Jeoffrey

A girl flies on a broom and pulls a weepy mandrake out of the dirt. All she has to do is start waving a wand around and playing Quidditch, and it should be quite obvious what this show is trying to be. On the other hand, I have to say that Flying Witch is very easy to watch, the animation and its soundtrack are quite pleasant, the characters are quite likable, the magical world it is set in has a lot to offer. The atmosphere is also very good. So it is a respectable show which is relaxing due to its pleasant pace. 7.5/10.

I was looking forward to this show because the premise seemed very interesting and full of mystery, and the suggested drama promised great things. Well, in the end, it was all just empty promises! The pacing was so slow at the beginning that I wondered if it would take five episodes to get away from the village. Then suddenly, there was a second episode, and it went into some weird frenzy where the characters were already established, and some odd things were happening. There was a distinct absence of logic. It became very mysterious even though the biggest puzzle I had to solve was what SonGokussj wrote about in his review on FilmBooster. How is it that when they came to the village, it was dark and then a second later, without moving an inch, it was suddenly light? Was it magic? Was it aliens? Did God say: "Let there be light"? Seriously, everything else is not mysterious, and it certainly does not give you the chills because even if it wanted to build some atmosphere, all the weird dialogues and even weirder characters dilute it and stomp it into the ground. Too many characters have their own opinions and reasons for being there, and everyone has their own traumatic experience. So what was supposed to be puzzling and mysterious turns out to be a rather boring psychological storyline? DaweForeman perfectly summed it up for FilmBooster in his review - "this is some gibberish about how everyone has certain problems of their own and how they have to deal with them on their own." I was expecting it to take off, and it just did not go anywhere. All it left me with watching the last episode and its denouement was a slightly cocked eyebrow and a somewhat bored expression. It also left me with thoughts along the lines of "hmmm, ok" and the certainty that I am probably not going to remember The Lost Village in a few weeks. 3/10.

What could you cram into forty seconds? Almost nothing! Perhaps a little bit of a plot that tells the bare minimum, and of course, some fan service because you cannot do without it. Above all, you could cram an advertisement for a video game of the same name. So do not forget to register and become a special operations commander because these girls cannot do it without you. I am awarding this show one star because, as a commercial, it was not the worst idea, and by only spending less than eight minutes on it, the anime’s creators could not manage to piss me off. Dropped after the eighth episode and 2/10.

I am not going to lie; I am going to say outright that I loved this show. I mean, I am not crazy about motorcycles, however, this show has cute little girls riding bikes. The show is quite endearing and funny, and it was easy to love the main female protagonist and her naivety and the other young girls. I love this world where all the bikers are equal (except those who ride on Suzuki) and have a motorcycle club at school run by the greatest racing legend. (Some say she left a lot of bikers behind in the dust. No one knows what she looks like or what her voice sounds like. All I know for sure is that she is The Stig's anime cousin Raimu Kawasaki!!!). The only sad fact is that most motorbike anime fans are probably not going to be too interested in it, so I doubt I am going to see another season. It is a shame, though, because the passion for motorbikes has been captured quite well by the anime's creators, in my opinion. When even a person who is not interested in motorbikes started to flirt with the idea of riding a motorbike and began to think that getting a motorbike, in general, is not such a stupid idea after all, I think this show has pretty much served its purpose. To summarise, it was such a nice ride through the countryside in the summertime, and since Jesus is riding a motorcycle and enjoying it too, I cannot give it a bad rating. 7.5/10.

I did not think that Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto was not a great show to watch at first. The main male protagonist was just the coolest guy ever, even though I found him more like the weirdest and incredibly over-the-top character in some moments, so I thought they could not be serious. Dancing around a fire and saving a bird from a tornado does get a bit too much. Well, yeah, folks, although that is exactly the point! Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is meant to be a comedy and a surprising comedy at that. So, when the absurdity of it all dawns on you, you might just start to enjoy it. Personally speaking, I figured that out about halfway through, and suddenly it was a pleasantly over-the-top show which was very entertaining (especially the fight with the wasp was really funny) and I started laughing a lot during the show. Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is a sort of One Punch Man amongst all the cool dudes, and all I can say is that it deserved my attention. 7.5/10.

Space Patrol Luluco is weird, crazy, and funny. Summed up in one word, I would say "bizarre." On the other hand, it was not boring, partly due to the reasonably chosen footage and partly because there is almost always something going on. Plus, the stuff that does happen is just totally insane and nonsense that one mostly just stares at throughout the episode and cannot possibly fathom. Sure, the main skeleton of the narrative is not complicated; it is simply a story about a supposedly normal student's first love, even though everything that happens around it is just a mess. Can something this convoluted and weird be boring? In my opinion, definitely not! 7/10.

FilmBooster reviewer SonGokussj finished watching the first episode, which I did not manage to do. I failed to last more than ten minutes. Everything regarding this show was just wrong for me. I could not see the point of them trying to build some atmosphere when they have already told you who the killer is practically right from the beginning. It worked with Colombo because viewers wondered how the perpetrator would be found out and convicted; however, in this show, it just comes across as a load of crap. The main male protagonist walks into court without any preparation and delivers a defense that is not believable. The graphic portrayal of the courtroom is done with ugly CGI, and I did not like it at all. It seems awfully obvious that the premise for this was a game where the player chooses the dialogue, and unfortunately, that comes across as ridiculously weird. Plus, when the friend the main male protagonist represents is a total dick, you cannot root for him and are just wishing they would convict him. I guess they could have at least let the Judge give him a good flogging for contempt of court. Plus, the whole thing seems way too over-the-top, unnatural, and stupid. Even that dimwitted Judge Barbara on Czech TV seems more likely to portray a real judge than this accurately. Dropped halfway through the first episode.

My first impressions after the first episode, which I noted down, were something like, "it looks quite interesting and mature, as long as there is not going to be some stupid crap." In the end, it turned out that there was no problem with it making sense, the narratives were interesting almost every time, so I enjoyed watching it quite a lot. I was worried about the repetitiveness and absurdity, like how the anime's creators would want to implement more and more of the "joker game" into the narrative. However, given that they focused on the individual (and very diverse) missions of the agents, they made it abundantly clear to me that there was not going to be a problem with that here. Each of the agents got their moment of glory, and Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki excelled as the "spymaster" in most episodes. Unfortunately, it is also true what some other reviewers have written. Due to the episodic nature of this anime series, I risk forgetting the episodes rather quickly. In the end, probably the only thing I will remember after a few months is that it was a series about WW2 spies and that Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki was a character in it. Still, in my opinion, Joker Game is definitely one of the best and highest quality releases of Spring 2016. In summary, it was interesting, mature, and fairly well produced. 7.5/10.

Apart from the part with the pink digger, this show is absolutely great. The atmosphere could be cut with a knife, and you are often left not knowing what to think or what to believe. By the time the truth is revealed, it becomes an average show, and unfortunately, it loses its original charm. Still, I think it is slightly above average, mainly because of the beginning. 6.5/10.

There are at least two things, that A Drop of Gold tackle perfectly, and these are atmosphere and emotions. At the beginning it is a bit depressing, then tense, then funny and in the end a bit sad, but every one of these mood swings is geatlly portrayed with stunnig music and visuals, so the viewer is never bored. Although I was not complettely captivated, unlike some of other reviewers, I also enjoyed this short move very decently. The story is interesting, animation is very original and the music is just perfect. 8/10