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As an ongoing manga its hard to give a full on clear review as I do not know the direction Ohtaka will take. I can give my two cents on the story, till c.199, so far.

Magi is based on the one hundred and one nights, arabic stories from western and souther asia collected in arabic in the Islamic golden age (you can read ore on the wikipedia page for this collection of writings). The most popular and adapted are the three "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor" which were actually added by Antoine Galland ... and other European translators (wikipedia). They're actually middle east folk tales. Now we certainly can recognize the names of three very important characters in the manga. Ohtaka has definitely done her research and there are several references for these three tales in the manga. And for a fan of these cultural treasures I was pleased with the mangaka's imagination and use of the 'names' and 'items' brought into the story which flourished magnificently up to its 199 chapter.

The characters all differ in both status and upbringing all which is heavily emphasized in the manga and allows a lot of the main characters as well as very important minor characters to flourish and grow. It is also pleasant to read a manga which does remember its minor characters from time to time especially those involved with the plot. The art is very diverse from anything I have laid eyes upon but in time although at first I was a bit skeptic finding it too 'sketchy' at certain points but I learned to love it and also realized that the artist is slowly improving. Ohtaka's covers for the volumes are one of the most intense i have ever scene and I do love her used of colours, never had any complaints for them or the colour spreads which are gorgeous.

All in all Magi is a manga that everyone can enjoy and it is worth a try at the least.

I'm warning now there may be slight spoilers ahead.

Hyouka is an anime I started watching because of the art. It is unique in its style and simply put adorable. The animation is an eyecandy most of the time. The sound went well with the atmosphere of the anime and the soundtrack fit in excellently. Personally some OSTs it would make me smile and thats a great bonus for someone who likes their shows to be driven by both the characters, plot but also the soundtrack.

As for characters I love how eccentic yet normal they are. Take our main duo, Oreki who lives on the basis ... of conserving his energy reservoir and whom I felt reflected a part of my personality, thus I was both annoyed and attracted to this character, and Chitanda who comes from a well off family and showed a diversity of traits ranging from her curiosity, probably due to her strict lifestyle it might have been fueled to soar when family matters are not involved, her responsible side is also evident from the cases involving her family. Most of all its a lovely blooming relationship between these two, it is obvious what their feelings are for each other by the end but that i will leave up to you to conclude on your own. Satoshi and Mayaka are both interesting in their pattern of thought and their relationship with one another just like Oreki and Chitanda are. Satoshi is a self proclaimed human database who has given up and also has to yet give up being something more while Mayaka is a passionate girl in what she does and her love for Satoshi who is scared to obsess about her will get them in a pinch at one point. Satashi himself has said a 'database cannot derive a conclusion'.

I personally enjoyed the series and the characters being a patient yet curious soul. I found it quite interesting. You should also know that the anime is set in arcs probably following the novels, its starts out with introducing the characters followed by the Jun Sekitani arc, Independent film arc, kanya festival arc, english teacher episode, Valentine day episode, and the Doll episode (named by myself and possibly i might have mixed the order). Its a nice watch for someone who feels like something that won't take too much of your strenght to follow which is why I loved it in both its simplicity and sort of not hard to follow but sentimental dialogue.

Oh Valvrave the Liberator where to I even start, let's start from the before the utter stupidity started.

The story setting is interesting enough to grip you for the whole ride and the art is one of the most outstanding I have ever seen,and even though the robots aren't anything special they are at least flashy.

The characters range from jerks to fine beings mainly Saki Rukino, Akira R. as well as Shoko S. which seem to be give the best character development throughout with the former two having it a little bit more gripping in my opinion due to their sarker past. However the treatment of ... my favourite Saki was too harsh and we come to the famous scene in episode 10. A plot twist that was not needed and just seemed to be a cry for attention which is why my rating for both story and character dropped to a 7 and 6 respectively especially due to the lack of respect the main character, Haruto, shows to Saki after the act.

I will simply continue to watch this anime in hopes the second season find the pacing the anime had at the beginning and does not involve any more of these creepy plot twists, or at least to some extent a reasonable plot twist like the one in episode 12 brought us. My enjoyment may have been slightly spoiled but this anime should be given a fair chance even though a lot of patience may be required while wathing it.

Ano Hana is a journey. I have rarely cried in anime, but something written with such a delicate and raw material such as the death of a child, when done with all that respect and consideration, it reaches the heart. Ano Hana is such a story, we get to see how all the characters have survived through the death of their friend hiding emotions that shamed them and clearly having died themselves. The story was divided between all the six friends in a way that you could come to understand all of them well enough. The last episode wraps things up in a way that ... is realistic and will leave you bawling with a smile on your face. Therefore both story and character development where given the attention that required to make this anime a masterpiece.

The soundtrack played a vital part, the ending especially was used in the right moments and leftyou with a sense of wanting more. The sound played with the audience emotions and the voice actors gave their all. I watched the series in Italian and i think they did a splendid job, the japanese cast was also well suited, as I happened to watch two episodes in the original language since I couldn't find them in italian.

Overall this anime is not to be passed and I truly enjoyed every episode, ever getting bored. I look forward to watching the movie in Menma's point of view.

Although the story lacks the direction it is given later in the manga it is still truly enjoyable and its just lovely to watch the characters come alive. The Japanese voice actors especially Rea and Furuya capture the emotions and quirks of the characters effectively.

The sound didn't leave me too impressed but perhaps it is because I got wrapped in the story, for anyone wanting to know more of these lovely characters I suggest reading the manga, chapter 8 is were the anime started to diverge slowly from the story. Yet the 'filler' episodes were nicely done and still used conversations from the manga itself ... making a well rounded 'what if the story had taken another direction' seeing as some characters were not introduced in the anime. Most of all I love the realistic approach to Rea's condition, she's a zombie, this is a fantasy story but she won't just survive with some random zombie magic or anything, she will rot if she doesn't take the hydrangea leaves, and it won't work forever both for her body and her mental stability as a human. Although this part of the plot is more furthur explored in the manga its still very real in the anime which makes it easy to get attached to both story and characters.

Having picked up the manga just before finishing these twelve episodes I'm not displeased at all and although it seemed a bit rushed in the end I can give it a solid overall 8 seeing how the quality of the art style was kept topnotch throughout.

First of all one should explain that although the art is, at the very beginning, very similar to that of Eiichiro Oda author of One Piece it should be obvious that the similarity is actually feeble. Mashima's art also gets an outstanding especially for the fact that its evolution and improvement as he got used to the character designs is outstanding not to mention he draws clothes like a fashion designer (at leats in the story) and its a lovely dynamic seeing some change in clothing on characters that would obviously care about that.

Leaving that aside it is important to remember that this story ... came after Rave Master, another great manga by Mashima which was much darker and pushed the author to try out a more lighthearted story. This created fairy tail which is all about the bonds, friendship but even more so the warmth of a family created, as well as magical adventures concerning these important bonds which are narrated from the point of view of 17 year ol celestial age Lucy Heartfilia, a rookie that gradually improves throughout the story and at a realistic pace in the timespan given. Mashima also introduces numerouscharacters each with their own quirks of which are our protagonists including our main portagonists the destructive fire mage Natsu who literally sweeps Lucy off her feet to her new home, the fairy tail guild, his partner in crim Happy the talking cat?, the exhibionist Gray Fullbuster an ice mage, and the stoic beauty Erza Scarlet.

Their adventures lead them to creating more of these bonds and hopefully the mystery involving the day Natsu's 'special' father dissappearance, with only his scarf as a token before he left will Natsu be able to find him, only Lucy can tell us!

The start is typical and cliche, we have a demon lord oppressing humans, we have a hero slowly rising against him. So what is new? Well the very end of the demon lords plunders in his world is the very start of the story for both sides. The hero follows the demon lord and his right hand man as he retreats to Japan! From then on its a totally enexpected and fun ride as the hero slowly begans to see a new side of the demon lord complete with a high school girl sidekick, and new companions from either side to cause some mischief in ... our world. And as the days go by getting the fuel to go back home doesn't seem to get any easier ith all the ruckus they have to go through so a part time job is essential fro survival! The unknown world of Japan fascinates our demons and this new side of the enemy perplexes our hero? This could only end in laughter believe me =)