BlueSummerSkies

I'm in my late 30s, and let me just say that this is one of the most clever animes I had seen in years; I'm not sure if viewers realize just how brilliant it is. This show essentially parodies all the things in magical girl animes which are disguised as being supposedly empowering to women, but which are actually degrading and insulting. Magical girl animes usually depict women in ridiculous outfits, acting as cutsey little girls you can't really take seriously, and are often filled with overly-gratuitous shots of them looking half-naked and vulnerable. Showing them as sex objects serves to neutralize any... See full review

As of now, I could not watch this anime to the end. It became increasingly tragic and depressing to the point where it was too painful to me. Which is a shame because it's also compelling and you want to see how it turns out, but I just had to stop. As the story progresses there's an increasing portion of the plot spent in hospital wards while characters you love are slowly dying. I watch anime to try to escape and in order to feel happy, not in order to become more depressed. Maybe at some point I'll watch it to the end.

I thoroughly despise this anime. (Incidentally: I apologize as this is a very long rant, so please feel free to skip it if you're not in the mood to read a very long rant-- sorry! ^^ ) I despise not only this season, but pretty much all of them; I'm a fan of the original legend, and I get that in this incarnation they wanted to make Sanzo into a badass, which is awesome by me-- I'm all for the modern-day badass version. I also get that they really wanted to drive home this idea that Sanzo "has no attachments to anyone" and that it's supposed to be deep and meaningful in some way that he doesn't... See full review

Folks, I was not pleased with this one. A little disclaimer first: I'm in my late 30s, and as such my taste is often different from that of much younger viewers. I really loved the first season of this anime, and here's why: what drew me in straight away was that the main character (Nanami) did not strike me as your typical shoujo anime heroine. I was really tired of seeing your cookie-cutter shoujo protagonist: timid and shy but determined, and, to her own surprise, everyone likes her "because of the bright smile on her face." She's usually impossibly shy and docile but sugary sweet, which is a... See full review

Despite some aspects which, in my opinion, might turn some viewers off from this anime, I still really loved it, and I’ll explain why below. FIRST, THE CONS (keep in mind that despite all this, I still loved the show!) You would think that a show centered around the subject of glasses would leave the writers running out of content pretty quickly— and it kind of does. Some of the episodes really feel like the writers had nothing left to write about and are really straining for material. Some of the plotlines go past the point of zany and wacky randomss and into what feels like almost painful... See full review

When the manga first came out many years ago, I was in my early 20s and I remember feeling really blown away by the art style: Peach Girl was one of the first mangas of its kind to draw characters that way, and I bought it just for that. The attention to detail in the clothing and fashion was just gorgeous, I loved how Momo was drawn and the fashionable images of her in-between chapters. I read the entire manga just because I adored the art style so much. In retrospect, now in my late 30s I think the story was quite bad, but undoubtedly I think this in part because I am in my late 30s. The entire story... See full review

This anime is exactly as good as everyone says. And I'm usually quite a cynical person who is hard to please. Bloody go watch it! XD

This anime will appeal to a lot of people because it's visually very unique; it's got the sort of look that will make anyone aged 12 to 25 say it's very deep and genius. I won't deny that it's very nice to look at and that it's definitely different; I also won't deny that the main character (the medicine seller) is handsome and nice to follow as the main character. But after thinking about this show a lot, I realized that some stuff about it really bothers me. Consistently and across the entire series it has this running theme that's basically "women are good when they are young and helpless, but... See full review

If you watch only one anime, watch Death Note. Is it perfect? No. But it's very good. When it first came out I was in my late 20s, and by that point I was feeling very tired of various anime tropes; what really reeled me in from the first ep of Death Note was the mature feel it had. This was rather unusual for anime at the time. For a large part of it, it felt very refreshing to me in how serious it felt and how much it stayed away from cliches I was very tired of seeing in anime; keep in mind that this was in 2006, so now there may be some animes that are similar to DN, but at the time it was quite... See full review

I'm not sure if people will see this review considering how many reviews this anime already has-- which is a shame because I don't think that most people know something interesting about this anime. The premise for this show is clearly a tribute to the classic '60s British drama called The Prisoner-- where the main character was called Number Six. The Prisoner had the same basic premise, of a utopian society which was actually rooted in something sinister, and where people's actions were constantly monitored and they'd suffer terrible consequences for even the smallest misdemeanors. At the time, The... See full review

I'm not sure if people who watch or read ParaKiss understand or appreciate the full brilliance of it: the manga was originally loosely based on a film called Velvet Goldmine-- which is an absolutely incredible, gorgoeus film, based loosely on David Bowie's life. The main male character in ParaKiss (George) is based on the character Brian Slade in Velvet Goldmine-- who was based on David Bowie. Velvet Goldmine is a visually stunning m/m film which depicted expertly the decadence of the glam rock period in the '70s-- and, in true tribute to the movie, Paradise Kiss did a brilliant job of portraying that same... See full review

I'm in my late 30s, and nowadays it's often hard for me to find anime I genuinely enjoy; I quite liked this one, but wasn't crazy about the sequel. I'm a big fan of bromance, and this one has some very strong bromance: it becomes very clear through the course of the story that there's genuine love between the two guys learning Rakugo. It isn't expressed as shounen-ai or anything, but you can really feel the strong love regardless-- the guy cares more for his friend than for his female romantic interest. Also, in my opinion the main character's personality was very compelling-- he's got this harsh... See full review

I'm in my late 30s and nowadays it's often hard for me to find an anime I genuinely enjoy; this one started out a little slow but became quite engaging after a few episodes (there's a good twist in the story). By a certain point in the plot, the bromance hit like a brick and I was completely hooked; also you are likely to develop a crush on the main character by the time you're done watching. The things that kind of bugged me were the presence of some ditzy girls (I could really do without this sort of character), and the 'naive, useless female whose only function in the story is to get kidnapped but... See full review

I actually fell very hard for this anime, despite its dated art style-- dare I say, it was actually one of the more romantic m/m animes I've watched. The original manga Patalliro-- as opposed to this anime, Patalliro Saiyuki-- was made in the '70s (the Patalliro anime came out in the early '80s); it was the first shonen-ai manga. Patalliro Saiyuki was made in 2005, and its art looks dated because it was based on the art used in the original '70s manga (however, it's actually quite an improvement on the original, rather cringeworthy '70s art). But despite the art, you still end up really getting into the... See full review

At first glance, your typical yaoi-lover might take one look at this anime and say, "Wow, that looks dated-- and what in the heck is with those profiles?? I can't possibly fall in love with something that looks like this!" However, I think one thing to keep in mind is that Patalliro was the FIRST shonen-ai manga/anime, so it kind of made way for many (never enough) others that came after it. Also, it actually IS rather romantic once you get into it; sadly, most of the yaoi or shonen-ai animes currently available are rather short, they're usually just OVAs with one or two episodes-- while... See full review