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REVIEW: An earlier look into the lives and minds of a group of killers who hunt criminals, some disturbingly overzealous, others reluctant, by Kotegawa Yua.

IT ALMOST SEEMS A DRY RUN FOR HER LATER SEINEN MASTERPIECE "KIMI NO KNIFE". Weaker but similar art and familiar character profiles, using the now-familiar plot devices of guilt-driven hallucinations and love+circimstances forcing a mild-mannered, shy, guilt-wracked, and cowardly man onto the path of the reluctant killer... However, "Anne Freaks" is shorter, less mature and less coherent, with less detail less realism less believabilit and far less emotional impact, lacking its powerful mood-setting devices and strong introspectives...

SERIES DESCRIPTION:
10 years after ... a cult violently splinters into a small extremist terrorist core and a horrified majority of newly minted outcasts, many pursued or killed by their former comrades for their "betrayal", the cult leader's daughter Anne gathers her childhood friends, now teenagers, for her revenge - to end the cult once and for all...

The three live in hiding, Anne knowing the truth, and the two boys remembering nothing past being haunted by strange dreams. Anne, a hunted fugitive since age 6, is an embittered stone-cold outcast raised hiding among yakuza, and has grown into a wildly reckless, ruthless killer that hunts down and brutally massacres every cult cell she can find. Nor does she hesitate to kill any civillians or police that get in her way.

Meanwhile, Yuri, a mild-mannered, battered, studious and somewhat creepy boy in glasses, has spent these ten years with a psychotic, abusive, and suicidal mother. Mitsubu, leader of delinquents and self-proclaimed "strongest student of Kyoto", resides with a hikikomori father who sleeps his days away, supported by an older sister forced to play mother and breadwinner in the household.

As their seemingly-normal but not-quite-right lives come apart at the seams, Anne tracks down childhood friends Yuri and Mitsubu. Their families dead, themselves hunted fugitives, the two join her cause, to annihilate the extremist cult that wrecked their lives.

*Amateurish autobiographical apology to a girl the author kissed in high school - masquerading as a manga. Typical flaws like irrelevant events that neither entertain nor add any sort of dimension to story, or readability-contradictory events like multiple people changing hair cuts/styles at the same time (just because it actually happened that way). Or sudden bursts of extreme detail in a manga utterly devoid of it. About people who never appear in-panel... at all, ever.
*Ridiculously short on content. All 10 chapters of ~20 pages take altogether maybe as long as a really short chapter of "NHK" or half a chapter of "Kimi wa Petto" to ... read
*70% of the time is spent trying to figure out who's who CAUSE EVERYONE LOOKS THE SAME (violates drawing conventions of granting all chars, especially recurring secondaries, easily identifiable traits like hairstyles, accessories, mannerisms, anything unique). Not like I'm-bigoted-Asian-people-are-all-identical, but like grainy porn's "ooohhh nice boobs girl.. ahhh wait brainbleach me, that was the guy's butt crack", and not in an intentional or humorous way.
*As one far better yuri product noticed in a major plot point, inability to differentiatiate between people and inability to relate to them feed each other in a vicious cycle of indifference. After a readthrough in one sitting, I recall just the last name (but not the first) and the second haircut of just ONE of the two girls...

Worst of all, NOT enough detail for ANY suspension of disbelief. What do they love about each other, why? Who knows... Plot's supposedly about a girl falling for a troubled, ostracized loner - but we never see it. And it's supposed to be kinda angsty-sad-tragic, but it's all a fraction of a cigarette long. Literally. I've related more to and known more about random strangers after 2-minute bus stop or designated smoking area conversations.

Horribly choppy bland animation, sterile and stiff voice acting & characterizations, godawful pacing, timewarp abuse, and seems to be kinda boy-boy gay too... BUT it's SOOO DARK & GRITTY (...NOT!! - A sheltered first world grade schooler-level view on dark-gritty, at best)

Utter FAIL, without the saving grace of good well-drawn violence, memorable characters, moments of pure win... or even charming perversion, pantsu service, or a catchy theme.

...1/10 - cause zeros or negative numbers cannot be given here.

PS appears to have been uprated to a decent score and praised all over by the fans of the manga. dunno, haven't read it, don't care... anime ... blows, and that's what counts here. btw, people comparing it to Claymore must've been kidding - that show does everything right on all counts that Berserk flops in

DISCLAIMER: THE LITTLE DEAD GIRL ARC (in the middle) IS INTERESTING, SEEMS ORIGINAL, AND WELL-DONE (but incomplete). It also appears to be the only plot in the whole show, its raison d'etre, and what sets the whole shebang in motion. Also the reason I gave it a "7" and not a "2".

Everything else looks like episodic filler (further bloated by sloooow, polite, high-pitched watakushi-desu-de gozaimasu conversations) and resembles a game walkthrough of the most basic kind. The main character lacks any discernible personality, traits, signs of intraspection, or even self-awareness. His SINGLE trait (other than supposedly having a penis somewhere under the dress, not that ... he acts like it) is that he... completes "missions"/"quests" for anyone and everyone in a random but wholly devoted fashion. The mission almost always consists of talking through a character's character weakness to convince them to not quit a club. Again. After which, this compulsive niceness means he unlocks everyone and anyone's "achievement", aka they come to looooove...her. But he's a he. And no, it doesn't actually ever come to matter. They're just fine with loving him at a distance in lesbian-unrequited mode, and he couldn't care either way.

And that's not even used as a gag for cluelessness. Other than motivating people, this dude in a skirt doesn't care about A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G - at all. Not physical danger, not risk of discovery, not what the heck he's supposed to be doing there, and not even his apparent utter lack of interest in the female sex...

Western fantasy-style anime DONE RIGHT.

aka a prettier Slayers or a more mature, less bleach-ey, more mature Fairy Tail. Nothing much else to say, just that if you like the genre, watch it!!

Cutesy slice-of-life anime about kicking your inner demons (or "aliens") in the bollocks and finally hitting the broadside of a barn, when no one any longer expects you to even take the shot.

Beautiful animation and endless attention to detail turned up to 11 with various CGI. Juicier colours than ever seen before, anywhere. Just stunning.

Very cute, really original characters & character designs. Futon girl Erio is both the most original character design in years and the cutest most kawaii thing ever shown on television.

The series has its very own, quite different artstyle. One season on, people are already starting to copy it.

Unfortunately, it cuts off ... completely in midsentence, and even with the promised purchase-only EP13, has zero chances of concluding without far more than the second season that it isn't all too likely to get. Meanwhile, the only subplots anywhere near conclusion are Erio taking her first steps into the world, Grandma's depression, and Aunt getting over her midlife crisis (or has she??)... No romances build up past crush stage, despite hints of seven or so pairings. Future Erio friendships are hinted at, but the buildup was just starting. Some characters' relationships aren't even fleshed out and decided (hell, seems like we're not even sure *whose* grandma Grandma is... the Aunt's? Elliot's? nobody in particular's neighbourhood grannie?). And even dedicated fan servant Hot Mom Auntie hasn't been squeezed for anywhere near her fan service potential.

THIS is the anime that should've been titled "We Still Don't Know... That Day", not Ano Hana. Seems suspiciously all-too-likely that we never will find out what happened to Erio, what will happen to Erio, what Niwa's future treasured teenage memories will be, etc. etc.

Pity. Hence, "9".

IF YOU LIKED IT, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. THINKING ABOUT IT RUINS IT.


Story (6): unusual, but built of cliche. Goes the whole spectrum from shoujo into josei and into a new genre of anime probably to be identified by future generations as "obaa-san". Kinda random over timewarps, too. Ooh, and MonF bitchslaps are hella romantic - that's how every single romance really gets serious here. And there are A LOT.

Art (9 chars/ 4 everything else): Character models great, but then somebody obviously ran out of cash. Well, either that or the Korean/Vietnamese places that generally take care of CGI, backgrounds, and juicy colours went on ... strike or something. EXPECT WELL-ANIMATED CHARACTERS - some very expressive, some just really cool solutions, and some like the Osakans or the foreigners just impossibly hilarious to look upon... BUT ALL THAT ON BLAND GREY BACKGROUNDS. LIKE THE WORST, EVER. A LOT. (you get used to it)

Sound (6): ED2 or whichever was Go!Go!7188's "Kataomoi Fighter" was awesome. Other OP/EDs were bland. Some interesting use of song and sound in-episode for tension and mood, though.

Characters (6): I don't think you're SUPPOSED to like the characters. I was somewhat bothered by my impressions of the lot of them, but after the second half gave even the butt-ugly lower-class Kansai kid with a heart of gold his five minutes of asshattery, I decided to relax any and all attachments to the characters - and started enjoying the series. Everyone's here for the lulz.

Btw, if you think the antifeminist position is bad, check out the intra-Japan "racism" (Kansai/Osakans and especially the country bumpkins are both drawn and treated as above and beyond fugly). Only a baka-gaijin character ever takes poor Kin-chan seriously, and he spends the second half of the series slooooooooowly processing the fact that no, she's for real and not just out to screw with his mind. The rest of the cast are properly horrified.

Oh well, it was still fun.


Enjoyment (9): Strange, huh? Maybe it appeals to our inner maso side. Watched all 25 eps in one sitting. Yes, even ep 25, which seemed to exist just to make fun of the village people and remind everyone that there IS in fact something worse than being from Osaka.

Overall (7): The more I thought about it, the more this dropped. I started out wanting to give it a 9 or 10, then compared it to the level of real 9 and 10s - ...nope!

Hell hath no fury like a schoolgirl halfway to housewifedom scorned.

Submissive, homey together-since-childhood girlfriend of an aspiring pop star, who works two jobs to pay his rent and spends her free time packing him exquisite lunches and stroking his ego, accidentally overhears him speak of just using borind old her - for her "convenience"... AND SNAPS.

And oh boy, does she snap BIG TIME. And decides to destroy her ex - in his field, on his terms... Tokyo's showbiz doesn't know it yet, but it's just gained its newest, most lovable (and successful) schizo yet. Her niches: CUTENESS + HATRED.

Packing enough negative energy to ... stare down Darth Vader and make grown men cry, bullish stubbornness and banzai charge mentality enough for two Edward Elrics, the momentum of a freight train, a few voodoo dolls, human-shaped candles, and enough kindness (!) and heart to touch and defrost the coldest of Tokyo showbiz's hearts, she is about to unwittingly embark on a wonderful journey of self-discovery and self-improvement. Doing lots of good and scaring the bejesus out of a bunch of people along the way.

It's not the destination that matters - it's all about the road... Probably. Wouldn't know. This otherwise phenomenal anime's conclusion constitutes the last 2 mins of an otherwise regular episode. Not a single arc is wrapped up ;_((( The conclusion is basically "ooh wonder what tomorrow will bring - but it'll probably be BEAUTIFUL". Meh.

DEFINITELY WATCH, though. Just treat it like a slice of life or something - finality will NOT be achieved, relationships will not culminate, seemingly recurring characters will not recurr, etc. etc.

There are only 2 redeeming factors about this anime:
1) It manages to keep the viewers' expectations that ... NEXT EPISODE... something, anything interesting or unexpected might happen.
2) It's uber-simplistic approach to everything (a season-long 3-card card game, even that not explored to full mathematical potential, etc.) and wanton brutality manage to piss you off... yes, actually evoke an emotional response, instead of just whatever-delete folder-next!

Hence the review.

Still pretty all-around horrible, though. Figure in the art quality, and looks like this was made with a budget of $20/ep.