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Seen all▲▼
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Rating▲▼
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Comment▲▼
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| Air (TV) |
Bad |
Air is graced with beautiful animation, music, and voice acting courtesy of KyoAni, a company known for their top notch production quality. Unfortunately, poor plotting, shallow characterization, and arbitrary melancholy reveal Air to be a hollow, manipulative story. |
| Akira (movie) |
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| Angel Beats! (TV) |
Not really good |
Angel Beats has beautiful production quality, visually and aurally. However the story is poorly plotted, many of the characters are poorly developed, and developed characters are dragged down by arbitrarily melancholic backstories and Moe characterization. Though not as explored is it could've been, the theme of moving on is a worthwhile one and there is a bit of solid character comedy here. |
| Attack on Titan (TV) |
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| Bamboo Blade (TV) |
Decent |
Bamboo Blade is a fairly funny slice-of-life series. The characters are fully explored and the story's virtues are true to life. |
| Big Windup! (TV) |
Decent |
Beautiful animation and likable characters hindered by poor pacing and sports genre trappings. |
| Black Butler (TV) |
So-so |
Its one-off stories can be somewhat fun, but it shoots itself in the foot with confusing plotting and lack of character development. |
| Black Butler II (TV) |
Awful |
A dead end for development of established characters; poorly plotted, shocks for the sake of shock, and invalidates the original's ending, while avoiding the necessary consequences of the series' premise. |
| Btooom! (TV) |
Not really good |
A lavishly animated survival game that loses its appeal in poor pacing, sexism, and a bit of unnecessary shock value. |
| Cardcaptor Sakura (TV) |
Decent |
I'm a bit torn on this one. Slow pacing, filler, and formula definitely hurt the plot a fair bit. But the production quality's beautiful, the characters are likable, and the themes of love are heartfelt and, at times, mildly subversive. I think 'decent' is a fitting word for this adaptation. |
| Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie 2: The Sealed Card |
Good |
The story's themes have never been more potent. The production quality is stunning. And the character development is fluid. All in all, it's a rewarding climax to the relationship built by the series. |
| Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie |
So-so |
Somewhat enjoyable, but overall incidental to Sakura's story. |
| Children Who Chase Lost Voices (movie) |
Decent |
Visually lush and decently plotted, though a bit emotionally overindulgent at times, as well as wanting for a bit more character development. |
| Chobits (TV) |
Decent |
Chobits has excellent production values and fully explored characters. However it only begins to poke at its thematic meat when it's too late to fully mine it. |
| Danganronpa The Animation (TV) |
So-so |
Danganronpa is a series I really want to like more than I do. It has an intriguing premise and a great voice cast. It has an intriguing world well-suited to a survival game scenario. However, its characters feel underdeveloped (a significant flaw for a mystery), its animation is limited, and its pacing leaves no room for audience postulation. Plotting is otherwise alright. Can be a bit cliche'd and gimmicky, though the fact that the tone isn't taking itself too seriously makes that aspect tolerable. Theme is solid, but the final action illustrating it could've used more justification to back it. Ultimately works better as a survival game than a mystery and cohesive overall, but definitely not for everyone. |
| Descendants of Darkness (TV) |
Bad |
Intriguing setup dragged down by archetypal leads and blandly derivative world. There are better mysteries and better BL Romances out there. |
| Digimon Adventure (TV) |
Decent |
Fun, expansive world; fully explored characters; economical, but serviceable, animation. Occasionally plagued by plot holes and problems with characterization. Respects the intelligence of its young audience. |
| Digimon Adventure 02 (TV) |
So-so |
Significant flaws in characterization; messy plotting; setup lacks suspense of the original; epilogue is contrived and damning to canon characterization. However, it marks a turning point for franchise villains, introduces (perhaps) the most complex protagonist of the series, plays with its evolution concept in some interesting ways, and brings the franchise's theme to its logical conclusion. |
| Digimon Adventure: Born of Koromon (movie) |
So-so |
A cute, but brief, 'boy and his monster' narrative for the uninitiated; a necessary precursor for fans of the series. |
| Digimon Frontier (TV) |
Not really good |
Significant problems with character development; strips the series of its core concept; reduces the characters to transformation trinkets; aimless plotting; poor pacing. |
| Digimon Frontier Movie |
Not really good |
Somewhat fun, but incidental to Frontier's narrative. |
| Digimon Tamers (TV) |
Good |
The artistic pinnacle of the franchise. Subtle and psychological; well-paced and cohesively plotted; Chiaki J. Konaka brings the series to new heights. |
| Digimon Tamers Movie 6: The Runaway Digimon Express |
Weak |
A best-forgotten entry that clashes with the canon of Tamers' narrative, while adding unwanted romantic overtones to the relationship between two of its leads. |
| Digimon Tamers: The Adventurers' Battle (movie) |
So-so |
Not the best, but it stands on its own without clashing with Tamers' narrative. |
| Digimon: Data Squad (TV) |
Bad |
Neither fun nor intelligent, this series attempts to take Digimon back to the 'dark' tone of Tamers without the quality of writing or direction to back it. Interesting choice in having fully grown leads, though poorly developed ones. |
| Digimon: Diaboromon Strikes Back (movie) |
Not really good |
Solidly plotted and decently produced, but not thematically strong, nor does it really develop the characters. |
| Digimon: Our War Game (movie) |
Decent |
Well-directed, somewhat fun and suspenseful, touches on an interesting concept to be explored later; a solidly put-together film. |
| Digimon: The Golden Digimentals (movie) |
Bad |
Somewhat fun, though decidedly weightless, narrative. Notable for pre-emptive exposure to Terriermon as a character. |
| Digimon: The Movie (U.S. movie) |
Awful |
Thinly stitched together recut of three separate movies. Horribly paced, but beautifully animated, embarsassment to the franchise. |
| Dragon Ball Z (TV) |
Bad |
Occasionally exciting, but overall mediocre, codifier for shonen fighting tropes. Notable for its influence on later, better, series, but not terribly well-written. |
| Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (movie 3) |
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| Dusk maiden of Amnesia (TV) |
So-so |
Sexy, scary, and just a touch tragic. Comedy is hit-or-miss, at its best when playing on its paranormal mythology, at its worst when needlessly incorporating Otaku elements. Yuuko is a strong character, and some interesting ideas come into play during her interactions with Teiichi, whose underdeveloped nature takes the punch out of those ideas. Momoe and Kirie are likewise underdeveloped, ultimately making for a weak cast overall. Plot is poorly paced; effective when offering poignant scares and outright boring during tepid club interactions. Strong themes about the psychology behind ghost stories, as well as that of identity, help to elevate the narrative. Lush visuals, compelling framing, blatant symbolism, and a strong setting make the story visually engrossing. Open ending steals the weight from the preceding episode. |
| Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (movie) |
Not really good |
Well-animated overall boasting occasionally exciting action, but thematically boring with poorly developed characters. |
| Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (movie) |
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| Fairy Tail (TV) |
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| Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (TV) |
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| FLCL (OAV) |
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| Flowers of Evil (TV) |
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| Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club (TV) |
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| Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (TV) |
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| Garzey's Wing (OAV) |
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| Gatchaman Crowds (TV) |
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| Good Luck Girl! (TV) |
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| Grave of the Fireflies (movie) |
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| Gravitation (TV) |
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| Gravitation: Lyrics of Love (OAV) |
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| .hack//Quantum (OAV) |
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| Hamatora (TV) |
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| Hamtaro (TV) |
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| Hell Girl (TV) |
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| Hell Girl: Two Mirrors (TV) |
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| Hetalia - Axis Powers (TV) |
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| Howl's Moving Castle (movie) |
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| Junjō Romantica (TV) |
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| Junjō Romantica 2 (TV) |
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| Kamisama Kiss (TV) |
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| Kiki's Delivery Service (movie) |
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| Kill la Kill (TV) |
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| Kimi ni Todoke - From Me to You (TV) |
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| Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season (TV) |
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| Kino's Journey (TV) |
Good |
Muted color palette, music, and deliberately simplified designs help emphasize the writing, though production values are sufficient. Kino is fascinating, but we don't get to see her develop; it's almost as though we've already caught her at the end of her journey. Her relationship with Hermes could've been a bit better developed as well. Some problems with plotting arise in terms action: the show doesn't always give itself enough time to smoothly and subtly illustrate its point, so on occasion it chooses to skimp on subtlety (like 'The Coliseum' two-parter);on other occasions it gives itself too much time (such as the 'Land Of Visible Pain' episode). Though thankfully it's often able to pick the right action to illustrate its theme, while leaving itself ambiguous for the most part. Speaking of themes, there are no shortage of interesting ones here. From famous cultures to human behaviors to political philosophies, Kino's Journey explores many interesting world views through the lens of a uniquely japanese philosophy. Kind, mature, and slow-moving, Kino's Journey is fascinating; and though faced with some significant flaws as a narrative, I'd recommend it to anyone hungry for some food for thought. |
| Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers (TV) |
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| Love Lab (TV) |
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| Love Live! School idol project (TV) |
Decent |
I thought I'd utterly despise this series when I sat down to watch it. But as I did, it rather neatly diffused my cynicism. Character designs are attractive, and the production values are solid, but the occasional switch to CG Models can be a bit jarring. The plotting is solid, though by the end its earned stasis is a bit of an uneasy one. Character interaction is endearing, and while characters don't change drastically, they do develop. The theme is admirable, placing a heavy emphasis on hard work and camaraderie, even poking a bit of fun at the idol lifestyle. This effort from Sunrise is cheesy, earnest, and heartfelt; I'm glad I watched it. |
| Loveless (TV) |
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| Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (TV) |
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| Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's (TV) |
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| Magical Warfare (TV) |
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| Magikano (TV) |
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| Medaka Box (TV) |
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| Medaka Box Abnormal (TV) |
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| Millennium Actress (movie) |
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| My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (TV) |
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| Nabari no Ou (TV) |
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| Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (movie) |
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| No. 6 (TV) |
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| Now and Then, Here and There (TV) |
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| Oreshura (TV) |
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| Ouran High School Host Club (TV) |
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| Paprika (movie) |
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| Perfect Blue (movie) |
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| (The) Place Promised in Our Early Days (movie) |
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| Pokémon (TV) |
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| Pokémon 2000 - The Movie (movie 2) |
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| Pokémon 3 - The Movie (movie 3) |
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| Pokémon 4Ever (movie 4) |
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| Pokémon Heroes - Latias & Latios (movie 5) |
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| Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (movie 7) |
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| Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker (movie 6) |
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| Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (movie) |
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| Porco Rosso (movie) |
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| Princess Mononoke (movie) |
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| Princess Tutu (TV) |
Masterpiece |
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| Puella Magi Madoka Magica (TV) |
Masterpiece |
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| Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV) |
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| Ringing Bell (movie) |
Good |
Savage, shocking, and poignant, though perhaps a bit dark for its young audience. |
| Sailor Moon (TV) |
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| Sailor Moon R (TV) |
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| Sailor Moon R: The Movie |
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| Sailor Moon S (TV) |
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| Sailor Moon S: The Movie |
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| Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (TV) |
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| Sailor Moon SuperS (TV) |
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| Sailor Moon SuperS (special) |
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| Sailor Moon SuperS Plus - Ami's First Love (special) |
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| Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie |
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| Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - The World's Greatest First Love (TV 2) |
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| Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi: Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai (movie) |
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| Sensitive Pornograph (OAV) |
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| (The) Slayers (TV) |
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| (The) Slayers Evolution-R (TV) |
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| Slayers Excellent (OAV) |
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| (The) Slayers Next (TV) |
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| (The) Slayers Revolution (TV) |
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| (The) Slayers Try (TV) |
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| Slayers: The Book of Spells (OAV) |
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| (il) sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion (TV) |
Awful |
By the time I finished 'Day Break Illusion', I was convinced that its concepts could've made for an interesting story. Its art is ugly. The characters' outfits are over-designed, and their excessively emphasized 'innocent' features clutter their disproportionately sized bodies. The show bombards us with empty symbolism. The plot jumps from one thread to the next, never committing to one, nor fully exploring it in a satisfactory manner, but trying to arbitrarily wring tragedy from each, while leaving most of its plot threads open by the end. The characters are gravely underdeveloped for a 13-Episode series. The most poignant development comes from Akari, whose closure brings the series closest to any significant meaning. The story's themes are a mess. We never find out who the characters are working for or why. The characters have no choice in becoming Magical Girls: they have no purpose, they're responsible for the enemy they fight, and we never find out why. Arbitrariness; Derivation; Moe: these will likely be cited as the show's most significant flaws by many. In the end, it's just a mess. |
| Soul Eater (TV) |
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| Spirited Away (movie) |
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| Suteki desu wa, Sakura-chan! Tomoyo no Cardcaptor Sakura Katsuyaku Video Nikki! (OAV) |
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| Sword Art Online (TV) |
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| Tantei Opera Milky Holmes (TV) |
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| Tenchi in Tokyo (TV) |
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| Tenchi Muyo! (OAV 1/1992) |
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| Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning |
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| Tokyo Godfathers (movie) |
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| Tokyo Mew Mew (TV) |
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| (The) Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura (TV) |
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| Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise (TV) |
Awful |
My first thought upon finishing this series is that I didn't hate it the way I did at the beginning. It does gain more cohesion as it goes on. When the plot attempts to be comedic, it's absolutely ghastly, relying on cheap otaku gags and randomness. When the plot attempts to be serious, it plays its cliches straight. But cliches can work depending on how they're framed and executed, and...the 'serious' parts of the series rot with sexism, weightlessness, and Deus Ex Machina. Its derivation of better Magical Girl series is left unforgivable by its sin of failing to frame those conventions in an interesting way. The production has somewhat more favorable results; we do manage to get some fluid motion during fight scenes, and we do have accomplished voice actresses in the primary roles. But skipped frames leave special attacks looking choppy, the actresses' talents are wasted on fetishistic affectation, and the color palette is bland. The score is okay, becoming jazzy and heroic during transformations, but pulling back during everyday moments. Though in this instance, a decent score can't save the show from its garish artistic style. But perhaps of most importance to the Magical Girl genre is character. Characters are what invest one in this genre: after all, its very name emphasizes the characters' importance. So how does the series fare on that front? Well...I give it credit for tying the girls' athletic abilities into their roles as Twin Angel. But otherwise? They don't develop, their relationships are uninteresting (though it is mildly intriguing when their interactions are framed romantically for the pleasure of the audience), and even their basic characterization leave them lacking likability. In terms of theme, this series fails at selling love as a redemptive property for our characters. Ultimately, Twin Angel will be forgotten as a derivative paint-by-numbers Magical Girl story that drinks from the sweet otaku teet that so many others have folded to. Don't waste your time on this one. |
| WATAMOTE (TV) |
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| Welcome to the NHK (TV) |
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| Wolf Children (movie) |
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| (The) World God Only Knows (TV) |
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| (The) World God Only Knows: Goddesses Arc (TV) |
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| (The) World Is Still Beautiful (TV) |
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| xxxHOLiC (TV) |
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| Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories (TV) |
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| Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files (TV) |
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