Anime that I have to watch. - now my anime review thread!

[Southrop]

Consider this your warning, james123hous. Keep up your trolling and you can look forward to a nice "vacation".

how would kirino feel about you threatening to use an abuse of biopolitical power to paralyze anime fans from disturbing your subjective "order?"

she'd prob be disappointed and never talk to you online again

Enjoy your temp ban.

Sorry for clogging up your thread, Micharus.

[Micharus]

No, it's all good.

Stuff like this happens sometimes.

[Kyrdua]

haha, made the boku no pico thread in advance.
It'll be up to you if your'e going to review it separately or as a series. i'm going with separate. if you're also going with separate, pm me your review and i'll add it in the corresponding episodes under your name, linking to this thread.

EDIT: or maybe just request a cleanup or post rearrange if that's even possible O_o

[Micharus]

Just finished watching ep 12 of Index II.

Misaka Mikoto's mother is HOT, as in smoking.

I hope she gets more screen time.

Index in a cheer leaders outfit isn't too shabby either. 

[Havoc10K]

Consider this your warning, james123hous. Keep up your trolling and you can look forward to a nice "vacation".

how would kirino feel about you threatening to use an abuse of biopolitical power to paralyze anime fans from disturbing your subjective "order?"

she'd prob be disappointed and never talk to you online again

Kirino would feel very good to punch you in the face personally, and even though half the forum hates her nearly as much as me, we would all give her Excalibolg to use it on you

Thanks En

Her mom is pretty much what you can expect of Misaka to be in the future, just in more responsible version, as Misaka will likely be comparable with a typhoon unless she actually does menage to hook up with Touma then she could be a good girl

[Micharus]

Just finished a story 'arc' in Index II.

I now have the time to both watch and review "Boku no Pico", so I have.

Follow the link to get to the review in the "Hentai Paradise" section.

Boku no Pico review in Kyrdua's Thread

[Micharus]

Finished watching "Toaru Majutsu no Index II".

What a ride!

There are 6 story 'arcs' in this season of Index and the good news is that it seems there will be yet another season somewhere down the track.

In the first episode and first story arc, someone kidnaps Index in order to access the grimoires in her head.

The second story arc starts with the second episode.
A book, called 'The Book of the Law' has been stolen.
The 'Book of the Law' is apparently written in a special code and only one person can read it, Orsola Aquinas, who has been kidnapped.
Touma is forced into helping Stiyl rescue Orsola after Stiyl 'kidnaps' Index.

The third story arc starts with episode 6.
The MISAKA sisters make an appearance!
The 'Remnant', a piece of the 'Tree Diagram' program that was made to increase Misaka's power by forcing her to fight her 'sisters' has been retrieved from it's hiding place.
Kuroko is injured trying to recover the 'Remnant' from the 'enemy'.
Eventually the 'Remnant' is destroyed by an interesting person.

The fourth story arc starts with episode 8.
Once a year, Academy City hosts the "Grand Champion Star Festival", a huge competition between all of the schools in the city. During this time visitors from outside the city are allowed.
Two groups of magicians have decided to use Academy City as a meeting point to trade an important artifact, the "Stab Sword", which is said to be able to kill a Saint.

The fifth story arc starts with episode 14.
Touma wins a draw for a trip to Italy, but everything is not as it seems.
They run into Sister Orsola and various people from previous episodes and things happen.

The sixth and last story arc starts with episode 17.
This part of the anime jumps around a bit.
It has a little slice of life and a lot of action.
Last Order, the last of the MISAKA sisters is taken by a group of people. Accelerator, of all people sets out to rescue her.
Touma unknowingly helps Accelerator in his quest.

This anime is interesting in that it's really the first time where they use religious entities to 'power' a story line.
We have the 'Roman Catholic Church' vs the 'Church of England' and an imaginary church, called the 'Amakusa Catholics'.

Some people may be offended by this, but remember this is an anime!

The characters are well drawn, with Sister Orsola Aquinas coming across as the very picture of what a Nun should be.
The other characters in Index II have grown up a bit.
Touma seems to be a little more confident, Index looks a little taller, Misaka looks to have developed a crush on Touma and Kuroko seems to have filled out a bit, which is good, she was very skinny in the first season, the extra weight looks good on her.

There are a lot of things going on in Index II, with many new characters being introduced and all of the old ones from the first season appearing.

Touma, of course, gets into situations where he gets slapped, zapped and bitten for accidentally seeing things he shouldn't and there is one time in Italy where he pulls a double whammy, but only gets it from one side, but he gets a very nice view of Sister Orsola. Who knew Sister Orsola was *so* cute under her Nun's habit?

There is what looks to me to be a blatant reference to 'Samurai Champloo' in Index II.
If you have seen SC, then you will remember "Mugen" the 'western swordsman'.
The 'temporary pope' of the Amakusa, Saiji, is a dead ringer for Mugen, right down to the hair and the way he holds his sword on his right shoulder at times.

Is this season of Index as good as the first?
Hell yes, in a number of ways it's better than the first season.

If you have seen the first season, watching this season is a must.

Edit: forgot to mention that all of the new ladies are interesting in one way or another.
Last Order is.... Mini-Mikasa! Cute in the way little girls are cute.
Mikasa Misuzu. Mikasa Mitoko's MOTHER. An older, hotter version of Mitoko, for me any way. 
Oriana Thomson. Large breasted magic user, who has a little book of papers that she uses to cast spells. Has a 'naughty' attitude, with a body to match.
Agnese Sanctis. Leader of the "Roman Catholic Church's" 'Battle Nuns'. A fierce, piece of work, wears a habit with a short skirt, exposing her legs. Wears tall platform shoes to increase her height.
Vento. A member of 'The right seat of God', apparently part of the RCC. Strange looking lady with what looks like multiple piercings, the most strange one being a double pierced tongue, from which a chain with a cross hangs.

There are others, but these are the ones that stuck in my mind. 

[Micharus]

How to start....

"Angel Beats!" the review.

You could say this anime is an action/school life/drama and you would be right.

The scene is a place that looks like a school, but it isn't...... and it is.

Our 'hero' for want of a better word, wakes up without any memoriy of who he is and.....dead, although he doesn't realize it at first.

The first person he meets is Yuri, who informs Otonashi Yuzuru that he is dead.

While this is going on, Yuri is fixing her aim on a girl in the middle of the sports ground, a girl Yuri calls "Tenchi".

Otonashi, after being told he is dead and that he can't be killed, decides they a joking with him and approaches Tenchi to ask the same question, where upon she kills him, only for him to wake up again in the school infirmary.

This is how "Angel Beats!" starts.

As the anime moves along, Otonashi discovers that the school isn't in the 'real world' and that most of the other students aren't like him and Yuri.
He also discovers that Tenshi is 'the enemy' and has special powers.

Yuri, we discover, is the leader of a group, that I will just call 'Battlefront' and their main aim is to rebel against the rules.

Eventually Otonashi discovers that all of the students that are like him and Yuri, have died without being able to fulfill some aspect of their lives.

I can't really write much more without spoiling the plot.

This is a good anime, it is happy and sad in fairly even amounts and has loads of action and even some funny moments.
The ending is sad, but watch past the credits for nice scene.

Edit: I can't believe I didn't mention the music! The music in Angel Beats is pretty good and there are a number of episodes that more less swing on the school band being a distraction.

I can't see a second season happening, not following the same theme as the first, but perhaps something along the lines of 'what happened to them after'.

There are things in this anime that reference other anime.
Yuri wears a headband with a ribbon, that is exactly the same as Suzumiya Haruhi wears in "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi".
There is also a pink haired girl who has a tail that looks very similar to Lala's from "To Love Ru".

Next on the list.....isn't on the list...YET!
I found an anime that I had gotten, but not watched or added to the list. A quick look at the first ep looks like it could be funny, which is needed after watching "Angel Beats!"
The anime is..... "Seitokai Yakuindomo", done by Ryuumaru.
*runs off to add it to the list

[Meomix]

Ah i loved Angelbeats! It's basically Little Busters all over again.

[Micharus]

Ah i loved Angelbeats! It's basically Little Busters all over again.

Yeah, I enjoyed it.
It was a little different plot wise to anything I've seen before, which made it good to watch just for curiosity value.
I really wanted to see what would happen next.

[Havoc10K]

Tenshi != Tenchi
Tenshi = Angel

[Micharus]

Just watched the last episode of "Seitokai Yakuindomo", so here is a review!

Seitokai Yakuindomo, loosely translates as "Student Council Officer".

The anime is about Tsuda Takatoshi, a male student that is starting the new school year at a new school.

The school, Ousai Private Academy, used to be a girl's only school, but because of declining birth rates, it has become a co-educational school in order to stay open.

This means that Tsuda is outnumbered by girls, by quite a bit.

To add to his troubles, the first person he meets is... Amakusa Shino, the student council president, who calls him over to talk about the proper wearing of the school uniform.
Eventually, Shino makes Tsuba the 'vice-president' of the Student Council, because they need a boys point of view.

This is the part of the anime where we meet the main characters.
Apart from Shino and Tsuda, we also meet..... Shichijou Aria, a sweet natured, large breasted, sightly air-headed, student council member and lets not forget Hagimura Suzu, who though short of stature, is very intelligent and the most normal of our student council members, apart from Tsuda.
Suzu doesn't like having attention drawn to the fact that she is short and tries to get things down from places where she can't quite reach, which makes for some funny/interesting situations.

Tsuba turns out to be very good with helping Suzu out in such a way that it doesn't reflect on her lack of height.

The one theme running all the way through this 'slice of school life' anime, is sexual innuendo and jokes.

Remember, this used to be an ALL GIRL school, so they aren't used to having boys around and sometimes let things slip.

Other characters that turn up are;
Tsuda Kotomi, Takatoshi's cute younger sister. She makes regular appearances all the way through the anime.

Hata Ranko, the school news reporter/photographer. She is drawn a little differently to the other characters, mostly her eyes are drawn a 'flat' color. She would make a good gossip columnist, she gives the wrong meanings to things that are said and delights in taking interesting photos.

Yokoshima Naruko, the supervising teacher for the student council. She has a liking for young men and so targets and teases Tsuda on a fairly regular basis. Wish I was Tsuda!

Mitsuba Mutsumi, head of the Judo club. She approaches Tsuda for help in getting the club started.

Igarashi Kaede, a student involved with the Disciplinary Committee. She doesn't make an appearance until late in the anime.

Dejima Sayaka, Aria's maid. She doesn't show up until later in the anime.

If you are going to watch this anime, be warned, there are certain words that pop up, that while they are correctly used, aren't generally used in 'normal' conversation.
There is also talk of female 'sanitary aids' and other things.

As I have said previously, there is a lot of sexual innuendo and jokes, well done to be sure, but possibly offensive to some people.

One of the most interesting aspects of this anime is that it *tries* to show some of the difficulties of a boy going to what was formerly an all girl school and also tries to show it from the girls point of view as well.

Then we come to Suzu, who is, well, to put it bluntly, short. There are many scenes where you can see the top half of the characters.....and an arrow pointing to where Suzu is, or the top of her head, with the Kanji (I think?) for Suzu's name hovering above.

Each episode covers a certain number of pages from the manga, it even tells you which pages and what volume, so I'm guessing that the anime tries to follow the manga reasonably closely.

There is some 'boing' happening, I mean it can't be avoided as such with Aria around and there are a LOT of girls around, so yeah, there is 'boing' happening.
There is one part that I found particularly funny with Suzu and Aria involved, one of the LOL moments in this anime.

There is NO pantsu, very very little fan service of any kind in fact.

The anime has everything you would expect from a 'school life' anime, the trip to the beach, the cultural festival and so on.  

The last episode was decidedly odd.
It's obvious that they didn't have enough material for a complete episode and made up the bulk of it with a 'flashback' session, featuring not quite correct flashbacks of previous episodes.
The one thing that does happen in the last episode is that they basically say that there is going to be another season.... eventually.  

This a good anime, it's pretty much got something funny happening in every episode and there are quite a few LOL moments, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, there are some parts that the younger audience just won't get.

I have no idea what I'm going to watch next, I've downloaded a bunch of anime that I haven't put in the list on the OP, so I'm going to have a look at some of them and see what pushes my buttons.

[Havoc10K]

Sexual jokes are fan service enough
One of the funniest shows of that season

Thanks for a good review though it's quite long this time

[Micharus]

Sexual jokes are fan service enough
One of the funniest shows of that season

Thanks for a good review though it's quite long this time

Yeah, longer than I thought it was going to be. Must have enjoyed it more than I thought.

Going to watch "Rideback" next.

A girl on a motor bike, the description for it on AniDB has caught my interest.

Edit: Found that there is an OVA for "Seitokai Yakuindomo", getting that NOW, only one group has it subbed in english. It's called "Seitokai Yakuindomo: Kaette Kita Seitokai Yakuindomo".

According to gooogle translate this means..... "Student Council Officers: The Return of Student Council Officers". Looks like this is as far as it goes....... maybe.

edit edit: Watched the OVA and it was much the same as the series, of course.
Features Takatoshi's cute younger sister, Kotomi and her entrance into the same school Takatoshi is in.
The first part is virtually a copy of part of the first episode in the series where Takatoshi is given the tour by Shino, except this time Shino is getting the reactions she was looking for when she Takatoshi on the tour.
The 'usual' sexual innuendo and jokes follow as well as a couple of new characters.

[Al_Sleeper]

Going to watch "Rideback" next.
A girl on a motor bike, the description for it on AniDB has caught my interest.

A ballet dancer, to be precise .
Unfortunately, it's a good example of wasted potential .

[Micharus]

Going to watch "Rideback" next.
A girl on a motor bike, the description for it on AniDB has caught my interest.

A ballet dancer, to be precise .
Unfortunately, it's a good example of wasted potential .

Well, hopefully it will be entertaining at least.
The 'cover art' used in the advert looks pretty good, hopefully the anime will be at that level or maybe better.

[Logiick]

Why the strikethru on Fruits Basket?

Anyway, Nodame Cantabile, Clannad + AS, and the SZS franchise are what I'd classify as "must-see" out of that list. Koihime Musou, Penguin Girl, and (I presume) Omamori Himari are enjoyable fanservice/fluff shows, but nothing special. I found Shuffle to be pretty good, but it's one of those "love it or hate it" erogame adaptations.

Omamori Himari was pretty good. Just got finished watching it myself. Couple of plot holes, but overall a good watch.
Shuffle is amazing.

Clannad and School Days are next on my list.

[Micharus]

Why the strikethru on Fruits Basket?

Anyway, Nodame Cantabile, Clannad + AS, and the SZS franchise are what I'd classify as "must-see" out of that list. Koihime Musou, Penguin Girl, and (I presume) Omamori Himari are enjoyable fanservice/fluff shows, but nothing special. I found Shuffle to be pretty good, but it's one of those "love it or hate it" erogame adaptations.

Omamori Himari was pretty good. Just got finished watching it myself. Couple of plot holes, but overall a good watch.
Shuffle is amazing.

Clannad and School Days are next on my list.

I would have something really funny on hand to watch after you finish School Days, but Clannad could do the job of helping you to recover from it.

I suggest you watch Clannad: After Story right after Clannad, you'll miss out if you don't.

[Logiick]

Why the strikethru on Fruits Basket?

Anyway, Nodame Cantabile, Clannad + AS, and the SZS franchise are what I'd classify as "must-see" out of that list. Koihime Musou, Penguin Girl, and (I presume) Omamori Himari are enjoyable fanservice/fluff shows, but nothing special. I found Shuffle to be pretty good, but it's one of those "love it or hate it" erogame adaptations.

Omamori Himari was pretty good. Just got finished watching it myself. Couple of plot holes, but overall a good watch.
Shuffle is amazing.

Clannad and School Days are next on my list.

I would have something really funny on hand to watch after you finish School Days, but Clannad could do the job of helping you to recover from it.

I suggest you watch Clannad: After Story right after Clannad, you'll miss out if you don't.

That was my plan. Usually when I'm all sad from an Anime or something, I just watch more sad ones. Dunno what's wrong with me. I'm def gonna watch :AS right after Clannad. I love the feel of series like those. Touching RomCom = Bane? Mayhaps.

[Micharus]

It's hard to find a way to start a review these days, guess I'll be doing 'more of the same' sort of starts.

Anyways, on with the review.

"Rideback" is all about a girl, Ogata Rin, who is a ballet dancer and not just any ballet dancer, she has the ability to be a 'Prima Ballerina'.

However during a performance, she damages a ligament in her ankle (I thought it broke at first) and gives up ballet because she will never be able to reach as far as her mother did.
Unfortunately, this doesn't bother her parents as they were killed in an accident at some time in the past.

Rin goes back to university with her friend, Shouko.

One day, during a break, she is recognized as a 'famous' ballet dancer by Suzuri, who is a big fan of hers.
Eventually it all gets to be too much for Rin and, taking advantage of a lie Shouko makes up, makes her escape.
While walking outside, it starts to rain as Rin comes near a shed with it's doors open.
As she is trying to find out if anyone is there before going in, thunder sounds, making Rin jump thru the open door into the safety of the shed, where she meets Hishida, who greets her with a smile.

Rin has managed to find 'The Rideback Club', a club that deals with a new form of transport, that is a cross between a robot and a motorcyle.

This is where it all starts.

Eventually, Rin gets to ride 'Fuego', a Rideback that is crimson in color and has flames on it.

Rin has plenty of adventures with Fuego, a race with another member of the club, Kataoka Tamayo, who is very very skilled and a daredevil chase through the city to rescue Shouko.

About halfway thru the anime, the focus goes AWAY from Fuego and character development starts to pick up speed.

We discover that the GGP is not what it appears to be and that there is something happening in the background which has yet to put it's head above the surface.
Hint: keep an eye on Romanov Karenbach's aide, not that you'll have a problem with watching her, she's sexy.

Towards the end, something sad happens and Rin realizes something.

The animation work in this show is really good.
Most of the vehicles and Ridebacks are amazingly detailed up close and almost look like photos of real things, right down to reflections.
The clouds are the most cloud-like things I've seen since REAL clouds and that saying something, clouds are HARD to draw.

It looks like a large amount of the background has been done using computers, the detail in the some of the scenes is just amazing.

The people look like they are hand drawn and the character design is quite good.
In particular, the eyes were very well done. The female characters had large eyes that were rounder than the males characters eyes, but not the 'moe' sized eyes that we see in most anime.
In other words, the characters eyes were almost 'normal', except for the bad guy, his eyes seemed to be so 'slit like' as to not actually be there, but that could just be me.

Al_Sleeper noted in a previous post that this anime is a good example of wasted potential.
Maybe he's right, but the anime finished before they ran out of ideas and it finished pretty well too, just quietly, although there could have possibly been another episode or two covering the 'what happened after' aspect of things.

While I would not say go and find a torrent of this right away, if you don't have anything else that you really want to watch, you could do much worse than watching this.

Going to watch "Kashimashi" next, from the little bit I've seen it looks like it could be quite funny in places.