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It’s time for a raving review from super university student level dagengarmaster92. A riveting critique of this anime will commence now. Feel free to have a rebuttal for this review by simply visiting the user’s page and pressing, “Submit Comment”, but beware of sudden accidentals such as improper spelling and grammar mistakes as that could result in a null comment, decreasing the power of persuasion.

The rule of thumb is, whenever an anime is based off of a well-known game and if one completely finishes that game prior to the anime adaptation, DON’T WATCH IT! The exception of course applies to me ... because I have had read the online, “LP’s” (Let’s Play) up to Chapter 2 only via Youtube so, I haven’t had the full experience of actually playing the game.

The anime adaptation of the game starts off with the average joe, Naegi who starts his, “first day” in Hope Academy, “hoping” to have a great start to a school year. Unfortunately, this is never going to happen and it ends up with having a circle of other high school students, each having a high caliber of a specific talent (e.g. singing, baseball, gambling, etc), who have to, under specific circumstances, kill each other and execute the murderer in order to succeed. This is one dangerous game that they are playing, my friends.

I will admit that the first 2 episodes had a promising start since it gives the viewers the full story of what is supposed to happen, but this is where I ran into problems when it comes to staying true to the game version. Despite how the anime tries to keep the intent of the game such as relatively maintain the format of the actual trial run (e.g. Naegi actually objecting his friends through the power of words just like how Ace Attorney would say, “Objection”), it falls flat with character development and is very plot driven. In other words, it’s too structured and it lacks a SERIOUS WOW factor especially as it nears towards the end. There were some moments in terms of character development (such as Ishimaru after realizing who the culprit was for the 2nd murder and his reactions afterwards), but unfortunately, those characters end up either dead or executed and it completely destroys the intent of what these characters could be capable of in the anime. In other words, we get to see those most affected by the execution, in despair for a split second and then, they attempt to change themselves and try to seek a greater good (like a form of vengeance or perseverance to keep on fighting), but as mentioned, literally seconds in the execution aftermath, they’re either dead or executed, themselves—a TOTAL waste of a good character! Overall, extremely plot driven and only touches upon the surface of each character with the exception of the protagonist and antagonist anchoring the, “side characters,” to make the plot advance.

Another aspect that quite irks me about this anime adaptation is the execution scenes. After re-watching most and comparing them to the game, I totally understand that the anime wants to keep the integrity of this game, which has a high reputation for sad/awkward execution scenes, the anime didn’t even come close to creating some sort of different perspective for each execution. They could’ve made the same type of execution for each murderer, yet make it distinguishable so that it can stand out from the game version. Unfortunately, the producers ended up making a carbon copy except with some rough animation, which really brought down the quality of, what could have been, a good anime adaption to the game. Long story short: LAZY animation!

Now, don't get me wrong. The game itself is AMAZING and has a great plot that closely resembles Ace Attorney (i.e. Objection!) and Mirai Nikki (12 people who have to kill each other) having a love child, but unfortunately, the anime adaptation doesn't live up to the expectations to the game. As mentioned before, the anime adaptation is too structured and the characters lack any personality or some sort of development and are pretty much used for plot advancement.

With that being said, PLEASE play the game instead of watching this adaption UNLESS you haven't heard of this game before OR are looking for something that has a bit of thriller/mystery to pass the time.

My actual rating for this anime: 7.3/10.

Before I start my review, I will state something:

YES, I am guy and no, I don't have a girlfriend (so I'm single lol) who forced me to watch this. Also, this review will include my perception on Axis Power as well.

Here's my opening act...what do you get when you have a bunch of good looking lads who embody the very stereotype of their countries and live like ordinary people with political, economic, and even social problems? Well, this anime is the answer to my question.

Hetalia, even the anime title, itself is quite synonymous to the actual plot with the Heta- part meaning, "useless/pathetic" (in a ... cute, innocent way) and the -lia part derived from the Japanese way of saying, "Italy." So literally, the anime begins with the Italian boy shouting, "pasta," which introduces us to the fluffy, cute parts of the world and meeting each guy that embodies the country's stereotype. Thereby, there is no real plot or even a sense of direction for a main plot, but that's why there are many directions to go with and Himaruya, the creator, never fails to impress when it comes to being creative. It's just as I mentioned above, a bunch of handsome men experiencing the ordinary life while battling through political, social, and economic hardships. You can go from watching an episode of Italy being pathetic in a cute way with musclebound Germany coming to his rescue, egotistic America and a rather shy Japan being friends with each other, or even the fishy Nordics and their systematic way of making their products...the possibilities are ENDLESS!

However, the art...not the best, but not eye-wrenching too! It does match Himaruya's earlier art styles, but his recent artwork has been improving and well, the men go from good-looking to jaw-dropping gorgeous devils such as in Beautiful World (the newest season), which I have yet to watch. Overall, the way he draws his characters have a sense of naivety and maybe an ounce of, "seinen" quality, but that is expected for the target audience is typically girls.

I would recommend this anime if you are:
-a history buff (no worries the kick ass narrator in the anime will help you along if you don't get the references in each of the 5 minute episodes)
-into stereotypical jokes/gags
-into guys for their personalities and yes, LOOKS for the fangirls alike and at heart
-in an anime fix, but need something short and amusing to watch
-did I mention that each anime episode is ONLY 5 minutes?! So don't freak out if there are hundreds of episodes you have yet to watch cause you'll surely catch up

I, for one, will say that I am so glad to have found an anime so short and amusing and with such a popular fan base, this one will definitely be a standout in my book because of Himaruya's witty creativity to come up with a plot full of men embodying their country stereotypes that once again, I have mentioned, live like ordinary people with political, economic, and even social problems.

I would rate this anime (up to World Series) a 9.2/10. Now, I bid you, my fellow, reader of my review, fangirls, and everyone else, au revoir, sayonara, hasta la vista, and adieu.

Before I do a formal review of this so-called, "mediocre" anime from the majority, let me just say a couple of things.

1. NEVER, EVER, EVER especially for you teenage boys out there who experiment with, "love/romance," ask someone who is close to you and of the opposite sex for their advice on love/dating advice because things WILL definitely go smoothly from there.

*^ Note my sarcasm in that last line.*

2. Screw the majority, I personally LOVE this anime!

*Ahem* Continuing on...it starts off as a generic, romantic, school life drama with the protagonist, Makoto gazing at the love of his life, Kotonoha on a train station ... on the way to their high school to attend their enrollment ceremony. Friendships start to form, hook-ups begin to become evident, rumours start developing, and of course, the bold ones make the move to either join clubs or become the student rep. Everything becomes peachy from the get-go because Makoto is having the time of his life forming a friendship with another girl, Sekai, he makes the move to go out with his crush, Kotonoha, he seeks Sekai for dating advice, and has met other popular female students that apparently seem to have a history with him.

You would expect things to turn out pretty swell for a guy surrounded by so many school girls with his crush on his side for a bonus, right? Well, predictably, THINK AGAIN! Makoto may have initially experienced the best, "school days," of his life, but because of the other potential beauties and his boy hormones kicking into gear, he goes all out and becomes 1 fickle boy stuck in a love triangle of epic proportions.

What I LOVE about this anime is that it starts off with Makoto and his initial crush, Kotonoha, with Sekai by his side for advice, but then, it shifts towards the other half of the anime with Makoto and Sekai, leaving Kotonoha as the third wheel. It definitely plays out like a visual novel, which kept me intrigued throughout the entire series since it is literally like playing one with a bigger emphasis on Makoto X Sekai, which creates the most satisfactory and catastrophically, surprise ending. Also, because of Makoto's fickleness, it never gets boring with him sticking to just 1 girl, but he gets himself in other love situations too. In terms of character development, everything goes downhill as the series progresses and this is where either you hate the characters so much (except for maybe Kotonoha) that you stopped watching the anime or you keep on going, still holding onto the hate for everyone and then, end up with a big smile on your face as all the characters you hate suffers from bad karma.

The only points I would dock off is the cheesy, "soap-opera-ish" typed music and the above par art. The only song I like is the catchy opening song since it seems super, "innocent," until the 2nd half of the opening foreshadows future actions of the protagonist in the anime and other love possibilities that mimics the player's love target when playing the visual novel.

I would HIGHLY recommend this anime to those who haven't played the visual novel since playing the visual novel prior, may distort opinions on the anime, those who like to get angry and vent out in each melodramatic moment, and likes realistic, cliche high school romance drama.

This anime is a perfect mix of comedy and drama under a typical high school anime until.........*SPOILER* a NICE BOAT appears.

Let me repeat myself one more time. Do you like any of the following:
1. Cute girls
2. High school drama
3. Romance
4. Fickleness

If you said yes to any of them, this is the anime for you.

My actual rating of this anime: 9.0 on the dot.

Here we go again with the Neighbour's club!

Boku wa Tomodachi Ga Suknai NEXT immediately picks up the pieces from Season 1 with Yozora's hair cut off and the, "BIG reveal" between the protagonist, Kodaka and Yozora, which was the climax from that season. The wacky bunch endure more social events such as organizing a birthday party, watching a yaoi, going to an amusement park, setting up a booth for the school festival, and making a movie to get themselves out there in, "da outside world."

In comparison to Season 1, which was all fun and games, Season 2, yes, there were some funny moment, that ... were NOT over the top, with some, "intended fan service," but there were also hard moments that really lets us see the ups and downs of a friendship. I believe that was the true success of this season.

But can I just say it's a small world eh? In addition to the changes to everyone's relationship as the season progresses, it looks like the 2 frenemies, Sena and Yozora have something in common with Kodaka...*SPOILER*

Anyways, so far in terms of the series, I feel that there is progression, but it's not fully there yet. There are still some unanswered things such as the back story of Yukimura, the so-called boy trapped in a girl's body, who remained static throughout the season and the ending of the Season 2, which left me speechless as I never expected that to happen, but hey, I'm assuming a Season 3, right?

If you like an anime that is able to grasp both sides of a friendship with some intended fanservice and a lot of cute girls, this is the anime for you.

ALL I WANT IS (hoping for) SEASON 3!

A, "mysterious" voice resembling a little girl narrates her, "dream" of snow falling upon a town known to have some, "supernatural" power (also said by the protagonist's aunt)...

What a nice, but very, "Key-ish" way to start off this series. Usually, when Key introduces a girl's arc, there's always a supernatural element that correlates with what is currently happening or going to occur between the protagonist and the girl.

Now, I wanted to watch this because I adore Key animes and also, because of the winter season and vibe, I felt like why not go whole hog with watching an anime that takes place during ... the winter.

This anime is overall, pretty well done in comparison to the 2002 version in terms of art and music. Also, I find the story to be quite interesting, but a little cliche in terms of the harem-esque feel from Key except, these girls help the protagonist, Yuichi, have recollections of memories of the town he often visited as a child and somehow, forgot.

In terms of progression and flow, it was really nice how even though each arc particularly focuses on 1 girl, they DON'T completely focus on that one girl and omit the other characters. In fact, it was quite unique that Key did, let's just say, "house keep" on what the other girls, who aren't part of the particular girl's arc, but will be soon, are doing so that as viewers, we can keep a mental note as to who was who, which was viewer-friendly to those who can't remember people's name like moi, myself.

However, there were some flaws I found in this anime. I felt like most of the arcs, even though the flow of progression in the anime was good, it was satisfactorily executed. From a, "biased" point of view, I'm not a big fan of the whole reincarnation idea that was presented in the 1st arc and for that particular part to reappear in one of the last episodes of the anime, surely had me confused. Also, the 3rd arc that involved the frail girl, Shiori, was pretty insignificant in terms of contributing to Yuichi's character development. In fact, it played no role in it except for repairing family ties between herself and her older sister. So clearly, this arc in my opinion, was a cop out. Now, my MAIN problem with this anime is that each girl in their respective arc were played as pawns for plot device purposely to increase Yuichi's character development and once their arc were cleared and satisfied, they become spectators and just give subtle hints to once again, increase Yuichi's character development.

Now, I did mention about these girls being a plot device to Yuichi's character development as a negative, BUT in terms of executing Yuichi as a changed person, well, that's my positive. He wasn't the same person as he was in Episode 1. In fact, I grew to like him and he developed really good character development (due to the girls) and that line he said, "I've been living in a dream..." was like the, "Ah-ha!" moment for him in terms of self-discovery and it aided him to help escape from his dream from ever becoming a realistic tragedy (aka a Happy Ending).

Long story short, light hearted comedic and supernatural anime that pulls at your heart strings, with great art, animation, and music with ONLY the protagonist undergoing excellent character development. I would recommend this to someone who's open for interpretation and loves how supernatural events modernize to a slice of life situation. My actual rating of this anime including decimals is 8.6/10.0.

What a great anime or should I say, in the name of all that is HOLY, GOD BLESS this anime!

When I read the synopsis of this anime, I was worried that the, "ecchiness" would totally ruin the potentially good plot (i.e. random flashing tits, panty shots), BUT HELL NO, I was quite surprised it wasn't as fanservice as I would've thought and I do like fanservice, BUT just as long as it doesn't destroy/take from the intentions of an anime *cough cough* Rosario + Vampire Capu2.

Now, probably the ONLY ecchi/fanservice parts to this anime are probably ALL the eroge references the Viagra in a bottle ... 1st year, Rika mentions, Sena's boobs, and oh, some convenient censoring XD!

Now, the plot, I did say was potentially good, but it is generic as it's about outsiders/shut-ins forming a club, which aims to make friends. We've ALL been there especially in highschool. I remember when I was in highschool and I've been made fun of/spread rumours that I was, "pimping" on 2 girls when in fact, those 2 girls were both of my closest friends. To the popular kids in highschool, they perceived me as the shy one who was, "afraid to talk AT ALL!" Now, I can totally relate to Kodaka, the main protagonist in that sense cause not only did the, "popular ones" spread rumours about me, BUT most of my friends are all female lol!

Now, aside that, I really felt like the anime was absolutely hilarious without going over the top and the hilarious parts come at the RIGHT MOMENT! Also, I find it cute/entertaining that whenever the club tries to go in a, "social area/event," they try so damn hard to do what they can (e.g. Sena, Yozora, and Kodaka finally understanding what cellphones were meant to be used for, going into a karaoke box, you name it, anything a group of good friends would do). Another point is that in terms of character development, I think the entire club, did take a step forward in terms of FINALLY doing something shut-ins/outsiders wouldn't be able to do alone and the fact that the club itself, became a posse of good friendship. Now, it may not be a dramatic turning point for all of the important characters (except maybe Kodaka and Yozora since ____ happens and it'll be predictable what actually happens to the 2 of them as you watch the anime), BUT that step forward was quite significant and that definitely translated to this anime's optimistic ending that this club will always continue and improve on their social skills.

Now, there are some questions still in my head that the anime didn't fully go into detail, BUT that's why there's a SEASON 2, right? I just hope Season 2 immediately picks up on Season 1 so I'm crossing my fingers that the Season 2 doesn't suck.

My actual rating (including decimal numbers): 8.7/10.0

Time for my VERY 1st anime review. This is simply my opinion so I'll try to NOT give any hints/spoilers as best as I can.

Angel Beats! is about a boy named Otonashi who is at first, unaware that he is, "dead" YES, moved on, RIP... you get the idea. When meeting Yuri, the leader of some rebel group, he decides to join in and fight the Angel that the rebel group thinks is the, "bad guy" in the story. As Otonashi fights along side this rebellious brigade, Otonashi slowly regains his memories of what actually happened to him BEFORE he died...

You know how much I ... LOVE Key animes and I thought I would give this anime a try. After watching the ENTIRE anime, I have to say that it doesn't escape from the genre of tragedy, which is quite apparent in all Key animes and that there's always some comedic, but importantly, some tear-jerking moments.

Personally, I felt like Key really went outside the box with this concept of, people who have not FULLY accepted their deaths from the current living world due to having a lingering attachment from when they were still alive OR that they still have some important business to do and that still carried on. I think they took a good risk considering that they always do slice of life, romantic comedy with a hint of, "magical/illusionary" elements to their animes.

Now, I did have FLAWS to this anime. First of all, I thought that there was too much going on such as the secondary characters taking the spotlight from the primary/important characters (i.e. Otonashi, Yuri, and Kanade). If Key and PA works decided to do that, I would recommend making more episodes because some of the secondary characters such as the members of the, "Anti-Angel brigade" would actually have the potential to undergo REALLY good character development and because the anime WAS SO short, I felt like their side stories were untold and thus, I felt like I didn't connect to them as I would've liked to. Also, I completely forgot who was who so that's a minus for me. Another point is that despite how entertaining the anime was, there were some comedic points that were quite overkill for me most notably, the part about Hinata, one of the, "Anti-Angel" brigade members, who was about to ___ in episode 4 and it would've been more emotional (since I felt like that in the moment) and effective if Otonashi stopped him instead of some moe girl (WON'T tell you her name) tackling him to the ground as if she was getting revenge on him. Apparently, you were supposed to laugh at the moment, BUT I didn't. I was about to get some tissues ready!

One last flaw would be to focus a bit more on Yuri in terms of character development. She had a great side story, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't elaborated enough to me and I think the entire time, I wanted to see her, "crack"/break down in front of Otonashi and I didn't like how she ___ in the last episode. Besides my flaws, EVERYTHING else was well-done like the music and the entire anime concept. In fact, what got me going to finish this anime was the 3rd episode. GOD, that was really well-executed and that, "special song". GAHHHH! :'(

Overall, AMAZING concept and music! Sadly, it's one of my least favourite Key animes though it's NOT a BAD anime. I would still recommend this to someone else. This could've been one of my favourite animes (easily Top 10 or so) IF they added more episodes focusing on more significant side characters and just getting rid of any ambiguities that I had after watching the anime. Because this website doesn't do the decimal rating system, here's my actual rating of the anime: 8.4/10.0