Prodigies In Another World, still couldn't escape the Fan service.

Look at this lovely Tea Set! Doesn't it just absolutely follow naturally after
THREE MINUTES OF FAN SERVICE?

Last Seen: Episode 9


WHO thought that three uninterrupted minutes of Massage Room Fan Service was a good idea?
Who?

More importantly, why was there no one available to stop them?


Specifically, it was three minutes and fifteen seconds. There were literally already comments complaining about that on Crunchyroll, which is both simultaneously surprising, and highly validating for me. I guess I just might not be some screaming prudish idiot who lives under a rock yelling at the young whipper snappers to stop being so lewd, because back in my day and yadda yadda.

I hereby bet 5 imaginary dollars that someone, somewhere, was watching this episode and when someone walked into the room and saw literally any segment of that scene, asked them why they were watching Hentai Porn. Clearly, there's a lot of very happy artists and animators over in japan over this mythical "boobs and nipples are not explicit content anymore" or whatever I keep hearing rumors of every now and again.. and also see ever more evidence of as time passes. It must have been a pretty big thing to some parts of the internet, for it to have made its way through the rock I live under. Ultimately, I don't give any shits at all though.

Anywho, to get back to an actual point.
I hereby officially declare this show

Dead to Me.

August of 2018 was the last time I made a post that was not either: a show end, new show post, or bulk new and ending shows post. That was so long ago I had to look it up to remember if I had any formatting quirks for how I write off-the-cuff posts.

To be perfectly clear, this show isn't bad ... I guess. It's not going to blow anyone out of the park with some amazing or fascinating new development, but it's not a bad way to kill time. It certainly isn't a "Phantom World" that's going to make you wish you could have back all the time it just wasted to no good effect.

It's just...I remember talking recently in several posts about how important it is to properly frame your show in the first episode so your audience knows what to expect. I didn't quite expect for that to be so blatantly accepted by a studio. Remember the Nursing Scene in the first episode of this show? Yeah, don't just sweep that under the rug like I did, it was actually, like everything else in that first episode, 100% a sample of what you can expect to turn up in this show later. Actually, while I'm at it, I'm just going to go out of my way to do something a bit silly and present this show with a most prestigious award for

Best First Episode Presentation.

There's just literally no other way to describe it. That first episode is literally ALL you need, to know everything there is to know about what this show is like, and what it's going to do. Again, the entire duration of this 3 minutes of Fan Service was played very level headed, and at the end they even reveal it's all for the sake of a punchline!

Even though you know it's Fan Service, it's not acting like fan service and quite frankly...the longer it dragged on the more I wanted them to just kill me or someone in the room or literally anything to make it bloody stop. It's like someone's trying to tell you a joke, and it's already flopped in the first two seconds, but they just keep going for 10 minutes because they're so sure it's amazing and you're going to be on the floor rolling, and you just want to hang yourself to make the cringing stop because you are

dying on the inside.

Anywho, since "Dead to Me" is a fresh state of affairs, let me explain. Unless this show pulls a whale of a surprise out of its arse, I'm not going to bother writing any more posts about it, even the end post. I'm too much of a freak when it comes to patience for anyone to listen and wait for me to say "I dropped a show". At this point though, I highly doubt Prodigies in Another World has got anything else left to show us that we can't already anticipate. After all, they gave us a sample of literally all of it in the first episode, if you just pay close enough attention.

Probably the only thing that will get me to make another post is if they actually have some characters fuck in the show or something.

.
.
.


(by all that is good, please...no. Just No. Don't make me a Prophet)

[Ended] No Game No Life

Let's begin the game!

A wild ride, from start to finish.

Pros: Story. Hands-down.
-Strong core plot, plus well fleshed out Story
-Highly individual characters, with strong motivations
-A vibrant world that we only scratch the surface of
-A unique and interesting color scheme

Cons: A bit difficult to step up to, and immerse in on Paper
-The summary's, even the best of them, cannot properly explain without spoiling. This is a hard show to explain and sell to people, because of how interwoven all the plot elements are, and especially for the central characters being shut-in gamers, most people wouldn't listen after that
-The color in this anime is...unique. Quite glaring and takes getting used to, could be a turn off for some
-Pure Fantasy, curbed to fuel a human-interest story. That could easily annoy either side; People here for the fantasy and surreal, and people here for the Dramatic Human-Interest. Each is tied into the other, so people who like their shows solidly grounded in realism, or completely light-hearted and whimsically fantastic may be annoyed.

My Opinion: This goes into my Glory section on my list. I keep a record of everything I've ever watched, and am watching, so that if something pops into my head, I can go find its name. I may never forget a story or plot after finishing it, but I rarely remember names. The Glory section is the top anime I've ever watched, the first of my recommendations to anyone looking for something to watch.
Counter to its appearance as a Magically Fantastical show, No Game No Life is centrally a Human-Interest driven show. From start to finish, the Characters and the plot they drive are what you're here to see, the fantastical colors and animation simply bring it to life. After having two...maybe three, curse my vague memory, anime recently promise a Second season right on the end of their first, I was greatly pained to not have that same promise for No Game No Life. This story isn't done yet, and I want the rest of it dammit! Even if the unfinished part is wholesome and complete within itself, who wouldn't want to complete the puzzle?

Impartial Judgement: Don't be put off by the summary description that the main characters are shut-in gamers, after establishing that as a character element, they quite literally throw them out of that trope into the middle of the story's new world. After that, you have to adapt to the glaring rainbow colors of the animation, while still soaking in the major plot elements that they casually drop here and there near the road. No Game No Life is a show that begs being paid attention to, down the the tiny details, and I'm informed that some people don't like that kind of show, and prefer something they can watch more casually. There's enough spontaneous vibrancy in the various scenarios Sora and Shiro get into on their path through the new world they land in, that it keeps the blood pumping. They don't drown you in important things, but it definitely adds to the shows appeal if you pick up on them.

All having been said and done, this show keeps:

Zetro's Must Watch of the Season Award
with an honorable mention to its Plot and Story. I'm tempted to give the show an award additionally for its Plot, but it is technically incomplete. The Story is a closer runner, because the story completes with the end of the anime, even though the Plot continues on past that...still, I'm not inclined to give an award to something incomplete. If this show ever gets a second season, it will be hard pressed not to receive an Award from me for Best Plot.

No Game No Life: You have no right to ignore this show. None. It has been revoked.

Last Seen: Episode 8

I have, hereby from this date, revoked your right to ignore this show. If you have not yet begun to watch this show, it is now a criminal offense. Your right to ignore it will not be restored until a future point designated at this time as the termination of the show's story.

Get out of here, and go watch it. Right now.

I normally keep a broad spectrum of viewer interest when I watch anime, well before I started substituting for Evil Cat here on his blog. That is to say, I don't just watch for my own enjoyment, I also watch with the intent to be aware of what other people would like, that I don't. This started because I have to work extraordinarily hard where I live, to get anyone to so much as listen to the rest of the sentence when I mention anime, let alone listening to me talk about it, Consider watching it, and putting up with subtitles.
I got even better at it when I was exposed, via Extra Creditz(now based on youtube), to the idea of 'Playing from a Developer's Perspective' when playing a video game. When I started writing in earnest here on the blog, my brain clicked the two into a unified entity, plus one: 'Watching from an Anime Studio's Perspective', and 'Watching from Someone Else's Perspective'.
I vaguely alluded to this when I briefly mentioned that writing for the blog has made me watch anime in a new way, and that I was enjoying it.

I'm going to get to the point now. No Game No Life is a beautifully woven masterpiece. There's a plethora of things on display, and a great deal of quality being crammed into each part. Is there something for everyone in here? No. Is what's there so powerfully woven that everyone should appreciate it? Yes.
I want to step back a moment and point out the should in that sentence. I haven't sacrificed my awareness on the altar of enthusiasm just yet. People are prone to obsession over tiny details. We all have likely met, or know, at least one of these people.
The "What?! Her hair is pink?! Fuck this show, I have better things to do" kind of people.
The people that inflate a microbial element and make it the defining element, and then judge by it. My example is simple, the most insufferable part is when they seize on an element that is relatively significant, but not a core element.
To place a fitting example: when I mentioned that I hadn't placed much interest in this show from reading summaries, because it mentioned the main characters being NEET shut-ins. No one is immune to this kind of discrimination against things and people, myself included. Being self-aware is the only counter measure, such as my policy these days to never judge by the shitty summaries, and give every show at least a one episode chance if I have the time.

If someone proves to me at any point that this show is not a result of the story creator fully planning it out before they started writing it, I will put my right foot in my mouth and leave it there for a full minute. This shows tendency to drop tiny hints/clues/foreshadowing and then bring it fully to bare to smack us upside the head with it is absoballylutely redonkulous. I've only profited trying to match wits with it once so far, when the show revealed how Sora contacted the Eastern Ambassador. That's the only time I saw it coming. Eight episodes in, I've won only once. This is not a world I would want to compete in, I'd be a slave in two games.

The only thing that will knock this show off its high-seat from here on out for me, is whether or not the anime gets cut short when the actual story continues. That's about all I can think of that would ruin it. Well, that and some people may find the shows art style hard to put up with. I personally got to liking it by episode 2, after thinking it was really weird throughout episode 1.

I hereby Redact from Brynhildr and grant to No Game no Life:

Zetro's Must Watch of the Season Award

and to underline it, I wish to point out that the website I read Brynhildr's manga from suddenly surged in about 50 translated chapters, putting the Manga's story well ahead of the anime. I literally know how Brynhildr will end, and have no clue how No Game No Life will end, but I am still granting this Award to it.
The two (I believe)share the same methodology for their plots, having them fully constructed from the start and then filling in details as they go. Brynhildr opened the manga with a foreshadow scene from the future, that the anime (intelligently)had to cut.
(there was no way to render that scene in motion and sound that wouldn't ruin it).
I recognize between them similar methodologies for bringing the plot to bare in the story. With that assessment in my mind, I have judged No Game No Life's plot-weaving to be even tighter than Brynhildr's. Mostly because Brynhildr is much more...blatant with its humanity element. When it wants to make a point about humanity, it just bludgeons you over the head with it. No Game No Life is a fair deal more subtle, or inspiring, when it works with humanity.
Actually, there's a nice summary for why I'm moving the Award:

Brynhildr is an emotional roller-coaster.
No Game No Life is just a roller-coaster, Period.

[New][April 2014] Gokukoku no Brynhildr

Precisely

Last Seen: Episode 1

Summary: When he was a child, Murakami was infatuated with a girl he called Kuroneko. She insisted on knowing about aliens and having met one, but no one believed her, even young Murakami was skeptical. One day, she decides to show him the alien, but an accident occurs and Kuroneko dies while Murakami is left seriously wounded in the hospital. Years go by and Murakami obsesses on finding proof of the existence of aliens because of a promise he had made with Kuroneko. Then, one day, a new transfer student comes to his class, who not only looks a lot like Kuroneko, but is named Kuroha Neko. 

First Impression: Good things in the future. Starting off right, and I've got everything that can be in its future in my pocket as long as they follow the script.

First Opinion: Think Madoka Magicka, to the power of 10, if it's going to be anything like its manga, Kiwaguro no Brynhildr. It says something about its quality that as soon as I saw 'Brynhildr' I immediately jumped into every websites summary of it that I could find, and Fist Pumped when I knew it was based on what is one of my favorite mangas being translated right now. I've only seen episode one, but it follows the manga exactly. Now, if any of you read my first post about Golden Time, you may recall they did the same thing, but eventually changed things down the line. So why am I still so thrilled about Brynhildr? Because when you change plot elements in a romance/drama based story, you run a very high risk of diluting, weakening, or outright ruining the impact and quality of the story. In a story like this... as long as they're planning to stay the course for the essence of the story, (and the opening gives me great confidence they at least plan to), it doesn't matter how many minor plot or story elements you change, or how fast you clip the story down to size, it's still going to be a great show to watch. Obviously, anything can be ruined past the point of no return, but I have great hopes for this show.

Now, something a bit more objective. Whenever 'Magic' pops up in anime, it tends to immediately trigger the 'Magical Girl Show' stereotype in peoples brains. While that may not as be as deep of a stigma as it used to be post-Madoka Magicka, it still brings to mind the childish and shallow essence of the original stereotype, just slightly tempered. I've raved about this in a post before, only more generally on the topic of Fantasy, but to sum up fast: Fantasy(Magic) gives great power of reach and depth to a story and plot, but if applied too strongly, weakens it and makes it shallow. Why? When everything is solved in a one sided manner with 'The Power of Love/Friendship/Peace/Happiness' or other such nonsense, or the main characters have the power to reshape a quarter of the planet with a thought, but the fights still take 2-3 episodes, things get to feeling too absurd, even for animes powerful 'suspension of disbelief'. Enter the (I hope) upcoming trend I've likened to calling 'Modern Magic', and you have a potential solution. The basic essence of the idea, is that even Magic, if it existed in our world, would have its own Principles, Laws, and Physics that ruled it, even as it itself reshaped our vanilla Physics and Laws. In other words, its a higher minimum expectation of Fantasy(magic) as an enriching element, instead of a diluting one.
Brynhildr may not quite fit into a 'Modern Magic' slot by technicalities, but if it plays its cards in the pattern of the manga, the rest of its world is going to fit into it perfectly even if the magic doesn't do so 100%.

TL:DR;
I hereby award this show:

Zetro's Preemptive Must Watch of the Season Award. [Redacted]
For a opening and first episode that promises to be true to the manga in spirit.
Oh, and a word of warning: The squeamish may want to have a bucket nearby to lose their lunch in if the show doesn't pull any of its punches at all with the story.
You have been warned.

[Ended] Log Horizon (Season 1)

This was easily my most enjoyed anime this season, more so even than Kill la Kill. Now grant, Kill la Kill is right on Log Horizons toes, and I'll be writing its end post tomorrow...*cough* ok maybe today is technically more accurate and I should start going to bed...more than once every two days. Kill la Kill probably has a higher enjoyment rate on an individual episode-by-episode comparsion, but the sum totals of the two shows aren't a competition at all, for me anyway.

The end episode of Log Horizon boldly announces that season 2 is already coming. I want to take a moment to reflect on that. Right there, at the end of the show, they pledge a season two. I can't honestly think of a time I've seen this before. I have the vague impression I have, but I don't put stock in those kinds of memories anymore now that I know I have a habit of manufacturing them.
It may sound corny, but this bold declaration *sigh* restores my faith in humanity, particularly in the anime lovers community. Log Horizon came out the same time as Kill la Kill, Strike the Blood, and two magically themed shows. It says a great deal that in the face of so much competition from popular genres, Log Horizon secured enough popularity for them to have already gotten whatever it is they need over there to declare it worthy of a second season, in time to announce it at the first seasons end.

Think about that. The glorious gem that is Spice and Wolf, (which, by the way, gives off the same kind of impression as Log Horizon...Just saying), had an aggravatingly effervescent information trickle about its second season, or if there even would be one, for someone like me who doesn't dig deep in the anime news, and just skims the headlines. Perhaps, (I'm beginning to notice that I start alot of self-detrimental brooding with perhaps), I simply don't know enough about how the anime industry judges what's worth additions. Maybe I'm just reading too deep. Regardless, the observation is still a useful one, think about it.

Pros: A Mighty story
-Strong Characters
-Strong World
-World Fitting and interesting Action scenes
-Solid Plot
-Avoids 1-Dimensional Characters. Anyone with a Troupe attached to them has an additional character element to prevent that Troupe defining them
-Weight. Log Horizon often skims, if not outright features, subject matter that is quite deep, and never trivializes the discussion of it, although sometimes it's brutally shortened into a summarized format.

Cons:  For many, but not all(unfortunately)
-The World presented has great potential for action, but other than one major fight near the end, the action tends to be somewhat underwhelming to the feeling the show presents of what it could be. The preview scenes of the second season seem to promise more action.

-It has come to my attention that some people judge anime based on romance. Romance is a sub-element in Log Horizon. It's there, and it's not weak, but it is definitely not the focus. I don't mind or care, but some people might.
-If you take a disliking to Shiroe, for whatever reason, the show may be a poor experience for you. While he's not the exclusive focus of the show, and everyone gets great development, he is definitely the primary amongst the leads. You spend alot of time focused on him throughout the show. I doubt there should be many people that would be so unhappy with him, but fair warning, I guess.

My Opinion: Watch it. NOW. I'm giving this show:

Zetro's Best Story of the Season

It is not my place to hand out Evil Cat's Awards, but that's not going to stop me from having my own set of them to pass out.
(and no, there will probably never be a comeback gem award ever again, that was mostly a joke. mostly).Everything, even down to the name, is tight and well fitted in Log Horizons world. How can I give out this award, you might ask, when the show has a second season lined up? When it should be incomplete with just one season? Simple, the plot isn't finished, but this story arc is. Just because there's more or another story to tell, to continue the plot, doesn't mean you can't finish a season or show without plot holes. Plot holes are never good, and with proper planning and work, never necessary. Yes, the ending may still be bad if it's forced to end an anime, when the original story continues, but that does not mean plot holes. An ending can be whole, and still bad.
Log Horizon could have a second season never come, and it would still be a complete story, and well worth reshowing.

Impartial Judgement:  Perhaps a deep story, plot, or well detailed world isn't the taste you're after. To each their own, after all. Not everyone likes books, not everyone likes movies, not everyone likes video games. Some people like action, some romance, some intrigue, and so on. Log Horizon is more about its interesting story, world, characters, and the intrigue between them all, than it is about anything else. There's alot of 'anything else' in there as a result, comedy, romance, action, but the focus is definitely more intrigue, drama, and human interest than anything else. That's not all of it, and it's not even the majority of it, (that would be the most boring anime, lecture ever), but it is the core. If you put Log Horizon, and Sword Art Online up on a pedestal with each other, you get a nice contrast. While both feature human interest, SAO is more about drama, romance, and action, while Log Horizion is more about Intrigue, Humanity, and drama.

Log Horizon may not be THE BEST THING EVAHHH *cough*, but what it is, is solidly made, presented, and executed as an anime. If the second season doesn't end the plot, I'm going to be looking for the original story source, if there is one.

I'd love to tell everyone 'you need to watch this!', and the rapid promise of a second season encourages it...but I know better, not everything is for everyone. Never-the-less, Log Horizons a good interesting show, and you should at least try it.

[Ended] Bakuman 3: All Good Story Has To End

Like a good meal, a good story has to end. And just like a good meal, a proper ending at a proper moment is very important. Missing either one could leave you with a bad aftertaste. Even though the proper ending of this series has more to do with the original work than the anime adaptation, it is nevertheless still a very properly good ending.

Tracing all the way back to season one, I would not have thought a story about people want to be mangaka could be interesting enough for an entire season. To my surprise, not only one long season, the entire run of all three long seasons of Bakuman were all so interesting, that I've never stopped in anticipating for the next week's new episode.

Even though the story itself is very fairy tale like, it felt real. The degree of realism is further enhanced by having the character to deal with real life problems, not just fictional problem, but real down to the earth problems that many people have.

This, no doubt is the

Long Season Drama of the Season for Fall 2012 Season

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 94 (Exciting)
Comedy: 91 (Brilliant!)
Action: N/A
Art/Animation: 89 (Slightly strange, but I'm used to it by now)
Sound/Music: 93 (Great theme songs)
Character: 90 (Unique individuals)

Plot: 97 (A fairy tale of mangakas)

Ending: 100 (Just great)

Re-watch value: 80 - I would still watch it again

Overall: 96 - Great Story with Perfect Ending

Recommendation: This is simply one of the best stories of this type. If you've seen the first two season, I don't need to urge you to watch this one. But if you haven't started Bakuman, you should.

[Ended] Zetsuen no Tempest: Masterpiece

Despite having handed the long season anime of the season award to Shinsekai Yori, for last six months, aside from Bakuman, there is only one other anime I waited week after week for the next episode. It is Zetsuen no Tempest.

At first glance, the presentation was rather strange, as throughout each episode, almost the entire episode is accompanied with a symphonic background music in a rather depressing tone. Then as the story slowly progresses, I find this BGM is quite fitting as the entire first half of the story is in a very depressing mood.

Surprises are among one of the biggest selling points of the story. Watching it the second time through would clear up some details that weren't caught first time, but it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable as the first time through as so much of the excitement are from the suspense and the unknown.

Often, the characters refer themselves as characters from Shakespeare's work, more specifically, Hamlet, and yes, you have guessed it, Tempest. The reference made in such a way that you'd probably appreciate it if you have read them, but would still get most of the reference even when you haven't read them. The residual effect of such is that after watching the series, I got a very strong temptation to go read them.

There's a very interesting dynamic where one main character is simply wants to avenge against the world about her sister where his best friend who is helping him every step along the way has one of the biggest secret that he could not tell him. It is even more interesting that a character that has been dead for two years plays as an important of a role as those who are alive because the story constantly cuts back to flashbacks where the memory of her words greatly influences the course of actions of characters presently.

The entire story is very intricately constructed where it kept very important facts hidden until very late. Story drops many hints, but they were careful enough that these hints found along the way could never reveal the big secret itself. And when you look back after the secret does finally reveal itself, you'd find that all those hints are very supportive of the conclusion.

There is however one thing the story couldn't cleanly escape: the paradox of cause and effect. It seems ok on the surface as they properly address them with the use of "magic". But if you look further, the causality paradox in this case is just unfixable.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Grand)
Comedy: 91 (Second half)
Action: 95 (Magician's fight)
Art/Animation: 96 (Very well done)
Sound/Music: 100 (Great and fitting)
Character: 98 (Very interesting)

Plot: 98 (Intricately constructed)

Ending: 95 (Proper)

Re-watch value: 75 - Catch more detail, but lose the surprise factor

Overall: 98 - A Masterpiece

Recommendation: The second half of Tempest did not feel as strong and powerful as the first half. That's why it is Shinsekai Yori who I gave the long season anime of the season award to. However, it is still one of the best series from last fall and I'm going to give it

Action Drama of the Season for Fall 2012 Season

award.

[Ended] Shinsekai Yori: Powerful

Having just finished Psycho-Pass, switching back to Shinsekai Yori still felt like shifting to overdrive. Psycho-Pass is powerful because it touch one of the most ugly yet intriguing question that is crucial to the well being of our existing human society by question what would the society become if it were to be transformed into something else. Shinsekai-Yori on the other hand, not only does it touch the topic, it completely shatters it, and looks beyond to see what could have come of it if the every member of the society itself has become something else.

Shinsekai Yori is not a character driven story, rather, it's almost purely driven by event. However, that doesn't mean there's lack of character development. In fact, character development is one of the most interesting part of the story, where you see a group of kids slowly mature through some quite traumatizing experiences, even when they all have supernatural powers.

 Throughout some dark and twisted and often creepy encounters, these children, who grew up as normal human in a society where psychics are the norm, are tested to a rather extreme level, where they have to choose to submit themselves to these rules of the society which they're yet to understand and could potentially bring the doom of their own fates or rebel against them while facing possibly even riskier consequences. The forbidden fruit of knowledge in this new world is highly tempting, but, it comes with a dangerous and often deadly consequence.

The the mechanical build of this new world is indeed intriguing. For starters, it's like every single member of the society are deadly weapon themselves where killing others is no more difficult than moving your eyeball. Yet, through some complex schemes, orders are kept so people can't just go slaughter everybody at will. But like any complex machinery, more moving parts there are, harder to keep the machine running without constant breakdown. This story describes exactly what happens when the crucial element of this system breaks down.

Mechanically, the lack of opening theme song along with the very fitting Dvorak's No.9 Symphony "From New World" as background music creates a perfect environment where you're dropped in this dark and suppressive world from the beginning to the end of every single episode. You almost never ever even have any breathing time. It is indeed a masterpiece.


Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 99 (Nonstop)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 95 (Psychic powers)
Art/Animation: 91 (Slightly simplified, but straight to the point)
Sound/Music: 98 (Beautiful)

Character: 99 (Intriguingly interesting)

Plot: 99 (Dark, twisted, brutal, and creepy)

Ending: 100 (Nearly perfect)

Re-watch value: 90 - It might be necessary to catch some details in earlier episodes

Overall: 98 - Powerful

Recommendation: After seeing the end of Shinsekai Yori, it is pretty clear that regardless what Zetsuen no Tempest for its conclusion, there's no way it can surpass this. Therefore, I'm going to just hand it

Long Season Anime of the Season for Fall 2012 Season

right here right now.

[Ended] Jormungand Perfect Order: Far-Fetched?

As a shoot-'em-up style action anime, it sure has gotten a bit complicated in this second half of the story. Unlike Black Lagoon, where the biggest event involves nothing bigger than a third world country, Jormungand's stage is the entire world. While the first season looked somewhat of a small play of an international arms dealer, the second season suddenly upgraded to a conspiracy to literally dominate the world. The method it was using, in my opinion, is a bit far-fetched. But then, if you put it up against the psychopath twin kids assassins, it really isn't as far-fetched it seems.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 88 (Somewhat)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 98 (Top-notch)
Art/Animation: 88 (So so)

Sound/Music: 89 (Good theme)

Character: 85 (A bit overly exaggerated)

Plot: 87 (Little far-fetched)

Ending: 90 (Ended)

Re-watch value: 60 - Still interesting to certain degree

Overall: 90 - Action Drama of the Year

Recommendation: Overall, Jormungand is a good concept with a very good execution. Even though the concept is bit on the far end of the acceptable spectrum, in my opinion, it doesn't really hurt the story itself much. If there's one action anime you watch in 2012, Jormungand would be it. Because it is

2012 Action Drama of the Year

[Ended] Sukitte Ii na yo: Shoujo Romance is Torture

I've said it in the past, shoujo anime is a torture, and better the shoujo anime is, bigger the torture would it be. And Sukitte Ii na yo, is one piece of giant torture device. I think the biggest plot device shoujo stories use is "misunderstanding" and "backstabbing". Week in week out, Sukitte has been putting on some spectacular displays of such. It was so spectacular, I wanted to pull my hair out by the hand full every single week I watch it. Some people may hate this for this specific reason. But if there's any emotional masochist in you, (yes, I admit that I am one, haven't you seen all of my posts about tragedies?), you would just love what this anime does to you.


Having said that, however, compare to Kimi ni Todoke, Sukitte comes a bit short in becoming a great shoujo anime. For the most part, the characters felt a bit one dimensional. Even though they made it clear that Yamato too is an amature when it comes to love, he is just far to naive for the status he holds. On the flip side, Mei, it's really hard to image that having been hardened for so long, she would just fall apart like that (though I do kind of understand what they were trying to do here). Then there's Megumi, that's a bit too quick of a flip flop. As much as like all the characters and the stereotype they represent, they just felt a bit...shallow. All in all, everything occurred felt just a bit too convenient for the story, which really makes it feel like a trashy romance novel.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Loads of)
Comedy: N/A
Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 86 (Typical shoujo)

Sound/Music: 85 (So so)

Character: 83 (One dimensional)

Plot: 84 (Very shoujo)

Ending: 90 (Nice touch)

Re-watch value: 60 - Maybe, maybe not

Overall: 89 -Shoujo Romance

Recommendation: While it's not as good as Kimi ni Todoke, if you like being tortured by shoujo animes, this is definitely something you don't want to miss. I would also give it

Shoujo Anime of the Season for Fall 2012 Season

[Ended] Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun: Interesting Way to End

Like many other animes of similar type, as the anime progresses, it starts to slowly complicate the story by "diluting" the character set. When that happened, in my opinion, Mitty and Haru's progress kind of came to an stand still while all the people around them start to run the show. Though it's clearly a delay tactic by author who doesn't know how or doesn't want to resolve the main conflict, generally I don't consider it a bad thing for this type of anime, because this particular style of comedy gets dull and repetitive rather quickly, without having more characters getting involved to help in terms of the depth and complexity of the plot, my attention for this would run out rather quickly.

As more characters got involved, the story become less of an in-your-face way of making people laugh because most people are not nearly as weird as the main pair. On top of that, the evolving plot also has gotten a bit more serious which made it slightly more difficult to just try to make people laugh all the time. 9 out of 10 animes of this type would not have the main pair resolve their relationships, so how well animes like this end is mostly dictated by how well they can make an conclusion to existing segment. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, in my opinion did it rather brilliantly. This is definitely one of the smartest "non-ending" ending episode I've seen.

This series has an additional plus for me: "Mitty" is voiced by my no.1 favorite voice actress, Haruka Tomatsu. While I'd much prefer her to play a more playful role like Lala or Nagi, her voice fits the role of "Mitty" quite well, too.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 89 (Lots of it)
Comedy: 95 (This is where it shines)

Action: N/A 

Art/Animation: 88 (Interesting)

Sound/Music: 85 (So so)

Character: 90 (Unique and colorful)

Plot: 86 (Slightly diluted)

Ending: 90 (Very smart)

Re-watch value: 60 - Might still be funny

Overall: 91 - Comedy of the Season

Recommendation: This is hands down the best comedy of the October anime season that no others would come even close. It's definitely

Comedy of the Season for October 2012 Season

[Ended] Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity has Declined): LOL

Though this too is like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya where the broadcast order does not follow the chronological order, it did so in a bit more deceiving fashion--while arcs are out of order, they didn't break the arc and insert some other random episode in the middle as Haruhi did where it blatantly made you aware that the episode orders are not correct. Here it merely rearranged it in a lot less noticeable way but if you have paid attentions to the details, you'd totally notice some referencing inconsistencies. Here is a list of key points that I managed to pick off:

• Arc 1 (ep 1-2): Short hair, immediately after arc 3.
• Arc 2 (ep 3-4): "They are STILL working on the human monument project?", chronologically after arc 3, but with long hair, so it would be after arc 1.
• Arc 3 (ep 5-6): Assistant present, chronologically after arc 4.
• Arc 4 (ep 7-8): First meeting of assistant.
• Arc 5 (ep 9): Um...where does this one go...it looks like a finale of some sort...
• Arc 6 (ep 10): Just graduated, no assistant, immediately after arc 7 but before arc 4.
• Arc 7 (ep 11-12): School, the beginning of everything.

It's basically a logical puzzle where you use clues to try to arrange a correct chronological order. With those clues given, there are some definitive orders can be arranged with exception of episode 9:

11-12-10-7-8-*-5-6-1-2-*-3-4-*

Since there's no clue given for episode 9, as far as I can tell, it really could go on any one of those (*) spots. But since episode 9 looked like a finale, I'd say for now I'd just put it in the end, unless someone could tell me a reason it should go elsewhere. So my final conclusion on the chronological order would be:

11-12-10-7-8-5-6-1-2-3-4-9

Put technical stuff aside, this anime is by far one of the smartest anime I've seen in making hilariously humorous yet direct-to-the-point remarks about the problems that exist in today's society. In addition, it found the most hilarious and creative way I've seen anywhere dealing with time paradox heads on: the time paradog. It is by far the best line I've heard from this anime all season, not the part when the assistant named it, rather, the explanation grandfather gave right afterwards in the background: the universe would produce time paradogs in place of time paradox whenever time paradox is about to occur, which in turn, would prevent time paradox ever from occurring--you'll just end up with a bunch of time paradogs lying around. Brilliant!!

One reason it can afford to make the crude direct-to-the-point criticisms of today's society is the usage of the so called fairy, the smartest creatures in the world who aren't capable of producing sweets and other stuff they like. In my personal opinion, both of them represents human, but at different level: fairies in the story represents today's society at a macro level whereas humans in the story represents today's society at a micro level. So depending on the issues being address, they would use either human or the fairies, because certain issues exist only in micro level and others are better made example at a macro level. 

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Hilariously over dramatized)

Comedy: 98 (Plain hilarious)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 93 (Strange, flat, colorful, different)

Sound/Music: 95 (Catchy)

Character: 97 (Fun)

Plot: 94 (Cleverly out of order)

Ending: 97 (Very well)

Re-watch value: 80 - Still hilarious, and you can try to pick up more clues on the chronological ordering

Overall: 97 - Blunt and Funny

Recommendation: It's pretty save to say that no other short season series from the summer season could beat this in terms of ... anything. So go pick it up and watch it if you still haven't done so, because it is

Anime of the season for Summer 2012 Season

[Ended] Natsuyuki Rendezvous: Love Beyond the Boundry of Life and Death

Having seen so many romance animes that are based on immature feeling of love between school boys and girls who are more or less experiencing for the first time in their life, it is quite refreshing to see a love story about grownups like Natsuyuki Rendezvous.

While the main focus is how people deal with their emotions towards the loved ones, what it doesn't have, is the series of misunderstandings that caused by timidness and shyness of characters as we see so often from teenager romance animes that we have all grown to hate (well, not exactly, but close enough), which by the way has been one of the biggest annoyances I have against them. But even if the story is about grown-ups, it really wouldn't make much of a difference if the characters aren't mature. Fortunately, as I see it, the level of characters' maturity does match their age--it is a grown-ups' story about grown-ups' issues. 

Though there really isn't much in common, the pacing and overall feel reminds me much of Ristorante Paradiso which in my opinion is another strangely intriguing story of love.

One thing I feared, before I saw the end of it,  is that it would not bring anything to closure in the end. Now I can can assure you, not only it gives you the closure you expect, but also a lot more.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Dramatic)

Comedy: 90 (Some nice and interesting moments)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 93 (Beautiful scenes)

Sound/Music: 91 (Lovely music)

Character: 93 (Mature)

Plot: 93 (Strange but good)

Ending: 94 (Complete closure)

Re-watch value: 70 - Might still be moving

Overall: 92 - Romance for the Grown-ups

Recommendation: The bottom line is that if you're looking for the typical romance of people that just coming into puberty, they you probably wouldn't be too interested about this. Otherwise, it's a very good story of love where both heart wrenching and sudden bursts of laughter moments exists. And this earns my

Romance Anime of the Season for Summer 2012 Season

award.

[Ended] Tsuritama: Excitement from Simplicity

The level of nonsense in this series is almost comparable to those in Star Driver, which is more or less the defining anime of recent years as far as out of whack nonsense goes.

The concept underneath is amazingly simple and amazingly straightforward, yet, they somehow managed to make it amazingly exciting. Seriously, I never would have thought fishing can be so exciting. There's no drawn out complicated plot, they're simply fishing, from the beginning all the way to the end; There's no unexpected twists and turns, everybody had a simple goal of their own: the aliens wants to fish, the duck wants to catch the alien, Yuki wants to have friends, and Natsuki wants to be a pro. But roll them all together, it somehow become a weird ball of cluster f**k that was extremely entertaining to watch.

The pacing of the series is also great. Early on when people still aren't familiar everybody's intent, it paced moderately while intentional let loose some WTFs to keep people iinterested. Once all foundations are laid out, it wasted no time and immediately shifted into high gear and unfolded in an explosive manner. The excitements just keeps on piling up until the very last moment, while they still not forgetting throw in some WTFs once a while. Overall, it is just very well paced plot development.

If Mawaru Penguindrum is something that uses its craftiness and complexity for an dazzling display of storytelling, then Tsuritama is something made best use of simplicity and what simplicity could achieve in terms of explosive excitements.

In my opinion, Tsuritama has done everything right. If Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai) is the most underrated long series of spring 2012 season, this would be the most underrated short season series of spring 2012 season.

A quick word about the ending. I can see they're trying to throw some more fun WTFs around. But by doing so it left a bit WTF with a huge question mark in the end where I think did more damage then good--it just doesn't make sense, period. Well, the rest of the anime doesn't really make too much sense either, but it does in its own realm. This ending, however, doesn't even make sense in their realm. That makes me wonder what's the purpose of putting that 2 minutes in the end of last episode there...

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 94 (Simple and with WTFs)

Comedy: 97 (Lots of WTFs)

Action: 93 (Made excitement out of fishing)

Art/Animation: 90 (Simple yet effective)

Sound/Music: 83 (Interesting)

Character: 92 (Simple but interesting)

Plot: 93 (Well paced)

Ending: 90 (WTF?)

Re-watch value: 50 - Still fun WTFs to watch

Overall: 92 - Excitingly simple

Recommendation: If you haven't gotten the point after reading everything I wrote above, let me spell it out for you. This is an amazingly interesting anime that belongs to the "must-watch" list so long you don't mind some out of whack WTFs. And it would no doubt get the award

WTF of the Season for Spring 2012 Season

and even though it's a little stretch, I'd also hand it

SciFi Anime of the Season for Spring 2012 Season

[Ended] Sakamichi no Apollon: Jazz of Life

The animation style is simple, the settings is the era when people still have simple lives, but the story and the characters involved are anything but simple.

The story started with a rather simple concept, the love of Jazz music and how it connected a rather unusual group of people together. Slowly, as each character's back stories being revealed (to each other rather than to audiences), situations grew complex. What's so intriguing about this story is how it portrayed the relationships between different people in a very delicate manner.

The ending, in my opinion, managed to escape the pitfall of similar series where they end with either an unreasonable happy ending or an overly blunt shutoff. Most plot threads met with either a full closure, or a partial closure where the result is implied. Technically, the story ended on a somewhat tragic note (it actually depends on which thread you consider the primary one), but it isn't anything need to be upset about because characters in the story have simply accepted the fact and moved on. Since it's a story about how kids mature emotionally and eventually become an adult, I think that's a very fitting ending to the story.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Love and Jazz)

Comedy: 82 (For what it had)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 88 (Simple and interesting)

Sound/Music: 92 (All the Jazz)

Character: 98 (Very well developed)

Plot: 96 (Life's twists)

Ending: 90 (Casual yet effective)

Re-watch value: 60 - May catch certain details you missed

Overall: 93 - Jazz of Life

Recommendation: While it isn't anything ground breaking, this is an example of a solid good anime. If you are looking for something to watch that won't disappoint you, this is it. And I'm handing it

Best Short Season Drama for Spring 2012 Season

[Ended] Fate/Zero: Sophisticated and Explosive

Fate/Zero is probably one of the most highly anticipated series in both 2011 and 2012. People say bigger expectation brings bigger disappointment, but I can assure you that is not going to be the case here. In my opinion the production team of Fate/Zero did everything right to meet the expectation.

As the prequel to Fate/Stay Night, it's quite a bit more sophisticated than its predecessor, both in plot and character design, probably due to the fact it was trying to tie the back story of every major character from Fate/Stay Night into a single plot. It presented few interesting philosophical dilemma, especially the discussion between the different historic figures about what it really means to be king.

Alongside with the complex plot and interpersonal relationships, one of the selling point of the story is the explosive battles among the summoned warriors. Although from the get-go it was pretty clear who is the ultimately dominating servant (even when you haven't seen Fate/Stay Night, you could tell), the battles along the way (both between servants and the masters) are rather exciting.

I can go on for quite a while about Fate/Zero, but the bottom line is that it is definitely worth your time, whether you have previously seen Fate/Stay Night or not.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Exciting)

Comedy: 85 (For the little it had)

Action: 98 (Explosive)

Art/Animation: 95 (Same style, more sophisticated)

Sound/Music: 97 (Great theme songs)

Character: 96 (Very interesting)

Plot: 98 (Well crafted and sophisticated)

Ending: 99 (Great)

Re-watch value: 80 - May be good for catching some missed plot point

Overall: 97 - Sophisticated and Explosive

Recommendation: Fate/Zero is probably one of the "must watch" anime of 2011/2012. Regardless what your background in anime is, I think you'll enjoy it. Anime studios lately have gotten a habit to taking a season break between two parts of long series, probably to ease the financial strain on producing large projects like this (this way they can use the profit from the first part to fund the second part). It makes it difficult to decide which season this series actually belong. But for now, I'd just shove it under October 2011 season and give it

Best Long Season Action-Drama for Fall 2011 Season

[Ended] Jormungand: Excitingly Explosive, and Intricately Crafted

At first, it may look like a Black Lagoon style shoot 'em up story, but as the story progresses, it quickly transformed into something that is much more: it combine geopolitical issue and negotiation tactics along with some very interesting character development and some philosophical discussion about weapons and arms dealers.

First thing first, Jormungand is an action anime, and this story got some gooooood bullet flying, blood spilling, and even brain splattering actions. As many head shots as this anime has, I don't think this is suitable for the faint hearts.

The story is on a case-by-case format, where the previous case really doesn't have much connection with the next one. But there are some small key details that do spill over. It's very much like how the original Darker than Black is formatted, which makes me think whether there's also a grand conspiracy towards the grand finale of the story (not this season obviously, but we already know for sure the second season is coming in October). The plot format too somewhat resembles what we've seen in Darker than Black: The arcs shifts between being character centric and plot centric. With a large central cast, this is probably the best way of introducing all characters without getting too dry.

At the center of the story, Koko is the key to all everything. While her goal is only to profit from arms dealing and wouldn't really hesitate on killing people that got in her way, she does have certain principles. Those principles are really what distinguishes her from the other low lives in the story. In certain sense, you can even say she's a dark knight, without the will to go after bad guys that is. LOL

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Dramatic)

Comedy: 90 (Dark humor)

Action: 96 (Explosive)

Art/Animation: 89 (Interesting enough)

Sound/Music: 90 (Great theme songs)

Character: 98 (Very interesting)

Plot: 90 (Slowly building up)

Ending: -- (To be continued)

Re-watch value: 75 - Still might be interesting

Overall: 93 - Explosive and Exciting

Recommendation: While many may still disagree (include my fellow contributor to this blog, danchou), in my opinion this is unquestionably the best anime of the season. So I'm handing it

Anime of the Season for Spring 2012 Season

[Ended] Another: Amazingly Ride

If you have been to my blog in, say last 3 months, you'd notice that even I've been lagging behind on many other series, there is one series, regardless how busy I was, I always, always allocate my Monday night to see the newest episode of Another.

Simply put, Another is about the most amazing suspense horror anime series I have seen for years.

The approach of the series is rather traditional. It lays out the puzzle one piece at a time while the solution plays catch-up. As I said in earlier posts, for a good suspense series, you'll need some good tension to pull the audience along, but too much tension would just make people feel like being teased unreasonably. This puzzle solution seesaw game allows the story to keep a nice balance to keep the tension just right.

As far as plot goes, it uses some classic techniques such as hidden clues like those you've seen in movies like the Six Sense (which in my opinion is the only good movie  Shyamalan made) which cleverly drops clue everywhere but nobody would understand the significance of its meaning until the very end. For the most part, the plot is pretty consistent. There isn't any obvious plot hole I could spot aside from the little attempt that tries to extend the series for one episode without having to reveal the key answer as I noted in the previous post. But even that was mostly address in the last episode so it is somewhat understandable.

While the plot is good, alone it won't be able to propel the series to where it stands right now. The music and art work, especially the background art are just down right amazing. What's really noticeable is the usage of rust everywhere in the background to render a very creepy atmosphere no matter where they go.

Even though I think there's a bit lack of "spectacular-ness" in the grand finale, but as a whole, this is just an amazing ride from the beginning. As you may have guessed, I am just in love with this series, and I'm going to hand it

Short Season Anime of the Season for January 2012 Season

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Very interesting)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 92 (Death and destruction)

Art/Animation: 98 (Amazing background art)

Sound/Music: 97 (Great BGM)

Character: 90 (Colorful, though short-lived)

Plot: 98 (Simply great)

Ending: 90 (Slightly lack of octane)

Re-watch value: 70 (Loses some mystery, but still interesting)

Overall: 96 - Amazingly Suspenseful

Recommendation: If you like suspense horror, then you definitely don't want to miss this one. This is just about the best horror series I've seen in years.

p.s. I am now in love with Misaki's voice. The calmness and the unique tone is just one of a kind that I don't think I've heard anything similar before. It's a pretty safe bet that in the future I'd be totally watching everything she's a main cast. (^_^)b

[Ended] Shakugan no Shana III: Spectacular Conclusion

Rarely a good series has a great sequel. Even more rarely, a second sequel manage to surpass both previous series become the most spectacular of them all. Of course, I think the it probably has more to do with the book that the series is based off. Nevertheless, without a good execution, even a great story could be ruined. J.C.Staff has indeed done a superb job in bringing the story to the screen.

About the series itself, while it started off a little slow, once it picked up the pace, not only it didn't slow down, it managed to get faster and more explosive all the way till the end. Being in such a fast pace, however does have its negative sides: because of the scale this final series is covering--a war between all Flame Haze and Crimson Denizen, there are just way too many characters involved in the story that if it were to cover the background and ability of each character, they could expand the series for an entire long season. What they chose to do, is just dropping characters in the middle of the story out of blue and hoping the audience could understand by using the context of the story flow. For the most part, it worked. But from time to time, I find it a bit irritating when some random people just shows up and somehow become one of those key people that could swing the war one way or the other. You pretty much have no clue why, you just have to take their words for it.

Aside from that little down side, this series is full of excitements and spectacular battles. In fact, I'd give it

Long Season Action Anime of the Season for October 2011 Season

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (On and on)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 98 (Spectacular and explosive)

Art/Animation: 90 (Still as good)

Sound/Music: 93 (Love the music)

Character: 84 (Good character building, but too many are missing the background)

Plot: 90 (Great series finale)

Ending: 97 (Wraps up really well)

Re-watch value: 80 (Lots of information, might be able to pick up more details)

Overall: 93 - Spectacular Conclusion

Recommendation:If you liked the previous Shana season at all, you ought to love this one. Endless excitements, guaranteed.

[Ended] Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere: From Nonsens to Amazing

It's funny how when you're bombarded with nonsense, at some point, they all just start to make sense. This is especially true for this anime. I don't quite remember at what point, my thoughts for this anime went from "this idiotic nonsense" to "that's amazingly interesting". It actually reminds me very much of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, which is one of the best "WTF" anime I've ever seen.

To understand and appreciate this anime, I think you need to first wipe your mind clean of anything that you know of from our reality, because almost every single commonly known term are twisted and re-assigned to mean something else. Personally I found it very amusing. So as long as you know what you should expect and what you should do with everything piece of information the anime is giving you, (which is to take it at its face value) you too will find this series very amusing. In fact, I found it so amusing that I was glad when I found out at the end of the series a second season is already at work.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 88 (Mostly nonsense)

Comedy: 89 (Pretty amusing)

Action: 87 (Kind of hard to understand, but interesting)

Art/Animation: 81 (Big boobs to huge boobs)

Sound/Music: 84 (Not bad)

Character: 88 (Lots)

Plot: 86 (Making sense out of nonsense)

Ending: 89 (Dramatic)

Re-watch value: 80 (Now I'd like to re-watch so I have better understanding of earlier parts)

Overall: 90 - More amusing that I though

Recommendation: If you can throw away all your common sense and fill your head with the terms they've defined in the story, it's quite an interesting story to watch. Otherwise you'd probably think it's just a bunch of random stuff that don't make sense what so ever. It all depends on what you can comprehend. With that note, I will award this one

2011 WTF of the Year