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The show is a classic Japanese horror story, nothing remarkable but nothing bad. If you want anything to be resolved to and real degree- it wont be. Its about the malignant forces outside of your control that your forced to deal with in a more real life setting, but in this case its a overly obsessives supernatural boy. If you like Japanese horror and shows like Yamishibai you'll enjoy it.

The art was good and effective, though animation was minimal it was used effectively. The sounds were eerie enough and not distracting but not the best. Not all the story's in it are completely memorable ... but most are good and the characters are relatable I think in the 'we've all known some one like that' category.

A touching love letter to American pop culture of the time, not much more. That's what this adaptation is, it's not too entertaining or special with no real plot beyond showcasing the only real character in it, whos a movie star. Comments on the video I watched mentioned it was intentionally dubbed in English when it was made, resulting in a bad dub. But that only contributes to its feel of American Culture, and does not detract from the show due to it being so American. The only real thing the show addresses is how many pop and movie stars become estranged from their families ... over time and the toll it can take.

To wrap up the music in it is English pop music, and with the lack of plot making the show feel like a music video. The music itself is pretty tinny. Visuals are pretty classic shoujo for the time. And story is practically non existent. Still for a 26 min one shot I think it might be worth your time, depending on what you expect to get out of shows. It best comes across as a love letter to American Pop culture of the time.

I'v read the first five volumes and found this series one that I want to keep reading but at the same time pains me to read. It's benefits are the gorgeous art and realistic yet fantastical historical fiction world its set in. Its flaws are its characters and lack of depth in exploration of topics and unrealistic characters.

To illustrate the points, keeping spoilers to a minimum, in the first volume or two our Main Character who is hailed by the narrative as a prodigy and genius attains the role of (for pretension purposes) a High General who governs land, the youngest one in history. ... But the first thing he does is immediately forgets he has an army and runs off by himself without a word to his men (whom we never see), and after the events that caused this he is stripped of his position for not acting in accordance of his office. But were told that he was the genius prep student in his military academy, etc. why would he do something that he should have known would end in a likewise way instead of something more logical for him and his position. For me this was the first sign of logical constancy problems, which persist through all the volumes.

Several arcs latter, it's a story about war, so should be little spoiler to say that a nation becomes conquered while its ruler was waiting for reinforcements that they 'knew would show up without a doubt', that never did end up arriving. But when our main character asks said reinforcements why they didn't come to help the response was something like 'we sent the men as per the treaty, but the treaty didn't say they had to arrive', with the reinforcement army being extremely honest on their foreign policy of themselves first and everyone else second. But if they're that open about it then wouldn't everyone already know that their unreliable, and why would the conquered nation be so sure the reinforcements would arrive if their this open about their stance.

Writing aside, the places in the book are nearly historical replicas of real world locations, depicted in art and atmosphere in great detail, which bring the world to life on the page. The character designs are all distinct and memorable. The whole of the story tries to stay political focused, around a growing empire were it's young power hungry administrators want to expand, and the smaller states around it are on the brink of losing to the empires European like cultural hegemony. The empire is already too large and powerful and no one nation is strong enough to stop it- will they band together or will they fall under the weight of a superior nation? That is the question of Shoukoku no Altair.

Memes and ecchi aside, you'll get out of the show in the end what you yourself want. Weather its 'plot' story, reviews, exploration of monster roles, etc. The show has them all if you care tot look for them. To me the show in fascinating as an exploration of Crims sexuality, as it develops each episode by way of exploration and being cajoled into situations. It can easily become a reflection of real life on how a shy person could, with the help of their older friends, discover a new facade of society and themselves through means of lust and sexual exploration. The world is ... also relatively unique as nations are not separated by fantasy races, but instead exist as one nation with everyone living together, which makes possible the societal and political commentary that is sprinkled into some episodes. The outside world is also different because our adventurers turned brothel reviewers are actual adventurers and the world is a dangerous place with lethal monsters, not a pure ecchi one filed with cute monsters. This also helps realize the idea that brothels would exist in this world as it provides a peaceful pleasurable safe haven in a world where you may not return from your next quest.

Besides that the soundscape, art, and animation are minimal. Art feels to me half a decade outdated, though not a criticism or fault, only an observation. Animation is mostly relatively static most the time, with the brothel scenes being almost still shots or gifs, reminiscent of eroge art more than anything animated for television. However the minimal animation does not detract form the show for what it aims to achieve and feels natural as appose to a detriment.

Kabukichou Sherlock gets a lot of criticism for being a lackluster comedy based around the character of an off brand Sherlock Holmes, but as the show goes on and on it gets more serious, emotional, and tense. The first half is primarily light hearted and comedy heavy to set the tone of how things 'should be'; but turns away from that halfway into the Jack the Ripper case, which the case and the events that are around it become the main plot of the show. The show has plot twists that some might see coming, some not, depending on if you know the Sherlock ... Homes books and whether you think its going to follow the books at all.

The gimmicky inclusion of rakugo is also an issue of contention with watchers, as it is gimmicky and one of the things that is there explicitly to make the show distinct. That said the rakugo has explicit reasons for being there, this Sherlock loves roakugo but didnt have enough talent for it but in his depression after realizing this was convinced that if he loved it so much then he could apply it to how he acts in his life- detective rakugo. But utmost Sherlock performs it because he wants to and finds it fun, not because he hast to as part of his gimmick. As such the rakugo fades off during the darker second half of the show. Its a great emotional anime by the end that explores all of its characters on a psychological level by the end.

This was my second review for the show after completing it, here is my original review after only watching the first half watching the show:
Less of a Sherlock Holmes story and more of a weird cross between Akechi Kogorō
and his Boy Detectives Club meets Sherlock Holmes, where the character of
Sherlock is part Holmes and part Akechi, and his 'partner' is part Kobayashi and
part Watson.

Each episodic episode is enjoyable in its own right with events and outcomes
logically making sense. Possibly the largest oddity that adds to the show is that the
mystery reveal at the end is done though rakugo as apposed to just exposition.

The show is interesting for its mashup of characters and ideas, its not the most
fleshed out but entertaining non the less if you enjoy the characters. That said the
show doesn't do any particularly knew of interesting, but what it does is well
executed for what the show intended to be.

This show provided everything I want in anime: social commentary and metaphysical/ philosophical questions. Many reviews look at it at face value, when it should be analyzed for what its trying to say.

Nearly all the characters in the story are phycologicly scarred and 'twisted', which turns some people off, most of them are not seen after their introduction and are presented in a morally open way. Such characters are shown to have a multitude of faces, and their role in the narrative primarily comes down to the idea that more people than you know have had a painful past and that more people have morally ... inappropriate hobbies than it would seem at first glance. The characters presented, in the end, serve as a reflection of societies hypocrisy (as the show says itself multiple times).

While many classify Shio Kobe as a 'loli' she is in the story just a child; there are no sexual urges or relations to her in the story. It might be perceived that Mitsuboshi has some, but its not made evident as what is said is that he wants Shio to 'purify' him (after getting sexually abused by an older woman) and thus just wishes to regain his innocence (just in a overzealous perverse fashion), and by experiencing her innocence regain his.

As hinted at the show makes no moral claims on the characters or actions and presents them in an open, if not inviting, way. This presentation leaves more room for analysis on the shows primary thesis : what is love; and how these actions reflect love.

Analysis aside the juxtaposition used from one scene to another is done fantastically and scene transitions are creative and add to the work and animation. The art and animation completely convey emotions and tone intended for each scene with everything feeling well thought out. The character drawings do feel outdated by modern standards, but isnt overly evident with the animation and color usage.

I would not classify this in the horror genre like others have but more in suspense, slice of life, thriller, romance.

It wasn't a show I enjoyed. Primarily because the characters had no depth and the animation was poor. The story for what it is would be enjoyable for me if it had the cast to support it in an interesting way, the idea of someone who is an expert at killing goblns when everyonne else is specialised and aims to kill the Deamon Lord is an intersting idea. Exept that GS and his party have no personality or depth to make them intersting to watch. GS does get a small amount of character growth, but it forms more out of apathy then activly changing; for ... instance its said that he always works alone any he never forms a party, but he later does so with little protest when the party trys to spend time with him, and him now being part of a party is now 'character development'.

The characters have nothing interesting to say most the time, everyone being summarized by one thing the like which encompasses almost all their dialog...

Honestly I could go on and on, but the shows just isnt anything overly knew or well executed. It has some decent action scenes and is set in an interesting world, but the storytelling and character depth fall to short to be overly enjoyable for me.

Most that needs to be said about Tokyo Babylon has been said by other reviews, it's a fantastic story with fantastic characters and a great emotional ending. What I'd like to mention however is in its relation to other series be Clamp, namely X1999 and xxxHolic.

This book serves as a prequel or prologue for X1999, providing backstory for (primarily) two of its side characters, while at the same time having nothing to do with X1999 beyond a few hints. It effectively works as its own standalone tittle they bear so little in common.

As for xxxHolic, while not directly connected they share the same ... plot structure and themes, that of an episodic story of helping people overcome their (usually) self-induced spiritual problems. It can and has been said that xxxHolic serves as a spiritual successor to Tokyo Babylon for these reasons. And in that respect they also quite often share the same tone aswell.

Suiiki presents classic Japanese themes and motifs such as confronting the past only to ultimately deciding to move on, choosing to dwell in the present and not the past, and the importance of a strong familial household in an effective and new way. The story while not starting with these themes, develops them over time as a result of the plot, and ending with a more unified family and bright future.

A take on the story (not as much a synopsis) is that Chinami is confronted by her family past in the form of dreams that she enters, usually when she falls unconscious. In the dreams ... she is left to confront and interact with the family's proverbial dark horse (the thing not talked about but always present in peoples mind) Sumio, who serves largely as an anchor keeping the family tethered to the past and their old village (now at the bottom of a dam). Chinami finds peace and relief (from the heat wave) in the dream and from Sumio's company, and is ultimately has to choose whether to live in the dream past or live in the present, actual world.

The art is constantly good, with lots of background artwork that makes every panel look lively and busy, but the characters (personalities) unfortunately don't have nearly as much character as the art. That said its understandable why the characters are moreover not particularly unique, its a drama, and they're meant to be normal people, and normal people are not heavily energetic and overly expressive; another reason probably being that the characters serve as a stand in for not just the family we see, but other family that lost their villages to other dams else ware. While the characters are not anything new, they are still interesting and endearing.

I normally pace out my reading but with this I found myself binge reading it to completion, curious the whole time with questions like -"what is this dream, how real is the dream, when is the dream, what does the heat have to do with it, how will they get Sumio out of the dream etc."

It has a beautiful mix of drama and supernatural that makes it an easy recommendation.

I'm dropping this manga at chapter 9 primarily because the manga wasn't what I expected. I was under the impression it was about Bloody Monday, and not a group of teens trying to prevent Bloody Monday. It reads like a Hollywood action film as opposed to an apocalyptic disease story. It has a poor perception of how hacking works; but if you enjoy Hollywood style spy stories you'd probably enjoy this manga.

I found that it feels like the story is being made up as it goes with things not making coherent sense, for instance an antagonist says something like 'I hope he doesn't investigate ... my alibi or else I might be in trouble (or have to do something about him)', but when he does investigate it the alibi checks out. While there's probably an explanation latter on it doesn't make sense that the person would be worried about it if its so easy rectified. So you could say that, like Hollywood it tries to build suspense in the now and not in the story as a whole over time. So again, if you enjoy campy action spy 'thrillers' you'd probably enjoy this manga.