For those of us who saw the first season of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, it was a challenge on many fronts. Pulling a page from the 60s Sci-Fi show, “The Prisoner”, it was shown in an order that seemed out of place, as though we were living the life that Haruhi wanted us to live and not getting that straight-forward narrative. It wasn’t until it came out on DVD that you could see it in proper episode order and not Kyon Order or Haruhi Order (both of which are non-linear and do not agree with each other on the order).

When you finally were able to see the show ‘properly’, it made for intriguing watching. I mean, a girl who is a God and does not even know it? Then, in an attempt to keep her focused and channeled and happy, we send along three aliens to keep things moving along so the entire universe is safe? Time jumping, inter-dimensional rifts, girls in bunny suits, how can you keep up with it all?

I certainly found it both an enjoyable and thoughtful series. So, when I heard that Season Two was available on DVD, I did something I rarely do: a blind buy. Without knowing anything about it (and on such a deal as well), I grabbed it. Perhaps I should have waited.

I would divide the show’s second season into three distinct units: the first episode, the Endless Eight and the Movie Madness. It is, at best, an experimental season and it has to go back to the drawing board. Much like the ending of every episode of “Excel Saga”: “Endless Eight Experiment…Failed!”

The initial episode is fine, setting things up for the SOS Brigade in the time ahead. It is done quite well, but in no way prepares you for the Endless Eight.

What you learn from that arc is that Haruhi is reliving the same two weeks over and over (the last two weeks before the end of summer vacation), looking for something she cannot find. By the time it all ends, it has taken around 600 years to get this taken care of, as it resets and it is, more or less, relived just as it was the last time it was experienced. (more…)

Okay let me start by saying that was one of the best fairy tail episodes i have seen in some time, so lets retrace our steps back to episode 97 and do a short recap where where guild leader gramps (Makarov) announced the S class wizard Advancement Exam. There would be 8 participants (each allowed one partner) and only one would pass and be the next S-class wizard. Here we have our 8 along with their selected partners. GO NATSU!

(more…)

After watching anime for some time, I realized that there needs to be some kind of rating system to determine the amount of ecchi content in any given show. I would like to know that if I am watching “The Kingdom of the Cats” that it has a 2 on the Ecchi Meter. But in order for that to work, there needs to be a show tied to that number, so everyone knows what that really means.

To this end, I have spent the last year working on an Ecchi Meter but I do not know how effective it is. It is a list of 11 shows from that with no fan service (“0”) to that with an ecchi content that borders on hentai (“10”). As far as hentai goes, that is another list and one I have no intention or desire to compile. Most hentai is boring and badly repetitive, much like porn. And badly repetitive.

I have my 11 shows, but how well do they stack up? Is there a better example of a 3 than what I have? And what are the criteria for that ranking? I have 15 conditions to help with this sortation process. (more…)

Of all the genres out there in anime, I seem to find myself drawn to romantic comedies the most. But of all the genres out there in anime, this is the one that is the most fantastic to believe, as people really don’t act that way. Even giant fighting robot shows still work within a plausible (to a degree) logic. One seems to grant a lot of lenience with those titles in the sci-fi category.

But there is something about romantic comedies where direction and emotions get thrown to the winds and everyone hopes for the best. This means they can run hit and miss with the results and you may end up abandoning the show mid-stream, for it is just too much of a workout to continue following (as I did with “Peach Girl” and “Honey and Clover”).

That said, I have to extol the virtues of “Princess Jellyfish”. Don’t let the title put you off; there is a superior show lurking behind all that. (more…)

One of the hallmarks of anime is fan service. Certainly, to reward long-time viewers of shows, the creators throw in a bit of eye candy to keep your interest. However, it seems as of late that fan service is taking over to the point that it may be damaging shows.

Please understand that I am not wholly against fan service, especially when it is used to meaningful ends. For example, the fan service in “Mahoromatic” is employed to not only play up the pulchritudinous charms of Saori Shikijo, but it endlessly infuriates Mahoro Ando, who reminds us that “Dirty thoughts are bad.” This is a good use of fan service.

Other shows lob in the fan service before you can determine if you are a fan or not. “UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie” starts up in a bathhouse and we haven’t even gotten to the opening credits! I feel it is a cheap ploy to draw viewers in by offering up a lot of bubble-bath coated boobies and an implication that more will follow, so stick around. (more…)

Okay so i already did a general review of this anime but after watching this episode Ijust had to say a few words on it. For anyone who has been following this show i’m sure you’re thinking ‘O.o I totally didn’t see that coming’. Now this episode started out slow and predictable: Rin being a sacrificial lamb on the cross, Yukio rushing in to try and save him but oh no the super hell destroying bomb is already on its way and the only person who can stop it is Pope Ernst Frederik Egin himself (the guy who claims to be their grandfather and set up the whole Jacobs ladder scheme. Pretty sure everyone saw that far coming but then things started to get really interesting, after the horribly cliche martyr scene where Yukio so happily decided to switch places with his brother I swear someone just hit the fast forward on this episode. The blood ‘power’ spiked, Yukio himself decided to unleash his own awesome blue flames, the giant Gehenna (gate to hell) opened up, the plane arrived at the dropoff point and cannons the ‘messiah’ into the gate. Moment of silence here (or maybe it was just my brain going into overdrive and slowing down my perception of time). BOOM! ok it wasn’t exactly a boom, more like big flash of pinkish/purplish light and behold! Yup you got it satan gets pissed, unfortunately it wasn’t pissed in he NUUU you destroyed half of hell pissed, it was more of the ‘sigh why is this mosquito attempting to bite my titanium plated skin’ kinda pissed. Locust styled demons started pouring out, priests started to burn up which only meant one thing 🙂 satan was on his way here. (more…)

Good day again from Anime Recommendations, today i will review the relatively new anime Ao No Exorcist, also called Blue Exorcist,  this is one of the currently ongoing anime that i have the pleasure of watching (episode 22 now), adapted from its respective 7 volume manga it was created into a 24 episode anime series. The Plot revolves around a young boy called Rin Okumura and his twin brother Yukio Okumura. Both sons of the most powerful demon Satan who were raised by Father Shiro Fujimoto, the most powerful exorcist. After shiro is killed in front of Rin’s eyes by Satan himself, Rin decides to become an exorcist like his guardian and defeat Satan. Upon enrollment into True Cross Academy he takes part in a special exorcist course where he aims to become a Paladin, the title given to the strongest exorcist. He is capable of accessing the powers he inherited from his father Satan from drawing his sword Kurikara whose sheath acts as a portal to the demon world. Unfortunately the quantity of flames released from the sword drastically increases and risk of his mind being consumed by rage and power and as a result loosing it forever.

This anime is on the higher end of the Demon/Action Genre spectrum and as a result i may be a bit biased in my review (since this genre is my favorite see here). The plot gets a 7.5/10 its pretty good although the progression can be a bit slow at times. The animation is simplybeautiful so i gave it a 9/10. And the characters… 7/10 although they were all great in portraying their roles, there was nothing exceptional about them (just my opinion, no flaming please). Overall id give it a score of 7.8/10, definitely the best demon/action anime of the year. Take some time, give it a watch, is worth it :).

Okay, this is my first anime review so i hope everyone is gentle with the comments >.< . I recently started watching this relatively new anime called ‘[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control‘ but we’ll call it [C] for short. It was first aired in Japan on April 15th 2011 and ran until  June 24th. Overall id say the anime is about a 7/10. It has a very unique plot which more or less deals with the current global financial crisis, where an average economics college student (Kimimaro Yoga) is visited by a man one day who offers him a practically unlimited source of money if he allows his ‘future’ to be held as collateral. Every week he must participate in a match called a deal (666 seconds long) in an area..  called the Financial District as in Entre (short for entrepreneur) in order to keep as well as gain money and to avoid forfeiting his future.

The matches are done PvP styled where they use assets (kinda like summoned creatures although they can sometimes be `relatively human-like) to attack using their money as fuel in a form of an investment, attacks must be set with a particular amount of money which determines its size and range. Those that hit cause ‘interest’ where money from the opponent is transferred to your side and those that miss cause money equivalent to what was invested in it to be lost. If an entre looses a match then he is banished from the Financial District forever and their future is forfeited. As the sotory progresses the main character has to make choices that affects not only the Financial District but the real world as well. Overall I think the anime is pretty cool, as a Breakdown id give it an 8 for animation and 7 for its story line, definitely worth a watch as it is short and sweet (only 11 episodes). Enjoy!

Welcome back to AniRecs Anime Blog, now, im sure as an anime lover you have one or two (or more) friends who u’re sure love anime ‘almost’ as much as you do, and at that dreadful moment when u need a new anime you wish they could be of more help in recommending a new series. Well what i have been using is one of the features of myanimelist.net . Where you can list the anime you watch, give it a rating and that rating in itself it used to compile their own top anime list. Ive found it very usefull, at times when i need a new show to watch i simply paste on my facebook or twitter. ‘Okay, i need a new anime which is not here http://myanimelist.net/animelist/ronaldgrn‘ (oh btw thats my list, if u join feel free to list your anime and add me as a friend).

Another cool feature is the ability to view the anime list and ratings of other users, and this other compatibility feature where you can see the likeness of your list and others. What i basically do with this is that i look for users with a high compatibly with my list then i look at their top ratings to see which i haven’t watched. This always works for me, using it for over 2 years now. Well to everyone, if u have time head over there, add your anime. Don’t forget to add your rating and add me as a friend ‘ronaldgrn’. Well thats it for today, njoy. oh and ps. this was not a paid advertisement, just sharing my favorite resource :), and unfortunately i feel lazy at times so i dont update it as much as i should.. so if one series is 5 or more eps behind.. just ignore it >.<

Welcome back to Anime Recommendations, today we are gonna talk and list all, or at least most of the Common Anime Genres that one would encounter watching anime or browsing the net. Also I will try to give examples of each to help clarify if needed as well as common combinations that one would find. Well, here goes with AniRecs Complete Anime Genre List (with descriptions).

Action – By far one of the most common genres out there and the name basically explains it all, normally anime based solely on this genre tends to be lacking in substance although exciting due to lack of character development or an underlying story, to resolve this creators of action based anime try to mix in other genres, usually comedy, Adventure or Fantasy. Typical Examples of this Genre are Bleach, One Piece and Freezing.

Adventure – Also another popular genre of Anime, as the same suggests it deals alot with characters moving around and exploring  new places, these anime tend to be very long and drawn out but the characters typically have a solid background. The anime itself usually has a well formed story-line but due to the nature of this genre viewers often get bored and annoyed at the slow progression. Overall its a pretty decent anime genre and allows pretty much every other genre to almost seamlessly integrate themselves into it. Common mixtures are: Adventure – Action, Adventure-Historical (due to its uncanny ability to tell a story) and Adventure – Slice of Life. Examples of this Genre are Kino no Tabi, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Pokemon. (more…)