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Wanna watch a depiction of the reality in the samurai age? Then Shigurui is the right anime for you!

It basically follows the harsh reality of a sword style dojo, with the detail that the master has dementia.

In the first episode, you'll not understand what are those two crippled samurai doing there, in front of the feudal lord, having a sword battle, but it will all get explained during the show.

We'll see the challenging of the dojo by a outsider and how they treated them.
The story is mainly a tale of taking control of the dojo, revenge the power of the feudal lords, it will ... have sex, in several forms, including BDSM and raping. And don't forget, this is the most violent and gory anime ever made.

Well, I started watching this anime thinking "this is gonna be one more of those 70's super robot anime where a somewhat random gets chosen to pilot the robot and he shouts every move he makes and he basically just fights the monster of the week".

And, to some extent, I was right, as that is what happens in more than half of the episodes, but fortunately that's not the only thing that happens.

Recapitulating, the story is about a race of human-like aliens attacks the earth as they need a new planet to live, but it won't be a straightforward plot as we will have ... power struggles, rebellions, coup d'etats, treason and moral issues like pacifism and obedience in the mix. So, it's an interesting story!

The mecha fights are probably the least interesting part of the show, just what you would expect coming out from Mazinger or any super robot anime.

After watching an liking a lot of the first Lyrical Nanoha, I had lots of expectations for this sequel... but unfortunately I've got disappointed.

The first one had an extremely interesting story about Fate Testarossa and her mother, but in this one it's about Hayate and the book of darkness, it has a little of self sacrifice, but its very forced and farfetched.

Basically the story is about Hayate, a girl in wheelchair, that has a book, and suddenly the powers of the book awaken bringing several mages with it.

The visuals and sound are ok.

But overall, it didn't convinced me.

I almost dropped this series after watching a couple of episodes.
The first one is almost entirely a normal mecha fighting episode, no problem with it besides not having much story. But then, the next 2 or 3 episodes become almost a boring slice of life and after a pirate attack, it seems that in the rest of the series the director will force pacifism into your brain.

But fortunately that attempt of brain washing does not occur and in the following episodes we get lots of interesting things happening, things that raise question on war, enemies, chain of command, religion, with lots of philosophical thought ... and dialog.

There's also the visuals, the backgrounds, mainly on gargantia are extremely good and the character design is also of great level.

So in the end, after that mild start, it gets an extremely interesting anime, so don't drop it and watch it till the end, you wont regret it!

After many years we've got a sequel to the great Berserk, this time about Guts as the Black Swordsman, which we've only had a glimpse in the first and last episode of the first anime.

Lots of people are angry with the 3D cell shading animation, but I don't see it as a problem, it as a dark feel to it, which goes well with the themes of the story. The things we can point as negative is that it's a different kind of
animation from the original, but that one as been released 20 years ago.
It also as a low frame rate, which makes ... things less fluid.

About the character design, Guts and the rest of the Taka no Dan are as they
should be, slightly older, we can't forget that this one takes place a couple
of years after the original. Griffith design however seems to different unfortunately.

Enough talking about the controversial visual part, let's get to the part that most matters, the story.

Guts is in his search for his beloved Casca and for the Apostles, which will lead him to a land where the church as lots of influence. Casca as lost her mind in the depths of hell, the same time Guts as been marked to be chasen by demons for the rest of his life.

The story that follows will have several interesting subjects, the Inquisition, thrust an betrayal, the doubts of the Church Knights' Captain about religion and her inner sado-masochist side. We also have lots of violence, due to Guts' fights with the soldiers and the demons and the tortures of the inquisition.

Isidoro and a group of hookers, whose leader Luca have been taking care of Casca, also make their appearance and will accompany Guts, bringing a few interesting stories with them. There is also Puck... a fairy that tries to bring a bit of comedy, it's a meaningless addition.

So we get a interesting story, but it's pace it's kind of slow, we could get it all compressed to 4 or 5 episodes without losing much, as it loses a bit of time setting the mood and with some of the hookers side stories.

Overall, it's worth watching, but is not as good a the 1997 one, without Griffith and all those conspiracies for power and amazing battles between armies, it couldn't be the same thing.
Although it ends with a bang, what might make things more interesting next season.

I give a 7, while the 1997 I gave a 9.

What would you do if you have been arrested and tortured over and over again for being who you are?

That's one of the questions that Ajin implicitly poses.

Besides discrimination, it also touches in several other very interesting matters like terrorism, corruption and the human nature.

It has an extremely charismatic "villain", I put "" because you can't be sure if he is the bad guy or are the good guys, the government and the police, the ones that are wrong. (In my opinion the latter is the right answer and the villain should just kill them all!)
I love animes with this ambiguity, like Death Note, ... Shinsekai Yori, Psycho Pass and Kiseijuu-Parasite.

It also has some of the best action scenes I've ever seen in over 800 anime, and the most over the top terrorist atack ever!

Summing all up, it is one of the best animes of all time.