Reviews

My Love Story!! – Episode 24: “My Heart” (Finale & Review)

SUKI DA indeed, Takeo.
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My Love Story took last week off presumably because they needed extra time to animate all the sparkles, but we’re back with not only the finale to our two-parter, but to the show itself. Confessions will be made! Desserts will be baked! Audiences will be adorabludgeoned! And anime’s most charming high school rom-com will come to a predictably heartwarming conclusion.

I’ve shuffled the order of my original Anime Evo post around a bit, so the first half of this one provides a spoiler-free review for any newcomers interested in checking out this series. I’ll let you know when we switch from the review to the episode recap. Hit the jump and prepare your heart accordingly!

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Snow White with the Red Hair – Episode 12 (Season Finale & Review)

And so we come at last to the end middle of things.

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Snow White hits its first-cour finale today, so it makes sense to spend the first half of this post providing a mostly spoiler-free review for anyone who somehow hasn’t made this a part of their watch list and is wondering if they should. Short answer: Yes, you should. Long answer: Hit the jump for some glowing paragraphs, and I’ll let you know when we’re moving back into spoiler territory.

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Panning the Stream: Summer 2015 Midseason Review

Things’re really heating up, and I ain’t just talking about these August temperatures.

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The summer season is halfway(-ish) over but it feels like many of its shows are just getting started. Some shaky premieres nevertheless rife with potential have taken off in recent weeks, building momentum through character and plot development alike. My watch list isn’t quite as deep as it was in, say, the winter season, nor are the shows quite as across-the-board ambitious, but there’s a lot of variety, and the pure entertainment level is maybe higher than it’s been all year. I’m genuinely excited for the next episode of just about everything, and that’s a very good sign.

As for what I’m most excited about, you’ll just have to hit the jump to find out.

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Rule of Three Review: SCHOOL-LIVE – Episodes 2-3

Surviving high school just got a whole lot messier.

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Normally I try to keep these posts free of major spoilers, but there’s no real way to discuss this show without mentioning The Reveal that happens at the end of the first episode. If you have no clue what I’m talking about and don’t want to have it spoiled for you, then go sit through the first episode (available on Crunchyroll) and come back. Otherwise hit the jump for a story I sure didn’t see coming.

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Rule of Three Review, Fantasy Digest: Rokka, Snow White with the Red Hair – Episodes 2-3

The magic is here in more ways in than one.

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Lush backgrounds, slowly building stories, ever-expanding casts, romantic (sub?)plots—all in a day’s work for a fantasy anime. Hit the jump for one Mesoamerican-inspired epic and one relaxing fairy tale.

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Rule of Three Review, High School Digest: Classroom☆Crisis, Charlotte

Class is in session. Er, sort of.

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To say these are two series that take place at high schools is technically true but also incredibly misleading. These are no realistic YA tales à la last season’s Sound! Euphonium or SNAFU. No, one is soft sci-fi series at a corporate engineering academy; the other, a supernatural School for (Slightly) Gifted Youngsters. Both have steady hands at the helm, and both have surprised me with their charms. Hit the jump to take a walk around the campuses and see if either is a good fit for you.

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Rule of Three Review: Chaos Dragon – Episodes 2-3

You hear that? It’s the sound of whatever critical reputation I may have had flying merrily out the window.

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Let’s get one thing straight: Chaos Dragon is not a good anime. It is a convoluted mess of fantasy rules, characters, powers, and political factions. A lot of those elements are at least kind of interesting and some are even pretty different from your usual fantasy fare, and if this series had had two cour instead of one, it might have been able to make all this work.

As it is, we’re having pro- and antagonists alike introduced in a flurry of special powers and absurdly complicated JRPG-style costumes, only to have them vanish again in 30 minutes or less. Similarly, important world-building details and sociopolitical schemes get explained in a blur of exposition that results in everything carrying about the same weight, which is to say, very little at all. (But hey, there is a dragon, and the writing is chaos, so give this one credit for truth in advertising at least.)

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Rule of Three Review, Boys’ Club Digest: Ushio & Tora, Rampo Kitan – Episodes 2-3

It’s all fun and games until someone gets turned into a chair.

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These two shows have exactly one thing in common, which is a male-dominated cast. Okay, two things: Both are pretty visually striking. Okay, three things: They both like to put damsels in distress, although even then the way they do it is pretty dramatically different. Past that, though, Ushitora and Rampo couldn’t be less similar, so it’s no wonder my reactions to the two are kinda disparate, too. Hit the jump to hang with the guys and see whose company is most welcome.

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Rule of Three Review: GANGSTA. – Episodes 2-3

You’ll want to check your expectations at the door, but that should by no means stop you from coming in.

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I did this one a disservice in my Panning post by comparing it to Black Lagoon and Jormungand, when really the only thing they share in common is an interest in the less-than-legal underworld and the personalities that live there. GANGSTA is also not going to be the next Michiko & Hatchin or Cowboy Bebop (although it’s probably closest in tone to that last one’s more somber episodes)—although I want to stress that that is in no way a knock against it.

GANGSTA is damn good and has the potential to be damn great, but it’s also its own thing, and a much quieter show than any of the shows you’ll be inclined to compare it to. The tone is less grandiosity and more… well, melancholy, I suppose. But then, in a city called “Ergastulum,” named for the Roman buildings used to imprison or punish slaves, I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

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Panning the Stream: Sequels and Carryovers Edition (Summer 2015)

Styles keep a-changin’, the world’s rearrangin’, but some shows are timeless to me.

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As is custom, I’m popping in to let everyone know the sequels and carryovers on my calendar. We’ve got (re)meet ‘n’ greets for those who’ve returned to the anime schedule (some from a very long absence), and a quick blurb for the rest. Hit the jump to welcome them all back.

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