Animeph

Review: The Shinrabanshou is a hidden technique to take control of all things in nature. The most powerful of all hijutsu; he who controls it will rule Nabari, the secret world of the ninja. It moves timelessly throughout the world from one host to the next at its own choosing. This generation, it lives inside of a 14 years old boy named Miharu Rokujo. His shallow life is now in danger as those who seek to obtain the Shinrabanshou must kill him to get it. It’s not a completely hopeless existence however, as he is accompanied by friends who help to guide and protect him… as good as they can.

Your fairly generic storyline: boy wakes up one day with an ultimate power and must decide to save the world or destroy it. Maybe it’s not quite that tragic. There does seem to be an intricate plot that develops with every new episode, and the action sequences are pretty good. The content is closer to Ninja Scroll than Naruto with plenty of blood and total lack of high school romances. A cool thing about this series is that it takes place in modern day Japan. All of the Ninjas actually have real lives and jobs, while struggling to maintain their traditional obligations.
Rating: 9/10

Review: Failing in History, high school student Tokidoki has to take remedial classes at a new state-of-the-art virtual reality museum. The museum digitally replicates a very realistic Edo of the Bakumatsu period. As soon as Toki enters, he unnoticingly steps through a portal backwards to a slightly abnormal Edo of the Bakumatsu period. He quickly gets attacked by a bizarre creature called a Nue which takes Toki’s left eye. He is saved by a pretty young girl named Kuchiha, and he now has to deal with his situation in a strange land trying to return home.

A well animated series with decent fighting scenes and a variety of demons. It’s a period piece so you’ll see a lot of shrine maidens, samurai and barkeeps. The main character is a bit frustrating to watch at first but then grows on you. Overall pretty good if you are into Japanese culture and believes.
Rating: 7/10

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: Years ago on a stormy night, when Yuki still was a little girl, she was attacked by a vampire. However, she was saved by Kaname, who is a rare pureblood noble vampire. She doesn’t have any memories of her life before that fateful day and was adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy. She now attends this school as a day-class student. This school also has a night-class which consists only of beautiful and talented students. Only Yuki, her adopted brother Zero and the headmaster know that everyone in the night-class actually are vampires, trying to conform to human society. Kaname also attends this class and as a pureblood he tries to keep everyone civilized. However, even he seems to have certain secrets. And what are the secrets behind Yuki’s and Zero’s pasts?

Vampire Knight is based on a popular manga with astonishing artwork. The anime show’s animation quality doesn’t quite live up to that, but at least it by far isn’t as much of a let-down as Special A. It’s a shoujo story about the love triangle between Yuki, Zero and Kaname, which gets more complicated by the fact that they are both vampires. But even plot-wise this show doesn’t fall short with all its mysteries and tragedies that unfold along the way. Even those who do not like shoujo anime should give this show a try.
Rating: 8,5/10

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: Spice and Wolf plays in a distant past and tells the story of Lawrence, who is a knowledgeable traveling merchant. One night he finds a beautiful naked girl with wolf ears and tail inside his wagon. Her name is Horo and she is a wolf god in human form and used to help the local peasants with their wheat. She decided she wants to leave the town and travel the world with Lawrence. In her own way she helps him to gain profit, while they always have to be careful not to let anyone see that she is a wolf girl.
Spice and Wolf offers an interesting view on the life of a merchant along with a nice developing story.
Rating: 8,5/10

Review: Shungo seems to be a normal high school student living in an extraordinarily big house together with his sister. At school he is the, as he thinks, unlucky victim of all the girls teasing and sexual harassment. One day his sister tells him the new transfer student Mayu and her brother are going to stay in their house. The weird thing is they are both Succubus, which are demons who are no different from human despite their ability to hypnotically attract the opposite gender and suck their life energy by body contact. At school Mayu is the center of all the boys attention; her only problem is her androphobia, which means she is very afraid of being near to men, which is a rather ironic mental illness for a succubus. As Shungo somehow seems immune to Mayus constant incontrollable hypnotism his sister assigns him to the task of curing her of her androphobia.

Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun can be considered a romantic harem comedy with plenty of fanservice and enjoyable characters, but it`s a little different from the typical harem anime shows as it is based on a light novel instead of a dating-sim game.
Rating: 8/10

Review: So here we go again with the third installment of the popular Da Capo series based on a game of the same name. Again the story is set on this mysterious island where the sakura trees never cease to bloom, but this time it’s 53 years in the future. We are following the daily lifes of all the first season cast’s grandchildren and our new protagonist already gets confessed to in the first episode. Yet I find this series to be rather weak in every aspect. There just isn’t anything special to it anymore. Continuing a finished project just because it was a little successful is ok if you have creative heads who think of new ways to go and not just on the potential profits of an already established brand. I didn’t play the games, so I don’t know if I should be angry at the game company or the animation company for messing it up, but what I’m certain of is that this anime is just a weak shadow of it’s first season, but still maybe worth watching for fans of lighthearted harem anime shows.
Rating: 6/10