[New October 2011] Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Japanese title: 境界線上のホライゾン
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10456/Kyoukai_Senjou_no_Horizon
Genres: Comedy / Action
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: People...fighting...with some sort of super power...in a futuristic world.

First impression score: 68 - Random Fights, with big Boobies

Personal comments: Can I just say, "I don't get it"? Nothing made any sense. Oh, and for whatever reason, to me, I can't tell exactly what, but it's giving me a distinctly similar ring as Infinite Stratos, which as far as preconceived notion goes, it's a bad thing since IS is just crap. I'll let it ride a bit more before I make a decision whether to drop it, but as it is right now, I don't think it's going to stay for long.

[New October 2011] Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle

Japanese title: ファイ・ブレイン 神のパズル
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9981/Phi_Brain:_Kami_no_Puzzle
Genres: Puzzle / Action
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Some dude named Kaido is really good at solving puzzles. One day he received a quest to solve the most challenging puzzle of life, which could become the difference of life or death to him. 

First impression score: 83 - Interesting...for now

Personal comments: I think this is like one of those chess/shogi/mahjong anime where you just see the main character solving puzzles of the game at the same time making it as dramatic as possible.

[New October 2011] Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

Japanese title: 真剣で私に恋しなさい！
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10213/Maji_de_Watashi_ni_Koi_Shinasai!
Genres: Comedy / Action
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: This is a story about a school, where samurai style battle is the method use for resolving conflicts between classes.

First impression score: 88 - Highly Amusing

Personal comments: Once a while, there is a random anime that jumps out of nowhere and completely surprises me. Apparently, this is one of them. I found myself speechless, at the same time, highly amused by what I saw in this opener episode. In short, I would describe it as "Modern Sengoku Basara mixed in with Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu with Female Heavy Casts". I think that ought to give you a very clear overview what to expect from this series. Basically, as far as I can tell, it's a bit more serious version of Baka to Test, but instead of being a fighter based game system, it's a Dynasty's Warrior or an RTS game system where capturing the King is the eventual objective. While it's screaming plagiarism, I think with proper execution, it would become a very interesting piece of work that is unique to its own. I'm actually quite interested to see what's to come.

[New October 2011] Fate / Zero

Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10087/Fate/zero
Watch online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/fate-zero
Genres: Action / Drama
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: The long awaited Fate/Stay Night.

First impression score: 90 - Conversation Heavy Yet Very Intense

Personal comments: This opener episode is very, I mean very conversation heavy, takes quite a bit amount of concentration to keep track of everything they're talking about. On top of that, being a double length did not help in absorbing the amount of information it's trying to through at you at once. But, on the other hand, it's nice to gather all that prerequisite at once so we didn't have to recall what happened in the previous episode to be able to re-construct the entire picture.

[New October 2011] C³

Japanese title: シーキューブ
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10578/C%C2%B3
Genres: Comedy / Drama
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: A cube is delivered to this high school dude. Overnight, it turned into a girl named Fear Kubric (nice name).

Familiar voices: Yukari Tamura (田村ゆかり) as Fear Kubric. It didn't take long before I recognized her voice as Togame from Katanagatari, since I recently just heard her voice. Another famous role she played is Rika from Higurashi series. Minori Chihara (茅原実里) as Konoha. She's probably best known as Yuki Nagato from Suzumiya Haruhi series, 
 
First impression score: 80 - Not Sure What's Going On

Personal comments: I have not a clue what's happening here, so I'm going to hold my opinion until I do.

[New October 2011] Bakuman 2

Japanese title: バクマン。
Info: http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/bakuman/2nd/
Genres: Drama
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: The story of Saiko and Shujin continuing to pursue the dream of becoming the no. 1 manga artist in shounen jump.
 
First impression score: 90 - Still Interesting

Personal comments: The first season is great, I'm expecting the same or even better from this season.

[Ended] Blood-C: Not Up to Par

I have to say Blood-C turned out to be something I totally was not expecting.While the story more or less took a 180 degree turn half way through the series that made it go from school life with a little monster fighting to monster fighting with a little school life, a very graphical and brutal monster fighting nonetheless. At some point however, I felt the brutality and blood is only serving the purpose to get a more restrictive rating (I have no idea how Japan rate their TV program, but this would at least be a TV-MA if not worse), or it's possible that CLAMP has just gone nuts in trying to make everything as gory as possible.

The flow of the story felt kind of strange. It's got not much going on for the first half of the series, then all the sudden dumped everything they were trying to tell all at once in the most gory manner. It felt very...unnatural. The worst part is after the entire series, we still don't have a clue what's going on in the big picture and we're still not exactly sure about Saya's true identify and how she relate to Saya from previous Blood series. Overall, it's just one huge hunk of confusing block with some highly disturbing scenes that show how bloody a human can be killed and decapitated. I was expecting better than that from CLAMP...

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 70 (Not much)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 89 (Gory)

Art/Animation: 82 (Nothing special)

Sound/Music: 84 (Not bad songs)

Character: 72 (Very little development)

Plot: 72 (Pathetic)

Ending: 50 (What the crap is that?)

Re-watch value: 35 (Its all blood and gore.)

Overall: 71 -  Barely passing
 
Recommendation: I think it had some potential, but they way they handled the story is just plain horrible.

[Ended] Dantalian no Shoka: Good Story, Bad Execution

I liked the story, I liked the characters, I even liked almost every single episode as an arc by themselves, but somehow I just couldn't bring myself to like the anime as a whole. There seems to be some critical component missing to bring all the well crafted pieces together to form a good story overall.

The entire story is rather cryptic, cryptically artistic, or at least it's the impression it's giving me. They never fully explained who yomihimes are and exactly how they relate to each other. On top of that, who exactly is the Dalian's "Other self" that lives inside her bookshelf? What exactly happened in the last episode where Hugh was going back and forth between the two Dalians? There are way too many unexplained things to have the series end here. 

Come to think of it, the way Dantanlian no Shoka ended is actually very similar to the way first season of Asura Cryin' ended: it got cut off right around the time the story got interesting. In case you're not aware, the original author of Dantalian no Shoka is also the author of Asura Cryin'. It may not mean much to many people, especially since Asura Cryin' was not very well received by the mass, but personally, I was very fond of it. So, if they are in fact planning for a second season, it may still have a chance to redeem itself.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 77 (Extremely slow)

Comedy: 74 (Not very funny even when it tries to be)

Action: 78 (Not much)

Art/Animation: 81 (I'm pretty fond of its style)

Sound/Music: 93 (Love the theme songs)

Character: 85 (Mysterious)

Plot: 70 (Incomplete)

Ending: 60 (Premature)

Re-watch value: 68 (Maybe catching more second round)

Overall: 76 - Far from complete
 
Recommendation: Dantalian no Shoka has a interesting concept, a pretty well constructed storyline, and some interesting characters. But it lacked greatly in terms of execution. If there is a second season to fill in what's missing, it may still turn out to be a decent series. As it is right now, C is the best grade I would give it.

[Ended] Kamisama Dolls: To Be Continued

At first glance, the story of Kamisama Dolls is a simple story. But as new characters being introduced and back stories being told, you'd realize this is not nearly as simple it it originally seemed. Most of the complication came from the massive role reversals--almost every new major character is introduced as a villain, followed by some background stories that would explain how they become of that. After knowing the reasons behind their act, it's actually somewhat difficult not to sympathize with them.

It may looked somewhat amusing early on, I find the out-of-place insertion of random comedic moment is not only annoying, but also breaks the rhythm of the ongoing plot flow. I'm not exactly sure what they're trying to achieve with this technique. It sacrifices the flow of the story in exchange for some not-so-good laughing points. In my opinion, that's not a good tradeoff.

Certain part of the story seems to ignore the fact that surrounding them, it supposed to be a normal society. Take the final battle for example, with it lasting that long in the middle of Tokyo in the middle of the day, how is it possible towards the end of the fight, the streets aren't packed with people and police, and helicopters aren't all over the place? Also, would anybody explain to me why all the sudden the kamisama dolls start to bleed?! Just where is the blood coming from?! I have to say the author didn't seem to be trying hard enough to let the story stay within our reality.

The ending of the series clearly indicates that the story of Kamisama Dolls is far from over. Although whether rest of the story would be told through TV screen or in forms of manga only is unclear. 

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 91 (Slowly build up)

Comedy: 80 (Out of place, out of sync)

Action: 89 (Pretty good "God" battle)

Art/Animation: 82 (Typical)

Sound/Music: 90 (Love the theme songs)

Character: 83 (Flip flop)

Plot: 92 (Gets complicated)

Ending: -- (It's not over yet)

Re-watch value: 65 (Maybe to catch some more details)

Overall: 85 -  First of many
 
Recommendation: Honestly, as much as I criticize it, I am actually quite fond of this story, especially when it gets massively complicated like this. It's really hard to give recommendations on this one because on one hand, there isn't anything too special, but on the other hand, it's actually somewhat of an interesting story that has set up some massively complex world that is ready to be explored.

[Ended] Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni: Comedy of the Season

Aside from the the slightly unsatisfactory slow start, in my opinion most of this second season is just down right brilliant. In fact, in most aspects, this second season outshines the original series by a fairly large margin. In additional to the summon battle, there are some in-depth character development and some outrageously hilarious and complex situations. On top of that, it went far and deep into the relationship conflict, not with just  a single triangle, but multiple triangle all tangled together. Combine that with some random rolling on the ground laughing caliber pop out acts of some characters, this is no doubt the recipe for

Comedy of the Season for July 2011 Season

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Outrageous)

Comedy: 95 (Brilliantly funny)

Action: 91 (Summon battle)

Art/Animation: 90 (Still takes a bit to get used to)

Sound/Music: 88 (Good)

Character: 88 (There are some depth to them)

Plot: 92 (Very clever arcs)

Ending: 90 (Meh...)

Re-watch value: 91 (Won't be nearly as exciting)

Overall: 94 -  Rolling on the floor laughing
 
Recommendation: If you want some good laugh, this is THE series to watch from July 2011 season. Just don't judge it with its first two episodes.

[Ended] Kaiji 2: Luck vs. Skill

Some say that luck favors the skilled. That in my opinion is largely reflected upon in this exciting second season of Kaiji.

While the main theme of this season is cheating, there is no lack of excitement watching people out cheat each other. Waiting to see the next episode of Kaiji is about one of the most agonizing thing in last six months, especially for the very last month of the pachinko showdown. It was filled with what  would call "expected surprises"--you know something going to happen, just not sure exactly how it's going to happen. This waiting and guessing game is the primary fuel of the excitements. Better yet, it even manages to throw one last curve ball when everything seems to be over.

Even though I was never fond of gambling, watching this reaffirms my position on never gamble, especially gamble games that is purely based on luck. It's something you'll never win. 

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 94 (Extremely dramatic)

Comedy: N/A

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 81 (Still takes a bit to get used to)

Sound/Music: 90 (Just as exciting)

Character: 88 (Overdramatic)

Plot: 96 (Twists and Turns)

Ending: 90 (Comradery and backstabbing)

Re-watch value: 40 (Won't be nearly as exciting)

Overall: 91 -  Intriguing
 
Recommendation: While it's not nearly as deep into logical analysis as season one, this psychological thriller is still just as exciting. If you could overlook the strange art style, this is one of the most exciting show of this season.

[Ended] Mayo Chiki: Cliche

Although it's extremely cliche, it's definitely one of the better cliche animes. Honestly, there really isn't much to say about this anime because it's just cliche after cliche. On top of that, despite the repeated hints, the invisible relationship tension among Kanade, Subaru, and Jirou never got to the bursting point, which, to me, is somewhat of a disappointment.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 75 (Cliche)

Comedy: 75 (Cliche)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 82 (Cute)

Sound/Music: 75 (Typical)

Character: 82 (Cliche)

Plot: 76 (Very cliche)

Ending: 70 (Not really)

Re-watch value: 20 (Not necessary)

Overall: 78 - It's Cliche 
 
Recommendation: This is one of those series that you watch once and forget about it. But if you want to skip it all together, you're not missing much either.