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Skip to Loafer is a wonderful little anime about friends. It follows a 15-year old girl called Mitsumi from a small town in Ishikawa and her relationships with the people around her, with a focus on her and her friend Sousuke. Because she comes from a village where everyone knows each other, she's a little anxious about her new high school-life in Tokyo.

The anime is a perfect mix between drama and slice-of-life. Mistumi's exploits bring a big charm to this anime, while her anxiety and Sousuke's youth provide more serious undertones to an otherwise monotonous story. While this anime is not light-hearted per se, ... it is also not too heavy; no tears will be shed. Though classified as seinen, I'm unsure about its target demographic. I struggle to find it believable that many men would take such an interest in an anime about the life of a fiteen year old, though I think it does contain a nice - and maybe a little overdone - message.

In terms of story, though, the execution was just fine. Keep in mind that this isn't the studio's wrongdoing, as the fault is within the original manga or within the medium itself! We get to see every character develop, but outside of Mitsumi, the development isn't satisfying in any way. It's not that every character outside of the main ones are flat - the exact opposite is the case. The problem lies in the fact that there are way too many side characters with their own story and own development. Even after these twelve episodes, the anime feels far from complete (No wonder they're making a second season). The anime's best and worst parts are its characters. All of them are interesting and enjoyable in their own regard, though none of them provide any satisfaction to the reader. We are thrust into the lives of these people, all of them compelling, yet we only learn more about Mitsumi herself. Even the other main character, Sousuke, we know way too little about.

I think the team behind this anime have done an outstanding job in making Skip to Loafer enjoyable. No other anime has left me smiling like this one has. The animation quality only accentuates the countless amazing moment in the show. It might not be anything spectacular, but it is certainly up to standards.

I do struggle with finding a goal in this anime. What is it working towards? Are we only watching to see Mistumi's and Sousuke's relationship develop until the inevitable happens? Or are we watching to see Mitsumi grow as a person in a more coming-of-age storyline? While watching, I was only motivated to watch the next episode because I was genuinely curious about what would happen in it and I liked the way the anime is presented, but I still have no idea what I should be looking forward to for the second season.

In conclusion, Skipper to Loafer is a very neat anime about a girl and her friends. It is well made and has probably put smiles on many faces. All characters are interesting, but the show cannot focus on all of them at the same time. Whilst motivating the viewer to watch the next episode, it cannot form a real purpose in those twelve episodes. It's a very fun watch, but nothing outstanding due to its shortcomings in the storyline. I would still recommend it to people who are interested, it is still amazing!

Banana Fish is one of the greatest anime that I have ever watched.

Something about this anime is special to me. It shouldn't really interest me. Sure, I watched Cowboy Bebop years ago and enjoyed it, but I've never really been able to find myself getting so invested in the story of an action anime, hell, action in any form of media, as I got with Banana Fish. Watching it felt like a drug, I could not stop.

The anime itself seems like the embodiment of its main character: violent, beautiful, dramatic and yet so cold at times. It puts up a façade; from the outside in ... the show seems to be a fun shonen, not all too introspective and a delight to watch. The viewer will get satisfied by the violence and the eventual outcome of the story. Sure, this show too has epic scenes of gunfights, fistfights and the like, but Banana Fish is so much more than just that. The emotion in this anime is, to my knowledge, unrivaled in this genre of anime (yes, I know it's a shoujo, but I'm talking about regular action anime here). Banana Fish covers a lot of heavy themes like rape, especially with children. The creators seem to have a perfect knowledge of when to deal a blow to your mood, as in some scenes you're heartstrings will be pulled like marionettes. It creates suspense, sadness and pure joy out of thin air, and all that for some animated fictional people as well.

The show's main focus is the relationship between the two main characters, Ash and Eiji. Despite them being polar opposites, they fill each other in perfectly. They both benefit from each other, but are also their biggest weakness. From gang conflicts to governmental corruption, Eiji's inexperience often gets them in trouble, causing Ash to save the day.

Which leads me to the one single problem I have with this anime. It's what my old English teacher would have called 'hardware': some parts of the anime feel so forced and predictable. In the lead up to the grand finale (this lead up starts right after the exposition, mind you!) we slowly start learning more and more about the overarching story. In 24 episodes, the creators have created a story that could easily be resolved in 5. Sure, some character development by the MC's would be missing, but the story itself would still be fully intact. Episodes where one character gets taken away and nearly dies, but is saved in some miraculous way occur more than acceptable. Some forced suspense is fine, but sometimes it just seems like the original manga had too little material for the animators to use. (Now, I haven't read the manga, so I don't know how much the two are alike, but it gives off the impression that they had to stuff up the story a little in order to reach 24 episodes.

My critique is short, because apart from it, there is nothing bad to remark about this anime. I cannot put my appreciation of this show to words, so please watch it for yourself. I ended up giving it a 9/10, as it is great but suffers from one issue.

A racing anime not entirely about racing

I remember being excited about this anime, forgetting about it, and watching it a year later. I've since rewatched it and I enjoyed it both times. From the outside in, it seems like a regular racing anime, but something is amiss: the main character is a photographer and knows nothing about racing. He befriends the members of a small team and slowly gets sucked into the world of racing as he tries to support the team.
There are two main story lines: the improving career of the promising driver Haruka Asahina and the overcoming of Kouya Madoka's trauma associated ... with taking pictures of people. Where the racing itself can tend to be rather predictable, Madoka's emotional story serves as a real contrast to the on-track action. Some people do not like this additional story, but I think it was necessary to transform the anime from an otherwise unoriginal and monotonous racing plot to only the most interesting parts of both stories.

Unfortunately, this show does not get the attention it deserves. Under the racing category, it mostly only attracts F1 fans (like myself) and the like, who get disappointed by the lack of actual focus on cars and instead get a drama anime, which they were not searching for. This anime is not that difficult to watch for an outsider to the sport (at least, from my F1 fan perspective) and is thus accessible to everyone who has an interest in drama. However, because of the seemingly scary racing themes, it is overshadowed by other series.

In conclusion, Overtake! is an underrated drama anime with some racing themes. It is about battles both on and off-track and coming out on top.

I didn't want to rate this show an 8. I really didn't. But it's an absolute 8/10.

This anime was an amazing watch and definitely one of my favourites, it just really suffers from only having twelve episodes.The story is good, the execution is really fun, the characters are all unique and likeable, the animation is fine, but it all went by way too fast. The anime is based on a currently still ongoing novel series, so there's no all conclusive ending to the show, instead, they had to find a place to satisfyingly end after 12 episodes, which they absolutely succeeded in. Unfortunately, this still ... leaves Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens without something to work towards over the span of these episodes. Rather, the series contains multiple small plots that get introduced and solved as the episodes go by. It's very, very fun, but is definitely not something profound. Except for Lin, all other characters don't seem to develop in any way, whether they are side characters or major characters in the story. This leaves the anime feeling like a compilation of anecdotes instead of a full story, which it is.

In conclusion, the studio was challenged with creating a show based on a story that has no conclusive ending and did their best. The result is a rather entertaining and action-filled anime which leaves you wanting more, but which doesn't have any more to give. I gave it an 8/10 because I enjoyed it, but it is in no way groundbreaking.

Fun to watch but leaves the viewer with a bitter taste in the mouth.

I liked watching Kill la Kill, I guess. I commend the themes and there was nearly nothing wrong with the story. The execution, however, could be better. The anime suffers from having way, way too much fan service. Every opportunity to show some skin was taken, and I hate Trigger for that. I wonder if the anime is even mainly about the story or just about the sex appeal of the girls.

In short: The anime would be way better without the male gaze of the animators.