot of people claim that it’s much better than the original. At this point my patience on Shaft Sequels has completely run out. I’ve said this many times before, but I have yet to run into a Shaft sequel that wasn’t disappointing. Its first episode also didn’t seem to change that, as it’s yet another one of those comedies that aren’t funny. Dropped.
#30 (new) – Suzy’s Zoo – (6,5/10) – I can really imagine that Suzy’s Zoo must be wonderful for its target audience. The thing is, that that target audience ranges between the ages of 2 and 4 years old. Seriously, even for a kids’ show, nothing happened here. Again, only go for this one if you’re really, really desperate for a big hug. Dropped.
#29 (new) – Happy Kappi – (6,75/10) – This is one for the youngest kids, though it didn’t really capture me. There was just too little that happens, plus the characters are just too annoying. Dropped.
#28 (new) – Yugioh Zexal – (6,75/10) – I actually used to watch the first season of Yugioh a lot before I discovered the internet. Of course, that show was terribly flawed as well, but there is one major difference between that series, and Yugioh Zexal: Yugioh Duel Monsters actually genuinely took itself seriously. It was out there to deliver a serious story. Sure, it was a story chock full of plotholes, but nevertheless, it had a solid story. Yugioh Zexal is more like that obnoxious brat that you just ignore because he’s trying too hard to get attention. It’s not trying to tell a serious story, it’s just showing another random brat and a lot of overacting without any build-up. Because of this, Duel Monsters’ campness became a lot of fun to make fun of, while Yugioh Zexal just gets old really fast. Dropped.
#27 (new) – Lotte no Omocha – (7/10) – Lotte no Omocha is… annoying. Its premise already is questionable, but it also is unnecessarily padded, so things take bloody forever to get somewhere. That’s not good in a show with tons of fanservice, one-dimensional characters and Kugimiya Rie as a tsundere. Dropped.
#26 (new) – Dororon Enma-kun Meera Meera – (7,5/10) – I was about to give up on this show, being really disappointed at how lazy and repetitive it was. And then episode 03 aired. Oh boy. What the heck was that? It’s an entire episode dedicated to fanservice, but it did so in such a bizarre way that I couldn’t help but laugh over and over. Was it a fluke? Were these first episodes just build-up? I mean, the director of this thing remains a very creative guy, so I still have hopes for this series.
#25 (new) – Nichijou – (7,5/10) – Nichijou sets itself apart from the other slice of life series that Kyoani has done with its creativity: it’s about completely random things that took quite some imagination to come up with. Unfortunately though, it lacks in its delivery: the characters are all bland and one dimensional, and the humour is just not funny. The randomness also just feels too much like randomness for the sake of randomness, and what could have been an enjoyable slice of life show just doesn’t have enough substance or anything that could catch my attention. Dropped.
#24 (19) – The World God Only Knows – (7,5/10) – The only reason why I’m still watching this is because of how people have been saying that the future arcs would be good. And granted, episode 03 was slightly better, if only because a character appeared who actually appeared to have half of a working brain cell. She’s still pretty dull, though. At this point, her only function seems to be to show how awesome Keima is. You don’t make characters awesome in that way! Make your characters awesome because they’re awesome. Not because the rest of the cast is a bunch of one-eyed dimwits!
#23 (new) – A-Channel – (7,75/10) – A Channel is enjoyable, nothing more, nothing less. At the very least it does not commit the great sin of having shallow characters, but they’re actually quite enjoyable to watch, and all of them have more to offer than just the cliches that they’re based around. The humour and pacing is very formulaic, though.
#22 (13) – Gosick – (7,75/10) – Aagh! This show gets on my nerves. It’s not that Gosick is bad. Heck, when it wants to be, it can be really good. Episode 12 was excellent and showed more than anything what an excellent cast it has. And yet it just keeps wasting time on these boring characters or stories who just aren’t interesting, and most bizarrely refuse to develop themselves even when they’re in the spotlights.
#21 (new) – Hen Zemi – (7,75/10) – This isn’t as good as the OVA, but to my surprise it’s still worth watching. It’s still completely disturbing and the chemistry between the characters still shines through.
#20 (new) – Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san – (7,75/10) – Azazel-San is not as good as its OVA, and that mostly is because it might be trying a bit TOO hard to be funny. It’s just so incredibly extreme, and that gives me flashbacks to Dokuro-chan,which also was funny due to the shock factor. Still, it’s working so far, so let’s see whether the creators can keep up this momentum.
#19 (new) – Moshidora – (7,75/10) – It’s a tad cheesy, but Moshidora is quite an interesting series about management and high school baseball. It makes use of its bizarre setting to really take an in-depth look into the different characters, and the challenges that the baseball team that this series focuses on has to face. The drama works sometimes, though at other times it doesn’t and moves a tad too fast, though.
#18 (new) – Fireball – (8/10) – It received a number of upgrades here and there, but the premise still is the same and a quite enjoyable way to spend 2 minutes. The banter remains fun.
#17 (19) – Gykakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8/10) – The definite winner of the most WTF-ED of the season, Kaiji is nicely bubbling along where it left off. I haven’t had the chance to watch the fourth episode yet, although the third episode did show that the current arc is quite lazily written. I mean, the creators manipulate lady luck a little too much in order to get to the maximum amount of tension. The first season of Kaiji stood out because above gambling, it was a battle of wits. This is just about people rolling dice and being lucky and unlucky at exactly the most convenient times.
#16 (new) – Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi – (8/10) – This pleasantly surprised me. Alongside a romance, this also is a pretty neat story about a bunch of people who work at a manga publishing firm. The characterization is quite good and it can get quite funny when it wants to. The bad point is that it’s still too eager to get the lead characters to kiss and sleep with each other, though thankfully this isn’t as bad as in the OVA.
#15 (new) – Sket Dance – (8/10)

So far, Sket Dance is a bit forced, but fun to watch. It’s especially the scenario that is addictive and keeps me going back to watch, despite the characters who could have easily been really annoying. On top of that, the creators succeed in making the school it takes place in feel alive. If it can keep up this pace it can become a fairly enjoyable series.

#14 (new) – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko – (8/10)

I’ve only had time to watch the first two episodes so far, but if this pacing keeps up we could get yet another great series from Shaft. It’s very annoying, and the characters all try to be way too cute, but the dialogue is well written and drew me in. The rest of this show needs to keep this dialogue going, while at the same time not pull a Bakemonogatari and make these dialogues go on and on and on.

#13 (9) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10)

If you’re wondering why I haven’t blogged episode four yet: I can’t find the bloody thing anywhere. This show is so obscure that people even won’t bother releasing raws, which is such a shame, because despite its flaws, Showa Monogatari has a very good cast of characters to work with. It knows that it shouldn’t only focus on its lead character, and instead gives the guy’s entire family some depth. So come on, don’t let this sink into oblivion without at least giving people the chance to watch it….

#12 (new) – Deadman Wonderland – (8/10)

So, apparently a lot of changes are made compared to the manga. That does explain the random plotholes that just stand out so blatantly, but at the same time I don’t consider this series bad yet. At the moment, I’m still enjoying this series: it does a lot of thing wrong, but it also does a lot of things right. Seriously, the lengths these creators to through to torment this fourteen year old boy is just amazing. At the moment, I’m willing to forgive the plotholes for that.

#11 (new) – X-Men – (8,25/10)

Where Wolverine was a major step above Iron Man, the X-Men is another step above Wolverine by actually having great characters and gorgeous action scenes. Wolverine is adorable in everything he does, and and the rest of the cast members complement each other quite well. If this trend of improvement continues, then I can’t wait to see what Blade will be like.

#10 (23) – Gintama – (8,25/10)

I may be in a minority here, but I don’t really like Gintama’s sequel as much as I thought I would. I mean, it’s still funny, but at the same time half the jokes are stale or predictable, try too hard or just fall flat. After watching 120 episodes of Gintama already, I’ve gotten too much used to their brand of humour. It’s no longer the comedy classic that it once was, unfortunately.

#9 (new) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,25/10)

Ao no Exorcist is really aiming to be the shounen epic of the season. So far, it does not have the most interesting characters of the season, but it does have a rock-solid execution. The action and the delivery of the drama is excellent and this can promise great things for this series in the future.

#8 (new) – [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – (8,25/10)

C is originality combined with a few cliches here and there (the lead character being the “chosen rookie” being the most notable), and the animation also clearly shows that the creators don’t have the correct budget for that they want to do, but it still has a lot of imagination put into it. The setting is imaginative, the storytelling is solid, it leaves no moments wasted and it takes care to give depth to its characters. It’s a diamond in the rough, so all that’s left is for the creators to polish it.

#7 (new) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,5/10)

Hana-Saku Iroha had some really amazing first two episodes. That was like, True Tears material. Unfortunately, the two episodes afterwards were a step backwards again, most notably stepping away from the wonderful subtlety. The question is really: was that intentional, or did the creators play their biggest trumps right at the beginning? Even beyond that though, Hana-Saku Iroha has an excellent cast of characters, both the teenagers and the adults are really interesting to watch. It’s definitely one of the top two high school dramas of the season.

#6 (new) – Steins;Gate – (8,5/10)

Steins;Gate is well researched, has excellent dialogue and a great main character to watch. The whole concept of a time machine is looked into with a lot of depth, and at the same time this doesn’t forget to flesh out its characters. The pacing here is slow, but it gets more addictive with every single episode.

#5 (new) – Tiger & Bunny – (8,5/10)

Here’s a show that did a lot of things right. It’s got a great cast of characters, an imaginative setting that both criticizes as celebrates the superhero business, an excellent scenario, it’s consistently fun to watch and it does an excellent job of fleshing out both its cast and setting. Definitely amongst the top of this season.

#4 (5) – Supernatural The Animation – (8,5/10)

Supernatural impressed me. The third batch was all about the main characters, and it really put them through excellent development. It’s here where this series showed that it’s got an excellent plot and that it can do more than enough to make up for the stiff acting (which really wasn’t much of a problem this month).

#3 (3) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (8,75/10)

Madoka Magica was awesome, but I don’t think that it’ll make my top 10 anime or anything. It really was an awesome ride, but to me it didn’t set itself apart from the other series that also were awesome rides. I hate to be negative on such a series and all, but the characters overall could have been a bit better fleshed out. The final episodes were excellent as well, containing very interesting plot twists, though they didn’t blow me away.

#2 (new) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

Not only is Hyouge Mono amazing, it also has balls for attempting to do such a commercial risk: stating beforehand that it’ll be 39 episodes long, having no moe nor any bishies and being fully centered around a bunch of old guys talking. And it does that incredibly well. The main character in particular is incredibly eccentric and a complete delight to watch, but the rest of the cast also consists out of a bunch of complete weirdos. The facial expressions in particular are unique in this series, and to boot, it also has an excellent plot and dialogue. It’s different, yet well written and executed, and I love how this series can be both serious and hilarious at the same time.

#1 (new) – Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai. – (8,75/10)

This show got a huge emotional response out of me. The characterization is just wonderful, the entire cast feels alive and the themes are very strong here, about growing apart. Every character has something likable about him or her, and they all play brilliantly off each other. It’s been only three episodes, but that was just an emotional roller coaster and definitely among my favourites of the season.

This month… was crazy. It was completely different from any other month, there was just so much going on. It’s not just a month of one of the worst catastrophes to hit Japan since the Second World war. Also in terms of anime releases this month was just unique. It’s been a month of extremes for me, best explained through numbers.

First of all, this is the sixth March summary I’ve written on this site. Throughout all these six years, I don’t think I ever have watched as little as 15 series at the same time. This isn’t on purpose either: I just don’t think that there are any other TV-series that were worth my time this season, especially considering how bloody few series continued over from the past Autumn Season. This really turned out to be a series of quality over quantity: three series were completely amazing despite being really short, and they were the ones that made such a small season memorable.

And yet, despite these low numbers, AND having a job that keeps me busy for 36 hours each week, I have never been as active on this blog as I have been during the last month. With this post, I have just broken my own record of the biggest amount of posts made in one month: 86 of them. The movie spree I’ve been having and Supernatural had a big influence in this, but it’s not just that.

Even though there were few TV-series this month, I don’t think I have ever seen a month where so many OVAs and movies were released. Seriously, they just all kept coming, it’s like everyone and his dog released something here, even when not taking Supernatural into account. The quality of most of these OVAs and Movies also was really good. There was a lot of interesting stuff amongst them, both from one shots and from larger ones. It all culminated into one wonderful month of anime.

#15 (18) – Dragon Crisis – (5,5/10)

This final month was the worst we’ve seen so far here! I mean, the last three arcs were completely stupid and moronic. They made no sense whatsoever and their only purpose was to increase Ryuuji’s harem. Overall this was one huge waste of time.

#14 (14) – Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? – (6,25/10)

This entire month of Zombie was dedicated to the incredibly stupid drama around Hellscythe. It’s a shame, because if it focused on the creativity of the first half then it could have been very enjoyable.The nail in this one’s coffin was the abysmal episode 12, though. I’d like to thank this episode for leaving a really bad aftertaste for this series. Even worse than that multiple Deus ex Machina ending.

#13 (13) – Gosick – (6,5/10)

Gosick episodes have a spark of potential in them. Unfortunately, this spark was completely gone this month. Only two episodes aired, but those were completely unnecessary in this series.

#12 (16) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7,75/10)

This is what the entire series should have been. I finally get the feeling that this series is actually moving somewhere again. It’s still not as good as the first season, but at the least I’m glad that this show did not annoy me in the slightest this month.

#11 (15) – Fractale – (7,75/10)

Fractale is an adventure series whose biggest problem is that it has no idea what it’s doing. As a light-hearted adventure series this would have worked nicely, but at the same time this series is also trying to sound deep. And that’s where it fails completely. As a whole, this series is enjoyable. It’s just that the individual ingredients don’t mesh together at all.

#10 (11) – Wolverine – (8/10)

Again, the lack of depth isn’t going to make Wolverine into anything amazing. But as a simple action series this month kicked ass. The finale really was fun and exciting and the creators threw a lot at Wolverine in order to keep things interesting. It did justice to all of the characters, as simple as they were and overall I had a lot of fun watching and blogging this.

#9 (8) – Bakuman – (8,25/10)

Overall, Bakuman is one of those shows where the pacing could have gone up a notch. Still I have to give the past episodes credit for making me think that they were moving kindof fast, while in fact they actually weren’t. It’s still a solid show about making a manga, though. The characters are continuing to grow as well.

#8 (12) – Kimi ni Todoke – (8,25/10)

Episode 9. That was the episode that by far stood out above all of the other Kimi ni Todoke episodes. FINALLY, after so much waiting, this show finally got down to business, and it was glorious.

#7 (7) – Yumekui Merry – (8,25/10)

Before I’ll get enthusiastic about this show again, I first want to see some kind of second season announcement. Yumekui Merry is amazingly written. Episode 13 just isn’t the right time to end it. Not with a villain like Mistletain.

#6 (4) – Star Driver – (8,25/10)

The thing with Star Driver at the moment is that with still one episode remaining, it’s currently balancing on the edge of a cliff. The build-up to the ending has been completely unconventional, and if it can make this work it’ll be brilliant. If it can’t though, this will mean a very rushed ending. Whether or not this month’s episodes were good is entirely dependent on that final episode, but at least the play episode was awesome.

#5 (5) – Supernatural The Animation – (8,5/10)

Supernatural’s biggest problem turned out to be its acting. I don’t mean the voice acting, but instead the way that the creators manage to portray the characters on the screen. It feels stiff and undynamic, and does get in the way of making them believable, especially in Sam’s case. Apart from that though, it has some excellent stories to tell. The first twelve episodes have ranged a bit in quality, but there were some real gems among them. The graphics also look consistently excellent.

#4 (6) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

The Cabernet turned out to be a big weakness here. The creators just couldn’t do anything interesting with it in the end. As for the rest of the show though, I have to praise the creators for actually doing pretty good stuff with the characters here. This show actually received closure. Something rare amongst manga-based series where the manga hasn’t finished yet.

#3 (2) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (9/10)

Madoka Magica only aired two episodes but the episodes that it did air were amazing. The background story is deep, and continuing this series’ trend to deconstruct the mahou shoujo genre. Bring on that finale!

#2 (1) – Level E – (9/10)

So, in the end it did turn out to be impossible to reach the stellar heights of the first arc. Nevertheless, Level E has been an incredibly varied and interesting series that can both tell great stories and be side-splitting hilarious. Especially the baseball episode was an awesome mystery story, but just about every episode here was incredibly addictive, even when they weren’t funny. This series always has me on the edge of my seat.

#1 (3) – Hourou Musuko – (9/10)

Hourou Musuko ended magnificently It closed itself off perfectly, and yet the final episodes put in a massive amount of character development. Nitori’s development was just amazing, I just loved how the romance in this show worked out, and the introduction of Doi gave a completely different twist to this series. Just about every episode had something amazing, and some of the plot twists just blew my mind. This month did show 5 episodes as compared to Madoka Magica’s only having two, but BY GOD did it make use of them!

This month’s rankings of mine…. are nearly exactly the same as last month. Seriously, the only major surprise this month was that Fractale and Dragon Crsisis weren’t really good and that Kimi ni Todoke is finally going somewhere. Apart from that, every series pretty much continued on the same pace that it set a month ago. Come on, I’m expecting some good stuff here for March. Dare to evolve!

#16 (16) – Dragon Crisis – (6,75/10) – Alas, Dragon Crisis did seem genuine enough to get some good drama, but in the end it never really used this, and came with the most corny stories, one after the other. Any potential created by the good animation and dialogue ended up completely nullified by the bad acting and cheesy scenarios.
#17 (17) – Suite Precure – (7,25/10) – I appreciate that this series is trying to include stories that revolve around the main characters. Beyond that though, it’s a major step down from Heartcatch Precure. The execution and animation is nowhere as polished. The scenarios are dull, it lacks energy, the acting from the villains is horribly silly. At this point the characters still have the potential to become well developed in the second half, but I do not want to sit through 26 boring and badly written episodes to get there. This one is dangerously close to being dropped.
#16 (14) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7,5/10) – I think this month really summarized my problems with this second season. The last two episodes are a pretty good thriller. But did we really have to sit through two whole episodes of random goofing off in order to get there? The thing is, that I’m not enjoying these characters at all. They didn’t change in the slightest from what they were at the end of the first season. This series spends so much time on random scenes, but in the end it doesn’t really do anything with them and they’re merely there for fanservice.
#15 (9) – Fractale – (7,75/10)

This is coming from the director of Kannagi, so I already was fearing this show to be unbalanced. And unfortunately these fears came true. The thing is that this show doesn’t know what it’s good at, and instead spends way too much time on its very annoying lead character. It’s only eleven episodes long, and yet it spends way too much of its time on random undirected goofing off.

#14 (15) – Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? – (7,75/10)

In this month, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka was either amazing, or a boring cliche-fest. Right now this all seems to even out, but I do hope that next month will focus much more on what this show is good at.

#13 (16) – Gosick – (8/10)

The Wolf-arc was the best arc so far. It’s a bit weird, but it used its red herrings well and especially Victorique emerged as a better character because of it. This show still has its problems, but this month was actually interesting enough to make up for it.

#12 (13) – Kimi ni Todoke – (8/10)

Finally! After thirty episodes, of this show not going anywhere, the romance between the lead couple has finally started moving. It’s still quite slow, but for once the characters are playing off each other, instead of simply refusing to develop. It still doesn’t excuse the first season, but at the very least this was by far the best month from Kimi ni Todoke so far.

#11 (12) – Wolverine – (8/10)

This month saw Wolverine balance between its fights and its exposition, and to be honest it’s doing quite a good job at it, keeping to the same philosophy as in January: be simple, but effective. The characters, both good and bad, all have something endearing, and the action is pretty decent. The stiff acting and simple characters and story will prevent this one from ever becoming something great, but as for entertainment, it’s doing a pretty good job here.

#10 (10) – Mitsudomoe – (8,25/10)

Yes: Mitsudomoe’s second season was clearly better than the first. The jokes were better, the ratio of bad jokes was smaller, it made sure not to milk its jokes out, and also put a lot of effort into portraying the characters as actual characters. The characterization also improved a lot, which also made this a bit of a nostalgic series that I found surprisingly easy to relate to at times.

#9 (11) – Showa Monogatari – (8,25/10)

Episodes 2 and 4 popped up at the beginning of this month, and they were quite good. What makes Showa Monogatari more than just another slice of life story about a random kid is that it also knows that it should pay attention to the rest of his family: all of them are interesting characters at this point, which is a good sign for the rest of the series, which will continue somewhere around the start of May.

#8 (8) – Bakuman – (8,25/10)

Well, it’s taken a while, but Bakuman is finally getting interesting here. The characters have plenty of development put into them by now, and they’re really playing off each other nicely. Even though the pacing is slow, you can still feel some of their energy. Especially the long dialogues between them are the highlights here.

#7 (7) – Yumekui Merry – (8,25/10)

The problem with this show is that that beach episode destroyed the flow this show was in a bit. In the end, it’s wonderfully executed, but doesn’t really have the most ambitious storyline to work with. This show can still deliver a great ending, but the creators really are going to have to try hard here.

#6 (6) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

It’s a bit of a shame, but this series could have taken more risks when it comes to wrapping up its main storyline. It’s all very solid, but not as amazing as this show once was. Whenever it focuses on the characters though, it’s at its best, and this month again was no exception.

#5 (new) – Supernatural The Animation – (8,5/10)

Okay, so it’s probably going to be an arduous task trying to blog this series, but it’s really worth it so far, especially the second episode was excellent and very well written. The graphics are also gorgeous, here’s one to look out for.

#4 (4) – Star Driver – (8,5/10)

The thing is that Star Driver spends a lot of time on the characters doing random things. Even now that the climax is so near, it still spends a lot of time on this school life. The balance it has struck with the actual plot and characters though, is excellent and I’m still enjoying these characters quite a bit, though it’s not going to be the classic I originally hoped it would be.

#3 (5) – Hourou Musuko – (8,5/10)

Two months in, and Hourou Musuko is still doing what it really does well: bringing life to large amounts of characters. The characterization is still excellent and subtly detailed, and the characters all balance their maturity and their childishness wonderfully, leading to some great characters.

#2 (3) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (8,75/10)

This series is still continuing its string of excellent episodes. Jut about every episode here delivers and adds new depth to the characters; it’s a 13-episode series that fully knows how to use its time.

#1 (1) – Level E – (9/10)

This month for Level E was weaker than in January, but only by a small bit. It’s still my favourite series of the season due to its creative and sometimes outright mean scenarios and an awesome sense of humour. It’s always completely unpredictable and even though it’s composed of random stories, the acting, creativity and scenario all come together wonderfully and make this one of the best comedy anime I’ve seen.