Krozam

I thought I posted this here already... Well, whatever. This is a review I wrote over a year ago, right after watching the movie and reading the novel it's based on. It's a bit emotionally charged due to the powerful impact the movie had on me and how soon afterwards I wrote it, but my sentiments and evaluation remain the same to this day. It's a bit odd, but I've noticed that when it comes to stories that I think are truly, objectively, among the very best I know, I don't feel as much need to discuss and analyse them as with stories which I love, but know that they're severely flawed, or have otherwise... See full review

I'll be talking a bit about the original novel first. Smartphone is a bit of a cross between slice of life and adventure, both well established genres when it comes to fantasy stories starting with the "transported/reincarnated to another world" trope. Although there is no shortage of action, and there is an actual plot (mind you, not a good one), the tone of the story is very, very light, with no tension or real danger to the protagonist's party. As is pretty typical with "isekai" novels these days, the MC brings dishes, games and weapons from his previous world, which gets pretty... See full review

Log Horizon

Every once in a while, I come across an adaptation that renews my faith in adaptations. Log Horizon is one of those. It's patient, faithful, improves on the original instead of crapping all over it, and it's simply good. It covers the first 5 volumes of the light novels, each volume given approximately 5 episodes (most LN adaptations give 3, max 4 eps for one novel - explains why most LN adaptations are crap). The adaptation is faithful (though I've only read the 5th novel, so I'm not entirely sure how faithfully the first 4 vols are adapted), with slight improvements on the pacing and... See full review

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Overman King Gainer for me is that even though it's mecha and full of abilities ridiculous for scifi, my suspension of disbelief system had no problem handling it. I usually hate mecha, and most of Japanese scifi in general. No idea why this one was so easy to accept.

Overman is really quite an enjoyable anime. It's only too bad it doesn't reach half of its full potential. The story settings are very interesting, the characters aren't half-bad, and there's even potential for a nice romance on the side, but all of this is severely hindered by the fact that every... See full review

I saw from the start that Scrapped Princess is good: I established my expectations at 8 points during the first few episodes. However, I didn't expect it to keep getting better and better. The characters are likeable, deep and multi-dimensional; the plot is excellent; there is quite a lot of depth; the entertainment value (battles, comedy etc.) is fairly high; the production values are high for an old-ish anime (2003); and both the concept and the settings are quite interesting. Apart from the first 4 episodes, I marathoned this entire anime last night: I didn't want to stop despite being very tired for... See full review

Asura Cryin' This review is of the entire series, both seasons. A-P has them separated, but I saw no reason to review two halves of the same show separately. My third watch, and the anime is still as great as ever. The fact that it's a mecha anime might turn you away, if it's not your cup of tea, but let me tell you this: I despise mecha in general, but I love Asura Cryin'. It's not often you see an anime with an awesome, complex plot like this. It's a bit confusing at first, on the first watch, but intriguing from the start, thanks to numerous mysteries. The main character is also a bit on the bland... See full review

Well, that was... interesting. The comedy in general wasn't really my cup of tea, and the show is fairly reliant on comedy. There was one episode I actually found hilarious, most were so-so, some were downright terrible. The characters are nothing to brag about either, most of them are one-dimensional comedy characters. The female lead is okay, and I can't say that many of the side characters don't stand out in their own ways, but the male lead is pretty pathetic most of the time. I've seen worse, however, and he does have a few moments of sheer awesomeness. Romance plays a fairly important part, it's... See full review

I remember that when I watched the first episode of Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko for the first time, I thought it was kinda funny, but a bit weird for my taste. The character designs are gorgeous, though, so I didn't hesitate giving it another episode. After watching the ep, I thought it was a very good anime. After the third ep I was convinced it was a great anime, with the potential to become one of my 5-star favourites. I stalled it after ep 7, because it was so good that I wanted to wait for all the eps to come out and then marathon it for maximum enjoyment.

Today was finally the day I marathoned... See full review

UN-GO was a bit of a surprise: I started watching it on a whim, not expecting much, but in the end it's quite possibly my favourite of the season. I'm so very glad I didn't miss this anime, because it's a rare treat these days: a classy, plot-driven (if episodic), intelligent anime with no fanservice and very little action to take the focus off what's important. Very enjoyable, especially since it's been a while since I last enjoyed a good detective story.

It's difficult to find anything bad to say about the anime. It's no visual masterpiece, but it delivers a pretty strong atmosphere nonetheless... See full review

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi Surprisingly good, given the standard harem anime setup and the clichés running rampant througout the story. I'm generally pretty tolerant to clichés, when the story works and doesn't bore me, and this is one of those cases. I felt more nostalgic because of all the previously enjoyed romances and slice of lives that this reminded me of, rather than annoyed at the lack of originality.

All the characters fit their archetypes well, but I still found them likeable and it wasn't long until I saw them as individual characters rather than representatives of their... See full review

My review of this anime will necessarily be coloured by my adoration of the original visual novel, so I might not be able to examine the anime very objectively. To be honest, I don't think Fortune Arterial is a bad anime, but neither is it a very good one, and in comparison to the original work it's rather pale. The biggest problem hands down is the lack of time, as the anime includes material from every route and still consists of only 12 episodes, which would be enough to properly adapt one route, but only one. The good thing is, this gives us a wider understanding of the world and the secondary... See full review

You don't need to be interested in Go to enjoy this - it'll probably make you interested, if you aren't already. The matches in this anime are in no way inferior to the battles in good shounen anime. A game of Internet Go seriously gave me the chills, it was just as exciting and complex as the best fights I've ever seen. The dramatization in this anime is seriously top class, music and all.

I didn't really expect to get hooked to this anime, as I generally dislike it when people take games and sports too seriously. The first 2-3 episodes strengthened my preconception that the people in this story... See full review

Oh. My. Fucking. God. What an ending. I hoped for a good, emotionally fulfilling ending that'd make me cry, because I knew all along that this romance had the potential for it. But that ending... totally surpassed my highest hopes. I replayed the two beautiful scenes at the end many times, crying ceaselessly for, like, 15 minutes. Until now, I have only cried like this for a story three times in my life: when I finished Love Hina manga for the first time, Maison Ikkoku manga for the first time, and the Ah My Goddess movie. It's not just the ending scene: the four last episodes, the final arc, are much... See full review

I'm so glad this is the kind of anime that's much better as a whole than the first episode indicates. The storytelling in the first ep is jumpy as hell and seriously incoherent. Fortunately, the second episode is just jumpy and even the jumpiness is reduced to normal by the fifth ep.

The reason why I'm glad about that is because the concept is right up my alley: a confident magician girl travels a fantasy world, accompanied by two cool guys and experiencing various adventures. It's kind of clichéd, but as long as it doesn't develop into a serious love triangle, I like that sort of ... See full review

There might not be many who can say the same, but to me, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi might be the most hilarious anime I've ever seen. And it's by virtue of Arai Satomi, the Narrator, better known for her role as Shirai Kuroko's seiyuu in To Aru Majutsu no Index and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. She made this anime. Not literally, of course, but she's responsible for giving this anime a unique character and delivering at least two thirds of all the excellent comedy. Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu can't hold a candle to this narrator. If comedy were the only merit of this anime, it'd be a... See full review