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Zankyou no Terror is a show which is praised by many. Mostly for its premise and the themes of teenagers blowing up buildings instead of peeking on girls. It’s definitely not your everyday anime and even for me it has been a pleasant surprise as I started watching it, with high expectations that is, after having read that top staff is working on the show. I couldn’t wait until I finally got to watch the show, and now, one season later: Was this show really that good? In short: No. But let me explain why, before you downvote my review, if you haven’t already by ... just looking at the score I gave Zankyou No Terror.

Storywise the best part Zankyou No Terror had to offer was its premise. Two teenagers called Nine and Twelve go on a spree of committing acts of terror in an alternate version of Japan. “Not bad”, I thought as I added this show to my Plan To Watch list and the introduction episode delivered great action and directing and lots of things already created questions. I hoped for a nice resolution and kept watching, mainly blinded by the gorgeous visuals, but the first couple of episodes in I noticed something odd. Where is the actual terror? Sure, blowing up a few buildings isn’t a nice thing to do. People spent time and effort creating them and some teenagers destroy them?

Isn’t this rather a larger scaled act of vandalism since it’s never mentioned or implied that people actually got killed in the process? Neither does the population actually seem terrified. There even are fans of the “terrorists”, despite them revealing any sort of political message to the general public. So probably just some edgy teenagers who think it’d be cool to support people destroying buildings in the city, because who knows why.

That’s the first time I really started to question this series and its writing. The second time would be the riddles. Superficially they seem smart and well thought through, but digging a little deeper than merely scratching the surface, they’re actually kind of dumb and if you consider the outcome and the actual motives on Nine and Twelve, they are mere filler and should not be there in the first place as they do nothing but dragging out the plot and to keep the, pretty dumb, police busy.

Around the middle a new character called Five is introduced who is cooperating with the Americans and their motives are pretty vague, as well as how they can act above the local police forces. The whole appearance of this character killed pretty much all the hopes I had for Zankyou No Terror to become an actually interesting cat and mouse-game between officer Shibazaki and the “terrorists” calling themselves Sphinx. Instead it resulted in some sort of hate triangle between the three parties and most of the stuff which happened in relation with the new character had nothing to do with the actual outcome anyway.

Moving on to plot holes and plot conveniences Zankyou No Terror does not disappoint in being a disappointment there either. Without wanting to spoil too much, where did Sphinx get intel about a nuclear bomb being developed on Japanese soil? Why even commit those acts of vandalism? The justification makes no sense. There would have been tons of other ways to get across what they intended. Why promote Zankyou No Terror as a show about terror when it’s not? How was it important that Sphinx move to a school? They have been there like two times. The only reason they did was to introduce the cast to Lisa, a new charac- ehm plot device. Seriously. There’s no other way I could explain that Sphinx went to school. There’s so much I expected and so little I got. Speaking of Lisa, let’s move on to the characters.

Ladies first, we have Lisa. A walking dumbo and plot device. She is being bullied at school and doesn’t have it easy at home. Supposedly a tragic character she just ends up being an obstacle for Nine and Twelve, as her psyche is not explored at all. Does she like being a bad girl? Does she not know what she wants in the first place? She was just walking around, crying and getting kidnapped. She and Twelve had some kind of romance going on which also felt kind of forced considering the situation they are put in.

Then we have Twelve. More of a chaotic guy and Nine’s comrade. They both share a mysterious past which mainly gets explored in flashbacks and like the very last episodes. Not much to say about either because they both don’t develop at all. Five is also one of those with the same past as Nine and Twelve and they all are super smart and seemingly flawless. The reason as to why keep the past of Sphinx a secret is also baffling to me as well as the occurrence of flashbacks. It felt as if the writers just cast some die and randomly decided the intervals of them having flashbacks to justify small doses of exposition. The most intriguing character to me was officier Shibazaki, but that doesn’t mean that much in the show that is Zankyou No Terror and its cast. Really disappointed me there, Zankyou No Terror.

Where I did not get disappointed though were in the category of visuals and sound design as well as the splendid directing of Shinchiro Watanabe. The backgrounds and lightning and effects were gorgeous and I had a blast just looking at the detailed art work. The rain and water also looked great and I barely have any criticism about how Zankyou No Terror was presented superficially. The soundtrack by Yoko Kanno was just as expected brilliant, as well as the Opening and Ending themes. A thing which kind of put me off though was the Engrish in some of the songs and the dialogues.

Did I enjoy Zankyou No Terror though? Kind of. It felt like an action flick you can just enjoy without overthinking it too much. Is there worse shows with around 11 episodes you could watch? Definitely. I can see the appeal this show has and I kinda appreciate its effort but in the end Zankyou No Terror is not a show worth calling “anime of the season” or “anime of the year”. I don’t even think anyone will remember it in the near future. That popularity does not equal the quality of a show is obvious and I’m not saying it is horrible. Wasted potential and a definite disappointment are quite more fitting though.

Everywhere I go here on MAL I see people praising this show. 10s are almost the standard since this show aired. Almost impossible to escape to the hype surrounding this anime I found myself watching the first episode even though I am against fan-fiction like stories such as this one. So, what do I think of the show?

Well, it has been quite a bumpy road with No Game No Life for me. A surprisingly weak start with almost every cliché in just two or three episodes a pandering show like this could ever contain and more headshakes I ever did when watching anime since Sword ... Art Online were part of this experience. It got gradually more bearable though as the series reached its end to say the least.

Well, let's take a look in what the alleged "Anime of the Season" has to offer.

When reading the synopsis I was already shaking my head in disbelief. Yet another fan-fiction premise, yet again super cool NEETs living the life 90% of the people here would gladly kill for? I am certain it is unnecessary to tell what No Game No Life is all about since most of you guys reading this are already watching it as well.
Let's rather talk about the problems I had with the story.

Also note, so far no second season has announced. I will treat the story section of No Game No Life as if no second season is announced when coming to the ending. Yes, I know there is a light novel of the show but we are reviewing the anime here. Not the light novel!

First of all, No Game No Life tried to achieve so much in just a twelve episode run-time it felt rushed at times just to squeeze in as much as possible. They want to take over the whole world but how much could they possibly get my just twelve episodes?
I guess it may be just me but the whole set up and how it was handled is way too convenient for me to overlook it. Yes, "Blank" consisting of Sora and his super-intelligent-NEET-hikikomori-loli imouto providing regular panty shots Shiro are unbeatable, literally unbeatable. The story part of No Game No Life felt like watching a newcomer play Dark Souls for the first time with god mode enabled because just as Blank (I guess I figured out why the name's "Blank". Which makes it easier for self-insertion!), he'd be undefeatable no matter how big the challenge may look or what there is at stake. There is no sense of tension because you can predict that Blank will win no matter what. All you do is wait for the resolution on how they did it which is unpredictable because the main characters are alleged geniuses which - for me - was nowhere near this fascinating. Not saying this is all bad, it really is entertaining and gets you by surprise being exposed to their kind of play for the first few times, but most of the explanations just felt like Deus Ex Machina which again could be excused by them being geniuses.

In terms of world building No Game No Life did an average at best job as well. Yes, humanity is now called "Imanity" and is on the bottom of the food chain amongst other beings inhabiting this world. But yet again this is hardly explained in detail to make me personally attached at all. Also the other species are as original as it gets with your average elf-like beings using their magic, the war beasts having super-human speed and agility, there is no originality to be found here either.

The games they play are also not seemingly flawless and even contain plot holes in how they were executed by the show, for example the game of Shiratori in episode 6 where every player had 30 seconds to make their next move. Because Blank is so perfect though it just takes them almost a whole minute just for one. How things like those get past a quality check seems incomprehensible to me.

The general pacing was also one of the things which bugged me. Most of the time there just wasn't anything meaningful going on and time got wasted for nonsensical reference humor or blatant fan service which is a thing I highly dislike in anime.

Regarding the visuals No Game No Life scored way better at me. I like it when studios try out new stuff and come out as daring especially at something crucial as the visuals. No Game No Life kept an overall decent standard of quality and used an interesting if even maybe unusual and surreal art style as well as fluid animation. To be honest watching the first few episodes it seemed way too surreal and almost unpleasing for me personally. As the time went by though I found myself getting attached to it as it fitted the show’s theme quite well. As said, credit where credit is due, the makers dared to stand out from the norm and delivered a more than solid job in my eyes even if I ended up hating how they made Shiro and her facial expressions with her tiny mouth. This surely is just me but I couldn't stand some of the character designs at all.

Coming to the acoustic performance of No Game No Life I just have positive things to say. Starting with a strong and catchy opening theme the series never failed to convey a certain feeling of tension during moments when Blank once again had triumphed over their mentally inferior enemies. The soundtrack is literally what kept me hoping for more to come, being composed very well and used even better in the right scenes. If I had one thing to complain about the soundtrack it would be that some of songs got used to often and lacked in overall variety. Considering their quality this is a thing I am willing to forgive.
The voice acting was also top-notch and leaves barely room to complain, except the characters which they voice acted.

The characters are actually my biggest complaint alongside the not really original and sometimes even rigged by plot holes part that is the story. Blank may be perfect but this is just the thing which won't sell me for No Game No Life. They are too perfect, every of their moves in unpredictable it almost comes off as a downright ass pull - speaking only of the main characters Sora and Shiro though. The rest of the cast is entirely female and besides one tear-jerking moment of Stephanie it gets completely downgraded to pure fan service which is a shame because since later on they threw some other races into the bunch as well which could have been used for great character and world building but was cut to the most essential things and once again fan service because since the "Flugel" is a flying race they have their erogenous zones on their wings. Ha-ha, so clever. Not. And of course every female which gets to meet a smelly and skinny NEET is most likely to want to explore his erogenous zones. Totally what would happen in real life! And besides the main cast there were barely important characters which could be used even if only as plot devices.

Despite the problems I had with the show, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy No Game No Life the slightest bit. The atmosphere was right during the moments it should have been to grab my attention even when just for a little moment longer than it managed before. The conclusions weren't always the most logical or the most likely ones but satisfying nevertheless if you take the show what it's supposed to be; an entertaining pseudo-intelligent comedy. Regarding the comedy No Game No Life consists of solely two parts of comedic "attempts". One would be referential humor and the other being fan service. What I personally missed where clever jokes and not just some sexual slurs or innuendos alongside some deadbeat jokes. The most entertaining parts for me where not the ones others would consider to be funny but for how Blank would manage to achieve the next goal. Not if they would but how - because Blank can't lose.

Summing this up No Game No Life was a decent entry of the wish-fulfillment-genre which must include beautiful women, a super cool and flawless main character, games, video-games, a world to escape to. It stood out using a rather unique art style and underlining it with a very good soundtrack but lacked in story and characterization. Too much time was wasted on fan service which could have been used on actual development of the over sexualized almost all-female cast. While I didn't expect much after reading the synopsis I wouldn't even say I got disappointed but the hype surrounding it seems similar to the one Sword Art Online experienced back in the day. Unlike Sword Art Online No Game No Life is self-aware most of the time and at least does not take itself seriously to a level where it comes off as forced drama. It knows what it wants to be and pulls that off quite nicely and confident, ending up being entertaining but nothing of outstanding quality.

Yay! Cute girls doing cute things now in lesbian middle school girls-edition!
When I first found out about Yuru Yuri I was trying to look for something that is kind of against the norm of just presenting cute girls doing cute things. Something that would spice things up a bit. Of course my first intention for such a thing was not Yuri and I also legitimately thought at first that the whole Yuri-theme was just some joke despite the obvious title.

Well let's take a look at what Yuru Yuri has in stock.

Storywise there really isn't anything happening which hasn't been done before - except ... for maybe the seemingly homosexual main cast consisting of cute girls. This does not add any real substance to either story or change anything severely in character development. The worst thing which could happen is that one girl would attempt an obvious flirt but the comedy kicks in most of the time right after that to destroy any chance of an actual relationship happening between either of the characters. The whole Yuri-theme is mostly downplayed to mostly lame comedy instead of being the cornerstone for seriously romantic themes. But I doubt this was the creator’s intention. It was rather there - as said - for the jokes and the fan service which wasn't really a letdown for me personally since I didn't expect anything in terms of relationship building beforehand. Just at the end thinking about it, it was kind of a bummer but nothing severely.
In general the story sticks to the norm and so does the setting. We have a beach episode, a school trip, hot springs episodes, ... .People looking for your average school comedy set pieces and events will not be disappointed.

Looking at Yuru Yuri was one of the most pleasing things this show had to offer for me; Bright, cheerful colors as well as not really original but still adorable character designs and a constant level of quality. Not really much to praise or anything that would stand out in one way or another.

In terms of voice acting and soundtrack though, Yuru Yuri is way more confident with talented voice actresses and a - in my opinion - great and catchy opening as well as an ending theme which even ended up on my phone. As for the background melody Yuru Yuri plays it safer here but manages to set the mood quite well, maybe even because it is being so conservative at this topic.

Coming to the characters there is pretty much every archetype and trope involved in this happening. You have your silent and surprisingly unremarkable and heterosexual main character Akari who is in the role of the comical relief character and gets all of the writers bullying he had in stock. Not even lying there, Akari literally gets bullied by the writing of this show. From getting into accidents, not even getting noticed or simply ignored it was sometimes even painful looking at it. Then we have the hyperactive and manga obsessed Kyoko, who has a passion for manga and even works on own doujin and serves as the story's second main character with and endless stomach. Next up on the main cast is Yui Funami who is mostly your typical tomboy with a more cold side and last but not least my least favorite character of the bunch Chinatsu Yoshikawa. She is pretty standard in everything and seems to be into... forced stuff?

Overall the characters are neither the most original or best developed ones but still manage to come off as pretty likeable for the most part, in my opinion.

In conclusion Yuru Yuri is a pretty solid entry in the Cute-Girls-Doing-Cute-Things-genre. It had me laughing quite some time and it was highly enjoyable watching the silly main cast and what happened to them in the course of the time. Maybe the characters aren't really self-aware of their own sexuality yet - what is counter proven though looking at certain… Ahem delusions and things they are talking about - but it would have been nice to see any actual relationships happening instead of using the Yuri-theme to attract fans and reducing meaningful character development to merely one or two episodes at best.

Still. If you like those kind of shows and have nothing against some Yuri-themes and a girls-only-cast, make sure to give Yuru Yuri a try.

This season was not really full of surprises. Just as always some light novel adaptions here and manga adaptions there. What I really missed when overlooking the chart of currently airing anime was something fresh which sounded interesting. Of course being a show about a card game, Selector Infected Wixoss did not catch my attention at first at all. Only when I realized that this season isn't close to being good and I even started watching a sports anime about ping pong I thought to myself "Hey, why not check out this anime with the cute girls playing cards?".

I can tell you beforehand, missing ... out on this show is not what you should!

The main plot focuses around our shy and modest girl Ruuko, mostly adressed as "Ru-Chan" and her classmates Yuzuki who get into the new title-giving card game Wixoss. But as one could think this game is not a normal card game as it nominates certain girls to become a so called Selector. These girls receive special cards called LRIGs which are inhabitated by moving and seemingly living fantasy-like girls and young women. These LRIGs can talk and have the possibility to grant the Selector to become an Eternal Girl and have their deepest wish fulfilled - if they win a certain number of games. If you lose three times though you lose your chance ot ever become an Eternal Girl.

Of course these facts have every Selector curious on whom to trust and whom to battle. Do they want to take others wishes in order to have their own fulfilled? This aspect is treated very well by the show and isn't downplayed in a comedic way at all. The show is dead serious about what it presents and portrays the girls struggles with themselves and others very well.

Those characters may come off as a little generic and some similarities with Madoka Magica are inevitable to recognize and to acknowledge but this doesn't make the interpersonal interactions less tense. They actually seem more relatable and easier to understand. Later on the focus on the psychological aspects come to light more and more as the show reveals its more darker side one might not have expected at first but which I kind of predicted after the immense praise this show received as it aired.

In terms of audio-visual design Selector Infected Wixoss left a huge impression on me. The character designs are not the most original but they look different from each other for the most part instead of suffering from the common same-face-syndrome which seems to be an ongoing thing in the modern anime industry. The backgrounds also have a certain touch and the downtown setting creates a certain atmosphere which I personally enjoy a lot. Selector Infected Wixoss trumps especially with its soundtrack.
Creating an almost unique and eerie feeling even when sometimes just consisting of simple tunes. For a card game show the atmosphere is amazingly intense and something I did not expect when going into the show. A special shouout also deserve the voice actresses which delivered a more than solid performance.

Overall Selector Infected Wixoss was a good start to what could become a great franchise. As of now it left lots of questions unanswered which I expect to change with the arrival of the second season called "Selector Spread Wixoss" coming this fall. The first season though opened a door to countless possibilites to go for. I hope the creators realize the potential which slumbers in this show and come off which a proper conclusion in the end which won't just be a reset ending for example. The characters have developed very well this far and I am excited for what is yet to come.

An anime about sports? An anime about ping pong? I would have never thought to ever give a show like this a try, while I do like the occasional play of table tennis in my freetime and during sports at school the idea of watching others playing it in the animated form was somewhat dull but interesting. Having heard from other sources that it is actually quite good and among the best series of this season I decided to check Ping Pong: The Animation out.

Today it has ended and now I'm sitting here at midnight writing this review because continuing Ping Pong after a long ... break I took from it after episode 2 might have been the best decision I made regarding anime in a long time.

Storywise Ping Pong: The Animation centers around the teenager nicknamed "Smile" and others at the Tamura Table Tennis club. It is a sports anime after all and there is -quite fortunately though - nothing happening which could be considered that much out of the ordinary with like super powers you have seen in other sports series.
The series could be called a Coming-of-Age story. It focuses a lot on the relationships between the players, trainers and others and how their passion of table tennis affects them and others around them. And important part to make this work and catch the audiences sympathy are well done characters. And well done characters is something Ping Pong certainly has. The cast ranges from your more introverted main character to his chaotic childhood friend, to the arrogant yet talented but not flawless foreign antagonist, to the caring coach with a moving backstory and lots of other side characters from different schools, teams and nations wanting to make big.
But this cannot happen without sacrificies and this is also something this show does well. Table tennis is serious business over there and it portrays it very well. I am not an expert when it comes to foreign tablet tennis but from what I have seen in Ping Pong: The Animation they catched the mood quite well and every anticipated battle felt as exciting and tense as an upcoming showdown in an action series. The atmosphere is really intense and puts shows like Sword Art Online to shame, but not only when it comes to the action.

Most of this is achieved by the brilliant cinematography which uses an unique and definetly different art style than other shows ever did before. It is kind of hard to get into at first but the drawing style really grows onto you and actually fits the shows theme of being about a rather unusual sport, very well.

In terms of accoustic accompaniment Ping Pong: The Animation offers everything from chilly background tunes to incentive electronic beats to make the rhythm chime and get you into the right mood. Also the voice actors did an immensily great job on expressing how the characters are feeling. Nothing really to complain about in terms of audiovisual arrangement either.

Nevertheless one of the best parts are the characters. They are portrayed quite life-like as you could expect people to be participating in competitive sports. Every character feels real as you cheer and root for them to achieve their goal they have set in their lives and struggle with the possibility of defeat and others being better than them. They really undergo a well described development which seems believable and makes you care about them. The interactions between each other comes of as genuine and really natural. As their different personalities and egos clash you can really feel the tenseness. The creators did a fantastic job there.

Overall Ping Pong: The Animation is a great show. While it may not be appealing to anyone I can highly recommend it to anyone having the slightest affiliation with table tennis. If you have not this show might not be for you but also if you are just in for something different than you may be welcome here as well since this is a story which can be enjoyed regardless whether you like ping pong or not. It's more about the characters than the actual sport.

It is a sweet Coming-of-Age story about young people trying to find their meaning in life and after this a sports anime. Whether it will be the first place at the championships, social interaction or just to take part to find out in the end they aren't even made for table tennis. It's an emotional and unconventional ride and for me personally the best anime of this season.

Getting sucked into an Online MMORPG, having adventures with your life on the line each day, meeting new people and having an excuse to escape real life while building up a romance in it with a beautiful girl and being the strongest amongst everyone. Sounds like the wish every puberty ridden and anime-/videogames loving teenager has. It's no use explaining how Sword Art Online features all of this since 90% of you have already seen it anyway or at least have heard of it in one way or another. While most of the otaku-community probably wetted their beds in excitement for this show I gave ... it a little while and quite a bit after it ended I decided to give it a try and be all neutral and leave aside all the prejudices I had from such an immensely popular anime being built up on all of this mentioned above. I'm not really a sucker for "fan fiction"-like premises like this one but to swim with the trend and to fill up my list of rather longer titles I ended up watching the whole thing in roughly a week.
Unfortunately most of my prejudices have come true. But let's get on to this step by step.

Be aware that in order to justify my problems I had with the show and especially its story this review WILL INCLUDE MAJOR SPOILERS. In case you have not finished Sword Art Online yet or haven't even started watching this is your last chance to head back. Just head for the 100% spoiler free verdict on the bottom of the review.

So the story is focused around our main protagonist and totally original "Kirito" (or Kirigaya in real life) who is participating in the new and very first VRMMORPG. After a day of trying out the game and getting to meet a guy with the remarkable German name "Klein" he spends the day getting him and himself used to the mechanics and talking to each other. As they want to log out they find out their "log-out"-buttons are gone from the interface and that there is no way of disconnecting from Sword Art Online. At the end of the first episode the game master appears and tells them that they have to reach the end of the game and defeat the last boss in order to be released and that many people who tried to remove the so called "NerveGear", which is an external piece of hardware to get yourself into the game world, have died in the process. Their only chance is to beat the game.
While the first episode was really well done and set an interesting tone for what may come next I was surprised it was the opposite of what I expected. At first!

Let's get on to what Sword Art Online does right story wise in a short manner without digging deeper into synopsis. Basically besides the first few episodes and the first one in particular, nothing. I can literally not think of anything that has been achieved well story wise. Let me explain!

After the first episode they constantly use time skips to probably skip the time Kirito obviously must have used to become the strongest player in the whole game. He is a walking Deus Ex Machina with an asshole as wide as the moon considering all the stuff the pulls out of his cheeks. Without explaining he is just the strongest because he "played the beta" before. This is the only explanation we get and that he is some sort of hybrid of a "cheater" and "beta-player"; a "beater". Breaking the game rules like that can only be considered cheating though because he is the only player being able to dual-wield. How does this work? Thanks to clever writing? Most likely not. But Kirito is not the only problem. It's basically the whole game world which is not only generic as hell but also not explained in how it works at all. There is an orphanage in one scene with the caretaker and children acting like real people. Are those NPCs or real players? If they are NPCs, why even care for them? If they are real people, how can 20 ten year old kids end up in a game like SAO which is obviously intended for mature audiences considering there is an undressing and an implied sex option implemented. This whole thing feels so lazy and watching it made me feel sick because those failures are so obvious.

Same goes for the feature to "revive dead players". Excuse me? I thought people are going to die if they are killed in SAO. How can you revive them? Maybe the game gives the players enough time before their brains get toasted by microwaves implemented into the NerveGear. This would have been more plausible but it wasn't explained at all. Such a feature also comes with heavily forced drama and bad character development as well! In one episode we get to know a new character whose turn is it now to have his amount of screen time with badass Kirito - this character is of course female since all the ladies fall for the Black Swordsman, just as the target audience would love as well! So we have this new character on the screen and barely got to know her and in the same episode she dies. And Kirito cries. Boohoo. The whole relationship obviously happened off-screen for Kirito but the audience has been totally unaffected of this connection between Kirito and random-kawaii-replaceable-moeface #54. The same with any other relationships with every other useless girl who could be part of Kirito's harem. But no, they get dumped a few episodes later. Not even the relationship between Kirito and the main female lead Azuna has been given a realistic and believable approach. This is not even forgivable since Azuna is what drives Kirito later on and is what saves Kirito later on.

Things get even worse when they introduce Yui. A sweet and innocent loli with no memories calling Kirito and Azuna her parents. It is later revealed she is a program written by the game master to stay in charge of the trapped people’s mood and prevent them from doing bad things such as suicide. But when the game master got like "I'll kill you all if you don't beat me" she was prohibited from interfering with people. And since computer programs obviously have emotions she also got dragged down by witnessing people taking their own lives and the audience was meant to feel sooo bad for her. But I couldn't because this thing felt so damn forced with her sacrificing herself and all this in the end and being a mere plot device and full of conveniences just to end the series. Most of her actions haven't been described at all. It was just happening out of the blue.

And all this isn't even due to the episode count because the second half of the series "Sword Art Online" has not been given attention to the name giving video game, no! It was another video game called "Alfheim Online". The "ALO" arc features all your self-insert needs as well! A badass unbeatable ass pulling male lead, lolis, fairies and.... Incest! But before the ALO arc we have the ending to the Sword Art Online-one which is just terrible to say the least. The main villain as interesting as he may have sounded turned out to be a one-dimensional one at best. His motives haven't been explained the least and he even forgot why he did all this. I'm not kidding. He just forgot. Also the last boss was defeated with "the power of love and friendship and the shounen-force of never giving up".

And now it is up for Alfheim Online because what do we do right after leaving a game after multiple years being hospitalized and having lost around 10 kg looking like a walking dead man while Azuna stayed completely healthy looking? Yes, video games, also VRMMORPGs of course. Also introduced with the new arc is a new villain who is just as flat and plain as the one before just that he just seems to have a rape fetish for teenagers which happen to be the male lead's love interest. Of course he is also the main villain in the game itself who somehow has the ability to make the players feel pain again. It sure was a smart move to not put restrictions on this.
The second arc also includes tentacle rape and various attempts of what seems like rape. Really going for it all, aren't you, SAO?

ALO ends with yet even more plot holes. Yui is just hacking all the way through even when clearly not being part of the game anymore at all. She even was just a minor part of the first game as well not having had any access to vital functions which could change the game rules. Kirito also uses the power of friendship and love again to overcome being pinned down and even having an inner monologue with the dead game master of SAO who somehow given him the information to log into the game and rewrite it so that our evil super villain loses all his strength and even manage to give himself the best sword of the game to finish him off one final time.

SPOILER-FREE-ZONE! READING PAST HERE IS SAVE!

Long story short; the story of SAO is absolutely dreadful. And even the most vital part which was the sense of danger and the feeling that something is at stake which was the case during the SAO arc was completely gone during ALO. It took itself so serious then it was downright laughable.

In terms of art and sound SAO delivers an above average performance. The character designs may not be the most innovative of them all but the backgrounds are pretty, the colors being used offer variety and the interface and HUD were being integrated nicely without being used too much or bothering the visual experience. Yuki Kajiura who is mostly known for her outstanding works in Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero has composed the series soundtrack hence why the music is the best this show has to offer besides the escapism for various individuals. The opening theme was also quite beautiful and the voice actors delivered a more than solid performance while doing their job.

Besides the story the obviously weakest part are the characters. Too little time was used on actually developing them and making us care about them and way too much time was spend on building off-screen relationships the audience could not relate too. Besides the mostly annoying side cast all we have are generic lead characters with a lack of depth.

In conclusion Sword Art Online was not something I would recommend. For anyone who wants to watch a show for good characters, writing and world-building Sword Art Online will not be to their likings. If all you want to do is being entertained by obvious flaws and lackluster setting and characters, go ahead. This show might just be exactly your thing.

I once read that war is supposedly the most efficient way of pushing technology on a higher level. This doesn't seem to be too untrue in the universe of Ghost in the Shell since it already has four world wars in total behind itself - one being a nuclear one; hence the technology within itself has sky-rocketed to incredible dimensions.
The line between man and machine gets blurrier with each day and if Ghost in the Shell is popular for something that is not being a stellar piece of cyber-punk it is for the question what even makes us human. Broken body-parts can be just ... replaced by nano-technology, whole minds can be stored on external devices called "cyber-brains" basically replacing a "broken" and error prone human brain, whole bodies can be switched in literally almost an instant. But this technology does not come without the inevitable disadvantages because something without disadvantages is perfect and perfection does not exist.

With Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex the popular franchise got its big debut on television back in the day after the movie adaptions from Masamune Shirow's manga series happened in 1995 and 2004 which both turned out to be amazing movies as well. In some parts though I have to disagree with all the nostalgia-tainted people and have to say that Stand Alone Complex excels in almost every possible way over the movies - something some fans cannot seem to accept from my experience within the fan base. Of course there are no 100% objective reviews and I won't try into convincing you that this is one or anything like that. If you are one of those people who never gave Stand Alone Complex a try because of it "being not based on the manga" or "just being a cash-grab", maybe I could indeed convince you into giving one of the greatest shows I have seen a try.

The story of Stand Alone Complex centers around the secret anti-terror organization called "Section 9" under the command of Daisuke Aramaki and its members doing their best to protect the world from everything evil... and laughing.

The stories are divided into two kinds of episodes. One being "stand alone episodes" and the others being "complex episodes". The former are basically not related to the main plot whatsoever except leaving one or two minor trails to it some character might recall in the latter. "Complex episodes" mainly treat the so called "Laughing Man" case. "But aren't the "stand alone episodes" nothing but pure filler then?", some of you might be wondering now.
I have to disagree that they are pure filler. The cast of Stand Alone Complex is rather large. It is a welcoming change of pace to see more time being spend on character development without going overboard as usual anime does with things like beach episodes or something silly like that. You get to know the characters fairly well finding yourself caring about them and understanding them and their actions during several arcs, each of them having their own little stories putting different characters in charge to handle the cases around the world. It's one of those times I approve of filler since it not only gets me more of things but also focuses on exploring of what we know of the world of Ghost in the Shell.

The world building in Stand Alone Complex is just amazing to make it short. Barely ever before did a world feel this alive to me.
Without giving you away too much, Stand Alone Complex features a world rich on interesting information and a construct which seems believable and thought through.

Animation wise Stand Alone Complex is also one of the better looking anime I got to watch this far. It may be just my personal opinion but Production I.G.s classical more realistic ways to do the faces of the characters is very appealing to me. Besides the facial animations the characters are designed uniquely as well giving everyone their own basic features which is not a common thing in modern anime where for example every female character looks exactly the same just with different hairstyle and color.
The use of CGI is one of the things I dreaded most before going into the show. Innocence was almost 60% CGI so I expected it to be getting worse when seeing the opening for the first time. It didn’t turn out to live up to my expectations in this case, which is a good thing. For the biggest part the CGI was used on machine models such as the Tachikomas and rarely on anything else.

Where Stand Alone Complex shines though are the animations during faster paced moments like action and combat scenes where at some moments the 3D and 2D animations flow and work together sublimely making them just gorgeous to look at.
In terms of musical accompaniment Stand Alone Complex provides an equally flawless but less recognizable experience which only stands out during certain heavy-impact scenes and during the absolutely beautiful opening song performance “Inner Universe” by Origa. That opening really grew on me and is now one of my favorite openings of all time.
Regarding the voice acting the actors did a phenomenal job in both the Japanese and the English dub. I ended up watching the first half of the show with the Japanese dub but then switched because it was way more convenient to follow the plot and because I remembered some of the voice actors from the Stand Alone Complex PlayStation 2 game and this had waken some nostalgia.

The characters range from your typical strong guy, Batou, who prefers actions over words but has a nice and soft core, to the loving family man, Togusa, and the kick-ass female lead, Motoko Kusanagi, most of the time addressed as Major. It may not be the most innovative cast there has ever been but the writers did a great job in making them chime together with the setting they are thrown into as well as the “stand alone episodes”. Each one of the main cast is incredibly developed with the time they are working together and the viewer getting to see each side of the coin of everyone.

One of the most standing out examples is the Tachikomas. Basically spider-like robots used for battle and espionage operations with an own artificial intelligence. Getting to see them developing an own personality over the time and even starting to become individuals questioning the meaning of life and death was an interesting experience because one could assume they are mere comical relief-subjects due to their high-pitched voices and attachment to certain characters.

While I can not say I enjoyed Stand Alone Complex on the same level as I would enjoy a Slice of Life comedy I can say that I would have never thought to get this thrilled by the end of the show. Be warned that this is not a high-octane action and over-the-top show with explosions and shootings every second. Most of the time it is slower paced, giving a cold feeling and time to get immersed into the setting.

In conclusion Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is an anime you should not miss out on. If you are looking for a show with more behind its already gorgeous facade, something for the brain, an intriguing and intelligent thriller Stand Alone Complex is definetely something for you. It excels in every way possible over the predecessors and is a mostly a thrilling ride the whole thing through. The action will have you hooked, the animation as well as the brilliant and almost breathing world, the lively cast of characters and the well thought through storyline.
I can't say it often enough. Stand Alone Complex is one of the best shows I have ever seen and is worth your time over the course of 26 episodes for sure!

Most of the things I get from harem anime without actually watching them is that as good as everyone is basically the same. From the basic premise, over the characters, the setting and most likely the whole conclusion, mostly everything has been done before. This is one of the reasons I don't usually get my eyes on such anime. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is an exception though because a very good friend of mine recommended it. "Might as well give it a try", I thought, "It only has 12 episodes, it's something different from the previous stuff I watched and it's on my HDD ... already".
So I managed to sit through the whole thing in two days even if I had huge prejudices against the show - most of them turned out to be justified.

Let's split up this review into the five categories as usual:

Story (4/10):

Boku wa Tomodachi is what seems to be a basic harem anime. You have the more or less dense main character, in this case an outcast who is seemingly "bullied" because of his foreign appearance. This is most likely referring to his hairstyle because he has blond hair while basically looking like everyone else in this show.
From this point on everything is pretty straight to say the least. Kodaka meets a new member for his "No Friends"-club, everything gets quite ecchi-y and in the end he has a whole harem surrounding him. Oh, while we are at it, how come that attractive young girls have no friends whatsoever? I know it's a harem but hey, every guy is popular now at school? It's mostly the male students having trouble finding friends from my experience.
The only thing notable and standing out was the background Kodaka had with his former best friend who he never got to say goodbye to before switching school as well as the little plot twist in the end which was rather predictable because they more or less gave it away a few episodes beforehand.

Art (6/10):

While the art does not offer lots of variety in terms of character design with everyone looking quite plain, also revealing lots of similarities in their design which is most noticable at the girl’s character designs. Pretty mediocre is also the animation as well as the backgrounds. What I did like a lot were the bright colors. They really gave a comfortable mood and fitted the comedy-ish approaches the show had to offer.

Sound (5/10):

The voice actors did a good job on acting the characters and also the opening and ending theme were quite enjoyable. During the watch I didn't really catch any outstanding pieces of music. Most of the time the ambient music was pretty standard.

Character (3/10):

The main issue I had with the show leaving the story aside was the rather dull characters. Again, I know it's a harem but what's wrong with having some standards? The characters were unpopular for quite no reason. The whole "talking to an imaginary friend"-thing seemed more like a plot device to get Kodaka and Yozora into bumping into each other than a real barrier on trying to establish social ties with class mates.
In general the cast was as generic as it could get with Maria being one of the most annoying characters I got to meet in anime.

Enjoyment (5/10):

Despite the shows obvious flaws in major categories I did enjoy it as a flat-humor ridden anime. I watched it in two days so I'd be lying to myself if I said I didn't enjoy it the least.
For fans of comedy shows and the harem genre there is no way they could not like this.

Verdict (4/10*):

I didn't start Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai with lots of expectations. I didn't expect the new messiah of anime itself but it still had some obvious issues in my two most important categories for me, which would be the story and the characters. It's not like it wasn't enjoyable - as said, I have been through it in two days watching five episodes after each other. Maybe I'm just not made for this kind of genre.
A recommendation to harem-fans everyone else should rethink twice if they are looking for a good story and characters. I personally didn't get lot out of it besides the revelation I don't like harem shows.

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*) Score is not an average

Angel Beats seems to be one of the most popular anime series amongst newcomers in the world of anime. It was the same with me. Angel Beats was my very first "real" anime besides television shows such as Naruto or Yugioh. What does it have to offer? Let's take a look.

Let's split up this review into the five categories as usual:

Story (6/10):

The general premise seemed interesting. A boy without memories wakes up in an afterlife which is a high school alongside other classmates with real personalities and so called "NPCs". The story centers around our main protagonist but also on the events which happened to ... the others in their normal life. It really tried to get us attached to the broad variety of characters but seemed to fail at the limited amount of episodes. 13 episodes are not enough to try to get us attached at a cast this big but it tried it's best to get certain people into the spotlight - but not all of them.

This could have been easily forgiven if it wasn't for the biggest plot hole of the show which was the ending itself. Sure it was tear-jerking and got to me but the way how they did it was not explained very well leaving questions if you dare to look behind the facade of onions being cut.

The only thing which was handled very well in terms of the story was to show what people who had an unjust life could expect in their afterlife. Angel Beats was sad and handled the drama elements as well as the comedy ones.

Art (7/10):

The animation and backgrounds in Angel Beats were nice to look at and solid in terms of quality. Lightning seemed done fine as well. Besides the quite unoriginal looking characters there is mostly nothing to complain about but also almost as good as nothing to praise a lot.

Sound (8/10):

The Angel Beats soundtrack was downright gorgeous. From the opening theme to the ending theme as good as every musical piece was worth getting the soundtrack. I always listen to it when I'm in the mood. Jun Maeda did a great job in getting you involved in the happenings and Girls Dead Monsters "My Song" got my eyes wet. Very good!

Character (6/10):

The biggest issue in Angel Beats for me was the immense amount of characters which were full of various archetypes you see in as good as every piece of fiction nowadays. We have the quite aggressively acting leader of the whole bunch, the shy beauty, the main characters "bro"-character and the mysterious foe just called "Angel".
The stereotypes aren't the major problem though. How only a handful of them got attention and their place in the spotlight was the letdown since the whole cast had something interesting to them, that is. It's a shame the creators only got time/budget to do 13 episodes. I'd love to see more in animation form.

Enjoyment (7/10):

Even with its issues Angel Beats got me hooked for two days straight until I was finished. The comedy was alright, the action as well. It fulfilled most of the criteria to be an entertaining show. But the entertainment value is not to be confused with the actual quality of storytelling, characters and art-style.

Verdict (6/10*):

Angel Beats was an entertaining, fine show but nothing more. Too much potential has been wasted by cutting the episode count to only 13 episodes which left as good as no time to focus on the interesting characters you suddenly had to feel for while watching them trying to achieve what they couldn't in their previous existence. Fans of drama should look into it - it has quite some emotional moments and is still good in terms of audiovisual quality.

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*) Score is not an average

Trigger's highly acclaimed Kill la Kill came to a tremendous end in March and now that the dust has settled I thought it may be the perfect time to unfold it once again for my review. Let's take a look if the hype behind this show is justified or not.

A plot summary has already been given in the detail section of the information page so I won't be doing one - it's literally one click away.

Let's split up this review into the five categories as usual:

Story (6/10):

Coming from a studio which participated in the making of the well-known Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and taking a ... look at the plot synopsis you should've already guessed that you are in for an over-the-top-action feast with almost no brakes on the hype train.
That's only partly true. Kill la Kill does start of at an incredible speed introducing the large cast of characters while not refraining from leaving certain topics untouched such as the meaning of "being human" or even incest.

In comparison to this you have kind of a choring couple of episodes which more or less feel like real filler. Good thing is there is only a couple, like two or three. Also towards the end it tends to drag itself until the end where they can finally reveal the huge cliffhanger leading to the expected climax.

Overall the story is nothing which stands out very much but I doubt it was expected from Kill la Kill in the first place. It's entertaining and suspenseful enough to keep you hooked throughout the ride but is too shallow for anything worthwhile. The plot twists in the middle arc definetly made up for the rather lame beginning.

Art (6/10):

The art in Kill la Kill is heavily double-edged. On the one hand it does fit the shows unrealistic themes and high-octane action quite well but on the other hand it's just ugly with quality being thrown around everywhere, the moving characters just becoming some blurred lines throughout the action scenes or just being animated horribly deformed. At this point I think Trigger just overdid their selves while planning the whole thing, not spreading the budget well enough.

It's certainly not horrible per say but it would have been nice to see Trigger trying to bring it down to a common denominator or at least trying to make use out of the saved budget as they did with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann where the end was unquestionable the best thing the show had to offer in terms of as good as everything.

Sound (8/10):

While Kill la Kill does its best not to be a complete failure regarding art it does excel at sounding absolutely gorgeous. Sawano Hiroyuki (Attack on Titan) did his best to provide fitting bombastic themes (KIRYU HA KILL), slow and sad (Until I die) ones and even attempts in German songwriting with industrial sounds mixed underneath it (Blumenkranz) to set the mood perfectly and to get your blood boiling.

Only towards the end you realized that they were using the same tracks over and over again. This didn't stop me from downloading the whole Original Soundtrack though.
While we are at Kill la Kills best part we also have the outstanding voice acting. The characters have been hit right on the spot with their respective voice actors.

In terms of sound Kill la Kill does as good as everything right. It's a feast for the ears to put it that way.

Character (7/10):

Kill la Kill does offer every kind of character archetype you could imagine. The cast is incredibly huge and it doesn't feel like anyone is left behind in the development. Ryuko is the hot-blooded revenge seeking tomboy, then we have her comedy relief best friend Mako, the weirdo teacher Mikisugi and the evil tyrannical leader of the academy Satsuki who is ruling the school along with the Elite Four; the best trained students with the most powerful armors and the closest relationship to Satsuki.
All in all the cast was very likeable with a few exceptions in my case which only happened to be supporting characters with no big influence.

Enjoyment (8/10):

I would be lying if I said I didn't love watching Kill la Kill.
I got on hyped really, really quickly and found myself even streaming the lastest translated episodes because I couldn't bear waiting any longer - especially in the middle arc, which was fantastic. The action was great, the music was awesome and the characters were likeable as well. The only thing I didn't like that much was the immense fan service. Don't get me wrong: I could tell which way Kill la Kill was aiming for from just a few episodes but come on... Looking back at it, it could have done equally well if not better without nudity flashing everywhere you look. This is just opinion based though. If you have no problem with ecchi-like approaches then you are set and won't mind but there surely are people (like me) who find it rather annoying. It's just supposed to be a "warning" of some sort to this kind of people.

Verdict (7/10*):

Kill la Kill was an action-filled and entertaining watch definitely worth checking out if an absurd level of over-the-topness does not scare you away. Be warned that this show is mostly freaking stupid but equally freaking awesome.
For action-fans Kill la Kill should be a must. If you are looking for a deep storyline with thought-provoking themes you are wrong here. This anime is just made for entertainment. You are better of turning off your brain while seeing Trigger playing around with almost every basic rule of how the world is supposed to work.

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*) Score is not an average