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This is a manga about a girl who is too embarrassed to admit that her first crush was a girl. Since she was a child, Yashiro has been weak and clumsy. She was often bullied by boys for how weak she was and ended up with a fear of men. Her first crush was a girl who saved her from some bullies one day. They became friends, but eventually Yashiro became so enamored with her savior that she kissed the girl, who then ran away never to be seen again. She didn't even know the girl's name.

Fast forward to high school and a transfer student ... is admitted into Yashiro's class who looks strikingly similar to the girl from back then. The girl's name is Mikoto and she even calls out to Yashiro to have Yashiro show her around the school. When in private, Mikoto tells Yashiro that she remembers her and begins kissing Yashiro. In the midst of kissing, however, Yashiro accidentally touches Mikoto's groin and feels something hard, something most girls would not have.

Turns out Mikoto is actually a boy, and because of Yashiro kissing him as a child, he will turn into a girl if Yashiro does not passionately make out with him every single day. And this is the story.

The story follows their rom-com attempts at making out while keeping it a secret. The drama in the story primarily comes from Yashiro feeling as if Mikoto has no real feelings for her and is only using her in order to keep being a man. On top of that, Yashiro is still afraid of men and is horrified to find out that her first kiss was a guy.

As for the characters, I actually really enjoyed them. As dumb as some of the situations they are put in are, the characters are executed well considering how bizarre and unrealistic this setup is. The two main characters and three supporting characters are really the only important cast in the story, but they are all unique and enjoyable to read about. Some have stupid means to achieve certain ends, specifically one side character later on though. Still, the interaction between Mikoto and Yashiro is the best part of this story. Watching them grow, fall apart, and grow back together is the manga's strongest point in my opinion.

The art is well drawn and the characters are quite sexy, not going to lie about that. Mikoto may be a guy, but he is a pretty sexy trap. The story is not that ecchi, but it does have moments here and there, like one bathhouse scene that are a little more revealing, and some darker scenes towards the end of the story, though never full nudity.

Basically if you want a good gender bender manga and don't care much for the plot and just want to see some pretty good character interaction and some sexy moments between the characters, then read this manga.

Don't read it if you find rather pointless transsexual sexual moments with not much plot substance off-putting or offensive. It's not really meant to be aimed at a trans audience, as it definitely has yuri and ecchi manga fans in mind for the most part as far I could tell.

"The Town Where Only I am Missing" (loosely turned into "Erased" in the English version), has many amazing aspects, yet with it's rushed pace and incredible amount of unexplained occurrences, it is one that has me feeling a confused love for this show. If it was trying to make me go read the manga to get the full and possibly better version of this story, then it certainly succeeded as that's what I'm going to be doing soon.

Despite being an excellent series (in my opinion), it is a rather predictable one; I won't try to hide that. From just my first time watching the opening ... sequence of the show, I had already taken a guess at who the murderer would be, and though I sometimes doubted that guess during the series, I ended up being exactly right.

Erased is a mystery series chronicling the desperate attempts of the 29 year old failing manga artist named Satoru to try to prevent his entire world from falling apart. Satoru has a power called "Revival." It is a power that he cannot control, and is honestly less of a power and more like a deja-vu feeling. He gets this feeling whenever something bad is going to happen around him, and after he gets this feeling, he tries to desperately find out what is going to go wrong and try to solve the incident.

However, when Satoru's world falls apart right before his very eyes (well technically he got there like 5 minutes afterwards), his Revival power takes on a new form allowing him to travel through time to his childhood when the series of events that led to the tragedy that is facing his adult self all began. Here's the first issue with the series: Revival. Actually this is probably the biggest issue with the series. Revival is a strange thing in this series as it is shown twice in the first episode before Satoru travels back in time as a deja-vu-like sensation. Then it allows him to travel through time occasionally during the rest of the series, but it never occurs again in the simple deja-vu way ever again after the first episode. And it's never said why at all.

As for other plot problems, they mainly come from a lack of explanation, specifically in the second half of the show where A LOT of things are apparently cut out in order to make this series into a 12 episode show instead of 20-some episode show.

I've been dissing this series a lot so far, but I rated it a 8/10 (and I don't give that rating to all that many series), so why the rating? Aside from those issues, I thought the rest of the story was actually brilliant. Each episode ties nicely into the next, keeping you invested. I watched the whole series in two days (one day after the seventh episode was aired, and then again after the series was finished). This is not the kind of series you can just watch whenever. It drags you in and makes you crave more. It's a mystery that, despite being pretty sure who the villain was from early on, I still was enthralled by.

While I don't think any characters in this series (well maybe Satoru's mom) are stand-out, amazing characters on their own, what makes the characters in Erased so memorable and fun to watch are their interactions with other characters. Satoru's relationships grow in incredible ways. With his adult brain inside the body of a middle schooler, he is capable of interacting with others around him much differently than he could the first time. However, what I liked about this aspect is that the series still doesn't make him seem like he knows everything. In fact, he learns a lot even about his friends, his mom, and other people he thought he knew well before. This allows him to grow through constant trials that test his willpower and his wits. I only wish there was more time for the characters to have grown. The character however that got shirked the most by the short series was actually not Satoru or Kayo (the primary person Satoru is trying to save in the past), but actually the antagonist.

[Well some characters just got dropped out of the show along the way so there were actually quite a few characters who needed more time, but they aren't quite as important anyway].

This is one of the parts that had me the most conflicted about the series (second after the Revival confusion). The antagonist in this series is most certainly an amazing antagonist, but he gets the short end of the stick with this series that didn't do him quite enough justice. From the very first episode, he gives off an incredibly menacing and mysterious demeanor and you just want to know more about him. He may be fairly obvious, but that doesn't make it any less spectacular when the big reveal finally comes towards the end. But that's just it... it comes towards the end; then the villain is given time to develop a little, but there is so much else happening while the series is trying to wrap up that it just feels so rushed and you just want to learn more about him. That is, it's rushed up until the final scene. The final scene is brilliantly executed and I could not have thought of a more fitting way to end the series. So at least that was done right in my opinion.

One other thing I want to mention relating to the characters is the handling of child abuse in this series. It was used a little too much to create drama in this series, and as someone dating a girl who has been abused and hearing her reactions to this show's portrayal as well as my own opinions on the topic, I can say it definitely has a bit of an "anime-like" approach to the subject that isn't really a good portrayal of how it is in real life, but it certainly isn't the worst case. It is handled much better than in some shows where it is extremely over-exaggerated for the sole purpose of making us sympathize with a character, though in some ways it is just kind of a plot point to move the story. So it wasn't handled too poorly or too well. Like most aspects of this show, it really just needed more time to be explored.

What really sold the series for me and was my favorite aspect of Erased by far was it's atmosphere. The mix of amazing animation and a beautiful soundtrack with OP and ED songs that fit the series perfectly just completely immersed me in this beautiful, yet simplistic world. It just takes place in a small town and another town in Satoru's present day, yet it creates such a beautiful atmosphere that you forget these places are literally no different than any other town you'd see in anime or honestly even just in the real world. The use of repeated scenery shots of many different places (such as seeing the front of the school, the park, outside Kayo's house) left you feeling like you lived there and knew the town just like the characters did. It has this wonderful mysterious feeling to it all that helps tie together the beautiful atmosphere and the mysterious tone of the show and uses it for excellent world building.


I enjoyed the crap out of Erased. That's basically what I feel now that I've just finished it about an hour ago. Yes it has problems with certain aspects like its rushed pace, lack of explanations, and some character issues mainly in the way that things were cut too short for some characters to get enough development.

But what Erased really excels at is its wondrous and mysterious atmosphere created through the excellent soundtrack and the beautiful animation that really entices you to want to watch more, and it's character interactions. Satoru is not a bad main character, but it certainly does help that all the other characters have such great interactions with him. I especially loved his connection with the antagonist, but his relationships with Kayo, Kenya, and his mother are also excellently executed and the changes they go through are what really drives the series and makes it fun to watch.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Akumetsu is a story of one man. And a horde of his look-alikes who collectively become known as Akumetsu. They are a terrorist group who kill off evil politicians and people ruining the country of Japan and causing it to accumulate around 7 trillion in national debt. After an Akumetsu kills his target, he dies as well.

The story is pretty simple and is mainly divided into arcs centering around Akumetsu focusing on a certain target and killing that target (pretty much always an old, corrupt, male politician) in a flashy way so that more and more people come to know of them ... and they can be one step closer to fixing the country. The story can be a little repetitive at times though it always spices up each arc with some new feature (car chase, barricading his target in a room with him, etc.) Akumetsu use the idea of one man, one kill. After they kill an evil person, they die as well because the act of killing is evil in and of itself.

As far as characters go, Akumetsu is about the only important one. Side characters, even if they seem like they will be important at first maybe as a rival to Akumetsu or ally, never become important whatsoever. At most they will pop up from time to time to show how someone with conflicting views on Akumetsu's approach to evil is reacting. The targeted people in each arc get more time spent being focused on than any character who actually survives for more than one arc. Akumetsu, as is shown early on to the reader, is a high school boy named Shou. He is a goofy, geeky, and extremely likable boy that no one around him would ever expect to be a murderer. He is really the only important character overall and gets plenty of development. Unfortunately he suffers from many problems with the biggest problem for me being that his backstory and how Akumetsu began and functions as an organization doesn't even get explained until about 100 chapters into the story. While it does work kind of well on keeping you wanting to know more about the story, that is a huge part of the story and really the only thing that wasn't made clear about how the story would go from early on. The Akumetsu are perfect at nearly everything they do. This relieves any tension the reader has that Akumetsu may fail (aside from only two parts of the story where things don't go as planned). This does still leave you wondering how Akumetsu will actually murder his target which is the main appeal of the story.

As for the art, I'm very mixed on my opinion of it. While it does look very well done for a weekly manga, it suffers from one big problem. It stereotypes things. The evil targets of Akumetsu are always old, disgusting men. Even the one time high school kids are shown shortly to have different views than everyone else, they are shown as disgusting looking people. The good people are not ugly whether they are old or not. However I did like how most of the evil people are created after real people who do look somewhat similar to their manga counterparts (albeit less over-the-top ugly). Still, the art has a very nice look to it aside from this with a style that reminds me more of western superhero comics than Japanese manga. It's got a bit of Batman-like style if you took the superpowered villains out of Batman and replaced them with corrupt politicians.

Despite my problems with Akumetsu, I did enjoy it. It can be very wordy at times about how politics work, and for someone who's not from Japan, can be confusing at times. Still, I found it read fairly quickly and was quite enjoyable especially during the more action packed scenes. In the end, it was well worth the read. Especially if you are interested in political or superhero stories, I recommend reading Akumetsu. Still, if you are looking for a story with a great character cast or an easy-to-understand conflict (one that doesn't involve complicated political views), then I would not recommend it.

I'm a big fan of Kyoto Animation. I really enjoy their animation style and many of their shows. However, Tamako Market was one of the few shows by KyoAni that I did not enjoy. It had a weak and silly plot, too much comic relief thanks to an annoying fat, talking bird, and the animation was not as good as many other KyoAni shows in my opinion. So along comes a movie sequel for the show that has romance at the core of its story rather than slice of life filler, less than five minutes of the annoying bird name Dera, and movie quality animation. ... I think this movie is what Tamako Market should have been all along.

Rather than focusing on some weird premise about Tamako being the chosen princess for a foreign prince to marry filled with tons of filler to make a 12 episode series, we instead get the relationship between Tamako and Mochizou at center stage. This was my favorite part of the show and I always wished they had fleshed it out more, which they did excellently in this movie. The story now takes place as Tamako, Mochizou, and the others prepare for high school to end. Mochizou has decided that he wants to attend a college in Tokyo to continue his passion for film. However, he has to tell Tamako, a girl who constantly lives in the moment, about this decision. He also has the fact that he loves her bottled up inside of him. The majority of the story of the movie deals with his struggle to tell Tamako and her struggle to decide how she feels about him and his decision to leave the shopping center where they grew up together.

My favorite thing about this show though would have to be the atmosphere it creates. It is calm, yet somewhat dramatic. And it most certainly beautiful as the art compliments this mood greatly. We get excellent panoramic shots, skies beautifully outlining characters, and movie quality animation that really shows how great KyoAni can be. The music also compliments the atmosphere with mostly acoustic rock music. The song that Tamako's father played to her mother when he confessed to her is one of my favorites in the movie and used at just the right moments to compliment Tamako's feelings. The show uses silence and other surrounding sounds well to make for many scenes with both perfect romantic and awkward-romantic-tension filled moments.

The characters are greatly improved in this movie as opposed to the show. Mochizou, Tamako, and Tamako's friends all get much more development in this one movie than they did throughout the entire 12 episode show. Thankfully Dera is never shown aside from the first five minutes which helps add to the atmosphere I mentioned before (the lack of comic relief is a breath of fresh air). That's not to say the main characters are perfect now. They do take a bit too long dealing with romantic issues and have some bothersome aspects like Tamako's airheadedness, but it's to be expected in a situation like this and isn't much of a problem.

I really enjoyed this movie despite finding the show boring and annoying at times. Everything about this movie is better, and the only part I really disliked was the first five minutes due to Dera's annoying banter back on his island far, far away from the main story (thank goodness he can't fly). The only other thing I might complain about is that the ending seemed to happen a bit too quickly, but that's not too big of an issue since it was still nice. This is just a nice simple romance story about two childhood friends. While it may not be the most original romance story Kyoto Animation has ever done, it was executed wonderfully nonetheless.

What does it mean to be a good main character? Does it mean being weak and growing strong throughout the story? Or could it mean starting strong but learning how to overcome your weaknesses in order to continue growing? How about starting off absolutely perfect at everything other than noticing girls affection for you? Well, if you answered "no" to that last one, you should probably stay away from this show. If you answered "yes," let me show why I believe that is not the right way to create a protagonist.

Shiba Tatsuya is a new high school freshman at a prestigious magic academy in near-future ... Japan. Magic is being studied like a science and used in order to gain an upper-hand in a long-lasting global conflict. Tatsuya and his twin sister Miyuki happen to be excellent at using magic. Despite that, due to some poorly explained reason, the absolutely-perfect-at-magic-in-every-way-ever-showed Tatsuya somehow ended up in the lower class at the school though Miyuki ended up in the upper class. Most of the students in the upper class look down on the other students as being inferior. Tatsuya soon breaks that boundary and forces his way (and is forced) into the student council by being absolutely perfect. Still, it will take more time than that to fully mend the broken relationship between the upper and lower students. That's just a bit of the stuff that happens at first in MKnR. The story is divided up into several arcs ranging from a few episodes to around ten episodes in length.

I'll go over the characters first since that really is the biggest downside to the show. There are way too many them. This show throws characters at you left and right with minimal explanation given for most of them, and almost zero back-stories for anyone, even the main duo. There is nothing to connect to these characters with emotionally (unless you can relate to having a brother complex). They are bland, two-dimensional characters who serve almost no purpose other than to further the plot, though most don't even do that much. Most characters' designs are so similar that they are easily confused with one another and made even more forgettable.

Now for the main duo, Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba. They are twins from a wealthy and powerful family that is shown on a couple occasions but left out of the picture for 99% of the show. Tatsuya and Miyuki are both flawless with the exceptions being that Miyuki has a brother complex she cannot admit, and Tatsuya is terrible at noticing he has about a handful of girls with a crush on him. Tatsuya seemed like an interesting character in the first episode to me. He was looked down upon due to the class he was put in despite actually being quite skilled. However, the main reason (as I have said and will say many times) is his utter lack of any flaws. He doesn't even seem human. Similarly overpowered genius protagonists like Yagami Light from Death Note and Shiro from No Game No Life are far better than him for that reason. Despite being extremely cunning and seeming to win in basically every situation, they have flaws that make them seem like actual people. They have greed, lust, jealousy, emotions, goals, etc. Tatsuya just goes through this story beating everyone in his path without showing hardly any emotion at all. Even in unimportant situations like just hanging out with friends, he is stoic and emotionless and bland. He always says exactly what he needs to say and executes plans without any hitches. I really don't see why any other characters are necessary in this story since it seems like he could have done everything himself. Miyuki is also similarly strong, but ends up playing a damsel in distress role on one or two occasions making her not quite as perfect. She tends to be rather emotionless as well unless she is flustered romantically or embarrassed. She and Tatsuya together are just some of the most boring main characters I've ever seen.

The story is not much better. Given the huge character cast and boring main characters, the story tends to be slow paced and takes too long to explain things. 90% of MKnR is spent explaining. Almost every time an action scene occurs or a new magic is shown, the show stops and has the characters indirectly explain to the audience what happened even though I never really cared to know most of the time. There's no letting the viewer piece together events to figure out how things occurred. The information overload often makes you forget things as new info is poured into your brain faster than you can stop and think about anything that's been said. Plus most things that are explained are rather unimportant overall and make it hard to focus on the actual important information.

The animation is shoddily done. Created by the same group in Madhouse who did the failure that was Mahou Sensou, the animation really brings down the company's famous name in the anime industry. The characters' faces are devoid of expression throughout the majority of the show and everyone's design is so similar with nearly the same facial structure given to all characters. The backgrounds are not very detailed and the foreground images are sometimes noticeably poorly drawn. On the other hand, the action sequences have good choreography and are well thought out. Most of them involve group battles that involve strategy between fighters. This is also where the animation tends to be the best.

The soundtrack is mostly techno music with some rock music thrown in for some of the action scenes. The music does a good job of adding a nice calm, yet mysterious atmosphere to some of the scenes with explanations galore and makes them slightly better. There are many tracks that are used too often though, and many scenes are devoid of any music where some really should have been used. The second OP and ED are excellent despite the first ones not being anything out of the ordinary.

This show flops on nearly all aspects. The gigantic character cast with no personality or development was truly the biggest hindrance. Tatsuya is just so flawless that there is absolutely no tension created because you can be sure that he'll wrap everything up easily and move on to the next problem. This show could have been much better which is the most frustrating part. It had potential and an interesting premise but wasted it all on pointless or bad characters, poor animation, and an ending that politely asks for a second season without really offering anything worthy of receiving it.

DRAMAtical Murder is an anime adapted from a BL visual novel originally created by the company Nitro+ who also made things like Steins;Gate and Chaos Head. Similarly to those and other stories done by Nitro+, it has a very sci-fi and futuristic feeling to it. And despite the original material involving gay rape sex scenes (though I haven't played the original game so I can't compare them more than this), this is tuned down to a PG-13 rating which never delves farther in the shounen-ai element than a simple kiss and gay sexual innuendos galore.

DMMd begins with Seragaki Aoba, a man of around 20 years ... old. The story is told from his perspective as he meets different people, both ones he already knew and strangers. He begins to discover something big going on in his city involving gangs, a digital game called "Rhyme," and some of the people around him. Aoba, of course, is also strongly involved in this growing plot whether he knows it or not at first. The initial setup is basically your typical VN setup where you follow the protagonist as you meet the other important and not so important characters.

One of the biggest problems I had with DMMd is just how poorly timed its twists and reveals are. Aoba knows almost nothing that is going on about the main story at first or much that happened prior to Episode 1. Unfortunately, it takes almost half of the 12 episodes for the show to actually give you any idea what is going to happen. And that first half is incredibly boring since all it does is introduce you to some characters who really aren't all that likable. When they do finally reveal the real intent of the plot, it is very predictable and generic. This show is chock full of generic tropes.

As for the characters, they could not be less interesting if they tried. Clear is the only character I ever cared about in the slightest (he's a great singer imo) but even still the show developed him and everyone else very poorly. Everything from Aoba's character design (his huge sweatshirt is just disgusting to look at for 12 episodes) to the typical personalities of all the other main characters just made for an extremely boring and annoying cast. Aoba is your typical main lead who doesn't want to hurt anyone and is just lead through the story by everyone else. Koujaku is his best friend who sticks with him through thick and thin despite not really mattering at all in the story. Clear is the mysterious, strange one who also ends up a little unimportant in the story. Noiz is a hacker who's quiet and arrogant. And Mink is really only important towards the end with almost no personality or development to his character. The villains are one dimensional as are most of the small amount of side characters making for one of the worst character casts I've seen in an anime.

The art is noticeably cheap. The budget seems to be low from the start, you just kind of have to laugh at how rushed episode 3 was, and aside from some nice climactic scenes in the last couple episodes, the entire show just looks terrible. Aside from Aoba's design the other main characters do have pretty good and unique designs. The one aspect of DMMd that wasn't terrible was the soundtrack. Though it didn't stand out at all early on, the later episodes towards the climax of the show really added some great rock tracks that really improved some scenes. Still, this was only apparent towards the end and for much of the show, there is a noticeable lack of any background music. While this can work in some shows, with its futuristic setting DMMd felt very empty because of it.

This show just has almost nothing to offer. A bad character cast, animation that is so terrible you can see the individual frames used in most running sequences, a decent soundtrack that needed its better tracks to be used more often, and a generic and silly story full of terrible gay sexual innuendos. One of the worst shows I've seen in a while, I certainly don't recommend this show.

Hunter x Hunter, a series renowned for its unique and intelligent battles, is one of the best lengthy shounen/action series I've ever seen. However, this movie throws all of that out of the window of an extraordinarily tall tower and prefers to use more senseless, "beat-em-up with the power of friendship" tactics.

The story is pretty basic: A small group of refugees band together with a powerful rival of the Hunter Association in order to get revenge on them. The story takes place at Heaven's Arena, the tower where Gon and Killua fought while learning the basics of Nen. It brings back some characters from previous ... arcs who all gather in the Arena to watch a tournament which happens to be the target of the group of refugees-turned-terrorists. Their goal is to defeat the chairman, Netero, and spread On, a rage-based counterpart to Nen. The story seems good enough at first but eventually ends up being solely driven by the power of Killua and Gon's friendship and nothing else. Side events like what the Hunter Association is doing during the turmoil go absolutely nowhere, and most of the side characters are just there for people to enjoy seeing them again. Even Hisoka does nothing but add a little card-related symbolism into the mix and use his spidey-powers to transport Leorio to the fight.

As for the new characters (which are just the group of antagonists), the minor villains are fairly interesting. Their reason for fighting is believable and churns up some good emotions along with the battles. Mainly the guy with the mohawk stands out, as his battle with Gon and Killua is done pretty well and lasts the longest. However, the main villain is about as boring as you can get. Considering how excellent the main villains in the series are, he just has nothing to back him up aside from showing one moment of genuine compassion for his underlings.

The animation is surprisingly no better than that of the series, which is a letdown considering movie budgets usually allow for better animation than TV shows. The soundtrack is still the same good soundtrack from the show as well and even uses "Hyouriittai" once again for the ending theme.

While this film is certainly not as good as the show, it's still something worth checking out if you're a fan of the series and want more. Like most of HxH, it focuses mainly on Gon and Killua even though Kurapica and Leorio return for a bit. The movie takes place sometime around the very beginning of the Chimera Ant arc, so I would not recommend to this anyone who has not at least gotten that far.

"The Seven Deadly Sins" is a shounen action/fantasy manga that seems like it would be about as generic of a story as you could imagine something in this genre being. But only at first. It certainly clears that up quickly by introducing a world and a complex cast of characters that are anything but generic.

Beginning with a meeting between a princess and a man with a childlike stature acting as a barkeeper, the manga begins with the duo deciding to find a powerful group of warriors known as "The Seven Deadly Sins" in order to defeat the evil that has overcome the kingdom's monarchy. What ... is soon revealed is that the barkeeper is no ordinary person, but actually the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas, the Sin of Wrath. He is a legendary (and might I add, incredibly overpowered) warrior who the Holy Knights of the kingdom of Britannia (yes, it's not a creative name) has claimed was responsible for the death of the Great Holy Knight. Holy Knights are basically the strongest protectors of a nation, and the Great Holy Knight is the strongest out of all of them. The Seven Deadly Sins were originally allied with the Holy Knights, but ten years ago, everything changed and the members split up as they fled from the Holy Knights. Now Meliodas and the princess named Elizabeth begin their search for the other Seven Deadly Sins.

Still sounds like a fairly generic setup, but trust me, that doesn't last long. So what makes it unique? Aside from the characters, the complexity of the world is slowly showed to the reader in a way that will keep you focused and wanting to know more. This story hides an incredible amount of detail from reader, dangling it just out of reach, but not too much to the point of being annoying. It makes you wonder many things:

(1) What are the sins that each of the Seven Deadly Sins have committed? This is a huge part of the story and one of the most interesting features of the main characters. Even the other main characters do not know what sin each of them has committed, and they don't ask. So far (as of 82 chapters into the story) only two have been revealed so far, which is done in lengthy side chapters. The reason I'm mentioning this in so much detail is because the first one to be shown in chapter 25.5 is one of my absolute favorite backstories ever (and I'm a huge sucker for a good, emotional backstory). It also creates one of my favorite couples in a long time.
(2) Who are the real villains in this story? Most of the people of Britannia and the Holy Knights initially believe that the Seven Deadly Sins are the villains and that the Holy Knights are the heroes because of what happened ten years ago. However, that's not how the Seven Deadly Sins and Princess Elizabeth see it. But just because they are the protagonists does not necessarily mean they are really good. If you think the main characters are going to be similar to something like how the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece really are good and are just seen as being bad because they're pirates, keep reading and you'll see how conflicts in that belief will arise.
(3) What the hell is up with Meliodas' power? It's obvious he's incredibly strong, but... Well you'll know what I mean when you get to the end of the Byzel arc.

And those are just a few of the questions that I wonder the most. Given that each of the Seven Deadly Sins is incredibly strong beyond belief, and most of the Holy Knights are as well, it creates some of the most intense battles I've ever seen in a shounen battle story. Every fight in this manga is exciting and the outcome is unpredictable. Despite being very overpowered, the main characters do lose and do underestimate their opponents because of their power.

While the Seven Deadly Sins as well as many of the Holy Knights are very interesting and unique characters, Elizabeth is about as boring of a female protagonist as you can get in a shounen manga. She's your typical damsel-in-distress and only has a couple useful moments. There are mysteries surrounding her, but aside from being the catalyst to start the story and a motivation for Meliodas and the others to spring into action, she hasn't done very much so far and has less fighting skill than the talking mascot pig character, Hawk.

As for the art, it starts off a little rough but eventually settles into an excellent groove. This manga has some of the most detailed battles I've ever seen in a shounen manga. The character designs are also interesting and good. Despite being ecchi, it never pushes it too far and only has it as a backdrop occasionally with Meliodas' perverted side and the occasional ripped clothes in a battle. The scenery of the fantasy world of Britannia is also beautiful. The world has a Middle Ages' European style as many fantasy stories do.Each town is unique and shown from a distance before the characters enter it (and sometimes destroy it).

What I originally thought would just be another typical "find some allies and beat the bad guys" story turned out to be a much more complex tale then I could have imagined from the cover. The characters, the world, the art, the mysteries. It's all excellently executed. Despite the beginning being a little slow, Elizabeth's uselessness, and some other issues here and there, this is one of the best shounen action stories I've seen in a while. Plus it's still got a long ways to go. With an anime announced sometime in the future, hopefully this manga will continue on for a long time and be able to fully show what the world of "The Seven Deadly Sins" really has to offer.

This is an anime about a man and his dream. His dream of panties. Seeing panties, smelling panties, touching panties.... Yeah that's honestly most of what this show is about. Oh, and a there's also little stuff about making manga. But it's ecchi manga about panties anyway. Each episode is divided into three or four different scenes, and almost all of them deal with panties and Aito's love for them in one way or another.

This is a harem anime about a mangaka of an ecchi manga and the girls around him. His three assistants (though two are hardly ever seen actually helping his manga at ... all), his editor, and several other minor characters. The main character, Aito, is absolutely ridiculous. His emotions seem bipolar and he can quickly flip from being a perverted idiot to a sympathetic and kind mentor in the blink of an eye. His voice during many of the perverted scenes gets so high it's annoying (though I will give credit to his voice actor for having excellent vocal range) yet at other times he can be quite likable. He has balls of steel and, unlike many male protagonists in ecchi anime, has almost no fear of asking to see a girl's underwear or to touch them (in fact he even succeeds a couple times).

As for the girls, they are mostly archetypal, though they do break out of their archetypes and become unique on several occasions. Aito's main assistant, Ashisu, is the girl who least fits into any archetype. She is Aito's main love interest (of course she would rather die than feel the same way about him). Being an assistant, she has dreams of debuting and becoming a real mangaka. She has a love-hate relationship with Aito which can range from her going along with his perverted schemes to acting like a dominating yandere around him. Mihari is Aito's editor and friend from high school who has long had a crush on him. Aito has no clue of course because Mihari is your typical, lovable tsundere. Rinna, a well-endowed airhead, and Sena, a spoiled-rotten weakling, are much less important and only have a few important scenes despite being main characters.

The animation is fairly well done for an ecchi anime. Despite all of it's focus on panties, the amount of ecchi content is probably not as much as you're expecting. There are more moments with sexual innuendos and Aito asking to see panties than there are actual moments of near-nudity. The character designs are average and since most of the anime takes place inside of Aito's apartment studio, the characters are usually seen close up and tend to avoid being shown with minimal detail when far away from the viewer like many shows do to save some of the animation budget. Still, this means there are not too many scenery changes, though there are still a beach/hot spring episode and several trips to lingerie stores in the mall. As for the sound, the music is typical an for ecchi and comedy anime. Most of the time it is light-hearted, but it can get intense to match Aito's bizarre outbreaks. Still, it does nothing more than fit the mood fairly well at the time and is often unnoticeable.

"Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to" is a fairly entertaining, simple, and short (12 minute long episodes) ecchi comedy. If that's all your looking for, then you've found something you'll enjoy. If you're looking for one of the best ecchi shows out there, or something with tons of nudity, then you'll probably be disappointed. The show does get a little better as it goes and as you grow somewhat attached to the characters (I personally enjoyed Mihari with her crush on Aito the most and I was happy that there was an entire episode dedicated to that). Also, if you're going into this expecting a lot of focus on making manga, you would be better to check out something like Bakuman as this only occasionally focuses on how tiring the process can really be.

Selector Infected WIXOSS (SIW) is the newest of a number of anime which many people claim "Only exists because of Madoka Magica." Personally I don't agree with that, but just a heads up in case you get part way into this review and just write the show off because of the few similarities like many people seem to do with these kinds of shows. Yes it is a dark show with a sort of magical-girl-esque style that centers around a group of high school girls, but that's about all the similarities you'll find save a couple towards the end that only seem like they'll be ... similar to PMMM. But with that out of the way, onto the real review.


Kominato Ruuko is the protagonist who lives with her grandmother. She has no friends and only sees her older brother when he occasionally visits. Her grandmother, wanting to help her make friends, buys her a starter pack of WIXOSS cards, a game which is very popular especially with girls. One of the cards is special and displays a moving girl who only Ruuko can notice and hear. The girl's name is Tama. She's a LRIG that only comes in certain packs and obtaining a LRIG makes Ruuko a Selector. She can fight against other Selectors in order to be granted one wish. However, if she loses 3 battles against other Selectors, she'll lose the ability for that wish to ever be granted. Because she's a Selector, she soon meets another girl named Yuzuki who is also a Selector. The rules of WIXOSS are never explained very well to the viewer, but basically the players just level up their LRIG and use a few other cards to attack their opponents with their LRIG. The actual battle logistics are pretty unimportant, and it's just the battle's outcome that really matters. As the story goes along, Ruuko faces difficulties with keeping friends, fighting off enemies, and deciding what wish she should make. And her problems are only a small portion of the psychological issues faced throughout the anime.

I love psychological anime, so I couldn't help but go into SIW with high hopes that I figured would not be completely met. Still (and I know I rated the show at a 5, but that's average for my rating scale and really not that bad) it turned out pretty good. This is the kind of show that, like most psychological shows, builds up tension between the characters early on by hiding parts of the story from both the viewer and the characters. With that tension comes a bit of a slow start as the elements are showed in pieces, and there are many questions this show will have you asking at first. What are the girls' wishes? What are LRIGS? What purpose is there in having this Selector/LRIG battle system anyway? Honestly, the last one still isn't totally answered, but that's why there's a season 2 scheduled in the fall. Eventually, around the last third of this season, the show picks up pace and gets intense once everything begins to fall apart for the characters both due to the situations they are in and due to psychological issues. The ending of this season is excellent and will leave you dying to know more (which means you may want to put off watching this season until the second season starts if you don't like cliffhangers).

The characters are all interesting and have different personalities and wishes. None really stood out as being anything special or unique in comparison to other anime unfortunately. Yuzuki, Ruuko's first friend, has a forbidden love that she keeps a secret. Hitoe is shy and has never been any good at making friends. Akira is a pompous idol who can't stand anyone being better than her. I found Akira annoying and was glad she wasn't as relevant to the story as the other characters. Iona is calm and calculating while hiding her real intentions. And Ruuko just goes along with it at first because she made some friends, though she soon comes to the dilemma of not knowing whether to stay as a Selector or to stop battling to protect herself and everyone else. There is plenty of drama built up over the fact that it is simple to lose your wish and right as a Selector but very difficult to grant it. There's more to granting your wish than just winning 3 times, and this creates a huge problem for the characters who feel guilty for causing other players to lose their wish.

The animation is well done for the most part. The cute and simple character designs create a stark contrast between them and the dark world around them. The animation overall and especially for the characters improves greatly towards the end as it seems J.C. Staff saved a good portion of their animation budget for the later episodes. The soundtrack is pretty typical of a darker show and sets the eerie atmosphere well but never really goes above and beyond simply doing its job.

While SIW couldn't quite live up to the hopeful expectations I had before watching this show, the end certainly did get close despite the cliffhanger. The gradual incline in information being revealed slowly began to show how much more complex the Selector system is than it was originally displayed to be. I cannot wait for the next season which will hopefully be even better than the first and I recommend this to anyone looking for a psychological anime to watch.