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Firstly, this manga's biggest strength is the art. Its simply gorgeous, everything from the depiction of France, the character design, the flow, the individual panels in themselves are all extremely beautiful. But that's where the good things come to an end.

The story is a mess, rather the mangaka did not know where to proceed. It started off as a character drama based on MC and the trials and retributions he had to face to be the man the future would remember him as. The presentations regarding MC's qualms about killing criminals was quite philosophical akin to Vagabond. This had me instantly excited as Vagabond ... was one my favourite manga. The sadistic father and the scheming grandmother were all excellent additions and were like spices to a delicious story which was cooking. But one by one the side characters were stripped of the roles to bring focus to the growth of the main characters. These characters who acted as hurdles were removed not because of growth of MC but rather mere circumstances. When the grandma was removed from the plot the story shifted its focus to the only other member of the family the MC Kun's sister. The story now was not a character drama related to MC kun's internal struggles but a wannabe feministic story regarding women's role in old France. The focus was now on how a girl grew up to become an executioner despite all odds. During this time the MC kun had sex and became a totally changed man. A scared and unsure MC kun became Hugh Hefner after having sex once. The girl he fucked later became Royal Mistress.
At this point, the story introduced other characters like King Louis XI, his wife Marie Antoinette and other royal families who later on became central figures of the French Revolution. By this time MC kun merely existed to do random stuff. The story for a brief time (less than 5 chapters) tried to be a story about the struggle for the title of the King of France. A move which excited me a lot since I thought it would now be filled with smart schemes and treacheries. Yet, the only thing this arc provided was a jealous cousin spreading rumours that the king did not fuck the queen. Then this manga proceeded to highlight the events which led to the French Revolution. Alas, it provided mere snapshots. It did not dwell into details like the economic policies or the class inequality but just showed some random events and then set it aside for an arc about how the new Queen was jealous of Royal Mistress and how the MC kun dressed as a girl solved this. ( He actually didn't do anything and merely crossdressed for his amusement). It ended with the appearance of a random foreigner and his death. This character who was introduced for the first time, even mentioned for the first time suddenly became the most important man in MC kun sister's life and I reckon the revenge for the foreigner's death would be the story of the next path.
Like I said the story wavers from one point to another without concluding the previous one. The conlcusions provided to previous conflicts are neither satisfying nor smart. The character aspirations are just changed according to whims of mangaka and to progress the story random time skips are used. These time skips conveniently change the relationship between characters and highlight progress or deviations in their thought process and character without dwelling deep into the reason for such a drastic change. This was extremely frustrating as the mangaka merely stated time as the sole factor for the character growth.

Overall, Innocence is merely a bad gift which was wrapped with shiny wrapping paper.

The biggest sin mankind has committed is to not give this anime the status it deserves. After watching this for 3 whole times, I feel that my opinion is pretty warranted and necessary to enlighten you uncultured weebs about this.

A village boy who dreams to be popstar accidentally becomes a demonic being who has risen from the fiery pits of hell itself in order to bring the world to its knees and lord over all mortals (in indie death metal world). You heard me right he accidentally became a fucking satan. The only other time such an unprecedented massive accident happened when Trump became President ... (cues laughter track). The following episodes track how he strives to be a pop star but somehow keeps cementing his name in the metal genre. This earns him fans(read as preys) who would do anything for him and support his rapist tendencies, no matter what. Also, he has a crush who likes pop music but the Demon emperor rapes her with his heavy metal skill. He fucks his crush, his landlord, and the motherfuckin police. He makes his manager wet and does S&M with a small man. Thus this is a freakin hilarious sol anime about a demon lord who rapes mankind for fun.

Art is just like a demon lord would like- horrific. It doesn't stand out in any noticeable way. The animation is sort of raw and almost poor when you look at other anime. The demon is almost cartoonish so as to not scare his subjects. The people are pretty simply animated most times almost telling people that even if we just narrated the story, you would still laugh. But don't let such foolish stuff distract you from the mind-blowing direction this anime has going for it. Scenes are split as per necessity. The anime has all kinds of the shot from a wide one to the small one like a manga panel, all with the flow of a river. It is almost like reading a manga. This is the devil telling us that he created a perfect anime manga chimera-Manime if you wish to know its name.

Music- Rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape.


Finally, what more can I say? If you want to laugh while watching a cosplayer rape innocent people, watch this.

I started reading Beck manga as soon as I finished the anime. The anime no doubt was pretty good on its own terms; felt anti-climatic to me. Thus, reading the manga was a necessity.

Beck follows group of boys as they come together through their mutual love of English rock music and form a band, in the hopes of standing in the same stage as the rock legends. The story follows the MC Yukio getting acquainted with guitarist Ryuusuke and subsequently getting sucked into the music scene. He along with other characters form a band called as Beck. Ensuingly the story follows Beck's struggle ... to make it to the top. They face constant hardships as they develop and strive to create music that is not only popular but also something they themselves as a band can be proud of. This is a constant struggle for the characters in the manga and drives the story forward. The theme that integrity and vision should not be compromised to create works just to earn money and be popular. Throughout the manga the characters are struck in situations wherein they have to make such decisions and to not be sellout is something that drives and motivates them to create the music they want to create. This leads to trouble with the industry big wigs which creates problems for them to make it truly big despite getting moderate fan following. Despite music driving the story, the manga at its heart is a SOL manga which focuses on the band members meeting and interacting with both old and new characters and environment. Their experiences and progress is what makes the manga truly interesting and worthwhile. The subplot which is present for majority of manga is a romance between the MC Kouyuki and Maho who become friends and later lovers due to their mutual affiliations to Ryuusuke. This story follows their struggle to keep the relationship intact while dealing with the contrasting personality, friends and environment. As the romance started quite early in the manga, it had a solid 5~6 years of development which gave us a well fleshed and believable romance rather than the cutesy stuff that is usually written. This story also tackled complicated themes with poignancy, which is unusual for a manga whose main story is not romance between the lead pair. The slow script the writing did wonders for this manga in some aspect.

The characters are where this manga both shines and fails. The characters are actually very well written, with distinct personalities allotted to them. And there are few scenes where one characters acts out irrationally and it seems extremely believable with their personalities. Koyuki develops as a bored and uninterested teenager to a focused and passionate man. Ryuusuke faces his own dilemmas and internal struggles and deals with them his own way. Though most of Ryuusuke's action were out of the blue and were extreme. It would have been fine if it happened once but he repeatedly took measures and actions which were irrational and also unbelievable and went without any repercussions. The band accepted him with open arms and made him a captain repeatedly while he behaved like a child throughout. This could have been better written as actions have consequences and for the sake of story the characters were often left out easy. Another thing which hampered characters progress was the characters not learning from their previous mistakes. A lot of conflicts could have been avoided if the characters just talked out or stopped and thought about the veracity of the claims put forth against another character. This would have led to simpler and quicker outcomes. This was sacrificed for forced drama with no payoff.

The art was very detailed and the characters felt real. Every character had their own distinctive features. Every character had a tired look to them as the series progressed and their input doubled. They did not appear as some charming prince and princess straight out of a fairy tail. The panels dedicated to their indivudal performances were all very well done and exhibited the dedication the characters put on their craft. The full page art were extremely detailed and captured the essence of live performance.

Overall, Beck is an immensely enjoyable manga for people of all ages. The coming of age story about a boy who discovers his passion for music and dreams to make it big while staying true to his craft and his sense of music. It is far better than the anime as it portrays great character development and a satisfying and conclusive ending.

Ping Pong The Animation on paper looks like a standard sports anime centered around the themes exploring rivalry, friendship, dreams, failure, success and hard work presented through long matches and overstretched tournaments. To a certain extent it is exactly that sans the long matches and longer tournament albeit at this stage is where the anime draws a line of differentiation as opposed to its contemporaries.

If you approach Ping Pong as a sports anime you would never enjoy the anime. It is not about Ping Pong but rather about two students who play the game and the people they cross paths with. There isn't a ... linear and set story line in the anime which would dictate the paths and goals the plot must take, rather, it is a character study of two boys namely Peko and Smile. Both the MC's are immensely talented at Ping Pong but what differs is their attitude towards the game which also acts as their biggest assets and flaws. Peko is an over enthusiastic fellow and believes that he doesn't need practice as long as he can defeat his opponents. He skips practice, ridicules others and keep going off the diet and eating junk food. He doesn't believe in hard work and claims that talent trumps hard work. He doesn't develop his techniques and plays solely on instincts and basics. While his talents helps defeat weaker opponents although when matched against tougher opponents and when the going gets tough, Peko is defeated with ease. Peko also gets easily down when he is beaten and when upon being beaten by opponents he had defeated earlier, Peko becomes depressed and goes to the extent of quitting the sport.

Smile is the polar opposite of Peko. Smile is calculative and intelligent. His play style is exactly that. He too is extremely talented and he mixes his brain with his talents to beat his opponents. Despite all his talents Smile is restricted by his anxious personality. Despite the fact that he acts tough, Smile gets extremely scared of the ground reality he is faced against. This results him in intentionally giving away matches and not playing to his full potential forcefully when faced against opponents who devote their lives to the game and who have a lot to lose if they are unable to win the game.
The anime deals with trails and retribution faced by the contrasting protagonists and their eventual growth. All of this is triggered when they each come across people who believe in their talents and encourage them to explore the same.

The characters are the most important aspect of this anime and Director Maasaki has handled it with such finesse and grace which in itself is a testament to the man's sheer brilliance and talent. Each character gets his own set of ambitions, motivations, sadness and happiness and ample screen time to express and act upon the same which really fleshes out detailed and real characters. Even side characters like Kong, Kazama, Manabou, their coaches all are explored in the span of 11 episodes. You might think that 11 episodes are not ample to all this, even I thought the same before watching the anime but the depth of my wrongness cannot be explored by submarines.Smile and Peko both start as two boys who play the sport while having contrasting attitude towards the sport but their experiences and trials help them to come out as a changed and more focused characters by the end of anime. A supporting character named Kong comes to the team from China feels ostracized in the a new country with new culture and people. But his character progression is one of the best anime as a medium can offer. He starts as an arrogant person and ends being one of the best characters of all time. This does not happen in one episode it was done with giving Kong constant screen time across the episodes which showcased his journey and struggle as a character. This is not just true for Kong but nearly all the important side characters. The screen time was divided between many characters to highlight their progress.

Often I have discussed how most anime totally gloss over the dialogue aspect of the story. Dialogues are the second to just actions to showcase both story and character progress and this anime completely nails the dialogue aspect. Each dialogue is significant and each line spoken helps you and the characters in themselves to understand the characters better.

Another aspect that is totally overlooked in anime is the direction. Most anime directors who have works often go for a very conservative and orthodox approach to direction. This makes the anime bland. There are some gorgeous animated scenes here and there in certain anime but that's just about it. There are not significant and notable experiments with the cameras, the shots and editing. Anyone who has seen Maasaka sensie's previous works is aware about his unorthodox approach to direction. The most visible aspect of it is the art style that is deployed in the anime. Most people would be instantly turned off by the art style but to the ones who complete the anime would agree that how important and how beautiful the art really is. This anime or his other anime like Kaiba and tatami galaxy all explore unorthodox and plain weird subjects and the art style deployed is perfect with the theme. The usual shonen art would not gel with this anime at all. But apart from the art too, the director goes for cuts like not other director. Often the scenes are divided into panels focusing on different characters to showcase the different points of life each character is struck at and the complication in their lives. It is said that eyes are a window to a person's soul and the director seems to strongly believe in that. So many of the cuts are close ups solely featuring the eyes of the characters and this alone is enough for the viewers to comprehend the character's situation and mood. Also, the director often goes for shots which are played in faster than normal stream which increases the tension and makes viewers be on edge of their seats. Thus, the direction of the anime plays a significant part in telling the story.

The OST too are outstanding and are very diverse. When Smile plays the OST is akin to that of a robot esque music which brings in his personality. When Peko plays a faster OST is used to highlight Peko's attacking playing style. The opening is a hit and miss and was a miss for me but the ending is downright superb. There is one other song that is played in series and specifically in Episode 6. That is without doubt one of the best use of song in an anime. The song itself was sufficient to show Kong's integration into team and Smile and Kazama's slow but sure exclusion from the team. The scene was so well shot and the song chosen was so perfect that really made me feel somber about the current state of affairs of the characters in the anime. No sound is out of place and everything just meshes so well with the story that there can never be any complaint in this department.

Concluding my review, I would like to say that Ping Pong is a phenomenal and a game changer anime in both SOL and sports anime genre. Anyone who wants to watch an anime which focuses more on maturity and growth of characters rather than them just living each day as it comes must surely watch this jewel of anime.

Just reading the synopsis of Sanctuary manga was enough to spark a interest in me; being deeply interested in politics, I was ecstatic to find a political thriller manga. I thought this might be a gateway for me to explore and know more about the Japanese politics. I arrived at this manga as it was compared to Code Geass and was recommended to the former's fans. That itself was enough for me to hold this manga at a high place and I was totally excited to devour 108 chapters with all its political strategies and mind games that go along with it. But, boy ... was I wrong. Coming straight to point all I could say that its a terrible piece of manga.


The story is as the MAL synopsis says Hojo and Asami are childhood friends and refugees from Cambodia. They come to Japan and feel sorry for people's dull lives. They feel that Japan is not really living and the politics of the country is in shambles. They feel that people must be more invested in the country's politics and thus scheme to change the Japanese politics from inside. To do this Asami becomes a politician and Hojo becomes a yakuza. This done so that they control both the black and white and also Asami gets secret backing from Hojo. Thus, the manga begun with two parallel story of a politician and a yakuza which converged somewhere down the line. This was just a short summary and here only I could point all the flaws that the story has.
First and foremost the protagonist who have not set a foot in Japan in years , take a foot in and declare that people here don't know how to live. The basis of their conclusion is that they see people going to office. This is what literally happens, Chiaki and Asami see people going to office and see that they are unhappy and thus declare that change is required. I have never seen anyone looking happy while going to office early in the morning in all the traffic with all the traffic. If this decided happiness I could never call anyone happy. Glad they saw them go to office on a Monday morning. I think they would have become some sort of god men if they saw the same people partying like animals on a Saturday night. This itself was an idiotic start though I let it slide as I felt that both the protagonists were kids at that time and kids think of weird things. Moving on, throughout the story it is told that Japan politics is in shambles without giving any proof supporting their statement. The sole reason for this statement is that the older and existing politicians are not manly and gutsy enough. Politics is a slow moving activity, Every bill and law must pass through different houses. There is drafting, presenting, voting, editing, voting again, etc. and this goes on. A politician doesn't wake up in the morning and decides to change the Constitution. This happens in manga as the first thing Asami proposes to do is to change the freaking Constitution without having any idea on what changes to implement or what to remove. All he knows is that its not manly enough (WHAT?). The arguments supporting the fact that Japan's politics is doing well includes a good GDP, better relations with foreign countries including USA, job growth, etc. Thus, changing something that works is stupid and Asami proposes to do just that. Again, Japan is a democratic form of Government where people chose their representatives and party with highest elected members forms the government and the PM is chosen from it. Most of the south and east Asian and European countries follow the same system. You would think that this does not have any major flaws , but behold Asami finds a flaw it it too. He propose Presidential form of Government and quite frankly that's what elected Trump, so there's that. Thus, the political story that the manga tries to write is totally in shambles unlike the Constitution it tried to change. The primary reason for it is the author's shallow understanding of the county's politics.
The next is the Hojo's yakuza story line. This gave some respite from the terrible political story. Albeit, it would be wrong to expect anything good from this segment too. Hojo, cleverly plots his way to top of the Yakuza gang. Ordinarily, as Hojo's job was to just finance Asami and do the dirty work for him the story should have been limited. Thus, the author deliberately kept on introducing other uncooperative members, stronger gangs, older members who defected, and even Russian, Thai and Chinese gangsters (WHY?) Every plot line in this segment made a full circle and made it seem like the the story line was completely unnecessary, nothing was gained and nothing was taken off. The only thing that made this bearable as compared to Asami's story was the fact that not much of inherent knowledge was required to write it. The Yakuza despite being part of organized crime are quite disoriented. Thus, even though research is needed to write this it does not have to be intensive. This gives a certain flexibility and the author as exploited the same, as Hojo's story basically is pretty short and boring if it would have continued according to their plan. Though, as Hojo is one of the two protagonists his screen time could not be cut. Thus, the authors introduced unnecessary rivals, small story lines, half assed backstory showing the generosity of Hojo, and in the end brought Hojo as one of the person to contest the election. This move was made to accomplish three things, namely, Hojo to enter into politics and help Asami, Hojo to legitimize his business, Hojo to romance the police officer without her losing her job. It did one out of three things which was to allow Hojo to romance the police officer. Hojo lost and made a mockery of himself while exposing nearly all of his business to country's revenue authority and public. Hojo calculated a 15 times profit if he went legitimate. As far as I know people go illegitimate to make money and not the other way around. In all his calculation he never accounted for tax, salary and most importantly that now his business can only encompass legitimate activities. Thus, it would always be beyond me how they calculated such huge profits and how other leaders did not stop Hojo from doing this stupid shit. The biggest problem was how police and other officials never were there to stop gang warfare and other violent activities. Why were they loving and befriending gangsters? Why despite proclaiming big did not take any action against any gangsters? Why they did not have any informants or information regarding Hojo's plans? Why were they always awestruck with Hojo rather than stopping him? The questions go on but the answers are not provided. Pathetic is the only word I have to describe the story.

The next are the characters. As you can see I am not a big fan of them at all. I have read very few manga but till now these set of characters are worst among them, hand down. Every action made me cringe and call them out for their stupidity. Not only were they badly written but the character's low grasp of the situation made things far worse. The two heroes were carbon copy of each other. They were like same wine in different glasses. Both were smart, strong, good looking, righteous, great at sex, charismatic, visionary; you name it they are it. There was no flaw to them. If they felt like it they could have cured cancer and world hunger in few chapters. Their reasoning was beyond the world, the plans they made could only trap idiots, the straight forward attitude they displayed would usually place them at lowest possible place in politics, and moreover their explanation could only make idiots see the light. The only other thing that we know about the characters other than their current selves was that they were refugees from Cambodia. The characters have no depth. They have no reason to act the way they act and no answer to the question "Then What?". What would they do after their mission was done. How would Asami run the country without a plan? What would Hojo do now that even after his plan he is still a don and ultimately a criminal? What are their outs and what do they gain for this? Nothing of this sort is answered here. Thus, characters are nothing more than 1-D, card boards cut outs with a mouth. The side characters were equally dumb. They are swayed away by every other details and plans. Every little thing over whelms them and these are portrayed as the smart guys. They do not have a brain of their own, do whatever the two heroes tell them and become their puppets. If this happened due to the smarts of the heroes, it would have been different. Like how Light and Lelouch do it but this was different. Throughout the story the side characters give their reason for following the two protagonists. They just say that it is interesting to watch Hojo/Asami's progress. Like WHAT? What about their own careers? What about their own motivations? What about their own dreams and fears? As expected the author does not delve there. All they are stupid people who get convinced by hero's plans faster than speed of light. They do not ask questions or oppose the hero. Excellent politician material. 10/10 would vote them.
Coming to female characters. By god can there be any more shittier representation. They act like females in Hentai series. No matter what their position, status, age, all they want is sex. The police has sex with the Yakuza, the foreign envoy has sex with no name politician, waitresses have sex with yakuzas during their job, a college student has sex with the politician, all the elderly are permanently covered knee deep in pussy. Why, because they like it and the female has no say. All of them have been represented as weak creatures whose only purpose in life is to long for a man's love and penis.
The villain Isaoka was only one who was partially believable character. At least, his plans were viable and he had resources to do them. Although, the unlimited resources he has could only be found nowhere. The way the manga has portrayed the working and relation ship of banks and politicians is beyond laughable. Despite showing him as a ruthless character, he time and again lets Asami join his party and steal some of the members. You might think that someone smart as him might learn, but that's where you are wrong kiddo. Though, despite all that he was the only character that I liked, felt was somewhat believable and had the best plans and reactions to tough situations.

The place that this manga standouts the most is the art department. Kudos, to the artist to get this done. The panels are detailed and nicely divided. Giving two pages wherever required. The characters are nicely drawn and the surroundings are detailed. The only way you could distinguish the two characters is through art and the artist has delivered his end of the deal. The areal view of the room or the setting from time to time is breath taking. The way the characters are shown and the perspective is set was beyond words. The only complaint that I had was that the 2 page art is used usually to show something exciting or at a crucial point in the story and here it was used way to often. Though, this was mostly the writers fault as he introduced stupid twists and plans whenever he felt like and the artist didn't have much of a choice. Overall, a great art and was the only thing going for this manga.

Here, is the end of my review and a tl;dr. Sanctuary had a good plot but pathetic execution and characters spoiled everything the plot had set up. Though, the manga really shown in art department. The only thing that kept me going personally was that it fell into the "so bad that it is good category" where I read/ watch a thing in entirety just to make fun of the plot developments as it comes on and to laugh at the experience of reading something bad.

Usagi Drop is a heartwarming SOL anime about a man called Daikichi who gets to take care of a 6 year old Rin. It does seems like a standard SOL anime with its share of cute and educating moments as the characters progress through life; but the anime was so much more. Beneath all the gleeful moments the anime subtly portrayed the tensions and care that is required to successfully raise a child. Raising a child in itself is a difficult task, more so if the child is an adopted one. The anime goes further than just the joy associated with the experience it ... shows the adequate grief too. It doesn't show the intricate details of the process but still delves deeper into the territory than most anime prefer to go to. This creates a balance between the serious story and the light moments the anime tries to go for; besides who would be interested in a super serious anime about raising a child and the patience and anger that attaches itself with the endearing process. The show goes for the cute and happy moments associated with the process and succeeds largely to pull the masses. The theme of parents sacrificing their own life is present throughout the anime but sometimes was forced down on the viewers. Don't get me wrong, I know my parents have sacrificed a lot for me, I reckon yours have done the same, but the end fact remains that they do not tell much about their sacrifices to me. This anime especially in few episodes that center around the said theme talks about the same with enthusiasm and sometimes with over enthusiasm which feels forced. The characters and their design/art beautifully complemented the story. Diakichi was a lazy man with a strong set of morals which prevented him from abandoning Rin. He took her in out of pity and learnt how to care for her along the way. He was tired but was determined to give her the best. He did not know the right way, yet he was determined to learn it and not just wing it as the time comes. This showed his earnest nature when he asked a co worker about tips to manage both work and personal life. Another thing that the anime managed to get spot on was progress of the character's inter personal relationship. Even though Daikichi got the custody of Rin, even though he wanted to raise her for a certain time, he wasn't ready to abandon his own world for her. Though, over time and after being exposed to other parents and acknowledging their sacrifices he gradually started learning what it meant to a parent and what it meant to love and take care of a kid. He then left his job and transferred to a lower post to take better care of Rin. She too didn't trust him and other people at the beginning and was terrified of outsiders but overtime got attached to them. The way this relationship was portrayed was commendable as it was synonyms with real life. The art too was bit rough and felt quite real and thus attached itself brilliantly to the story. The soundtracks too were rightly placed and gave a fuzzy and warm feeling which elevated the feelings the anime was trying to achieve.

In a nutshell, Usagi Drop was a beautiful anime about the trails and hardships a person encounters while being a working parent and the joy the associated with the little things the kids do. It is a must watch for any SOL anime fan and would be fantastic addition to their watch list.

One Outs, an anime about baseball does something that none of the other sports anime does. It takes a generic formula about a weak team trying to make it big but adds its own peculiar twist and flavor to it; this makes the anime a very exciting and fun watch.

As it was mentioned earlier, One Outs is essentially a baseball anime. The plot revolves around the team Saikyou Saitama Lycaons, more specifically around the pitcher Tokuchi Toua. Lycaons is a weak team filled with mediocre and simple minded players who are lead by their talented and lead batter Kojima. Despite being a world ... class player and a representative of Japan, Kojima's dream to win the championship remains unfulfilled due to his under-performing teammates. It is during this time he meets Toua, a pitcher who excels at the game One Out which is just gambling mixed with Baseball. After long series of events Toua finally relents to Kojima's request and joins the Lycaons as a relief pitcher. Toua is a shrewd individual and a cunning schemer. Despite being able to pitch only fastballs, he uses his wits and psychological knowledge to outwit his opponents. The psychological aspect of the show is where the show deviates from the overused plot of sports anime. Its not about having a trusting team and to win through team work and reliance. The team is absolutely dominated by Touchi. They follow Touchi's every command, they do question him from time to time, but they all acknowledge his superiority; by the end of the anime even the coach of team becomes Toua's personal dog. Each team that the Lycaons face have their own masterclass tactician and tactics, who challenge Toua's intelligence. Though, no matter how tough the going gets Toua ultimately stumps everyone and wins, herein the anime remains true to its tagline which is,"No one wins, but I". At a glance such repeated usage of plot points and devices might seem boring on the surface, it is thoroughly entertaining. Each teams tactics varies, from cheating to ending rules everything works as long as you aren't caught. The other aspect of the show deals with Toua' feud with the owner of the team. One of the main reason why Lycaons lost was because of the money minded owner who used dirty tactics, spot fixing and blackmail to use the team to make himself money. As Toua had no formal baseball background the owner becomes reluctant to give him a contract and thus gambles with him. Toua gets 5 mil for every out and pays 50 mil for every run. The owner thinks that Toua is a fool and he has made a bargain with the contract, but soon learns that he made a deal with the devil. Thus, to stop Toua from wining the bet he goes out of ways to spoil Toua's game. He uses underhanded tricks to win but remains largely unsuccessful, again herein the show religiously sticks to its principle motto. Even though the owner appears to be a serious and an endearing villain, he mostly used as a comic relief. His insane and over the top reactions and plans are reminiscent of Tom or the Coyote from the cartoons. He thinks he has the perfect plan, which has no holes; yet time after time Toua exploits his own plan and does something which no one expects. The owner as a villain is overshadowed by the owner as a comedian is wildly under used. The mangaka in his other manga Liar Game has written great villains which the story misses here. The shine of individual villains is reduced due to the lackluster main villain. The psychological aspects and schemes that Toua uses are extremely well thought off and adapted. Sometimes they are simple and others they are extremely complex; the complex ones do create a problem sometimes. To put it plainly would be that the complex plans need too much stretch to succeed. It is all based on assumptions and predicted behavior of characters. The assumptions are sometimes too much and often are unreasonable. The best part about having a human or human-esque villain lies in the fact that they are unpredictable. They can perform any action and yet the hero should have a trick to deceive them. This is what worked for greats like Death Note and Code Geass. Many fans compare this to the holy duo, but I feel that this severely lags behind due to its overstretched assumptions. Often I felt that the author used random facts from the internet and unverified studies as basis of the plan, which reduced the quality of the story. Also, as the hero always won here, the story got a bit bland by the end; all of the plans of the hero worked with 10% success and there was not a moment of rush that was felt. I felt that the tensions could have been elevated and the stakes could have been higher; make no mistake that despite this it was entertaining till the very end.

The weakest aspect of the anime was the characters. Toua on his own was a excellent static character. He was cool, arrogant, smart and was in total control. His teammates on the other hand were just a bunch of mentally slow individuals. Kojima was the only other character, who seemed at least capable of making smart decisions in life. The catcher Gouto showed little promise and all the others had no hope. From the coach to the players were pretty much the same simple minded individuals in different clothing. The same applied to the opponent team too; wherein there existed one genius schemer who was slightly less of a genius than Kojima and everyone else was just moving cardboard pieces with no feelings or motivations of their own. They all followed what the alpha male said without a question and the team based sport was ultimately reduced to one player and various pieces of wood. The character development too was next to nil. The characters remained the same aimless people with no where to go. The anime felt no need to develop its characters at all. All that mattered was that they follow the king's order, and what better to do that than have mindless subjects. At a time where even titans seem to be able to talk and have growing personalities, the lack of personalities and growth for humans was disturbing.

The art of the show was refined and had a mature look to it. The realistic animation and design really helped convey the story the anime wanted to tell . The closeup and far shots were well done, though the camera work could have been better. The anime used the same cuts a lot, which would have been a bad thing for any other sports anime. As this one specifically focused on the pitcher and the catcher the cuts felt adequate. The sound and the music is where the anime really hit a home run. The opening was really energetic and helped set the manly tone of the anime. The video used for the opening focused solely on Toua which indicated the direction the show wanted to take. The OST were extremely well written and used. They are what helped elevate the stress and tension even when they wren't. They made the show way more energetic and helped overcome some dull moments and overall they aptly portrayed the epicness of Toua and his brain.

Finally, I would like to say that One Outs is a entertaining and a damn good watch, though if you are a kind of watcher who longs for an emotional connectivity with the anime or the characters, then this one ain't for you.

After you watch that steroid filled first season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, you only have two roads to take. You would either hate it and would want to move in the opposite direction of wherever Jojo is or you would do one of those incredible poses, wear them stylish clothes and next you would say,"Where is the next season?". OH!!!
This anime is only for those who belong to the later group as the anime continued the JoJo philosophy to add the extra oomph to even simplest of action and words.

The story of Stardust Crusaders follows Joseph Joestar along with his grandson Kujo Jotaro (the new ... JoJo) and some friends travel to Egypt to defeat Dio, who has now revived from his deep slumber. Revival of Dio has caused the Joestars to acquire new power called Stands, who are basically spirits like the ones in Shaman King and stuff. All of the Joestars gain the power of stands, including Jotaro's mother, who isn't strong enough to wield a Stand. This makes her sickly and thus Jojo along with his allies look for Dio to beat him up for good. The first season basically chronicles their discovery of their stands and obstacles they face on towards their journey to Egypt. All, I mean all, the episodes deal with the gang facing another stand user who is one of Dio's goons. Thus, the series is episodic; and that honestly can turn off a lot of viewers as there is no pay off at the end. The first season was conceived just as a set up to the season 2, which deals with the heroes finally reaching Egypt and their subsequent battle with him. There is not much of plot per say in this one. To move to the part where the action lies, you can easily skip out on certain episodes which offer nothing and can move on to the ones that matter, though there is a dearth of them here.
The essence of Jojo lies in the battles, along with certain other things, but battles are a big part. Most of the episodes follow the plot wherein the 20 mins are divided into 4 parts. In the first quarter, the gang jokes around and meets the villain of the week; this is followed by the villain using his/her power on one or the whole of gang depending on his power and the person he is fighting and such a person or the gang gets in a really tight situation. The third quarter follows the villain torturing the hero(es) and the hero struggling to harm the villain. The last quarter deals with the hero suddenly getting a genius idea which the villain does not expect and the hero uses it and wins. Thus, all episodes can be predicted by this formula. Though, fear not it still doesn't get boring. OH NO!!! it doesn't. If you are a fan of battles that are won not by brute force but minds, then this will definitely keep you interested. Unlike anime like Naruto, DBZ, One Piece, etc. in which most heroes rely on the brute strength, endurance and the new techniques, etc. anime like HxH, Jojo , etc. rely on the power of brain. Unlike characters like Shikamaru, Lelouch, etc. who formulate mind blowing strategies and traps to defeat their enemies, characters in JoJo use common sense and that heightened logic. In my entire life I could not imagine defeating a fog enemy by breathing him in. Many writers have fog/smoke enemies, most famous of the lot being Smoker from One Piece. Luffy still can't beat Smoker after 700+ episodes; but all it took JoJo was half an episode to come up with such scheme and by god was I amazed at the creativity. 24 episodes and at least 15 villains later you would still want to watch the schemes the characters come up with to beat their enemy. None the enemies would lose simply cause the opposition was stronger, all of them lost because JoJo and co had such heightened IQ and common sense that it would put Newton to shame. After watching both the Jojo I can easily say that Hirohiko sensie is easily the smartest writer out there. The techniques that JoJo and co uses to fight the battles are beyond the world and still so darn entertaining. This factor alone makes a overused and dry story so much more interesting and enjoyable. Thus, battle which otherwise is just a secondary element is used to perfection and is as vital to the anime as is the story and pretty much the only reason to rate the anime so highly.

If the battles make the story interesting then the people who thought of the schemes, executed them and lived trough them are even more exciting. Make no mistake unlike the previous JoJo venture which offered at least minimum character development, this one has none. The characters all behave like they did in episode 1 till the last episode. This anime isn't about character development. Its about manliness and an attempt to celebrate the same. There aren't any female characters and nor there should be in this JoJo. The characters all have a catchphrase. The characters as as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Their chests are shaped like that due to taking extra steroids and mixture of weird drugs and search all you want you would never find more manlier voice than what JoJo has. The testosterone in this anime alone is greater than that of all anime combined. And most important of them all, their pose can make even the best of models wet. All of them are good people who unite for a common cause to defeat Dio and to save Jojo's mother. Despite virtually having no progress and emotional depth as characters, these are some of the most memorable characters anime has to offer. And the reason is pretty simple. Jotaro is to anime what James Bond is to movies. Both have pretty much no depth as characters, they are incredibly popular with lady, they ooze of manliness, both are good looking/drawn, they have plenty of macho/swag/testosterone/balls. This is what draws people to like Jotaro and other protagonists of JoJo series. They don't need any of the ingredients that make other heroes great. What they lack in other substance, they make up for it with that coolness. Jotaro is totally the bad guy who would steal your girl and not bat an eye over it and still would look cool doing it and would still stand out as the hero. Other characters too ooze with the charm and classiness that makes people in JoJo verse great. The villains in JoJo series are portrayed as classic bad guys. If they are truly evil and not those comedic evil guys; they would totally look like broken television and sound like broken speakers. They all have evil intentions of harming people and, they all have overdosed on them steroids and texts come flying out of the screen when they are shown.
Thus, I would never truly understand what makes JoJo characters that great without having any trait of what makes a character great. It might be that charm and ruggedness and the tendency to stand up to evil no matter what the circumstance is as come what may justice is more important. I could honestly say that JoJo characters easily remind me of that fearless heroes of the old westerns and currently would be only cool old school heroes in the action genre. Though, make no mistake they would never stop enticing you even if the show had 100 more similar episodes.

There can never not be a polarizing discussion on Jojo's art. Those rich visuals combined with those over the top and eye popping characters are honestly a hit or miss. Though they either hit a home run or do whatever is opposite of that is in baseball world. For me Jojo's art is definitely a hit. That art is important to the anime just like the characters are. They are what bring out the characters. This experimental art is what brings forth the characters manliness. They are what makes them larger than life. Those drugged chests are what shows the level of manliness and that height is what separates the great from those by standers. Thus, those hairstyles and chest that the animators have drawn is extremely important to bring forth those characters to the screen. The background is gorgeously drawn and is rich in details even if they get the city wrong sometimes. There is incredible amount of time and detail given to people, clothes, buildings, monuments and even roads and climate changed according to the city; albiet like I stated earlier parts of it was wrong and stereotypical and can offend some people. Though what they get right, they do it better than other guys. Thus, I felt that anime had great art and was nothing to complain about, especially if you liked the art of first season.

The music is something that is an integral part of JoJo. It did the music right in 2012 and 2 years later, it has done right again. The opening was good but the ending was brilliant. It was walk like Egyptian by the bangles, an English song. It followed its predecessor by including a classic English rock song. That song did not just introduce an essence of nostalgia to the viewers but also stayed true to the theme of manliness as the anime. Also, kept the concept of journey to Egypt relevant even after the episode ended. There is nothing more manly than classic rock in music terms and the makers clearly selected this song in line with the theme of anime and I feel it was master class selection. Hoping that next JoJo too would have a such a song.

Thus, this concludes my review of the uber cool Stardust Crusaders. If you were fan of the 2012 anime then this one is write up your ally; albeit in terms of ranking it would be higher than Phantom Blood and lower to Battle Tendency.

YARE YARE DAZE, how much have I rambled on.

The story follows the exploits of the titular character mob and his mentor/employer Arataka as they take up jobs to help people get rid of evil spirits, basically they are sort of shamans. Like all action anime, the mob world is divided into people with powers and ordinary people. The people with powers like Mob are called psychics and the others, well they are just called people. Mob in particular is an exceptionally strong psychic and beneath him lies an even stronger energy which posses Mob when his anger reaches 100 level. While in this beast like mode Mob is unable to control himself and ... thus hurts everyone around him without any discrimination. Mob has vague memories of this phenomena and the time when he injured his younger brother due to one such break. Thus, Mob joins Arataka to help defeat evil and to teach from Arataka how to control his powers. Here, lies a catch as Arataka is not a psychic as he advertises himself to be, in reality he is just plain smart, more accurately, street smart. He uses Mob to his own advantage and occasionally gives him the cliched advises that any ordinary Joe could give. They battle the monster of the week where Arataka slyly makes Mob take the responsibility to defeat the monster and calls it training. Amidst all the advice Arataka says to Mob to never use his powers on ordinary humans or humans in general. This becomes Mob's Achilles heel as often in the anime Mob refuses to fight the antagonists as it is against his moral codes and ethics. This is what the story line felt in the first third of the season. Even though I really liked it, I thought that this would be one of the old school anime wherein the MC just fought the bad guys and an evil organization in the last couple episodes. Bluntly said, I was wrong and wrong by a mile. A parallel story line runs here which sees Mob as an ordinary student struggling in his academics and athletics and in trying to impress his crush Tsubomi. In this story line Mob is shown as an everyday Joe himself in contrast to really strong esper. He realizes that Tsubomi is not impressed by psychic and looks for more ordinary strengths in her guy. Mob also is in awe of his brother who is pretty much the opposite of him. He doesn't have any esper abilities but is pretty much good in every other thing he tries. Mob exactly isn't envious of him but yearns to be able to stuff that everyone else can accomplish with ease, like eating without bending the spoon. In school Mob joins body building club to become physically fit to impress his love, his brother and more importantly himself. This according to me is one of the strong acts of the anime, as it genuinely humanized the usually aloof Mob. This is what separated the motivations in the anime from other generic shonen. Unlike the usual, Mob didn't really want to be the strongest Psychic in the word, nor did he care about it. All he wanted was to become a better human being and a person of whom his brother and he himself could be proud of. In the second third of the anime and the major viewpoint shifts from Mob to his younger brother Ritsu. The story progresses from how an ordinary Ritsu awakens his own psychic powers. Ritsu is a genius and an all rounder unlike his brother. He is extremely smart, athletic and popular. On the outside Mob and Ritsu seem to be ordinary brothers who have that weird love hate relationship, but that's just the surface. Both Mob and Ritsu are kind of envious of each other. As discussed earlier Mob wants to be a person of whom Ritsu can be proud of, he is especially proud of Ritsu. He wants to be better at education and sports like Ritsu, and that's normal. Ritsu on the other hand is more than just envious, he borders towards obsession. From a very young age, Ritsu becomes painfully aware of the fact that Mob is special. Ritsu despite having it all, doesn't have the psychic abilities. He tries his best to cover his desires, and we as watchers might not even have known about his ambitions and desires, if the story had not shifted to his viewpoint. This is again one of the other stronger points of the anime. The rival in here got ample screen time and the creators gave him enough substance to flesh out a 3D character. Ritsu's ambition, motivations and emotions were made very clear, this gave a reason for him to act the way he did, he didn't just simply challenge the rival to become strong or to prove him wrong. This added an emotional depth to his character and to overall story in itself. Despite all of this, the problem with Ritsu was that he wasn't as compelling character as Mob. Thus, the slice of life esque story with Ritsu's POV felt like it was dragging. There was one episode where nothing really happens but Ritsu feeling angry all the time. The anime had noble intentions and tried to do something most shonen could only dream of, though the shonen tag acted as a weakness here rather than a strength. The inability of shonen anime to have a deep meaningful conversation and the its inability to portray delicate human feeling without breaking the genre, left the anime to do this with only hard hitting visual cues. I felt that by this way, Ritsu insecurities were pushed to my face rather than showing it gradually and with some delicateness. Thus, the plot herein felt rushed and the feelings weren't portrayed accurately and subtly. This was one of the weak points of the show.

The characters in the show were quite well created. All of the characters you could see in real life, at least the human ones. The shy Mob, the genius Ritsu and slyly Arataka. All of these characters can be seen in almsot any group of people. Apart from Arataka, who was a bit exaggerated, both Mob and Ritsu felt human-esque characters. They had their separate personalities and motivations. These ambitions were something that most people desire. Mob desired to be a model student and citizen, Ritsu desired something bit more complicated. Though, if the psychic powers can be substituted as just another talent, then it is clearly visible that Ritsu was jealous his elder brother. He admired his elder brother for these talents and wanted the same for himself. In that aspect Mob too was jealous of Ritsu's talents. This aspect was especially beneficial to create a more fleshed out character, as brother I am myself a bit jealous of my siblings skills that I do not possess. I have seen many other people wanting a talent that someone in their family has, but they do not. I felt that made their jealousy more believable and warranted when compared to other anime. Thus, the characters especially the two brothers are what separated Mob from OPM. The anime offered an emotional connect to characters and a window to their actions and thoughts. Other side characters like Arataka and Ekubo were pretty cool characters too. They added the humor to otherwise a standard action anime. Especially, Arataka with his wits and charm was an engrossing and alluring character. He made the dull moments a lot less bearable and even when Ritsu was acting out of place and I felt the story dragged, it was Arataka and Ekubo duo who made the show a lot more fun. Thus, the show really hits it out of park with the character.

The art of the show was something that really took me by surprise. I am not really a fan of One's art style. I tried reading the original OPM and I couldn't get past 10 chapters without putting it down. I was really glad when Murata sensie decided to redraw it. Mob being One's lesser known work before the start of the anime didn't get any such version. Thus, the animators of the anime would have to work with One's style; this was a point of concern for me as I felt that the anime would have bad artwork. Though, all my fears were put to rest when saw the gorgeous artwork the anime had. The characters didn't feel animated, rather they felt like a hand drawn moving characters, like when you flip the pages of a book, though with a lot better fps. The artwork I felt was the best part of the show and really enthralled me. The opening and ending too was good enough and other themes like battle music too were not bad. Though, they didn't really stand out or increase the overall dramatic effect of the anime; yet they didn't feel out of place.

Finally, as I said earlier the anime was a must watch of last year and even generally holds out pretty good. What separates this one from OPM and other shonen in general is the emotional connect it offers with the characters while also excelling in the battle and shonen themes.

An anime that is so easily dismissed and left out was easily my favorite anime of not only the season but also for the entire year. Last year I felt there was no shortage of good anime. From seasoned veterans like JoJo to new shows like Mob Psycho, there was no dearth of anime I enjoyed. But between good shows there was another one which for me was great and arguably the greatest of them all. As this is a review for Saiki Kusuo (too long a name to write in full), there would be no prize for guessing the best of the lot. 5 ... mins a day, for 5 days a week, this anime consistently delivered big on laughs. Containing with itself all sorts of humor from slapstick to deadpan, this 5 min. anime was a treasure chest filled with rich laughs.

The premise of the anime was simple, it follows the life of protagonist Saiki who was born with superpowers, as he navigates through various scenarios of school life interacting with various people. These powers that range from telekinesis to transformation are all not a convenient gift, they also cause minor inconveniences. Each of the episode time just above 4 min and have a different stories. Earliest episodes include Saiki dealing with his over enthusiastic but simple parents, as the series progressed we become introduced to other lively characters at his school. Again, the early episodes were used to introduce characters, set up their personalities and to showcase Saiki's relationship with them. As the show progressed the stories used these characters like paint, they were mixed and match together creating hilarious situation for Saiki as he dealt with not only the characters but with the mess they created. Another impressive thing about the anime was how it dealt with introducing characters. A lot of characters were introduced at early stages of the anime. Then the anime focused on their relationship with Saiki. When the same characters were used multiple times the show introduced new characters. Also, unlike anime like Sket Dance, all the new characters weren't introduced simultaneously; rather they were introduced over a period of time. Often not more than one character was introduced at a time. As soon as a character was introduced, the character's relation with Saiki and co. was displayed, and just when things were starting to go stale another character was introduced, launching more permutation and combination into the mix. This way throughout 120 or 24 depending on the version, the anime was able to retain its charm and freshness.

The show had a huge cast. The good thing about having a huge cast is to have a variety of personalities. This can be both good and bad, depending on the mangaka. Though Saiki uses this to its advantage in a big way, probably the anime's biggest strength. All, I mean every single character had something to contribute. Every character had a different personality and each personality brought with it, its own brand of humour. From Saiki's deadpan-sarcastic style to Kaido's delusions humor to Nendou's dumb humor to Teruhashi's obsessed girl, to name a few; like this every character brought something new to the show. Every character a different color in the beautiful painting. None of the character will feel repetitive or tedious. From the moment they enter to the moment they sign off, each character was an absolute delight to watch.

The art and sound had nothing much to complain about, not that the anime itself had many complaints. They were pretty standard. Though I personally would give a shout out to both openings. A good opening, I feel, helps set the tone of the show. In this anime both the openings were cheerful and joyous, and helped set a merry mood. They were absolutely catchy to me and despite not being a Japanese, I couldn't help but hum the tune occasionally.

At long last, I would say that this little anime is absolutely worth the watch and deserves way more applause than it receives. To be honest, I too skipped on this one, due to episode's duration; albeit the very thing that made me skip it made me watch it. The duration per episode, it was perfect to watch as a break in between exams. Though once I started it I watched almost 30 episodes of it at once. After that everyday watching the 5 mins of the show and anticipating the next episode for 23hrs and 55 mins became part of my schedule. Thus, as said earlier this anime is perfect for the watchers who are looking for something hilarious and fun to watch and stress off on.