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When making an anime, one would like every studio has high dreams, hopes for whatever they're making becomes something worth remembering for many years, something that will stay with their viewers, hopefully change their life, even if it's a little bit, for the better and become an epic tale grandparents will tell their children. Sadly, you rarely find anime that's even worth remembering, and most series are made just with the goal of milking some money, without thinking in the true art an anime can have behind. Inferno Cop is not the case. This is a series that went outside of every cliché to create ... a true piece of art in every sense, a story full of feelings, action and heavy philosophical themes while studying the psyche of probably the most complex character in any medium. Inferno Cop is the unquestionable leader, the best thing ever created, something that years from now will be talked like the biggest invention, even over things like the wheel, the lightbulb or the internet.

Inferno Cop is a series that inculcates values of justices and relentlessness like any other thing in existance, it should be what every human, alien and whatever use as a guide, Inferno Cop is the real messiah of this world, the one everyone should follow without asking question. Inferno Cop is the answer to all our questions.

But the series goes beyond that, it analyzes what goes through the mind of Inferno Cop while living in a very harsh world full of terryfing demons and babies that threaten the world. Inferno Cop values every life, and through each episode we see him struggling to create real justice, not just a superficial one, he thinks about justice and looks for an answer that can help everyone, for real justice is meant to be for everyone, and not just a few. Real justice has no enemies, but there are poor sheeps that haven't been enlightened.

While being tempted by nihilism thoughts, Inferno Cop's will and trust in the world never falters, and he always has friends like Hellfire Boy, he will keep being the hero the people didn't ask, but need. He knows hell very well, and won't let the world become one by the hand of the evil organization Southern Cross, and won't let himself be defeated by the imposing Mecha Cop (and his Sega Saturn CPU). A beautiful rivalry is born here, and the already epic tale becomes just something else, dwelving in the difficulties of having different opinion, but in the end, everyone is always looking for what they think it's best.

Inferno Cop comes from the depth of hell and isn't looking for glory, his solidarity is unprecedented, he just want the world to be a better place, he wants you, your family and friends to be happy even at the cost of his, and he doesn't even ask for a 'thank you'.

The series analyzes Plato's Theory of Forms, and one-ups Plato by introducing the hell world, a world were everything is the antithesis of their ideal state, the world humanity may one day selfdestruct itself into. Inferno Cop comes from this world, he's the last hope of everyone, he's comes to our sensible world not only to save us from the hell world, but to help us reach the intelligible realm, the only way to achieve true happiness and justice for everyone. And he just might make it, because he's Inferno Cop, he's our hero, he's a superior being with an unbending will and love for every living being. He's what this world needs, and what Trigger somehow managed to make real, while using an OST that might just bring a full pack of emotons from everyone who listens, and an animation full of realism, fluidity and beautiful art.

The series even manages to go into the science world, making an abstract portrayal of combustion, creating an exothermic redox chemical reaction between Inferno Cop's justice (fuel) and will (oxidant), creating the flames that sorround this magnificent character. Not only that, the amazing fight, while never failing to disappoint, it also teaches classic and quantum mechanics, because they just have that level of detail with every shot fired. They say he can control time, and with Laplace transforms, change it into complex frequencies. That is the level we're talking about.

Everyone should always follow Inferno Cop's example, and while it might be impossible for mere mortals to become like him, Inferno Cop teaches us that we must always aim as high as possible, so that even if we can't reach said goal, at least we will know we got as high as possible, that we did our best and probably contributed our grain of salt to the world. At the very least, we should always be thankful about Inferno Cop, because even if we can't see him (well, until Trigger released this anime, that is), he's there helping us, and he came from the depths of hell, which means he climbed much more than any of us to get to where he is. Inferno Cop is the biggest legend of this world, which makes this series, undoubtely the best thing in this world.



Review originally made for my top 100, which you can access here: http://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=767350

-This review may contain spoilers from the movie and from the original series-

When talking about anime classics, there are not many series that rank higher than Uchuu Senkan Yamato, and with good reason, as Yamato is one of the greatest space operas out there.

This movie takes place in the year 2220, 21 years after the original series (which also has a remake now), and it's a direct sequel, where Kodai will again be the main character and will be in charge of leading an inmigration fleet to an other planet because a black hole is approaching Earth, and the days of the blue planet are ... counted.

This completely remade story shows us how CGI can actually be an incredible tool in animation when used well (and when having good budget). Yamato's animation, which uses CGI A LOT, is really mindblowing. Throughout the whole movie, there is always consistent great animation, with very well made battles between spaceships. Yamato is second to none in this.

Music also plays a big factor in this movie, which uses a lot of beautiful classical music such as Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave, Chopin's Nocturne #1 or Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Besides that, there's always the classical Yamato theme played in grand fashion and in various ways and a very nice ending to close the movie.

The story started good, but it did get worse by the second half. Still, thanks to great animation, sound and action, the movie never ceased to entertain one bit. The first half of the movie was pretty good story-wise. Kodai had a clear mission, we got to meet a great enemy general and, while not very complex, things were very good. Things got a little worse when we suddenly got a rather plain villain, making the series almost a simple evil vs good thing. Still action didn't drop one bit, and the Space Battleship Yamato proved to be as awesome as ever, showing its upgraded power to the fullest. The movie put the ship in some dire situations, which resulted in some of the best space action I've ever seen.

Besides Kodai, who enters the movie as a memorable character already, there isn't really any character that stood out much to me. They fullfilled their role well, but they were definitely not as good as the original Yamato crew.

Another slight problem is that for flashback scenes, they actually really just used things from the 1983 movie, which of course, looked very out of place in this 2010 movie. Still, that was just at a very specific moment of the anime, so it's not something that will really hinder the experience in any way. You can actually be positive and use the moment to see how anime has evolved in the last 30 years.

You will notice that some major events happened between the original series and this movie... that'd be Kanketsu-hen, which hasn't been remade. While it's impossible not to notice, and while having watched Kanketsu-hen before would make the experience better, you don't really need to watch it. Just with the original series you should be fine.

This movie's definitely not as good as the original series, but it's still a very nice sequel, and some of the main strong points of Yamato are kept intact. It is something very nice how Kodai has matured as a person between the original series and this movie, as you can see how, little by little, he's becoming more like the legendary Juzo Okita.

And even if its not as good as the original series, if you enjoyed that one, Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu-hen should be one hell of a ride. But again, watching the original series is a must in this case.

- This review does not take any considerations of any previous Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo material, and the series will be treated just by itself -

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns is, of course, a sequel to Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, which was a long running series (148 episodes) in the 90s that has also inspired, movies, OVAs and a live action series. First thing I'll make clear is that you don't really need to watch any previous material to enjoy Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns by itself.

This series target a very specific type of audience, and that's the people who like crime fiction. If you ... don't like crime fiction (Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot, Conan Edogawa, etc), then you really shouldn't waste your time with Kindaichi. Now, if you do like it, you'll more than likely enjoy the show.

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns doesn't really have a big story that will go progressing. There is a clear antagonist who's known as the puppetmaster, but there is not really much story progress with him. The whole series will be different arcs with their particular murder (or more commonly, serial killing), in which Kindaichi, our young protagonist and detective, will be involved and will have to resolve th mystery behind. Pretty much our standard crime fiction.

The series manages to create some pretty entertaining cases, and does give the viewer an opportunity to think about the cases and try to resolve them by themselves. In general, they're not that difficult to resolve, and giving it a bit of thought and by being attentive to details, you'll more than likely figure the killer, and at least part of the method in which he did the killing and/or forge his alibi.

They do sometimes come up with things that they just didn't tell the viewer before Kindaichi resolved the case, which makes impossible to resolve some cases completely by oneself.

The music selection is pretty adequate to the situations and helps creating a good atmosphere, and I find particularly helpful that in every episode they give you a picture with every possible suspect.

This is a show you enjoy by not just watching, but by trying to think alongside it. As stated before, there are some flaws sometimes, but the series does invite you to think, and you will miss part of the enjoyment if you don't, most likely.

There are really only four constant characters throughout the show (maybe five) and they all accomplish their roles very well. There is not much character development, but again, that's really not the point in the series.

While being something very known as a typical crime fiction, Kindaichi manages to be relatively unique in the anime world, as there are not many anime of this type, probably because they're not that easy to write and require a lot of creativity by their authors. Of course, whenever you hear "Kindaichi", the first response will more than likely be "Conan", and of course, vice-versa (and it should be that way, as they're obviously similar anime).

If you like crime fiction, aka, mystery with detective stuff, by all means, give Kindaichi a chance.

In the aftermath of the most devastating war in history, inside a reformatory, an unbreakable friendship is born between seven children.

There probably aren't many anime that can depict a friendship between a group of men as good as Rainbow. This group of friends will try to survive to a very harsh environment, and their friendship will prove to be their biggest weapon.

In the 50s, Japan was really in a very poor state because of World War II, and this anime makes it a goal to really show the viewers a bit of how things were back then; how much injustice was all over and how ... human rights were violated daily, specially in a place like a reformatory. It was a hard life, and many people suffered a lot.

Our characters are challenged by many difficulties, which of course, included the relation between them sometimes, but everything will end up making their ties stronger. Prison is, obviously, not a friendly place, and many thing will happen in there to make our main characters act in extreme ways.

This is an engaging series from the first moment. If you like it, you will probably get hooked immediately and until the end, making this a very enjoyable series.

Music is also a very big element here, and it's played beautifully, from the opening to the ending, going through some great insert songs and a glorious BGM consisting in various tunes. You can expect great things when you have Masafumi Mima as sound director (Full Metal Alchemist, NANA, Shingeki no Kyojin, among many).

If you like what we commonly refer to as GAR (very manly characters), you're coming to the right place, as many of our characters being great examples of it, specially Rokurouta Sakuragi, who is very well voiced by Rikiya Komaya (Kiritsugu in Fate/Zero, Kogoro from Detective Conan, Takamura from Hajime no Ippo), and is probably one of the finest examples of "GAR" you'll ever find.

Animation is really good throughout the whole series, with Madhouse doing an extremely good job in pretty much every aspect of the anime. There are some cruel things shown, because, just like Madhouse makes it clear at the start of every episode, they really want to portray the atmosphere of that period.

The anime is basically divided in two halves divided but a timeskip, with the first half being the clear superior one, but with the second one still being pretty solid.

The first half is mainly about the life of this group inside the reformatory and about how they forge such a great bond. The second half is more about their life after the reformatory, and how that friendship proves to be something unbreakable.

Biggest problem in this anime would be the antagonists, who are guys that are so evil, that they really aren't that believable as characters, even if their reasons were actually pretty common in places like that. They're there to be hated, and they make them very "hateable"... to a fault.

This is an anime pretty hard to dislike, as it is pretty solid in every aspect, and maybe you can even get to learn a little bit about what is to be in a place that was devastated by war.

Madhouse is already a studio full of great works, and Rainbow is among the very best of them.

As an anime from the 80s, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, or Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LOGH from now on) has become one of the big anime old classics, and with good reason.

Because it's an old anime, you can't expect the best animation sequences or anything close to what you can see now, almost 30 years later, but LOGH still managed to age perfectly well, as it never really relied on such things.

LOGH is a series with a lot of detail, were the main part of a battle isn't the fight itself, but the planning of it. What is really important is strategy and tactics. You ... will get full explanations about the formations of battleships, traps to lure the enemy and the many mind games played by the different characters.

Outside of battle, politics play a very big role. This series will give you a good chance to think a little bit about the advantages and disadvantages of democracy and autocracy, and probably learn a little bit (or a lot) of both.

Tactics vs strategy is a very big theme here. How can tactics affect the whole strategy, and how can a great tactics be worthless if you don't manage to win the strategy battle.

Watching LOGH is a little bit like watching a history documental (of course, a fictional one). There are many characters, and a lot of them play a big role some time or another during the series.

A great story needs great characters, and LOGH definitely delivers. Through the story you will get to love many characters, and probably hate others. Character development is also a very huge part of this series.

LOGH really likes to depict the horrors of war, so death is, of course, a very big theme, and there are a few strong images that might not be good for the faint of heart, but will help making the story much more meaningful.

LOGH is full of dialogue and requires a lot of attention from the viewer because every detail can be important... and that's exactly what makes this series special.

Again, animation is not perfect, and if you are good with details, you will most likely spot a few mistakes here and there, but none of those mistakes should really be a problem in you overall experience.

Finally, you can't talk about LOGH and not mention its music, which besides the openings, endings, and hymns from both sides of the battle, everything is classical music. Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovski, Mozart and a lot more, with everything very well applied to their corresponding scenes.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is really a unique journey in the anime world an beyond (its not fair to limit it only to anime). A very unique, long story that you will most likely not forget.