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Ah, the long awaited sequel to Toaru Majutsu no Index finally came, and it was well received. For fans of the first season- you are in for a great ride... ending with the promise of a sequel (well, if they don't have one, I may have to commit seppuku, because they set it up for one soooooo well). Some of the main complaints about the first season- "Oh, they just go from one girl to the next, never really progressing the story line," "they just ignore so many awesome characters," etc. - are fairly well adressed. Anyways, on to the actual review.... Story : 9/10 Near the beginning of the... See full review

Ok, this is my first review, so I'll be mirroring some other reviews I read and liked. To start...Story: The story is centered around Keiichi, a rather unlucky college student. I won't sum up the story, because that has already been done, so I'll just explain the story type. For the most part, the main arc is pretty obvious: Keiichi's and Belldandy's budding romance. Apart from that, the story is more or less episodic, with several more of Belldandy's sisters coming to live with them, only having a story arc that really lasts more than an episode or two happening near the beginning and end of the... See full review

For a series of any genre, especially in romance, slow-paced, or drama genres, to be considered "good," it is necessary for the series to either have something that sets it apart completely, or for it to hit all the major aspects expected in its respective genre and excel at them. Air definitely manages to do the first of these, and at least comes close to the latter, as well. The series starts off somewhat slowly, and, story wise, averagely, following a vagabond puppeteer. After a few episodes, however, it begins to do original arcs between the male lead and female secondary characters. After... See full review

Well, this is the first of many great series this season to finish, and it definitely did not disappoint. Anyways, on to the review! Story: 9.5/10 An extremely well constructed and well told story is the centerpiece of this series. Without spoiling, there isn't much to say except that it does a great job telling a well defined story. Sprinkled throughout are great moments of humor and tearjerking scenes. Animation: 9/10 The series doesn't have the normal mode of animation, but is certainly good. It lacks any real action scenes to push it to the limit, but it is quite pretty. The OP and the ED are both... See full review

Originally seeing the story behind this series, I had no expectations whatsoever. However, as the series progressed, I was given a pleasant surprise. The series ended up actually being decent enough to finish, despite all of my preconceived conceptions. Anyways, I shall continue. Story: Well, I had hoped the story could have been done a little better- it had a chance to be a much better one. However, it still managed to be fairly touching when it tried. There was a bit too much ecchi and filer for it to be too great of a story, but, as I said, it was still much better than expected. The ending is also a... See full review

While watching this series I just kept feeling that there was something... missing that could easily make it better. After finally finishing it, what could make it better makes an appearance (probably what made the second season so much more popular than the first), but, by then, it was too late for this season to be redeemed. What this series has: It tried its hand at comedy, fan service, action, and mecha battles, but none of this was quite satisfying. There was some character development, but so much of it was of the secondary characters that it seemed like a waste. There was mystery, but the... See full review

This series has a very unusual mix of shonen, slice of life, comedy, and romance. Centered around two young, inspiring mangakas (people that want to make mangas for a living) and their love intrests, this series shows a fairly inspirational plot line filled with many a ddetermined young (and sometimes not so young) man. Story: 9/10 Well, I suppose the story isn't anything amazing, but it is well done. The two main characters go through many trials and tribulations in order to try and get a manga published in Shonen Jack, each of them for their own reason. Frustration from lack of sucess, anger between... See full review

There are a few things that immediately grab your attention about this show. First, the start of the series is extremely fast. They put you in the place of the main character and you know everything he does... which amount to nothing. You sit there for a moment after the first episode wondering what the hell just happened. Second, you find out an extremely interesting looking world. Third, if you can keep up, you find a brilliant concept that continues to get more in depth and interesting as the series progresses. Story: 9/10 As I said, this series starts with an extremely interesting premise and... See full review

Well, this series seemed rather kiddy from the start. Their wars were "family friendly," the characters were all rather... fluffy and family friendly, and things like that. The story was pretty cliched and not all that well exucuted. It had its moments, but when there are multiple filler episodes in a single short season, the pacing is obviously wrong. The characters were almost too nice to one another, making it less believable. The animation was, for parts of the series stunning... which is what makes the few episodes where it seemed like they gave up all the more striking. Episdes where most of... See full review

This series started out with quite of bit of promise. The world in which this takes place in seems to be pretty interesting- "lost preciouses" floating around the world which have untold powers, a "society" of people, breakers, that have the ability to use these lost preciouses or would like to research them. Anways, on to the review... Story: 4/10 This is a very disappointing story. The premise was very strong, and the first arc was somewhat decent, but all they do is build a few new characters in the following arc and the final arc is... horrible. They manage to survive through a... See full review

As I watched the first episode of the series, I thought to myself "this could be a really great anime. It has everything there." Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to these expectations; it was, by no means, a terrible anime however. The concept of dreams and how they are displayed in this series is rather interesting, and many things that are slowly revealed throughout the series are extremely interesting. Anyways, on to the story. Story: 7/10 This story is well done, but it had potential to be a lot better. A few things that they mention throughout the series which are mentioned, they just... See full review

In a time where philosophically deep yet still comprehensible series are becoming few and far between, Ergo Proxy offers a shot at fufilling a slightly more fufilling roll than most series. This, however, only lasts for about half to two thirds of the series. I believe there is a span of 5 or so episodesin the series in which I, personally, had no idea what was going on for at least the majority of the show. So much of the series went on without explanation, so much time was just skipped, that it went from a rather entertaining show to a failure. Before elaborating more on this, I'll go more into the... See full review

I had been putting Fruits Basket off for a while (not completely sure why), and I finally got around to it. I can definitely say that I enjoyed the off-beat humor, romantic tension and unique story driving the series. There was an extremely wide array of personalities portrayed throughout the series as well. Anywho, I shall get along with the actual review. Story: 9/10 While much of the series, especially near the middle of the season, is mostly episodic, the individual episodes are well crafted, as is the story of the series as a whole. Almost all of the characters get a rather touching and apropriate... See full review

I find this review somewhat difficult to write. Starting out with this series, I couldn't keep the characters straight and found myself finding it difficult to keep interest in, but, to an extent, this series got better as it went on. The story and characters were interesting, but, being a series focussing on topics that I feel very far removed from, I simply couldn't relate. As the story progresses, it brings about more relatable events and characters, which I supposed made the series slightly more engauging and helped me keep up with it. The story is a good one, but, as I have said, the topic is just too... See full review

Oh Infinite Stratos- the acclaimed "most cliched series. Ever." And I believe it does a fairly good job living up to your name. This is where many will ask "wait, are cliches all that bad? If they are done so often, doesn't that mean they have some merit?" Well, that depends. In this case- no. With a few exceptions, mainly stemming from the money pumped into this series, there is little to say was done well in this show, with one bright, shining exception, which will be latter addressed. Anyways, on to the review proper. Note, slight spoilers in the story section explaining why it is so... See full review

This is easily the least consistant series this season, and probably the least consistant series from the last few seasons as a whole. It's very common in this series to go from a hilarious episode to a very serious episode with a decent story to an episode... that was just terrible. Overall, this series is a mixture of comedy, several generally distinct genres raised to an absurb level (vampire ninjas? really?!), a bit of plot, and a lot of ecchi scenes and shots. The comedy mainly comes from the parody in the form of over the top, genre benders. Story: The story of this series seems to be largly thrown... See full review

I will preface this review with a somewhat obvious statement: If you did not like the original, you aren't going to enjoy this one. If you enjoyed the first, you will probably enjoy this one too. I will start out by saying that the first episode or two will be a punch in the stomach for those of you that were thrilled by the end of season one... because they basically go back to square one. Or worse. And it is just as... frustrating as the small set backs in season one, but, if that doesn't make you fall more in love with the series, then you probably couldn't have finished season one and wouldn't be giving... See full review

This series has two almost completely different shows fused together into one; a high impact action/scifi show, that dominates the first half of the series, and a drama focused around scifi with action spliced in, which is the latter half of the show. Whether or not you enjoy this show will, in my opinion, be determined on how well you believe they did in each of these areas. For me, the first half of the season was extremely up and down. The action in it was fairly entertaining, but the drama they attempted to put in between the action scenes weren't quite there yet. In the latter half of the... See full review

Only from time to time does one receive the chance to meander across one of the game changers in anime or manga- quite literally in this case. The manga upon which this is based was made by Tezuka, the author of Astroboy and the father of manga and anime. That being said, the artwork may seem "old school" and the story may seem "clichéd," but that is because it is an old series upon which many newer series have drawn from. Anyways, onto the series. Story: 8/10 The story takes place in a somewhat dystopian future with several political factors moving at once. Although some what... See full review

Mind Game is a movie that is almost as unique as possible. The story, the animation, and the characters are all constantly shifting, which gives it its uniqueness. The message, that strength of mind can create an infinite number of possibilities, is portrayed in a true mindf*ck fashion, often leaving the viewer wondering what actually just happened. After getting past the shock of the continual changes in animation style and the awes from realizing what just happened, the story actually starts to make sense (mostly, anyways), and it delivers in a meaningful way. The rapid changes in characters seems to... See full review

Personally, I find baseball, by and large, to be incredebly boring. This leads me to steer clear of baseball anime, but, in this case, I heard taht this is more of a "management" series than a baseball one, persay. Also, the idea that they were releasing an episode a day (although being during finals time, thus making it impossible for me to keep up) was very intriguing. Anyways, on to the review proper~ Story: 9/10 Although the ending wasn't exactly something that was unexpected or particularly, to quote them, "innovative," it was extremely well done. In just 10 episodes, they managed... See full review

This series starts out being an extremely average love story, doing absolutely nothing worth noting (nor even remembering) for the first third or so of the series. Kid moves back into a childhood town, meets old friends, tries to reestablish bonds with said friends, etc. etc. However, after that part of the series is out of the way, After this point (and all the subsequent face palming done during these first few episodes whilst wondering why you bother to continue this series), they start to throw interesting story arcs at you, giving you a new feel and understanding for each of the characters in the... See full review

If you are looking for an action anime that seems to draw upon the story lines of many of the great anime of its genre (read: Gurren Lagann), but lacks the expected character development that is expected in any 24 episode series, more than 2 or 3 glimpses of what could be construed as an original plot, a lot of battles cut off in the middle of it, and a lot of panty shots, then this is your show. If you want a solid, at least somewhat original anime that manages to have a good mix of plot, action, and character development, you should stay away. Apart from the lack of originality that this series exhibits... See full review

Coming into this series, you just see another lame Magical Girl series... but what caught my eyes was the studio that was making this series- Shaft. Seeing this, I decided to give this series a try... and I am very glad that I did. It took all of my preconceived notions about what a magical girl series is, and destroyed them. That being said, if you are to only watch one Magical Girl series ever, this is the one you should try. Story: 10/10 This series is, in a word, dark. The ending, in a word, is bitter-sweet. This series manages to conceal the ending while making it painfully obvious. It manages to... See full review

This OVA is an extremely short, face paced story featuring people with extremely unique powers. It features some humor and some seriousness at the same time, while managing an impressive amount of character development for 3 30 minute episodes. Now, if you add that to the obvious James Bond feel that is portrayed from the first OP and add a bunch of evil clones of various geniuses from throughout the centuries, you get this series in a nutshell. If you're looking for a nice, short, mixture of humor, super powers, and action, this is a great series.

As you peruse through a large amount of anime, you come across many different types of series that leave unique impressions; some of these impressions will last, some will fade, some will be good, some not so good and some... well, some will be Series Experiments Lain. Lain is one of those series that, among definitely leaving a very lasting impression, it is very likely to leave you wondering what you just watched. While mixing together a large amount of philisophical questions, psychological explanations, and something of a technological anomaly in order to peace together its stroy and, in... See full review

This series, in my opinion, is one of the few that manage to have a streak of episodes near the end that all seem to be better than the last and have you wanting more for 5 or so episodes. I will admit that the middle of the series starts to drag a little bit after a strong opening, but it is more than worth it. Story: This series, although not completely original in some of their major themes, does a great job mixing together previously seperate themes while driving the plot with interesting devices and characters. While often making you ask for more at the end of an episode, they mix together great... See full review

This series is a mixture of comedy, drama, romance, and a few more conspicuous topics such as illness, death, human experimentation, and personal identity. Every few episodes, especially in the latter half of the series, they liked to throw something controversial or deep at you to stave off the repetitiveness of the romance and comedy. Finally, they ended the series with something very unusual for the harem genre: A choice. That's right, the main character actually chooses a single girl, instantly making this series better than the vast majority of the muck that calls itself a harem. That being said, I... See full review

This series was, at the very least, a fun ride. I more or less marathoned all 51 episodes in about 3 days or so, meaning that you would think it couldn't be that bad- which it wasn't. The show managed to bounce between serious issues (at least serious within their reality) and humor while portraying more or less interesting characters. Many of the characters are well developed, although a few of the more interesting ones (the Thompson sisters and Tsubaki) are left kind of out to dry. Despite this, there are a number of developed characters and static characters going through an interesting, albeit... See full review

Star Driver, Star Driver... where do I start? From the moment I heard the phrase "ginga bishounen," or galatic pretty boy, I knew this series was either going to be something epic, or some piece of trash that I will forever regret finishing. This show was... a ride. Brilliant and stupid at the same time, constantly keeping you off-balance with over the top humor, action, and plot. While this is far from a master-piece, it is still a very entertaining series that will keep you waiting for another episode. Be it the dichotomy of school and mechas interplaying throughout the series, the rough... See full review