When the first season of “Psycho-Pass” came out, I enjoyed it, as it was a crime drama with a hinting of horror. When the second season came out, it was now a horror show, with a hinting of a crime drama. That changed the pitch of the show…..and badly.

I think it’s been about two years since the incidents of the last season (can’t tell for certain) and the cast has changed and been added to. The new line up, from left to right, consists of:
Nobuchika Ginoza (was an Inspector, now an Enforcer), Sho Hinakawa (new this year, Enforcer), Joji Saiga (seen last year, now being ‘rehabilitated’), Akane Tsunemori (now head of Division One), Shion Karanomori (another holdover, she is Data Analysis), Mika Shimotsuki (was a student last season, now an Inspector), Yayoi Kunizuka (another Enforcer holdover from last season) and Sakuya Togane (new Enforcer and very cloistered).

The show came in with a great premise: What if you could keep you hue clear? You see, the Sibyl System rates a person by the color of their hue (or stress level). If it goes over 100, you are to be taken in to custody for ‘rehabilitation’. If it goes over 200, the only cure for that is death, as you are a real latent criminal. The Dominator, that gun they possess, can rate a person’s hue and will allow you to shoot it. If the hue is below 100, it will not let you fire it. But you, as an Inspector, can override the gun’s setting and allow you to stun the person, not kill them. For some odd reason, that aspect is absent, so we are treated to a lot of people being killed. (more…)

OK, I KNEW this was a horror series, but I was drawn to “Tokyo Ghoul”, as you get tired of the vampire – werewolf – zombie nexus and I wanted to try something new, although they do play fast and loose with the mythology (which begs the question: can a myth be factually incorrect?) So, let’s set the history of ghouls. A true ghoul eats the corpses of the human dead, thus hanging around graveyards and the like. They might be akin to a politician. However, some ghouls are not beyond helping people become dead, so they can dine. Talk about a moveable feast!

So, we are in Tokyo (which helps for a show named “Tokyo Ghoul”). Let us meet Ken Kaneki, that young male youth up there. Things are going well for him: he’s in college, he’s found a rockin’ place to hang out and he meets this fabulous girl, Rize Kamishiro, that far-right woman. Now, not only is she out of Kaneki’s league, it isn’t even the same sport, but he is intrigued, as she wants him over for dinner. Yup, she’s a ghoul and has her eyes (and teeth) set on Kaneki. As she is busily killing him at a construction site, a hoist of I-beams snaps free from its hook and comes crashing down upon them.

A doctor just happened to be travelling by, comes across these two really messed-up people and thinks “We have the technology. We can rebuild him.” Taken to the hospital in critical condition, he transplants from Rize those important organs that weren’t crushed under several tons of steel into Kaneki. He lives! The operation was a success. No, it wasn’t. After recovering, Kaneki discovers that the operation transformed him into a half-ghoul, and just like them, he must consume human flesh to survive. (more…)

Now, when “Chaika – The Coffin Princess” came to its conclusion, I knew a second season was in the offing, as the main plot wasn’t resolved. Well, the second season “Chaika – The Coffin Princess; Avenging Battle” does just that, but this is the third series I have encountered this year with a 10-episode second season. Oh, and a revelation uncovered from the first season is completely buried under for this run.

Well, our heroes (left to right) Toru Acura, Chaika Trabant and Akari Acura are still hunting for the remains of the Emperor Gaz, who ruled the land with an iron cudgel and people were glad he was turned into shish kabobs, as he was really, really evil, worse than an IRS auditor. Adding to their consternation, Red Chaika is ALSO hunting for body parts as well and can seemingly get to them faster than White Chaika is able to. Their goals are still the same: a decent burial for Daddy-san.

Plus, we still have the Kliemann Agency, the government-sponsored group, also in active pursuit of them, with the intent to capture and stop this foolishness. Remember, the body parts still carry strong and dangerous magical powers and if we bring them all together, it’s Armageddon, or at least Fresno in the fall. A new sojourn, added to the rather capacious list of Things To Do, is to find Gaz’s Fortune, which is on a mysterious island that no one knows about, as it is hidden and mysterious (although we can find it; it’s just takes two episodes to do that). The show heads to a conclusion that I had not predicted, as we were all unaware of the Black Chaika (and we learn the full history about that as well). (more…)

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…)

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 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…)

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…)

This is another of those “Girls Who Save the World” shows, but with a bit more tragic results, potentially closer aligned to “Gunslinger Girl”. Welcome to the world of “Black Bullet”.

It is the year 2021. Mankind has been decimated by the Gastrea, a parasitic virus, and is forced to live within this ring of Monoliths, which are created from Varanium: a metal that is able to subdue Gastrea. (And where did we discover this metal?) Soon, children are born with the Gastrea virus. They have superhuman abilities as a result, but people are so terrified of them, they are dubbed “Cursed Children”. Because the Gastrea threat is still out there, the Cursed Children (who are all girls) fall under the jurisdiction of the Civil Securities. You now have a pair of fighters: the Initiator, (the child) and a Promoter, (the guy). We follow the adventures of Rentarō Satomi (the guy with the gun), a high school student who is also a Promoter in Tendō Civil Security Agency owned by his childhood friend Kisara Tendō, along with his Initiator, Enju Aihara (red head), who try to prevent the destruction of the Tokyo Area and the world.

OK, so we will take a break so you can take this all in. It’s quite a lot. (more…)