Aranneas

Story - 8.5/10 Knocking on Heaven's Door is cast perfectly in the vein of the Cowboy Bebop series, mixing equal parts intrigue, adventure, and slick, fast-paced action with a few moments spared for slapstick comedy and character development. As usual we find the crew in pursuit of a bounty, but complications arise. What results is a struggle on a scale none of them bargained for. The plotting is mostly very effective, though there's a few moments I caught foreknowledge apparently beamed to a character's mind by some higher power because there was no way for them to acquire it otherwise (in particular one... See full review

Secret Santa 2014 Review: Eve no Jikan Movie Story 8/10 Androids live alongside humans as their partners in day-to-day-life; but their burgeoning sentience is not recognized by the populace at large, so they're mostly still treated as menial labourers. And at least one radical group with some influence has an interest in keeping things this way. But where do those robots go when they're... for lack of a better term, off-duty? In Time of Eve, we take numerous visits to a special cafe wherein androids and humans are held as equals, and the androids seem to be developing their own personalities to fit the... See full review

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita Story 7/10 It's hard to talk about the story of Jinrui without giving too much away. The series takes place in a world where humanity is gradually dying out (title drop!) and follows the work of the Mediator, an individual chosen by the United Nations to work as a liaison between the humans of the dying world and the fairies, a race of tiny cute beings with strange technology that seems to have sprung up to fill in the ecological void. It's an often confusing but overall enjoyable romp through the leftovers of human culture and dwells on the way means of life have progressed... See full review

Story - 7.5/10 Girl meets boy. Girl almost gets herself killed having tried to save boy's life. Boy turns out to have been 'powerful' deity of warfare and in no danger, but girl gets untethered from the human side of existence due to her near-death experience. This results in unwilling fits of astral projection where her body just kind of... drops... while she scoots about the aether, completely at the mercy of any evil spirits that may be nearby. Hijinks ensue. But it's not so simple. Boy agrees to help her reconnect with her body, but in fact has no idea how. (Not unlike most boys.) And the boy's... See full review

SECRET SANTA REVIEW Story 7.5/10 Takayuki Narumi, our male protagonist, falls in love with a girl without even expecting to, having gone out with her simply because she asked. Of course the friend who set up the meeting had never really thought they would make it together - having been harbouring feelings for Takayuki of her own. When their fledgling relationship is shattered by cruel circumstance, leaving Takayuki a guilt-ridden dysfunctional wreck, how will the two respond? Between this first incident and a few further exceptional twists further along the way, the stage is set to twist the screws of... See full review

Story 6.5/10 Kokoro Connect is a high school club drama that takes five varied characters and thrusts them into the center of supernatural forces that proceed to wreak havoc with their lives, forcing them to adapt for their own pleasure. Sounds interesting? It did to me as well. Unfortunately after a strong opening arc that tantalizes us with further mysteries to solve those promises of real development and - possibly - getting some answers are never delivered upon. We're left with a production that, if I try to approach it objectively, I can't really call much more than average. Animation 8/10 Mix two... See full review

Zone of the Enders: Idolo Story 7/10 Sci-fi has long been a realm that we use to reflect on the state of the real world, with the potential to hold a mirror to political, religious, or social situations and explore the realm of 'what if'. ZotE: Idolo is a portrayal of a future society that has become segregated between the main human population left on Earth, and the growing colonial presence on a Mars that we've reshaped for our own habitation. By the time the story opens, we can see that tensions have already risen to the brink of war, and Earth maintains a military presence on its colony to head off... See full review

Story 5/10 Koi☆Sento is an offering markedly light on plot. It's a story about two young people who meet by extraordinary circumstance, fight through a spectacular adventure, and fall in love. If that sounds mildly refreshing, that's probably because it is; if it seems a bit on the shallow side, I'd agree with that as well. It's an airy, bite-sized romance that establishes a bold, intriguing setting and just teases us with glimpses of its inner workings. The interplay between the two leads is the focus here, and we're not provided with much insight into past, future, or motivations for any of... See full review

Story 5.5/10 Ghost Hound starts off strong, establishing an isolated small town setting that comes off creepier than Hinamizawa and a world with intriguing mysteries and mechanics that we want to explore. It's easy to see now where the more recent Shiki gained a lot of its stylistic inspiration. Tarou Komori is a young boy dealing with the pressures of dealing up and apparent symptoms of a post-traumatic or similar disorder stemming from his abduction and imrpisonment at an early age. Howevern there appears to be more to his out-of-body experiences than a 'mere' troubled mind attempting to sort itself... See full review

Secret Santa 2014 Review: Midori Days Story 5/10 Teenage delinquent Seiji Sawamura goes to bed lamenting his inability to get a girfriend... and wakes up with a cutesy girl attached to his famous Demon Right Hand, bane of bullies everywhere. Coincidence? Probably not. But you'll never find out, really, since the supernatural elements are never gone into in depth or really even speculated on very much. Instead you get a wacky hijinks slice-of-life/comedy about the trials and tribulations of living life with a girl on one arm (hue), with a good deal of attention paid to the perspective of Midori, the girl... See full review

Boku Wa Kono Mama Kaeranai
Story 7/10 Bear in mind that this is written from the perspective of someone with no previous experience viewing Shounen-ai. KonoMama is a lust story which is billed as a romance. It explores the romantic and sexual lives of two males and one female who have known each other from childhood. Given the short running time, the plot is relatively interesting and explores some of the finer dynamics of sorting out one's sexual affinity. The focus of the story is placed on the stress such a process puts on those around us, and this is relatively successful, with the writing... See full review

Shiba Inuko-San Story 2/10
I'm honestly not sure how to grade this thing fairly. Shiba Inuko-San is a series of webisodes that clock in at just under the total length of two regular episodes of an anime. It's an attempt at a slice-of-life school comedy centred on a single outlandish element ("That character is actually a dog!"). As such, it throws any effort at having a concrete plot out the window before even trying, attempting instead to craft a single gag out of each episode. It fails miserably. If all you've got going for you is comedy, it had at least better be funny. Visuals... See full review