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FLCL Progressive sits in an awkward position. It was an unexpected sequel to an anime that aired 18 years earlier. The original FLCL was a zany visual affair that still holds up today and helped define what anime is to a generation of Western fans who grew up on Toonami. FLCL is genuinely great and benefits from a tremendous amount of nostalgia. There is no way that FLCL Progressive was ever going to be better than the original, especially considering how anime production has changed dramatically since then. That said, FLCL Progress is a very good anime that I found more interesting and entertaining than ... most other anime that have been released in recent years.

A quick note on production, FLCL took 11 months to release six episodes, FLCL Progressive did that much in just over a month. If FLCL Progressive had the same development time, episode two wouldn’t have even come out by the time the six actual episodes aired. There was more time to work on individual episodes in FLCL, and later episodes were able to react to and change to responses from the first episodes.

The fundamental problem with FLCL Progressive is that it is more FLCL than the original FLCL. FLCL was groundbreaking at the time and pushed what anime animation can do. As the years have gone by, stunning and creative animation have become more common and better done. Animators who most likely were inspired by FLCL have sought to outdo that anime time and again. The animation in FLCL Progressive is great, but not universally so. There are shots that did not have the time and resources they deserved, and the better shots don’t stand out as much as they would have in 2001.

The story suffers from another bout of one-upmanship in FLCL Progressive. The original anime was known for having a story that was hard to follow, and FLCL Progressive accomplished having an even less structured story. It felt like the anime determined to communicate to its audience using raw emotion rather than more logical words. In that respect, I find that FLCL Progressive was extremely effective. The overall presentation did a great job of capturing certain emotions, but there in lies the problem. In same way that a facial expression can be more powerful than a statement, but a statement can carry orders of magnitude of more information than a facial expression. FLCL Progressive does much, says little, but emotes extremely well. There are many moments within each episode that are fascinating and food for thought in their own right, but those moments don’t build to dramatic points in each episode. There is better dramatic buildup through the entire season, but its not the best you’ll see.

The clearest flaw of FLCL Progressive is the main character, Hidomi Hibajiri. It is hard to write an exciting action-oriented story with a main character who’s defining feature is her lack of agency. Hidomi is a person who is stuck in a malaise. She sees no future that she is interested in pursuing, so she devotes no energy to actually progressing. She does grow and change as the series progresses, but not in a strong enough way to carry the story. The result is virtually every other character in the story is more interesting, and I suspect most viewers would rather just see the events occur in their perspective. The real shame is that FLCL Progress made many great characters who don’t get nearly the amount of time they deserved. It doesn’t help that some big moments do not occur on screen and are only implied by the characters involved after the fact. Ko Ide is the character who would traditionally have been the protagonist but was deliberately prevented from doing so. The protagonist switch was an interesting idea, but one that I feel clearly produced a lower quality result.

The music was good, just not as good as the original FLCL. This is more due to the structural faults of FLCL Progressive rather than the music itself. Music can only enhance a scene, it can’t create it. The music was great in FLCL because the key points were already strong visually, thematically, and built up to in the story. The song Little Buster was made epic because the scenes it appeared in were legitimately epic. FLCL Progressive doesn’t have moments as strong, so the music falters even when it is timed right, which it isn’t always.

To sum up this review, I find it best to use a FLCL analogy. The original FLCL has taken the place of Naota’s older brother in relation to baseball. It has become a distance example of perfection that is forever unattainable. FLCL Progressive has chosen the route that Naota did, by deciding to not even play the game. FLCL Progressive is seeking its own path to respect and greatness and made a valiant attempt even if it did fall short in many respects. The original FLCL showed how foolish it was to judge Naota solely on his baseball abilities, in this manner I also consider it foolish to judge FLCL Progressive solely on how it follows the original FLCL. It is also important to remember that much has changed in 18 years, and the challenges of today different, even if they bear some similarities to problems of the past. FLCL Progressive is a worthwhile anime in its own right, but it will also be the little brother.

Yusibu is a decent ecchi anime that has many fantasy elements. At its core, Yusibu relies on the formula of Beverly Hillbillies and takes a person from a faraway place with different customs and understandings and puts them in a modern setting where hilarity ensues. Make the modern setting a fantasy world where magic equals the technology you see in the real world and have the strange newcomer be the daughter of the demon lord, sprinkle in some ecchi for some added spice and you have yourself a show. That said, Yusibu is not a bad show, and I would even call it a great ... show at the beginning, but it does falter at the end so I must declare it just a good show.

The main characters are Raul Chaser and Fino Bloodstone. Raul Chaser is a man who dreamed of being a hero but that particular career field ended with the death of the demon lord, and Fino Bloodstone is the previously mentioned daughter of the demon lord that wants to live in the human world. Both these characters are employees in magical appliance store with Raul being the senior store employing showing Fino the ropes to her new job. The best part of the anime has to be the interaction between these two. Raul makes a wonderful straight man. He is established as a bad ass early on in the series who has the misfortune of working in retail. He handles himself in a much more reasonable manner than your typical ecchi male lead, though this does wear off as the series goes. Fino has an extremely energetic and optimistic attitude, but that doesn’t really help her at all when it comes to working in retail. I do like how she isn’t depicted as being stupid or clumsy, but as a fish out of water. It is nice to see her slowly get the hang of things as time goes on, but that makes it even more funnier when she makes hilarious mistakes because there still more to learn.

The plot of the anime mainly revolves around the business that Raul and Fino work at, whether that is trying to learn how to interact with customers or tying to think of way to drum up business because a big competitor has moved into town. While the story is not the greatest, it allowed for comedic situations so I never found myself bored while watching it. I was disappointed how the show takes a very simplistic look at economics and the nature of running a business, but it’s really shame on me for expecting insightful discourse on the benefits and dangers of capitalism from an anime that contains a gratuitous amount of bouncing boobs in its OP. The ending was disappointing; there was really little buildup to the climax and there were multiple cases of deus ex machine. It would easily have been a great ended if the series used more foreshadowing and introduced the final antagonists sooner.

There really isn’t anything in Yosibu that makes me believed it will be remembered years from now, but it is worthy for a look now and a quick laugh.

Girls und Panzer is a running joke that never delivers its punch line, and that is why the show is a masterpiece. One its surface, Girls und Panzer appears to be another ‘cute girls doing cute things’ anime with the cute thing this time being riding and fighting tanks. That’s the joke. The underlying premise is so ridiculous and absurd that you can’t not find it funny. However, this anime will play it straight faced for all 12 episodes, but it’s still a joke. This anime enrapture you with breathtaking tank battles, clever comedy and surprising drama, but it’s still a joke. The fact that ... Girls und Panzer transcends the joke that is at the core the anime into an amazing show makes this a must watch for those who love anime and especially those who love good storytelling.

Girls und Panzer’s biggest strength is its tank battles. The battles themselves have good pacing that allows for the creation suspense that feels appropriate and adds to the entertainment value. Because tankery is a high school club in Girls und Panzer, it comes with rules in its conduct and victory criteria. These rules are simple to understand, internally consistent and clearly allow for upsets to occur. These rules allow the viewer to understand what the girls are trying to achieve in their battle plans and make the upsets that do occur completely believable. The tanks themselves are historically accurate. Tanks with heavy armor will have tank rounds bounce off, but they will also be slow because of that armor. Many of the WW2 era tanks are showcased at some point in the show and tank buffs will enjoy looking for their favorite tanks.

The main characters are solid, though they do not stand out compared to other anime. But with Girls und Panzer’s focus being the tank battles, the main characters are developed well for the time they have and do add to the show. The side characters are ridiculous, but the show is inherently ridiculous so it doesn’t feel odd. They do add a spice to the show that is enjoyable to watch, especially in the first few episodes. The other teams represent various countries in both the tanks they use and the stereotypes of the people on it. Those characters are always fun to watch in the brief appearances they make.

Girls und Panzer also resonates with me for personal reasons. My job is to command tanks in combat. This anime is able to capture the trill of firing the main gun of a tank and how awesome it is to maneuver tanks against an enemy force. Fighting in tanks is fun (at least in war games), and this anime shows that. It even shows how much it sucks to fix a tank when breaks down in the field.

While I understand that not everyone will love this anime as much as I do, I’m sure that most people will enjoy watching Girls und Panzer and have no regrets doing so.

G Gundam is by far the most experimental of the main Gundam shows to have been created. Many fans from the West first encountered G Gundam when they were kids watching Toonami, so this show has a strong nostalgia factor for many who have seen it. However after recently re-watching this show, I can confirm that it still contains the same charm and energy I remembered as a kid and it is still one of the most enjoyable anime I have ever watched. It contains some amazing fights, and also has some amazing intentional and unintentional humor.

G Gundam is set many years ... into the future where much of humanity has gone into space to live on colonies. Achieving the ability to live in space did not bring humanity together, but only serve to drive it further apart. Countries such as Japan, the United States, France, China, Russia, and every country that existed in 1994 has their own space colony and they all foutght against each other to gain supremacy of space. In response to the bloody wars that came about, the countries agreed to hold a Gundam fight tournament ever four years. Each country would send only one Gundam, and whoever won the tournament gave their nation the right to rule space and Earth for the next four years.

At its core, G Gundam is merely a kong-fu anime that happens to have the fighters and martial artists in giant robots. The pilots don’t use joysticks to maneuver their Gundam, but instead have a suit that causes the Gundam to mimic their own moves, making it by far the coolest way to control a Gundam or giant robot I have seen. The action is over-the-top, and the fighters are able to perform crazy attacks both inside and outside their Gundam; one fighter even cut an entire skyscraper in half with a single kick outside of his Gundam. The story is simple, but it is well paced for its length. Each episode has its own featured fight, and I don’t recall any fight lasting longer than one episode.

The characters are what truly make this show. Domon Kashu is the main character of G Gundam and is the representative from Japan. He is a loud, aggressive and powerful fighter who only knows how to communicate with his fists. He is in search of his older brother who destroyed their family and has stolen the most powerful Gundam ever made and is now hiding on Earth. On his journey for revenge, Domon will encounter Gundam fighters from other countries who are amazing characters in their own right. Some of his fellow fighters will become friends and others will become enemies, but each of them is a joy to watch. You will definitely find a Gundam fighter that is your favorite. It is a joy to watch Domon grow as a fighter and as a person and to see him develop throughout the series.

I must note that this show is one of the cheesiest anime you will ever see, and that is what makes it so good. The fighting in G Gundam is ridiculous, but the show plays everything with a straight face and is serious in how it handles it. This causes the show to be extremely hilarious throughout. All the fighters scream out their special attacks, but I found you never get tired of it. Often, I realized I was saying the attack names along with the characters. This show is often extremely racists. The Gundams representing their countries are often stereotypes of the country itself; for example, Mexico’s Gundam has a sombrero, and Egypt’s Gundam is a mummy. However, none of the stereotypes feel malicious and it all just ends up adding to the humor. I believe this comes from the fact that political correctness is not much of a thing in Japan, though it is in the United States.

I justify this anime receiving a nine because of its immense enjoyment factor. The best way to describe G Gundam is that it is the embodiment of a young boy’s dream, which is where the charm comes from because kids have the best dreams. If you are willing to release your inner child, then you will have no regrets watching G Gundam.

A journey can be a pivotal point in a person’s life. It provides an opportunity for a person to experience a new world where they encounter new ideas and do things they have never done before. More importantly, a journey allows is a time of self-discovery. Interacting with a new culture forces a person to evaluate their own beliefs and customs that may seem natural to them, but may soon learn they are not intuitive. It is also an opportunity to see that there are things that are universal for all cultures. It is this power that a journey has ... that the anime Kino’s Journeys attempts to tap.

Kino’s Journey follows a traveler named Kino and her talking motorcycle called Hermes. They are both traveling the world visiting country after country with no real final destination. This setup causes Kino’s Journey to be a very episodic. It is also nearly impossible to establish any linear timeline with no carryover between episodes and multiple episodes consisting of stories in the form of flashbacks.

The characters in this anime are a mixed bag. Kino and Hermes are examples of extremely well designed characters. Kino presents a stoic exterior, but you eventually get a feel for her as a person from all the little details the show gives you. Hermes mainly serves as the catalyst that actually gets Kino to talk but does little besides that. Fortunately, what it does is perfect for the anime. Hermes asks some very interesting questions which usually receive an interesting answer from Kino which serves as one of the main sources of her characterization. The other characters are caricatures more than anything else. The episodic nature prevents more than a brief one-dimensional look at them. It becomes very hard to gain affinity with most of the characters because they never feel human. The characters serve their purpose in the story, but their lack of humanity prevents their actions from having any real weight.

The main problem with the show is that it isn’t deep. At first glance it appears that there is a lot down there, but when you dive in you’ll soon find your head hitting the bottom. The stories are parables that cover a wide range of subjects with a general theme of humanity being naturally evil. Often the story is a social commentary that usually involves a society that is distorted in some fundamental way and Kino observing the outcome. Some other stories feature morality issues and a few others attempt to tackle philosophical questions. The stories are very judgmental; often the gavel sounds as soon as the case is presented. It is usually very clear that one side is wrong while the other is right. The show never attempts to present a morally ambiguous situation that forces you to reflect on the issue. It is only when you are forced to walk in the grey area between right and wrong that you truly learn about yourself.

The only thing I truly found interesting in Kino’s Journey is when I considered the thought that the world the anime shows is the world seen through Kino’s eyes. Her prejudices influence how she perceives the situations presented and cause a very distorted world. To Kino, moral issues tend to be very cut-and-dry, so the world she perceives reflects that. The reason Kino travels is that she is unable to find a place the meshes with her understanding of the world, so she continues to travel while futilely wishing the world conformed to her and her being unable to ever consider changing herself. Looking at Kino’s Journey this way can open up some very interesting interpretations of Kino’s actions and the events that happened, but I doubt that view was ever intended so it doesn’t improve my opinion of the show.

Kino’s journey is definitely a good anime, but I would be hard pressed to call it great. It is very similar to fairy tales. The stories border on the fantastical, the characters are very basic, there are clear moral lessons in the stories, and the story itself is very short. The main reason I give this anime a 7/10 is that it is designed to make a person think, but I don’t feel better for watching it. The anime offers no opportunity for dialogue. The lessons Kino’s Journey provides are lessons that I imagine most people who visit this site have already learned.