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This series is ... just okay. Very cute, but basic story with an uninteresting romance.

It's important to write and spread well-researched stories that have characters with disabilities in the forefront. I love how Yuki's deafness is explored and how she reacts to the world around her (and how others react to her in turn).

However, as a romance series, I find the romance extremely lacking. I don't think there is a lot of chemistry between Yuki and Itsuomi. I'm having difficulty thinking of interests they share or conversations between the two of them that wasn't about their relationship or feelings towards eachother. What I'm getting ... at is that it's hard to understand why they like eachother (beyond finding eachother attractive) and what they would talk about.

Perhaps this is just me but I found Itsuomi boring. It's nice to see an older manga character with tattoos and an interesting hobby (traveling). But I found him boring and a bit unlikeable. Which also soured my opinions on Yuki and Itsuomi's relationship.

It's cute, I'll continue reading as the chapters release. But I definitely don't consider this an amazing manga.

It's a shame that this anime isn't longer or paced better.

There are a lot of things that I find enjoyable about this anime; the music, the heavily implied sapphic romance between the two characters (only to find out Momo is 14 years old), vampires, the search for a better place among a world in ruins. I love many of these tropes and wanted so badly to rate this as an 8 by the last episode, but I was still left feeling like this anime could have done so much more than what it gave.

This anime reminds me a lot of Wolf's Rain in ... the way that the main characters are being chased through a world that's been pushed to its limits, while searching for a rumored land that may or may not even exist. Vampire in the Garden dubbed this peaceful place "Eden," where vampires and humans can live together. What I find interesting is that in the beginning Momo and Fine are searching for a geographical location that they can physically go to. However, by the end of the show, Eden is implied to be wherever Momo and Fine are together. The idea that together they are their own Eden (and something seperate from the war) is a strong message to end on that also makes sense considering both Momo and Fine are only their true selves around each other. While the narrative implies a romance, or at least deep connection, between Fine and Momo, it's worth mentioning that Momo is 14 years old vs Fine whose age is unknown (but most likely much older).

The problem is that there is a disconnect between the characters and the audience. This show does not take the time or have the time to let the characters connect with each other (in turn, let the audience connect with them too). I think this is a problem in lack of run-time. Coming in at 5 episodes -- less than half a 12-episode season of anime -- this anime can't afford to spend much time on memorable, slow scenes with the characters that would otherwise make the ending really impactful.

Aside from the plot and pacing problems, the music is absolutely fantastic! I really like the musicbox song and the piano/singing duet. And I think music being part of the vampire culture is a nice touch to the world building. Even if it was never really explained why Vampires claimed music as their own.

All in all, could have been a good show. But the short amount of episodes hinders this anime's chances of being anything more than decent.

I've only ever known Tales From Earthsea as Studio Ghibli's black sheep. But I don't think this movie deserves all of the hate it's gotten over the years. Ghibli movies are notorious for their art direction and soundtracks, so I'm going to just focus on the plot and how it relates to the books it's based on.

This movie gets a lot of it's fame from being Ghibli's worst movie, even Hayao Miyazaki has gone on record to publicly criticize it. The downfall of this movie, among other other things, had even caused the director and Miyazaki's son, Goro Miyazaki, to stop perusing animation for ... a time. But Goro Miyazaki had a very dense and complex narrative to work with.

If you didn't know, this movie is based off of the book series by Ursula LeGuin, who is an accomplished writer that has helped shape the modern fantasy and sci-fi genres. That being said, her works are nearly impossible to translate to film!
(A little bit unrelated, but if you really want my two cents on this, I think Ursula LeGuin's books are okay. Her books aren't bad, they're not great. Just some solid okay books)

The two most common things I've heard about this movie is that it is confusing and boring. While Goro was an inexperienced director, I think some of the fault also lies with Ursula LeGuin's writing. Ursula's plots have pacing issues and are littered with chapters upon chapters where seemingly no action takes place. Rather some of the biggest fights are the characters fighting with themselves (ie, Arron having a good an bad side to himself to the point where his biggest fear is himself). Ursula's stories do have magic battles and sword fights, but I feel like this heavily introspective storyline would be difficult for even some of the more experienced directors.

An okay book series can only be expected to make an okay movie. But it is unfortunate that this was Goro's first directing position at Ghibli. I believe that Hayao Miyazaki was originally going to direct this film, so the big question for me is what would have changed under the direction of Miyazaki senior? Would this movie still have been considered one of Ghibli's worst?

I'm in utter awe.
Monster is a show that breaks the mold of conventional anime tropes and plot lines to become a masterpiece.

It took me a very long time to finish watching this anime. I'm not a slow watcher either. But it took me roughly 5 months to finish this show. While it may be a long show with 74 episodes, there are still plenty of animes that surpass that number far into the triple digits. So I definitely think there is a disconnect between quality vs. quantity when comparing Monster to other long animes. The problem with long animes is that they ... lose themselves. They become too complicated, too drawn out, or even looses its plot direction. For whatever reason, long animes are usually not considered the "cream of the crop" so to say. Although, there are exceptions to this rule and Monster happens to be one of them.

Monster is complicated. It toys with your morals. It tests your intelligence. It appeals to your emotions then rips those attachments away. It's not afraid to show you a shitty world.
And it's not afraid to do all of these things because it respects the viewers as being capable to accept all that. Which honestly, makes me respect this show a whole damn lot.

I read somewhere once that questioned "who was the monster?"
My immediate answer is Johan. But the more I watched the show the more my answer became unclear. Maybe everyone is a monster in their own right? who knows?
But this anime expressed this statement, this question, in such a way that was thrilling, and climactic. The story telling is absolutely phenomenal.

Monster is truly Ursawa's magnum opus.

Going into this series, anyone should know that the dub and the sub of this show are drastically different. The sub is probably more serious, and the dub is complete crack. So of course, I watched the dub version.
Ive done my fair share of watching serious animes. But once in a while its nice to sit back and relax with something light. Trust me, if you just want to laugh for half an hour, then Ghost Stories is what you want.

Story
Story? what story? This show has the plot of an abrigged series you'd find on youtube.
To me there was a certain formula to watching ... this show. Its definitely not a series someone should marathon. Nope, it should be enjoyed an episode or two at a time. Anymore and you'll find yourself sick of the studpidity.

Characters
The characters were the best part! Although, I cant remember any of the characters actual names (I gave them nicknames throughout the entire show) But besides that, the characters were unforgettable and the relationship between them was just as great. (aka. their relationship was filled with insults. Some of the best one liners were because of their insults!)

Sound/Art
Terrible. The art was.... well, lets stick with terrible. That seems to fit pretty well.
The sound was also pretty bad. Except for the ending song. Its extremely catchy.

For this review I've said mostly bad things towards this show, yet I give it a 7 out of 10. Ghost stories is so bad its good. The show gets most of its fame from being so awful and the dub so hilarious. Honestly, I really wanted to give this show a 9/10 because I loved watching this train wreck so much.

After seeing review after review of 10 and 9 ratings I thought it was about time to break up the reviews a little bit and give Horimiya a 6 out of 10.

Story
The sumary of this story is very cute. Hori and Miyamura act like a different person when at school, but when they get home they're true personality comes out. Hori is popular at school, but when at home she basically takes the role of mom. Miyamura is shy and withdrawn, but after school he shows off his piercings and tattoos. Then they find out about eachothers secret lives, and find comfort in the fact ... theres someone else out there that they can share their other half with.
Sounds adorable right? Well too bad this summary becomes totally irrelevant after about 26 chapters. Around the time Miyamura cuts his long hair is about the time that the plot loses all sense of direction.
I understand where the story is trying to go. Its trying to get to the point where Hori and miyamura accept and are open about the other half of their life. But the manga doesn't deliver on that. Instead, the manga focuses on unnecessary subplots and side characters, and Hori and Miya's involvement in those characters/sub plots. It gets to the point where the later chapters aren't even about Hori and Miya's relationship, and just about the other side characters drama.

Characters
The main characters are interesting. They have their quirks and are usually just a joy to read. Too bad the manga doesn't like to focus on the main characters, and instead focuses on the bland side characters.
Can you tell from my review yet that I don't like the side characters? becuase I dont. They're the root of this mangas problems.

Art
The art is very well done! Its actually one of the main reasons why I started reading this manga.

Overall this manga was 10 out of 10 for the first 25-30 chapters. Afterwards its become a jumble of short side plots lasting for a chapter each. And has gotten to the point where I dont care whats going on. Which is unfortnate, because I really liked this manga at first...

Let's get this out of the way first. The name. Legend of the legendary heroes? It must be a translation mistake right? I'm sure no one would call out the translators if it was just shortened to Legendary Heroes.

So a couple years ago I got the entire series for FREE on itunes. Thats right folks it didn't even cost me a dime. Like any anime fan I downloaded it without a second thought, I didn't even look at the summary. But after 15 minutes of the first episode I turned off my computer and walked away, never turning back to see the rest of ... the series. Lesson learned from this - there was a reason why this series was for free.
But lo and behold! Years later I find it on Netflix. It's like this series haunts me!! This time I watched the whole thing.

Animation
It's plain! it's like a cardboard cutout of the definition of anime. It didn't stand out to me at all.

Sound
while the music wasn't bad it wasn't amazing either. It was just there.

Story
Now imagine Berserk and attack on titan had a child. That unholy offspring would be this. Now if done correctly itd be an amazing anime, but the writing had no structure.
The begining was bad. Didn't hold my attention at all.
Although once the story started explaining itself and I became attatched to the characters and knew their background. Then that's when this anime truly got me interested.
But the ending is where it all fell apart. That excitement it built shattered instantly. This anime expained nothing. When I thought it was going explain something it'd turn around and leave me with even more questions than before. How did Sion ever become king? What did Sion do the 2 or so years Ryner was in prison? What is going on the entire last episode?! Seriously someone explain that last episode to me!

Characters
honestly 75% of the characters were useless and could have been cut from the show entirely and it wouldn't have effected this anime one bit.

I dont understand how some people are giving this 10/10 rating. Was it a masterpiece? Absolutely not. But it did have some redeming qualities. For a while there I would have given this anime an honest 8/10. But after the last 4 episodes that 8 dropped so far it became a 5. By the end of it all I felt like I wasted my time and unfortunately there is no way I'll ever get back the hours I wasted on this show.

If you want a better fantasy/action anime I point you to Berserk. (Or anything really. Just don't watch legend of the legendary heroes)

When I first saw the trailer I was enchanted by the animation. It was crisp, and flawless. Almost like I could smell the raindrops, or feel the wind brush against my cheeks. I didn't even know a single detail about what the film was about, but I knew that I had to see this movie.

While the animation was top notch, the plot itself seemed a little lacking. It was short and fast paced. Being only a 40 minute movie it would have to be. Although I didn't realize this was a short film when I watched it. When the ending credits started to scroll ... down the screen I sat there thinking "That was it?" If at least another hour was added on I could see this movie being one of my favorites, possibly even rivaling of some of the studio Ghibli films.

The characters themselves were interesting enough. Takao yearns to be a cobbler-to make shoes- but he struggles with his own problems at home. Very little is known about Yukari through most of the film. She seems to be a alcoholic that misses work to sit in the park to drink beer. In the end of the movie nothing really seems resolved. Yukari doesn't face her problem and she still runs away from them.

With those few problems aside, I enjoyed this film immensely. It wouldn't be the first movie that comes to mind when recommending films to other people, but if they wanted something short and heart warming this would be the movie.