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One of the most intriguing concepts of a visual medium I have ever seen.

It can definitely be argued that Death Parade's strengths lie in its ability to invoke an overwhelming sense of curiosity in its audience. Why, the concept of a limbo-esque bar housing the people who will ultimately decide your mortal fate via some pub games is enough to raise the eyebrow of even the most cynical individual. However, Death Parade does not land all the punches it throws, and the execution does not, unfortunately, live up to its ambition.

Conversely, there are of course, many reasons why this anime should be watched. As ... expected from a Madhouse production, the Art is simply stunning and in Full 1080p Death Parade looks sharper than a butcher's knife. The Anime is now known for its (in)famous opening, and I can't help but chuckle to myself when I see Decim doing the Cancan, accompanied by a toe-tapping theme. Whilst the theme is a little odd when contrasted to the dark tones of the anime, the atmospheric music is incredible; the ice-skating scene being the standout.

My main problem with this anime comes with the writing. The characters, while each are likeable are not really relatable in any way, and are all incredibly one dimensional. With the exception of Decim and "Black-haired woman" (to avoid spoilers), I see no character development in any of the supporting cast, apart from the "gimmick" they all seem to possess.

While the premise of the story is intriguing enough, it doesn't really do that much to enthrall you beyond what you can expect. While the bar games are certainly interesting to watch, the way the deceased react to certain situations just seemed off (CF Bowling and Romance). The judging of said deceased is also fundamentally flawed in its concept, as they can either be reincarnated or descend into Oblivion. For a series which seeks to explore the depth and complexity of human morality and behaviour, this outcome seems too simplified, black and white and as a result the writers confine themselves into placing the deceased into sheep or goats while the plot shows us that there is much more to it than that. Another thing I found bizarre was that despite the continued emphasis on the Arbiters' lack of emotion. I found that they all seem to possess emotion; in particularly Ginti, who drove me to irritation with his lack of emotional range and his stupendously quick temper.

However I feel that this critical review makes the anime seem worse than it is and don't get me wrong, this is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining anime, and its thought-provoking and somewhat poignant nature will bring as many (metaphorical) tears of sadness than it's dark humour brings tears of joy.

So should you give this a watch? Certainly, it might not be the bread and butter of visual entertainment, but it's definitely worth a go.

Undoubtedly one of the most famous and iconic anime of all time. Death Note is an anime that really forces you to question your own morality and views of the two main characters Light and L, who represent two opposite sides of the moral spectrum. Light believes that the ends of creating a perfect world justify the means of slaughtering potentially millions of evildoers among the human race, while L believes that the means are so sickeningly nihilistic that there cannot possibly be any good to come of this ideal. While of course this is slightly too black and white to hold true realistic worth ... in today's world, I wholeheartedly praise any form of art that makes the audience think and react to it.

The intelligence of this anime is unrivalled, the way it can hold and preserve tension for so long is a testament to the well-thought out plot. If you truly suspend your disbelief then you will be immersed in one of the most engrossing, suspenseful cat and mouse games an entertainment medium can offer. Honestly, I class this anime as a psychological horror due to the sheer sickening, vile content that its plot holds. Light himself finds himself bored in an unstimulating, stagnant world where weakness is preyed upon by the malicious and when he first receives his Note he wants to rectify this. However, he soon evolves from a valiant, idealistic young man to a narcissistic, paranoid being with an undeniably disturbing god-complex. It's this stomach-churningly realistic portrayal of Light's evolution as the unrivalled power of the Death Note rots away his conscience.

L however is much more likable in the eyes of the audience and his intelligent, quirky yet wholesomely loveable nature helps break up and place emphasis upon the moments of suspense, which, with the incredible soundtrack never fails to send chills down my spine, with the red/blue God and Satan imagery, as well as the incredibly powerful washing-of-feet scene in Episode 25 (no doubt a reference to Jesus and Judas). Ryuk is a character who is as equally unsettling as Light because it is only his boredom and his complete disregard for the human race is the whole reason why the story was made which really resonates with my fear that the human race really is completely insignificant. Ryuk knows that no matter what Light does, it will all end with Ryuk writing his name in the notebook and killing him, his maniacal giggles of excitement and interest whenever Light or L makes their next move is really quite unsettling as he only views this as a mere form of entertainment and he is the perfect blend between the world of the Shinigami and our world, of fantasy and reality. Misa has also garnered a lot of criticism for her sheer annoying personality. In reality however, Misa is the most tragic character as she represents the blindness that love and lust can give, she is weak and vulnerable and Light takes full advantage of her, defiling Rem's dignity as a Shinigami in doing so.

Of course there are weaker points in the anime as this is not perfect by any means. I find it incredibly hard to believe that in the time jump we have in the 3rd arc that 5 years on, Light has still not gained the control of the world that he should have with the power he wields (I personally think this would've made a better arc) and that early on, some of L's deductions are honestly just bizarre (EG determining that Kira was a student) however I believe that criticism of Near and Mello is not justified. It is a testament to L and Watari's genius and that no matter what happens there will always be someone there to bring those who are evil to justice.

I honestly believe that the originality of the storyline, the intrigue of the characters, the thought and reaction-provoking themes and dilemmas and the sheer sickening entertainment that you can get from this anime immortalises it as one of the best anime of all and a timeless classic. If you haven't watched it already, I insist that you do so.

This anime leaves a really bittersweet taste in my mouth, something I can't quite put my finger on. We've watched Okazaki battle his way through life from a young, idle male to a strapping man willing to provide for his family. However, on reflection of watching this anime, I still feel that there is something left to be desired.

The story is powerful, there's no denying that and in my view, it came on leaps and bounds from the dull meadow of mediocrity that was the original season. I think Tomoya Okazaki is probably the most well developed character in any anime I have watched and ... it's almost as if we've been there with him as he has grown up now into a responsible adult. After Story shredded aspects of the anime that in my view needed to be shredded (THANK GOD FUKO WAS KEPT TO A MINIMUM) but it also lost valuable members of the cast which added to the story and more importantly the enjoyment such as Sunohara and Tomoyo.

At times I felt it was just an onslaught of moe and tragedy which in the end just served to lessen the effect each event should have had. The path which we had to follow in After Story certainly was empowering but it was just missing the changes in scenery and in tone that the other characters gave us, Nagisa's and Tomoya's dominant screentime meant they were developed incredibly well but at times I wanted to scream "Where's Yoshino for God's sake?! Give me more Sunohara!" When you are exposed to the same type of thing so much you begin to become desensitized, and that's the feeling I got with After Story. I can't have tears in my eyes when my spine is shivering from those cringey one-liners every thirty seconds! The arcs were filled with variety but I felt that their quality held too many peaks and troughs, from the great (the gang arc and the child arc), to the bad (the ending) to the downright bizarre (the 'cat' arc) and these inconsistencies meant I couldn't truly appreciate this anime for the masterpiece it could have been. I had my seat-belts fastened for a whirlwind of a finale, but what I got in return was a timid autumn breeze.

It's likely that the ever-catchy 'Dango' theme song will ring around my brain-cells from time to time and I might yet one day revisit this. But after finishing this anime the taste in my mouth is predominantly sour.

Opinions on Clannad seem to be bipolar; you either love it or you hate it. Whilst I feel the rave reviews for this anime are not justly deserved, I also feel it shouldn't garner as much criticism as it does either. For me, this anime is a living example of average.

I want to start positively before I become more critical and the positives that stand out most to me are the sound and the art, so kudos to the studio for that. The characters are well drawn and some of the landscaping, particularly the sunset are very easy on the eye and aesthetically pleasing. The ... themes were pretty catchy as well - in the quirky way that they were made. While the female characters did not sound anything like the seniors that they were supposed to be, I felt the actors didn't do anything wrong (barring Fuuko) and my qualm is more with the production and directing. I thought Sunohara's and Okazaki's VAs were both very good as they captured both character's personalities superbly.

One of the main problems I have with this anime is how one-dimensional everything is. It spends so much time on trying to create sympathy for its cutesy female characters that it forgets the one thing that all media should be doing: entertaining us. The story (well, if you could call it that) focuses on a young 'delinquent' - although that's probably the one adjective I wouldn't use to describe him - whose boring life drastically changes after he meets a cliché cutesy, quiet, innocent girl looking to make friends. This baffled me as if he was supposed to be a 'delinquent' wouldn't he try bullying or annoying Nagisa instead of becoming her best friend and devoting all his time to her? The anime was also very slowly paced and at times I was in two minds about dropping this anime. However there were some interesting twists and turns (E.G Fuuko) however outlandish and strange they were.

The characters were also a major weak-point of this anime. The best characters always have multiple dimensions to their characters whilst also have a relation to the audience, I felt like that was completely non-existant to this anime. Fuuko, while generating a few "Awws" from me, actually really annoyed me as she was constantly referring to herself in the 3rd person in an incredibly unrealistic high-pitched screech as well as having an unhealthy obsession with starfish, Kyou was your typical tsundere type and Nagisa was the 18 year old who acted like she was 5. Even so, all this variance in character was pretty much lost once this anime started to take shape as a harem and the "Mr. Perfect but Average Joe" Okazaki made all manner of females tumble head-over-heels for him, including both sisters Ryou and Kyou; which disturbed me a great deal.

Despite this, the anime did give me some satisfaction as for a change it was a harem which actually had a resolution with the male taking a female for his own unlike so many others where we never get an answer; much to the dismay of my hair which often gets pulled out in stress. I also particularly enjoyed Sunohara's character and his comedy relief did genuinely make me laugh as he played the failing bully.

In reality though this anime is nothing special and for me it falls into the doldrums of mediocrity. I wouldn't advise you to watch or not to watch this anime as it has such a wide spectrum of opinions that I don't think it would be fair, so watch it at your own peril as you may become frustrated and/or bored. I'm not sure whether i'm going to watch the Afterstory, i've heard it is alot better, but after this I don't really have any motivation to watch it. It's a solid, average 5/10, nothing more, nothing less.

This is my first review and I want to try to be as honest as possible while still maintaining a balanced argument for both pros and cons for each anime. Although I'm afraid this is going to be a very one-sided review as I literally can find nothing I like about this anime aside from its visuals and as for all the anime that I have seen, Angel Beats! manages to be the worst by quite a long distance, which worries me a lot for how seriously it took itself.

The premise for the anime is intriguing enough; a boy with amnesia suddenly wakes up in ... purgatory with no recollection of when or how he got there. Interesting, right? Well, i'm afraid this is as good as this anime will get for storytelling. The rest of the anime is absolutely shambolic, it really is. While the anime does satisfy us with answers they're so poorly tacked on with half-hearted, lazy writing that anyone with any sort of literary knowledge will grimace in pain at such a horrific attempt to create sympathy. The anime is also one of the most pretentious I've ever seen as well - it claims to be a perfect blend of comedy and drama and it fails miserably at both of these things. If this anime actually tried to focus on one genre or the other I might've given it some points but the cohesion in the storytelling is so bad it's actually laughable, and it means some of the better scenes go to waste. I don't know many anime with 12 episodes actually have filler but I can honestly say Angel Beats! is one of them.

One of the ways this story has garnered so much acclaim and popularity is due to its heart-rendering capabilities. I didn't even come close to tears with this anime and if I did it would be from boredom because there is absolutely no story advancement whatsoever! The characters are so one-dimensional, unoriginal and cliché, with 'violent girl with bad past' (not really sure what guns are doing in an alternate universe of a school by the way) and 'small mysterious girl who never speaks' that it is hard to form any sort of emotional bond because they're so badly developed and anyone who has watched anime in this genre could correctly predict any sort of twists or turns they throw at you in this bare-bones plot. Don't even get me started on the ending by the way, an absolute disgrace.

One thing I will say about this anime is that it's visuals are stunning but I'm afraid this anime is all style and no substance and it doesn't deserve even a tenth of the acclaim it gets. The writers and producers have clearly gone for the popularity formula, which has worked on some but I'm afraid it doesn't work on me - this anime is so badly paced, stupid, pretentious and lazily written that it has destroyed any potential it once had. So I plead with those who are wanting to watch this - don't. Lazy writing, a badly paced, badly executed story and dull, one-dimensional characters are the only seeds that this anime sow. This anime is a waste of human productivity and of your time, spend your time on something else.