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Anime like Kaze to Ki no Uta are hard to quantify. Like so many short OVAs and series, the KazeKi anime is a compressed version of a small part of a much longer manga series. That said, as someone who has seen this OVA both with no knowledge of the manga and after having "read" (in the sense of looking at the pictures, anyway) all of it, I find it a wonderful work to be a wonderful work no matter how familiar you are with it.

Kaze to Ki no Uta is an epic boys' love tragedy oftentimes labeled as the first boy's love manga -- this is untrue, although KazeKi's mangaka also wrote the real first BL manga, a oneshot called "In the Sunroom". It was, however, the first to contain explicit sexual content, including rape, pedophilia, and incest (oftentimes all at once), although all of this is treated with care in the manga and doesn't come up all that much in the manga. But historical significance aside, this is the story of one Serge Battour, the kind and talented son of a French viscount and a gypsy prostitute, and one Gilbert Cocteau, a gorgeous boy selling his body for reasons unknown. The anime covers several volume of the manga, starting when Serge and Gilbert become roommates at the elite boarding school Lacombrade Academy and following them as they initially clash and slowly begin to understand each other. Their problems are many -- Serge, due to his mixed-race heritage, is bullied by his classmates; Gilbert's promiscuity often gets him into dangerous situations; while Serge intends to make friends with Gilbert, Gilbert refuses... it's a story with all the beginnings of an amazing romantic tragedy, and while the anime doesn't come close to finishing the story, it's a great overview of the full tale.

But the biggest draw of Kaze to Ki no Uta is not its significance or plot, but its characters. There's a delicious variety of personalities, including not only the leads but the supporting cast. Serge and Gilbert have an amazing dynamic all throughout the story; Serge is absolutely adorable and easy to cheer for from beginning to end, and Gilbert's remarkable combination of frigid and manipulative is a powerful contrast. While side characters don't have time to get their chances to shine, even their minimally-developed personalities are great fun -- the religious rule-bearer Karl, the playfully rebellious Pascal, the strong-willed and elegant Rosemarine... KazeKi has a very likable supporting cast.

While the style of this OVA doesn't come close to the beauty of the manga's art and atmosphere, it's quite a good representation. The music is more or less unobtrusive, but beautiful when one takes the time to listen to it. It's a very classic style, full of piano, violin, and the like; elegant and pretty and very much appropriate to the content of the anime. While mangaka Keiko Takemiya's soft and elegant art style has been greatly simplified (very much for the worse) in order to be animated, character designs are as a whole faithful to the original. Effeminate boys run rampant and every character, from main to background, is always on-model. The background art is similarly detailed and attractive, using the historic setting to further create a distinct atmosphere.

The Kaze to Ki no Uta OVA is a fantastic introduction to an even more fantastic manga; everybody I know that has watched it has gone on to read the manga and become a fan. Even this small bit of the story is intriguing, emotional, and beautiful and downright lovely to watch. While this title may not often catch the eye of anyone except boy's love fans looking through the history of the genre, the fact is that not only is Kaze to Ki no Uta -- manga and anime -- one of the greatest boy's love titles out there but one of the greatest shoujo titles and tragic manga. Those who can't stand their anime to be slow, character-driven, and dramatic should look elsewhere, but for fans of gorgeously painful romances, deep shoujo, and unique and significant anime, Kaze to Ki no Uta is the perfect series. Honestly, the only shortcoming of the anime is it's length. read more

I totally love Cutey Honey. She's tough and not afraid to be sexy. And even though she was one of the first magical girls, she stands out just as much as a unique character as she did in the 80s. Most versions of her story are pretty similar only to each other. There's one major outlier, though: Cutey Honey Flash.

As the series that took over Sailor Moon's timeslot when it first aired, Cutey Honey Flash is not the ecchi/action sort of magical girl series you'd expect from the franchise, instead following a more typical formula. It takes place in high school, it's totally family-friendly, and It's very episodic. In every episode, Honey and her friends start out doing something typical of teen girls (or at least what little girls wish that their teenage years would be like). Then (rather underdeveloped) evil strikes, and Honey has to transform and fight evil. There's an underlying plot, of course -- in this one, Honey is trying to rescue her missing father -- and a mysterious yet helpful man (sound familiar?). It's far from unpleasant, but it's very much your typical magical girl plot and atmosphere. Rather underwhelming, really, and while I understand that the intention was to give Sailor Moon a spiritual successor, Cutey Honey Flash doesn't bring anything new to the table to make it stand out from Sailor Moon and other similar series.

Still, Cutey Honey Flash retains a decent amount of the charm in other versions. While Honey is meeker in this version, she's still a strong character, both in the sense of being well-characterized and the sense of kicking a lot of butt. A version of the classic theme song is used as the opening, along with Honey's costume being a variation of the original. Honey still has her transforming abilities, too; she solves problems brought by the villains by transforming into different types of people. It can indeed fun to watch the traditional components of the original Cutey Honey mixed with your standard magical girl tropes, and I'm glad that even in a different genre, Cutey Honey Flash still has some of what makes other versions great.

Full disclosure: I only understand English, and this review is for those who are in the same boat as me and wondering if they should try out this series anyway. Cutey Honey Flash has only been fansubbed up to the ninth episode, with little sign of more coming up. It may become a very different show in the next thirty episodes, but for now they aren't available. For now, it's a solid but not fabulous watch for magical girl fans who don't mind seeing every 90s trope in the book, and Cutey Honey fans who also enjoy more traditional shoujo. read more

While the slice of life genre is more popular now than ever before, there’s not always a lot of realism among your average moe high school girls. X Diary was probably not intended to stand in contrast to such works, but it still does so. Unfortunately, it showed me that I like my unrealstic SoL.

Our heroes are Mingo, a comic artist, and Jerry, a musician, and they have just broken up. Told in what you probably know as a 4koma style, X Diary follows their daily life as they struggle with this decision and where to go from there. I’ve never been in such a situation, but nonetheless could relate to the mood of the story – if nothing else, X Diary captures the pace of a busy but dull life quite well. Unfortunately, while that means you will nod along with the story, there’s also very little else going for it. Nothing really happens, not even the gimmicky events like going to the beach that other slices of life boast, so it gets dull quickly.

A similar thing could be said of X Diary’s characters. A good series has characters that one can relate to but are also entertaining; X Diary’s cast only embodies the first of those qualities, as they are very believable in an uninspired way. Unfortunately, the art of the series does very little to help readers enjoy characters: it’s more or less scribbles. The clean scribbles of an artist, but scribbles nonetheless. If this were a friend’s doodles about her past relationship, I would be impressed, but this is a published work, something that’s supposed to tell the readers something solid.

Despite its shortcomings, X Diary is a pretty enjoyable manhwa. The upside to its slow, uneventful story, art, and characters is that nothing gets in the way of it being an ultimately believable work. Still, if art were to always imitate life in this way, I think I’d get bored quickly; X Diary is an interesting quick read if you want something a little bit different and not the least bit flashy, but little else. read more

With the recent release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in English, this OVA is perhaps more relevant than it has been in over a decade. Some quick backstory: in 1990, the first Fire Emblem game was released for the Famicom (and was remade for the Super Famicom in 1994). Since games back then had simpler stories and characters, extra care was taken by Fire Emblem’s creators to make supplemental media to flesh out the game. This OVA wasn’t meant to stand alone or take the place of the game, but to help players understand a little more about what was going on. I’m sure it helped them at least somewhat in the 90s, and hopefully it can help new players of the DS remake as well.

Still, it would be a lie to say that this OVA has many memorable qualities. While the plot is more detailed than that of the game, especially when delving into character motivations and reactions, in the end it’s still quite a simplistic story of a prince versus his kingdom’s enemies. Character development is even more minimal, but that’s not surprising considering how many characters are introduced in a short time. In a lot of respects, the OVA actually seems to fail at its purpose; you’re likely to walk away from this knowing very little more about the game than you already did. Still, this little bit of knowledge is an improvement over the no knowledge that comes from playing the game by itself, so players of both the original and the remake are advised to give this a watch. read more

The thought of harlequin romance manga honestly rather amuses me. Shoujo romance manga has one set of clichés, romance novels have another, and if the two met it should end up as one big mess of trashy girly romance – horrible, but possibly hilariously so.

That said, Three Wishes really didn’t meet any of my preconceptions for better or for worse. Quite frankly, it’s no more and no less than an average romance novel, illustrated by a manga artist. The story – girl meets a genie who wants to give her wishes but ends up falling in love with her – is ridiculously predictable but quite bearable. Shoujo romance readers will be rolling their eyes no more often than they usually do during other short, shallow shoujo titles. However, this average story is paired with fairly mediocre characters which are neither particularly interesting nor relateable, so as a whole it’s a rather poor little tale.

There’s one thing that stands out about Three Wishes, and that is the art. It was illustrated by Matsuri Akino, a rather prolific mangaka best known for supernatural mystery and horror titles such as Pet Shop of Horrors. The thought of her doing cheesy romance is quite frankly hilarious, especially since she chose to use her usual style with a few more flowers and bubbles in the background. Considering how different her art is from a typical shoujo style, it’s surprising how well this turned out. It looks a little bit out of place among hearts and not blood, but it still retains its unique supernatural feel and is easily the best part of this title.

So harlequin romance manga wasn’t as horrible as I expected. That said, it’s still nothing special in terms of story or characterization, so I’d only recommend picking up a harlequin title if you’re a fan of the mangaka that illustrated it. read more

It’s funny how fansubbing has changed over the years: series that were once distributed on tapes to enthusiastic fans all over the country are now all but forgotten. Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is one such anime. Then again, I can’t say I’m really surprised that the series has been lost in time – while it’s a solid little magical girl tale, it’s not really a something worth going out of your way to see.

Nurse Angel Ririka SOS stars, a ten-year-old girl who finds out she has the ability to transform into the legendary nurse angel and fight evil. She runs into trouble with villains, she makes new allies and friends, and she has to live her normal life in the meantime. In other words, the series has the most utterly normal magical girl plot possible. If you’ve watched Sailor Moon or any of the myriad of series that it inspired, you know what’s going to happen in Nurse Angel Rirka SOS. Even the surprising mood change near the end, while effective, is not uncommon the genre. Granted, if you’re a magical girl fan that may be what you want, but keep in mind that nothing in the plot will surprise or impress you unless you’re utterly unfamiliar with magical girls.

The production values of the show are solid but forgettable. First off is the music: it’s nice. Really, that’s all that can be said. The opening and closing songs are cute and easy on the ears, but won’t be going on your mp3 player anytime soon. The background music generally goes well with whatever scene it’s playing in, but that’s about it. If music is an important component to your enjoyment of an anime, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is not necessarily a series you’ll want to seek out.

The art is significantly better, but still fails to reach any real notability. Quite frankly, this series looks exactly like a 90s shoujo anime should through and through. Character designs are generally sweet and pleasant to look at and reflect the character’s personalities fairly well. At the same time, though, they’re rather bland. The series’ animation is nice, however; it’s easy to see that the animators had a decent budget to work with. Another factor in the series’ favor is the full use of cel animation – it has the typical warm, friendly feel that classic anime tend to have.

Characterization is about as interesting as character design, which is not very. You have the sweet little magical girl, her close male friend who drives her nuts, the fluffy little pet, the villain who turns out to have a heart of gold, the mysterious older guy, and the mystical princess who must be saved. While they serve their purposes to further the plot, no character in Nurse Angel Ririka SOS truly stand out as memorable.

While it embodies many of the traditions of 90s magical girls, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS simply doesn’t do enough things differently from other 90s magical girls. If you do enjoy the many troupes of the genre, the series is still one that you’ll enjoy, if only as a way to revisit some classic plotlines and character archetypes. If, however, fighting evil by moonlight is not your thing, Nurse Angel Rirka SOS simply does not have much to offer for you.

Note: Nurse Angel Rirka SOS was fully released on VHS fansubs a while ago, but only episodes 1-21 are currently available as digital fasubs. This reviewer watched 22-35 raw with the assistance of episode summaries. read more

As a heterosexual female, I have no interest in fanservice geared towards males; they can enjoy it as much as they want but I’d certainly prefer not to see bouncing breasts at every turn when I watch anime. I find it even more irritating when fanboys insist that the latest fanservice-laden series is really deep and meaningful when you look past the D-cups. So when I downloaded a little OVA known as Re: Cutie (or Cutey) Honey, I wondered what I was thinking. Sure, the original 1973 anime series more or less created the modern-day magical girl, but this OVA is a much more recent – not to mention shortened -- retelling of the original. Could such a remake really be anywhere near as enjoyable as the original must have been to have so much influence? The answer, as I quickly discovered, was yes, yes, yes! Re: Cutie Honey is everything I’ve come to expect from one of my favorite genres, but with its own unique twist.

That said, though, the uniqueness isn’t apparent in the basic story. While Honey herself brings a few neat elements to the table (more on that later), the storyline itself is pretty standard magical girl fare. Honey can transform into a scantily-clad warrior who fights for love and justice, and she does so to battle the mysterious forces of evil that have come to her city, eventually making it to the leader, who of course has some connection to her. The worst part of the plot is that this story has been used in every magical girl series ever. That said, it’s still told well, and since the series totals to a little over two hours, it’s also told more quickly than usual; those who shy away from magical girls because of the filler that’s usually to be found, fear not! Another nice bonus to this typical plot is that it keeps the series from turning into completely over-the-top comedy-slash-fanservice fest. It’s also important to note that Re: Cutie Honey is completely self-contained and requires neither prior knowledge of the franchise nor watching another series to understand. Neat!

It’s fair to say that characters are vital in setting a cliché story apart from the crowd, and Re: Cutey Honey knows exactally how to do that. Honey, despite being the idol of rabid fanboys everywhere, is one of the coolest magical girls you’ll ever see. She’s smart, she’s strong, she’s cool, she can take care of herself, and she’s not afraid to be sexy. Because of the latter aspect of her personality, then, the fanservice elements of the series are significantly less intrusive than those of other series; Honey would rather kick butt while half-naked than panic and scream when her clothes get ripped off. As for other characters, the only truly significant one is Aki, a police officer that will stop at nothing to capture Honey at first but eventually becomes her closest friend. It’s a pretty predictable way for her to develop, but she’s still a lot of fun to watch bounce off (literally and not) of Honey; honestly, it’s one of the best parts of the series.

Meanwhile, Re: Cutie Honey’s music doesn’t disappoint. The opening theme song, used in some variety for every Cutie Honey series to date, is a peppy J-pop tune that is guaranteed to be stuck in your head for the rest of your life. This is not an exaggeration, by the way. The ending song, meanwhile, is cute but more forgettable. The background music, however, is top-notch; while it has been accurately compared to that of His and Her Circumstances, that’s in the best possible way. The happy scenes in particularly have BGM that’s both appropriate for the scene and well-composed on its own merit. Overall, the music, while not perfect, is in general a blast to listen to. The same can be said for the art, perhaps to an even greater degree. No matter what you look for in a good character design – cute, sexy, or just unique and stylish – Re: Cutie Honey has it in its characters. The most impressive element of the art, however, is the animation: loose, fun, and with perfect flow; it’s perfect for such a fun OVA.

And in the end, that’s what Re: Cutie Honey is: a lot of fun. Despite having a serious overlaying plot and good character development, almost every minute of every episode is packed with action and energy, and it rarely gets dull. It’s hard to find a series with more relentless energy. It might not be what you might expect from a short magical girl OVA, but this one’s special in that it’s more focused on making you laugh and just have a good time than anything else, and that’s what really makes it special. Even the large amounts of fanservice don’t distract from this: if you’re not interested in topless girls, it’s easy to look at the silly excuses for fanservice as just that: silly. I for, one was not bothered by it at all – I just looked at it as another of the series’ unique elements. If you’re looking for a quick, easy to watch anime series that won’t ask anything of you but to enjoy it, look no further than Re: Cutie Honey. read more

Sometimes, one has to put themselves in the shoes of the intended audience of a work to fully appreciate it. Nanami-chan’s a good example of this – it’s very obviously made for small children with short attention spans. With only 12 five-minute episodes in this first season, you would think it would be a series that anyone who can appreciate a good kid’s show will enjoy. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true.

Our story begins when a little girl named Michi and her parents move into an apartment complex of sorts in the form of treehouses. When Michi investigates her new room, she finds an odd fruit from which a cute little blobby animal named Nanami-chan hatches. Together, they learn more about the world and people around them – like any good kodomo anime characters. Each episode contains its own story, usually involving Michi and Nanami meeting one of their neighbors and helping them solve a problem. It’s pretty straightforward stuff, really, and because of that it’s not always very engaging. You want Michi and Nanami to be happy, but it’s hard to actively care how that happens. Still, it’s not bad by any means; just not particularly impressive.

The series’ biggest downfall is the character designs. Quite frankly, they look downright bizarre, complete with odd proportions and huge, soulless eyes. They can be honestly hard to look at sometimes. The animation may be smooth and in general well-done, but the character designs are so unbearable that this is easy to forget. The same can be said for the music – there’s no opening or ending theme song sans a few notes over extremely short credits, and most of the series’ music is simplistic, forgettable little tunes.

Since each episode is so short, it’s hard to get attached to the many bizarre new characters that are introduced, especially since they are all, predictably, rather flat. Still, Michi herself is a sweet little girl that’s easy to like – and for the intended audience to relate to. Of course, Nanami is the real star of the show and she’s a great example of a cute mascot character that is easy to enjoy even when she’s center stage. Most, if not all, of the cuteness in the series comes from her, and she’s definitely the best part of the show.

When I watched Nanami-chan, I tried to think like a 7-year-old – and still got bored quickly. In the sea of children’s shows about a cute kids and animals exploring, learning, and helping, Nanami-chan simply fails to stick out, mainly because the most memorable elements include weak character designs and overly-short episodes. Most of the children I have known would find this series quite forgettable, while as a teen I can barely enjoy it at all. Nanami may be cute, but nothing else in her series is, and that’s a shame. read more

Be With You has one of the neatest premises I’ve ever heard of. Unfortunately, the manga (originally a novel, which I have not read) failed to deliver. It’s a shame, since it really has a great concept: a young man (along with his son) meets the ghost of his wife and gets to spend a bit more time with her before she must leave him for good. To add an extra twist, the woman doesn’t know she’s a ghost!

But no matter how interesting it may sound from the back cover, the storyline just didn’t progress very well. It seems like it will be cute and heartwarming, but falls flat when it fails to give any real message or impact. The creators of this manga didn’t particularly try – or just failed – to make the readers feel any particular emotions when reading the story. It has no elements of touching romance, gripping mystery, or calm slice-of-life; it’s just… there. Things happen, but there’s no reason to care.

The art certainly doesn’t help matters much. The basic style is cute, but somewhat sketchy. It’s the kind of art that would go best with extremely simple backgrounds and page layouts to emphasize the simplicity of the story it accompanies. Unfortunately, the artist instead clutters each page with too many details and panels, a total discredit to the art. The whole manga suffers because of this unfortunate happening.

The characters are no saving grace either. They’re a more-or-less generic family that exists to carry out the story efficiently; there are no surprises or twists in character development. Unfortunately, since the story of Be With You is already quite weak, there’s really no place for the characters to shine. Sure, they have plenty of qualities that are desirable in people, but none that interesting characters need. Nothing sets them apart from the crowd.

Unlike some manga that I give similarly low scores to, Be With You has nothing particularly disgusting, offensive, or boring. On the other hand, the plot’s not all that interesting yet not particularly faulty otherwise; the art’s not very attractive but could be worse; and the cast is good enough but far from great. In the end, Be With You is nothing short of being plainly, utterly without any prominent advantages and faults – that is, average. read more

If you’re not a manga reader, you probably wonder why whenever a manga becomes an anime, they’re will be fans insisting that the manga is so much better. Usually, that’s debatable – anime does have the benefits of things like color and sound, and if there are major plot changes some might be for the better. On the other hand, there are also anime adaptations that are inferior to their respective manga not because of what’s in the anime but rather what’s not. Oftentimes, short anime series will be made from long manga that end up with a made-up, rushed, or inconclusive ending. This is definitely the main weakness of Loveless, an anime that’s suffers much from its tiny length.

Whether you’ve read the manga or not, Loveless has a great setting. It’s much like our world, but with a notable difference of people being born with cat ears and a tail that they lose with their virginity. That alone makes for an interesting concept if done in a non-perverted way – and for the most part, it is. But Loveless isn’t deprived of a good plot and expect to cover it up with the great setting. Rather, the plot itself is fairly unique and beautifully developed. Ritsuka, a twelve-year-old boy still recovering from the mysterious murder of his older brother, Seimei, happens upon Soubi, an old friend of said brother. He finds out that there’s more to Seimei’s death than meets the eye: he was killed by an organization known as “Septimal Moon,” and was involved in a type of bizarre battling based solely on words. In addition to his quest to avenge his brother and rediscover himself, Ritsuka becomes part of the battles himself. It’s a great example of a plot that creates a lot of questions that are eventually answered slowly enough to draw the viewer in but quickly enough to keep things interesting. That said, this is the part of the series that suffers most from short-anime syndrome, and the ending that the anime’s writers threw together is ambiguous and doesn’t provide a satisfying conclusion, a major flaw to an otherwise ambiguous and well-executed plot.

Fortunately, however, this lack of plot resolution has no negative effect on the cast, which is full of unique people. Ritsuka, in particular, is moody and hesitant, a far cry from other protagonists in similar series. Because of this, the relationships he creates with the rest of the cast are often unexpected yet beautifully done. Soubi, meanwhile, is a bit more typical of the older, experienced type that is seen often in shoujo anime and manga, but since he’s actually quite submissive in some ways he doesn’t give off the air of a walking stereotype like you might expect. The supporting characters are similarly well-made; from Ritsuka’s oftentimes downright adorable classmates other fighters that all have their own stories and motivation (and some of which are apt to cause tears in the eyes of viewers) there’s no lack of memorable characters. (A word of warning, though: if you tend to dislike characters that are a bit whacked in the head a la Evangelion or Utena, Loveless’ cast may not leave the same impression on you.)

Even with this great cast of characters, there’s another part of Loveless that is praised more often: the art and animation. That’s certainly a justified claim: frankly, the series looks gorgeous. The animation is smooth and remarkably easy to follow, especially considering the style of battling that could potentially be quite difficult. These battles happen on a mostly-black background that’s just perfect for emphasizing the important things: characters and attacks. Coming from someone who usually has trouble following action scenes, these are very enjoyable to watch. Outside of battle, the backgrounds are simply breathtaking and the animation is fluid all over. The one disadvantage of the art is character design; primarily I’m not much fond of the faces. Overall, there’s very little not to like when seeing this series.

The lovely art is paired with almost as lovely music. The opening song, “Tsuki no Curse,” is a haunting melody that sets the mysterious and somewhat melancholy tone of the series, and both the lyrics and singer work with the music to make the song sound great (if not a bit high). The ending song, “Michiyuki” is similar in mood, calmer but just as dark; it really wraps up each episode nicely. The background music doesn’t disappoint, either; the best pieces are fully atmospheric without being intrusive, while others are less effective but still very much listenable.

In technical terms, Loveless is great. In literary terms, Loveless is well-made. Still, the series has a reputation among some viewers as being creepy, even pedophilic, while others find it a cute piece of BL anime. However, both of these are shallow and about as accurate as saying that My-Hime is about breasts or Gankutsuou is a mecha series. In some respects, they are true, but in the big picture they’re utter falsehoods. Loveless may be about catboys and girl, and have blatantly sexual situations between an adult man and a young boy, but it’s no standard fanservice series. The somewhat twisted relationship between Ritsuka and Soubi isn’t just there for kicks; it’s a unique dynamic that is never portrayed as anything but unusual, and it’s a less-conventional way of helping these characters develop. Enjoying Loveless doesn’t require a shouta-loving soul; it requires an ability to look past the surface and think about the complexities of human relationships. It’s a series that requires some real reflection after viewing, but it’s definitely worth that thought. read more