[New April 2010] B Gata H Kei

Japanese title: B型H系
Info/Download: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1611.html
Genres: School Drama / Ecchi
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: A very attractive virgin freshman high school who wants to have many sex partners just couldn't get it started. Now she had chosen the one man she wants to lose her virginity on...

First impression score: 80 ~ A very unusual concept...

Personal comments: To be honest, I don't know why is it so difficult for an attractive girl to be a slut when it is her goal. Maybe this is some weird thing that only occurs in Japan...

[New April 2010] Heroman

Info: http://www.heroman.jp/
Watch online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/library/HEROMAN
Genres: Action / Drama
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Joey often gets bullied at school. He's been repairing a broken robot he picked it. One day it turned into a giant robot which he calls him "Heroman"...

First impression score: 78 ~ Um....

Personal comments: Let's see, the setting of the story is west coast continental United State, which looks pretty strange in an anime. Then, it actually feels like one of those superhero cartoon that originated in the states. Then mix in some typical duel based anime action, we have here "Heroman". Honestly, I'm not see myself watching more than 3 episodes of it...

[New April 2010] Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~

Japanese title: 真恋姫†無双 ~乙女大乱~
Info: http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/shinkoihime/
Genres: Action / Comedy / Ecchi
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Another weird story about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms continues...

First impression score: 68 ~ Not that good

Personal comments: It didn't take long for me to drop the second series. I think I'm going to just drop this one right out...

[New April 2010] Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor

Japanese title: 一騎当千 Xtreme Xecutor
Info/Download: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1595.html
Genres: Action / Drama / Ecchi
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: The story of female fighters who inherited the spirits of the warriors from the Romance of Three Kingdoms continues with more panties showing and boob bouncing...

First impression score: 80 ~ It's actually better than I though...

Personal comments: To be honest, I thought I won't be watching any of this new Ikkitousen series since I've already skipped two previous one. This newest series turns out to be something much better than I was expecting. That might change after another episode or two into it, but for the moment, I'll give this series a second chance.

[Ended] Ookami Kakushi: Blah

Early on I really thought this is the real spiritual successor of Higurashi. But it really isn't. The story is really too plain and flat to make any impact. If I have to rate it, it's a solid mediocre anime, but nothing more.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 75 (Mediocre)

Comedy: 75 (Mediocre)

Action: 80 (Slightly better than mediocre)

Art/Animation: 75 (Mediocre)

Sound/Music: 75 (Mediocre)

Character: 75 (Mediocre)

Plot: 75 (Mediocre)

Ending: 75 (Mediocre)

Re-watch value: 30 (Not)

Overall: 76 - Solid Mediocre

Recommendation: If you feel like watching a mediocre anime, this would be it. Otherwise, just skip it.

[Ended] Dance in the Vampire Bund: It continues

Clearly, the story doesn't end here. However, it is still unsure whether the rest of it would be made into another anime.

Using the studio that produced Bakamonogatari for the production of this anime is a great choice. With this topic and theme, I can't think of a better fitting style than this.

As for the story, well, it was somewhat an old concept which keys the whole plot on the relationship between vampires and lycans, but there are some new ideas. Like Bakemonogatari, the story consists of multiple arcs and climaxes. The only problem with this format, is the fact that sometimes the bigger climax is not at the end, rather, it's at the end of a middle arc. When that occurs, it tends to leave audiences in an unsatisfied state because endings tends to feel somewhat too anticlimactic.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Great)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 89 (Interesting style)

Art/Animation: 90 (Strange yet interesting)

Sound/Music: 88 (Fitting BGM)

Character: 92 (Well developed)

Plot: 90 (Multiple climaxes)

Ending: 80 (Not really)

Re-watch value: 60 (Still might be somewhat amusing)

Overall: 89 - Very well made

Recommendation: My ranting above maybe a bit misleading, let me make my opinion a bit more clear about this anime by handing it

Anime of the Season for January 2010 Season

award.

[Ended] Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Brilliant Concept

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is many things, but it's nothing conventional. While trying to make fun of all duel based anime, it also tries to get a point across: test grades aren't the absolute measure of how good a student is. On top of that, the strange relationships between the different pairs are also interesting to watch. All in all, this is quite a brilliant anime and it deserves

Comedy of the Season

award.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Brilliant)

Comedy: 93 (Even more brilliant)

Action: 85 (Duel fights are interesting)

Art/Animation: 84 (Typical)

Sound/Music: 83 (Not much impact)

Character: 90 (Very interesting)

Plot: 90 (Pretty good for a comedy like this)

Ending: 90 (Acceptable)

Re-watch value: 80 (Amusement value is significant lower, but may still be fun)

Overall: 89 - Brilliantly made

Recommendation: If you're going to choose one comedy from January season to watch, this probably would be it. Even though I wouldn't quite put it on a "must watch" list, it's pretty close on getting on it.

[Ended] Letter Bee: More to come

The story of Letter Bee is interesting, however, I feel as the story progresses, it lost its original touch that I felt attracted to at first place. Obviously the ending of this series indicates there's more to come. It's hare to make any final judgment at the moment since it seems the real story is just starting. I'm probably going to wait for the entire series to be complete before I make my final decision on how good or bad this series is.

[Ended] Kiddy Girl-AND: Errr...

It started off as a big disaster. Slowly, it seems to start to shake it off. But when it comes to the ending, it become even a bigger disaster. I kind of see what point they're trying to get across, it's just that the method they chose is plain terrible. I don't even know where I should start on the big list of problems. What's even worse, the end of this series managed to revert the assumed tragedies of the original Kiddy Grade, which was one of the main reasons I liked it that much to begin with. Now I really wish they haven't made this series...

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 81 (Only a little)

Comedy: 78 (Most are pretty lame)

Action: 77 (Not that good)

Art/Animation: 81 (Mediocre at best)

Sound/Music: 75 (Some characters' voice are highly annoying)

Character: 70 (Not well developed)

Plot: 80 (Quite lame)

Ending: 76 (What the crap)

Re-watch value: 30 (Shouldn't even watch it first time)

Overall: 70 - Not that good

Recommendation: If you didn't like the original Kiddy Grade, then don't bother with this one. But if you liked the original Kiddy Grade, I still wouldn't recommend this, because this is much worse, and it will destroy the good image of Kiddy Grade.

[End] Nodame Cantabile Finale: Grand

If you ask me, among all three Nodame Cantabile series, the original is still the best. But that doesn't mean the other two are bad. In my opinion, they are all exceptional animes, it's just that the original series set a standard which is a bit too high for anything comes afterward to surpass.

About the so called "finale", depending on how you look at it, you could be either satisfied or disappointed. On one hand, it eliminated most uncertainty in the paths that all the characters are going to take; but on the other hand, the ending is almost complete open, meaning if the author feels like, she can totally just make another run at it again. Personally, I think it ended in a good note.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (All about drama)

Comedy: 86 (Not as good as original, but not bad)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 82 (Still think the art still is a bit strange)

Sound/Music: 94 (Love the music)

Character: 90 (Well developed)

Plot: 83 (Kinda slow...)

Ending: 87 (Good enough)

Re-watch value: 65 (It may still be fun)

Overall: 89 - Wrapped up...kind of...

Recommendation: Nodame Cantabile series is one of the best made music themed anime, period. If you haven't seen the first two series, I recommend you start watching. You're missing out a lot of good stuff.

[Ended] Kobato: Feeling it...just a little bit

Much like a typical work from CLAMP: it has a good point, but it dragged on for a bit too long. Many times throughout the series, I was ready to let go of it. But it seems that the director knows the tolerance limit of a typical audience so they feed just enough information about the overarching plot every once a while to keep them curious enough that they'll be willing to put up with them for a couple more episodes. Very clever tactic indeed, because that's how I was able to finish this series. In my opinion, there are way too much extra stuff that could be cut off without hurting the main plot. It is totally possible to shrink this into a short series instead of a lone one.

Having said that, this series is not without merit. The end is predictable, but the climax right before it was somewhat moving, especially they way they setup the "no escape" dilemma. But that's about all the merit for the ending I'd give them. If I were to write the story, I probably would have ended it an episode earlier. Really, the last episode feels more like a bolted on epilogue than part of the story.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 78 (Somewhat)

Comedy: 80 (Not that great)

Action: 81 (Stuffed animal battle...)

Art/Animation: 80 (CLAMP)

Sound/Music: 80 (Typical)

Character: 83 (Interesting)

Plot: 88 (Well developed)

Ending: 78 (Too predictable)

Re-watch value: 30 (Um...no)

Overall: 79 - Only if it's shorter and ends better...

Recommendation: Even though there are things like from this anime, I just can't recommend this to anybody. At best I'd rate this a mediocre.

[Ended] Sora no Woto

You may call it K-ON in the military, but it's not. You may think it's a simple light comedy, but it's not. Sora no Woto is something much more than what it first appears to be. The story is constructed with interesting and colorful yet ordinary characters that all seem to have some shadows in their past.

It's somewhat difficult to describe exactly what Sora no Woto is like. But I can tell you it definitely worth your 4 hours. However, it does have its shortcomings. For one, I think they might have spent a bit too much in the middle to develop the character, where I think it could be equally effective if they instead stretch out the later part for character development while moving forward with the plot. But despite that, this is still one brilliantly made anime.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Dramatic)

Comedy: 83 (Interesting enough)

Action: 85 (Above average)

Art/Animation: 80 (Looks just like K-ON!)

Sound/Music: 93 (Amazing Grace is amazing)

Character: 90 (Hidden shadows)

Plot: 90 (Well developed)

Ending: 85 (Well enough)

Re-watch value: 60 (Probably not gonna be as good as first time)

Overall: 90 - Brilliantly made

Recommendation: If you can't get over the fact all character looks like K-ON, then I don't think I can make any suggestion to ease that. Otherwise, this should be one of the must watch from January 2010 anime season.