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Sword Art Online. It’s interesting to see how much this series have divided the anime community. Some hated the first season, others proclaim that is was the greatest thing ever. Many had mixed views. So when the second season was announced people had to see if it was going to flop in a similar way that the first season did. I for one was pleasantly surprised

STORY:
To clarify you have to watch season one of SAO to understand anything that is happening in this season. We have a new VR game called Gun Gale Online or GGO. In this world there is a player by the ... name of Death Gun going around and shooting players in the game, but after he shoots them they die in the real world. Kirito is called into help solve the murders as he has experience dealing with this kind of thing in SAO. He meets a highly skilled player named Shino and she gets to tag along to help solve this mystery.
Personally this arc of the story (Phantom Bullet) is very well done. It has a sprinkle of conspiracy and mystery too it that really freshend up the series to me. While it may be a little far-fetched it remains in a reasonable realm of possibility that it didn’t become a big distraction. There weren’t any times during this arch were I thought, “Wow this is so unrealistic and stupid” I was more wondering “Why is this happening and how is it happening.” Can’t believe I am saying this but it reminded me a little bit of Death Note in a way.
The second arc is about trying to get a legendary sword and honestly it is not worth talking about as it is mostly a filler arc that felt a lot more “game like” and was not entirely interesting to me.
The third arc however… wow. To me the third arc of this season was one of the most touching moments I have experienced in my short anime watching experience. In this arc Kirito passes the protagonist torch to Asuna and it was a much appreciated change. We are back in ALO and there is a player named Yuuki who is trying to find a strong player to fight. Asuna ends up helping a guild called The Sleeping Knights, their quest is to defeat a floor boss and get their names inscribed on a monument to be displayed forever. Asuna also has to deal with her mother who is disproving of her school and of Kirito. The rest of my analysis will be spoilers.

[THIS SECTION CONTAINS MAJOR SPOLIERS MOVE ON IF YOU HAVEN’T WACTHED]
As it turns out Yuuki is terminally ill and plays VR MMOs as a way to interact with a world and feel important. The rest of the guild has similar problems as well hence the name, Sleeping Knights. Yuuki has been in a dive for over 3 years. To me this arc is very touching. Many people have health problems or social problems and use video games as an outlet. This part of the story feels extremely realistic to me and relatable. Yuuki and her friends want to leave a mark on the world, something that people will remember about them and this is their way to do it. Phantom Bullet arc also touches on games as a coping mechanism as Shino uses GGO as a way to get over her fears of handguns. I felt that these themes made this show much better than it’s prequel.

CHARACTERS
Kirito is relatively the same as before. He is prevalent in the GGO arc but becomes a side character in the later arcs. Asuna gets some good development, I enjoyed the tension between her and her mother. That felt real and semi-relatable. Shino is an interesting character. She gets plenty of screen time in the GGO arc and her backstory while somewhat far-fetched really helps explain her personality and actions. Yuuki while having a late appearance in the show makes a great impact and is honestly the most realistic character in the entire show.

ART/ANIMATION:
Little has changed in the animation department from last season and it still holds up very well. GGO looks good and the fight scenes we very good. The art style is still good looking and holds up to some of the recent releases. No complaints in this area, see my review of season one for a larger dive into the art and animation.
SOUND:
I skipped the OP most of the time, not this it was bad but it just wasn’t really my thing. I really enjoyed the ED of this series. Insert songs were good but we repetitive especially in ALO arcs but they are great sounding. I was impressed at the action sounds in the fight scenes and the detail that they went into with making different sounds for eat sword clash and steps even to the moving of armor. I watched this show dubbed and it was very well done. The cast of the first season reprise their roles here. I do believe that Bryce Papenbrook is becoming the new JYB as he is getting typecasted as every young angry teenage hero (which covers 90% of all action anime but I digress)

ENDING/CLOSURE:
To me the ending is paramount as I like closure in the shows that I watch. This ended with a short of “guess what I found something” If the story ended there I would be ranting right now however the story has a movie that was announced that will take place after this season so that makes this section irrelevant.

CONCLUSION:
I enjoyed this season greatly, while I had many complaints about the first season this season made up for a lot of those gripes by continuing with great action and giving us a story that seems realistic and characters who are more relatable and just better written than in the first season. This show was good, and I recommend to continue watching this series.

How does one review an entity such as Attack on Titan? It has gathered a massive following had has taken the anime community by storm. Anyone who calls themselves an anime fan has undoubtedly heard of the show and even those who aren't anime fans probably have seen some kind of merchandise floating around wore by someone... someone like me who has a Attack on Titan backpack. But just because something is popular doesn't make it good.

PLOT: So humans are now no longer at the top of the food chain and were nearly wiped out 100 years ago of 1000ish years ago (they never ... really explained what time period it it) so humanity is forced to lived behind massive walls to protect themselves from the Titans, these massive naked human looking monsters that eat humans. We start of to see a young trio of children going about their daily life and thinking about what all kids think of, what life is like outside the walls. More frolicking about happens and sudden a massive titan appears and breaks down the wall. Dozens of Titans invaded kill people and we get treated to one of the most emotionally gripping scenes I've every seen in a show.

So now our main protagonist Eren and his buddies Armin and Mikasa enlist in the army and go on their journey to kill all titans. This sounds bland but the story is going at a lightning pace that things change very fast and you can expect a twist and turn all throughout the show that it will keep you on your seats begging for more, or for my case, marathoning 10 episodes in a row. The story breaks the mold of generic revenge story and adds things like conspiracy and thriller aspects that propels the experience. However there are some points in the show were you can so glaringly seen them going all like "This person is TOTALLY normal wink wink" and the foreshadowing alarms go off, but that never distracted from the overall presentation of the story. Also there is lots of action and fighting stuff which I'll get too later...

CHARACTERS:
Our main hero/protagonist is Eren Yeager, a young solider who enlist because he watched his mother get eaten by a titan and wants revenge. He is hot blooded and won't take no for an answer. There's Mikasa who is Eren's stalker/adopted sister/baddass. Then there is Armin who is there to cry, get in the way and make plans for battle situations. Eren is too me at least in the beginning kind of a bland generic character. I've seen these kind of super angry main leads before and most of them aren't interesting. Eren evolves just enough to keep him from being bland. Mikasa is a character that I think is a bit overrated. Before going into this show I read everywhere how Mikasa is the best character ever created and I just don't see it. OK sure is ridiculously talented in combat. OK she isn't a generic tsundere. What stands out to me is here wanting to protect Eren which makes for a lot of speculation as too what their relationship actually is, but Eren is more or less an ass to Mikasa in those situations even though Eren does care for her just not in the same way she does. I'm am really glad that the writers didn't make these two characters love birds as that shtick has been used over and over and over. Armin is the only main character that seems to have a working brain as he doesn't go on titan murdering rampages. He is also practically useless in combat. He comes up with ridiculously complicated battle strategies that seem too always go as planned or at least achieve the objective even after a major fault happens that ends up killing half the squad. Yes this show has the Tomino "kill em all" approach to characters. Everyone in this show you like will probably die, that sounds like a spoiler but its not. I had to start telling myself not to like characters because I feared that they would get eaten five minutes later. Having characters that don't have plot armor makes the show fell more action packed that it already is.... and it is. The interaction between the characters is good and a shout-out to Levi.

ART/ANIMATION:
Well... My word who is funding these people the Brooklyn Nets? The budget for this show must be endless as I never recall a time when this show didn't look like pure awesome. The animation for this show is simply outstanding, the actions scenes are breathtaking, and when they used the 3D movement gear my God does it look stunning. The art style is rather unique too with thick black borders around the characters and the Titans (some of them) look very disturbing. The scenery is gorgeous and those action scenes.... just so good.

SOUND:
THAT OPENING!!! Yea the first opening for this show is amazing. So is the second one. So is the fight music, and so is the dub and yes I said DUB. DUB! I can already see people moving their mouse to "Not helpful" before going onto the next review but the dub for this show was done by Funimation and such is of the up most quality. Bryce Papenbrook is great as Eren because no one can scream like him, Trina Nishimura fits Mikasa almost freakishly well and Josh Grelle does a great job making Armin sound like a wimp because that's exactly what he is. Oh and Matthew Mercer is just silky smooth as Levi. Great job Funimation for getting a good cast.

ENDING (NO SPOILERS)
The ending is paramount. This story is incomplete but there is a second season coming sometime soon so that makes this section pointless, if it were too end right now it wound be terrible but it doesn't so yea.

OVERALL:
Attack on Titan has been the only show that has made me impatient enough to go out and read ahead in the manga. This first season was extremely well done and the series as a whole has tremendous potential to be something very special indeed. I give this a strong recommendation too anyone that likes a good story driven high action series. Attack on Titan is a great watch.

The Gundam franchise... to some people it seems like something that is more of an exclusive club for hardcore mecha fans. A sort of V.I.P only place, where everything is sort of connected to each other in some way. I can see how that is perceived... they have their own Wiki site that is rather extensive in the Gundam Lore. Here's the thing though, you don't have to know anything about Gundam to enjoy Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
*Note- This review will only focus on the first season of Gundam 00 as their are two seasons, I have decided that I will not review them ... together as one entity due to reasons I'll explain later.

STORY:
Our story focus around Celestial Being, an organization with the mighty and noble goal of eliminating all war from the world. The plan to do this with the use of Gundams of which they have four of. They go around the world to areas of conflict, military bases, and other places to do armed interventions... which means they go blow stuff up. What I love about the story is that the issues that are going on in this part of the future are also very relevant to current event issues. It's also a not super advanced future that I just got lost in all the technology (for the most part) The thing about the story is that it's very hard to tell who exactly is in the right. Is Celestial Being doing the right thing? It's a question that is often asked by the characters in the story and speaking of....

CHARACTERS:
The characters are what really set this show apart. Our main protagonist is Setsuna F. Seiei, a young Gundam Meister who works for Celestial Being. He can very much be labeled as the stereotypical quiet, blunt and extremely talented character, but the way he evolves throughout season makes him so much more real. Setsuna is rather naive in his thinking in regards to his armed interventions, but he is one of the main people in the series that asks the tough questions. What makes that even better is the questions he asks are actually very realistic, they aren't extremely philosophical they're just meaningful. The other mains are the three remaining Gundam Meisters. Tieria Erde is by far the most intelligent of all of them and you can definitely tell. He speaks with major certainty and confidence, but that makes it hard for him to get along with some of the other Gundam meisters. Then there is Allelujah Haptism. Yes his name has some symbolic meaning but that's not important currently. What is important is he gets so major development as well, but it was done over short little bursts. He usually is calm and collective but his past affects many of his decisions, and he sometimes goes nuts during combat as it going on a rampage. Last of the mains is Lockon Stratos. He is the sort of older brother of the group. He is the unofficial leader of the Gundam meisters. He is always calm and in control, very rarely does he act up and get enraged. Lockon to me is also the only one that keeps the Gundam meisters from killing each other. The supporting cast is rather extensive so I'll only mention a few. First is the Ms. Sumeragi who is the tactical forecaster for Celestial Being. She takes charge of all the operation planning and making sure they run smoothly. There is also Felt, a young crew member of Celestial Beings main ship Ptolemaios. She's rather shy and she keeps track of the Gundam meisters during combat, most of her development comes in season two. Lastly Marinia Ismail, the first princess of Azadistan. Her country is being hurt by solar power making oil less valuable. Marinia seeks aid of foreign countries which leads to Celestial Beings interventions. Her and Setsuna have many things in common and they seem to share a common goal as both are from the middle east. As you can tell the characters are extensive and well thought out. The interactions between them, and how they all connect to the main story are what make this show so great

ANIMATION:
My lord this show looks amazing!! The animation quality for this show is outstanding. Never once did I see any hiccups in animation. It was silky smooth and super crisp. Never is this more prevalent than in the many action scenes this show has. The mobile suit battles are something to behold. The design of the Gundams are also very good I especially love the design of Exia (Setsuna's Gundam) The mobile suits of the varying alliances are also rather fitting for the area that they are in. Character designs are also very much to my liking.

SOUND:
The openings for Gundam 00 are very nice indeed. The soundtrack is very good at getting you engaged in the story and enveloped in the battles. The dub for this show is outstanding. I know I praise him a lot but he deserves it, Brad Swaile does an excellent job as Setsuna, giving him a very real feeling to me. Samuel Vincent does a perfect job as Tieria, Richard Ian Cox does great as Allelujah especially when he gets angry. Then there's Alex Zahara as Lockon.... his voice is like butter to my ears, just silky smooth, I could listen to him all day. His calm relaxing voice is just so great to hear. The supporting cast also was voice acted very well. On the Japanese side I notice that Mamoru Miyano is there so yea, go nuts he's good. I didn't watch it subbed because the dub is so excellent and I recommend watching this show dubbed.

ENDING (No spoilers):
I always talk about this and if you've read my reviews you know where this could be heading. This is the first season of a seasons (plus movie) show. What kinda odd is that this show probably could've ended after this one season. It may have left many questions for me and probably made me angry that there isn't more, it would also lose several points for leaving a few plot holes (which get filled in season 2) but it could've been moderately acceptable, lucky for us there are two seasons to this whole section could actually be disregarded.

I don't want to say that this show has something for everyone but it kinda does. If you love characters Gundam 00 has them. If you love action, it has it. If you love a great story, it has that. If you love romance.... well Gundam 00 doesn't actually have anything really major of that. Needless to say, Gundam 00 is an amazing show. I loved this show to death! If i ever buy a boat with jet skis, I'm naming them after some of the Gundams from this show. I named my fantasy football team Celestial Being... this show (season 1) is simply amazing. I give it my full recommendation to watch and enjoy. This has been one of my most extensive reviews and I was more than glad to do so, Gundam 00 is simmply a masterpiece to behold.

Oh Future Diary.... There comes a time every now and then when I find an anime and think to myself, "Boy this could be a really great show" But I get this little whisper in my ear telling me "IT'S A TRAP!" Usually when this happens wonder what aspect of the show will be bad. Will the characters/story/art/sound be bad or worse... does it end with plot holes that could swallow up all of the galaxy? Future Diary.... a frustrating enjoyable snack.

PLOT:
The story revolves around a life or death survival game in which the god of the universe Deus Ex Machina; ok gonna stop you ... right there. If you're gonna rip off names from Greek mythology at least rip off you know a real name not a plot device that's suppose to wrap up a story. The irony of that name we'll get to later. As I was saying life or death game to see who will succeed Deus because he is dying; STOP STOP STOP. Isn't he a god? Why is a god dying that doesn't make sense. Did this seriously get through editing? No one asked the writers, "Umm hey nice ideas but why is a god who is suppose to be well a god dying?" The setup of the game is rather poor if you ask me. Anyway enough beating the horse. Life or death survival game to see who will succeed Deus Ex. There are a total of twelve participants in the game called "Diary Users" Each player is given a so called "Future Diary" that allows them to see what is going to happen in the future based on certain characteristics of the user. For example one of the Diary users is a cop so he gets future info on case information. To win the Diary User must be the last one standing I.E kill everyone else. The plot follows Yuki Amano and Yuno Gasai, two young high school kids who are trapped in this game and want to survive. Oh and by the way ROMANCE because this is anime and if there is a female and male lead you're damn right they gonna be lovers. The worst aspect of the story has to be the romance between Yuki and Yuno mainly because it isn't a romance. It's a one sided obsession. Lucky for us the writers had a good idea and didn't completely make the show about them. The show just follows them on their quest to win. The show goes in arcs usually with a new diary user of the arc coming in to be ripped to shreds by a combo of Yuki finding an interesting way to use the diary and Yuno being... well really good with an axe.

CHARACTERS:
Meet Yuki Amano a cry baby wimp who turns into wannabe Lelouch/Light ripoff 2.0. Yuki is just a quiet kid who soon discovers he can read the future and when that happens his whole life gets flipped upside down. Despite my first statement on him Yuki is actually a rather decent character. He's a bit on the bland side of "Just wanting to end the game and kill no one" but he does it an a unique until events happen that I won't mention cause spoilers. He gets some good development but I wish he became more that generic crybaby hero. Then there is the case of Yuno Gasai... a girl cloaked in mystery that is in love... and I mean IN LOVE with Yuki who also happens to be very very very very VERY good at killing people. I many be in the minority but I did not like Yuno as a character. To start they wasted the potential she had as one because the development she gets towards the end gets derailed because the writers thought that a super mind blow plot is better than characters they had been developing. One thing I do give the show credit for is having Yuki realize that Yuno is phyco... a statement that is often repeated by him throughout the show. I think they also tried too hard to make her back-story tug at your emotions. The supporting cast is rather mediocre but a stand out is Akise who comes around later and has spoilers all over the place if I try to explain why he is a good character. The thing that makes the characters good was the interaction between Yuno and Yuki. It seemed like a rather believable interaction between the two if you took out the crappy romance that was jammed in there.

ART/ANIMATION:
Mmmmm I love me some well animated action shows yes I do. The animation for Future Diary is top notch. The action sense are well do and even the regular sense have high quality animation. A note, if you don't like blood.... I would recommend not watching this show because there is a lot..... a lot... of blood. Almost to much blood for my taste but some of the sense that have Yuno smiling with blood splattered on her face just creeped me the hell out which is a good thing. The character designs are also very tasteful as well.

SOUND:
Dat opening. A very good opening song gets the adrenaline running. The music in the show always seemed to fit the mood but none of it stood out supper well but it did its job non the less. The dub for Future Diary was done by Funimation and was done very well. Josh Grelle does a wonderful job as Yuki. Something to point out, this is one of the main things that I really liked about the show was the voice acting of Yuki, I'm not exactly a fangirl of Josh but gosh dang his portrayal of Yuki made his character probably better than what it really was. Brina Palencia is the voice of Yuno and does a great job in a creepy psychotic way. She made Yuno sound so positive as she is killing people left and right. A special shout out to Kent Williams for doing an amazing job as Deus Ex... his voice is just mmmmmm.

ENDING (NO SPOILERS):
And here is where the 9 drops to a 7... Oh dear me why did you have to do this. Why are anime studios allowed to get away time after time of making great show and then RUINING it by making the ending absolute garbage? First off they try to hide the fact that the ending is so awful because they make it seem like "Oh no really everything is sunshine and rainbows" WRONG! Plot holes everywhere. I can't even begin to describe how infuriated I was by all the plot holes they just left open and said "deal with it" I tried really hard to accept the ending they gave to us but I could not accept it for what is was because of all the plot holes they just left unexplained. This kind of thing drives me up a wall and it needs to stop. To anime studios... for the love of Deus start making your shows have proper endings.

OVERALL:
Future Diary is for a fact ruined by its awful ending. However! I still enjoyed this show to an extreme amount. The character interactions were quiet good. The animation and action of the series was also quiet good and the show at least had an interesting idea behind it that never quite ended up were I would've like it but alas we can't be so lucky. I am hesitant to recommend this show because the ending is just so bad, but I do give it an recommendation to watch cause at the very least it is an entertaining watch until you start to notice all the plot holes... Future Diary.... you will be missed... because we can't find out which hole you fell into.

Ergo Proxy, it's a darker show that makes you think. Don't fall asleep for a second watching this show or you'll miss something important. Every little detail matters in some way. You know what... I LOVE THIS SHOW! I will do my best to keep my fanboy attitude towards this show aside to make for a more professional review.

STORY:
Ergo Proxy takes place in a post apocalyptic setting where mankind must live inside domed cities. They are all assisted in their everyday lives by AuroReivs which are autonomous robots. In the city of Romdo there is a virus infecting the AutoReivs that cause them to become ... aware of their own existence. It is called the Cogito Virus. Re-l Mayer is the lead investigator of the infected AutoReivs. During her investigation she encounters a monster called a Proxy. Also in Romdo, a man named Vincent Law is running about and is suspected of having a connection with the Proxy. Re-l and Vincent then though a series of events begin to travel in in the outside world searching for answers.

Sound confusing? Good you should be confused, but it is also a great setup for a story. Right off the bat you are introduced to a new world, and in that world you see problems that need to be solved. The plot starts off right from the get go which I like. It grabs your attention; however, sometimes the pacing can get slowed down, but the amount of things you are learning about the world makes it seem like the writers aren't just writing filler even though that's exactly what it is. This story is a work of art. Ergo Proxy is the example of how to setup a world and maximize the potential that is in said world. It was also depressing as hell at sometimes and made me want to sit in my room and be sad. Now I mentioned confusing at the beginning, and it's true the story can be confusing, but I never felt lost during the show which is good and there was a reason for me not being lost...

CHARACTERS:
Our main Protagonists are Re-l Mayer, a police detective/inspector and Vincent Law, an immigrant/nobody. Oh and Pino who is an AutoReiv infected with the Cogito Virus. The characters are what make this show's story less of a nightmare to understand. They ask all the questions that you want to ask. Personally I think that Re-l is by far the best character in the whole show. Her world has be turned upside-down and she has to tag along to find answers with Vincent. Vincent to be honest has a crap life, he can't remember who he is and was run out of Romdo. He is searching for who he is. The chemistry between these two is what really makes them stand out as characters. They aren't all buddy buddy like many shows. Re-l didn't trust Vincent at all at the beginning and Vincent wanted to just be around Re-l. Pino is hard to talk about without spoiling some plot but her purpose to me is making the viewer ask "What does it mean to truly be alive?"

ART:
The art is good. Nothing that just blows you out of the water but it does a very good job at bringing you into the atmosphere of the show. I loved the character designs in this show too. Their aren't very many action scenes in the show but when their are they are done very well. I have no complaints about the animation.

SOUND:
OHHH MY GOD THAT OPENING!!!! "Kiri" by Monoral is absolutly PERFECT for this shows opening! I've bought that song and no joke I listen to it every single day it is that good! I loved it. I'm also a fan of Radiohead so I liked the ending. The music during the show I actually didn't notice at all.... that's kinda bad but I also never remember the show being silent so that's good. The dub for this show is outstanding. I have no idea how Megan Hollingshead doesn't have more lead roles. She did an outstanding job as Re-l. Liam O'Brien also deserve high praise as well for his job as Vincent. At the beginning I actually thought he was Sam Riegel, but then Vincent got mad an I thought "Yep that's Liam." His angry voice is very good as is his regular voice. I actually thought that Pino was voiced by a child, but nope it was Rachel Hirschfeld... yea never heard of her but DAMN is she good! I mean seriously GIVE HER MORE ROLES!!! This dub is one of the best I have ever heard, on par with that of Death Note.

ENDING:
If you've seen my reviews you know what I do here. Does Ergo Proxy seal the deal at the end? Or does it leave massive plot holes? Nope. It ends perfectly in my opinion, I was very satisfied with the ending because it left the viewer with an idea of what the characters will do after the series, but it also makes sure to wrap everything up nicely. It ends well which is what I like to see anime do.

OVERALL:
Ergo Proxy as of December 27, 2013, is the greatest anime that I have ever watched. If you have not seen Ergo Proxy, you have to see this anime. It truly is a masterpiece, a modern classic. Ergo Proxy is a show that can not be missed no matter what your preferred genre of anime is. Ergo Proxy is one of a kind. I give it a 100% recommendation. Ergo Proxy is a work of art.

Sword Art Online, the hype surrounding SAO when it came out was through the roof. Is that completely fair for this show? Does it live up to all the hype? Well... kinda, but not in the areas that is should. Let's dive into this.

STORY:
Our story begins with the release of the brand new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online. Players are able to control their in game avatar with their bodies while wearing something called Nerve Gear. On its launch day everything seems to be running smoothly until the creator, Akihiko Kayaba, announces to everyone that they are trapped in SAO until someone clears all 100 ... floors of it. Oh and if you die in the game, you die for real. PEOPLE DIE IF THEY ARE KILLED! So the story is setup like it will be an epic action adventure quest to survive, which is a really great idea for a story. Sadly the writers didn't focus very much on this at all, instead they focus on the romance between the two main characters, which I'll get to later. The problem I have with the story is it doesn't focus on the main issue enough, the issue of you know being trapped in a comma and forced to play a life-or-death survival game! The time skips that are in SAO doesn't help the story either, the writers condensed around two years of time into the first three or so episodes. I was left wonder, what happened in that amount of time? Why can't I see that? Many questions were left unanswered until the end (also I'll get to later) In short, the story was a mess, it was promising but it failed.

CHARACTERS:
Our main protagonist is Kirito, a solo player that likes to play a Massively Multiplayer Game by himself... yea so he is the anti-social lone-wolf cardboard cutout. I didn't like him at the beginning of SAO. He just felt like another generic quietly overpowered character that we've seen about one billion times before; however, over the course of the series I grew to like him a little bit more. Mainly seeing the affects of being trapped in a video game for over two years. This little ounce of character development made him seem more real. Next we have Princess Peach, woops, I mean Asuna. She was introduced as a badass female lead who didn't take anything from anybody, but she turns into a generic tsundere, because OMG Kirito! The romance between Kirito and Asuna is so forced, and so generic I'm fairly sure that a five year old could write a better love story than this. Kirito and Asuna didn't get along all that well at the beginning, but all of a sudden they get "married" wut. The last character is Suguha who is introduced later on an gets plenty of development by which I mean she is a walking piece of fan service and is completely useless without Kirito. Every female character that Kirito runs into seems to become completely reliant on him for no good reason. The supporting cast is... kinda meh. Honestly the supporting characters didn't do a whole lot for me.

ART:
WOW, just WOW. The art and animation in Sword Art Online is something to behold. It is simply gorgeous. The world they are trapped in looks stunning and the action scenes are amazing to look at. The art and animation definitely shines its brightest when you see the epic boss battles. The character designs are also very good as well. If you the opportunity to watch this in High Definition, FREAKING DO IT! SAO looks amazing.

SOUND:
At this point I should just have to say Yuki Kajiura and that's all. The openings for SAO were great sounding and the OST was a great thing to listen too. She really is one of the best out there. The music always seemed to make everything better so thank you Yuki Kajiura for being awesome. The dub of SAO is also very well done. In the beginning I wish Todd Haberkorn was Kirito instead, but Bryce Papenbrook did a very nice job giving Kirito a shy and quiet personality, and he was also made the transition to very pissed off Kirito very smooth. I'm glad that Bryce got Kirito over Todd because well... Todd is in everything else anyway (included SAO) but also Bryce did a very good job with the screaming. Chermai Leigh did a good job as Asuna too, but there wasn't a whole lot she did that stood out as amazing.

ENDING: (No spoilers)
If you've read any of my reviews you know my opinion about endings, THERE ARE PARAMOUNT! A good show can be ruined by a bad ending, and a mediocre show can be made great by a great ending. SAO sits around the middle in that regard. The ending is very much a Deus Ex style ending, it was similar I believe to that of .hack//Sign, but at least SAO offered closure. It wasn't a bad ending just a little bit fast.

OVERALL:
To wrap it all up Sword Art Online is a great looking and great sounding show, but is let down by a messy story and characters that are hard to relate to. I do believe it gets better at the end, but I am still disappointed at the wasted potential that was left out of the story. I still recommend SAO to anyone, but don't listen to the hype about it being the best anime ever. It is an enjoyable watch.

Welcome to the NHK! is an anime about a one Satou Tatsuhiro who is a hikikomori. A young girl by the name of Misaki Nakahara selects Satou as part of a "special project" to cure Satou of being a hikkomori... hilarity ensues.

STORY: Basically my little intro thing up right about sums up what is most of the story. Young(ish) girl trying to help a shun in fix his life. Well there's more to it than that. The plot follows a kind of activity of the week setup or a two to three episode "adventure" of trying to cure Satou of his shun in life. ... It's really hard to explain the story without getting heavy into spoiler territory, but let me say this... if you are looking for a happy go lucky slice-of-life comedy with a little bit of romance, Welcome to the NHK! has all of that but the happiness. This show is quiet honestly to me, a very depressing show. It tackles a lot of the social issues that were happening in Japan back in 2006 when the show was created. Thankful there is a lot of comedy in the series that keeps it from being extremely depressing. It is an interesting story to say the least, better than the usually copy-pasted method of storytelling. Original is the word.

CHARACTERS: Oh my are these characters messed up in their own special way. The main lead Satou can be described as one lazy MF. At the start of the series we learn that he has been a hikkomori for around 4 years. He realizes that he was setup by the evil NHK. Satou learned this by talking with his refrigerator... need I say more? Misaki is the sweet little girl trying to save Satou, who is also kinda shall we say... well she doesn't have all her cups in the cupboard. Oh and then there is Yamazaki, who is probably one of the funniest characters I have ever seen. I don't even know why he just was hilarious. The cast really shines when they were all working together, and they way they interacted together made them all seem very real and life like. Which is something I like to see.

SOUND: Ugh... the opening was okay. The first ending was okay, the second ending I didn't care for. I ended up skipping both after watching each once so you can say that they aren't particularly impressing. I didn't really notice any insert tracks, but there are a few that really helped set the tone of the show... except Purin.... which still haunts me in my sleep. Trust me when you watch this anime you'll understand. I watched this show dubbed because that's how I role. Chris Patton does an amazing job as Satou and Greg Ayres does a great job of making Yamazaki sound like a, well, loser. Steohanie Wittels was unknown to me until now and I have to say that she deserves more work. She was great as Misaki, her voice is perfect for her.

ART: Typical Gonzo, half of the show is good and the other was drawn by a blind fish. I wasn't impressed even with the good parts of the art. I liked the character designs, but all to often the art and animation was just plan ugly. There was an entire episode that looked likes some three year old drew it with some coloring pencils. I will give them credit for not making all the girls eyes as big as their palms.

ENDING: I always talk about the ending because to me THE ENDING IS PARAMOUNT!!! Don't worry no spoilers. To me the ending wasn't all that bad. It was satisfying, but it seemed a bit... fast. Not forced, but just fast. I wish they made the last episode a few minutes longer, but it still did a nice job ending the show (even though there is more in the novel but don't get me started) So don't worry the show doesn't just stop it ends and it its fairly well wrapped up.

OVERALL: As you can probably tell I had a very hard time writing this review. There was a lot I wanted to talk about but it was all just spoilers really. I guess the the show was insubstantial, there just isn't really that much to say about it. I finished an episode and I would say, "Really nice episode there." but nothing really jumped out at me and say "MARATHON ALL OF IT" even though I did because I had all of break to do nothing. In the end Welcome to the NHK is a good series, but it isn't the greatest slice-of-life ever nor is it bad. It's very different show and I give it a recommendation to anyone that wants to see a different take on the slice-of-life comedy series.

Well I almost don't know what to say about .hack//Sign, there was so much I loved about this show and then so much that made me want to claw out my eyes. Lets just dive into this.

STORY:
.hack//Sign takes place in a virtual reality MMORPG called "The World". Players in the world have different classes and play styles that they choose from and play. They all can play the game differently. We focus in on a player named Tsukasa who is trapped in The World, unable to log out. Tsukasa doesn't know why this is happening and neither does anyone else. The story progresses as Tsukasa ... meets other players who all become interested and worried about why Tsukasa can't login. They embark on and EPIC journey to find out the mystery behind this... they don't seem to be in any rush what so ever because they seem to like sitting around talking....

This has to be one of the WORST paced stories I have ever seen in anything ever. I get that the writers wanted to make the story and places feel real but this anime could have easily been around 14 episodes long, but it is dragged out way to much. It had such a great and interesting premise, but it just lacked any since of urgency. There were times were I could have easily just dropped the show but....

CHARACTERS:
The characters in .hack//Sign are very very well done and flushed out. Despite the horrible pacing of the shows story I didn't drop the show because the characters are just so good. They are all very real, I've played MMORPGs before and I would have to say I have encountered basically someone who is like each and every character in .hack//Sign in a MMORPG. I found myself very attached to the characters because the way they interacted with each other felt very real. They all have their own reasons for wanting to help Tsukasa, and most of them felt very believable.

SOUND:
Yuki Kajiura... that is all. What an absolutely beautiful soundtrack! It made the moods of the show feel more passionate. It gave The World a feel of mystery, fantasy and scale. If I go on anymore I'll be rambling. I watched the English dub of the show (shut up you Elitest and Weeaboos) and I have to say I was fairly impressed. Brianne Siddall did an suburb job in portraying Tsukasa and Paul Mercier smooth fatherly voice was a perfect fit for Bear. Every time Mimiru talked I thought that Rei Ayanami was on crack LAWL (share same VA) A solid performance from all the English voice actors. Oh and I'm sure all the Japanese VA's made reading the subtitles just "grand" For as much talking as this show has you owe it to your eyes to watch .hack//Sign in English plus it was a good dub.

ART:
The art in .hack//Sign was kinda meh. They made the world look nice, but nothing really stood out to me as WOW THAT LOOKS AWESOME. Same thing on the animation side, since they don't move much it was hard to really judge the animation quality, but for the few times there were "action scenes" it looked almost out of place. Not much else to say, it works but nothing really to brag or complain about.

ENDING:
I just had to put this in don't worry there are no spoilers. The ending of .hack//Sign ranks as the all time worst ending to any anime that I have ever watched. It just sucked and offered no closure at all. The story was just building up and up and up and the it ended in kind of a "LAWL NOPE CTRL ALT DEL" fashion.... I don't care if it's a lead into the games THE ENDING IS PARAMOUNT!! So yea that pissed me off. Don't get me started on the filler OVAs, an anime should be able to stand on its own without having to have OVAs or movies fill in the holes.

OVERALL:
Despite my hatred for the ending and the pacing of the show .hack//Sign was actually rather enjoyable. The story does pick up in the last 6 episodes and there is enough interesting aspects of the show to consider watching it. The music is great, the voice actor spot on and it is easy to relate to the characters. I enjoyed .hack//Sign but honestly to someone who wants something fast paced and action heavy (I.e SAO people who want to see more of SAO like stuff) I would pass on .hack//Sign. It's a great watch for someone who is wanting really a character drama and for those people, you will enjoy .hack//Sign.