There is a classic trope in Hollywood pictures, where some rube from the country comes to the Big City to make it big, only to get fleeced and greased. That is the initial concept behind “Akami ga Kill!” (“Akami Slashes!”).

In this land, Tatsumi leaves his poverty-stricken village, with his two friends, in order to join the army in the Capitol, makes lots of money and help save the village. Along the way, he is separated from his companions and gets to the Capitol all alone….where he is promptly swindled out of all his money. Destitute, a rich family takes him in for the night, to help him get back on his feet. However, this house is attacked by members of the assassination group Night Raid, who proceed to kill most of the people.

In trying to defend them, Tatsumi realizes that his hosts not only take in lost souls from the streets, but torture them to death, including his two friends, whom he frees, but cannot rescue. Angered, Tatsumi kills his hosts and joins Night Raid to dispense some harsh justice. (more…)

School and friendship animes seem to go together like corned beef and mustard (and I find horseradish mustard works best for that). This offering, “Ao Haru Ride” (“Blue Spring Ride”), treads familiar ground, but in a different way.

Futaba Yoshioka (second stamp from left) wants to change up her life, leaving behind her previous school and reputation. You see, in junior high, the girls ostracized Futaba because too many junior high boys liked her. That was only half the problem, as the only boy Futaba liked (and I mean REALLY liked), Kou Tanaka, moved away before she could tell him how she felt.

That was then. Now in high school, Futaba is determined to be unladylike (well, more tomboyish) so her new friends will not become jealous of her. While living her new life contentedly, she meets Kou again, but he now uses the name Kou Mabuchi (and he is the far left stamp) and has a cold attitude, not only towards her, but to a lot of people. He tells her that he liked her as well in junior high, but feels differently now. That was then. (more…)

This is another of those ‘Alternate Universe” shows, but isn’t that what science fiction is about? (or as Harlan Ellison said, “It’s Speculative Fiction.”). Welcome to “Aldnoah. Zero”

In 1972, during the last Apollo mission, an ancient alien hyper-gate was discovered on the surface of the moon. Using this technology, humanity began migrating to Mars and settling there. After settlers discovered additional advanced technology, the Vers Empire was founded, which claimed Mars and its secrets for themselves.

Some years later, the Vers Empire declared war on Earth, and, in 1999, a battle on the Moon’s surface caused the hyper-gate to explode, shattering the Moon and scattering remnants into a debris belt around the planet, an event referred to as Heaven’s Fall. Cut off from Mars, the remnants of the Vers insurgents established several massive orbital space stations within the debris belt (they are referred to as Landing Castles) and a ceasefire was established. (more…)

This is one of those shows that drop you into the action without much to go on, although the show might have been better to be called “Red Gender” than “Blue Gender”. Disclosure Time: I bailed out on this show after three episodes, as it did violate Rule Three of Anime (“If you feel the show is not going to get better, leave it. It is NOT going to get better.”). In my opinion, this is one of the worst animes I have seen this year (fighting for that title with “Terra Formars”) and the worst anime I have seen since “Peach Girl”. Now, this differs from one I don’t like. There are some shows that just miss for me or aren’t worth my time from the capsule description. This one I at least watched to draw my conclusion (and my repeated open).

In the year 2009, Yuji Kaido (that mullet-head up there. What is that hair style? Was it ever popular?) is an average young adult male diagnosed with a serious disease (the “B-cells”) and is put into cryogenic stasis until a cure is found. Twenty-two years later, he is awakened in the midst of a raging battle between armored soldiers and insectoid beings called the “Blue” which have overrun the Earth.

This group of soldiers is from an orbiting space colony, collectively called Second Earth. They had orders to recover “sleepers” around the Earth. Among them is the soldier Marlene Angel, (can you find the girl?) who at first appears to be heartless toward others. On the journey to the space colony, Second Earth, Yuji meets many of the humans that were left behind during the evacuation due to limited resources. Standing orders for Marlene and the other troops are to consider any human survivors on the surface to be already dead, which greatly troubles Yuji.

The problem with this is that it is terrible science fiction, terrible war and terrible horror. It seems these insectoids, which look like giant spiders, when they capture you, ball you up and will eat you later. Well, as you have seen, most people do not roll up well, so there is a lot of physical compaction. Adding to this is that Yuji has zero idea what is going on, except that he is the only one from his facility to survive, as the others are lost. His tube broke open and he was awakened; the rest were still in their tubes and sank to the bottom of the sea. (more…)

Certainly the ending of “Free!” strongly implied there would be a second season; I just didn’t expect it to come so fast.

“Free! – Eternal Summer” continues/completes the saga of the Iwatobi Swim Club and the rivalry between them and Samezuka Academy and how they strive to prove who is the best, both individually and collectively, with the target of the Nationals well within their sight and grasp.

One thing that bothered me was the titles of the individual episodes, as they tethered it with swim terms. It’s just that it got corny to watch “The Butterfly of Farewell” or “The Crouching Start of Vindication”. Why not have “The Flip-turn of Despair”? This was one of two drag points. The other was fake problems that really weren’t problems, but everyone gets to sing an aria in this show, so you need something that causes them consternation. Oooh, oooh, I broke a nail! (more…)

This is another of those shows like “Infinite Stratos” or even “Unbreakable Machine Doll”, whereas only maidens who are pure of heart and come from a noble family can pilot a body ship, or, in this case, make contracts with the spirit world and become elementalers. In order to achieve the finest education in all these matters, they attend the Areishia Spirit Academy, where they are trained and given an Elite’s education in order to qualify to become an elementalist. Well, all of this is knocked into a cocked hat when Kamito Kazehaya (find the dude up there, dude) somehow manages to make a contract with a spirit, making him the ONLY male elementaler in the world and only the second since the Norman Conquest (the real one, not the series).

“Blade Dance of the Elementalers” relates the tale of how Kamito tries to fit in with all of these girls, but four in particular, who are, left to right:

Claire Rouge
Rinslet Laurenfrost
Ellis Fahrengart
Fianna Ray Ordesia

The fifth, Terminus Est, is actually the contracted spirit for Kamito. This is her ‘human’ form; her regular form is some fabulous sword. (more…)

We have the third season of “Black Butler: Book of Circus”, which gives a complete story approach (much like the second season), but is far more entertaining, and far more heartless.

It is February 1886 and Ciel has been asked by the Queen to help her again. It seems that there is an epidemic of children disappearing, and not just one or two, but lots of them, as if they have been Pied Pipered away. The only link is the Noah’s Ark Circus, which has been to the towns that have missing children and it just happens to be coming to London in the next few days. The Queen wants Ciel and Sebastian to investigate and at least prove or refute the charges.

To this end, they infiltrate the circus, pretending to be commoners and apply for a job. The series details their adventures to crack this mystery. (more…)

It has been four years since the ladies of West Genetics have graced our screen, but we now have the second season. “Freezing: Vibration”, however, has taken a page from the “Maken-Ki II” playbook. For those of you who have forgotten (and who don’t want to take the time to read my original review for “Freezing”), the world is beset by these strange creatures called Nova. They are as large as a Gundam and wherever they land, they cause untold destruction.

There are these special women, called Pandoras, who have the power and ability to fight these aliens with their Volt Weapon. They have a male limiter who can project an energy field that ‘freezes’ the Nova in place, allowing the Pandora to dispense a huge amount of damage.

The conclusion of the first season is now called the 10th Nova Battle. Although we secured a victory, many Pandora were killed (as is the nature of war). To combat this personnel problem (as only about 2% of women worldwide are even compatible with the Stigmata that give a Pandora her abilities), Chevalier, the organization that oversees the Pandoras, has come up with a series of experiments that could make even common women able to be Pandoras. The “E-Pandora Project” is taking place in their secret base in Alaska, where the world’s Pandoras are sent to help with this experiment. (more…)

“Rail Wars” is a terrible title for this show. The problem is that anytime you have the tag “…Wars” in your title, everything gets back to “Star Wars” and this show is nothing like that at all. Perhaps if they called it “Tales from the Rails” or “Getting on Track”, it would be closer aligned with what this series is about. Hey, why don’t we use the subtitle of the manga? “Japanese National Railways Security Force.” Too dull, I guess, for someone. Let’s look at part of the capsule description for this show: “This is in a Japan where the nationalized railway system was never privatized…..” Was that really that BIG of a deal? “What if Rome never fell?” is something of much greater of an import, not this. OK, let it go and discuss the show.

Naoto Takayama (Mr Salute) is an ordinary high school student who aspires to a comfortable life working at the JNR, being an engineer. He ends up working as a security force trainee, where he unwillingly has to deal with his strange colleagues as well as RJ, a group of extremists who are fighting to privatize the railway. And the strange colleagues are (Clockwise, this time): (more…)

This is a rather odd show, in the fact that they go to all of this trouble, but in the end, “Unbreakable Machine Doll” is just a glorified “Pokemon”.

It is early in the 20th Century. Science and magic have been facts for many years and have created a technology that allows both to merge together in making Makinot, circuits made from spells that were put into an object to bring them to life and even gain a personality. It was developed as a military weapon and has now spread throughout the world. One of the best places in the world to learn this happens to be in Liverpool, England, the Walpurgis Royal Academy of Machinart. Uh oh, this is a bit of trouble. A quick look up of Walpurgis tells us this is a traditional meeting of witches and warlocks. It’s kind of like going to Armageddon High.

Into this mix comes Raishin Akabane (far left). He has brought with him Yaya (to his left), not only a very fine doll, but created by the famous and mysterious Karyuusai Shouko (that busty vixen in red more towards the right). Alas and alackaday, Yaya is what is known as a ‘banned’ doll, in the fact that she was made with both mechanical and organic parts (organic parts? You mean parts from people? Shhhhh!) The problem with a banned doll is that they are far stronger than a regular doll, so it is both a moral dilemma and unfair advantage in all of this. It could be seen as using steroids obtained from orphans (not like that would deter a lot of folks). (more…)