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Prior to finishing Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, the last anime that I watched to completion was about a year or two ago. For the past few years I have been making continuous efforts to try and get into back to watching a medium that I truly enjoyed and so I finally decided on watching this show. And in retrospect, because of this I may have set my expectations unfairly high because I found Haven’t You Heard; I’m Sakamoto as a somewhat fun however highly forgettable and very frustrating show.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto Is about a near perfect high ... school student, Sakamoto, and his schoolmates and classmates. The episodes are structured like western animated series where episodes are divided into two, sometimes three, segments where each segment contains its own story. I liked the idea of the story of a cool boy scout like character that is popular but that also butts heads with the people he interacts with a school setting. The story starts off pretty strong but struggles to maintain momentum as the show progresses. At the start, it is fun to see how the characters who dislike Sakamoto try to make him slip up and lose his cool in front of his class, yet Sakamoto manages to maintain his cool and suave demeanour and turns his adversaries’ plans on its head.

However, the story veers off with this set up because you clearly cannot show a characters trying to maintain his cool while his classmates try to make him slip up for 12 episodes. However, thinking back, I would have rather have preferred that to a lot of what followed. Suffice to say, there is very little story in show. Without spoiling anything, one segment of an episode literally just revolves around Sakamoto walking. I’m not over exaggerating when I say that in one episode, the story is basically Sakamoto walking from Point A to Point B.

You can watch the first two episodes of the series and then the final two and you would not miss anything important with everything in between feeling like filler. I have no problem with the structure of the show because there are animated titles that have 10 minute episodic segments where each segment has a beginning, middle and an end. And even if these shows do not have strong stories they make up for it with interesting and funny characters and good jokes and funny comedy. Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto rarely does and barely has any of these things.

Characters
The show’s setup has you believe that the world, and more specifically the school, wherein the story is set, is inhabited by really goofy, wacky and zany characters almost akin to the anime Cromartie High but not to such a large extent. There were some standouts like Kubota Shigemi and Sera Yuuya, however most of the cast is pretty uninteresting and boring. The novelty of seeing Sakamoto being perfect and cool wears off quickly because you know that he won’t slip up and that nothing bad will happen to him. There is no real character development for him or for most of the characters in the series.

Art
It is always difficult for me to review the art of an anime title when the animation looks just like so many other title. The art and animation was okay however later all of the characters started to look the same, especially the girls. It was just fine.

Sound
There is one recurring gag that made me laugh or at least chuckle and it was an extremely melodramatic song from a favourite television show of one of the characters. This was used to milk dramatic and over the top moments for laughs and in these scenes and moments, it works really well and never got tiresome. The rest of the music was fine as was the voice work but that’s about it. Not much else to say.

Enjoyment
Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto started really well and I was curious to see where the story would go, however it loses steam very quickly and some of the middle episodes were an absolute chore and grind to watch. Some of the characters I enjoyed and there are some clever ideas and gags spread throughout the show. After a year of not watching a single anime however, I was disappointed with Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto. If you’re looking for a stupid anime to watch just to kill some time, give this a try. But if all you want to do is kill time, there are probably much better titles out there that you could rather watch.

6/10

If I could sum up this review it would be: High School of the Dead is Harem, ecchi, horror. So going in you know what you’re going to get which make complaints about the fan service in the show mind boggling.

The story of the zombie apocalypse is something that’s been done for a very long time. Whether it’s movies, television, comic books or video games, some attempts have been really successful in terms of portraying the world infested by these flesh eaters (Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, The Last of Us, Crossed) and some have been average to downright bad (everything after the first season ... of The Walking Dead). These stories use the same formula: throw ordinary characters into a world overrun with zombies and see what happens. The stories are always simple but watching these characters run, fight back, bicker amongst each other and use their wits is something you can’t help but eat up if it’s done right.

Having said that I’ll proclaim proudly, I love High School of the Dead! This review can be voted towards the bottom of the barrel, I’ll say it again, I love it. And I’ll explain why. It’s awesome. Balls to the wall action! Yes, the characters are thin. Yes, so is the plot. And yes, it relies heavily on fan service. But that is not the point. High School of the Dead does what it sets out to do. It’s an action horror that wants to entertain and that is exactly what it does.
Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
High School students have to survive in a world overrun with zombies where all females seem to be extremely gorgeous and have huge breasts. That’s basically it. It’s all just an excuse to watch teenagers go all out killing zombies. There’s an underdeveloped romance subplot which really wasn’t necessary but the focus remains largely on the characters that fight to survive. The action is gruesome and bloody. You’ll need a strong stomach for all the gore and blood spilled throughout the show. There are some moments of comedy, drama and suspense incorporated into the story that help contribute turning something really simple into a genuinely fun ride.

Art
Zombies always look awesome. In a grotesque, badass, sometimes nauseating kind of way, and here they look no different with terrible skin and blood dripping from the mouths. The main characters are drawn really well. Apart from their huge eyes, the characters are drawn rather realistically. The landscapes and buildings are drawn really detailed too which can be said for all the backgrounds in general. The art is probably the best part of High School of the Dead.

Sound
High School of the Dead has one of the best OP’s I’ve ever heard. This rock ‘n roll song gives you an idea of what to expect: adrenaline fuelled violence and lots of running. The moans and groans coming from our cannibalistic baddies make you uncomfortable and uneasy. The seiyuus all do a wonderful job with their respective characters and the sound effects are perfect. The sound of shoes hitting the ground as someone runs, gunshots and explosions, all of it sound great.

Characters
Characters can make or break a zombie story since the focus is always on them trekking through this hell hole. The main cast is made up of anime stereotypes (an otaku, a really cool lead etc.) with very little development, but stereotypes that can kick ass. They come across a couple of side characters throughout the story, some good and some bad. Watching the true nature of humanity unfold in a crisis like this is always fun watch. Stealing from one another and killing each other for survival. Watching characters react to their surroundings. What will they do and how far will they go? Just like in Gantz, some of the people here are disgusting human beings. This is a nice contrast between our likeable main characters and the panicked and selfish citizens that populate this world.

Enjoyment
I’ve been raving about HOTD, but honestly, I would have given it a 10 if the fan service was used more to the benefit of the show. There are times where it wasn’t really a problem but when someone is running for their lives and you can’t take the suspense anymore, you see a cleavage or panty shot and that just ruins everything you just took in. It is an all out horror with some funny bits but moments like these ruin the atmosphere completely. However the usage is a small complaint on my part. It may not be for everyone but it is one of the most entertaining zombie titles you’ll experience. And it’s light years away from being boring. Switch your brain off and enjoy.

9/10

Gantz is infamous for its excessive amount of gore and explicit sex, which is its bread and butter, and this does sound awesome on paper but it lacks any real likeable characters and has a story with more questions than answers.

Story

Gantz is about two students who die in a train accident after saving a hobo’s life. They awake in a room with a giant black ball called Gantz and other people who have died recently. The ball in this room commands them to kill aliens every night within a certain amount of time and with every kill they rack up points. After every night of ... killing the survivors do go back to their normal lives for another day before doing all of it all over again the next night. With enough points, they can go back to their normal lives without ever having to participate in the games anymore and they’ll have no memory of Gantz.

Gantz has a fantastic setup but it just fails to deliver. The story is dark and shows how cynical the world can be. One of the characters risked his life to save a woman’s child but she didn’t even have the decency to say thank you. But instead of trying to find a balance between that and all the fights the characters get into, the story just focuses on the build up to the fights and the actual battles themselves (which can be entertaining) with only an occasional attempt at being philosophical about human nature and how cruel we can be. The personal lives of the main characters are really really boring, which shows that most of the effort really did go into all the battles. And it doesn’t seem to bother any other civilians that people who have died recently and were reported dead on the news have suddenly come back to life. The use of profane language is smartly used throughout the show to add some humour and it does lighten the cynical and depressing atmosphere of the story occasionally.

Art

The art of Gantz in a mixed bag. The traditional character designs and animation are great but the mix of CGI objects with 2-D animation just doesn’t work. Maybe if the show was released more recently it would have looked better but it just looks like ugly clay models alongside our characters.

Sound

The characters in Gantz shout and yell, a lot. I can tell you this can start to irritate the hell out of you. Kei shouting can make the hairs on your neck stand up. It really gets to you. And it’s not just him, everyone else does this. This is just nitpicking but when someone decides to shout for minutes on end you really want to fast forward or stop watching.

The music is okay. Both the OP and ED are forgettable and so is the music used throughout episodes.

Characters

The characters in the story are despicable human beings, most of them anyway. They don’t seem to blink at the idea of killing somebody else. Kei is a pretty awful lead and has absolutely no redeeming qualities to him, in the anime at least. He comes off as whiney, obsessed with sex and just full of himself. This is supposed to be our hero, the guy we root for.

I absolutely despise Light from Death Note. Not because he’s poorly written, as a matter of fact he’s a fantastic character. He’s what a villain should be and that’s why I hate him so much, because he’s the perfect bad guy, but Kei on the other hand is not the bad guy. Kei is like a stand in for the audience, and when the hero is a real douche it makes it a lot harder to take in and follow the story.

Another problem I have with the characters is that they have a tendency to repeat something and not do it. For instance, one of them will have a gun, and shout a dozen times “I’M GONNA SHOOT IT!” before actually doing anything. This happens quite a few times throughout the show and it can get really off putting. It also feels like time is being bought to stretch out the length of the episode.

Characters die like flies in Gantz so don’t expect a lot of character development. If the character started out as really slutty in the series, chances are, the character will die as someone who was really slutty, the same can be said for everybody else, no matter what type of person they are.

Enjoyment

Gantz is not a good show, but it can be enjoyable up to a certain extent. The battles are really fun to watch even with the uneven animation and the battles really have some suspense attached to it. Since the series ended before the manga, the ending has been discussed numerous times. Gonzo came up with material in the last few episodes that the viewer is supposed to study. Study the ending, the story, how it all came to this etc. But because this is filler, nobody cares and will not waste their time doing it. And since the last arc is non-canonical don’t expect to get a lot of the questions you had with the story answered.

Gantz is something I’d only recommend to someone who loves and can stomach mindless violence and gore, with some added sex scenes for good measure. Although don’t expect to be fastened to your seat when watching it and when you finish the show, just forget about what you saw in the last four episodes and continue with the manga.

6/10

If I had a teacher like Onizuka I would actually have enjoyed school and looked forward to attending every day. The show itself is good but he makes it great. For those of you who have yet to watch it, please let me try and convince you with a short review to give it a try. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story of GTO concerns Eikichi Onizuka, a reformed biker gang leader that strives to be a great teacher and meet chicks. The story of the teacher that reforms delinquents has been done countless times but the story of GTO feels fresh. For one, ... instead of taking place in a lower class public school district, the students are of a higher class with wealthy parents. And Onizuka doesn’t come from the same privileged and sophisticated background as his students and this provides an interesting comedic dynamic. The story has a few heartfelt moments that’s scattered throughout the show. The only complaint I have the with the story is that it began to feel repetitive near the end with the same “Onizuka wants to turn student’s life around but student hates Onizuka” formula being used over and over again.

Art
The art style looks really 90’s from the character designs to the background and it fits the style and tone of the show like a glove. Onizuka has one of the most flexible faces you’ll see and it provides a lot of laughs on its own. Watch the second opening and try not to laugh when Onizuka gives the finger, I dare you.

Sound
Steven Blum is fantastic. He gives Onizuka an inherent goofiness and likeability but also makes him come off as cool, menacing and bad ass. However some of the voice actors sound off and don’t really sound natural. One of the students talks with a surfer accent and sometimes it’s so bad that you end up laughing. The show has one of the best soundtracks you’ll hear. Both openings of the show are excellent. Upbeat rock songs that you’ll want to listen to over and over again.

Characters
Eikichi Onizuka is well known among members of the anime community for a reason. He’s funny, vulgar and caring. He looks after his students and never gives up on them. His methods can be unorthodox and he does a lot of things real teachers would never do but that just shows how far he would go for his pupils. Since Onizuka wants to help his learners throughout the story expect a lot of character development. The supporting characters are well developed but they are not nearly entertaining as Onizuka with the exception of vice principal Uchiyamada.

Enjoyment
GTO is amazing. It has a lead that’s impossible to hate, a really fun soundtrack and a funny and dramatic story, even if it does start to lag during the second half.

8/10

This review will be short and to the point.

Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of the very first ever anime titles I watched and I’m currently re-watching it. I have to say I’m surprised to find that it’s more enjoyable now than when I was eight years old probably seeing as I have a much better attention span now. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
Yu-Gi-Oh! revolves around a game called Duel Monsters which is a card game where players summon mythical monsters and duel against each other. The plot is simple but the more you watch the show the more interesting the games become. The ... rules are never spoon fed to you but after viewing a few episodes you’ll understand everything you need to know about Duel Monsters. There are a whole lot of unexpected turns, great gaming strategies and life or death situations when playing the game. The story as a whole is great. It takes place in the present but focuses on ancient Egypt from time to time and the villains that try to get their hands on the millennium items. Even though the story is really great, the duels themselves are much more enjoyable and interesting.

Art
Characters have crazy hair styles and huge eyes but the design is great, especially the different monsters played throughout the series.

Sound
Yu-Gi-Oh! has a fantastic dub. Some characters have cartoony voices but it fits the sometimes over the top nature of the show. The music sounds like a score from an epic movie, especially when it plays during matches. I just have to say, the loop in the opening is awesome and never gets old.

Characters
Yu-Gi-Oh! has a great cast of characters. The Pharaoh has a Shakespearian quality about him, his voice and the way he talks. His respect for the game makes him seem like a noble samurai playing cards. He cares for his friends and watching him play is always a joy to take in. The supporting cast is fantastic, from Joey who sounds like a Brooklyn resident to bad ass anti-hero Kaiba.

Enjoyment
Yu-Gi-Oh! is just plain fun. The story is gripping, the voice acting is fantastic and the cast is really likeable. If you’re looking for a long fun anime to watch, look no further.

It’s time to d-d-d-d-du-du-du-du-duel.

8/10

The word “otaku” used to be extremely derogatory, but in recent years, the word has become a lot less negative with many people (the users of Myanimelist for example) coming to identify themselves as otaku. However, this is still a major problem in Japan. We have the idea that it’s pretty normal for someone in Japan to obsess about anime and manga. However over there, “otaku” is used to describe someone that’s weird, unskilled, lacks the competence to be in a healthy relationship and/or can’t secure a stable job.

This is what Welcome to the NHK is about, the story of such an otaku’s ... life in Japan. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story Welcome to the NHK is about 22 year-old, Satou Tatsuhiro, an otaku/NEET/hikimori. He’s unemployed, sleeps for 16 hours a day and goes grocery shopping at night with money his parents send him. He has the idea that that everyone and everything is against him and it’s supposedly all part of some convoluted conspiracy theory. He reluctantly joins a program which will help him get over his paranoia and in the process, better his way of living. Welcome to the NHK is part drama, part romance, part black comedy, part psychological thriller, part satire and part slice of life. It shows us the life of an otaku in a realistic way, but it’s able to combine drama and comedy with everyday life. For instance, it explored unemployment in a way where it could make us laugh and think at the same time. Unemployment is a very serious issue all over the world, but I just couldn’t help but laugh at how it was shown in Welcome to the NHK. However it also shows the consequences of unemployment and how it can affect the individual. If it’s from psychological thriller to drama to comedy and back to drama again, the executions of the tonal shifts is smooth and doesn’t come off as awkward because even though Welcome to the NHK falls under so many genres, it manages to have a certain direction of knowing where it wants to go. If it’s serious, it’s serious and if it’s funny, it’s funny. This works because Welcome to the NHK is never all over the place tonally.

Art
Welcome to the NHK has a distinct look. The characters aren’t that refined. Sometimes their noses disappear and their designs aren’t greatly detailed. There’s not really a lot to say, other than that’s it really simplistic and plain. The background characters sometimes appear as faceless. It sounds awful but you get used to it by the first episode. It has a certain charm, because it isn’t the type of animation you’d often see and the show manages to make it work.

Sound
You can’t go wrong with the English dub. I haven’t seen the subbed version but the English voice actors all did a wonderful job. Chris Patton and Greg Ayres are extremely talented voice actors who seem to embody the roles of Satou and Yamazaki, respectively. Both of them seem to have chemistry with their respective characters when interacting with one another and just really fit their animated counter parts. While Stephanie Wittels isn’t as well known as the former two, she did a wonderful job as Misaki, coming off as sweet, confident and manages to be cute without putting on a grating voice. Welcome to the NHK has a wonderful opening. Puzzle is just so catchy and upbeat. The remix used as the second opening gets rid of the trumpet which is kind of disappointing because something that small drastically changes ones opinion of the song, which makes you wonder why the show didn’t just use the first opening all the way through. The first ED sounds like a high energy nonsensical rant that’s just not that enjoyable to listen to. The second ED, was actually really nice. Slow and soft, it was just a wonderful track that closed an episode off nicely.

Characters
Satou is otaku personified. He’s obsessive, unsocial, unemployed etc. What makes him such a great character is that he has more flaws than perfections. He makes a lot of mistakes. He is someone that thinks isolation is capable of physically strengthening an individual and so decides to break a beer bottle with his hand because of his ridiculous reasoning. He connects dots that’s not there and comes up with conspiracy theories that are laughable. But he tries to better himself. He knows that he can change his lifestyle. He takes control to fix his mistakes and that’s why you love him so much. He’s funny, really weird and goofy, but he doesn’t want to be an otaku. Misaki and Yamazaki are two of the three leads and they were fun to watch. Their interactions with Satou were hysterical. Misaki’s meetings with Satou and the antics of Satou and Yamazaki was just really enjoyable. These were characters that grow on you over time because you feel like they’re just young ordinary people living their lives who also had their own personal problems and hassles to worry about. Like the story, they were down to earth. Everyone else in the story had a part to play. No one ever just showed up to fill up space. They were part of a story, and everyone seemed to have a direct or indirect influence of Satou’s life.

Enjoyment
Welcome to the NHK is very perculiar. Watching it, I noticed, I have never ever seen something like this before. Because of this it took a few episodes for me to fully enjoy it. It was funny, but laughing at the expense of Satou made me feel bad, because it gave me a glimpse of what an otaku’s life is like. It showed me the the daily lives of these individuals, how their psyche works, how they think and how they struggle. You can actually see yourself in Satou because of his flawed nature. All the characters weren’t just moving cardboards and the story was weirdly entertaining. Welcome to the NHK is smart and definitely something that you can watch more than once.

9/10

Over Drive is the very definition of “underdog”. No one expects much from it, but it manages to defy expectations and come out victorious. It’s not as popular as other sports titles like Hajime no Ippo or Eyeshield 21, but it can easily go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre. It’s a sweet, exciting, sometimes funny and highly enjoyable title that manages to entertain from the get-go right up to the very end. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story of Over Drive centres around Shinozaki, a high school student who joins a cycling club upon discovering a love for the sport ... and with a lot of encouragement from his classmate, Fukazawa. As a member he strives and trains with the founders of the club, Yousuke and Kouichi, to become the greatest cyclist in Japan. Cycling is one of those sports that’s fun to participate in, but in my opinion, really boring to actually watch. However the story portrays the sport of cycling as something epic, as something more than just as a simple sport. It starts out pretty slow but gradually picks up the pace. There’s only one race in Over Drive and even though it’s long, Over Drive never lets up. Though there are no acts of violence in the show, the racing feels like an intense adrenaline fuelled battle between all the cyclists racing for the finish line.

Art
The art of Over Drive is fantastic. The character designs are drawn really well and realistically. The grassy and bright backgrounds look beautiful, complimenting the light nature of the show. The bikes look great and quite realistic with a lot of detail put into it, from the wheels to the chains to the handlebars, it all looks wonderful. There are quite a few models on display here and they look really great. Like a lot of comedies, Over Drive tends to go for the slapstick approach and gives the characters moments of exaggerated facial features and pretty silly expressions, but this doesn’t happen too often.

Sound
Over Drive has a great soundtrack. The opening is pretty upbeat and catchy. The second ED “Koi Suzumi” is one of my all time favourites. It’s really mellow and was a nice change of pace after the rush you get from watching the show. The voice acting was phenomenal. Everyone played their parts perfectly. Yuki Kaji did an excellent job portraying Shinozaki, making him someone that’s sympathetic instead of some whiny kid who you just want to slap.

Characters
Shinozaki is an incredible lead. He starts out as someone that’s picked on frequently with no self-confidence and who can’t ride a bike that evolves into someone that’s passionate and courageous who you want to root for throughout the entire show. All the other side characters were entertaining to watch. They were goofy, serious, caring and sometimes menacing. You manage to learn a lot about them through their thoughts as they race, about their past and their ambitions.

Enjoyment
Over Drive is one of my favourite anime titles. It had a few moments of drama that were unintentionally funny, however this actually added to my enjoyment of the show. Over Drive managed to make cycling exciting to watch. It’s a slow start but after a few episodes, the show becomes a snowball that just keeps on rolling. With a simple yet very enjoyable story, beautiful art, a wonderful soundtrack and a cast of likeable characters, Over Drive manages to come out on top at the finish line.

9/10

This won’t be an in depth review because everyone knows about Dragon Ball and its influence and there are already numerous reviews written about it. This will just give you an idea of whether you should watch it or not, for those who haven’t yet.

Dragon Ball undeservedly doesn’t receive the same attention as its more popular sequel. The Dragon Ball series does receive a lot of flack for being really repetitive and for its unnecessarily long fight sequences but it’s really unfair to compare the franchise to what the shonen genre has become today. Because of this people tend to overlook Dragon Ball.

Story
Dragon Ball ... is divided into multiple story arcs, some longer than others, which are hilariously funny and manage to entertain with fantastic battles. Dragon Ball is gut bustingly hilarious, and it might surprise people how sexual the jokes are and how comfortable Goku is naked but the gags never got stale. The fights were always entertaining and well thought out. It was never just a case of running in, attacking and (if a foe was just too great) tapping into a hidden power. Although the first two thirds of the show are quite funny, the tone grows a lot more serious starting with the last third, a lot like the tone throughout Dragon Ball Z.

Characters
Goku might come off as one dimensional since he was one of the first traditional shonen hero archetypes, but the more you watch the show, you’ll realise he isn’t just some stupid and strong fighter. The rest of the cast move the plot along pretty well with some of them playing major roles, which is a shame really because in the sequels they basically serve no meaningful purpose, not in the story or with the fighting.

Art
The animation is dated, but one does get used to it rather quickly. Sometimes the same animated shots are reused but this doesn’t detract from the enjoyment. Characters designs are also exaggerated for comedic slapstick purposes that manage to gain quite a few chuckles.

Sound
I saw the dubbed version and all the voice actors fit their roles well, especially Barbara Goodson as Goku and Mike McFarland as Master Roshi. The English OP was really catchy (some may disagree) but the ED was forgettable. The Japanese songs scattered throughout the series were not too shabby but were usually drowned out by the chatter of the characters.

Enjoyment
A classic that will forever be in the shadow of its sequel that manages to be fun from start to finish. Despite a few hiccups in the animation, Dragon Ball is truly a remarkable and fun show to watch. It’s long, but it never stops being entertaining. If for some unexplainable reason you have yet to watch the Dragon Ball franchise, this is the perfect place to start.

10/10

I’m still a relative newbie to anime, but so far, slice of life has been pretty good to me. Polar Bear Café manages to continue this trend. It’s a pretty silly and stupid show. It may not be gut bustingly hilarious (I’ll explain why), but it’s still very entertaining. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story of Polar Bear Café is really simple as it just follows the daily escapades of a café run by a Polar Bear’s regulars. There is no overarching plot and the stories are broken up into two 12-minute segments like a lot of western animated shows. This ... show is clean. No toilet humour, no lowbrow humour, no sexual innuendo. The humour comes from the terrible puns Polar Bear gives in every episode, the goofy situations characters find themselves in, some slapstick and their banter and conversation. Comedy is incredibly subjective so someone might find this hilarious while somebody else might only chuckle in between certain scenes. I found the comedy to be very hit-and-miss. When the humour works, it’s hilarious, but a lot of times the jokes fall flat. It gets repetitive. There are only so many times you can take intentionally bad puns. However the individual episodic stories are varied so if you didn’t like the first half, you’ll probably end up liking the second.

Art
I have to say the art looks fantastic. It’s really bright and fits the silliness of the show, like something out of a children’s book. The majority of the cast consists of animals and they’re drawn perfectly, resembling their real-life counterparts. The humans in the show look pretty plain. It seems more detail was put into the design of the animals than the people. Expect greatly exaggerated actions and facial features that provide for a lot of the slapstick.

Sound
The seiyuus of Polar Bear Café do a great job with the characters. I always thought that a Panda would sound like he does in this show if he could actually speak. I love the first OP. It’s catchy and upbeat and I listen to it every time. The ED’s change more times that I can count but there hasn’t been any that I particularly liked and I usually skip them. I watched the second and third OP’s and they’re catchy and fit the show, but it wasn’t up to the standard of the first.

Characters
The characters of Polar Bear Café are probably the anime’s standout and saviour. They’re funny, stupid, likeable and all have great chemistry. The way the regulars interact in the café seems like genuine conversation that friends have every day. The three leads are by far the best of the bunch. You have the oblivious Panda, the deadpan Polar Bear and the irritable and love sick Mr. Penguin. They play off each other well and their personality clashes always manage to put a smile on my face.

Enjoyment
Like I mentioned, the show is very hit-and-miss. The clean humour can get repetitive and lacks bite, but the individual sitcom-like stories and the three leads always manage to be entertaining. I don’t think I would have enjoyed this show so much if Panda, Mr. Penguin and Polar Bear weren’t in it.

It’s very silly and goofy and not something I would recommend watching as a marathon, but if you give it a chance it might end up as something you’ll love.

7/10

My personal opinion is that a lot of people find slice of life/school comedies very unappealing because the entire setup of teenage angst and relationship problems set within an educational environment seems unoriginal and really really boring. I think that the lack of explosions is what turns off most people from watching slice of life anime. I’m not against slice of life, in fact I’ve seen an anime or two that surprised me and had me more excited than some of the action packed blood and boob filled shows I’ve seen in the past.

There has to be some kind of hook to get the ... viewer watching from start to finish, because honestly who would want to watch someone argue about school and love triangles with family and friends for 13 episodes? Kokoro Connect has that as well a well executed story and fine art. It’s a good show, not great, but good. This is my review.

MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW

Story
The story concerns a group of five buddies in a Cultural Research School club who experience body switching and a few other supernatural dilemmas which I won’t spoil for you controlled by a soul called Heart Seed to complicate and test their friendship. This is definitely Kokoro’s strongest point. The hook that I mentioned before is that the fantasy aspect of the show is approached with a lot of realism. If you take out the fantasy it would be an ordinary school comedy/drama. But that’s what makes it so fun to watch. It’s so different from your usual high school dramedies but has enough typical aspects to prevent the show from straying too far from the genre. The execution is perfect. It also deals with themes of love, sexual angst, spousal abuse, abandonment and androphobia which are all handled with a lot of maturity.

Art
The animation of the show is really simple with lots of bright colours. Character designs are exaggerated for comedic slapstick purposes however this isn’t done too often. Characters don’t look too similar and the backgrounds range from blurry to detailed (I loved the wrestling references in the background).The school desk, chairs and clothing are all clear and colourful but the trees and wall posters appear as blurry spots of paint which bothered me a bit but this style actually began to grow on me. Oh yeah, ever notice how high school students look a lot older than they actually are?

Characters
This is the Kokoro’s weakest point. That sounds a bit harsh because this part of the show wasn’t that bad. I’ll rather say it’s the Kokoro’s least strongest point. All five characters are likable, strong and care for each other deeply, but I feel that three of the five characters were more developed than the other two. I think trying to fully develop characters can be tricky especially if it’s a group of quite a few like in Kokoro Connect and just within 13 episodes. The other thing that also bothered me was that halfway through the story after a certain event, they began to feel extremely sorry for themselves and this lasted for quite a while. I know this was done for character development and may not bother people so much because it’s not really a major problem but it reached a point where I just wanted to punch the characters for all that sulking and sinking into self pity. In the end I still cared for and liked them but if their slumps didn’t last so long it wouldn’t have bothered me so much and wouldn’t have made the story feel so repetitive.

Sound
I’ve never seen an ED change so much with a 13 episode anime. All the songs were alright but forgettable. They’re definitely not worth writing about but all of them were pretty upbeat pop songs. I saw the dubbed version of Kokoro and the voice acting wasn’t that bad. I’ve loved Greg Ayres ever since I heard him in “Welcome to the NHK”. Here his talents are on full display as he is the lead for once and not just a supporting character (I know it’s an ensemble cast but it definitely feels like he’s the lead and has the most pivotal character.) His voice just screams adolescence which is a perfect fit for Taichi (who happens to be a wrestling fan). Everyone else wasn’t bad, I love how English voice actresses keep cute girly characters from being annoying. Not fantastic voice acting but far good enough to keep it from being terrible with the exception of Mr Ayres who obviously was the best of the bunch.

Enjoyment
All in all this was a good watch, it had an original mature story bringing something else to the slice of life/school dramedy genre and bright and bubbly art. The music and voice acting (with the exception of Greg Ayres, God I love this guy) weren’t great but also not bad. I’d recommend this as something to watch on a rainy day or if you’re looking for an interesting fantasy story with a couple of laughs and some tear jerking moments.

7/10