Jeoffrey

The first impression I got of this show was not so great, it seemed so chaotic, and somehow it just did not seem to make any sense to me. The main male protagonist was not very good, and his special powers and abilities were not very impressive. The only thing that caught my attention was that the main male protagonist had his abilities cut down to a hundredth of a percent (or whatever). Despite that, he still seemed incredibly pompous, even though his ability to control anyone who gets near him reminded me a lot of something else. After the second episode, though, I was quite intrigued; I thought the narrative could be very interesting because someone accidentally almost destroys the whole world and subsequently gets to lead a movement to control it, and that sounds quite interesting. I do not know why that reminds me of something else. However, in the following episodes, my interest gradually waned again. The whole thing became very rushed, the plot twists felt increasingly strange, and the moments that should have shocked me did nothing to move me at all. Either there is something wrong with me, or the style in which the narrative unravels and the surprises the anime's creators present us with does not work. The initial excitement of following another political-action storyline with Code Geass-style attempts to take over the world disappears after a while like the “baby” in Iyo's pregnant belly, and the censored fan service in episode five took away from the beauty of it because this is just evil! I am not sure why they have fan service if they have to cover it up for TV in such a stupid way. Oh well, at least a few people will have a reason to buy the DVD. I just shook my head in disbelief as the conclusion tried but failed to be shocking, emotional, and epic. The last episode seemed stupid, ridiculous, over-the-top, and weird. It killed any positive impression of the anime series that I previously had. So, in the end, Big Order is an anime series based on a pretty good idea; however, the execution is completely stupid and rushed. It is obvious that the premise is from the same guy who created Future Diary because it is similarly cheesy, and some of the characters are just as insane. Unfortunately, I could not develop any intense relationship with the characters. That meant that I was not extremely impressed with their fates. The way they handled the relationship between Eiji and Sena was rather outrageous (I guess I am getting older and more of a puritan, however, a thirteen-year-old girl calling someone "onii-chan" and being a love interest does not feel right). In the end, I thought Big Order did not work, even though the potential was there. Also, after the overblown ending, which I thought was terrible, I cannot take this anime series seriously. 3/10.

I thought this show was incredibly fun with a bunch of really hilarious and completely crazy girls playing "survival games." Everything is so awesome, ridiculous, and over-the-top. I had a great time. This show is a combination of cute and funny just the way I like it. There are a lot of hilarious allusions to other different movies and personalities (like the Matrix-style pillar fight, the Predator-style jungle fight, Alien, Ben Kenobi, Michael Jackson, and of course, Chuck Norris), and so you get a hilarious show. The best character is Momoka, a girl who declares it a draw and then coldly shoots you in the head. That is something I would never expect. However, the other girls are great too, whether the crazy masochist, the reticent cosplay fan, the model who usually "dies" first, or the enthusiastic lady president. I even quite liked the platypus. I enjoyed the animation and soundtrack, and I even liked the opening and ending, which does not happen all that often. In my opinion, this show is excellent. 9/10.

The Case of Hana & Alice is a relaxed and enjoyable movie about the lives of some young people. The soundtrack is very good, the animation is also quite respectable, although I was not fond of the animation of the characters and some of their movements very much. The narrative has quite a nice pace, so I had a very good time watching this movie, and I did not find it boring. Anyway, it is a really interesting depiction of the naivety of youth. I sometimes wondered if fourteen-year-old girls and boys could be this stupid until I remembered my silly adventures at that age and then I thought “OK, fine”. All in all, this is a pretty good movie. I liked all the mysteries like "a guy called Yuda (“Judas”), who somehow had four wives and who then mysteriously disappeared and was probably murdered" which were explained in such a nice, understated way. 7.7/10.

I am going to start with what anyone could notice almost immediately, and that is the animation and the soundtrack. My first impression of this when I saw the incredibly colorful, bombastic, and beautiful Psychic School Wars was that it is simply breathtaking. Plus, the soundtrack was great too. The problem is that when it is so bombastic and flashy throughout the entire movie, it starts to hurt your eyes after about thirty minutes. After an hour, you begin to find it rather over-the-top, peculiar, and irritating. Sure, some of the shots are truly magical, and I sighed sadly as I looked at the night sky, remembering how monotonous and uninteresting the one I see outside is. On the other hand, if it were the same as in this movie out there, I probably would not be able to fall asleep for all the greenish light. So the animation is nice and colorful and magical; however, they just overdid it, so the magic is lost after a few minutes. The feel-good music was really catchy and memorable, they chose that well, and some familiar themes suited the scenes quite beautifully. As for the characters, they were not very sophisticated, and some were just completely clichéd, like the energetic childhood friend in love with the main male protagonist. However, this movie was not a completely creepy and unwatchable clichéd movie like some soap operas. Oh, and I could write a whole chapter on the narrative. In the beginning, I felt like the movie dragged horribly; I kind of kept waiting to see what would happen and how the science-fiction theme would develop, and whether they would eventually stop with the boring, mundane stuff and the love story. At some point, when I felt like I had spent an awful lot of time on it, I had to go out for a smoke and was surprised to find that I had only seen thirty-two minutes. Then it gradually started to unravel, and I have to say that for most of the middle part, I found what the screenwriters had done to be believable regarding both the love story and the science-fiction elements. My impression of this movie suddenly improved, and I even thought about declaring this movie above average until the moment of the final confrontation. Instead, all I got was "Shall we go to the beach tomorrow?" That sentence caught me off guard and killed all my expectations. Then the ending itself is another thing I will probably be bothered by for a long time, wondering what that was all about. All in all, this movie had a few strong moments and a few things that unpleasantly surprised me. So actually, it is a very inconsistently average movie. 5/10.

I have an idea to promote your multiplayer online role-playing game - make an anime series about it. Unfortunately, with such shows, there is often a risk that the viewer who is not familiar with the MMORPG will not get the full context or will be put off by the fact that it is just an advertisement for the MMORPG. It is also rare that anything meaningful, good or interesting comes out of such an idea. Onigiri, however, is unique because it draws attention to the game in a funny and non-violent way. So we have an anime series that people can be entertained by occasionally, that has a fairly straightforward plot and that, thanks to its running time, does not get boring and can also entice both boys and girls to try and play. I think Onigiri works quite successful as an advertisement. However, what do I think about it as an anime series? I did not find the animation too impressive, I did not find the soundtrack too bad, and I thought some girls were quite likable. As I mentioned, it has quite a straightforward narrative. I liked some parts, such as the two episodes focusing on the main female protagonist's encounter with a Kamikui who had amnesia. On the other hand, it was too short, so there was no deeper experience, even though it was not boring. Although I do not think I can remember any really good ones, there were some jokes. However, a few moments managed to put a slight hint of a smile on my face at times. In conclusion, Onigiri is an anime series that does not feel that intense or interesting. So my final impression I got from watching it was probably that it is an interesting idea to present its product. However, otherwise, it makes for a slightly below-average anime series. 4.4/10.

Bastard!! is stupid and incredibly over-the-top; however, it is a lot of good fun at the same time. Bastard!! is a dark fantasy with a dark main male protagonist with so many illogicalities and holes that you should be annoyed by them. However, this is a fantasy adventure; there is some mystery, magic, swordplay, and many classic lines like "I have a bad feeling about this place." There are a few unbelievable twists, some incredibly stupid dialogues, and tons of old-school fan service from the days when fan service still made sense. The final impression I have is the same as the reviewer Bounded wrote: "even though I know it was stupid, ...damn, I liked it". 7.5/10.

At first, I was quite excited about this show; I liked the immediacy, simplicity, and cuteness of it. As time went on, however, it got more and more convoluted. Although some aspects still feel convincing, it did start to feel slightly unnatural at times, where the naivety fades and starts to feel more like silliness. Some of the speeches from the young kids feel more like they are being delivered by an older, more experienced, smooth, and slick person rather than a twelve-year-old boy. There are simply moments when I started to think that, after all, a twelve-year-old girl cannot be as naive as Hanabi is. I felt that real twelve-year-old boys certainly do not act the way Takao and Tsutsumi do in matters of romantic rivalry. In my younger days, it would have ended in a fight. It is all for effect and too incredibly happy-go-lucky. I almost think that if I wanted to write a teen romance series now, as an older person, where the boys were terribly cool and the girls were cute, I would create something very similar. The problem is that I am almost thirty now, so my ideas of love, cool boys, and pretty girls are something completely different from what they were when I was growing up. Although perhaps they are not, what do I know about love, cuteness, and cool stuff? However, so far, I am still quite enjoying this show, even though it seems more like a fairy tale than a look at young people's first loves. 6.5/10.

I do not know exactly why; however, I quite liked And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? It originally came across to me as a sort of hybrid genre mash-up, with a crossover of slice-of-life mixed with harem and even in the MMORPG gamer setting, with a bit of comedy, some pretty likable characters, and perhaps not such an extremely original narrative. Well, in the end, it is, only it is not really a harem anime series because the main male protagonist is only really interested in a romantic sense with one girl, Ako Tamaki, and the other girls more or less respect that relationship. It is mostly more like a slice-of-life show about how a "cute" antisocial girl who does not know the difference between the game and reality and becomes infatuated with the male knight from the game, the initially slightly suspicious "typical student/otaku" Hideki Nishimura, who goes under the name Rusian. He decides to help her come out of her shell with his teammates and get her head right, which he partially succeeds in doing, although, at the same time, he starts to lose a grip on reality, and the lines between the game and reality become rather blurred. The characters are mostly classic cookie-cutters again (the typical student, the blonde tsundere, etc.), and Ako is the main driving force behind everything. Even though the main protagonist is supposed to be Rusian, everything mostly revolves around Ako in the end anyway. The problem is that Ako is a naive, silly girl who follows Rusian around like a puppy dog. Ako does not make sense at times, and it is mainly her who is supposed to be the funny and original comic relief. So the problem is that if you do not like this little girl, then you are not going to be able to watch more than three episodes because Ako is everywhere all the time, and almost everything is about her. I personally did not mind Ako and even found her weirdness charming, which is probably the main thing that decides the final rating. However, I was not too impressed with the soundtrack, and the animation was not world-beating, in my opinion, either. I would see this show more as slightly below-average, since especially the parts from the game seemed too colorful and weird (when I first saw Rusian from the game, or rather his eyes that look like someone used mascara on them, I was like “WTF?!”). Even though it is a very contradictory show, and qualitatively I would see it as worth two stars, my feeling from watching it was slightly better. Therefore, I will award it three stars, declare it more or less an average show, and end my dissection before I stop distinguishing the difference between the world in front of and in the computer. 5.5/10.

I enjoyed the first episode of Anne Happy; the characters were very nice and seemed likable enough. I was intrigued by the concept of building a show around a class of unlucky people, and it was colorful, enjoyable, and quite funny. I soon grew to like the character Hanako, and I liked the other girls too. The animation is very simple and pleasantly colorful, and I enjoyed the soundtrack. The second episode is weaker than the first one; I still like it, although I could easily do without the mechanical rabbit. The third episode was very weak; it was kind of boring, weird, and pretty much stupid. If the anime’s creators went in that direction, they would probably kill it for me. The fourth episode was once again very enjoyable and cute; this is what I want to watch: little girls, forming bonds with each other through various interesting and appealing situations. I am almost starting to think that the episode-by-episode ratings would be pretty handy with an anime series like this because the differences are pretty big. Well, there were minor fluctuations in the impression I had until the end, even though I do not think there was any episode that annoyed me in any significant way. On the contrary, there were a few episodes that I enjoyed. I eventually got used to Timothy, although this was helped by the fact that SPOILER ALERT there was another schoolgirl behind him, END OF SPOILERS. Anne Happy is not an anime series for everyone. It is quite clearly aimed at fans of cuteness; however, unfortunately, with this genre, when I take stock of all the positive and negative things, it does not deserve more than a little better than average rating for me personally. 6/10.

From the creators of the low-budget short anime series, JK Meshi comes another low-budget short anime series. This time, they do not focus on preparing dishes guaranteed to be simple, although we get some tips on how to win prizes on an arcade claw game with plushies known as a merchandiser. While I did not doubt some that JK Meshi was not completely pointless, I am not yet convinced this show was not pointless in some way yet. Who needs to know how to win a soft toy animal on a claw machine? I certainly do not! I understand that this game is probably quite popular in Japan, although I do not get why they made an anime series about it. Plus, the whole point of why girls are supposed to play on those machines, the one about idols and the destruction of the Earth, seems as stupid to me as probably little else from what I have seen to date.  All in all, this is a weird show, it is not at all funny, and it is about things that I am not interested in. On the other hand, I am going to at least mildly support this little studio's efforts on their next project and not write it off as BOO!, though the impression I got is very close to that. Dropped after the third episode. 1/10.