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I'm debating whether to recommend this to fans of Town of Salem or the other variations of the game, which is what Jinrou Game is. The situation are ten characters face is the life and death game of deceit.

For brief explanation ten high school students are kidnapped by a mystery man and forced to compete in the 'Werewolf Game', where 7 villagers and a prophet must seek out two werewolves. Each day at 8PM the 'Town' votes for one of their own to be executed as they seek out the werewolves. At night the werewolves can kill one villager, while the prophet can spy ... on a single room. Should both werewolves be executed the villagers will be free to leave, however if the werewolves can kill all villagers they will be released.

I suppose this brings us onto characterisation where it's important to remember these are meant to be Japanese high schoolers. Now I've never been on the verge of death other than when I slip on the stairs but I find the reactions of most characters to their situation most unlikely. In the first moments of the manga one of the characters is killed by the 'gamemaster' for refusing to take part in quite a gory fashion. The initial reaction from everyone is shock and disgust, but leading to eventual grounding in reality of their situation. Everyone maintains the attitude that 'this is wrong', but not for long. It is clear that they will be killed by either the gamemaster, a werewolf or each other and so their survival instincts kick in. I'm no psychologist but I doubt the composure of those in the game would remain constant. But that wouldn't make for a very interesting horror manga will it?

Our main character, Airi Nishina, isn't the smartest but she has the strongest morals in a way. She is hesitant to partake in the game and in the first vote nearly dies to the gamemaster for not voting. The remaining characters do what they can to convince the others of what role they have but in general it does boil down to "I'm not the werewolf, they're the werewolf!".

That doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. While your mileage my vary, I sprinted through this manga in two days quite drawn into its tension. While some may think I'm praising it too highly, it's one of those mangas that make me want to learn Japanese just so I can continue reading without relying on translators. It's quite short so I'd personally recommend reading it in a day or so if you did plan on picking it up. Although just like I mentioned, finding its sequel in completion isn't very simple.

As for art, it's standard, nothing amazing but not terrible. Full disclaimer, I'm partial to the main character's design. As for the gore in it, there isn't actually that much despite the emphasis on the characters carrying out executions and murders themselves. The strongest comes from the first death I mentioned earlier.

In short: Pretty average psychological manga with gore splattered in between. It's not for everyone but it's worth giving a chance.

Then again my taste has been called shit so who cares what I think?

Continuing I finish those last 11 episodes of the winter season: Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut.

Story: I won't hate it completely because it was a few months between me watching episode 1 and 2. I had no clue what was going on. I had no clue what the bad guy was trying to do. Kill Lux? Destroy the world? Take over the country? I've never read the LNs but apparently a lot of content was skipped. The story was poorly explained.

Character: This show is a harem so 95% of the characters will be female. I hate none of them. In fact they are all wonderful. ...
Stereotypical god MC who every girl loves: Lux
Tsundere: Liseharte
Childhood friend: Philphie
Best girl: Krulcifer
Large breasts and second best girl: Celestia
Ass and only 3 episodes: Yoruka
Sister: Airi
And because it's a girls only school: Attractive Girls
They are generic but so wonderful at the same time. The only problem is the show is 12 episodes long and the main girl, Liseharte, barely gets screentime.

Art and Sound: At first the I didn't enjoy the OP but it did grow on me over time. The ED is so happy. It's really upbeat. Soundtrack not really worth noting other than one song.
Voice acting was good.
The CGI for the Drag-Rides appeared good. I don't watch much shows with CGI so I can't really judge. It didn't appear out of place.

Enjoyment: Yes. I did enjoy this. You don't need to think super hard to watch it. Not every show needs to be an Evangelion. I enjoy ecchi and I enjoy harems so I will enjoy this show. If you enjoy those watch this. If you don't avoid it.

Overall: Saijaku is not terrible nor is it the best thing to air in the winter. If you don't enjoy harems just avoid it.

So on last nights episode of Keeping Up With the Winter Season: Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu.

Short review: Have you watched Saekano? If no you can watch this. It makes it look better. If yes skip this. It's worse than Saekano.

Even shorter review: It's not as good as Saekano.

You may have noticed I just compared the show to Saekano. Which I did.

Story: A group of highschool kids want to develop a visual novel. Saekano also did that. This time around the character that wants to develop the game is a girl that is also a closet otaku. Convenient. As you know she recruits others and ... they begin to work on the game. The huge problem will this story is it's forced drama. What causes this forced drama? Well.

Characters: I love red heads, which large breats, and glasses. I can't like this one. She is just far to generic. Much like the rest of the generics. The stereotypes include the: loli; large breasted female; attractive female otaku; childhood friend and the harem leader. The characters are boring compared to those in Saekano. They are irritating in short. The large breasted female and childhood friend put their own selfish needs before the group and delay the project. They aren't completely terrible, just boring really.

Art and sound: I enjoyed the Op, it was nice. I did like the Ed. Art is average and expected. I haven't watched any of the studios other works so I can't compare. Sometimes it's bad and sometimes it can be gorgeous (That stop light though, damn.)
The voice acting was actually very good. I've been told the voice actress have wasted their talent on this project though.

Enjoyment: Although I have to agree the show is no Evangelion, I still enjoyed it. I'm that type of guy that pisses reddit off by saying I enjoyed a show they think is the tool of Satan.

Overall: It really comes down to if you've watched Saekano. It's more of the same, but worse. The show isn't terrible but you can still find enjoyment.

So about 10 hours ago I finished Schwarzesmarken.
Although it's not the best show of the season, it's the one I enjoyed the most. Surprising considering it goes up against KonoSuba.

Oh and don't stop watching straight after the credits end, there is always an after credits scene which is important to the story.

Historical Authenticity: I'm not allowed to use the word "accuracy" because there were no aliens in Germany. German text appears in place of Japanese when written down and from what I can tell it's very accurate. Ignore that Schwarzesmarken is grammatically incorrect. There is a reason behind that. The end ... card reads "Fortsetzung folgt" which translates to Episode follows (or To be continued as Crunchyroll prefers.)
Overall from what I had seen the show remains faithful to East Germany, http://i.imgur.com/5E9KJU3.png?1. Aside from changing their plug sockets.

Story: As you know, 1980s East Germany. Poland has fallen leaving them the last barrier to western Europe. They had me caught at 1980s East Germany. I am interested in Cold War history and what is basically fascist rule. I always love the idea of secret police, such as the Stasi. Which is great because who appears in the show? That's right, the Staatssicherheit (German for State Security). I've never watched or played Muv-Luv but I am told politics plays a large role in them as it does in Schwarzesmarken. Remember the aliens attacked humanity? Yeah, they aren't the enemy. The Stasi are. From what I can tell that is the message of the show. The humans are your enemy. It's pretty thrilling. If I was to go any further I would be spoiling the show. Honestly you just need to watch it.

Art and Sound: I've been told the CGI in this show isn't as good as others but it's good enough to look at. It works as well considering the BETA are aliens are shouldn't look like anything on the Earth. As for character designs they are decent enough. As usual in anime the Asian one doesn't look Asian, but she is wonderful anyway. Same with the Polish one. There were two German stereotype girls and Irisdina's hair was pretty to look at. Katia wears too much eye liner.
As for sound I've been listening to the Ed song, Kanashimi ga Jidai wo Kakeru, while I write the review. It's peaceful. The Op song white forces gets you excited to watch the show and it was well implemented in the final episode. Voice acting was good and I don't think the actors and actresses messed up German pronunciation. There was a stand out song that played in episode 11 which was very epic for the situation. I'll find it hopefully.
Other than that I can't think of any stand out songs. Maybe I'll find them when I do a rewatch, hopefully that rewatch will be on Blu Ray.


Character: We needed two courses/24 episodes. Although I liked the characters as much as I could I still couldn't get attached to all of them.
Irisdina does have a prequel novel that I don't think has been translated by anyone yet but the show does manage to get you understand her views.
Theodore Eberbach is our harem leader, except the show never feels like a harem. If you watch the show you will see how the characters interact with each other.
Katia wears too much eye liner.
As for the other members of Schwarzesmarken they are good characters and as I said, you will need to watch the show to understand how they interact.

Enjoyment: I was "excited" to watch Schwarzesmarken every week. Just like how the people who watched One Punch Man felt.
As a person that likes politics and "history" this show was great for me. It was always tense and after episode 1 it showed how dark and deadly the show can be.
I enjoyed it so much I want to read the Light Novel and play the Visual novel.
What's that? It's on Steam Greenlight: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651346103
Go vote for it if you want more from the Schwarzesmarken Kompanie.
They will take that as interest for a second visual novel and a translation for the Light Novel.

Overall: After opening the Steam link and listening to the opening for it I am feeling pretty good. The show has interesting themes and characters. It's a must watch for those that like political drama and the Muv-Luv universe.

In short you should watch it. It was wonderful.

"Der Weg geht weiter..."

Deutsche Demokratische Republik 666th TSF Kompanie, Schwarzesmarken.

Aufweidersen.

So my previous review for this was in short, shit.

Time to give it an actual review after rewatching the show.

Note: I will have * with a number placed inside which mean there will be some text at the very bottom that contains spoilers. So if you don't mind the spoilers you should check that.

Story: Deathnote is about the best character of all time, Light Yagami. He finds a notebook and inside, it states "The human whose name is written in this note shall die."
Deathnote is one of a kind really. Very few stories I have seen come close to it, not even FMA: ... Brotherhood. It has great pacing thanks to the 37 episodes giving it the chance to be a true adaptation of the manga. Nothing feels rushed. Originally I had read a bit of the first manga volume and had the ending spoiled by my friends. This did not ruin anything. The story has great build up in every moment to that final point. The writing of it is superb and the concept is amazing.
The show has lots of exactly as planned moments.*1
Ending thoughts*2

Art: Art is done by Madhouse who have made quite a few anime. The show looks good for 2006 and looks like the manga.
I would like to give special mention to the Second Ending which contains the best animation Madhouse have ever made.
It's top quality in short.

Sound: I am one of those people who prefers the dub of this to the sub. It feels more natural to the characters appearances.
As for music Nightmare provide the first Op and Ed which are wonderful to listen to.
The second Op and Ed is made by Maximum the Hormone. The second Op is a mystery to me. As for the second Ed it is beyond perfect.*3
As for soundtrack music there are quite a few repeats but these are mainly L's and Light's themes.

Character: Light Yagami is the perfect model student. As the world’s greatest serial killer known as Kira.
L is the mysterious detective hell-bent on arresting Kira.
The character development is excellent. You start to understand Light's thoughts. You will start to support him or root for his downfall.*4
You go inside of both L and Light's thoughts as they think their plans through. *1

Enjoyment: Despite having the ending spoiled for me I didn't see what happened/how it happened. The build up to the point was what was important.
*1
*2
If you had this show spoiled or not it will not affect your enjoyment.

Overall: Deathnote is my favourite anime and I doubt that will change. It changed something inside of me yet I don't know what. My life felt empty when I finished it.*2
Deathnote is a near perfect anime with stellar art, sound and story. It is one that will go down as a great with the likes of Neon Genesis, FMA and Code Geass.
Overall I would give Deathnote a 10/10. I would recommend it as a person’s first anime.

For legal streaming you go can go to Netflix for the UK. I can not confirm but I believe you can stream it on Hulu for the US.
Alternatively you could buy the DVD or the Blu Ray that is been released (I believe). In addition I would recommend getting the Death Note Manga which can be bought in volumes of 1 or Death Note Black Edition which includes 2 volumes totalling 6 books for £10 each.




Anything on from this point will contain spoilers for the show and my personal thoughts and feelings of the show.


______________________________________________________________

*1 Exactly as planned: These moments occur quite a bit. The most memorable being Just According to Keikaku. This is when Light has regained the Deathnote and tricked L into thinking he is innocent. During this point character development takes place between L and Light.
Before this happens Light does not explain his plan other than that he wants to get rid of the Notebook. He then flashes back and explains how he will prove his innocence.
The main one is the ending showdown. In short Light tried to trick Near into thinking Mikami had the real notebook but it was actually a fake. He explains this in the final episode after proclaiming "looks like I win." It was working until Mikami made a fatal error in revealing the location of the real notebook.
There are other plans in the show as well.

*3 Ending 2 "Symbolism": I have interpreted the 2nd Ed as Light's rise to being a God with the literal Stairway to Heaven. The elevator scene has great build-up and shows his rise to the heavens as God of the new world. But only for him to fall to the ground.
Side note: The flipping of the notebook, writing the name and seeing Light in the watch is beyond amazing.

*4 Kira: Kira is the "mass murderer" in Deathnote. His real name is Light Yagami. My normal thoughts on him would be that I would disagree with him because I don't think we should have a death penalty. But I didn't. I supported for Light because I realised this is the only way to clean the world.

*2 The End of Kira: So the ending happened. I watched it just last night. Yes as the title says, The End of Kira, his downfall, his death.
Well firstly I should say the only change I can recall from the manga to anime is the ending being changed slightly.
In the manga Light gets shot and begs Ryuk to write the SPK and Taskforce's names down. (Just got the book at so I can quote it.) So yes. Light gets shot and is now crawling on the floor away from Taskforce. He is begging Misa, Mikami and Takada to write their names down. He eventually reaches the feet of Ryuk where he says "Sure... I'll write it." And then reveals he was talking about Light. Here Light insanely shouts "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"and has a flashback to when he first met Ryuk. Subsequently Light dies of a heart attack 40 seconds later.
This is different to the Anime ending which you should have seen. Light peaces out and dies on some stairs.
When I first watched I will admit I felt sick. It was a pathetic end for an amazing character. I assume you would have been disappointed if you didn't know beforehand. But was this foreshadowed? Ryuk told Light he would write his name in the Deathnote.
Although I prefer the manga ending this one was complete and well done.
The performance by Brad Swaile in this episode was excellent.

Deathnote is a masterpiece. Nothing will come close for a long time.