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Note: This review will cover both seasons. tl;dr at the bottom.

The word "hype" is very interesting. When a new movie, book, videogame or (in our case) anime is announced, "hype" will show his ugly face sooner or later. Maybe "hype" shows up because of who is making the piece, or maybe because is an adaptation and the fanboys don't seem able to keep their mouths shut. "Hype" is usually very dangerous, specially within the anime community, because there's a high chance that a series or movie won't live up to it. It is also true, however, that unless you live under a rock or in ... your mom's basement (mostly the case) you cannot escape from "hype" and it will eventually catch you. Finally, when you sit to watch the hyped anime you have a mix of both entusiasm (due to the hype) but also ... scepticism (because you don't want to be let down). F/SN: UBW is a perfect example of how "hype" can pump up an anime to a ridiculous extreme (just so I can appear and make it look like shit)

PRODUCTION VALUE
The animation is, lacking a better word, amazing. Ufotable are famous for having fluid movement (you know what I mean), great visual effects, and an astonishing use of lights. They have both the money and the talent to make these kind of projects.
The background art is wonderful. The church, the park, the school, even Fuyuki's City itself is done amazingly with a dark color palette that creates a fabulous contrast with not only the beautiful lights, but also with the characters, who are made with a shiny and clean color palette.
Let me tell you that I am no fan of CG (as I am a pure elitist, thus I don't like computer graphics mixed with chinese cartoons), in this case however, you can tell is high quality, and the anime doesn't abuse the use of it, so I have nothing to complain about.
In the artistic department the anime feels lackluster. I already said it is perfectly done, but it surely lacks its own style. And this is obvious, specially with the characters desings which (although amazingly done) have nothing special going for them. This has to do with the kind of series that F/SN: UBW is (and for who it is aimed to). It is nothing experimental or that tries to be deeply artistic (obviously).

The OST isokay, but is surely nothing out of the ordinary. Compared with other Ufotable's OST this one feels kinda poor. The sincronization between animation and music is not spectacular (this is a directing regarding issue), it is okay but surely nothing above average. The sound is naturally clean and very kind to the ears. As for the voice acting it is good, I do not have much to say about it.

STORY
The serie's story is decent. Truth be told, it pretends to be an epic masterpiece about a psychological thriller, full of suffering and big fights ... when it is just a pretty generic harem that happens to have fights because Ufotable can pay for them, and to have more teenage boys interested in the product. It is not as serious, nor as mature, nor as deep, as the fans claim it to be. The drama feels forced and in the endwhat really matters is the relationship between Rin and Shirou, which a big let down when compared to everything that was going around them and that was much more interesting than the series' main couple.
The anime uses too much otaku pandering (high schools, archetype female characters, videogames therminology, harem with forced romance, and a really beta main character). This affects the pacing terribly and fills the screen with unnecesary, boring and cringeworthy situations (a picnic day, an eroge moment, bland comedy, etc). Add to that a nice amount of plotholes and an obscene use of plot armor, and the whole thing starts crumbling apart.
On the bright side though, the idea of a death tournament between wizards with transdimensional heroes, videogame references and superpowers, is very attractive, and it is potentially great if you have epic battle scenes and charismatic characters. When it wants, the series moves with an spectacular pacing, and it hooks you with well-thought mysteries and high budget, well coreographed (is that a word?) fights.Some of the twists were really nailed and others felt more like asspulls.
I think that the series main problem was its superficil nature. It was built on action scenes and certain plot twists, which in the end turned out to be a dull base to create a deep and complex plot.

CHARACTERS
Hereis where the series falls flat on its face. Let's start with the positive. Archer is actually a good character. He has a well-rounded personality, charisma, clear motivations justified by a well thought backdrop (although full of plotholes), and throughout the anime he has a well done and satifactory development (even if he has some seriously retarded moments).
Saber is not a bad character, but he is horribly basic, and in any other series she would be overshadowed by the rest of the cast. This is not the case because the other characters are dull and boring (which lifts her charisma). Unless you have already played the VNs or have seen related anime, her backdrop is non existant, therefore her motivations are empty and are (in fact) impossible to understand. This is a flaw because F/SN: UBW is a story on itself, and shouldn't depend on other works to be completely enjoyable. Her development also feels lackluster, un less again that you know about the franchise as a whole. However Saber is still an okay character. She has her own little charisma, and for some reason everyone wants her as waifu.
The main couple is the series' major flaw, and the main reason why I didn't enjoy the anime much. If you are having a romantic relationship taking all the space in the show, you should have a couple with an interesting dynamic (and this is not the case).
Shirou is a well-thought character, but he is handled poorly. He is a teenage boy with magic powers that wants everyone to be happy, and to destroy the evil that is the Holy Grail. However, as the plot advances, he doesn't become stronger and he survives because plot conveniences or shonen-power-up. He also lacks any development, and is always the same weakling moralfag that I totally hate.
Rin is an awful character, and everything about her is done wrong. Her personality is non-existant, as she constantly changes her attitude because plot conveniences; one episode she acts a way, and the next one she acts another way. Her motivations are plain stupid (seriously, wtf?), the backdrop is basic and there's no development. She is the perfect example of a cardboard character that the script-writer uses as he wishes.

CONCLUSION
So, what's my own shitty opinion on F/SN UBW? As far as entertainment goes, the series delivers, and it delivers well ... for the most part. Without a doubt tghe combination of spectacular fight scenes and a plot full of twists hooks the viewer and drive him through very fun 25 episodes. However, it is still a harem, and it lacks any actual content (or even charismatic characters). Overall it feels lackluster and it surely doesn't come out as great as you would believe in the beginning. Besides the animation, I wouldn't say that everything else is above average.

TL;DR
+Spectacular animation and visual effects
+Great background art
+Okay OST
+Great premise
+Some really neat plot twists
+Amazing fight scenes
+Archer's character
+Nice execution, most of the time

-Some twists felt more like asspulls
-Plot armor over 9000
-An obscene amount of plotholes
-Otaku pandering
-Sometimes the pacing is horrible
-The romance/harem aspect is terribly handled
-Most characters are dull and forgettable

Reccomended for people who enjoy shonen action and harem, and don't mind trainwreck plots and bland casts.

Note: I ain't no english speaker

Welcome to MAL where a mediocre and predictable tear-jerking/slice of life/ comedy series is ranked 100 spots over NGE. The magical place where fanboys will defend their favorite crappy anime just so a bunch of pretentious teenagers that think that they are intellectual can complain about their shitty taste and make fun of them (oh wai--)

If after reading that paragraph you are not quite sure what is my opinion about Angel Beats! then let's get down to the proper review.

PRODUCTION VALUE
I cannot bash this anime on this particular aspect as it has top-notch animation combined with beautiful art. It was ... produced by P. A. Works, a studio with tons of money that prefers to invest it in these mediocre melodramatic stories instead of something good (although wether or not it works for them from a business point of view is a different story). The atmosphere is pretty much the same you see in any anime of this genre with the exception that in this case everything is perfectly made. Even if there are some pretty terrible frames and a certain sense of money-saving at some points, the overall animation is well done with outstanding effects.
As for the sound, the voice acting is pretty generic, although they certainly do know how to use effects. The soundtrack was surprisingly average. With the amount of music this anime uses (plus the fact that there's a rock band in it) it was absolutely marvelous that none of the songs were memorable. As for the opening it just flies over your head, and the ending is decent.

STORY
Alright! Who's ready for some shit-storm?! The anime has some good ideas, I'll give it that. The whole thing of seeing how people spend the after-life and making fun out of death constantly is not something you see everyday. But really...a high-school? From all of the possible settings to choose they decide to develop these ideas in...a high-school? I mean just imagine the possibilities of working with such a premise and they decide to go with the safest and cheapest route, by combining teenagers, angst, melodrama, bad comedy, a little bit of action and...a high-school.
But after all, being set in a high-school with angsty teenagers doesn't necessarily means it's bad, right? WRONG! I mean, sure it doesn't, but here the problem is that Angel Beats! is all over the place. The comedy is at times dark humour about how funny watching others die is, and then a light-hearted slice of life comedy. None of the themes brought to the table are properly developed nor answered. A massive amount of plot-holes that they keep adding just for the sake of...adding them. Cheap and bad melodrama that comes out of nowhere with absolutely no backdrop nor proper writing. Sometimes fast-paced action sometimes horrible slow-pacing. A group of teenagers that go to school, fight god, go to school, do shitty comedy, form a super-secret elite squad, AND THEY CHOOSE TO GO TO FUCKING SCHOOL.
The story is a big mess of multiple things with no proper execution on any of them nor interesting outcomes, neither feels or laughs. Is just a big ball of things with the word "MEH" written all over it.

CHARACTERS
I can describe Angel Beats!'s characters in three words: underdeveloped, uncharming and bland. All the characters have one or two aspects that reflect their personalities, thus all of them being one-dimensional boring and completely unrelatable. All of them with the exception of the MC Otonashi who totally LACKS any personality. He didn't have not a single aspect. He wasn't one-dimensional, he was zero-dimensional. I didn't like "Your lie in April" for many of the same reasons I didn't like this anime but at least that one knew how to build a f*cking great MC. In this case, our hero is totally overshadowed by the rest of the (plain and mediocre) cast.
The characters all lack a backstory (except Otonashi, props for that) and their development is all thrown into a single episode instead of being built overtime like a proper series would do. That has to do with the fact that the show has many more characters than it needs and many more than it can handle.
All in all, the cast is poorly designed, bad and surely doesn't provide anything to the already lackluster series.

CONCLUSION
This turned out worse than I expected. I didn't know I hated this anime so much. But now to the real deal, did I enjoy Angel Beats!? No, definetly not. The premise was somewhat interesting and the production was great. But the combination of melodrama, bad comedy, ideas all over the place, frustrating situations, predictable outcomes, enraging plotholes and dreadful cast, totally killed any chance this anime had of being entertaining.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll rewatch Clannad.

Note: I ain't no english speaker

Madoka Magica is overrated. That being said, Madoka Magica is a great anime. I have watched this anime several times analyzing and taking into consideration all the aspects that compose its essence, substance and style. Due to this analysis I've been able to reach different conclusions regarding what aspects of Madoka Magica make it a great anime, and in which aspects this anime fails miserably. Before hating, please I encourage you to read this review carefully.

PRODUCTION VALUE
On this point I am pretty sure that nobody will argue with me: Madoka Magica is visually amazing and sounds beautiful.
The overall art style ... changes from joyful and full of colour to dark and creepy in a matter of seconds. But this transition is done with great animation, stunning effects and specially breathtaking backgrounds. Combined with moe characters, this use of art and visuals add a lot to the shock factor that the anime aspires to.
The voice acting was really well done and the soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura is masterpiece as always (although I am getting a little bit bored with her work).

STORY
Alright, here is when things start to go downhill. I am not going to spoil anything but you should read MAL's resume in order to understand where I am going. Basically, Madoka Magica is supposed to be a deconstruction of the magical girl genre the same way NGE was a deconstruction of the mecha genre. Madoka bets on its shock factor: it deceives you into thinking that you are watching a cute and nice show about girls with pretty dresses and magic, and suddenly it turns into a dark world full of suffering and misery in which the threat of death is real and you need more than just "the power of love and magic" to survive. The combination of top-notch fights with stunning visuals, and absolutely heart-breaking situations in a dark and constantly deppressing world was a lot of fun.
However, in terms of story Madoka Magica felt unsatisfactory due to two major problems: conclusion and pacing. The first one is easier to explain: Madoka's ending sucks, big time. Is a complete asspull "deus ex machina" that leaves enormous unsolved plotholes, unanswered questions and feels like it was made up at the last moment. And no, the 3rd movie didn't provide a satisfactory conclusion either. It just made the plotholes bigger and threw more questions on the table. The pacing problem requires me to talk about the characters, but let's just say that the series felt rushed. It was going too fast.

CHARACTERS
Considering that Madoka was supposed to be a psychological thriller, you would expect Death Note-tier or NGE-tier characters that could drive the anime instead of the action and the story. Well, sadly Madoka Magica's characters are average at best.
Regarding characters I feel obligated to discard both Mami and Kyoko. Mami is a Mary Sue, supposedly the most perfect of the magical girls, who lacks any personality beyond her super-confident attitude, any backstory or any motivation. As for Kyoko, she is your typical badass character, with not-so-clear motivations or objectives, a 5 min. speech backstory, and a rushed, messy and inconsistent development.
Kaname Madoka is one of the (if not THE) blandest main character in the history of anime. She lacks any kind of development. Her personality is nonexistent, except for her obvious shyness and fearfulness, and the only thing she does is question herself for 12 episodes on wether or not she should become a magical girl. With the exception of the totally unsatisfactory conclusion, she plays no role in the anime. Literally Sayaka could have taken her spot and be a better MC.
This leads me to Sayaka and Homura, the two characters that save this cast from being downright terrible. Sayaka starts off as a naive and energetic character. Contrary to Madoka she has clear goals, and she has a multi-directional perspective as a character, meaning she has different worries and objectives. Her development is really well handled and she evolves clearly but with subtlety, turning into a completely different character (but not in a messy way). Unlike Sayaka, Homura lacks a multi-directional perspective. She has one goal and one goal only, although she indeed pays attention to different things and she approaches her objective through different means, meaning she has a wider range of thought than most characters. She also has a clear backstory that reflects her intentions, and a development just as well handled as Sayaka's.
All I am going to say about Kyuubey is that he is awesome and he totally rocks.
Back to the pacing problem, it has a lot to do with Madoka. I feel that the anime didn't have enough time for her and instead they just threw her development on the last episode as a big ball of unexplained things. This seems weird, wasn't SHE supposed to be the main character? I am sure that having Sayaka as main and completely erasing Madoka would ended much better for the series. Or having more time to focus on Madoka might have gave us a well developed girl that transformed from a moeblob to an all-around 3rd dimensional goddess.

CONCLUSION
Did I enjoy Madoka Magica? Yes, I did. I did greatly enjoyed it. As a matter of fact I constantly encourage people to watch it because I believe is one of the most fun and well done anime I have ever seen. On the other hand though it is true that it poorly handled its main character development, its pacing and ending, thus leaving a bad taste in many viewer's mouth that maybe were expecting too much.

Still a great deliver by Shaft that I higly reccomend.

NOTE: I ain't no english speaker

A friend of mine reccommended me Maid-Sama! and since I was planing on watching it anyway I decided to go along and get to it. I had a mix of expectations. On one hand I knew that this was going to be just another highschool rom-com with tear-jerking and melodrama. On the other hand the premise seemed more interesting than most and the overall charm of the anime hooked me. In any case, I was expecting an enjoyable watch.

I must gladly say that my expectations were not only fulfilled, but the anime managed to impress me.

PRODUCTION VALUE
The production is simple, ... but it works. The art is quite unique with the characters and scenarios, and the overall look of the series having their own charm. It's nothing out of the ordinary though but surely the colorful look of the show stands out in the crowd, even if it is a little "too colorful". The animation was more impressive than other anime of the same style. It was consistent and it never fell down hard due to budget (or at least it wasn't noticeable).
As for the sound, it was good but just like the art/animation it wasn't great. The voice acting was well done and overall the anime sounded clear and nice. The soundtrack is forgettable. Not much to say about it.

STORY
Although the premise is cliched, it was interesting enough for me to care about the anime and I was specially glad at the fact that the anime didn't use a tear-jerking approach nor teen-agnst. This is basically a rom-com and as one it is entertaining and it delivers good humour and a satisfactory relationship building...for the most part...It is nothing new though so you can't be wrong with it once you decide to watch it or not. The biggest flaw for the show is the horrible pacing. Sometimes it feels rushed and other times it is stuck with filler episodes for characters nobody cares for. This would have worked better as a 12 episodes show I believe.

CHARACTERS
I will focus on the two main characters Misaki and Usui. Misaki is your typical "perfect girl" with obvious tsundere atributes. She is hard-working, intelligent and athletic, and she IS NOT in love with Usui. Usui is more of a Mary Sue than Misaki. He is handsome, clever, athletic and has that mysterious aura that makes him the most perfect guy in the whole school. Despite those characters being clichéd and lacking any significant personality, they are somewhat charming and interesting. They lack any kind of serious development or backstory making them just plot devices. You could replace them with any other character from any other show and you would get the same result. I have nothing to say about the support cast since every single one of the side characters is a bland archetype that is there for (a) fanservice or (b) get on Misaki's nerves.

CONCLUSION
Did I enjoy Maid-Sama? Yes, in a way it has its own charm. The comedy is funny enough and the dynamic between the main characters works well. On the other hand, it doesn't stand out in any way when compared to other anime of the same genre and therefore it is not more than just another average clichéd romcom.

NOTE: I ain't no english speaker.

When you doing something you gotta put your heart in it. You gotta give your soul and your body to it, specially when you want to be "original" or when you want to do something else than just picking a profit. This is particularly true in anime. If you, as an "anime maker" want to just make money or make something that sells because you do need money to live that's fine, and you pick the easy way by doing a shonentard, moeshit or simple pandering. But once in a while I think that every "anime maker" thinks "I want ... to do something original by myself goddamit!". You go bro! We need more people like you taking a chance with original stuff! If you are going to do this you must go as deep as you can. "Go big or go home". Death Parade...died somewhere in the middle of that road.

DP's premise is interesting and got me hyped. The idea of a bar between Heaven and Hell were the souls hang out for a while until they are judged and sent somewhere. It could have been a psychological thriller or a great slice of life. Combined with great animation and a very good soundrack (specially that magnificent opening) this anime stood a legitimate chance of being great.

Let's start with the positive side of things. With such a good premise the story was obviously going to be good on some degree. Many situations and episodes managed to either move me or scare me, with that combination of psychological horror and dramatic stories. At the same time the cast was very interesting and they held a lot of potential for character development, which was exploited...kinda...The moral battle and the existensialism questioning were used in a good way to give the show a degree of deepness that the production lifted to make entertaining.

But there is something that keeps buging me. I feel that DP didn't go as far as it shoulded in terms of character development, dramatic mood and psychological struggle. It wasn't dramatic enough, it wasn't thrilling enough, and the characters weren't developed enough. It tried to be everything all at the same time and failed to deliver strong feelings. The characters trauma was forced and didn't seem realistic, with obvious twists, poorly handled pacing, way too many flashbacks and a mood that changed from a light-hearted slice of life to an "edgy" thriller too often.

For me DP's biggest flaw is that it didn't know what it wanted to be. It intended to be a psychological thriller, but it wasn't brave enough to "go big or go home" fearing failure, so it changed to a more light-hearted slice of life tone, while also failing to leave an impact unlike other slice of life(things like Mushishi or The Tatami Galaxy). The massive amount of plot-holes and the lackluster character development (it seemed rushed and unclear, as we are not fully sure what were the characters' intentions nor motivations or beliefs) can be easily ignored when paying attention to the bigger problems in story-telling the series have.

Overall though, it is good, and it is quite enjoyable, and it does have its charm. Above everything else however, what I find most important is that is something new and fresh. I firmly believe that we need more original shows like this one, even if they are not the next Lain or Gurren Lagann, we should encourage these kind of anime. If we do, we eventually will get a lotmore of good stuff, and Death Parade was a right step in that direction.

Too bad it won't be remembered in the future.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Note: I am no english speaker

Note: Finished the serie. It got better, I'll admit but 3 worth episodes do not compensate the whole shitness of the anime.

"Your lie in April"? More like "Your overrated anime in April". Am I right?!

*Awkward silence*

... Let me start off by saying this: I did not enjoy Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.

As you can imagine I, being a classical music enthusiast and a big fan of Clannad (although some reviewers would have a word on that), was pretty excited about this anime and along with the hype I went and I watched it...as long as I could take it...

Let's start off with the production value. Here is where Shigatsu really stands out. The art is amazing and the backgrounds are simply breathtaking. The animation is also great specially when the characters are playing their instruments as you can see the tears, the sweat and the facial expressions borned from the joyness of music.
Then we have the music. I already said that I love classical music, and I surely have loved that this anime had classical music. The only scenes with high quality music where the ones with the characters on the scenario. Then everything else was kinda dead silent and no real music to go along. Pretty dissapointing, but I guess I must give a high score just for those scenes alone. I have no comments on the voice acting, as I watched subbed and we all know that doesn't fail.

Let's go with the story so I can start throwing shit here and there.
"Oh! He is in love with a cute girl! Oh! The girl is his best friend's girlfriend! That was so not predictable! Oh! His girl friend loves him in secret but he doesn't have a clue that also so not predictable! Oh! The girl he loves has a medical condition that so original!"
Yeah, that's pretty much about it...
There are three things that really bother myself about this anime. First of all is the comedy. It was hard enough for me to get into a tragic and dramatic scene, and then they totally kill the mood with crappy comedy? That's a huge backstab for any viewer. It wasn't the comedy that was bad, but it was so misplaced. You know what? Forget that, the comedy was bad indeed. But specially the bad timing they had for those shitty jokes. How do you expect me to be sensitive when suddenly you totally change the scene's mood?
Secondly every character cries for fucking everything. I mean come on. I get Kousei with his mom, but they cry for every fucking thing. Got a concert tomorrow? Better cry instead of practicing. You want to ask one of your best friends to be you partner? Cry, that totally does not look awkward. You see a cat on the street? Better have a heart attack. I understand that drama is necessary in an anime of this nature but Jesus Christ this was plain stupid. Lastly, the premise was really really REALLY good, and it had two strong plotlines to hold to in order to make this a brilliant anime. On one hand the relationship between Kousei and his mother (as many artists and athletes have that kind of relationship with their parents) had a lot of potential for character development and deep psychological struggle. On the other hand we had the rivalries between Kousei, Takeshi and Emi (by far the best characters) that could have become an AMAZING plot-motor, as we could have seen their egos in epic classical music battles. But what did we got instead? Crappy romance triangles with no real development and boo-boo teen angst. Including a romance for the sake of the story could have been nice but my god what a way to fuck things up.
I'll admit that the last episodes were good because A) they kinda cut that shitty comedy B) theyfocused more on the concerts and the actual music and C) Kaori gets less screen-time.

Now this, leads me to the final and most important part: the characters. I liked Kousei a lot. He was well developed he was an interesting character and his struggle and emotions seemed the most natural and realistic of all the cast. I also liked Emi and Takeshi as Kousei's rivals but they get no screen-time nor development to be considered other things than fillers. The rest of the cast was plain, boring and overall a big "meh" with two exceptions.
I strongly dislike Tsubaki. Considering all the screen-time she had and the "development" she got (if we can call that development) it is infuriating how balnd, stupid and boring of a character she turned out to be. Really though, what the heck is she for the story? She serves no purpose and she is not even ebtertaining to watch.
And last but not least, Kaori. By far, the most bland, obnoxious, stupid and unrealistic female MC I've seen lately. Sorry I was wrong.She is not a character, she is a mere plot device. She is there just to inspire Kousei to play music. She is annoying everything she does is stupid and a forced overreaction and OH MY GOD WHY THE FUCK DOES SHE HIT HIM SO MUCH? They tried to make a cool badass tsundere like Asuka and instead they got a pile of shit with blonde hair and no real purpose on the story. Also, why they decided to throw her development as a big ball of blandness into the last episode? If I knew all that during the series progression she would have been a better character.

So...that's about it. That's my rant for this ani-meh. Shigatsu had a lot of potential. Kousei development was great. The music scenes were amazing. The relationship between him and his mother was splendid. The art and animation were outstanding. But they decided to throw all that away just to please the casuals with a bad romantic-drama-comedy-slice of life. It could have worked as a 12 episodes romantic anime, but stretching it for so long made it unbearable.

Note: I ain't no english speaker

Everyone is connected

I recently finished one of the most iconic and groundbreaking anime in history. Honestly is very difficult to write a review as my brain is trying to recover from the mind-melting experience of watching Serial Experiments Lain, but I am going to do my best.

SEL is all about making you think. While other anime want to simply amuse you, SEL tries to connect with you and tries to create some kind of "bond" between you and your conscious, pretty much what NGE and GhitS do (or try to). SEL uses (and abuses) your intelligence and your darkest feelings ... in order to get you into the plot. I'll simply put it this way: you can't watch SEL "just for fun", it requires your full atention and sometimes you will have to stop and re-think what you just watched.

I am not going to breakdown the story for you. All I am going to say is that is amazing. The story presents some of the major teenage issues of modern Japan (suicide, technology addiction, careless parenting) and connects them with a sci-fi plot. In this context SEL's plot is essentialy a psychological thriller driven by different situations that at first seem like random events with philosophical deepness but that in the end are connected with Lain's nature and her interpretation of the world. There is an interesting theory that Lain is a personification of Jesus and that the whole serie is an interpretation of Christ's life. That's probably the most beautiful thing about SEL: everyone perceives it different and has an unique interpretation of it, and there are not rights or wrongs.

SEL's art and animation are fine. It seems like a low budget production that some genius turned into a masterpiece (like Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs), but it is not really an issue and the characters expressions are really good. The soundtrack is great and the intro song is one of my favourites.

SEL is not "worth a shot", it is much better and much more reccomendable than most anime out there. Then again remember that it is not an action-packed shonen that you can marathon. You must take a time after each episode to interpretate what you just watched. In the end though it will be worth your time and you will feel the satisfaction of have watched an anime classic that helped you to open your mind.