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Kyokou Suiri is a solid show, with plenty to like about it. Its ultimately let down by some abysmal pacing in the middle portion of its run, but the overall plot, vibe, and characters are good enough that I would legitimately look forward to a second season.

The premise is a simple one: the main character can interact with yokai/ghosts etc. and most people can't. The plot, on the other hand, is anything but simple. The second main character possesses an ability that is legitimately world bending which allows the storyline to grow in ways that most similar shows can't replicate. Story is a solid 9 ... for me.

The art is fine. It's about what I'd expect from any decent show coming out this time. I'll give bonus points for enjoyable character designs and say its a 7.

Sound was pretty good throughout. Voice acting felt like it matched the characters and OP/ED were both solid. The soundtrack was nothing I'd listen to in my spare time but it wasn't offensive either. Right about an 8.

Characters were great overall. The dialogue in this show felt very natural and really helped paint a picture of each character. I'm rating this as low as I am mostly due to the limited cast. It feels a bit mistaken to rate a show with only 3-4 actual characters any higher than an 8, so 8 it is.

Enjoyment is where this suffers a bit. This show fails to reach the sum of its parts due to a couple of grindy episodes in the middle of the arc that makes up the second half of the show. While I can respect the large overarching plot, I think it dove into it a bit too quickly and didn't do enough to interest viewers before dragging things out. I find myself wishing that this first season was more of a seinen version of Natsume Yuujincho where it stayed mostly episodic in order to build more character investment before we started really hitting the main story. That being said, there was enough there for me to still enjoy the show even if the execution left some things to be desired. 6.

Overall, I have to give this a 7. It has all the right pieces to make something excellent but just fails to piece them together in a way that can capture a viewer. Its a fairly unique little show, and I hope it gets a sequel that can fix the pacing and give this show the spotlight it has the potential to reach.

Dororo is a flawed anime, one that ultimately fails to live up to its own expectations. If I had to summarize it into a single reason, it would be because it tries to do too much. It wants to be this edgy action anime with a philosophical bedrock and a gritty, bleak story. Ultimately, it does do each of these things, but rather than playing off one another they instead diminish each other, culminating in a grossly unsatisfying ending.

I finally got around to finishing this anime the other day. I had started it as it was coming out, and just sort of fell off ... the weekly watching train for the entire season and never got back to it. I was excited to binge this, as I'd remembered enjoying the first 8 episodes I had watched. Alas, little did I know that I had already watched the best part of the show.

Story:
The opening premise, of the boy with the body that was sacrificed to demons for his father's ambitions and the ragamuffin orphan who is his conduit to society, is awesome. And for the first half of the show, it works. We get the tried but true monster of the week format, with decent enough animation and bits of character development here and there. It was nothing special, nothing unseen before, but it was good. And then... it lost itself somewhere along the way. In the second half, the show becomes more and more focused on the moral consequences of Hyakkimaru's actions in reclaiming his body. This is a potentially interesting direction, but it never goes anywhere. Hyakkimaru is asked the same question, by different people over and over again and his answer never changes. It progresses nothing, and we kill another demon. And then, in a grand finale, the show ends, and our remaining characters move on with their lives. This plot feels more like a prologue as it finishes up. Its an origin story without anything to follow.

Art:
I have no serious complaints about the art. I liked the general style, it was an interesting more realistic take on the original Tezuka source material as far as I could tell. The animation itself ranged from pretty good to obvious cost-cutting. I can readily accept some of the latter if the former is good enough to cover it, and in this case for me, it just about was.

Sound:
The sound was fine overall, I didn't really notice it to be honest. The show gets bonus points from me here because OP1 is a straight-up banger.

Character:
The characters, alongside the plot, are one of the shows weaker points. Outside of our protag pairing, not a single one of the other slightly lesser characters gets any sort of decent conclusion to their storyline. This, for me, is where the show really loses itself in its attempts to do too much. There was so much potential to create really memorable characters out of a couple of minor personalities. The lord's Son, Tahomaru and the prosthetics doctor, in particular, are victims of this. Both had genuinely profound character moments at different points in the series along with fantastic backstories, and both go unutilized as they're in essence sacrificed to the plot. If these two had finished their arcs as characters, or at least continued them in some way rather than just being written out of the story, this show could have really been something special. They both had fairly memorable backstories fleshed out with philosophical notes that meshed well with Hyakkimaru's own moral journey. It's like the series was at odds with itself in what it wanted to do with these characters, and in the end, it does nothing. Dororo and Hyakkimaru's development over the course of the series was genuinely fun and does much to keep the show tolerable despite its other flaws.

Enjoyment:
It's hard to say if I really enjoyed this or not. I think overall I did as I was watching it, but the ending just left a sort of empty feeling. At the end of the day, it was just unfulfilling, and unfortunately, it impacted the joy I got out of the show. Its a shame, since I really did have high hopes for it. Some of it was enjoyable, but overall it just wasn't the whole package.

Dororo is a fine anime. It has moments where it wows and touches on the profound. It just doesn't do it with near enough consistency to properly portray itself the way it wants to. Its plot and characters clash rather than coexist, and in the end, its just too much of a mess to figure itself out.

Kaiba left me very conflicted. On one hand, it's a beautifully animated show, with legitimately interesting characters and an absorbing world concept. On the other, it's a serious mess, with a rushed and barely coherent plot that devalues a significant amount of its strengths. in short, it's a show that will unfortunately never realize its potential.

Let's start with the bad: Kaiba's story is virtually unfollowable, with the first half of the show representing a slow-burning, walkthrough of the world's concepts as our main character tries to survive a dystopia, and the second half is a payoff lightly hinted at beforehand. Its jarring, hard to follow, ... and relies on a suspension of disbelief, especially as Warp's powers are made clear towards the end. Characters that were forgotten from the first episode are suddenly relevant, and recurring characters are not. This plot is a hot mess, barely understandable.

From here you'd probably think I hated this anime, but honestly, the plot is its only real issue. To be fair its a major one, but the art is unique and interesting, the animation is fluid, the characters are believable and worthy of interest, and the show strikes a mature harmony between sound and silence to express its scenes. I watched this immediately following The Tatami Galaxy, hoping for more of the brilliance I found there and was underwhelmed by the story. However, everything else is still there.

In the end, this show feels like it needed at least another 12 episodes. It's a universe with the moral complexity and depth of fullmetal alchemist shoved into 12 episodes, and boy does it show. This doesn't get a 6 because it's a bad show, it just feels woefully incomplete, rushed, and condensed. It has all the pieces to be something potentially great, it just seems it was denied its chance to do so, and will likely never be given another.

This anime was worth watching, even if it left me deeply unsatisfied in terms of plot. Its art, animation, characters, and world are worth a recommendation alone. Just don't expect much from the story itself.

Shokugeki is... A cooking battle shonen. For me some shows will always be defined by their premise, and this is certainly one of them. Gintama is historical science fiction comedy. Mushishi is supernatural hiking. And this is Chopped ramped alllll the way up to 11. The best part about this, is that the show knows it is, and consequently pours its all into being exactly what it is: a carousel of mouth watering food, excessive dinner-induced fanservice, and quirky, plucky characters.

To be honest there's not much more to say about this next installment in the series. The plot is advancing closer to the point we've ... been waiting for since the beginning of season one, the animation remains solid all around and beautiful when it comes to food, the characters are continuing their bits of growth while maintaining most of the running gags, and its an absolute blast to watch. And that lack of excess fat might be why its so darn entertaining, and a tie back to my first point: this show knows exactly what it is, and it does exactly that at a consistently high level. its self assured, and that's what keeps its edge.

Its sharpest point outside the premise comes in the form of its characters. The show as a whole contains a large cast list, and the vast majority of these people are not only given backstories, but evolve alongside the main character. The show desperately needs this to compensate for the lack of true action scenes one would typically associate with the genre, and it does so with aplomb. Accomplishing the balancing act of having a true main character while still developing other pieces is one that few shows attempt, and even fewer pull off to the extent Shokugeki continues to.

In short, this is not the deepest anime. But it keeps an ever expanding, colorful cast, an endearing main character, some incredible sounding food, and is conceptually an inventive spin on the standard shounen anime. An absolute blast!

Kekkai Sensen is... a fairly unique show by today's standards. It fills a niche category that doesn't pop up every season, and is even more rarely well done: that of the episodic action series. Instead of a linear plotline, Kekkai Sensen instead focuses on worldbuilding through mostly one-off episodes, shifting its focal point to different characters around the protagonist in order to further pull you, the viewer, into their world. While this style alienates some viewers of the show, for me it reminds me of the first season of Darker than Black, a series I greatly enjoyed (we don't talk about the second season). While ... these shows both had overarching plot points, the majority of both shows are spent covering fun, self contained stories that pop up each episode. Both of these shows greatest strengths were their world concepts, and this episodic structure is part of what invests the viewer into these inventive settings.

And what a world Kekkai Sensen gives us - Hellsalem's Lot; a crossdimensional apocalyptic version of New York City. This strange dystopia, along with the eccentric but lively main cast, provide an exceptional vehicle for a show of this kind. The city is painstakingly animated, with bustling streets providing a true of sense of reality to a show drunk on fantasy. The main cast, while relatively shallow so far save for the main character, are nonetheless enjoyable, quirky, and distinctive, further flavoring an unconventional setting with suitably strange individuals.

This show is a joyride. It rolls out a wacky combination of action, political intrigue, and humor. The rule of cool is constantly in effect, and with BONES animating it, you can bet your bottom dollar that it looks fantastic. While this show is far from perfect, its flaws are more than overshadowed by its strengths. This show's top priority is fun, and for me it has captured that in every episode so far. My favorite episode so far was about a mushroom person with a burger addiction, and if that's not fun and wacky, I don't know what is.

This show is well done, but based on its unique formatting is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. If your favorite episode of Cowboy Bebop was Toys in the Attic, you'll most likely enjoy this show. If you're looking for something more plot driven rather than character/world driven, you'll most likely find this show frustrating. Personally? I'm having a blast.