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The Night Before the Tricornered Window Destiny was an extremely pleasant surprise. I am a big fan of BL anime, and went into this not expecting very much from the story or characters. A lot of BL anime are watered down yaoi, and tend to have a very weak story that mostly hinges upon angst between the main characters.

This show was an exception to that generalization. The story is refreshing and unique, centering on the occult and mediums and the powers they possess. The entire cast is well done and well-rounded, making the show as well as the ending feel fulfilling and worthwhile.

Yes, ... there are some BL moments, mostly in the beginning. And while the first episode really lays the BL on thick, the show and the main characters really are more about bonding and understanding each other's character, rather than lust or attraction. It was really very refreshing.

The animation style was definitely a call-back to older anime, and had a particularly 90's feel to it. It wasn't low-budget, but it didn't have any of the really stunning animation that the big budget shows get. That being said, I thought the animation was consistent and didn't take away from the story at all.

Overall, I think this show deserves a much higher rating. The story is very interesting and has a great ending, and the characters are really enjoyable to watch. I would highly recommend this show, especially to BL fans as it has the elements but uses them in a more fulfilling way than other shows!

This was undoubtedly a beautiful movie. The art and music were gorgeous and the story was intriguing to say the least. However it definitely fell short in a few areas that were vital and therefore earned a lower score from me.

Story: The story for Sayonara no Asa was original, intriguing, and unique. However, there were quite a few moments throughout the movie that felt disjointed and awkward. I'm not sure if it was a pacing problem, but perhaps this story could have been executed better in the series format rather than a movie. There were also a lot of scenes that had little to ... no explanation, and left me as a viewer with questions that were never addressed or answered, which was very frustrating.

Art: This is where Sayonara no Asa really, really excelled. The art was absolutely gorgeous! Particularly the scenery, which was as beautiful as a painting and such a joy to look at. The character designs were fitting for the mood of the story, from the colors to the wide shots, everything looked amazing.

Sound: The music was beautiful and fitting for the movie, and while it was a soundtrack I wouldn't necessarily want to download, it was perfectly suited and moving in all the right places. However, I had to take an additional point off for that one awful "mama" moment (you'll know what I'm talking about when you watch it, it's hard to miss).

Character: This category also fell short for me. I feel that there was a lot of character development missing from most of the main characters. The other Iorphs felt half-formed, and even Ariel could have used more character development. The one character that felt fully fleshed out was Makia (which is how her name should have been spelled).

Because of some of these faults, my enjoyment was probably a 7 out of 10.

Overall, this is a beautiful movie, and was not at all what I expected. I think the best part of the movie was the care it took to show just how special mothers are - I loved how the story takes care to show how hard it can be to be a mother, and how amazing that person can be in your life. This movie felt like a tribute to the special bond between a mother and child, and that was the most moving aspect of the whole thing.

K: Return of Kings is the final installment of the K: Project Series. This is a pretty typical shounen anime, but I love shounen anime, so I may be a bit biased here.

(This is a no spoilers review)

Story:

Return of Kings picks up where Missing Kings (the movie) left off, with Kuro and Neko waiting/searching for Shiro. The main antogonist of this season is the Green King, and Shiro and the gang will have to pull out all the stops in order to match the super powerful Green King. The story seemlessly continues on the path the last two installments began, and the main plot ... of this season is fully thought out and well rounded.

Art:

Return of Kings has absolutely breathtaking art. All the character designs and scenery from the first two series is amped up and pushed to the limit, producing gorgeous fight scenes that literally take your breath away. The colors and fluidity of animation are truly awesome. This category gets a 10.

Sound:

Another category that wins a 10 from me. The last two installments had pretty good music and sound, but Return of Kings takes this to a whole new level. The "jazzy" feeling that I disliked in the first series has been replaced by upbeat, techno sounding music that really helped each scene. The fight scenes feel particularly fresh and engaging.

Character:

This show has A LOT of characters, but one of the things K is so good at is making you care about most, if not all of them. Each character is given enough screen time to feel fleshed out. Our main characters were of course given the most screen time, but not quite as much as I would have liked - I would have liked to have seen a lot more of Shiro and Kuro.

TDLR::
Overall I really enjoyed Return of Kings. The story is well rounded, the characters fleshed out, the music and art are superb, and the show concludes nicely. If you are a fan of K, you will not be disappointed with this second series and with how it ends.

Ok, let's not kid ourselves here: this anime is so strongly bordering on a hentai that it probably should be included on hentai sites. On MAL it is listed as R+ for "mild nudity" and while it's true that you only "see" some boobs throughout the show, they use everything and anything as innuendo for full on sex.

Now that that's out of the way, lets continue. (Mild spoilers ahead)

Story:

This show is brazen, crass, and eyebrow raising, but it's overall message is one I actually agree with; you cannot legislate morality. And, in fact, if you try to force people to be "moral" you really ... only do more harm than good. This is true of any country and culture. Sex is a healthy part of society, and a healthy part of relationships. If you cannot even speak of such things, you are going to create ignorant citizens that eventually do those "things" anyway without full knowledge of the consequences of such actions.

That being said, this show is a comedy, so although this is a very serious issue, it is never really explored all that thoroughly. Instead the show focuses on "dirty jokes." In fact, that is what they should have named the show, because honestly that is the main gist of every episode (I know dirty jokes is in the title, I mean it should be called only that). And a lot of the jokes were funny, but some definitely fell flat. The main "thrust" of the show was definitely Okuma, who made even the most inappropriate moments feel funny as the character who is the most normal (I use that term loosely). The story never really goes anywhere, it just sort of circles around the main point and throws in a ton of dirty jokes.

Characters:

The characters were the shining stars of the show, each of them unique and the voice actors did them justice. My favorites were Okuma and our leading lady Ayame. It was somewhat refreshing to have the female characters be the most lewd, as it's usually the other way around, although sometimes their actions bordered on "too far" (if you watch you will know WHO I mean here).

The Art was nice, nothing extraordinary, but still pleasing to the eye.

Sound was nothing special.

Overall I did enjoy this show, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends. It was very funny at times, but the overall feeling of "hentai" sometimes made it uncomfortable.

What an amazing, exciting, and shockingly original anime! Well rounded and done extremely well, I highly recommend Koutetsujou no Kabaneri for anyone who is a fan of zombies and thrillers.

Story: 9
As I said, this was a very original anime, especially the story. We don't see many zombie anime's, and the ones we do see tend to be slice-of-life or, oddly, romantic. I can only think of 1 or 2 other zombie anime, and neither one even came close to this. Exciting and adrenaline-pumping action, you really feel invested in the story and the characters.

Art: 9
Weirdly, this anime has a sort ... of throwback type of art, reminiscent of anime in the 90's and early 2000's. But what can I say... It works. The art is unique but beautiful, and each character is unique and easy to remember. I loved the designs and the outfits of the female characters in particular.

Sound: 9
The music is perfectly fitted to the intense action sequences as well as the more tender moments, and can even be creepy and scifi-sounding at all the right parts. The seiyuu's did a great job creating memorable characters as well.

Character: 9
I fell in love with Mumei in the last scene of the first episode (it's an epic moment, so I won't spoil it for you). Ikoma is also a character you really root for (although I wasn't particularly fond of his hair). You grow to love some of the side characters as well - all of them are really well done.

Enjoyment: 9
I really recommend binge-watching this anime. It is so intense and full of adrenaline pumping moments that keep you on the edge of your seat, and so if you stop watching after each episode it's sort of like jumping off the ride right before you get to the best part.

Overall: 9
I highly recommend Koutetsujou no Kabaneri. In a world full of boring, same-same anime's with cliched overused plot devices and silly tropes, Kabaneri is wholly original and thrilling.
I just really hope there will be a second season that will explain some of our lingering questions (like the origin of the Kabane!!)

Wow, what to say about this final installment of the Boukoku no Akito OVA's?

I think the long and short of it is that these OVA's were extremely disappointing. This one in particular. I feel like I waited for three years to see where this story went, only to be left with a big huge steaming pile of crap.

The first two OVA's were great. I loved the characters and potential storylines. Then the third OVA was a bit rushed and all over the place. The fourth was incredibly rushed and left a lot of open-ended questions and lots of confusion.

Finally we ... get to this fifth and final OVA. And I felt completely let down. First off, I watched a really bad SUB, that even with my limited Japanese, I could tell that a lot of the meaning was mistranslated. So the bigger concepts and final wrap ups were ultra confusing.

That being said, while a better SUB would have helped, this last OVA was a random, rushed, ridiculous mess that as a major CODE GEASS fan, left me feeling insulted.

There was so much potential in the first OVA! Instead, absolutely nothing was resolved.

Here is my breakdown:

Story: CRAP. Complete and utter crap. I think that my three year old cousin could write a better story. Nothing made sense, no questions were answered, no plot lines were resolved.

Art: This is the only part of the OVA's that really left any impression. Beautiful background art, lovely character designs, pleasing color palette. I just wish more detail had been put into some of the fight scenes.

Sound: Honestly the music in these OVA's is subpar at best, and if I am being honest, I really hated it. I really, really, really dislike jazz music, and I just cannot understand why you would layer intense jazz overtop of fight scenes??? where is the sense in that? It actually makes the fights seem ridiculous and fake.

Character: (mild spoilers here) What a waste. Some great characters were absolutely wasted with the story line. Rushed character development made a lot of the character interactions unbelievable. Akito was so cold and creepy and unapproachable at the beginning of the OVA's, which made him interesting and mysterious. Then at the halfway point he all of the sudden cares a lot about all of his comrades? And they are shouting ridiculously at him through most of this last OVA? Just... weird and disappointing.

Enjoyment: Do I even need to answer this? Fine, I hated it and was totally disappointed.

Overall: Okay, so in summary, I am a huge Code Geass fan. Like, I have watched the whole series at least 3 times. Lelouch is one of my favorite anime male characters of all time. So if you are a huge fan, don't mar the perfection of the TV series by watching these OVA's.

I feel it is only fair to write a review of an anime I initially dropped because I thought it was so bad.

When this anime first aired I watched up to episode 3, then dropped it when they revealed the main characters "super-power" because it was so cliched. Then I decided to re-watch a few weeks ago and boy am I glad I did.

So here's the rundown. This is a harem anime. Usually I dislike harem anime's, especially when they use dumb cliches like 'hand on the boob' on the first episode, or when the main guy is always somehow seeing the ... girls panties and then making excuses while blushing intensely.

So what makes this anime different?

The main character. He owns that he is a pervert, and expresses a desire to sleep with every beautiful girl he sees. As you do. Now is this creepy? Yeah, but the way he owns it somehow makes it okay. Also, the girls are, for the most part, totally okay with it. In fact, there are only 2 girls that do the typical screeching-punch/slap thing when the guy touches their boobs or sees them naked. The rest are like, okay I think you are hot/awesome and I'm interested.

Story: 7
Good bordering on very good. I feel like the series has a lot of potential, and I am hoping a second season will wrap everything up. Is everything explained perfectly? Nope, but thats okay, I feel like you get just enough of a taste to be on board and feel like you are invested.

Art: 7
Nothing special but not too shabby either. Lots of boobs and cleavage, as you would expect with this sort of anime.

Sound: 10
This really stood out to me. A beautiful OST accompanied this anime, with tracks that perfectly matched with scenes and action. Was creepy at the appropriate times and beautiful at others. Also the voice actors did a great job.

Character: 9
Also a stand out category. Each girl is totally different, which is somewhat unique in a harem situation. By the end of the season you feel like you know each character and will no doubt have favorites (mine was the ninja!)

Enjoyment: 9
I really enjoyed this anime. I'm actually not sure why because like I said, I don't typically watch harem anime's, and when I do I usually don't enjoy them that much. But I think the great characters and beautiful OST really helped a lot.

Overall: 7
I feel like I should give this an 8, but it really isn't that good of a series, I just happened to enjoy it a lot. I think that if you give harem's a chance and like fantasy/magic anime, you will probably like this show.

Honestly I have no idea how anyone could give this show a score above a 5. Typically I do not even finish shows that I deem a 5 or lower, but for some reason I kept on hoping it would get better.

Nope.

TDLR: Please do not waste your time watching this anime. It is mediocre at BEST.

Story: 3
Lets be honest: The premise is stupid. A guy decides to drop everything to open a cake shop in order to one day catch the man who kidnapped him because the man made him eat cake every day. However, even with such a dumb premise, ... there can often be other good qualities or even side stories that make up for this (like romance!). However nothing saved the story. There were no romance stories, no resolution at the end of the 12 dull episodes, nothing. Just terrible all around.

Art: 3
Most of the time if an anime has really terrible art, I won't watch. But often yaoi or shonen ai stories get shafted with an animation budget, so I will give them a break. But this turned out not to even be that. One of the characters is gay, another is bi (maybe?), but there are no romance stories, so nothing to justify the terrible art. The characters often do that thing where they bubble out into cartoon versions of themselves for comedy effect, but it does it way to often and is obviously just a way to use less detailed animation for a majority of the series. Also the backgrounds???? So horrible.

Sound:3
Just okay. Honestly I can't even remember what the music was like, thats how boring it was. The voice actors did a decent job I guess, but again, nothing memorable. I certainly wasn't looking them up afterwards to see the other work they have done.

Character: 5
They did a decent job of outlining each main character and providing some background. But overall I failed to connect or really care about any of them. Again, poor art did not help.

Enjoyment: 4
I was struggling to finish all 12 episodes. I thought about quitting on ep 3, but then I thought wait maybe at least there will be a resolution to the kidnapping story. NOPE.

Overall: 4
And I am being generous with the 4. Awful anime. Don't waste your time.

So I am not quite sure why some people are not so happy with this series. I thought it was very sweet and enjoyable, and I really really liked it.

Story:
While the story was not an overarching plot-line, nor was it extremely deep, it was very enjoyable. This series was more of a rom-com than anything else, but it definitely had some drama to it, and the supernatural aspect of it actually worked to enhance the story overall.

Art:
Nothing special or extraordinary in the art department, but the series had beautiful, bright colors, and the characters were unique and beautifully drawn. The art ... is a teeny bit "bishie" but it works quite well, no complaints here.
(as a side note, while there isn't a TON of fan service, there are definitely a few scenes that are NSFW)

Sound:
The soundtrack wasn't too memorable, but there were a few pieces that were beautiful and added to certain scenes.

Character:
This is where the series really shone for me. I was able to connect and related to Ririchiyo and her social awkwardness and inability to connect with people due to a dark childhood. Miketsukami on the other hand is a bit harder to get a read on at first. He seems slightly perverted and is definitely obsessed with Ririchiyo, but we don't really know why until the last few episodes. But you can't help but like him and have a soft spot for his kindness towards Ririchiyo. By the end of the series the character development is phenomenal (especially for Ririchiyo). I ended up loving both Ririchiyo and Miketsukami, and the side characters are lovely and memorable as well. The side characters have a ton of diversity as well: there is a Trans character, two gay characters, and lots of different family situations, which is very impressive and definitely added to my enjoyment.

Overall:
Overall I enjoyed this series a lot. I thought the story was sweet and the characters are wonderful to watch.