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Let's face it, the only reason people remember this anime is because of the English dub produced by ADV Films written by Steven Foster, which is known for it's raunchy, self aware humour that features fourth wall breaks and politically incorrect jokes (which they likely couldn't get away with today).
Other than that, it's basically just Scooby Doo with ghosts from Japanese folklore and less of the charm, which makes for a boring experience that I'm afraid not even the dub could save it from even with talent such as Hilary Haag, Chris Patton, Greg Ayres and Rob Mungle behind it.

The series is pretty much episodic ... in nature with the only semblance of any over arching plot being an evil spirit posessing a cat belonging to one of the protagonists who is basically there to talk shit to them as they try to defeat whatever evil entity they face in that particular episode.

Ghost Stories is an anime that I honestly can't recommend to anyone, especially those of the easily offended disposition. It's dull, generic and there are plenty of other horror titles out there that are worth your time.

If you're at all familiar with the name Masami Obari, then you probably know what to expect from just about any anime his name is attached to.
Dangaizer 3 pretty much ticks all the Obari boxes. Sexy girls? Check. Giant robots? Check. Copious amounts of shameless fan service? Check and mate!

If you've seen Voltage Fighter Gowkaizer and thought that was bad, then hold on to your beer because when it comes to schlock Dangaizer takes the cake. Literally, if you know what I mean.

The plot is practically wafer thin and nonsensical, the characters are dull and uninteresting, and any action scenes are just plain boring. ... Much of the anime's focus is on the fan service which is in plentiful supply from your typical panty shots to full blown T&A and some ludicrously skimpy outfits.
The animation is decent enough though that is to be expected from an OVA from the late 90s and the design of the titular Dangaizer is certainly impressive showing that Obari certainly knows how to design a good mecha.

In conclusion, Dangaizer 3 is a shallow and just outright soulless little series that I can only recommend to the lowest denominator. The kind who couldn't give less of a shit about plot and characters and are only interested in the fan service. For anyone else I can only recommend spending your time elsewhere.

If for some reason you ever wanted to see an anime that showcases the absolute worst of humanity, look no further than Genocyber.

Based on an unfinished 1992 manga by Tony Takezaki, this 1994 cyberpunk/biopunk OVA is an unapologeticly brutal gore fest that relishes in nihilism, human suffering and body horror.
With Koichi Ohata, who brought us such dregs as M.D. Geist and the Ikki Tousen series in the director's chair and Sho Aikawa, who is now best known for writing Martian Successor Nadesico and Full Metal Alchemist as well as various tokusatsu shows as the series writer, Genocyber is another of Aikawa's early works in anime ... that consist of immature, edgy, nihilistic themes with unlikable characters as seen in the likes of Legend of the Overfiend, Violence Jack and Angel Cop.
And Aikawa's raging hate boner for humanity is on full display here.
Genocyber just feels like it was written by an angsty teenager who is angry at the world. Most of if not all of the show's characters bar our protagonist are written as insufferably evil scum buckets with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever to people who are just one mental breakdown away from falling into insanity. Or in some cases both. All while gleefully relishing in over the top violence and gore that would make Fist of the North Star, Violence Jack, Berserk and even Elfen Lied weep.

So what's the anime about? Well, the first episode goes something like this:
At the dawn of the 21st century, all the nations of the world have pulled together to form a new one world government while in Hong Kong, scientists under the direction of mad scientist Kenneth Reed have begun development on an ultimate bio-weapon dubbed Genocyber by combining the minds and powers of two psychic sisters, Diana, a born cripple who uses a cyborg body to move around and our protagonist Elaine, a girl born with the nervous system of an animal who escapes from Reed's lab and befriends a bullied street urchin while on the run from Reed, who acts as surrogate father to the two girls. To make matters worse the Kuryu Group, the organisation funding the Genocyber project have sent a trio of sadistic cyborg mercenaries to find and capture Elaine no matter the cost.
After a violent run in with the Kuryu Group's mercenaries followed brutal and unnecessary massacre at a hospital at the hands of Reed's masked henchmen, a scuffle with her sister Diana well as a brief fight with the Kuryu cyborgs, the inevitable finally happens where Elaine's lifeforce merges with Diana. The titular Genocyber is finally born and all hell breaks loose.

Manga Entertainment UK would realase and localise the first three episodes of Genocyber before it would see release in Japan, where it would become part part of Manga's Cyberpunk Collection alongside Cyber City Oedo and A.D. Police. And if you're at all familiar with Manga's early days as a distributor and localiser of anime you likely know what to expect from the English dub, cheesy voice acting laced with superfluous amounts of profanity.
However, it wouldn't be until Genocyber's licence was acquired by Central Park Media in 1999 that the final two episodes would see a release in English with Manga Entertainment deciding not to release it at all. And likely with good reason as it's pretty much the most boring part of the series.

In all honesty, Genocyber is not an anime I can recommend to anyone. Not even the most die hard gore fan. The series revels in absolute cruelty and hatred to the point where it's as if the writer and director want the viewer to suffer. The violence is so over the top that it's just outright uncomfortable to watch and the anime makes sure you see every grizzly detail when the blood and entrails are splattered across the screen.
It's not just the adult characters in the show who get brutally slaughtered either as the anime has absolutely no shame in killing children in full gory detail as well. The first episode even goes out of it's way to show the young street urchin Elaine befriends being molested by two of his bullies while another attempts to have his way with Elaine.
No joke, the anime even shows full on child molestation just to show how irredeemably evil the bullies are in order to make their eventual karmic retribution more deserving.

The animation is actually really good for the most part and not just for the gore scenes. There are many scenes where the animation is smooth as butter, especially during the action scenes and there is some great attention to detail in the background settings and character designs, especially the Genocyber itself which straight up looks like a demonic version of The Guyver.
However, the first episode is pretty notorious for using scenes of photorealism in some parts which just looks jarring and sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the animation.

As for the story... it tried. The first episode at least has some decent ideas but is just so poorly executed and relies on exposition dump after exposition dump with it's character dialogue. Parts 2 and 3 follow the cliched man's creation going out of control trope as an experimental super weapon goes on a bloody rampage after an encounter with the Genocyber while the final episodes are just a boring chore to sit through.

If I were to say anything good about Genocyber it would be it's music.
The soundtrack has a very good music score with many memorable tunes such as the theme that plays over the Genocyber's rampage and action scenes and the ending theme song Fairy Dreamin' by Sayuri Shimizu is a somewhat romantic yet somber hard rock track that fits the overall tone of the show and I garantee you'll be searching it up on YouTube once you've heard it.

In conclusion, Genocyber is an insufferable trashy mess with very few good things about it. It's a bleak, miserable little OVA that oozes nihilism, hatred and despair at every turn and I'm sure anyone who has already seen it would rather forget about it.
For anyone who hasn't seen this series already I can only say avoid it at all costs. However, if for some reason you want to see it for yourself, don't expect to have a good time.

At the time of this review, it has now been 18 years since Gamera, the rocket powered flying turtle kaiju had made any form of on screen appearance. 2006's Gamera the Brave, which received generally unfavourable reviews, would be the last time the franchise would receive any new iteration for years.
With the triumphant return of Godzilla in 2014 and the kaiju renaissance started by 2013's Pacific Rim now being in full swing, many fans of the kaiju genre, myself included, clamored for the return of our favourite turtle.
Unfortunately, Gamera Rebirth would end up not being the great return we were hoping for.

Firstly, the series is ... directed by Hiroyuki Seshita who co-directed the atrocious Godzilla anime trilogy and the series is also animated in the same 3-D style which doesn't look good and comes across as stiff and janky in most places. The characters aren't particularly interesting as they just feel dull and the story definitely leaves much to be desired.

Gamera Rebirth was definitely a series that had a lot of hype behind it prior to it's release due to the fact that Gamera hadn't been seen for many years but just ended up being a disappointing series that left a bad after taste.
And honestly, Gamera deserves better.

I can pretty much describe this anime in one sentence: The biggest load of crap I have ever seen in all my years as a fan of anime!
And believe me, I've seen my share of garbage anime.

Okay, so the basic premise of a group of people trapped on a deserted island with giant creatures, in this case giant insects, isn't exactly anything original. It's a trope that's been used many times in movies but at the same time it can work as a plot device if done well.
Kyochuu Rettou a.k.a The Island of Giant Insects doesn't just take the same old same old cliche and ... just run with it but it does it in the sense that it knows it's cliche and just doesn't care or even attempt to do anything new or different.
The characters aren't any better either as they just come across as bland, annoying or just outright insufferable.
Add to this disgusting scenes of the giant insects killing people in a way that I can only describe as torture porn and the anime even throwing in a bathing scene where characters get off with each other in a pointless attempt to keep it interesting. The key word here being attempt.

Now you're probably asking at this point if the animation is any good.
Well, the 2-D animation is decent enough but the movie also utilises CGI animation for the giant insects which just looks awful and practically sticks out like a sore thumb.

In conclusion, all I can say is avoid this shit sandwich at all costs. It's honestly not worth you're attention.

Okay, let me begin by stating that I am certainly no prude when it comes to the ecchi genre. I consider it to be a guilty pleasure.
However, I've often found that anime in the genre are something to go into with low expectations as more often than not the fanservice basically takes priority over the actual plot. That being said there are ecchi anime that do at least make the effort to tell a good story such as the brilliant and hilarious Kill la Kill while some have the potential to tell a good story but just throws in so much fanservice that it distracts ... from the story such as Senran Kagura.

Which brings us to Freezing. And when it comes to low expectations, by God did I have them for this series. I remember reading a review in a magazine once that gave it a negative review with a one star rating out of five. Nonetheless I went into the show and decided to see it for myself.
And I ended up coming out of it feeling unfulfilled.

To cut a long story short, the series is set in the far future where giant aliens called NOVA threaten humankind. The only way to fight the threat is by sending in female soldiers called Pandora whom are trained by a school/training facility named Genetics and are backed by male partners called Limiters who cast an ability called Freezing to trap the aliens and supply power to their Pandora partners while they handle the fighting.

At least that's what the series is suppose to be about. Instead we get another school fighting anime where many of the female characters are absolutely hateful, big breasted brats who's sole intention is to bully and kick each others arses rather than focus on dealing with the alien threat because there so caught up in fighting each other.

And the male characters? HA! Talk about a joke! They practically do nothing but hide behind their Pandora partners while casting their Freezing spells and empowering them. Other than that they do practically nothing and might as well not even be there.

Now your probably wondering where the whole "alien monsters bent on destroying humanity" plot point come in to this. Well, sadly it doesn't. Oh it's brought up in the first episode and a few other times in the series but it never comes into the story until the final three episodes.
And it's unfortunate because this is where the series had potential! Instead we get an other Ikki Tousen clone (so to speak) with plently of clothes shredding fight scenes of women hating each other for one reason or another with male characters that might as well be redundant.

Okay, so I should probably move on to what was actually good about the series.
Well, the animation and art are fantastic, the fight scenes are certainly entertaining and the music is decent.

To conclude, Freezing is a well animated series that had the potential to be pretty decent but ultimately falls flat due to bad story telling and bland characters. But somehow I can't bring myself to call it terrible, more like something that needed more work. A lot more work.

The Magical Girl genre has seen many changes over the decade, the perhaps most well known involving teenage girls transforming into magical superheroines to battle evil, i.e. Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach and the like while some take a turn into the fantasy genre such as Magic Knight Rayearth.
Many of these shows are often filled with cheer while also spreading the message about love and friendship as the colourful band of girls battle evil with the aid of a cute and cuddly mascot character, find romance then go off to meet up for tea and cakes.

However in January 2011, an all new anime series surfaced on ... TV in Japan that changed Magical Girl anime as we know it. That anime was Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Madoka basically did for the Magical Girl genre what Evangelion did for the mecha genre in that it broke the mold by taking a more darker approach to an already well know genre. The first few episodes start out in the typical cheerfulness of Magical Girl anime, but this is merely a trick to cover up what's to come. After the third episode, the series goes down a much darker path with unsuspecting twists showing that becoming a magical girl is much like a deal with the devil and maitains a foreboding sense of threat. The characters go through so much pain and suffering that you actually feel bad for them.
Even Kyubey, the token magical girl mascot of the show isn't all he seems and has a much more sinister agenda. This is definitely a whole lot grittier than any Magical Girl anime before it. But this is really what makes it stand out.

Madoka was picked up for a DVD release in the U.S. Valentine's Day 2012 by Aniplex before eventually being released in the U.K. by Manga Entertainment October 29 the same year and was awarded as Neo Magazine's favorite anime of 2012. And it's also become mine.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a fresh new take on the Magical Girl genre with it's overall darker tone. Forget about everything you've seen in Sailor Moon, cause Madoka is NOT your typical Magical Girl anime. Watch it!

Rio: Rainbow Gate, a series that's based on Tecmo's line of pachinko games.
Sigh! I honestly don't know where to begin with this one.

Frankly speaking, it's crap! It's art and animation looks fantastic, but it has literally nothing to recommend by despite it's lush visuals. It's all fanservice, gambling, cheap humor, characters so unbelievably bland and absolutely no plot. It's story basically revolves it's title character, Rio Rollins Tachibana who works a both a dealer and entertainer in the Howard Resort. She also brings good luck to all in the resort's casino just by being in the vicinity (Yeah, it's okay to laugh). I actually couldn't ... finish it. I managed to watch the first two episodes in one sitting before eventually watched episode 3, hoping it would improve.
It didn't and I dropped it completely as I found it just mind-numbingly boring.

Rio: Rainbow Gate is just a series that looks great but has nothing on offer. Take my advice and just don't bother with it. You'll only be wasting your time.

Najica Blitz Tactics is a series produced and animated by Studio Fantasia with Katsuhiko Nishijima at the helm of director.

The show is basicly a spy drama following the title character Nagica Hiragi and her partneer Lila who is a humaritt, a type of android. When not coming up with new ideas for perfume, Najica heads out on various missions with Lila which mostly involve retrieving other humaritts for reasons never explained, while throwing bucket loads of fanservice in it's viewers face.

Safe to say, Najica is basicly just a fanservice show loaded with up skirt camera angles and panty shots, with the occasional boob shots ... and swimsuit action on the side (one episode sees Najica and Lila on a mission clad in their bathing suits). The show is pretty similar to Studio Fantasia's earlier Agent Aika series (also directed by Nishijima), there are panty shots everywhere which can be very distracting leaving little room for plot and character development.

All in all, it's not a bad anime. It's well animated and worth it's share of salt. However, it's not great nor something that everyone can enjoy as you'll be exposed to up skirt shots and panties constantly. If that sort of thing offends you're then you're better off watching something else.

Clannad: Tomoyo chapter is a straight-to-video one-off episode set in an alternative timeline to the TV series focused on a romantic relationship between Tomoya Okazaki and Tomoyo Sakagami. None of the other female characters (i.e: Nagisa, Kyou, Kotomi et all) appear in this episode.

The episode is a touching love story with plenty of drama on offer and a climax that will touch your heart and make you shed tears, something that Clannad has been known to do.

Tomoyo chapter is a fresh new take on the Clannad story and is certainly worth the watch. Just be sure to watch the actual TV series first.