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This extremely ecchi series had me laughing from the very first page and going back and forth from chuckling pretty hard to blushing frequently. The story itself is so ridiculous that it lends itself to being funny on that merit alone. Most of the time I found myself saying, “this is absurd!” but that’s what made the story all the more entertaining.

Artwork is quite good, but paneling can be confusing in some parts and I found myself reading a page over again once I discovered the flow of thought so that conversations made more sense. Everything was crisp and character detail was something I expect ... from manga artists these days.

One thing that people may have found distasteful would be the personality of Kakinozaka-sensei and I would have to agree. Her absurd behavior made me think of her as less of a teacher and probably more of a student or at the very least a dorm-mother. He character became less annoying as time went on, but initially I did not care for her much. Outside of that, character mannerisms were always humorous and really set the stage for how this series will flesh out as a memorable harem in my book. (please marry me Kotomi-chan!) At one point you have Yuki pretending to be a girl, pretending to be a boy, dressing like a girl to cover the fact that he’s a guy. I was laughing pretty hard.

As always, one thing that concerns me about ecchi series is how ridiculous breast sizes get and this series is no different. While I do enjoy a good pair of breasts, I’ve always been turned off by the sometimes grotesquely large breasts women have in series like this, but to each his own I suppose.

In short, Asa Made Jugyou Chu! is pretty much soft porn with a pretty ridiculous and humorous story line.

Girls Bravo was a...well, it was a gratuitous ecchi series with a very minor sci-fi under pinning. The story was not really interesting and the characters were collectively annoying.

Throughout the entire first season it was clear the artists had an extreme breast fetish. But it was more than that. The series was laden with several subtle and not-so-subtle sexual innuendos that even made me blush (Miharu's first taste of a banana comes to mind... >.> ).

Another thing that bothered me, as I stated before, was the lack of character depth and how annoying they all generally seemed to appear. Kirie was so viciously violent most ... of the time, it was easy to forget she had a kinder, gentler side and secret affections for Yukinari. While I couldn't really avoid Yukinari's dialog, I frequently found myself turning down the volume when characters like Tomoka and Koyomi had speaking lines.

Girls Bravo wasn't without some redeeming qualities though. While characters like the Fukuyamas were pretty obnoxious, they were also pretty humorous "frienemies." You also have to keep in mind what this series seemed to be about - fan service and ecchi. And that's fine which is why it gets a grade of "fine" in my book.

Cross Days was a fairly interesting side story surrounding the events and leading up to the conclusion of School Days, but also one that made me think twice about Makoto as a character. While Cross Days focused on fellow classmate Yuuki Ashikaga and his series of unfortunate (and sometimes comical) misunderstandings, in a subtle way it also gave the reader a different perspective on School Days main character Makoto Itou that radically changed the way I felt about him.

The true purpose of Cross Days, I felt, was to not simply tell a related side story to School Days, but give us a different perspective or ... a greater depth to the characters we knew and loved (or hated) from School Days. Even though his story has merit and entertainment in its own right, Yuuki Ashikaga’s true purpose in Cross Days is to uncover deeper moral issues of the School Days characters and observe and judge them from the reader’s point of view. He not only acts as the reader’s moral voice in the actions of all those involved, but also, oddly enough, becomes Makoto Itou’s conscience; something Makoto severely lacks and needs.

The art work reflects the same level of creativity and flow from the original series. Moments of emotional expression are well drawn and panel flow was done in a manner that was easy enough to follow with few exceptions. My only real complaint would be the penultimate conclusion of the story in the final panel which can potentially lead to confusing the reader as the character is drawn in such a way that makes you question the identity of the person in question. This point, while still shocking once I realized who it was, frustrated me because I had to spend a few moments in complete confusion until I figured out who it was.

Cross Days offers the reader a chance to see a side of Makoto they did not see in School Days. Yuuki’s comedy/tragedy of timing and misunderstandings is a pretext to a part of Makoto’s personality we did not witness from the main story line. While the primary love triangle story revolves around Yuuki Ashikaga, Kotonoha Katsura, and Roka Kitsuregawa the true purpose of Cross Days appears to provide the reader an opportunity to reexamine character personalities in School Days that were not fully explored in the primary story arc.

School Days was a story that I was already familiar with from watching the anime series. I was aware of two things: one that the ending was going to be fairly dark and two the main male protagonist was a significantly more redeemable character. With this in mind, I was still pleasantly (or rather disturbingly) surprised.

I don’t normally like being the type to compare the anime to the manga, but in this case I think an exception is necessary. The most importance difference was how much better I felt about Makoto as a main character. While he still manages some fairly unlikeable actions, he finds ... a way to basically man up to the situation and try and fix things. It becomes a story of a guy who is less sociopathic, destroying the hearts of women left and right to one of a guy who makes a few bad choices that could be brushed off as him simply thinking with his penis more than his brain like most normal teenage men. However, I will leave the comparison here.

While the male protagonist reminds us that guys can be pricks sometimes, it can be easy to overlook how manipulative and conniving young women are as well. Sekai wastes no time in trying to win the affections of Makoto after working so diligently to bring him and Kotonoha together. This is also where my criticisms of both Sekai and Kotonoha come into play. Kotonoha begins off innocently enough, but her personality changes so rapidly that you don’t really feel like she’s made a genuine evolution as a person (even if it was for the worst). Sekai’s transformation was even more radical. Her personality changes are three-step: playful, tomboyish friend (re: Asa Shigure from Shuffle! If you’d like a solid idea of what I mean)  passionate and jealous lover  completely psychotic. While I was willing to accept her transition from tomboyish friend to jealous lover, her change to utter insanity was so abrupt that I was startled it actually ended that way. The only character who seemed to have a solid emotional growth was Makoto, and as we all like to see in our protagonists it was a redeeming, positive one.

The artwork in School Days was also reasonably well drawn and shaded from what I saw. I had only some minor complaints where they try and accentuate light reflection from sources such as the sun on the hair. It changed the color of the hair so much that you felt as if the character went from having black hair to blonde hair. Panel flow also felt wonky in a few places as well, but it was minor and did not detract from the flow of the story in any discernible way. One particular high point in the series was how emotional half sized and full sized panels felt. They were drawn in such a way that really spoke volumes about the emotional state of the character at that given moment.

In all, I enjoy School Days as a standalone story that sets itself apart from the anime series. I faulted it on the basis on how radically Sekai and Kotonoha change as characters and felt that with perhaps an additional two or three chapters, they both could have been fleshed out a bit better in their development.

Well...

I finished watching School Days (in one sitting) and got exactly what I had expected. Now don't get me wrong, what I expected still utterly shocked and disturbed me in a way that I'll probably remember for a long time. And for that, I ranked this series as a 10.

This psychological drama started off fairly innocently. Light humor, boy likes girl, other girl helps boy try and get girl, things get crazy from there. It's all fairly formulaic. But that's about where it ends in its unoriginality and it ends pretty quick.

I think it was only about one or two episodes in that situations started ... becoming less "haha that's pretty embarrassing" to ".....oh crap, did that just happen?" What's more is the situations are all fairly believable in a way that reminds me of how crazy relationships became in high school (minus some obvious stuff of course) and that things can get out of hand fast.

If you've taken the time to read other reviews you will quickly discover that the general consensus is that the male protagonist is a terrible person. I completely agree. Now, while I would never wish terrible things upon another person, by the end of this series I was so completely disgusted with the way he was handling the situation it was almost unconscionable. Makoto is hands down one of the most despicable male main characters I've encountered. While is he (as usual) crippled by indecision most of the time this is strictly limited to his verbal interactions with fellow characters. When he does make a decision, it's more often than not one that will make you face palm (seriously, my head hurts because I was hitting it so much). By the end, you can no longer even justify his decisions by teenage hormones but more so that he's clearly a sociopath. His complete disregard for the repercussions of his actions goes beyond "troubled youth" and lends to the realm of utter insanity.

By the end of School Days I was so distraught about how do these girls handle all of this crap he gives them that I completely overlooked how messed up they were as well! Now, not all of the female characters were beyond redemption. For example, Nanami seems to be a pretty upstanding person, but that's where it ends. Towards the end of the series you find out how morally inept they all are. Even with seemingly the best of intentions, there isn't a single character in the series that didn't do something wtf-worthy.

While it was easy to find all the terrible things I disliked about each character, it's equally easy to overlook the redeeming qualities as well. A perfect example would be Otome. Early one, she's a pretty unlikeable character and for good reason. At the end of all things, even though a bunch of stuff she did was pretty bad, she had a decent heart and even had a "hell ya, you go girl" moment.

Another thing I found wonderful about School Days was the art and music. Character animation was all pretty top notch from what I could tell. Scenes were crisp and attractive, but not so busy that it drew attention away from what the characters were doing. Every environment was beautifully done and really draws you in.

This was all masterfully combined with a great, classic score of music that drew out the emotion of every scene. If I wasn't so busy trying to cope with the shock of what happened at any given time, I might have shed a tear or two because of a beautiful moment. After reflecting on it further, I think this was done to reserve moments of silence for those times when the characters did something shocking to which I tip my hat. One thing about a musical composition in media is that it is often used to illicit an emotional state at the time of the event to allow the viewer to essentially "know what to feel and when to feel it." This was clearly absent in several pivotal moments of the series to cause the viewer to reel emotionally and feel stranded in thought (re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer s5ep16 "The Body" - which won an Emmy for this btw).

School Days left such an impression on me that it made me question all of the decisions I've made in my love life over the years. The heart and mind are terribly fragile things and this series reminds us that we should all be vigilante in how we treat other people. I strongly recommend this anime.

So after watching the first episode of Girls Bravo, I kind of rolled my eyes preparing for more of the same (re: tentacle rape scene), but as the season progressed I actually started getting mildly interested.

Character and plot development actually started poking its proverbial head in and making an appearance, all be it a very small one by the end. Throughout, they really started to try and give Girls Bravo some direction and purpose in story. I really don't mind the excessive ecchi in a series (I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a perv and I find it funny), but when the story rivals ... that of a pornographic film it kind of feels as such. And frankly, that's boring.

I bumped up my grade for the second season for two reasons:

1 - Characters felt like they were growing a little bit. Fukuyama started becoming a guy you could find a spot for in your heart (even if it was a tiny, seldom used spot). Kirie became a significantly less brutal person and started showing her compassion more. Yukinari started getting a backbone (although I still hated his constant whining - he even sounded whiny when he was showing personal strength against adversity!). Koyomi also started gaining some courage and not a sniveling baby all the time. Character growth all around was ACTUALLY starting to show so they get some props for that.

2 - Direction. By this I mean the characters actually started to have some purpose or goals. This was helped along by two things: first being the characters becoming more comfortable about confessing their true feelings to one another and second the introduction of genuine villains. Although the villains were far too mysterious (and in some cases strangely shocking) for too much of the season, it was nice to see the protagonists go up against someone or some thing rather than just bumbling along pointlessly for no reason.

The penultimate confrontation in season 2 was interesting enough at the end, but it still felt rushed in a lot of ways. Therefore, I was unable to bump up my grade more than a point (which honestly is probably pretty generous). While Girls Bravo started off as an excessive breast-fetish ecchi with some mildly chuckle-worth laughs from time to time (the episode where Yukinari dresses up as a girl at the video game convention to help the girls made me actually laugh out loud), it grew into something that could have been a fairly decent anime but was cut short. The end was reasonably emotional and cute enough, but it probably won't leave a lasting impression on me.

If you like breasts, this is the anime for you. If not, then...I dunno, you probably should skip the series unless you're willing to sit down and give it merit based on both seasons. If the latter, then I'd say give it a shot at least and then see what you think before striking it off your lists forever.

One sentence can pretty much sum up how I feel about this movie - "They're having sex while chained up and in straight jackets..."

I was introduced to Dead Leaves as a recommendation from liking FLCL and other similar animes. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely super strange and the animation style was too dated for my tastes. Not that the animation was bad, but it was a similar difference to when you have to choose between watching My Little Ponies from the 1980s and the reboot series that has gained insane popularity among all age groups and demographics.

I'd recommend watching this if you enjoyed ... animes like FLCL and Soul Eater, but more as an homage to predecessors than anything.

One thing to say about this season - OP song. It was amazing! The music in this season alone was enough to bump this anime up a notch in my book from the previous season. But I also moved it up because of its ability to improve on developing the characters while still maintaining what was working in the first season.

While I admit, the repetitive pining the female protagonists partake in over Tsukune started getting a little annoying, it was still entertaining enough for me to not really care all that much.

On top of this, reviewers pointed out how plot development was lacking and ... limited to the first episode and last 2 episodes, but I felt the season was entertaining enough to again over look what was missing. But to expand on the plot development, it did start to actually get really interesting which led to another fault - it ended here! It could have definitely gone further with additional seasons easily. I really look forward to any additional seasons they might make.

In the end, I enjoyed this series quite a bit and it prompted me to pick up the manga right away in hopes of developing the plot and characters further.

Rosario + Vampire was one of my first ventures into a specifically ecchi-style anime. Of the few reviews I read about this series I gathered the idea that it wasn't going to be particularly amazing and while I admit it might not make my top 5 it was entertaining in its own way.

This series had some of the best animation of its genre that made every episode wonderful to look at. In addition to this the character personalities were charming to say the least (Mizore 4 life). For example, the subtle reminders that while she looks human, Kurumu confuses typical human colloquialisms only to be ... comically corrected by Yukari. Coupled with great music R+V was certainly worthy of an 8, but I'm afraid not much more than that.

While the characters, animation, and music were entertaining enough the story line and episodic nature was fairly weak. And honestly, that's pretty okay with me. If anything, this series made me really interested in picking up the manga right away and start reading. Even though the plot development and story construction was mild, it is pretty clear that I could gain a better appreciation for the story if I read the manga as well.

Angel Beats! surprised me in a lot of ways. When I loaded it up and watched the first several episodes I could see why it was a "fun" anime to watch, but by episode 5 or so I was still pretty much waiting for the story to begin. If I had to compare to it to something main stream I would say Angel Beats! is the Star Trek: TNG of anime that later becomes a somewhat Star Trek: DS9.

In the beginning it was pretty easy to just pick it up episode by episode without really missing much. As long as you were vaguely familiar with ... the main characters you were good to go. Visuals, fight scenes, music (oh my goodness the rock concert scenes were amazing!) were all what you'd expect from Angel Beats! if you heard anything about it.

However, after a bit you start to really get an idea of why everyone is REALLY there and the direction the anime starts to take. Plot starts to take root and you become increasingly attached to the characters. You even begin to see the main male protagonist take charge of his situation and have an active role in the fate of the cast instead of being the reluctant hero-type just going along for the ride and complaining the whole way.

By the end, I was utterly shocked at not only how attached I became to everyone involved (once a significant amount of back story is introduced and resolved). Upon the climax, I was left in tears and heart broken. While I can find common ground with critics in their discussion of the whole definition of purgatory and there was a lack of "dark" pasts, but I would posit that the characters were generally pretty young and that this realm they existed in was less purgatory and more "a place spirits would go if they felt kind of robbed of having a decent young adult experience before moving onto the next realm" (ya I know that was a long "quote" but whatever, its my comment I can do what I want! DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! YOU DON'T KNOW ME!)

...

So anyway, while this is listed as one of my favorite animes I still only was able to give it an 8 simply because due to lack of character and plot development opportunities (it should have been 24-26 episodes, not 13). Otherwise, I really, really enjoyed Angel Beats! and recommend it.