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*Some spoilers, be advised*

Story: 6/10

The premise of this manga is almost irresistible for someone like me, who is part of the LGBT community. In a world where the male-female ratio is equal, when there is an imbalance, a person will ‘emerge’. That is to say, a person will change from one gender to the other, on a chromosomal level. I couldn’t wait to read this when I heard about it. I wanted to see the impact that such a change would have on psyche, but it barely delved into that aspect of the story. If you are expecting a deeply meaningful, psychological manga with ... elements of romance mixed in due to this premise, you’ll be sadly disappointed.

In short, this is just a romance, pure and simple and it does not focus on the problem of ‘emergence’ as a form of psychological or emotional trauma for the characters. It’s a love story where it happens that one of the main characters happens to have been a male and the best friends Neo (was male but is now female) and Miyoshi fall in love after Neo’s emergence.

While it does deal with gender differences and questions relating to being able to love someone despite gender, it’s very…shall we say shallow? It also tends to be very stereotypical, which isn’t surprising given that this is from Japan. Still, it’s stereotypical enough to make me cringe on several occasions. I was hoping for more, but I did not find it in this. That is not to say, however, that I did not enjoy it as a whole, because I did. I simply wish it had been done better.

Art: 8/10

The art was very eye-catching, and is completely my style of artwork. While I’ve definitely seen better, I have nothing bad to say for the art.


Character: 5/10

This is where the realism of the concept of emergence falls apart: the characters. While there are scenes that show discrimination for those who ‘emerge’ the characters themselves never seem to have the slightest problem with it. It’s completely accepted by everyone, which is very hard to believe. In this day and age, people have plenty of phobias regarding Transgender issues and it’s hard for many friends and families to accept because…well people generally don’t understand it. Yet in this manga, everyone (of import) is perfectly fine with the 17 year old boy suddenly becoming a girl, even the person in question. The father is fine with it, the step-mother, the little sister, the love-interest’s family, friends at school, etc…they even immediately switch to using the female pronouns, something that people even today have problems doing that easily.

The only one who really seems to show any since of having problems dealing with the change is the love interest, which I feel is a very missed opportunity. It does mention that the Main Character, Neo, didn’t want to change, but we never really see that internal struggle. If we had, the manga greatly would have benefitted from it. Instead, it’s mostly just hinted at and never really delved into too deeply, which was a very missed chance for character growth and development. Overall, I found the love interest and best friend, Miyoshi, to be much more developed than any of the other characters. He struggles greatly with the changes in

Enjoyment: 7/10

I did enjoy the manga. It was interesting to read, but it left me feeling…slightly annoyed. There were so many chances for this manga to be an extraordinary feat of perfection, but it never reached that protentional. Instead, the manga focused on things it should not (in my opinion) focused on. Examples:

- When Neo came out, he acted as if he was fine with it. It was mentioned that he hadn’t been okay with it, but we never really see that from Neo’s perspective. We didn’t see that struggle from becoming a female after living happily as a heterosexual male for seventeen years.
- It glosses over Neo’s struggle with fears of whether or not Neo can be loved by Miyoshi, something I thought was interesting, but it was done in a very haphazard way, and resolved way too quickly.
- The manga never mentioned Neo’s thoughts on changing from a heterosexual male to a heterosexual female. If his mind was un-phased by the emergence, there should have been a sexuality issue. While the issue was addressed, it was so brief as to be non-existent. Neo simply comes to the revelation that the only guy he/she could be with is Miyoshi and that’s the end of it. Neo’s change to liking men is briefly explained by the amount of estrogen in his body, but even so it was a weak explanation as lesbians have plenty of estrogen as well, but they don’t suddenly start having sex with men because of it.
- The manga focused too much on both of them getting jealous than it did most other issues, something I thought was irrelevant. Instead of focusing on petty jealousies, there was plenty of other problems the manga could have focused on.
- Neo slept five years of life away, yet the impact that had on his/her psychological wellbeing wasn’t discussed at all. If a person lay in a coma for five year and suddenly woke up, I imagine the person would have a least a bit of trouble grasping that five years had passed without awareness, yet those missing five years didn’t seem to bother Neo in the slightest.
- Too many male/female stereotypes for my taste, which was shown my pretty much everyone in the manga, even by Neo, who should have known better.

I understand that to many, these many seem like petty, minor details, but they are the details which interested me most, and where simply not addressed or not addressed properly, which is a shame. Otherwise, it is a good manga. Once I began reading, I couldn’t stop, and finished it in one day.

Overall: 7/10

I wouldn’t say this manga is a masterpiece, or even that the manga is great. I enjoyed it greatly, and couldn’t stop reading once I began, but there were too many problems for me to ignore because of that. It’s one I might read again, but not one I’d give enormous praise to. Hence, I’m going to rate this as a seven out of ten.

**Warning: Contains minor spoilers**

If you want a comedy that's full of ecchi fan service involving children as well as loli vibes throughout the anime, look no further. You've found what you are looking for. If that's not something that would interest you, I don't recommend this anime. If you're still on the fence about it and/or want to hear what I have to say, then please read the rest of my review.

Sound: 6/10

The voice acting was fine and the music was appropriate. Nothing special, though, and nothing really stood out to me. There were some cute moments when they were singing, but otherwise it's ... forgettable. The voice actors did a good job of portraying their characters, so I have no complaints on that score either.

Art: 6/10

The art always felt familiar, like I'd seen it somewhere before. Then I realized that (in my opinion at least) Sako looked exactly like Kouta Hirano from Highschool of the Dead. Sora looks similar Haruhi (The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). Hina looked like a mini version of Taiga (Toradora) with black hair. Nimura looks like Koizumi from Haruhi Suzumiya. Miu's looks kind of remind me of Asuza Nanako (K-on).Etc...Seriously all of them look like the replica of a character from a different anime. While the art was beautiful, it still felt very unoriginal.

I also found it annoying that Yuuta is supposed to be a college student, yet he looks the same age as 14 year old Sora. in the anime Yuuta is 18, making him 4 years older than Sora, so way does he look her age and sometimes younger than her? There are also times I feel that they made the 10 year old, Miu, look older than she was. Same with Hina. She looked more like a five or six year old than a three year old. I suppose if they drew people to match their ages, then the comedy and acceptance of that comedy wouldn't work as well? I don't know...moving on....

Story: 3/10

First, let me say that I have not read the manga, nor do I intend to, so this is all based solely on my impressions of the anime (and the three ova).

What makes this anime so sad is that it had such great potential. As the synopsis states, it's a about an 8 year old college freshman who takes in his three nieces (two of which aren't blood-related) after his sister and her husband's plane goes missing (and they are presumed dead - which they are). Sounds like it could be a really good anime, right? That's what I thought too. I was wrong. It was far from being a great anime, or even good or average anime, which is a shame.

This story truly could have been something great. The premise was a good one and I wanted to see it develop into something deep and meaningful (even with the genre of comedy attached to it). This simply was not to be as the powers that be ruined it with unneeded and tasteless fan service, along with some characters that were better off never being in the show given their behavior and how said behavior dragged the show into the dirt. I understand that this is a comedy and they were trying to be lighthearted, but I just felt it was done poorly. Very poorly.

The fan service was way to much for me to handle considering the premise of the show. I feel that this anime should have an ecchi lolicon warning label attached to it, so people can know about that aspect before going into for people (like me) who tries not to read reviews before watching the anime.

Let me warn you: There are A LOT of bath scenes. There are also plenty panty shots, boob shots, etc...a good majority of which center on the little girls (ages 3, 10, and 14). I didn't care for this aspect of the anime. Maybe it's because I'm a mother of two young children myself or maybe it's because I simply don't think little girls should be sexualized. Either way, the fan service added nothing meaningful to the plot and ended up leaving me feeling as if I had just seen something I had no business seeing.

To add insult to injury they just had to add pedophilia to the mix . Because what ecchi lolicon anime would it be without a pedophile(or two) that no one is really bothered by? That's what that particular tv trope (the lolicon trope) is all about, after all.

However, I didn't find it humorous. It had the complete opposite effect, actually. When that aspect came to life, I lost interest in the anime and simply watched it just to say I finished it. Using pedophilia as a joke isn't funny to me at all. So not only did it have a lot of ecchi fan service of young girls, but also pedophile elements that we were supposed to find amusing. I am not amused. Not to all.

It didn't help that the woman, Raika, struck me as being something of a pedophile herself. I can't be sure if her love and affection for the girls is platonic or not. The OVA seems to suggest something more (for some weird reason one of the OVAs seemed to turn all the girls in the show into some type of pseudo-lesbians). Innocent or not, Raika's behavior was no easier to shallow than Sako's disturbing behavior towards the girls. Both of them had an unhealthy obsession with them that, again, seemed to bother no one, yet bothered me as a viewer greatly.

Characters: 3/10

Outside of the pedophile aspect of some characters, two more examples of useless characters in this anime are the landlady's daughter who tries to evict them simply because he took in his sister's kids, and Raika (her loli moments aside) was someone I just never understood and never found funny. Maybe I just don't get the humor in this anime? I mean, who would try to evict someone for attempting to do the responsible thing? While the anime tried to explain her harsh behavior, the execution was done badly and to be honest, every time she was on screen I couldn't stop getting distracted by how she was practically the glasses-wearing version of Karan from No. 6 (anime).

As far as I can tell the friends (Raika, Sako, and Nimura) contributed next to nothing to the anime and often were shown in a poor light when they were given screen time (though my definition of poor light may vary greatly from yours). The only one of the three I found even remotely likable was Nimura, but even so, the way everyone thinks these kids are cute and practically seem to fall in love with them is a put-off. Even if Nimura's true intentions are innocent, sometimes it just doesn't feel that way. In reality, it makes me question if everyone in the show is a lolicon in some form or another.

I also hated how the girls always said that Yuuta lacked delicacy. I didn't see that. If anything, they should have been more understanding of him and realized that more often than not they were at equal fault whenever something happened that put them in an awkward situation.

I found it annoying that Yuuto had taken them all in so the sisters could stay together when no one else would do that only for them to treat him so badly because he was a boy. I get that they are young girls, but there's a limit to how childish you can be. Yet Yuuta never chastised them for it and went along with their whims, which bothered me even more as he's supposed to be the adult. Instead, he allowed them to treat him like an inferior and even apologize to them when he'd done nothing wrong.

Example: when Yuuta offered to help Sora with her luggage because he was afraid she'd fall. She refused and, go figure, she fell down the stairs. When she fell the clothes in the luggage went flying and he accidentally picked up her panties. She gets embarrassed and slaps him, for which he apologizes. I'm sorry, but how was that his fault? I didn't find that funny, I just found it stupid.

As for character development, I didn't really see too much. While it was definitely there, considering the premise of the anime, a lot more character growth should have taken place. Instead serious events or issues that would have helped them grow as people were often glossed over or ignored for irrelevant material that has no business being in an anime centering on children for the purposes of comedy or whatever it was the creators thought to do with it.

Enjoyment: 3/10

I enjoyed the anime until the point that the bad humor and excessive fan service became too much for me to continue enjoying it. As already stated, the excessively ecchi fan service and the lolicon vibe of the anime made me feel uncomfortable while watching this. They are little girls. There's nothing funny about lolicon in this situation (or any situation really).

I can't imagine any normal person wanting to see little girls taking baths or seeing their panties or boobs or naked skin. They are kids. That's not cute. This is what really ruined it for me. Even with a good plot, there was no way I could force myself to enjoy it. I ended up feeling very disconnected from the characters and the anime the more I watched and was tempted to drop it a couple times.

Overall: 5/10

Despite the good plot, I did not like this anime. The humor was distasteful and the use of fan service in regards to little girls made me uneasy. I feel that a great plot was largely ruined for worthless tropes that lowered the anime from something that could have been great to barely tolerable. At times, yes it was cute. At times, yes, the plot was wonderful. Sadly, it wasn't enough nor am I able to overcome my own personal bias to rate this higher.

If you don't mind kids being used as ecchi fan service material and pedophile tropes don't bother you then you should do fine with this anime. In fact, there's no reason you wouldn't love it. However, if things like that bother you as they do me, then I suggest skipping this anime, no matter how tempting the premise is. Had I known before startinf the anime about these details, I would have skipped it myself. It's just not worth it. At times such as these, reading some of the reviews before watching can really go a long way.

While I understand this is just an anime and that I probably need to lighten up, I can't find it in me to do that. Therefore, my score of 5/10. That's the best I can give it, based purely on the premise (that was wasted), the sound, and the copy-cat art that reminds me keenly of other anime, sometimes to the point of distraction.

If I was going to rate this as I really want to, I'd give it a three out of ten, but I'm not going to be that cynical. It did have it's good moments and it wasn't necessarily a bad anime. I'm sure there are many people who would (and do) love it and find it fun to watch. I am not one of them. That's not saying that the anime sucks or that I have poor taste. It's just that in this instance, I found that I simply couldn't enjoy it personally. So again, 5/10 is the best I can do in my overall rating and even that is being too generous in light of my personal qualms with the anime.

I hope that this review was helpful to you. Thank you for reading it.

Story: 4/10

I wanted to watch this because of the promising premise of the anime delving in transgender issues, which is something one rarely sees, inside of anime and outside of it as well. When this anime was brought to my attention, I was very hopeful. When I watched it, I simply ended up being very disappointed.

While the anime does attempt to show transgender issues and the struggles that people with Gender Dysphoria go through, especially during the critical stage of puberty, it vitally comes shorts of its goal. Instead of really delving into the issues trans people go through, everything is glossed ... over and watered down.

At points it takes itself seriously and tries to show the issues. At other points it leaves you stretching your head with how confusing the characters are. I understand they are struggling, but the way they presented it was utterly unbelievable to me. I felt that while this anime tried to do a service to transgender individuals, but it only succeeded in making people more confused about it and leaving several horrible, unforgivable misunderstandings about transgender, which I'll get to later in this review.

I think what hurt this anime most was a lack of direction. It didn't know what to do with itself. One episode, they are transgender teens. The next, they are simply cross-dressers. The next it's just your below-par romance / slice-of-life anime where the underlying issue is barely touched on or mentioned at all.

The anime lacked any real depth to it and fell flat when trying to add any depth. Overall, the story wasn't very well done and didn't accurately portray the premise. That said, I don't think that the story was bad per se, I just think it was disappointing and left a lot to be desired. If you want a story with depth about transgender people, this anime isn't it.

Art: 5/10

I'll be honest, I didn't like the art. I also didn't think that the art was appropriate to the tone of the anime - if it even had a tone. At this point, I'm not sure if it did. It was too bright and very...childlike, for lack of a better word. I haven't read the manga, and after watching the anime, I don't intend to, but the style would make sense if this is how the manga looks. Still, the art only left me with a feeling of disconnect. There were also a lot of still shots and many scenes where nothing happened. It just wasn't impressive and instilled nothing in me. The entire look was innocent cuteness, and I feel that did a disservice to the underlying issue of the anime.

Sound: 8/10

This was one of the strong people of the anime. While I didn't like the music, I found the lyrics to be heartwarming and very emotional. In fact the songs at the beginning of the anime and the end of it where the only things to elicit any sort of true emotion from me while watching this anime. The voice acting was top notch and each VA did an outstanding job of portraying their characters.

Character: 4/10

The characters were by far the weakest point of this anime. Again, it lacked direction and the characters couldn't seem to make up their minds about who they really were. That was more than evident with Nitori. I think the show has the potential to confuse because with his character. Is (s)he transgender or just a cross-dresser? I honestly can't tell. In some episodes, she's transgender. In other episodes he is just a cross-dresser.

S/He's constantly going back and forth with it. Sometimes the anime makes it seem like it's a phase Nitori's going through, while other episodes make it seem like Nitori's truly struggling because (s)he wants to be a girl. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

I also felt they did a huge disservice to the transgender community by insinuating that a person will want to change genders if other people force them to dress as the opposite sex. Scientific research has proven this is be unfounded. In fact, there is only one case that I am aware of in which this is true (18 children were thought to be female at birth. When they hit puberty they're anatomy corrected itself and it was proven that they were all biologically male. 2 of 18 decided to continue cross-dressing but still identified as male, while one underwent gender reassignment surgery. All the other switched easily, and happily, into their correct gender. Please see Dominican Republic Syndrome for more information).

To assume that Nitori wants to be girl (or that his mentor wanted to be a girl) because others thought it was cute and it changed his/her/their opinions of their gender is too much for me to shallow in light of the seriousness of the premise which they were trying to go for.

Nitori also seemed to flip-flop with his sexuality. Now sexuality can get pretty damn confusing for transgender people. Are you gay, straight, bisexual, etc...? these questions are hard to answered when confused about your gender, but the way this anime went about it was wrong in my opinion.

At first he likes a girl who wants to be a boy and is in love with the boy that she believes she is (which would make Nitori a straight woman if Nitori is trans). Then this changes and he's attracted to women (making Nitori a lesbian if Nitori is trans). Or is he simply bisexual or pans or something? Honestly, I don't know. It's too ambiguous and glosses over all of these issues to the point it might have been better had this problems not been touched on at all.

In my opinion, this anime tried to touch on sensitive subjects and failed miserably. The characters, while I understand were in a confused age, weren't believable. In scientific studies, it is shown that many transgender individuals know what their real gender is by the ages of 4-7, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. By the age they are in this anime, it's not likely that they wouldn't know. Yes, they'd probably be confused, but this anime went more than them just being confused. It made transgender struggles less than what they truly are. It...romanticized it in a way when it shouldn't be romanticized.

The only ones truly believable where those who bullied Nitori and Nitori's sister, and even that was downplayed to an alarming level. The characters took these issues too lightly. I can't blame the voice actors for this. I can only blame the script and the people who made it. The characters were shallow and didn't accurately represent the transgender community.

Enjoyment: 5/10

Because of all the problems with this anime, I found it hard to enjoy. The pacing was too slow and everything was shallow and watered down. Maybe it's because I've studied this topic extensively, but I just couldn't find much enjoyment from it. If the anime had delved deeper into the struggles and hardships and confusion and hopelessness that trans people often face, I would have enjoyed it more. But it didn't, so I couldn't.

Overall: 6/10

This wasn't a bad anime, it just wasn't very well done either. I don't think it should be watched without prior understanding of transgender or else it can leave you confused. On the positive, it also has the potential to cause people to research transgender, which is always a good thing. To me, this anime lacked direction so it wasn't a very good anime, but it wasn't bad either. It was fine. Nothing more, nothing less. There was nothing terribly wrong with it, nor was there anything that I found to be exceptional. It wasn't ground breaking and left misconceptions, but it did try and I do respect this anime for trying. Fir this, I give it a 6 out of 10.

My review of "School Days".

Warning: The following review contains minor spoilers.

Plot: 7/10

Summary: Matoko is a normal teenage boy who has a crush on Katsura, the girl who rides his train and also happens to go to his school. Sekai, a friend of Makoto finds out about his crush and helps the two get together, despite having a crush on Matoko herself. This ends up leading to a very twisted sequence of events that can only be described as "School Days".

The Good: This anime, while not entirely fresh, is definitely different from what one may be accustom to seeing. School Days deals with the ... morality of cheating and lying to others. It shows in detail the psychological implications that these behaviors can have on the teenage mind. It dares to go where many anime dare never to tread. For that, and that alone, I highly commend School Days. It's not afraid to break from the mold as it were, and create something that people won't like in the hopes to convey a darker aspect of human nature.

The Bad: I could write all day about what is wrong with this anime. Other than what is mentioned above, the plot has no good points at all. It's actually highly annoying and by episode 4, perhaps 5, you'll probably want to bleach your brain and throw the viewing screen off a roof while cursing like a maniac. It's really that bad. So. Much. Drama. Not only drama, but completely unnecessary drama. If anything, it was pretty incredible how much bullshit was able to be placed within this anime.

So why rate the plot as a 7/10? Simple: the ending. I'll get to that later.

Art: 5/10

The art wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. At times it was downright lazy and they didn't even try to hide the fact. The angles and the drawing was oftentimes just odd or unappealing. However, it wasn't horrible either. In many scenes, the animation was very well done and even commendable. Because of the blatant laziness at times, I'm giving this part a 5/10. After weighing the good scenes with the bad it pretty much evens out as simply being average.

Sound: 7/10

Voice Acting: The voice acting wasn't bad. I think the actors conveyed exactly what was meant to be conveyed. While it wasn't awe-inspiring I think the voice actors did a very good job portraying the characters.

Music: I liked the music. It went along with the feel of the anime and did it's job exceedingly well.

While only one bit of music was particularly memorable, the majority of it is quite easy to forget. The voice acting, while good, wasn't brilliant, earning a 7/10 from me.

Characters: 8/10

Now, this is where it gets interesting. The characters. Holy fucking hell...the characters. What more can you say except: Are they really that damn immature? I know it's high school, but I've seen grade-schoolers with more maturity than the characters of this anime.

The Good: You will loathe these characters. If you don't, then I'd love to hear your reasoning as to why you like them because there isn't anything to like. Nothing. And you know what? I LOVE that about this anime. Weird, right? Let me explain. You are suppose to hate these characters. They aren't meant to be likable. That means that the people who made this anime did their job. You will hate them, especially Makoto, with a passion that will likely be unmatched for many other anime characters you'll come across. This wouldn't be possible if the characters weren't so well written and played out.

The Bad: Literally everything about these characters. Everything.

Makoto: He's like a little kid that goes into a candy store, eats every piece of candy he can find, then wonders why he has to pay for what he ate. That's really what his character boils down to.

At first, I could understand him. I really could. I even sympathized with the prick. My sympathy for him ceased by the end of episode 11. If anyone can continue to feel for this character after episode 11, I tip my imaginary hat in your direction, because I'm just not that nice.

A lot of people may not like him because (spoiler) he's pretty much a sex-addict. That actually didn't bother me. He can do whatever he pleases to whomever he pleases, but it's the way he goes about it that makes him so despicable to me and more than once I wanted to commit violence against him while watching his dumb-ass.

In the end, he's just an immature teen who can't handle the slightest bit of responsibility. I don't say this often, but the guy could have benefitted from growing a pair.

Sekai: Also known as the Slut of School Days. I may be one of the few that didn't see her as such. It's not wrong, in my opinion, for a woman to want to have sex. I'm fine with that. What I wasn't fine with was her overall personality. I wanted to like her, I truly did. I was rooting for her quite often, but there is only so much stupidity one can handle.

In the end she came off as weak and a home-wrecker who had about the same maturity level as Makoto and it was nearly impossible to feel badly for her.

Katsura: She the one you are suppose to feel pity for. I didn't think she was pitiful. I thought she was just pathetic.

That being said, I understand why she ended up the way she did. I wanted to slap some sense into that female so desperately at times that it make me sick just to continue watching what was playing before my eyes.

Other characters were just as bad. One in particular I found to be very distasteful and out of place. This friend has a crush on someone throughout most of the show, then suddenly with no reasoning behind it, she's having sex with Matoko.

I see two reasons for this. The first is shock value. The second is to make Makoto look like an even bigger dick than before. It's like the creators just woke up and thought to themselves 'Let's see how much more we can get the audience to despise these characters." I'd say in that factor, they succeeded. Far, far too well.

Again, this is what I love about School Days. At first, everything is normal. The characters are normal, the events are rather realistic, but then it gets crazy. Not just normal crazy, but bat-shit crazy. You get to watch these characters change from normal people into twisted individuals over the course of the 12 episodes and School Days did this almost flawlessly. That is why this is rated an 8/10.

It's not a 10/10 because no matter how great the anime succeeded with making us hate these characters, it doesn't change the fact that I really REALLY hate these characters.

Enjoyment: 5/10

There really wasn't much to enjoy. It was like watching a badly made horror movie that leaves you shaking your head at the sheer stupidity at what is unraveling before your eyes. You'll probably curse, bang your head against a hard object a few times, and.....wait YES! Redemption! Suddenly, those agonizing hours spent watching this anime seem worth it. How? How can this be? It was almost painful to watch, how could I possibly enjoy it now?

Simple.

The ending. The ending is worth it. Now, I knew about the famous ending before watching this anime. It was completely spoiled for me before hand. That was the reason I decided to watch this in the first place. So I stuck with it and I'm SO glad I did. I rejoiced at this ending. I wanted to celebrate and throw a party. Not because it was over (okay, maybe a little for that reason), but because the ending was really just that damn satisfying.

Hence, why I give my enjoyment level a 5/10 (and the plot a 7/10).

Overall: 7/10

Did School Days suck? Yes. Were the characters unbelievably idiotic? Definitely. Would I watch this again? No. Okay, well...maybe the ending.

Putting aside everything I dislike about this anime, I can still say it was good. The staff who created this knew what they wanted (well, mostly). They created characters we were meant to hate and they did that amazingly well. They tackled a subject you don't often find in anime and also did that amazing well, despite the filler and over use of pathetic 'pull your hair out because this is so damn stupid' drama.

Would I recommend this anime? Absolutely. Not because I liked it, but because I think it's worth watching, if for no other reason than for how happy the ending will make you after hours of questioning why you're still watching this crap.

I think this anime did what it set out to do. It showed us the darker side of relationships. It showed cheating, hatred, heartbreak, insanity, jealousy, etc... and did it in a way that I found to be interesting (if not slightly unrealistic). So, overall, yes, it was a good anime to me.

That being said, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to someone who hasn't really watched anime before. This is one you'll probably have to be introduced to slowly and one you'll have to have a high tolerance level for before going into it. It's worth it though.

That ending...yeah. It's worth it.

I'll try to make sure not to give any plot spoilers nor will I compare it with the manga (as I have yet to read the manga). With that, I'll begin my review with the hope it makes sense.

1. Story (8/10)

"Fruits Basket" had a great plot. I loved the idea of the animals from the Chinese zodiac being incorporated into the characters. For this reason, I had very high expectations when going into this anime. Sadly, for as great as a concept as the story was, I simply couldn't relate to it or find myself engaged in the episodes. More than once I kept ... looking to see if the episode was going to be over soon so I could go ahead and watch the next one and finish the series. So while it was a great concept, it didn't live up to the standards I had for it when I started watching it.

Now it had pretty good pacing and the overall story in this anime was well done. Just because I didn't really enjoy the anime, doesn't mean that I can't appreciate that the plot was good. I just didn't think it was done as well as it could have been and it left me disappointed. Really disappointed. So, pushing personal bias aside, I will give the story an 8 out of 10. While I didn't think it that great, I do understand what the anime tried to do and it mostly did that.

2. Characters (4/10)

The characters were, in my opinion, the worst part of the show, which became the main reason I didn't enjoy this as much as I could have.

Tohru: I found Tohru to be the most annoying. The more optimistic and happy she appeared, the more I came to dislike her. While I know it was her genuine personality, it didn't appeal to me in any way. I've never been overly fond of happy, ever-optimistic characters that never seem to grow or have more complex human emotions, and that's exactly the type of character she was to me. While other people may be able to connect to Tohru, I simply couldn't do that. In my eyes she was nothing more than the proper, polite, obedient, great-at-cooking homemaker that everyone adores while having no real personality or depth. I know this is a harsh assessment that many others may very well disagree with, but that's how she came across to me.

Kyou: If not for Kyou, I may have been more likely to drop the anime. While his character isn't the best character I've seen, I do consider him one of the best in this series. I can understand his internal conflicts and he has, I think, the most problems. Maybe it was for this reason I enjoyed his character the most and I really wish the anime would have developed his character more (actually, I wish all of the characters were developed more).

Yuki: He was easier to like than Tohru, but not nearly as interesting to me as Kyou. While he had his shining moments, and I did enjoy his character as well as I could for this anime, he still came out as just okay. Decent, but not definitely not exceptional. I think he was a great opposite to Kyou and I liked the dynamic of his character, but the anime fell short in developing him like I think he deserved to be developed.

Others: The other characters weren't particularly memorable, but they weren't horrible to watch either. Some even came off as annoying at times. With that being said, I will admit that some of the other characters did have pretty good moments that made you really feel for them, but the overall of the characters still left a lot to be desired (including the leads).

I really wanted to like these characters, and while I liked them enough, it wasn't enough to give this part a high score, so this part earns 4 out of 10 from me.

3. Sound (7/10)

Now, I will admit that I watched the dubbed version, and the voice acting in it wasn't that great in my opinion. Sadly, that's the version I ended up with since I foolishly forgot to check the audio track on the one I got and didn't feel like getting another version with the Japanese audio. Perhaps I would have liked this much better if I'd watched the subbed version. So, because of this, I'm only judging the music, and not the voice acting.

The music was decent. I really enjoyed the opening song and didn't mind sitting through it every episode. The ending song wasn't as impactful, though it did fit with the feel of the anime. So while I didn't personally care for it, it did work, as did the music throughout the show earning a 7 out of 10 from me.

4. Art (6/10)

I don't have much to say about the art one way or the other. It was not impressive or awe-inspiring. It was not horrible or bad to look at either. Overall, it was good and I really can't find anything to complaint about or praise, so I'll give this a 6 out of 10.

5. Enjoyment (5/10)

I think my main problem with this anime is that I expected too much going into it. After reading a bunch of great reviews (both here and youtube video suggestions), I had great hopes for this anime. If I had gone into this without the high hopes, I may have enjoyed it much more.

I found the same themes being repeated (fighting, arguing, unbelievable optimism, etc...) and it kind of annoyed me, but at the same time I get why the same things kept happening and I can't really fault the anime for this, even if I didn't really enjoy it much.

You may think that I felt that "Fruits Basket" is a bad anime, but it's not. The plot is good, and some may even find the characters to be endearing. It just so happens that I didn't. There is a lot to like about it, and there were many heartwarming and (very) funny parts. To be fair this anime did make me laugh fairly often, and it because of this that I give it a 5 out of 10 when it comes to enjoyment.

5. Overall (7/10)

Regardless of my bias against it based on numerous personal annoyances with this anime, I can still admit that the "Fruits Basket" anime was good. It wasn't bad nor was it even just average. It also wasn't a masterpiece nor was it great. It was just good. If you like slice of life, comedy, with heartwarming stories of friendship and moral support, then this is an anime that would probably appeal to you. If you're looking for a deep story involving the Chinese zodiac or a romance for the ages, then it has the potential to disappoint you.

The No. 6 manga is the only thing from what I've encountered so far that I've been able to give a 10 to. I'll do my best to refrain from any spoilers or summarizing the plot.

Story. (10/10)

The Good: the plot is excellent and I thought it was extremely well paced. From the very first page you're transported into the fake world of No. 6. You're then taken for a crash course on reality in the Western District. You're swept away by the every line, every detail on the page.

When I first saw the anime, I was jaded. When I read the light ... novels, I wept. It wasn't until I read this manga that everything felt complete. The execution of the plot was perfect. There was never a dull moment for me and I couldn't stop reading. In the end, everything came together in a way that exceeded every hope and every desire I could have had.

The Bad: I spent quite some time trying to come up with something to complain about when it came to this manga, something-anything- that irritated me. I found...nothing, much to my own amazement.

Art. (10/10)

Wow, that art. What can you really say? The art was simply mesmerizing. You weren't just reading a manga. You were there. You were living it. Facial expressions, body language, backgrounds, panels, and bubble placement- it was all perfect and easy to follow. More than that- the art of the characters themselves were flawless. More often than not I found myself taking quite some time per page just to really appreciate the beauty of the characters and the fantastic details. I can't find a single thing about the art that I'd change.

Character. (10/10)

This is where the manga shines brightest. The struggles of these characters are real. They've all been shaped by their experiences, and oftentimes not for the better. You end up at the edge of your seat with baited breath watching as these characters are forced to make decisions and how those decisions are going to effect their personalities. The more you learn, the more you eagerly wonder what will happen next.

With that said:

This manga does feature two 16 year old boys who are romantically attracted to one another. It is this relationship, this friendship, this bond that makes the story great. This manga is not about a gay couple having gay sex (which they don't, by the way). It would work just as well if Nezumi or Shion were a female. I love that it doesn't stereotype gay relationships. It shows two people who find each other against all odds and dares to take charge of their own lives.

Quite frankly, I don't think people should freak out over Nezumi and Shion's relationship. If you chose not to read the manga because of that, I certainly can't stop you, but if you like an amazing dystopian manga with lots of action, and character development that makes you think, then this isn't one you should skip over lightly.

This is about two boys, as different as night and day, who form a seemingly impossible bond and change everything. In their own lives and in the world around them. It's a story of personal growth. To be a ignorant or to be knowledgeable. To be conquered or to be the survivor. To be human or to be...something else. It's a plot driven by characters evolving and it's utterly amazing to behold. In light of that, so what if two boys like each other? It's their relationship that makes the plot all the more worth while, and every decision they make so much more intense because of how they force each other to change.

4. Enjoyment. (10/10)

I am enthralled with every single aspect of this manga. It glides effortlessly through the pages, engulfing you in a world of horror, action, despair, and hope where hope should only be done while dreaming (if even then). It makes you question what you'd do if you were in any of the characters' positions. How far would you be willing to go for someone else? How much horror can you see, hear, smell, touch, before it becomes a part of you? How deeply can you change, before you lose yourself completely?

You are put on a roller-coaster of emotion and the ride doesn't end just because the manga is over.

5. Overall. (10/10)

This was, quite simply put, a very outstanding and unforgettable manga. In fact, the only thing bad about it is that it ends.