Ririchiyo is a daughter of the rich and influential Shirakiin house. The envy of other girls made her a victim of bullying in her childhood. Those experiences have created a wall around her and the strong urge to be independent from other people. Over time she started acting moody and unfriendly to others, when in fact she really wants to make friends. In her urge for independance she moves out and decides to start living on her own in a mansion named Ayakashi Kan. In the Ayakashi Kan it is a custom to have all residents be accompanied by a member of the Secret Service (S.S.), which Ririchiyo of course refuses. The man assigned to her however, insists on serving her and pledges unyielding loyalty to the extend of a faithful dog. This man, who turns out to be a powerful fox spirit, seems to have some kind of connection to Ririchiyo’s past.
The strong points of Inu x Boku SS are the beautiful animations and the hilarious moments. However, the main running gag of Ririchiyo acting “tsundere” while her servant acts like a faithful dog, might over time get boring and repetitive to some if not changed. What confuses me a little is that this anime is often attributed with the shounen genre, even though a female main character who is fancied by bishounens is a typical feature of shoujo anime. For those who are not bothered by such distinctions, Inu x Boku SS is an entertaining comedy anime with a touch of romance and fantasy-action. Rating: 8,5/10
Review: The story takes place in a world that is under threat of invasion from giant nova creatures. The only ones who are able to fight them are genetically enhanced girls called Pandoras. When Aoi Kazuya enrolls to an academy where young Pandoras are trained and educated, he instantly develops an affection for Satellizer el Bridget; the strongest but also coldest of all Pandoras in her year. Genetically enhanced boys may also visit this academy to be chosen by Pandoras as their Limiter and assist them during fights with their freezing ability. The distant and seemingly cold hearted Satellizer however doesn’t seem to have any intention of teaming up with anybody.
Freezing is based on a popular manga of the same name. Similar to Sekirei this anime has lots of action and fanservice in decent animation quality. Yet, there is also a solid story that develops slowly, while in the beginning the focus lays within the development of relationships. Let’s hope there will be more than 12 episodes so that the story will actually be going somewhere. Rating: 8/10
Review: When Ryuuji was a child he saw a girl hatch from a giant egg in the mountains, but told himself that it must have been a dream. 10 years later he meets her again as he saves her from black market dealers. From that day on she becomes attached to him and follows him around everywhere. Later he finds out that she is a young dragon that has supernatural powers. However, there are other dragons as well, who try to take her away from him.
Dragon Crisis is based on a Japanese light novel series of the same name. It’s the story of a boy deserted by his own parents and now forced to act a parent for a dragon girl who can’t even talk yet. The story takes place in contemporary Japan, but with the existence of magic and supernatural powers. Ryuuji seems to be a very skillful user of a certain ability that isn’t further explained at this point. The animation quality and special effects are very well done, especially during fights. All in all it is a pretty good fantasy novel adaptation that doesn’t fall short behind similar adaptations like Shakugan no Shana or Zero no Tsukaima. Rating: 8,5/10
Review: For his classmates Katsuragi is only a game obsessed nerd, but on the Internet he is known as the “God of Conquest”; the one man who can conquer all the girls. Or rather all the 2D girls in dating-sim games that is. Yet that is what the demon girl Elci didn’t understand when she formed a contract with him. It’s her mission to catch escaped souls that hide in girls hearts and can only be drawn out when that girl falls in love. Even though Katsuragi has no interest in the real world, he is now forced to conquer the hearts of girl after girl for Elci while using his not always very helpful game knowledge.
The World God Only Knows is based on a long running comedy manga and portrays how an otaku tries to use knowledge from fiction to conquer real girls. The funny and entertaining concept is a little weakened by flashy childish fantasy animations of oversized bottles and magic. However, it is a comedy anime after all and if you don’t try to take it too serious it’s pretty entertaining. Rating: 8/10
Review: Kamijyo Touma lives in the Academy City, a special advanced city cramped with all sorts of schools and mostly populated by students. Through scientific means, students there are able to obtain and train their special superhuman esper-abilities. Touma seems to have no talent whatsoever as an esper, but in a fight he realizes his right hand can nullify any kind of esper attack. It’s a very rare ability, but maybe his hands repelling all good luck is the reason he always gets himself into trouble. Just recently he found a strange girl called Index sleeping on his balcony; and that’s where the real trouble starts.
The animation quality is pretty good and similar to Shakugan no Shana. The story is set in an interesting near future Japan I think. As the plot goes on more and more shocking truths are uncovered and it never leaves you bored. Shakugan no Shana fans and anime fans who like sci-fi and action should definitely give this anime a try. Rating: 8,5/10
Review: Sanpeita-kun’s mother is always busily working as an artist at home; that’s why his little sister has to take care of the household. Their father might be gone, but they still do their best to get by. However, suddenly Kemeko appears in Sanpeita-kun’s life crashing into his room with a giant rocket, announcing to marry him. Kemeko seems to be a rather weird and ugly fighting android who protects Sanpeita from other fighting robots who attack him for no particular reason. The beautiful girl inside Kemeko reminds him of his childhood sweetheart, but that is little consolidation for all the trouble she causes.
This anime is a rather well done adaptation of the Kemeko-DX manga. The brilliant animation quality enables an adequate presentation of all those funny jokes and ridiculous situations. There obviously is a developing story with questions and secrets to be uncovered, but you shouldn’t hope for a deep and original story too much. Most of all this show is about comedy with a touch of romance, action and maybe harem. Rating: 8,5/10
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: 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
