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From the Writer of School Days comes SCHOOL DAYS 2 Electric Boogaloo. Every so often there's that one anime that the masses throw roses to that I just don't get, Higurashi, Elfen Lied, Sword Art Online, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0.

I'll have to let Scum's Wish (Kazu no Honkai) be a good reminder to really examine the premise of a show more closely before watching. The genres were interesting enough to catch my eye in the first place, romantic drama, psychological and so on it sounded like good makings for a more serious romance after watching the more light hearted and bubbly romance shows that ... I loved such as One Week Friends, Yona of the Dawn and Snow White With the Red Hair so the best I could hope for is something like Destiny of the Shrine Maiden (Kannazuki no Miko) but rather I ended up with was School Days redux that mysteriously is trending better than School Days for the supposed "maturity" it has.

The basic concept of two teenagers forming a pact to quell their loneliness should sound and come as a heart breaking romance or the potential of a feel good story where they find the love with each other or learn to accept and move on from their first loves or just face the trials of young love in general, a multitude of ways but the first episode left such a sour taste in my mouth that I only hope for a miserable end to our two little losers who deserve what they get.

Hanabi Yasuroka is in love with an older man who is her teacher but curiously refers to him as her older brother despite no relations and Mugi Awaya likewise is in love with a teacher that appears to be in love with the man who Hanabi is in love with but in reality is a sexual sadist who enjoys using men. Then we're introduced to Noriko Kamomebata who is in love with Mugi and then to Sane Ebato who is in love with Hanabi! Can this awful love web become more convoluted and ridiculous?

Though having no actual romantic ties our two main characters certainly love to get physical enough to have the most casual sex and try to write it off as nothing and love to deny being anything more than cheap friends with benefits. Anime fans laud this show for the "maturity" but casual sex in an anime isn't maturity it's just fanservice that goes a little further than the usual bouncing boobs and panty shots we're usually treated to in anime.

The first episode by itself is a mess in structure jumping between time periods of past and present and the confusing referral of Hanabi's love interest as her brother leads a viewer to believe this may be an incest based anime. In fact I'm convinced that's why is just to give it an incest angle for the incest fetish without having to do incest. The second episode began to narrow its focus but everything keeps jumping around it becomes hard to tell what is ever going on at any given time because of the massive story leaps but by later episodes it begins to take on more linear approaches and calms down long enough to focus on moments when our characters aren't doing tongue action every five minutes.

The animation is very nice looking it is pretty with some interesting use of panel shots replicating the feel of a manga without overdoing it (see 3 Gatsu no Lion for that) but they have a real tendency to abuse the hidden eyes trope many anime do wherein a characters eyes will disappear either to reflect deep emotion or be scary and intimidating for a moment. Many anime as I mention do this from time to time but I can't say I've seen an anime do it so much.

And musically the show's melodic score does enrich the atmosphere it's just a shame it's wasted on such a terrible concept. I can't say any one piece really stands out or underscores moments so perfectly but it does feel suited for the moments at each hand.

Scum's Wish I feel is trying to go for a "so uncomfortable" vibe, which can be done well, one only need watch David Fincher films but the cast of deplorable characters added with the sappy, convoluted over the top writing make this show unbearable to sit through.

Over the last couple of years we've seen a steady stream of light novels being adapted to anime series and now we get yet another with this series, produced by C-Station a former offshoot of Bee Train Production Inc. and the overall result is a marginal failure.

Anime is full of time honored clichés that never seem to die and Dragonar Academy is so packed full of them it shows just how void this show is of any creativity or imagination. Giant bouncing breasts on all women characters, naked magic girls showing up from nowhere and mood swinging tsundere characters are ripe and abound in this ... series; it feels less like this is less of a story of it's own and more of a copy paste job from a few dozen other series of it's kind.

Taking from probably equally lazy source material, the scripts written by Noboru Kimura are shoddy and thrown together with no thought or effort behind them. The large cast of cookie cutter characters will bore you with just how uninspired they are.

This kind of tripe is barely forgivable from a group of first time creators but the fact this comes from several long time animators who had once made excellent shows in the past with their old studio, before breaking away to form this new company, adds more insult to injury.

Topping off the cliche storm is a number of soft-core moments between a nude dragon lady giving oral to a pseudo tentacle rape scene, you would think they'd rather be making a hentai series.

Animation and art is just as awful with ugly looking dragons to top off the grossly exaggerated character designs. One would think with a show centered all around dragons it would be the one thing you could get right but the dragons look like a mix of generic fantasy dragons painted in pastels that makes them look like they're covered in hard water spots or they're wearing the projection clothes from the Count of Monte Cristo anime.

Interestingly, half the time you won't see any dragons and it will be mostly focused on whatever lame slice-of-life scenarios ripped from every other show of it's kind. Echo while being presented as a dragon is little more than a magical loli with some horns glued onto her head.

The musical score was somewhat interesting and entertaining and might be the one redeemable factor but it's tie to this awful show doesn't make me enthusiastic to to listen to it. The theme songs are typical for a show like this, shoehorning in as many voice actors, who may or may not have any musical talent, as you can to sing an ear shrieking J-pop song to sell some more CDs,

Dragonar Academy is uninspired, lazy and contrived. Beating down dead clichés that have saturated the market of the last couple years alone this would barely make the grade for a crappy one episode OVA, forget a 12 episode season. I get the feeling even if you are looking for a silly fanservice show there are likely far more entertaining options out there that are less copy-and-paste than this show.

Pokemon Origins is getting a lot of praise mostly because of the comparison to the ongoing anime, Pokemon. Unlike the ongoing series which follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town and his Pikachu, Pokemon Origins is a direct adaptation of the original Pokemon games, Red, Green and Blue and follows the adventures of Red from Pallet Town and his rival, Blue.

What this mini-series show case has going for it is a great cast, great animation by an assortment of great animators including OLM, the company that's long been apart of the Pokemon anime franchise and it's direct telling of the games as opposed ... to the loose inspiration seen in the running series. If you played the originals or the remakes you can get an appreciation for this somewhat but a lot of the appreciation is riding high on nostalgic value and how night and day it compares to the ongoing TV series.

No doubt Origins is or would be superior however it's unfortunately severely limited by it's short length. With only four episodes at less than half-an-hour a piece it crams a 20 hour game into roughly 100 minutes which doesn't leave much of the game to be seen and mostly adds to being a glorified recap than an actual telling. A series like this would have benefited from a slightly longer running set of video projects or better yet a full half season for television.

Gyms are skipped over and most of the story is quickly told through quick narration bytes with only some small key events left in for good measure. We get to see the haunting Lavender Town in full glory and are treated to a full proper battle with Boss Rocket Giovanni.

The sudden introduction of Mega Charizard X Evolution from Pokemon X cheapens the old time feel of the original games and seems tacked on so unnecessarily to promote the latest game.

Pokemon Origins will give you a quick nostalgia binge if you played the original games but will leave you wanting more even though we likely never will. For those who didn't play Generation I or the subsequent remakes and for strangers of Pokemon they'll likely not be engaged by the choppy plot line.

While billed as a movie, 'Birdcage Kingdom' is more of an extended episode of the TV series or a slightly longer OVA episode to compliment the XXXHolic Movie. The plot is little more than a chapter from the manga or an episode from the TV series just stripped of most of any depth either one might have.

It's a very simple and basic story of our heroes landing in one of the many "world of the week" seen in an adventure and fighting "big bad of the week" and resolving the plot at the end. Ideal for a short especially for one aimed ... at a younger audience over the older demographic the manga was written for, or the more all-age-demographic the TV show aimed for. While not really vital to see or read the source material of the movie you might be thrown off just a bit if you jump into this blind with no information. The movie does it's best to set the background of the plot by recreating the first encounter with Yuko who explains the needed sacrifice from Syaoran to save Sakura's life so even then getting lost in this movie should not be an issue.

The art and animation style is lovely, being it is a movie, with a beautiful and lively color pallet and really great and detailed art direction. With character desiigns by Yoko Kikuchi it plays a little more closely to CLAMP's signature art style but without the stiff limitations often seen.

The cinematography also is pretty creative in the same right and shows a lot of high professionalism despite the short length. Proved to not be a throwaway B-Team project against the A-Team Holic project, I.G did clearly commit some resources sadly lacking from the TV series and later OVAs.

Much if any music by Yuki Kajiura is unfortunately tossed into the background and doesn't offer anything new for the franchise OST being just one or two simple pieces that you will barely notice, topped with some of the more iconic pieces such as "Break the sword of Justice."

Likely in an effort to differentiate themselves from the TV series and to work around Kajiura's schedule they quickly edited a few pieces together and downplayed much of the original score. There is a opening theme by singer Kinya, who also provided the opening them songs for the TV series, but the song seems placed in the movie for the sake of having an opening theme given it plays for only five seconds and doesn't get it's full rendition anywhere in the movie it self. Yui Makino on the other hand gets to show her vocal talents with a full ending song, "Amrita" which is a nice ending theme to close out as the credits roll.

The acting in the Japanese version is very solid with a great cast of Miyu Irino, Yui Makino, Tetsu Inada, Daisuke Namikawa and Mika Kikuchi. The English dubbing however is less than stellar with a handful of good performances but two weak performances by Monica Rial as Sakura and Carrie Savage as Mokona. Like in the series these two are the weak links and are both a miscast for these important roles. Jason Libercht however does perfect to capture Syaoran and manages to catch what Irino brings to the role perfect. Same can be said of Chris Sabat as Kurogane and Vic Mignogna as Fai.

The TRC movie is visually beautiful and well made but doesn't really offer anything much more given it's strangely undercut running time, a suitable pre-show for the Holic movie but not much to give on it's own. Fans will enjoy it enough but there's not much to entice a general audience.

El Cazador is the third installment of the Girls With Guns Trilogy from studio Bee Train and it's surprisingly refreshing. Those expecting Noir II probably won't be pleased but those expecting something creative and highly inventive will be most happy. Going into El Cazador my self I really wasn't expecting much. The series didn't look like it had the same kick as MADLAX my personal favorite of the genre or the simplicity yet style of Noir. However when I started watching it, I simply couldn't put it down.

El Cazador is different from it's two previous predecessors in so many ways, it gives it the striking ... originality to make it a stand alone series not requiring the viewer to see the previous two and not making it feel like a carbon copy to make you wonder, "what's the point?" With a more adventure setting and much more of a blend of comedy and drama and a western flair through Central America, the series proves to be fun, enjoyable and a great anime take on the time honored Buddy Picture. The relationship of Nadie and Ellis develops episode by episode and we see the two become closer and even suffer some growing pains along the way. Being pursued by mysterious interests such as Rosenberg and Jody Heyward with the creepy stalker LA the bounds are clearly defined of good and bad so it's not quite as grey morality as Noir or Madlax were.

There's no shortage of surprises and exciting moments in the series as well as the calm moments to sit back and enjoy the art and music culminate into a lovely atmosphere. Yuki Kajiura returns to provide the music bringing a Latin style along with other clever motifs such as the song "Maxwell's Witch" as music to Ellis' mysterious powers and FictionJunction YUUKA's "el cazador" written entirely in Kajiura's made up language but sounding Spanish all the same.

The series does suffer some pitfalls such as the lack of development for Nadie when compared to Ellis who gets an entire episode devoted to her back story and the show can sometimes lack the action and genre style brought by Noir and MADLAX before it. The animation remains quite good and stays true to a style of simplicity but good looking all the same. Yoko Kikuchi contributes to the character designs once again as she did for Noir and they look fantastic.

Overall El Cazador is more than worth a look at even if you haven't seen the previous Girls with Guns series by Koichi Mashimo and his studio Bee Train. It's a fun adventure that you probably won't want to put down with funny and serious situations molded together making this an underrated triumph.

Having followed .hack since the days of .hack//SIGN it's pretty safe to say I'm quite the fan of the franchise. I've seen every anime installment out there and I was actually excited for this. While mixed feelings of Kinmea Citrus taking over from longtime.hack// animation house Bee Train I was wondering how a new studio would take a new anime and I can say it's a fun and entertaining watch sure to be accessible to newcomers but may be a bit of a turn off for longtime watchers for my self.

Animation and art wise Quantum was certainly sporting production values lacking from some previous installments ... and to Kinema Citrus' advantage they came in on a much later installment to be given a full budget and effort. Animation quality looks high and the character art, while reusing models from the previous installements, do give a new and great twist on some of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's early designs as now we have a female version of Kite and Balmung and a BlackRose with much longer hair and other changed accessories. I really do enjoy the new style and the new characters are a fun mix. Seeing some returns of GU-styled characters also made for a nice mix of World R1 and World R2 styles and features put into this brand new version of the World known as The World R:X.

The art direction is as good as ever as the scenic art always captures what a fantasy virtual world might look like overall this is an aesthetically pleasing show to look at.

Story wise the story is fun and adventurous but it's also a balance of dramatic and light hearted at the same time. It doesn't feel too out left field as "Legend of the Twilight" did when it first debuted. Unlike SIGN or Liminality which were far more dialog driven and continued to build on it's mystery with mood and atmosphere this show mostly features action. A positive and a negative trait at the same time but it feels like the story was balanced enough to make it feel legit. The show offers diverse cast of characters that we get a full look at both within The World and back in the real World making this the first .hack anime to really do that. And I really enjoyed this new take seeing both the players in and out of their virtual avatars.

The plot is very welcoming to first time viewers and doesn't really require viewing of past .hack to understand it. Most previous events are talked about briefly enough to not slow down the story and to still give a basic understanding of the universe and past events in it. The cast is entirely made up of new characters which makes it really easy to jump right in with no prior knowledge of the franchise.

One major drawback to the story is while this show is very kind to new viewers who have never seen any .hack before, it may come as a bit jarring to long time watchers as my self. The very idea that CC Corp is still allowed to be in business after two major network crises which caused people to become comatose and other very serious problems within the real world, seems a bit of a stretch by now. Between the events of World R:1 and World R:2 a fire broke out at CC Corp which destroyed much of the old world which makes it easy to justify how they escape the blame from The Network Crises then.

The anime does it's best to justify this somewhat by saying comatose victims are in private hospitals controlled by CC Corp but it unfortunately doesn't solve other problems with the continued repeat of the coma plot. I get it that to tell .hack you have to use this plot to raise the stakes and I honestly can't think of any other way to do it but really the only explanation as to how The World is still a massively popular game as well as how CC Corp. must be that CC Corp has paid off the Japanese government or something.

Musically the show fails to capture anything interesting. Ko Otani unfortunately doesn't deliver an interesting score and the soundtrack itself isn't all that great on it's own either. The franchise has sorely lacked without Yuki Kajiura's direct involvement ever since Ali Project took on Roots and failed at it just as much. Yuuka Nanri does return to provide the theme song though this time she is without Kajiura. However the theme song is still a nice one and fits the general mood of .hack. The Sounds Effects and Japanese acting however are as great as ever.

Dubbing wise, this is the first .hack to ever be dubbed and released by FUNimation. it's a very solid dub overall with plenty of great performances. I'll admit for those who played GU it may be jarring to see Aina speak with a deeper voice as opposed to her more young girl voice from the games but it makes sense in context. It's a great dub and release from FUNimation and I'm hoping with Bandai Entertainment's demise they will handle future .hack anime if any even if newer games never get released over here. Although if any past characters ever return I would hope they would try and get the original English cast members back but that's for future projects to worry about.

Quantum is just fun. It may not have the depth of Liminality or SIGN but it certainly was a lot more fun than Legend of the Twilight was. I'd put it above Roots in terms of enjoyment and it's an overall fun project and one of the few that does not tie directly into a followup game which makes this a pretty solid watch if you are wanting to jump into .hack. If you are long time fan it still may be worth a look just remember you might have to likely check your brain at the door to get past some of the problems with the plot and if you are newcomer to this might be a very easy one for you to get into as SIGN and Liminality are known for their very slow methodical pacing and more talking than action.

Sword Art Online runs under the premise almost out of a Saw film: A master programmer of an MMORPG has entrapped everyone in the game and the only way to escape is to fight your way through a series of dungeons in order to fight the final boss. Players in the real world lay in a vegetative state and will be killed instantly should anyone try to remove the virtual reality unit they are tied too. And somehow an incredible amount of time passes and no one has been able to figure out a solution to this. Sword Art Online has all the setting of ... a potential heart racing thriller but doesn't seem to care about that.

The writing is so mismatched in this series that it almost feels like there are two different camps of writers on working, one writing team that seems more interested in making a series about a regular MMO and regular people that play them and a another camp that wants to make a regular fantasy series with a mix of science-fiction elements. Either one of these would be fine for a show, where it not for the fact that the series had set it self up to be an action thriller with people's lives hanging in the balance. It gets to the point it seems like the staff wants to be doing either one of these shows but got stuck doing an adaptation of existing material by the studio.

Each episode feels as disconnected as the next with little overarching connection to it. What manages to save it from really feeling like there are really two different teams of writers trying to make the show something completely different, is the cast of uninteresting characters. For being in such a stressful and dangerous situations the characters all seem strangely calm about this. There doesn't seem to be anxiety, a desire to race to the finish and get back to reality sooner or even survive. Everyone seems to carry on as normal as if they're just regular Players playing a regular game, when you expect mass races to the finish, team ups or anything more sensible.

Even the main character seems to not give any kind of care about this. Seeing a bunch of character behave like everything is normal with not even the slightest inclination that all is not well just robs this series of any peril. And and there's no indication that these are troubled people who'd rather live out their world in virtual reality, so there's no justification of the strange amount of calm, nor is it a series told through flashbacks that will eventually return to the set-up. It's the same kind of problem I had with Toyko Magnitude 8.0 which also found a group of characters in a very stressful and life threatening situation but didn't show any signs of it. The series really relies on you suspending your disbelief.

The animation quality is pretty good it's pretty standard animation fare but I hardly think it's as quality as many say it is but it's certainly not bad either. The art and character designs look quite interesting and pretty usual anime fare. The art direction is also well crafted with many great matte paintings to make up the virtual world.

I never thought I'd see the day when I actually found a musical score by Yuki Kajiura so boring that I have zero interest in even sampling the soundtrack down the road. This has to be one of Kajiura's least interesting scores since The Garden of Sinners film series but even those had some strong theme songs behind them, this has nothing! For being a more symphonic score outside of Kajiura's usual small musician ensemble she fails so terribly at catching any of her stylistic charm seen with past scores nor any sense of unique flair or adventure that comes with a different direction than what she normally does. It's an even less interesting rendition of her work on Fate/Zero and not a single solitary piece stands out to make it worth mentioning. I've been a fan of Kajiura for many years and I've never been let down so hard before.

This series is one of these most overrated series of the past year with very little that makes it worth a good watch. The series has a lot of action but very little substance to back it up and even the action isn't that fun because there's no thrill or danger to it because the characters simply don't give a shit.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is billed as being a high drama and terrifying look of a strong earthquake hitting the Tokyo area. And surprisingly the series is incredibly boring and shoddy.

The first signs of trouble come for a really poorly written opening theme by Abingdon Boys School is a strangely written and arranged song. Set against a bunch of stills of ruined cities fails to set any kind of tone or mood which is something a series does. The song feels like it would be more at home in a shounen adventure series instead of a serious drama.

The biggest pitfall with the series ... is the incredibly bland characters. You have the main character Mirai with a very obviously symbolic name who's going through typical adolescent angst in the start of the series when everything is fine and dandy. Apparently she's so angsty that she makes a conveniently trimmed wish for the whole world to just be destroyed right as the quake hits. Wow forced writing much? And even in the middle of the disaster she still seems to hold onto her teenage angst. One scene I recall is when she's talking to her brother who makes a comment about their mother with Mirai replying "It's her fault we're out here." Really? Your parents could be dead and you still want to be a bratty little teen?

Next is Yuki the little brother who frankly was so forgettable I don't even know what to write about him, other I remember him being surprisingly calm and chipper, something I wouldn't expect for a kid his age in a very stressful situation.

There's also the woman who's helping them get through named Mari. And what I recall of her was she was frankly a little to happy and a little too calm most of the time. Many times she references to having a little girl at home. I get she's there to keep calm and help the young children through this but really not a single discretion shot to show that she might even have the slightest bit of concern that her little daughter might be dead.

If there were any other major characters then they sure weren't memorable in the short span that I watched.

Art and animation wise the series looks good and clearly has some good production values. However I can't help but think their should be far more destruction than is depreciated. The series claims to have closely researched and worked with those who prepare Japan for earthquakes but seems like it might be sketching on some of said details. An 8.0 quake is nothing to laugh at they're destructive and deadly. We've seen what a 9.0 can do in the past year along with a destructive Tsunami which was absent in this. Of course in fairness, Japan is already a highly vulnerable country to earthquakes so maybe their infrastructure is far more resistant than I'm giving credit for.

The music by Ko Otani is also a bland and forgettable score. I don't recall a single memorable musical piece in the entire work and the ending theme is nothing special either.

TM8 is boring and overrated with a decent cast of actors but largely laughable and unbelievable characters.

Murder Princess is a rip-roaring kick-ass good time you'll have in any anime of the genere!

If your looking for a Shakesperian esque tragedy, insane killer lolis well this isn't it. Murder Princess is fairly generic and fairly predictable yes. Why am I raving about it? Because it's just a boat load of fun. This truly works very well as a short OAV series as opposed to a longer TV series as you don't feel overwhelmed nor do you have to waste time with pointless fluff and nonsense found in some other action series. Basically Murder Princess ... could be likened to a two-hour-Hollywood summer film that you go buy pocorn and just kick back and enjoy. And you will enjoy it.

The non-stop bloody action makes this Bee Trains most enthralling and adrenalin pushing yet also with out a doubt a well budgeted one with Marvelous Entertainment producing. The adaption from the manga is spot on (though there are a few things I wish they had done) and the music while a bit atypical metal fits so well for this. Even in the rash bash head baning metal you feel a lot of heart in the musical score and it only enhances the film further. Though despite the hectic pace of the plot it's still very easy to continue following the story. Compared to Bee Train insanely sporadic adaptation of Blade of the Immortal, Murder retains the charm of an intelligible but easy to understand plot but throwing you on a roller coaster compared to the slower moving series like my personal favs .hack//SIGN, and MADLAX. And it still takes a little time out for the audience to catch their breath.

The animation being the best yet I've seen, beautiful designs, great effects pointless bloody mesh maybe yet not laid on as thick as Blade's violence or a senin violence would normally be. Granted this is probably aimed at Teens more so than Adults like with Blade or others in that genre. A very nice color pallet but seemed heavy rather than the lovely color pallet by Studio Road in Tsubasa Chronicle and .hack//SIGN. Or maybe it's just my imagination, but regardless the beautiful color pallet takes you into the fantasy world of Foreland along with the overall art direction and composition.

Acting for the dub was unique and amazing from a FUNi all star cast including Monica Rial and Caitlin Glass alternating between umm...well themselves? Well anyway the dub made a clever move by retaining internal thought with the character's personality. Okay I'm sure that made no sense, well the commentary makes so much sense so watch that if I lost you.

Not much I can say about the Japanese as I haven't seen it in Japanese though with talents like Romi Paku I'm sure it's brilliant.

If you ask me Murder Princess is a hidden gem. Not just a hidden gem among Bee Train's arsenal of shows but among many action anime out there. It's a fun two-hour OAV adventure with non-stop action and is great to kick back with a bowl of popcorn or bag of chips or whatever your snack of choice be, and just enjoy.

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ showed great promise and for the most part delivered on that. The best yet of the spring roster but it was also at many times the weakest. Coming from Studio BEE TRAIN and director Koichi Mashimo on the coat tails of the mess that was Blade of the Immortal but the lesser known diamond in the rough episode "Field Test" on the joint US/Japan production of Batman Gotham Knight Phantom delivers action with some emotion sporadically at best, but still lives up to expectations in the end.

Director Mashimo who created the famous Girls With Gun trilogy of Noir, ... MADLAX, and El Cazador de la Bruja has gone back to his niche genre of amnesiacs and guns and sexy girls but throwing a boy into the mix. Also basing this off a game he has plenty of source material to work with and his writer Yosuke Kuroda. Having not read/play the visual novel/game there's not much I can say about how well or not well this has been adapted. Whether it's very loyal or partly loyal or too spiritual I don't know. The writing though is mixed from good to mediocre to subpar. A few characters get little development while others get all; there's not much balance. Still there a few stand out lines and scenes and moments that capture me and my attention. The series though suffers from over writing. With a few pointless slice of life episodes, flashback episodes the series could have stood to be shorter. The addition of these minor school characters and the small romantic subplot between Zwei and Mio were unneeded. It's almost like many times they wanted to make a different series. Still I'll probably be one of the few that finds the introduction of Cal needed. Cal's entrance into the series provides a bit needed comic relief in the middle of the series and gives a needed break to the audience. Still the series doesn't pick up from there as the writing doesn't really improve until the last couple episode.

The art and character designs were probably the best I've seen from BEE TRAIN yet. Working with his veteran designers Mashimo and co. have made an amazing assortment of characters that look and feel natural. Makiko Kojima's color pallet gives a dark and gritty film noir look. The animation also the best I've ever seen. You can tell they had a serious budget to work with compared to some of their earlier works. Fewer stills but still not short of his trade mark camera pans nor cut aways. Fluid and amazing animation and easy on the eyes CGI are the frosting on top and probably make this THE best animation of the year.

Equally impressive the music. Mashimo never being the shy one when it comes to using music brought in Hikaru Nanase this year who would compose her finest soundtrack yet. Working with Mashimo I'm sure brought the best in her composing since Chrono Crusade and has delivered an assortment of tracks that dare I say it, even probably out scored longtime Mashimo collaborator Yuki Kajiura.

I don't have a heavy amount more to say on Phantom. The series has many good points and sadly many bad points that kept me from giving it a 8-10. Pointless recaps show a sign of laziness and over production if you ask me. It's a worthy check out for fans of this style but for some it won't be.