MordredMS

"Another Epilogue" is an alternate ending of sorts for Angel Beats!, replacing the last 30 seconds of the final episode with these further two and a half minutes. And in my mind, it shines as a much better, subtler epilogue to a series that suffered heavily from a rushed finale.

SPOILERS, of course, if you haven't watched Angel Beats! yet. This special shows Otonashi, having been left alone in the afterlife school now that his friends have moved on, giving some rough guidance to a new non-NPC student who just arrived and started questioning the purpose of it all. As he leaves, the class... See full review

This is what I mean when I say that simplicity doesn’t necessarily have to be a defect. There are works that despite their linearity, their total lack of deep themes or profound character development, or even exciting action or whatever, you can’t help but like. Maybe because it shows a simple but relatable setting, maybe because the characters are a bit flat but still charming, maybe simply because we’re freaking perverts, whatever the reason, it just works.
STORY: 7.5/10
Kanade and Yukino are fraternal twin sisters who have always been very close and are now living together in... See full review

Some works of fiction manage to captivate thanks to their complex and deep plot; others become unforgettable thanks to characters so strong and authentic that the viewer grows attached to them like they were real friends; others just provide incomparable beauty to the eye, or side-splitting humour; others yet, become legends due to simply how hilariously bad they are. Tankū Danzai Skelter Heaven, a tie-in to a pretty obscure Playstation 2 game, is one of the latter. STORY: 1.5/10
In a distant future, a huge, mysterious flying object appears above the city. It is up to Altamira Agency, a... See full review

I love girls with glasses. I don’t know why, meganekko just kill me. I wear spectacles myself, I have poor eyesight. So, it’s no wonder that this title and this premise caught my eyes. All four of them. I wasn’t expecting much, to be fair, just some stupid love comedy I’d be watching just because I’m too curious for my own good. Instead, I was presented with something that, while simple and mostly unoriginal, struck me as surprisingly enjoyable.

STORY... See full review

Well, I’ll be damned if I ever expected to see a manga inspired by Western superhero comics made by Katsura Masakazu, the guy who’s best known for drawing swimsuits and panties in questionable love comedies. While on paper it may seem a good idea to bathe the superhero mythos style in Japanese shōnen storytelling, it’s an operation that combines two things that are full of overused clichés, so it needs to be done well to work. And if a very long manga is to be adapted into a very short anime series, the balance gets even more unstable.

STORY: 4.5/10
Ten years after... See full review

Note: I realise there's already far too many community reviews for this one, but I had written this overly long rant for another site, so what the hell.

When I read a review praising a certain work as “flawless”, it normally makes me raise an eyebrow, it feels more like a biased ass-licking trying to force a “perfect ten” out of something the reviewer likes than an actual critical overview. However, I realise that there are indeed times when no matter how hard you try, you just can’t manage to find any defect in what you’re dealing with; it may be because it moved... See full review

What’s the best proof that a certain work of fiction has achieved success and influence? When other works of fiction in the same vein start popping up. I’m talking about “Bakemonogatari”, whose lead this curiously-titled “C³ - CubeXCursedXCurious”, an adaptation of a still ongoing light novel series, follows to a good extent. More of a "Bakemonogatari meets When they cry", actually. The result, however, is a typical part action, part horror, part harem/love comedy flick, with some brilliant moments here and there, but a general lack of originality. ... See full review

If you’re reading a review for an anime with a “2” in its title, I’m going to assume you’ve watched and presumably liked the first. Now, having loved the first season of this novel-adaptation, like many others I feared that Spice and Wolf would suffer from the horrible disease known as “Sequelitis”. Once again, though, this anime managed to surprise me with a sequel that is not only on par with the original, but surpasses it, even if only slightly, by correcting the two main defects of the first. STORY: 8.5/10
There’s not really much of a synopsis to... See full review

I had heard about this two-episode OVA series as one of the “so bad it’s good” ones, especially for its animation, so I sat down expecting a good laugh at something like Skelter heaven. But against my expectations, Tanjō – Debut was certainly not good, but not even bad enough to be enjoyable as such, and even with a somehow “genuine” feeling. I expected a train wreck of awfulness, but I found something that, while certainly bad, still manages to have its qualities.  

STORY: 3.5/10
In the first of these two standalone episodes, Itō Aki is... See full review

If you read my “Digimon Adventure” review, then you know that I consider it an underappreciated gem that managed to make the best out of its premise with both intriguing plot and unforgettable characters. After its success, it was only natural for a sequel to be produced, and it was just as natural for it to fall to the plague of sequelitis and be generally considered not only worse than its predecessor but even one of the worst Digimon seasons period. However, while certainly inferior to the first, Adventure 02 still has... See full review

I always say that movies from big shōnen franchises are usually little more than filler arcs with a budget, and should be seen with the right mindset: relax, unplug your brain, enjoy the action. Naruto movies always managed to be at least entertaining, but the formula they reused again and again from the filler arcs started to smell funny after a while, and all of this came down in the lazily written Naruto Shippūden the movie 2 – The contractually obligatory movie. However, this one here, the sixth Naruto movie overall, finally managed to avoid at least partially the formula and actually... See full review

Also known as "Tv tropes: The anime".
Heh, this is one of those hard to judge. If, on one hand, I can’t but get pissed off at how poorly its characters and plot are ripping off other anime, at how contrived and poorly-explained its developments are, at how it looked like it was trying to cram in as many clichés as humanly possible, on the other hand I can’t but admit that for the most of its run I was genuinely intrigued and at times even moved, despite me going “are you fucking kidding me?” and “You’re really going there?” some too many times... See full review

I said in the past how I’ve always seen movies from big shōnen franchises as filler arcs with a budget. The Naruto movies are no exception, but I always found them entertaining and effective in what they do, when you just want to sit back, relax, and unplug your brain. There are times, however, when even with that mindset the formula gets so stale that even the writers themselves seem to have stopped giving a crap, resulting in something that could have been subtitled The Contractually Obligatory Movie. And this second Shippūden movie and fifth Naruto movie overall, the one I had the... See full review

After the OVA of the same name left me unimpressed and with quite lucid an idea of where it wasted its potential, I came in watching this new, bigger installment of this franchise of uncommon origins with clear expectations of what it had to improve to meet up with its hype, although I wasn’t really hoping it’d make it. Well, I’m glad to say that not it only met my expectations, but surpassed them. What I found is a small, simple, but surprisingly impacting and emotional gem. STORY: 9/10
The plot develops throughout its 8 episodes into a slightly psychological drama with some... See full review

As I begin the review of this (third) feature film based off the Tekken franchise, I feel I must premise that I am a fan of the franchise since the days when the PS2 was fresh out, and have played all the games but Tekken 6 (the latest, at the moment of writing). With this necessary basis out of the way, let’s continue.

STORY: 5/10
The story takes place between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6. Both Mishima Zaibatsu, now led by Kazama Jin with Nina Williams as right hand, and G Corporation, now led by Mishima Kazuya with Anna Williams as right hand, are interested in a man called Kamiya Shin. In... See full review

Japanese folklore and Shintō beliefs have always been populated with the most various multitude of spirits, which in turn populated Japanese horror tales. This anime series is an anthology of three such stories set in Edo-period Japan: two adapted from classical Kabuki theatre plays, and an original one. STORY: 6.5/10
The first, adapted from the influential Yotsuya Kaidan play, is the tale of a young woman named Oiwa, who, abandoned and betrayed by the one she loved, becomes an Onryō (vengeful spirit) and casts an everlasting course on all who wronged her. This part of the anime was... See full review

The rise of light novels in Japan has proved beneficial to the anime industry, as anime adaptations of them are starting to become as common as adaptations of manga or videogames, and as a lot of them actually end up becoming series of huge quality. When I took on Spice and Wolf, I somehow expected that I'd have disliked it. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much such a simple story managed to hook me up, thanks mostly to the strength of its characters. STORY: 7.5/10
If this series seems to have a very basic and weak premise to you, it's probably because it does. Still, from this small... See full review

If there are genres that have been in constant grow in today’s anime, those must be moe and ecchi. And this 2011 manga-based series is one of those that take the ecchi element simply up to eleven: like Najica Blitz Tactics had done with its panty-shot fest, Manyū Hikenchō focuses its area of interest right up where the sun does shine: female breast. With a twist: this element is fundamentally inscribed in not only the plot, but the entire setting. Is it just a poor excuse for shameless fanservice? Does it have even a hint of any value? Let’s have a look… I’ll try to keep... See full review

The animated adaptation of Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece, the 1008 novel "Genjimonogatari" (The tale of Genji), considered to be the first modern novel of history. Having studied this novel at university, I watched and judged this adaptation not only by its own merit but also by comparing it to the original.

STORY: 5/10
Well, it's not like the Genjimonogatari was known for its gripping and unpredictable plot to begin with, being for the most part just the description of Genji's various love adventures, so if said plot is also adapted somehow loosely you can see how this can be a... See full review

Ahh, Mars of Destruction. Something you must see to believe. Something you wouldn't ever believe to be possible outside of the realm of LEGEND. Something your mind will initially refuse to register as true, and then shiver with a flow of many different and conflicting emotions. And you totally should watch it.

STORY: 1.5/10
What little can be understood of the plot is: some starship somehow went "kaboom" while delivering something from Mars, then some big ugly things called "Ancients" appear to be attacking randomly in Japan and there are some (probably underage, and seemingly... See full review

The first movie off Space Battleship Yamato (second, if you consider the theatrical recap of the original series) was produced with the intention of making it the final tombstone to the franchise, as the title itself quite directly suggests. With that in mind, Leiji Matsumoto's unmistakable hand wrote one of the most intense, moving, sad, and romantically heroic stories of his whole career, and probably of the whole history of anime.
STORY: 9.5/10
When the menace of the Comet Empire comes to threaten the Earth, the crew of the Yamato re-assembles against all orders to defend it with the glorious... See full review

Onmyō Taisenki may be considered just another monster series, but in reality this quite unknown and as of yet not-released-out-of-Japan 2004 anime is actually able to carve itself a quite unique place in the genre, in that, while exploiting mechanics already well extablished, it does so by going into the world of Eastern philosophy and mythology.

STORY: 8/10
This anime series is a textbook case of what I just decided I like to call "Digimon syndrome": starts off as a mildly boring, mildly childish succession of random battles, in a "monster-of-the-week" format, while... See full review

This is one of those series that makes you wonder just how much the creators were taking it seriously. The answer to that question can probably completely reverse your opinion, if you're like me.

STORY: 5.5/10
The plot is quite basic, and for the synopsis I'll just point you to the main Anime-planet page. Around the main story of Shizuma and Nagisa, unravel the ones of a very large cast of diverse characters. It could be summarised as a convoluted dodecahedron of senpai-kohai/best friend-best friend relationships which more often than not gain (lesbian) romantic tones. A romantic slice of life... See full review

First of all, let me say as a premise that yes, I DID play the PS3 game, and that's why my review is going to be a bit more negative. And let me also say before hand that yes, you should play the game, before, after or during the vision of this anime or even if you don't want to watch this anime at all, because it's one of the best PS3 games. Now, with this out of the way, let's begin.

STORY: 7/10
I'm going to assume you already read the summary and thus know the basic premise, so I'll just jump forward to the comment. The problem is that the beautiful plot of the game is terribly watered down... See full review

First Shippūden movie, and fourth Naruto movie overall. I always thought that movies from big shōnen franchises (like Naruto, but also Bleach, Dragonball...) have often been nothing more than a filler arc with a big budget; still, for some reason I always watch every single one of them, because I’ll admit that at times just unpretentious action is the kind of guilty pleasure I need to relieve the stress. Plus, you never know when an unexpected masterpiece could come your way! Well, this time... it didn’t. This is not what I’d call a BAD movie... the only problem is, if you... See full review

As tpeople who know me personally can attest, I often make conceited efforts to pull this series out of the abyss of prejudices it is sometimes thrown into. Because it often gets treated like "just another pocket monster series for kids", which is seriously underrating it for what it has to offer: beneath that there's a lot of content much more mature and "adult" than what you'd probably think at first.


STORY: 8.5/10
Let me state this clearly: those, like me, who grew up with this anime getting broadcasted on TV... See full review