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Beautiful Studio Ghibli film.

The animation and music may be great but the characters and plot are hard to follow. It causes me to question certain magical aspects of this film.

My favorite tracks of this movie is "Flower Garden" and "Sekai no Yakusoku". These two pieces of music is peaceful. As for the english dub, Disney does it really well.

The first half is a masterpiece! 10/10! The second act is what makes me question the plot so much. 2nd act gets a 9/10. Beautiful but confusing. 9.5/10 is its total score.

The message is wonderful. It talks about the matters of the heart. I would like ... to make an essay about this. I will definitely read the book.

The music and animation are both beautiful. This movie explores concepts like greed, hospitality, love, ignorance, curiosity, and identity (the importance of a name). These concepts are hard to grasp in its entirety, but this movie does the impossible. It goes through all of these concepts thoroughly. Chihiro/Sen learns and grows as a character. If "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Alice in Wonderland" had a baby it would be this movie. If anything, I'd like to have seen Chihiro fall into the river and get her shoe back. I didn't like that it (backstory) was revealed through dialogue. The English dub has its hiccups, but overall ... the dub was fine. Now I understand as to why some people think this Miyazaki's best film.

"Your Name." is a great movie, but it isn't Shinkai's best.
First off I didn't really like the characters and the plot. The plot makes sense, but it doesn't do enough to make me feel for the characters. The characters don't have a great chemistry with one another. Mitsuha and Taki both don't really grow to love each other. Although they learn about each other's lives, they never really build a romantic relationship. Their love is "instant". Similar romantic films have this problem, the "instant" love dilema. It has trouble pacing through the romance aspect between its lead couple. The animation and music is ... where the movie shows its true colors. Of all things, I had trouble finding the meaning, the lesson behind this movie. Of course it is about unity, but what am I supposed to do with that concept? Many viewers point out that this movie portrays concepts relating to gender. I can see that viewers get that sort of vibe from this movie. We live in a world where people fight over gender politics. But I don't think the movie's message was pertaining to gender politics at all! The bodyswaping aspect was just a plot device nothing more.
All in all, this movie is NOT A MASTERPIECE and ISN'T TERRIBLE either. At most this is an artistic, decent movie. And thus this movie receives a score of 9/10.

Sword Art Online. Quite an anime. One of the most mainstream anime there is.
It's just so weird. For me to enjoy such a criticized show. Many of you "review-readers", specifically those who read to see if anyone agrees with your opinions, who harshly feel like SAO is shit... you guys may be wondering why I gave a 7/10, when really, "SAO deserves a 3/10". Well look we need some trashy anime in our lives right? Am I right? If not agree, then please exit to the door on your left. Thank you.
Those who are reading this review just for praises, please exit ... to the door on your right. BUT WAIT LISTEN, I have nothing much to praise as a critic. IF I were a dense, weeaboo, "mainstream- anime-watching" guy, I would say otherwise. The only notable thing about this show was its first half. Thank you and good bye.
Otherwise, those who are staying to read my review... I'll do my best to refrain from spoiling.

Story: 5
The story is so generic. It has all the cliches of a harem, a shonen, and an ecchi anime. It has that main protagonist who happens to be a boy with flashy hair. Yeah. We have all heard of the "damsel in distress" cliche, right? I'm tired of predictable anime. So if you have been considering to watch this show, it'd be best to watch only the first 13 episodes or you can move on to better shows like "Log Horizon", "Konosuba", "NGNL"...

The story is mediocre at best.
If I were to tell you anything that I found interesting about the story. it would be the idea of being trapped in a game. In this anime: if you die in the game, you die in real life. Sadly this hopeless, depressed tone does not lasts for long. And this concept doesn't last for long. I loved a select few episodes from the first half. Second Half? I didn't like it at all.

Character: 4
Kirito is an O.P. ("overpowered" for those unfamiliar with internet/game slang) male protagonist, without any flaws. The internet addresses him as "Jesus-kun", for a good reason. Whatever Kirito comes across he succeeds to pull it off.
Asuna, it would have been nice if only she was treated with respect. In the second half of the series, she does not act or play a similar role to her former self in the first half of the series. It just lacks character consistencies. This series felt very plot driven.
Lisbeth. She is one of my favorite characters whom I wished could've been in Asuna's place sometimes.
The rest, well the potential waifus... yeah they lack any depth.
Suguha, I respect... sorta. She has the same problem as Asuna, they both aren't respected.
Other than Lizbeth, the rest of supporting cast is not that notable. Oh wait, except Sachi. Yeah Sachi is definitely memorable.
Sachi, she was the reason to why SAO got better. She was the reason to why SAO maintained some of its tones.
As for the main antagonists, Heathcliff, Akihiko, and Sugou/Oberon, they too lack any depth. Oberon/Sugou is just so weak, as a character and his physical capabilities. As for Akihiko, he doesn't remember why he created SAO. WTF?!

Characters and Story were the weakest part of the show.

Art: 9
A-1 pictures, well known for their titles like the famous shonen, "Fairy Tail" and the tearjerking, "Anohana".

From what I can see, the animation is just great when it comes to fight scenes and the scenery they are just beautiful!
Why a "9", you may ask? Because, there are very little cases when it's not a fight scene, the characters are not really animated as great as other studios like Ufotable.

Sound: 8
I enjoyed both the Japanese and English dub. I didn't know this before watching Rezero but the voice actor for Kirito played as Beltugese. I find it impressive.

As for the English dub, I enjoyed listening to the cast, except Bryce Papenbrook. Although Papenbrook did a great job with his voice, I found his voice to be generic. Absolutely no hate on the voice actor, but the casting... I dunno it was just too familiar. He plays as many famous male protagonists, one of them being Eren from Attack on Titan. I dunno about how I feel exactly about the casting. It would've been interesting if we got a different voice actor for Kirito, for the English dub.

As for the soundtrack, it wasn't different from Yuki Kajiura's other works, like for the Fate franchise, or Kara no Kyokai (Garden of Sinners). It felt generic too.

As for the openings and endings, I found "Crossing Field" to be the most memorable opening. Lisa did a great job with that single. As for endings, I found "Yume Sekai" my favorite SAO ending out of the two.

Basically, the sound of SAO was great but not the BEST, for being so generic.

Enjoyment: 9
This was an enjoyable series! But because of certain plot revelations, there aren't as many moments there for me to give it a rewatch. If I were to rewatch, I'd rewatch the first half, the Aincrad arc.

Overall: 7
Overall, this overrated and overhyped anime is still worth a watch. I would not really go for a "buy" rating though. Not only because this anime isn't something I'd keep but because of its price. Yeah... $70 for 25 episodes. No way. And I cant make out what the author's message was... "Carpe diem", gaming PSA? I'm sure his purpose was to entertain. But as a viewer what am I to gain from this? Boobs, butts, lame protagonist, boobs, butts. I don't think so. This anime didn't really have a message. And the romance between Kirito and Asuna feels too rushed.

Elfen Lied is one unusual anime. It is probably the only one of its kind. I'll do my best to refrain from spoiling.

Story: 6 maybe 7
Elfen Lied looks at humankind from multiple different angles. The most important angles are presented through the eyes of Lucy/Nyu, Nana, and Mariko. Lucy/Nyu and Nana find humankind both generous and cruel (or rather rude). While Mariko finds humans vulnerable, morally and physically. Mariko comes to find the morally corrupted side of humanity, when she finds out her biological father has been raising another kid, instead of her.
What I learned from Elfen Lied, is the very thing all humankind ... needs to hear. In this time we live in, there is still war, caused by things, the concepts Elfen Lied covers. If it wasn't obvious, Elfen Lied grasps the concept of generosity, hypocrisy, hatred, immoral sexual acts, and war.
What sucks about the story which made me give it a 6 is that Elfen Lied had unnecessary nudity, (the only exception is the first 10 minutes of episode one) silly scenes, and unnecessary scenes that interfered with the story's pacing and flow.

Art: 6
Regarding that this is from 2004, I gave it a 6, if it was created like today, I'd drop it to a 3 or a 4. The theme song though, that is where Elfen Lied shines and shows its full colors. The action scenes are mediocre under 2017 animation standards.

Sound: 6
I LOVE "LILLIUM" (the music box version, theme song version, all of the versions), it was the most memorable song in Elfen Lied, and yes I know... that is very typical for a person who just watched Elfen Lied. The voice actors and actresses for both English and Japanese were just not of my taste, it was just poorly done, it could have been great, dub-wise. As for the background music it was not as memorable. AND SO that is where I had to bump it down to an 6, for the dub and its unmemorable background music.

Character: 6
Simply, everyone except Lucy/Nyu, Nana, Mayu, Kurama and Mariko, are characters which lack personality and backstory. Just because Kouta has a backstory does not mean I care about him. Reason being, Kouta was just a supporting character to the backstory and Lucy was the main character. If I were the producer, I would start the backstory with Kouta, at the train station, showing how he feels about coming over for the festival. But no, Kouta is just a "Jesus-figure", for a lack of a better word.

Enjoyment: 7
An anime that has a twisted plot which has no way of having viewers simply predict the outcome, is an anime I would at least recommend one to watch. To have heavy concepts hidden within the plot, means there is something for me as the viewer, something that I can gain from watching. This might not be your cup of tea, and I would understand. FYI those who are thinking of watching this series, just be sure to be aware of its EXPLICIT CONTENT.
FOR ANYONE WONDERING: DID I ENJOY THE FAN-SERVICE? The answer, NO.

Overall: 7
I loved the idea, the concept of the plot, the overall music, and found this anime artistic for being one of a kind and unique in many ways. With these reasons I give it an 7.

Just so you know... this is not an anime masterpiece, but a worthy title to watch, and even possibly, according to your taste, a worthy title to take place on your shelf.