Review: Anime Winter Season 2016 – Second Episodes

If you enjoyed my reviews for the first episodes of the anime winter season, then I’m back for the second episodes. I couldn’t quite make it through everything for a second and third episode roundup, but hopefully before the fourth episodes I’ll get there. You’ll also notice that this list is much shorter… like much shorter. I trimmed the fat quickly and I don’t regret it. If there’s something you’re watching that I’m not, let me know how it’s going and maybe I’ll check it out again.

ERASED – 5/5

FUCK! This show is so fucking good! This is one of the few I already watched the third episode of, but the second episode didn’t disappoint. We see the main character, who’s 29, in his younger body trying to figure out school. He’s trying to remember his friends, where he sits and figure out why he’s gone back in time so far. We also see him connect with his mother and remember moments that he had clearly forgotten when he was older. Their relationship is very different from what we saw in the future. The only thing better about this episode is the next one. So fucking good and I can’t stay away. I had thought about waiting until it was over to binge it, but I can’t. I’m dying to see more and unravel the mystery.

SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU – 4/5

Not quite as good as the first episode because it was missing some key components, mainly the characters that were so good. It was still a really good episode though as we see the Rakugo master becoming an apprentice and the events in his life that lead him there. It’s interesting for sure and it really makes me wonder how the story arrived at the point we saw it at. I’m definitely sticking with this one and looking forward to the third episode.

DAGASHI KASHI – 2/5

I love the art. I love the character designs. I hate the story. It’s just a candy ad. Some of it is cultural and so it’s lost on me, but comedy is universal and these jokes suck... a lot. The purple hair chick should be 200 lbs considering all she eats is candy, but she’s not. She really only eats candy and the plot didn’t move forward at all in this episode. I don’t know if I’ll bother with the third.

GRIMGAR OF FANTASY AND ASH – 4/5

Grimgar is surprisingly good. We see our group kill their first goblin and it’s rough on them. They get injured and see that this goblin wants to live as much as they do. Killing it, isn’t a simple and careless task. There’s a lot of emotions put on this episode on all ends of the spectrum. Also the art looks like something off of the promo art for Final Fantasy Tactics which should be enough reason for anyone to check it out.

GIVE BLESSING TO THIS WONDERFUL WORLD – 2/5

Talk about a disappointment. The beginning of the episode was okay, but then it added the eventual third character which is a shame. This series really could have broken the mold and just kept it a duo, but nope… had to go typical. The third character is so bad and over the top that they’re not funny. Their motivation sucks and they’re there just to pad the character count. I’m giving it another episode, but I was really disappointed by how boring and generic this episode was.

MYRIAD COLORS PHANTOM WORLD – 3/5

This second episode was okay. They add another character because… anime. The new character eats the yokai to seal them and there’s more boob stuff. I did enjoy the scene in which the main character attempted not to be typical during the mandatory “fall on top of each other scene”, but that his little fairy friend got in the way and made it worse. Otherwise it was just okay and I will give it another episode.

PLEASE TELL ME! GALKO-CHAN – 2/5

Remember when I said that this was worth 8 minutes of viewing… I was wrong. Second episode sucked. The jokes are for teenagers that know nothing about human biology or at least the biology of the opposite sex and the jokes just wear thin. It should be a nice trip down, “I remember being a dumb teenager” lane, but instead it’s a little too dumb. I might watch one more episode, but the effort to view it is starting to outweigh the entertainment.

GIRLS BEYOND THE WASTELAND – 3/5

This series gets a point just for not wasting my fucking time by having them spend half the season collecting their characters together like Boring Girlfriend did. That doesn’t mean I like it, just that it didn’t waste fucking time doing that and I appreciated it. Ever since the swerve at the end of the first episode I have been bored by this “let’s explore the otaku genre” story. Once or twice is special, every damn season… not so much. It’s like a comic book about making comic books that reboots every six issues. I’m tired of it.

DIMENSION W – 3/5

I checked this one out again because Robert aka Mr. Skippo said he liked it. It was actually okay. I’m still not in love with the world and I find the mystery to be extremely transparent. Here’s a hint… there are no such thing as illegal coils. The characters are okay and I’m really not sure why they’re making the girl robot/not-robot be cutsey with the main dude, oh wait… anime. I liked his backstory and I think that would have made a better series to follow. And I have to mention that I find the dancing during the opening to be beyond ridick and doesn’t match the tone of the show. I will probably give this another shot.

BUBUKI BURANKI – 3/5

I want to rate this higher, but the story is just too fucking confusing. I like it and we get a bit more info, but some of it still doesn’t make sense. Why did the mom go to the island to stop other Buranki from falling? Why the fuck are they up there in the first place? Where the fuck are his sister and father? The entire landscape of the world is still super confusing and the dickhead character is beyond unlikable. I feel no sympathy for him because he basically kicks puppies and we’re supposed to feel bad because his dad’s got a drinking problem, pshh! My dad’s got a drinking problem I don’t go around beating up animals and being an utter dickhead. I might ride this one out to the end, but I’m beginning to think that there’s too much the world needs to explain in order for it to work and it’s not showing it, but rather telling it and even that is a rarity.

ACTIVE RAID – 2/5

More of the same. A villain is introduced and big surprise, the new girl sent to spy ends up doing the same amount of damage as the rest of the team. This series would be great if it wasn’t trying to make fun of politics at the same time. It’s too corny, too often, for me to give a damn. And as good as the art is on the suits, the rest of the animation is pretty generic. It’s good, but nothing we haven’t seen before. That and one of the gags for the episode involved the boss and her sister and they were the exact same animation. I get that that was the joke, but it wasn’t funny. Kind of lazy and stupid if you ask me. It was a maybe before and now it’s a no.

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Well there you go, second episodes done! I should have the third episodes done sooner than later and be just in time for the fourth episodes or just barely late for them. Let me know your thoughts and if any of these shows have caught your attention.

Review: Anime Winter Season 2016 – First Episodes

There are a ton of new animes this winter season and rather than just reviewing a few I decided to do a quick review of all of them. Well, not all of them. Just the ones that were new or weren’t continuing a new season. I’ll be honest I think I skipped one or two that I just knew absolutely weren’t for me. After watching over twenty episodes… well there were a few more I wish I had outright skipped. More than likely I will check in with these reviews narrowing down my list because watching twenty plus animes is really time-consuming just for these small reviews. Though a few of the better series may actually get full episode reviews in the near future. At any rate, I will also be adding whether or not I plan on continuing with the series or not. Enjoy and please leave a comment letting us know what you’re watching or not watching.

ACTIVE RAID – Maybe

It wasn’t the worst show I watched, but it seemed fairly obvious with its formula. Mech suits and bureaucracy. The humor comes from the bureaucracy and the red tape that the team has to cut through in order to get the job done. They bend rules, blackmail and really a bunch of non-morally questionable stuff that of course goes against the rules and shit. Frankly it wasn’t very interesting and it’s pretty predictable as to what’s going to happen. The only reason I would check it out is to see if there’s any real meat to the story or if it’s just formulaic shit.

AJIN – No

I hate the art style. It’s that’s cell-shaded CGI stuff and while this is probably one of the better looking series to use it, the story wasn’t there. Ajin are basically immortals that just showed up a few years ago on everyone’s radar and now I’m to believe that they teach about them in grade school even though no one knows dick about them. Big old pass for me. Especially since it’s the whinny crybaby lead, “I don’t know why life is like this!” Yeah… me either.

FOUR RHYTHM ACROSS THE BLUE – No

Four Rhythm Across the Blue is a harem comedy of sorts. It’s about an island with flying shoes and they race calling it a fucking circus or some shit. I could actually tell you what it is, but it’s just dumb. There’s a boy that doesn’t like to use the flying tech, obviously there’s something tragic tied to his past, but a new girl will bring him out of it. I was bored with just how typical and average this was. I’m also really tired of thinking I’ve found a show without a male lead only to be duped by the art.

ERASED – Yes… hell yes.

Erased was one of three shows that I enjoyed the ever-loving shit out of from the beginning to end. The concept behind this show is kind of like the movie the Butterfly Effect, but our main character gets “Revival’s” that Groundhog Day him a few minutes into the past. After a big event happens he finds himself transported back to his childhood. Fan-fucking-tastic.

BUBUKI BURANKI – Yes

This is a very soft yes. I loved the opening and the concept there, but then it moved settings and picked up a lot of tropes that are a bit overdone now thanks to Attack on Titan. It has the potential to be good, but it depends on how revealing it’s going to be. The opening saw a father and his two kids shot back down to earth in a mech suit. The government used the crash to cause drama and basic magic users are hunted and imprisoned. There’s more, but it would take a full review. The art is great and again, there’s potential, but the main character is a bit of a crybaby and there’s a large cast of supporting characters.

DAGASHI KASHI – Yes

I expect nothing from this show. It’s about a candy shop owner who’s been recruited by a candy company heir to work for her. The catch is that he wants his son to take over their candy shop and he wants to be a manga artist. It’s weird and funny and that’s about all there is to it. It could get really typical, but for now it’s enjoyable and has great animation.

DIMENSION W – Maybe

The world has clean and free energy being pumped to it from another dimension… go ahead and guess which one. There’s a collector dude that chases down illegal “Tesla Cells” in exchange for gas for his classic car. He loves blades and runs into an android girl that’s a bit more than she appears. It was okay. I doubt very much that it has anything to offer in the way of surprises that I couldn’t already figure out for myself and may give it one more episode.

DIVINE GATE – No

Divine Gate has a tragic hero who can use water powers. Why? Because certain people can use elements and via a device and such. Our main character is literally always crying either inside or out. His parents suck and his brother probably killed them, but he took the blame because they served him cold food and made him live in the shed. It was real whatever and quickly became a chore to get through. The art was good and that was about all.

GRIMGAR OF FANTASY AND ASH – Yes

Basically a bunch of high school kids are transported to another land in which they get to live like RPG characters. It’s some real D&D type stuff and its pretty damn cool, even if they don’t know they’re living like that. I’m curious about why they’re there and if they can be successful. That and one of them actually got to pick to be a thief and join a guild. It’s cool stuff and the animation is very different. It’s like a water painting a lot of times. Hopefully it continues to be just as good as the series goes on.

HARUTA & CHIKA – No

I actually gave this one two episodes because I wasn’t quite sure after the first. It’s a solid “No” now. I love stories about musical instruments, but this one… well it could be anything. It could be a fucking kickball team because the music really doesn’t matter that much. There’s a of research, but it doesn’t seem genuine. It comes across more like someone watched Kids on the Slope and thought, I can do a story with musical instruments. That and the main character knows way too much for his age making him a very Sherlock-lite type of character, but twice as annoying. I honestly hope to never think about it again.

GIVE BLESSING TO THIS WONDERFUL WORLD – Yes

At first this seems a little like How To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, but then it got strangely good. An otaku dies saving a girl only to learn that he died of shock and the girl would have been fine. The goddess that’s in charge of his afterlife assignment entices him to pick another dimension to go to. He’ll be able to keep living there rather than be reborn or go to heaven. He’s allowed to pick one item to bring with him and he picks her. They bond in the first episode and it’s pretty deep and quite good. I really enjoyed this one and the art was of course really detailed and colorful.

KOUKAKU NO PANDORA – No

This is one of those that I should have trusted my gut about and skipped. The concept is okay. A girl has been put in an android body because of an accident or medical reason. A crime lord runs into her and befriends her, manipulates her and uses her. It’s pretty obvious where it’s going. I might end up giving it one more episode to see if I’m correct, but I won’t lose sleep over it. Great animation because it’s 100% women, I think maybe one dude might have been accidentally animated.

SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU – Yes, Fuck Yes!

This might end up being the crown jewel of the season. The first episode is the length of two normal episodes and it was incredibly good. The animation has the production value of a movie rather than a weekly TV series. The story, well that’s hard to explain. It’s about the dying art of Rakugo and it will make you want to revive it yourself. The characters are complex, the stories they tell are fitting and match what they’re going through in life, it’s by far one of the most impressive animations I’ve seen in years. Watch it!

GIRLS BEYOND THE WASTELAND – Maybe

I’m getting a little tired of the Otaku harem genre. This one almost seemed interesting because I didn’t read the synopsis beforehand, but then when the swerve came at the end I sighed a lot. Let’s make a dating sim… oh well. The animation was actually really good, mostly it was the coloring and I enjoyed how it started off just showing this dude’s life and how he was a bit different from everyone else. Then it went typical and that sucks.

SCHWARZESMARKEN – No, Hell No

Schwarzesmarken is the result of combining Attack on Titan with the mech suit genre and some weird fascination with Germany post World War II. If you know your history you should be a little concerned about this fascination because the creators are trying to basically make a new Nazi empire, but they’re doing it subtly. It’s not great. It’s pretty bad. The characters suck. The world sucks. The CGI on the aliens suck. It’s not a good story and you really could have played another angle with another country and maybe been fine. Instead it went risqué and it didn’t pay off in my book. Instead it raised some flags.

UNDEFEATED BAHAMUT CHRONICLE – No

Let me get this straight… you have a school of elite soldiers, all of which are women, but when a real attack comes they all run and leave the one dude on campus to do most of the work in defeating it? Now that doesn’t unempower the entire school now does it. This story has one and only one interesting thing going for it: the former royalty has to wear collars as punishment. That’s it. The rest is so typical fan service, with mech’s as the added element. Lots of mech stories this season, not a lot of fan service shows and even less that are actually good.

PHANTASY STAR ONLINE 2: THE ANIMATION – No

This is a commercial for the game right? The game that you can’t play because Sega is a shell of its former self. The story is about a high school boy picked at random to be the student council vice president and his only job is to play Phantasy Star Online… 2. It’s terrible. It’s predictable. It made me want to play the game, but I know it’s so far past its prime that it’s not worth it. It brought back some good memories and for that I thank it, but I will bow out before it ruins said memories.

PLEASE TELL ME! GALKO-CHAN – Yes

This is one of those really mature short animations. There’s not really a story, just a big boobed blonde and her know-it-all friend. They’re all sexual or weird questions that are asked and then answered and then somewhat acted out by the blonde… because she’s dumb. It’s okay, for 8 minutes I can keep watching it and hope for a few laughs.

NURSE WITCH KOMUGI-CHAN R – No

This was another show I knew wasn’t for me. What I didn’t know was that it was for kids. It’s basically just the magic girl genre mixed with the new idol genre that seems to be growing and growing. Sorry, but cartoon idols aren’t interesting to me and so I don’t watch any show with idols in it. Also, no idea where the name comes from. Must have missed it when I started zoning the fuck out.

NORN 9: NORN + NONET

Everyone’s got powers, the time line is wrong, they’re on some kind of fucking space ship and one of them is a traitor. That’s all I got from this show. I could again tell that it wasn’t for me, but I tried. I hated it. The story was intentionally confusing which isn’t the sign of complex storytelling, but rather people who think they’re being complex. It came across as a show that was trying to give people characters to cosplay rather than characters to care about.

RAINBOW DAYS – Maybe

I didn’t expect much from this one since I usually would have passed on it. An emotional teen boy has found his dream girl, but she’s weird and sleeps a lot. She also works at a karaoke club and sleeps on a teacher’s couch a lot. It was okay, but only because of the supporting cast. I would give it another few episodes before I decided to drop it completely. After all, it’s rare to find an anime about one boy and one girl.

MYRIAD COLORS PHANTOM WORLD – Maybe

Fan service and yokais. That’s basically all there is to this. I’m not joking. I have nothing else to say about it. It could get decent, but considering the main female character must rub her breasts to use her magic… well that says it all.

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THUNDERBOLT – Yes

You cannot like the mech/Gundam genre, but you’d be hard pressed not to like this series. It’s mature, its animated like a movie and the jazz is great. It’s Gundam through and through, but there’s just something really gritty about this iteration. The story is pretty typical at the moment, but it’s clearly going to follow two soldiers, one in the Gundam and one in whatever they’ll deck him out with. But it’s an interesting look at war and reminds me of World War II dog fight pilots. Good stuff.

LUCK & LOGIC – No

I’ve seen enough magic harem comedy/actions to know that Luck & Logic isn’t anything special. It’s trying to be, but it introduced all the tropes for this hodgepodge genre in the first episode. It also took forever to get rolling and even longer to make sense of what the timeline was. It was really whatever and I didn’t even care to finish the last few minutes it was that redundant of a show.

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Well there you have it. Since the second episodes for most or all of these shows are already out, more than likely I’ll jump back on with the third episodes for my review, but you can expect at least three individual series reviews in the future as well. I’d love to hear what others are watching or not watching.

Review: Boruto: Naruto The Movie

Seeing Boruto: Naruto the Movie at NYCC with a room full of insane Naruto fans, after having the movie introduced by Kishimoto himself, is far and away the most exciting experience I've had at the movies ever. Burned out from two full days of commuting to the city super-early for NYCC, I got up slightly later than usual to catch a 9-ish train into the city, in order to get on line for Boruto at the Hammerstein Ballroom around 10:30.  I knew the showing would be at 11:30, so there was no way I'd be first in line, but I'd probably beat all of the slackers underestimating how long the line was going to be.

Sure enough, the line was already too long to see the entrance to the ballroom.  People had likely been filtering in since sunrise, or at least as long as they were allowed to stand there, since the first one hundred people in line got to attend a special signing with Kishimoto.  I had thought about trying to make that, but there was talk of some people camping out for the opportunity, and one day, let alone two days of NYCC, makes my bed too tempting for any such shenanigans.

Okay, fine, I'll talk about the movie.

Boruto fucking rocked.  It fucking rocked my face off.  Everything about seeing that movie in the context of NYCC and the Kishimoto festivities was incredibly unique and supremely special for me as a fan of the series for roughly half of its fifteen year run.  I can't even imagine what that all felt like to someone following the series longer than me, but regardless of who was following Naruto the longest, the crowd--mostly made up of early college and late high school folks--was so loud, so engaged, so much fun to watch the movie with that I completely forgot how much I absolutely hate people making noise during films.

Boruto is the story of Naruto's son, "Boruto," and the fact that he has to deal with his father's general absence from his life because of his duties as Hokage, head of the ninja village of Konoha.  Kishimoto has always put a lot of himself into Naruto's character, and this was no exception: here, Kishimoto is empathizing with his own children and what it must have been like to have a father who was similarly dedicated to the village of Konoha.  Of course, Kishimoto was drawing Konoha, scribbling away non-stop for the better part of fifteen years, and not ruling Konoha like Naruto.  But the time-consuming responsibilities of a mangaka rival many world leaders, I assume.

Kishimoto had a hand in this movie in a way he has not in any of the previous movies: he wrote the entire screenplay himself.  Additionally, Boruto is itself a continuation of the events of the series after the fact in a way that only The Last Naruto Movie (what an unfortunate name the second-to-last Naruto movie has, huh?) has done before.  So, rather than being filler, or semi-canon that fans can write off, Boruto is not only an extension of the Naruto series but a final augmentation carried out by Kishimoto himself.

I talked about this in my reviews of the Scarlet Spring manga mini Kishimoto wrote about the later years of Naruto's life as Hokage, but Naruto as a series is and always has been a story with a massive emphasis on legacy.  An individual's talents in Naruto are tied inextricably and explicitly to a web of influence which usually takes the form of an unbroken teaching lineage that can be traced back to the roots of the ninja world itself.  It's something no other series has quite done the same, and was, to my mind, by far the most unique as well as the strongest aspect of Naruto as a series.

Ending the series with Boruto, then--and I mean, really, actually, legitimately, finally ending this fucking series--is a stroke of genius on Kishimoto's part.  Sure, maybe it leaves things open for future sequels (I really hope not), but more than that, it emphasizes that just as Naruto's generation had their teachers, Boruto's generation has its teachers, and its own unique dynamic as to how those teachers relate to their students.  Additionally, Boruto crams a handful of commentary on modern life versus an older way of doing things and, because it wraps things in the context of the ninja world, never seems preachy or condescending.

This was a movie about not taking shortcuts, appreciating what others can teach you, and appreciating that you yourself are only really teachable if you're willing to bust your own ass on your own time.  There's really a lot of intellectual and emotional material jammed into this one movie, and considering it is, for all intents and purposes, Kishimoto's first complete movie screenplay, it's a pretty damn impressive outing in that respect.

Fans of Naruto will want for almost nothing in this movie.  Understandably some things will go unexplored because it has the runtime of a film and not a filler-laden two hundred episode anime season.  Further, the villains are, essentially, leftovers, but this does prevent this film from detracting from the ending of the Naruto series proper.  The fight scenes are some of the best in Naruto since early Shippuden and, in some respects, they are actually much more tightly choreographed.  The movie wastes no time catapulting the viewers into a stellar opening fight scene.  Still, the overall quality of animation sometimes leaves the viewer wanting, as I find the style to be more washed-out than early Naruto and early Shippuden, but there are still plenty of visually stunning set-pieces.

I know fans probably want me to gush about what characters are in it, what kind of moments they have, what new jutsu people learn, how they kill everyone off--yeah, I'm not going into any of this.  The cheers that each character received during their first appearance on the screen are probably only going to be echoed in the other screenings by two or three people, rather than the entirety of the Hammerstein Ballroom.  I'll let you savor that sliver of the Naruto fandom yourself, because you all deserve to be as excited about watching this film as I was.

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Score: 5/5

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Boruto: Naruto The Movie Director: Hiroyuki Yamashita Writers: Masashi Kishimoto, Ukyō Kodachi Run Time: 105 Mins Release Date: 8/7/15

2015’s Top Summer Anime

The summer anime season brought out too many shows to watch. Frankly I couldn’t keep up with it all and I doubt you could either (sadly, fall’s lineup looks more intense!). Because I couldn’t keep up you may have noticed that I didn’t post a single damn review for shows. I know, I know… what a dick move. Anyway, below you’ll find my list of shows that stood out and were worth watching in my opinion.

Prison School

Hands down the best anime I’ve seen in a while. When you put aside how perverted this series is, you’ll actually find a well-plotted story that’s pretty incredible. It covers all the prison tropes and all the high-school tropes at the same time. Even better is the schemes to escape the prison and the battle between the prisoners and their jailors the Underground Student Counsel.

The comedy is also very intelligent. Sure there’s easy jokes like sex and such, but the interaction with the Principal and his daughter was always amazing and subtle. Not so much for when he would get busted for being a pig, but for how he would learn from the experience and improve for the next battle.

I doubt I’m alone when I say that Hana’s story was the most interesting and strangest to watch unfold. Especially the last two episodes which are just nuts and left me wondering how the hell this wasn’t censored to the point of being unwatchable.

The artwork was my favorite of the season. Mostly because it walks the line of what you’d expect from an anime, ie, being gorgeous to look at and all the women are beautiful, to being incredibly ugly. There are so many times when there’s a close up on someone that is just painfully gross or awkward, but it becomes one of the funniest things about the series.

Overall, this was the show that made me want to watch more the minute I was done with an episode. I couldn’t get enough and I hope that a follow up isn’t far behind. In the meantime, I’ll be picking up the manga.

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Charlotte

I almost didn’t watch this one because of the name. That would have been a mistake. The premise is that teens have super powers. The catch is that they’re really incomplete powers like teleporting, but not being able to control the landing and getting hurt in the process. The show starts off simple, but then every few episodes destroys the status quo.

It’s amazing that way. After a character’s death the main character goes off the deep end and it’s just fucking great. Once he’s pulled back from the edge though and you think we’re getting the story back on track… bam, it happens again. These shocking moments work because until they hit the series feels like a rom-com. Afterwards, it feels like a drama with lighthearted moments.

The artwork is killer. It’s some of the best of the season in my opinion. Very detailed, but also colored wonderfully. There’s clearly a big budget here and they used it to create a series and world that looks wonderful. And when I say “world” they really travel the entire world.

Lastly I will tell you it’s called Charlotte because of a comet. I had to watch ten episodes to learn that and each week I just wondered why the hell it was called Charlotte when no one had that name. It’s a solid show that offers a lot of surprises and a new look at teens with powers. Think of it as a flawed X-Men.

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GATE

I’m fairly certain that Gate will run into the fall season, but this series has been a treat. Sure it has harem elements, but the concept it what sets this story apart. Japan is invaded by another realm that is more in line with our fictional medieval fantasy literature. Obviously once the Defense Force is organized they make quick work of the invaders, but now Japan is left with the problem of what to do with the portal to another world.

There’s politics involved, military protocol and basically a lot of things that given the situation would really happen if it was the real world. The main character is a lovable oaf and yet brave, caring and a natural leader. He saves the show and though he has a very generic harem of supporting characters, the story never falls into the trap of dealing with him picking a girl. The world and story are just bigger than that.

The animation is also very well done. There’s a ton of detail and the animation team had to illustrate both modern Japan and a medieval fantasy world. The battles in particular are very detailed and realistic looking.

If you’re looking for a story that’s different and really holds a lot of real world views, then you’ll want to check this one out.

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A Boring World Where the Concept of a Dirty Joke Doesn’t Exist

That’s a super long and annoying title. I liked this show, but I didn’t love it. There were some great moments, but the final third of the show really fell flat for me. The big baddie of the series could have easily been defeated had the main characters just communicated better and not rushed into everything. The title didn’t match up. A dirty joke to me is more than just saying Penis or Dingleberries, but the show would have you believe that those words and words like them are dirty jokes.

The concept was funny though and I’m again amazed that so much of this was able to air the way it was. In the story Japan has had all perversion eliminated from it to the point that young girls and boys have no idea when they’re looking at the others genitalia. SOX is a group that is out to inform the public of sex and basically pornography at the same time.

The best part of this story was Anna. She’s insane, but her “love nectar” scenes were magical. Also I loved that she basically ends up having all the same neuroses as all the other perverts, but somehow she’s not a pervert because she only cares about one guy and the preservation of innocence.

This was a decent show. I had fun with it for the most part, but it was pretty heavily censored. Unlike the other shows, they chose to make the censoring “fun” and instead it just became really annoying and bothersome. If you’re looking for some real pervert shit, this is for you.

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Gangsta.

After hearing some great stuff about the Gangsta manga, I was really looking forward to this series. The world and concept are pretty interesting. There’s a group of people with enhanced abilities that are known as “Dog-Tags” because their classified by strength and speed. They’re treated like third-class citizens and their existence has brought special rules for the city. There’s a lot more, but I feel like I could spend way too much time explaining this and still not do it justice.

Our two main characters are Handymen and basically do odd jobs for the city. One of them is a gigolo and the other is a Dog-Tag. They have a long history with each other and during the first episode they save a hooker and take her in to stay with them. She’s our window into this world and our character’s lives.

The pacing isn’t great. It takes a lot of episodes to learn all about the world. Thankfully the story also builds up a coming conflict at the same time, but that too felt slow building as well. Another slow aspect, the reveal of our main character’s backstory. We learn some, but you kind of want the story to give you the cliff notes already so you know.

The animation is good. The action could be better and overall I liked the character designs. It’s an interesting world populated by interesting characters, but I wish it wouldn’t sit around so much. It did have my favorite opening which is saying something since I hate almost every anime opening and closing.

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My Wife is the Student Council President!

Another series with a title that’s way too long. This was the season for softcore hentai shows apparently. I have to wonder how they got away with so much though. My Wife… is actually a seven-minute show. Usually I don’t bother with these shows, but I found the pacing and the way the story was layered to be pretty good. It’s actually the perfect high school show because it kind of goes through a lot of what high school relationships are about, but obviously cranks them up a bit.

The animation was solid for how short the episodes were. If anything its worth checking out for the main character and just how difficult his life gets by having his “wife” live with him.

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Jitsuwata, The Truth is I Am

There’s always going to be at least one harem comedy per a season. It’s been a while since I saw a truly great one, but Jitsuwata is the one I enjoyed this season. Basically there’s a student in high school who can’t hide his emotions or the truth from anyone. One day he discovers that the girl he has a crush on is a vampire, but by discovering her secret she’s forced to leave school. He promises not to let her secret be discovered so she can stay. Along the way he learns other girl’s secrets and finds out that his school is strange as hell.

The story is all a bit typical. There’s a few curves, including a major one at the end, but then it gets back on track to the expect ending which hasn’t aired as of writing this. This is one of those Tenchi Muyo type shows though in which the main character will never actually pick a character because for some damn reason creators don’t want to piss off part of the fan base that may be rooting for a different girl.

Anyway, it’s a fun story, not a great one. The animation itself is pretty good and falls in line with what you’d except from the high school harem genre including an amusement park and swimming scene.

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The Instructor of Aerial Combat Wizard Candidates

What the hell is with these long ass titles? This is another kinda sorta harem story, but there’s a lot more drama. I almost didn’t watch it, but once I burned through a few episodes I became interested in seeing how the main character was going to out clever everyone else. Otherwise the characters are generic and lack any depth.

I also didn’t see this one becoming a harem style show since there’s a slight age gap between the one male character and the female characters, but I guess that was their way of playing off the teacher/student romance angle without it being too gross. None of the girls have much of a reason to like the dude other than the fact that he gives them the time of day and pays attention to them, but hey… I guess that is enough. At times, he’s a bit too smart, but sometimes that’s enough to hold my interest. Also I liked the dystopian future it created even if I didn’t understand why magic users were forgotten by the rest of the world if they died. It’s an average series at best and really just something to fill the time or just a guilty pleasure. If high schoolers with magic weapons fighting space beetles sounds interesting, then check it out. I needed this first season to deliver a bit more on the background of the world and so I doubt I’ll check out the second season… if it even manages to get one.

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Well that’s my list. I’m sure there were some others worth checking out, but this is what I had time and interest for. If you have a list, let me know in the comments and look for my next list of anime shows which will be about what I’m looking forward to checking out from the coming fall season.