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*This review comes from a fan of the video games.*
When an anime of Hyperdimension Neptunia was announced, I got excited. I’m a fan of the series (except for the first game; that game was terrible) so naturally I was really looking forward to the anime. The games played well, the dialogue scenes had great graphics, and the characters were likeable for the most part. Depending on if you’re a fan of moe or not, you can even say the voice acting is a strong point. However, the gameplay is what truly kept me playing the games. Western reviewers even praised the RPG gameplay of ... the latest game, Victory, when Western reviewers are usually very critical of Japanese RPGs. So how would the anime turn out without one of the core aspects? What we got was what the fans wanted, but it may alienate those who are unfamiliar with the series.

Story: The series itself is a parody of the video game industry. There are 4 goddesses who rule over 4 countries: Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox. Those countries represent the video game companies Sega, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. With the exception of Sega, these companies fight the modern day “console wars”. The console wars formed the basis of the first Hyperdimension Neptunia game, but in the anime, they chose to focus on the second game, mk2, and Victory, the third game. At the start of the anime, the 4 countries sign a peace treaty that prevents the taking of Shares (the source of power in the world) by force. So you can say that the story of the anime is split into mk2’s arc and Victory’s arc. Story has never been the game’s strongest point and, unfortunately, the same goes true for the anime. The series is at its best when its being what it’s supposed to be: a parody. So drama does not fit well into the series and that’s where my problem with the story lies. At times, it’s too serious when it really shouldn’t be. A couple of times the drama does work, but for the most part, it really doesn’t fit in. The series is actually at its best when there is no story and the characters are just messing about and making references to the video game industry. The overall story the anime tells is half-decent but it’s certainly not the best story ever.

Characters: The characters can either make or break the series. Depending on taste, you can love the cast, or hate it. The 4 main characters: Neptune (Planeptune), Noire (Lastation), Blanc (Lowee), and Vert (Leanbox) are the goddesses who rule over their respective countries. The three former goddesses have younger sisters who are also a big part of the plot. The main characters don’t get a ton of character development in the games and the same runs true in the anime. If you don’t like them at face value, then the chances of them growing on you are pretty low. The characters who actually get the most development are the aforementioned younger sisters. The series’ most popular characters are Neptune, Noire, and Nepgear, Neptune’s younger sister. It was clear that they focused a lot on these three characters throughout the show while putting the other characters aside. Although Blanc and Vert are main characters, they get less screen time than Nepgear, who’s a supporting character. Standout characters from the anime are Nepgear and Plutia/Pururut who make big impacts in the show. The other characters are hit or miss depending on what kind of characters you like.

Art: The art style is an appropriate moe type. The characters are well-drawn and designed. The games do look significantly better though. I was initially disappointed with the art style but it grew on me over time. The animation is average for most of the show but more focus is put on the action scenes.

Sound: The soundtrack does a decent job in being appropriate in their scenes. There are a couple of standout tracks like “Ryuusei no Bifrost”, which played during the fight scene of the first episode, and “Kirihirake! Glazy Star!” which played at the beginning of the third episode. These two themes are the openings from the first and second game respectively. The series is known for its great opening songs and “Dimension tripper!!” does a good job living up to expectations. The voice acting cast is quite prestigious, featuring big names like Rie Tanaka, Yui Horie, Eri Kitamura, and Kana Hanazawa. You may or may not like their performances though; it all depends on how much you like moe voices. If I had to choose standout roles, it would be Asami Imai as Noire, Yui Horie as Nepgear, and Yuu Kobayashi as Rei Ryghts. They handle their roles appropriately and are believable. The sound effects are nothing too special for an action anime.

Enjoyment: How much you enjoy this anime will likely depend on if you like moe, have knowledge of the video game industry, and if you have played the games. If you said yes to all three, then you’ll probably like what you watch. That’s the best way to get the most enjoyment out of this show. One thing I do need to point out is that this series does contain quite a bit of fanservice throughout. Fanservice is old news to fans of the games but seeing them animated instead of CG scenes gives them new meaning. Fanservice is something you need to factor in as well.
I tried to be as unbiased as possible when I wrote this review. This is not the perfect adaptation of the games that I was hoping it would be but it represents the series faithfully. It was still an enjoyable watch for a fan of the series even without gameplay. As a fan of the series you’re going to see a different score on my list. But this is the score I’m giving for this review.

Story: 5/10
Characters: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Enjoyment: Dependent on a variety of factors. Personally: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Lucky Star at the time of me watching it was the one I had heard the most about. The people in my university’s anime club mentioned it all the time whenever we played anime-related games. My online friends have also told me about it as well as a couple of my classmates. After getting really bored one day I decided to blitz through the series. I now understand why everyone has seen this anime: It has to be the biggest love letter to anime fans ever! Cute girls, an otaku main character, and anime and video game references. Here are my thoughts on it:

Story:
Since ... this is a slice of life and school anime, there is no real story. It’s just 4 girls going through daily high school life.

Art:
The colours in this anime are almost blinding. There’s so much colour in this anime. There’s a lot of diversity just in the characters’ hair colour. I think all the main colours are represented! Despite all the colour, it doesn’t distract from the overall look. As for the characters themselves, they’re drawn in quite nicely.

Art – 10

Sound:
Normally I mention music in the sound department but there isn’t a lot of music to speak of in this anime. Music is only used at certain points. For example, whenever Konata is explaining her way of thinking or when she’s making a joke, whenever Miyuki explains something to the group, or during certain events. Other than that, it’s up to the voice actors to keep the sound quality up. All the voice actors, English and Japanese, did a good job with their characters although I preferred the English Tsukasa to the Japanese one and the Japanese Miyuki to the English one. Both Konata’s and Kagami’s voice actresses did great work and their performance was the same to me. A few people have complained about Patricia’s English voice actor but people have to remember that because this anime takes place in Japan and she’s from the US (in the show), they have to make her sound weird when she speaks to pretend like she has an accent. I’m not a fan of her voice either but there’s an explanation for you.
The opening theme of the anime: “Motteke! Sailor Fuku!” is one hell of an addicting song. Just give it three episodes and you’ll be hooked on it. At first I just thought it was plain weird but after a while the song just gets stuck in your head and refuses to let go. The ending song is always different but they’re all references to one anime or another.

Sound - 8

Character:
Even though I’ve only started watching anime this year, I know of most of the stereotypes there are in anime. I know each character usually represents a certain trait. From what I understand, Lucky Star’s group of 4 each represents an anime stereotype. You have the joker and otaku Konata, the hot-headed, straight man Kagami, the airhead Tsukasa, and the smart, formal, glasses-wearing Miyuki. That’s all right and all but it’s the way that the creators poke fun at these stereotypes is what makes it funny. Konata makes references to these stereotypes especially with Tsukasa and Miyuki who are the stereotypical ‘moe’ characters and Kagami who is ‘tsundere’. Konata is constantly making references to the three girls and since Kagami is the straight man and the tsundere, Konata makes fun of her the most. As such, the two make a great duo when it comes to this anime. Over the half way point in the anime, they introduce a whole new set of characters that joins the main cast but they don’t fit in all that well. I would have preferred it if they just kept the original cast in there for the duration.

Character - 9

Enjoyment:
For most people this will be the part that fluctuates the most. The more you know about anime and the more series you know, the more you will enjoy this anime. It also helps if you have knowledge about video games, particularly visual novels/eroges and JRPGs. They make references to so many things, it’s almost impossible to get every reference unless you’re a real otaku. But if you want a faster way to understand most of the references, watch all of Kyoto Animation’s stuff that they made prior to Lucky Star (Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu, Air, Kanon). But if you only wanted to watch one series before Lucky Star, make sure it’s The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu). Almost half the references they make in the series come from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with at least one reference per episode or two in the next tom make up for one they missed. There’s one episode that devotes almost half its time to the series. I cannot stress it enough: watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya before Lucky Star! I made the mistake of watching Lucky Star first; don’t make the same mistake I did!
But anyway, I really enjoyed Lucky Star even the first time around and it gets funnier every time I come back to it since I’ve watched some other series and now I can get another reference they make. Parodies in general are a love/hate thing for people but I loved this one.

Enjoyment - 10

Overall:
If you fancy yourself an anime expert, looking for something funny to watch, or just looking to relax, Lucky Star will suit your needs. I wouldn’t recommend watching this series too early in your anime career unless you already know a lot about anime and its stereotypes as well as its terms. If you don’t like parodies or moe-centric anime then steer clear but otherwise, sit back and have some fun!

+ Rewards you for being an otaku! :P
+ Fun to re-watch as you progress along your anime-watching career
+ Konata is awesome!

- requires anime knowledge beforehand

Overall – 9

This is the first modern-day anime I watched. Every other anime I've seen up to that point has been before 2005 so I didn't know what to expect. With my limited anime knowledge going into watching it, this is the first time I've seen an anime that focused on normal life and also the first one that wasn’t fantasy or magic based.

Story:
This anime focuses on normal life so there's no real need for a story. The story has no effect on the score.

Story - 6

Art:
The art style is good for the most part. Maybe I'm just not used to the thin edges in this anime ... but it's not what I'm used to seeing. I’ve never been much of a judge on art; I like what I like.

Art – 7

Sound:
Whenever you make a comedy, music cues are important. When it came to this anime, they nailed the proper music cues and sound effects to make it truly funny. The voice actors were great too, nailing their characters’ voices.

Sound – 9

Character:
This anime loses character points with me because there’s too many and there’s not a lot of focus on the main characters. Unless you’re really good with names, you’re probably not going to remember all of the characters. They throw in new supporting characters every episode and by the end of it, there are about 20 characters that are shown fairly regularly and this anime is only 12 episodes long! Now the creators did actually say in the anime you don’t have to remember all of the characters’ names which was pretty funny and it’s true but it would still be nice if we could figure out everybody by the end. I had to re-watch the series again in order to remember all of the characters’ names. What’s funny, or not depending on what you consider to be a main character, is that the one character that starts off the anime and is considered one of the main characters practically disappears two-thirds of the way in until finally getting more time in the last episode. In one episode, he doesn’t even show up at all. They actually make a joke out of it but if he’s the main character, give him more air time.

Character – 7

Enjoyment:
This anime was hilarious! It definitely kept me interested until the very end. Every episode is divided into about 6-8 skits each with a different theme. Whether it be about after school hangouts, summer vacation or meeting that girl by the river at sunset. Some of the skits were so funny they left me out of breath for a couple of minutes or at the very least made me grin. A few of the skits though, weren’t up to par when it came to humour. Several of the skits helped to develop the characters which was nice. Every episode is enjoyable in its own way.

Enjoyment – 9

Overall:
This anime is great if you just want to sit back and get lots of laughs. The humour is great and it’s augmented if you have some knowledge about role-playing games and school anime. Unless you have a great memory you might struggle to remember characters’ names and a couple of the skits aren’t that great but overall this was very enjoyable and worth a look.

Overall – 8

Cardcaptor Sakura up to this point the only anime I’ve watched in both English and Japanese. But I think everyone knows which version is superior and this is especially true for Cardcaptor Sakura and even MORE so in North America. So I’m obviously doing the Japanese version. So let’s get started:

Story:
This is Cardcaptor Sakura’s weakest point. The story is: Sakura accidentally scatters magical cards across town and it’s up to her to get them back. She’s aided by the guardian of the book Keroberos who offers her advice. She has to collect the cards because an unknown catastrophe will befall the world if she doesn’t. ... Not to mention the cards can come alive and they cannot be defeated through normal means. The first season focuses primarily on the characters and their interactions with each other. The story is delivered in small increments throughout most of the first season before finally ramping up near the end of the first season and in the second season. The story improves after that point and it greatly improves in the third and final season. Also there is a big change in plot after the second season which I’ll leave off of the review for spoliers’ sake. The story is good but it’s by no means a masterpiece of storytelling. I think the focus on school life also lead to the slow story-telling. There aren’t any major twists although there could have been quite a few if they chose to use them. The ending also isn’t that great if you end up just watching the TV series and you don’t watch the second movie which has the true ending in it.
Story – 8

Art:
The animation in the anime is great considering it was made in the late 90s. The characters all look great. To be honest, I just like the style. I’m not a very good judge of an anime’s art style but I just love Cardcaptor Sakura’s look. Maybe since I saw it when I was a kid I have this image in my head that this is what anime is supposed to look like.
Art – 10

Sound:
The sound overall is amazing. The voice actors do a great job with their characters. The soundtrack also bears mention and it’s extremely memorable. From the opening themes, to the card battles, to the closing themes almost every single soundtrack appropriately suits its situation. There’s the peaceful music when Sakura is skating to school, the intense, suspenseful music that plays whenever a card is around and the epic track that plays whenever she captures a card. I could go on about the soundtrack but I think I’ve made my point. They don’t overload the anime with different soundtracks so eventually you get to know each soundtrack well enough to hum along to it when it comes on.
Sound – 10

Character:
Now if there’s one thing I think everybody I’ve talked to in real life or on the Internet agrees on is that the characters in Cardcaptor Sakura are almost impossible to hate. Considering that one of the themes of the anime is human relationships, it does an excellent job living up to its theme. There’s hardly anything bad to say about the characters. All of them are developed so well over the course of the anime that you’re guaranteed to have a favourite by the end. The changes in most of the characters are obvious by the end of the series. The biggest change in character comes from the male lead, Shaoran. You wouldn’t recognize the Shaoran in the beginning from the Shaoran in the end. He completely changes for reasons that I’ll keep a secret. You may even grow attached to the cards that Sakura uses since some of them have their own personality. There’s also a wide variety of characters so you’re not stuck with two characters with the same personality.
Character – 10

Enjoyment:
The way I would rate enjoyment is if you had a good experience all the way through. I certainly did when I watched Cardcaptor Sakura. Since you don’t watch it for the story, it does have more replay value than one entirely story-driven. If you end up really attached to the characters like I did, you may find yourself replaying this more than once. I’ve already re-watched it a few times already simply because it’s a ‘feel good’ anime that’s great for just sitting down, relaxing and enjoying. There’s also quite a few funny moments mixed in almost every episode and while they won’t leave you in stitches they are enjoyable nonetheless. This is anime’s target audience is girls and while this is true for the most part, there’s enough action for guys to like, and again the humour is great too.
Enjoyment – 10

Overall:
Cardcaptor Sakura isn’t perfect; if I could I would give it a 9.5 on here but since 10 on here is considered a masterpiece, then that’s what I’m rating it. The characters are superb, the overall sound is amazing, and it was just plain fun to watch. If you watch anime for story-telling then Cardcaptor Sakura may not be for you since unlike slice of life animes there is supposed to be a story, but if you watch anime to enjoy yourself then you should definitely check it out. It never takes itself too seriously nor does it mess around too much. It’s definitely worthy of all the praise it has been given over the years so I highly recommend watching it.
Overall - 10