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Baccano is blood-splattered, non-linear thrill of a story where everyone is a main character. While its non-linear narrative can be quite confusing in the beginning, the payoff, when all of the story elements fall in place, makes it worth the watch.

The story takes place during Prohibition era in the United States, but it doesn't quite escape the Japanese cultural lens through which it was written, so some story and cultural elements may feel a bit off to American viewers. However, Baccano is a great story and well worth the watch, as it explores themes of mortality, brutality, loyalty, and most uniquely, story-telling itself.

One ... of Baccano's greatest appeals is its wide cast of crazy, larger than life characters. Though a solid half of them are total nut jobs, they still manage to maintain some grounding in reality, and no character relies too heavily on stereotypes. Most importantly, each will surprise you in their own way as their personal narratives begin to fall in place. Finally, while the cast does contain a good number of highly competent female leads, each tends to be quite stoic and submissive, making them feel more Japanese, than American.

Overall, I give it 9/10

Kuragehime is great for young teen/adolescent girls who feel a bit out of place from the mainstream, but have no less passion for what they love. Kuragehime's main focus is on female friendship and having passion for doing what you love.

The Set-Up: Tsukimi is a member of the 'amars', an all-women's living quarters full of socially-awkward young women. One day, Tsukimi is trying to rescue a jellyfish from poor living conditions in a pet store, and a stylish young woman comes to her rescue. This cool girl turns out to be a fashion-obsessed young boy by the name of Kuranosuke, who is the ... rebellious son of a Japanese politician. Most of the series follows Tsukimi and Kuranosuke designing and creating their own fashion line of clothes based off of jellyfish.

Review:
Story: 6, This manga is character-driven, rather than story-driven, but its still got some decent plot points along the way.

Art: 8, Higashimura-sensei has a pretty unique drawing style, which I think fits the series perfectly. Its kinda quirky, but really beautiful at the same time. Higashimura-sensei does a great job of rendering different body-types, faces, and even races, so no two characters are the same. However, it seems like she can only draw a limited number of face and body angles, which can get quiet stale.

Character: 9, Nearly everyone in the main cast is passionate about their own, sometimes quite niche, interest. And even if you can't relate to the character's likes on a surface level, you the characters for their passion for doing what they love, especially the main character, Tsukimi.

Enjoyment: 7, though the series does end a bit abruptly, with few lose plot ends left dangling, I found the ride there to be enjoyable nonetheless. You really fall in love with the cast of characters, and the story wasn't really plot-driven in the first place.

Overall: 7

Devilman Crybaby is not for the faint of heart. At its core, Devilman Crybaby is a show about the corrupt nature of man and explores heavy topics like fear mongering, mass hysteria, and even love, all disguised as a massive sex and gore fueled acid trip. It does have some pacing issues, but otherwise it's a great series to binge, preferably by yourself.

Art: 9, It's cool, striking, and charmingly seizure-inducing, but the show does know when to turn it down a notch. But there are a couple of times where the art style can feel silly, instead of stylistic. Oh, and Akira has a ... butt chin, so there's that.

Sound: 8, it's lovely. There are very few songs, but they don't feel out of place or repetitive, and no two songs sound the same. However, because all of the songs are so different, the soundtrack doesn't really feel cohesive. Devilman no Uta is a bop tho.

Character: 8, The main characters, Rio and Akira are polar opposites and play off each other quite well. I absolutely loved the cast of side characters--Miki, Miko, and the rapper gang were all so charming. Miki, Akira's good female friend, gets much more well-deserved attention, as does her friend Miko, who I think has one of the best character arcs of the series. There are a couple of really nice, fleshed-out LGBT characters too.

Enjoyment: 9, the remake of Devilman could have been released at no better time. Like I said before, it deals with topics like fear mongering, mass hysteria, and distrusting your neighbor--all of which can be traced back to the political climate of the US today. I thought it was pretty good.

Overall: 8, It's pretty solid.

Singeki no Kyojin (SNK) AKA Attack on Titan's main appeal is its unsettling imagery, gore, and its insane plot twists. The twists and turns in the plot are what strap viewers into bingeing the roller coaster that is this series.

Story: 9, The story is, like I said, full of wild twists and turns. The anime starts by setting a really dreary tone about the harsh reality the characters face living in the fear and shadow of the titans, but, without spoiling too much, uses this pessimism to create one of the hypest plot twists I have ever experienced. Only one of these plot twists falls ... a bit on its face, but its at the beginning. There is a bit of an odd, convoluted overall mythology in the series that doesn't make a whole lot of sense at times, but its been getting clearer as the series goes on.

Art: 7, One of the reasons why author Isayama-sensei had such trouble getting SNK getting published in the first place is that his art style, although certainly passable, is not too great. The line work has quite a sketchy feel, which sometimes can add to the unsettling atmosphere of the story, but most of the time it can feel, for lack of a better word, sloppy. However, Isayama-sensei renders the faces and forms of the titans extremely well, and his style gives them an extremely unsettling air; it is with his human chacters, with whom we spend the most time, that get shorted because of the somewhat sketchy art.

Character: 10, SNK has an amazing cast of character. They're quite diverse and from all walks of life, varying in gender, sexuality, and background. SNK has a good amount strong female characters and there is almost no fan-service, which I personally enjoy. Isayama-sensei has said on twitter than he will not be confirming the sexuality of any characters, but there are a handful of LGBT characters nonetheless.

Enjoyment: 10, SNK gets you hype. Its characters, pacing (though a little wonky at times), and plot twists all contribute to make reading SNK a great experience. However, just to note, one critisim of the manga is that it can feel like 'imperialist propaganda'-- and to be honest, I don't really know what that means, but if you want to avoid things overly political, I think it's important for me to share. I still give it a 10 for enjoyment though.

Overall: 9