“Maken-Ki Two” is another series that completely abandoned its first season to put out a second season that bears almost no resemblance to its first season.

It was bad enough that the ladies in Maken-Ki are, for the most part, very bounteous and that the boobs got in the way of things. The plot was, in some form, Takeru Ohyama’s arrival at Tenbi Academy to learn how to hone his special powers. At the end of the first season, they defeated a shadow group, but there was the threat that they would be back, so Takeru has to learn to get stronger and refine his abilities.

The second season has thrown that all aside. I will absolutely kill off the first episode, but the rest of the tales that follow aren’t much better or different.

Tenbi is an educational institution that people with these ‘maken’ powers go to, so they can how to properly control them. It’s like Hogwarts, but without dragons. However, some of the students decide to use their powers for mischief and mayhem. To combat this, the Disciplinary Committee is formed. It consists of nine students; two guys and seven ladies and six of the ladies are ‘out there’ Look at the artwork above. ALL of those ladies are in the series. (more…)

OK, I made a huge mistake when I watched “Magi: The Kingdom of Magic” is that it is the SECOND season. One should really begin with “Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic”, as it explains and sets up the characters, although it did not really seem to make all that big of a difference, as between flashbacks and expositions, you are more or less brought up to speed on matters. It is loosely based on “1001 Arabian Nights”, as we have Sinbad (he’s the purple hair in the background to the left, next to that tall dude), as well as (right to left) Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana and Hakuryuu Ren (OK, it’s a safe bet that the fourth one wasn’t in the books). Oh, that girl with the big boobs at far right? Just ignore her. Yeah, as if. And, yes, she has a seashell bra.

It’s just that when the series starts, everyone is good friends and great pals and marvelous chums and we have some kind of magnificent feast before they all must go on their separate journeys of emotional growth and personal understanding and magical refinement. Of the four, Aladdin has the most arduous journey, as he goes to the city of Magnostadt to learn how to harness and train his power. Think of it like Hogwarts Academy, except there are no dragons. But everyone dresses as you imagine witches to dress (long, flowing robes and ridiculously wide, tall pointy hats). Aladdin is challenged at every turn, but learns about his abilities. But it’s no cakewalk for the others. (more…)

The only thing tougher than being smart as a whip is being the descendant of someone who was the smartest whip in history. Try filling those shoes!

“Galilei Donna” tells the tale of the Ferrari sisters, Hazuki (20), Kazuki (17) and Hozuki (13), who are direct descendants of the great Galileo. It is now the year 2061 and the world is in an energy crisis. For some odd reason, the world has declared war on the Ferrari sisters, accusing them of terrorism against a corporation (and we all know how badly mistreated and misunderstood corporations are) and are actively hunting them down to find them guilty and bring them to trial for energy theft. It’s like “Alice in Wonderland”: ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards.’

However, the girls have a task, a very special and important task set before them: they are to find the seven sketches that Galileo made of the moon through his first telescope, as there are clues within these sketches to something referred to as the Galileo Tesoro. Well, the evil misunderstood corporation Adnimoon, who are trying to make certain that the world has enough energy, are doing what they can to corral these wild women. The girls are aided by Anna Hendrix, who, right from the get-go, you feel oddly about, and not just because of those jelly-roll curls she sports. (more…)

“Outbreak Company” has the strangest idea for an anime I have seen in some time: what if you could import your culture to another race?

Shin’ichi Kanōu (right on the midfield line) is a young otaku, almost a hikikimori, who is offered a job by Jinzaburō Matoba (not pictured; he’s a stiff, anyway) because of his vast knowledge of anime, manga and video games. Just after meeting his new employer, he is kidnapped, awakening in an alternate world with a fantasy setup. Shin’ichi then is informed that he was in fact selected by the Japanese government to help improve his country’s relations with this new world by establishing a company to spread the unique products of the Japanese culture to this raw, unexplored market.

Ah, but in a show like this, there are always dark motive and hidden agendas. A portal of some ilk has been discovered by the Japanese, which takes them to the Holy Eldant Empire. There, he is going to teach everyone about the glories of anime and manga and gal games and figurines and body pillows and whatever Akihabara has to offer….but at a stiff price. (more…)

“My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy (“Ore no Nōnai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Rabu Kome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru”), also known by the abbreviation “Noucome”, is a show with a rather original concept and situation. Our hero, Kanade Amakusa, (dead center guy) has a terrible condition. He’ll be riding on the Freeway of Love in his pink Cadillac when, out of nowhere, he will be given two choices. Now, neither of these choices is all that swell, but he has to choose it and do it, otherwise, he gets a blinding headache for not choosing and STILL has to choose it and do it.

Many of these ‘choices’ are weird and/or perverse. As a result of his actions, he has tainted his reputation with his classmates and other people around him. Needless to say, this makes getting a classroom buddy difficult, so getting a date is very difficult. One day, a choice he makes on his way home from school causes a mysterious, beautiful young girl to fall from the sky and land RIGHT ON HIM. Amakusa discovers that she, Cocolat, was sent from the God World to assist him in completing a series of missions given to him directly by God himself. After completing these missions, the “Absolute Choices” curse will be lifted from Amakusa; but should he fail in completing any of the missions, he will be stuck with the curse forever. (more…)

“Kin-iro Mosaic” (“Kin’iro Mozaiku”, or “Golden Mosaic”) also appears to be a caliber of nothing show, as we follow these five friends in a year of school.

The story actually begins five years earlier when Shinobu Omiya (second from left) spent some homestay time in England with Alice Cartalet (to her left). Much to the surprise of Shinobu and other folks in the school, when Alice is fifteen, she joins her at her school, accompanied by Alice’s friend, Karen Kujo (can you find the other blonde up there? Good).

We also meet Shinobu’s friends, Aya Komichi (long pony tails) and Yoko Inokuma (red head).

We follow them through a year of understandings and misunderstandings as they try to overcome language barriers and cultural differences. (more…)

This is certainly a stunning example of a ‘nothing’ show. OK, things do happen, but they are not of great or grand designs, as least not in our lives. But such is “Non Non Biyori”. The title is a bit confusing, as it means “Non non weather”, but then that means we are mixing language (‘non’ is French for either ‘no’ or ‘not’, so I read this as Not not weather? Should there be a hyphen? But I digress).

Greetings and welcome to the countryside village of Asahigaoka. Being where it is, like, not even on the map, many conveniences are several miles away and the school consists of only five students, each of whom come from different grades of elementary and middle school.

Hotaru Ichijo, a fifth year elementary student from Tokyo (the tall number on the far right), transfers into the Asahigaoka Branch School and adjusts to countryside life with her new friends. Taking role call: (more…)

Another demon show, “Strike the Blood” tells the tale of Akatsuki Kojou, who was a regular kind of student, until an incident turned him into a vampire, as well as the Fourth Progenator. He lives on an artificial island complex where all caliber of monsters, demons and other mystic types reside in peace and solitude. However, dark forces are afoot (don’t these guys have any place to call their home? They are always afoot, causing mayhem and driving up the insurance rates) as they seek to unleash horrors and terrors unimagined….like a Miley Cyrus tour.

As the Fourth, he is viewed with a great deal of suspicion from the other Three Bosses. Just his mere presence is enough to tip the balance of power and the other three feel it would be best if he was dead. Akatsuki? All he wants to do is go to high school and be left alone; he wants no part of this craziness. Well, he doesn’t get a say in the matter. Since it helps things if he was pushing up daisies, the Lion King Organization dispatches a Sword Shaman, but she is to observe the Fourth and then decide to dispatch him, should he prove a danger. That happens to be Yukina Himeragi, who is a mere 14 years of age, but as tough as they come. (more…)

“Beyond the Boundary” (“Kyōkai no Kanata”) certainly starts off strange enough. High school student Akihito Kanbara (blonde guy in middle) goes to save his fellow schoolmate, Mirai Kuriyama (red glasses) from committing suicide, as she is standing on the other side of the top-floor fence of the school building. Following his pleas not to hurl herself into the stratosphere, Mirai suddenly stabs Akihito with a sword formed out of her own blood. She is shocked to discover that Akihito is an immortal “half-youmu”: the offspring of a supernatural creature called a youmu and a human. Mirai herself is a Spirit World Warrior; a specialist who protects humans from being affected by youmu. She is also the last surviving member of her spirit hunting clan.

The series is how their lives become intertwined, as Akihito seeks to help Mirai gain the confidence to kill youmu…so that she may stop attempting to kill him as practice.

They are currently located in a photo shop that doubles as the exchange house and information center for the Warriors. You see, when you defeat a youmu, they leave behind what looks like a jeweled rock. That is worth money and (more…)

OK, give this show a chance. The problem with “Log Horizon” is that it starts out EXACTLY like “Sword Art Online”, in that you have these people with this Virtual Reality, totally immersive headgear, playing a game (in this case “Elder Tale”) and 30,000 are online when the newest upgrade patch is put in and now are trapped in the game. They refer to the incident as The Apocalypse and they are stuck, with at least no immediate way out.

After this blatant establishing shot, the show decides to take a differing approach to things. One of the ‘benefits’ explored (if you could call it that), is that when you die in the game, you are reborn, so you aren’t completely erased from existence (although even that creates problems). It’s just that you are in this game with absolutely nothing to do: quests are bland and there is a huge amount of Player-Killers, bored to tears as there is no goal and rather than sit on my GCI butt all day, I might as well make things hard for others.

Kai Shirogane (glasses in the middle), called Shiroe, had a reputation among other players, most notable the “villain with glasses”. He was a stunning tactician for the Tea Party Brigade (a non-guild guild where people just had themselves a ripping good time). With his friend Naotsugu Hasegawa, (hulking dude sitting down), Atasuki (far right ninja and assassin) and Nyanta (cat), they decided to do something with the game that the original approach would not allow: transform this into a living, breathing society. This turns out to be far harder but, ultimately, more rewarding, than merely searching for treasure. (more…)