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Full disclosure, that 9 you see there? It doesn't start there. We'll get there when we get there though.

The Seven Deadly Sins is a medieval fantasy action anime directed by Tensai Okamura. If that name sounds familiar to you, it's because he is the creator of Darker Than Black. It's about a group of criminals who worked for the kingdom of Liones until something happened and they were blamed for a heinous crime against the kingdom. 10 years later, Princess Elizabeth of Liones searches for them in order to stop a coup against the kingdom. If a group of criminals going on a mission that ... seems impossible sounds familiar as well, it's because it's slightly reminiscent of Suicide Squad. So basically this is a medieval fantasy Suicide Squad directed by the same person who made Darker than Black. Already, this sounds amazing.

What is amazing about the story is how in depth it goes. At the beginning there isn't a lot of information given, but as the episodes continue along we receive more and more information about the characters, the situation they're in, the world they're in, how they think and feel about everything, and we get a bigger understanding of everything that is happening. It gives us so many details about what's happening that we as an audience can truly immerse ourselves into the world. But it's not shoved in our faces or forced in any place. The progression of acquiring information is natural and we learn what we need to learn when we need to learn it. It's not just information dumping whenever we don't have a fight scene. You learn everything with everyone.

What's really cool about this aspect of the story is how they pull off twists and reveals. Because we learn with the characters the twists are pulled off so intricately. It's not just that we learn some big revelation, but we see how it connects with everything else we've learned so far. So it's like we learn the big thing, and then we remember how it connects with another thing, and then another thing, and then so on and so on, and the entire scope of the show changes drastically. It's not just a twist, it's a chain reaction.

The story telling is really neat, but this is also an action anime as well. The action itself is really well put together. It blends the fantastical elements of each character's magical abilities with the good old-fashioned sword fighting and hand to hand combat that you would expect out of a medieval fantasy. Every attack hit well and the sheer impact of it all is felt with each blow. How they handle the combat in a general sense is great as well. Since The Seven Deadly Sins are supposed to have an almost limitless amount of power, creating highly intense action scenes where they have the possibility to lose is rather difficult. They decided to take an Occam's Razor approach to it, and just made the villains they fight also have almost limitless power, and that really works. Not only are the action scenes tense, they go all out with them.

It being called The Seven Deadly Sins, it is obviously going to be very character heavy. Like I said earlier, we learn everything with the characters, and as such we see them go through everything. Whether it be seeing them grow and change, or just seeing what makes them who they are. Every sin is elaborated on as much as they need to, and all of them are engaging and exciting to see every time we see them. My personal favorite is Gowther because he is just so blunt with everything. Nothing seems to phase him. Although all of them are fun in their own way. And I feel like if we got to know Merlin more she might be my favorite. But even with the small amount we see of her, she is already amazing. Best team mom.

Elizabeth herself is also a really good character. She's not just a damsel in distress, but she's also not just another stereotypical badass female. She helps where she can help, and does all she can, but knows her limitations as well. Her will and determination shine through each sticky situation, even after the sins seem to give up or are too weak. Her true character is in that she is willing to fight for her kingdom and everyone in it, and do whatever it takes to ensure that they are all safe. I really can't think of anything negative about this character. Nothing at all. Well, I seem to have this nagging feeling that something negative happens with this character, but I do not recall what it is. Oh well, I guess it can't be that important.

It's not just the protagonists that get a lot of development and characterization. The villains do so as well. We see what motivates each villain and see why they do what they do. Why they follow along with this coup and what is important to each of them. Each motivation for each villain is varied widely, which makes each villain unique in their own way, and helps us sympathize with most of them.

So far, I've been hyping this up like there's no tomorrow. You might think that there are no flaws. Well, this did get a 9 in my book, so there are obviously flaws. In fact, my brain is telling me of a really big flaw, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Hmmm. Well, whatever it is, it doesn't seem important, so I guess I don't need to talk abou-OK! FINE! I'll talk about it.

So, the thing I didn't mention about Elizabeth is that she is also used for fanservice. Obviously, I consider this a bad thing. It is unnecessary and it doesn't do the character justice. In fact, it's the worst part about the entire show. "It's just a little fanservice, what could possibly be so bad about it?" you may ask. Well I'm glad you asked.

Some of you may have noticed that I made jokes about me completely forgetting that this anime even has fanservice. I had planned to do that from the moment I decided to review this anime. However even during the writing of this review I forgot about putting this joke in and complaining about the fanservice. It's THAT unimportant. And that's the problem. There is no weight to the fanservice whatsoever. "Are you asking for more fanservice?" No I'm not. I'm asking why is it here in the first place. Beside the obvious reason of trying to appeal to people trying to get their jollies. And I know that's why a lot of fanservice is in so many anime, but here it doesn't last long. It's like 30 seconds to a minute each episode tops. And not every episode has it. For comparison sake, look at Kampfer. One of my biggest complaints with it is that it focuses too much on silly fanservice. But if you were to cut out the fanservice, you would have to replace with more story, or more characterization, or more action. Seven Deadly Sins is lacking in none of those fields, and if they removed the fanservice nothing about the rest of the show would change. So not only is it unnecessary in the usual way fanservice is unnecessary, it's unnecessary in that you can skip over it entirly and not feel like you're missing anything important and that it doesn't feel like it's lacking content. So yeah, it's not just bad because it's bad, it's bad because there is literally NO REASON for it.

Aside from that, I have a few more complaints. Remember all the way in the beginning I said it doesn't start out at a 9. As much as I praise how well the story is paced, it is also a particularly a slow boil. When I saw we learn everything with the characters, I mean everything. At the beginning we don't know a whole lot about any of the characters that we see, and the little we do know doesn't make them stand out. They seemed very cliche. What kept me going wasn't the characters, like it usually is. It was the world and story. And it's not even the story beats that kept me going, it was the general story about a kingdom in peril and the fact that 7 criminals have to save it. The potential in what is going on. But once it gets going and we know more about everyone, and we meet more people, it becomes more interesting and we become more invested. And it especially picks up in the last five episodes. Those episodes alone helped it redeem the uninteresting cliched beginning.

Another complaint is something that's not bad, but just a little weird. There's a character named Jericho who is one of the villains. She is embarrassed about not having a lot of power and being a girl. And these fears grow when she meets Ban, one of the Sins. This is not a bad motivation, or a bad way to advance her motivation. But it's weird because in her first appearance Ban strips her of her armor, but the next time we see her, Ban doesn't seem to know she's a girl. That utterly confuses me. It also seems like we're not supposed to know she's a girl until Ban strips her, but it was very obvious from when we first see her.

One final complaint is that, while most of the villains get very good characterization that helps us understand who they are and develop them as a whole, the main villain has decent motivations and decent characterization, but is kind of hindered by the fact that they went out of their way to make them the most evil person in the show. It's not entirely bad per say, but when everyone else has complex motivations for doing what they do, the villain lacking that makes them seem mostly uninteresting.

Now, back to things I like. Starting with the production value. It is really amazing. The artwork is so colorful and varied that each scene is a treat to look at. Every color used is used to its fullest effect. The character designs are all unique and each character stands out, even at a distance, or in a constantly moving environment, such as the action scenes. Speaking of, each action scenes come together really well. With most of the characters involved being super powerful, each movement or action is felt and the impact hits a lot harder. And since a lot of the characters have a unique fighting style, the presentation is absolutely spectacular. One of my favorite action scenes is when they break Ban out of the prison he's in. When Ban's and Meliodas's eyes meet they just bro out and start hitting each other like they do, and the sheer force of them just hitting each other and arm wrestling just brings down the whole prison.

The music is also really good as well. It has a booming orchestral soundtrack, and each piece fits the scenes they're in really well. It makes great use of stringed instruments and drums during more intense scenes, but it also works in the piano quite nicely during some of the more somber scenes. As for the openings and endings, opening 1 is alright, but nothing special, ending 1 is really fucking good, opening 2 is one of the best anime openings I've scene in recent times, and ending 2 while not as good as ending 1, is still really good and worth listening too.

Another thing that this show handles really well is its theme of forgiveness. It explores different aspects about forgiving someone else or yourself in very complicated ways, but the theme is clear and simple to understand. Each character has varying degrees of things that they are or should be forgiven for, and when they are forgiven by the person who forgives them, they both come out of it better and stronger, and the situation they're in becomes a lot easier. However, if they aren't forgiven the person who doesn't forgive them only makes matters more complicated for the person who doesn't forgive them. And there are a good number of scenes in which a character can't forgive themselves, but someone forgives them for them, and that makes things better as well. It just really gets to the heart of understand people, and with the large cast of characters and it being a character-centric series, the theme plays really nice into the structure of the show really nicely.

One more thing, I'd like to talk about the ending. Not in any sort of specific way though. Just how it's structured. So, during the course of the show, I found out there was going to be a season 2. The ending is set up is the perfect way to do a lead in to another season. It concludes the story it has in a way where everything is neat an tidy, but it opens up a few questions on what comes next. So it satisfies you in a way where yes you do want more, but you can wait for it because what you got so far feels complete. That is such a cool way to end something.

Overall, while it starts off kind of generic, if you stick with it it becomes a really entertaining and engaging experience. You will grow to like the characters as you see more of them, and you will grow to like the story the more you see of it. It opens itself up for a lot of surprises along the way, and I would say that this might be an anime that's even better the second time you watch it, just because you know why the characters do the things they do, and so a joke becomes much more, or a downer moment becomes more sad, because you know now. And that is really amazing. 9/10

Kuroshitsuji, or Black Butler (which is what I'm going to call it for the review) is a great example of why you shouldn't place a pussy in the cutting room floor; because when you do so they're too afraid to cut anything out and you end up with a bunch of unnecessary bullshit. I swear, if Black Butler was half the length and more concise it could actually have earned the amount of praise it gets. However, since it's more lose than a contortionist’s bowel movement and longer than it needs to be, it's a crappy series.

The story revolves around Ciel Phantomhive and his plot ... for revenge against the people who killed his parents with the help of his Demon, Sebastian. This would make for an interesting story, but, thanks to the poor editing job I mentioned earlier, it's as appealing as a pile of rotting meat and just about as easy to swallow. It presents a whole mess of stories that may or may not relate to the overarching plot, and everything in it is all is made-up on the spot with hardly a sense of coherence or continuity. Episode 16 is a self-contained story that does nothing for anything in the series. It just wastes an episode. A coherent narrative is there at times, but not enough to make it good. The reason I say that it would be better if it were shorter is because some of the stories are at least interesting, and in the case of some of the better episodes, is relevant to the plot. I genuinely liked episode 21 because it expands on the servants that Ciel hires beyond their normal quirky selves. Although, it should have been early in the series in order for it to make more sense and not just like something they pulled out of their ass to foreshadow future episodes. That's a good example of how organization can hinder something.

As much as they pulled the story out of their ass, they also pulled many MANY elements of the story out of their ass as well. The mythology in the show is never explained beyond the establishing factor. Reapers hate demons, demons can do anything, and a third example I would provide, but it is spoiler-y, so I cannot. It's not the mythology that's poorly thrown together either, character relationships, major plot points, even the historic elements get poorly assembled in order to create a story. I don't mind if demons exist in a realistic world, but if it is supposed to be a realistic setting than you cannot just forge history because we've already accepted demons. If it's important to the plot than it's alright, but there is no reason to make up history for the real world that has nothing to do with the plot at hand, when there is already history for said world that has nothing to do with the plot at hand. It's like if I made a series that takes place during the real WWII, not a fictional one mind you, that involved ghosts but said that The Prime Minister of Great Britain was Mr. T instead of Winston Churchill, it's factually inaccurate. Unless it's important to the story, and they can explain it well, Mr. T as Prime Minister would be wrong.

However, as much as I hate the story, there are some nice story elements to it. The whole revenge plot, while done before, is still nice to see, and it gets interesting. That is, until they start pulling shit out of their ass again. We also see a lack of editing again, where the revenge plot is nice, but it takes 17 EPISODES to get the story actually going, and everything else before that is just filler, some of which is good, but all of which has no effect on the story. Still, some of it is pretty alright, and could have made for a better anime, but Black Butler just fails in execution very hard because someone in the cutting room floor thought it was necessary to delay the story in favor of doing pointless bullshit. It doesn’t even have the excuse of world-building either, because each episode or arc has a story, it just has nothing to do with the overarching story.

The characters of Black Butler are a bit better than the story, although in that it shoots itself in the foot. It has a slew of interesting, if one-dimensional, characters at its hand and who are the main characters of the show? The two most dull and annoying characters they have. Ciel is just a whiny arrogant bitch, and Sebastian is a God-Mode Stu whose job in the series is to take the suspense out of everything. Literally, he is shown doing impossible things, even for a demon with super-powers. A battle early in the series is between him and a giant wolf creature who can breathe fire, which could have been an interesting life or death situation, but Sebastian does it like it’s no problem. He never struggles with anything; he always just does everything perfectly, which makes that his imperfection ironically. If there’s a need to kill any suspenseful moment or ruin any plot twist that might be interesting, Sebastian is your go-to guy. As for Ciel, mostly he’s a whiny bitch who is arrogant and that’s not really a character that the series can run on. Sure, he has his reasons for it, but he’s just so one-dimensional that it hurt. I know he’s suppressing his emotions, but if he could express any other emotion when he’s alone, or in a situation that can allow it than he might be more likeable. Fortunately, he does get character development, AFTER 22 EPISODES! Again, that’s a problem with the editing. Back on track, his character development is actually interesting. It all starts when he loses Sebastian and has to find his way back home, because without his butler by his side he can’t defend himself and no one considers him to be as rich as he is. On his quest home, he learns thing about himself and becomes more likeable. As for the rest of the characters, aside from the main villain of the show, they’re all quite nicely varied and interesting in their own ways. Sure, they might be one-dimensional, but they’re all tolerable dimensions, if you can understand that logic.

I’ve heard people praise the animation, even people who think it’s worse that I think it is, but I do have a few problems with it. It’s torn between wanting to copy the animation for Ouran and wanting to copy the animation for Hellsing, and they often mix and match the two styles in instances where one style is needed. Both Ouran and Hellsing have great animation, but when you switch them up as often as they do in this, both styles lose their charm after a while, and the impact is lost. The impression that it leaves is a sort of “please pay attention to us” vibe that wants to draw viewers in, rather than create a decent tone with its art. One other major problem I have with the art is that whenever they have a close-up of Sebastian’s face he almost always has a really dumb expression on it. It really takes the “serious badass” aspect he’s supposed to have, if the who “too perfect” thing didn’t do it first. Still, the art is nice to look at, even if it’s not all that original, and the character designs are pretty nice on a good number of characters, but it’s not as great as some people make it out to be.

The music is pretty cool. The opening and both endings are good to listen to, and the background music is very interesting and tries to create a nice tone, which the story immediately ruins. Still, it’s not that great of a redeeming quality, because Black Butler has a lot of quality it needs to redeem; like the dub, for instance. It’s not a bad dub, per say, but when compared to the subbed version, it is just laughable. Most of the subbed voices actually make the characters sound cooler than their dubbed counterparts. Even Sebastian, which I didn’t think was possible. The sound quality of the show though, is generally pretty good.

Finally, there is one more thing I’d like to address. Even though I say these bad things about the series, I would recommend that you watch it anyway. “Why?” you may ask; because all these bad points make it incredibly funny to watch. It’s not the best at pulling of “it’s so bad it’s good” because I admit, there are good bits, and there are some bad parts that are just bad, but it is somewhat fun to watch, and if you approach it with the right attitude, it will go by quickly.

Overall: Black Butler is a very flawed, yet very fun ride. Some of the things are good, and some of the things will make you bang your head against the desk. The non-main characters are mostly fun and enjoyable, and the production value is pretty good, but nowhere near the best out of a series. It’s a very cheesy show and you could probably milk it for all it’s worth by making fun of it, but if you go in expecting a very serious story, than you will be thoroughly disappointed. 5/10

Often times things with big problems begin with smaller problems, and Soul Eater is no exception. For all the problems this series has, one thing that bugged me a lot more than most of the faults was the fact that at the beginning of the show Maka and Soul are shown to be an unstoppable force, and yet not to much later they basically shout the fact that they need to improve on every level from the rooftops. I know that seems like a minor problem, but they never address the inconsistency of it. Still, even with all the faults it has, Soul Eater ... is genuinely enjoyable and incredibly fun.

Soul Eater is about this academy wherein kids learn how to become hunters of evil spirits, but it becomes something more as the series progresses. More on that later. The set-up itself, while not entirely original, is made interesting enough and is a great backdrop for what the series is really about; the characters. It has a great diversified cast, most of which you will grow to love. Each of them has their own personality and quirks that help make them more likeable. The heroes especially come across as some form of awesome, and most are very well characterized and have actual character arcs and evolve beyond the typical cardboard-cutouts of more boring, uninspired, shonen series. Though this also applies to some of the villains as well. The reason I'm being incredibly broad here is because if I actually described why each character is good we'd be here all day. However, there are two good characters I want to talk about. I know a lot of people hate on Excalibur, but I actually find him really enjoyable. The degree of quirkiness he possesses is just too fun to hate. This is probably one of the few examples of pulling off a deliberately annoying character without them actually being annoying. The concept of Excalibur is hard to hate because there's no point in taking the piss out of something that's already taking enough piss to fill up a water tower. At least, that's how I think of it. The other good character I'd like to talk about is Crona, an embodiment of what makes the good part of the cast of Soul Eater. At first, I didn't like Crona because he (I'm going to refer to Crona as a guy, both for the sake of the review and for the fact that that's the gender I perceive him as) wasn't characterized well at all. I remember saying at the time that it would take a ridiculous amount of development for me to change my mind, and to my surprise that's exactly what I got. His problems, struggles, and emotions are well-developed and well-characterized. It makes for an incredibly good character

I've mentioned that I don't like some of the cast as well. That's the thing about the characters of Soul Eater, whenever the aren't making interesting, fun, and amazing characters, they make characters that are incredibly horrible. Medusa being the biggest offender. Not only because she's evil for no good reason besides being a villain for the show, but also because her motivation keeps changing and can't keep a consistent bland villain type. She also comes back unnecessarily comes back after the show had already replaced her. This is also why I don't find Eruka Frog and Free particularity good either. Arachne, Mosquito, and Giriko all make for better villains, so there's no reason they needed to come back, especially Free. Free already made one reappearing act (being mysteriously unfrozen after he was left behind in the first episode we see him in) and making two makes him seem not likeable. Even if they didn't come back for no reason, both of them are still kind of bland. The other two characters I hate are Little Ogre and Ragnarok. Both of them are annoying and Little Ogre is completely unnecessary. Still, most of the cast is good enough to make up for these mistakes they tried to pass off as characters, but it defiantly would be better without them.

Now, let's come back to the story. As it progresses, it becomes an easier target for criticism. The basic set-up it has is all needed to be a great story because it needed to just play second fiddle to the characters and awesome fight scenes. However, at one point it drops the fiddle, takes out a bass, and insists on playing "Another One Bites The Dust," "Feel Good Inc." or anything by Primus. That kind of confusing metaphor means that the story tries to become the focus of the show instead of the characters, with little success. Whenever it tries to get deeper than it needs to be it becomes incredibly stupid and more often than not not worth it. A good example of this is when they try to make us question the legitimacy of the school and it's Headmaster, Shinigami. You could see where it was going from 50 miles away and it ended up not worth any pay off whatsoever. I feel this show has the opposite problem that Kampfer has. Kampfer needs a deep interesting story-line that it barely has, and Soul Eater barely needs a plot, but tries to have a deep and interesting story-line. Still, I will say I like Kampfer's story more than Soul Eater's, if only because I feel sorry for Kampfer and this is the only area it can compete with Soul Eater. To it's credit though, Soul Eater keeps the great characterization and great fight scenes while the story is busy embarrassing itself. As for the ending that everyone's down on, I thought it wasn't that bad. It was a return to form by being simple good vs. evil with no gimmicks behind it, besides awesome fight scenes. Basically, the story should have stayed in the background instead of trying to hog the spotlight, because it didn't do well in it.

The music for Soul Eater is really interesting and fun to listen to. It's fast-paced during the action scenes, ad more complex during moments of characterization. The theme songs are great too, except for the first end theme, which sound like taking a fully decorated Christmas Tree and trying to shove it in your ear. The second end theme isn't all that great either, but it's head and shoulders above the first one. As for the voices, the sub is better than the dub, for a two word reason: Brittney Karbowski. Her Black*Star voice is annoying as hell, and too effeminate for him. Most of the dub is alright though, the biggest improvement being Kent Williams as Sid because he emotes more, but the sub version is genuinely better. The art of Soul Eater looks very stylized and worth every cent it used on production. It looks incredible and unique at the same time.

Overall: Soul Eater is an anime with a mostly hit, sometimes miss cast of characters. The hits among the cast make the show worth watching, along with the fight scenes, most of the music, and the art. It also makes it unique in flavor. Sure the story breathes with ts mouth open, but eventually you just learn to ignore its attempts to compete with more story-heavy anime. 8/10

WARNING: This review is going to be really boring. "Why?," you ask. Because [C] is really boring, and it's boring to talk about. I can get excited over a good thing because I can find creative ways to express my like for it. I can get excited over a bad thing because I can think of different ways to tell it to eat the ass-end of a north-bound cow. However I can't get excited over [C] because of how fucking boring it is. You have been warned, so don't complain about that if you're going to.

[C] is about a kid named Yoga, who gets transported ... to an alternate dimension after accepting a mysterious cash fund in his bank account. In this alternate dimension, he has to fight different people in order to secure his future, which the dimension has as collateral. Every other fighter there does so as well, making this a fight to secure Japan's future as a whole. Each victory or loss has an adverse effect in the real world. As he battles, it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems to Yoga, and different people have different ideas about how to manipulate this dimension to affect theirs.

My main problem with this story is that it's not original at all. What it is is a Frankenstiened mess of other anime; most notably Death Note, Serial Experiments Lain, and Soul Eater. From Death Note, we a get a moral dilemma tailored in a similar fashion, only handled so poorly that we don't know entirely what it's asking until the very end of the series. From Lain, we get an alternate dimension that controls the real world, only less awesome because the impact left on the real world is known from the start and the way they raise the stakes at the end is laughable at best. From Soul Eater, we get a fighting system with someone at your side that's humanoid but not actually human that acts as your weapon, but less cool each battle is boring and predictable. The staff even know that because one of the battles cuts off in the middle of it and they declared Yoga the winner because they couldn't think of a way for Yoga to predictably win it. Aside from making the aspect that they stole from each anime pathetic, the idea that these three anime can mix together is not a solid one. I can see someone connecting Death Note and Lain, but adding Soul Eater into the mix is just ludicrous. These three anime are so different from each other it doesn't make sense to mix them all up; But, if you're determined to do so, don't string them onto a boring plot that thinks it's better than it actually is.

The main story is one that's been done before and better. An under dog-type character finds himself in an odd situation and begins to rise through the ranks, which is seen by the characters in it as shocking and which isn't seen by me, because I dosed off five minutes in. That is the entire extent of the plot, except when it tries to be deep. I say "tries" because each "deep situation" is bland as hell and something people could see coming from miles away. Most of it talks about about how this dimension is affecting the real world, and when I say "talks" I mean "drones on pointlessly, while alienating the audience." I know Darker than Black did something similar, but the universe in that set up in is in some way interesting and has a colorful cast of characters, which links me neatly to my next point.

The characters are somewhat of a paradox. They're incredibly bland and uninteresting, but to the degree where they're so bland they're unforgettable. Yoga is the under dog hero of the anime, who stumbles around the series, trying to decide which moral side to take. His fighting partner is Mysu. Her role consists of bitching to Yoga and harboring a secret crush on him. The main villain is Mikuni, not that they want you to know that. The series tries to hide that fact very clumsily. His fighting partner is Q, a stoic character that hardly talks, probably in fear that whatever she says has to come from the same snooze-worthy script that everyone else's dialogue comes from. Other characters include a pessimistic teacher, a secret agent girl, an information broker with gold teeth, and a few others I can describe in whole using simple terminology. The only two interesting characters are Masakaki, who works for the alternate dimension, looks like the nephew of The Count from Gankutsuou, and consistently has fun in his own little way, and Sennoza, a rich charity worker, who's incredibly strong and tries to make the script more interesting. Seriously, the rest of the characters sound like their actors knew this was going to be boring going in and didn't even bother (I watched it subbed, by the way). These characters as a whole though are just as bland as the plot, except Mysu who is annoying as hell, and I would sooner leap from The Eiffel Tower than consider her likeable in any way shape or form.

As for the art, it's bland as well. For the alternate dimension, it looks like they tried to fix the artwork of Gankutsuou and fucked it up. At least Gankutsuou's art look interesting in some way and had some feeling behind it. The art here looks like it was made by a robot programed to make something interesting without any reference material at all. The real world artwork also looks boring, but without any specific thing to rip off of, so it looks like that robot's programing was set to "generic." Still, the artwork here is just boring and not smug, like the story, or annoying, like the characters.

The music is also generic as hell. Uninteresting in every way. Even the opening theme, which is by Nico Touches the Walls, the group that did the second opening for FMA: Brotherhood, which was an awesome song. What happened here? Did you guys agree to make a generic song for the anime, or did you look at the anime and make a song to match? My money's on the latter. Still, there is one saving grace for the music, the end theme. It's bye the same people that did the end theme for Eden of the East, another great theme, and this group decided to take the Sennoza route and tried to make the series interesting. As it stand though, the music is the least bland part of the series only because of that.

I'm sorry that I've been repeating myself, calling [C] boring, bland, generic, uninteresting and such. It's just that there's no other way to describe the series. However, if I talk about the end, that might give me some wiggle room in my vocabulary. So, Spoiler Alert here. If you don't wish to be spoiled, just skip to the end.

The Death Note styled moral dilemma centers around the choice of living for today or living to live again tomorrow. This is an interesting concept, but it doesn't come up until very late in the series, as I've mentioned before. It doesn't get addressed until the fate of Japan is at stake, which is a sloppy way to raise the stakes, which I've also mentioned before. The last few episodes of [C] have plot points that fly past faster than a caffeine addict in a race car and are never explained, and things begin to happen for no reason. Or maybe there is a reason, I just didn't pay attention to the boring dialogue long enough to make it coherent. This is all in effort to make [C] look tough and edgy enough to play with the big boys in the anime crowd. A hopeless effort I might add, because it makes it look incredibly silly and not serious at all. The ending of [C] is rather bullshit. It resets itself so that it leaves off where it began, and no effort has been made to offer some form of closure. I guess that was a little more interesting, but not by much. It was worth trying anyway.

Overall: [C] is just an extremely boring anime with less substance than an empty jar. It thinks too highly of itself and is unoriginal in almost every way. It's not a bad anime though, just very inorganic. Something that you could make by putting a bunch of better anime into a blender and mix in some sludge. Don't watch it, unless you are suffering from insomnia is basically what I'm saying. 4/10

Sometimes it's fruitful to take a step back and examine the basic workings of what we have come to accept. Like taking apart a cheeseburger to see just exactly what's in it and how much effort actually went into making it. Acchi Kocchi is a romantic-comedy without a gimmick. No dumb vampire lore, no petty revenge plot, no bullshit gynophobia problems, just she likes him, and she's koi about it and BAM! There's your anime.

Acchi Kocchi is the story of Tsumiki struggling to confess her crush on her friend Io. That's it. That's the whole extent of the plot. It presents itself as a sort ... of slice of life way, and that works pretty well. Tsumiki is a well defined character, and her shyness card is not the only one in her deck. She feels more like an actual human being, rather than a marionette going through the motions of a romcom. She takes herself seriously, and is incredibly strong, and yet she still lets her feminine side out whenever she can. Now, I have said before that I have a weakness for shy characters, and now is as good a time as any to explain why. Basically, there are three reasons. 1: I feel shyness is a good place to start to build character development. There are many ways to characterize shyness, whether it be eventually drawing them out or even just understanding what they're shy about. It presents a slew of never ending possibilities. 2: Shyness is a very relateable trait for many people, including myself. Most people have been shy in any number of situations, and I feel close to shy characters because I'm not very good at approaching people I don't know, or even people I do know at some times. 3: THEY'RE SO ADORABLE! Tsumiki provides great examples of all three. Her shyness characterizes her greatly, I could relate to her problems very well and SHE'S SO ADORABLE! Needless to say, she's the best character of the show.

The rest of the cast is pretty good too. Io is the oblivious love interest of the show. I will say, his characterization is slow going, but around episode 5 or 6 I think, his characterization gets really good and is characterized outside of an oblivious cool person who could get any girl he wants. Their friends are also pretty well-developed to the extent that they need to be as well. Hime is the confused nice girl who finds cuteness in anything she can. Sakaki is the guy who's all talk but is pretty much the buttmonkey of the whole group. Mayoi is the strange, enigmatic inventor of the group and the buttmonkey runner-up. Those three provide a good chunk of the humor in the series and they're all likeable to at least some extent.

The art is pretty good, but I feel it could have been better. It's not bad, I just feel it's trying too hard. The art is interestingly light and fluffy, but also just a tad unreal. I feel the art could have tried harder a little bit. It's still good and interesting and all, but it needs work.

The music does a good job fitting the mood. It matches the mood of the scene just right. It's nice and slow when it wants us to take it seriously, and it gets all loud and bombastic whenever something funny happens. Though, the opening is kind of not fitting. It's goofy and pop-y and just doesn't seem to match the show all the way. It's a good song, but I think the effort was mis-placed. The ending theme is very good though. It's nice, soft, and relaxing, just what you'd expect from this.

As for the voices, they do a great job at bringing out what we love about the cast. For each emotion that these characters have, the voice-actor finds a voice suitable for it. Everyone is perfectly cast and performs their character excellently.

The humor of the show is what I really like about Acchi Kocchi. It has some very great lively subtle humor. That portion of humor directly stems from the crush that Tsumiki has on Io. It's both adorable and really hilarious. However, Acchi Kocchi also has some humor that's about as subtle as a drunk clown at a rave. I think they could have used less of that though, and focus more on the subtle humor of it all. Still, to its credit, the non-subtle humor is still funny and doesn't take away from the subtle humor, and it does give Hime, Sakaki, and Mayoi more characterization. I think they focused more on that kind of humor because the creators weren't sure that the subtle humor alone could draw in as many viewers, and that's understandable. No matter what it is, there's always at least one member of the audience that can't understand something more complex than throwing a pie at someone's face, and designing something to draw in more of an audience is understandable, and it works in this case because it doesn't ruin any of the subtle humor that not everyone understands. The humor is very funny in either area and enjoyable.

Overall: Acchi Kocchi is a very good anime. The characters are great, the humor is funny, the production values are splendid and it's an overall enjoyable experience. It does have some flaws, but the good outweighs the bad tenfold. 8/10

Angel Beats! is like a house of cards being built by someone who gets easily frustrated; a good idea, but by the end it all falls apart because it just never stays still. As a concept, Angel Beats! is something new with the whole purgatory/afterlife-school thing, and that could have worked, but it doesn't get very far with it. It just doesn't seem to lift itself off the ground that much.

A major problem with Angel Beats! is that we as an audience are supposed to accept things without any clarifying statements. In fact, that's the first thing that comes up in the series. Otonashi asks ... where he is and then Yuri says that it's the afterlife, and we're just supposed to accept that fact. Otonashi doesn't at first, so why should we? And he only buys it after he gets killed and still finds himself there after it happened, which is also kind of bullshit. I mean, what if everyone just has the powers of the immortals from Baccano!? The whole purgatory/afterlife thing doesn't get properly explained until episode 3 when they explain how someone actually died. That's just one thing that they want you to accept right away, there are many more things that they want people to accept right away without explaining it, either right away or ever.

Another problem with the story aspect of it is it's all over the place. It can't seem to take an idea and stick with it. The only thing consistent about the setting is that it takes place in and purgatorial-afterlife and people can be killed and not die. Anything beyond that, the creators play around with like Legos. Now, playing around with an idea to see how it works in different ways is not a bad way to make things, but this only makes sense if one set-up and another set-up are two different entities and not two episodes apart in the same thing. This problem also causes a numerous amount of plot holes though out the series. I'm not exaggerating much when I say there is a plot hole in just about every other episode. That doesn't seem like a point in its favor.

A final complaint I have about the story is that they switch out villains in a similar fashion that an indecisive girl switches out dresses on the eve of her first date. For most of the series, the villain is Tenshi, and that worked just fine, but it's another person and then something else and then another thing, and the villain at the end of the series is unexpected, but not in the good way. They're not predicable because you'd have to have created the thing to accurately predict it. And the business with the other villains just seems to be unnecessary padding, without making any sense.

The story overall is the weakest point of Angel Beats! The ideas are solid, it has some nice character moments (which I'll mention later), and whenever they can stray away from the plot and just do random things is always nice, but the plot is just dumb and confusing, and can't just pick something and stick with it. It wants to goof around and yet wants us to take it seriously, another it wants us to do without any explanation as to why.

The cast of Angel Beats! is functional, if uninteresting. The main character, Otonashi plays the straight man and is very similar to Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In fact, these characters are so similar, you could be forgiven for thinking that he's just Kyon with orange hair and a back story. I do like this character though, because he's smart, rational and the only one who doesn't usually want to go along with Yuri's plans. I also like his back story very much. It has some nice moments of characterization for him, and it turns him into a solid likeable character, unlike his counterpoint, Yuri, who is not solid or at all likeable. She's a combination of Haruhi from TMoHS and Medusa from Soul Eater. She has the insane ideas and bossiness of Haruhi, but the cunning and compassion of Medusa. She doesn't seem to respect, or even like anyone else in the cast and just thinks of her teammates as pawns. Her ideas and bossiness that are similar to that of Haruhi are undermined by the fact that Haruhi could get away with it because she's practically God and Yuri doesn't have that excuse, so it just come across as stupid and annoying. The funniest thing about Yuri is that we're supposed to sympathize with her, but her back story is so overly dramatic that I have to call it into question. She would have made an alright villain, but as a hero, she's not a very good character.

Tenshi is a pretty good character on either side of the spectrum. I like the back story for her that takes place in the afterlife, as well as her general attitude, but then again, I'm a sucker for those types of characters. The other character I hate in Angel Beats! is Yui. She's like Renge from Ouran but with nothing actually fun about her, so she's just loud and obnoxious for most of her screen time. Her back story's alright though. It does explain why she's the way she is, but explaining it is not the same as excusing it. The rest of the cast ranges from OK to pretty good. Most, if not, all the cast is is just a cookie-cutter representation of an archetype usually found in secondary characters. Which is not to say they're bad, but it does weaken the cast severely. Still, the moments with them are mostly enjoyable, the back stories they actually explain are interesting and they would be pretty cool on their own if it wasn't for the fact that there's a story going on that takes away from it all.

The art and soundtrack are excellent, but both do suffer minor problems; re-hashing scenes and the end theme respectively. However, both are still really good. The art is very impressive. It does have the shiny quality about it that a lot of newer anime has, but it actually experiments with how to perfect it and how it looks in different types of shading and camera angles. The music does a good job matching the mood the story is trying to portray, whether successfully or not, and it's very enjoyable. Especially that opening. I didn't like it that much when I first heard it, but it just grows on you. The dubbed cast is actually pretty good at their roles. I don't think anyone is miscast and they seem to enjoy it. Bottom line, the production values were not wasted when making Angel Beats!. It's just a shame that a chunk of it was.

Overall: Angel Beats! has a good foundation to it, but uses toothpicks for support beams , and the overall design of the building is sloppy at best. It's an anime that plays by its own rules, and doesn't know what the hell they are. I can understand why people like it, and maybe why people would love it, but I don't really agree with it. The whole thing is just not structurally sound. It was fun to watch in some places, and I could recommend it, but for the most part, it puts style over substance and just doesn't have the right cards to play to make itself fantastic. 6/10

To say Yuru Yuri should be taken seriously, is like telling a vegetarian to eat at McDonald's. Yuru Yuri is not just over-the-top, it's completely mad with a side order of bonkers. What I'm getting at, is that Yuru Yuri is insane, and that's exactly what it needs to be in order to stand out.

Yuru Yuri is about four girls who take over the tea club room at an all-girls school because nobody uses it anymore and hi-jinks ensue. Before you write this off a moe Haruhi rip-off, I will remind you that Yuru Yuri doesn't have a story so messy that it makes what ... a tornado does look like the work of a Cleaning-Nazi, or much of a story at all. The description I gave you is the extent of the plot, and is really more of a set up to the events that happen throughout. The story really works, because it fucks around at any and all given opportunities. The title is the first sign, because anything that has "Yuri" in the title, aside it being straight-up hentai, is not going to have any serious cards in its deck. If that doesn't do it for you, then allow me to tell you, the second joke in the series is a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. Now, when you pull one of those that early in the series, that says you're not fucking around when it comes to fucking around.

This series is all for fucking around, and that's exactly why it's worth watching. It's a series that's trying to make you laugh, and each attempt is so over-the-top, and well-executed, that you can't help but laugh. The best part of it, is most of the jokes are self-aware and self-parody, and it's all so insanely cartoon-ish that you just know to not think about this in a serious light, because it certainly isn't. It also uses irony to its advantage, the biggest example I'll get to later, and it's not smug about it, rather it's just as loopy as the rest of the humor. The jokes are so unpredictable and immersive that, even though you think it can't get any funnier, it somehow manages to do so, so basically Yuru Yuri is to fucking around what Serial Experiments Lain is to fucking your brain.

The thing about the story is, it's not afraid to evolve itself either. In the midst of its humorous crusade, it looks at itself and decides to mix up the formula a bit. It takes its humor to new heights, even including some dark humor near the end, so the characters aren't the only ones experimenting in this anime, the anime itself experiments with itself as well, which means that you are allowed into the science lab when you're residing in the loony bin, despite not getting access to any of the sharp tools. The best example of this is in the second-to-last episode, where one of the characters is out of character because they hit their head and doesn't sexually harass a character she usually does, and the other character gets upset about it. "Wow" I thought. "Not only is this some seriously funny shit, this is some good characterization."

The characters themselves are just as crazy as the story, more-so perhaps. They're each a style parody of characters of the genre, and are willing to take whatever joke they have to its new extreme. You could say a lot of the humor comes from character interactions and implications that are blown out of proportion. As established already, there is yuri in the show, if the title didn't tip you off, but it's not perverted, as much as it is both adorable and fucking hilarious. The humor keeps moving to more levels of funny, but it never loses its charm, and that's why it works. However, sexual orientation jokes are not the only ones the characters partake in. There are a lot of jokes about the character's main traits that are funny in more ways than one. Now, the biggest irony in the show deals with the main character, Akari. She is the butt-monkey of the series because the rest of the cast always point out she is not a very memorable character, making her one of the more memorable characters in the show, making each joke all the more funnier. The entire cast is very well-developed, and well-characterized and are willing to make jokes that characterize the series.

So far, I have been saying good things about this show, but what about the bad? Well, for starters, the music and art are seemingly generic. The art especially has this problem, because it has just decent backgrounds and decent character designs. Now, I have said mundane artwork works with series before, but that's not the case here. They worked, because it reflects the nature of the show's normality, and there's nothing normal about Yuru Yuri. It just feels like it could have tried harder in the art department. As for the music, it mostly feels unimportant. Yes, it's very good, but it doesn't feel like it wants to be noticed. That is, aside from the catchiest opening theme this side of Working!!, thanks in part by the studio that made it Dogakobo, who only other previous work I've seen (Myself;Yourself) also had a very catchy opening. The ending is also quite good, though not as catchy as the opening.

The story also has some problems. You see, while it's not afraid to experiment with what it has and reaching new heights with it, it is afraid of expanding to new territory. It feels like it only wants to parody the specific genre it's in and hardly anything else, and I feel an opportunity was missed to gain more jokes out the whole experience by limiting the material it parodies to what it knows. Though, I suppose if the nice people who help you at the asylum won't let you near the pointy objects, asking for a bulldozer to expand your territory is really pointless. Another thing about the story I don't like is the habit of bringing up plot points and then never mentioning them again, or in layman's terms, having too many Big-Lipped Alligator moments. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Big-Lipped Alligator moment, but this series abuses how many one can have before it starts to get irritating. Still, this doesn't have a very big effect on the rest of the story, and you can still enjoy it all, but it is quite bothersome at some points.

Overall: Yuru Yuri is fun and enjoyable. The amount of self-parody is uncanny and in good proportion. If you're looking for something mindless and funny, than this is it. Yuru Yuri really knows what it is, and what it is, is totally, mouth-breathingly, paste-eatingly, chasing the girls around the playground with a piece of pooingly stupid. And I wouldn't have it any other way. 8/10

Rec comes to us from director Ryutaro Nakamura, who also directed Serial Experiments Lain and Kino's Journey, two anime who have very high acclaim. Now, even if you haven't seen Rec or Lain or Kino's Journey, you notice Rec looks rather different than Lain and Kino's Journey, and indeed, they are rather different. Serial Experiments Lain and Kino's Journey focus on one female character within a hostile environment which they have to work their way around, and has many dark tones. Rec, on the other hand, is about two people trying to deal with the hardships getting into a relationship in a passive-aggressive environment they ... created for themselves and has lighter tones, and look at me, dancing around the issue. Dancy, Dancy Dancy. Alright, let's just skip to the end, is Rec good? Yes. Is it better than Serial Experiments Lain and Kino's Journey? No.

Rec centralizes two characters, Aka, who is an up and coming voice actress with a love for Audrey Hepburn films, and Matsumaru, an average-joe worker who works in the marketing department of a snack company. They met one night, and then Aka's house caught on fire and Matsumaru offered her to stay at his place until she can move back in. Now, these two characters have perfect chemistry, in the fact that while they still are worlds apart from each other, their interaction seems really natural and flows quite nicely. They have a variety of personality, and use all of it when dealing with their problems. While a good number of they time, they do act passive-aggressively, there are many ways they express that, even dipping into their other emotions. The anime sets its priority straight and only focuses on those two characters for most of the time, however, they each have one character to confide in, Hatakeda for Matsumaru and Yoshioka for Aka. These characters are entertaining in their own right, but they aren't all that developed, but that's what makes it better. We can focus on the main characters much more and the two other characters don't over-power that at all.

For most of the series, we are focused on Aka's problems she addresses in a passive-aggressive manor, and only three episodes where Matsumaru has problems and expresses them like so. While both of these are rather well executed, I feel like it could have been balanced more. I feel at least one more episode where Matsumaru's problems are addressed could make it a little more worth-while. That being said, Matsumaru's problem-handling portion of Rec is easily the better part. Don't get me wrong, they're both good, but after Aka's life seems to get better, his life gets a little worse and he doesn't know how to deal with it and that creates another main problem after the first main problem gets solved without it being contrived in some sense.

I will admit, the music is just seemingly generic J-Pop stuff, but that's compensated with a focus on story and characters and is not meant to blow you away rather, just to set the mood, and at that, it handles it quite nicely. Still, it could have been a little more interesting. The voice acting is really good though. It flows like a Bruce Lee fight scene in a river, and Bruce is moving with it, creating a good atmosphere with the characters, and making them more enjoyable as a whole. The art of Rec is very well put together, illustrating the right level of shading to create a good tone, which is not quite dark, but still not entirely light-hearted. Again, like the soundtrack, it's mean to play second fiddle for the story and characters, and it also does a good job at it.

When comparing this to Lain or Kino's Journey, you will notice some differences. The main difference is that Rec is about two characters and Lain and Kino's Journey are about one. Lain and Kino's Journey deal with more darker tones and themes, where Rec is more light-hearted. That's not to say they don't have similarities as well. Both take place in a hostile environment, however Rec's environment is not only man-made, but also much smaller than the ones in Lain and Kino's Journey. The both deal with problems of the characters and look at them as people, rather than as characters. The soundtrack and art aren't as vital as the story and characters in all of them, and they're all expressive and free-flowing. So, while it doesn't have all of what made those two shows good, but Nakamura did manage to sneak in a taste of that, and it make the anime all the more delicious.

Overall: Rec, while not as good as Serial Experiments Lain or Kino's Journey, it's still worth watching, and I would recommend it for RomCom fans, as well as fans of Lain and Kino's Journey. Hell, I'd recommend it to almost anyone looking for anything good to watch. 10/10

Candy Boy is an online anime that consists of two twin sisters that love each other. Now, that may sound like a premise that can't be taken seriously, and to some extent, it is, but in all honesty this is actually a rather satisfying and serious anime.

What makes Candy Boy so great is that the story is taken SERIOUSLY. It's not a half-assed attempt to flaunt the shojo-ai genre so teenage boys (or lesbians) can fap to it, it has the same ups and downs that you would find in any other romance anime that takes itself seriously. The story progresses like it would in ... real life, but seeing as how that's how a slice-of-life is supposed to go, it's not that shocking. The problems that Yuki and Kana face are simply interesting. It has a wide range of problems that couples face from the tiniest things, like what to get each other for a birthday present, to major things, like how will one afford collage and still be together with the other. It doesn't let the fact that Yuki and Kana are twins and of the same gender effect the progression of the plot, in fact, at times, it enhances it.

However, the story could have been a little better with character development. Sure, you only have a limited amount of time to develop the characters, and they do do a good job of that, but our information of the characters is limited. Sure, there are bonus episodes, which may help (I have yet to see them), but looking at just the series itself, there is some work left to be done.

Another thing, at times when Kana and Yuki are talking, the screen is focused off somewhere else, like the top bunk of their bed, or an extra-long shot of the scenery, which is quite distracting. It wouldn't be so bad, if it didn't happen as often as it did, and it's not entirely bad, but it's really distracting.

The characters themselves are just great. Yuki and Kana complement each other as the others opposite. Yuki is the more lightheaded one who is more joyful and does have her moments, where Kana is more smarter, but also a little more emotional at times. While these seem like complete opposite personalities, they're not as different as one might think, and the differences in the personalities are what make it more interesting. Sakuya is a very enjoyable character. She's just like an over the top villain you would find in an action anime, but applied to a romance anime. More or less, she's like the Ladd Russo of this show, where she's insane and over the top it's hard not to love the character. Shizu acts as a sort of counter active voice in Candy Boy. She shows that Kana and Yuki are not alone in their sisterhood, and would like to be almost as close to them as they are. She's an interesting character, and used for an interesting purpose.

The art is rather well crafted. It's not insanely flashy, or unique, but that's what makes it work. The anime itself is not flashy or exciting, but it's still enjoyable to a standard. Like so, the art itself is like that, and replicates how wonderful the show is. The music also works on this convention. It works on how it takes itself seriously and not over the top with its premise, and adapts to it, and as a result, it's very nice, very beautiful.

Overall: Candy Boy may have a premise that might not be taken as seriously as other romance animes, but it's worth watching because it takes itself more seriously than someone could imagine. It's light-hearted, interesting, and overall worth watching, 9/10

Voices of a Distant Star is a very well received anime. For what reason is beyond me. This anime is just bad. Maybe I'm not the most cultured person, but seeing two people whining and complaining isn't my idea of entertainment.

Story: The story has the right idea, it just doesn't seem to do anything. The idea that two people who care about each other but are split apart by distance is a noble idea, and one that could have worked, but it doesn't because it just shows the two people just complaining, and hardly anything else. Sure there are some action sequences in there, but ... they are boring. If your going to do something like this, at least show the characters interacting with characters in the place they are. Just going back and forth between the two is not at all interesting. I honestly think that the director didn't even try to expand the story at all. Bottom line, this story could have been good at least, but it just fucks itself over by there being nothing besides the interaction, if you can even call it that.

Characters: Now, here's where Voices really takes a downfall, the characters. Both Mikako and Noboru are simply too whiny. They're so whiny, it's hard to sympathize with them. They basically have no emotion besides the fact that they miss each other. It's just "Oh, I miss you" for 25 minutes in various ways. They don't even seem sad about it or anything, just rather depressed. Despite the fact they both whine and complain, I think that Mikako is worse because; 1. She complains more, and 2. She doesn't drop out of the army to be with Noboru, even though she can. But still both characters are just awful.

Art: The art was overall decent. The Earth setting was really good, but the other settings were absent of anything interesting or eye-catching. Now, when you can't make space eye-catching, you defiantly have a few problems in the art department. The character design was OK, but Mikako's design looks like it was ripped-off directly from Lain's character design. The 3-D art however is where the art starts to drag itself. It just doesn't fit. It looks poorly compiled and not at all cleaned up. The only good thing I can say about the 3-D art is that the enemy ships look like a Haunter, who is an awesome Pokemon. But even that doesn't save the art, because it's just overall decent.

Sound: The music is rather forgettable and boring. Sure, some of the stuff they did with the piano was interesting, but it's still just boring and forgettable. It's almost as they played the same song, just over and over again. The English voices were decent, and the sound effects were sort of interesting, but they were few and far between and you can't remember them. The sound part was just rather boring.

Overall: I have no idea why so many people like this anime, it's just two people complaining for 25 minutes. That's not entertainment, that's high school drama, and frankly, there are better ways to watch high school drama than this. If you want to see people complaining for that long, then I feel sorry for you. 3/10