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This review is very late. I don't write many reviews, but I seem to write reviews on the series that I enjoyed or were impactful on me as a viewer.

Obviously, Initial D has been referenced widely in other shows. I did not pick up this series until a few years ago, starting with the original, working my way to Final Stage. I do recommend Initial D: Final Stage, if you can make it through some of the earlier seasons.

Final Stages takes all of the events leading up to it, delivers it at full throttle (I watched this all non-stop and barely took ... a break after Fifth Stage).

I will try to keep the content about Final Stage, but in a way, it's difficult to not at least talk about Fifth Stage or some of the other series leading up to this.

Story 7/10

Note: It's not about a perverted average 15 year old with newfound superpowers that finds himself in a new high school environment - thank god. This is a show about racing cars, and stays about racing cars (unlike that other American franchise that everyone knows about). And most dudes like cars, right? So a great deal of viewers can appreciate the premise.

In fact, it's the kind of world that you can see yourself in, whether on the sidelines, or behind the wheel. And as such, it has inspired so many to get behind the wheel. I've personally added driving down a Japanese mountain pass in a Silvia to my bucket list.

At first, the earlier seasons introduced the characters and the plot and moved rather slow, using several episodes to cover a single race. I remember it taking me long periods of time, though the series had all finished airing to get through some of the earlier seasons. What they do is establish a background.

However, the plot has been slowly dripped into the series in Fifth Stage and coming to its climax in Final Stage. In Fifth and Final Stage, we now get to see some critical back story and into the lives of some of the characters we've been seeing for years. I cannot speak for how important this is. When I watch something, I want to KNOW these "people."

Many of the really well done shows are the ones that don't neglect the characters while they move along the main story arc.

Ending: There shouldn't really be any spoilers covered, but the ending seemed like a proper way to wrap everything up, something that very few show's I've seen have done well. I do wish that they spent a bit more time on it though, as I wouldn't mind seeing what has become of everyone in a year, or two, or even further down the line.

Art 7/10

World

In short, it looks great. Initial D would not be Initial D without the mountain passes. The winding mountain road, the trees, the mountain itself, all of this looks spot on, very realistic. Going back a few series, these have all been captured pretty well.

Cars

Before we talk about the art of some of the characters, we'll talk about one of the most important aspects of the series, the cars themselves. I watched all of Initial D over the last few years and at first, they started out with some pretty awfully thrown in 3D cars in a 2-dimensional world, and they've been rather slow in changing that over the years. But welcome to 2014.
Now, the cars look like they belong in the world instead of some foreign object slapped in. The textures, the way light affects them, now fit perfectly in the rest of the world. Yes! For decades, the cars in Initial D have been legendary. Now, they look the part too.

Characters

The characters have a very bold Shounen look consistent with the art style of the original series. Emphasized lines, contrast, shadows. These characters are dudes, heroes in the eyes of many. Earlier, this seemed to clash and seemed pretty disruptive. In Final Stage, they have stuck with this art style, but refined it. It doesn't seem to clash as much. The characters are "remastered," if you will. One complaint still, is that Ryousuke's superlight complexion makes him look "mickey mousey," where as he looked more alive in the earlier seasons. The animations though, emphasize the reactions in somewhat comical ways, but as art should do, help to tell the story, highlighting the environment and the character's thoughts and emotions.

Sound 8/10

Sounds: The cars sound real, and they sound good. Turn up the volume, let the engines whine, the exhaust roar and the tires screech at every corner.
Music: What would Initial D without the glorious Eurobeat Tracks? They are quite good, they're upbeat and the tracks are similar to what I listen to when I feel like going out for a drive.

Apart from that, the placement of "Rage Your Dream" at the end of the series was phenomenal. You'll know when you see it.

Char 6/10

I can't cover all of them here, but the collaboration of individuals behind it, the members of Project D, their opponents, side characters, audience were all critical in contributing to the success of Initial D. However, the reason I have to rate it a 6/10 is because of the length of time it took to get the characters to this point.

Alright... Takumi, our main protagonist. Fujiwara was, is and always will be an aloof young man who happens to have great instinct and natural driving skills. I was glad to at least see him become progressively more reactive as the seasons progressed. During the race with Shinji, when the battle became challenging, you could see the "what is happening here?!" in his eyes.

Takahashi Brothers - rich kids who are good at driving. Thankfully, there's more to it than that.

Ryousuke - The racing sage, offering just enough feedback to his drivers. A good manager asks himself if his intervention will improve the situation or if it will simply interfere. He definitely does this throughout. But what we see in Fifth and Final Stage is more about him, his backstory with Hojo Rin, and Kaori. Finally. This is what we need. Leading up to this, Ryousuke has been the calm, analytical type who speaks when he needs to. Out of all the characters in Initial D, he probably demonstrates the best emotional control.
Honestly, the moments where he reflects on his past and reflects on the meaning behind Project "D" are nothing short of touching.

Keisuke - He's a "Pilot" type, a "Maverick," hot-headed, bold and extremely confident type that carries out the mission and gets some tail on the side (well, he could anyway.) Quite honestly, would you want someone operating a $38 million dollar piece of equipment if he didn't have confidence?
As expected, his attitude has gotten him in trouble a few times, but this hot head has learned to learn. Throughout the later seasons, you could see development in Keisuke. He gains some emotional control and utilizes his skills to develop his strengths, which have brought him his victories.

Shinji - To be honest, what immediately came to mind was this transaction:
Hojo: "Get in the car Shinji!"
Shinji: "but I don't want to!!!"

LOL! Anyway, we've met him briefly in Fifth Stage, and barely at that. But he's another driver who his familiar with his native mountain pass and is naturally skilled at driving due to his spatial recognition skills. Humming while he leisurely coasts down the mountain pass, he comes off as even more aloof than Takumi, which is consistent with his youth relative to Fujiwara, who has always been notably young himself. Not trying to be insensitive here, but I think Shinji might actually be a bit autistic. Nonetheless, Shinji will come out of this race having developed, and that is important to the story of Initial D.

Impact Blue

Mako and Sayuki - a good pairing, Sayuki is definitely Mako's foil.
Mako: Thank you for gracing us with your presence. It's always nice to see you.

Iketani: Poor guy with bad luck and unfortunate circumstances, but still just a really good dude at the core.

Itsuki: Because we've all got to have an annoying friend... I suppose.

Conclusion

A show about racing, and actually is. But it's also about living life, growing with the people around you, and friendship. Just like when we go about our day to day, it all seems mundane, but we look back reminiscing on our glory days, only after you finish all of Initial D can you appreciate all of this.
I still get chills rewatching the finish at episode 4, and every time I hear "Rage your Dream." The feels... I was thoroughly moved. Sadly, even if not for the title, this show has come to its bittersweet end. But the Dream will always move on.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Honestly, the first few episodes were a bit hard to get through. If I stuck with the standard 3 episode test, I might have dropped it and missed out on the rest of this series. At first I thought it was more of a series for middle-schoolers until I saw a few particular scenes and realized that there is a certain amount of violence and blood. Ah, things are not as they seem. Alright, let's continue.

Sound: 8/10

The soundtrack for this anime was pretty good in my opinion. It was always full of good OSTs. That's actually why I couldn't ... give it a full 10 out of 10. One of the early episodes (the 2nd if I remember correctly) featured a long scene of slow panning shots and OST. It was a long scene. With no dialog. I was sitting there thinking, "What am I watching?" It seems like they forcefully placed in the OST - substituted music for content. This happens in a few scenes in the later episodes. None of them, however, are as long as the scene in the episode I just mentioned, thankfully. Apart from that, and this is of course from a personal standpoint, I did like a lot of the soundtrack. I usually skipped the OP and ED, but I do remember certain tracks that I will want to look up later and perhaps add to my personal collection.

Art: 7/10

The unique art that was used in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar added to the game-like feel of the series. Pastels are used extensively, a lot of the scenes look as if they've been painted or water-colored. It's definitely not the typical "nothing special, gets the job done" art style that you're used to seeing in most anime.

There are a few cool effects used as well in respect to fight scenes and spell-casting. The style in which the characters are drawn though, while not necessarily bad, do contribute that feeling that it's meant for a younger audience.

Characters: 8/10

Alright. A few of the characters did not impress me that much at all. Annoying characters, even though they're supposed to be annoying, annoy me a lot. Ranta - typical rude selfish pervert that exists only to annoy the viewer - and excels at this role. I know a lot of it exists for comic relief - something that I honestly don't care for. Only really at a later stage did I see anything that brought any sort of quality to the character - during the "one-on-one" talk with Haruhiro.

Mozugo - seemed like a typical "gentle giant" character. He tanks for the party, but is usually soft-spoken, quiet and loves to cook (and eat, I suppose).

Shihoru - a shy girl who you really don't hear much from throughout the series. She does seem to have more confidence in the battle scenes as she develops her magic skill. This is the one area where her prominence comes to the forefront, and at first, it's easy to miss. Though reserved and quiet, you do see a lot of emotion from her though, with Manato mainly being the subject. The story does not explicitly point out any relationship between the two, but the viewer gets to decide and fill in the blanks. Again, due to her personality, you have to wonder what her emotions are based on or what she's thinking about at any given moment. I did appreciate that about this character interaction. And that brings us to

Manato. A priest, vanguard and tank. Hold on here. That's literally asking for trouble. Come on. Your healer should not be the one a. taking point or b. taking damage. It could work that he's the leader, as in many games, the caller or party leader is able to watch everyone's moves from further back in order to maintain the big picture of the situation.
Anyway, about Manato himself. He seems a bit older, at least more mature than most of the other party members. In one episode, he mentions that he doesn't think he is the "kind of person most people like, where he comes from," (Yes, I know that was poorly paraphrased.) which is a surprise, because everyone in the party looks up to and relies on him. This adds a bit of complexity to the character that is left undeveloped - due to obvious reasons. Overall, Manato comes off as a person that has a lot of compassion and responsibility, but tragically ends up taking on a burden too heavy to bear.

Haruhiro - Doesn't have main character syndrome! Thank god. He's just a normal guy with doubts that is thrust into a position of great responsibility, and ends up not sucking at it. Okay, that does sound like a main character. Though not terribly perceptive, he is not completely aloof, nor useless. (Unfortunately, way too many main protagonists are.) He's an alright guy.

Yume - She definitely has personality. One of the most notable things about her is that she has a very unique speech pattern, very casual/colloquial. She doesn't seem to be a highly intelligent character, but she isn't outright stupid. She can kind of drift off in speech and sometimes is off in the clouds. If you upset her, she can be fiery and antagonistic. She has a personality that isn't homogenous. One of the nighttime scenes between her and Manato halfway through the series was excellent at bringing out her character (No, I'm not talking about an H-scene). Yume is feminine and seems real, not scripted. She was one of the characters I liked more. Often times, I found her to be a soothing prescence.

The series also did introduce us to a few supporting characters that were either weird, or drew sympathy, but fortunately, none of them seemed too cliché. For example, Renji doesn't come off as the typical arrogant jock leading the most successful party around, even though people awe at his prescence. Merry's former party members pretty much all seemed likeable. Hayashi's account of past events is a compelling one, more or less. I actually did not hate many of the characters in the series. Just Ranta. But then, everyone does.

But there is one character that could singlehandedly bring up the score - Merry. I liked her from the first glance. You can immediately tell that she is the serious, isolated type. You then see that she is logical. Unlike Manato, she does not waste effort healing minor wounds in the middle of combat when the threats have not yet been neutralized. The group has a hard time getting along with her or getting to know her. And because of all this, you start to inquire about her background. When it finally is revealed, you are not disappointed. Most of this is given through Hayashi, her former party member's account.

One of the best parts about Merry is that while initially (okay, mostly) cold and logical, you see how she has changed because of her experiences. You will learn that she is completely different from the girl she used to be long ago. Her past burdens her, and she carries it with her every day and every night. In one of the more effective scenes, you also see her go from calm and collective to showing outright fear (not to marginalize it, but I would call it severe PTSD). Towards the end, she softens up quite a bit considering what she's been through. Merry is a dynamic character that truly reacts to the storyline. Though many would argue about the predictability, Merry's character development is done brilliantly.

Story: 7/10

At first, of course, Hai to Gensou no Grimgar comes off as a more light-hearted anime in a game-like world similar to Sword Art: Online. Of course the visual and sound elements as well as some of the characters' behaviors attribute to this. Also, the fact that the teams are referred to as "parties." This anime has a strong MMORPG vibe. The characters are dumped in this world not knowing where they came from or who they were. This question has yet to be answered, but other developments take shape.
I know that other viewers may appreciate these and that the series was not designed specifically for my enjoyment, but one of the things that I could have done without is the wide use of comic relief scenes - such as the staple sneaking into the girl's bath scenario.

The plot of Hai to Gensou no Grimgar is based on a few commonly used structures. A party starts off as an uncoordinated bunch and develops under increasing challenges. A central party member, one that is respected and loved, is replaced with one that seems very uncooperative. Let's see how the group adapts to this challenge... etc. Cliché is not necessarily poor in this case.

Finally, while it doesn't always work, what worked well with Hai to Gensou no Grimgar is that they didn't answer all of the questions. "How did the characters get to this world? Why? Who were they in the world they came from? Are those two in a relationship?" Intentionally or not, the viewer is allowed to fill in the blanks and make speculations about the past, present and future.

Enjoyment: 7/10

While again the first few episodes had me wondering if I should continue, I definitely did not struggle to finish this anime. Much of the plot was based on common challenges, but the story was still decent. I really enjoyed how some of the characters were portrayed and developed. The questions left unanswered throughout the series serve to draw in the viewer. A lot of things are left to speculation. Perhaps these questions may be addressed in a sequel, which will of course bring up new questions if it is well-written. This line of thinking is what leads viewers to inquire about a sequel, or a second season.

Overall, I have to give Hai to Gensou no Grimgar a rating of 8 out of 10.

Better than the first season, but still lacking.

At least this time around they're actually doing something. This might be a relatively short review, but here goes:

Overall, I gave it a 6/10: Fair. There were a few factors that worked really well in the series but it was held back by the two most important ones: Story and Characters. We might as well talk about those first.

Characters: 5/10
Oh man are they all over the place.

LtCol Guren does redeem himself a bit in this season. He comes off a bit more as a competent commander of a special unit, whereas there were just ... some actions in the first season that made him look like a joke. That's something I just cannot get over. One moment he's serious, and the next he's extremely immature. It seems like the writers could not grasp a hold of the actual character. Furthermore, they could have really done more to explain his relationship with his demon weapon. You'll have to see it to know what I mean, but they barely covered it, leaving no effect on the audience whatsoever.

Yoichi: Classic goodie-two-shoes. God I hate these worthless people. Yoichi, during the series is portrayed as a competent squad member with high talent. Okay, he does do a few things in combat that makes him not completely suck, but he's such a bland character that lacks strength and doesn't really have an emphasized level of intelligence either. His only redeeming quality is that he is a supportive, good person. Bleh.

Shinoa: I did like her since the first season. She's witty and antagonizing towards the main characters. She's usually a decent Squad Leader, yet this season, and bits of the first one, she had a few lapses. I guess they're still kids afterall. Perhaps it's good writing to have the viewer both like and dislike the character in some ways, or maybe its that they can't decide on one personality for them.

The other squad members: Barely existed this season. Definitely true for Mitsuba, and I can't really think of much to write about Kimizuki. Enough said.

Mika: Not too much to judge wrong with this character, though later on in the series, you run into a very BL interaction moment. As we recall, Mika hates humans and hates vampires. He hates everybody and is very conflicted. You don't really get an idea of what he wants, other than the obvious, saving Yu. And even then, you don't really get an idea of how.

Krul: Alright, I must admit, I'm tired of the common vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc that are just flooding the fiction/fantasy world. Krul is probably among 2 vampires that I actually like/pay any attention to. (The other, of course is everyone's favorite little donut eating blonde). There is definitely something intriguing about Krul's body language, her tone of voice and her special treatment of Mika. Plus, she's pretty hot, and not just because she's 2D. She's confident, (obviously because she's the vampire queen), and you don't want to piss her off. Ah, finally, another decent vampire character.

Hiiragi Shinya: He was also a pretty decent character. Skilled, cocky with a chip in his shoulder, at first you think he's extremely shady, but redeems himself immensely as the story goes on. Not a bad dude.

Also, there's quite a few minor characters that were present for an episode or two here and there. Some I liked, some I didn't, and others I thought were used the wrong way in the story.

But, one of the ones I hated most of all:
Yuuichirou.
MAIN CHARACTER SYNDROME. His wiki entry should read, "blah blah generic adolescent main character with typical main character haircut who is hot headed and wants revenge. Between the first season and this one, he has rediscovered his idea of family, the people he wants to protect? Is that really the only development he has? Really, that's it? ARGH! that's so overdone! Also, he's a complete idiot. You see him do things that completely endanger himself, the squad and the rest of the unit. He just doesn't drop it. Yuuichirou sucks.

Story: 5/10

So while the first season pretty much was just an establishment, in this season the humans and vampires actually go into organized combat... For one battle anyway. Yes, the entire season pretty much focuses on the events of ONE battle. Alright, that might not always be terrible, as there were some pretty good war movies out there about singular engagements. But at least you get to finish those in one 2-hour sitting. Not that I don't like battle scenes, but in an entire season, they could have honestly inserted more content.

Otherwise, the story was completely disjointed. Alright, so what developments occurred to influence the actions of Krul Tepes and Guren Ichinose? Where did "Owari no Seraph" come from? Why did it turn out to be (spoilers)? Since when were the Hiiragi brass planning to enact their master plan? None of this was covered in any detail or explained properly.

Also, not enough death occurred.

Now onto the two factors that worked in favor of a good rating for Owari no Seraph: Art & Sound.

Art: 7/10
It's 2016. Good art in this day and age shouldn't be an astounding accomplishment. Flashy effects, decent drawing and animation, plus one detailed scene of Shinoa that made me bite my lip. Otherwise, they didn't try anything really new or groundbreaking.

Sound: Again, 7/10
They did actually put together a good soundtrack. In particular, the ED and some of the OSTs. You have to pay attention during a lot of the combat scenes to realize how well the OSTs are used.

Finally, enjoyment and overall score:

Despite the most crucial elements of the series falling very short (scattered story and mediocre characters), there's something that kept me watching. Maybe it was the industry standard placement of a cliffhanger at the end of every.single.episode, or the constant action. Yeah, they didn't do too bad there. I mean, if the show were not at least decent, or even good, I would not have been able to binge it over the course of one night and the following morning.

I give enjoyment and the series an overall score of 6/10. The first season was much worse, trust me. If you've seen that, I suppose you might as well watch this season to make up for it.

Overall: 7/10
MAL Rating: 7.97/10

Art: 8/10

In regards to the art, it was done well. At first, I had only seen a few series that used this art style so it took a bit to get used to. Aside from that, the art was done well, but not in a way that distracted from the story.

Orange seemed to rely on the story itself, while the art aided the setting in subtle ways. For example, warmer colors are used during summer time, and in the wintertime, the colors are much more subdued. Things appear more grey.

It did well, highlighting the characters emotions, though the ... use of closeups. The facial expressions captured were believable, through the differences in the eyes and the mouth. (I have seen some shows where facial expressions more or less consisted of mouth open or closed.)

Sound: 7/10

I didn't seem to pay too much attention to the sound at first. Or rather, I did not notice anything missing.

The soundtrack was decent. I find myself often skipping the OP and ED of a lot of anime. Orange was one of the shows where I did occasionally watch them all the way through. The OP and ED did give this series a drama feel, which is appropriate. Though I might not add either track to my personal collection, they were correct for the show.

Characters: 6/10

Orange really focused on anywhere from 1 to 3 characters: Naho, Kakeru and Suwa, in that order. There seemed to be a lot of development of Naho, quite a bit of insight into Kakeru and then Suwa.

The other friends in the group supplement the relationship between the main characters. The interaction between Azu and Hagita is comedic at times, and some viewers may find themselves curious about what their future might look like. Takako seems like a girl who carries herself more seriously, and apart from being very supportive towards Naho, does not receive a whole lot of attention nor development. If this series could have been longer, I would have liked to see more development out of these three characters.

Kakeru, though much of the story focuses on him, seems often to be more of an objective rather than a person, as the entire story and the rest of the main/supporting characters revolve around saving him. Kakeru is a likeable character, but is written in a way that mostly reacts to actions around him rather than having his own will. Then again, that is consistent with his character and background.

The two characters that seem the most alive, or realistic are Naho and Suwa. Naho, of course, starts out as a reserved, shy girl that pushes herself to take drastic actions to save Kakeru. The entire progression of the story relies on the pace and boldness (mostly lack thereof) of her actions. I'll get to this later, covering the story, but the middle/later episodes move rather slowly because of this very issue: Naho's hesitation or lack of bold action.

Suwa initially comes off as an Alpha Male, confident, tall, athletic. While many people knock this sort of "cookie-cutter" character, but they do exist in the real world. What I also do like a lot as the story progresses is that it becomes revealed that he is a very supporting character and makes decisions for the greater common goal while sacrificing his own desires. Call it predictable, but it does add a lot of depth to Suwa's character.

Story: 6/10

I might have rated this a bit low, Orange very well might deserve a higher rating.

Having never read the manga, I started watching Orange a bit after it premiered, so I was able to watch a few of the first episodes in one session. The first few episodes I found very enticing. There's the rule that if you should give each anime 3 episodes to prove they're worth your time. While I've seen some that couldn't do this in 10 episodes, Orange got me from episode 1. At times in the first few episodes, I actually spoke out loud towards the screen, saying things like "Just do it already!" I immediately found characters that I liked and wanted to see them succeed.

While Orange was airing, I also watched Boku dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED), based on a similar theme. Perhaps this influenced my view of the later episodes of Orange, as I was able to get more instant gratification from Erased, while I had to wait week by week for Orange, and see minor steps forward. A lot of the achievements or challenges that came up in Orange did not seemed to be given very much weight or importance. (Maybe this is because I am mostly dead inside anyway.)

The main issue with the story reveals itself past the first few episodes. They draw in the audience and place them in sort of a plateau of very slow plot progression. When viewers commit to following any series on a weekly basis, they deserve a bit of a reward from the each episode. But again, the plot does follow Naho's own personality, and after the initial establishment of the story and setting, takes little steps, as Naho makes little breakthroughs.

Then there's the letters. This was not necessarily a bad idea, but at many times, it seemed like the viewer was made too aware of the progression of the plot, either through the letters, or how the story was written. This applies to the characters as well. If you're just starting, you'll know what I mean as you go through a few of the episodes.

Overall, the story did highlight desires and conflicts of some of the characters, but it also lacked passion. Some of the scenes were very appropriate and moving, but there were some that were lacking. This is not to say that the characters try to save Kakeru out of obligation, but I would have liked to see a bit more emotion in certain situations.

Enjoyment: 7/10

With all of the factors contributing, the characters personalities, the supporting sound and art, I did find this series pretty enjoyable.
You start with a very nervous, shy girl who feels like she is desperate, completely alone. You see her close friends pick up on the situation and unconditionally offer their support, even if it means making sacrifices. They put their all in correcting past mistakes, creating a future with no regrets. Though this cannot happen completely in real life, it is good to see people get a second chance, even if they are fictional. This is no doubt, a "feel good" series, which is a refreshing break from the dark, heavy anime that I typically gravitate towards. I liked this series a lot, compared to a handful that I have watched recently that have brought barely any reaction out of me at all.

Overall, I give Orange a 7, and do recommend it. I could give it an 8, but since I have to pick one, it gets a 7. I look forward to watching "Orange: Mirai" when it airs.