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When it comes to rating anime, I often wonder whether they should be rated differently depending on their differing goals and whether or not they fulfil those goals. For example, would it make sense to rate Madoka highly because it achieves its aim for shock value and exploring the "depth" behind the magical girl genre, regardless of the quality of its story or characters?

Yami Shibai is the perfect example of an anime which raises this conundrum for me. It isn't particularly representative of, or even relevant to, the standard structure and characteristics of anime; it is, however, a show that sets out with the ... purpose of being scary and one that manages to fulfill its purpose through and through.

Story? Sure, this one has lots of stories! They're fairly enjoyable and are set out competently enough to engage without going so far as to seem ridiculous. They focus on horrific or mythical beings or events in Japanese culture, incorporating these into the everyday lives of a different character every episode. Ultimately, though, the stories themselves are more or less predictable in both setup and actual content, with some episodes having no twist (i.e shock factor) at all and relying greatly on the atmosphere of the writing to deliver fear. Not the best idea, because as I mentioned, the predictability and overall "generically scary" writing behind the stories is watchable, but not at any level of "great".

But that's not why you would watch this anime. You would watch Yami Shibai because of its presentation.

Shock value in anime is generally reliant on the graphic nature of the content, primarily because anime's visual style and fluidity is not becoming of jump scares or subtle movement. Yami Shibai is an anime that recognises this problem and overcomes it through use of its art style. The unique paper-like template characters make for arguably visually pleasing sights but, more importantly, allow the anime to utilise a constant flow of movement that is so necessary in the action and atmospheric reliance that binds horror together. Bodies tremble in fear, cameras shake and change direction swiftly in exciting fright scenes, small movements are discernible in the background to increase tension; this is an anime that knows how to tailor its appearance to best suit its purpose.

Additionally, the animation is scattered with instances of differing animation to create an amazing contrast for delivering impact — as seen in the final episode (minor spoilers), wherein the sudden introduction of non-papery movement creates a surge of shock and powerfully reinforces the shows final scare. The way Yami Shibai experiments like this is great to see in a medium that could so do with more innovation, and in this case the direction pays off wonderfully in how effectively the art styles combine to create that much more fear.

The voice acting is all around great, with lots of nice restraint in use of voicing and very little overacting (which, one can imagine, is something of a common problem in any horror media). The soundtrack is very fitting too, often chilling and with notable switches made between "creepy" and "safe" to further the impact of the show's scares. While this does feed the predictability I mentioned in regards to story, it also doesn't attempt to counter that predictability in what would almost certainly be a futile effort; the fact that the anime can embrace its inherent flaws and go on to make use of these flaws is both admirable and enjoyable to see in an anime like this.

Overall, I definitely like this show. It's more or less standard in the writing department, but as an experiment in presentation I would call it a great triumph and acknowledge it as the first anime to genuinely scare me (the last episode being the best at that). Good premise and better execution; I'll likely be coming back for the second season soon.

I do not love Aria.

Perhaps that grabbed your attention, and you should understand that was not the only purpose of that statement; it is not a lie and it should certainly be reflected in the score I gave. So why the hell did I give it a 9 if I didn't love it?

Let's talk positives.

Aria the Origination is something I can't help but regard as wonderful. Watching the first and second season, I will admit to often feeling impatient, disenchanted or generally uneasy about whether or not I really like Aria. The Origination, however, defeated me. The voice acting as good as (if not even ... better than) it ever was, incredibly beautiful scenery and water that transcends that of its preceding seasons, the fresh and satisfying humour that always seems to make me smile now, a new level of character development that sees both apprentice and prima undine into a brighter future... Perhaps the main selling point for me, though, was the direction. Aria the Origination takes such a powerful and assured path towards a goal within its plot that the previous two seasons forfeited in favour of episodic-style storytelling.

That isn't to say this season wasn't at all episodic, simply that it maintained this nature through such a way that every small episode was a large contributor in the path to, and outcome of, the story's ending. And oh dear, what an ending it is. I struggle to remember an anime that has effected me so emotionally in the past; Clannad ~Afterstory~ was obviously sad, but not only does Aria the Origination arguably do sad even better, it incurs an incredible response from every possible range of emotional input you could imagine. From laughing to crying, to blushing to sighing... Aria excels in every facet of the human psyche it attempts to tap into, and it does so in the most subtle and disarming way imaginable.

So why didn't I give it a 10? How could I not "love" it if I can rant so much about how great it is? Pretty much a single, seemingly baseless reason, which may not sound legitimate but is a genuinely pressing factor for me; I'm not a fanboy. I can acknowledge Aria's objective excellence in voice acting, art style, soundtrack and seamless storytelling, and I LIKE the characters, but even in the ending credits of the last episode I felt the same strange gnawing dissatisfaction that I felt throughout the entirety of this series. It would be strange to dislike Aria the Origination, but it wouldn't be strange not to love it.

Regardless of how well Aria makes it work, I'm not a diehard fan of inherently predictable plot for the sake of achieving perfection within that storytelling. The fact that I could tell you how an episode would end before it was halfway through oftentimes detracted from my view of Aria as "perfect", creating an occasionally methodical layout that had a less than stellar effect on me and ultimately pushed me to a point of disenchanted impatience in some of the earlier episodes. Something about Aria just didn't touch me the way that it did everyone else, and in that sense I feel almost cheated by my own senses in that I'm unable to so thoughtlessly enjoy Aria to the extent I would have liked; it was usually a constant effort to have myself watch an entire episode without staring off into space during dialogue or tutting whenever the plot took a similar approach to one it had take numerous times before in its previous seasons; sometimes, I had to maintain a rigid mind just to make sure I /cared/.

Consider me one of the minority, one of those individuals coherent enough to make a decent analysis of Aria but still within the group of uncultured swine incapable of adoring it. I didn't /want/ to avoid loving Aria, it was just an inevitability for the mindset of both myself and a large demographic of individuals with similar tastes to myself. I almost feel like someone born without sweet taste buds.

Please don't take this as a negative look on Aria as a whole, just understand that Aria simply wasn't designed for certain types of tastes; in fact, it was designed for a very select taste. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy Aria at all — some aspects of it I found quite endearing and its emotional impact was one that I'm not likely to forget any time soon — I just don't have the capacity to fanboy over it or state it as one of the greatest anime I've ever watched, as much as I'd like to. Consider it an 8.1-8.5~ from me considering most aspects of enjoyment and objective value, rounded up to a 9 thanks to how incredibly well-executed the A/V were, how likeable the characters were and how emotionally fulfilling the series turned out to be as a whole.

Consider this review a statement that even if you disliked the first two seasons, even if you do not love Aria's story or setting or characters, Aria the Origination is a damned good watch, it's "objective" value in production and focus within the anime is through the roof, and it is definitely worth both the time it takes to watch itself and the time it takes to watch the two preceding seasons. In the end, Aria excels as not only an anime with incredible emotional value, but it excels beyond usual expectations within this field as an anime wherein you do not need an emotional attachment to the series itself in order to enjoy the show to its full potential (see: how this contrasts to the polarising opinions on Clannad: ~Afterstory~).

And if I love anything about Aria in the end, THAT is what I love. Not its personal value towards my personal tastes, but its value as a work of art in regard to all possible viewers in the world and it's monumental achievements and execution within the medium of anime. Forgive my subpar humour: I love it because I don't have to love it to love it.

Aria the Origination was an experience for me. As I mentioned, I was unsure as to whether I really liked the first two seasons, but the Origination had overpowered me at the halfway mark, and I knew I would be singing its praises before I'd even finished it. I didn't have to have an inexplicable attachment to the series in order to enjoy this show greatly. There was a special experience to be had here, and the Origination's strengths in this experience can be seen not only in its incredible power and execution as a conclusion to the Aria story (which, by the way, it does amazingly and gives a whole new meaning to the idea of conclusions), but as a beautiful story in its own individual right and something that will likely remain with its viewer long after they've finished the ending credits. I know it'll remain with me.

This is a mixed bag for me. Kimikiss isn't without ANY watchable features (actual establishment of relationships, carefully separated relationships and character personalities, love triangles hurrrr), but it definitely has enough drawbacks that I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I would have liked. While a 4 may seem pretty brutal, I just can't bring myself to rate a 5 considering the numerous standout problems that kept poking me in the face during every second of every episode.

Kimikiss clearly started off with the idea in mind of having multiple dynamic relationships, only to realize it had to pick one or the other; multiple or ... dynamic. It ended up choosing multiple, which means while we get three relationships all develop separately, the problems encountered in these relationships are both extremely predictable and extremely drawn out. Since having two arcs for each relationship would clearly have been ridiculous length (at least in the eyes of the writers), each relationship basically only follows one menial arc in the entire length of the show. Love triangles are often "elaborated" on to act as the show's filler episodes, with content we've already had established taken to /slightly/ further lengths in a very similar situation just to stretch out the episodes before that relationship hits its conclusion.

The writing was pretty poor too, unfortunately. Kimikiss could be described as a romcom without the com and with repetitive rom. Any humour aspects are few and far between and are /very/ weak, usually just spontaneously and thoughtlessly shoehorned into segments that are providing background context for future events. As for the romance; relationship arcs are brutally predictable in how they play out, and efforts to inspire emotions in the audience are fruitless due to two key problems with the writing. The first is the fact that since we're following so many different relationships with so few arcs we have seen very little character development, ergo it's difficult to be attached enough to the characters to really care who comes out best. The second is that precedent the show has set in order to advance to previous plot points is totally ignored in favour of advancing to new plot points, creating a confusing and sometimes contradictory plot to further baffle the audience that is already reeling from following all the separate characters.


**MINOR SPOILERS**
Take, for example, the filming of the movie. At first Mao AND Hoshino flat-out rejected the option to act in it and were not revisited at that time since their reasons were considered sound (Mao didn't think she could act and Hoshino was too embarrassed). Come back 10 episodes later, however, and both Mao AND Hoshino have acted in the movie after simply being asked "Pleeeeaaase?" at some point earlier in the same episode. It's so blatant it's depressing, and it totally detracts from the appreciation of the plot and places the fate of the series entirely on the characters /following/ the plot.
**END MINOR SPOILERS**

Not a great idea, because the characters aren't great either. Kouchi is an absolutely typical male character, totally oblivious to the feelings of the opposite sex, randomly and suddenly nice in convenient situations towards specific individual girls in need of lovin', not shown to have any particularly strong views or even any defining characteristics. Hoshino is the shy, embarrassed girlfriend of MC-kun who is apparently capable of giving extended speeches about friendship or acting in movies. Sakino is the soccer tomboy with a quick temper and an inexplicable crush on MC-kun('s lookalike) after he did two or three random acts of kindness for her... I could list these character templates for paragraphs and not totally reveal the extent of their mediocrity.

Some of them are even downright contradictory. Eriko just makes zero sense, her social patterns changing drastically with very little external influence over the course of about 5 episodes. Regardless of whether or not she is in a relationship or experiences emotions for the first time (lol), she remains a genius with a genius IQ and has been a recluse for most of her life; why is she suddenly able to be so insanely sociable and react naturally to any instance of MC-kun('s lookalike) being lovey dovey? Just watch the first half of episode 22 and you can see just how far Kimikiss has gone from actually having a genius loner to simply having a dandere voice actor.

A/V? It's debatable. Maybe I just detest the characters appearances because of how little I enjoyed the series, but to its credit the expressions are pretty well captured and animation is fluid. No crazy hair colours or hairstyles, but I'm not sure whether that's good or bad considering I would usually come to Anime expecting that kind of escapism or interesting art style. Doesn't help in distinguishing between characters either (although by around the mid-point of the series it shouldn't be too hard to remember who has a crush on who just by their voice acting and predictable mannerisms). The voice acting is pretty great in everyone except Kouichi, who I'd describe as "bland" right off the bat in the lack of variety in tones and expressions no matter what emotions his character should be feeling. Forgive my insolence, but I don't even remember the music, so I'll just avoid talking about that since I imagine I'd have identified it as good or bad if it had been in any way memorable.

Overall; not good. I don't think this even qualifies as satisfactory, although it's pretty close. There were too many basic problems and an overall feel of laziness in the structure and writing, to the point where I was simply watching the final episodes to get the less than enjoyable series out of my face forever.

(also the campfire scene gives me flashbacks to School Days,,,)

(There won't be many spoilers in this review, it will more just be talking about the shows nature as a whole product. Specific instances involving minor spoilers will be noted in **SPOILER** tags)

Intro:

If you had asked me how I feel about Steins;Gate when I was about 12 episodes in, I would have told you "It's the most slow, painfully remedial, overhyped anime I have ever had the displeasure of watching." And in some essence, to the moment of this review's conception, those words are still true: I still feel Steins;Gate drags its feet for far too many episodes in its early stages, to the point ... where I found them impossible to enjoy. While it should be noted that I am generally not a follower of sci-fi anime, or sci-fi culture in general, I considered the first half of Steins;Gate to feel more like a slice of life than anything else; this was mainly due to the fact that instead of clearly showcasing important plot points, Steins;Gate shows you the situations through the same mentality of the protagonist and his friends. Basically, the mask of humour and casual tone of the uses of time travel detracts your attention from the possibility of plot development.

These assumptions about the nature of the show made its first half a real pain in the ass for me, since I felt the characters were way too cliche (in most cases they actually are) and the dull repetition of uninteresting experiments was hardly outweighed by its immature humour. It got to the point where I almost dropped it because I couldn't stand the way the show meandered about stuff I thought it had already covered 3 episodes ago (not to mention the infuriatingly bland and predictable dialogue in the shows more casual parts). However, as I delved deeper and deeper into the second half of the show, I began to realize something about the true nature of Steins;Gate.

Story (8):

This anime isn't designed to please the general public every episode. The writing is somewhat unconventional, in that instead of having the common 'problem / problem intensifies / resolution' sort of arc structure, S;G uses its entire first 12 episodes to build the problems before resolving them in its last 12 episodes. This could be likened to a professional golfer placing a bunch of bumpers along the path toward the hole; you feel bored and impatient watching him place seemingly random bumpers everywhere, but when he hits the ball and pings every one on the way to the hole, you can't help but be impressed. Of course, in that analogy you would likely forget your boredom of watching him set up the bumpers. In Steins;Gate, however, you are forced to remember the impatience and boredom you felt during these events, because their casual nature was paramount to the success of the following explanation.

Like I said, Steins;Gate does not pander to its audiences by following a strict criteria in its distribution of plot points. The new approach it takes is not done purely to make the ending feel much more dramatic, but is in fact linked to the core foundations of ideas behind the show. S;G asks you to reflect on your actions, and more importantly, to understand that your actions have consequences. The reason there is such a carefree nature and insinuation of unimportance surrounding the earlier experiments is so that there are casual acts to be reflected on later. After all, if you want to reflect on the consequences of your actions the wisdom you draw from the experience will only be as powerful as the consequences you experienced, and those consequences will only be as severe as the actions that caused them. This show asks you to remember what right decisions and what mistakes got you to where you are now, whether changing those things is really worth it, and how you should conduct similar situations (or your entire life) in future.

Art (8):

No complaints here. The characters are pretty well drawn I suppose (I love the eyes in this show), and the transition flashes between arcs added a splash of creativity to the visuals, but other than that it's just "good". The show doesn't have an overwhelming amount of fighting or other heavily movement reliant scenes, so it's tough to comment on stuff like fluidity.

Sound (10):

Perfect. All of the voice actors went above and beyond my expectations, hit all of the right notes in regards to the personalities of their characters and never went overboard. The OP is awesome too.

Character (5):

Yes, I have a big problem with the characters. First of all, the fact that they are all just stereotypes tugged from some sort of "Anime for Dummies" guide ticks me off right away, so if assuming all scores start at 10 and have points subtracted from there on, lets put that at 8 for me so far. Now drop it to 7 because after the first 3 or 4 episodes, the characters turn into little more than plot devices used to provide filler where there are gaps in the dialogue. Clearly this is a point open to a lot of bias, so as far as my opinion goes: any conversation Okarin (yes I'm going to call him that) had with any character between episodes 5 and 11 (before you get to the specific arcs) could have the second character swapped around with anyone else and give exactly the same result. Why don't these characters get attention?

**MINOR SPOILERS**During the first 10 or so episodes you get SOME form of character interaction / development, but it's mainly just in the form of cliched character templates exercising their cliches in (what I believe is) a shockingly unfunny way. During the early stages of Okarin time jumping, Kurisu is like a machine, just idly accepting whatever Okarin has to say and regurgitating plot directions with no impact or personality. During the entirety of episodes 14-20, any character that isn't Okarin / Kurisu (/ one of the two focuses of the arcs) just gets left in the dust. **END MINOR SPOILERS**

It's almost like the character were intentionally made irritating and dull until the final episodes, much like the story until the final episodes; as if the beginning of this anime was made intentionally bad just to make the last half appear great. Steins;Gate gives you the "illusion" of character development and the "appearance" of character interaction, but in the end there is no more substance to the dialogue and relationships between the characters (or even substance in the individual characters themselves) than what appears on their surface, save for the sudden dramatic emotional downpours that will hit in the final episodes (which, as mentioned, is made all the more powerful by the lack of emotional impact in any previous episodes). Some people like this kind of approach; I can definitely say I find it distasteful.

Enjoyment (5):

I personally did not like this anime. I can understand why people could possibly like it, but for me the aspects of it that I didn't like were just far too great to be overridden by the uniquity of its storytelling. As already stated, the dislike I had from the characters right from the word go just ruined the casual side of the show for me, whilst the length of the indulgence in said casual side left me feeling impatient and restless about the actual storyline. Taking a somewhat objective viewpoint, Steins;Gate is a standout in the field of anime due to its carefully intertwined story structure built off of even more carefully laid foundations of ideas.

That isn't to say, however, that I found such deliberate and long winded foundations anything close to entertaining. No amount of genius in the end of the show could fully compensate for the bad taste the first half left in my mouth. The latter half, while certainly a lot more interesting than the beginnings of the show, focused far more on the character relationships than the reasoning behind the characters actions. The scifi aspect of the show isn't elaborated on but instead thrown aside, used as a backdrop to emphasise blossoming romance and the pains of friendship. Honestly, I came to this anime looking for a focused, clever story about time travel, but I found this was not the real focus of Steins;Gate. All S;G really wanted to be was an emotional drama with a twist of time travel thrown in, and since I've already noted how easy I find it to dislike the characters and their adventures, this part of Steins;Gate just did not hit home for me.

Overall (7):

Steins;Gate took me on a rollercoaster ride, but not in the traditional 'up and down, up and down, up and down' fashion. This show only had one 12 episode long trip up, one 3 episode long gap as I prepared for the rush, and one 9 episode long slide down to earth that left me thinking nothing but "that was it?" It is perfectly possible (and usually necessary) to maintain a sense of interest and enjoyment in your audience throughout the entirety of a series, not just attempt to do so in the final few episodes; either Steins;Gate doesn't understand that, or it is unable to both understand that and appeal to someone of my tastes in characters / writing. I'm inclined to think the former is true.

(This is my first review on MyAnimeList. It will not be based on events that take place in the second season.)

OK, so while I'm rather late to the party with this anime, I feel like I should share my thoughts on it because I don't think the reviews made so far have really done the show justice. Apparently this is either the best, worst, or most mediocre romance anime ever, all in the extremes. In reality, this show isn't as black and white as that.

Ai Yori Aoshi has two devastating problems at its core, and these problems together only intensify in the damage they do. ... First of all, Ai Yori Aoshi thinks that having a "secret romance" is excuse enough to focus totally on the harem aspect of the story, and second of all, it thinks that romantic feelings towards the male protagonist counts as character development. This is ultimately why Ai Yori Aoshi is sitting at a 7 for me; when the supporting female characters take the limelight in their pursuit of Hanabishi we don't care about the female because we don't know anything about them, and since Hanabishi only receives screen time when talking to these females we don't know enough about him to care about the relationship. This creates a large amount of episodes that might as well be referred to as "filler", elaborating on no previous thoughts / emotions and creating no lasting effects or impressions for future episodes.

It is understandable that in a harem anime the male character should be easy to relate with, but goddamn, Hanabishi just feels like a cardboard cutout. Sure, he has had events affect his life in negative ways, but these events are not reflected in his thoughts or actions. Unless he is actually talking directly about the past events, his behavior is totally generic and standard of male leads in harem anime. We never feel (amongst other feelings) the crushing loneliness of having no loved ones around because Hanabishi never reacts to reminders about it, never shows any differing emotions when alone, never even THINKS about it except in snippets of dreams designed to remind you that this totally isn't your ordinary harem. A characters past should be consistent with their personality or else character development won't happen (ESPECIALLY with protagonists); Hanabishi is just a male character template with a big ol' sappy background story stapled onto his back.

Luckily, this means he can serve his purpose, which is basically being an emotional battery for the similarly poor character development cursing the female supporting characters. Tina, Mayu, Chika and Taeko are simply tools for creating awkward situations with Hanabishi, trading the romance promised by the shows beginning for a dry slapstick that proceeds in an episodic fashion of rinse and repeat relationships. Tina is blessed with about 2 minutes of background info in the form of some quick flashbacks, but beyond that you will know no more about the characters at the series finale than you did at the start. The romantic relationships they attempt to establish with Hanabishi feel forced in conception, cringe inducing in execution and undefined in conclusion. Also, half of the time these relationships will also lead to Aoi having concerns about her relationship with Hanabishi, and speaking of which...

Aoi was the reason I didn't give this show a 6 (or less). She is an awesome character; the likable part of her personality lies in her motivation and commitment to achieving love with Hanabishi rather than the love itself (see: any other character in the anime), and her attitude / personality is dynamic and changes according to whether she's speaking with friends, Hanabishi, strangers or relatives. She has clear and understandable emotions and has dreams and aspirations that we see her actively striving to achieve.

The criminal part is that for the better half of the show she is barely even seen.

Quickly fading into the background as nothing more than an observer of Hanabishi's interactions, Aoi is brutally forgotten by the shows story as it plows ahead and tries to force us to root for each individual female rather than the one we already love (or are meant to love at least). She had so much potential in the show, and not only is it squandered by the lack of focus on her, but the focus she does get (also the shows actual romance) is so repetitious it is infuriating. Every sparse romantic counter between her and Hanabishi simply involves them uttering each others names, discussing no pressing issues at great length and giving very vague reassurances when they do discuss these issues. The encounters then seem to be wiped from both parties minds, because sure enough next episode Aoi will experience heartache for a very similar (if not the same) reason and Hanabishi will be as predictably oblivious and non committal in his actions as always.

Basically, this show is an experience in wasted potential. Aoi was a great character and the last few episodes actually gave her a lot of the attention that she deserved and needed, but it is hard to overlook the stiflingly bland Hanabishi and the generic, under cooked personalities of the other girls. Perhaps the second season will have greater things in store for me, but for now I consider Ai Yori Aoshi rather disappointing.