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Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate.

The story of a boy yearning for true love and a girl hating chocolate.

When I first caught a glimpse of Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate, I was deeply intrigued by its title. Love and chocolate are all very well in anime nowadays, but elections? Seriously, how could anyone spin a good yarn out of an election?

Due to me having limited time, and also because there were many other anime titles seemingly worthy of my time and attention, I initially put KoiChoco on my on-hold list. However, as the pretenders faded away from my attention, I decided to give KoiChoco a try, ... to see whether the anime could possibly be good enough to expound upon the dark, deep world of politics, yet be able to maintain the audience's attention over the span of a 1-cour show.

The premise that the anime offers us is an interesting one. There are few anime which can delve into politics and still come away with a decent fanbase. However, I can confidently say that KoiChoco succeeds well in that aspect.

Let me begin with our protagonist, Oojima Yuuki. He's not exactly the type of perfect person everyone loves to hate, yet he also isn't the whiny loser that has recently become a common occurrence in anime. In other words, one word can describe Yuuki. Decidedly average. He has a childhood friend, Sumiyoshi Chisato, who is the president of the Food Research Club, of which he is a member of. He goes to the prestigious Takafuji Academy, where the student body is responsible for autonomy, but slacks off with his fellow members of the Food Research Club and Chisato, spending their free time in the club room enjoying snacks rather than getting involved in any useful activities. Heck, the entire club is so laid back that even their advisor gets into the act, guzzling beer whenever she has a chance to sneak into the club room.

Yuuki's comfortable school life with the FRC could have continued interminably until their eventual graduation, but no. Fate conspires to throw them the prospect of dealing with the disbandment of the FRC. A radical candidate, and the overwhelming favourite for the school council presidency announces her intention to disband clubs that do not carry out any activities that could be deemed useful. At first, the future looks bleak for our FRC members.

That is, until someone manages to come up with a brilliant yet outrageous idea. Yuuki should run for the student council presidency himself! Rather than waiting to be crushed by the iron fist of the school council president, the members of the FRC proactively decide to support Yuuki's campaign and try their best to prevent the FRC's disbandment. However, Yuuki's campaign team face a mountain of difficulties. Yuuki practically has no acquaintances outside the FRC which he can rely upon, he does not have any political manifesto, ideologies or affiliations and has absolutely no ambition or desire to become one of the leaders of the school council. And here's the ultimate clincher. Yuuki isn't even willing to run for the post himself!

Enough of that. If I write any more I'll be revealing the whole plot of the anime. We don't want to spoil people that have yet to watch KoiChoco!

Rating this anime is kind of tough, as it is a jumble of concepts that are so radically different as to be almost irreconcilable. One would be forgiven for thinking that KoiChoco is an anime series that tries the impossible and fails miserably in the process, leaving the viewer with a bitter taste. However, I can guarantee that the story is actually quite well presented and executed throughout the anime. The premise of an election is surprisingly excellently done, with a set of rules governing the election that are actually feasible instead of a load of claptrap, and the show manages to convey the suspenseful atmosphere of an election to the audience very well. An added bonus is that KoiChoco is able to do a fantastic presentation of the dark, murky side of elections. Throw in a couple of well placed plot twists and cliffhangers and you have the framework of KoiChoco. When I finished watching the show, the first thing I thought was "Wow. Elections sure are serious stuff."

Nothing is completely flawless though, and KoiChoco is not an exception to the rule. One major mistake that the studio made is trying to convey too many concepts at once without giving a thought for the overall continuity of the anime. One example being the transition between the first and second half of the anime. The first half is completely geared towards the FRC's preparation for the primary election and their recruitment for help. Smooth sailing so far, up to this point. But after the primaries are over, the anime violently transitions to a romance story, with hardly a mention of the elections that were looming.
This particular fault made the story seem unreal, disconnected; it could have been two different arcs of two different anime, yet is melded and shaped into the form that is KoiChoco. Frankly, I feel the anime would have merited an even higher score if the studio had competently handled this portion of the anime.

Another problem is the excessive focus on the Yuuki-Chisato pair. The supporting characters are quite the diverse bunch, but they all fade into the background while the limelight shines on Yuuki and Chisato. Essentially, they are there merely to provide support for Yuuki in his election campaign, as they are all pictured doing their bit to help Yuuki win and so prevent disbandment of the FRC. A couple of the supporting cast actually do play an important role in the course of the anime, but those are few and far between. Granted, the anime is a adult visual novel adaptation which focuses on the Chisato arc of the game. Taking into account the time constraints presented by a 1-cour show, it is indeed logical that the studio turn their attentions and energies to one particular arc rather than trying to adapt everything and end up with a half-assed story.

The artwork in this anime is very solid and excellently done. Given that KoiChoco is a school-oriented anime, we shouldn't expect dazzling graphics or breathtaking scenes of snow-capped mountains and lush green meadows on par with the likes of 5 Centimetres per Second. For a school setting, the art is comparable to the best, and frankly, there are some scenes that are breathtaking in its own way, such as the bridge in the OP which features prominently throughout the anime.

The studio certainly deserves some measure of praise for their handling of the sound portion of the anime. They have got an intuition for the types of music that fit the mood of the anime and are likely to resonate with the viewer, thus enriching the experience even more. For example, when a supporting character is rushing to try and prevent Yuuki from committing a potentially election-ending blunder, the slow piano piece that is played in the background complements the scene and brings out the emotional undertones that are hinted at. On the other hand, the OP of KoiChoco, signal graph, smacks of a plain and generic song. The performance from the singer, Annabel doesn't improve it any further either. The ED, Kaze no Naka no Primrose by Ceui, makes a better hash of things, as it is deeply emotional in nature and able to touch viewers with its enchantingly beautiful melody. I have been told that my taste in music deviates wildly from the opinions of many, so feel free to disagree with me on this count.

Oh boy. Next up is the Achilles' heel of KoiChoco, which is sadly its characters. Normally the meat of an anime that complements its story, KoiChoco has let the audience down very badly here, especially considering that it's a harem story. Among the wild variation of characters, we have among others a chocolate hating girl, a guy that is openly gay for Yuuki (comic relief?), a chibi inventor who seems to have a few screws loose, an undercover spy for the student council and a dude whose face is a henohenomoheji. Well, that isn't a major problem on its own. The real trouble with the characters of KoiChoco is that it gives its primary focus to the couple of Yuuki and Chisato. As mentioned above, the supporting cast are simply along for the ride with the exception of a couple of them. Moreover, Chisato morphs from a great character in the first half of the anime into a whining crybaby that hankers after Yuuki for no reason other than Yuuki being admitted into hospital for outpatient treatment. She literally refuses to let him out of her grasp, even going so far as to cling on Yuuki in his own home. I understand the logic behind the studio wishing to portray Chisato as being reliant on Yuuki. It's explained further in the anime. However, I think they could have at least altered the story a bit to prevent Chisato from degrading into such an annoying character. Even if the adaptation were true to the original source material, I feel that this is one example where a measure of artistic licence should be applied in order to prevent the characters from becoming sub-par. The majority of the supporting cast barely get any screen time, and when they appear they're either doing things to help Yuuki in his election, lazing around the FRC club room or making subtle advances towards Yuuki. There are certainly exceptions to this, but their appearances are relatively sparse compared to Yuuki and Chisato. The lack of organisation in allotting screen time to the various characters becomes a major failing of KoiChoco.

Well, for all my criticism I have to admit that I enjoyed KoiChoco very much. From the interesting interactions between the characters, the fresh breath of air that was its premise of elections, and the marvellous art and character design, I can honestly say that KoiChoco is an anime that I have enjoyed very much in comparison to the other titles in the industry. Although it certainly does not reach the dizzy heights of some, KoiChoco can certainly hold its own against other generic anime that have flooded the anime market in recent years. Moreover, it offers us a more in-depth view in the world of politics, something which I have never seen in an anime before, excepting the odd student council election that isn't the main focus of the anime. Since I enjoyed all the aspects of KoiChoco fairly well, I will say that KoiChoco has afforded me great enjoyment, particularly because I retain a certain interest in politics.

In conclusion, KoiChoco has its share of flaws and failings, however I can safely conclude that it is a decent anime which manages to capture the audience's attention and hold it through its airing. If you are intrigued by the premise of KoiChoco, I would certainly recommend that you give it a spin. Who knows, you might be amazed by what KoiChoco brings to the table.

Kill Me Baby is a practical piece of work. Since it is merely an animation aimed at bringing 4-koma gags to life on the screens of the audience, its budget is a fraction of major shows that focus on graphical excellence, deep and intriguing plotlines, and of course character development that is well fleshed out.

Nevertheless, Kill Me Baby is an anime that competently makes use of the meagre budget as well as handling the transition from 4-koma gags to an anime reasonably well. Considering that it is a comedy show, and as such aimed towards squeezing a laugh out of every person who watches it, ... I have to admit that KmB does a good job in that respect, but is essentially a rather flat piece of work in all other respects. However, I should clarify that that is through no fault of the anime itself.

4-koma gags do not make for a good story that can carry an anime throughout its airing. Based on its source material, we can safely conclude that KmB is not a series that attempts to develop that. It is basically a succession of animated material that is just slapped together and packaged as an anime. However, its main selling point is of course, hilarity. And I can guarantee you, hilarity definitely ensues. That being said, the anime does not have any semblance of continuity and parts of it do not make sense at all to the casual viewer. This again can be attributed to the nature of the source material. If I were to judge KmB while taking that into account, I would say that KmB is actually a game attempt by the studio to create a good anime. Not "good" in the sense of thought-provoking, loaded with heart-aching drama or having bucketfuls of fanservice, but rather that it achieves what it sets out to accomplish, which is to brighten up someone's day.

Hmm... art. Now, the art of KmB is flat. Very flat. The show looks like something drawn by the moderately talented preschooler. However, one needs to remember that the show does not have excessive budget on which to blow on those gorgeous, brilliant graphics that cause people to stare, mesmerised at the screen. Thus, the art being of mediocre standard is actually forgivable in this case.

The sound part is definitely mediocre. The same soundtracks are reused so often that by the time I finished the anime I could almost hum all of 'em. Mention weird songs and KmB's OP comes to mind. Honestly, I could not make heads nor tails of that song, from the animation to the lyrics. However, I feel that the ED is a significant improvement over the OP, not that it would rank in any charts.

I don't believe that there's any need to talk about the characters in detail. Essentially, we have Yasuna = airhead girl, Sonya = paranoid assassin, Agiri = weird ninja and even an Unused Character just for the heck of it. Strange that they called upon Kugimiya Rie for Unused Character though. Overall, the characters are just there doing silly things for the audience's enjoyment. The voice actors were decent and were able to effectively convey the comical moments so that the mood pervades the audience.

Frankly, even though its other aspects were not headed for excellence, KmB really tries very hard in trying to let the audience enjoy it through its funny, hilarious gags. In that, it has succeeded well, in fact exceeding all expectations. The main reason I had for giving KmB my rating was due to me enjoying the series so much and laughing till my sides ached. The hilarious moments will have people literally ROFL.

Overall, KmB is still a decent anime. I'll say this again: its potential was severely hampered by both the funding and the original source material it had to work with. Despite that, KmB makes the most of its situation. Kudos to the people in charge for managing to eke out a thoroughly enjoyable anime from such limited resources. I'm giving it a score of 6, mainly because I enjoyed the comedic interaction between the characters as well as the truly funny gags that successfully made the anime a must-watch for people looking for a comedy anime series.

Sword Art Online. I don't think it's an exaggeration to rank this as one of the most hyped anime series of 2012. That being said, one only has to take a cursory glance at any SAO related forums, discussions et cetera to see for oneself - that SAO is undoubtedly a series dogged by controversy.

Fans of SAO are so devoted to it that they will leap into every discussion to defend any perceived slight at their beloved anime. On the other hand, people who detest it tend to make an almighty fuss about everything that has to do with it.

To be frank, I was actually ... pretty fired up by the hype surrounding SAO and was anticipating an anime that was brilliantly presented, on par with the likes of Steins;Gate and Fate/Zero.

The first episode indeed lived up to all my expectations. We have a bunch of players trapped in a massive virtual world and a raving mad scientist ruling over said world. Throw in an additional quirk, dying in-game means a horribly real death in the real world. I could wax lyrical about the limitless opportunities this premise offered up! The second episode followed this up with a well delivered boss fight and excellent story development. Hope burned bright in the souls of many SAO fans.

However, all good things come to an end, and for SAO, it was disappointingly a whole 22 episodes earlier than expected.

Cue the main protagonist, Kirito suddenly transforming from a well thought out character into a cliched knight in shining armour. A Gary Stu to boot, perfect in every respect.

The few episodes go something like this.
A girl has a worry. Kirito pokes his nose in it. He miraculously manages to come up with a perfectly viable plan to solve the girl's problems and manages to execute it flawlessly every single time. The girl then suddenly develops romantic feelings towards her knight in shining armour a.k.a the one and only Kirito-kun. He's practically a stereotypical Gary Stu!

If it were a single episode interspersed in between the main story arcs I don't think anyone would have complained. But no! The studio in all its great wisdom decided to string 'em together in one almost unbearably long series of episodes.

The main grouse I have with this portion of the anime is that is does not have any bearing on the overall plot of the anime. See those cute girls that have befriended Kirito? They get one episode together in the limelight with him, and then fade away into the darkness. Helping someone get an item? Tell me how that's going to impact on the future plotline of the anime.

Whew. Now that I've got that out of my system, let's move on to rating the anime.

I gave the story a 5. Essentially, SAO is a jumbled up mix of episodes that each do the main concept of the anime no favours at all. First we have the filler episodes. Then we have huge leaps in time. Heck, the first seven episodes spanned one and a half years, yet the rest of it up to the end of the SAO arc only took a few months. Ever heard of pacing, people? That pissed me off no end. I was expecting them to pace the SAO arc over the whole 25 episodes.

The one major problem in this area is that the people in charge either took excessive artistic licence or were high on something, because SAO is as filled with holes as a block of Swiss cheese in terms of plotholes. Basically we have logic defying actions, even within the rules of the SAO world. On one occasion, the anime even blatantly contradicts itself, feeding us the ridiculous idea that pure willpower and love can counter the rules of said world. Come on, give us a break. That's just a blatant deus ex machina!

Then we have ALO, or Alfheim Online.

I won't spoil any people yet to watch SAO any further. Suffice to say that SAO's story and execution as a whole are mediocre, extending to the ALO arc. Its only saving grace is that the plot twists are quite well executed and unexpected when they are not logic defying.

Art-wise I have no particular complaints to make. The art as a whole is solid stuff, especially in a few scenes that are a feast for the eyes. A 7 overall.

Moving on to the sound.
The first OP, LiSA's crossing field was decent. Not bad, but not too good either, a hallmark of her songs. First ED, forgettable, generic and very plain indeed. I feel that the second OP was a shade better than crossing field. And finally, the pièce de résistance, the 2nd ED, Overfly. In my opinion it was actually a great song. Haruna Luna's not half bad. The soundtracks were done by Kajiura Yuki. Need I say more? 8 out of 10.

Characters! Now we're getting serious. I mean DEAD serious.
A breakdown :

Kirito - Every part of him shouts Gary Stu! He is the modern day Sherlock Holmes with wonderful deduction ability. He is a chick magnet without even trying to. He always goes out of his way to help people. He even gets a wife after non-existent courtship! He's even got his own unique Dual Wield sword skill because he's just that badass! "Make me a sammich and a rabbit stew, Asuna!" "Okay!"

Asuna - The female protagonist. When we first see her, she appears as a strong character, with the personality and traits to match as well. Granted, she does play some important roles in the earlier stages of the SAO arc. After that, she degenerates into Kirito's sidekick. What, you're among the top in your guild hierarchy and a front liner to boot, yet Kirito has to fight for your freedom from your guild? For some honeymoon so that you can spend your lovey-doey couple time together? She gets even worse in the ALO arc. Basically, Asuna is there to help Kirito on the road to awesomeness. Whenever she's in a spot of trouble, cue Kirito stepping in and coolly getting rid of her problems, be it enemies, monsters or otherwise. No point in her existing otherwise, is there?

These two are the only two that SAO really focuses on. The supporting cast are merely there to cheer them on. They play no major role and do not impact the storyline. Some even appear in only one episode!

Characters - A really bad one. 3 from 10. It would have been lower if Yui didn't at least appear to compliment the Kirito-Asuna pairing.

Enjoyment - I'm going to give it a deserving 7. I will concede that although the story and characters are immensely lacking, I quite enjoyed the series. Between facepalming at those god awful plotholes to being absorbed in the beautiful world of SAO, it's actually quite an enjoyable experience.

In conclusion, SAO is probably an anime series that polarises opinion like never before. I'm going to take a neutral stand here and say that I neither detest nor love it. Else there's probably gonna be another SAO flame war.

The source material by the author is excellent, but suffers very badly when being adapted by those "What the fuck are they smoking, they're so high" people from A-1 Pictures.

I'm giving it a 6. Seeing as the light novel is selling as fast as Kirito attracts chicks, I'll go out on a limb here and say I'm very hopeful of a further season 2.

Now, if only they would kick A-1 out and replace them with a better studio...