Kurenai - Crimson - 紅

Kurenai Shinkurou, at age 16, is already both a master of an arcane martial art and an experienced, professional mediator.  However, Kurenai may have met his match when his boss and role model, Benika, responds to his request for a more challenging assignment by giving him the task of protecting the young Murasaki Kuhoin.  

I found the character development and the plot development in this anime to be well done, but it is a strange story that may be based on some version of a true story.  (It just seems to messed up to not be.)  

Some of the character silhouettes are really nice and remind me a little of the early Capcom silhouette designs. 

Overall, Kurenai has some really nice features and I give it a 4 out of 5.

For more information about this anime, click here:

Nishi No Yoki Majo Astraea Testament - The Good Witch of the West

Nishi No Yoki Majo Astraea Testament or The Good Witch of the West is a great story for someone who loves fairy tales.  It has princesses, princes, assassination plots, dinosaur/ dragon types of creatures, strange two legged unicorns, a heathens struggle for knowledge and even a book burning!

The story elements are all there, character struggles, character development, a struggle for love and power, the famous threat of the end of the world.

The character designs are not very original, but some of the environment designs are really well done and interesting to look at. There are a number of eastern/ western hybrid designs in the story that are pretty neat to identify as well.

I really like that the story was wrapped up nice and neatly but if the author/ creators of this story ever want to return, they gave themselves an easy starting point without adding any loose ends.

I give Nishi No Yoki Majo Astrea Testament or The Good Witch of the West a 4 out of 5.

For more information about this anime, please click here:

Spice and Wolf

Spice and Wolf feels like a cross between The Last Unicorn and Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - The Hero and The Demon King.  Which I think is a pretty beautiful match.  This anime features a travelling peddler and a rare, wise wolf and follows their journey together as they make their way North to a long forgotten town.

Spice and Wolf has successfully completed 2 seasons and now we are eagerly awaiting season 3.  

The artwork and colouring is a little darker than other animes but I think that really suits this anime as it feels like an ancient story.  The character development is really apparent, particularly in Lawrence, the peddler.  I am seeing it with the wolf as well, but I think the writers are putting that on a slightly longer timeline, which is fitting as the wolf lives much longer than humans. The story is also interesting to me because not only do they explore the mercantile trade in depth, the writers describe it in a historical context.

I believe the creators of Spice and Wolf set up a really good 'mood' with this anime and have been preserving it well throughout the stories development.  I give Spice and Wolf a 4 out of 5.

For more information on Spice and Wolf, click here.

My Wife Is A High School Girl

My Wife Is A High School Girl was a strange anime to me.  It features a young couple whose relationship would cause real people to frown.  I say this because not only is the wife underage, but her husband is her high school teacher. I suppose the plus side to the drama is that the writers  do mention some of the problems that the social age gap would create.  

The art work and story were not exceptional in any way but I'm happy that they finished off the season.

I give the romance anime, My Wife is A High School Girl, a 2.5 out of 5

For more information about this anime, click here.

Infinite Stratos

Infinite Stratos is another high school girl themed anime.  However, the angle of this one is slightly different because all of these international high school girls are considered to be 'elites'.  This gives them the opportunity to use a type of 'mech' called IS or Infinite Stratos.  Other than the robot fighting scenes though, this is a romance themed anime.  All the girls have a huge crush on the only male student to attend the academy and mini battles erupt in an attempt to win his attention.

The artwork is slightly better than your average anime and some of the IS silhouettes are interesting, but nothing ground-breaking.  The story and character development is also good but again, nothing that stands out.  IS is just a fun watch that might be a good choice if you're looking for an anime to appeal to both genders.  However, the anime does lean more to the girly side.

I give IS a 3.5 out of 5.

For more information on IS please click here.

Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shūshoku o Ketsui Shimashita, I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job

Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shūshoku o Ketsui Shimashita or I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job is an another fun anime where two unlikely people become friends, a 'want to be hero' and a demon lords daughter.

The idea that really made me smile when watching this anime is how the story writer paralleled this magical world with our own modern world.  How students are graduating, can't find work in their prospective field(s) so they have to settle for any menial job that they can get.  It's actually relieving to find that some of this idea is finding it's way into popular culture.  Another inspiring concept is how, by pure attitude (discovered by helping the demon lords daughter), you can find enjoyment in a job that you were not training for.

Where will this positive attitude take them?  Will they create a new shining world for themselves?  Let's hope so!  In hoping for these characters, maybe we can find hope for ourselves as well. :D

I found the art and animation to be well done, but no super stellar lighting or designs as of yet.  Also, as this is a new release, not all of the episodes have been released as of yet.  However, this hero and demon lord are fun to watch and I would recommend them.

I give Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shūshoku o Ketsui Shimashita a 3.5 out of 5 at this time.

Fore more information on this anime, click here:

Moretsu Pirates

Moretsu Pirates is a fun anime that is now heading towards a movie release in Feb. 2014! It features both high school girls and young adults, which is a pretty fun mix up.  The main character is a high schooler that gets thrust into the family business of "pirating" when her estranged father suddenly dies due to food poisoning.

I really liked the mashup between historical pirates and space pirates in everything from the sound effects to their futuristic physics mock ups.  It really bridges the gap between hard to understand space travel/ cyborg clone wars and reality for me.  Which was a surprising benefit to this series.  I personally don't usually like space anime/ gundam war type shows.  They are fun to watch but they always feel cold and far from my reality... a little like space.  Mouretsu Pirates did a really good job bringing those lofty ideas back down to earth.

The art and anime is good, but not stellar.   However, I really liked some of the space suit designs.  They actually looked pretty functional like something modern astronauts or maybe some type of athlete could wear.

The character development was not bad and the story does wrap up nicely by the end, but there are some little threads of story that just begin towards the end of the anime...  I thought that worked really well.  They weren't important enough to the story to be considered a full fledged "loose end" but they definitely opened a door to develop the series.

I give Moretsu Pirates a 4 out of 5.

For more information about Moretsu Pirates, click here:

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist is a pretty good story but it steps on some pretty sensitive ground.    It wasn't that long ago when Katy Perry got into her fair share of trouble from mixing up and culturally appropriating her favorite parts of asia. To see Kotaku's explanation of Katy Perry's appropriated geisha act, click here.  I think the same idea can be applied but in reverse here.  Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist delves into a pool of Jewish/ Christian/ Muslim belief systems without accurately portraying any of them.  Let's just say that I am happy not to be the author of this story.  However, if you are able to and don't mind separating all of the actual cultural stories from Madoka Takadono's story, then it's not a bad anime.

The artwork has some pretty nice designs in it but nothing of the coloring or the backgrounds makes a big splash.  The character development definitely could use some more work, but it's fairly complete for the central characters.  The story itself could be fleshed out a bit more but for 12 episodes, I think the anime team did a good job.

I give Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist a 3.5 out of 5.

For more information about this anime, click here.

Blazblue Alter Memory

Blazblue Alter Memory is a strange anime to me.  The story starts by dropping you off in the middle of the story, which is fine.  However, there are a lot of characters with vastly different backgrounds and the explanation as to what they are doing, what their motives for doing it and how they came to be doing it are extremely slow in coming out.  This is a new release, so there are only 8 episodes out thus far, but I'm really hoping that this anime is going to be more that 12 episodes, because I can't see anything important to the story being concluded in only four more episodes.  There are definitely some interesting ideas at work in the story, but right now it seems a little more like a jumbled mess.  I'm really hoping that the concepts can get ironed out so these ideas can start to make an interesting tapestry.

As for artistic development, I find a number of the character silhouettes to be quite strong, as to be expected from an anime developed from a video game.  However, there isn't a lot more that distinguishes the look of this anime.

My fingers are crossed that this anime is going to be longer than 12 episodes and that the story is going to come together.  For now, I'm giving Blazblue Alter Memory a 3 out of 5.

For more information about this anime, click here.

Kyousougiga

Kyousougiga is one of the most strange and inventive anime stories I've seen to date and that is why I absolutely love it. :D  It's story is about a half human, half fox monk who lives by himself in the mountains.  He was driven to live in the mountains, by the other monks of Kyoto, because of his unique ability to create anything by drawing it.  With a little help from buddha, the monk creates an entire new world and his very own family, but no family is without it's problems.  

Like I said, this is a very messed up story that has logic to it so you can follow it, but it's nothing like I have ever seen.  I really have very little understanding of what is actually happening which is great because I can't figure out what what's going to happen next.  All I can do is sit back and enjoy it's strangeness and unique sense of beauty.

I really hope that the story wraps itself up well.  In the mean time, I give the story 4.5 out of 5.

For more information about Kyousougiga, click here:

Galilei Donna

Galilei Donna is an anime about a family which is 'under attack', so to speak, from both the inside and the outside.  The three daughters, all descendants of the Italian inventor Galileo, tend to all excel in vastly different areas of life.  Can these three possibly save their family and possibly the rest of the world?  It's a pretty big problem that maybe, just maybe three young genius women can solve.

One part of the story that stands out to me, that I just have to mention here, is the spaceship that the youngest daughter designs.  It's a giant goldfish that ends up being named Galileo.  I really love the flying fish and it's fun AI.  The artwork, appears pretty standard for recent anime productions but it's not lacking in anyway.

Since I don't know if the story is going to be wrapped up or not by the end of the anime I'm going to give Galilei Donna a 3.5 out of 5 for now. :D  However, I'm hoping that the story will pleasantly surprise me so I can raise it's grade. ;)

I found this Wiki's plot line to be slightly incorrect but you're welcome to see for yourself here:

For more information about Galilei Donna, click here:

Eden of the East

Eden of the East is an anime about creating a better 'Japan'.  It has some strange genre mash-ups but it does tend to all make sense at the end of the story.  It reminds me a little of a cross between James Bond, The Princess Bride and some kind of super AI computer.  Like I said, very strange mash up, but the lead character is so strangely down to earth and strange at the time that he holds the blend together relatively well.

Likewise the art has a little more grungy realism to it's design and I think it's a very good choice for this story.  I think it's subtlety is something that makes it work so well.

I really liked the originality of the story and the fact that I couldn't figure it out in the first three episodes.  I would have liked to have seen some of the extraneous loose ends tied up a little bit better at the end of the story though.  All in all, I think this is a fun anime worth watching and I give it a 4 out of 5.

For more information about this anime, click here:

Black Blood Brothers

Black Blood Brothers takes place in world divided into two races, The red bloods or humans and the black bloods, AKA - vampires.  Naturally, the two races try to find some sort of balance but there are many factions with in each race that have different opinions on the matter.

The artwork was a little old styled for my taste, but the story and characters were interesting enough that I quickly started to pay more attention to the story.  The plot line was pretty entertaining but the character development was a bit shallow.  I think it had more to do with the fact that this is a very big story, with lot's of long and interesting back stories (they are vampires after all.)  However, despite the really great ideas involved,  everything just gets cut too short.  Although, I have to admit that even though this anime feels like a small window on a big story, I am happy that they made it a very complete little segment.

I give Black Blood Brothers a 3.5 because it's interesting and a complete mini-story.  I would love to give it a better rating but everything needs to be fleshed out more including the ultimate conclusion for the main characters.

For more information about this anime, click here.

The "Hentai" Prince and the Stony Cat (hentai-ouji-to-warawanai-neko)

The "Hentai" Prince and the Stony Cat is a strange anime geared more for an adolescent age range, but it is a fun anime to watch.  

The main characters title, the hentai prince, means the 'pervert' prince and this character is constantly being teased by the female characters for that very reason.   The interesting twist to this story is the strange cat god who grants bizarre wishes.  

I think the character development is okay but definitely could have used a bit more refinement.  Actually, that seems to be a good way to describe the plot as well.  However, the story does complete itself in its 12 episodes.  Overall, I give the Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat 3.5 out of 5. ;)

For more information about this anime, Click here.

Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki

Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki is a self described fairy tale.  It's not a western fairy tale with strange creatures and little people.  This is a Japanese fairy tale where animals of the wild, under threat of extinction, learn to take on a human appearance and live amongst humans.

This is a very heartfelt story about a mother who struggles to raise her unique children.  The story is very complete and left me feeling both joyful and sad at the same time.
There is a surreal quality to the artwork that's beautiful, a little unique but very fitting for this story.

I think the character development for the children was very well done, especially considering that the story takes into account both human and wolfish character traits.

I believe this is a movie worth watching and is suitable for all age ranges.  I give the Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki 5 out of 5.

For more information about the Wolf Children movie, click here.

Tokyo Ravens

Tokyo Ravens is an interesting magic anime that where the characters use a Japanese style of magic.

The main characters are all from magical family lineages who are in training to defend Japan from magical attacks.  

I find both the artwork and animation to be good but fairly standard for modern anime. The character development is slow to progress but that may be a hint at a larger storyline.  Also, the plot line is slow to reveal itself as well, but  from what I see it appears that the story is well organized and has a definite conclusion.  Which, for me is a great thing!  I'm always disappointed to reach the end of an anime and the story hasn't been finished. 

Tokyo Ravens makes a great start! For now, I give it a 4 out of 5.

For more information on Tokyo Ravens, click here.

Hunter X Hunter (Original Series)

Hunter Hunter,  the original version has 62 episodes that appeal to a large age range.  The story revolves around a young but talented boy, Gon Freecs.  Gon wants to become a hunter so that he can find his father but along his journey he finds both friends and adventures of a life time!

The original Hunter Hunter uses the traditional animation methods and uses a lot of traditional inking techniques. However, the animation is good and quite surprisingly, the special effects are well done.  I find the original Hunter Hunter to be more action pact and perhaps a bit darker than the more modern version.  However, the episodes do move more slowly than they do in the 2011 version.

The character development is pretty decent but sadly, the story lines do not get wrapped up in the 62 episodes.  I'm hoping that they are able to finish the story line in the 2011 version  because it is an interesting story.

Overall the original Hunter Hunter scores well but loses points due to its incomplete storyline.
I give the original Hunter Hunter a 4 out of 5.

For more information about Hunter Hunter click here.