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Koe no Katachi is one of those anime which synopsis shows amazing premise but can also easily fall flat on its face. In a way it looks like your typical oscar bait. Luckily it doesn't follow suit.

Everything about this anime screams Kyoto Animation, from the character traits to the animation, and that is not a bad thing. If anything the studio shows exactly how well it has mastered its craft in making a compelling drama. The thing that they managed to cram almost the entire 64 chapter manga in a single movie without any pacing issues however is quite impressive. Of course some side characters ... will suffer in this case but even that is avoided as far as possible.

Soundwise the anime is very clever, although it might be a little too subtle for some people. At least I didn't really notice it immediately. does however do its job better than lots of other anime nowadays and it's always nice to hear a famous band open up the movie. My Generation by The Who was the perfect choice for this anime as its lyrics really sum up what Ishida and Nishimura go through.

In the end Koe no Katachi couldn't have a better adaptation. It is by no means perfect but seeing as the format wasn't exactly the ideal one they got everything possible out of it.

Tenshi no Tamago is a curious anime, and not only because it's directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor). No, even the synopsis alone is of such a strangeness that it's hard not to get at least a bit interested in it and the dementia tag is always bound to draw me in. So how did this OVA present itself?

I should first and foremost say that both the story and the characters take a backseat in favor of the symbolism. There are only two noteable characters which we follow. One being a girl holding an egg under her dress who fills her days ... with filling bottles with water, the other a man holding a big cross. They might only speak for about fifteen minutes in total so most of the things are discovered by their actions and the world they live in. I must say that Oshii did a great job in doing this. The enormous amount of symbolism found in those actions are worth analyzing and the world is almost like a character in itself. It's a dark, lonesome place where it always rains. Designer Yoshitaka Amano clearly went fullout. Add the minimal but amazing animation and the melancholic soundtrack consisting almost entirely out of choir singing and you get the exact atmosphere this anime needs.

That been said the snail pace and the lesser importance on story and characterization also make it an anime that is very hard to watch. You really need to focus on all the symbolism in order to get anything out of it. This symbolism is, true to Oshii's signature style, mostly christian but there are still lots of things that are very ambiguous. The egg for example reminded me a little of the beginning of times as displayed in the Kalevala. Add the fact that Oshii doesn't know what to make out of all the symbolism himself and you get a situation where no interpretation is wrong. My own thoughts leave much to be desired and I haven't seen two interpretations alike.

Tenshi no Tamago is not for everyone. If you only watch anime for the entertainment you'll be better off not even bothering to watch this. Trust me, it will be boring beyond belief. If you however like to challenge your brain and don't mind ambiguity at all you might watch this. It left me thinking until two hours after I watched it so you're in for a serious threat.

With all the vampire stories that came out in any medium a couple of years ago it would've been inevitable for me to watch at least one. Lucky for the anime medium the one that caught my attention was Shiki. I usually babble too much in this kind of introduction so here it goes.

The synopsis on this page is the story in its most basic form and this already sounds very good. There is simply nothing wrong with it and there is nothing wrong with the story in general either. The interesting thing is that after a while the makers thought it was a good ... idea to deconstruct the vampire story like we know it. The vampires don't just suck your blood for the sake of it. No, they need it to survive. It's just like a lion killing an antilope. It doesn't kill it for its pleasure but to feed the pack. Knowing this doesn't make the lion less dangerous but you get to sympathize more with her. The same principle stands for the vampires in Shiki. Where you first might damn them to hell you eventually will start to at least feel bad for them.

Which automatically brings me to the study of the characters. I must be honest here, not every character was a hit. Megumi for example seemed annoying to me for a long time and Masao never did gain any sympathy. Don't get me wrong, the makers did an excellent job making everyone interesting which is already impressive when dealing with such a large cast. It's just that not every character was a likeable one while the story actually needed this. Luckily the main cast was spared of unlikeable characters. Everyone from the doctor finding out the truth about the strange deaths to the main villains had a good reason to do what they did. This ultimately makes it hard to pick a side but it's not like that's the point of the story anyway so no need to complain here.

Now, I could say that the story is one of the better ones you encounter in anime and that even with their flaws the characters are still well written. Unfortunately the atmosphere here is totally wrong. The soundtracks they choose for certain scenes are either bad or a mismatch and the character designs, a weird mix between Yu-Gi-Oh and Code Geass, and vibrant color palette don't fit the overall tone of the anime at all. Now, the last two things don't have to be a problem. Higurashi for example has questionable character designs throughout and the color palette isn't always the best for its genre. The thing is that it's actually saved by the underwelming animation which makes things look bleaker than what you expect with this combination. Shiki however has nothing to turn things for the better. The animation is way too clean for that even if it's not exactly Miyazaki animating here. This atmosphere takes lots of the good things I mentioned and tries to drown them.

So is Shiki any good? Yes it is. Is it a masterpiece beyond comprehension? Not even close. The atmosphere is not fitting the story at all, which is a shame because it's one of the better vampire stories I've encountered.

Shinsekai Yori is one of those anime that made quite a name for themselves. Based off the award winning novel and being quite high in MAL's ranking it is no wonder everywhere I look I find people applauding this curious little series. The question is if it could hold its own based on this huge reputation.

Storywise I can honestly say it can, and it even transcended my expectations. While nothing special on the first glance, it avoided all cliches found in anime and then some in sci-fi alltogether. There is no cyberpunk world or space opera trope to be found, no copy paste characters like ... tsundere or overpowered main character and certainly not any overdone jokes or unfitting fanservice. The most 'fanservice' you'll find is probably in episode 8, which is still very tame to anime norms. I don't even think it counts as such and don't get people are upset by it. When going in I thought of some yaoi-esque material because of what the people who didn't like it said about it. I guess some people exaggerate things very easily. I'm also happy I could actually understand some of the symbolism because while I think the genre Shinsekai Yori is in needs it I am usually too dense to spot any while also understanding.

Like I said storywise it does deliver, but the art, pacing and sound help a lot. Combined they make for some tranquil yet sometimes menacing atmosphere, and the balance adapts nicely when needed. You'll rarely see such great work in any medium, especially anime. It's especially nice since the soundtrack has no problem standing on its own. My only complaint here is that Saki's seiyuu sounded a bit on the whiny side at times. She couldn't really handle the young protagonists voice very well. It's even more obvious because the other characters had very good voice acting. Luckily they replaced her when Saki matured and in the end she was not worse than for example Satoru's voice actor.

Saki, Satoru and the others are very nice characters by the way, or at least for a plot driven story. Like I said before you shouldn't expect any of the typical anime character tropes here so they honestly felt as a breath of fresh air. Protagonist Watanabe Saki for example is one of the few characters I would label as a strong woman. It's not because she can hold her own in a fight or is apathic or something. The fact that I call her strong is because while being one of the most emotional characters in the series her feelings never get in the way. People in the series acknowledge this and it even becomes a plot point later on. The other characters are equally likeable.

With all this you can rest assured that Shinsekai Yori is a force to be reckoned with. Of course I can't speak for everyone when I say I liked this series a lot but if you like science fiction you should consider watching this.

As someone who likes Jun Maeda I was very hyped about this anime. He is one of the people who made Clannad, my favorite anime, after all and I really liked what he did with Angel Beats! too. This made that my expectations were fairly high. It's therefore not surprising Charlotte didn't meet them, but I didn't expect it to become the anime I disliked the most up to date. How did this happen? You can read below.

MINOR SPOILERS MAY OCCUR!!!

Let's start with what I think is the worst part of Charlotte: its pacing. Out of all the anime I've seen there has never been ... one with a pacing that was all over the place. It would have been nice if the story was spread out over more episodes because things happened way too sudden to make you care. The only episode that was actually decently paced was episode 7.

Like I said things just happened way too fast to care for anything in the anime including the characters. For example the changes Yuu, the protagonist, underwent seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. He started his path as a jerk and after taking this to the extremes in one episode (because of circumstances I'm not going to tell because of spoilers) he eventually became an altruist who took an impossible task on his shoulders. And he's not the only one who suffered from the atrocious pacing as most characters don't seem to evolve or only do so in a very unnatural way. The only character I actually liked was Ayumi, who didn't even have a reason to undergo character development.

Now even without the pacing issues the story wouldn't have been a good one. Things that are supposed to have a big impact fall flat because of how the story goes and some things are just all too convenient to be believable. Especially the last couple of episodes are pathetic in this regard. They even butchered the aspects I liked.

Luckily those things are still intact in the first couple of episodes. The art and animation are truly outstanding and the music, while not at Maeda's usual level, is decent. The humor is not my taste, but that was never the strong point of Jun Maeda and I do remember I chuckled a couple of times.

Unfortunately those good things can't save Charlotte. I honestly don't understand how the person who made such heartwrenching stories came up with, for the lack of a better word, a trainwreck. As I plan to watch more of his work I truly hope this is nothing but a hiccup.