My initial concern about “D-Fragments” (or ‘D-Frag!”) is that it was another of those hostage shows, in the fact that the main character is bullyragged into joining a club that he’d rather not join. The story focuses on a pseudo-connected series of sketches as delinquent student Kenji Kazama (hot and sweaty up there) is forced into joining his school’s struggling “Game Creation Club” by its members, a quartet of crazy women with their own eccentricities that drive him crazy. As he attempts to distance himself from the club, the more he seems to run into not only his fellow club members, but others from his school who drive him insane to different degrees.

As you can see, he makes Member Number 5 and thus the club is saved from extinction, especially since it is a spite club, but more on that later. The members are (this time, right to left from Kazama):

Takao, she is the source for all of the boob jokes and the president of the real Game Creation Club
Sakura Mizukami, called’ Water’ as her answer to all problems is to pour water on it
Roka Shibasaki, president of the club, she is ‘darkness’ as she puts a bag over people’s heads
Chitose Karasuyama, student council president, she is ‘earth’ as she throws dirt at them
Minami Ōsawa, the teacher adviser, the room is a place for her to sleep

The actual fifth member of the club, Hachi Shiō, is more of a lurker. (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…)

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…)

This can be properly categorized as a ‘witch show’, but this is no ‘magical girl’ show. It might be closer aligned with “Black Rock Shooter” in the caliber of despair that it generates, but I get ahead of myself. This is an unhappy show. Not a sad show. A sad show is like “Air the Series” or “5 Centimeters per Second”. This one is unhappy is that everyone…it looks like I’m taking the chute back to Square One, as I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Brynhildr in the Darkness” (“Gokukoku no Buryunhirude” “Extreme-Black Brynhildr”) is an odd cat of a story, mainly because it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Ryouta Murakami is head of the astronomy club. They even have this far out observatory to use. (No, I mean far out; he has to take a couple of bus lines to get to the thing) Too bad there isn’t a single other person in the club. I mean, what gives? I know if there was an astronomy club at my high school, I’d be there (we had a chess club. If I had joined, I’d be called ‘Carpet’, as I’d have been laid out the entire time.) (more…)

“Black Lagoon” is really a fine series, but understand that it is grim and gritty and violent and unrelenting, reminding me of series like “Gantz” and “Deadman Wonderland”, only not as graphic with the violence or destruction, but still with disturbing concepts and approaches.

Our ‘hero’ (for lack of a better term; this anime is like “Payback”, where everyone is horrible, just varying degrees of it) is Rokuro Okajima, the decent-looking one up there. He works for the Asahi Company, who sent him out on a ‘project’. The ship he was on got hijacked and he was taken hostage, but the company wrote him off, not willing to do anything to save him. Since his options were to either sleep with the fishes or boat over them, he chose the latter and made “Black Lagoon” a quartet.

Yes, they are all mercenary pirates who will do anything for a buck and they prove their mettle. The rest of the company consists of (left to right) Benny (Lagoon Company’s mechanic, computer specialist, and researcher. He also functions as the Lagoon’s driver), Revy (Rebecca Lee, chief killer and trigger girl) and Dutch (CEO, for want of a better term and ex-Marine). They operate out of the Asian city of Roanapur, a completely lawless and corrupt city, where anything can be obtained for a price and the cops appear to act more as clean-up than clean-out. (more…)

“My Neighbor Seki: The Master of Killing Time” (“Tonari no Seki-kun”) manages to pack a lot of story into a brief amount of time (each episode is about eight minutes long) and it tells the story about this guy, Toshinari Seki, who spends his class time not learning anything, and doing other, non-academic, things as well. Because he is in the far back right desk (near the window, last row), the teacher never sees his elaborate games and ‘experiments’ he does, rather than him learning about history or math.

The young lady, Rumi Yokoi, is doing her best to study and learn, but Seki is so elaborate in what he is doing, she cannot help but get sucked into his schemes. She rarely participates, but she gets emotionally overwrought with the events on the desk next to her and neglects her class work as well.

This is one goofy show, and I had a lot of fun with it. You may be less interested in what he is doing and more how he is able to pull it off. This guy’s talents are wasted at school, but he can’t get anyone to notice his efforts. And the sub-story with the Gundam Family (Papa GFR, Mama GFR and Child GFR) takes on soap opera caliber involvement, not only with their personal tales, but how Rumi wonders what will happen to them in the bigger scheme of things. (more…)

This is a slightly longer short-pull show, in that the episodes are about 15 minutes each. “The Comic Artist and Assistants” (“Mangaka-san to Ashisutanto-san to”) tells the tale of Yūki Aito, who is a manga writer and artist. But he has problems, in that he is always pushing deadlines for his currently serialized “Hajiratte Cafe Latte” story, and so he is given help with assistants, who at least do the inking to speed things along.

His ‘staff’, as it were, consists of (left to right):
Mihari Otosuna, Yūki’s editor, often scolding and beating him for his shortcomings. She and Yūki were once classmates.
Sahoto Ashisu, 19 year old assistant. Serious on her own work ethic yet very down-to-earth. She is often the target of Yūki’s mischief.
Sena Kuroi, also 19. Due to her small, childish stature, Sena is usually mistaken as a child and, at times, acts like one, especially when she is drunk.
Rinna Fuwa, again 19. Despite being an assistant, Rinna knows nothing about drawing manga, as she was hired by Mihari due to Yūki wanting someone who is cute. (more…)

This is a rather odd series for me, on a variety of levels, in that it could be seen as a giant fighting robot show that I like. Yeah, call “60 Minutes” on this.

“Knights of Sidonia” is set in the future. It has been one millennia since the Earth was destroyed by these massive space slugs called The Gauna (and please, do NOT mispronounce it as the Guano, OK? Already been there). Maybe they are more like squid, with their tentacles and such. People fled in these enormous space ships, which look like a derringer barrel shoved though a piece of pumice. Look, when you are in a hurry to leave, niceties like beauty get in the way of things. Well, quite a lot happens in 1000 years, so the population is maintained via cloning. Aside from getting rid of having boring sex, it allows one to tinker with the genetic structure, so a lot of these folks have human photosynthesis (oh, and immortality, but that’s not for you to worry about).

Into this mix comes Nagate Tanikaze (smack in the middle), who has lived in the underground layer of Sidonia since birth, raised by his grandfather. Since he is all by himself, for amusement he trains himself in an old Guardian pilot simulator every day, eventually mastering it. His grandfather’s death forces him to the surface to steal food and whatnot, but he is eventually caught. He is a genuine throwback and no one knows what to do with him. (more…)

This can be properly categorized as a ‘witch show’, but this is no ‘magical girl’ show. It might be closer aligned with “Black Rock Shooter” in the caliber of despair that it generates, but I get ahead of myself. This is an unhappy show. Not a sad show. A sad show is like “Air the Series” or “5 Centimeters per Second”. This one is unhappy is that everyone…it looks like I’m taking the chute back to Square One, as I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Brynhildr in the Darkness” (“Gokukoku no Buryunhirude” “Extreme-Black Brynhildr”) is an odd cat of a story, mainly because it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Ryouta Murakami is head of the astronomy club. They even have this far out observatory to use. (No, I mean far out; he has to take a couple of bus lines to get to the thing) Too bad there isn’t a single other person in the club. I mean, what gives? I know if there was an astronomy club at my high school, I’d be there (we had a chess club. If I had joined, I’d be called ‘Carpet’, as I’d have been laid out the entire time.)

He comes across this girl, who tells him not to go to the observatory or, if he does, miss the last bus down from it. He does neither (he’s a guy; like he’s going to listen to some odd girl he just met?) As it happens, a sudden rain storm causes a massive rock slide and he is killed…or would have been if Neko hadn’t shown up to use these bizarre powers to hold the rock back. Neko Kuroha is that black-tressed number at the far right. She looks similar to a friend that Ryouta had many years ago, but died in a tragic fall. Still, there is something about her that piques his interest. (more…)