Nagi no Asukara - A Lull in the Sea - 凪のあすから

Nagi no Asukara is a breathtaking anime, due to one of it's surreal locations, under the sea.

A Lull in the Sea is about some high school friends that experience a rare event that threatens to pull them all apart forever.  Will they find each other again?  Will they be able to grow up with their families and those that they love?  

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Folktales from Japan - Furusato Saisei Nippon No Mukashi Banashi - ふるさと再生 日本の昔ばなし

Folktales from Japan are traditional short stories that paint a very colorful picture of the Japanese Heritage.  Each episode consists of three folktales illustrated in a more traditional style.  

The folktales have wonderful narrators that make you feel as if you are listening to your grandma or grandpa telling a story.  If you feel like watching a short story, I would definitely recommend giving the folktales a try.  I give Folktales from Japan a 4 out of 5 for Hebel House's colorful retake on traditional Japanese stories and storytelling. 

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Murder Princess - マーダー·プリンセス

Murder Princess is a short 6 episode anime about a country that experiences a coup de tas.  During this event the rulings families princess escapes and literally falls into another strange adventure which changes not only her life, but the fate of her entire country. 

Artistically, there are some really great character designs in this story, which are super fun.  I believe the story could have been fleshed out more, but for such a short series I think the director did fairly well.
 I give Murder Princess a 3.5 out of 5.

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Aru Tabibito No Nikki Anime Shinden - The Diary Of Tortov Roddle - 或る旅人の日記

Aru Tabibito No Nikki is a breath of fresh air in the anime world.  Completely different from other anime in both visuals and storytelling.  It is extremely artistic, relaxing and challenging to watch all at the same time.

Aru Tabibito No Nikki Anime Shinden is strange and beautiful.  The animes are dreamlike, yet complete mini stories. If you are looking for something different to watch, this may be a good anime for you.

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Hunter X Hunter (Recent Addition) - ハンターハンター

Hunter Hunter is an ongoing series released in 2011.  It's basically the story of a young man who becomes a 'Hunter' to learn more and to meet his long absent father who is also a hunter.  He meets some great friends a long the way and they end up having some crazy adventures together.

To date, 111 episodes have been released and the story can be so far broken into roughly six parts. 1) Gon (The main protagonist in the story) leaves home to become a hunter. 2) Gon goes to find his friend Killa 3) Gon and Killa learn how to pass the secret Hunter exam. 4) Kurapika's hunt for the Phantom Troupe, A.K.A. the Spiders. 5) The pursuit and completion of Greed Island. 6) The battle with the Chimera Ants.

After these story lines the anime turns to movies to complete the story. The first movie, Phantom Rouge, has been released and explores Kurapika's journey to reclaim his kinsman's red eyes.

The last movie, The Last Mission, has just been released in Japan.

Artistically speaking, Hunter Hunter is interesting to me because it's not always consistent.  However, the story is interesting, the characters are endearing and the character designs are solid.

I would recommend Hunter Hunter with a 4 out of 5.

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Gingitsune - Silver Fox - ぎんぎつね

Gingitsune is an anime about a family who lives and takes care of a Japanese Shrine.  Shrine families are really interesting because there is always one member who can see the shrine herald.  The herald is an animal messenger for the gods.  Ging is a large silver fox who looks after the shrine in this anime.

I particularly liked this anime because I personally didn't know anything regarding the differences between Japanese Temple and Shrine culture.  I feel a little better informed now, so I can enjoy shrines and temples all the more when I visit Japan next.

Gingitsune's story is very simple but it's heartwarming and acts as a nice companion to the shrine and temple life being shown.

The artwork and animation is good but nothing groundbreaking.

I give Gingitsune a 4 out of 5 for its originality in displaying educational/ cultural ideas while keeping the viewers interest.  The story writers also did a good job completing the first instalment of this story.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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