PowerUpOrDie

Shortly after watching the mediocrity that is 'Angolmois' I see 'Hidamari No Ki'- and find just what I was looking for in a historical fiction anime.

STORY

Adapted from a manga written in the early 80's by the 'God of Manga' Osamu Tezuka, 'Hidamari No Ki' takes place during the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when Japan rapidly transitioned both politically and culturally from the medieval to the modern world. For an American example, you'd have to compare this era to the Civil War in the way it both defined and fundamentally changed the nation, and in the amount of weight it carries in... See full review

The Vision of Escaflowne is a 1996 shojo fantasy mecha series that continues to hold up more than 20 years later.

STORY

Escaflowne is a good adventure story. It doesn't cover the deepest or most complex themes, and at times it can get a little dopey in ways that make it clear they were trying to appeal to teenage girls, but the plot keeps you engaged as the cast jumps from one dangerous situation to another. Perhaps I just had the bad luck to re-watch this series shortly after seeing the staggering amount of worldbuilding in ... See full review

Sword of the Stranger is one of all-time great anime action movies.

STORY

It's a simple story, but it does its job to set-up a series of cool fight scenes and doesn't insult my intelligence. I can't say there are any particularly deep themes or philosophies discussed, but SotS is still willing to take its time between action sequences to establish its characters and emotional stakes- rather than race from spectacle to spectacle like some lesser action films I've seen. 

ART & SOUND

Production values are top-notch in Sword of the Stranger. The animation is highly fluid and... See full review

STORY

A relaxing, low-key slice-of-life drama about dictionaries and the people who make them. The image of a Ferris Wheel is used quite often, because just as a Ferris Wheel is fun but always in motion, a dictionary is in a never ending process of preparation and revision. 
It's definitely a 'sit back and chill out' rather than an 'on the edge of your seat' type of show. The one big issue comes a little after the halfway point when the story makes a time skip of several years without any warning and it can take a minute to readjust if you're not paying attention.

ART... See full review

STORY NHK is a story centering around various social dysfunctions and anxieties and how people cope with them. It handles these issues with surprising delicacy, walking a narrow line between fanboy pandering ("This is totally OK behavior!") and knee-jerk condemnation ("You must be a freak!"), trying to get to the heart of why a person might go to unhealthy extremes of behavior. To get an idea of the show's writing, in an early episode Sato and Misaki are having a conversation where Misaki implies she thinks Sato has no clue of who Sigmund Freud was, so he trolls her by playing dumb and... See full review

It can be a bit trope-y, but Kids On The Slope is a well animated and scored anime drama. STORY The story is nice, but at times it feels like it's trying too hard to be a drama. Certain key events don't feel entirely natural. The last couple episodes suffer from this issue in particular, where the cast makes a series of emotionally charged but not completely believable choices to keep the tension up. The ending is still nice, but a part of me is left wondering "there had to have been better ways for these people to go about this". ART & SOUND The highlight of this show has to be the music... See full review

Boredom can do some interesting things, like make a derivative piece of candy colored fluff like this palatable. STORY The story is largely episodic, but it does follow a basic plot of a fictional game studio working to release the next installment of a popular franchise. The real point of the plot is simply to set up various scenarios for the cast members to bounce off each other for comedy (and occasionally fan service). There's a limit to how serious a series can be when half the plot of one episode centers around one character accidentally eating another's pudding. ART & SOUND The art and sound... See full review

An infamous studio adapts a world famous novel... and it works? Gonzo's The Count of Monte Cristo takes Dumas' acclaimed novel of treachery and revenge and gives it a fascinating twist.

STORY

The story of Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Christo differs from the novel in two major respects: 1) The story is told from the perspective of Albert de Morcerf, thus cloaking the Count in a layer of secrecy that doesn't exist when the point-of-view character is the novel's Edmund Dantes 2) A critical character in the Count's past is changed from benevolent to malevolent. This second change is particularly... See full review

I finally find a fantasy anime with genuine depth and complexity in 12 Kingdoms. I just wish they had finished it... STORY I'll give this anime major points for consistency. 12 Kingdoms establishes its tone and story world rules and sticks to them. The 12 Kingdoms are heavily influenced by classical Chinese philosophy (particularly the Mandate of Heaven, which governs the entire political system) and stays with these influences even when it means making good guy characters act in ways that don't fit with more modern worldviews- everyone doesn't simply act like 21st century people in medieval costumes. The... See full review

I can't say this anime did anything particularly wrong or misrepresented its source material, but it still feels like a textbook example of 'just OK'. STORY The plot follows several stories taken from the first few volumes of the manga. There are few changes beyond occasionally combining two storylines into one. A good job was done in picking a fitting last episode for this show so it still feels like there is a climax and wrap-up, even with the episodic story structure. ANIMATION & SOUND There may not have been any significant slip-ups, but this animation looks very basic for a 2016 show... See full review

A farcical school rom-com that’s one of the funniest anime I’ve seen in a good while, even if it does slip up a little towards the end. STORY The Encyclopedia Britannica defines ‘Farce’ as “[A] comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and violent horseplay.” Essentially, it’s a form of comedy where everything is so overblown and ridiculous that the audience is never meant to take it seriously. Running on an outlandish series of comedic errors and exaggerated reactions, the main cast manages to... See full review

An anime with a huge 'cool' factor and some unique ideas, but major flaws in execution cause Re:Creators to blow its shot at greatness and leave me with mixed opinions. STORY Re:Creators opens with a bang, one of the best opening episodes I've seen in a long while, a creative and well-animated action-fest that immediately hooks the viewer. It then promptly follows this great start with an exposition heavy second episode, and that sets the stage for what you'll be getting for the remaining 20 episodes. This show is very uneven, jolting between fast-paced battle sequences and long stretches of dialogue... See full review

'Bakuman' became a cult hit by giving manga fans a look inside the industry. If the manga about manga can do well, why not an anime about anime? Much like 'Bakuman', 'Shirobako' delivers a high level of enjoyment and information, but threadbare plot and character development keep it from being anything beyond a fun ride.

-Story-

There is very little story to speak of, as what plot exists is there solely to deliver lessons about the anime industry or occasionally set-up a debate over some facet of it (such as 2D vs CGI animation, or the politics behind choosing a voice cast). There are... See full review

Not the SAO we needed, but the one we deserved. The franchise that launched a 1000 'trapped in a videogame' copycats gets its theatrical debut with a film that exemplifies all SAO's strengths and weaknesses. STORY "What if Pokemon Go could kill you?" Taking place after the events of SAO II, a new video game craze is sweeping Japan. Using a new device called the 'Augma' that lets gamers play while fully conscious, the video game Ordinal Scale seems to have none of the inherent risks of a full-dive system. But there's a catch, because we wouldn't have much of a story if there wasn't one, now would... See full review

Crazy, but my kind of crazy. Ergo Proxy breaks away from a lot of what could be called the anime 'mainstream', and like other works that do this, tends to spilt opinion as to its quality. With a non-standard presentation style and existential philosopical references galore, EP walks a fine line between creativity and chaos.

STORY The plot begins in a straightforward, linear fashion during EP's opening third, but by the middle gets rather experimental with its presentation. It becomes less clear what exactly is real and what is an illusion- seemingly realistic plotlines are revealed to... See full review

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress joins my list of 'Big Mac Anime', those anime for which I have no  delusions about the quality of their content, but dang if I don't enjoy them.

STORY  I've heard complaints about how the plot is too dumb to really take seriously. It's a story about fighting zombies on a gigantic steampunk train, what exactly were you expecting? Tatami Galaxy? It's too much like Attack on Titan? Just off the top of my head, the video game Banner Saga, the TV series Battlestar Galactica, and even the old John Wayne movie Stagecoach run on the same basic... See full review

When work took me to Japan recently I had to catch this film in theaters, never mind that I can't speak Japanese and so far there are no legal translations (Tracking down the Shinjuku Picadilly theater wasn't easy either). I've read the manga so many times that subtitles or a dub were unnecessary, though I suppose such blatant fanboyism does undermine my objectivity. Well, here's the best I can do to give a balanced review.

STORY In order to accomodate the demands of making a feature film, the storyline of A Silent Voice has been streamlined. The main arc revolving around Shoya and Shokko is... See full review

It starts as humans waging total war against aliens in the depths of space, it ends as.... Gulliver's Travels? Well, I've heard dumber ideas. STORY

The story makes a dead giveaway on what it's aiming for when in the first episode we see main character Ledo separted from everyone else by a disaster, then waking up to humans crawling all over his enormous mecha, which all seems rather reminiscient of Gulliver being examined by the Lilliputians. So kudos for making a clever reference. Gulliver's Travels is the story of the lands Gulliver visits, rather than any kind of grand saga of... See full review

Characters with distinct and plausible personalities? A coherent plot? Limited melodrama and no gratuitous fan-service? Excuse me, I thought this was an anime drama set in high school. Studio Feel delivers a surprisingly strong performance considering the garbage that tends to get shoveled out under the "High School Drama" label- and my own lingering skepticism from what I thought was a mediocre first season.

STORY The actual progression of events is pretty basic, as it follows our cast through a typical Japanese school year. In this character driven story the plot serves its purpose by... See full review

*This review is for both seasons of KoS* One of my 'Fast Food Anime'. An anime series watched not because of particular quality or merit, but simply because it's easily consumable. Shows like 'Akira', 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', or 'Perfect Blue' may be far superior, but you do need to be in a particular state of mind to enjoy them properly. 'Knights of Sidonia' fills that niche for when you just want to veg out and enjoy an anime without having to put much mental effort forward. If something like 'Evangelion' is a fine meal at a top Italian restaurant, 'Sidonia' is a drive-through Big Mac (but sometimes... See full review

      A sports anime that's fairly unique for the medium of anime, but viewers who've seen American sports films will recognize the tropes early on. Still, decent production values and execution of the premise make this series worth a watch (even if it won't be killing any giants in the ratings department).

STORY       It says something about the anime industry when not centering on high school or high school students is enough to make your show unique. Giant Killing takes a road less travelled and follows the fictional professional club East Tokyo United, going... See full review

An early work by ufotable that really wants to be 'Cowboy Bebop'. It does't have the strength of character writing or depth of story to pull that off, but it still makes for a fun romp if you don't take it too seriously. STORY About as straightforward as it gets. There's a huge treasure on a planet scheduled to be bombed to dust, and our crew of misfits has to evade the police, military, and the most powerful mafia in the galaxy if they want to grab it before everything goes ka-boom. The plot runs on well-used tropes and a strong dose of suspension of disbelief. You'll be left wondering why the... See full review

Oh there are plenty of flaws that can be found within the king of dark fantasy anime. The animation is far from awe-inspiring even when it isn't using cheap tricks to stretch out the budget. The sound is mediocre on the whole. The ending has a strong claim to being the worst cliffhanger in anime history. But the journey there still manages to be enjoyable for those who need a regular fix of swords, blood, and monsters (like me).

STORY Ignoring the elephant in the room- the ultimate 'read the manga' ending- the story manages to be entertaining if fairly straightforward. The Hawks face a challenge... See full review