Animeph

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

Review: Every person has an invisible ring around his neck. This ring will get darker and darker and he will die once the ring has turned black. Ever since birth Kita Michiru was able to see those rings. She is shocked when she finds out that the rings around Akatsuki Chika’s and Tachibana Shito’s neck, two boys from her school, are pitch black and yet they are still alive. When she gets involved with them she learns that they once died and were given another chance by the Zombie Loan project. She decides to help them to repay their debt by killing zombies.

I’m not sure if a zombi horror setting is the right thing for a shoujo story, but at least it’s something new, even if it’s nothing for me.
Rating: 7/10

Review: Tsuwabuki Masaharu isn’t socializing with his classmates very much until the day he joins the gardening club with 2 girls from his class. One day he accidently drinks a magic potion that turns him into a stuffed animal at night. He can only turn back to normal when a „special person“ helps him to collect star drops that fall from the sky. That person turns out to be one of the girls from his class and now every night she turns into a magical girl and helps him collect those star drops.

The settings of this show do not seem very creative, but the characters and animation quality makes up for it. It’s a story about love, friendship and magic.
Rating: 6,5/10

Review: During a family trip to the sea Nagasumi is saved from drowning by a mermaid. Back at their hotel his parents don’t believe his story; or that is until she knocks on the door and asks to marry Nagasumi. Her name is San and she is the daughter of a kind of mermaid mafia organisation’s leader. Usually when a human spots a mermaid, both are to be killed to keep the secret. Still San decided to save Nagasumi’s life and their marriage is the only way to save both their lives. However, San’s father and his friends from the mafia organisation do not want to see their cute little San taken away by a weakling like him, and thus secretly start several assassination attempts.

Seto no Hanayome is the hilarious love story of Nagasumi and San. The different characters and the funny misunderstandings they are put in make this show to one of the best comedy anime series this year.
Rating: 9/10