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dtm42's Anime

Some titles here are in limbo; I'll never finish them, but I will probably never put them in "Will Not Finish" either.

Seen some Rating
Active Raid (TV)
Actually, I Am… (TV) Decent
Age 12 (TV) Decent
Ajin (TV)
Amatsuki (TV) Good
And you thought there is never a girl online? (TV) Very good
Anne-Happy (TV) Good
Aoharu x Machinegun (TV) Not really good
One episode.

Admittedly I'm not in the target audience, but this show needs to work on its humour because I struggled to find anything funny or enjoyable about it.

AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue (TV) Decent
Aquarian Age - Sign for Evolution (TV) Good
Aquarion (TV) Weak
Three episodes.

The characters really hurt this show. As in, the show would be better if all the characters were replaced by gerbils. Still, despite royally screwing up one of the most critical parts, the show is kinda watchable, if only because the gattai scenes are so unintentionally hilarious.

(The) Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water (TV) Weak
One episode.

It may be (slightly) better executed than normal for this type of show, but it still is a long way from, you know, being good. How long can the light novel industry sustain this sort of nickel-a-hundred trash?

Asura Cryin' (TV) Bad
Three episodes.

The more it went on the worse it got. Episode one was amateurish, episode two was incompetent and episode three was plain bad. The show is just a bunch of poorly-realised tropes blended together with the bits then arranged in a convoluted and messy way. I've seen enough.

B Gata H Kei - Yamada’s First Time (TV) Not really good
It was really hard to decide what rating this show deserved. As a comedy it works well, at least for the first half of the show. In the second half the humour just got too repetitive, although there were some strong spots here and there. As a drama it just isn't up to spec, quite frankly, and the ending is fairly disappointing. The actual romantic chemistry between the two leads is lacklustre, and I never got the sense that Kosuda actually loves Yamada. Attracted to her yes, but I expected more, especially by the end of the show.

Overall the show was quite watchable, and far better than I had originally pegged it as. But despite some moments of hilarious humour it was just too flawed to fully enjoy, and I actually skip-watched a lot of the last five episodes because the show had mostly lost my interest. That's not a good sign.

Bakuon!! (TV) Very good
Beautiful Bones: Sakurako’s Investigation (TV) So-so
Binbō Shimai Monogatari (TV) Decent
Blassreiter (TV)
Blood Blockade Battlefront (TV)
Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga (TV) Good
Bokura ga Ita (TV)
Casshern Sins (TV) So-so
Castle Town Dandelion (TV) Good
While it made some unnecessary and questionable changes from the manga, this show was still enjoyable and moving. Though it started off shaky it really found its feet by halfway, never hitting home runs but managing to put in a respectable effort capped by a solid ending. I like the focus on family and how the mother and father were not only both around but played an active role in their children's lives. And I also like how the siblings were not mean to one another and instead offered love and support. It made for a feel-good show that I probably won't rewatch but am quite pleased for having stuck with it.
Chaos Dragon (TV) Bad
One episode.

So bad it's actually watchable, but only to laugh at how incompetent it is. I find it difficult to imagine that anyone would actually like this garbage for its own merits.

Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief (TV) So-so
Fourteen episodes.

Why does every anime based on the works of Edogawa Ranpo turn out to be so poor? Is the guy cursed or something?

Chivalry of a Failed Knight (TV) Bad
One episode.

You know how the more times you photocopy a picture the worse the quality gets? This show proves that the same can happen to anime as well. Reusing the same collection of old tired tropes over and over again just sucks the vitality out of a production.

Classroom Crisis (TV) Good
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled (OAV)
Comet Lucifer (TV) Weak
Four episodes.

Others have inquired as to whom this show is being aimed at, and I'm left wondering too. It is overly graphic and unnerving to be aimed at children, but everything else is clearly too childish and immature for most adults. There's absolutely nothing here that is fresh or interesting, apart from the setting and a few nicely-animated scenes. And the writing is head-scratching at best, while offering up some hugely cringe-worthy moments.

At a glance it looks competent but spend just a few minutes with it - especially in episodes three and four which are both awful - and you'll start to see that this is a stinker. If the technical merits weren't as solid as they are I might've dropped this one grade further. Ouch.

Concrete Revolutio (TV)
CROSS ANGE Rondo of Angel and Dragon (TV)
Daily Lives of High School Boys (TV) Excellent
Danchigai (TV) Not really good
One episode.

I hate to be a grump because it looks harmless enough, but I didn't laugh once. Yeah . . . not good.

Death Billiards (movie) Very good
Death Parade (TV)
Destiny of the Shrine Maiden (TV)
Digimon Adventure tri.: Reunion (movie 1)
Dimension W (TV) Weak
Divergence Eve (TV) Worst ever
One episode.

Forget the incomprehensible technobabble, the crude CGI, the uninspiring mechs, the outdated (even by 2003 standards) character designs, the limited animation, and the infamous torpedo breasts. Together those issues get the bulk of the criticism that is directed at this show, and they're all irritating to be sure. However, they aren't what makes this episode so awful.

It's simply not interesting. It's painfully boring. The characters weren't fleshed out at all and I was unable to care what was happening to them. And while holding cards to the chest is standard practice for a mystery story, the first episode explained nothing at all. With no information whatsoever about what was going on, there was no reason for me to be invested in the story.

I can tolerate - even enjoy - a mysterious and confusing first episode. That is, if it is well-made and shows promise. If it is well-directed. If it hooks me in. If I can be confident that all will be revealed, and that said reveal is logically sound and wraps up the mysteries. But on the flip side, I loathe and detest crap, and this episode is even worse than that.

Ultimately, this was one of the worst first episodes I have ever seen. I considered watching the second to see if the show got any better, but with such a diabolical start it hasn't earned that right.

Divine Gate (TV) Bad
One episode.

The script is not so much a mess as just an epic exercise in fail. Oh, there are plenty of laughs to be had here; too bad they're all unintentional. The setting is ultra grimdark, the main character is robotically glum, and his monologues reach the bleakest levels of gloomy. It's all so much that I can only laugh my head off every time this show tries to take itself seriously. Which is all of the time. So at least on that front I had a great time. I'd never survive an entire season of this though.

Dragon Ball Super (TV) So-so
Two episodes.

I don't like the direction the franchise has been taken in. This series is completely unneeded and feels like filler (which is not surprising, because a lot of is) and a cash grab (which is not surprising, because it totally is). Perhaps it will pick up when the fighting happens - in fact, I assume it will - but even then I can just watch the battles on YouTube.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (movie) Awful
It was even worse than I had imagined. No tension at all and completely unbelievable. It comes across as bad fan fiction. Toriyama has lost his way.
Durarara!!×2 Shō (TV)
Durarara!!×2 Ten (TV)
ERASED (TV)
Etotama (TV) Not really good
One episode.

Your mileage may vary. See, apart from the very impressive battle, there isn't a whole lot to like here. Unless, that is, you like the show's brand of meta humour, in which case you'll be all over it. The script certainly throws enough jokes out there, but none of them landed for me, and I found the episode to be a tiresome viewing experience. That's not good.

Excel Saga (TV)
One episode.
Eyeshield 21 (TV)
Five episodes.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! (TV) Not really good
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV 2)
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma (TV) Weak
One episode.

I'll admit this ain't my cup of tea, but even so it's still a poorly-done effort. It's just a weakly animated and scored "I wanna be the best" shounen battle story, only with culinary skills instead of martial arts or sports. The only time it really deviates from the formula is when it showcases bizarrely over-the-top orgasm scenes instead of the more sedate fanservice found elsewhere. And of course there's a special school (which apes Kill la Kill of all things) that the protagonist must attend, where he'll have to prove himself to be the best in his chosen field.

Had this been a straight-up parody it might well have been fantastically enjoyable, but unfortunately it plays it too straight. Of course it still could have been alright had it implemented the formula in a smart way, but take out the food fanservice and all you're left with is generic-as-crap characters populating a generic-as-crap story.

Full Moon o Sagashite (TV)
One episode.
Gangsta. (TV) Not really good
A different type of show than anime normally provides, with more of an adult feel and tone. Great. The vast array of likeable characters populate a refreshingly European setting. Fantastic. The female lead is a brown-skinned prostitute who must come to terms with her past. Bravo, even moreso because her profession isn't held against her and she isn't slut-shamed. One of the male leads is a deaf-mute who communicates in accurate Japanese sign language. Wonderful. And the two most-physically powerful characters we've seen thus far are both women. Hallelujah.

So why did this show fail so hard?

Well, there are a lot of reasons, including the tonal shift where the villains turned out to be raving cackling lunatics, not to mention the change in focus away from the three characters we most cared about. But the biggest reason by far is that the show got messy. Real messy. Introduced too much too fast and attempted to juggle too many characters and too many plotlines. Not enough screentime could be given to any one character or plot thread and all of them suffered as a result. Trying to keep track of all the factions and characters and what was happening where, was confusing. Like I said, things got messy. Which while a big problem is not necessarily fatal . . . if there is enough time to tie up all of the loose ends. But a one-cour "read the manga" adaptation with a cliffhanger ending just didn't [i]have[/i] that time, and so nothing got resolved. To make it worse, a second season is practically impossible at this time because Manglobe went under as soon as the final episode aired.

So yeah, the potential was there and there were lots of good elements at play but this adaptation dropped the ball.

Garo the Animation (TV) Good
Garo: Crimson Moon (TV) So-so
Three episodes.

This season of Garo gets a lot of (deserved) flack for its ugliness and lack of artistic merit, but my focus was on the substance of the show. Or rather, the lack of it. The writers really need to trim the expository dialogue and provide a far more compelling hook. Seimei is a blast to watch - Romi Park is brilliant as always - but the rest of the characters are middling at best. The Heian-era setting, whilst alright, is simply not as interesting as the Spanish-themed first season.

Generic and by the numbers, Crimson Moon apparently gets worse later on and now seems a good time to part ways. It wasn't terrible, true, but boy did it fail to entertain or excite.

GATE (TV) So-so
GATE (TV 2) So-so
Ghost in the Shell: Arise Alternative Architecture (TV) Good
Girls Beyond the Wasteland (TV) Weak
Six dull episodes.

Episode five was particularly bad, but when even your beach then hot-springs fanservice episode is kind of "meh" you know you've dropped the ball with your production. Of course, it had been clear for a while that the show had systemic problems. The characters have little presence, the drama is forced and non-captivating, the game-making scenes are boring and uninteresting, and the humour is . . . well . . . um . . . actually, what is the deal with humour in this show? It's very low-key and a bit dry, which if that was a deliberate decision I can sort of understand (humour comes in all different flavours) but the execution is really lacking. While the episodes are generally easy-enough to sit through (i.e. aren't a chore), I don't think I laughed once.

The whole production lacks vitality and a "spark" if you will, and I was only continuing to watch out of momentum rather than any love for the characters or any excitement for the plot. If I hear the show gets better I might pick it back up but at the moment I just don't see it extricating itself from the quagmire it has sunk itself into.

God Eater (TV) Not really good
Three episodes.

The main character is actually tolerable - he's not the typical annoying loud-mouthed bratty shounen hero, which is good - and the action is kinda nice. Plus along with an unique art style the show also sports attractive female character designs, and who doesn't like those? But this poor video game adaptation cum Attack on Titan ripoff is just too stupid and too by-the-book for me to care about. Ufotable makes good-looking stuff but they should concentrate on their writing. Also, lose that obnoxious director.

This is probably a generous grade.

Gourmet Girl Graffiti (TV) Decent
Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions (TV)
Gunbuster (OAV)
Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation (TV) Weak
Hacka Doll the Animation (TV) Not really good
Two episodes.

Generic and not as funny as it thinks it is.

Hatsukoi Limited (TV)
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (TV) Good
Heavy Object (TV) Not really good
Two episodes.

Man this show is annoying. Like, really annoying. The awfully-delivered exposition alone makes me want to throw the main character off a cliff. It's a shame, because the titular objects are actually quite a neat idea.

Hello!! KINMOZA (TV) Very good
Hellsing Ultimate (OAV) Good
(The) Heroic Legend of Arslan (TV) Decent
Hidamari Sketch × 365 (TV) Very good
Hidamari Sketch × 365 (special) Very good
Hidamari Sketch × Hoshimittsu (special) Good
High School Fleet (TV) So-so
Hikaru no Go (TV) Excellent
Fifty-nine episodes.
Himouto! Umaru-chan (TV) Weak
One episode.

I was disappointed that Himouto! Umaru-chan did not make a single Death Note parody during the overly-long potato-chip-eating scene. Not even one.

Oh, and, I was also disappointed in everything else about Himouto! Umaru-chan. Perhaps if it was a five-minute short it might have been more tolerable.

His and Her Circumstances (TV)
One episode.
Hitohira (TV)
I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying: 2nd Thread (TV 2) Good
In Search of the Lost Future (TV) Good
The high school friendship side of things was quite strong, and it was an emotionally moving story. But it did take a knock with dodgy (and confusingly messy) time travel mechanics, and the whole "fated death" nonsense was tiring and had no real business being in a science fiction show. But I enjoyed In Search of the Lost Future a lot more than its quality would suggest, mostly because I really cared about the characters. On entertainment value you can bump up the grade to an 8/10.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (TV) So-so
One episode.

Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but still difficult to watch.

Is the order a rabbit?? (TV 2) Very good
Isuca (TV) Bad
Yep, I only watched it for the fanservice. (Uncensored version, of course.) It's not like there's any other reason to watch this show . . .
Izumo: Flash of a Brave Sword (TV) Bad
One episode.

I predicted nearly everything that happened in this episode. That's how by-the-book this series is in terms of being an cookie-cutter mid-00s eroge-based crapfest. Even when it was made it was painfully cliched, let alone ten years later.

Joker Game (TV) Very good
Kagewani (TV) Very good
Kamichu! (TV) Very good
Kamisama Kiss 2 (TV) Good
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens (TV) So-so
Five episodes.

First three episodes were okay - not particularly good, but still quite watchable - and then the show veers into harem territory. And the "goddesses must be idols" gimmick is exactly that; a gimmick. And why does the male lead have to be thick-as-bricks?

So basically, the show has started to annoy me, and so I'm dropping it before I really get pissed off.

Karas (OAV)
Three episodes.
Kemonozume (TV)
Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine (TV) Good
KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!! (TV) Very good
Kowabon (TV) Decent
Two episodes.

An interesting concept but the execution is a bit too by-the-numbers (lots of static and jump scares, for example). A horror story should creep the viewer out but that wasn't happening here like it should've. Good use of rotoscoping though.

Lance N' Masques (TV) Weak
One episode.

It's as lame and dumb as everyone says it is, but to my surprise it isn't awful. Although, the fact that the lead girl is a loli is definitely skeevy. And that's really all I can be bothered saying about something so forgettable.

Log Horizon (TV 2) Good
Looking Up At The Half-Moon (TV) Bad
It wants to be emotionally touching but just comes across as an insipid and poorly-animated KEY knockoff. I don't even have the strength to hate it.
Luck & Logic (TV) Not really good
Lupin III: Part IV (TV 2015)
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (TV) Decent
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara. (TV)
Maria the Virgin Witch (TV)
Michiko & Hatchin (TV) Not really good
Finally finished this and it's a relief to get it over with. The writing had gotten so bad that by later episodes it was a chore to watch. There was a lot to appreciate about this show but it mucked up too often and in too many ways, and even its much-vaunted style and edginess and setting and, of course, its lead pairing, could not save it.

What a waste of potential. Though a female director is a good thing and anime could do with more of them, I can't help but wonder what would have been if the show wasn't in the hands of someone as inexperienced and clumsy as Saya Yamamoto. If only her ideas and style could have been handed to someone who could've provided the substance.

I give this show a fairly generous 4/10.

Mikagura School Suite (TV) So-so
Three episodes.

Whether you enjoy this series or not largely depends on whether its hyperactive female lead (who provides virtually all of the comedy) and the school battling system work for you. They didn't for me, so I found it kinda boring.

Million Doll (TV) Decent
Mind Game (movie)
Miss Monochrome - The Animation- 2 (TV) Decent
Miss Monochrome - The Animation- 3 (TV) Decent
Two episodes.

By this third season the show, though still slightly funny, is kinda spinning in its wheels.

Mitsuwano (OAV)
Mobile Suit Gundam (TV)
Two episodes.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed C.E.73: Stargazer (ONA)
Two episodes.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (TV)
Monster (TV)
Eight episodes.
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (TV) Excellent
Moonlight Mile 2nd Season - Touch Down (TV) So-so
Mr. Osomatsu (TV) So-so
Three episodes.

The humour doesn't land hard enough or consistently enough for me - it's just not my kind of show - but there are some worthwhile scenes.

My Love Story!! (TV)
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! (TV)
My Wife is the Student Council President (TV) Awful
One episode.

If it wasn't for the fanservice there'd be absolutely no reason to watch this, since it offers nothing else to the viewer. No story, no humour, no characters worth a damn, no originality. Nothing but one uncensored breast-sucking scene. Whoop-dee-doo, I can see dozens of such scenes like that in Seikon no Qwaser if I wanted to.

Myriad Colors Phantom World (TV) Not really good
One episode.

Surprise surprise, so even Kyoto Animation sometimes need to do harem-esque fanservice adaptations in order to pay the bills. I understand the business imperatives behind the decision, but did they have to pick such poorly-written source material? Or at the very least, couldn't they have made improvements to the script so that it wasn't so generic and boring? Was that too much to ask, KyoAni?

(The) Mysterious Cities of Gold (TV 1) Very good
Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water (TV) Not really good
Three episodes.

The tone is juvenile, the plot is weak, Nadia's hippy attitude is annoying, and Jean is a nanpa stalker.

Nazca (TV) So-so
Seven episodes.

It started off quite good, but has only been dropping in quality with every episode. If it keeps on this track it will be terrible by the end, and I'm bailing now.

Ninja Slayer From Animation (ONA) Not really good
One episode.

I am aware of the history of the franchise, and I get what Trigger were trying to go for. But the show itself is basically one big in-joke, and this particular brand of humour is an acquired taste. If it doesn't appeal to you - it didn't for me - then there's actually nothing else to like here. (Well, except for the opening theme song.) I know it's a bit predictable to say this, but had this show been Kill la Kill with ninjas it would have been a lot better.

Non Non Biyori Repeat (TV 2) Very good
Noragami Aragoto (TV)
Norn9 (TV) Good
Now and Then, Here and There (TV)
Nurse Witch Komugi R (TV) So-so
Ojisan to Marshmallow (TV)
One Punch Man (TV) Excellent
Onsen Yōsei Hakone-chan (TV) So-so
Two episodes.

It might have been more watchable had it been a full-length-episode show. Or maybe not.

Overlord (TV) Decent
Owarimonogatari (TV)
Ōya-san wa Shishunki! (TV)
Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn (TV) Good
Panzer World Galient (TV) So-so
Not bad for 1984, but everyone in this show - except for Hilmuka - is an utter moron. At least the villain had an interesting and thought-provoking motive (hah; pun very much intended).
Parasyte -the maxim- (TV) Decent
Patlabor the Mobile Police (TV) Decent
Two episodes.

Its goofiness and all the slapstick content make it difficult to take seriously. I wasn't expecting Section 9 levels of professionalism but come on . . .

Anyway, it's not terrible but it's not for me.

(The) Perfect Insider (TV) Excellent
Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation (TV) Weak
One episode.

Blatant commercialism for the win. Oops, I meant for the loss. Yeah, that's the one.

Plastic Memories (TV) Weak
Three episodes.

People went gaga over this? To quote GLaDOS, that would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Prétear (TV) Weak
Three episodes.

So bad it's hilarious, I had a fun time with these three episodes. So at least it isn't boring, even if it is completely derivative.

Prince of Stride: Alternative (TV) So-so
One episode.

The sport of "stride" is silly (though free-running itself has a lot of delicious potential), the dialogue is inane and not how real teens would speak, and the episode never really fired despite the best efforts of all involved. But it was fairly harmless overall and I wasn't facepalming or anything, which is faint praise, true, but hey you gotta take what you can get. Corny and dumb yet not actively bad, this show was a bit of a shrug. At least it tried.

Prism Ark (TV) Bad
Three episodes.

Such a shame. The first episode was pretty good, but then the show descended into a painful high school comedy. Sigh.

Prison School (TV)
Punch Line (TV) Weak
One episode.

Is THIS what noitaminA has been reduced to showing? It used to be so much better than this.

Qualidea Code (TV) Weak
One episode.

Is this the most light-novelish anime ever made? Maybe, maybe not, but it's definitely in the running.

R.O.D -The TV-
Rainbow Days (TV)
Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace (TV) Worst ever
Three episodes.

The same director-writer team helmed Danganronpa, which should tell you all you need to know.

Ray (TV) Not really good
One episode.

"This is one hell of a hospital," moans a thug at one point before passing out. Yes indeed. And that's a problem. The hospital in Ray - where the series looks like it will be largely set - is so daft it ruins suspension of disbelief. The kung-fu practising nurses, and the (literally) "tempestuous" hospital director modeled off Blackbeard are also completely ridiculous. Then there's the medical "science", where apparently tumours can shrink at will and even retreat into an organ to to hide from the scalpel. It's like the original mangaka - Akihito Yoshitomi, who also penned the diverse Blue Drop and Eat Man - didn't even try to make the medical side of the story realistic.

Ray - the character - has magical eyes that allows her to see through solid objects (Superman-style x-ray vision, basically), and yet that's the easiest thing to accept in the show thus far. As a young girl she was in some sort of obviously evil facility, and the lingering trauma from that ordeal is conveyed surprisingly well. She was rescued and given those eyes by no less than Black Jack himself, which make her an ace at surgery and first-aid, and now she wants to use her ability to save others. Even having seen just one episode I found her to be likeable and sympathetic, someone who takes the job of treating people very seriously because she knows first-hand how life-changing a good doctor can be. That's actually a fairly compelling narrative, and Ray is by far the best part of her show. While that's not saying much, given how bad everything else is, the show would have been far far worse without a quality lead character such as herself.

So yeah. The premise is a respectably decent one and the lead character is a very good one (it's nice to see an adult in the driver's seat rather than a teenager). Both it and her deserved better than this.

Re-Kan! (TV) Good
REC (TV) Decent
Reideen (TV) So-so
Twelve episodes.

Oh my god this show was a chore to watch. It isn't bad per se - although it isn't good either - but I was bored out of my skull. It's mind-numbingly generic, and while it isn't lifeless it is absolutely dull. It is baffling that the guy who directed this also helmed Outlaw Star. The thought of facing another fourteen episodes of this mire was daunting and I just couldn't muster the energy to give a damn and continue on with it. Which is sad in a way, because the plot was finally getting into gear, and the main character was finally opening up a little and becoming more likeable. Ah well, I did give the series plenty of time to win me over so I don't have anything to apologise for.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV)
RIN - Daughters of Mnemosyne (TV)
RIN-NE (TV) Weak
One episode.

Boring, painfully generic, and there's absolutely no chemistry between the leads. In this episode the girl had no other involvement in the story apart from being the dude's moneylender. I know that Rumiko Takahashi can write good starts to her stories, as seen in InuYasha and Mermaid Forest. But this comes across as phoned in, and that is a charitable assessment.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers (TV) Excellent
(The) Rolling Girls (TV) So-so
Rurouni Kenshin (TV 1996)
Three episodes.
Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc (OAV)
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (TV) Not really good
Five episodes (including episode zero)

It's smarter than the average otaku-targeted harem show, I'll give it that. But the two leads are the show's two biggest weaknesses. Megumi, the female lead (yes, I do consider her as such, and not just because she's the titular character), is bizarrely passive and creepily calm, to the point where she's not a character but more like a plot device. But while Megumi is weird, I could tolerate her. The bigger problem is Tomoya, the male lead, who pisses me off with his obnoxious over-the-top rants. One wonders how closely connected to reality; not very, I'd say. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka has unfortunately made a career out of playing badly-realised male leads in badly-written series, although he's certainly done well out of it. Anyway, whether it was his fault or the director's, his performance as Tomoya just destroys the character. It's pretty damning that - after four regular-season episodes - I have zero investment in Tomoya's goals or his character in general. And before you think that I don't like him because he's an otaku, think again. Keima from The World God Only Knows is very similar to Tomoya in terms of being a hardcore otaku who regularly rants about how things 'ought' to be, but Keima is interesting and sympathetic and funny, whereas I just want to punch Tomoya to shut him up.

If Tomoya had been a much better character - and if Megumi had shown some personality - I would have enjoyed this series. It had potential, it did a lot right, it was just let down. That's a shame.

Sasameki Koto (TV)
School-Live! (TV)
Schwarzes Marken (TV)
Seiyu's Life! (TV) Very good
Sekkō Boys (TV)
Selector Spread Wixoss (TV) Good
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (TV) Bad
Two episodes.

In episode one the vampire is killed by Yu, Mika begs Yu to keep going to safety, and once Yu has gone Mika then passes out. In the episode two recap, the vampire is alive and sucks on Mika's blood whilst Yu watches, then Yu runs away. The events are fundamentally different, since the vampire being alive or not makes a huge difference to Mika's fate.

And really, this is but one example of just how flimsy the writing is. Being stoically generic is one thing, being incompetently-written and riddled with plot holes galore is quite another. I can see this becoming the next Big Thing, which is another way of saying it's a populist piece of crap. I would rather do just about anything else than watch another twenty-two episodes of this tripe. Hmm, the garden needs to be weeded before winter sets in . . .

(The) Seven Deadly Sins (TV) Good
Shigofumi - Letters from the Departed (TV)
Shigurui: Death Frenzy (TV)
SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist (TV) Very good
Shirobako (TV)
Shomin Sample (TV) Weak
One episode.

Has a really dumb premise, but there were a few gags in there that I genuinely found to be funny so it wasn't a total disaster.

Shōnen Maid (TV) Good
Shonen Onmyouji (TV) Good
An almost forgotten show that is far far better than it looks at first glance. Still not amazing but worth your time if you bother to pay attention to the surprisingly involved plot.
Show By Rock!! (TV) So-so
Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū (TV)
Skip Beat! (TV)
One episode.
Sky Wizards Academy (TV) Bad
One episode.

It's isn't actively awful (for the most part), but it is so lacking in any sort of life or inspiration that I just about snoozed through this. Pretty much the most "light novel" light novel-based series in existence (if you know what I mean), and another turd from the "masters" over at Diomedea.

Snow White with the Red Hair (TV 2)
Sola (TV)
Solty Rei (TV)
Sound! Euphonium (TV)
Stellvia (TV) Not really good
Strawberry Panic! (TV) Not really good
Three episodes.

For hardcore yuri fans this show is like crack, but for the common man it is just vapid, insipid and boring. Not lifeless, but pretty close to it.

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless (TV) Good
Terraformars (OAV)
Terror in Resonance (TV) Not really good
(The) Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye (TV)
Three Leaves, Three Colors (TV) Very good
Toka Gettan: The Moonlight Lady Returns (TV)
Tokyo Majin (TV) Weak
Two episodes.

Anime offers a chance for writers and directors to present realities that are different from our own. When done right, this creative freedom can inspire and broaden the mind, as well as excite the blood with circumstances and battles that are normally improbable or outright impossible. When done wrong, however, you can get stupidity so profound it makes one's eyes roll out of their sockets. And so we come to this wacky show. Now, wackiness ain't a crime, but when you've got absurdly exaggerated delinquents trying to kill one another during school hours (with no punishment or police involvement), what was supposed to be a light and comical fight can quickly turn into an epic fail. Especially when the rest of the show is about dark forces committing horrible murders of innocent people, then resurrecting them into soulless zombies. Of course the show's tone isn't its only problem but it is the most glaring. A little bit of humour to alleviate the grim mood is always a good thing, but if the humour comes on too strong the whiplash is devastating.

(The) Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk (TV) Decent
Triage X (TV) Bad
One episode.

So bad it's actually watchable, this clunker of a show is a joke and yet the production staff aren't in on it. Most of the key roles are filled by veterans yet they've still come up with this abomination. Sure, Xebec aren't exactly known for producing quality, but surely they could have done better than this.

Twin Spica (TV)
Ultimate Otaku Teacher (TV) Not really good
Two episodes.

There are many forms of otaku wish fulfilment. Examples include - but are by no means limited to - a magical girlfriend dropping (often literally) into your life; being transported to a fantasy land where you get to become the hero who will save the kingdom and marry the princess; and being the sole male member of a wacky high school club. Now it's time to add another one to the list; using your otaku skills to become a fantastic teacher. Okay, so there was Outbreak Company, but that was an extremely fun and clever parody, and the teaching aspect was prominent but not front and centre.

In fact, Ultimate Otaku Teacher more closely resembles (to the pointing of aping) Great Teacher Onizuka, only with an otaku instead of a gang member. Does it hold up well? Kind of. UOT is more realistic than GTO, and the consequences are more serious. However it is so concerned with promoting otakudom that it forgets to be funny. And I usually like listening to Hiroshi Kamiya but his performance here got on my nerves.

So yeah, UOT is otaku wish fulfilment done poorly. Which should come as little shock to anyone.

Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (TV) Bad
One episode.

Oh god, Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle gave me nightmarish flashbacks to Infinite Stratos. Clearly the PTSD still hasn't gone away...

The exoskeletons and one-boy-in a school setting are bad enough, but let's talk about something worse. Seriously, after last season and now this one, I've had it with the godawful cliche that has the male lead walking in and/or falling on a nude/under-dressed female character. It was tired and obnoxious when Love Hina came out fifteen years ago, and has only gotten more stale and pathetic ever since. Japan, it's time to stop using it, okay? Only bottom-of-the-barrel dreck bother to use that trope these days. Therefore, it's inclusion (especially if it's the first episode) is one of the most reliable ways to tell that the show you're watching is a stinker. And sure enough, the rest of the episode was crap. In that sense, if I were to look for a silver lining (not that there is one), it is almost like the writers are warning people that the rest of the show is bad and so it's best not to watch any further. While I would appreciate the sentiment, I'd prefer them to actually bother to write a good story and characters in the first place than put such cringe-inducing scenes in as a PSA.

Urawa no Usagi-chan (TV) So-so
One episode.

Short anime that is just a tourism advertisement for a city. Episode didn't leave an impression on me one way or another.

Ushio & Tora (TV) Good
Utawarerumono: The False Faces (TV) Not really good
Thirteen episodes.

Episode six was really good because it had a lot of heart and created a genuine emotional connection, but everything else was disappointing (at best). I was never a massive fan of the first series but compared to this it's a masterpiece.

The False Faces has:

* humour that fails at least as often as it lands (though there are some good jokes here, to be fair)

* almost zero character development (and the show did little to make me care about the characters in the first place)

* a lead character who was usually boring as heck and fit the otaku slacker stereotype perfectly (even Mr. Perfect Haukoro from the original series wasn't as bland)

* no meaningful world-building (and yes, we were getting some when I quit, but it was too little too late)

* a harem which was really forced together (and some of introduction episodes for the girls were painfully cliched)

* numerous main female character who were known to us primarily for one gimmick rather than being well-rounded characters (thinking of Rurutie and Atui here, but they are hardly alone)

* too many bathing scenes (not a sentence I'd thought I'd ever say about an anime, but here we are)

* very poor pacing (i.e. too much time spent on generic slice-of-life, painfully little spent on building up the plot, the setting and the characters)

And really, it is that last point which really sunk the show. The False Faces always came across as lacking motivation, as if it knew where it had to go but had too many episodes to get there so just wandered listlessly around to kill time. Which is kind of incredible considering that all that extra time could have been used to actually develop the characters and setting, instead of forgettable harem adventures and endless bathing scenes. I mean, how can you have such one-dimensional characters and so little character development in a show where the plot for any given episode rarely hogged up more than five minutes of screentime?

So yeah, the plot dropped the ball and the characters - who could have saved the show - were woefully utilised. When combined with what looks like orders from on high to fit in as many otaku-friendly scenes as possible, plus the laziness on the part of the writers in actually making events be believable and flow naturally, and you get a show with no soul and no excitement. It just plods along, going nowhere. Even the latest arc - which is about a war - is just drudgery. I can't take it any more. If the show doesn't care then why should I?

Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid (TV) Worst ever
One episode.

The real problem with VDM's first episode is not the trashiness of its premise but the awfulness of its execution combined with absolutely no semblance of plot.

So special girls are kidnapped and sent to an island. How are they special? Who knows. Why are they kidnapped? For reasons, that's why.

When the girls arrive they are to be tested to see how powerful they are and if they are Exters or Liberators. But co-lead Mamori had no idea about any of that.

And no matter which one she was, without a partner there was no way for her to actually fight, something the organisation running the island clearly should have and would have known.

To make things worse, both she and Mirei are attacked with live ammunition. The bullets and missile are clearly intended to hit them despite neither girl having transformed into a weapon the other girl could use. I thought the whole point was to test them, not kill them.

That's the sort of stupidity that this show runs on, and even the notably heavy fanservice isn't worth sticking around for. Beyond awful, it is just plain terrible.

Vampire Holmes (TV) Awful
One episode.

Yikes this was a dire effort. The laughably amateurish animation I could tolerate, but the humour - or complete lack of it - was the real killer.

Video Girl Ai (OAV) So-so
Wakaba Girl (TV) So-so
Two episodes.

The original Wakaba Girl manga was written/drawn by Yui Hara, who also authored the manga for Hello!! KINMOZA. Now, the Wakaba Girl manga was written/drawn earlier and it shows, as the mangaka just hadn't quite mastered the formula when she made it. Sure, it is cute enough, but the jokes struggle to land (if they land at all) and the characters aren't all that well realised. I assume Wakaba Girl only got an adaptation because of the success of Hello!! KINMOZA and its anime series; maybe some executive thought there was an appetite for more of Yui Hara's work?

Anyway, it isn't a terrible show, but it's just not at the same level as its contemporaries, simple as that. Consider this grade to be slightly generous.

Wakako-zake (TV) Decent
(The) Wallflower (TV) Decent
Wish Upon the Pleiades (TV) Decent
Xam'd: Lost Memories (ONA) Not really good
Six episodes.

It's clear that BONES put a lot of effort into making this show. The backgrounds are detailed, the scenery is full of life, the music has a grand feel to it, and the attention to detail on buildings and machines is impressive. The level of animation in some of the early action sequences boggles the mind. If only as much care and effort went into everything else.

First off, the plot is a mess. While it's not unusual for a story to keep its cards close to its chest, too much about these episodes is confusing, which made it a huge effort to care about anything when I didn't know even the basics of what was going on. Nothing gets explained to the fish-out-of-water main character and therefore nothing gets explained to us either. Keeping important details from the viewer is one thing, but being deliberately obtuse about everything - to the point where the viewer gets tired of floundering in the dark and just switches off - is not smart. And worse, unlike in some previous BONES works, the writing here gives no assurance that everything will make sense with time. Peeks at reviews of the end of the show confirms this suspicion.

The other fundamental issue is with the characters, who would normally be expected to carry a show if the plot fails to fire. A few of them act normal and/or reasonable, as a normal person would given their particular circumstances. However, most of the cast act bizarrely, with unprovoked mean-spiritedness, out-of-place incompetence/stupidity and just baffling viewpoints being common afflictions. Characters act so little like actual people that at times suspension of disbelief is impossible and all I can see is these weird artificial constructs, like someone's warped facsimile of a human. With this in mind, I'd say at least two-thirds of the cast were completely lost on me, and anytime they were on screen the only thing I wanted was for them to get off it.

So yeah, another disappointing BONES original work. They seemed determined to ape some of their more popular works, thinking that this would automatically bring them success. The most fun I had whilst watching Xam'd is spotting all the similarities to Eureka Seven. That's a pretty damning indictment.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (TV) So-so
Yatterman Night (TV) Not really good
Who the heck was this aimed at? It's too juvenile for adults but too dark for children. It wildly veers from genuinely-touching emotional moments to the most stupidly bizarre fight scenes. It tries hard to have insightful social commentary but always undermines itself by taking the easy way out. Half the show is filler. There's no consistency here.

Oh, but there is. The show is aimed at man-children who want a darker story but are still nostalgic for the silly antics they watched in their youth. The show is an affectionate sendup of its predecessor but they overreached in trying to keep too much of the potty humour, shallow characterisation and simplistic plot resolutions. It's sad really, because there was a lot of potential here to reinvent the story for an older, smarter audience.

Young Black Jack (TV) So-so
One episode.

It wasn't terrible but has nothing to recommend it either (unless you like pretty character designs and the unintentionally amusing surgery). It's not my cup of tea at all.

Yukikaze (OAV) So-so
Two episodes.

The animation and art are fantastic to be sure (especially considering when it was made), and the plot is serviceable enough. But how its creators made air combat and flight in general so boring and lifeless I do not know. The characters are almost impossible to empathise with, and the shoddy direction doesn't help either. Even if you like planes, give this one a pass.

Yurikuma Arashi (TV) So-so
Three episodes.

Like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum before it, Yuri Kuma Arashi simply doesn't work as entertainment, and it doesn't even work as a piece of art. It only works as intellectual discourse. Everything that happens is only meaningful in symbolic terms, and all the characters that populate the story don't matter in and of themselves, they are merely allegories to get a particular message across. I really hate that about Ikuhara. There's no reason to actually care what is going on in his works unless you are already invested in the themes that he is espousing.