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…)

This is one of those ‘future retro’ shows, in that it occurs at a time, in an alternate universe, using a different calendar and choosing its era so it is reflective of nothing, but understands everything. That’s a problem with an omnibus approach: you have it all but execute it none.

“The Pilot’s Love Song” (Toaru Hikūshi e no Koiuta, “Love Song for a Certain Pilot“) reminded me a great deal of “The Last Exile” in that there was a 1930s feel to it, when aviation was something daring and dramatic and there was an art deco approach to design so things looked cool, even when they were standing still, but we instill this show with our modern sensibilities.

In this world, we live on a great floating island or rock or land mass called Isla. Ten years earlier, there was the Wind Revolution, which overthrew the ruler, and killed the entire family, a la the Romanovs.

OK, this is a plot give-away, but it’s not that big of a plot give-away. The young son was taken in by a kind man who took pity on him. I mean, what crimes could a six-year-old boy do against a nation? Whiz off the balcony? His new father, Michael Albus, changed his name, but did let him know of his past. He was Prince Karl La Hire; now he is Kal-el Albus (the guy at the left). However, he does have one goal, to kill Nina Viento, the young girl who led the revolution that deposed them all and lead to so many deaths. (more…)

I always have a problem when a show can’t seem to decide on a title. That usually means confusion in how to best present it. “The World is Still Beautiful”, also known as “Still World is Beautiful” (“Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukush”, “Even So, The World is Beautiful“) does somehow manage to avoid most of it, but not completely.

In this world, Nike Lemercier, the fourth princess of the Rain Dukedom and one who holds the power to call forth the rain, travels to the Sun Kingdom to marry Sun King Livius Orvinus Ifrikia (Livius I) for her country, despite her own reluctance. She soon discovers that the King, who conquered the world in only three years after his ascendance to the throne, is still a child, both physically and emotionally. And being one of those ‘my way or the highway’ types, he potentially has never been told ‘no’ in his life. Well, Nike is going to break that record.

Also, as you can tell by the names of their countries, it rains a lot in the Dukedom (think of Seattle, but without good coffee shops), and hardly ever at all in the Kingdom (think of Phoenix, but without the Sun Devils football team). The story details the twin relationships of them trying to get along (the “Battling Bickersons” come off like lovey-dovey compared to these two) and external forces that didn’t really want this union to exist at all. (more…)

I always have a concern when anything for the movies or TV is adapted from a video game, where “Blade & Soul” first came from. Can you name all the good movies or shows that came from video games? I’ll wait………but not that long. I have a review to offer. It’s a pretty pathetic list. Now, I have never played the game, so I cannot reference if the story works for the anime, but since we did at least string it out for a full season and not try to cram it into two noisy hours, it might work better.

The story revolves around Alka, Madam Front and Center, with those two really big…..swords. She has been trained as an assassin, the last member of the Clan of the Sword, as she employs a double-sword technique to dispatch her enemies, usually going for a throat slitting. Effective, but messy. She has a tattoo on her arm which makes her a target, as she is deemed an enemy of the state. She is seeking revenge as her master, Dougan Han (who looks like a floppy-eared dog) was slain by Jin Varel (the one with her back to us in the extreme upper left), and who uses dark magic to do her dirty deeds. The show is not only about Alka’s peregrinations to seek and find revenge, but to understand the real person she is inside. (more…)

“Chaika, the Coffin Princess” is one of the odder journey shows I have encountered. Sure, it just drops you into the action and you have to figure things out on the fly, but the initial idea is strange indeed.

Chaika Trabant’s father was once the ruler of the Gaz Empire. OK, more of a tyrant, who exuded great and dangerous powers. When he was killed (as is the fate of all despots), his body was hacked apart and relics given to the Eight Great Heroes who overthrew him. Yeah, what a nice souvenir: the eyeballs of a dreaded ruler. Try to make the rest of the castle decorating work with a trinket along those lines.

Chaika has one wish: to gather up all the pieces and give Daddy a proper burial. Lots of luck with that! You see, even in death, these relics (do you really want me to call them body parts?) still retain that great power and those who now rule the land do not want this to occur, as a new and greater evil can arise from this Corpse of Evil (which is a great name for a rock band). (more…)

This is one fabulous show. “No Game, No Life” is a variant on the ‘stranger in a strange land’ approach, but does with far more intelligence and viewer involvement than you normally get or see in most animes.

You are an MMORPG player. You have a pretty good guild and you do well in your game. Then, you come up against Blank. You are dead. Sign out now and avoid the humiliation.

Blank is a team that has NEVER lost a game. They speed, their skill, their dexterity is phenomenal. How these four people work this well as a team lead some to think that they employ some kind of cheat. Well, it doesn’t matter; you are rabbit pellets when they are done with you.

Here’s what you don’t know: it’s only two people! The brother-and-sister team of Sora & Shiro, are classic NEETs. The only time they see the sun is if they are playing on the Sunny Field level. This is how good they are: not only can they play two characters at a time, they even have the ability to have one member play all four characters, using hands and feet with amazing deftness. Me? I can’t even cross the room without stubbing my toe on the table. (And why is it ALWAYS the baby toe?) (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…)

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…)

As I have always commented, long-form shows have a real problem in that you have to keep the interest going. I have heard that the creator of “One Piece” has enough tales to make 1000 episodes. But are they good episodes? Or are you Mario Mendoza? Mario Mendoza was a major league player for eight years with three different teams and had a lifetime average of .215. He got into baseball, but didn’t do much after that. The third year of Toriko was also like that.

Now, the overall goal is the finding of GOD, the greatest single ingredient ever, and both the IGO and the Gourmet Corp are in battle over it. To this end, Toriko and the other Four Kings do these insane training exercises and activities to help hone their understanding about the true food and what it can do. Sadly, we got to a point where it became the Dragon Ball Z Syndrome.

After some rather arduous training quests, the Gourmet Corp sent out these four hideous beasts that only the Four Kings could battle and condensed the world’s population into a ‘safe zone’ (think about the entire world’s population moved into the United States). These four battles eventually merged into one massive battle that gobbled up loads of episodes, as they battled and battled and battled to seemingly no genuine conclusion. When Komatsu helps turn the tide and the Kings were victorious, it was time for the Food Olympics (for wont of a better term), a competition held every four years to see who is the best chef in the world. But it is a combination of Iron Chef and the Iron Man Triathlon. (more…)