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Well, this will be a difficult review... but let's give a try. First a disclaimer:
Yes, two guys kiss in one episode. It is sad that many people dropped this show only because of a 10 second scene. If you are homophobic, don't even start reading here and go try to be a better person. Curious is how "two girls kissing" is ok... oh you people. Now that we are done here, let's go:

Story 9/10
Shinsekai Yori takes place 1000 years in the future, where the society returned to a more rural state, and religions like Buddhism and Shintoism are once again predominant. But what makes this ... world so special is the fact that everyone now has telekinesis power, called Cantus, and how everything works around this ability, specially how to control it. There are children disappearing, demons, supernatural killer cats, a strange new humanoid race, Mantras… and this is only the beginning of the mysteries.

The best part of Shinsekai Yori is the world where the story takes place, since it is all surrounded with a dark mystery, where most people are unaware of the secrets of their society. With the eyes of the group of five children, we also start to uncover the true nature of the place they live in. But here is the first problem of this show: Despite it was sold as a Horror and Psychological show, it barely has any of this elements. Drama and thriller are the predominant genres here, and they are really competent in these aspects, working with the tragic consequences of the children's discoveries in the show. Also, by the time you reach around episode 18 there won't be anymore mysteries to be revealed, except for a last and awesome revelation in the last episode.

Enjoyment 8/10
So... if Shinsekai Yori isn't all about mysteries, what else it has to offer? Well, there is another intelligent race living in this world, and they are called Queerats. They are like animals with some humanoid characteristics, that live in tribes in the forest and all their acts are monitored by the humans. And here lies two extremes aspects of Shinsekai Yori:
- Best: The final arc. It is full of action, drama, violence, tension and everything you would expect for. Even better, the final revelation of this anime brings us a good chance to reflect upon everything that happened and we can even try to bring it to our reality.
- Worst: Pacing. Pace is a huge problem in this show, specially when the protagonists are interacting with the Queerats. While we are all looking for the mysteries and thrilling scenes, we have to spend a bunch of episodes watching the kids running in the forest and talking with Queerats. To makes things worse, in the beginning you can't tell if these episodes are relevant or not, until you arrive at the final arc. If they were able to develop the mysteries and the Queerats problems together, definitely we would have a better result in the end.

Art 8/10; Sound 9/10
The sound is really competent, it is able to create the mood of melancholy, tension, and brings a kind of "epic ancestral religious" music over the show. The art is really beautiful, and the absence of colorful places and clothes makes everything even more melancholic and sad. But the quality of the animation is unstable, and we can notice many episodes with a lack of quality (and many of them are in the Queerat parts).

Characters 8/10
The characters are ok, they fulfill their roles, but I couldn't develop a stronger link with any of them. Saki is a strong female lead, while Satoru and Shun are the most intelligent ones in the difficult situations. Mamoru is the fragile one, while Maria is more cheerful. There are some other minor characters, but most of them shows up only to die 1 episode later. The Queerats Kiroumaru and Squealer are probably the most interesting characters, since that they are the ones who are the cause of the final conflict, and we understand their point only a few minutes before the ending of the show.

Overall: 8/10
Shinsekai Yori is a really enjoyable show. It brings an interesting world surrounded of mysteries, that are uncovered little by little, and which their consequences bring a good drama for the plot. It has some problems with the instability of the animation quality and pacing, which causes some let downs while watching it. The secondary plot, which turns out to be the main plot in the future, surrounding the tribes of Queerats is a huge problem that turns out in a good and interesting conclusion, that you are able to enjoy if you put in your mind that this show is not only about mysteries.

This is a direct continuation from the previous Magic Knight Rayearth, and now Fuu, Umi and Hikaru are back to Cephiro once again, and now they have to fix the problems left in Cephiro that happened after their tragic last battle.

The visual quality is still here, with all the beauty and delacacy that only Clamp manages to do, while delivering us great and epic battles.

If one of the problems of the previous series was the lack of time to develop the characters, now they are all back and we are able to know them a little better. Also, new characters are introduced, with all the ... fun and drama that all the Clamp characters bring. An interesting point, and that I don't like very much, is that the battles now happens almost of the time inside their Mechas. If you like giant robots fighting, you will enjoy, but I particulary prefer the fights with the girls casting their magics herselves.

Once again, this is a great Clamp publication and a good conclusion to the story of the girls and Cephiro.

I read Magic Knight Rayearth in a Brazilian publication from 15 years ago, and I noticed that some names are a bit different, so if a write anything awkward, you know the reason.

This manga is about 3 student girls that are transported to a mysterious land called Cephiro, where it's structure is based in the will of a princess called Esmeralda. The three girls meet Clef, a wizard that gives them the mission to save their world from an evil wizard called Zagato that impriosioned the Princess, and from now on they start to develop a strong friendship in order to save Cephiro and themselves.

What ... I like the most in Clamp publications is the quality of their art. They manage to draw characters with a unique beauty and delicacy in every page, and despite this, the action is really intense, with powers that would make many battle shounens envious. Also, all the time you will be laughing with all the visual puns that Clamp is master in doing.

My problem with this publication is that it is to short and fast paced, and leaves you wanting to know more about those characters that were briefly introduced, or to have longer fighting passages. Consequently, the plot also moves very fast, but the great fights, charismatic characters and the surprising ending makes this publication a must reading for manga lovers, specially Clamp ones.

Bakemonogatari is a story about Araragi, a third year student 1/10 vampire that constantly meets people (girls) with spirits problems. With his friend Oshino, he always tries to solve the girls’ problems.

Shaft is well known for their different artistic work, and here they really were able to make something with an outstanding visual. Making quick frame cuts to show texts revealing Araragi's thoughts, the close-ups in the girls while they speak, the fluid animation, are only a fraction of all the quality that we see in this show. Many people sure will think this is awkward, but it was what made me keep watching most. ... The songs are really well used during the scenes, and they don't fall in the cliche OST category.

Another thing that I simply loved is that in each arc we have a different opening with a different song. To make things better, it always reflects the girls’ personality and the feeling of the arc that we will watch.

The characters are all interesting, with really different personalities and making you care for them. Obviously, the girls represents all the fan services someone would expect: Tsundere, Timid, Athletic, Moe etc.. Well, fan service is really massive here, if you like it, you will have plenty of stuff to satisfy yourself. I really don't like fan services, but Shaft manages to make it in some interesting ways... like close ups in the characters lips and hands, to make us feel better what Araragi is feeling.

But... why 7? Here is why: It is REALLY slow paced, and in a bad way. Mushishi is also slow paced, but I fucking love that anime... the problem with Bakemonogatari is that it is full of dialogues, like... all the time. And worse: they make a bunch of jokes involving cultural jokes, and a lot of puns with their alphabet and Japanese speaking/writing, making for us a lot more difficult to pick up the conversations and enjoy them. Oh yeah, most of the time the conversations have nothing to add with the plot, being only casual or pervert talking. Most of the time it's just boring, and if the problem was only the fact of having a bunch of dialogues, I wouldn't enjoy Tarantino's movies the way I do.

Overall, Bakemonogatari is artistically incredible, but the massive dialogues makes it difficult to keep the pace, and the inside jokes makes it even more difficult for us to enjoy the show. But it is worth a try.