Jeoffrey

Maria the Virgin Witch has a rather interesting animation style, and the soundtrack is not bad either. However, what stands out (at least initially) most is the story's originality. It is not only interesting, but it portrays some relatively interesting things. It does a pretty good job showing the various evils of that time and the contemporary Church. It also goes into quite a bit of reflection on the meaning of some of the Church's dogmas, and it also, for example, questions the theology of God not intervening in people's lives. Unfortunately, as the episodes go on, some illogical storylines and conclusions rather diminish the philosophical value of this show. Instead of pondering existential themes, I found myself wondering how some things and situations were possible according to how the anime's creators portrayed them. The character of Maria herself is quite good, and she won me over with her desire to do as she sees fit, to live her life on her terms and rebel against accepted divine laws. It is just a real shame that she was the only one who appealed to me, although she is ably assisted by a pretty hilarious succubus and a funny incubus. However, most of the other characters did not appeal to me, and I literally hated some of them, although something tells me that this is probably what the anime's creators intended. This show falls into the realm of ecchi, although its execution is also quite original. It is more about dirty jokes, allusions to Maria's virginity, and last but not least, hints and glimpses of a real sex life. Sure there is no hentai happening on screen, even though sometimes all you need to do is a hint. The beginning was pretty great, and I was even thinking about giving it a full rating. However, around the second third of the season, it started to get a bit scary, to the point where my overall rating, due to things not making much sense anymore, only dropped to a better three stars. Also, although the ending was not terrible (or rather, I was expecting much worse), it did not change my mind. 6/10.

Four little girls set out on a journey and into a fight that gives the impression that they are in over their heads, in a very strange world that pretends to have quite a few secrets. However, I have to say that it slowly convinced me of its originality, and although I was not too taken with it at first, I gradually became quite interested. At least now I know what would happen if the green guardian of the universe got beat up and they sent in a backup team to help and fight. SPOILER ALERT I was especially fascinated by the setting and end of the narrative and the fate of the little blonde "octopus" that I had grown to love. SPOILER END Even though the ending was quite over-the-top (there was also a mecha) and extremely colorful, I did find it quite moving. So I will award this show a weak four stars, 6.5/10.

So there is a magical school, big CGI beasts threatening humanity, girls with special abilities and powers, and a single boy among them. To top it all off, a "transfer student" arrives and claims to be the main male protagonist's fiancée. There are just too many tropes in this show for my taste, so I was not so much into it. Moreover, there are badly designed dragons. For example, White Leviathan looked like a turtle and a narwhal mating product, so he looked more comical than scary to me. Plus, when I saw Basilisk with his "Catastrophe”, I had to laugh out loud. I thought Iris, Tear, and Mitsuki were good. The main male protagonist is quite bland, and the only thing I like about him is that he is nice to the girls. A certain part of me that likes cute anime girls would like to give this some nice ratings. However, all the other parts of my personality prevent it. My brain tells me something about the plot being superficial crap full of various tropes; my eyes tell me that the "dragons" are unwatchable, except maybe my ears are quite satisfied because the soundtrack is quite good. Furthermore, even pride is not going to let me give this show more than a better two stars this time. However, I must also add that I will watch the next season if it comes out because the other part of me wants to know how it turns out with the cute Tear and some other equally cute girls.

Death Parade is totally awesome. It has an interesting theme, good atmosphere, it is imaginative (and I really enjoyed reading reviews and speculations of other reviewers about how it actually turned out and why it was so). In the third episode, the anime’s creators are obviously no strangers to making shows touching and moving. I thought it was an awesome show due to the charismatic Decim and the way they gradually reveal the backstory of the mysterious brunette who assists him. Even the ending is good, in my opinion, and I liked it a lot. What is also awesome, in my view, and I have to give it a shout out, even though others have done it, is the opening, which, while it suits the overall feel of this anime series about as well as a laugh at a funeral, has a very nice piece of music. In conclusion, if I take all the anime series from this winter’s releases and subtract all the follow-ups (sequels, season two, etc.), then I can safely say that of the new anime series, Death Parade is clearly the best, in my opinion. So I will award it a well-deserved 9/10.

Silly old me, I thought that otaku people were usually on the fringes of society. Yet, in this show, I was presented with a male protagonist who considers himself an outsider and only interested in his otaku world. However, he is supposedly a celebrity in his school. He is lusted after by the prettiest girls in the whole school too. Though one can understand that since both girls are somewhat close to being otaku too, they know the protagonist well. It is all the more interesting to watch Tomoya Aki’s interactions with Megumi, who again is far from being an otaku, plus she is extremely dispassionate. She can be described as boring to a certain extent. It gave me a pretty interesting insight into otaku culture and brought out some rather charming characters. In my view, this is not a bad show, and it got better as it went on (and I was about to drop it after episode 0, which could be compared to a not-so-good and rather cliched OVA). However, it did not grab me enough to award more than a better three stars.

Initially, this show seemed interesting, and it seemed to have a decent narrative, with some interesting characters. However, I got bored with it quite quickly as it went on. It was becoming more and more predictable and uninteresting. The ecchi aspect, which I had previously thought was very good, quickly got old. It seemed they needed to force something erotic in at any cost. They are quite inappropriate too and crop up at the wrong moment. So within a couple of episodes, I thought this anime series dropped from a strong three stars to a weak two stars. Fortunately, the ending was not bad, and I might give the second season this October a go after all. 4/10.

Miritari! is pretty mad and stars little girls with army weapons and equipment. I thought it was quite cute. Occasionally I even got a slight chuckle out of something and since the running time of one episode is only four minutes, it does not bother me. However, it did not give me anything other than the above, and this is not satisfying enough to make it at least an average show, so it is only worth two stars.

I agree that the main male protagonist and the plot, in general, are a very boring retread of things we have seen a million times before. Likewise, I can subscribe to the statement that the animation is nothing spectacular, albeit inoffensive. I think the soundtrack is also pretty much flawless, and the opening is pretty good. However, as for the terrible dubbing, I did not notice that with my good hearing, and I thought the dialogues were OK. And so I cannot even agree with the final rating as BOO! because I believe it is still watchable with the caveat that I think it is boring. Because it is nothing new, I think it deserves one star although I will award it two; I guess you want to know why? Well, it is because of Julia. Characters who are strange, somehow emotionless, and give the impression that someone has to take care of them, so the viewer has sympathy for them, manage to wrap me around their finger and keep me intrigued. Plus, I found her endearing "Yā“ and "Nai" quite charming as well. Of course, once again, it is nothing new, and there have been a huge number of such twisted clueless little girls in anime series. The creators of Shiro from No Game No Life and Mashiro from The Pet Girl of Sakurasou perfected this type of character. However, I have not gotten over these little girls yet. So I will award this show two stars, even if they are very weak.

I like fantasy adventure, which is action-packed. However, this anime series is not very good. There is one trope on top of another. The main male protagonist is just another generic jerk who the girls around him do whatever they want, and he does not care. He has ideals and is determined at the right moment. I could probably tolerate a lot of the nonsense and craziness in this show (it is a fantasy adventure, after all), although I would like to shoot the people who wrote the dialogues and chose the music, and hide their bodies. Some of the dialogues are insane, and some of the interactions are awful. When one of the supporting characters said to Moroha's line "But there has to be a catch" something like, "So you are not just strong, but smart too," I thought of Chuck Norris and his Total Gym commercial (and his famous lines "You must be a big tough guy" and "Yeah, the biggest, trust me") and despaired. As far as the soundtrack is concerned, there are many things wrong with that too; I would not bother with the crazy and awful opening; it can be skipped. The music itself, which is meant to support the plot, is often completely inappropriate and disturbing. The worst part for me is when Satsuki does something supposedly funny, accompanied by music that sounds like something from a very old Super Mario Bros game, and my ears hurt. I agree with the argument about the one nice theme from episode three onwards in the romantic scenes with Shizuna and Moroha (and later almost every other emotional scene). However, I still only found one musical theme out of about five good, which is not enough. Oh, and while I am listing things I could not give a damn about, I have to throw in Satsuki herself. I like girls who are ready for action and maybe even hyperactive, although I have a hard time with hysterics, and let's face it, Satsuki is a hysterical show-off. So to not just criticize, I will mention some tolerable and maybe even good things, justifying the one star. The animation is OK for the most part, and while it does have WTF moments like, for example, the Russian assassin "Maneater," I wondered about her right eye, which is on her hair (I mean, the eye covers her hair). I liked the dragon, and I would like to print it and go and beat the illustrators who designed the dragons at Unlimited Fafnir to death with a picture of it. Occasionally there is a good musical bit (cf. above), and as far as the characters are concerned, the likes of Shizuno and the way she knocks out Satsuki is OK too. Moroha himself has moments here and there where I did not find him very funny. I do not mean the ones where he "remembers," or when he beats his opponent with a snap of his fingers, but rather when some girl says something like "honey, come on." and he calmly replies, "why not?" or when he kidnaps a princess through a window. In conclusion, every once in a while, something shines in the pile of garbage, and for myself, I would say it is one weak star, especially for Shizuno. 2/10.

I thought this was a great show. The perfect combination of comedy and cuteness is not boring for a moment. You realize the characters are great after a few episodes. I have to highlight the adorable Chiyo, "Osaka", who is very strange and cute in her way, Tomo who is completely insane, and the similarly wacky teacher Yukari, and finally, Sakaki, who likes animals (especially cats) even though they do not like her. Also worth mentioning is the opening, as the music captures the character of this anime series, and I have not heard something so weirdly wacky yet interesting in a long time. I am totally satisfied. 10/10