mdchan

History is there so that people can learn from it and not repeat its mistakes...yet, they always seem doomed to do so anyway.  Such is the case with the premise of 86, which takes racism to an extreme. -- Story Nine years ago, the Empire of Giad created (automated?) war machines which, as per usual with the trend of "technology which went wrong", killed their creators and continued rampaging throughout the world.  These mobile weapons became known as the "Legion", and are oddly organized for robotic weapons which, unlike the Machines of Nier Automata, never show any... See full review

I don't know what they were thinking when they mapped out this season.  The first couple episodes, along with the last two episodes, are excellent.  Everything in between (aka, the bulk of the season), however...well, let's just say that I actually caught myself nodding off one or two times.  This is going to be hard to score. -- Story Picks up where the last season left off; the five surviving teens from the Spearhead division were saved and picked up by the Giad Federacy and are offered a chance at actually living a peaceful life.  But of course, out five favorite teens can't... See full review

The prosecution is ready to present its case for the review of the Ace Attorney anime! ...though actually, things focus on the defense side of things in both the anime and the games.  A slight warning I'd give to folks is that, since the anime covers cases (sans "Rise from the Ashes") in the first two games ("Ace Attorney" and "Justice for All"), there will be heavy spoilers. So if you plan on playing the games and want to figure things out for yourself instead of having the major points spoiled, you might want to put this anime on the backburner until you finish those... See full review

I picked this up half out of boredom and half out of trying to find a hidden gem; this was most certainly not the latter. -- Story There's a plotline in here somewhere...perhaps three of them.  The first plotline revolves around the police's Division 5, Unit 8 which uses some sort of unexplained technology called "Will Wear", which pretty much takes a person and puts them directly as a mecha instead of having to pilot one.  Of course, this means that the mecha are all human-sized for the most part.  A new member is sent directly from the police headquarters to... See full review

For all the recommendations and hype surrounding this, I started to get bored at around episode 20 (I did finish watching it, but there were a chunk of uninteresting episodes).  It's not a bad seires, but situations often get repetitive in the middle. Story Young Sara Crewe stays at a boarding school in London after living in India with her father for years.  Though her father returns to India to look into a diamond mine, Sara remains.  Despite all the money Sara has, she isn't stuck up or egotistical, but rather kind-hearted.  However, disaster strikes on her birthday which flips her... See full review

For anyone wondering, limbo is apparently a Japanese high school. ...at least, that's the world of Angel Beats! for teenagers who had regrets when they died. - Story Otonashi wakes up to find himself sprawled out on the pavement between a school building and a girl with a rather bulky sniper rifle of sorts.  In her sights is a single girl, whom she claims is an "Angel" and thus...the enemy. Though Otonashi refuses to get involved with her level of crazy, he soon confronts Angel and finds out that, yes, they're all dead (and thus, can't die).  Roped into joining the Afterlife... See full review

Wait...you're telling me it's possible to have a romance-genre anime/movie with teenagers which isn't cringey?  Apparently so, as this is probably one of the better anime movies I've seen lately. -- Story Middle school student Miyo Sasaki, aka "Muge", is a cheerful girl on the outside to always hide how she truly feels; that she doesn't feel like she belongs with her father and step-mother, or that her actual mother ever loved her.  Rather, she feels nobody can or will ever love her... ...except for her classmate, Kento Hinode.  She acts out and doesn't seem to care about... See full review

I really don't understand the high ratings for this anime.  I have not read the manga it was based off of, but my initial impression (and one which hadn't changed too much upon reaching the end) was that someone just took a few character types and a sport and threw them together. To touch briefly on the sound, there were times when the sound and animation didn't mesh.  The characters would start to scream in a kendo match in what looked like a still screen, and there would be noises before they even moved (I checked, it wasn't a sync error between audio and video). It was enjoyable to watch, and... See full review

Though I'm into art (cartooning, to be precise), calligraphy doesn't really interest me.  However, this anime is more about the interactions between characters, and a little bit of a self-journey, than the ins and outs of calligraphy. Therefore, anyone can enjoy it.  It's one of the better slice-of-life anime out there, as it stays true to the characters and interactions without getting too caught up in unrealistic comedy or over the top drama. Story 23 year old Seishu Handa, a pro calligrapher, is sent off to a remote and small island by his father after he punches the elderly curator who... See full review

Did...did all the other people giving this anime such high reviews watch the same anime I did?  Could have sworn what I saw bounced between a confused wolf and a horny rabbit with guest appearances by a perfectionist deer. -- Story ...because there's pretty much no plot.  Well, there is a plot, but it dies off as fast as the poor herbivore in the opening sequence.  Aforementioned herbavore is chased through the school building by a carnivore student before becoming a statistic at the business end of the other student's teeth. The school mourns, and then focuses once more on... See full review

This season is honestly what season 1 should have been, as they finally get around to addressing the murderer. Also, the spelling of the names changed in the subtitles on Netflix from season 1...soooo...I'll just, uh, check the Wiki. -- Story There's actually a plot this season besides teenage angst and a yiff-happy rabbit, and it's finally trying to find Tem's murderer. That said, the school board seems more interested in the fact that the school hasn't produced a beastar candidate in a long time rather than an herbivore getting slaughtered and devoured by another student... So anyway, Legoshi... See full review

This anime does a great job at introducing a slew of characters with their own circumstances, but an absolute lousy job of wrapping up any of its plot points.  Rather, by the time one finishes this series, they will have more questions than answers as it tends to either dangle an information carrot in front of the viewer without ever explaining it, or just doesn't bother to explain the current dangling carrot. It's sad, because this probably could have been a great anime if it bothered to explain all the intrigue it dropped on the viewer. -- Story ...called "story" because the... See full review

If you're going to watch this (or have watched it), then you've definitely seen at least the first 15 episodes of the anime and the Book of Circus.  It also wouldn't hurt to watch Book of Murder as well.  If you haven't, I highly suggest watching that much (or just reading the manga) before watching this movie. For those not following the manga or decided not to watch Book of Murder before this, seeing Snake with Ciel might be a little confusing.  All the other characters (sans the movie-exclusive characters) I believe show up between episodes 1-15 of the first season and Book of Circus, so... See full review

If there's a page-turner in anime form, it's this...mostly because it leaves the viewer scratching their head and wondering "WTF is going on?!" 95% of the time. In fact, it's probably that "WTF" element which will have viewers watching episode after episode (that's what gripped me until I was able to get into a couple of the characters), because you'll be searching each episode to try and understand what's going on. Story It's actually difficult to pinpoint the plot, but it revolves around an incident called the "Collapse" where a gate opened up in a city in New York and... See full review

This second season was heads and shoulders over the first season.  In fact, this was what I had been hoping for and wanting to see in the first season as it explains everything which was not explained (but should have been) in the first season. Plot As the activities of Libra continue, each individual who makes up Libra has a life outside of it as well as what brought them to Libra in the first place.  As Leonardo continues to look for a way to heal his sister, various monsters and Blood Breed are on the move and creating chaos in an already chaotic town. Characters Well, everyone should at... See full review

If I had to sum up this movie, I'd say thus:  A series of events with no logic what-so-ever to them.  I expected, from the summary, it to be a movie about a kid learning to be brave (going from being a coward who runs away from everything to learning to confront things), and...well, it sort of did?  But at the same time, not really. -- Story Grade-schooler Wataru comes home one day to find out that his father is leaving them due to a divorce between Wataru's parents.  As Wataru is trying to make sense of all of it, he meets a strange boy who is somehow able to use magical... See full review

While this anime did have me hooked, and I would call it a "page turner" in terms of events, it does have some shortcomings which is probably due to it being stuffed into 12 episodes (technically 11, as the 12th episode should have gone into the second season). It's still enjoyable, no doubts about that; mostly as a comedy, however.  In terms of laugh out loud moments, it has a lot. Story Atsushi was kicked out of the orphanage he had been staying at and was living on the streets for a couple weeks until he winds up pulling someone out of the river.  From there, his luck turns around... See full review

Much better than the first season; there are still some funny moments, but the comedy was toned down a lot in order to amp up the drama.  Some things I had nitpicked in the season 1 review were explained as well, making me wonder why they didn't just put this out as a 24 episode series to begin with (even the episode numbering continues at 13 with the first episode of this season). Plot There are two plots in this; the first spans episodes 1-4 and goes into Dazai's past and how he came to be with the Agency, and episodes 5-12 deals with what was dropped in episode 12 of the last season. Like I've... See full review

First three episodes aside, this season can be described in one word:  Disappointing. I highly suggest reading the manga of this arc (the first three episodes aren't in the manga but instead have a light novel as the source material; starting from episode 4 is where the manga picks it up), because it's much better.  That would be chapters 38 - 52. Story There are two major arcs (with a few "fillers" in between; I put that in quotes because though they seem to be fillers, they were still in the manga). The first arc was probably the best this season had to offer, and spanned... See full review

I'm a little torn on how to feel about this movie.  As a whole, it's great; it has action, betrayal, suspense, drama...etc.  It's certainly a good movie, but not one to really watch unless you can give it 120% of your attention.  It also has a great deal of faults...one of which legit prevented me from enjoying the latter half of the movie because I was too busy scratching my head in confusion. Plot The movie opens up with Dazai's days in the Mafia as he and his partner (Chuya) have tracked down a madman who just seems to be throwing gems into a fire for an unknown reason after a bloody... See full review

This had so much potential, but being an adaptation from a one volume manga series which was discontinued, there obviously wasn't going to be much to go on. It's not the length, either; I've seen two-episode stand-alone (or dropped series) OVAs which were more coherent and developmental in both plot and characters. One can argue that it was based off a pilot manga, but I've read better pilot manga as well. I wanted to give higher ratings to it due to the potential it had, but since nothing more came of it, nor will come of it, the low ratings will stand.  So, let's get started. Plot As soon as... See full review

If someone told me that there was an isekai cour out there which didn't have the typical ecchi and-or harem hackneyed garbage that plagues 99% of all isekai anime, I wouldn't have believed them... ...until this anime.  Yes, it does exist!  The rare and good isekai anime which doesn't need to rely on unrealistic boobs, a harem of girls throwing themselves at the protagonist, loli characters, or a perverted character!  -- Story Tsuyoshi Mukouda seems to be a typical salaryman who knows a thing or two about cooking, but that doesn't mean he isn't excited when he finds himself... See full review

Please read the review before you come at me with torches and pitchforks for the ratings I gave it.  I did enjoy the first season, but the second season sort of deleted enjoyment (ha, see what I did there?) with its numerous plot and character issues as well as two recap/nonsensical episodes. I'm editing this review as episode 52 just came out and the second season is officially over.  The first season (episodes 1-25) were what I would have loved to see in the original/first anime because it felt more true to the characters and we actually learned more about them and what made them who they... See full review

I'm going to start with this:  The version I saw had jumpy and stuttering sound (my guess is something happened during the subbing process), so the "sound" rating applies to the songs (opening, ending, ect). Quite honestly, I had no clue what was going on for the duration of the movie.  The pacing was terrible, the story was awful, the characters didn't really get to do much, the antagonist's backstory was incomplete...the list goes on. Normally, I'd separate this into a brief description of the story/plot, a brief description of the characters, and then an overall where I go over the... See full review

The first half of the show was absolutely amazing and felt like it did everything right...then the second cour came in and started to tell a different narrative as if it had been handed off to a new set of writers.  What could have been an interesting and unique take on Sherlock Holmes became an echo of the BBC series. Plot/Story I'm going to break this into the two arcs because it's not fair to the first arc to lump it all together. Arc 1 (episodes 1-12) featured Doctor John Watson as he gets past the wall dividing the upper class West side to the lower class/chaotic East side in search of... See full review

Ahhh...nothing like a slow journey despite a looming time limit.  Perhaps the slow journey wouldn't have been as bad if they didn't use a montage to show some of it when they could have dedicated that time to character interaction, but even so it was easy to forget that they were even on a time limit. -- Plot A year after her elementary school student Kanna isn't sure whether or not she wants to keep running; a passion she had shared with her mother.  Rather, she even has something of a trauma associated with it...so when she puts on her mother's amulet one day and finds out that her... See full review

I'm going to start by saying that, though I'm aware of the VN (Visual Novel game), I hadn't played it.  That said, I did play the others and went back to play the first one after watching this anime. I'm also going to point out that I saw the anime subbed (my own preference), and if you've only seen the dub, you might want to check out the subbed version because it's a real treat (there are many well known voice actors). The majority of the review will be spoiler-free, but I'm unfortunately going to have to go into spoilers at the end because some of my major issues with the anime include some big... See full review

For the first few episodes, this anime is amazing.  It's certainly not better than Magic Kaito (Kaito Kid), but it has its own charm, wit, and approach to the entire Phantom Thief theme. Then, a "plot" was introduced...and it crashed and burned.  Imagine picking up a book and trying to read the entire novel with not just pages missing, but entire chapters.  That's what the "plot" of this felt like. Story Chizuko Mikami is an 11 year old girl living with her aunt and uncle after her parents passed away.  Despite being the heiress to her family name and fortune... See full review

Reviewing this is a little difficult due to how freaking confusing this anime is...and by the time you hit around episode 20, it feels like there's an info-dump every episode which, combined with its own terms, just gets far too convoluted to keep up with. It would have been great if, after episode 3 (yes, the "intro" arc takes three episodes), the anime did a better job explaining it all...but instead, it waited until almost literally the very last moment and then crushed the viewer under the weight of all the information. Something I wish I had known upon starting to watch it (aka, some much... See full review

I'm a little late to the party with this review, but I did finally manage to find more than the first 8 minutes of the movie.  Actually, I had completely forgotten about it up until recently since it takes so long from the time of release to someone being able to sub it. Let's jump right in. Story The movie opens up with action and a chase scene, as some data has been stolen from some unknown location.  Considering that we see the Akai and Rei/Amuro chasing the criminal (merely referred to as "that woman" for the time being), it isn't hard to deduce where the data came from. The... See full review