CaptainSlow

What I Liked: The very colourful visuals, coupled with the dreamy watercolour-esque backgrounds. The first two episodes were incredibly strong as an opening to the series. The character designs were appropriately youthful. The fact that the series is seperated into arcs made the series feel fresh when it could've become stale fast. Good character development between the main quartet. The storyline that unfolds involving Yukina and the Tokorozawa leader. The soundtrack, which consists of punk-pop covers by the main quartet. Dynamic and fluid character animation. Good pacing... See full review

What I Liked: The slow pacing made for a slow-burn kind of series. The grounded character designs. Good voice acting all round, with competent attempts at English from Yasayuki Kase and Yuuko Kaida. The amazing soundtrack. The OP, from the music itself to the choreography. The ED in its entirety. The set designs, and with them the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Magata Lab. The elements of computer science used within the show. What I Didn't: Dr. Magata seemed less like a character and more like a vehicle for pseudo-philosophical nonsense. Lack of exploration of Magata's DID. The constant philosophical... See full review

What I Liked: The soundtrack was appropriately modern. Both the OP and ED. Great, exaggerated voice acting all-round. Unique and interesting character designs. Backgrounds and set designs are brilliant, as well as the colour palette used throughout. Shiho, surprisingly. The humour, occasionally. What I Didn't: The open-ended ending. The cookie-cutter characterisation. The fact that all the main female characters felt like they weren't characterised beyond "She's a <supernatural being> and she's in love with Kuromine". No exploration of said supernatural themes aside from the occasional... See full review

What I Liked: Great animation, with pleasant backgrounds and the (unique) inclusion of manga-style asides. Every character (even the relatively one-track-minded ones) feels three-dimensional and realistic. Deals with themes such as different forms of love and attraction in a realistic manner. Takeo, for all his awkward and adorable behaviour. Sound design was good, as was the beautiful soundtrack. Both the opening and ending themes. Clear sense of character development, especially among the lead couple. Diverse character designs. Great voice acting all round.
What I Didn't: Character animation is... See full review

What I Liked: Sir Hellsing. Walter. The series's focus on Seras developing from a small-time policewoman to a mature and capable vampire. The stylish albeit dated soundtrack. Well-animated, and quite high-quality for its time. The silly post-episode previews. The English VA cast went above and beyond, with Crispin Freeman perfect in his role as Alucard. What I Didn't: The title-card ending felt like a cop-out. Most of the second half felt like it had lesser substance than the first. The opening theme, despite sounding appropriately chaotic. Animation quality sometimes doesn't extend to the... See full review

What I Liked: Good character designs. Animation was average, with fluid character animation. Yui.  What I Didn't: Suffers from typical Penultimate Episode Mood Whiplash. Gags such as Chitose's nosebleeds become repetitive rather quickly. Some jokes are essentially harassment / abusive behaviour tarted up as comedy. Chinatsu. Final Verdict: While it doesn't bring anything new to the "cute-girls-doing-cute-things" genre, Yuru Yuri is a light-hearted and pleasant little time-waster - provided that you're unfazed by repetitive gags ranging from boob-envy to forced kissing. 

What I Liked: The clean and vibrant animation. The amazing soundtrack consisting of a range of eclectic sounds. The first half. Detective Shibasaki. How the series tackled the theme of domestic terrorism in Japan. Both the Opening Theme and the Ending Theme, which gave me strong late-90's/early-00's indie radio vibes. Good pacing. What I Didn't: The second half. Five wasn't given enough characterisation to create interest, and was woefully one-dimensional. Relies a bit too heavily on the "Police are Useless" trope. Some viewers may find Lisa detrimental to the series. The... See full review

What I Liked: Wonderful, fluid animation. The vibrant soundtrack that matches the theme of the short. Lotte, and her song. The new girls were interesting in their own rights. Great voice acting from the whole cast - Megumi Han is suitably perfect as the hotheaded Akko, as is Youko Hikasa as the haugthy Diana. Good focus on expanding the world outside the academy. What I Didn't: Still just as riddled with cliché as the first, if not more. The kids, even though you were meant to hate them, made the short feel too full of "immature-type" characters. Akko seemed even more... See full review

What I Liked: The characters, who were nuanced and given ample room and time to develop. Yuki, and the series' portrayal of anxiety. Colourful backgrounds and character designs. Final "friends and loved ones save the world from the Big Bad" arc manages to help develop characters further and show how far they've come in the show's runtime rather than rely on "because friendship" reasoning. Keito. The soundtrack and sound design were pretty good. What I Didn't: Backgrounds and animation were average most of the time and kept simple to the point of feeling flat occasionally. Haru's... See full review

What I Liked: The Beautiful Person - so by extension her first skit and the tennis skit. Animation is simple, colourful and gets the job done. What I Didn't: The soundtrack is incredibly limited and forgettable. The gags mostly miss the mark and rely too heavily on Nee-san's obnoxiousness or on raunchy "jokes". Final Verdict: This short, frantic and silly collection of shorts is an easy way to fill a half-hour. However, the skits are hit-and-miss for the most part, making this series mediocre at best.

What I Liked: Amazing visuals, helped by the "mixed-media" style animation. Engrossing story that goes beyond the bounds of the original novel to create something of a sci-fi opera. Great world-building, that mixes futuristic technologies with 17th Century aristocratic french stylings. Ending manages to tie up all loose ends and even presents viewers with a satisfying epilogue. Great soundtrack, even the OP and ED suited the series. The fact that Gankutsuou spoke only French (in the Japanese dub). Rivetting characters. What I Didn't: The Mechas felt out of place, surprisingly. Car animation was... See full review

What I Liked: Cute characters with distinct personalities and designs. Interesting setting and concept. Uses its run-time effectively to tell its rather sweet little story and present its themes (even the fast-forward doesn't feel out of place). Mother. The soundtrack is cute and suits this OVA down to the ground with its poppy opening and ending themes. Animation is clear and backgrounds are quite lovely to look at.  What I Didn't: NITPICK: Animation hasn't aged all that well. Soundtrack is also very much a remnant of its time.         Final Verdict: Obscure but... See full review

What I Liked: Good car animation? Nice (and so very 90's) character designs. Good sound design. Miki Itou as Hokuto, Subaru's bubbly sister. Both episodes are interesting albeit simple stories that blend supernatural themes with crime-drama elements well enough without leaning too far towards the gritty or fantastical (although it has all the trappings of a CLAMP series).     What I Didn't: The absolutely terrible insert song in the first OVA, which regretfully turns out to be the first Ending Theme as well. The second Ending Theme is also pretty lackluster. The first OVA feels rather... See full review

What I Liked: The mixture of references to Sega and its various franchises. The fact that all the anthropomorphisations have character flaws related to their real console counterpart's hardware / software limitations. Each of the Seha Girls were interesting in their own respect (despite falling into moe stereotypes).   What I Didn't: The MMD animation takes a bit of getting used to - and even seems to show its limitations in some episodes. Some episodes started with actionless skits that fail to drive the plot or improve characterisation. Episode 8. The second half drags as it struggles to cover... See full review

What I Liked: Kohina. The saga of Female!Kokkuri-san. The ending theme, and the piano arrangement of said theme in episode 8. Tama, despite her personality. Appealing character designs with the right amount of traditional and bishounen / bishoujo elements. Episode 11, for being an interesting change of pace. Shigaraki, despite being a drunkard and a crook. Kohina's speech patterns are incredibly cute, much like her insistence of her non-human status.

What I Didn't: Sex jokes, sex jokes everywhere. All the mononoke are actually downright creepy (in a latent criminal sense) in some respect, but... See full review

What I Liked: Animation was good for the most part. Shimotsuki, and her evolution throughout the series from by-the-book faithful to a conflicted individual. The opening theme, along with its animation, had a great thriller feel to it. The ending theme. What I Didn't: Both the opening and ending themes leads you to think this series has psychological thriller written all over it. Characterisation was weak, leading many characters to be one-dimensional and completely uninteresting. Togane, and his evolution from mysterious possible-antagonist to laughable Mummy's Boy villain. The fact that this season... See full review

What I Liked: The animation. The set designs - each setting was vibrant and beautiful in their own way. The character designs. The characters themselves, while typical Ghibli stock characters, were still a delight to watch. Ursula. The two old ladies that befriended Kiki. The whole mood of the movie was quite sweet and charming, even when Kiki was faced with conflict. The soundtrack was nice, but it did take a little getting used to. The sound design was top-notch. What I Didn't: Pacing issues - the middle felt slow, while the ending seemed to come out of nowhere (even though it was heavily hinted at... See full review

What I Liked: The character animations and backgrounds were stunning, if not a little less detailed than in The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. The soundtrack really suits the mood that the movie is going for. The character designs. The plot had all the interest and intrigue of your standard Lupin adventure. The villian was interesting and was a great calculated killer-type antagonist (without making him overly pantomime-like). The car chase. Some interesting cameos towards the end. Pacing's good. What I Didn't: This movie's Fujiko feels like a watered-down (perhaps inexperienced?) version. Almost the same goes... See full review

What I Liked: The soundtrack is bright and lively, albeit much more dated than the first season's. The character designs are just as great as the first season's. Animation is more dynamic and a little more polished, with more comic-style sight gags. Junpei gaining a catchphrase this time around. The opening and closing themes are almost instant earworms. The fact that the dynamic between the leading ladies changes (albeit briefly).

What I Didn't: The fact that there's a whole episode devoted to potty jokes (literally). Junpei gaining a catchphrase this time around. The last episode is a bit of a dud... See full review

What I Liked: Symbolism out the butt. The fact it's framed like an arthouse series, with its incredible imagery and thematic elements holding up the plot. The soundtrack, full of the drama one would expect from Yuki Kajiura. The blurring of reality and delusion. The fact it's not so much a straight horror series and more of a psychological one.    What I Didn't: Symbolism out the butt. The fact it's framed like an arthouse series, with an oversaturation of "art-for-the-sake-of-art" style shots. Character animation is under-average. Shaft head-tilts EVERYWHERE. The woefully... See full review

What I Liked: The catchy opening and closing themes. The characters are all funny to watch, especially the actress Airi and the hapless elven priestess Celcia. The setting, which has a blend of "real-world" props and quasi-fantasy world tropes that is (eventually) questioned by the characters. The trial. The Ending. Animation is bright and colourful.     What I Didn't: Action scenes aren't all that well animated (which is a shame when a whole episode hinges on it). The Ending. Animation is average for its time. Final Verdict: Those Who Hunt Elves is an adventurous and enjoyable... See full review

What I Liked: That ending theme. Funny cast of goofy characters that seem to parody RPG tropes. Good animation for the time, with a large amount of shots of super-deformed characters and slapstick comedy. Kotono Mitsuishi as Mink. The humour is spontaneous and occasionally bizarre. Great character designs, even with Mink and Lufa's...um..."revealing" designs.     What I Didn't: The second half is much weaker than the first. The fact it has no conclusion: it ends with the MC winning a tournament that has nothing to do with the People Potion plot. Gets weirdly fan-servicey in the... See full review

What I Liked: Cute, simple animation and background art. Good soundtrack and sound design. Character designs are sweet. Manages to tell a good little story about childhood and growing up in a little over three minutes.

What I Didn't: Can't place anything wrong with it.

Final Verdict: Everything about this special created for Noitamina's 10th Anniversary exudes a quiet sweetness, from its modest animation to its uncomplicated story of a growing girl and her favourite chair.

What I Liked: Animation is fluid, with lots of pastels and cute characters. The gradual reveal of elements as the girl became aware of them. Nice soundtrack that matches the adventurous feel of the story. The character designs.

What I Didn't: Nothing, I liked it all.

Final Verdict: An absolutely amazing effort from a trio of Arts graduates, this cute and colourful little animation follows a young blind girl on her quest to find her pet dog after someone steals her bag. The way the elements are revealed as the girl becomes aware of them, lovely soundtrack and beautifully fluid animation make... See full review

What I Liked: The plot, for its little surrealist elements and its disgruntled narrator. The creature designs. Brilliant background art that has a dreamy feel to it. Animation has a good mix of CGi elements (e.g. trains, water). Great soundtrack.

What I Didn't: Character animation suffers from the occasional perspective gaff. The plot is a little underwhelming in that there's no concrete ending.

Final Verdict: With stunning background art and a top-notch soundtrack, this independantly-made short has a visual quality that rivals the likes of Shinkai and Ghibli. The character animation is a... See full review

What I Liked: A great mix of CGi and 2D animation with lots of lovely and truly beautiful scenery shots. Good insert song. The sheer quality of this ONA made me almost mistake it for a Shinkai production.

What I Didn't: The banal monologuing made me almost mistake this for a Shinkai production.

Final Verdict: A beautiful tribute to Tokyo Station, this 5-minute short uses the story of a woman looking to repair her deceased father's watch as a vehicle to show off the station's gorgeous architecture. The attention to detail on the background art is amazing, and the insert song's a bonus. Shame... See full review

What I Liked: Nice, traditional-style animation. Cute plot. The premise behind the short's creation.

What I Didn't: Sound design's not too great, it consists of Hoppipolla and a unfitting "children laughing" stock track.

Final Verdict: Made for a project that helps raise funds for musical therapy programs for earthquake-affected children, this sweet heartwarming short combines beautiful picture book-like animation and an adorable plot involving angels with Sigur Ros' most over-rated song.

What I Liked: Otose. Pretty character designs. Interesting premise.   What I Didn't: Mostly everything. Typical character designs for the genre. Badly-implemented CG. Poorly integrated anachronisms mess with the (attempted) historical feel of the series. The "beautifying" of famous historical figures beyond recognition makes it so the series never capatalises upon the rich histories behind the character's real-world counterparts (or even the period said characters come from). Commits the Cardinal Sin of Rock Music: Auto-tuning. Each band has only one or two songs, making the... See full review

What I Liked: The background art. The setting. The attention to detail in everything, from the series' depiction of Chicago to the weaponry used. The soundtrack is an amazing mixture of jazz that invokes some of the classic 80's action flicks. Sound design is great. What little "fan-service" the series has is surprisingly harmless and unobtrusive. English dub has good performances all round. The animation is fluid, with exceptional gunfight and car chase choreography.     What I Didn't: NITPICK: Some perspective gaffs.     Final Verdict: With a bombastic soundtrack... See full review

What I Liked: The English dub is amusing, with great comedic timing - it's practically the only selling point this series has.   What I Didn't: Animation is all over the place but always below average, with flat colours and rather standard backgrounds. The plot itself borders on the banal, consisting of formulaic and episodic content that falls to pieces by the end. The CG is way too noticeable, albeit sparingly used. Weird choice in Ending theme. Overly peppy opening theme becomes grating quickly. Soundtrack is barely there. Jokes start to switch to predominately sexual by the last few... See full review