Blue Drop: Not Impressive Enough

With the final battle, they try to create a climax to finish the series off. However, I did not find it impressive at all. Actually, come to think of it, I haven't been impressed with the series ever since the beginning. But surprisingly, it somehow got me hooked with its plot dispite the fact the art style alone would have been enough for me to dump it from the beginning.

Also, it seems to be a trend lately to use follow-up to end an series. The follow-up of Blue Drop is just out right confusing.

Drama: 3.5 (Some, but not enough)

Comedy: N/A

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 2 (I totally hate its art style)

Sound/Music: 2 (No impression what so ever)

Character: 4 (Diverse)

Plot: 3 (A bit...too flat)

Re-watch value: 1 (I wouldn't watch it again)

Overall (not average): 2.5 (I still don't know how I kept on watching...)

Recommendation: I still haven't figured out what exactly it is kept me watching this series. I'd say give it a shot, see how you feel.

December New Anime: Ayakashi

Link: (Official)http://www.ayakashi.info/(English sub available through http://www.baka-updates.com/)

Genres: Supernatural

I've watched: 3 episode

Art style: Common

Recommended to: People like supernatural school drama don't mind a little blood
Recommendation level: Not sure yet

Summary: Kusaka is a student possesses something special, more precisely, ayakashi, which takes host's life force and grant the host supernatural power.

Richard's rating( of 5) - first impression: 3 - Average at best

Personal comments: The art, the plot, the voice, all seemed a bit...amature. Somehow it doesn't feel very professionally done. Also, some scenes seemed to be a bit unnecessarily gory, don't quite fit in with rest of the anime.

Myself; Yourself: A Group of Unfortunate People

This is no ordinary drama anime. A story seemed so innocent and light in the beginning, has so many unfortunate events hidden behind it. The write/producer ought to be a cruel person with evil and twisted mind to be able to come up with so many unfortunate lives together at the same place to witness the unfortunate events of each other to be unfolded right in front of their own eyes. That is talent. And I wish I could be talented like that.

Anyway, although the story is surprisingly good (with all the evil and hate). I only wish they didn't have an ending so cheap and uneventful. You could hardly call it an ending. It kind of just silently faded away.

Drama: 4.8 (Great, much better than I originally thought)
Comedy: N/A
Action: N/A
Art/Animation: 4 (Nothing stands out, but I do like them)
Sound/Music: 4 (Other than opening theme song, nothing else left much of impression)
Character: 5 (Almost everybody has an unusually messed up life)
Plot: 5 (Evil, hate, unfortunate lives, you couldn't ask for anything better than that)
Re-watch value: 3.5 (You may want to re-enforce the hate, but I don't think it holds much re-watch value)

Overall (not average): 4(Only if they had a better (by better, I meant more tragic) ending...)

Recommendation: Personally, I love it because of the kind of person I am (see my Dec 20th posting about Myself; Yourself). Some of you might not like it. Some of you might even hate it. So I really couldn't just give a recommendation to every one.

Da Capo II: No Way This is the End of It

It has ended. But there is no way this is the end of the actual Da Capo II. I mean this is almost as bad as To Heart: Remember My Memory, which is also a half ass job anime that is about robots among humans. Da Capo should have much more depth in its plot than this. This, is just a side plot. Plus with all the unanswered question, unexplained events, there is no way they would just leave it hanging like this. I personally believe the follow-up series will be shown within several seasons.

For now, let me just rate what this series have so far:

Drama: 4 (It has some, but a bit short by Da Capo's standard)
Comedy: 3.5 (I don't think it's the main theme here)
Action: N/A
Art/Animation: 4 (The normal Da Capo art)
Sound/Music: 4 (Ok, but nothing stands out)
Character: 3.8 (Not enough character depth I think, mostly due to incomplete plot)
Plot: 4 (Acceptable, but suspiciously similar to To Heart: Remember My Memory, and it's not the kind of Da Capo plot I'm expecting)
Re-watch value: 2 (Really nave no need to see this again)

Overall (not average): 3.5 (Sub-par for a Da Capo series)

Recommendation: You might need to see this series to see any future Da Capo II series (there needs to be one). Other than that, I really don't think it holds much value.

Ef ~ A Tale of Memories: Ends Well

It got my hope up when I saw the end of episode 11 that I might have a tragedy in hand. But, the end comes around, everything resolves. Though it's somewhat expected to be that way, I still wished they could have ended it in tragedy.

Like Sola, everything resolved in the middle of the last episode. Everything after that is follow-ups. Unlike Sola, the final climax did not die off in the follow-up. Instead, it somewhat further strengthen the final climax. This is a good example of the proper usage of follow-up, versus Sola is a example of terrible usage of follow-up.

Drama: 4.5 (I think some part is a bit overly dramatized)
Comedy: N/A
Action: N/A
Art/Animation: 4.5 (There are some weird/unusual visual effects)
Sound/Music: 5 (Good BGM left some pretty good impression)
Character: 5 (Very deep and thorough)
Plot: 5 (Great)
Re-watch value: 3 (You might want to re-live it again, might not)

Overall (not average): 4.75 (Very very good)

Recommendation: This is definitely one of the top love story animes of the year. Highly recommended.

Kimikiss Pure Rouge: Mesh

Currently finished: Episode 12

By now all the first degree love affair relationships have been established. Now, things are going to get messier because some pairs that are not in an affair start to spark affection. That is how drama is made. It could potentially get really really messy. Fortunately, I don't think this anime involves anybody getting stabbed to death (I kind of wished there are), so no one have to worry abou that.

Ongoing Long Series: Story of Saiunkoku

I've never mention this anime in my blog mainly because it's a ongoing long series that started way before I started blogging about animes I watch. Right now it's about three quarter through the second series. The original series is 39 episodes long, so is the second series.

The story's setting is in a imaginary land called Saiunkoku means "country of many colored clouds", which is loosely modeled on a old dynasty of China. The story follows a very intelligent girl finding her way to help the emperor to govern the country. In essence, it's a show about politics, emperor era politics, just like the The Twelve Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki), except there are a lot less actions and plot development is bit faster. (BTW, I'm still very pissed at NHK not finishing production of the rest of Twelve Kingdoms).

In my opinion, you have to be interested in either stories occuring in old dynasties of China, or emperor era politics to be able to follow this show. Otherwise, don't even bother.

Clearing the Backlogs: Gunslinger Girl

Because of the upcoming January new series, I dug into my backlogs pulled out Gunslinger Girl and finished it in two days.

Someone told me a while back that I would like this anime because it's...cruel and emotional. Well, it is true, and I do like it very much. The concept is cruel, and the theme is dark and somewhat sad. But at the same time, there is a soft and warm feeling to it. Just like Saikano, where the flow of cruelness and darkness is companied by a stream of soft warmth, only that in Sakano, the warmth is much more overwhelming.

Between the two (Gunslinger Girl and Saikano), I like the presentation of Gunslinger Girl much better. Mainly, I think it's because I didn't have to constantly battle against the absurd plot device Saikano used.

It was a bit of a slow start. Well, it doesn't really get any faster later either, it just made me get used to its pace. The story is filled with strong emotions and some graphical violence, which they were blended to almost perfection. The ending, really could have been taken either way: tragedy or non-tragedy. Without the second series, it's completely up to your own imagination. But the second series is coming, and we get to see how the author intended for us to interpret the ending of the first series.

Rating (out of 5): 4.5 ~ Instant Classic

New OVA: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~ Next Season ~

Link: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1145.html

Genres: Romatic Drama

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Common

Recommended to: People have seen the original Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and liked it

Recommendation level: Not quite

Richard's rating (of 5) - first impression: 2.75 I've seen much better follow-ups than this

Personal comments: It's a bit weird watching this OVA because timeline wise, it occurs after the tv series' ending. But, instead of taking the Mitsuki ending like the tv series did, it assumed Haruka ending from the game (I think).

After finishing the entire first episode, I feel 90% of the episode is waste of time. Only things had signification meaning are the first 3 minutes and the last 2 minutes. Everything else really could have been compacted down to about 2 minutes. A 10 minutes episode could really serve the same purpose with this 29 minutes episode.

Clannad: Random Moe Injection

Currently finished: Episode 12

The moe usage in Clannad is just countless. Even the previous subplot characters come back to visit for some additional moe.

Also, Clannad is going to suspend airing for two week because of christmas and new year. Bastards!

Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun: Everything Resets

Well, there is the end of it. Nothing really happened. Everything goes back to where it started. I guess I wasn't expecting any real substances from it at the first place.

Drama: N/A

Comedy: 3.5 (It was funny at first, but gets old quick)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 4.5 (Cute and pretty girls...)

Sound/Music: 4 (I liked its opening theme song)

Character: 3 (Shallow)

Plot: 2.5 (Only if there is one...)

Re-watch value: 0.5 (I don't think anybody would watch it again)

Overall: 2.75 (Barely lasted long enough for me to see the last episode)

Recommendation: I'd say don't waste your time on this one, unless you really really don't have anything else to do.

Moyashimon: It's over?

Um...really? It's over? What the hell? The whole series has been a big "blah", along with outrageous actions and ridiculous events. Just as I thought it's time for them to start the real plot, it's done. I guess they were not planning to have a real plot at all to begin with.

Nevertheless, it's still interesting, enjoyable, and somewhat knowledgeable.

Drama: 4 (Somewhat, but not long enough to develop anything deep)

Comedy: 4.5 (Noitamina, that by itself is enough to be above average)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 4 (Not quite the common art style I like, but somehow the girls all look pretty hot)

Sound/Music: 3 (Didn't really leave me much of an impression)

Character: 4.5 (Diverse personalities, but again, not long enough to develop)

Plot: 3.5 (Only if it had one...)

Re-watch value: 3.75 (Maybe you'd watch it again for laughs, not much other than that)

Overall: 4.3 (It did make me say WTF)

Recommendation: This is a hard one, becaues it somewhat seems to be a waste of time, but at the same time, also somewhat amusing. I'll have to leave the decision for you.