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Cowboy Bebop was a very important series for me as an anime fan. When it first appeared on American television with the birth of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block I quickly fell in love. I had enjoyed a number of anime prior to that, but it really did prove to me how evocative and thoroughly entertaining the medium could be. I'd generally credit it with being the singular show that lead me to wanting to seek out other anime on my own in hopes of finding shows just as good or better than it--something I've only successfully done a handful of times even now. ... It remains a masterful work and deserves every bit of the legacy it holds to this day.

So, naturally, the people involved in the creative process for Cowboy Bebop are people I would want to follow closely. As it were, the director of the show would release another TV anime a few years later, Samurai Champloo, that while not as good, definitely revealed this man, Shinichiro Watanabe as a leading auteur in the world of anime. That following this he was effectively quiet for a decade, save for some work on OVAs and doing the music for a few things was kind of a shame. He returned to the world of TV animation in 2012 with Kids on the Slope, a series which despite having his name attached I could not work up much of an interest to watch. Two years later, however, we find Watanabe roaming the galaxy once more with another new TV anime, Space Dandy.

Truth be told, Space Dandy was not an easy sell on me either. As much as I loved Cowboy Bebop, I just did not expect much from it. I didn't see anything in the art and character designs that demanded I give it my attention, and with the goofy name and premise I was quick to assume it was something I would be safe to dismiss outright. It wasn't actually until just a week before the end that word of mouth caught up to me and I decided to finally give it a look. Having done so, I'm glad. While this is not Watanabe returning to his Cowboy Bebop form, what it is is a very entertaining and surprisingly rewarding little anime that is well worth a look.

In all fairness, it's not entirely a Shinichiro Watanabe project in the same sense as Bebop or Champloo was. He is the chief, general director and the auteur who's fingerprints are undeniably all over it, yes, but lots of different directors are brought in to direct different episodes. The same is true of the writers; the series does not have a single main writer working on the composition but instead a number of writers all supplying different episodes. Naturally this leads to inconsistencies from episode to episode, but Space Dandy is built to make it work. Whereas in most series having so many different hands guide the characters in different ways might make for a muddled mess, Space Dandy really embraces an episodic nature, much like Cowboy Bebop, save with even less need for the episodes to follow one another logically.

With its spacey premise and episodic nature along with Watanabe's touch, it's actually very tempting to call Space Dandy something of a goofy younger sibling to Cowboy Bebop, though the goofiness really needs to be stressed. Cowboy Bebop had a lot of humor and some pretty goofy episodes too, but with Space Dandy silliness is front and center and fairly unrelenting. You might assume that so much wackiness without any weight behind it would get overbearing at times, and you'd probably be a little right. There are moments where the show seems to chug along from one joke to the next and it's all a little obvious really. Still, if you ask me, there is enough that is legitimately funny here to make it worth your time.

Really though, the show is almost more impressive when it sets the goofiness aside just a little and tries to be more earnest. I suppose that while in Cowboy Bebop, some of the most memorable standout episodes were some of the more humorous and whimsical ones, in Space Dandy, it follows that the memorable stuff would be the ones that focus more on mature and genuine character development. Episode five, written by Code Geass' Ichiro Okouchi, was probably the strongest in my opinion, developing Dandy's character in a positive way in 20 minutes than the rest of the series was interested in doing through its entire run. Episode 10, from the series' most regular writer, Kimiko Ueno nearly has the same effect with Meow's character. It could probably honestly have used more episodes that take themselves seriously. Oftentimes all the focus on humor and silliness just makes the lesser episodes feel like diverting filler. The best episodes just overshadow the rest, and make Space Dandy look overall kind of lazy. I'm not sure it's an entirely fair comparison, but Kill la Kill did just prove that an anime can successfully manage a thoroughly ridiculous, over the top and comedic tone and also have strong character development and an engaging core story line.

The characters themselves are all right, I suppose, though those important character development episodes help to make you care about them beyond their function. It's really important for the main character Dandy, who appears as a rather useless, thickheaded, perverted simpleton that he gets the most moments to redeem him or else the show would just come undone. His two sidekicks, cat alien Meow and robot QT probably could have used some more early character development episodes to make us care about them though. It's kind of strange that the first episode we get trying to develop QT's character in a real way beyond just the useful robot assistant is what caps off the first season. The three of them are enjoyable enough in their antics though, I suppose. It could maybe use more of a supporting cast; most characters that are encountered appear for just an episode. Exceptions come in the form of waitress Honey and alien inspector Scarlett, two very different women who Dandy regularly is made to visit, though who are yet to really serve much purpose outside of their roles; neither really makes up for the series' lack of a major female protagonist. There is also a chief antagonist in the form of the ape like mad scientist Dr. Gel and his boss Admiral Perry, who appear frequently in the show to generate deus ex machinas or somehow manage to end up looking even more foolish than the unwitting Dandy and his crew.It probably could have done more to establish these villains, their place in the story and what level of threat they actually pose by this point in things. As it is, it's hard to know what to really make of them most of the time.

While the plotting is inconsistent and the cast could be stronger, where Space Dandy shines brightest is in it's exquisite production. Studio Bones is fairly known for good work and this is one of their best looking anime yet. It's regularly quite striking, with perfectly smooth animation and gorgeous art. Some episodes, such as episode nine with its psychedelic trip through a bizarre plant world are a complete visual delight. Clearly no expense was spared in making this anime look as good as it could. Sound is great too. Watanabe is a master of making bold musical choices in his anime, and it's the sort of soundtrack we'd expect from him. The opening and ending themes are both really catching and memorable, and there are a lot of cool tracks scattered elsewhere throughout.

Ultimately, it's probably the flawless production that allows me to still call Space Dandy a pretty great anime despite some of its more obvious problems and juvenile tendencies. If you want deep and engaging, you're looking at the wrong show, but if you want a fun time, you could do a lot worse than Space Dandy. It is at this point essentially half finished, it's two cours having been split by the spring anime season, but what I've seen thus far is enough to leave me optimistic about what the rest might hold. Recommended.

Due to personal circumstances, early in the Fall 2013 anime season, I found myself unable to keep up with the latest anime. As it were, there's weren't very many fall anime shows that appealed to me very strongly in the first place... so even now now that I have the time to catch up, it's just a handful of anime I feel compelled to see through to completion. Standing out among those very few fall shows that I was still compelled by was Non Non Biyori. There was just something so very ingratiating about what I had seen on display in the first few episodes ... of the series I had watched back in the fall to where I couldn't bring myself to just drop it and move along as I had done with so many other fall anime. No, instead I quickly found the time to sit down and watch all of this charming little series. Having done so now, I can say without a doubt that this is a real treat the whole way through.

Non Non Biyori was produced by Silver Link, the studio who brought us BakaTest and Watamote among other series. It's a bit of a departure from what they've done before; a much more earnest, understated sort of school comedy. That an anime studio could follow up something so thoroughly cynical and uncomfortable by design as Watamote with such a effortlessly charming and affecting little show as this is actually kind of impressive to me. What's perhaps even more impressive, however, is how very enjoyable it was. While Silver Link has proven themselves to be a fairly competent studio, I would say that Non Non Biyori is their best work yet.

A lot of it is in the production. Silver Link has made some good looking anime, including fairly recently the incredibly sharp looking Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya. This understated little slice of life anime can be just as impressive as that often flashy magical girl action series somehow. The art is absolutely gorgeous. Rarely do we get such beautiful scenery shots in the anime. There isn't any need for lots of flashiness in the animation, but it still never looks anything less than good. Sound is equally excellent. The voice cast was well selected and really do a lot to make their characters come alive. Background music is well chosen. Both the opening and ending themes suit the show perfectly and ooze charm.

Why Non Non Biyori is a great anime has even more to do with the content of the show than the package though. A lot of it comes down to the uniqueness of the premise. Non Non Biyori, at its core is an anime focusing on moments, comedic and otherwise in lives of four young girls who attend school together. There are, of course, dozens of anime which can be described with those exact terms or terms similar; it's the specifics set Non Non Biyori apart. Through anime, I know I've probably seen well over a decades worth of years in the lives of Japanese students, but Non Non Biyori stands out a lot and it's in lare part due to its choice of setting. Rather than another year spent in a big city or an average town, Non Non Biyori is set in a far off, remote rural farm community. Only a few families live in the area, so the school the girls attend only has five students, all of whom are different ages and thus in different grades. Country life is depicted in a earnest, realistic way that makes it seem all the more engaging and at times magical. It's a definite change of pace from the norms of genre and undoubtedly adds to what makes Non Non Biyori so great.

Even more important are the characters. For a slice of life comedy series, this is the most important part. To want to watch the year in the lives of a set of characters, you need to like those characters in the first place. Non Non Biyori's characters are very endearing. The story is in part told through the eyes of Hotaru, a city girl in the fifth grade who has just moved to the country with her family. She takes her time adjusting, but soon starts to fit in and really fall in love with her new surroundings. What helps in this is Komari, a middle schooler two years older who Hotaru develops a crush on. The two are a tale of contrast, Hotaru, despite her age being tall and adult like in demeanor and appearance, while Komori is short and child like. Joining them is Komari's sister Natsumi, a year younger, who is energetic and fun loving but poor at school. Tiny first grader Renge rounds out the main cast, providing much humor and cuteness with her often precocious attitude. Supporting players include, among others, Renge's adult sister, the lazy and sleepy Kazuho who works as the girls only teacher; Kaede, the owner of a local rarely visited candy shop who has a strong bond with Renge; and Suguru, the fifth student in the class, who is actually Natsumi and Komari's older brother, who never speaks and is seldom noticed by the others, even when he displays surprising talents.

All of the cast are likable and affecting. They are developed very well through the series' 12 episodes. The main characters are all well geared toward providing humor, but they are also suited to providing surprisingly poignant moments as well. Ultimately that is the greatest strength of the show, its heart. It's warm, it's affecting and just very hard not to love. A thoroughly masterful little anime. Strongly recommended.

I've always been kind of interested in the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise, though I never checked out the games. There were people I knew who stood by them as fun and entertaining games well worth exploring, but the abysmal critical reception the series received virtually everywhere in the west made me reticent. Ultimately I decided to put my gaming budget toward what I perceived to be surer things, but I have long wondered if I'm missing out. That's why, when I heard about Hyperdimension Neptunia the anime, I was rather excited for it. I figured it would be a good chance to get a glimpse of ... this series and finally see what it was all about. Having followed it for a while, I'd say it's hardly terrible, but at the same time I'm not really sure it'd be fair to make any conclusions about the series of games based on what we have here.

Neptunia comes to us from David Production, a fairly young studio who I have almost no familiarity with at least when it comes to main production credits. If this show is any indicator, they do pretty solid work. The show looks good. Art is strong, animation smooth. The action is appealingly slick and the characters are well detailed. Sound is good too; it's got a great voice cast who all turn in solid enough performances. The opening theme teeters on the brink of being overly sugary for me, but retains enough charm that I don't often skip, and the ending theme is pretty fun. All in all, I can only think of good things to say about the production.

The problem for Neptunia comes in the story and characters. The characters, really just aren't very well established. I know this is a game tie in, and I'm sure it expects that a majority of the audience will know and love the characters already, but still it could have done a better job of introducing everything for newcomers. Characters are introduced suddenly and sometimes it's not really clear who they are or why they're relevant. Only after watching for a while do you get a sense of who the characters are, which makes it hard to connect with them. The characters on their own are a distinctive enough bunch on their own, I guess. it's kind of hard to judge them, but they're likable and most of the designs are pretty sharp and appealing. At the same time, going strictly by what the show covers, there's nothing really especially memorable here character wise.

The story is equally frustrating. The world the characters occupy is not very well defined just going by this anime. Evidently it's all supposed to be an allegory for the gaming industry, as some names make especially clear, but the meaning of what unfolds and how it relates to anything is hard to determine. The story sort of feels simultaneously lightweight and impenetrable and just isn't ultimately very compelling. I'm kind of really not sure what to make of it. It's passable, I guess, and I don't feel like its insulting my intelligence or anything, it just doesn't really do much of interest.

All that said I can't say I disliked the time I spent watching Neptunia. No, it's well made and kind of fun. It can be funny and charming at times, which really helps make it a more enjoyable experience. It'll depend on personal taste of course. This anime is all about moe and ecchi anime girls, so if that kind of stuff usually makes you roll your eyes with contempt, I can't imagine you'll have much use for this at all. Again, I imagine this show is much better for fans of the game, and not being familiar with it is probably where a lot of my problems with it come from. At the same time, I strongly believe that anime series should be able to stand completely on their own just fine regardless of the source material. This anime doesn't fully do that, which takes away from it all for me even if it can often be a relatively fun watch. As such, the best I can give it is a seven, and only a mild recommendation for those interested who aren't already fans.

When I first saw the title Gatchaman Crowds on a list with all the other Summer 2013 anime I didn't even think to look into it; I just assumed it was some kind of remake or remastering of the classic Gatchaman anime and moved on. Shortly after the start of the season, however, I read a blurb about it that made me a little more curious. Rather than any kind of remake, this was supposedly an entirely modern, entirely new entry in the Gatchaman franchise with an all new story and all new characters. Further more, it featured a female protagonist, a selling point for ... me when it comes to most anime. I suddenly became quite intrigued and decided I would go ahead and see what it was like. The anime I found, which hardly resembled what I think of when I think of the old Gatchaman series at all, took me by surprise, but in a good way for the most part.

I don't actually have too much experience with the Gatchaman franchise. I believe the most I ever saw were a few scattered episodes of the G-Force adaption during its syndicated run on Cartoon Network in the mid 90's. I do remember the aesthetics of it at least--the funny looking bird costumes the five heros wear and what not. As said before though, Crowds is an entirely new series so it's not like you're expected to be familiar with the ins and outs what came before. In fact, from what I can tell and what I can remember Crowds doesn't actually bear a very close resemblance to its forebears. I'm sure there are some fun nods for the fans, but this is a decidedly modern anime, CGI armor like something out of Tiger and Bunny replacing the iconic bird suits. It's very sleek, stylish and modern in aesthetic and looks pretty solid all things considered, with distinctive and well designed characters.

The production studio, Tatsunoko Production, really can be commended for a technically proficient anime. In addition to the quality art and pleasingly smooth animation, it sounds good too. The voice acting is top rate for most of the important characters, and I think the music does a good job too. The opening theme sets things off on the right foot, and while not as standout the ending theme isn't bad either.

Technical specifications aside, what of the new team of Gatchaman themselves? Well, the show has a pretty fun cast. Hajime, that female protagonist who hooked me in did so for good reason ultimately; I find her absolutely infectious. She's a ridiculous girl who brings new meaning to the word "carefree" though, and I can perhaps see some people not warming to her character quite as easily. For me, she effortlessly steals practically every scene. Sugane, the male Gatchaman who gets the most screen time, a stern and serious young man, is less immediate a character for me, though he works well as a foil for Hajime. The other Gatchaman are a cute panda-like mascot character, a ridiculously flamboyant man, a cool and nonchalant man and a distant, dreamy young girl. Development on them is subtly but effectively delivered in a way that makes you increasingly curious about each.

The plot for Gatchaman Crowds is quite unusual both in its content and delivery. From the first episode I expected a sort of simple superhero team story, Gatchaman rushing to the rescue of people in need from nefarious threats. That's really not how it unfolds though, or at least not what is at all in the focus. In fact, throughout much of the first half, all of the Gatchaman seem kind of pushed aside. The story instead chooses to focus on a hot new social networking tool called GALAX and its developer, a crossdressing boy named Rui. Extensive time is spent with Rui, who becomes one of the better developed characters in the series; more deep and interestingly defined in fact than most of the Gatchaman. With GALAX, Rui hopes to "update" the world into a utopia where people are always connected and available to rely on each other no matter the situation. However, working toward his dream came at the cost of becoming entangled with a disturbing and malevolent force of evil. It's all pretty compelling, though for a few episodes I wasn't really sure how it all was going to actually involve the Gatchaman in any real way. Recent episodes have set up a sort of power of the collective vs. power of the individual theme, however, and it's starting to sort of fall into place to a degree. It's quite the interesting story, but it's still at the point where it needs to come together at least a little more.

That probably sums together the anime as a whole actually. Watching it, it has all the elements of a truly great anime, but before it all coheres a little more together I have to say it's not quite there. Unless it just doesn't do that or it disappoints me somehow, I expect I'll ultimately change my score to a nine or perhaps even a ten. For now, I feel I have to leave it at an eight. All things considered, it's an intelligent anime that explores some clever and compelling themes, has nice art and animation and a fun cast of interesting characters. As such, I feel safe giving it a pretty solid recommendation at this moment.

Update: So, I've seen it all now, and yeah, it ultimately did find some cohesion though perhaps not quite enough. It's an awkward series, one that seems more interested in its message than its characters. The resolution ultimately feels a little incomplete, questions left lingering. The climactic moments are triumphant but somehow not as satisfying as they could be. It's kind of hard to know what to make of the series as a whole even at the end. It's very much unique in its approach to storytelling and the joyful, flamboyant, optimistic tone it maintains throughout make it an anime well worth watching. It's not a perfect anime ultimately, but it's one of the more rewarding and memorable of the recent season, which is why I decided to ultimately bump it up to a nine.

Two years ago studio SHAFT gave to the anime watching world Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a show which cleverly blended the conventions of magical girl anime with dark horror themes, subversive storytelling and striking visual style to create one of the most perfect and memorable anime that I've certainly ever seen. Madoka Magica was a game changer and achieved acclaim and popularity that has proven persistent. Given all that, it's really no surprise at all that other anime studios would want to try and repeat that success. So it is anime studio AIC has decided to present us with an original dark magical girl series ... that copies quite liberally from the Madoka book. However, while the inspiration is quite evident, having followed this anime, Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou, I can safely say that it transcends simple imitation and stands as something good on its own.

A huge part of Madoka's strength was in its art and animation. The characters were incredibly well designed and the imagery for their enemies was perhaps even more striking. The animation meanwhile was top rate, with over the top exhilarating action that never failed to satisfy. It would be hard for Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou to reach the bar Madoka did on that end, and yeah, it doesn't quite. The character designs are a little weak; not terrible, mind you. The characters are plenty cute as they should be, but the art style has a somewhat more super deformed look than I personally care for and the characters designs aren't immediately distinctive. The designs for their enemies, the Daemonia, fare better, most of them looking really cool and disturbing; still maybe not as memorable as Madoka's witches, but quite good and effective. The animation is great too; fight scenes are visceral and appealingly flashy. It's all pretty solid.

There isn't really as much to say about sound. The voice actors are convincing and do a pretty good job of defining their roles. The music is appropriate and good at setting the tone. Opening and ending themes are fine though nothing overwhelming. Madoka's themes weren't the most memorable part of it either though.

The story is the important thing, and Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou does a pretty good job with it. It follows Akari, a girl who is pulled into an enigmatic organization of magical girls fighting against Daemonia terrible monsters born from humans afflicted with negative emotions. She is put on a team with three other girls who she comes to know and bond with as they struggle against the Daemonia and the conflicted emotions that the battle against them provokes. It's a solid setup and I'd wager it still has plenty of twists and turns to lay on us still at this point. The story is delivered well, doing a good job of setting its atmosphere. It really helps highlight why Madoka worked so well. With its cuteness and sincerity, the magical girl genre really does mesh beautifully with dark elements and horror; the contrast just works really well, and Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou does nothing if not capitalize on it just as Madoka did.

Characters are key to the formula working though. Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou does pretty good on that front. Again, their not as immediate as Madoka's cast, but the magical girl team here are a likable bunch who are developed quite well. Akari herself is about what you'd expect from a main character in a magical girl anime; she's sweet, friendly, earnest and a little naive, but with a lot of resolve. Nothing too groundbreaking, but she works. Seira is strict, distant one that could maybe be described as the Homura analogue; her and Akari come from very different mindsets when it comes to the Daemonia problem which puts them at odds. Luna is a shy magical girl who is quickest to befriend Akari; she's likable and nice, but seems conflicted and self-conscious. Ginka rounds out the team with a lot of exuberance and is probably my favorite character. She's smartly developed and just a lot of fun. So far each of the main characters had at least one really good character building episode. There are other magical girls too in the organization, some of which get some screen time. Most of these supporting characters have interesting designs and seem fun.

All the elements work pretty well here. Nothing is quite as perfect as it was in Madoka Magica, but I'd say the sum is greater than the parts here. I'm sure some might sneer and say it's derivative or Madoka lite, but I don't think that's giving the show quite the credit it deserves. Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is a smart show that knows what it's doing and has a lot of heart. Definitely recommended.

Update: as a short addendum having now completed the anime, ultimately Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou is a somewhat more uneven anime than I would have hoped. There are a lot of very obvious threads left hanging at the close--a number of elements introduced are not fully explored and there are characters who feel kind of extraneous. That said, in its best episodes in the second half (particularly the stuff with Luna), the character development on the core cast becomes incredibly effective and got me pretty invested in all of them. What we end up with is a plot that's more emotionally coherent and compelling than it is actually complete. Also, while I had some hang ups about the art style at the time of my review, it grew on me over the second half and the animation remained slick and impressive throughout. Ultimately it left me kind of scratching my head still wanting it to come together somehow, and I hope there's a second season or something to give the answers, but it also left me smiling and satisfied. I probably just have a weakness for this kind of show; I don't know. Whatever it is, despite the apparent faults, my score stays what it is.

With markedly solid new offerings like Love Lab, Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C³-bu and Kiniro Mosaic, the Summer 2013 anime season has really been an excellent showcase of schoolgirl shows. With quality production and interesting hooks those anime all work to reaffirm how much fun the genre can be when done right. They also help to highlight the many failings of the peculiar Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku, the one new schoolgirl series of the season I would not recommend.

Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku is about five high school friends who are part of a club that doesn't really do anything--basically the same premise as Yuru Yuri or Yuyushiki. This ... can be an effective setup, as those shows both proved, but here it's not particularly well executed. The Going Home Club seems ill defined even next to the Amusement Club or the Data Processing Club and mostly just serves as a place for the writers to wring out the next comedic setup. It never feels natural. Yuyushiki got pretty random with its topics, but it made it feel entirely natural through the choice of setup and the brilliant way the characters played off of each other. Here, every setup and punch line feels so very labored.

A big part of the problem is that Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku is not very frequently funny. It tries. It tries really hard actually, but it just falls flat constantly. The timing is off and the jokes often aren't very funny in the first place. One thing it really seems to love a lot is fourth wall jokes; which is fine--they can be quite funny when done well. They're just really not here though and its in part due to the approach. Drawing attention to the fact that your animation budget is small, your writers are dumb and lazy and your show isn't very popular isn't going to hide the fact that its all true. On the contrary, it just highlights the problems for the viewer to scrutinize as they watch.

The anime was produced by the studio Nomad, who looking at their credits, always has been kind of underwhelming, at least from the series of theirs I've seen. Even then Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku really is pretty cheap and generic looking though. The art and animation are substandard. It doesn't fair much better on the sound end either. Music is okay I guess; seems to do what it should and while the opening theme isn't something I'd call particularly great (mostly due to the singers), it does have charm and is peppy enough; the original ending theme is really generic though, but it's quickly replaced by a better song a few episodes in. The big problem with the sound is in the voice acting. The VAs aren't very good. Well, most of them are passable, I suppose, but the voice of the club president has a weird grating quality to it and, more importantly, the main character is miscast and terrible. I usually like tsukkomi characters, but this one just comes across as annoying and shouty in the role--something that absolutely kills any comedy she's supposed to provide.

But what of the characters themselves? Well, they're pretty one note and reductive, reminding me more of the sort of characters you might see in a particularly bad harem anime than something like this. Main character Natsuki is, as said, a tsukkomi, only there to play the straight man to the others and shout about how stupid they are. Karin is a cute airhead. Club president Sakura is energetic in a decidedly generic way. Claire is basically Mugi from K-On! reduced to the dullest core elements. Botan is a kind of weird mix of gamer girl and martial arts girl who is somehow able to do inhuman feats. The show doesn't really bother to ever develop them. Between all the random comedy in Yuyushki, it took the time to develop the characters and make the audience care about their friendship. This show doesn't bother trying to do that. it just presents us with a set of fairly unrealistic, underwritten characters to blather on about whatever the writer wants them to.

Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku just isn't a good anime. With unfunny comedy, flat characters and zero in the way of plot, if it had more in the way of fanservice I expect this is what people who despise this genre entirely think it all is. If you want to watch a schoolgirl show this season, you're best off looking elsewhere. Love Lab is much funnier, Kiniro Mosaic is much cuter, C³-bu is peppered with cool action (and just generally better). As a longtime fan of the genre, the best I can give it is a five, but for others I expect the score might be lower. Not recommended.

The schoolgirl comedy genre is something which has just gotten increasingly ubiquitous in anime of late, but contrary to what one might expect, anime studios keep finding ways to make series from the formula which stand out. Studio Dogakobo--who previously produced the anime Yuru Yuri in the same genre--have with Love Lab found another anime that is case in point to that. Likable and refreshing, this is an anime worth watching for someone with even a passing interest in the genre.

Love Lab is well produced. The art looks great and I never noticed much in the way of bad animation. Sound is good too--background ... music is appropriate and the opening and ending theme are both really cute and fun. The voice acting is where it really shines on the production front though. The voice actresses have impeccable timing and exquisite delivery, which just makes the comedy funnier and the proceedings seem all the more natural and fun.

Which brings me to one of the reasons Love Lab stands out in its genre. The comedy is really good. Humor is subjective, I know, but for me, I can't think of very many similar shows that made me laugh and smile more. The comedic writing is excellent and the characters play off of each other impeccably. At its core its your basic boke and tsukkomi act, but it does it so well it's all more satisfying than it usually is.

The other big reason Love Lab stands as something unique is its plot. Most series in the genre seem content to offer separate snapshots into the girls' lives that maybe in some cases build toward something but don't usually connect directly. Love Lab, on the other hand, connects together in more obvious ways. The episodes actually end with a "to be continued" and there are usually plot hooks setting up what is going to happen next. The continuous feel works to it advantage, making it feel more like a complete story even if it is at its core still a collection of amusing events in the lives of a set of schoolgirls.

Now the schoolgirls themselves are an interesting bunch. Good characters are needed in these shows and Love Lab has them. At its core are: Riko, the tomboyish lead who ends up getting dragged onto the student council as an advisor where she must unconvincingly pretend she is a master of love; and Maki, the student council president who is kind of a completely ridiculous idiot and, in her utter cluelessness, is eager to receive Riko's guidance. The two are in time joined by three other girls: shy secretary Suzu who is clumsy and cute; the manipulative and cunning treasurer Sayo who likes playing games with the others, particularly Riko; and the student council VP Eno who is a ridiculous aggressive tsundere character who seems to frequently make a fool of herself. All of them are well developed and produce laughs as they interact both witch each other and a cast of supporting characters that is in time introduced.

So in short, Love Lab is great fun. With good characters, well produced, actual continuing story and excellent humor, it has a lot to offer. Very strongly recommended.

Update: Upon completion, I ultimately bumped my score of Love Lab up to a ten in score. It was impressive from the start and in the end it didn't let me down anywhere. The characters are so lively and fun to watch and also dynamic and engaging, the humor is so consistent, and the sheer fact that it pulled off the feat of staying true to its genre while also offering up an interesting enough ongoing plot that it never stopped being rewarding. I find myself unable to think of anything more I wanted from the show, aside from more of it as soon as possible. Anime comedies are seldom this remarkably solid.

The first season of Oreimo was a delightful anime, full of colorful and amusing characters. It played with a lot of anime tropes and aspects of anime culture in general in interesting ways and was thoroughly fun. It was the sort of show that surprised with how good it was. So, yes, a second season was definitely very much welcome... but while I still overall enjoyed the second season, it simply isn't quite as successful as the first. It fails to deliver in some important regards, and for that it is a bit of a disappointment.

The production values are not where the show goes wrong. ... A-1 Pictures has proven themselves capable of producing very visually appealing, well made anime and this is no exception. It looks great and sounds great. The art is crisp, glossy and appealing, the music is good and the voice actors come across as quite comfortable in their roles.

Oreimo has great characters. Kyosuke is a great male lead; relatable, fun, not weak. Kirino is an interesting if at times frustrating female lead, but overall works as a character for her infectious energy. Kuroneko is just adorable and awesome. The rest of the cast is all mostly very likable and they remain that way in the second season. Some of them are developed really well too. The episode Saori gets is one of the high points of the season and makes me wish they had done more with her character. Kuroneko's arc in the middle also has a lot of very sweet high points, even if the resolution is rather weak and infirm. Even Kirino gets some good development in places, especially in the final flashback episode.

Some of the character development is not as good. Ayase is the biggest disaster. At the beginning of the second season she seemed right and in fact more likable and interesting than ever, but in her arc toward the end her characters was pretty close to ruined. I had never once thought she was supposed to have advanced feelings of any sort for Kyousuke. They don't have a chemistry that suggests that and never have, which just makes everything that suggests otherwise between them seem painfully forced. It's quite telling that minor character Kanako's tacked on late developing affections for Kyousuke are more believable. Which brings me to the point that the second season tries far too hard to draw up the harem situations. The characters naturally play off each other in interesting ways. Not every single one has to be in love with Kyousuke. It really cheapens things, especially since the core relationships, especially Kyousuke and Kuroneko remain so strong. As for Kyousuke and Kirino, most of the time it's as interesting a dynamic as it ever was... but it perhaps plays the incest card a little too strongly, making the characters harder to relate with. Really, Oreimo S2's biggest fault is that it makes things too complicated for their own good.

All that said, if you really enjoy these characters and the way they interact with each other as I do, you will most likely still find a lot to love. It's not fully satisfying--it's not even fully completed, any kind of resolution being saved for the OVAs--but it's still Oreimo. I wish the approach had been slightly different and for it there were moments that were frustrating, but as a fan of the original, this second season still had more than enough high points to justify the lows.

I first reviewed Shingeki no Kyojin after eight episodes to give my impressions of the time. After having seen all 25 episodes of the series, I felt my old review didn't quite capture the overall picture and have thus decided to heavily rewrite it.

Starting out, I didn't really have any intention to watch Shingeki no Kyojin; the premise didn't appeal to me and while the previews and art I saw of it looked pretty, nothing I saw really compelled me to it. As the season progressed, however, the series' name became rather ubiquitous. All of a sudden I was hearing from numerous others that ... the show was the show of the season and that I shouldn't dare miss it. This is dangerous talk for me, as I can be prone to hype backlash, but nevertheless I came to the decision to give it a watch and do my best to keep an open mind as I did so. In the end, this was a good call. Shingeki no Kyojin is a very good anime.

Shingeki no Kyojin looks amazing throughout. Between this and other recent offerings from them, it's pretty clear that Production I.G. are really ahead of a lot of studios in just how gorgeous they can make their anime look. The fight sequences are completely visceral; the lumbering titans appear so heavy and powerful while the humans zipping around to combat them move swiftly and fluidly. I like the way the art looks too; the characters are distinctive and generally have strong designs.

Sound is also first rate. Music is utilized well to build tension. The sound effects are especially impressive, making the titans feel ever the more momentous with each resonating footstep. The voice actors are about what would be expected. Most of them do a pretty good job, I guess. There is a lot of shouting in some scenes which can get to be a little much. Both opening themes very grandiose, and in slightly different ways though they both suit the series. The ending themes aren't as memorable for my tastes.

I couldn't really ask for the presentation on a whole to be much better, but what of the story it aims to tell? It's ultimately quite compelling. It's paced generally pretty well; revelations come at the right moments and it succeeds in feeling epic. It can be at times a little overly grim and dour for my tastes at times. You onslaught the viewer with too many sorrowful and solemn bits and you run the risk of approaching melodrama after all. The setting is dark and I know that it wants me to absorb that fact as much as possible with each successive scene of a giant eating a person, but nevertheless it can get to be a bit much, though its best,most glorious moments make up for a lot of it and make for an overall satisfying watch.

The story itself is intriguing. The setup is quite unique and even at the end I get the distinction that the series has a lot of revelations to throw at us still. It doesn't attempt any real conclusion, so additional seasons are almost invariably on the minds of the studio. Given this, on its own, it naturally feels incomplete, but I'm not going to count that against it. As the first leg in what should hopefully be a longer story, it gets the job done.

So if the production is so solid and I have mostly nice things to say about the story, why is my score for this only an eight? Well, the big thing letting Shingeki no Kyojin down is the characters, or more correctly one in particular. Unfortunately for the series, that character is the main protagonist, Eren.. He just comes across so much as the typical mopey and angst-ridden shounen protagonist, only much angrier and I just don't really respond to that well. Sure reasons are given for him to lash out and whine... but certain flashback scenes show him as having detached and violent tendencies well before the titans attack. It all just makes him kind of hard to identify with and he doesn't really get much better. Even at the end of the series, I'm not entirely sure how much he's grown really. More often than not, he's just annoying to me and he is the one thing that ends up holding the show back the most.

Which is a shame since I like most of the other characters. Female lead Mikasa, has a great design, is cool and strong, yet vulnerable enough to still be interesting. She's a little overly dependent, but otherwise she's a pretty awesome character. Eren's friend Armin meanwhile didn't impress me at first, but becomes a better character in time. The supporting players are also really good, tending to be actually developed pretty well, some standing out because in this at times oppressively solemn series they're the only characters who are actually fun. I wish some of the more interesting and colorful cadets got a little more screen time actually as the show really seems to excel when it focuses on them.

A less than enjoyable main character won't wreck a show for me, but it will hold me back from embracing it. Eren coupled with the occasionally too grim tone is enough to hamper my enjoyment of an otherwise exceptionally produced, clever, interesting and entertaining show to where I feel an eight is a proper score. All the same, it's definitely a show worth following and I would give it a solid recommendation to anyone looking for an exciting piece of dark fantasy action anime and I myself will most definitely look forward to what the future holds for it.

Like a lot of people, Girls und Panzer is a show that didn't succeed in catching my attention at first. Not because I don't like cute; personally, I seldom get tired of cute anime girls doing cute things. No, Girls und Panzer was a hard sell for me just because the premise seemed so weird. Cute girls mixed with military weaponry is fun, but shouldn't they be fighting some great threat a la Strike Witches? Having tank combat just be a school club activity for the girls, It just seemed odd to me somehow, so I wasn't sure about it and ultimately held off. As ... time went on, I kept hearing about the series though and my interest started to get piqued. Eventually I had to check it out for myself. Doing so now, I can see quite clearly what the fuss is all about. Girls und Panzer is an anime worth getting excited over.

Girls und Panzer is also an exceedingly simple anime. You couldn't get much more simple. The titles says it all here as you have girls and you have panzers. The premise is just a little weird, yes, but they set it up well enough that it's soon not anything to really think about. Girls fight each other with tanks as a martial art in this anime's world. There really isn't so much else to it; the story of the series is exceptionally mundane. It's basically the ultimate cliche sports story; underdog school team has to overcome impossible odds and win the big tournament or else their school will get shut down. It's something we've all seen before and the nuances to it are limited. Yet while not heavy or original in story, Girls und Panzer is far from a poorly written or dumb anime. On the contrary, when dealing with what it wants to focus on, it is never anything but exceptional. What it happens to want to focus on are girls and panzers.

When it comes to girls, Girls und Panzer has a ton. You need multiple girls to run a tank and tank battles call for multiple tanks, so that means lots of girls to get to know. Of course, Girls und Panzer is a 12 episode anime so obviously it doesn't have the time to flesh out characters for quite so many girls; in most cases each tank team is characterized simply; you got one tank jam packed full of cute first year students, another tank commanded by the school's history nerds and so on. This works to bring life to the minor characters while not requiring they be developed at length individually. Leaders of the opposing tank teams are developed similarly through associations with the nation they're school are supposed to represent.

Aside from maybe the student council tank team, however, most of the actual character development is spared for the tank team of the main characters. The five central characters are all fairly well defined. The main character, Miho, is a typical if inherently likable one; stronger and more collected than she seems, but also reticent and in need of her friends for support. Mako, the driver, is detached and sleepy but compassionate. Saori, the radio operator is energetic and friendly. Hana, the gunner is gentle and soft spoken, but also strong and willful. Yukari, the loader, is the kind of goofy one who is also a big panzer nerd. The character development each receives individually is limited to a few sequences each, but they develop a lot together through each tank battle, and as more time is spent with these characters they becoming increasingly endearing. They're the sort of characters it's hard not to root for.

The girls are key, but the tanks are about equally important. I don't really know anything about tanks, but lots of research has clearly gone into the specifics of them, which really strengthens just how they are rendered and used. The battles are complex and involving. This is where the show shines its best. Battle sequences, for me are one of the most difficult things to engage me with, but the battles in Girls und Panzer were never dull and in fact had me watching with anticipation to see just how the girls would pull it off. These sequences are the true heart of the show; they're where the girls grow the most, where they're the most in their element and where the show's genius is allowed to shine through. Truly some of the most memorable and satisfying battle sequences I can recall in any anime.

The show also looks excellent. The tank battles exciting and well animated, with CG well incorporated. The later battles in particular are gorgeous, the snow battle being my particular favorite. The girls are also well drawn and usually well animated. It's also well acted and uses music to great effect, especially in the battles. Both opening and ending themes are cute and memorable. The presentation on a whole is pretty exceptional.

Everything about Girls und Panzer is a lot of fun. It's kind of a difficult anime not to get sucked into. The girls are cute and endearing and the tank battles are intense and impressive. It does everything so well it's very easy to forgive it's slight and unremarkable story. Fans of tanks and fans of girls will find a nothing but rewarding experience.