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So, Jesus and Buddha move into an apartment together-
........ (You're still with me? Okay good. (*・ω・)ﾉ )
- After coming down from the heavens and to Tokyo for a vacation as tourists. That is the premise. That's it.

Is it ridiculous: Yes.
Is is potentially offensive: .....I dunno? I'm actually not religious so...┐(￣ヮ￣)┌
Is is surprisingly wholesome: Absolutely.

Jesus is a bro, and befriends people of all types wherever he goes. Buddha can find ways to become enlightened in even the most comical of circumstances. Together they have the best chemistry and get up to all sorts of wacky shenanigans. Not only ... that, but the jokes are *really* clever. There's lot's referential religious humor that play into the history of Christianity and Buddhism, and actually none of what I've seen seems to be mean spirited. Honestly, I haven't read humor this clever and witty since Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, (Although that's a matter of personal taste.) even though those two titles are opposing ends of the humor spectrum.

So far, great read, very wholesome and clever. Highly recommend.

What does it mean to be human? Is it our ability to feel love, compassion, empathy, sadness, joy, and despair? Or is is one capacity to feel hatred and anger?

7 years in the making, this was based on a manga that was a collaboration between Tezuka Productions, and Naoki Urasawa. The basis of the story being "The World's Greatest Robot" arc from Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka. Urarawa turns the story into sci-fi murder mystery, exploring what is even means to be human. He even changes our main protagonist, Astro/Atom, to Gesicht, a detective with Euro-pol trying to solve a string of mysterious murders where ... each victim is left with objects protruding from their head. Made to resemble "horns". Our first victim is Mont Blanc, who is considered to be one of "The World's Greatest Robots". Gesicht then seeks insight from 6 remaining greatest robots for help in solving the case.

Honestly, I've enjoyed everything I've read from Urasawa, and I think he's one of the greatest Manga-ka of our generation. Not only that, I'm a *huge* Tezuka fan, so this collaboration is a match made in heaven. I was excited to hear this was being adapted, and so far they did not disappoint.

The source materiel, so far, is being translated to animation beautifully, and I think the one hour episodes match the pacing of the manga very well. I even love how well this studio nailed Urasawa's art-style. Down to some shots where you can see the variation in line weight on the characters' outlines. My only gripe is the clash between the 3D used for some of the background objects and effects/explosions, but it hasn't been enough to pull me out of the story.

I really have nothing notable to say about the OST. While it fits the atmosphere of the anime very well, I've noticed some tracks get played...a bit repetitively. Otherwise, it's ok.

So far so good, I'm excited to see the rest!

Okay.... while I'm not *that* far into the series, I really just wanted to put my thoughts about this somewhere.

I'm actually going to start with the art. I am an artist myself (I drew my profile picture!), and one of my specialties is pen and ink. And my lord.... Miura's artwork is *masterful*. I'm reading the deluxe version, and I can't help but find myself lost in all the detail in the artwork. The full page spreads are something to behold when you're reading the deluxe editions. It's very much more in line with classical pen and ink work where all the depth, shading, and ... textures, are given through detailed cross-hatching. One thing I noticed is in comparison to most other manga, there is a minimal use of screen tones. They *are* there. Mainly to give the horses a contrasting color, or to convey characters with a darker skin tone. I only see them more heavily used in darker scenes. Many of the panels use just simple black and white, which is an incredible feat of skill.

While I can't say I'm that far into the story as a whole, It has me fully invested. Guts is a fascinating character, and a unique insight into how on someone with a rough exterior deals with trauma.

While I do highly recommend this, it does delve into some very sensitive and mature subject matter. The parental advisory stickers on the physical editions are not just there for show. This is not for the young or feint at heart.

But overall, great read, very much enjoying it, I'm going to stop typing so I can continue reading!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

This was one of the most anticipated releases of the winter anime season for me, and to say this ended up being a letdown would be an understatement. It's such a shame since CloverWorks did an *exceptional* job with the first season. It was a perfect mix of suspense, horror, and mind games. I rated the first season a 9/10 for a reason. This is not a worthy successor.....

What confuses me is that in the span of the same season CloverWorks is doing an incredible job with Wonder Egg Priority, and while I have not watched it myself, I've ... heard tons of praise for Horimiya.

Now don't get me wrong, the anime *does* have some good merits to it. I thought the first half of the season was decently paced, and the animation and soundtrack were still decent. The OPs and ED were... actually pretty great. Special shout out to Taiki Konno though. They are the artist who did those gorgeous illustrations that you see in the ED. They also did the lovely art that you see in the ED for Fire Force.

Now back to the negative....While I really enjoyed the first half, things seemed to go off the rails around the midpoint. Whole entire story arcs were rushed...not to mention the ones that were apparently skipped. Then the ending that was reduced to an unsatisfying slide-show.

Honestly...I'm just disappointed. This had so much potential. A great first season to start out with, and a studio with a lot of talent backing it. Now it seems that we can only hope that it can get a fateful adaptation ala Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Now that I think about it, I don't always watch anime that fall under the slice of life/comedy genre. There usually has to be something unique about the anime for it to draw me in and keep my attention. After seeing a few positive reviews of this anime, I decided to take a weekend to binge watch it.

One of my favorite comedies is Sayanora Zetsubou Sensei, which has a bizarre, surreal, dark, sense of humor. Something about Asobi Asobase took me back to the days when I watched Zetsubou Sensei for the first time. While not nearly as dark, it has that bizarre and ... surreal humor that I came to love. Some episodes they would start with a small gag, and manage to escalate it to hilarious levels. It was a pleasant surprise.

If you're looking for something a little different, something lighthearted, yet surreal, I'd say this is worth a watch.

I went into this not sure what to expect. The premise looked interesting so I figured it was worth a watch. This turned out to be one of my favorites of the 2018 spring lineup. It's a shame this flew under the radar. It being a Chinese produced anime that was never picked up by any English licensers/streaming services most certainly contributed to it's obscurity.

This is yet another twist on the "monster girl" genre that seems to be ever growing in popularly. This time the main cast are siblings that all have some sort of experimental modification done to them. All but the ... youngest sibling, Dennis, which is simply a genius. He is the one that tries to hold the whole family together after their scientist parents are sent to prison. It takes a very human approach of looking at the characters, and what it means to be so different in a society that doesn't accept their differences. I couldn't help but relate to some of these characters, as someone that doesn't always fit into society myself.

The animation is not spectacular, but the art style gives it some charm. I'm assuming this didn't have the big budget that most mainstream anime has. If this is the case, I think they did a pretty good job with the resources they had.

I have to mention the OP. It was one of my favorites of spring 2018. What's interesting about the opening is the singer is bilingual in Japanese and in Chinese. She made a version in Chinese and in Japanese for each dub. I thought that was pretty neat.

While not a 10/10, it's unique, and charming. I'm glad I took the time to watch it.