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As I write this review I want to say that I have not read the manga and I'm currently ending the second season of this show.

This anime was constantly suggested to me by one of my friends and I refused to watch it when she initially talked to me about the show because I am incredibly picky and conscious about the media I consume. That being said, I regret not getting into this anime sooner. Magi is incredible. Maybe I'm just saying that because I'm so jaded from all the mediocre animes being praised these days (not that anime has never been mediocre lmao), ... but I wholeheartedly believe this series is incredible and if the anime is really a bad adaption of the manga then I can't wait to start reading.

Magi's world is based off of the real world and real geography (Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana should all be shades of brown and not so pale it hurts my eyes). The main characters are based off of the Arabian Nights tales which include "Ali Baba and the forty thieves", "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", etc. However, the show isn't a combination of these stories. It simply borrows names and ideas from these old tales and creates an entirely new world of its own.

Magi initially gives the impression that it will be a typical shounen anime powered by platonic friendships, but it's not. Magi is not a typical, boring shounen. The first couple episodes that scream shounen aren't even boring. As you delve deeper you learn more about Magi's world and politics which makes the show increasingly more interesting. It reminds me of a good video game. You start out meeting Alibaba and then Alibaba meets Aladdin. Alibaba explains to Aladdin that he wants to capture a dungeon. Capturing a dungeon is dangerous, but, if successful, one can become rich and be granted special powers. Though, most people capture dungeons for the powers granted to them by djinn in the dungeon rather than chase the wealth.

Dungeons are erected by magi who usually lead people to these dungeons. People who successfully capture a dungeon and have a metal vessel are called King Candidates. In order to use this power, however, the King Candidates must use their magoi (essentially life energy). Some people have more than others and the magi of the world have unlimited access to magoi given to them by the rukh.

Magi also makes commentary on racial prejudice aka racism (though I see this more in season 2), classism, etc.

Now on to the art. It's good. It's not amazing or revolutionary, but it certainly doesn't hurt the eyes. Like I mentioned before, however, the main characters, despite being middle eastern are super pale and I could never find a legitimate reason for why that is. There's only one group of brown people in the show and they come from basically what is Egypt in the magi world, but everyone else is super pale (before anyone says anything, yes, I know that there are countries based off on Europe and East Asia). That's probably the biggest issue I have for the show.

Sound is also good. The music is pleasant and usually fitting for the scene, but it's not deserving of any more than a 7. I've heard better music, but Magi's ost is still good.

I gave character a 9 because of the amazing character development throughout the entire series. Things aren't as black and white as they seem and I found myself confused and unsure of what to think at times, because of conflicting opinions and views. Sure, you can simply agree with the protagonist all the time, but what happens when the protagonist is even unsure of what to think? Foes become friends. Friends become foes.

Did I enjoy Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic? Yes. Absolutely. I've been recommending it so many of my friends. I'm recommending it to you right now.

Overall, a 9/10.

For those already familiar with the series (or at least Stardust Crusaders) then the last name "Cujoh" may sound familiar to you. Which is because Jolyne Cujoh is Jotaro Kujo's daughter and has inherited every bit of badassery and cunning there is from the Joestar bloodline.


Story: 8
Part 6 mainly takes place in a prison which has amazingly low restrictions and gives the residents a certain amount of free will. Life in the prison is easy if you have money, a fact that Jolyne learns from Hermes, a woman who is also going to Green Dolphin Street prison.

Stone Ocean is no exception when it ... comes to action (you can imagine the number of brawls that go on in a prison). The fight scenes are as over the top as ever. Araki comes up with a huge amount of ridiculous stands in ridiculous situations with ridiculous conclusions.

The story itself is interesting and complex effectively winding together different character's lives and stories. You'll laugh and you'll definitely cry. Sure, Araki's writing isn't perfect, but it gets the job done well.

Art: 9
Araki's style changes significantly throughout the entire series. Unlike Part 4's gradual, yet notable style change, Part 6 stays consistent throughout and is similar to Part 5's. The characters are still muscular which includes the stands. And, as always, Araki enjoys his gore so there's plenty of blood shed. What stood out to me the most, though, is that Araki draws a lot of...strange looking characters in Stone Ocean. I'm not talking about the stands (which have always been strange), but the people there almost look like aliens sometimes.


Character: 8
Jolyne is the first and only Jojo to date which may throw some people off for different reasons. Jolyne is a complex character who can show femininity but can beat the crap out of anyone who gets in her way. Araki decided to give readers a bit of her background as well as making it clear how she felt about her father, other characters, and how other characters saw her throughout the course of the manga. Though her character, as well as other characters, felt unexplored in certain areas she still feels decently established.

The important characters are all given backgrounds when needed which helps the reader empathize with their situation. In fact, the backgrounds of some characters are largely important to the main plot of the story (as I mentioned before Araki winds together these characters effectively). However, Araki's writing is flawed and he often writes retcons (watch for Annasui's introduction). These did not interfere with the enjoyment of the story as a whole though.

Enjoyment: 9
I really enjoyed Stone Ocean. I wrote about the lack of strong female leads in comparison to the male leads in the series and someone had suggested I read this part since the main character was female. She did not disappoint me at all. I fell in love with the majority of the characters quickly (which led to some major heart breaking later on) and the weight of the background stories/main story still sits heavily in me today.

Overall: 8/10! I absolutely recommend anyone who enjoyed other parts of JJBA to read it as well as anyone into action and an amazing main character!

Not sure why I haven't heard of JJBA until very recently, but I watched the new anime for the first season and decided to try out the manga so I started with part 3 and, let me tell you, it was one hell of a ride.

You should know this already (if you don't then here it is), but here's a quick brush up on what JJBA is. It's a manga that has been around for an extremely long time and is very popular. It contains lots of action, gore/blood shed, super bulked up men, and each protag has the nickname "Jojo" hence why it's called ... Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

This particular part of the long running series was truly an adventure. The story spans about 50 days and the group of heroes on this journey must reach the ultimate antagonist at the end or else the protag's, Jotaro Kujo, mother will die. While most of the story seems to be filled with meaningless encounters, these are still very much entertaining. It's not a super fast paced story, but it runs well enough and is clear in its intentions through and through. I give story an 8.

Now, many people are put off by the art style in JJBA. Personally, I was drawn in by its art style because I assumed this series was going to be funny and that the bara men were going to add to the comedy. I found the art style fairly consistent and I still liked it even if it didn't fit normal standards. I give art an 8.

On to characters. One of my issues with JJBA is the lack of strong female characters. From Part 1 to 3 most of the female characters were either the potential love interests or the family members who generally didn't play a huge part in the adventure. However, despite this I found most of the characters to be interesting and enjoyable since they're filled to the brim with their own quirks and are all pretty easy to grow fond of. For example, at first I felt neutral about all the characters that I didn't know yet. There was nothing about their appearances that made me like them immediately, but as I read on I began to appreciate all of them a lot more which made major losses really hard for me. Even if you don't feel the same way I do you'll at least enjoy their reactions and interactions throughout the story since dialogue can be extremely funny. I give characters a 9.

Enjoyment? Did I enjoy JJBA part 3? Hell yes. It was jam packed full of comedy, great characters, an interesting story, and good art. I have be recommending the entire series to many of my friends since I started reading Part 3. I think Stardust Crusaders really sold this entire series to me. I enjoyed it. 10/10.

Overall I give it a 9. It's not the BEST manga out there, but it sure as hell is one of the better ones.

Shingeki no Kyojin's reviews are not at all consistent. Depending on who you ask they will either love the series or absolutely hate it, so if you're going to take anything from my review it's that you should try it for yourself.

Getting to the actual review, now: I give the entire first season of this anime a 7 and honestly feel like a 7 is what it deserved.

Why?

First off, the pacing. SNK is one of the slowest animes I have ever experienced. Its arcs span an unnecessarily long amount of episodes and barely get the story that far in the end. Its pacing was ... completely horrible considering it got 25 episodes. I'm guessing this is because the manga isn't finished which is completely understandable. However, by the end there were no plans to make a second season and the anime viewers were left incredibly confused and full of questions (then they turned to the manga where they were left were even more questions).

Second off, inaccuracy. One of the biggest issues manga readers had with this anime were the inaccuracies (mostly around the end of the anime) when it came to comparing the manga and anime. I know what you're thinking now, "Animes can take different turns! Who cares!" But, said inaccuracies even angered the original creator Hajime Isayama so you know that these will probably end up ruining major events or character development later on.

Now let's get to the anime itself. The story? While interesting, like I said before, it has very slow pacing and will barely get watchers anywhere. Not at all a good standalone anime and it would probably be better as one of the bulky animes with 100+ episodes. It does a good job getting new readers for Isayama's manga though. I give it all a 7.

Art? While it looks strange with its thick lines initially, the art style grows on you. The animation and art in general aren't disappointing in the least and it's almost surprising finding such a popular anime without girls with huge boobs and people with strange hair. I give it a 9.

The background music and the voice acting (Japanese) were all great to me. I don't like the English dub (or what I heard of it) so much, but it's not exactly "horrible". The background music added perfectly to the feel of the rash and intense situations. I especially enjoyed the openings and the ending song gives it a strange, nostalgic, eerie feel that I also enjoy. I give sound a 9.

Character. There are so many characters in SNK and character deaths come easily because of it. Eren Jaeger is as intense, angry, determined, and merciless as the series is and I think he makes a pretty decent main character. However, the girl who often follows beside him, Mikasa Ackerman, is barely given an explanation for why she is so attached to him and her background and Eren's background feel very unexplored in the anime and I hope they are explained more in the manga or the second season. Armin, who is the third main character, doesn't really make an interesting main character at all. In fact, I'm so unsure of why he's considered a main character at all (besides being Eren and Mikasa's friend) and understand why he's always switched out for Levi in promo art and merchandise. I can only hope that he does some major development later on because he seems like he could be very interesting. I give character a 7.

And lastly, did I enjoy SNK? It was long. It was long and I hated how long and slow it was (though I did expect them to take more time on an arc that luckily lasted only around 3 episodes or so) which really killed it for me and how it just ended. The ending was strange and unfulfilling because instead of solving a HUGE issue/mystery in the series it somewhat solved a new one they found in the last arc. However, I had people to talk to about the anime while it was ongoing so that kept me entertained waiting for the new episode so I could say that I did enjoy it. Did I enjoy it enough to recommend it? Well, I'd only recommend this to someone who was new to anime. Mostly because of the mixed feelings that many people have with SNK and whether or not it is a quality anime, and also the fact that it's very popular and well known so anyone who is experienced with anime has probably heard of it and can make their own decision to take part in it. I don't believe everyone should experience this if they feel like they wouldn't enjoy it.

When this anime came out many people were drawn to it. Everyone was raving about it and saying, "WHY HASN'T ANYONE MADE A MAGICAL GIRL ANIME LIKE THIS BEFORE?" The answer is simple. Because the point of magical girl animes is to empower girls and Madoka Magica is basically supposed to be the opposite because it's a seinen manga/anime. I think many of us seem to forget that Madoka Magica is of the seinen genre and not at all written for teenage girls which is why it's so dark in plot. You can interpret the fact it is of this genre in a couple of ... ways: it's dark to attract the male audience who is shunned from magical girl animes (supposedly) OR because some men in Japan enjoy watching girls suffer.

HOWEVER, ignoring this fact Madoka Magica can actually be quite enjoyable to everyone because people can choose to ignore its origins and the darker side of Madoka Magica to take something good from it. And even if you don't care about any of this crap Madoka Magica is still very interesting and well put together for a 13 episode series.

You follow Madoka Kaname who is just an ~ordinary~ 8th grader and her friend Sayaka Miki in the beginning. Sayaka and Madoka meet this cat-bunny alien called Kyuubey who tells them to make a contract with him for in exchange they get one wish and after that they have to become magical girls and fight witches. This alone is already somewhat interesting despite being the premise for most magical girl animes (this other being finds some 8th grades, makes them magical girls, and then the rest is fighting the bad guys of the show, yada yada yada) and the way the rest of the show plays out is actually very human which is why I was saying you can choose to ignore the bad aspects you may find to pull out some good lessons. I don't want to spoil the rest of this great anime for you at all so all I have to say is to try it out (plus it's so short, why wouldn't you?).

As for the other aspects of the show, art is pretty great. You'll find it to be unique and interesting (especially the witches) despite how strange the characters might look in the beginning (well, at least I thought they were weird looking). The sound (music) is performed mainly by a band called Kalafina and it's just beautiful. The show really relies on the characters for the most part and their clashes and their friendships and in general, relationships so the characters are well established and interesting. As for enjoyment, like I said before, I can say that the majority of people coming across this anime will enjoy it. It's well known and I don't know many people who haven't at least heard of it. Overall, I'll give this anime a 9 and I recommend you go watch it.

Now, you can read the other reviews written by reviewers who have actually contemplated this anime as a whole for at least more than 10 minutes and they will give you a much better review on how Mawaru will make you feel. I'm using this review to tell you how I felt.

I'm hesitant on writing this review because, like Utena, I feel like my review won't be worthy of such an astounding anime. I just finished this anime minutes ago and I really don't feel like this review will be sufficient enough, but I feel the need to write it now.

When I was ... recommended this anime I was told that the director is the same from Revolutionary Girl Utena (another amazing anime that I love) and that this anime was its "spiritual sequel" (I still really don't fully understand what that means) and that the anime deals with a lot of heavy topics like incest and terrorism. All of these were true.

Mawaru Penguindrum is a well written anime full of symbolism. The first half may catch many of you off guard like it did with me. I assumed this anime was going to be a short ride into a "quirky" anime character's life like with most animes and end on a note that was supposed to be deep or fulfilling somehow, but I was so so so so so wrong. Mawaru takes slight turns into darkness here and there in the first half, but it really changes in the second half. It's like a whole new anime and all the silliness we didn't really understand initially is woven together. Not a single part of the 24 episodes is wasted.

I never hated any of the characters in the end. Even during the anime I didn't hate them. Mawaru really takes time to let you get to know characters and gives you a chance to like them. They aren't just some crazy evil antagonist, they're a person. They aren't some ridiculously inspiring protagonist, they're a person. They're all people that are fighting for what they love and what they believe in; as simple and familiar as that might sound that gets easily forgotten, especially for the antagonists in stories.

Long story short, Mawaru Penguindrum is not what it seems. It's so much more and it makes you remember it and think about it long after. The characters are easy to like and the art and animation is obviously great. You will enjoy it. You will find it outstanding. Please watch this anime at least before you die.

Also as a recommendation anime that you probably already saw coming: Revolutionary Girl Utena. The two go together well and have similar themes. As one of the people who told me to watch Mawaru said, Mawaru Penguindrum is Utena's "spiritual sequel".

If you're not going to read the rest of the review please read this:

Kill La Kill contains incestual rape, girls in skimpy battle outfits (this can either be extremely uncomfortable for you or pleasing depending on who you are), and a somewhat lacking motive and back story for its main antagonist. The art is similar to the popular anime Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann and will not fail any old fans of that anime. The music is well done and extremely enjoyable since it's mainly orchestral and fits the mood well. The characters are, for the most part, intriguing and entertaining. The story is interesting ... enough for me to be thoroughly invested in the last couple episodes. Would I suggest this to anyone? Yes, but with warnings for everything I believe would be an issue for them that show up in the show.

Main Review:

As someone who finds out about anime from a certain blogging site (tumblr) I end up missing out on seeing a lot of great animes while they were airing (the anime I'm specifically talking about is Gurren Lagann), but that's not the case with Kill La Kill. I'm sure many of you are probably making faces or sounds of disgust after seeing that I come from that site considering that most of the internet and world seems to dislike tumblr as a whole (of which I understand), but the people on this site often remind you of certain human decencies when they point out the social issues that a show/movie/person/song/etc. may have or cause. Such is the case with KLK.

The following review will contain some spoilers. Especially and mostly for the first episode of the anime. Nothing huge will be revealed.

Kill La Kill initially pulled me in with images of the great and powerful Satsuki Kiryuin when I saw her in photosets on tumblr. I really enjoy strong female characters so it's obvious why I was interested in her, but then I saw Ryuko who was also obviously fearsome (she bit into a lemon VOLUNTARILY in, like, the first episode and didn't even cringe) and met Mako who I realized later was brave and wonderful in her own way and felt just really welcomed to this anime.

However, that's not the only thing that makes this anime great in the beginning, it's also the art (familiar to TTGL fans) and....the music. As a huge fan of orchestral music words cannot explain how much I enjoyed the soundtrack. Honestly, the music constantly fits the environment and is easily recognizable because it's just so thrilling and well composed. Check out KLK for its art and its music if anything.

So anyway, getting back to when I was talking about how I found out about this anime on tumblr, because that's important to this review. Like I said before tumblr often reminds you of certain human decencies by pointing out anything problematic in people, places, things, etc. and it did that with KLK. Many people were drawn into watching KLK because many people were huge fans of TTGL, but dropped the show after a few episodes because it made them uncomfortable. That being said, many people kept watching the show for a couple key elements: Gamagori/Mako and the fight scenes (which were interesting and...mostly well animated). So you're probably asking why they were uncomfortable. Well without spoiling too much I'll tell you...

When Ryuko finds Senketsu she bleeds on him causing him to force himself onto her. Many people took offense to this because it could be taking as a metaphor for sexual assault. Apparently the writers of the show tried to defend themselves by saying it was just her trying to get over her body image as she was a teenage girl and many teenage girls battle that, but.....Ryuko doesn't really fight with body image more than the average person who just feels embarrassed to go out in a skimpy outfit because...that's not their thing. They really try to emphasize this with Mako's "hallelujah" rants especially when she tells Ryuko not be afraid because her body is really hot and she's "got a great rack", but, again, Ryuko doesn't really fight with body image it's more like she has to overcome her fear so she won't "lose her way" and can accomplish her goals.

Another issue, the skimpy battle outfits. Okay, seriously who would go into battle wearing one of those godrobes? It's like playing a video game where the female characters are all there to just be attractive and please the male audience. I know that the sexual element of the show is there partially for a joke, but seriously? Essentially, you learn in the show that the godrobes only cover a small amount of the body and do that for a specific reason (a reason that I thought was extremely flimsy because of the amount of fabric on their arms. I don't want to spoil you, but seriously if you defend that reason just look at their goddamn arms and think about how much of that could be covering them where the wearer would want it) so that's why they're in such skimpy outfits.

And then one of the biggest issues, the one that made everyone stop watching this show: incest and rape. Incestual rape may be a better way to define it. It was something they didn't need to add in the show at all. It was tasteless and disgusting. I think it was supposed to make you really see how evil the character who was doing it really was, but the way they carried out the scenes (actually it's just this particular scene) was really horrible and I have mixed feelings about it. It really doesn't get worse than this.

And finally the last thing I want to talk about here is the story. Which I felt was interesting, but lacking in some part. Particularly motive and back story for the main antagonist which was basically nonexistent. Instead of the filler episodes KLK had midway through the series I wished they would have taken that time to really make this series whole. Because of this, KLK felt like it was being written as it moved on. I mean, it didn't have a manga until after the anime was created so it wasn't basing itself off of anything. But, the revenge story was interesting and the way they wrote it and the show's characters kept me interested until the end.