For those in the medical profession, Golden Time, (or the Golden Hour), refers to a time period lasting for one hour following traumatic injury being sustained by a casualty or a severe medical emergency, during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical treatment will prevent death and/or minimize damage. Our anime series, “Golden Time”, follows the aftermath of such an event, although the title can have a double meaning

We start off with Banri Tada. While in his last year of high school, he suffered a traumatic head injury in a traffic accident that flung him off a bridge, that nearly killed him in the process, that effectively erased his memory and personality, so he recalls nothing of the event, save that it did happen.

He transfers to a new college to start a new life, but it is already fraught with peril. Late on the first day, he runs into Mitsuo Yanagisawa, and they immediately hit it off. As they get to school, a gorgeous blonde presents Mitsuo with a bouquet of roses….which she proceeds to smack him with. This is Koko Kaga and she and Mitsuo have been childhood friends since childhood and she is to marry him. But Mitsuo fled his hometown to start a new life here….without Koko. Not going to happen, dude. (more…)

I enjoy a good anime that takes a standard idea and turns it on its head. Much in the vein of “The Devil is a Part-Timer”, this offering, “I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job.” (“Yūsha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shūshoku o Ketsui Shimashita” or “I, Who Didn’t Become a Hero, Reluctantly Decided to Find a Job.”) follows the tale of Raul Chaser and a career shift.

He went to Hero Academy to learn how to fight demons, as the Demon Realm was real and people needed protection from these attacks. However, the worst thing that could happen, did! Peace broke out! Man, I did NOT see that coming! Think of all those people out of work! No need for armor, even if it is Black Friday. The demon lord was defeated and now, there are no more demons to fight. Crfap, all that tuition money down the drain! Raul has, otherwise, no marketable skills. Sure, he can wield a broadsword, but it’s kind of pfffft! when he works as a mechanic.

“I will defeat you, evil devil bolt, with my mighty ratchet of freedom!” Yeah, it kind of loses something in the translation. (more…)

Talk about a fish out of water! This is a standard high school romance anime, with a bit of a twist. “Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea”, known in Japan as “Nagi no Asukara” (“From Calm Tomorrow”), takes a new tack on an old story. But first, let me bring down, from the Forbidden Shelf, a book. A book filled with lore and tales so fantastic, no one could believe them……except Steven Speilberg, who could turn it into a blockbuster movie.

Long ago, before cable TV, before transistor radios, before taxes, human civilization had lived on the ocean floor. However, there were many humans who wanted to live above the surface and they moved to land, creating a fundamental separation between the two. (Think of it like Red States and Blue States). Oshiooshi is the seaside village we are in, where, just below the surface is the sea people village of Shioshishio. After their school closes down, four middle school students from the sea have to go to school on the surface. This is about their lives as they adjust to a new environment and the relationships with each other.

Sounds simple? Not on your harpoon! We examine not only the lives of the five people up there, but the dynamic interaction between upper and lower residents, as each views the other with misgivings and distrust and distain. (more…)

This is a sports anime and the second strangest one I have encountered (“Girls und Panzer” wins that race). “Walkure Romanze” takes place in Germany (they never say it, but you see enough text and print to be able to determine this) at Winford Academy where, on the agenda, is jousting. Forget metal shop here, we’re going after some really heavy metal here!

Now, it is supposedly for both male and female knights, but we only focus on the ladies. Our male hero is Takahiro Mizuno. He used to be a knight but suffered an injury to both body and mind and has now relegated himself into being a begleiter (and you pronounce it like you are trying to bum a match for your cigarette: beg lighter). His job is to offer support and guidance to whomsoever the knight is. (Much like what Burgess Meredith did in ‘Rocky’).

Mio Kisaki is at this school (the one holding the helmet), but not in the jousting section. However, she runs afoul of Celia Cumani Aintree (big busty blonde) who challenges her to a joust. This is bad, as she is a jousting prodigy, is Student council president and has never lost a round in her two years here. However, Mio does well enough to want to get into the jousting program. The series is her attempts to better herself, trying to get Takahiro back into the jousting program and all the other concerns and machinations within the jousting program. (more…)

Another one of those very long titles, we have “My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU” also known as “Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru. (“My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected.“). This one is a caliber of nothing show, but things do happen, just very slowly.

Hachiman Hikigaya (the sweaty one, second from left) is a caliber of loner and a pure cynic. He feels that youth is simply an illusion created by hypocrites, for hypocrites, born from the ashes of past failures. Well, he is not going to get on any popularity lists. Yukino Yukinoshita (dead center, flowing black hair) is president of the Service Club, a group that helps out people in distress. Sadly, she is the only member, so has to blackmail Hikigaya into joining, much to his irritation and distress. He doesn’t need to belong to any club. Well, he does belong to one, but it’s the going-home Club. And then he is pressed into service to do something he has never really done before: be helpful! (more…)

“My Little Monster” (“Tonari No Kaibutsu-kun”, also translated out to “The Monster Sitting Next to Me”) could potentially be described as a nothing show, as it starts off that way. It takes a little while for the plot to get moving, as we have a rather wide-ranging cast, but it is a good entry into the romantic comedy genre. Shizuku Mizutani (pencil near mouth, holding book) is focused on one thing only: studies. She studies morning, noon and night, all weekend long, around the clock and through the seasons. She has no time for frivolities if she wants to get into a prestigious university. One day, she is asked by the teacher to deliver handouts to a slacker student, Haru Yoshida, (dude with the rooster) to his house, as he has been absent a huge amount of time. Because no one has ever been this nice to him, especially a girl, he starts to come to school, much to the consternation of others. (more…)

This is one of the odder school romance anime shows I have seen, mainly because the main thrust of it doesn’t make any real sense, but, being a comedy, I guess it’s not supposed to make sense, as we have to make the story work, more or less.

“The Pet Girl of Sakurasou” (“Sakura-sō no Petto na Kanojo”) tells the story, initially, of Sorata Kanda (that stiff guy three in from the right). He attends Suimei University of the Arts (often shortened as Suiko), but he is a ‘problem’ child. He is a problem as he took in an abandoned cat, in the hopes of finding a new owner for it. Well, that didn’t happen, and pets aren’t allowed in the dorms, so he was ‘transferred’ out (read that as ‘hit the bricks, bozo’), as he wouldn’t surrender the cat, and into the Sakura Dorm. In this world, it’s like a one-way bus ticket to Cleveland: you go in, you never come back out to the normal world. I hope you enjoy seeing Lake Erie catch on fire. (Well, actually it was the Cuyahoga River, in June of 1969).

Now, these people in the dorm (and it doesn’t house that many; only about six. In a school this size, there are only six problem students? Really?) are all very creative and highly intelligent, just a tad on the addled side. Thrown into this mix is Mashiro Shiina (to Sorata’s right). She is so addled that she cannot even dress herself in the morning and needs a handler to help her. OK, who gets the job of being her handler? Who haven’t I called on in a while? That right! Sorata gets this dubious job. Feed her, dress her, get her to class, bring her home, help her pass her tests, etc., etc., etc. (more…)

“High School DxD – New” is the second season of this show. There were so many loose ends left at the end of the first season, the only real question was “When is season two coming out?” Now it has, and we continue on with both training and fighting.

Let us recap the cast, for those who may have forgotten:

Issea Hyodo is a demon, smack dab in the middle.
To his right is the president of the Occult Research Club, Rias Gremory
The three lovelies above are Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou and Asia Argento.
(There is another guy, Yuto Kiba, that’s him to the far right, with his marvelous new sword).

Now, with the battle between demons, fallen angels and angels still raging, the Church decides to send out its own minions, those two spandex-clad femme fatales, Irina Shido and Xenovia. (more…)

This actually is a two-part series, in that what happens in the first half has almost no bearing on the second half.

Now, it doesn’t help that it started out as a dating sim game. “Photo Kano” (“Photo Girlfriend”) tells the story of Kazuya Maeda (Mr. Front and Center), who was given a digital camera from his father. All of a sudden, there is an uptick in his popularity and presence (neither of which he had before), as he learns to not only take good photos, but gets involved with a series of girls, each needing something else from him, both romantically and photographically.

From shows One to Six, we see Maeda run through his paces. There are two photo clubs on campus, but the first one, The Photography Club (the one he joins) is more interested in taking those flirty, ecchi-like snaps of the student’s body…..I mean, the student body. The second one, the Photo Club, is more serious about what they do, so the two clubs are always in conflict with approach and goals and results. (more…)

Another horror offering, this one approaches it with a different angle. Is there blood? Not as much as you may think, but there is still a large caliber of terror and destruction.

The proper title for this show is “Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge” or “The Severing Crime Edge”. Let’s talk about Kiri Haimura. If there is anything he loves most in the entire world, it’s cutting hair. He will cut anyone’s hair and he does a fabulous, fabulous job with it. He then sees this girl, Iwai Mushanokoji. She has hair down to the ground, because it is cursed. It cannot be cut by any means (chain saw, blow torch, laser beam). Yet, somehow, Kiri can do it with his simple scissors. But we learn these are no ordinary scissors.

These are “Killing Goods”. People in and of themselves are not killers, but when they come across the implement that will allow them to become killers, they are possessed by their tool of choice. That pair of scissors (and why is it a ‘pair of scissor’ when there is just the one? Is it odd to call it scissor?) belonged to an ancestor of his, Norma Grayland, who owned this pair of scissors which could cut flesh and bone and he purportedly killed over 200 lost souls in the 1860s. (more…)