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If you had told me a few months ago that the best representation of Time travel and it's consequences would be in anime form, I would wonder what you'd been smoking; Anime does many things well, but it can sometimes fail at telling a deep and convincing story handling sci-fi elements in favor of Fan-Service and OTT action scenes (I'm not averse to either, but they have a time and a place!)

But I watched Steins;Gate, a Time Travel Drama/Thriller based off a Graphic Novel. And at first, for about 3 episodes, I thought it was great, what with it's Well-voice acted characters (in ... both Japanese and English), and its real world references, AND some great dialogue. But as the shows went on, It became less about Time-Travel, and more about giving really lame 1 episode arcs to female characters who basically constituted a harem show, and by episode 11, I was feeling a bit let down. The characters were good, but the story was going nowhere. And then something happens. Something crazy. And it all goes to hell.

I usually wouldn't say that much about story in a review, but I feel it's important so that people don't decide to drop the show. Just give it time, and the payoff is immense.

But the shows best point is by far it's characters, though there aren't many, considering it's a 24 episode show, with only about 10 named characters. But because of this, each one contributes in huge ways to the plot, and you grow really attached to each. You have the Main character Okabe Rintarou, a young physicist with the biggest God complex I have ever seen. But he's oddly lovable, and oozes charisma, and as the series progresses, he evolves into a good guy, maybe even a great one.

Other notable ones include: Makise, a physicist who is trying to also discover time travel, and is one of the most down to earth characters in anime; Daru, the hacker who is basically the only person with any actual skill; And Mayuri, Okabe's Little sister/Best friend/ Girl friend who actually contributes very little but is really cute.

However, the shows biggest problem also lies with its characters, with three of them only existing to pad out the harem elements of the show, which actually really goes against the serious tone of the show. Im not saying they weren't needed, they just need to be girls, and they DEFINITELY didn't need to have Semi-Relationships with Okabe. It just feels shoehorned, and brings the show down a bit.

That said, I really love this show. It has a brilliant opening and ending, though the actual show features very little music, which suites the them, quite bland and bleak. But this point is made most by the Art, which has very little color, using lots of whites and grey's, and a really odd filter is sometimes applied which makes the show feel surreal. It's odd, but not wrong.

And with all my plot niggles, the second half is seriously incredible. I have never seen desperation portrayed so well in an anime, nor have I seen time-travel done so well in anything ever. With that in mind, I give steins;gate a 9/10!

Let's get one thing straight. Evangelion was the first anime I ever watched (talk about jumping in at the deep end), and so the element of bias is gonna be there. That said, I gave Eva (The original series and End of Eva) an 8, so while I do like it, I don't LOVE it. My problems were three-fold with the original show: The ending sucked (both of them), the animation is dated and shinji was an absolute LOSER. Seriously, that kid needed a slap! 2.0, however, both fixes my problems with the original show, and builds upon the solid base 1.0 set down. Boy, ... does it Build. . . .

STORY
You know the score if you've been watching anime for more than 5 minutes! Angels attacking, giant robots piloted by kids are the only hope of stopping them, cue big-ass fight scenes. BUT WAIT! All the characters are messed up, and so a psycho-emotional roller-coaster ensues! Now, the big difference between the rebuild movies and the original series is the plot changes, which are pretty big, and to be honest, a welcome change. The bad ending(s) I mentioned aren't present, instead the creator chose to branch off the plot into new (and better) territory. And I can't say much without spoilers, but DAMN that ending is good *shivers*.

ART
Probably the best thing about this movie. Seriously, the animation in 2.0 is crisp, colourful and all the Eva's and Angels look absolutely incredible, especially as the film reaches it's climax. None of the shoddy animation that plagued the series near the end is visible here, just 100 minutes of absolutely incredible animation. Oh, and all the angels are super colourful, which I thought would be stupid, but is super nice to look at. "A feast for the eyes" is not an under statement!

SOUND
I have this soundtrack on my ipod. Shiro Sagisu's orchestral genius shines, adding the much needed score to really give this movie it's force, and making each battle really feel like losing could mean the fall of humanity. Best recommendation goes to the song "In my spirit", which is the best song to play when your faced with absolute destruction, and "Give me wings", which plays in the movies climax and hits you right in the feels.
The dub is also extremely good, and I will confess haven't watched the sub, but I can only assume it's good!

CHARACTER
Remember how I said that Shinji was a problem with the original show? Well the film finally gave him what he always needed to become a great hero, and a great character in general: A pair of balls. Seriously, I had complete respect for him after what he did at the end of the movie, and it almost made up for the End of Evangelion Jerk off scene.
Everyone one else is their usual great self: Rei doesn't talk, Asuka's a badass, Misato is oddly humanizing, and Kaji brings the much needed banter to an otherwise dark film. Good times!

ENJOYMENT
In my opinion, enjoyment is the most important aspect, and if watching 3 kids in giant mech's get the living hell beaten out of them by equally big monsters, be it with lasers, tentacles, more lasers, claws or even more lasers, I don't know what is. More action, drama, and just plain EPIC happens in this 100 minute film then happens in most full series, and that's a promise. And if THAT'S not enough, you see Rei's boobs! No nipples though. . .?

OVERALL
If you see one anime film this year, see Evangelion 2.0. Well, and 1.0 and 3.0, but most definitely 2.0. Because if you're like me, it's instinct to want to go watch giant robots beat each other up. Or, in this case, Angels! And that's the most important thing of all!

Okay, let's get it out of the way: If your still watching at this point, you probably don't have a problem with ecchi, boobs, panty shots and ALMOST hentai. SO going on that basis, I'm not going to cater to the type of person wo's gonna whine about the obnoxious Boob/panty shots.

This show is awesome. Seriously, it's the best ecchi show ever created (and believe me, I've seen a few). And why? Because it doesn't take itself seriously. Some shows, like Highschool of the Dead, would be good if not for the fanservice, but Dxd works in the opposite way. It would suck without ... the comedy, fanservice and stupidity. Let's break this down:

STORY: For what it is, the plot of DXD new is actually fairly serious, without seeming dumb. . .much. The first arc is actually quite dark, and all in all I enjoyed the greater scale the second season had over the first. The best/worst point about the plot, depending on who you ask, is the fact that the writers always have a new plot device to the pull out of there ass to explain why something happened. Which is great if you can look past it, but some people can't.

ART: Probably the worst aspect of the show, the art is pretty standard, and the show basically goes at the basic level you would expect for an anime in 2013. Probably because the animators were too busy drawing boobs.

SOUND: The music for this show is legit good, although I would say that neither of the openings in this season lived up to the awesome one from the first. That said, all the main themes that play through out are pretty good, both light-hearted tunes for the comical half of the show, and epic orchestra's and simple wind sections for the more dark/serious portions.

CHARACTERS: You either try and take them seriously, and hate them, or you don't, and love them. I think that Issei is great, because he's basically ME if I was in that situation, and all the new side characters are pretty great (Go IRENA!!!). And a couple of the original team get some fleshing out, namely Kiba and Akeno, so good times.

ENJOYMENT: All said and done, this is why I gave the show a ten: It's fun. Highschool DxD is the best show to just relax and watch, with a box of chocolate/kleenex, depending on which way your inclined. And as Ecchi shows go, it's definitely at the top end of the scale. Can't wait for season 3!!!