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REC is, once again, a romance/ slice of life anime. Though it is very special, since it only has 9 episodes and each are about 10 minutes long.

Story:
The story is very short, to the point and fast paced, as you might expect, since each episode is quite short and there are only very few.
The show starts of with the main character, Fumihiko Matsumaru, standing in front of a cinema and wanting to throw away his tickets, since his date obviously hadn't arrived. Suddenly this random girl, Onda Aka, starts "voice acting" as the tickets, persuading Matsumaru to go with her to see the movie, during ... which she voice acts the whole time. At the end of the movie she reveals that she "wants to be" Audery Headburn, who she will quote very often during the show. Matsumaru, having seen his date go away with another man, is clearly unhappy and thinks that Aka is a very strange person, to say the least. She then takes him out for dinner, to make him happy. There she tells him how she wants to become a famous voice actress, clearing up some of the confusion from before. When both of them walk back home they realize that they were practically neighbours. Matsumaru, being a bit happier now, goes to bed, only to wake up again by the sound of fire engines. Matsumaru immediately runs out to see whats going on and sees, that Akas house is burning. After finding her alone, in the rain, on a swing, he invites her over to his house, thus laying the foundation for the actual plot. All I can say is the first episode overwhelms you once it's finished and is quite "breath taking"...
The story then goes on to show how they live together and how there jobs evolve into a problem.

Animation:
The animation wasn't great. It didn't bother me, but you could clearly see that it wasn't the most well animated show. But I must say that the characters were designed very well.

Sound:
Though I found the voices of the characters to be great I didn't really notice the music during the show at all.

Characters:
The Characters are very easy to sympathize with, and you can really feel sorry for them at times. During the show both main characters mature a lot, making each episode better and better.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed this show a lot, since it didn't "bullshit around", but was very fast paced and to the point. The first episode was absolutely amazing, but after that the show went kind of downhill. It wasn't getting that much worse, but the first episode just set the scale really high. Since the characters are really easy to relate to the show was very enjoyable and fun to watch.

Overall:
Since the first episode is only 12 minutes long there is NO reason not to watch it. I highly recommend this show if you've had enough of thosenerve-taking dramas.

First off, I've only seen the first six episodes of this anime and never read the seemingly well known manga, so take my review with a grain of salt.
This show is yet another romantic, shoujo, school life kind of anime:

Story:
From what I've seen up till now, there is really barely a story. There are a few story arcs, which at most go over 2 episodes. I'd say the story is just stuck onto the relationship between the 2 main characters and kind of obsolete. Other than that, I really don't know what to say about the story, except maybe the relationship between the two:
The show ... is all about how Hikari Hanazono has always been second to Kei Takishima, who is more than perfect in everything. She always calls him her rival, which destroys any romance from really building up in the first few episodes. I guess the idea of each story arc is, thatHikari challenges Kei to something and the story then revolves around the competition, and maybe creates a few romantic moments. I really don't see any proper story, though that may change with future episodes.

Art:
The art really bothered me. The way the characters are drawn is really strange and kind of put me off right from the start. Every person in this anime is extremely tall and thin with very long legs. Some shots through out the show just look really wrong because the proportions don't seem to match.

Sound:
The sound is OK. It's not amazing to the point where I would have to by the CD, but not bad to the point where it would disturb me. It just fits well into the "story" and "plot".

Character:
I find every character, except Kei, annoying and/ or unlikable. I guess the anime could turn out great it they did the character development well, but Hikari is just too annoying for me to handle and I really didn't at all sympathize with her.

Enjoyment:
I flat out did not enjoy watching these episodes. I had to push myself to episode six and had forgotten what had happened in the "plot" till then, if that tells you anything.

Overall:
It is really kind of unfair to bash an anime of which I've only seen six episodes, but I really disliked it. The show does have some potential and I really hope that it will make use of it.

"Time waits for no one"

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, or "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", is yet another drama and romance anime, but this time with a bit of SciFi in it. The movie is an adaptation/ sequel of the novel with the same name, but has very little to actually do with it.

Story:
The story revolves around a 17 year old high school girl called Konno Makoto. The other 2 main characters are her 2 male friends, of which one is the typical "guy who studies a lot and is smart" and the other is the "rebellious exchange student".
After having a really bad day Makoto, ... just before falling before a train, gains the ability to literally "leap" back in time. After trying her new ability out you would think she would do things like save peoples lives or use her ability to make a lot of money. But no, her first action is to eat the pudding her sister took from her last evening, or jump back to the day where the family had a delicious dinner.
After she tries everything out she goes to visit her aunt, who works at a museum. After telling her all about the time leaping you would again think she'd answer something like "Oh my god!" or "Don't lie!". But except she just tells Makoto that she did the same when she was her age. Through out the movie Makoto keeps on returning to her aunt to seek advice, which adds an interesting view to the plot. By the way, the aunt is supposed to be the main character from the novel "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo".
But things get difficult after she uses her ability to save herself from uncomfortable situations and the whole story leads up to a climax. The only thing left to say is that there is a really unexpected twist towards the end of the movie.

Animation:
The animation was excellent! The characters are designed very "clean and clear" and don't have anything wacky about them. The background is designed beautifully during the whole movie, as at times I even gasped.

Sound:
The sound is also excellent! Not only does it perfectly fit the mood of the movie, but is even worth listening to on its own.

Characters:
From what I've said you would think this movie is the most stereotypical anime type one ever. But although the base of each character may seem stereotypical, the characters themselves are very well fleshed out and you can really feel for all of them. I've seldomly seen such strong, interesting and sympathetic characters in movies in general.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed the show a lot. I think it really fits perfectly into the movie format, since everything goes very fast paced and you don't really get bored while watching, since although there are times where the scene may not be very interesting, the art just blows you away anyway.
On top of all that this movie also carries a "deeper meaning". The movie basically is trying to say: "Care about now and not the past. Even if you could change the past you will still remember how it could have been".

“Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora” or “Hantsuki”, as I will call it from now on, is yet another drama and romance anime. It’s a really happy and sad anime at the same time, which spans over only 6 episodes. That paradox feeling one gets is quite unique to this series.

Story:
Though Hantsuki is limited to only 6 episodes, its still a wonderful story which leaves no questions open. The story is about a boy, Yuichi, who is hospitalized due to hepatitis over the winter. He’s really just bored having to stay in this hospital the whole time and keeps on trying to escape, thus having ... to run away from and deal with the nurse. While in the hospital he encounters a girl called Rika. Amazed by her beauty he kind of falls for her, but she keeps on acting very selfish. After Yuichi figures out why Rika is in the hospital, he begins to understand and feel sorry for her - she doesn’t have very long to live.
That said, the story goes through how the doctor of Yuichi had a similar relationship with a girl quite some time ago and gets mad at Yuichi because he sees himself in him. It even gets to the point where he lashes out and beats him up. Other then that, the story is all about Yuichi and Rika finding their love. It’s really interesting though how, although Rika is acting really mean and selfish towards Yuichi, you still begin to like her character.
The story ends both very happy and very tragic, which makes the perfect ending for this show, though it is very short.
BTW: Be careful to watch past the ending of the last show.

Animation:
The animation is very well done. I found the characters to be designed in a very “realistic” way, making it easier to identify with them. I don’t really now what else to say, except the animation at no point bothered me.

Sound:
The sound, as in most romance/ drama anime, is made to fit the mood perfectly and make the experience more immersive. This show succeeds in doing so.

Characters:
All but 1 character (the friend of the nurse) are very easy to sympathize with. At the end of the show you don’t really hold a grudge against any character, since they all had their reasons for doing what they had done.
I found the characters to be very well fleshed out, especially Rika. The show also does a good job showing the situation Rika is in - already ready to die, but yet falling in love.

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed this show very much. I think that 6 episodes is the perfect length for this series, since it is really fast paced and doesn’t “dick around” as many other senseless romance/ drama anime do. I’d maybe only like to see an OVA showing how life is after the hospital or after Rikas death. Still, I highly recommend this show!

Myself ; Yourself is another romance/ drama/ comedy anime, but different (also a lot better) than most other shows of this variety:

Story:
The story is the stereotypical "boy returns to home town and meets old childhood friends" scenario, but what makes this show really good is that it's entertaining and fun to watch, even without huge cliff hangers. In a lot of other drama animes the protagonists often do stupid things or are in situations where they should talk but don't, which makes those types of show extremely unnerving - this doesn't happen too often during this show and occurs less and less as the show ... progresses.
There is a perfect balance between romance and actual story telling during this show, though I wouldn't expect too much romance. There are quite a lot of dramatic twists in the story too, which, combined with the flashbacks, reveal more about each character, making their motives and feelings more understandable.
Still, the story looses some points for having quite a number of fillers, which are absolutely unnecessary in a 13 episode series. I would also argue that the first 5 episodes could have been fit into 2 and the last episodes were far too short.
But the biggest plus to this anime is its end, although a lot of people may disagree. I really hate it when drama anime end with one big bang, and that's it. It leaves you with a very unsatisfying feeling. This show though builds up to the climax very slowly and arrives at it about 4 minutes before the show ends, leaving enough time for the story to slowly end. The climax isn't even the actual relationship, as it often tends to be in romance anime. It's as if the show drives on 2 rails, one being the romance part and one the actual story. The story slowly ends, but the romance part goes on for a bit more until the show finishes. I'd best describe the end as "soothing".

Animation:
The animation was OK I guess. At no point did the animation bother me, nor did it really fascinate me with its beauty.

Sound:
The music in this anime is quite good. Both the opening and the ending songs are very joyful, making a good start and end to each episode. The music during the anime itself fits well to each situation. What I found great was the violin playing of one of the protagonists. It really gave a great start and finish to the show.

Character:
The characters are very fleshed out. The show really leaves nothing to question about any character.

Entertainment:
This show was very entertaining. The "mysteries" about the 2 main characters past made me curious to see what really had happened and left me in suspense, which is great, since most romance anime only build suspense upon the relationships of characters.

Overall:
You'll definitely not regret watching this show. But don't expect too much romance, since in comparison to shows like "True Tears" there isn't much. The feelings in this anime flow through the story telling, not the love stories. I really enjoyed this show.

5 Centimeters per Second is one of many drama/ romance anime, but only very few are on such a high level as this show:

Story:
5 Centimeters per Second is a 3 part movie, following the relationship of 2 friends. The first movie shows how Tohno Takaki (who moved away from his old town) goes to visit Shinohara Akari (his old child hood friend). The relationship of both in school, before Takaki moved away, was very different and not at all what you often see in most anime. Anyway, the first movie is the most touching.
The second movie is from the view of a girl who likes ... Takaki, after he comes back from visiting Akari. The movie starts quite happy but gets sadder by the minute. I'd say it's the most suprising of the 3.
The third movie is the most sad one. Takaki is shown as an young adult living in Tokyo and how he keeps on remembering Akari. As I said, the end is quite heart breaking.
Shinkai, the creator of this movie, is perhaps the god of story telling, since the story is really deep and seems to have meaning.

Animation:
The animation is beautiful, as expected from a movie. That's all I have to say about that. ^_~

Sound:
The sound always fits in perfectly with the mood of the show at any given moment, making it that bit more "real" and touching. Really - perfect.

Character:
The characters are about as deep as they can get in a movie of this length. You'll definitely not be disappointed about how fleshed out the characters are.

Enjoyment:
This movie is excellent, a master piece. The story is great on so many levels and treats the topic of "distance" extremely well. Although the anime ends quite sad, you don't feel horrible after watching the show, as you do when watching other "lower-class" anime.

Overall:
5 Centimeters per Second: The speed at which a cherry blossom falls.