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It is rare that I label reviews mixed feelings as I tend to usually strongly go for one side or the other. But, this deserves that label.

Mamono Hunter Youko is a 90s ecchi that exhibits the magical girl warrior type and surprisingly predates the most well-known warrior magical girl Sailor Moon by 2 years.

To start, the good. The ecchi aspects of this series remind me a lot of Go Nagai's Cutie Honey (especially the transformation sequences) and it has a similar fun vibe, with Youko reminding me of Honey in 2004's Re: Cutie Honey. Youko and Azusa are very cutely designed and their voice ... actresses put on great performances with it making sense that they later go on to voice in iconic magical girl series such as Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth, respectively. The fights are very well choreographed and overall, the anime just looks really cool.

So, if I have this kind of praise about the OVA, why the mixed feelings? The answer is consistency. None of the episodes are quite in the same style with Episode 1 being the closest to Miyao Gaku's art and character designs and it diverging more and more as it goes on. This diversion generally isn't bad as every episode except the last looks great. But, the final episode is such a vast style change with the characters looking incredibly off-model and straight up unrecognizable (i.e. Sayoko Mano) that it's impossible not to notice. I have a somewhat similar issue with the writing. Every episode except the last was a standard Monster of the Week format that later ended up defining magical girl, but it had just enough spice with character interactions and conflict that it kept it interesting. But, the final episode, while still generally Monster of the Week, was straight up a slog with the character interactions and it just felt like an unnecessary episode with both writers and animators giving up.

Ok, you may say, it's one episode. You can still recommend the show and just add the caveat about the final episode being a sharp quality drop. But, this wouldn't be a mixed feeling review if not for my other major gripe in the episode. Episode 4 of Mamono Hunter Youko isn't even an episode!! It's a mixture of AMVs using clips from the last 3 episodes along with one newly animated chibi music video, and a couple of live music videos along with a showcasing of Miyao Gaku's manga art. How can a 6 episode OVA need a recap clip show?? It feels so cheap and while the manga art and chibi music video were pretty, it is definitely not the same worth as a full episode with a story. I cannot fully recommend a show when 2/6 episodes (that is 1/3 of the series) ends up being duds.

I am surprised that this lovely manga has no reviews but there is a first for everything

Wata no Kuni Hoshi or The Star of Cottonland, despite being the manga credited for the popularization of catgirls, is criminally underrated and definitely deserves a read if you enjoy catgirls, pretty art, and/or philosophical slice-of-life manga.

To start, the art. Yumiko Ooshima is a mangaka associated with the iconic Year 24 group and this is for good reason. Her linework is incredibly delicate and her page composition is incredibly unique and eyecatching but still easy to follow. She uses space and light and shadow to set a whimsical ... and at times melancholic tone as Chibineko goes through each day. And, her choice of depicting all cats rather than just her protagonist as catpeople is incredibly unique and lends an air of comedy as one sees beautiful long-limbed people doing silly things like lounging on a fence or attempting to steal from fish vendors.

Since I mentioned Chibineko, let us move onto the characters. Chibineko is a perfect protagonist to show coming-of-age as she is not quite cat and not quite human and it shows in her design as being a girl with animal features like cat ears and a tail along with fangs. She navigates life in this limbo, experiencing love, yearning, loss, and death and interacting with many other colorful characters as she goes. The Suwano family which took her in are incredibly interesting, even just with their day-to-day lives such as Fumiko's activities as a housewife and her husband's eccentric character as a writer. The son Tokio is also an aloof and eccentric character that works well with Chibineko.

Overall, this is a lovely manga that shows the journey of a girl in the innocence of youth and the various lessons she learns and people she meets as she goes throughout life and learns about the world outside of her small family and home and it is a read you will not regret.

While this type of premise may have been overshadowed by the more adult version of it in Gushing over Magical Girls,
Acro Trip is definitely a series that deserves your time. The visuals and voice acting are great with voice actors coming from well known fun series like Bandori, Hamefura, and the Disastrous Life of Saiki K. The character designs are incredibly pleasing to the eye and make the manga come to life with the skill of Kawamura Toshie who's worked on 3 Precure seasons. Overall, it is a visual and auditory treat.

But, considering this is a comedy, the writing is the trait that must ... be looked at. And I'd argue it holds up. The comedic timing of the protagonist Chizuko is so fun and she plays an amazing straight man to contrast Chroma's idiocy, and sometimes Berry Blossom's. Chroma's voice actor being in an iconic comedy like Saiki K greatly helps his performance as he is great at delivering a fun and pathetic villain who wants so badly to be evil. Berry Blossom's voice actress also being in Precure previously helps her give the performance of a standard up-beat magical girl and how that trope is poked fun at by the story. Even the side characters such as the "animal" mascot Mashirou or Chizuko's grandpa are a treat and overall, the chemistry and timing has me smiling every time I tune in.

However, I will say that comedy is subjective and the very fast-paced and at times absurd comedy may not jive with some viewers so if you aren't feeling it after 2 or 3 episodes, then it might not be the show for you. But, if you are a magical girl connoisseur who enjoys some teasing and parody here and there in the genre, you will enjoy this light romp.

I feel this manhwa has gotten unfairly dunked on due to its dark topics. If you're someone who enjoys reading about taboo relationships, cycles of abuse and generational trauma, you'll enjoy this.

Lady Devil is something I came into expecting enjoyable trash but instead got a beautiful story of broken children becoming broken adults and eventually trying their best to heal from that and break the cycle they were born into. It also is probably one of the best in terms of historical elements in manhwa often labeled "historical". The clothing and hair, especially for the protagonist Giovinetta takes medieval inspiration and is beautifully done. ... The panel composition was also stunning with tons of symbolism and references to classic art pieces.

The character writing was also phenomenal with antagonists not being just cookie-cutter bad guys but people with their own motivations and stories. The relationship between John and Giovinetta was also really really interesting and complex, showing how the abuse they both faced and the misunderstandings they've had about one another due to their upbringings and their lack of communication impacts their dynamic.

Honestly the only real reason I rated it a 9 rather than a ten was some pacing and storytelling issues. The non-linear storytelling made it a bit convoluted at times and the middle part felt a bit dragged out compared to the finale. But overall? still worth the read and time.

For the sake of completion, I am planning to watch everything in Cutie Honey. Naturally, this included Universe.

This is time I'm never getting back. First off, visuals. Really mediocre most of the time, some times outright bad. The battles taking place in gravity tunnels (which were never really explained) made them SO boring and ugly to watch as Honey battles a Panther in some blue void. The attacks were so bland and the fight choreography wasn't dynamic or fun to watch at all. There were a handful of cool shots but overall it was just PAINFULLY bleh.

Characters also didn't help. I'm not expecting ... deep complex characters from an ecchi but I expect consistency, at the very least. Honey's powers were amazingly inconsistent. She's supposed to be this super strong android but she got her ass kicked so much it was insane. So many battles were her almost detransforming cause of some energy thing but then through the power of friendship she suddenly gets the upper hand. And character motivations? non-existent. Tarantula Panther was foreshadowed to be some grey character who gets second thoughts but that goes nowhere. We don't know why Sister Jill claimed she wanted to destroy Panther Claw as that goes nowhere, along with her Inspector Genet thing.

It also had an issue with tone. Cutie Honey is generally light with some dark moments but quickly recovering from those. Universe would try to commit to a dark moment and then suddenly make it go comedic with no warning. It was just jarring rather than fun to watch and breaking tension. For example, when a character died and it was a big thing, the next episode they're making jokes about it. It makes 0 sense and further adds to the bad character writing.

Also side note, the whole different voice actresses voicing Honey's different forms was an interesting idea. Too bad she was ONLY ever in Hurricane Honey or Cutie Honey with her other forms getting 2-3 lines AT MOST.

Generally, this was just painfully bad with SOME interesting plot lines or ideas sprinkled in, but they just went nowhere. Bad visuals, bad characters, bad writing, just a blight on the franchise.

If you want some good Cutie Honey, ANY other entry in the franchise would be better.

Per my rating, I have mixed feelings on recommending this. I watched it hours after finishing the tv series.
Starting off with the pros, the high budget is clear with beautiful shots and no off-model moments for characters (or at least I didn't notice any)
In the 6 year gap between the series and the movie, Dezaki's directing became so much more refined and distinctly HIS style from the pastel still frames, the shots of birds taking flight, unique camera angles, and color palette changes in intense moments. It very much made the movie for me.
Onto why I am mixed about this, the movie is ... pretty much a recap of the series, with new content being at the very end. While some moments are changed slightly, the end result is pretty much the same. Some really important character arcs and moments are cut out too, like Kyoko Otowa's development and a lot of how Reika and Hiromi's bond grew and changed over the course of the plot along with Hiromi's improvement being less gradual, only shown through short training montages. I understand the reason being time constraints, but it still does hurt the film.

Overall, if you're watching it for new content, it isn't really needed. However, if you are a Dezaki fan like me and enjoy his directing style, the film is eye candy and a nice watch.

TL;DR: Probably not going to enjoy it if you aren't a fan of recaps, if you want to watch it because it's a Dezaki work and to see his style in motion, go for it.

Initially when I heard about this spin-off, I was excited and optimistic. However, after watching, I feel disappointed. It quickly became clear that this was simply nostalgia-bait.
A good amount of the episodes followed the formula of "I'm doing my dream job but it isn't what I expected oh no" and then they transformed and became Cures again. There was so much reused and poorly upscaled animation for the transformations and finisher attacks along with flashbacks to the old seasons.
The Shadows were so ugly too, being jarringly 3d-animated. And the motivation of Bell made no sense. The show was clearly trying to do a ... message on climate change and how we all must do our parts to keep our Earth clean but it just fell flat. The negatives, visually and writing-wise, just aren't worth it for a handful of heartwarming character moments.

This show is very fun to watch. Despite the lack of a real cohesive plot, Michiko and Hatchin has great fights, great voice acting, and super fitting music. The art style is pleasing to the eye with the eyecatches between commercials being very unique and different for each episode. The characters themselves aren't the best written but I'm not here for well-written and character-driven narratives, I'm here for badass women and fun.
This show is not all snappy music and fun, though. The country this is set in seems very bleak with poverty wherever the duo go and characters having very sad circumstances. There are ... a lot of loose ends that are never really tied up and characters introduced only to be taken out like nothing happened.
However, if you want to just turn your brain off and listen to some good music and see some really cool visuals, I'd say this show is for you

Michiko's relationship with Hatchin blossoming over the course of the series is really sweet to see and even though Michiko is definitely not perfect, she has good intentions and truly cares for Hatchin.

Tokyo Mew Mew is definitely a childhood classic for many today. With the reboot aired this year, I decided to finally sit down and read the entire manga.
Let's start with what I liked. The premise was very unique. Animal magical girls fighting polluting aliens does not sound like a common pitch. And this novelty definitely gives the manga points. And, the art. I am a sucker for 2000s shoujo art with the large glossy eyes and youthful faces. The costume design is cute and while the attack names are a bit cheesy, it's very fun.

However, good art and premise does not make up for the ... weaknesses of the manga. The plot is very rushed with little to no development and backstory for each girl. The Mew Mews are one-note characters with Ichigo being the plucky protagonist, Mint being a snobby rich girl with a soft side, Lettuce being a reserved shy girl, Purin being the young and mischievous one, and Zakuro being strong and silent. That's it. We don't know why the girls really chose to fight except that they just transformed and went. Why does Mint do ballet? Was Lettuce always so reserved or did bullying make her that way? Did fighting constantly and keeping secrets worry Ichigo's parents? Why did Zakuro choose modeling? These questions and more never get answered. The plot, in general seems very rushed. There's no real time for any girl to really relax and bond. It's fight after fight after fight. These characters don't have room to do anything other then work at Cafe Mew Mew and fight.

In conclusion, if you want a cutesy romance-filled fun manga, do pick up Tokyo Mew Mew. It is definitely exciting with Ichigo and her love life. However, this may not be for you if you value character development and realistic characters.

This manga was haunting and beautiful. The artstyle was out of a storybook with the forests, cozy cottages, and drawings of Teacher and Shiva.
It brought me to tears twice. I wanted so dearly for nothing bad to happen but alas. It had an interesting philosophy of light and dark. One is not complete without the other. And with suffering. If you find out something you love dearly and saved you also was the cause of your pain, would you still accept it? Very thought-provoking. I'm keeping this vague but still spoiler-warning.

While the ending, in my opinion, was a bit hard to understand and too ... tragic for my tastes, I thought it was wonderfully done.