Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Outbreak Company

Sword Art Online

Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia

Bakuman

Dragonaut: The Resonance

Baka and Test

Inu x Boku SS

Vampire Knight

Zero no Tsukaima (Familiar of Zero)

Howl's Moving Castle

Spirited Away

Spice And Wolf

Type: Anime

Status: Ongoing? (2 seasons (24 episodes) complete)

Premise: Among the farmers of the south there is a legend of a spirit of the harvest; a great wolf known as Holo. In exchange for their annual festivals and offerings she would insure bountiful harvests year after year, but as time passed and old religions were replaced by new these old promises became mere traditions and eventually were forgotten. Kraft Lawrence is a travailing merchant who makes his living trading wheres from town to town with the hope of one day having his own shop to call home; on his way through the small village of Pastol an odd girl stows away on his cart and asks to travel with him back to her home Yoitsu in the north. Her name is Holo and Lawrence's life was forever changed.

Thoughts: This is not the kind of anime that I normally watch, but you know what? I LIKED IT. The characters and story were all excellent along with clean animations and lovely musical score. A lovely surprise to go with a great anime.

Prose: All around a well polished anime, it does what an anime should do (tell  story) and does it extremely well without missing in any particular aspects. Well rounded and  treat to watch.

Cons: Be prepared for the exciting life of  a traveling merchant, wheeling and dealing, barter and trade. While it is far from boring there is vary little action in the typical sense; in the entire 24 episode series there is only 2 full fledged fight scenes and those are rather one sided. This anime is a battle of whits not of strength.

-Notes: Fully dubbed. What I mean by "Complete?" is that the end of season 2 is a SEASON finale not a SERIES finale. While nothing has been announced as far as a 3rd season as of yet the 2nd season only finished its dub this year so it is still a strong possibility that it will continue soon.

8.5/10          (Holo the wise/drunk wolf.)

Toradora!

Type: Anime

Status: Complete (25 episodes)

Premise: Jyuji Takasu is a brilliant student who is into cleaning, cooking and his studies; unfortunately he has the eyes of a murderer and strikes fear into the hearts of all who look at him. Taiga Aisaka is a tinny little girl with the disposition of a wild animal, she flies into rages at the slightest provocation and packs one hell of a punch despite her small size; she has become infamous around the school and has received the nick name "The Palm Top Tiger". Ryuji likes Taiga's best friend Minori and Taiga likes Ryuji's friend Kitamura but both are hopeless when it comes to the opposite sex being unable to even speak to their crushes, so enlisting each others help they devise a devilish scheme...

Thoughts: I normally don't go for these types of anime, but I absolutely loved this one. It was great, I loved the characters and the entire plot rolled seamlessly from one arc to another without any kind of forced plot development. One of the most natural anime I have ever watched.

Prose: Characters, plot, interactions among each other and the comedy are all perfect with absolutely no bad moments. The entire anime slowly shifts into a more serious drama the longer you watch and never feels jarring.

Cons: The entire anime is character driven with allot of talking about each others feelings, so not everyone will enjoy this one.

-Notes: Subbed only. There is only one fight scene in the anime and it was amazing, not super powers just old fashioned schoolyard brawl.

8.5/10          (Just let the bird die already.)

Dance on the Vampire Bund

Type: Anime & Manga

Status: Anime - Complete (12 episodes)     Manga - Ongoing

Premise: Vampires are reel and they walk among us. Mina Tepes queen of the vampires reveals to the world the existence of vampires and by purchasing a small land development just off the shore of Japan for the cost of paying off the debt of the national government she will form the first colony of vampires as its own independent state within Japan. This "Bund" will welcome all vampires from around the world to live in freedom in accordance to their nature, but not all welcome this grand new vista of change. The story follows Mina Tepes and her body guard Akira as forces on both sides threaten to undo the grand dream that the Bund represents.

Thoughts: WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED! This anime/manga may contain: Graphic depictions of violence/nudity/mature themes/pedofilia/blood/gore/racism/coarse language/gender confusion/bestiality. Trust me I warned you. 

Having said all that I will move on, after the initial shock of nude preteen vampire princess I was able to enjoy this anime (and the subsequent manga) for its interesting characters and classic monsters in an urban setting. This anime is a nice recreation of an already well laid out genre of the vampire story. It keeps enough elements of classic litrature to satisfy the old guard but tweekd certain elements to give it its own rout to follow. 

Prose: A truthful recreation of the classic vampire story. I enjoyed the monster movie feel along with the well established rules governing both the politics and powers of the series.

Cons: ...... This is the first time I have ever needed to put a WARNING label into my reviews..... take that as you will.

-Notes: Anime is completely dubbed and followed the manga faithfully until the final act at which point it starts to deviate away and the manga continue on after the anime finishes. You require a certain mind set to watch this anime, at a certain point you are able to filter out the nudity and violence and simply view it as plot and not something deviant.

8/10          (So it's not child pornography if its animated..... not even censored.)

Summer Wars

Type: Movie

Status:

Premise: After accidentally breaking the encryption code for OZ (an online mass networking program that has defectively taken over all functions of the internet) Kenji Koiso a prodigal math student and part time data processor inadvertently had his account hacked and used to take over the internet (yes the entire thing). Now Kenji must scramble to fix his mistake before the police arrest him or his "girl friends" parents figure it out and kill him for deceiving them.

Thoughts: I personally enjoyed this movie tremendously, it had many interwoven plots that all held significance to the overall story when held separately but came together to form a well rounded story arc. 

Prose: Well animated and voiced with an interesting interplay between 2 different art styles (real world/ internet). The visual style of OZ along with all of the avatars were exquisitely well done with some truly memorable characters.

Cons: This movie was shockingly similar in both plot and execution to the Digimon movie. Whether intentional or not the plot has so many similarities that you can actually match individual scenes almost point for point, I still enjoyed the movie (possibly even more than the Digimon one) but it is rather odd that copy write has not been enforced.

-Notes: Dubbed. A wonderful program that I highly recommend.

8.5/10          (Always clear your browsing history.)

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Type: Movie

Status: 2 completed (1985 & 2000)

Premise: In a post apocalyptic world were humans and mythological creatures wander the wastes of civilization praying on one another, the life of a bounty hunter has never been so good. Among these rough and tumble groups of mercenaries, hunters, cut throtes and murderers one man stands above all other as the strongest among them; known simply as D he is a half vampire who will work for anyone... provided with appropriate compensation of course.

Thoughts: This is a rich setting that blends old west/classic horror/Lovecraftien horror/monster movies and fantasy settings together to create this dark and twisted view of the future that is not quite like anything I have ever seen before. 

Prose: Rich setting with great animation and voice acting. It is a great movie that is well paced and stresses the points that are impotent.

Cons: We are not told allot about the setting beyond what we can glean from the actions of the characters and what happens around them, this results in a discrepancy at times were you feel like you have missed a key plot nuance or the characters are rushing the plot. This may be due to a lack of experience on my part in this setting so take it as you will.

-Notes: Fully dubbed. There are 2 movies in the Vampire Hunter D franchise, one produced in 1985 was so poorly animated I was forced to abandon it and never completed more than half the movie. Bloodlust is the second movie produced in 2000 and benefited from the TREMENDOUS improvement to graphics.

7.5/10     (Talk to the hand. No really do it.)

Vinland Saga

Type: Manga

Status: Ongoing

Premise: The vikings were a fearsome worrier people pillaging and conquering all who stood against them. Thornfin son of Thors has been seeking revenge against the man who killed his father since he was 6 years old, his skills are tremendous but he is not a true warrior without the heart that beats in every vikings chest. This is his story.

Thoughts: This story is interesting but lacked a compelling reason to continue reading it. Every time a new plot device is introduced seemingly screaming to be developed it is simply placed aside with only a passing glance. In shot this story lacks many of the story line aspects that make the Anime/Manga genre so compelling to most of us, we have a uni-dimensional main character and a linear plot without any interesting twists or turns.

Prose: Great action and a clean and uncomplicated plot that almost writes itself.

Cons: The entire series is one dimensional, it never really evolves from its first chapter and a canny reader will always be able to guess the next series of events making the plot bland and uninspiring.

-Notes: A lot of slavery and death in this one, we are dealing with vikings here so rapping and pillaging is the name of the game. Be mindful of the duality the writer uses when working with the idea of slavery, he demonstrates a remarkable skill here by showing us that not only the body can be a slave but also the mind and heart. I will no longer be following this manga due to lack of interest.

6.5/10          (THOOOOOOORRRRRRR!)

Blue Dragon Ral Grado

Type: Manga

Status: Complete (29 chapters)

Premise: Humanity is under attack from the realm of shadows. To survive in the world of light these two dimensional beings must inhabit living things from our world to use as vessels becoming one of three types of host; 1) a parasite who will use its masters shadow as a medium to manifest itself. 2) a mutagen who will confer some of the power of shadow onto its owner, corrupting them with evil intentions. 3) a cannibal who will devour the host body and soul. In all cases the evil shadows are solely interested in the slaughter of all humanity. Ral is a child who was inhabited by a shadow from the time of his birth and imprisoned within a sealed cage were no light could enter in order to seal the shadows power having only his tutor to talk with and a shadow whispering in his ear. After 15 years of captivity he is released  in the final stages of the war between the two realms, humanity is on the brink of annihilation and their sole hope is this child raised in the dark.

Thoughts: This is an amusing anime with an interesting set of rules regarding the shadows. The plot is both dark and twisted and completely hilarious at the same time mostly due to Ral and his "discovery" of the outside world. You will be able to enjoy this story from two different perspectives, the dark and vicious action packed horror that it slips into or the funny action adventure that it pulls of most of the time.

Prose: Action, comedy and world building is all top notch with good characters that you enjoy.

Cons: There are some rather bad characters as well, they just seam to lack the polish that the main group seams to have which detracts from the second half of the story line.

-Notes: Do not mistake this for the cartoon by the same name, this is a completely original work that appears only in the manga format. Nudity and suggestive scenes are common and even used as plot devices at times.... take that as you will.

7/10          (Not saving the world, just the part of it with the boobs.)