kenikki

Visually, Princess Mononoke shines right off the bat. The design and movement of the demonic boar god is among the most impressive bits of animation I've come across. In addition to the fluid and gorgeous animation, the action is done so well it will immediately pull you in. And we will witness several more sequences of this caliber before the end. While the dark slithering appearance of the boar god’s manifested hatred is by far the coolest design Studio Ghibli made in this film, everything ‘fantastical’ have wonderful designs. From the adorably odd looks of the tiny Kodama spirits who... See full review

The fourth season of Natsume Yuujinchou is here. But is it as good as it's predecessors? The answer is "I guess..." Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is... See full review

While innocently reaching for some half priced bento, You Satou finds himself beaten up on the floor of a supermarket. He soon learns that getting half-priced bento is an all-out brawl between customers. Satou is invited to the Half-Priced Food Lovers Club by one of the top fighters, Sen Yarizui (a.k.a. The Ice Witch), in order to train to compete in these battles. Ben-To is a "shounen ecchi comedy battle series" with an incredibly ridiculous (the good kind) premise and harem tendencies. The harem aspects are much less serious and 'in the way' than I expected - which is very good. But... See full review

Another is in many aspects a classic horror tale.The music, the setting, the mysterious and secretive inhabitants, and death. These aspects are nothing new, but used right it can result in an effective scary story. Surprisingly, the end result turned out quite well. The first half of the series was honestly very creepy. Now, while it wasn't actually downright scary, it is still among the scariest anime I've seen. And that is ...kinda sad actually when you think about... See full review

Bakuman 2. the second season revolving around a pair of manga authors - Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito - and their peers, as they try to make a name for themselves in the intense business world of manga publishing. This was a terrific choice for my "return to anime", because it's so easily digestible and thus easy... See full review

Initially, it wasn't bad at all. As I started watching it, I was sitting in my room, delighted to see what would become the oldest anime in my 'watched library' (Macross now being #2). I giggled with it occasionally, and I laughed at it more than occasionally for it's hilariously outdated visuals and audio, and just how little the shoujo genre has evolved since the late '70s.

But then, after about 5 or 6 episodes, something started to change. It grew in... stupidity, and began repeating itself. Story lines and plot point which had already been resolved - with major climaxes - were for some reason... See full review

Story 7.5/10 The basic story itself isn't all that original, but the way it's presented is fucking awesome! It reminds of a David Lynch movie, but actually making sense in the end or of something from Hitchcock, but with an actually decent ending. It's not something incredible, but it is a great thriller. One of the best of it's kind. And what makes it even better is that there are so few titles like this in the anime world. The only one I can think of right now is Monster. I know that Monster's plot is very different, but I was basicly just thinking of the kind of atmosphere this title has. And while... See full review

Story: 2.5/10 The story it starts off with truly annoyed me. I thought I was gonna yell at the screen several times and I rolled my eyes quite a few times as well. The “explanation” we got for Tylor’s behaviour at the end did not make up for how it progressed. It could’ve been done a whooooole lot better if you ask me. Then we go on to the side stories which i thought would be interesting. And while they were to some degree, some of them were really cliché and the one with the kid following Tylor just pissed me off to no end. I mean, he stood Yuriko up for some terrible... See full review

Story: 5/10 I wasn’t too sure about this one at first since I had started it several months ago and stopped watching it midway through the first episode. Although I couldn’t remember a thing from it. But when I started it this time I was highly impressed by it. The first episode, while not being THAT funny, paved in a good start. The coming episodes were quite often really funny and silly. But around episode 10 or so the show started trying on some melodrama and it was laaaame. It also started introducing harem aspects to the show, which were worse. And then the war part of the show started to... See full review

Story: 6.5/10 The setup here works alright with a short series like this. Even if the plot is farfetched and the main love story is quickly put on the backburner and hardly moves for most of the show it’s still much better than the too played out “girls in high school” setup. And I like it that most episodes deals with developing a character and his/her past one at a time. I do think that it would’ve been nice to do more development on Furio (the chef) and Claudio though. Animation/Artwork/Visual Effects: 8/10 While the animation isn’t very good, the show looks great. I... See full review

Story: 7.1/10 I don’t usually like movies and series set around this time (1925), but it didn’t seem to care much about being historically accurate and instead focused on being an entertaining light and adorable series which is something I’m really grateful for. And damn did I find this adorable! Besides Chi’s Sweet Home, this is probably the cutest series I’ve seen. The general story is in fact pretty weak, but worked really well, probably because it focused more on a light, cute & comedic touch here as well, and they certainly succeeded with that. It works great and... See full review

Story: 5.75/10 Astronomi is unique in anime, but nothing else here is. This is not a show you watch for it’s story. The romance part of the story is mainly there for some few sweet moments, but mainly for humor. They did manage to push in some halfdecent backstories for some of the characters though. It doesn’t even have a proper ending. Hardly anything is resolved. It could be a decent season finale, but i doubt we’ll see a sequel to this. Although if we do get one, I’ll watch it.Animation/Artwork/Visual Effects: 6/10 Very, very generic artwork and quality of animation and... See full review

Story: 4/10 This is basicly a harem show (Clanned or Air or somthing similar) mixed with xxxHOLiC. Although it takes Bakemonogatari around 3 episodes to do what xxxHOLiC does in one, and xxxHOLiC still does it better. I know I shouldn’t compare them, but I just can’t help it here since it REALLY reminds of xxxHOLiC all the time. Also, it’s not exactly like most harems since most females don’t pursue him in a romantic way (even though it’s hinted at it with some/most of them), but it’s definitely set up like a harem. It’s one guy that helps out girls one by... See full review

Story: 5.5/10 The initial idea is good. Some mysterious forces launches a devastating attack on Soul Society and also assaults and kidnaps Rukia. Ichigo, feeling that something might be wrong, travels to Soul Society with Kon to investigate, only to discover that no one has any memory of neither him nor Rukia and is therefore though of as the intruder who caused the attack and is met with hostile force. For a while this idea is dealt with pretty well, but eventually it spirals into nothing but action fanservice like most shounen filler-movies. Animation/Artwork/Visual Effects: 8.5/10 From... See full review

Story: 3.5/10 Well, I like the initial premise of this show. It's silly and fun. But now, what actually plays on that premise is just like half of the series. The other half is that godawful harem part, which I've noticed is actually most of it's fans favorite aspect of the show. As for me, I definitely prefer the previous, "premise" side of the series, which although is also cut into two pieces of it's own. And those pieces are the all humor and purely episodic part and the part with more serious character development. Unless it deals with the harem part of the show of course. I do... See full review

"Are you enjoying the Time of Eve?"Hmm...Let's see:Story: 9.5/10 The setting instantly took my mind to "I, Robot", because of the way the androids are used and of course, because of Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics". But the actual content of the show brings my mind towards the HBO drama "In Treatment". Time of Eve is slow paced, quiet and peaceful, but it's still filled with fun and engaging twists a little below the surface that always develops both the characters and story, which in my book spells out as great writing. I really liked how we got to see the... See full review