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This manga is dreadful. Had to stop reading after 28 chapters because I was losing brain cells from reading it.

The story could have been so much more. It builds off of a mythical premise, and has a lot of potential to be an epic saga. However, the hopes and expectations were trampled by the flat, shallow character development, the dull plot, as well as the rigid and confusing composition of each frame ultimately make this manga a horrible waste of time.

Let's talk about the biggest plot twist involving Soah's lack of competence in recognizing that Mui and Haebek are one and the same person. God ... help her, since she doesn't seem to have a clue about anything. I suppose her life is supposed to be tragic, but she definitely does not come across as a brownie-points-grabbing, sympathy-winning, supposedly-dignified heroine. (Please write better scripts / develop better qualities for her!! How are all the decent looking characters falling for her left and right? I suppose her beauty must be the only answer - my heart is shattering.)

Then there's the water God, who has communication issues, and takes advantage of every cameo in his Mui form to sexually harass Soah. I get it, the intimacy is hot, and turns fans on; but the high frequency of such actions without adequately developing their feelings for each other come across as shallow, and appalling.

To wrap this up: unless you feel turned on by extremely detailed, clamp-wannabe illustrations, please walk away from this manga.

I feel compelled to write a review for this anime since it's just what I wanted for the summer! It's not fast paced nor one of those surreal, fantastical, crazy psych-warfare works but its take on realism, deductive reasoning, and emphasis on the importance of culture and self-discovery makes it really worth checking out.

Hyouka, to me, is all about finding out the life that one wants while living it. As obscure as that may sound, it talks about a few high school kids transforming from being conservative and self-serving (in their own ways) to proactive and reflective. While on the micro-level it explores the life ... adventures of these students, it subtly touches on greater topics beyond what you see, such as societal pressure, political influence on education, and responsibility of knowledge, etc. How these aforementioned are hinted throughout the show is simply exquisite and beautiful.

As expected of Kyoto Animation, the art is poetic and just right down to every detail to support the plot and establish the atmosphere of the show. The characters design is above average and not too exaggerated to retain its realism. The entire show is as real as daily life can get, which is great in its own way. Great job on Satomi's part to make a slightly-on-the-edge-of-being-annoying character sound cute and almost likable.

What I love the most about this show is the subtly in almost everything yet having emphasis at the right place/time like a prose or a song. That being said, there's still a right amount of dissonance in which the characters struggle at one point or another. Well, life doesn't come without its turbulence. Also, I really enjoyed the way it toys around with the audience by not giving too many hints away so there's always a push to finish each episode and no reason to scream "imbecile" at the screen.

Although there are so many great things about Hyouka, the way it divides into several mini plots makes the show sometimes really fun to watch yet other times kind of slow and plain. I guess life is sort of like that, which makes this directive layout reasonable, but this takes away the hook factor and renders my rating down a notch.

I would totally recommend this for anyone; it's a great show to go in between heavy psychological and action watch lists. I know that many don't find this type of anime to be their cup of tea (since that's how I started out), but I find this one to be better than some of the other Kyoto works such as Kanon or Clannad. You'll definitely like it (at least most parts of it) so give it a shot.

I have yet to finish the original but The Unlimited H.K. is pretty stand alone as its spin-off focusing on Kyousuke, a sort of enigmatic criminal from Zettai Karen Children. Despite the somewhat lack of depth in plot, character development and just not exploring all the settings to the full extent, there're a few things I really like in this series.

First the protagonist is ideally imperfect, strong and likable. His character is significantly enriched through the 2 episodes about his past as well as throughout the entire anime where he takes on a lot of burden to protect his crew. Here, the flashbacks are ... used perfectly for the purpose of augmenting the understanding of his motives. There's a lot of potential to this character yet he somehow puts all of his hope in the "Queen of Catastrophe". It is a mystery whether he is a true prophet or just a fool. On the other hand, his powers (and the other characters') and mission plans (especially in the first half) are not explained at all. Although this is not necessary the fault of his character, the quality of the show as an independent piece is quite reduced due to the confusion caused by the lack of explanation.

The newly added protagonists are not too thoroughly developed to my disappointment. Especially, the whole set up of the protagonist, Hinomiya, is made to seem like a coincidence and a farce with his superb naivety. It's not like he fully trusts his organization in the first place and yet, as fishy as the orders sound, he still goes and does something unwarranted. Also, him being not really ESPer and not completely Normal would've added more depth on his part but wasn't delved into at all. Yuugiri's role is also not fulfilled for the majority of the show despite being a main character. It is another mystery how she ended up in the prism in the first place.

Regarding the story, I really expected much more than what it delivers. The unraveling of the climax is too straightforward and predictable. Also, I find the ending somewhat vague. On a grander look, there's not enough light shed on the future where the ESPers and Normals will hold together. I think the main set-back of this anime is the narrow minded psyche as well as the isolation in settings especially since it focuses on a social, cultural and political revolution for the ESPers and for *peace of humanity. Whatever that is.

With consideration of the topic's complexity, it's understandable that the development is unsatisfying. This aspect is similar to X-Men from Marvel.

Secondly, from a director's standpoint, the pacing and scene cuts are really well done. The op really gets me hyped up and the hue changes depending on the content of each episode. The graphics is standard and character designs are somewhat interesting.

Compares to the original, the spin-off is a lot less childish and contains somewhat sophisticated elements such as war, human rights, experimentation... Although I still feel that the anime is aimed for 12 year-olds with the avoidance of exploring gore and death, lousy scientific foundations, flashy action scenes. and weak military defense.

Despite its obvious flaws and lack of exploring its full potential, perhaps it has been a little underrated. I would watch it for Kyousuke's awesomeness and for a good kill-time but don't expect it to be mind blowing.

A lot of peeps have been saying that Btooom! is not original, blah blah. Honestly, how many original stories are out there these days anyway? Although I do find similarities to many other works in bits and pieces over the course of watching it, I still enjoyed it very much ( even with the cliches and stupid women, yes...because the fight makes it worth while).

The protagonist is, sort of similar, but different from the generically wimpy main characters. I guess since it's easy to relate to his mind set as a semi-NEET myself, I really like how awesome he becomes as he acts out his ... game life. For characters in general, I really like how they come in a variety from middle aged salary man to high esteemed professionals to students to NEETs, etc. It's exciting to get different sneak peaks into their troubled lives and see how their perspectives change over time as they play the game. Comparing to most other shounen anime I've watched where each of type of character plays a specific role ( pilots are all old men, fighters are all bishounen, or everyone in the world is under 20, *it's exaggerated but you get what I mean ), this is one level above that. Annnnd, most importantly, the main characters are NOT THAT STUPID/USELESS. Finallyyyyy!

The story itself is full of fantastical elements, such as the setting and the game itself, but it brings out the morals behind and the growth in characters quite well. Surprisingly I didn't find any turning point unrealistic. As for what I think, the overall production is not disappointing at all. Being very picky on graphics and visuals in general, Btooom! does, at times, present alarming ecchi-ness that I find hard to take (not in terms of content but ..pinkness. *Hue Saturation is too high). Ahem.

The only, real problem I have is the pacing. For some reason I find the thoughts of the characters too slow (especially Himiko). On top of that the suspense are killed too quickly with the immediate revelation of the action strategies. I would be happier if more emphasis is brought out.

Lastly...I really hope there's a second season since a lot questions have left answered. The hardest part of putting all the developments together has only just begun. *Kekeke, quoting from op already. Anyway.

My suggestion is that if you are into gaming and don't appreciate your boring life, like I do, then watch this. Keep in mind, if you're the type to zoom over anime, to pay attention because there's not a lot of narration-like roles to explain all the details for ya like in Akagi or Death Note.

Thanks for reading all my shinanigans! //*run off to read the manga.