This Anime is Awarded:

You will have to put a lot of effort to follow this show and frankly you will get little reward for your troubles. Many aspects have a lot of content to them, rules, ins and outs that you need to know to follow the show. However even with all of that I still have no idea what is going on with this show.“Asura Cryin” has a lot of problems but the one I had the biggest issue with is that the whole show is convoluted. Not only is the story complex but it is unnecessarily complex. There is a lot of different factions and rules for these factions. A person may not be able to attack someone if they are a member of a certain faction so long as that person doesn’t interact with members of this other faction. Also the way the members of different factions interact don’t make any sense. Enemies have lunch with one another, making all the separate groups feel pointless. Just to make sure I don’t care about these groups at all the show decided to pick the stupidest and nonsensical covers possible. There is the School Student Council, The Science Club, The Second School Student Council, and it goes from there. Each name more meaningless then the last.

With all this complexity between groups it would makes sense that the story was equally deep, but actually the storyline is very shallow. Some young boy gets a package that holds one of the most powerful magical mechs in the world. Some event needs to be stopped or the world will end. The thing is 13 episodes later I still don’t know what that event is and why the world will be destroy. There is a mysterious quality to all of this at first but that soon goes away after the story stops moving forward and the show doesn’t seem to be concerned in answering any of the questions it brought up. To be completely fair this isn’t the complete story, there is another show, but at the end of the last episode I still don’t have enough information to understand so of the basic/core elements of the show.

This is a mecha show, and with that comes a few action scenes. The quality of the action varies a lot. Most of it is the one mech does its super move and then the other mech does its super move and the fight is over. There are the few the go outside of this norm. These are well done and interesting. Still more often than not the mech scenes are kind of lame.

One of the few things I didn’t completely hate in the show was the comedy. The comedy is definitely on the corny side. Expect jokes about Tomo(the male lead) and breasts along with a few toilet jokes. Probably not everyones taste but I kind of like it. However with a few laughs come a honorable sense of timing. I can’t count the number of times that the show tells a joke that just destroys what little pacing the show had.

What I loved most about the show was the relationship between the two main characters. The personalities of Tomo and Misao play off one another so well. Those 2 would bring a smile too my face more often then not. The rest of the cast didn’t deliver quite as many smiles. They start out good. Each character is given a deep back story and a personality that is all their own. That is where it ends, the show doesn’t do anything with the characters after that. I don’t mean the show does a poor job of developing them, I mean the show literally doesn’t do anything with them. In some cases you don’t even see them for 4 or 5 episodes and in the 13 episode show 4 or 5 episodes is kind of a big deal.

Is “Asura Cryin” a good show, not really. Does “Asura Cryin” have its moments, you bet. There were times it made me laugh and the 2 main characters are a joy to watch. It is too bad the there is a lot more bad then good in the show. The rest of the cast could be described as “thin” at best and after the 3rd episode I stopped caring about the story line.

This anime is awarded:

Before watching this anime I thought to myself, “This is probably one of those harems ecchi shows where a lot of girls fall for the same guy.” Well it was almost that. Instead of a lot of girls there was only two, Ibuki Ikaruga and Ayame Ikaruga. They fall in love with Yoichi Karasuma. But unlike many harems this anime has a credible storyline. Unknowingly Ibuki has a fiance. After many years he has finally come to wed his belowed. That’s basically the jist of it. Yoichi and the girls try to overcome obstacles and challenges that are thrown at them.AIC is known for creating some of the best animation in the anime world and they don’t disappoint with Asu no Yoichi. Color, character design and background are all animated really well. One of the bright spots in this anime is “Washizu visions” and “Tsubasa visions.” These are “visions” the respective character has funny visions of what he or she believes will happen.

Every character plays a part in Asu no Yoichi. There isn’t a lot of character development but interaction between each character is huge. They all have a special moment with each other. Secondary characters such as Washizu also play a big part in the anime. They all have a big part during the last few episodes.

There are many golden comedy moments in this anime. They all contribute to the enjoyment level of this anime. Asu no Yoichi is enjoyable and fun to watch. On the other hand it doesn’t have many epic moments that will make you remember this anime. If you have the time this anime would be a choice to check out.

This anime is awarded:

Karada is a young girl who hates being treated like a child and who wishes to be grown up. Shoko is an aloof, unhappy young woman who has just returned from overseas. When they meet by coincidence one night at a local shrine where they both like to make wishes, they exchange ages.  Ive never seen an anime where people exchange bodies, minds or anything. So, seeing something like this was a new deal for me. However, the plot is so much different than just switches. It may move really slow at times, but the character development and story is amazing. The story focuses more on Hiro and Shouko’s relationship, and the drama that Harada is put through after just being 12 years old. I even cried all the way through one of the episodes.ART 9/10
I really liked the art, its just… The entire time I was watching it, i kept thinking “Karada looks like Ahiru from Princess Tutu…” I dont know why. There really wasnt anything special about the art, its the typical shoujo.

SOUND 10/10
I think… Out of all the anime Ive watched, this one had the best BGM OST. The piano pieces played were beautiful and fit the show perfectly. The voices where amazing too, since the same actresses played the younger and older character. Im seriously hooked on the opening song as well, Suara’s voice gives it a unique feel.

CHARACTERS 10/10
The character development in this story was amazing. Without it, the story would be dull and not even worth watching.The characters where great too. It amazed me at how TINY Harada was, and she was 12! Shouko, the dismissive one… Well I didnt like her much. Now, my favorite character was Tetsu. 6th grade, mistaken for a highschooler. He was too CUTE. and for the Kansai-Ben fans [ahem... moi~] Tetsu spoke it, so thats a big plus. Hiro was adorable too, for a 28 year old. And for being a junior high student, Kotoko wore some SKIMPY~~ outfits. But other than them, all the characters where lovable.

OVERALL 10/10
I watched this ALL in one sitting. (Well ok, I got up to make food. A girl’s gotta eat) If you like light-hearted, tear wrenching shows about REAL life with a hint of magic, then this one is for you. Actually, even if you DONT like shoujo themes, you might even like this. Its for everyone!

This anime is awarded:

Personally, I found Aquarian Age to be extremely boring and confusing, although the ‘boring’ part can be accredited almost entirely to the ‘confusing’. There’s way too much going on in the background to make a cohesive story line. The descriptions I’d read of the anime always made it sound like this epic, earth shattering story, when really not much happens in the end. If they’d taken out all the weird supernatural aspects, I think you’d end up with a pretty average romance/drama anime. And to top it off, they never even fully explain WHY there’s a bunch of weirdos with super powers going around, nor is the main character all that disturbed by this revelation. The art is okay, but certainly nothing special or memorable. Honestly, there’s not really much to say one way or another about it.

The characters are probably the worst part of the show. There are just plainly too many to keep track of, and because of this a majority of the characters end up feeling flat and underdeveloped. To make matters worse, the characters that do stick around long enough to gain development end up making me wish they hadn’t. The two main characters ended up being incredibly annoying and (Kyouta especially) fairly typical.

Aquarian Age’s one and only saving grace is the music, and even then it isn’t all that great.

One thing I have learned after finishing this series, that the world and its society is a one cruel place full with violence, madness, and betrayal, or in the other hand, overpowered by those with the authority.Story: 9/10
The Anime itself is divided into 6 different famous Japanese literatures made by famous authors from the past and all of the arcs has no connection with the others, but don’t let this make you down because those 6 literatures sure were masterpieces indeed. You may prefer some arcs over the others, but overall it was a roller coaster full of emotions. One has to think deeper to get the full and real meaning of each arc, or as an english teacher would say, you need to think outside the box. You wouldn’t really expect what to happen next since it’s like a train of irony. You will be left with awe once you finish a certain arc. You will most likely doubt your own instincts since at first you’ll be like “ah he’s a bad guy”, but then later on you’ll be like, “wtf I was wrong.”

Art: 10/10
If I can give a number higher than 10, then I would gladly choose that number as Aoi Bungaku’s art was a hell of a masterpiece. The art was one of the parts why this show was awesome. The art gave the Anime a mysterious atmosphere and in some part, creepy. Heck, I would be glad if all Anime were drawn like this.

Sound: 9/10
You get different sounds in each arc. The background music that they play when a certain creepy event is happening was so good that it’ll make either your eyes closed or wide open, if you’re a masochist. Also, when emotional parts strike, the background music really helped to make a viewer sad or cry.

Character: 10/10
6 different arcs, which mean a lot of new characters. In each arc, you get awesome characters, and by awesome I mean characters surrounded with mystery and such. You wouldn’t expect that character would do that to other character such. Also, 2 of the mains in 2 arcs looked like Light from Death Note. Plus, you get a 3d guy in every beginning of an episode. Where can you see an Anime with 3d people on!?

Enjoyment: 10/10
Pretty much enjoyed the entire series. There are 6 arcs so normally, one would prefer one over the other. Overall, it was really good. Superb, I must say.

Overall: 10/10
I would frankly say that this is the first Anime I’ve seen with a different type of storytelling so I’m going to give this a 10. It was very unique. You can’t help it but fall in love with the arcs although in some cases, you will most likely hate some of the arcs before you prefer the previous one and wanted that arc to be longer.

This anime is awarded:

Like most tournament shows, the themes of doing your best and friendship pervade the experience. A doll used in the Angelic Fights is usually treated by her (or rarely, his) owner (deus) as though it were a dear friend, with concerned cries going out when they are injured. Unlike most competition shows, however, Angelic Layer isn’t treated as the be-all-end-all of life. Characters who take it too seriously end up losing to Misaki and come to see that winning is less important than making friends and having fun. That’s not to say the entire show is light-hearted and gay; Misaki’s personal mantra seems to be: I’ll do my best in spite of my tiny size! The plot is mostly simple enough: Misaki arrives in Tokyo, since she’ll be going to a new school there and sees an exhibition Angelic Layer fight. When the pretty, smaller Angel wins, Misaki is immediately enamored and wants to create her very own Angel. After winning her very first fight, she enters the annual tournament, and proceeds to advance round after round, with help and encouragement from her friends, growing as both a person and a deus. Along the way, she makes new friends, and they occasionally stop by for a picnic or a trip to the beach.

Misaki herself is an adorable girl, and a virtuous heroine, but, unfortunately, somewhat shallow as a character for most of the story. Her motive of being strong is dedicated to not being a burden for her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in years and has been away in Tokyo for work; or so she believes. The truth about her mother is revealed about halfway through, and eventually that plot thread allows for Misaki to rise above her basic role as the talented newcomer at the end of the show, but until then, she fails to be much more than an enjoyable stereotype.

The supporting cast lend a great deal of charm to the show, most notably from Icchan, the goofy, eccentric creator of Angelic Layer who hides his role as such from Misaki while guiding her into the game. Aside from tormenting his assistants and providing screwball antics, Icchan displays a caring and sometimes insightful side behind his silly facade, proving to be a deeper character than the lead for much of the series. Misaki’s classmates, the childhood friends Tamayo and Kotaro, provide a regular dose of levity, with Tamayo regularly practicing various martial arts holds or wrestling moves on Kotaro, who develops a crush on Misaki. Kotaro’s little sister, Hatoko, fills the role of a mentor for Misaki. Many of the rival deus also befriend Misaki, eventually, nearly all of them with a brief, touching, backstory to endear them to the viewer, although pop idol Ringo just provides silly and energetic entertainment value.

The series makes use of lots of vivid, solid colors, and is pleasing to look at. Even during rainstorms, the pallet never feels downright dreary. Character designs are moderately varied (Just, be careful about the announcer’s purple suit, wow), although most of the characters have only one outfit that they where in the entire series. One wonders why so many characters participate in these games wearing their school uniform. All of the Angels have unique outfits as well, ranging from strikingly beautiful to kind of funny looking. Hikaru, Misaki’s angel, is a distinctive red outfit that’s somewhere in the middle. The battles are fairly fluid, although certain moves are represented with flashy single frames, and in some of the longer battles, some scenes are shown from a distance. People who watch more recent action shows won’t be impressed with any of it, though.

Sound effects are used well throughout the show, whether in the Angelic Fights or for comedic emphasis. Especially for comedic emphasis. The English dub, however, fairs less well. I only had access to the dubbed version, so I can’t judge the Japanese track, but the English voice acting is probably the series weakest aspect. The children, especially younger children, frequently come across as a little wooden or strained, and not entirely believable. Hatoko’s light and wispy tone doesn’t sound bad, but it doesn’t quite seem to fit, Jessica Boon’s Misaki always seems just a little bit too dramatic, Monica Rial plays Tamayo maybe a little too gruff, and so on. Icchan feels pretty spot on, though, but his harried assistant’s whininess is a bit grating. One major distraction in the voice acting is the regularity of unnatural pauses in the middle of a sentence. Yes, this is a side effect of the difference in sentence structure from Japanese to English, thus the lip flaps make it difficult to get the dialogue to flow easily, but perhaps if the translation was a little less rigid (I’m assuming, again, I only saw the dub) it might have been less obvious. Also, the pronunciation of “deus” as deuce struck me as odd, since deus (day-oos) is Latin for god, and matches the Angel theme.

All-in-all, it’s a nice show. It’s got a good message and will generally provide a warm and cuddly feeling with a few chuckles along the way. There’s nothing really ground-breaking here, but it’s a good kid-friendly show, if that’s what you’re looking for. Surprisingly, there’s very little in the way of romance for a CLAMP series.

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Note* This series is a spin-off from another show called City Hunter, and uses many of it’s characters. All I did before watching this series is read the synopsis for City Hunter, and I’ve had no problems following the story. It still may be preferable to watch City Hunter first though.

Angel Heart starts by following professional assassin (trained from a child), Glass Heart, as she attempts to escape from her life of killing, by ending her own. But after a heart transplant, and a couple of years sleep, she’s good as new. The new heart brings it’s owner’s spirit with it, and refuses to let Glass Heart die, and so, Glass Heart escapes, to try and find out about the person the heart belonged to.The series is made up mostly of seperate story arcs, the first following Glass Heart’s escape, the rest following her new life as she starts accepting missions to help people in dire situations, and in doing so, learning about life.
The first arc is generally more plot-driven and a lot more fast-paced. After the first arc, things start to meander into character development, with far less in the way of action. If you have a short attention-span, you should be able to watch the first arc alone without worries, as it’s a self-contained story.

Since the series mainly follows character-development, the characters are important, and in my opinion, they’ve done well. The regulars are a variety of interesting characters that you should have no trouble watching for the length of the series. The characters that need help are also well made, with realistic reasons for needing help. Honestly, some of the coincidences in the series are a bit of a stretch, but still, they’re well used.

I’ll also note that there are a fair few flashbacks about how Ryo became the City Hunter, and his relationship with Kaori. These may have been covered in the original series, but if you haven’t seen it, then these will fill in a few gaps.

This is a 50 episode series, but there’s no real ‘ending’, things simply keep going without any further resolution beyond that of the first arc. And it is kind of disappointing. Also, with so many episodes, despite the series being good, it does start to drag towards the end.

The art goes for a more realistic style than usual, (most notably, the eyes are smaller) and it’s well done.

One thing I wasn’t expecting from this series was that it contains a fair chunk of humour. The humour is mostly character-based. For example, Seaba Ryo, the City Hunter, is a bit of a clown, and lot of a woman-chaser.
The realistic art-style makes seeing the silliness of some situations that much stranger, and in my opinion, that much stronger. For instance, the gigantic wooden hammer (that makes only a couple of appearances) is obviously ridiculous, but it does actually look like a real object.

To summarise, this is a good, mostly serious, character-driven series, that involves combat specialists helping people out of dangerous situations, though there’s not that much action after the first story. There’s also regular silliness to mix things up.
And people with short attention-spans may only want to watch the first few episodes.
You’ll just have to decide whether to watch City Hunter first. If you haven’t already.

Passed during a mysterious parallel thought of Edo period, Amatsuki is a very interesting anime that explores the relationship between the basic religious classes of Shinto: Demons, Humans, Kami and the Heaven. The first thing we have to remember to be able to fully enjoy this is that these “classes” are completely unrelated to anything you may find in the montheist Western religions we’re used to. Demons, Humans and Kami (the spirits of things, if I am allowed to simplify) live in unrelated worlds, bounded by thin bridges, while the Heaven is a higher place where everything belongs. It is in Heaven (Ten) that the destiny is forged and inserted in matter. Everything is ok in Amatsuki, the Edo mirror, until this young man Toki appears. Happens that young Toki also has the ability to forge destiny! Which dwells into the desire to change it.

The story is absolutely interesting because of this setting. Some of the characters know what the destiny will be and will want to change it, while the main character is driven through a madness of a world that he does not know, trying to fit himself, please everyone and keep up with the people he loves.

The art is not refined, but appropriate, and the portrays of demons are very amusing. It fits well the characters: an assortment of hot guys (for my fangirl pleasure), original designs for the paranormal beings and delicacy of clothes for the girls. The personalities of the characters are also very interesting, from the lazy demon boss to the shy and short tempered possessed girl. However, the main character fails them. A boy that never had any problem, has no reason for being kind, accepts everything just because… Too ideal.

A beautiful world surrounded by a beautiful musical score, with the great defect of being too short. The secondary story (heart-taking and inspiring, for what matters) took all the time, while the primary was left open with a declaration of war to the Heavens. This outrageous ending makes Amatsuki deserve its fair score. All we can hope is that a second season is written in our destiny.

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Amaenaideyo is your run of the mill harem anime, with one catch…
The harem consists of  nuns/monks and one very perverted guy. Don’t go into any harem anime expecting a groundbreaking story, cause you will almost never find that. But considering the anime does a decent job of developing the main characters it makes it better than most, though it only seems to spend a smaller time on the other characters. Normally this would hinder an anime but for the most part they all are not that far off from one anime stereotype or another. Overall, the story could be better, but it would be hindering the reasons to watch the anime, which is for laughs and some fan-service. For this reason, I was a bit more lenient on the score.

Characters
7/10
The main character is Ikko, and he is a priest living with 6 nuns. They usually end up running into some sort of disembodied spirit that has failed to ascend for various reasons. But that never usually works. There always seems to be one problem-child in the mix. The Ikko has to exorcise them. The problem is, that Ikko is useless until he sees enough skin, and then he enters a trance and turns into some sort of supermonk.

Art
8/10
The art style is good, though some of the characters look very generic, though we are talking about nuns here. I wouldn’t expect radical character designs given the story and setting. There are no gravity defying hairstyles here. Just short, medium and long. The colors are very vibrant and cheery which helps sustain it’s charm. And the character shapes, while not completely realistic, also are not very cartoony. In terms of art, think “Tenchi Muyo”!

It seems to fit the comedy/ecchi theme quite well and the breasts are not blown WAY WAY out of proportion like some ecchi anime. Overall, I think the art is another thing that gives the anime it’s charm.

Sound
7/10
There are two series of Amaenaideyo; one is “Amaenaideyo” and the other is ‘Amaenaideyo Katsu”. Since I cannot choose to review one, i’ll just mash em together. Overall, the backround music, voices and sound effects stay the same, but the opening and closing themes are a bit different. In “Amaenaideyo”, the opening was catchy but the closing theme was a bit weak and forgettable. In ” — Katsu”, both the opening and closing were weak. In fact I would say, that they were the worst part of this series. Good thing the rest of the sound is good, and although more cartoony than most, it fits the comedy motif. What the voice actors do well though, is even though the voices are similar, they make the characters distinct personalities reflect in their voices. By midway through the anime, I knew who was speaking based almost solely on HOW sentences were spoken rather than by pitch. Unfortunatly, I find alot of anime to lack in this department and just have very different sounding voices. The only one they seemed to pull this with was Sakura, and even though her personality fit, they did not need to take it that far.

Overall the sound is good, the only downfall being some of the themes.
(Note: This review was done watching the Japanese subbed version.)

Enjoyment
8/10
There is a good amount of fanservice, a bit more than something like “Love Hina”. As an Ecchi show it succeeds due to the amount of fanservice, but it seems to do so without distracting you from the actual story. Although the story is weak, it is told well and looks far worse on paper than the fashion it is implemented in.
I found it way more enjoyable as a comedy than most anime, and it felt like it flowed well through the story while covering all the bases a good ecchi/comedy should.
So if you are looking for an anime to just make you laugh, and love seeing girls put the beatdown on pervs, you’ll probably like this. It’s nothing to completely rave about, but I certainly would lump it in the some of the better anime I have seen.

This anime is awarded:

This show is just painful to watch. Every single character is a poor cardboard cut-out of a tired stereo-type. There is absolutely no plot to it. The sound, while not quite banshee like, is just dreadful, with possibly the worst opening theme ever.
The artwork, well, it looks like a box of crayons got trashed on cheap whiskey and threw up. The characters are flat, the backgrounds look recycled and even the mecha designs seem to be cookie cutter at best…
This is the show to recommend to people you don’t like. Even at that, it might
well be a bit much.