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As you watch anime for a while, you begin to notice a distinction that some specific anime feature. That distinction is spirit, and it gives a show its personality. It's the difference between great anime and the rest. That spirit is proudly on display in Panty & Stocking, a show that is beautifully original, fearless, and witty. Plus, a show has to have a little bit of swagger when it announces a second season right after the last episode.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is the most recent project from Gainax director Imashi Hiroyuki, known for his previous anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Panty & Stocking ... is a show unlike any of Gainax's other projects, in fact it's unlike anyone's other projects. Panty (cv. Ogasawara Arisa) and Stocking (cv. Ise Mariya) are two "angels" that are charged to fight ghosts so they can earn coins and return to Heaven. Panty's weapon of choice is her panties, which magically turns into a handgun called "Backlace", while Stocking's stocking turns into a katana called "Striped". If you couldn't guess by now, the show is literally filled to the brim with sexual innuendos and crass jokes. When the first episode featured a giant poop monster that covers the town in feces and makes everyone vomit, I knew I was in for a rather unique anime experience. Panty & Stocking seemingly challenges itself to be more over the top than you could imagine. Counter-intuitively, despite the myriad indecent vulgarities the show steers away from arousal or eroticism, forgoing the moe aesthetic. Panty & Stocking makes no attempt to win viewers over with moe or cuteness, focusing instead on its content. This anime, folks, is serious business.

The most distinguishing and obvious feature of Panty & Stocking is the art style. Panty & Stocking looks like a 90's American cartoon and very much feels like it, too. I loved watching cartoons when I was a kid in the 90's, so the nostalgia factor must also have gotten to me as well. The bold, colorful style and exaggerated visuals take me right back to Cartoon Cartoon Friday. I would describe Panty & Stocking as The Powerpuff Girls with the grit of Ren and Stimpy and Courage the Cowardly Dog. All of this is infused with Imashi Hiroyuki's in-your-face, intense, fast paced animation style to create a unique pacing to the show.

Each episode of Panty & Stocking is usually split up into two smaller stories, not unlike many American cartoons. While the structure of a few episodes tends to go along the line of "heroines go about their normal lives, something happens, it's revealed that a monster is causing it, kill monster, celebrate" they still manage to be refreshingly unique. In one episode, Stocking's love of sweets gets to her, as she starts to gain weight, quickly ballooning into a giant obese blimp the size of a house. Turns out a monster was lacing cakes and sweets with an agent that makes women fat. The visual gag of cute little Stocking becoming a giant tub entertained me greatly. Additionally, this show loves to have fun with itself -- parodies range from Transformers to 12 Angry Men.

Even though Panty and Stocking are very unconventional roles, Ise Mariya and Ogasawara Arisa are at their best. Our heroines' voices sound spunky and full of energy, cusses and sexual epithets alike come out with exceptional enthusiasm. Overall, Panty & Stocking is extremely well voice acted. The music adds immense flavor to the show, heavily featuring electrosynth and house beats and some hip hop infusion.

Now it's not perfect -- I do have nitpicking to do, that's my job right? Without giving anything away, I thought the ending in general was weak. Rather, it could have been better. I could feel it developing a few episodes before, but it still feels like the final two episodes just came out of nowhere. Also the last 2 minutes of the final episode was plain inane. It doesn't even make sense, but that still means there are 297 minutes of a damn good show. Gainax strikes gold again.

(originally posted at http://kevo.dasaku.net/?p=1814 )

15 year-old Yamada enters High School with the ambitious dream of having 100 casual sex friends. Unfortunately, she has no idea about anything related to sex or romance at all! B Gata H Kei has all it takes to be one of the worst, most unbearably shameless shows of all time, but it is from this very context that B Gata H Kei is so impressive. In the face of the most cunning serpent of temptation, the show stuck to good writing and clever entertainment to offer its viewers a genuinely good time. Taken as good natured fun, B Gata H Kei is a great ... example of good main characters not being annoying as hell.

More identified with projects like Aria and sketchbook ~full colors~, HAL Film Maker is not known for ecchi love comedy. However, the professionalism and quality we've come to expect from the studio shines again in this show.

B Gata H Kei is floated by its solid cast and watchable main characters. Yamada (cv. Yukari Tamura) is funny and likable. Her perverted, aggressive nature makes the show interesting and her naivete makes the show funny. There's a little boke/tsukommi routine going on with her friend Takeshita Miharu (cv. Horie Yui), who doesn't really have much other role in the show. Even considering this, Miharu delivers great comedy and is truly a great friend character. The male lead, Kosuda Takashi (cv. Abe Atsushi) is a meek and unconfident man because of how "plain" he looks. I feared another annoying passive male lead but much to my surprise, the character develops as the show progresses. It's not much, but in the context of these kinds of shows, holy crap.

What kind of state is the genre in when two main protagonists not being one-dimensional douchetards is considered "unique"? But while Kosuda and Yamada are in denial of the relationship and everything, the annoying frustration never spills over in your face or ruins the fun. It's as if the two were "It's complicated" on Facebook but everyone knows what's going on anyways.

Kanejou Kyoka (cv. Kobayashi Yuu) is a good antagonist for this show. She's cruel and sinister while also being relatively funny. Her role in the show is surprisingly subdued, and though she was quite an interesting character, I don't mind too much. An often overlooked character in this show is Miyamo Miyu (cv. Hanezawa Kana), the shy osananajimi character who is innocent and naive, but has a crush on Takashi. She foils Yamada well and her helplessness is dialed up enough to make you kind of root for her, but not enough to be considered annoying. The conspicuous lack of a major love triangle between Yamada and Miyu keeps the show from turning into a pointless haremfest. A character I would liked to see more of, however, was Yamada's little sister, Chika (cv. Shimoda Asami). She would have been a nice contrasting character or served some good plot points. Misato Mimi (cv. Iwasaki Ai), the flat chested genkigal no one care about, is also a pretty good and memorable background character.

An overarching theme in B Gata H Kei is how surprisingly realistic the show seems. You'd imagine a show with a predatory female lead and an antagonist with a mansion on top of a mansion would have absolutely absurd, but so much of the core actions of the plot seem natural. Yamada and Kosuda develop as character and the relationship, though awkward and full of pitfalls, is really fun to watch.

B Gata H Kei is surprisingly intelligent, uncannily funny, and truly entertaining. It does big things and small things well -- poking fun at the various institutions Japanese youth are familiar with, like the idea of liberal fornication in love hotels to the overly strict homeroom teacher. The OP and ED are Yukari Tamura singles and are pretty tasteful and pleasant. No complaints about the art or animation, and I thought the character design was good to make characters look rather simple. The show is enjoyable to just sit back and watch as the characters bumble around strange situations. The fanservice is there but it's not trashy, tasteful even. I would actually say that the show probably needed more.

From a show that literally has the word “idiot” in its title, Bakatest doesn’t shy from flaunting its idiocy. From ten-cent slapstick gags to an utterly absurd premise, Bakatest is a silly comedic romp blown into a full-fledged series. While the recipe for disaster seems to be complete, Bakatest is strangely charming — and while the show basically makes no sense whatsoever, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. All and all, Bakatest is a playful, harmless gagfest that’s occasionally wildly entertaining, even sweet at times, and unbearably cheesy some other times.

Light novels adapations are not foreign ground for director Oonuma Shin, more notable for ... his work with ef: a tale of memories. In Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, test results mean everything. Students are assigned into classrooms based on how well they score on the placement exam, with state of the art, luxury classrooms for the A class and a disheveled, dusty room with broken tables for the F class, our heroes in this show. Furthermore, classes can challenge each other over their facilities using a magical combat fighting tool called the Examinations Battle System (ESB), which draws power from test scores. The premise is cool, a little confusing, and results in extremely over-dramatic and absolutely inane fight sequences involving academic trivia. The combination of studying and RPG-style combat undoubtedly appeals to the show’s Japanese demographic, though I’m pretty sure it’s quite silly no matter where you’re from. If you suspend reason and simplify the plot to an extent, most of the show is actually really fun. The action is decently slick but awkwardly predictable, causing the show’s attempts at high tension drama fell a bit flat on more than one occasion for me.

Of all the idiots in a show titled about idiots, male lead Yoshii Akihisa (cv. Shimono Hiro) is by far the dumbest of them all. Absolutely helpless when it comes to school, and (even by anime male lead standards) totally clueless to signs of affection dealing with the opposite gender, Yoshii can get on your nerves fast, but his good-natured, peppy attitude manages to endear viewers. The two female leads, Himeji Mizuki (cv. Harada Hitomi) and Shimizu Miharu (cv. Taketatsu Ayana), foil each other nicely while Kinoshita Hideyoshi (Katou Emiri) doesn’t do much of anything except bringing out our inner homosexual. The two female leads are relatively weak, lacking a bit of substance outside of being pretty, making the show very irritating with cliches on occasion.

The show’s breakout character is Class F president Sakamoto Yuuji (cv. Suzuki Tatsuhisa), who is cool, clever, and well-written. His strong, supportive, demeanor lends confidence to Yoshii and all of class F. Teeming with street smarts, he’s one of the most relatable characters in the show. His osananajimi relationship with childhood friend Kirishima Shouko (cv. Isomura Tomomi) is one of the bright spots in the series — fodder for violent physical slapstick gags while also being rather sentimental. Episode 7, which focuses on those two and fleshes them out as characters, is probably the best episode of the show.

The show performs well in a technical viewpoint. The animation is very good, and the voice acting cast gets the job done. The colors and very clear and the lines are nice and clean, and the aesthetic of the show complement the mood well. Some visual elements are reminiscent of director Oonuma’s earlier contributions Hidamari Sketch and Pani Poni Dash, where he worked closely with Akuyuki Shinbou.

Asou Natsuko’s OP performance, Perfect-Area Complete!, is a fun bubbly anime song that has been rather well received. I find the second ending theme, Hare Tokidoki Egao really nice on the ears in that sweet, sentimental kind of way. Debuting after my favorite episode 7 (and capturing the moment perfectly), the song and ED animation mesh well together.

The bottom line, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is a pretty decent show that probably could have been much better. It’s original, calmly liberal on the fan-service (more probably could have done well), and ambitiously attempts to mix incorrigible silliness with heartwarming romance. The show keeps it light, but weighs on us with laborious dialogue and plot situations. Everyone knows about the androgynous Hideyoshi, who has achieved a kind of cult status, but I wish we got to learn more about him in the context of the show. The characters are decently likable, but not enough character is there to go around. There’s a great show in Bakatest, trust me, you just have to dig though some other stuff to get there.

Fans of the Hidamari Sketch franchise will do well to know that the third season of the show is really just like the other two. Yuno and her three fellow tenants of the Hidamari Apartments return for another season of... doing nothing in particular. They go to art school, gather together spontaneously for humble dinner parties, and genuinely enjoy their lives. There is no complex plot or character insinuations; Hidamari Sketch is an absurdly simplistic and optimistic take on the lives of four girls so normal and so carefree that they cannot possibly exist. Yet if you suspend your cynical mindset for a fleeting moment, ... it really is a lot of fun. From the mellow dialogue that walks gracefully the trapeze line between inane and sublime to the director Akiyuki Shinbou's notable animation effects inspired by postmodern abstract art, Hidamari Sketch is a different take on anime but still familiar to the casual viewer.

Unlike season 2, this season of Hidamari Sketch moves forward in time and introduces two new characters: Nazuna and Nori. While it takes some time for the show to really flesh them out as part of the cast, they are only marginally interesting in the show. Mostly I found that Nori was energetic and outgoing, Miyako's niche, and that Nazuna was shy and introverted, like Yuno except more moeblob. It's difficult to add characters to ensemble casts like Hidamari Sketch in the third season because everyone else has firmly staked their positions. Regardless, two more characters do a little bit to introduce some fresh air into a show that's might have begun to run out of steam after two seasons.

Besides that, there's not much else new in Hidamari Sketch. Everything we know and love is back, more or less, and even improved. The ever-lovable Yoshinoya-sensei has tons of screen time and is unflappably entertaining each time, going with her crazy classroom antics and getting scolded by the old principal. There's an episode set two years ago about the old tenants Misato and Riri before they graduated and were replaced by Yuno and Miyako. Time capsule episodes are a really fun aspect of Hidamari Sketch. Sae's ridiculously cute little sister, Chika, makes an appearance or two this season as well. The landlady has more lines and is much more visible this season as well. Overall, the main structure of focusing around the antics of the main cast and occasionally involving minor characters is preserved.

The writing is rather mundane. I swear that half the episodes end with just the girls eating dinner. Despite this, I can't really think of anything bad to say about it. Sure, it's lacks the epic grandness of a modern literary manifesto but that's not what Hidamari Sketch wants to do. This season was pretty entertaining, and the dialogue feels natural. It helps that the voice acting is very talented as well.

The animation is what you would expect from SHAFT: crisp and unconventional. The show is very cheerful with bright colors and abstract geometric themes in the art and backgrounds. There's a slight desaturated look and the alpha is pretty high, but the resulting effect is pretty cool.

As with the other seasons, the opening theme is sung by the cast while the ending theme is sung by marble. Nothing spectacular really, but I like the ending theme. The scoring is pretty much what we've seen for two seasons already. The unique, cartoony, minimalist soundtrack fits into the background of the show. Mizuhashi Kaori is ridiculously good as Miyako, and Goto Yuko's voice for Hiro is pretty recognizable for fans of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

Overall, give this show a watch if you liked the other two seasons. It's not really something to marathon; it took me 85 days to watch 13 episodes. Nothing new, but why fix what isn't broken?

In Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, SHAFT shows us how to make a pretty enjoyable show with minimal effort on their part. If nothing else, Zan is an enjoyable, funny, and clever show that fans of the franchise will enjoy like previous seasons. However, the distinct lack of original material from the manga and noticeable drop in art detail may will leave many fans seeking more, which the show does not deliver.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the third season of the wildly popular Zetsubou Sensei franchise, based on the manga by Kumeta Kouji. Like previous seasons, it follows the ever-in-despair Itoshiki Nozomu and his crazy ... class. Veterans will notice a change in art style, with slightly more saturated colors and cleaner lines. The show still feels much like Zetsubou Sensei with gags, satire, and politics jokes abound. The structure of this season's episodes, however, will be the biggest difference viewers will notice. Each episode is divided into three segments, with each segment dedicated to a specific adaptation to a chapter of the manga. While some form of this structure has been used by SHAFT in a few episodes in past installments of Zetsubou Sensei, all 13 episodes this season are exclusively in this format.

While functional, I craved some kind of creativity from the animators or director like we have been used to the last two seasons, and got none. The chapter adaptations are so loyal to the manga that it's too loyal of an adaptation. SHAFT has literally been accused of just tracing from the manga, which was even referred to in a specific episode. While it is true that many anime are manga adaptations, it's expected out of directors and animators, as workers in a creative field, to interpret and enrich the media into anime. The script for Toradora! isn't verbatim from the light novels, and Clannad isn't just lines and scenes from the visual novel. I've read the Zetsubou Sensei manga (one of the few manga I read) and the similarity is just absolutely ridiculous. They do play with art style occasionally, like in episode 8 but overall someone expecting highly from SHAFT will be rather disappointed. Previous seasons do not have this problem. Chapters and gags from the manga were adapted flawlessly and weaved with SHAFT's art style and Shinbo's creativity into a product that augments the manga, not replacing it.

So keep in mind that when we praise Zan, we are in reality praising the manga, because the anime essentially perfectly identical, animated versions of the chapters. They introduce some new girls into the show, or at least attempt to. I found Shouko and Miko, a pair of girls who engage in multi-level marketing schemes, quite interesting and I hoped to see more of them. I didn't. We don't even get to figure out what Oora, the girl with the ponytail and sloppy uniform, is or anything about her. Zetsubou Sensei absolutely shines from its characters, but in Zan the lack of character development in its new characters cripples the series.

When each episode is basically three chapters, you really can't complain about the pacing. Admittedly, they picked good chapters to adapt. Some of my favorite chapters, such as the one with the Winter Taisa and the one about sunglasses, were adapted so it was fun to see them turned into an anime.

To wrap up, in pure enjoyment and funny standards, Zan does well. The manga is great and hilarious, and there is so much similarity there is no reason Zan would be anything less. Fans of the series may be disappointed with the lack of original material and fans of director Akiyuki Shinbou will be disappointed with the absence of much of his stylization. How much of this "matters" is up to you, but if you liked the previous series, there is absolutely no reason not to check this one out.

Though not exactly a foray into the unknown, Eden of the East does just enough to make it unique and memorable. Combined with near perfect technical execution, Eden of the East is a solid anime.

I was already thoroughly impressed with Eden of the East after about five minutes into the first episode. There is this cool edgy feel to it as soon as you start watching. The series begins in Washington D.C. when Morimi Saki (cv. Hayami Saori) meets a stark naked Takizawa Akira (cv. Kimura Ryohei). The first thing that really stood out was the conspicuous lack of engrish. Production I.G. seemed to have ... the good sense to cast people who actually speak English for the American background characters. While this takes away from the hilarity factor, it adds a sense of realism to the series. Contrary to shows like Baccano! where everyone speaks Japanese despite being 1920’s Americans in New York, the distinctive language barrier adds a sense of internationalism.

Despite being a short 11 episodes, Eden is paced extremely well, leaving the viewer excited for what’s going to happen next, but not drawing a plot over too many episodes. Characters are in abundance and each character, even relatively minor ones, have distinctive personalities and objectives. A highlight of East of Eden is the very earthy, intriguing yet realistic relationship between the two protagonists: Saki and Akira. Akira is off on his own adventures and investigating the reason and mysteries behind the other wielders of that magical phone. While Saki’s curiosity of the origin of this mysterious boy leads to an intresting plot structure of Akira investigating other people like him, and Saki investigating Akira. The other Selecao (people with money phones) each have different agendas and wildly different personalities, including a hedonistic corrupt detective and a sadistic serial killer.

Thematically, Eden is very strong. This anime addresses concepts like terrorism or security in a manner that is easily related to by today’s society. Feelings of duty, service, and power are all addressed on several levels. Eden of the East often contains striking imagery to reinforce thematic or plot elements. The anime centers around a key phrase known as noblesse oblige, the concept that with great power and prestige come even greater responsibilities. The actions and demeanor of various Selecao provide very fruitful deep analysis into many meanings, variants, and interpretations of the concept.

As said earlier, Eden of the East is nearly perfect technically. The background art and animation looks superb. English rock band Oasis provides the music for the opening theme with their single Falling Down. Noel Gallagher’s striking vocals fit perfectly with an incredibly unique and eyecatching opening sequence that makes the OP the iconic feature of the series. school food punishment’s ending theme is also very good. While character design is not the most appealing thing in the world, its subdued, almost bland nature almost seems to fit the series.

In conclusion, Eden of the East is exactly what it brands itself as, an action mystery thriller with bits of humor thrown in and sci-fi elements. Not much is actually resolved at the end of the series and the last episode will leave you with tons of questions unanswered. Movie sequels have already been announced. It’s not exactly groundbreaking or genre-defining, but it’s exactly what it bills itself as.

Apocalypse Zero is an anime that lives up to its name. Zero merits, zero reasons to watch it, zero out of ten.

The rating system thing doesn't allow me to assign zeroes and I don't like numerical rating in general because I don't believe that a complex opinion such as a review can be properly simplified with math. However, I will talk about numbers and reviews here. Numerical ratings of anime are approximately earned with merits. Everything the show does to advance its entertainment purpose raises its number. That is why my real overall rating for Apocalypse Zero is zero. This show literally goes nowhere. I ... gained nothing but despair in watching this, and I would have better spent my time looking at a blank monitor, which would have earned the same score (so shouldn't the rating really be -1/10?)

Apocalypse Zero is an anime without a purpose. Every show ever made, no matter how poorly, should at least have a purpose, a direction that the show explores into. Some way of entertaining its viewers. Make them laugh, cry, scare them, tell a story, give them suspense, have them relax, something cathartic so that people want to watch. The only purpose that I can even guess at for Apocalypse Zero is to make the viewer close his or her media player.

I will be able to give more insight into the show if I cover everything that the show is deficient in. First, Apocalypse Zero is without reason. There is some kind of plot, involving two siblings and the premise that the world has ended and people have to survive. The lack of elaboration about why or how the world has ended intends to add some mystery into the show. The biggest mystery, however, is how they managed to get the likes of Yamadera Kouichi (Spike Spiegel) and Ogata Megumi (Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion) to star in this show. This already shallow plot is poorly developed because of paper-thin characters that do not possess a shred of believability. It's hard to care about plot or themes or things dying when you literally do not give a scrap about anybody that appears in the show. Apocalypse Zero is also without mercy. Have you noticed that when you watch really good anime, the episodes feel like they are 5 minutes long? Apocalypse Zero is the longest hour of my life. I swear, dentist appointments just breeze right by compared to watching this anime, which manages to start absolutely putrid and somehow become astronomically worse. Why? Because most importantly, Apocalypse Zero is an anime without shame. Pointless gore for the sake or pointless gore. Ugly, eye-killing vulgar nudity for the sake of, what I suspect, making the viewer suicidal. It becomes quite evident after the first episode, and mindblowingly obvious by the end, that Apocalypse Zero's directing lacks discipline in any form. Elfen Lied was gory but it contributes to the anime. You can even say the same for things like Dokuro-chan (it adds to the silliness and humor, I guess). Apocalypse Zero screams terrible choices when it comes to design, directing, storyboards, plot, pacing, and art. This anime is far beyond terrible. This anime is insulting.

Let me take a brief tangent and talk about an anime called Mars of Destruction, the lowest ranked anime on MAL. I appreciate it much more now. It's fun to watch. It's fun to point out the cliches and mediocrity. It's funny to laugh at the near comical miscues in directing. Clowns are funny because they act silly. They splash pies on themselves and fall off unicycles, a la Mars of Destruction. Clowns are not fun when they attack you with a sledge hammer and try to rape you, a la Apocalypse Zero. Mars of Destruction is the lowest ranked anime on MAL because it doesn't do anything right. In comparison, Apocalypse Zero not only doesn't do anything right, it seems to go out of its way to make sure everything it does has to be so overboard, so nonsensically inane, that one would suspect making terrible anime is a competitive art. You know what? Apocalypse Zero wins.

On a complete whim, I decided to check this series out this winter. 2006 is the year of the remake. The year featured remade versions of Demonbane, Kanon, Nobita's Dinosaur, Youkai Ningen Bem, and of course, Kujibiki Unbalance. Unless you truly watch way too much anime, you've probably heard of only two of those titles. Kujibiki Unbalance (2006) is a reincarnation of the OVA which itself is a realization of a fictional TV series in the series Genshiken. While the OVA was a lot of fun in paralleling the Genshiken universe, the 2006 series focuses on establishing the show on its own right. I ... went in expecting a typical third rate romantic comedy full of stock characters and a plot on the wrong side of the line between silly and stupid. What I got was a quite surprisingly enjoyable show with a satisfying ending and only occasional mishaps. The biggest surprise for me is that the story actually functioned and delivered a smooth, natural ending. I guess good things happen when you watch a show with low expectations.

Kujibiki Unbalance takes place in the fictional prestigious Rikkyouin High School, whose student council (and even admission) is selected by lottery. This apparently works well since Rikkyouin is the top school in the nation in every way and its student council's power rivals that of some countries. Lo and behold our main protagonist Enomoto Chihiro (CV: Takimoto Fujiko) draws the lot for President and you can read the rest of the plot synopsis up top. Chihiro is a pretty unlucky guy and his motley crew of lucky future council members must essentially intern for a year before their inauguration.

Kujibiki Unbalance works because it doesn't take itself too seriously and it's not afraid to have fun. This is undoubtedly a fun anime. Everything about the school, from its size, to its amenities, to the power of its council is absurd. The situations and assignments the future council members deal with are equally ridiculous, such as foiling an assassination attempt or breeding pandas. The show does not shy away from fan service, which is perfectly fine. The key is that the show did not overdo fan service and shift attention away from its other merits. By establishing a precedent of silliness and half-parody, the show is able to execute its plot to a believable extent.

The student council candidates is a well balanced group of characters that complement each other nicely. Chihiro is the guy that is pretty dumb and untalented but has a good heart but terrible luck, Akiyama Tokino (CV: Nonaka Ai) is his childhood friend who is always positive and has incredible luck. Asagiri Koyuki (CV: Kojima Kazuko) is a sweet little good girl that everyone tends to overlook and Kamishakuji Renko (CV: Nishihara Kumiko) is a mad scientist and the attitude factor of the new student council. The current student council is equally well composed with Ritsuko Kettenkrad (CV: Koshimizu Ami) portrayed as cold and calculating. As the series progresses, this anime develops its characters and explores their pasts and their relationships. Wonders happen when a show does these things, especially if you have interesting characters.

Kujibiki Unbalance has very simple cartoonish art. Regardless, the characters are well animated and brought to life. I personally like the character design better here compared to the OVA by Genco. The different art style plays a major role in differentiating this series from the OVA related to Genshiken, and minimalizing this show's relationship with Genshiken in general.

The characters are well voiced, with a very strong cast led by Ai Nanoka (Fuura from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Fuuko from Clannad), Ami Koshimizu (Tenma from School Rumble), Nogami Yukana (C.C. from Code Geass) and Yuko Goto (Mikuru from Haruhi). I enjoyed both OP and ED; specifically, Ai Nanoka and Ami Koshimizu do a great job with the ED, Harmonies*.

Not without error, Kujibiki Unbalance can become blood curlingly cheesy or cliche occasionally, especially near the end. At times characters annoy you or act pointlessly. Regardless, Kujibiki Unbalance is solid. It's a simple 12 episode series with a simple plot and simple conflicts. It's not very ambitious but it knows what it has to work with. The romantic aspect of it is surprisingly not that bad, even well done, I would claim. All in all, this is a recommendation for people who enjoy some silliness and some fun with their schoolkids anime.

Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is an anime that hurts itself by raising expectations and failing to meet them like clockwork. It goes out of its way to repeatedly build from mediocrity only to plunge itself back down to the point where you wonder why you even gave it much of a chance. It's someone jumping out of a 3 story building and landing on concrete, only to climb back up and jump over and over again. Until the person's bones are mush and the series limps to its god-awful ending.

As a series in general, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (from here on, Akasaka) is passable, I ... would go as far to say it's decent and occasionally enjoyable. Its gaping flaws are grossly magnified, rightly, by its constant, flagrant disappointment of its viewers. Basically Akasaka is not pure bad (far from it) but the parts that are actually good makes the parts that are bad look really bad.

Akasaka is based off Feng's visual novel released back in 2007. The plot revolves around a boy by the name of Jun'ichi Nagase, who attends a prestigious high school and seems to bear some kind of tough reputation from middle school. Think typical harem school comedy male protagonist. There, I just developed the character to the same degree 12 episodes of Akasaka did. Anyhow, a naive aloof rich girl, Katagiri Yuuhi (CV: Kugimiya Rie), transfers to Jun'ichi's school and Jun'ichi, out of some act of divine inspiration kisses her, causing unspeakable chaos. Then, to close out a rather promising first episode and establish a quite original premise, it turns out that Yuuhi is Junichi's fiancee due to an arranged marriage.

Akasaka's female cast is chock full eye-catching and potentially interesting characters. Expectations: high. The series proceeds to do nothing with all but two of the girls. Expectations: failed.

Like many similar anime, Akasaka's plot (the plot is essentially just the premise) takes a back seat episodes 3-10 for some good unrelated episodes of fun. That's fine! It's a structure that has worked countless times. And by all means it can work here. But instead, Akasaka is filled extremely cliche situations solved in extremely cliche ways. For example, Jun'ichi's sister Minato (CV: Hirano Aya) takes Yuuhi shopping in a supermarket to make dinner. Six minutes of pointless dialogue about how amazed Yuuhi is of instant curry follows. We get it after the first few lines! Yuuhi talks about how she eats at home as Kugimiya Rie butchers French Japanese transliteration. She's rich, naive, aloof, we get that. Is it supposed to be funny that Yuuhi doesn't know about instant curry and thinks that her cooks and servants don't either? How overblown does the reaction and enlightenment need to be? There are lots of girls in this anime, some who look pretty interesting. Are we going to get episodes about them? With curry? That actually would be pretty awesome...

Watching anime should never be physically painful, but that's what I felt as this series slowly killed itself. It's the pain you feel a promising show wastes all the good things it had going for it and falls into mediocrity. Akasaka occasionally strikes silver (no gold in this show, sorry) with a few lines of interesting dialogue and good animation, but after every good or decent episode or plot development the series feels as if it has some obligation to make up for it by spewing crap at our face. It's like you're at an amusement park and every time you have some fun, a burly security guard has to give you a swift punch in the gut. The ending begins suddenly in the last 3 episodes and was likewise promising. Too bad the conclusion of the series was so predictable that I might as well have drawn the storyboards myself and the things that you didn't predict either have no relevance to the plot or are so cheesy and/or wrong you're better off not predicting it.

I'm a little harsh on this series because it really is a shame. Akasaka goes to show you how bad writing can absolutely destroy a series with everything else going for it. The art is good, the characters and landscapes are well drawn and fun to look at. Akasaka has a voice acting cast that would remind you of the New York Yankees, with the resulting mediocrity to match. When we have Kugimiya Rie (Shana, Louise, Taiga), Inoue Marina (Chiri from Zetsubou Sensei, Yoko from TTGL), Aya Hirano (Haruhi, Konata, Misa from Death Note) and Tanaka Rie (Chi from Chobits, Sugintou) in the same anime, we're going to be excited. I had my eye on this series ever since voice actors were announced and some art was available.

In the end, the voice acting was pretty good but by itself it cannot save a series. The music (besides the terrible OP) is good. It better be good when you have five voice actors with best selling seiyuu albums on your staff. Should there be an OVA about the supporting characters I would most likely flock to it with expectations held high. I've heard that the game this is based off was really cool. Too bad I can't say the same for the anime adaptation.

Puni Puni Poemi is a spinoff of Excel Saga with even shoddier directing and even more cheap fanservice. The entire OVA felt like Episode 26 of Excel Saga except bad. The art at least is passable and hasn't changed from Excel Saga. The sound and characters are regurgitations from Excel Saga. Poemi is basically a clone of Excel minus Excel's awesome voice actor that basically made the character. Poemi's voice actor (ironically enough) pretty much failed to make Poemi funny or enjoyable.

Characters in this series are either slightly entertaining or annoying. Visually and literally, many characters completely unoriginal compared to Excel Saga. Character design in ... the series was very weak.

Despite this, Puni Puni Poemi delivers a moderate dose of fun and a supercritical dose of fanservice. The series is inundated with innuendo and sometimes straight out sex scenes (nothing is shown as this is not a hentai). The absurdity of the series delivers funny in a similar way as Excel Saga, which is one of my favorites.

All in all, Puni Puni Poemi is many steps down in every way from Excel Saga. The premise of Puni Puni Poemi is similar to that of Excel Saga it just isn't executed very well.