It seems to be some kind of unwritten law that if you have a fan-service heavy romantic comedy, you need to follow it up with a fan-service heavy OVA.

When “Maken-Ki” completed its first season, they had these rather silly ‘exercise’ videos as their OVA, which were nothing more than a thin excuse to look up skirts, down blouses and notice cleavage.

The second season of “Maken-Ki” abandoned everything from the first season to let us drool over the very athletic and toned ladies. The OVA discards anything like ‘plot’ and ‘story’ and ‘character development’ to let us now gaze upon their toplessness.

Yes, dude, I am talking NO errant clouds of steam, NO bizarre shafts of light. NO black bars of despair. You get to see their mighty mounds as if you are nose to nose with them. One shot of them looked like a view of the Grant Teton (that’s a French term; go look it up and see what I mean). And it’s RIGHT THERE! And the ladies don’t seem to mind at all, as they coo and purr and make other odd sounds. (more…)

“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…)

When I heard that this show had reached its coupler point, I line-jumped eight other reviews I had in front of it to get the news to you:

“Attack on Titan” is the MUST-SEE anime of 2013.

Now, I do not allow myself to be overtaken with hyperbole and CAPITAL LETTERS to get your attention on what is out there. Many shows come out every year that are worthy of your attention, but “Titan” is head and shoulders above the rest (no pun intended). The last time I was this jazzed about an anime was “Death Note”, and they both share similarities, the biggest being that it cannot be pigeon-holed into what it is and must be experienced to see what the buzz is all about.

OK, enough of my drooling, mouth-panting excitement, let’s get down to brass tacks.

It is the year 845. For the past hundred years, giant humanoid creatures called Titans have forced humanity to retreat into a system of concentric walls known as Wall Maria (outermost), Wall Rosé, (middle), and Wall Sina (innermost). Inside these walls, humanity has lived in peace. These are massive walls, at least 50 meters tall and potentially 10 meters thick, maybe more. Mankind survives, but at what real cost? One day, they are attacked by a 60-meter Titan (as he can look over the wall to see what’s happening) and some armored-skinned Titan who breaches the wall and allows the other Titans to enter and attack. (more…)

The other half of the brother-and-sister series is this one, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”. We are still in Academy City, where people who want to get the best education (and have esper powers) go to. Our missy to the right, Mikoto Misaka, is a Level 5 Esper, of which there are only seven in the entire city, and, of this septet, is the most powerful, or at least, the most feared. She can conduct electricity and what she does is flip a 100-yen coin into the air. When it comes back down and it about to pass the ecliptic, she uses it to shoot her electric bolt out and cause some serious damage.

She attends Tokiwadai High School (an elite among elites) and people have heard of her. Her roommate Kuroki Shirai (the purple one in back) has a SERIOUS fetish for Mikoto and is constantly looking for ways or opportunities to be physically intimate with her (which never works; this is a big running gag) . She also works for Judgment, a public service group that maintains peace and order in the City. She is a Level 4 Telekineticist and uses nails to pin her perpetrators to the wall, as well as teleport in and out of situations.

Kazari Uiharu (flower headband, far left) attends Sakugawa Middle School, a rather ‘normal’ school. She works in Judgment with Shirai, but more as logistics. She is a Level 1 Heater, having the ability to keep things warm at a constant temperature. Our last lady is Ruiko Saten, who attends school with Uiharu. She is a Level 0, but annoys the stuffing out of Uiharu, as she will flip up her skirt to see her underwear and comment about the pattern of the day. (more…)

This is half of what could be best called a brother-and-sister series. They are related in the fact they occur in the same town (Academy City) at about the same time and the characters do cross over and slightly interact, but that’s about it. They are independent of each other in what they wish to accomplish.

This one is “A Certain Magical Index”. Now, Academy City, a technologically advanced academic city located towards western Tokyo, which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, is also set in a world where magic is real. Our hero up there is Tōma Kamijō, a fairly average student but a flop when it comes to esper talents and abilities. In this town, your esper abilities determine much in your life and he is at the bottom, possessed with the worst luck ever.

The only thing he has going for him is his right hand, which he calls the Imagine Breaker, which has the amazing ability to negate magical and psychic powers. But since it is only considered an ability, he gets a Psychic Level of…..zero. He might as well be selling hot dogs from a street vendor wagon. (more…)

So im finally up to date on Hunter x Hunter (2011), and while the series does not look like its anywhere close to an ending, I feel I’ve seen enough to give a fair review. As a remake of the 1999 original series, I knew it was going to be good and I was not disappointed. For the first 70ish episodes it followed the same arcs as the previous version (Hunter Examination arc and Greed Island Arc) and besides a few minor changes in character wordings and character expressions I’d say they were pretty much identical.

What completely caught me off-guard was that like its predecessor, I expected the show to come to a close at the end of the second arc. Instead of  doing so we see a third arc opening up! For those who have seen the original series if you are not the type to re-watch anime you are free to skip to episode 75 and simply think of it as a continuation…

There have been alot of mixed feelings around the internet saying that one version is superior to another and to be completely honest I do prefer the original version. Why? Simply because (more…)

It’s the past. (The past? How did that happen? Anime is about the future!) The year is 1931 and we find ourselves in Shanghai. There is a great build-up of forces from Japan, which threatens to engulf the area in war, as the need for conquest and land acquisition looms. Into this volatile mix is flung a group of people, collectively known as the Sakurai Agency, but they really are a spy ring. But they are more than they seem. They are, from left to right:

Aoi Miyoshi, Kazura Iha, Yukina Sonogi and Natsumi Kayiga. Not pictured is their boss, Shin’ichirou Sakurai. But these people are no ordinary spies; they have special abilities that aid them in their investigations. Their powers are, respectively, telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy and tele-clairvoyance. (OK, I couldn’t help myself). He is also an excellent sniper.

Together, they battle the Kwangtung army and its mysterious leader, Isao Takachiho, who is bent on the idea of Pan-Asianism, and will use any and all means to achieve it.

Now, if you put aside the special abilities folks seem to have, this is a series with loads of intrigue, from the era of pulp novels and detective work. It is a very good-looking series, as you really get a feel for Shanghai of the 30s. The fact that we know the eventual outcome for all of this does not detract from the agency’s attempt to prevent it. (more…)

“Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero” is a rather odd submission in the swords-and-sorcery genre. Whereas most of them have our erstwhile hero taken from his warm bed and friendly confines and getting  plunked into a situation where he has to catch up pretty damn quickly or become worm food (“The Familiar of Zero” is one like that), this one starts at the end.

Akatsuki Ousawa, the hunky hero up there, has come back from the land of Alayzard, having defeated the demon lord of that land. As his dying wish, that lord wanted Akatsuki to take his daughter Myuu (can you find her up there? Hmmmmmmm?) back to his land so she could live a normal life. They both enroll in Babel, which is a training school to help harness these magical people and their powers, so that they can be used for good.

Now here’s the funny thing: Akatsuki has no magical powers. Everything he does is both sheer will and his experience. Myuu has some degree of powers, but they are unfocused. Now, they all wear wristbands that help harness their natural powers to conform to their abilities. (more…)

So as usual I’ve been watching naruto shippuden and recently I’ve noticed that I’m no longer simply bearing with each episode.  In fact I’ve found that I have actually been looking forward to each one.

I remember some time back complaining about the filler that started in the middle of the great ninja war arc, while the interruption was indeed annoying the filler was actually pretty good. It could’ve made more money as a movie though, but hey,  I’m not complaining.

As every fan knows, we are back in the ninja war arc and Naruto, along with killer bee are heading towards the front lines. To be more specific, last week was the encounter between Naruto + Killer Bee vs Itachi + Nagato. While it was a pretty cool episode I kinda dislike how soft Itachi is being portrayed at this point. He was kinda better when we all thought he was a cold, unfeeling, yet badass bastard. Sigh, but seeing as his intentions were always good (as we recently found out), I guess seeing this side of him was inevitable. (more…)

I was afraid of this. It may be the new trends to deliver up pure fan service. Now, I may be jumping the gun with this one, as there has only been one episode, but it is a fan service delight of perversity and voyeurism.

It starts off with Haruko Amaya in her school uniform, which is too tight in the blouse and too short in the skirt, so it shows off her interesting assets (no, she does not look like what’s above, but you shan’t be disappointed.) She gives some song and dance about how it is best to remain in shape and proceeds to do sit-ups in her school uniform, so you can watch her Balcony shimmy and shudder with every hoist. We eventually change angle, so it could be gynecological review, as we can see that she wears coffee-colored pantyhose, which is still not dark enough to disguise that she wears blue-and-white striped underwear.

Then, she has the temerity to chide us for not paying attention to what she is doing. Oh, honey, I am paying FULL attention.

With sit-up done, we now shift to push ups, as they help build your upper…..arms! Wait, how can she do that with those two zeppelins in docking mode? No problem, she just goes all the way down and squashing them right against the floor. Now, I can’t do a decent push up, as I have something in the way! (more…)