trottolina

Once upon a time there was Barbapa, Barbamama, and all their children...  I enjoyed watching this as a child, and I've enjoyed it even more in recent years watching these with my son.    These are as good as any modern programs for young children, if not better.  

Tonari no Seki-kun is a perfect gem - 10 minutes of joy in every episode.  The only reason I didn't give it a 10/10 is because I wanted more and more episodes...   So why did I give the story only 6 out of 10? Because not a lot happens in this series.  The MCs are always depicted at school, either in their normal classroom or in a special class such as science, the audio-visual room, PE or art.  On one occasion we do see an evacuation drill, but that is as exciting as it gets.  No spoilers here though, as none of this is anything other than the background to the main focus of this... See full review

Kite Liberator is a short, bittersweet movie with plenty of good action scenes, but I can't help but feel it could have been so much more... The film is split into three parts - a prologue in space, a prologue on earth, and the main story.  All are very loosely connected and in chronological order.  The prologues work toghether to introduce a father-daughter relationship, and cement how they feel for each other in the viewer's mind.  Unfortunately there isn't enough time given the length of the movie to really understand these characters.  Why can the father not return home at... See full review

Kokoro Connect is a very entertaining series, and brings the viewer along as a group of teenagers are forced on a psychological journey.  Make sure you watch until after the last credits have rolled, in order for the journey to be fully put into context! The art is good, and the characters all easy on the eye.  I'm not sure if I agree with the oft repeated assertion within the anime that Nagase is the prettiest of the three girls, but none of them are ugly.  It is generally easy to tell visually when characters are not who they appear to be: in my opinion this is critical to a willing... See full review

NagiAsu has to be one of the most beautiful anime series I have ever seen.   This anime original story by Okada Mari is set in a fantasy world where villages exist under the sea as well as on land.  PA works have done an amazing job of bringing this universe to life on our screens, and I never got tired of watching it.  The second half of the series is perhaps not quite as magical looking, but it is still drawn, coloured and animated with great attention to detail.  This world felt alive and believable, which helped me as a viewer to suspend my disbelief and enter the story.  In... See full review

Bodacious Space Pirates is an entertaining romp. The premise of the story is what attracted me to this series first: a young girl learns that the father she never met has died, and she has inherited his pirate ship.  She needs to make a decision whether to continue the family career, or not.  I enjoyed the way real historical elements of pirate history (such as "Letters of Marque") are used in this story, and also how the lingo and traditions of the sea here on earth are transposed to space.  It allows for a feeling of conitnuity between our present and the future depicted in the... See full review