Sabure

Released in theatres in 2022, the Yuru Camp movie is a wonderfully crafted reunion movie that showed why the series is so beloved by many. The girls of the Outdoors Club – Rin Shiba, Nadeshiko Kagamihara, Aoi Inuyama, Ena Saitao, and Chiaki Ohgaki - reunite years after their high school graduation to work on a project that will rekindle their love of camping and the great outdoors. This movie is set outside of the main storyline and is considered non-canon, but still contains all of the elements that makes Yuru Camp so great. The story of the Yuru Camp movie takes place well after the girls of the... See full review

Sleeping with Hinako is a POV sequel to the successful Training with Hinako by Studio Hibari. Training with Hinako sold out on the first day of its release, so the studio decided to create a sequel to capitalize on Hinako's popularity. The result is a pretty boring, repetitive OVA that did something other that give viewers a relaxing night's sleep. There's not much of a story in this OVA. It's just Hinako trying to get a good night's sleep as she tosses and turns while wearing a very skimpy nightie for a good chunk of the OVA. However there is some original animation that keeps things interesting for a... See full review

After-school Hanako-kun is a web series that functions as a filler between the first season of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun and the upcoming second series. The 4 episodes are split into 2 stand-alone mini-episodes, and the stories don't really have any ties to the main seires. But fans of the series should fine some entertainment value with these episode, even though they could be disappointed that this is not the anticipated second season. While most of the characters get equal opportunity to showcase what they can do in not-so-serious situations, the stories don't really have the same punch as the main... See full review

The Dark Myth is a 1990 OVA by Studio Ajia-do about a young man named Takeshi who receives 8 painful stigmata-like marks on his body in order to be reincarnated as Atman, the alter-ego of Brahman that fought the God of Darkness Susano-oh in ancient times. An interesting concept, but unfortunately was pooly executed and turned into one of the most boring and mundane anime sereis I've watched. While I like the idea of infusing religious history into an anime series, it felt very rushed and force-fed, and in turn created a painfully boring series to watch. The dialogue was very inconsistent and incoherent... See full review

Based on the manga by Komue Fukuchika and animated by GoHands, The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses is another anime series that relies on a gimmick to tell its story. The gimmick here is a cute middle-school girl named Ai Mie that caught the attention of Komura Kaede with her cute charms and whimsical nature. But one day Mie forgets her glasses, which is bad as she has terrible eyesight and always have to squint or hold her book close to her face in order to read. However, this only makes Komura more infactuated with Mie, and does all he can to help Mie on the days she forgets her glasses (which happens a... See full review

Rescue Me! is a one-shot OVA based on the manga by Yoshiharu Makita, best know for his works in the hentai genre. The OVA is literally soft-core porn with no plot or substance at all. It's really only for toses that are into this type of anime, and those that are looking for a good story or relatable characters should look somewhere else. The charaters are pretty basic and what you typically see in a borderline hentai/harem series. There's the girl-next-door classmate, the loli aunt, the yandere, and a clueless MC who only wants to live a normal life while trying to prevent his sudden girlfriends from... See full review

Canary is a one-shot OVA based off the eroge game of the same name by Front Wing, which happens to be the very first video game the company produced in its history. Upon viewing the OVA, it reads more like a promotional video for the game, despite not being a hentai or having any erotic or sexually charged images anywhere in the episode, save for a brief panty shot in the first 5 minutes. However, the OVA failed to even do what it was intended to do, and the end result was a 26-minute collosal waste of time. The chracters were pretty plain and boring, and there was no character development at all during... See full review

Based on the manga series by Shimpei Itoh, Hyper Doll is a 2-episode OVA released in the mid-1990's about a pair of alien androids that pose as cute high school girls to conceal their identities as defenders of the Earth, albeit a very undependable duo. The duo of Mew and Mica are very strong and powerful fighters. But their lazy and nonchalant attitudes gives you the impression that they're not as dependable as the locals would believe. They also constantly bicker at each other (in the way Kei and Yui of Dirty Pair fight with each other), and at time test their strength against each other, with little to... See full review

Based on the web manga by Itsutsuse and animated by newcomer studio Quad, My Life as Inukai-san's Dog is a very perverted and somewhat disturbing short-form series about a high-schooler that was turned into a dog by some freakish experiment. The protagonist then gets to spend his days being the beloved pet of his high-school crush Inukai, who has a weird and kinky dog-love fetish that borders on animal cruelty based on how she treats the poor animal. First off, I don't fault Quad for accepting this assignment. After all this is only their second anime series they produced on their own, and they actually... See full review

Junji Ito is considered by many to be one of the best, if not THE best author of Japanese horror. However, the anime adaptations so far have failed to accurately capture the brilliance of his works. Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre is the latest attempt to portray Ito's works into animation form. And sadly, like all of the previous attempts, it fails to capture the brilliance and essence of Ito's works. The episodes are relatively tame and not as suspenseful as you would expect in a horror series. Not that the episodes are all bad - with the exception of a couple of clunkers, the episodes as a whole... See full review

A Day Before Us ZERO is the prequel series to the two main series (A Day Before Us and A Day Before Us 2) that portrays the 4 main protagonists in their high school days and how they first met and became the close friends that they are. Just like its parent series, ZERO displays the friendship and budding romance of the four in a very calm and relaxed mindset. Also like its parents, the episodes are short (around 3 minutes long covering 18 episodes and an epilogue) but do a great job portraying the story without anything heavy or over-the-top. The animation is very fluid, cute, and not as extravagent as... See full review

You Don't Know Gunma Yet is a tourism anime focusing on the Gunma Prefecture and its traditions and everyday activities. While the series has some humerous points and is designed to be more of a parody, it comes out really flat and doesn't actually inspire people to visit the prefecture. Luckily the live-action segments at the end of each episode save face for the series. But the short run-time (only 3 minutes per episode), lackluster plot and uninspiring characters pretty much doomed this series.

These additional 2 episodes at the end of Season 6 of Natsume's Book of Friends continue the tradition of genuine and heart-warming storytelling that makes the Natsume anime such a beloved and bittersweet franchise. In the first episode, Natsume and Nyanko-sensei help a youkai bound to a tree stump fulfill its wish before the youkai disappears to the spirit world. In the second episode, Natsume helps a young girl find an owl spirit so that she can return the spirit's ring. Those that are familiar with the Natsume franchise will have the same feelings with these episodes as they would when watching the... See full review

This is the first Korean anime series that I've watched in my lifetime, and despite a total runtime of just 20 minutes, A Day Before Us is a very cute and wholesome romance. The series portays four young adults who go about their everyday lives all the while starting to build romantic feelings for each other. Despite the heavy limitations of the episodes' run time (only 2 minutes for each of the 10 episodes), there was enough contect to portray very believable and relatable romantic couples. The simplicity of the storyline combines with the simple yet cute artwork, which made for a relaxing and calming... See full review

Based on the popular manga by Hiroyuki Nishimori, Kyou kara Ore wa!! (From Today, It's My Turn!!) is a fast-paced, in-your-face slapstick comedy that focuses on a couple of transfer students who reinvent themselves and strive to become the greatest deliquents in Japan. The 10-episode OVA has some elements of GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), Cromartie High School, and Odd Couple mixed in each of the 50-minute episodes. The comedy is fast and furious and some of the best you'll watch in any anime series. Even the fight scenes (and there are plenty) have a comedic element that will have you ROFL while you're... See full review

Set years before the events of the first episode, the Your lie in April OVA episode "Moments" is an origin/prequal story that functions as a wonderful supplement to the main series. The OVA mainly focuses on Takeshi as he tries to improve his piano playing in order to best Kousei, only to fall short in every tournament they enter. Motivated by Kousei's authentic and near-flawless playing, Takeshi puts more dedication to his playing (initially he used piano as a way to gain free toys and other goodies), but constanly feels frustrated as his playing is not on par with the genius of Kousei. Emi also... See full review

Based on a 4-koma (4-panel) manga, Pan de Peace! is a cute short-format series about a group of high school girls that explore and strenghten their bonds of friendship though the consumpion and discusssion of bread. Yes, bread could be the key to woldwide peace, at least according to these cute and charming young ladies. The story is pretty basic: Minami Tani is an air-headed girl who just started high school and initially was having trouble making friends and fitting into the high school life. What kept her motivated was her love of bread - she eats bread every moring for breakfast before heading off to... See full review

If you're feeling lonely and are having a hard time sleeping, then have no fear - the Pillow Boys are here! And they are here to help you go to sleep. And I definitely mean that because this anime is boring as hell, and it will literally put you to sleep. Taken from the viewer's point of view, each of the 4-minute episodes (12 in all) feature a different boy that holds a flirty conversation with the viewer throughout the episode. Some of the dialogue is acutally quite nice and genuine, but most of the time it feels really creepy, especially in the later episodes. Despite the basic and somewhat generic... See full review

While most people are very familiar with the Disney version of The Little Mermaid - which was and still is a great movie in its own right - most people are probably not familiar with this short film by Toei back in 1975. The 69-minute film is very faithful to the original story by Hans Christian Anderson; a tragic tale of forbidden love and bad decision making. One thing I like about the movie is that it starts and finishes with live-action shots of Copenhagen, the home town of Anderson. The narrator gives a basic explanation to set up the movie, and after a scene of the ocean with the movie's title card... See full review

Even though this series is based off of a manga, realisitically Try Knights was created solely to capitalized on Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup. So in a way it felt like a 12-episode advertisement for the sporting event. The effort used in the making of Try Knights pretty much proves this. The main story focuses on a pair of rugby-playing brothers with different attitudes and career paths. The older brother has a superiority complex and views the younger brother as unfit to play the sport. The older brother prefers atleticism while the younger brother favors a more tactical approach to the sport... See full review

With their limited run times, most short-format shows face the difficulty of providing an entertaining experience in as little time as possible. AIURA is one of the few short-format shows that succeeded in providing a good quality show given its restrictions. Based on a 4-koma manga, AIURA is a story of three high-school girls living their daily school lives. The plotline is pretty basic, which was needed given that the entire 12-episode series is only 48 minutes long. But it does work in this format. The strength of this series are the characters. All of them are fun to watch and highly entertaining... See full review