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Ah, Ace Attorney. The wonderfully wacky yet also emotionally gripping visual novel/puzzle game series from Capcom. Full of great character designs, iconic music, over the top situations and dramatic stakes, it should make for a great anime adaptation, right?

Well, no, not "great", at least not when the god-kings of shovelware anime, A-1 Studios, is the guys behind production.

I won't beat around the bush: this anime is not -terrible-, but its got some serious flaws both in adaptation and as a stand alone product.

Let's get to the biggest blemish to see: the art and animation. It is f u c k i n g terrible most ... of the time. Characters are routinely off model, animation is very limited and choppy as all hell, props are messy and also off model, backgrounds are garrishly obvious digital compositions, which are ALSO off model sometimes, SOMEHOW, despite mostly being geometric shapes (when they aren't directly copied from the games backgrounds). Its bad, people. Its really bad.

The next biggest flaw is the pacing and adaptation of the cases, though this is a mixed bag at points. The anime streamlines the ridiculous back and forth shenanigans of constantly presenting evidence, being objected, being overruled, and having to present more evidence for the sake of a smoother narrative, and that's honestly fine for the most part. It also cuts out a lot of the backtracking for investigating for more evidence in favor of more character driven scenes, which is an honest strength of the series it can boast.

However, in exchange for this the trial segments seem to move at an almost breakneck pace, throwing off the timing that a lot of moments the game had for dramatic or comedic effect. Events are rearranged sloppily, and the overall presentation is a bit of a hot mess to watch.

In spite of all this, the anime does retain a lot of the strengths of Ace Attorney's video game origins: almost every character is likeable and enjoyable to watch, especially frontman Phoenix Wright, his rivals Miles Edgeworth and Franzsika von Karma, his assistant Maya Fey and others. The music is directly taken from the games as well and generally sounds very nice, loaning a strong air of authenticity to the final product.

I suppose my bottom line is that is you LIKE Ace Attorney the games, then you will probably enjoy watching the anime, provided the minor narrative changes don't bother you so much. If you didn't like the games, this anime will not do you any favors, and if you've never played the games but are curious about their stories.... I would suggest just playing the games instead, but you probably would enjoy watching this if your standards aren't too lofty. All in all, the Ace Attorney anime is a serviceable if hideously ugly and uneven watch that will probably get a few laughs out of you at least, but won't be moving any mountains.

Also, watch the dub, because Funimation is fully aware of the games' weirdness to localize obviously Japanese set places in the games into American counter parts and it really plays up that goofy angle.

Bubblegum Crisis is one of, if not THE essential 1980s cyberpunk anime. Watching it 30 years after its debut almost feels surreal, because it is SO pop culture laden, so aesthetically referential to other works of its time, it almost feels like something made in TRIBUTE of the 80s, like the video game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, but nope, Crisis is true blue authentic, and it is AWESOME.

Bubblegum Crisis EMBODIES "cool" as its primary driving force. A cyberpunk future where illegal robots called Boomers are made to stir shit up for shady megacorporation reasons that are never really explained because dammit, that isn't ... what you're here for. Crisis has eight episodes and while there is some light continuity between them, it knows you aren't here for deep introspective plot full of sympathy motivations for villains - it knows you're here to see four kick ass girls in power armor duke it out with cyberpunk androids all set to some fantastically good original music set in the style of synth rock and pop of the time. There's evil AI cars that go on the fritz, sexbots from the moon, a couple of buddy cops who can't get a break trying to clean up the streets of their city, and... aerobics montages. Yeah, its very 80s, as I said before.

While the story is not the focus, it isn't terrible all things considered. A few episodes have some continuity between them and the individual plots of each episode all have an interesting hook to them as well. They aren't groundbreaking, but they get you interested and aren't BAD either. Character is where the series shines stronger as a narrative: all four of the Knight Sabers are fun, distinct individuals who all bounce off each other very well both in armor and out of it. Priss is a hot headed go getter who moonlights as a rock singer, Sylia is the aloof and cool headed leader who operates a successful business to fund the Knight Sabers, Linna is social butterfly who works as an aerobics instructor and is constantly looking for a new boyfriend, and Nene is the bubbly, brilliant minded hacker who also works on the inside as a police officer. Aside from the Sabers, the other major recurring characters are the police officers Leon and Daley, who always try to stop boomer crimes within the law with limited success. They're a traditional buddy cop duo, with Leon as the go-getter cowboy cop and Daley as his more relaxed, humorous counterpart. Every episode's own original characters are also strong presenters, making up for their lack of depth and screen time with excellent presence.

Last but certainly not least to mention is the aesthetics. Crisis is all about style, and ESPECIALLY the music: every episode has an entire original soundtrack, including an original opening AND ending theme, complete with original animated footage. Every episode feels distinct from one another with its own sounds and songs, and the series is worth watching easily for just the music. For visuals, you have some of the best looking mech designs of the decade, be it the sleek armor of the Sabers, or the bulky police armor, the stylishly cool police vehicles, the strange and bestial looking Boomers, or just the overall lo-fi used future boxy clunky neon designs that defined the 80s being beautifully rendered in some of the best hand drawn anime art I've seen. Crisis is a treat for the eyes and the ears.

The only real negative to say about the series is its infamous non-ending. Originally scheduled for 13 episodes, we only got 8, and that last one was ironically the mid-series suit upgrade for the girls so they can face even tougher opponents. If you really want a conclusion, there is Bubblegum Crash which condensed the remaining 5 episodes story material into 3 more episodes, which does give some closure but is overall a weaker product than Crisis, lacking the high quality art and sheer amount of original music that Crisis boasted, plus some plot holes. Still, with or without an ending, Crisis stands out as a testament to 1980s anime, a shining champion of style. If you're into the retro anime scene, you owe yourself to watch this. Even if you aren't, Crisis is just that good enough it deserves watching anyway. This is one of the milestone series that will remain important throughout history.

Note: This review is for the first 25 episodes ONLY (season 1).

Gundam 00 one of the many non-Universal Century story series in the Gundam franchise and one that stands out primarily for its initial plot, that being an almost exact copy of the 90s series Gundam Wing: a team of young men are sent to earth in super overpowered mech suits called Gundams with the sole task of bringing peace to the world by whatever means needed. What separates 00 from the campy, cheesy melodrama of Wing though is 00 takes this premise both realistically and seriously and even tries to spin the concept on ... its head, calling into question the morality of the actions of the main characters and their hypocritically violent approach to stopping violence.

The key word, however, is "tries". It does not entirely succeed in the end, for a number of reasons.

First and foremost are the main characters themselves: the "Gundam Meisters", as they are called. While certainly more in depth than Wing's pretty boy heroes, the Meisters are still unfortunately very static characters with predictable, stock personalities for most of the season, and fairly unlikable ones at that. You can tell that the story has SOMETHING in plan for them to deveolop them, humanize them, and make them realize the mistakes of their ways... but it takes entirely too long to get there, and when you do it feels less like natural development and more like a personality shift.

Conflating this issue is honestly ALL the other characters from the various Earth factions are just FAR more interesting, be it the American pilot aces looking to avenge their fallen allies, the Russian military commander who constantly devises new plans to stop the Gundams and basically always succeeding until a plot convenience undoes it, the comic relief fake ace European Union who somehow always manages to survive death by sheer luck, or the Middle Eastern mercenaries who just need an excuse of a war to keep fighting. These characters suffer, struggle, and overall are generally just LIKABLE and thus more interesting to follow, but are doomed to play second fiddle to the pretty boys in super robots.

Besides all this, in the final third of the season, the show introduces three more Gundam pilots with even MORE powerful machines and genuinely unhinged, intolerable personalities. They exist only to commit atrocities that shock even the most jaded of the Meisters, but the issue here is they only serve to be a scapegoat for them: rather than have the Meisters realize their OWN actions are causing more harm than good, they simply have to only observe their darker others do it for them. Its lazy and uninspired, and the fact these three extra Gundam pilots are intolerable hateful characters that are just not fun or interesting to watch they ultimately get killed off without much fanfare and are trivial in the overall scheme of things. This all ultimately leads up to a big unified attack against the Gundams by all the Earth nations at once using their own diet-Gundam machines and a lot of minor characters die, but only the ones on the Meister's side are given much emotional weight despite them being the least interesting of the sides. It just ends on a wet fart.

As for the plot itself, its... ok. Gundam 00 is heavily dedicated to its setting and world building, an Earth 200 years into the future where solar energy delivered from orbital elevators resolves the energy crisis... but also causes civil wars in formerly wealthy oil rich countries. The exposition scenes are HEAVY here and there are a LOT of names of places and characters to keep up with, and some of the political machinations can come off as overblown and up its own ass, but I enjoyed it for the most part. What is truly good about Gundam 00's narrative is how it plays with its tropes, particularly the struggle of helpless earth weapons against the Gundams. The more the Meisters attack the nations to stop their warring, the more the nations develop better technology for defeating the gundams, including reverse engineering their beam weapons and eventually making Gundam-esque mechs of their own. Seeing actions having these big world consequences is a strong point in Gundam 00's favor, and is a rare sight in most any mecha series.

Lastly, to end on a positive note, Gundam 00 has some gorgeous art for a full blown series, and the music is top notch as well, which really draws you into the drama... if you cared for it to begin with. Overall though Gundam 00 is a lackluster experience that plays with some interesting ideas old and new, but is held back by cliche protagonist writing, dense and non-intuitive infodumping, and just some bad storyline choices in the third act.

Space Adventure Cobra is essentially what happens when you cross James Bond with Star Wars, circa the early 80s for both. Its an episodic adventure series with a handful of story arcs comprised of linking episodes together throughout, following the adventures of a space pirate named Cobra who operates outside the law to do battle with the villainous Pirates Guild, a syndicate of criminals seeking to control the galaxy.

The series is light on depth, character and world building but HUGE on style and adventure. Everything is fairly formulaic, especially if you're familiar with the aforementioned James Bond films, and this series follows these cliches without ... much variation. Expect lots of cool but shallow villains, attractive women in danger, and Cobra always coming out on top somehow via cleverness or just being outright unstoppable. There's a tongue in cheek quality to the series, however, and the show certainly knows how to have fun with itself. While Cobra might be an unstoppable superman, he's goofy as hell and not suave or smooth at all, often bungling about his adventures with a laugh. This is what gives Cobra its lasting appeal and staying power, to me. It takes the daring adventure setups of its influences and treats them almost like comedy, giving the whole run a lighthearted touch that makes it fun to watch.

Characters are shallow and often one-shot, only Cobra and Lady Armaroid, his co-pilot companion, appear in any real major capacity in the series aside from a few story arc characters that often end up dead by the end of their arc, and only Cobra ever really sees much action, which is a shame because Lady is badass in her own right. As said earlier, style is all over this series, from the aesthetics to the jazzy soundtrack (especially that opening theme!) and how the series pioneered certain art techniques for dramatic effects, namely the freeze frame matte paintings that hold on an explosion or dramatic pose. Yep, Cobra pioneered that.

All in all while I can't say Cobra is ESSENTIAL viewing for old school space opera classics, if you're into dumb fun adventure and don't really care if something has a strong narrative to hold it together then definitely check Cobra out. If the tropes that inspired Cobra would annoy you and you're looking for something original or in depth, best might want to keep away.

Bubblegum Crash isn't a BAD series per se, but it is certainly inferior to its predecessor Bubblegum Crisis. Where as Crisis had a unique opening scene for every episode of the series as well as a unique outro, Crash uses a stock opening and a plain credits. The animation is overall less impressive than Crisis' fantastic artwork, the violence is toned down and there are continuity errors particularly in the second episode.

THAT ALL SAID - I enjoyed Crash a fair deal. No where near as much as Crisis, but it certainly is not awful. Continuity errors aside, each episode's story is fairly interesting and the ... four Knight Sabers are as fun to see as always. It also provides an actual conclusion to the story, which gives Bubblegum an actual sense of closure after Crisis had its mother of all non-endings. There's still a few good cheesy songs as well (though nowhere as many as in Crisis) so the spirit is still there. All in all, Crash isn't a bad way to end the series on, and for all its flaws its still an enjoyable watching. At 3 episodes long, its not even that time consuming either, making a quick fast watch.