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What a complete and utter disappointment...

For those not familiar with the Yami Shibai series, they're sketches done with paper-puppet animation techniques, quite stylishh, featuring small, one-episode horror stories. The first one was good, the second mediocre the third fantastic and unfortunately the fourth installment is 100% underwhelming.

First off, the most notable change: The narrator. The previous Yami Shibai narrator was a creepy-sounding old man, with a sly and sinister voice. This time we have a random idiot in what I assume to be his 30ish, giving a very disappointing opening ("It's time for Yami Shibai") that doesn't sound remotely threatening or vile.

The stories themselves are ... a mess too. Season 4 takes (good) ques from season 3, understanding that it's much scarier to have unexplained phenomena happen rather than the typical vengeful ghost that we saw in the first two seasons, but somehow completely misses. The stories feel like they have no buildup, whereas in season 3 the insanity of the situation mounded as the episode progressed.

Here, it's pretty much... "Dry".

Pros:
-Yami Shibai art style.

Cons
-The narrator is awful.
-The episodes have no buildup.
-Indifferent ending song.
-"Shallow" stories.

You know, in my country we have a word, "stratokavlos", roughly translating to "army-d!cked". Boy does it fit here.

In the future, giant robots handle warfare in place of human soldiers. They're incredible exterior armors make them immune to nearly every conventional weapon, so basically the only way to kill these "objects" is with an object of your own.

Qwenthur and Havia, a military engineer and a soldier respectively (whose royalty background you'd swear they swapped by mistake), don't have that luxury. While the "Princess", the female lead, handles riding their nation's Object, they are pretty much errant boys, assisting in maintainance and being looked down ... on by their superiors. Eventually an enemy Object attacks and the 2 fail to evacuate. As a result they are left on-foot against a giant metal monstrosity.

Since their chances of escaping are slim, they decide to go sabbotage the thing, which is surprisingly easier than one would expect. They go inside it, break a few things and then get out while the cavalry arrives in the form of the princess to finish the enemy off. After that they are congratulated by their overly sexualised superiors, because NOONE ELSE HAD EVER THOUGHT OF SABOTAGING THESE THINGS. Dead. F@cking. Serious. They get sent to one mission after another, sabotaging various weird types of enemy Objects and impressing their fellow military chicks.

This is the anime pretty much. There are one or two minor subplots here and there, like their general having to marry a typical royal douchebag or something similar, but honestly that's not what you will be remembering the anime for. What you will be remembering it for are: 1)Ladies overly open with their sexuality (to a frankly uncomfortable decree at times). 2)Giant robot-y things crawling around.

Despite the show being all about action though, you'll somehow feel completely unexcited. The anime is way too focused on military douchbaggery and "super duper gun" terms for the average viewer to keep up, the action is pretty generic for the most part, the soldier-on-soldier fights are pretty much inconsequencial since a giant mecha can wipe out half the continent with the press of a button and the "anime" parts just feel forced.

Pros:
-Original Concept.
-Nice graphics.
-Good art direction.

Cons:
-Too much military terminology for its own good.
-Poorly written characters.
-Seriously, NOONE thought of sabotaging these things before?
-Complete lack of excitement.
-See two episodes and you've seen them all.
-Lack of any sort of story progress.

Why are you here?
No, really, why are you even reading this?
Do you seriously need someone's confirmation that Fate Kaleid is good? At this point it's almost blasphemous to even question the quality of the series. We didn't start watching this latest arc to find out if it's good, we started watching it because we knew it was good. And of course it is, of course it's always gonna be. The sky is blue, the grass is green, Fate Kaleid is pedoph... Good.

After all 8 cards have finally been gathered, disturbances start happening in the mountain where the battle with Gilgamesh Jr. took place, with ... parts of the land completely disappearing and getting replaced with others. Alerted by this, Illya and crew go up there to investigate, only for two mysterious intruders to appear. These two women are using the same install power that Miyu has been using for saber, and with it quickly fend off both Illya and Bazzett, while kidnapping Miyu. Trying to run after them, Illya gets wrapped in a parallel world, where the city she lives in has been abandoned and the Ainsworth family rules everything through their install abilities.

SPOILERS
And let me tell you folks, the install ability KICKS ASS. By far one of the most interesting ideas and the central plot of the series, the install ability allows for far more variety in combat that almost forgets it's a magical girls anime. In a later mock battle, Illya defeats Kuro by transforming from lancer to rider to saber. The enemies are also formidable, possessing far more cards than the main cast, including both Gilgamesh'es power and Thor's. The main villain, head of the Ainsworth family, is a black wizard that will honestly send chills to your spine with his creepy over-exaggerated poses and eye-movements (kinda reminds you of Petelgeuse from Re: Zero only slightly lase insane)... (emphasis on "slightly"), who wants to create a new grail out of Miyu.

Keep in mind, I'm leaving A LOT out here. Gilgamesh Jr., who has sided with Illya's crew to get his powers back from the Ainsworth card, basically steals the show in every scene he's in. Erica, Ainsworth's heir is also a glorious addition, with her twisted upbringing being in complete contrast with her kind personality, as the girl completely confuses the meaning of "good" and "evil" and ends up plain f@cked-up. Kudos for Kirei Kotomine as the crew's rip-off cook. Tanaka is the only one who didn't click me the right way, but she has shown great chemistry with some characters other than Illya so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Normally I'd comment on the quality of the animation now but... Do I actually have to?

Pros:
-Heart-wrenching moments, excellent humor, big battles, fantastic animation etc etc. Basically everything you love Fate Kaleid for.
-Intimidating villains that are more cruel than anything we've seen in the series so far.
-By far the most interesting battle mechanic in the series, "install" is utilized to its fullest.
-Kuro reaches new cuteness levels despite the arc not being remotely focused on her.
-Illya's getting more pussy than the average harem protagonist.
-Gilgamesh Jr.'s "You mongrel!"phrase on episode 3.
-The entirety of episode 4.
-Erica's completely wrapped mind.
-Mjolnir!!!
-Miyu's character develops nicely.
-For the first time in anime history the kidnapped person doesn't spout bullsh!t about how they don't want to be saved, thus creating useless internal conflict for the main lead, but instead properly begs for help. Good job Miyu, good job. See Rukia? See Innoue? See Hinata? THIS is how a good hostage behaves.

Cons:
Keep in mind I'll be neat-picking to death here:
-To be honest I preferred it when Kuro was all meek during mana-sucking, it feels a tiny bit disappointing here.
-Up until now the battles have ended somewhat fast. Don't get me wrong, they're still well-made and don't feel rushed, just none of the overly-dragging stuff we had gotten used to in previous seasons. Then again only 6 episodes have come out thus far and Fate Kaleid usually picks up the pace as it goes.
-The fights do feel "slightly" worse than the rest of the series. We didn't have a big boss battle either.
-Ends in a cliffhanger.
-The villain saying he didn't want to hurt Miyu more than needed was kinda out of character.
-It feels like the Ainsworths have too few servants. Illya's crew basically outnumbers them 2 to 1 at this point. New characters might be revealed later though.
-Does this even qualify as a magical girls anime anymore? I'm all for the "install" battles mechanic but I can see how other people wouldn't like it as much.
-Tanaka's character does feel slightly annoying at times (nothing unbearable though).

Good god how boring can you get?

Doctor Tenma, a Japanese doctor living in post-world-war-2 Germany saves a young boy's life through an extremely difficult surgery, by removing a bullet from its brain. As the years pass though, the doctor comes to regret his decision, as that boy turns out to be a psychotic murderer. Well, a bit more complicated than that, Johann (the boy) himself never murders anyone, but instead uses his charm to manipulate people into killing each other, committing suicide etc etc. Doctor Tenma decides to correct his mistake, by killing the boy he saved years ago himself, giving up on his career ... and becoming a fugitive to hunt him. Countless subplots happen while he's on his journey, with various characters he meets developing, some of them reaching a grimly fate, while others fight their own personal struggles and demons.

Is it well-written? Amazingly so. Is it realistic? I don't think I've ever seen any anime more realistic. Is it well-animated? For its time yes, it is still good to look at. So what's not to like?

Jesus f@cking Christ it drags on FOREVER. Yes, all characters go through their "arc" and become "tragic figures" of their own, but I want you to put the emphasis on "all". When an anime runs for 74 episodes a very considerable cast is gathered, and we explore every single one. It soon gets VERY tiresome, especially in an anime like this that's so grounded in realism. Because people, reality CAN be boring. I know I often complain about lack of realism in animes but this goes all the way to the other direction. It's BORING, TIRESOME, UNBEARABLE, TORTUROUS EVEN!

It's a shame really. This is a gem by all means. Except it's a gem for people with unreasonably large amounts of patience. Perhaps I wouldn't be so harsh on it if it was 24-25 episode but SEVENTY FOUR? Come on! Pretty much all of my rate stats are 8+ but the enjoyment factor is an unforgiving, merciless "1".

Pros
-Everything except the length.

Cons
-It drags on foreeeever and eeeeever.
-Rewatchability: Absolute 0.

Excellent.

In a regular high-school academy, a special dorm called Sakurasou is created for "special" people, more inclined towards arts, though it is primary used as a loony bin. Sorata (Sora for short), goes there after he's told that he's not allowed to keep pet cats in the normal dorms. While adjusting to his life there, with the goal to finally return to his normal dorms, his teacher/dorm watcher/task master gives him another "pet" to care about, her niece Mashiro. Mashiro is most certainly a "special" case, fitting to Sakurasou, as she is completely oblivious to how the world works but at the same time ... an extremely talented painter/manga artist herself. Imagine a combination of emotionless sleepy loli with brush & palette for a brain. Along the way more characters join the mix, primary of which Sora's childhood friend Nanami, a hardworking girl who can't handle the rent of normal dorms.

There's A LOT of stuff going on to explain in one paragraph, so I'll say instead that the anime reminded me an awful lot of Bokura Wa Minna except with way more gritty realism and way less fun and games. The protagonist and his childhood friend both have their dreams for their future, that are constantly crushed back to reality, while Mashiro keeps succeeding at one thing after another, creating constant conflict between them. And that's where I congratulate the anime.

SPOILERS:

"If you try hard enough you can achieve anything." That's the comforting message most animes try to pass to the audience. Sakurasou is the first anime I've seen WITH THE BALLS to throw the hard truth straight to your face instead of feeding you lies, : "When compared with natural talent effort means nothing." Both the protagonist and Nanami suffer a lot from this, but that's exactly what elevates their character when in the end they bare no ill will to Mashiro, who was simply born superior to them. It makes the situation even more tragic, especially when you consider that Mashiro loved both of them but they ended up hating her.

And it IS a tragic anime. But what makes it all so magical is that it initially fools us into thinking it's a comedy. Really if you look at the first episode you'll think of it as another Bokura Wa Minna, but as the episodes go on it turns into something so much more, something way more fulfilling that makes you, the viewer, a better person. As the protagonists go through one hardship and despair after another, their, and your, catharsis will be all the greater.

While all the chaos is going on (and believe me, there is A LOT of that), the protagonist and the viewer will constantly swing between choosing Mashiro or Nanami as the "lucky" girl. On one hand you have a girl who literally can't survive on her own and is deep down definitely as innocent as it goes, to the point of being considered naive. She is far from perfect but she is so talented and pure that she will end up hurting you by accident. On the other hand you have one who life just loves to bend over every other Tuesday, and who constantly sees her hopes and dreams crashed by a dark reality that doesn't seem to care about her effort or sacrifices, with whom you can definitely relate since the same happens to you (the protagonist I mean). She's not perfect either, and at times is both selfish and manipulative but that's exactly what makes her human and considering what she constantly goes through she can definitely be forgiven. And you know that in the end one of the two is gonna break.
...
You know, same thing Kiznaiver tried to do with Nori and Chidori except here you don't want one of them to die horribly by decapitation a'la Mortal Kombat style.

PROS:
-Great humor.
-Even greater drama!
-The viewer will honestly have a hard time deciding between Mashiro and Nanami. Personally I went for Mashiro but you definitely feel for Nanami as well.
-So many subplots going on and yet somehow you're invested in ALL of them.
-The last episodes are one tear-jerker after another.
-Amazing writing.
-Wonderful animation.
-Finally an anime that doesn't feed you bullsh!t about the effect of effort vs natural talent.

CONS:
-When Sora and Nanami manage to convince Mashiro to stay in the final episode, Mashiro only hugs Nanami. It might be clear that she's also feeling grateful to Sora, but still, going by her character she should have hugged both of them, not just one.
-At the start of the anime there are a few moments when Nanami goes tsundere and can be annoying. Fortunately they don't last long.
-Also at the start of the anime, Misaki goes Haruhi was too much, you wanna punch her. She is also redeemed as the anime goes on though.

Overall: The flows are mostly me neat-picking, definitely worth your time.

Ok... I'm honestly impressed. Are you feeling alright Trigger?

The first time I read the plot in the anime chart and saw the animation studio my first reaction was "Oh God, it's those idiots again." But I guess everyone deserves a fifth chance, because honestly the anime turned out pretty amazing.

In a futuristic city of Youdon'trememberland, the protagonist Katsuhira lives a relatively uneventful life of being continuously beat up and bullied away from his money. He does not react to this however, because he is physically completely immune to pain. It's not that he's trained to ignore it or something, he physically has no sense of ... pain whatsoever. His lack of pain has also apparently numbed out all his other feelings as well, with him usually showing no reaction whatsoever. Along with him is his ever-whining friend/potential love-interest/annoying red-head, Raikiri. She spends the majority of her time criticizing him, which will quickly make the viewer hate her, but moving on:

SPOILERS

A mysterious girl, Noriko, traps the two, along with a few other characters with a "Kizna" (literally: pain) mark, inserted to their bodies through surgery. This mark links all their pain senses together, making the pain (both physical and emotional) of one being felt by the others as well. This only goes 1 direction for Katsuhira though, since he is completely oblivious to the pain of others as well. I do not want to spoil too much here since this is something that you should watch for yourself, but the Kizna mark keeps strengthening over time, starting to link way more than just their sense of pain, slowly breaking them. Also needed to be mentioned, Noriko seems to have some connection to Katsuhira, who seems overly emotional and caring when it comes to her, despite it being her fault that they're all in this situation. This often enrages Raikiri of course.

Really, it's an anime mainly focused on drama. It does not exactly present any grand philosophical questions, but rather just shows the character development of the people. That said, there are some problems with the characters themselves. Katsuhira comes off as strangely sympathetic, and I get the feeling that the show was actually going for the opposite of that so they could redempt him in the final episodes. Same goes for Noriko, who acts like a bitch for the most part but for some reason you instantly like. The revelations in the final episodes of course confirm those feelings. Other characters on the other hand fail though. Both Tenga and Raikiri come off as unintentionally annoying, especially in the red-head's case (:P). Actually let me persist on that.

The red-head female lead is F@CKING AWFUL. She cannot make up her mind, is overly judgmental of businesses she has no place sticking her nose into and basically subtly bullies the protagonist into romancing her, while enforcing her standards on him. While Noriko acts like a bitch and oppressively, you know that deep down she's just a tortured soul, captain B!TCH over here constantly ACTS like a victim just to grab people's attention, while pretending to be the leading force that cares about the rest of the group. You know, as I write this I am reminded of Lori from The Walking Dead. Yeah, THAT bad. My favourite being when she's throwing a tantrum because Katsuhira hugged Noriko after a mental breakdown, wishes for him to hug her as well and the rest of the group practically bullies Katsuhira into complying despite he himself having absolutely no desire for that whatsoever. And when he does it THE B!TCH STARTS COMPLAINING AGAIN. Aaaargh! "Hey Rick, I want you to kill Shane. Oh my god! Why did you kill Shane? You're a monster!" You hypocritical, manipulative, drama-queen B!TCH! And they're trying to show her as SYMPATHETIC.

CONTINUATION:
Ok so what you read above was the original review when 11 episodes were released. The review was taken down because I hadn't received the complete anime experience or something (I think the mods around here take down reviews based on Darts games), so here are all the important details from the last episode, obviously spoilers:

-.............Aaaaaand I got nothing. The final scene with Nori sitting atop the half-raised bridge and saying she "doesn't understand" was both expected and anti-climatic, but overall not that bad, so the last episode pretty much didn't change my opinion whatsoever. Kudos for making her smile at the end of the episode but that's it.

Pros:
-Wonderful character development.
-Surprisingly none of the Trigger trademark bullsh!t minus a bit of pretentiousness.
-Hell! They even avoided mechas!
-Very well animated.
-Katsuhira's voice acting.
-The anime is often very depressing.
-The feels you get for Noriko near the end.

Cons:
-The feelings you develop for characters are often the exact opposites of the intended.
-Good f@cking god Raikiri is annoying.
-Masochist guy has no purpose whatsoever. Shame because he's actually pretty good.
-So apparently a whole bunch of people including teachers agreed to kidnapping and surgery.
-The moral message of the show fails. Wow! Being bound BY SURGERY will not bring happiness?! I couldn't have guessed that!
-I mean, have you even seen Human Centipede?!

This short 4 episode long series follows the life of a girl after graduation, the economic and psychological hardships she faces as she enters the world of adults (No, not THAT part of the adult world, the others) and how she has to rely on herself and her cat, a pet she's had since she was a child. The cat is already pretty old unfortunately and it's clear from the start of the anime that he's getting slower and weaker.

Melancholic themes, a tiny bit of intense drama, nice voice acting by both the cat and the girl (we can hear the thoughts of the cat ... even though he doesn't understand exactly what his owner says. This reinforces the connection between them nicely, showing that even without "speaking" the same language they have a much deeper, emotional connection). The visuals, while nothing spectacular, are on a pretty ok level, usually displaying a sunset that quickly becomes depressing.

All in all the anime is a very good drama worth your time...
EXCEPT:

Has any of you actually ever owned a cat?! Because the writer of this clearly hasn't. Let me tell you folks, I have owned both a cat and a dog in the past and this anime shows how a DOG would think, NOT a cat. Years spent together? Emotional connections? "I love her."?!?!?! Foolish naive humans, that's NOT how a cat thinks. A cat doesn't want to see you... A cat... A cat just wants to watch the world burn... I hate using memes as points of reference, but cats are a$$holes, we know it when we buy them and it's pretty much WHAT we buy them for.

In reality people, the moment you die horribly because someone threw the microwave in the bathtub, a dog would start crying next to your burnt corpse, and it would eventually die from the depression. A CAT ON THE OTHER HAND, oh... The cat would turn around on your revolving chair, rub its paws together and say: "The human is dead, good. All according to plan... Nyahahahaha!"

Quite honestly one of the worst hentai I've seen.
The protagonist's father is gone for work and the protagonist stays home with his horribly designed sister. Apparently his sister is a semen-hungry succubus who wants to have sex with him. Good so far?

THE ART IS AWFUL. I read in another review that a reason you might not like it is because of the succubus or the big boobs. No, no, no! Brandish had a loli succubus that was plenty a gifted and she was pretty cute, in this case there's just something wrong with the design! What is supposed to be a younger sister is designed ... with the face of an adult woman with lots of make-up (and obviously disproportionate chest size) stack to a relatively tiny body. The result is pure ugly to look at.

And don't get me started on the "succubus" parts. Quite honestly this is the first time I've seen horns on girls in anime that look SO bad. The wings are also a joke (way too badly designed as well), to the point that they remind IN-ANIME of a lazy cosplay. And to top it all off for some reason both the wings and the tail are a stupid purple-black color that just looks fake even by anime standards.

And to top it all off: The voice acting by the sister is horrendous. How can I say this... It's like an adult trying to mimic the voice of a child. "But that happens in all anime." you will say. Yes, I know, that's why it's so hard to describe. The whole thing just sounds WRONG here. It reminds me of when adult women in anime purposely try to sound teasing, except in this case instead of 1 or 2 lines it's the entire episode. It sounds FAKE.

Pros:
-...I got nothing.
Cons:
-Good god the art is awful.
-The voice acting by the sister is really annoying.
-They managed to make a non-tsundere little sister annoying.

Stay away.

Oh joy! I get to spend Easter (orthodox holidays) in Germany, where people wouldn't recognize good humor if it hit them in the face... Lets download some comedy anime so that I have something to watch while I'm there. Lets see... A guy who can't lie has to keep a secret about a vampire girl? That sounds hilarious! The only way they could possibly screw it up is if they added completely needless... They added god damned slapstick...

You see people, the point of slapstick comedy is to take hard, painful, boring situations and turn them to funny ones. A cat chasing a mouse for example ... is mundane, but when you add slapstick to it, it becomes funny. Now in a situation that's already comedic on its own, such as an idiot who can't lie trying to keep a vampire's secret, SLAPSTICK DOESN'T FIT.

So as you can guess, the scenario revolves around a guy who can't lie, who accidentally finds out the girl he likes is in truth a vampire. It is decided that since she got caught she should give up on high-school, but upon hearing this, the protagonist swears to keep her secret, essentially sealing a pact between them. Except the vampire girl is a dumb idiot who friendzones him from the start and the way the series goes it's a wonder she hadn't got discovered already, with her moronic behavior. Along the way things get slightly more complicated when the protagonist's previous crash also turns out to be a weirdo (a chibi alien in this case, operating a human-sized robotic version of herself) and she is also discovered. So basically it is a trio of the alien chick liking the protagonist but the protagonist being oblivious to it, the protagonist liking the vampire but the vampire being oblivious to it, and the vampire trying to support the alien girl hooking up with the protagonist.

In sort, the protagonist forms his own harem full of forced tsunderes or dumb morons. To sum it up, while original, it isn't the most likable of casts, especially since their performances come out really unnatural, because we REALLY NEEDED THE F@CKING SLAPSTICK. What's truly annoying though, is that the anime was clearly written by two joke writers with completely different ideas of what humor is. And the stupid one apparently outranked the smart one. I believe the dialogue below should explain this well:

Writer 1: And just as the main character is in a moral dilemma between lying to his friends and letting his alien love interest have her skirt flipped...

Writer 2: We'll add a chase scene to it!

Writer 1:He... What?

Writer 2: You know, chase scene. Because that's what people think of when you say "good humor". Sylvester an Tweety.

Writer 1: You are a mockery of everything I work for.

Writer 2: Well too f@cking bad, I'm the boss, deal with it.

If this show was written by one idiot I'd just say "good, it's stupid, end of story". But it is clear through all that chaos that really intelligent writing is hiding underneath all the trash, but it keeps getting interrupted for filler bullsh!t. The show follows tired cliches because it's afraid of venturing the more dangerous path, even though it clearly has the potential to do so. And if there's something I hate more than natural stupid crap, it's crap that had the potential to be smart, but instead got scared and joined the comfort zone of being stupid like all the others. And even worse it ends up being JUVENILE crap.

Visuals have a fresh look about them and the voice acting is ok. But the show is too juvenile, too kid-focused to be of any real fun to a crowd that doesn't think hitting on doorbells and then running away is a good prank. Stay away.

Quite average really.

The anime has 2 episodes, each with 2 small stories, featuring a different girl every time. The second episode is considerably kinkier than the first, trying to cover as many fetishes as possible, which is obviously why I prefer the second to the first. Not to mention the second is considerably messier, and therefore more realistic. Oh yeah, just to be clear, all of them feature young schoolgirls (but not lolis I'd say), so if you have moral issues with that take a hike and watch something else.

The problem is that out of the 4 short stories, I found only the third enjoyable, ... aka the most tsundere-ish one. The first two were kind of generic, and the fourth one was just too messy and touching the wrong fetishes for me to be interesting. Oh, and all of them focus on the main character being onii-chan and sensei at the same time (tick more fetishes right there).

The art is good, and they keep using this style where they show a separate panel in the middle of the screen to show character expressions, instead of cutting to a completely different scene and the voice acting... "Generic" I guess, not many ways to describe it.

All in all, not bad, especially the second episode, just not good either.