[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] Code: Breaker : Awkward

I can't quite put my finger to it, but there's this overall awkwardness throughout the series. I think it has something to do with how people were not acting appropriately according to the situation, like towards the end the prime minister's attitude talking to everybody, etc. In addition, Code 1 seems to be jumping from one extreme to another without much of a transition, nor a rationale on how he comes to such extreme plan without considering a plan with, say, lesser extreme methods. It just feels extremely awkward.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 76 (Awkward)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 84 (Not bad) 

Art/Animation: 80 (So so)

Sound/Music: 82 (Ok)

Character: 74 (Very one dimensional)

Plot: 78 (Not that good)

Ending: 80 (Somewhat of a climax)

Re-watch value: 20 - Not Needed

Overall: 78 - Mediocre

Recommendation: I'd say you don't need to waste your time on this, even if you have too much time to burn, you can still find better to watch.

[Ended] Sword Art Online: Lesser Epic

Sword Art Online is probably one of the most talked about anime over the internet in this year. For the most part, I think it's caused by audiences possess different level of background knowledge about SAO series prior to the start of watching the anime series. Sparks fly as people who have seen the story for the first time clash with the light novel loyalists who see this as an adaptation of the original work disagree upon whether certain things in the series have been done well. Since I've never read any of the light novel, my opinion is purely based on the anime itself, not how well the anime adapted the light novel like much of the online discussions are about. On top of that, I've been intentionally avoiding any online discussion related to this topic just so that I won't be tainted by unnecessary information.

Overall, Sword Art Online is a very enjoyable experience. Honestly, you can't talk about SAO without thinking about or comparing to the anime started this genre, the .hack//sign. In fact, SAO is a lot more similar in concept to .hack//sign than many others in the same genre since. But the SAO really brought this genre up to a new level. First half of the series, it focuses mainly on the struggle of how people would behave when they found themselves trapped in a virtual world, while the second half introduces a slightly complex picture where family and friends are involved and the virtual reality is no longer life threatening. You can definitely tell SAO's heritage in light novel as you wouldn't exactly call the story smooth flowing. It feels quite...chuncky. Because of that, there's a lack of "epicness" where it usually require a bit more continuous build up to achieve. Also, I think lack of climax of in the final fights attributed to it as well.

During the final episode, there's an interesting situation, where I think soon we might have to start to coup with in our own world: when the virtual reality you have experienced is so real, even life and death becomes part of it, how would you be able to hold your emotion within the virtual reality without letting it spill over into the true reality.


Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 93 (Highly dramatic)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 94 (Rather epic battles) 

Art/Animation: 90 (Pretty good)

Sound/Music: 96 (Great music)

Character: 94 (Character centric)

Plot: 88 (Arcs)

Ending: 86 (Slightly anticlimactic)

Re-watch value: 60 - Could still be interesting

Overall: 89 - Lesser, but still epic enough

Recommendation: Purely from the anime itself, I think this is a rather epic and enjoyable. Maybe your opinion would be different if you have read the light novel and you're looking at it as an "adaptation". But as far as I'm concern, this is a good series that is well worth your time.

[Ended] Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai: Deeper Than Appears to Be

At first glance, it looks no different than a blend of extreme moe anime for the purpose of producing more moe. However, the latter half of the series made a 180 turn and painted a rather gloomy picture for rest of the story, very much like how a Key anime usually turns out.

The core of the story is the process how the main character learned to stop using illusions to escaping reality and learn to face it head on. At the same time, however, it also asks the question whether facing reality is where the answer really lies. Would we really be better off rid of chuunibyou? And who to say life isn't really just a huge chuunibyou?

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Very well done)

Comedy: 93 (Highly enjoyable)

Action: 91 (Rather impressive for a comedy) 

Art/Animation: 90 (Moe and Action)

Sound/Music: 90 (Fun)

Character: 91 (Significant Depth)

Plot: 93 (Very well done)

Ending: 93 (Great)

Re-watch value: 60 - Maybe, though you won't get much out of it

Overall: 92 - Funny and Emotional

Recommendation: Early on, I almost dismissed it completely because I thought it's just another anime that sells moe. But the latter half of the changed my opinion completely. As for recommendation goes, I think I'd go as far as this is one of the must-watch of the season.

[Ended] Btooom: Supposedly Smart People Do Dumb Things

The biggest problem I have, throughout the story, is the fact you would think longer a character survive in this game, higher their survival IQ would become. Well, it's true for most part of the story, until something critical is about to happen. A that moment, somehow they decide to make dumbest choice, or, acting like a complete noob when he supposedly the top ranked player in the world. On top of that, the amount of naiveness people display in a life and  death situation is just simply stunning.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 77 (Very artificial)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 81 (Not exactly impressive) 

Art/Animation: 80 (so so)

Sound/Music: 82 (Eh...)

Character: 78 (Naive, and not bright)

Plot: 74 (Awkward plot devices)

Ending: 80 (Not exactly)

Re-watch value: 0 - Once is More than Enough

Overall: 78 - Naive (and Supposedly Smart) People with Dumb Decisions

Recommendation: If you ask me, I'd say don't waste your time on it.

Btooom: Bouncy Boobies

Currently finished: Episode 11

Not only we get to see Himiko uses her natural deflective armor, we get to see it in sloooow motion. And, um, she seems to be getting an orgasm in the process...

As far as the story goes, so far the story is...just exciting enough for me to keep watching. Aside from the first couple of episodes, the story is more or less linear. I don't think we're going to see any surprises in the last episode, that is, unless they decide not to end the story in this season...

Zetsuen no Tempest: Interesting Twists

Currently finished: Episode 7

Among all the over-hyped series of this season, Zetsuen no Tempest has largely gone unnoticed. But from what I've seen so far, this is probably one of my top three series of the season.

The first two episodes are somewhat weird and confusing, especially when it's accompanied strangely by some rather depressing background music throughout almost the entire episode. But once everything is settled in and the story itself starts to unfold, I found this is highly interesting, in many ways. The action scenes aren't stellar, but it's cued in right and pretty exciting. What I found most interesting, though, is the constantly changing plot line. There has been some major twists and turns so far and I'm really interested in how all the hidden agenda and conflicting information would play out.

I think I'd even go as far as saying this is one of the most underrated series of the season. I highly recommend you to pick this up if you can.

[Ended] Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere II: Coherence On Top of Nonsense

Though  it was actually among the first several series from last season I finished watching, it ended up being the last series in the end-of-season review block--it took me quite some time to write up a review that in my opinion is worthy of the series it's reviewing. On top of that, save the best for the last, right? So here comes:

Even towards the end of the second series, I still find myself asking the same question once a while: "What is this I am watching?!! It looks like a bunch of nonsense!" Yet at the same time, lack of coherence is never an issue, throughout the story. That may sound a bit contradicting, but it really isn't. Let me tell you why:

As I said during season one's review, in order to understand and appreciate this story, you have to wipe your mind clear of the realm you currently exist in, i.e. throw away everything you know as "common sense" or "indisputable fact" in the universe you live in, and then rebuild a new one from scratch with whatever this story gives you, at its face value. Then you'll have an universe that everything in this story just makes complete sense, period.

No doubt, denying everything you know since birth as the truth is a bit difficult to do. That may be one contributing factor that Horizon does not have as many stellar reviews as it deserves. But if you manage to do so successfully, you're bound for a wild ride with some amazingly interesting characters and lots of massively complex plots. I know this may come out sounding a bit, um, arrogant, but I'll say it anyway: don't hate the anime, hate yourself for not understanding it.

From time to time, I did forget to tune out of our reality. Those are the times I would roll my head side way and think "WTF am I watching?" But it usually wouldn't take too long before I was able to snap out of it and enjoy what to come.

Now I'm finished ranting about how you should prepare yourself for the series, let's talk about this second season. While it feels very much like the first season, the elements they decide impose emphasis upon has shifted slightly--during season one, due to the fact the audiences were forcefully thrown into an unknown universe, they placed more emphasis on character development, especially on the main group, so that audience would have something familiar they can feel attached to while desperately trying to not drown in the flood of unfamiliar building blocks for this new universe. In this second season, however, since those who are continuing on most likely already have a pretty good grasp of the settings, the story branched into a bigger scope where you see a larger number of additional characters come into play in a much more complicated political situation, which in my opinion, is the sweet spot of this series at.

If you honestly tried, but still have trouble getting everything, then I would recommend you to go through the "Preface" and "Glossary" of the novel (which, unlike normal novels, they are at the beginning of the book) that is available in fan translation by baka-tsuki (though it's a bit difficult to resist the temptation in continuing reading the rest of the novel once you're there :-)

One thing did bother me a bit during this season, is that either the animator or the author of the story up-played a bit too much on the "naked Tori". As I see it, aside from a very few situation that his "naked-ness" actually contributed to resolving certain situation (yeah, surprisingly), for the most part, it's just down right unnecessary.

Though there's no clear announcement like it had in the end of season one, the final moments of this season two showed some new characters that are relevant in the future story. It's possible they simply pulled them directly from the novel's original artwork, but I do hope they keep make more.

All in all, if you can shift your mind into the universe, this is one amazing story, even though it still gets my

WTF of the Year for 2012

award. 

[Edit 11/14/12] One thing I forgot to mention because I was a bit too absorbed in recalling the story of Horizon, is that there's an anime that came out in 2009 that is equally amazing in terms of building a completely coherent story with elements that you couldn't make any sense of. It's called "Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo" (US release translates it to Girl who Leapt through Space, not to confuse it with Girl who Leapt through Time which is a completely different anime has nothing to do with each other). If you liked Horizon, you would like it equally.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Quite dramatic)

Comedy: 90 (No lack of that)

Action: 93 (Over the top, hilarious, and exciting) 

Art/Animation: 88 (Original design from the novel)

Sound/Music: 90 (Quite good)

Character: 93 (Lots of interesting ones)

Plot: 97 (Wild ride)

Ending: 92 (Good wrap up point for the moment)

Re-watch value: 80 - You might need to do that to wrap your brain around it

Overall: 92 - Get ready to be Blown Away

Recommendation: If you get it, you'll love it. If not, well, sorry, you're missing out on one amazing story.

MAGI: They are...Um...Pierced...

Let me just say I was a bit surprised when they just popped up uncensored, front center shots, repeatedly. Consider how aggressively they're censoring ToLoveRu Darkness, I'm a little puzzled about the standards for censoring for broadcast animes. If it's because blue genie is not human, well, neither is Lala. But I guess being blue-skinned makes a difference as far as censoring concern...

[Ended] Kokoro Connect: Twisted People with Twisted Problems

Kokoro Connect really is just another coming to age story that several friends, each has some personal problems as well as some problematic pasts come together helping each other out in time of their most desperate needs. What's unique about this story is how their problems surfaced: if they had gone on with their daily lives as normal, their problems probably would never be seen by others. It is when they were put through some strange phenomenons, their problems were discovered, some in rather brutal manners.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 86 (Problems after problems)

Comedy: 83 (For what it had)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 82 (Looks like K-ON)

Sound/Music: 84 (Average)

Character: 90 (Well developed)

Plot: 90 (Unique)

Ending: 87 (All problem solved?)

Re-watch value: 60 - Wouldn't be necessary

Overall: 88 - Unique Story on a Common Subject

Recommendation: In my opinion the story itself is pretty flat, though there's certain degree of creative uniqueness to it. I have to say it's one of the better anime of the season, if you have time, you should make an effort to watch it.

[Ended] Binbogami Ga!: Typical

Honestly, I don't really know why everybody thinks so highly about this anime. In my opinion, it's really just another typical in-your-face style comedy that isn't much different than the rest. And this growing out of an irresponsible brat thing, that's only been used like a thousand other animes... Don't get me wrong, by no means this is a bad anime, it's just in my opinion overrated.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 82 (So so)

Comedy: 82 (In-your-face style)

Action: 82 (Exaggerated)

Art/Animation: 82 (Typical)

Sound/Music: 84 (Not bad)

Character: 81 (Interesting)

Plot: 80 (Flat)

Ending: 86 (Not bad)

Re-watch value: 20 - Not really 

Overall: 81 - Interesting, but a bit overrated

Recommendation: If you like anime of this style, go right ahead, you'd probably enjoy it. If you just want something to watch, it's not a bad choice either. But if time is a precious commodity for you, I think you can leave it off your list without missing too much.

[Ended] Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate: Building Excitement, One Block at a Time

Honestly, I never had much expectation for this series. But turns out, this is a very interesting story, built one block at a time. It actually feels like a twisted Japanese version of the Chris Rock's movie, Head of State, where someone started to run for office for the wrong reason, but ends up becoming a real candidate for the right reason.

Like most game adapted anime, almost every single side character has a problem, and the whole show is about how the main character helps them solve their personal problems while slowly grow into a worthy candidate with his own ideas about what leadership is.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 88 (Politics)

Comedy: 86 (Pretty interesting)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 88 (Typical)

Sound/Music: 84 (So so)

Character: 86 (Growing up)

Plot: 80 (Rather predictable)

Ending: 89 (Highly predictable)

Re-watch value: 50 - Maybe

Overall: 84 - Intriguing, but highly predictable

Recommendation: It's good, but it's not great. The plot, you can see both problems and solutions coming miles away. So there isn't really much of a twist and turn, it's just people solving problems, straight up. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting story. If you have extra time, it may worth your time.