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I'm totally impressed by how much I loved this season of Ace wo Nerae!

I enjoyed the 1973 series, even more the movie (1979), which I think it's better directed and you can note a great animation improvement. But Ace wo Nerae! 2 has everything I could've asked for. And not just because I love tennis with all my heart.

We see our main character in her transition of a beginner in tennis to a one of the biggest promises of Japan. Oka Hiromi has been working for three years with her coach Munakata. First episode takes place in the final of the National Tournament in her ... third year, while Madame Butterfly and Ranko are now college girls. We can see her new abilities and skills and it seems there is no rival for her in high school. This is just a preparation for what is to come in her career.

Without making major spoilers, this season has a lot of drama, more than in the previous installments, and also more mature themes. It's not just that but it's better constructed than in the previous season. In the 1979 movie (which I highly recommend before watching this season), we see a certain problem with Munakata in the final scenes. The OVA takes place around those days, and this is where the real drama begins.

Ace wo Nerae! 2 gives us a great representation of overcoming serious and personal difficulties while you are trying to improve and be the best in what you do. I really love all the characters' development, especially our main heroine Oka Hiromi, who suffers the transition of being a simple child to an adult who has to face the reality of the world where she wanna lives, where it depends on her to stand up and to continue trying her best.

Regarding the style, you will note the typical designs of 80s-90s animes (I prefer these more than those from 73' and 79') and a better direction, mainly scene by scene which I really liked because it gave a better dynamism to the tennis matches, something important to keep you glued to the screen and make you think you are watching a real match.

About the music, the OST is very good. The OP and ED are more than amazing and for me both are the best of the franchise. I'm really in love with that sax in the beginning of Endless Dream and also with Moriguchi's voice.

I know that the main direction was made by Noboru Furuse and Osamu Dezaki was the chief supervisor, but this clearly has the stamp of a Dezaki work: splendid pastel freeze frames, screen split in two and more.

This is absolutely worth it if you enjoyed the first season or the movie, and even if you weren't really convinced by the previous works and wanted to see more of this wonderful story of overcoming serious obstacles in life and trying to live in the sports world. I will be eternally grateful to have found this amazing anime and one of the spokon I have enjoyed the most.

It's a pity LIDENFILMS took this anime. And this is not the only one which was ruined by them this year.

"Sayonara Watashi no Cramer" it's a good football story overall. But the anime lack of the emotion that a spokon needs to shine at its best. And football is a very very passional sport so if you leave that crucial thing on the other side, this is the unfortunate final product.

And besides of that, you will enjoy this anime more if you watch the prequel movie, which has a better production, a better story and a better development of the main character, Nozomi Onda. Unfortunately, ... it was delayed so the movie came out this month when the series was finishing.

I love football. I'm argentinian, that says a lot. And I'm also a sport journalist who worked covering women's football teams in my country. So, this was a series I was hoping to watch since a lot of months. It didn't live up to my expectations but I will talk about the good things.

I have to say this anime deals with the problems of women's football in a good way.

Nozomi, an incredible player, was just capable of showing her skills in a men's team, which is something that happens very often with girls in football around the world. This is better explained in the movie. So, for her, a "women's football" is not a real football until she met her now teammates, Sumire and Midori.

This story revolves around Nozomi and what happens when she discovers a lot of girls like her, who love football and play for the love of the sport. For a woman who had grown up playing just with men, being in disadvantage due to her body, this is a door to paradise, because she realized she could play the football she loves with girls like her.

That's what I really like about this series. Especially for the last episode when the trainer tells Onda how necessary is to women's football to gain audience's interest, which is always in a constant scale and never fully asserts itself. It's not bad to talk about the difficulties for women to play football professionally, because it's a reality. But, unfortunately, this is the only thing I can fully rescue from all the anime along with some of the characters' personality (not all of them, because I don't stand that blonde girl, the striker).

As I said in the first paragraphs, this is good overall football story, nothing brilliant nor atrocius. I enjoyed it 'cause there is no representation of women's football in the anime. But I was left with the bittersweet taste of knowing it could be better with a good production behind it, and of course, better animation (as it happens in some moments of the movie).

I don't recommend the anime to enjoy this story. I didn't read the entire manga but with just few chapters, I enjoyed it more than when I was watching the anime.

We will have to wait to have a good football anime and not just live always nostalgic for Captain Tsubasa, because this is a sport who really deserves a great anime as volleyball with Haikyuu or boxing with Ashita no Joe and Hajime no Ippo. Hope the day where it happens will come soon.

Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, a spin-off novel from an incredible piece of art like Yagate Kimi ni Naru manga. And for me, it was lived up to it.

This light novel was my first I have ever read. I couldn’t give a try to this format before because I am more a person of manga but since Yagakimi is my favourite series, I had to. And I also love Sayaka, so it was impossible to not give it a try.

It was an incredible reading.

[From now on, there will be some SPOILERS from both the manga and this novel while I'm telling ... my thoughts. So, the warning is done].

This story was written by Hitoma Iruma, the author of Adachi to Shimamura. Nakatani, as she said in the final of each volume, was very satisfied with the result and I’m agree with her, too.

The novel explores the story of Sayaka from her perspective, that is to say, in first person. Something that it’s hard to do well in a manga, I think.

As we know, Sayaka was three years in love with Touko and she couldn’t “win” her love in return because of Yuu. We also learned from Yuu that she had gotten a girlfriend named Haru (someone who I think is the perfect match for her and I will explain why after talking about the third and last volume). But we didn’t know how was her past in details, although we knew about her Senpai in Junior High.

The first volume tells the living experiences of Sayaka from Elementary School to Junior High. We have the possibility to learn how Sayaka was at that time and how much she has changed through the years due to a lot of events told in the novel. We also learn that these changes were heavily influenced by love.

First, a girl from her former swimming classes when she was in Elementary School and then a Senpai (Yuzuki) from her chorus club of the Junior High. As we know, this last one was the worst experience for her, as well the first approaching to "love" because she was very young to understand what had happened with the girl from the swimming classes.

So, Yuzuki was her first love. A girl who confessed her love to Sayaka in the school's courtyard, which became a common place for them to pass the time. Sayaka was not confident at starting a relationship with her but eventually, she falls in love. But there was a problem: Yuzuki had never loved her. She wanted just having an experience of love and Sayaka had the bad luck of being her test subject. Plus, Yuzuki’s behaviour was horrible and she breaks up with her after spending months without willing to see her. To the worst, her excuse was that they were not children anymore and that they don’t need to keep on playing as if they were real girlfriends. These words destroyed Sayaka’s heart, leading to a first love experience as the worst posible. At the end, we learn that she changed school to avoid her in the High School and that was how she met Touko, listening to her in the aperture ceremony.

Probably, also influenced by the experience with Yuzuki, Sayaka realized she could only fall in love with women. And in that way, she had a love at first sight with Touko due to her beauty and also, as she mentioned it, her curiosity of how someone got better grades than her.

We have read the manga, so we know about their relationship. The second volume explores all her experiences through High School, even the first year when obviously they hadn’t met Yuu yet. This volume was the “weakest” for me in terms of history and storytelling but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I liked the first more because it tells a new story and I think the personality of Sayaka was portrayed in a very good way. This second just add some things to the three years of Sayaka in High School from her perspective. That is to say, the same timeline of the manga.

During that time, her intelligence was enough to realize Touko was hiding her real personality, trying to imitate her sister, although she never stopped being in love with her even with that knowledge. But she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t win over Yuu to unmask the real Touko. So, was Sayaka really happy at the end of the manga with how the things had gone on?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, two years after their graduation, Sayaka got a girlfriend in college named Haru.

The third volume, and my favourite of the novel, makes way for a new Sayaka. Her unrequited love with Touko ended in a good way with her because she could fully express her feelings and that didn’t stop them from continue being friends.

We have a college student Sayaka. We learn she has become very good friends with Yuu, what I find beautiful because she could left behind her little jealousy to form a great friendship with someone incredible like Yuu. Plus, they live close to each other, so this helped to reinforce the relationship now that they had both graduated. We have even seen this at the end of the manga, when Yuu talks about Haru and Touko didn’t know anything about her. Sayaka chosed Yuu to be the first to know about her new relationship and even introduced them to each other.

Haru Edamoto, new Sayaka’s girlfriend. A very energetic person, as the same Sayaka describes her. She met Sayaka while crying after being dumped by her ex. The fate made that this encounter was the first of much others in the future. And that’s how they formed a very good friendship leading Sayaka to experience new and unknown feelings. She is very serious, thoughtful and cautious as we know, so being friends with someone as energetic and carefree like Haru leads her to be first bewildered but then happy. Because, how can you not fall in love with someone such cheerful and happy like Haru spending the time everyday with her?

But, Haru was the first in confessing her love. She said it was at first sight. Like the love of Sayaka for Touko, so she understood that feeling putting on the spot of Haru. But she was scared. She immediately remembered her horrible experience with Yuzuki-senpai, due to starting a relationship with someone that she didn’t really love and then ending in the worst way posible. She didn’t want to experience the same thing again. So, she took her time. She thought a lot. She understood her feelings for Haru were different from her Senpai. She understood Haru’s feelings were real, not like Senpai. She understood she was happy spending time with her despite of her carefreeness, something unusual in someone like her. She understood she would fall in love with her even if it not was equal at the moment. Because Haru made Sayaka experience sort of new beautiful things and, of course, this include real love. That's why I think Haru is the perfect match for her, even though Sayaka found problematic to face her personality when they first started their friendship but we know how love works.

By the way, these thoughts that Sayaka had to go through are similar to what Yuu had to face to realize she had fell in love with Touko. Iruma captured very well the scence of the manga with this.

Lastly, what happened to her relationship with Touko? Well, although it was mere coincidence that she found about Haru because of Yuu’s commentary, Sayaka was capable of talking with her about her new relationship months later and in that way, clearing her true feelings. Sayaka understood it could be possibly that they would talk less and less often due to her new lives, but she also understood that Yuu would make her happy. And that was everything she wanted for her. Because she knew that the Touko who was sitting in front of her, was the real Touko and not an imitation of another person as she was in her past. And that, of course, it's thanks to Yuu.

I am really happy Sayaka could find the love she was looking for, and of course, her real happiness.

I highly recommend this to everyone who loves YagaKimi. And thanks Hitoma Iruma for expanding this beautiful story which I love to the point of literally crying. So, I would like to finish the review with Nakatani's words at the end: “I asked Iruma-san to make Sayaka happy in the last volume. To her and everyone who watched over Sayaka to the end, thank you very much”.

Which words would I use to describe this manga? Horrifying. Disgusting. Interesting. Awesome. Yes, an enormous contradiction but I'm not lying. This manga is a combination of all of that.

But, this is not for everyone. It could be the worst thing ever created to some people or a fantastic story to others (or at least a good one). And why? Because the plot is developed around sadism, toxic relationships, weird fetishes, abuse, bullying and more. And it also shows a perfect example of Stockholm syndrome, which leads everything to be more strange than ever. A great proof of how twisted "love" can be.

I didn't talk ... about the yuri part because this plot could fit in any type of romance manga (maybe it's more easy to find it in BL according to some comments I've read, but I don't really know).

I recommend you this manga if you are interested in realism and something beyond the soft and cliché romance story. This, as I said, shows the real face of toxicity, as well what happens through the mind of an abuser and the consequences that their actions causes in the victim (in this case, the most extreme). Obviously, if you are sensible to these topics, try to avoid this manga.

Talking about the art, I really like it and that was the main reason of why I started reading it, though I knew it was about toxicity. The characters designs are great and color covers are beautiful.

Lastly, as I said, there is no many stories who delves into toxic and unhealthy relationships of highschool girls. So that's why I think this is a worthwile experience.

At the moment of this review, I'm in chapter 17. Hoping for more to come.

I have just finished this anime and I am completely amazed. To begin with this, I will say that by watching the first episodes I thought it would be very boring, but fortunately I was wrong. In this review I will talk only about the story and the characters, the rest will have a brief opinion.

If I start thinking about the season on which Shinsekai yori was premiered (fall 2012), I understand why it wasn't very known. In the same season of animes like Sakurasou, Psycho-Pass, JoJo, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun or same too the second part of SAO, it was too difficult to this anime ... to be one of the most watched. And it is the same that happened to me.

[WARNING! From now on, there might be some small spoilers. However, they have almost no impact on the importance of history].

The story is set 1000 years in the future. You could think that in that age, everything would be technological. But not. In replace of that "modern" age, there are few villages of (of course) few inhabitants. The lifestyle seems to be older than new. The humans in this age have a power called "Cantus", also known as PK (Psychokinesis). The kids who awaken that power, are able to go to the school, where they learn to master their PK.

The main characters are Watanabe Saki (the most important) and her friends. Throughout the series, we can see how the students are advancing on their handling of the Cantus. The, maybe, first four episodes, may seem slow and boring. As we know, it is one of the reasons why the majority leave an anime. But I recommend you not do that.

Saki and her friends: Satoru, Maria, Mamoru and Shun, belong to the "group one" of the school and they are very close. There was also a 6th member, a girl called Amano Reiko, but she disappears in the first episode and then she is forgotten. This is not the only disappearement of a kid, and it is the reason why the characters start searching why is that happening in the villages.

However, the kids don't know many things about the world in which they are living. Later, as they grow, they change their way of thinking and this is what starts to make Shinsekai yori much more interesting, as they discover things which even the spectators didn't expect.

The variety of the characters (not only humans) throughout the series, the development and the evolving of them, and how the story is estructured to get to the end, is what makes this anime unique and what sets it apart from the rest even in its genre and in general.

About the animation, in some episodes you will note a difference in the way of drawing. Don't worry because it is only happen on two or three episodes. The animation is excepcional in my opinion, and have an incredible art style, that it is difficult to find in any other anime. The backgrounds are beautiful and you can see the picturesque of the villages. The choice of the colors are set perfectly, and make the characters to have an unique design. Although, as I said, it lose (or change) the quality in some episodes, that is not a problem.

The soundtrack is also very good. Even though there is opening only in the episode 16 (which is also the second ending), the OST make you forget about that and you will definitely enjoy to watch the series while you are listening it because it is set in the perfect moment. The two endings are good too. Personally, the first called "Wareta Ringo" by Risa Taneda (seiyuu of Watanabe Saki) liked me so much that made me not to skip it in any episode.

I enjoyed Shinsekai yori much more than I expected. I am not a fan of the mystery and horror genres, but it is worth watching. The series describes in a perfect way the human nature, and ignoring the science fiction, the story raised may be the reality, because it does not differ from the true way of thinking of the humans and how they (and we) think that they are the only species in the world that matters.

I can consider it as a masterpiece. I think this is an anime well achieved and it's worth to be watched by everyone.

Edit: Now that the series finished and I wrote my review when the episode 16 was the last, I did not change my opinion. After the original series, especially for the nostalgia, this is the best. And I think that Pokémon XY&Z had that epic touch in the story and in the battles, that is what a fan of Pokémon was looking for after the Best Wishes saga.

Before seeing this series (Pokémon XY, prior to this), I was in doubt because in my opinion Black and White was a series I did not like at all and I found it very disappointing in almost ... every aspect. I gave an opportunity to XY and I was amazed and even more now with XY & Z that is having an incredible plot. I hope to continue delighting well.

Story: 8/10
After the end of the story of Xy, this is based on the last road of Serena to enter the Master Class and Ash to enter the Pokémon League. But a new team appears, as usual in each region, called Team Flare that they are in search of a pokémon called Z (Zygarde) which it's all a novelty because there is no information about him. This pokémon has the ability to take several appearances, each stronger than the other, from its "core" which acquires cells of the environment to transform in these forms. This core is found by Ash and others and starts traveling with them at the request of Bonnie which calls it "Puni-chan", which strings in the Team Flare begins to be around them too.

Art: 8/10
The animation of XY and XY & Z is excelent compared to the previous series (B & W). The effects are recreated as pokémon attacks seem to me a breakthrough in the series.

Sound: 10/10
The OST I think is sensational and each music is set at the right time and it's correct to mention too the fantastic opening by Rika Matsumoto.

Character: 9/10
It's almost normal to talk about the characters in Pokémon (is almost always more of the same), but in this is series Ash is much more mature and he makes no nonsense once used to be, and his team have a lot of possibilities to win the League for the first time. Serena is very capable at what he does and I love how it relates to their pokémon. I hope they can give the romance between them because I think they are a great combination (I recommend see Chapter 12).
The Team Rocket still appear but they help Ash and the others in the battle against Team Flare. But they still want to catch Pikachu.

Enjoyment: 9/10
In my opinion, you enjoy much this series as I am doing now and I hope this continues for a while. For now I think it's the best series of Pokémon next to the Original Series.

I highly recommend this series if you are fans of Pokémon.