Category: Monthly Summaries

+ September 2007 Rankings + And finally the Spring- and Summer-seasons have ended. Last month, I received the comment that my ratings have been a tad too high, though I must say that they’ve possibly become even higher. But then again, September has been the best month in terms of anime for me for this year, and the ratings will probably plummet down for October, when the new season starts, since there are only very few anime which can be awesome right from the start (Night Head Genesis and Asatte no Houkou were probably some of the few who actually did it). Anyway, in case this is the first time you see this, the series are ranked from worst to best, the number between the ( and ) indicates the place where that series was on last month, the rating is out of 10, with average being a 6,0 (and yes, I’m using the decimal comma). #38(new): Saishu Shiken Kujira – (4,3/10) – Garbage also comes in episodes of five minutes. #37(39): School Days – (4,8/10) – Finally Final Fantasy 7 has been beaten in terms of a character-death that’s hardest to avoid being spoiled about. The final episodes were quite possibly even worse than the rest of the series combined. The final episode itself was okay, but the ending was horrible. I mean, no police? #36(new): Kodomo no Jikan – (6,2/10) – Better than I expected, but the useless fanservice has to stop. If this is an omen for the series… #35(38): Romeo X Juliet – (6,4/10) – In addition to bowmen, it now also looks like there isn’t a good stone-thrower in the entire kingdom. Anyway, this story is now about to get closed off. I’m going to be disappointed if Romeo and Juliet don’t end up committing suicide! #34(37): Lucky Star – (6,6/10) – Like I said before: episode 24 was one of the best episodes of this series yet, but that may also be because of the relief that the boredom was finally over. The episode with Konata’s mother was artificial at best, though. #33(19): Reideen – (6,7/10) – The final episode was garbage. Seriously, it ruined a major part of the continuity the show had been building up. #32(35): Sky Girls – (7/10) – Sky Girls seriously needs to develop its setting now. At the moment, I have no idea how many bases on earth remain. Why was Western Europe the only place where new sonic-divers were made? And if they’re so easy to maintain (after all, a team of four people is enough for three of them) then why aren’t they more available? #31(14): Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha – (7/10) – Whoa, what happened here? Nanoha, with cookie-cutter villains? Oh my god, scriptwriters: what the heck are you doing?! #30(13): Claymore – (7/10) – You’ll either hate the final episodes of this series, or you’ll love them. I’m close to the former, even though I haven’t read the manga. Diverting from the manga is okay, but please use a sensible storyline and not the… “thing” we saw here. #29(???): Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – (7,1/10) – I finally realize what’s wrong with this show: the sheer predictability and the lack of cultural references. Seriously, why the heck did the creators have to make the United States of all possible countries special? Why the heck is Europe so unimportant that it’s already killed off entirely at this point? Why don’t we see any sort of accurate cultural references from the different countries? #28(33): Nanatsuiro Drops – (7,2/10) – Any attempts at a deep story backfire horribly for this series, but the love-relationship between the two main characters is cute, I really have to admit that. #27(31): Potemayo – (7,5/10) – The final episode did evoke some emotion, but it would have been so much better if Sunao’s background was moved to the beginning of the series. #26(34): Kenko Zenrakei Sueibu Umisho – (7,7/10) – The added drama is surprisingly good for a comedy. This month hasn’t been better for Umisho, but it also didn’t turn worse, and there were some funny moments. But that still gives no excuse for the excessive fanservice! #25(28): Murder Princess – (7,8/10) – Okay, the finale was cheesy, but at least it was entertaining enough. #24(24): Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – (7,8/10) – I liked Kittan’s end, and Yoko turned much more enjoyable now that she’s a mere side-character, instead of a main one. I liked the spiral-guy as well. It’s just too bad that the predictability in this show is back again. #23(18): Zombie Loan – (7,9/10) – Two words: Too Short!!! #22(26): Saiunkoku Monogatari – (7,9/10) – Yes! After a nearly endless amount of recaps, Saiunkoku Monogatari finally returned. This month ha been mostly introductions, but things are looking promising. #21(23): Tetsuko no Tabi – (8/10) – One thing I didn’t like about the past few episodes is that there haven’t been any guests on the trips. Still, you just have to love Kikuchi’s reaction to Yokomi’s wild fantasies, and it’s also nice to see that the final episode was one of the best of the entire series. Such a thing doesn’t happen often for comedy-anime. #20(30): Mushiuta – (8/10) – Nice, but it’s got a bit too much angst for my liking. The creators seemed to have written themselves into a corner when they came up with the idea that only downhearted people can get possessed by Mushi. I mean, it’s an easy way to write a sad storyline, but not only does this limit the storyline a lot, seeing every single character in the show turn angsty can become annoying. #19(9): Code-E – (8,2/10) – The finale wasn’t as fun as the rest of the series, though seeing Chinami’s power gone was quite interesting to watch. I’m looking forward to the next anime the staff is going to tackle. #18(???): Perrine Monogatari – (8,4/10) – I’ve decided to include this series in the rankings as well from now on, even though it aired more than twenty years ago. Plus, this is probably the only anime that shows a realistic life in Eastern Europe of two centuries ago. I’m at episode six now, and so far, this series has earned its title of World Masterpiece Theatre #17(27): Heroic Age – (8,4/10) – Surprise surprise, Heroic Age is getting good. Now that it actually started to progress its storyline, unlike what it did in the major part of the series, the series has been getting more enjoyable by the minute. Sure, the discovery of the Golden Tribe was cheesy, but at least it felt good. #16(32): Shigurui – (8,4/10) – I’ve actually been watching Shigurui double: with and without subs, due to my impatience. The strange thing is that even with subs, episode four didn’t make any sense at all. How did Irako and the woman get together? What did he do with Mie? The latest episodes have been getting better by the way. The bizarre rituals are gone and now that the storyline is more focused, Shigurui’s turning tenser with every episode. #15(29): Gintama – (8,5/10) – Christmas episodes have always been worthwhile, but Gintama brings this to a totally new level with episode 37. The episodes have been utterly brilliant, though it’s a shame this series falls into clichés with its endings. This was especially noticeable for the two stories of episode 37. They’re hilarious, but their endings lacked steam. #14(17): Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8,6/10) – There are only very few comedies which can milk out a joke and turn better because of it, but Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei is one of them. It starts out with a mundane joke and it keeps making it more and more ridiculous. That’s one of the reasons I like this series so much, though there is one major annoyance about this series: the useless and frequent eye-catches become annoying quite soon. #13(20): Demashitaa!! Power Puff Girls Z – (8,7/10) – Episodes 42 and 43 were utterly brilliant. I keep getting surprised at the bizarre sense of humour of this series. #12(22): Kekkaishi – (8,7/10) – Kekkaishi has been getting stronger than ever with Gen’s development, BUT (and there’s a huge but here) Yoshimori has hidden powers. If there’s anything that can ruin a series, it’s hidden powers that can be conveniently used to power up the main character due to laziness of the writers! #11(16): Dennou Coil – (8,7/10) – This month has been a month of building up for Dennou Coil. While it has been better, I’m definitely curious as to where it’ll go from now. Especially episode 18 was really intriguing #10(11): Darker than Black – (8,8/10) Okay, so the ending was rushed. In this case, a 26th episode would have been better for this series, but the pre-ending episodes were really good. I especially liked Mao and November 11. #9(3): Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – (8,9/10) While it wasn’t as good as at other points in the anime, the past month has been building up for the story and the upcoming revolution. Things are promising to become awesome. #8(6): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – (9/10) Now that most of the mysteries are cleared up, Higurashi is no longer the chaotic paranoid mystery-series it used to be in its first season, but in return, the characters have stepped up to become this series’ highlight, and the bond that’s developing between them is fascinating to say the least. #7(5): El Cazador de la Bruja – (9/10) Ellis and Nadie showed that you can even become extremely cheesy if the character-development is excellent. This month, El Cazador has finally decided to focus on its storyline, and the result, when combined with the characters was nothing short of awesome. #6(10): Baccano! – (9,2/10) Now this is a well-written storyline! Every single character seems to have his or her own story, and the amount of development it achieves is something most other series can even dream of. #5(8): Ooedo Rocket – (9,3/10) The final episodes rocked! I was expecting that the drama would totally overshadow the comedy, and I’m so glad I was proven wrong. #4(7): Toward the Terra – (9,3/10) Episodes 21 and 22 were all kinds of epic and awesome, and while it wasn’t the best ending, it still was satisfying enough. It’s sad to see this series go, and we can only hope that it set the standard for other science-fiction series. #3(3): Seirei no Moribito – (9,4/10) And finally everything the series has build up for has come together perfectly! The fight against Rarunga was quite possibly the best multi-episoded fight I’ve seen this year. #2(1): Kaze no Shoujo Emily – (9,5/10) Seriously, making Emily grow up in the final part of the series was a masterful decision, as the final episodes have been nothing but tear-jerking awesomeness. The way Emily and her friends have developed throughout the years are magnificent. #1(4): Bokura no – (9,6/10) I seriously couldn’t have expected a better finale for this series. Everything worked out perfectly, there was no rush and the fights were awesome to watch. + Top 5 Episodes + #5: Seirei no Moribito – 26 In these kinds of endings, everything comes together and works out perfectly, despite the predictability. #4: Toward the Terra – 21 I really cried during the several plot twists of this episode. Toward the Terra may not have had the best ending, but it does have the best pre-ending episodes of the spring-season. #3: Ooedo Rocket – 26 *grins* I’m nog going to tell you why~ Muahaha! TAMAYA!!!! #2: Bokura no – 24 A truly magnificent ending that closes off the series perfectly for me. While others will disagree, Bokura no has been one of the best series of the year for me. #1: Toward the Terra – 22 It’s not often that a series takes up two spaces in this top-five, but Toward the Terra deserves it with two magnificently epic and tragedic ones.]]>

+ August 2007 Rankings + Okay, last time the ratings were a bit confusing so let me explain them for a bit. They’re out of 10, just like the school-system. 6,0 is average, and you really shouldn’t look for likable series below it. Anything above 9,0 is awesome, hence definitely recommended. After the place-numbers, you’ll see another number between brackets. That’s the place that anime was on last month. If it says “???”, then that anime wasn’t in last month’s ranking, and if it says “new”, that show has started this month. I hope it’s a bit clear now. (Oh, and before I start: this is still on for one more day. Exactly 24 hours from now, I’ll close the poll. If no more votes come in, then it looks like Gundam 00 will be blogged by me once it starts. If you want to change this, you’ve only got 24 hours left!) #40 (new): Bokusatsu Tenchi Dokuro-Chan – (4,2/10) – Ugh… when you thought the first season was bad, the second one comes along to smack you in the face. How long will they continue to milk this concept? #39 (43): School Days – (5,3/10) – Things actually went well enough, until the third AND fourth girl confessed their love for Makoto… where the heck did that come from!? I doubt that the endings will save this series as well. The events feel so incredibly forced, not to mention that the three main characters are still idiots. I also don’t understand the people who claim that this is such a realistic series. Sure, I can see Makoto in real life, there are enough idiots like him around, but what part of the fact that every girl who sees him also falls in love with him is realistic? Is he the most attractive guy in school or something (poor school, by the way)? Is he a walking bag of pheromones? #38 (38): Romeo x Juliet – (5,5/10) – You know…. we have yet to see any confirmations about Juliet’s mother, have we? At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if she actually had a secret love-affair with Romeo’s father at one point, making the two of them half-siblings. Such a twist would feel perfectly at home in this series, and that’s not a good sign. It’s also ironic that the only enjoyable character is Willy himself, and don’t you also love how there isn’t a single good bowman in the Capulet’s army? #37 (39): Lucky Star – (6/10) – Really, when I watch this show, it’s like I’ve already seen 75% of the scenes before. 15% is incredibly predictable (Kagami’s admirer, anyone?), leaving only 10% of actually enjoyable stuff, which in most cases are the cultural references, which have nothing to do with the characters. Oh, and the tantrum thrown by the Lucky Channel-guy (apparently, there are only two male characters in the entire series) was fun too. #36 (???): Hellsing OVA – (6,2/10) – And with the third instalment, the Hellsing OVA has fallen apart. Finally, the story gets to be something entirely different from the anime, but if this is exactly according to the manga, then I can understand why Gonzo changed it. This isn’t entertainment; this is pure and senseless slaughter. If these extra months of delay were created, just to give each human soldier 10 extra galleons of blood in his body, something has to be drastically wrong. The only thing I liked was the humour, though. Seras was awesome in her non-serious state. #35 (36): Sky Girls – (6,7/10) – Ugh… you know a series is going the wrong way when the characters start comparing breast sizes. I’m feeling it’s trying the same that Nanoha is currently doing: first half of the series building up, while the real meat of the series will arrive with the second half. #34 (34): Kenkou Senrakei Sueibu Umisho – (7,1/10) – Please… cut down on the huge amounts of fanservice. The characters are enjoyable enough without it, and it only ruins this series! Episode nine showed that it’s perfectly capable of creating a funny episode without any useless fanservice #33 (35): Nanatsuiro Drops – (7,2/10) – I’m still not sure how this series can manage to be both annoying and yet watchable. I think it’s because the male characters: they all somewhat refreshing, when compared to the usual series, and I like how they all end up supporting the main character. #32 (16): Shigurui – (7,3/10) – I want to praise this series, I really do, but the past few episodes have been delving more and more in the absurd. I know there’s lots of detail, and the gore is a good way to create a mood, but these utterly bizarre rituals like cutting off a woman’s nipple and raping her are going way too far. #31 (29): Potemayo – (7,4/10) – I’m still not sure what to think of this series. The initial shock wears off with the first two episodes, and now the jokes still feel refreshing, but not as hilarious as I hoped. There are a few good moments though, like Potemayo chasing the bread-truck. #30 (23): Mushiuta – (7,4/10) – This series could have gone in so many directions, and yet it headed into the wrong way by making each major female fall in love with the male lead. Ladybird really ruins this series. #29 (17): Gintama – (7,4/10) – Gintama is the only show where an episode can be extended into the next one. It was a rather strange episode as well. #28 (30): Murder Princess – (7,5/10) – Actually, episode five was quite good. It explained quite a few interesting things about the setting, and was a pretty nice calm-before-the-storm episode. The question now remains: will this finish well? #27 (37): Heroic Age – (7,6/10) – Interesting enough, this series is starting to get better when themes as genocide suddenly appear, and the two idiots are mercilessly killed off. This series would have been perfectly fine if it just showed the war between the Iron and the Silver Tribe, but Age and Dianeira ruined the entire show. I still can’t understand why Dianeira is considered such a good leader anyway. #26 (8): Saiunkoku Monogatari – (7,6/10) – Well, nothing much can be said. Only one episode aired this month, and that was an aftermath. It was a great aftermath, but the fact remains that I’m not happy with the sudden delays. #25 (25): Shoujo Jang Geum no Yume – (7,8/10) – Okay, it may not be the most realistic series, but it’s fun to watch! I like Jang Geum’s cheery character, and how she’s getting the support she needs from others. #24 (21): Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – (7,8/10) – This series went so well… and then Yoko returned. -_- She really is the worst member of the cast in this anime, and it was refreshing when she didn’t have much to do. Not only is her return full of clichés, she also has the corniest sense of humour. I mean, does she really expect the school-references to work? O_o Episode 22 wasn’t much better either; sure, it had nice action, but the entire thing felt like one big anti-climax when the moon suddenly turned out to be one giant Ganmen. Gainax, at least do something special for the ending!!! #23 (28): Tetsuko no Tabi – (7,9/10) – I’m actually interested in what the mangaka thinks of this adaptation. She’s probably one of the very few people to be featured in an actual anime. I still like her character, by the way. She’s witty, and I love her sarcastic remarks throughout the series, even though it’s much of the same. I originally thought that Shigurui had the best OP for the season, but I was wrong; the best OP for the summer-season belongs to Tetsuko no Tabi. #22 (19): Kekkaishi – (8/10) – And finally the antagonists get serious. It’s now time for Kekkaishi that it’s more than just an ordinary shounen-series, because it can still go down at this point. #21 (???): ICE – (8/10) – I like the storytelling in this OVA. It may be strange, but it works quite well. It’s obviously not for everyone, though. #20 (???): Power Puff Z – (8/10) – It’s interesting how Himeko’s sister took over Princess’s role in the original series. While the past few episodes haven’t been as brilliant as some of the episodes in the 30-40 range, they were definitely fun to watch. #19 (20): Reideen – (8/10) – Finally Roxell is back again. I’m wondering what the creators have in store for the final two episodes. Things are looking pretty straightforward, but I wonder whether the creators can manage to throw in a twist. #18 (18): Zombie Loan – (8,2/10) – I like how the episodes seem to focus more at the shoujo-roots of the story than the shounen-ones. The banter between the characters is great to watch, and at the same time it’s still able to provide powerful character-studies. #17 (12): Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8,3/10) – Episode five may have had a tad too much fanservice, but episode four was utterly brilliant. It seems like about 50% of the episodes are okay, while the other 50% are absolutely hilarious. I can live with that. ^_^ #16 (4): Dennou Coil – (8,3/10) – Nothing much can be said. Only one episode got released, and while it was an incredibly cute one, the plot hasn’t really been moving forward. Let’s hope that the next episode will fix this. #15 (7): Mononoke – (8,3/10) – While it’s still awesome, this month I failed to understand Mononoke’s dialogues. The stories are surprisingly deep, and my level of Japanese just couldn’t handle it. #14 (22): Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha – (8,3/10) – Finally this series is getting really fired off. Episode 17 was excellent, and I hope that this pace will continue!! #13 (14): Claymore – (8,3/10) – I never could have imagined the current arc to turn out the way it did. So many Claymores together equals awesomeness. It’s just too bad that Raki took a turn for the worse. I just hope my worries about the ending of this series aren’t necessary. #12 (???): Deltora Quest – (8,4/10) – It’s such a shame that some of the good series suffer from chronic lack of subs. Deltora Quest really is unique amongst the fantasy-adventures, and I want to see how it continues. 🙁 #11 (9): Darker than Black – (8,6/10) – I’ve seen this get mentioned by at least three people already, but it’s the truth: while they were good, episodes 17-20 weren’t as awesome as episodes 13-16. I liked how they all seemed to focus on running away, though. I’ve got hopes for the finale, as this is one series that completely understands its setting. #10 (26): Baccano! – (8,8/10) Don’t ask me how they did it, but all the characters are actually coming together, in a pretty excellent storyline. I’ve got high hopes for this. #9 (10): Code-E – (8,8/10) While the past few episodes had me worried a bit with the love-triangle, episode 9 showed that this series knows what it’s doing when everything comes together. The thing I love about this series is how, at the climaxes, the overall quality seems to increase tenfold. #8 (11): Ooedo Rocket – (8,8/10) Ooedo’s biggest problem: the characters are so fun to watch, it’s a pity to see them getting serious for the climaxes. It’s perfect at building up, but the climaxes themselves seem to lack something. Still, do NOT miss episode 21 and 22. ^_^ #7 (1): Toward the Terra – (9/10) This month, this series spent its time in a “calm-before-the-storm”, to set all the chess-pieces right for the big finale. While the series has been better, it still was awesome. #6 (27): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – (9,1/10) This is the Higurashi I fell in love with. The Minagoroshi-hen has finally started, and it’s already an awesome ride. I can’t believe the huge focus that is placed on trusting each other. #5 (15): El Cazador de la Bruja – (9,2/10) Ellis + Nadie + LA = awesomeness. I don’t care about the flaws anymore, as long as I can see the three of them together, I’m happy. Bee-Train really knows how to flesh out its characters. 🙂 #4 (2): Bokura no – (9,2/10) You know, many people complain that Gonzo always screws up adaptations by adding their own storylines, but they’re currently doing a mighty fine job for Bokura no. The twists that came with it were awesome! #3 (6): Les Miserables – (9,3/10) This month was all about developing the different romances, and I’m developing a sortof obsession for Eponine myself. God, her character is awesome. #2 (5): Seirei no Moribito – (9,4/10) It’s very hard to judge the past few episodes of Seirei no Moribito, since it’s so delightfully different from most other anime. There really is no other anime that feels more like a novel than this one, and it’s awesome to see that the story is nearing its conclusion. #1 (3): Kaze no Shoujo Emily – (9,4/10) I’m probably the only one who still watches this series, but I don’t care! Emily is awesome, and as a bonus the past month has increased the focus about the characters, living towards their own dreams. The result is magnificent. 🙂 + Top 5 Episodes + #5: Ooedo Rocket – 22 One of the highlights of the series in terms of comedic value, and it still finds enough time for some great character-development. A cast as crazy as Ooedo Rocket’s really was given the time to shine. #4: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 34 It’s episodes like these where the characters shine. Especially Rika was awesome to watch. #3: Claymore – 20 The top-3 of this month is all about characters, learning lessons. This episode of Claymore truly shined as an aftermath and introduction with its deep character-developments. I couldn’t help but love Deneve, Undine and Helen and the unnamed Claymore. #2: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 19 What would you do if you were asked to do something for a dead person, where the only thing you know about him is that he lived an incredibly boring life? This question worked so incredibly well with Emily, and it was a definite highlight in the series. #1: Seirei no Moribito – 19 If anyone still doesn’t believe that Barsa can’t be a good parent, this episode should change this thought.]]>

July 2007 Rankings As you can see, this section’s got a few new features. Someone requested to give out series ratings of the past month, and I decided to give it a try. Rating individual episodes was clearly a bad idea, but I liked the idea of monthly ratings, so I decided to let my rating system loose on these series. It’s working fine so far, I’ll continue till this feature turns out to be a bad idea. #46 (new): Buzzer Beater – (3,2) – I think it’s safe to label this one as the worst show of the season. Don’t even touch this one with a ten-foot pole. Dropped. #45 (36): Shining Tears X Wind – (3,7) – Episode 12 had to be THE cheesiest episode I’ve ever seen. Yes, it was that painful. #44 (new): Moetan – (4,6) – Nice to see that the creators went for a subtle approach for this series. [/sarcasm] Can it get any more blatantly obvious? Dropped #43 (new): School Days – (4,9) – Ugh… that main character… that horrible, horrible main character! This show had better have an amazing climax to make up for the annoying first four episodes. #42 (32): Kaze no Stigma – (5,1) – Okay, I give up. I tried watching this show, but it still disappoints me. The characters are just way too annoying to enjoy them. Dropped. #41 (new): Doujin Work – (5,1) – Basically, this show didn’t stand out to me in any way, so I never bothered to check out its second episode. Dropped. #40 (28): Devil May Cry – (5,9) – I dropped this series when episode 2 and 3 didn’t feature the great direction of episode 1. #39 (33): Lucky Star – (6) – I’m glad to see that Lucky Star finally introduced new characters to introduce some (gasp) variation. Still, what they were doing before they were introduced is beyond me. It’s especially strange that it took Kagami no less than 16 episodes to mention that she’s got two elder sisters, and we still have no idea what happened to Konata’s mother. Overall, this month has been better for Lucky Star than the previous one, but it’s still too much moe and Haruhi-references and too little substance. #38 (26): Romeo x Juliet – (6,2) – It’s sad to see that a potential classic boiled down to the story of a bunch of angsty teenagers. While it still holds the potential to become good in the end, right now, it’s obnoxious. #37 (34): Heroic Age – (6,3) – It’s annoying that Dianeira’s brothers basically only exist to make Dianeira look better. This series would have been so much better off without them, and you’d wonder how humanity managed to survive with both of them in command. Really, this show is trying too hard to make its protagonists look good. #36 (new): Sky Girls – (6,4) – I still don’t know what to think about this series. On one hand, it’s a nice story between three girls. On the other hand, it’s blatant lolicon-bait that makes no sense. There is a reason why the real military doesn’t use any child pilots: their bodies are too weak, and they’re mentally too unstable for such a delicate job. One thing I’m also missing in this series is the effects of a nuclear war on humanity Right now, you wouldn’t suspect that the worms were wiped out by nuclear weapons. #35 (new): Nanatsuiro Drops – (6,5) – Despite the annoying Sumomo, this series turned out to be actually watchable. I don’t like, however, how it shamelessly ripped off Akazukin’s main tune #34 (new): Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho – (7,1) – When fanservice isn’t involved, this series is entertaining. It’s got characters that go beyond stereotypes, and it’s probably the only fanservice-show that’s actually funny. When fanservice is involved, however… *headdesks* #33 (24): Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – (7,2) – This show seems to be missing something, but I can’t exactly point out what. Perhaps it’s the excessive amount of angst, or the fact that we just know that Russia is going to be the main final enemy who has to be defeated. #32 (23): The Skull Man – (7,3) – While everyone already finished this series, I’m waiting for the subs of the final episodes that are not HD .mkv ones. -_- #31 (21): Tokyo Tribe 2 – (7,4) – Despite the predictability, the ending was definitely fun to watch, especially Skunk and Buppa in their last moments. And I really thought that Skunk was the one who committed the murder in the past, and it was a nice surprise to be proven wrong. #30 (35): Murder Princess – (7,6) – The fourth episode was definitely better than the third one, and it was an enjoyable watch, despite the cheesiness. I’m just afraid, because I didn’t hear many good things about episode 5. #29 (new): Potemayo – (7,6) – I am getting a bit worried about this series. Episode 3 and 4 were nowhere near as brilliant as episodes 1 and 2. Please don’t let the creators run out of ideas! #28 (16): Tetsuko no Tabi – (7,6) – Even though nothing much happens, and I usually dislike otaku in anime, I really like Yokomi and the other characters who travel along with him. I also like how every episode comes with a different cast, and that we don’t just get to see the same group over and over. #27 (new): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – (7,6) – I really like Higurashi, but the current arc isn’t part of its highlights. Episode 1 was awesomeness, though. #26 (new): Baccano! – (7,7) – The first episode already surprised with its huge amount of characters. It’s also got a great style, the question now remains: will everything come together in the end? #25 (???): Shoujo Jang Geum no Yume – (7,8) – Whoa! Where did this come from? Despite the fact that only one episode gets released in half a year, I must thank Ppalgan-anime that they’re willing to fansub this series. It turned into quite an adorable shoujo-series, and another great example of the greatness of neglected series. #24 (???): Code Geass – (7,9) – The finale was quite good, for Code Geass-standards. There were a couple of minor flaws, but overall it was enjoyable watching this series. I especially liked Orange-kun, despite the lack of explanation where he came from. Still, it’s sad to see that the creators went for the most predictable cliff-hanger in the end. #23 (new): Mushiuta – (7,9) – While episodes 2 and 3 were rather dull, episode 4 showed great promise. This can turn into a great series, if it does things well from now on. #22 (11): Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – (7,9) – The subs have now reached up to episode 15, though nothing much happened, and the series is still building up. There was one mission, but apart from that we mostly saw the cast training, and the introduction of a rather obnoxious yellow-haired girl. Still, I’ve heard great things about the upcoming episodes. It’s just a shame that the character-designs start to look worse, every time I look at them. #21 (22): Gurren Lagann – (7,9) – Simon couldn’t have chosen a better day to propose to Nia, could he? While this does feel a bit cheap, I like the time-leap so far. Especially Rossiu turned out for the better, and Yoko’s gone now. #20 (25): Reideen – (8,1) – While I dislike Reideen’s habit of using Deus ex Machina for its climaxes, it is doing a lot of things right. The atmosphere still is great, and especially the storm-arc and the subway-arc were a great watch when the focus turned to the characters. #19 (14): Kekkaishi – (8,2) – Up till now, I’ve been watching this series raw, but with the sudden introduction of a plot, I gave in. I’ve basically been rewatching the past few episodes this month, while waiting for the subs to catch up with me. This series has a really nice rewatch-value, by the way. #18 (new): Zombie Loan – (8,3) – I like the atmosphere of this strange combination between a shounen and a shoujo-show. There’s definitely chemistry between the characters, which more than makes up for the lack of fights #17 (17): Gintama – (8,4) – You have to see episode 34, for it’s brilliant forum-parodies. Episode 33 also was genius, though its conclusion was disappointing. #16 (new): Shigurui – (8,5) – This is one disturbing show, and definitely not recommended for younger audiences. It’s incredibly detailed, and if you combine that with the gore and atmosphere, you get an incredibly tense result. #15 (10): El Cazador de la Bruja – (8,5) – It’s great to see that the plot finally starts moving, episode 17 should never have been aired, though. #14 (13): Claymore – (8,5) – While it does make me worry at times, these worries aren’t necessary at all. The climaxes for Claymore have been truly excellent, and Claymore has turned into a series that just about anyone will be able to enjoy. #13 (22): Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – (8,6) – There seems to be some general rule among comedy-series with storylines that the final episode has to suck and disappoint. Therefore, it was great to see that Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge even screwed this rule, and came with a really enjoyable ending, that had me laughing over and over, and still was really touching as an ending. #12 (new): Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei – (8,8) – I think we’ve got ourselves another brilliant comedy-series here. We’re three episodes in, and it still continues to get better and better. It’s just a shame that afk refuses to give information about the obscure references, like gg did for Pani Poni Dash. I’m not sure how many people picked it up, but the name for the female lead, Fuura Kafuka actually comes from a German writer, named Franz Kafka. I’ve read one of his books for school once, and let me say that you can’t get more desperate than that guy. Hence the irony of Fuura’s name, as she probably is the most optimistic character you can think of. ^^; Another thing I really like is how it talks about so many taboos in modern society. I especially loved this for the foreign girl. Here, we all think that Asians are good at studying, and in Japan, people think that it’s the foreigners who are the smart ones. ^^; #11 (7): Ooedo Rocket – (8,8) – For the past few episodes, the plot has started to get going, and the characters are really turning into multi-dimensional ones, and I found myself really caring about them, due to the time that the first half of the series spent on them, fleshing them out. #10 (new): Code-E – (8,8) This show did just about everything right, apart from the character-designs for the male lead. The characters were surprisingly addictive for me, there was some great chemistry between them, and the climaxes are really nice to watch, when the main character’s power gets out of control. While this definitely isn’t for everyone, it’s great to see that Simoun’s director can even make such a slice-of-life series work out greatly. 🙂 #9 (15): Darker than Black – (8,9) I can hardly believe it, but the past two arcs have been amazingly good. Especially episodes 13 and 14 featured some of the best minor villains I’ve seen in a long, long while, and I’m finally beginning to feel Yoko Kanno’s magic. Now let’s see how this series will close itself off. #8 (3): Saiunkoku Monogatari – (8,9) And finally the first major climax of the second season has come, and despite the rather cheap twist of episode 16, the scenes especially involving Eigetsu were real tear-jerkers, and the other characters also turned out to be delights to watch. #7 (new): Mononoke – (9) I think it won’t be necessary anymore to declare my love for this series, as the past few series have been really, really good. If you’re a psychological horror-fan, you just have to check out this piece of awesomeness! #6 (6): Les Miserables – (9) And finally this series starts getting really awesome! Despite the fact that this series is meant for kids, it doesn’t go out of its way to hide deceit, death threats, prison and abuse, and the past few episodes have been true roller-coaster rides. The only problem is the chronic lack of subs. Seriously, we’re already at episode 30, and the subs have been stuck at episode five for months! An epic like this one doesn’t deserve this much negligence. #5 (9): Seirei no Moribito – (9,1) Now that the shadow hunters have returned, this series suddenly has become much better again, and it’s finally time to move out of the quiet mood and get the conclusion of the series started. I seriously wonder how the creators are planning to do that. #4 (12): Dennou Coil – (9,1) Dennou Coil has been pure excellence for this month, with an effective combination between gripping drama and hilarious comedy, and it seems that the creativity of the creators still hasn’t run out. #3 (4): Kaze no Shoujo Emily – (9,3) Kaze no Shoujo Emily continues to be one of the best slice-of-life series I’ve ever seen, and every episode is one big heart-warming success. Especially when an episode comes and introduces some beautiful background tunes. #2 (1): Bokura no – (9,3) Okay, you know you’ve got a success when even a recap episode turns out worthwhile. The climaxes of this series have been incredibly intriguing, and they give a total new dimension to “we’re not alone”. #1 (5): Toward the Terra – (9,3) Epic, truly epic. Toward the Terra has really surpassed itself this month, with some of the amazing plots and scenes as the result. Keith is the perfect example of a good villain, due to the time that the previous episodes have spent on fleshing the guy out. If you’re a science-fiction-fan, you absolutely can’t miss out on this one. Top 5 Episodes This time, not only did I take into account the quality of the episodes themselves, but the impact they made also played a huge role in my selection. #5: Bokura no – 15 While the episode started out mundane, the twists at the end were OMG-worthy. #4: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 27 A perfect aftermath, and while nothing much happened, it was awesome to see some of my favourite characters return, including seeing how they changed. #3: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 29 One huge turning-point for the series in terms of mood. While only two episodes ago, we saw people reuniting a mother with her daughter, this episode turned into an incredibly dark one. #2: Dennou Coil – 09 For me, this was the episode that really convinced me of Dennou Coil’s awesomeness, when suddenly it comes with such a grand episode. #1: Bokura no – 13 The word that can probably best describe this episode is “shocking”.]]>

June Anime Rankings I like this format, because it’s simple. To give a small indication of the quality of the shows, place 1-10 have made a big impression on me during this month. Place 11-20 still are really good and recommended, but the impression they made was slightly lower, or they spent most of their time building up, which is necessary but mostly not very exciting. Place 21-30 are enjoyable but can definitely be improved and 31-36 are just garbage. #36: Shining Tears x Wind – Please, next time if you want to make an RPG-adaptation, chose one with a good story. It’s series like these that give RPG-adaptations a bad name. If you want to see a good one: go for Popolocrois. #35: Murder Princess – Whose idea was it to make episode 3 so incredibly cheesy? #34: Heroic Age – Okay, so the show introduced politics now. It’s too bad that the two emperors have the same depths as a bunch of paper bags, they’re just stupid because the story demands them to, and it’s been obvious since the beginning that they’d screw up somehow. Boobs-san ironically is the only one in the entire series with a bunch of brains. Everyone else seems to be either fighting or worrying about either Age or the contract by the Golden Tribe. #33: Lucky Star – Ow, this has been a bad month for Lucky Star. Unfortunately, the show has been getting more repetitive with every episode, and the characters are getting duller and duller. Not only that, but it’s about to get completely overshadowed by the other Otaku-based show: Tetsuko no Tabi. Let’s hope that it’ll get better in its second half, but then again, we’re talking about Kyoani here. I doubt they’ll be able to save this series. #32: Kaze no Stigma – I want to like this series, I really do, but it’s not making things easy with its annoying characters and the way it handles its male side-characters. Kazuma keeps saying that he wants to save as much people as possible, and yet he goes after the cute girls while the male characters die with heaps at the time with no impact whatsoever. I’m also not sure whether the inclusion of pixies was the right idea. #31: Koutetsu Sangokushi – This series continues to quietly dabble along. It’s a nice watch when bored, but nothing amazing, spectacular or unique happens. #30: Wangan Midnight – So far, nothing memorable yet. I’m giving this series a few more chances. #29: Engage Planet Kiss Dum – Finally the subs came out again, but unfortunately the anime itself took a wrong path. The main guy may have had a good reason to obtain the power he did, but I dislike his personal harem. Still, I have hope. The first two episodes really were of good quality. Let’s hope that this’ll come back in the second half. #28: Devil May Cry – While I do admit that it’s nice to see ACG out with the subs of this series so fast, it does make me worry, as they haven’t released a single episode of Deltora Quest this month, and even though Devil May Cry is a good brainless action-show, I definitely prefer Deltora Quest above it. #27: Power Puff Girls Z – Not as good as the previous episodes, but it still was cute to see the supporters get a bit of attention. #26: Romeo x Juliet – This series seems to be trying a bit too hard at this point. People betray each other for no reason whatsoever, only to make Juliet feel as miserable as possible. Still, I do have hope for the second half, and it’s a good thing that the suffering comes relatively early in the series, so that Juliet can learn from it as the series draws to its end. #25: Reideen – While the series hasn’t been really memorable, it has been good for a nice watch. I do hope that the love-triangle will be getting somewhere, though. #24: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – I admit that it’s turning increasingly more interesting to watch the teams of the different countries, but what can the creators do to prevent Japan from winning in the end? #23: The Skull Man – There is some great mystery in this, and the storyline turned out quite interesting, but I don’t know… It seems to be missing something. I think it was a bad idea to include humour in this series, as it doesn’t seem to merge with the story-part well enough. #22: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – One of the more overrated series of the season, it’s a nice show and all, but it remains brainless action for the most part. In episode thirteen, for example, the standard “friend-taken-hostage-what-should-I-do”-bit appeared again. I also dislike Nia a lot. Her character is annoying and forced, and her bad cooking-skills could have been more subtle. Still, there is one part of the series that I’m really enjoying: Dai-Gurren’s antics. I just love the battle-tactics that involve that giant mecha, from the flipper-outfit to launching it miles into the air. ^^; Anyway, there is hope. The backstory seems to be interesting enough. #21: Tokyo Tribe 2 – One thing that I really appreciated of the past few episodes is the attention to the side-characters. While it was annoying to see Skunk rising, I admit that I was quite pleased to see the little bugger in trouble, which quite possibly what the creators had in mind. #20: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – I must praise Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, as it’s one of the very few comedy anime to actually provide an ending, make this ending good and not forfeiting the humour that made the series great. Now let’s hope that this also goes for the ending itself. #19: ICE – ICE has been a rather peculiar OVA. It did have its flaws, but when I think back at it, I do have to say that its story is memorable at least. Still, I need to see the second episode to really be sure whether it’s good or not. #18: Hitohira – The major climax came with episode 8 and 9, while the rest of the series came with a really long epilogue. Because of this, the development of Hitohira couldn’t have been better, and it really was a highlight of the spring-season. #17: Gintama – I loved it when Gintama started playing with memory-loss. While it has been better, something tells me that we’ve yet to see the best part of the series. #16: Tetsuko no Tabi – I’m surprised about the lack of attention this has been having, but then again, how many people can be looking forward to a show about trains? Still, the chemistry between the characters is excellent, and I’m definitely going to continue watching this. #15: Darker than Black – Okay, I admit. This turned into a perfectly fine series with quite a few interesting cases. Still, I’m going to wait for Shinsen’s subs in the future, simply because Sudo likes to release in only HD MKV-files, which mean murder to my labtop. #14: Kekkaishi – This month, Kekkaishi mainly focused developing the new main character. This series has been as charming as always. #13: Claymore – What I like about Claymore is that every major plot point, with one or two insignificant exceptions, has an explanation which seems perfectly plausible. It’s also taking me a while to realize that this is one of the few shounen-fighting shows where having the largest amount of power doesn’t necessarily mean being the strongest. Ever since the Law of Ueki, I’ve yet to see such a series, and it feels really refreshing (*coughBleachcoughNarutocough*) #12: Dennou Coil – I knew that Isako would warm up to Yasako sooner or later, but the way episode 7 did this was really good. I find myself liking Kyoko more and more, because she really feels like a little girl. #11: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – Finally this anime gets fired off with episode 7 and 8. I can’t wait to see the rest of the series now! #10: El Cazador de la Bruja This probably is the most hated series of the season, due to the fact that most people who didn’t like the first episode still stuck with it. Still, that doesn’t stop me from really enjoying it, and it’s currently doing a really good job of building up. #9: Seirei no Moribito In this month, Seirei no Moribito really temporarily became a slice-of-life series, but the incredibly detailed storyline remains Even though it wasn’t the most exciting series of the month, it’s great to see all the different characters fleshed out a bit more, and I cant wait till the story starts developing in the next episode. #8: Wellber no Monogatari Wellber no Monogatari has most definitely been an interesting series, that doesn’t deserve the negligence it received. The first few episodes may goof off at times, but with episode 6 it really gets fired off and an interesting story begins. What I really like is how all major characters get enough development and fleshing out, the story is in no way rushed, and episode 13 left me with a good feeling. I can’t wait to see the second season! #7: Ooedo Rocket Most definitely the funniest series to have come out in the spring-season, with both slapstick, intelligent jokes, sarcasm and parodies. Add a serious and compelling story to it, and you’ve got a success of a series. There have been so many epic characters (Genzo, the townsfolk, Akai, Ginjiro and many more), and I love how all of them get enough attention. #6: Les Miserables Les Miserables quite possibly has the best character-development of all the shows aired in 2007 up till now. The time-leap was definitely well executed, and I’m becoming an increasingly bigger fan of Eponine. I can’t wait to see the final two arcs, which are rumoured to be amazing. #5: Toward the Terra I’m really surprised at the huge amount of time-leaps this series took. So far, it’s developed into a unique and excellent science-fiction series, which for once isn’t about saving the universe or the world, but a quest for the shunned Myu to settle down and live their lives in peace. Keith is also an antagonist with a huge amount of development, which is always nice to see. #4: Kaze no Shoujo Emily The best slice-of-life series of the season? Definitely. It’s such a shame that almost nobody is giving this series a chance (including fansubbers), since Emily is an amazing character, and Perry, Teddy and Ilse are really charming. It’s sad to see that the most neglected series of the season turned out to be this one, while it in fact is one of the best series to have come out. #3: Saiunkoku Monogatari The second season turned out to be quite possibly even better than the first season, due to the immense amount of development that the characters already had because of the first season, and even the new characters, especially Shuuran, turned out amazing. #2: Death Note You know, it may have had a lot of bumps, but the ending of Death Note was a great one. The final three episodes were amazing and among the best episodes of the entire series. #1: Bokura no Bokura no’s change of focus this month was a real surprise for me. There were no twisted cases, it just focused on the children and the lives they left behind. Still, despite this I’m immensely enjoying this series, and it remains one of my favourites of the season. I’m not sure why, actually. I’m drawn to this series in a way similar to The Third, which is one of my favourite series. I also really like the way the plot is going. Overall, it’s barely, but this series definitely is my favourite series of this season, and that has to say something, with so many excellent ones that came out. Top 5 Episodes #5: Toward the Terra – 11 – This was an excellent episode, with a huge amount of shock-value, touching scenes, conflicts and much more, and I greatly enjoyed it. #4: Les Miserables – 24 – Eponine = Love. Seriously, her grown-up version is awesome, and this episode saw her at her best. #3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 11 – See the previous comment, but swap Eponine with Perry. His desires to live up to his dreams, despite his hard life and social status are truly magnificent. #2: Bokura no – 09 – Again, see the previous comment, and put Daiichi there. He deserves to be called a hero, and his tragic parting with his family was the highlight of an already amazing series. #1: Death Note – 36 – There are these kinds of episodes that just blow you away, and this was one of them. Death Note may have had its bumps, this episode is where everything comes together to provide an amazing climax, and probably the best and most annoying cliff-hanger I’ve ever seen. Also, I’ve been wondering. I’ve been making these summaries for more than a year now, but this is the first time I’ve asked this question: what were your highlights during this month? What are currently your favourite series?]]>

+ May Anime Rankings + I still haven’t found a good name for this, as I’m still finding the right format for it. This time, I decided to throw everything just in one category, instead of splitting things up. Only the best ten have gotten some screenshots, as frankly, I got a bit tired of finding screenshots for 40 series each month. #32: Shining Tears X Wind – I think this is what you’d call a guilty pleasure. I agree with everyone how badly this show is written, but because of my love for RPG-adaptations, I just can’t get myself to drop it. #31: Kaze no Stigma – Back when it first aired, I remember writing a rather harsh review against it. That maybe wasn’t the best idea, as what followed were more than twenty people who liked the show commented to defend it, and somehow that post became my biggest source of Google hits for more than a month. Because of this, I decided to check it out, though what I found was that the three main characters were all just too annoying. Luckily, in episode six I finally found something that made me want to keep watching: seeing the red-haired girl grow. I really want her to beat up that idiotic male main character somewhere in this series. #30: Heroic Age – It’s epic, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. I hoped for a complex plot in this one, but it seems that it’ll just feature a fight between Age and some random opponent. Let’s hope the second half comes with a bit more depth. #29: Koutetsu Sangokushi – You know, the show could indeed use better scriptwriters, and some character designs just look a bit too ridiculous, but I do admit that the death in episode 6 was quite good. #28: Tokyo Tribe 2 – This series keeps hopping over the line of credibility, but it’s a nice watch. #27: Lucky Star – So far, I’ve had a few good laughs from Lucky Star, it’s definitely the best Kyoto-Animation series that I’ve seen so far. But it’s definitely not the best series of the season, in my opinion, and the Lucky Channel was a bad idea. #26: The Skull Man – The protagonists are definitely annoying, but there’s some decent mystery in this series. It also helps that this is just going to have 12 episodes, so there won’t be room for fillers. #25: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Frankly, after Popolocrois I don’t really care about the now famous death of episode eight anymore. It was way too long and drawn out. And do NOT get me started on how the princess’s BOX just happened to be dropped right next to Simon when he was taking a stroll. #24: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Tj Han possibly worded this best: it’s the most racial and culturally ignorant show out there. The characters are good, but someone please fix those nationalistic aspects of this show. Plus, the show still makes no sense. #23: Darker than Black – Surprisingly, this turned out good when it started focusing on the main story. But the gore may have been a bit too much. #22: Reideen – So far, Reideen has had to battle a few nearly impossible enemies, and while I’m not too much of a fan of the Deus ex Machina from episodes 10, the characters are appealing. #21: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS – Okay, the good guys have potential, the bad guy has great promise to become great, now live up to these expectations! #20: Gintama – Hilarious as always, especially Katsura in episode 28. #19: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge – At this point, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is drawing near its end, and has to start wrapping up its stories and start the serious drama, in true anime fashion. Surprisingly, it made quite a good start, not forfeiting the humour that made the series great. #18: Murder Princess – Despite the silliness, the serious parts in the second episode were really touching. #17: Power Puff Girls Z – Episode 37 was quite possibly the best episode of this series yet. This series is ranked so low on this list because I want more, seeing as it was the only episode released this month. #16: El Cazador – I’m fearing that El Cazador is about to hit a series of fillers, like it started in episode nine. I’m hoping that it’ll feature some character-development in any of the following episodes. #15: Ooedo Rocket – So far, Ooedo Rocket has featured some good and some less interesting episodes. While some of the episodes were disappointing, the good ones were awesome. 🙂 #14: Kekkaishi – Finally, the third protagonist arrives, and I already like him. #13: Romeo x Juliet – That kiss in episode 7 was actually a great one. This series turned out way better than I thought. #12: Deltora Quest – Deltora Quest continued with its excellent storytelling, though the releases have been quite slow this month. #11: Death Note – At the moment, Death Note has really become more consistent. When compared to the first half, there are nearly no bad points, but the good points don’t reach the heights of those in the first half. So far, though, I like it a lot. #10: Les Miserables The second arc was really different from the first one, it was much quieter. While I loved it, it just doesn’t match up to the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc. #9: Seirei no Moribito The most complex and hardest anime to understand since Ergo Proxy. Still, I’m having a blast, trying to figure out what’s happening. I’m quite curious about what this series is going to do in its second half. #8: Claymore The Teresa-arc was definitely one step above the Raki-arc, and while it was quite amazing, it also reminded me that this is a shounen-series. Luckily, Claymore is rumoured to go down quite a different path when compared to your usual shounen-series. Episode nine already showed hints of this. #7: Saiunkoku Monogatari The second season has been excellent so far. Shuurei just continues to grow more and more, but Eigetsu was the one to make the most impact on me. #6: Toward the Terra Even though I liked Jomie better, Keith has proved to be quite an interesting protagonist, along with Sam, Swena and Shiroe. The art style still rocks. #5: Hitohira Why did I ever think of dropping this series!? It’s awesome, and episodes eight and nine have been amazing! #4: Dennou Coil One of the most imaginative series I’ve seen in quite a while. Great art, excellent animation, what more could you want? #3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily The focus has mostly been on Emily, but she makes such an adorable character. It’s a huge shame that nearly everyone is ignoring this, as it’s one of the best of the season. #2: Wellber no Monogatari Yes, call me crazy, but I greatly enjoyed the past few episodes of Wellber no Monogatari have been increasingly awesome, and I’m warming up to the characters more and more with every episode. Rita, Tina and Galahad are surprisingly likable, the OP is still my favourite for this season, and it’s another perfect example of an underdog who deserves more attention. #1: Bokura no Even though it has been toned down, according to the manga-readers, it didn’t prevent me from enjoying this excellent series. Not only are the characters extremely likable, it also makes sure of enough twists and turns to keep the story fresh. + Random Notes + – When C1 released the first episode of Perrine, it seemed like a good idea to start checking out more series of the World Masterpiece Theatre, since Les Miserables has turned out really good so far. So far, the first episode has potential, though the graphics took a bit of time to get used to, as they’re as old-school as they can get. It’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out. – Another older series I went to check out was one recommended to me by Wyrdwad: Ashita no Nadja. If you’re a shoujo-fan, I definitely recommend you to check it out, as I’ve seen the first 16 episodes, and there were some beautiful episodes among them, not to mention that nearly every character has some sort of charming side. I’ve only got one complaint, it’s fascinating to see how Nadja and the others travel through Europe, but no matter where she goes, she always runs into someone or something important to the plot. It’s a good thing that the results of these encounters are great to watch, though. ^^; – Does anyone know what happened to the fansubs of Strange Dawn by NiTe? I’m actually craving for some more of that series, I can’t understand why people would neglect such an excellent gem for so long. – I’m already looking forward to the summer-season, as some sequels to some already awesome anime have been planned (Mononoke and Higurashi). My preview should be up in a couple of days. + Top 5 Episodes + #5: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 08 – A perfect example of a touching episode, when it starts focusing on Emily’s dead mother. #4: Power Puff Girls Z – 37 – Okay, I mentioned this before, but I absolutely loved this episode and its parodies. Here’s to hoping more of these kinds of episodes will follow. #3: Wellber no Monogatari – 08 – The definite proof that this show knows what it’s doing. If you still dislike this show after this episode, then it’s definitely not your cup of tea. #2: Ooedo Rocket – 05 – Glad to see that the subs are out, and I can already see some people posting about how good it is. Just wait till they see episode five. ^_^ #1: Popolocrois 2003 – 23 – The beginning of one of the rumoured best endings in an anime ever. This episode showed that there is an actual possibility for this to be true.]]>

+ Quick ranking of the Spring-season so far + Okay, so one month after the spring-season started, how are the different shows doing so far? Well, fairly well if I say so myself. There are some really great series in the bunch, and there’s a lot of potential. But will it be able to turn out better than last year’s spring-season? Anyway, here’s a list with a small blurb of my opinion about them. Some of them were dropped after episode 1, while I managed to see more episodes from others. #38: Overdrive – Deserves to get the title of “worst show of the season” because it was the only anime to have aired and nearly put me to sleep out of boredom. #37: Saint Beast – Also came close to achieving this. #36: Hayate the Combat Butler – Just isn’t funny, not to mention that it has too many non-sensical events and annoying characters. #35: Keitai Shoujo – Two words: just pointless. #34: Kaze no Stigma – Seriously needs some better scriptwriters. #33: Kaibutsu Ojou – Boy gets to live in house full of bishoujo, where did I hear this before? #32: Sola – Is just boring. #31: Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo – On second thought, this series is bad. Period. #30: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica – Mediocrity, anyone? #29: Nagasarete Airantou – Okay, it does have humour, but also one of the most annoying main characters ever. #28: Idol Master Xenoglossia – I seriously forgot what this anime was about. #27: Koutetsushin Jeeg – Someone, please tone down the testosterone-level of the scriptwriters. #26: Blue Dragon – Could become good later on, but I don’t feel like finding out. #25: Seto no Hanayome – Has its funny moments here and there, but there are definitely better comedies out there. #24: Koutetsu Sangokushi – I know that I praised this one, but the second and third episode showed some horrible animation and scriptwriting. #23: Gegege no Kitarou – On second thought, the cases just aren’t interesting enough. #22: Kamichama Karin – Definitely not the best mahou shoujo out there. Filled with Deus ex Machina. #21: Lovely Complex – I’ll perhaps watch this at a later time, when my Japanese level is high enough to pick up the hilarity of Kansai-ben. #20: Ookiku Furikabutte – Perhaps I’ll watch this later when I have more time. #19: Touka Gettan – Very confusing, will finish once summer holidays start due to busy schedule. #18: Hitohira – I’ll also finish this one later, when the subs have picked up a bit. #17: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – The third and fourth episodes weren’t as good as the first two. It also needs a bit of realism, don’t you just love how in this world, bullets never seem to run out? #16: Darker than Black – I honestly can’t see why this series is praised so much. Sure, it has potential, but the first three episodes only featured lots of blood and gore and a guy who keeps hitting on girls in order to protect them. #15: Heroic Age – The premise is good, but that’s the problem. The premise is the only thing worthwhile about this series so far. #14: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Strikers – The first few episode were predictably not that good. I want to see that antagonist arrive! #13: Lucky Star – Finally an actually watchable show from KyoAni, nice one. #12: Murder Princess – A nice little show. #11: Romeo x Juliet – Someone tell me how people can survive a jump in the water from a huge tower without any scratch, and how three specially trained palace guards can’t even defeat a sixteen-year old girl? The romance-elements are good, though. #10: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula – Okay, so the girl is the only one who can translate for the Gigantic, and she picked the boy. That’s good enough for now. What’s not good enough is how a little girl can be the head of the technical department. #9: Wellber no Monogatari – Sure, it has a lot of bad points, but it’s fun, and the serious scenes definitely have potential. #8: Engage Planet Kiss Dum – Quite good, I never expected this series to turn out the way it did. #7: Claymore – So far, a solid start, but I want to see Terese #6: El Cazador – The individual cases are pretty interesting, there’s lots of symbolism, lots of mystery, the plot doesn’t move awfully slow and Ellis is just too cute at times. What more could you want? #5: Seirei no Moribito – Incredibly solid and detailed, episode 3 was a treat. Now let’s hope that the awesomeness won’t just limit itself to the climaxes. #4: Ooedo Rocket – Hilarious and a good story? Definitely the biggest surprise for this season. #3: Kaze no Shoujo Emily – A heart-warming story about so many conflicting interests. But yeah, it’ll never become popular. #2: Bokura no – The huge cast of unique and different characters makes this anime so worthwhile. #1: Towards the Terra – When talking about the overall best up till now, then for me it has to be Toward the Terra. With probably the best soundtrack of the season, great-looking character-designs and animation, a great setting and concept and very interesting characters, I really enjoyed this one. + Top 10 Anime + One thing I do have to say is that April was a tad disappointing. Sure, there were good series, but when compared to other months, there were less awesome and memorable series. I don’t blame the newly arrived series, as it’s only natural for them not to live up to their full potential after only one month, but it’s more the older series. The fall-season just was worse than usual, and while Bakumatsu, Ayakashi and Red Garden were very interesting to see, they just didn’t live up to material like Simoun or Noein of previous seasons. Now that it’s ended, this really becomes clear. My favourite month so far in my time of blogging remains July 2006, with so many awesome series hitting their peaks. I’m hoping that the current summer will be able to trump this month. #10: Seirei no Moribito Like mentioned above, this definitely is the most solid and detailed anime to air in the spring-season. The fight-scene in episode 3 also was a real treat. #9: Ooedo Rocket Definitely the funniest anime to air in the spring-season. I love the mystery, different characters and the style of it all. #8: Kaze no Shoujo Emily Characters that complement each other perfectly. The introduction is finished, now I’m hoping for the anime to get really started. #7: Jigoku Shoujo Jigoku Shoujo currently holds the record of most posts dedicated to one series, the series to be blogged by me for the longest time (ignoring the sporadic ones like Ayatsuri Sakon and Popolocrois) and one of the first series I started blogging in the first place. Heck, after Mahou Shoujotai, it was one of the more important reasons for me to start blogging. That said, I’m sad to see this one finally go. #6: Death Note Death Note has been a strange little fellow over the past month. While it definitely had its annoying moments, other moments were just awesome, in a strange sort of way. #5: Bokura no Definitely the best promise of the shows in the spring-season. The characters have already shown to be really interesting. And that with so many of them. #4: Towards the Terra Like I mentioned above, when looking at the total package, Toward the Terra is my favourite series of the spring-season. #3: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi You know, in the final arc, Atl sortof sucked and was sortof unnatural, but everything else rocked! We can only wonder what this series would have done with its final 26 episodes. #2: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette Especially episode 13 and 14 were really heart-warming. It’s interesting to see that the Thenardiers are gone now, though. #1: Chevalier Chevalier has become even better in this month. The past number of episodes has been a real treat, and I just love the final antagonist. I’m so glad that this anime turned out amazingly well. + Random Notes + – Power Puff Girls Z 36 probably was the best episode of the series yet when it comes with its own interpretation of the octi-episode. I also loved the art-style. – Gintama had probably one of the best recaps ever at episode 25. – I wonder if The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters will ever be noticed enough to get subbed, and I’m also eagerly awaiting Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo’s subtitled version. I don’t know what it is, but I have more trouble than usual when following raw movies, so I decided to wait for the subbers to do their magic. – Less than two weeks left for Dennou Coil, and less than two months left for Tales of Symphonia and Tetsuko no Tabi. Yay! – Share seems to have problems downloading Futago Hime. I don’t know why, but with every single file, it just stops downloading when about half of the episode has been downloaded. I’m not liking this, rawr! – I think someone needs to tell the raw-providers that Kekkaishi started again. There hasn’t been any new release on Tokyo Toshokan, even though it’s been two weeks since episode 19 aired. + Newly Announced Anime + Goshusho-sama Ninomiya-kun Summary: “Next up is Goshuusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, which translates vaguely to “My Condolences, Ninomiya-kun.” Mamoru Ninomiya is the victim of his family, which includes two parents and four older sisters, all of whom are vagrants wandering around the globe – leaving poor Mamoru living all alone in a very large house. And what do you do with an empty house? Fill it – with a pair of sisters who find themselves in Mamoru’s debt. Wait a sec, why the condolences?” – (taken from animeonline) Thoughts:Oh golly, what have we here? Talk about bad premises. It starts out great, though. Parents and their daughters who are wandering around the globe. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on these interesting characters, this anime decides to focus on the loser-son who stays home and gets to live with two beautiful girls. Seriously, when will these generic concepts stop? Moetan Summary: “Moetan is a series of English language study aid published by SansaiBooks in Japan. Targeted at otaku, it attempted to teach English words using examples drawn from computer games and anime.” – (taken from Wikipedia) Thoughts:Just when I thought that an anime-title couldn’t get any more obvious, this one comes around. It’ll be just an excuse to show some cute girls without substance to the otaku. Rental Magica Summary: “In the story, Isuki is a high school student who inherits a magicians’ employment agency from his missing father.” – (taken from Anime News Network) Thoughts:I admit, it does have potential. If the cases that have to be solved with the rental service are serious and imaginative enough, this could turn out interesting. But why do I feel that this is going to turn into one of those usual moe-series? Sketchbook ~full colors~ Summary: “Based on a 4-panel manga. Like its 4-koma-into-anime predecessors Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star, Sketchbook appears to follow a group of female high school students. However, this time the central character is the shy Sora Kajiwara, who is unsure of what club to join…until she gets dragged into the wacky art club, of course.” Thoughts:If I had to guess, then this anime will combine Hidamari Sketch, Hitohira and Lucky Star. The shy girl could be interesting, but school-based anime have never really been my thing. Druaga no Tou Summary: “Players take control of Prince Gilgamesh on his quest to rescue his love, Ki, from the vicious Druaga.” – (taken from IGN) Thoughts:Very interesting, Druaga no Tou, or the tower of Druaga is actually an old game-classic. Gonzo has decided to turn this into an anime, and I really wonder what they’re going to do with this concept, simply because of the lack of story in the original game. Really, how can you turn a game in which you have to travel through mazes in a strange tower to save your girlfriend into a fully fledged anime? Something tells me Gonzo’s going to pull another Romeo x Juliet on this one. Ride Back Summary: “After the United Nations dismantling and a large earthquake disaster happening in Tokyo, etc, the counter government motion by japanese students students again becomes active in 2020. One girl entered in the Musashino liberal arts university which is one of the bases base for the student movement. Her name is Ogata Rin. The “Rin” which has the talent of the dance which becomes type rare encounters with the human type bicycle robot ride back entrance first day. That, the opportunity which reforms the world is with, everyone’s one person there was no reason which is known….” – (taken from babelfish and edited a bit, though some sentences were impossible to transform to correct English) Thoughts:Ride Back is another manga-adaptation from the Ikki-magazine. Quite frankly, I really enjoyed the various adaptations from that magazine, Narutaru was great, Bokura no is promising to become amazing and Tetsuko no Tabi, which is coming in June, is also looking to be quite interesting. Because of that, I’m quite looking forward to this one, though the concept seems a bit generic, featuring a girl piloting a small mecha in a dystopian Japan, 13 years into the future. Ah well, I’ve got hope for this one, we’ll see where this one goes. Miyori no Mori Summary: “The series follows Miyori, a girl who daydreams of escaping her tough everyday life. When Miyori enters the woods, she experiences many mysterious phenomena, including the discovery that the woods are also home to spirits and ghosts.” – (taken from Anime News Network Thoughts:Yes! Yes! Another mystery-series got announced. With mystery being one of my favourite genres, I’ll definitely be anticipating this series. + Top 5 Episodes + Deltora Quest – 07 Now that I think back on it, I keep getting more and more convinced how good that fight against Thaegan was. Short but sweet definitely is fitted for it. This episode definitely was one to remember if you combine it with the backgrounds of the different characters, abducted by the witch. Seirei no Moribito – 03 Probably one of the most detailed fight-scenes ever. I’ve yet to see anyone to actually dislike this episode, and with good reason. Jigoku Shoujo – 52 The end of the series I’ve been blogging for the longest period of time, and what an ending it is. Saiunkoku Monogatari – 39 This has to be one of the most nostalgic episodes I’ve ever seen. This episode was basically enough to release the inner-fanboy within me. Chevalier – 19 I won’t spoil what happened in here, but it was BEAUTIFUL.]]>

+ Top 5 Funniest anime + #5: Kekkaishi Kekkaishi proved to be not only heart-warming, but also incredibly funny with Yoshimori’s quirks. It’s really one of the few shounen-series with an actually interesting male lead. And that has to say something. Toshimori also was very cute in the episode he got dedicated to him. #4: Power Puff Girls Z Power Puff Girls Z probably remains the strangest anime on my current watch-list. While Blossom’s love was boring when compared to Bubbles’, the disco-fever-episode cracked me up. #3: Master of Epic It’s sad to see that Master of Epic is gone now. When it aired, it’s always been a very good source of MMORPG-parodies. #2: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge Yamato Nadeshiko keeps delving more and more into the absurd, but that’s probably why it keeps getting funnier and funnier. Especially the Valentine-episode was hilarious. #1: Gintama I agree with everyone else here: episode 20 was just classic. Apart from that, I just loved the witty humour that came from Gintama during this month. + Top 3 anime with 1 episode released + #3: Hitohira Hitohira: cute, some great characters, and some duller ones. Still the greater ones make this a potentially good series. Now let’s hope the rest of the series delivers. #2: Freedom An OVA that shines in its climaxes. The second instalment also was very interesting to see, and despite the main character who looks in every way like a shounen-hero, I actually liked him and his search for the girl, who happens to be from Earth. #1: Strange Dawn I’m not kidding when I say that I LOVE this series. In only two episodes, it accomplished what usual series only could dream of. It broke so many clichés, the characters are awesome. So far, it’s been a true masterpiece. I really hope for the rest of this series to arrive soon, as it deserves to be more known than it is now. + Top 10: + #10: Kekkaishi It seems that Kekkaishi went into another one of its hiatuses again, as after episode 19, I couldn’t find any more episodes of this. Still, the episodes that were released were some good stuff. I especially liked the Toshimori-episode. I’m not sure why, but the slice-of-life elements in a shounen-series like this are really worth watching. #9: Jigoku Shoujo Jigoku Shoujo has nearly finished, and it does show this with some very interesting episodes. While these episodes didn’t surpass my previous favourites like I hoped, there were some very strong ones among them. Now let’s hope it’ll finish off well. #8: Master of Epic Master of Epic avoided the pitfall of many comedy-anime: suddenly falling into cheesy drama for the final episodes. Instead, it just came with the regular funny sketches, and ended things off with a bang. ^^; #7: Death Note While the Yotsuba-arc got on my nerves a bit too much, episode 24 was one to remember. Especially that evil smirk of Light. #6: Saiunkoku Monogatari The Sakujun-arc ended magnificently. March has been as strong for Saiunkoku Monogatari as usual. #5: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette In march, the focus of Les Miserables was about equal for Jean and Cosette. Especially Cosette was better than ever. #4: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto Bakumatsu has been extremely solid for its final few episodes. Okay, nothing amazing happened, but there were almost no weak or silent moments, which is something I appreciated. Combine this with some very interesting direction and I’m hooked. #3: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi You know, this would have been a very fine show to blog about. Unfortunately, I’m realizing this a bit late. The different arcs delve surprisingly deep into the different characters and their backgrounds, and because of the huge research the creators of this anime conducted, they’re able to provide a number of very interesting and intelligent cases. I’m definitely hoping that this show will set some kind of new standard for others, but it first needs to get a bit more acknowledgement for that. Definitely a neglected series which doesn’t deserve it. #2: Red Garden Red Garden showcased some beautiful final episodes. Especially the climax was heart-wrenching. So far, it showed that its deep character studies definitely worked. #1: Chevalier Seriously. The first half of this series was interesting, but the Russia-arc dragged horribly. But then episode sixteen blew me away. If I were to believe Wao, then episode eighteen is going to be even better. If this continues for the entire series, then we’ve got ourselves a gem here. It’s the same with Ayakashi Ayashi: it’s a shame I didn’t blog this when it first aired. It would have been perfect for that. + Biggest surprise + Saiunkoku Monogatari A strong contender with Chevalier here, but the plot twist of episode 35 was just too amazing. There are these kinds of moments that make watching an anime all worth it, and that was definitely one of them. + Disappointment of the month + Otogi Juushi Akazukin With shows as Code Geass, I already knew that they were bad. But Otogi Juushi Akazukin went from the most amazing episodes to some horribly cheesy ones. It’s just too bad. It’s been an outstanding series till the horrible episodes 36 and 37. + Newly Announced Anime + Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho Summary: Kaname Okimura, a student of Prefectoral Umineko Shougyou High (“Umisho” for short), joined the school’s swimming club in order to learn how to swim, but the club is filled with weirdoes, let alone teach him swimming. Then, a sunny, happy-go-lucky girl named Amuro Ninagawa who was transferred from Okinawa joined the club. Her extraordinary underwater speed and unorthodox swimming style (plus her personal habit of nude swimming — a powerful magnet to teenage boys) surprised every club member, especially Okimura, because she reminds him a mermaid-like creature he saw only once in his early childhood. – (taken from ANN) Thoughts: Okay, when the promo-art covers a nude girl right in the centre of it, you know that this one’s going to be bad. Bokusatsu Tenchi Dokuro-Chan Summary: Sakura, our main character, has an angel living with him. The only problem: she likes beating others to death and revive them afterwards. Thoughts: The problem with the first season was that the first episode was hilarious, only for the ret of the episodes to suck hugely. Are the creators really planning to continue this? Puchi Eva EVANGELION@SCHOOL Summary: A new project, Puchi Eva EVANGELION@SCHOOL has been announced. This SD series will initially launch in the form of figurines, designed by Hamamoto Ryuusuke and packaged by Yotsuba Stuidios, but the project is expected to accommodate conventional anime media as well. – (taken from Eggplant) Thoughts:Okay, this is just scary. Are these people really planning to milk the evangelion-cash-cow even more? Don’t get me wrong, I loved Evangelion, but I’d wish the creators would focus their attention at something that would equal and possibly even surpass the series. Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de Summary: H-game it may be, but female fans may also enjoy the premise: in the game, the player’s character is a butler who must serve a demanding wealthy heiress. The Kuonji family is a very old and very rich one with three daughters, each of whom has her own wait staff. It’s a Kuonji family tradition for the wait staff to swear absolute loyalty to their masters, so when teenage runaway Ren Uesugi and his sister Mihato are desperate for the job (and the money), they agree to make the pledge. Thoughts: Your usual harem-premise. Yawn. Zombie Loan Summary: When a human is marked to die, a faint grey line that is invisible to most appears around their neck. As time passes, that ring becomes darker and darker, until it is eventually black, and that person dies. Kita Michiru has an unusual gift, she posses “Shinigami eyes,” which allow her to see these rings. When Michiru notices that two of the boys in her Class, Akatsuki Chika and Tachibana Shito not only have rings, but that they’re jet black, they reveal to her that the were supposed to die in a tragic accident six months ago. With the help of the Zombie Loan loan office, they were given a second chance at life, should they be able to pay for their debt by doing the work of Shinigami and killing malicious zombies. They petition Michiru to assist them in their efforts, and she finds her everyday life changing dramatically. Thoughts: So far, I’m not impressed. This looks just like the 20 other anime in which a cute girl teams up with a bunch of guys so that they can slay monsters for no apparent reason. Clannad Summary: Tomoya Okazaki is a third year high school student who dislikes his life. Everything seems to be unchanging for his school life until he meets Nagisa, and Tomoya finds that his life is about to change. Tomoya’s mother died when he was young, leaving him to be raised by his father alone. After the accident, Tomoya’s father turned to alcohol and gambling, and they used to argue all the time. However, one day in a fight, his father slammed him against the wall, dislocating Tomoya’s shoulder. Ever since then, his father started treating Tomoya nicely, but distantly, as if Tomoya and he were strangers instead of family. This hurt Tomoya more than constantly fighting, and the awkwardness of returning home led to Tomoya’s constant desire to stay out all night. In addition, due to the injury, Tomoya couldn’t play in the basketball club anymore and quit his school activities. In this way, his delinquent life began. – (taken from Wikipedia) Thoughts: Okay, so this isn’t a hentai-game adaptation, it’s just a visual novel. Still, it does remain a harem. Is there a reason for all major side characters to be female, while the only male has to be the main character, apart from pleasing the moe-loving otaku? Of course not. Still, I have to hand it to this anime for featuring the first harem-lead with a bit of a background-story, which actually doesn’t centre around the girls he’s about to meet. Still, after watching the trailer, I’m afraid to say that the character-designs still look ugly. Dragonaut -The Resonance- Summary: ? Thoughts: Ah, Gonzo’s next victim. They seem to be going for another original story, as I couldn’t find anything about where they based it on. So far, we know that it’s going to be a science-fiction series. This worries me a bit, though. “Gonzo” and “standard” don’t go well together. Doujin Work Summary: Doujinwork is a story about the main character’s exposure and adventure into the world of doujinshi. We follow Osana Najimi, a high schooler tempted into becoming a doujin artist after seeing how much her friend can make at a convention. A sucker at drawing, Najimi soon learns that the road inside the doujin world is not paved with roses as she expected, but, as she attends more conventions and meets more people, manages to find a group of very interesting friends. – (taken from Cardcaptor’s blog) Thoughts: Ah, an anime about a group of doujin artists. It seems we’re talking about a comedy-series here. While it’s always tricky to see how a comedy-series will turn out in the end, I like the setting for it. I’m a bit afraid of the huge amount of fanservice-jokes that the manga this anime will be based on is supposed to have though. Hatenkou Yuugi Summary: A young girl named Rahzel is booted out of her house one day by her father with the instructions to ‘see the world.’ And so her journey begins, However, she won’t be doing it alone … for she befriends a stoic young man named Alzeido seeking revenge for his father’s murder. Alzeido and Rahzel are like oil and water … but even still, they feel strangely drawn to one another. This could be either the result of an underlying attraction — or their shared powers with magic. And so, the two reluctant allies travel from town to town, using their powers to help the helpless, while discovering their own respective places in the world. – (taken from Baka-updates) Thoughts: Ah, a light-hearted fantasy-series about two polar-opposites who travel together. Reminds me of Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran. That was a fun series, so it’ll be perfect for a light watch. I hope. Shigurui Summary: “Shigurui” is ostensibly based on the first chapter of Nanjo Norio’s novel “Suruga-jou Gozen Jiai”, but it’s been so expanded and re-written that most folks tend to agree that the manga has become something else entirely. The series starts in the 6th year of Kan’ei. Tired of the Suruga martial arts tournaments and eager to see some blood, Dainagon Tokugawa Tadanaka orders his men to host a sword dual to the death for his enjoyment. The lucky contestants turn out to be one-armed Fujiki Gennosuke and his blind opponent Irako Seigen. – (taken from Nomad Soul) Thoughts: Bloody, but bloody interesting as well. The manga it’s based on is supposed to have a very compelling and strong story. It’ll be worth it to at least check this one out. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Summary: The story revolves around Itoshiki Nozomu, a teacher who is beset by immense pessimism and paranoia. Starting off his first day at his new class attempting suicide via hanging, he is stopped by Fuura Kafuka, a super-optimistic student of his. Still alive, he goes to class and introduces himself, but much to his chagrin, Kafuka notices that his surname, when linked together to form a single kanji, gives him the title ‘Teacher Despair’. And so the story revolves around the weird, far-out stuff that Nozomu and the various students of his class do together. – (taken from Lolicontrol) Thoughts: You know what? I like this! There’s a possibility that it may be a bit too slice-of-lifey, but a desperate teacher can definitely be interesting to see. Rose Marie Summary: ? Thoughts: It’s near-impossible to search for this anime, as all English sites list all kinds of females, while the Japanese search results direct me to cooking-blogs. Still, I don’t know why, but I like this. Kara no Kyoukai Summary: I’ve been trying to find a good summary, but I failed Thoughts: At one point, I did read the summary of this though, and I have to say that I was impressed by it. It’ll probably take a loooong while before the movies will arrive in the English community, but it’ll be worth the wait. Shinryougari -GHOST HOUND- Summary: The main crew behind Ghost Hound includes director Ryutaro Nakamura (Serial Experiments Lain, Kino’s Travels), scriptwriter Chiaki J. Konaka (Serial Experiments Lain, The Big O) and character designer Mariko Oka (Jigoku Shojo, Jing: King of Bandits). The story will be co-developed by Crossroad. – (taken from Animation Magazine) Thoughts: The people behind Serial Experiments Lain, Kino’s Journey and Jigoku Shoujo? Haleluja! This will definitely be something to look forward to. Mononoke Summary: Bake Neko Spin-off Thoughts: Yes! Yes! Yes! I know I already talked about it, but this is just too awesome not to mention. + Top 5 Episodes + #5: Jigoku Shoujo – 49 Ah, great episode. Loved the twist at the end. #4: Red Garden – 22 That ending was, like mentioned above, heart-wrenching. Apart from that, this episode was very sad to watch. #3: Death Note – 24 Light was SO evil in this one. Great to see everyone who left back again. #2: Saiunkoku Monogatari – 35 My faith in Sakujun was immediately restored with this episode. Pure brilliance. #1: Chevalier – 16 You’ve got your episodes which feature some amazing event. But only rarely do you run into an entire episode that just blows you away. with me, that happened with this episode.]]>

+ Top 11 Anime With One Episode Released/Subbed I was going to scrap this category after last month, but this time, I actually managed to create quite a list, so I decided to keep it for the moment. #11: Afro Samurai Any surprise this little bugger ended up last? Cos was right, the last episode was the worst yet. #10: Yes! Precure 5 I adore a good mahou shoujo. Too bad this isn’t one of them. #9: Yoshinaga-chi no Gargoyle This isn’t a series you need to see once in a month, unlike Ayatsuri Sakon. This really is a series you need to marathon. #8: Ayatsuri Sakon Like I mentioned above, I finally realized that you don’t want to see too many episodes after each other. Once-a-month releases are perfect for this series. It’s nothing special, but greatly entertaining. 🙂 #7: Mai Otome Zwei Call me crazy, but I actually liked the second instalment of Mai Otome Zwei. Probably because it kept a good balance of comedy and drama, in comparison to the series, but also because it focused on one of my few favourite characters from the series. The one who got turned to stone, and ironically, I can’t remember her name anymore. #6: Chevalier I would have ranked this higher, it’s just that I just can’t remember what the episode was about. It was a good one, that’s for sure, and the psalms made people kill each other and stuff, but I really can’t remember anymore what exactly happened. It’s an excellent show, but apparently forgettable. Either that, or the subs are veeeeery slow. #5: Popolocrois 2003 An excellent episode, but a recap remains a recap. Still, I’m pretty excited for the final four episodes. #4: Moonlight Mile Okay, I didn’t understand a heck of it, but it was damn good to see it. I can’t wait to find out what actually went on when the subs arrive. ^^; #3: Rocket Girls Okay, so it may not be the most believable story. Heck, there are so many parts that don’t make sense. But if you ignore this petty little detail, then the first episode started off nicely. #2: Reideen I wonder why no more episodes have been released since the first episode. Same with Giant Robo. Both great shows, but I don’t hope that they only had one episode. Still, slow mechas Rock. #1: Popolocrois 1998 After an absence of six months, this anime returned, and how it returned. Gamigami, Hyuu, Ston and Sanda all were awesome. 🙂 + Top 20 Anime with More than One Episode Released/Subbed I may be the only one, but February was an excellent month for anime. January may have had a lot of good anime, only a few of them were excellent. This time, I saw a lot of different excellent series, scenes and moments. One thing I also noticed was that especially the more unknown and unpopular series took a turn for the awesomeness. 🙂 #20: Juusou Kikou Dancouga Nova Okay, the anime turned out bad. But it sure turned out a great anime to mock and laugh at. So many clichés are used so seriously that it actually becomes funny. ^^; What I did like, though, was how the brat didn’t turn out to be the main character. #19: Naruto Shippuuden It’s been a long while since Paradise Kiss that there was a series where the main reason for me to watch it was the OP. In the end, this series isn’t different from the first season of Naruto in the fact that it drags. The characters have made steps in the right direction, though. I like that. #18: Hanoka Hanoka ended like how it begun: cute. The final episodes were nice, considering that only 2 minutes per episode were really available. Still, that final enemy in the end was a wrong decision. It only made the anime more rushed than it already was and it contributed in no way to the overall story. #17: Ghost Hunt Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this series, but I’d just wish that Mai would be more than just a damsel-in-distress. Ghost Hunt may be based on a Shoujo-manga, that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve always rather disliked characters who just stand by and do nothing useful. #16: Manabi Straight It’s interesting that this series actually turned out good enough for me to keep watching it. Okay, it may have too much fanservice at times, but the experimental elements in this anime are greatly appreciated. Another thing I really like is how most of the episodes don’t focus on Manabi at all, even though she’s the main character. #15: Demashita!! Power Puff Girls Z I wish I knew what’s going on inside the minds of the creators, but it’s hard to guess, now that they’ve started using common, everyday objects as their main source of enemies. I thought that anime usually went from the less challenging enemies to the more challenging ones, but this is just ridiculous. Still, the episodes in which animate beings were the main antagonists were really enjoyable. And Mojo Jojo really gets better and better with each of his appearances. I like what the creators did with his character. Instead of a hateful maniac, he just wants to be accepted. But because he looks scary and uses unorthodox measures, nobody wants to be near him. 🙂 #14: Tokyo Tribe 2 Galileo owns. Really, his character was really funny in episode three. Overall, Tokyo Tribe has really surprised me so far. I’d just wish that the gore would stop. #13: Code Geass For episodes and episodes, I just couldn’t get into this series. Mao’s comeback after being impaled by dozens of bullets also wasn’t really that good of a plot-twist. But then Lelouch found out about Suzaku. At that moment, I felt that I finally noticed some of the emotions of the characters. Suzaku really is needed to make this anime shine. Lelouch’s mission to create a perfect world where his sister can live happily may be nice and all, the thing that originally attracted me to this series was the conflict of Suzaku’s and Lelouch’s interests. That had been taking the background for the past ten episodes or something. #12: Death Note Not as good as the previous month, but then again, nearly all it did this month was building up to the next arc. “Good Light” also isn’t as exciting as “Evil Light”. L, however, was as good as usual. ^^ #11: Kekkaishi I think that with the arrival of Yoshimori’s brother, this series took a major turning point from episode-based to plot-based. If I also have to believe Whai Whai, this series is about to turn incredibly good. Well, I can’t wait. This month was as strong for Kekkaishi as usual. #10: Soukou no Strain Soukou no Strain ended with some excellent, though predictable final episodes. They really made a big bang out of it. And I loved the little touch with the ending. #9: Jigoku Shoujo The episodes in Jigoku Shoujo this time ranged from decent to excellent. Especially the excellent episodes were so worth seeing, and finally we get some proper background information about Ai’s dolls. But why the fanservice? #8: Saiunkoku Monogatari Shuurei was inside a small dip this month, being thrown off-guard like that. Still, when she got out of that dip, she really shined like no other. Ryuuki, Kouyuu and Shuuei also were great. #7: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge When I saw the first glimpse of the new OP, I nearly fell off my chair laughing. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge really has been funnier than ever this month. XD #6: Master of Epic Master of Epic has been as funny as ever. I’d just wish the creators would stop recycling characters this much. It gets confusing! #5: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto Especially episode 18 was awesome. Right now, it looks like this series is all set for its final episodes. They’re promising to be awesome. 🙂 #4: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi There’s one thing I really, really like about this series: its themes. I can relate so much to having different faces and selves. This series really has been excellent so far. Why the heck is it so unpopular!? #3: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette Les Miserables turned out amazing, and that this early in the series. It’s too bad this series isn’t getting so much attention. It’s really amazing to see the things Cosette, Eponine, Fantine and Jean have to experience. #2: Red Garden Red Garden has really surprised me this month. With episode fifteen, the pacing of the series switched another gear up and ever since, things really have been like a roller-coaster ride. So many things happened, and we still have nine episodes left. #1: Otogi Juushi Akazukin Otogi Juushi Akazukin = Love. Ever since episode 30, it’s been dishing out one awesome episode after the other. It’s such a pity to see that I’m about the only blogger who still follows this series. + Newly Announced Anime + Not many anime got announced this month, when compared to others. It’s strange, as I expected lots of new series to be announced for the spring-season. Guess that didn’t happen. Ah well, the good thing is that more than 50% of these anime looks worthwhile. 🙂 Kodomo no Jikan “Daisuke is a 23 year old new schoolteacher. He ends up being put in charge of a 3rd grade elementary school class since the previous teacher quit, and in that class there’s a girl who’s quite a troublemaker — Rin Kokonoe. You could call her a masegaki (used to describe a kid that acts more like an adult in some ways), and she’s also part tsundere (though more dere than tsun). She’s somewhat similar to Miu from Ichigo Mashimaro, I guess. Besides Rin, Daisuke’s got other problems to take care of — one of the students in his class, Mimi (one of Rin’s friends), hasn’t been attending school recently.” – Taken from Matthew – I can’t really say from the concept whether I like it or not. The whole school-thing doesn’t really appeal to me, but I like a girl who acts as an adult. Gegege no Kitaro “Kitaro is a yokai boy born in a cemetery, and aside from his mostly-decayed father, the last living member of the Ghost tribe. He is missing his left eye, but his hair usually covers the empty socket. He fights for peace between humans and yokai, which generally involves protecting the former from the wiles of the latter. Kitaro has an assortment of strange weapons at his disposal, including: remote-controlled geta sandals a detachable hand, also remote-controlled, a magic chanchanko vest which can protect its wearer from danger, Spiny hairs which can be shot like arrows and another hair which can serve as an antenna for detecting spirit activity.” – taken from Wikipedia – Sure, it’s a shounen-fighting series. But it sounds like a damn funny one. The powers of the main characters are hilarious. There’s also a walking eye-ball, who happens to be the father of Kitaro. Then we also have an old hag who throws sand in the eyes of her enemies, and an old man who takes out his victims by clinging to them and turning into stone. ^^; Mushiuta Nothing really is known about this anime apart from that it’s based on a series of light novels, and the covers of these novels. So far, the art looks cute, but that may be a bad sign, as it’ll probably turn into a moe-based anime based on those. What I do like, however, is the title. Mushi = bug and uta = song. I wonder what the creators had in mind for this, especially since it’s listed as a fantasy-show. Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~ “A story about a miracle, involving Fumika, a quiet but hard working girl who wears a uniform that of a mail carrier, and her talkative staff and partner Mayama. The Shigofumi is a posthumous letter, the last resort of relaying a deceased person’s last message to his/her loved ones: family, friends, and significant other.” – I’m trying not to get excited by this, since the last time I saw a similar concept I got dished with a mediocre Shinigami no Ballad, but whoa. The concept really sounds interesting. And add that to the fact that the character design done by the same guy who did Kino no Tabi. It all depends now whether the original stories feature some interesting enough twists. A strange thing is that the anime for this series has been announced on the same day that the first volume of the novel it’s going to be based on got published. This probably means that the creators are expecting a lot from this story. While this isn’t always a good choice, I like how they didn’t choose the most popular story, but instead went with a concept from which they didn’t exactly know how good it would sell. Code-E A story might be known about this anime, but I couldn’t find it. Most probably because it chose such a horrible name to find in Google. 😛 Still, the people behind it sound promising. It’s being directed by the director of Full Moon wa Sagashite, A few episodes of Simoun, among which the amazing episodes 16 and Ginga Densetsu Weed (I seriously had to double-check when I saw this. This guy really likes to do different genres. Full Moon wa Sagashite and Ginga Densetsu Weed… WTF!?), three series with all some amazing moments. Actually, now that I take a look at even more of the cast, I realize that a lot of people who worked on Simoun also work on this one. Woohoo!! Shining Tears “In the beginning of the story, an elfen girl named Elwyn finds Xion washed up on the shore of a river. She checks if he’s still alive and as she looks, a ring fell by the water. As Elwyn tried to take it, Xion was on the verge of death so she took him quickly to the village doctor, Pios. When Xion wakes up, he finds himself in The Heroes’ Hearth, the tavern of the town Heroes’ Way. He is then confronted by Pios and Elwyn, questioning him on what happened. He would say he can’t remember and even vaguely remembers his name. The two introduce themselves to him and he finds both his hands with two strange rings. They wouldn’t come off his hands as Pios tries to investigate the rings. The two then explain that the rings could possibly be the Twin Dragon Rings, the legendary rings of power. Discarding the thought, Pios investigates more on the rings as Xion falls asleep.” – taken from wikipedia – I’m really looking forward to this series. Not necessarily because it’s based on an RPG, although that does make it even more interesting. Not because I know it’ll be great. It’s because I’m not sure whether it will become great or not. You see, it’s directed by Hiroshi Watanabe. He’s the genius behind some magnificent anime like The Law of Ueki and Jigoku Shoujo. Heck, he even directed Orphen, which had one of the best fantasy stories I’ve seen. However, he also did a number of failures, like Mär, Ah! My Goddess and Star Ocean Ex, which can still be considered as the king of Deus ex Machina. I’m really hoping right now that he’ll go the right way this time, as a well-executed RPG-adaptation is always welcome. + Top 5 Episodes + #5: Jigoku Shoujo – 44 Jigoku Shoujo has been dealing either hits or misses so far, but episode 44 definitely was one big hit. Even though it was mostly the usual formula, the antagonist was perfectly fleshed out. I could really sympathize with the father who had to make a very difficult decision. #4: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 08 Seriously, for a children’s show, I never expected it to go this disturbing. I can’t believe how Fantine turned out in the end. O_o #3: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto – 18 Finally, after episode 13, episode 18 came with another awesome episode. Looking forward to how the series will end. 🙂 #2: Popolocrois Story 1998 – 22 In case you have yet to hear my rave about this episode, I LOVED it. This series SO is the perfect example of an awesome neglected series. #1: Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 32 I’m serious about how much I cried during this episode. That was such a sad episode, even though you wouldn’t say it.]]>

+ Top 5 Anime with one Episode Watched + This section is getting smaller and smaller, due to the fact that I’m watching more and more shows raw. If this continues, I’m going to combine the two lists again. #5: Angelique 2007 I wanted to like this series. I really did. But the concept is just garbage. #4: Giant Robo Before I’m going to really judge this anime, I need to see a high-quality version of the first episode. If I recall correctly, it’ll be released around the beginning of February. So far, the things I saw are interesting. #3: Strike Witches I expected this to be major garbage, though the use of classical music and the fact that it short actually made up for a lot. #2: Soukou no Strain Soukou no Strain seems to be in some kind of huge hiatus, seeing that only one episode got released this month. All that’s left now is to wait for its ending. As things look now, it can go anywhere. #1: Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi Why, oh why did this series have to air on the number-one prime-time spot for anime? Surely, it’s a great series, but it’ll never become popular. Because only popular shows are allowed at that timeslot, Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi got its original length of fifty episodes friggin’ halved. That’s another thing I have against popular series. They just give no chance against the lesser-known and most often better series. + Top 29 Anime with more than one Episode Watched + One thing I realized after watching one month of the winter-season is that this season has a lot of mediocre series which just are good enough for me to keep watching them. A lot of series are mediocre with one or two very good points, which keep me interested. #29: Shuffle! Memories So, wait… this entire series is going to be one huge recap-series? What the heck? At least Wolf’s Rain had a good reason for it’s recap-arc. Dropped. #28: Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora I tried to watch this, but failed. Kuu is even more annoying than Himeko, and that has to say something. The laughable cheesiness soon turned into incredibly boring cheesiness. Dropped. #27: Afro Samurai Nice action, good animation, but the script. Holy god, the script. It’s a huge collection of clichés. And please teach the creators a bit of physics and the capabilities of the human body. Seriously. #26: Getsumen to Heiki Mina Fairly amusing, but way too much fanservice. Some of the jokes work really well, though, but it needs a bit more realism to succeed. Also, please kill all the characters with big lips in this show. Lips like these have never worked, and they never will. #25: Nodame Cantabile I still don’t know what to think of this show. It seems full of potential, everyone likes it, but I can’t see what’s so special about it. I’m going to continue to watch the subbed version in the hope it’ll turn better in the future. #24: Yoshinaga-chi no Gargoyle Ugh, dammit. The problem with this show is that it doesn’t realize where it’s brilliant at. At one time, it hit the nail, but instead of continuing to hammer this nail, it tries to hit everywhere. Even at the places which don’t make any sense. #23: Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou I’ve seen more shows which mess around a bit with their episode-order, placing a late episode as the first episode, in order to give a good first impression. Gintama and Power Puff Z, for example. The thing is, both Gintama and Power Puff Z had rather bad first episodes, and turned better with the following episodes. Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou, however, had an excellent first episode, but the second one was just boring. I hope this isn’t some kind of sign. Still, I must congratulate this series for being the first to include actual grunting in its OP. Now all that’s left is to pick a good song, but it’s a good step in the way of introducing Metal to anime (I’m a huge metal-fan, if you didn’t know already). #22: Hidamari Sketch This show certainly isn’t a horrible one, and it most definitely has its funny moments. Impz forced me to watch till episode three, and after watching them, I have to say that this show actually is quite nice. It’s got great direction, however I won’t continue to watch it, unfortunately. Not because the show is bad, but because a pure slice-of-life series isn’t just in my taste. I want something to happen to our main character. See them talk with each other and have fun may look interesting, it won’t make me care about them. #21: Saint October Great show, though it keeps milking a bit too much on the sadistic jokes at times, and I wish it’d take itself a bit more seriously at times. Still, I love the bad-guy parodies. You also have to give this series credit for the most original transformation sequence. #20: Code Geass This month showed some very interesting developments for Code Geass. Nice plot twists, though for some reason, I just can’t seem to care about its characters. It could be because they’re annoying, and they seem to lack something. #19: Venus Versus Virus I’m feeling a bit awkward about this one. It’s a great series, episode three also featured a great case, but it seems to be missing something. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but I hope this anime finds it through the course of the series. #18: Manabi Straight I was seriously surprised at episode four. Here I was, expecting a rather energetic slice-of-life series, and then here it comes with its incredibly deep character-study of Mei. I never thought that the creators would go that way, but if it’s got more episodes like this, I’m in! Another thing I love about this anime is how its background music features a number of percussion-tunes. Great for giving it a chaotic feeling. #17: Himawari!! I know I commended this series after its first episode, but after seeing four episodes, I’m beginning to notice something troublesome. The monster-of-the-week theme is a bit too apparent, up to the point where it actually works annoying. It also seems to be focusing a bit too much on comedy, instead of character-development. It’s a pity, as the fights and antagonists are hilarious, and the character development that actually does get showcased is very interesting to see. I also freaked out when I realized that the ED for each episode is sung by a different voice-actress. Seriously, Himeji’s voice actress SO can’t sing. XD #16: Demashita!! Power Puff Girls Z We now turn to the really good series. First of all, Power Puff Z. Especially the Him-episode was really good. He still is the most evil villain of the series, but I’m so glad that the creators gave him a rather humorous side. The original series made the mistake of displaying him way to serious and evil, though this version of Him is just hilarious and scary at the same time. The episode with the carrot, selery and peppers who went to live on another planet was just brilliant. #15: Gintama Whoa… this series can be pretty serious when it wants to. Not only that, it’s one of the few comedy-series which can actually pull this off and turn even better because of this. #14: Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge Luckily, my hunch that this series played all its major trump cards in its first four episodes was wrong. This month has been hilarious for Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. I love how it’s such a hugely energetic and fast-paced comedy. #13: Kekkaishi Kekkaishi still remains strong, despite being a shounen-fighting series. One of the things that makes it great is that it’s got a cast of hilarious characters, which really brighten up the mood of the episodes. Because of this, it actually managed to make the main love interest a bit believable. #12: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto This still remains an excellent series. There’s a huge amount of references to Japan’s history, I’d probably get dizzy if it wasn’t for w’s comments. Unfortunately, however, this series has been stuck inside a three-episode intermezzo this month. I’m glad the next episode will get back on track. #11: Chevalier Chevalier has just entered its second half, which means that it’s time for this show to prove itself. So far, it’s had some great time to build up. We’ve seen some very interesting scenes this month, there’s a great amount of politics and common sense in this anime, but it still is too early to call it amazing. #10: Ghost Hunt This month brought a huge wave of Ghost Hunt-releases. While the third arc may have been a bit too predictable, episode 11 was hilarious, while episode 12 and 13 featured a extremely touching tale about the ghost of a young boy. I can’t wait to find out what the second half of this anime has in store. #9: Red Garden Red Garden has been more interesting than ever. It’s been moving away from angst and character-driven episodes towards plot-driven episodes. Especially Hervé was awesome this month. I love his sadism towards Lise. ^^ #8: Night Head Genesis This month, I managed to finish Night Head Genesis. It definitely was a very original ending. Okay, so it may have been just a prologue to some tv-series, the fact does remain that that was the point this anime ended for me. It’s a bit tricky to decide what exactly can be defined as an ending in this case. It’s just like with manga-based anime. Fruits Basked and xxxHolic, for example. There’s still lots of story, though the anime ended rather abrupt. Still, since I don’t read any manga or watch any Japanese drama, etc, I’m going to consider this as the ending of Night Head Genesis. And boy, was it a great one. 🙂 #7: Deltora Quest Okay, when an anime comes with a bunch of puzzles and word games, you know it’s time to switch to the subs. Seriously, the fourth episode was just impossible to understand without proper knowledge of what’s happening. And I’m suspecting that the riddles will only get more difficult with each episode progressing. I don’t want to miss any second of this, so I’m going to be waiting for the subs. #6: Master of Epic This show is just brilliant. It’s just so full of hilarious parodies and sketches. Just too bad that of the fourth episode. #5: Les Miserables Les Miserables already has left a huge impression on me. Unless it’ll forget that it’s supposed to have 52 episodes, I can’t see a lot of things to mess up this story. So far, I love it. 🙂 #4: Saiunkoku Monogatari Shuurei has been fairly surprising this week, when people actually start toying with her feelings. Still, the huge cast of characters was brilliant. #3: Otogi Juushi Akazukin With the start of December, Otogi Juushi Akazukin suddenly turned the quality up one gear. And ever since, it’s been dishing out one awesome episode after the other. Even now, this series is as awesome as ever. You just have to love Dark Shirayuki, the dwarves and Gretel, who’s finally going to stand up for herself. And Akazukin’s background just turned out Awesome. 🙂 #2: Death Note Death Note is already into one of its major climaxes, and that with still so many episodes to go. The past few episodes have been full of juicy plot twists. I couldn’t help but love them. #1: Jigoku Shoujo I’m not sure if the subbers stopped subbing this series right before the awesome episodes came on purpose, but the fact remains that Jigoku Shoujo has been getting better and better. Some of the cases were just insane, while others featured some brilliant plot twists. + Newly Announced Anime + Since there was no December-summary, these are the anime which were announced for the past two months. Ranked from least interesting to most interesting. There are some beauties among them, and, unfortunately, also some horrible-sounding ones. The new trends seem to be remakes of ancient anime and lots of mecha. Nanatsuiro Drops “What if, when watching the stars outside the window… What if, when writing in your secret diary at the end if the day… …A mysterious light suddenly falls from the sky… Tsuwabuki Masaharu, or Haru as is friends like to call him, is your normal middle school student. Now in his second year, his friends push him to speak with his classmates whom he have yet to speak to, but this was still a difficult thing for Haru due to his clumsy nature. One afternoon, his life met with a 180° during a strange encounter in the hallways of Hoshigaoka School. During that fateful encounter, he accidentally drinks a magical potion which transforms him into a stuffed animal sheep during the night! Through later events, Haru learns that in order to return to his original self, he needs to collect “star droplets” that fall from the sky. However, being that his innards are now made of cotton, he will need the help of a “special person,” little did he know that special person was someone from his class. Living a double life between his day self and his sheep form “Yuki-chan”, page one of his story, her story, and the story of nanatsuiro drops begins~” – Ugh… darn it. Another hentai-game adaptation. They stayed away during the winter-season (not counting the abridged Shuffle!), though it looks like they’ll be coming back to haunt me. Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo “This is a heartful school adventure at a high school on the isolated island. They are enjoying their life there, sometimes reacting against each other.” – (taken from Himeyashop) – “Sometimes”? “Sometimes”?! So most of the time, they’re just alone, sitting around like zombies doing nothing? How can characters like these just react “sometimes” with each other. Unless they’re emo, this can never become interesting. But since this is a hentai-game adaptation and it’s listed as a heartful school adventure, I’d say that the chance is very slim that this is going to be something interesting. Touka Gettan No Summary Yet – The staff is going to be the same as with Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabi (note to self: watch it someday). While I haven’t seen it, I can say that this anime will make sure of some great eye-candy, since the genius behind Simoun’s character designs is working on it. Too bad we’re dealing with a hentai-game adaptation here. -_- Prism Ark “Finally getting the acceptance notice, Hyaweh travels to the Isle of Rozenberg, which is holded by the Rozenberg Family, the most powerful family in Wind Land, second to the absence Royal Family. In there is the best school for knights wannabes, privately funded by Duke Kizarov Rozenberg, the number one Knight in Wind Land. However, as it turns out, Hyaweh is actually two whole weeks late and from there on spirals his wacky journey to knighthood in the midst of a devastating war taking place, which will hit home closer than what anyone could’ve imagine.” – (summary taken from Ayyo) – It’s a pity, I like the concept, the art looks interesting, though the fact does remain that we’ve got ourselves another hentai-game adaptation again. After the autumn-season, I really lost my hopes on this genre. I hope this one can at least prove me wrong, but for now, I’m suspecting that this one will fall just as hard as the others. Darker than Black “Suddenly anomalous field impossible to analyze appears in Tokyo. As if they responded to the field named “Hell’s Gate”, people that have new powers and completely different from the current human begins appear. They have lost their minds and sometimes kill people cruelly. People call them “Contractor” with fear.” – (taken from AnimeNfo) – “The main character, Hei is some super top-class agent, at ‘The Organisation’. He’s one of the best in this group of people with supernatural powers, called “keiyakusha”. As such he’s an invaluable member of The Organisation. He seems to be a solitary guy who won’t allow others in his heart. Currently he is posing as a timid Chinese university student called Li Shun Sheng. The seemingly lead female, Yin is a support staff in Hei’s team. She seems normal but she’s got absolutely no emotions at all and is sometimes called “Doll”. She’s also blind, but her other senses have been honed to such a level that she can… instantaneously understand the physical situation around her for a radius of 50m.” – (Translated by wao) – I can’t really say I’m interested in the characters. The main character just sounds like Naru-chan with most of his personality removed (and of course he’s the strongest keiyakusha around), while a female character without any emotions won’t be getting a lot of development, will she? Hayate the Combat Butler “With a debt of 1.5 million, 16-year old Hayate Ayasaki’s parents sell him to the yakuza to pay it off. Not wanting to be cut up and sold on the black market, Hayate escapes from the yakuza thugs, and finds a very rich girl by the name of Nagi wandering in a park at night. Deciding to kidnap the girl for ransom money, Hayate’s kidnapping speech was wrongly taken as a confession of love to Nagi. She finds out about the debt, and, feeling sorry for Hayate, pays it off, as long as Hayate will be her butler until he pays off the 1.5 million (which will take about 40 years).” – Just when I thought that the concepts couldn’t get any worse. Ah well, at least it isn’t a hentai-game adaptation. Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula “The human race has recovered from the cataclysmic disaster now known as the “Equator Winter”. Now, each country begins to battle one another with robots to establish the new world order. A 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl operate Japan’s robot. Now begins their robot battle.” – (taken from AnimeNfo) – This is a very ambitious project. It’s got no less than fourteen different people behind its mecha designs. It seems like each person designed a different mecha. Still, I hope the creators aren’t serious with a project like this. I mean, they’ve got to find a very, very good reason to make these two brats pilot the mecha which can control the entire fate of Japan, especially when Adults can do the job much better. Overdrive “The story centers around a boy who aims to become the number one bicyclist in the world.” – (taken from manganews) – This seems like your standard shounen-sports anime. I haven’t been a big fan of this genre. I’m not sure why, actually. Kaze no Stigma “the Story is about the Guy, who got kicked out of his fire Clan because he had no talent. 4 years down the road he comes back to Japan and has power to manipulate the wind, and on his return to japan he is a Suspect in a murder.” – (summary by evil-samurai) – The art looks interesting. This is going to be a shounen-fantasy anime. It does have potential, though the production behind it is rather weak. The character design is done by someone who’s only done mediocre ones before, while the others have only been working on mediocre anime. They’ve got some nice voice-actors, though. The woman who did Yuuko is on it, just as Sakura’s and Karada’s voice actress (from Tsubasa Chronicle and Asatte no Houkou). Princess Resurrection “The story centres on the character of school boy Hiro Hiyorimi who is struck by a car in an accident. Unbeknownst to him, his life is saved by a princess of darkness who feeds him her blood immediately after the incident.” – (taken from Anime News Service) – Based on a “gothic horror / dark comedy / heavy moe themed comic”. I like the goth horror, though the heavy-moe themes worry me a bit. Still, this can become interesting. If the creators somehow manage to make the love relationship between the two characters interesting. Heroic Age The only thing known about this anime is that Xebec is producing it, and the character designs are done by Hirai Hisashi. This guy has his own distinctive style, in my opinion, just look at Fafner, Gundam Seed Destiny and Gin-Iro no Olynsis. I’m suspecting we’re dealing with another mecha-anime. I wonder whether it’ll become great, or just turn into a plain old flop. Potemayo Hmm, I haven’t managed to find a summary for this one, but it seems to involve normal schoolgirls who meet up with two strange chibi-witches/mahou shoujo. Some of the people who worked on Venus Versus Virus are also involved in this one, and I’m suspecting that this will be another one of those cute slice-of-life series. Engage Planet Kiss Dum This seems to be some kind of epic mecha-anime, not much is known about it yet. The staff behind it also seems to have worked on Banner and Crest of the stars. I’ve heard that these were good anime, though I’ve yet to see them myself. sola It’s been listed as fantasy, seinen and romance. Apart from that, we’ve got some character designs, and that’s it about the information known about this anime. It actually has me interested so far, but I’m fearing that this will turn into another one of those moe comedies. Lovely Complex “Koizumi Risa, current height 170 cm. Her surname is translated to “small river”. A girl taller than most other girls her age. Otani Atsushi, current height 156 cm. His surname is translated to “big valley”. A guy way below the average height of a highschool boy. They’re both known all around school as the comedian duo for looking like nothing but funny while standing beside each other. Due to this fact, they’ve been on one another’s bad side ever since they first met. One day, a new transfer student shows up and he happens to be very tall! Koizumi immediately gets interested in this boy and Otani suddenly proposes a silly idea to Koizumi. The idea is that they are to help each other out to get their respective love interests by all means! Koizumi undoubtedly agrees to this but as in all other shoujo mangas, things never turn out the way people want it to.” – Ah, finally another shoujo anime to be announced. I’m not sure whether I’m going to like it, but a good point is that I can actually relate to the male main character, seeing as I’m very short myself. We’ll see how this turns out. Skull Man “There are mass murders and catastrophes all over Japan, committed by a masked/caped psychic madman called the Skull Man, and his shape-shifting aide Garo (named after the manga ninja Garo created by Sanpei Shirato), who can turn into various powerful mutant monsters. The calamities caused by the Skull Man are investigated by the Tachiki Detective Agency, with the help of a young man named Tatsuo Kagura, the son of a yakuza in the Kagura Clan.” – (taken from Wikipedia) – Interesting, an anti-hero. Shows about anti-heroes are almost always worth watching, since they offer a nice twist to the usual heroes seen in anime. Koutetsu Sangokushi Not much is known about this anime, but with the director of Master of Epic and the guy who did the script for Jigoku Shoujo, Deltora Quest and many more, I’ll be looking forward to it. Cencoroll “For talented animation creators who want an opportunity to create and distribute an ”original work,” ”ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO” offers funds and equipments. Producers belonging to ”ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO” take care and advise selected creators to make pilot films. Production span is about six months to a year. Basically, the pilot films should be based on ”original plans” from the creators. Any form of animation is possible. We will accept any animation style if we feel that it brings out the best of the creator’s style, and we can offer equipments within each individual project budget. By the spring of 2008, we will select 20 creators, and team up with them to establish joint-venture groups (JV) with LLP, ”ANIME INNOVATION TOKYO” etc., to make pilot films together.” – (taken from Anime Innovation Tokyo main site) – Very interesting. I like what these guys are doing. They take small companies, and give them enough budget to create a new, innovative anime. I’m really hoping for some TV-series out of this, though it seems that they’ll be keeping themselves to films and movies. Anyway, Cencoroll is the first one to be selected. So far, a trailer has been released, and it looks quite interesting. Blue Dragon “Blue Dragon follows Shu and his friends as they find themselves capable of manifesting their actions through surprisingly powerful shadows. Not long after, the main cast sets off on a grand adventure that, in true RPG fashion, determines the fate of the world.” (summary by Mr. Sephiroth) – Very interesting, an RPG-adaptation. I’m getting Popolocrois-vibes out of this one, which is always a good thing. I also really like the cast of voice actors. Nearly all of the main characters are voiced by people who have had a lot of different roles, and have a huge amount of experience in the business. It should prove to be very interesting, but Akira Toriyama behind the character design!? What are they, nuts!? To Terra… (Chikyuu e…) “Light-years from Earth, where every aspect of life is controlled by the great master computer, if you are a Psychic (called a MU) you’re dead. Hunted tirelessly, the MU have been hiding for centuries from the general populace.” – (taken from Anime News Network) – Sometimes, the more mysterious an anime is, the more interesting it sounds. That’s definitely the case for To Terra. I know almost nothing about this one, but somehow I’m really looking forward to watching this. It’s supposed to be a remake of a 1980-series (the description above also comes from the original series). The staff also sounds very interesting, seeing as it features the people behind episode 18 of Mushishi (which was one of the best one of the entire series) and the character design is done by the same guy who did the character designs for Paradise Kiss and Escaflowne. Baccano! “Baccano features an immortal alchemist, married thieves, Mafia siblings, demons and vampires set in 1930s America.” – (by Sonhex) – And that’s about all that’s known about this anime. This seems to be the first anime the original creator is involved with, so perhaps it’ll feature some new, interesting elements. I have to say that I’m quite interested in the concept. The art also looks gorgeous. Kaze no Shoujo Emily “Emily Starr is sent to live at New Moon Farm on Prince Edward Island with her aunts Elizabeth and Laura Murray. She makes friends with Ilse Burnley, Teddy Kent, and Perry Miller, the hired boy, who Aunt Elizabeth looks down upon because he was born in ‘Stovepipe Town’, a poorer district. Each of the children have special gifts. Emily was born to be a writer, Teddy is a gifted artist, Ilse is a talented elocutionist, and Perry has the makings of a great politician. They also each have a few problems with their families. Emily has a hard time getting along with Aunt Elizabeth, who doesn’t understand her need to write. Ilse’s father, Dr. Burnley, ignores Ilse most of the time because of a dreadful secret concerning Ilse’s mother. Teddy’s mother is jealous of her son’s talents and friends, fearing that his love for them will eclipse his love for her. As a result, she hates Emily, Teddy’s drawings, and even his pets. Perry isn’t as well off as the other three, so his Aunt Tom once tries to make Emily promise to marry Perry when they grow up, threatening that unless Emily does so, she won’t pay for Perry’s schooling.” – (taken from Wikipedia) – Okay, I’ve just fallen in love with another concept. The cases of these four children sound extremely interesting. I can’t wait for this one to air. ^^ El Cazador de la Bruja “It’s about a girl named Elis, who finds herself on the run from the so called Hunters of the underground society due to being a suspect of a murder. She meets up with a bounty hunter named Nadi who offers her help and guidance to pursue the truth of her past. For some reason the Hunters are now after her as well.” – (summary by Monir) – When I looked at the list of shows the director worked on, I immediately knew he had to be my hero. He did .Hack//Sign, .Hack//Roots, Noir, Tsubasa Chronicle, and even Popolocrois. With a director like that, I’m really looking forward to this. I’m also getting some heavy Noir-vibes from this one. Should promise to be great. And if things couldn’t get any better, Yuki Kajiura, the genius behind the soundtrack of Noir and .Hack//Sign is going to do the music! + Top 5 episodes + #5: Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 03 The climax grabbed me surprisingly tight. I knew that Thenadier would be mean against Cosette, but I almost couldn’t bear to watch the things she did to Cosette, even though most of the action happened outside of the screen. #4: Death Note – 15 Extremely touching and full of juicy plot twist. That’s how I like Death Note best. I almost couldn’t believe the things that happened to Misa. #3: Saiunkoku Monogatari – 24 Saiunkoku Monogatari dished out a lot of goodness this month, and I feel that this episode showcased the best of it. The best point, in my opinion was Ensei’s lecture towards Kokujun, though Shuurei herself also was awesome. Oh, and let’s not forget the beautiful drawing that was made of Ensei. ^^ #2: Jigoku Shoujo – 37 The thing I loved about this episode is that you probably won’t get its real meaning until you start thinking about it, or look at some kind of blog post about it. That’s what made this episode so awesome. #1: Otogi Juushi Akazukin – 30 Akazukin’s past is better than I ever imagined. Episodes like these make this already awesome anime even more enjoyable.]]>

This one’s a bit smaller again, after last month’s huge list. It’s probably going to be the last summary of 2006, as I’ve got something special in mind for December. 🙂
Continue reading “November Summary” →