Jeoffrey

So this time, the MADHOUSE animation studio did not let me down and Alderamin on the Sky is an interesting and likable show. The first episode did not have the thrilling pace that the title "stormy encounter" would suggest, although it pretty much captured exactly what happened there. There were some pretty interesting people, and while their hair color once again distinguishes them, they also have some pretty interesting personalities. The main male protagonist probably had the best effect on me of the bunch. Oh, and there was a storm. The opening was certainly intriguing; the introduction of the characters and the light outline of the setting was good. The animation and soundtrack were also very good. We get more and more acquainted with the characters throughout the season, especially with the main male protagonist. I found him incredibly endearing, and the laziness and cunning with which he manages to prevail and get his way with the minimum of effort are just very close to my heart, and I like it a lot. Plus, the speech he gave to the soldiers about how human laziness was the engine of progress was something I welcomed with enthusiasm. Ikta Solork is once again a very original character and, in my opinion, a very good one. Furthermore, the other characters are quite good too, and it is probably impossible not to like the tough cookie Yatori. Next, I have to mention the military strategies and battles, which I just loved as an avid strategy game player. So most of the stuff works very well, in my opinion, and I am curious to see if I am ever going to know where the narrative is going to go, as the final episode messed it up quite a bit. The princess's plan was indeed very surprising. I hope there will be a second season (although since it is produced by MADHOUSE, you never know), as the first season was really very good. 8.5/10.

Amanchu! is an anime series about the sea and the friendship between two girls. It is also about exploring a new life and discovering yourself. There are two girls, and each of the girls has a signature look, and there is some frankly stunning music on the soundtrack. After ten minutes, I recognized the anime's creator, the manga artist, because I have seen one of her anime series before, and I consider it one of my favorite shows. This time, I got an incredibly pleasant feeling of satisfaction and the desire to explore the world it is set in with the main female protagonist Hikari Kohinata. Although I should be disillusioned at how similar Kozue Amano's works are, I do not mind it at all. After all, when someone repeats themselves, it is not copying; it is simply their distinctive style, so there cannot be a problem with this show. I might have a problem with what I see as the anime creator's overuse of that cute element, i.e., the typical expressions of each character, in my opinion, in this anime series. So it loses a bit of uniqueness and effect compared to her previous work. I also miss the slightly mysterious touch that the narratives about the young gondolier Aria had. So, in the end, I think Amanchu! is not as good as Amano's previous work. Then there is Pikari, who is often criticized and sometimes even rated as unbearable. It may be so for some people, although she is not that bad, to be honest. Plus, I do not usually stop to watch a whole anime series just because of one character, especially when there are other more positive things to enjoy, like the atmosphere of the show and its soundtrack. In addition, I found the character of Pikari to be very important as she is a slightly exaggerated example of an energetic and carefree person, the perfect counterpart to Futaba. When I got to know Pikari better, I quite liked the energy of her craziness, free spirit, and simplicity. In my opinion, even with the crazy Pikari, the result is still a fairly praiseworthy show, and when asked if I would like to continue watching Amanchu! I answer "Let's-a-GO" because of its pleasant, nice atmosphere. 8/10.

I was quite intrigued by the first episode. I like post-apocalyptic settings, and in this show, the main male protagonist ("the junker") sneaks through the ruins of an abandoned city, picking through what has been left behind. It makes for a very enjoyable show. Plus, the introduction from Yumemi Hoshino, the main female protagonist's point of view, and the way they bring her into this setting, I thought that was pretty good too. Also, Yumemi is a cute robot girl who fulfills her purpose and has no idea what is happening around her, and this was very well done. At times I felt a heavy sadness and compassion for her, and I have to admit that it impressed me and worked. Oh, and SPOILER ALERT, that final moment when Yumemi turned around and took a step back made me really happy, so the conclusion worked too. END SPOILERS. If that were all, I would probably be very satisfied and call it a very good show, and perhaps in the rush of emotions, I would give it the highest rating. However, there were still four more episodes to go. I suspected that my feelings would change even though, in the end, I was quite satisfied with the other episodes as well. The second episode flowed well and was not bad; the third episode once again made me quite happy because the planetarium show was interesting and, in my opinion, really pleasant. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the fourth episode very much and waited anxiously for the conclusion, some aspects of which were quite predictable. I have to say that although the fifth episode was quite emotional, it was not as strong as I would have expected from the Key visual novel studio. So Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet is now over, and I quite enjoyed it. The setting was interesting, the narrative was pretty good, and the characters were also good, in my opinion. I enjoyed the tension/friction between the robot and the human (perception of the environment and interaction), and the way it was portrayed was also very respectable. I think it is simply commendable, and I would watch it again, at least for Yumemi Hoshino. 7.2/10.

Kawai's animated boys did not blow me away. However, I would have ignored the references if it was not so stupid, at least. These four minutes of my life were totally wasted and I am never getting them back. There were just a bunch of very peculiar characters, and I wondered, with a sour expression, what I should laugh at and what I should like about this. Plus, when I saw what the main male protagonist's escape from the security guards with swords looked like, I realized that I just did not want to watch something like that. That was not amusing; that was pathetic. This is not for me. Dropped after the first episode.

So predictable clichéd nonsense has now infected shoujo anime. The narrative and the plot, in general, are so obvious that they just could not surprise me. The atmosphere is so stupidly lacking that there is actually no atmosphere in the conclusion. The characters are so uninteresting they become irritating, and I found at least one of the gentlemen was downright insufferable. Well, the rest is Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers-style costumes, and the fight scenes are so dramatic I almost fell asleep. Dropped after the first episode.

This show features some stories about a boy who has every supernatural ability you can think of and uses them accordingly as required. I have read many reviews concerning how amusing this show is; however, either it is not funny or does not have the right sense of humor because I did not really find it very funny. It simply happens that sometimes you do not share the same sense of humor, and I am afraid this is exactly my case here. The animation did not appeal to me, and the soundtrack did not click either. In addition, I was not fond of the characters very much. Perhaps someone else could enjoy it, however, I was bored. Dropped after three episodes and 2/10.

The Asylum, the independent movie company, and distributor is known for its "megahits" like Sharknado and Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus. They are going to make a new version of Lord of the Rings. It will feature Kevin Sorbo as Aragorn, Hulk Hogan as Legolas, and the unforgettable Steven Seagal as Gimly. You are probably thinking I have gone crazy and wondering in vain how this relates to the new anime series Berserk. Well, try to imagine what I have just described and also try to imagine the result of what I have described. You still do not get it? All right, then, well, on the one hand, this is a classic fantasy adventure device, the holy grail, whose story a lot of people know by heart. So you know the characters are great, the narrative will be great, and everything is just as it should be with a fantasy adventure. However, on the other hand, there is a TV studio producing low-budget movies, C-movies, and whatever the hell movies for a select group of enthusiasts. (I am not criticizing anyone because, as a fan of moe, I have seen a few of Lindenfilm's and Millepensee's productions). What do you get out of this movie? At best, a passable B-movie that none of the die-hard fans of the prequel will want to talk much about, a few people will be interested, and some will even award it five stars because it is "Lord of the Rings" after all. At worst, an unwatchable experiment with bad cinematography, crazy effects, and unpleasant acting will put most people off. A few people will disassociate themselves from it, and a few will still award it five stars because it is "Lord of the Rings". So what is the new Berserk like? At first, it looked like a mega-fuck up; the animation is something a normal person would not want to watch, the movement of the characters is peculiar, and some of the characters, like Puck, are pretty awful. Plus, the opening skips some pretty interesting chapters of the manga. I think the only thing that saves the new adaptation of Berserk is the fact that the anime's creators stick to the source material quite well, so the dark narrative, the gore, violence, and sex, all the "good stuff" that people were looking forward to is more or less there. Sure, they try to make the action-packed scenes look epic, even though the terrible way the characters move spoils it. It is extremely gory, and there are a lot of sex scenes, even though they censored the genitalia and nipples, which takes away from the effect (although it is still much better than the irritating light beams obscuring we get in other anime series). However, even so, I slowly came to realize that it is actually watchable and that it has an atmosphere too. Even though I am still irritated by the execution, if the anime's creators had gone the traditional animation route and avoided visual experimentation, this could have been a very good anime series. In the end, Berserk is more of an average anime series because I know the characters and narrative are generally good (Guts is the best character, of course, and anyone who says he has no charisma obviously knows nothing about the meaning of that word). The action and atmosphere are passable; the soundtrack is very good; however, the animation is terrible. I am awarding it 6/10, mainly because of the narrative and Guts. Also, I will definitely be watching more episodes of this in 2017.

Ghost Talker's Daydream is an occasionally quite interesting ghost story with a rather peculiar main female protagonist. It has an interesting atmosphere, quite strange characters, and a bit of uncensored erotica with a few S+M costumes. 6/10.

Dear children, be careful when you eat bananas because you never know how many little kittens will die! The Japanese are extremely inventive; however, this is something so supremely unique that it is only going to appeal to a small group of very specific and unique individuals. Just like with the Teletubbies. In other words, take Hello Kitty, add the word that every fan of the Minions from Despicable Me is clamoring for - "banana," and success is guaranteed! Wait, but what about Jeoffrey? Well, he is just shaking his head in disbelief. Dropped after the first episode.

So I am going to be a bit more strict than the reviewer SonGokussj and say not only that the editing is bad, but that the choice of some of the shots, where the camera pointed, is quite strange in places. The animation is incredibly static at times. The opening part in the school, for example, did not appeal to me. There were single shots of characters talking and moving quite minimally. As an interesting counterpoint, the animation when the fights occur is quite action-packed. These are quite well-executed, and the close combat using martial arts looked pretty good although that was not so much the case with the movement of the characters at other times. I also did not find the art style particularly sophisticated, more like quite poor. Another shortcoming is the unnaturally shoved-in fan service. Some of the storylines ended with this "service to the audience" and were completely stupid (see the fifth episode and the ping pong). On the whole, as far as the narrative is concerned, it is also quite crap. The different factions are clear about what they want; some want to be the strongest and rule the world, others want to wage war on everyone, defeat everyone and rule the world, and the main male protagonist Akatsuka Justice - well, he just wants world peace. It is full of such stupid tropes, like the speeches of many of the beauty queen pageant finalists. Plus, the characters are acting kind of weird and unnatural, too. It just does not feel like it came together as a whole, and about the only time it was watchable was when there were fight scenes. However, I noticed some weaknesses and small details that spoiled the impression I got of the show'. (When Akatsuka Justice is hit several times with a sword, there is blood all around and under him, so how is it possible that a moment later, when he throws a "power-up," his shirt is suddenly clean? It is magic!) So I am sorry, however, like SonGokussj, I am not going to watch more than five episodes. 2/10.