Animeph

Review: Ayumi recently transferred to Kamizono School as a high school freshman. Kamizono is a large school attended by more than 3000 students from elementary to high school. Ayumi is a rather silent girl who has problems speaking up her mind. She is determined to change, but still has problems doing so. On this big school ground she gets lost, but soon meets 3 other girls who share her fate and possess very different personalities. They soon become friends; but will they be able to help each other, or only get into more trouble.

Hyakko is a very funny school comedy anime with girls as main characters. It’s one of many shows recently with little story but enjoyable character and lots of comedy. Definitely worth watching for anyone who loves school comedy without any romance.
Rating: 8/10

Review: Takasu lives alone with his beautiful but undependable mother. His father who isn’t around was a weird bad-ass looking yakuza. It’s because of his genes that Takasu-kun always looks evil and is always feared and mistaken for a delinquent, when in reality he is a caring guy who has to take care of his household on his own. On his first day in a new class he bumps into Taiga, a very small but pretty easily aggravated girl, often called palmtop-tiger, and gets punched in the face. At least all the misunderstandings about his personality are cleared now very early. He later finds out she actually lives in a big apartment just beside his small house. He also finds out they both are in love with each other’s best friends, and so they agree to help each other, which turns out to be not as easy as they think.

Toradora is one of the more deep school comedy romances. The protagonists are interesting and there’s lots of character development while the comedy does not fall short in any way. It’s a story about how, unlike their outer appearances and first impressions, people can beautiful once you get to know them better and spend time with them. A show not only about love and comedy, but also about prejudice, misunderstandings, false rumors, psychology and friendship. The animation quality is more than acceptable, and from what I’ve read in the manga, the story is really going somewhere. However, the anime rushed the happenings of the manga (which also rushed the story of the original series of novells already) at a few rather important scenes and failed to convey their meanings fittingly. But someone not familiar with the novell nor manga will maybe not notice anything about that.
Rating: 9/10

Review: Yuuto is your usual high-schooler except for the fact he seems to be the private maid for his sister and teacher who seem to do nothing but drink and cause trouble. He would have lost all faith in woman if it wasn’t for Haruka, a model student who is rich, pretty, good at studying, sport, piano and everything she does. By coincidence he finds out she actually is an anime otaku. Now she is afraid that her happy student life will crumble if rumors were to be spread, but surprisingly Yuuto isn’t bothered by it and promises to not tell anyone. This was the day they started to spend more and more time together.

I was pretty hyped when I heard there will be a “guy meets perfect girl with secret anime fetish” anime, but after watching it I have to say this show didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The animation quality is fine and the settings seem interesting, but they pick up too many clichés we’ve seen 1000 times in other anime and manga stories. Further more in this show being an anime fan is presented as something that will make people look at you with more disgust than being a rapist; not quite, but it gets too dramatized. If you don’t expect too much, it’s your usual love comedy and enjoyable to watch, but don’t expect any new groundbreaking concepts, plot constructions or character designs.
Rating: 7/10

Review: Minato is very disappointed to have failed the college entrance exams twice, but his failure life style is about to change as he meets Musubi, a mysterious girl who is suddenly attacked by two other girls using weird lightning powers. Minato decides to help her and finds out that she is a sekirei and part of the sekirei plan, an unknown operation planned out by the MBI Corporation which controls this whole city. There are 108 sekireis and Minato seems to possess the Ashikabi gene to become a master of sekireis and awaken their powers to the fullest. Musubi now is his first sekirei, but being a peaceful guy he cannot understand why sekireis have to fight each other. What will he do?

Sekirei is a harem fanservice comedy action spectacle with a plot that isn’t too shabby for this kind of genre. Being a big fan of the Sekirei manga I had my doubts whether this anime will live up to my expectations. But unlike many other recent manga adaptations, this time they did a pretty decent  job. Animation and script are of a quality adequate for telling the sekirei story. However, those who read the manga will certainly find a few things that are missing or are not presented adequately, to say the least.
Rating: 8/10

Review: Maka Albarn and her weapon Soul, are students at Shibusen – a Shinigami Weapon Meister University. The purpose of Shibusen is to train Meisters and Weapons to protect humankind against the Kinshin, demon gods of destruction. When humans go down the wrong path and pursue evil, their souls become possessed by the egg of Kishin. In order to prevent their coming, Maka and Soul hunt these tainted beings. Their goal is to defeat and eat the souls of ninety-nine evil human souls and one witch’s soul in order to evolve into a master weapon fit for a Shinigami. A path that’s not as easy as it sounds.

This supernatural series has fantastic action sequences and unique characters. The storyline is  just as twisted as the artwork. If you’re looking for something dark, new, and exciting, this is for you.
Rating: 7,5/10

Review: Kurenai is a laid back high school student living alone in a run-down apartment. He works as a mediator, which is some kind of private agent helping and protecting clients. It’s not uncommon for him to get into serious fights during his work even though he does his best to avoid them. In those fights he sometimes uses a mysterious power he isn’t fully able to control yet.
His newest assignment however will make his crazy life even crazier. He is to live with and protect a 7 years old abducted girl from a prestigious but cruel family. Will Kurenai be able to deal with her selfish and uncommon behavior?

Kurenai is based on a novel and takes a quite different approach to the story than the existing manga. It starts of as an interesting action drama with school comedy tendencies, but quickly loses its excitement as it turns more and more into a family education show only focusing on the moods of the little girl and his weird neighbors. As the manga still seems to be quite interesting I will try not to give up on this show too quickly.
Rating: 7/10

Review: Kouta Oyamada is a short and shy high-school junior. On his first day a beautiful second-year girl called Chizuru asks him to meet her alone in the music room after school. There she confesses her love and without wasting any time tries to seduce him. Poor Kouta doesn’t think this is appropriate for high-schoolers, but they are interrupted as he finds out that Chizuru actually is a fox spirit. As Kouta isn’t as shocked as she expected him to be, she falls for him even more. Now she is trying to get intimate with him on the way to school, at school, at his home and simply everywhere she can think of. Kouta can hardly hold her off and now that yet another spirit girl has taken a liking to him, his classmates can’t fail to misunderstand and think of him as a womanizer. How will this go on?

Kanokon is yet another romantic comedy with lots of fanservice and fine animation quality pretty much like ToLoveRu. It’s not very original but still pretty funny and entertaining for those who don’t hate excessive fanservice.
Rating: 8/10

Review: Yuuki Rito is what you would call the usual clumsy high school boy, and he never seems to success in confessing his love to the girl of his dreams, Haruna. Suddenly, out of nowhere a naked girl called Lulu appears in his room and claims to be a princess from another planet. She is on the run from her father and all the husband candidates he arranged for her. Seeing a girl in trouble Yuuki can’t turn his back on her and helps her escape from the agents who followed her. In the process Lulu falls in love with Yuuki and decides to marry him. Actually without knowing, due to a weird tradition, Yuuki was the one who proposed marriage and now with all the pressure how will he be able to turn her down? And what about his crush on Haruna?

ToLoveRu is a romantic comedy about Yuuki and his intergalactic problems. This show basically lives from its hilarious situations and its fanservice. As the manga it’s based on is pretty long and popular this show has plenty of story to work with. It’s not exactly the newest artistic and original masterpiece, but if you like harem comedy shows with lots of fanservice, this show is what you’re looking for.
Rating: 8/10