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Occasionally you start to wonder whether everything that comes out today is just a rehash of something older, and to some degree, this is true. Most ideas that exist have already been used in the past, so for shows to break the mold they either have to do something very well, or do something niche enough to where people don't notice it as much. Anima Yell follows the latter by using cheerleading as the focus point, something I'm sure many of you haven't seen much of before. However, is a niche idea enough to make it stand out? Let's take a look.

The first thing you'll ... notice when watching Anima Yell is the obvious enthusiasm coming from the girls as they passionately cheer (or chair as they like to pronounce it) on. This energy level keeps the entire show fun and cheerful for the most part. Throughout the show, Kohane joins up with and cheers with other girls with similar ambitions to her. Throw in a beach ep after eight or so episodes and you've got yourself a classic cute girls doing cute things anime. Standard affairs such as them having to overcome slight hardships and a happy conclusion is contained within Anima Yell.

The characters are one of my bigger gripes with this show; they feel very distant in a way. As the show progressed, even though they started to develop, I couldn’t help but feel a lack of connection to them, so their development payoff didn’t end up affecting me as much as it should have. They stay consistent for the entirety of the show though, so if you don't have the same problem as I had, you should like them a lot.

As far as the art goes, it’s nice to look at and the girls are cute. The girls have funny facial expressions when in the middle of a skit of theirs, which adds to the overall cuteness. The sound is decent, fitting tracks play when they need to, and the voice acting is solid.

Overall, Anima Yell tries to be different by using cheerleading as its selling point, but it succumbs to the average nature these shows tend to fall under after a while unless they excel in something, which I didn’t see Anima Yell doing. Nevertheless, it was a fun watch and I can recommend it to people who are a fan of cute girls doing cute things shows.

Grab your tent, some marshmallows, and get ready for more camping with Yuru Camp!

These specials are very similar to the main series, but shorter, first 2 episodes are about 5 minutes long and the 3rd one is 12. They serve as simple add-ons to the main series, if you will. Each episode is about them hanging out, either that be by camping, or playing on the beach to mention a few.

Not much has changed about the characters, they're the same as they were in the main series. Production values are still good, the girls are cute and we've got some of the nice OST from ... the series in the background.

If you're a fan of the main series, then by all means watch these, as they're just more of the good stuff.

We are once again blessed with more catgirls, this time it's a christmas party!

Long story short, if you were expecting some fanservice or H-scenes, then turn away now, this is not the ONA for you, however, if you're looking for a cute, fluffy ONA filled with adorable catgirls and have 25 minutes to spare, then take a seat.

Once again, we return to our family of catgirls, who look just as cute as ever. Set half a year before our main character Kashou opens the patisserie, this ONA depicts them at a younger and more delicate stage than before. Besides from being a bit younger, their ... personalities are the same, Chocola being a bit of an airhead, Vanilla being one of the more level-headed catgirls, you know the rest.

For what it tried doing, I can't say it failed, since it was a pretty nice and laid back watch, however I would've liked to see some more development for the catgirls.
There's not really much else to say apart from that if what I've described sounds like something you might enjoy, then go for it, the catgirls are waiting for your arrival. If you haven't already, there's a 1 hour long OVA to watch for that extra layer of fluffiness, and if that isn't enough, there's also a fairly long set of VN's to read if you wanna go that extra mile.

This'll be a quick one.

Have you ever wanted to meet an incredibly busty angel? Yes? Well, I've got the perfect anime for you! Set in the same timeline as Sin; Nanatsu no Taizai, Nanatsu no Bitoku is the ecchi successor we didn't exactly need, but got anyway. The whole point of this show is to shove as much fanservice in your face as possible, and if that's what you want then by all means watch this. There isn't really a story, it's just exclusively about the fanservice, which isn’t too shabby, there's even uncensored nipples, although there are better alternatives out there. For what it’s ... worth though, if you’re looking for pure, unadulterated ecchi and have 30-40 minutes to spare, then by all means give this a shot.

I…think you forgot to add a comedy tag, MAL.

Ito Junji: Collection, despite what the MAL score might lead you to believe is actually decent. Based on the collection of manga of the same name, these stories depict various abnormal occurrences and happenings. From what I know, there isn’t a pattern as to which stories were picked.

Ito Junji surprised me in many ways, one of those being the creepy atmosphere. Many of the stories are quite unnerving at times, especially with how crude the artstyle is. The fact that the overall art looks quite bad, as in the character models aren’t anything special and the backgrounds ... are rather cheap-looking only adds to the tone, which is fitting for a show like this.
One good thing I can say about the characters, or rather, character in this case, is that our main protagonist, Souichi, is a nice addition to these stories. His peculiar and bizarre nature makes everything just a little bit creepier, especially with how he behaves around others. Whenever he’s on screen he does something weird or funny, and it wouldn’t be the same without him.

Even though Ito Junji is a horror anime, it has a surprising amount of outright hilarious moments, like the whole circus story. The way everything played out felt like an unintentional comedy of sorts, although it worked in this case since it was genuinely funny and not just ironically funny like some “so bad it’s good” shows which don’t try to be funny but end up actually being funny.

All in all, I quite liked Ito Junji: Collection, and I plan on checking out the manga in the future.

Only four episodes of Dynamic Chord are out at this time, but I can already tell how dreadful it will be. Barring a few other titles like Black Clover, this is one of the worst anime I’ve seen this season, and that’s saying a lot. When the best part of your anime is a cat with sunglasses (was only on screen for about 5 seconds in the first episode), you know you’ve fucked up somewhere. I won’t make this too long since this show honestly isn’t worth talking about in length.

So…this show is about music, right? Then why is almost all of the runtime spent ... on something that’s not music? Moreover, when they’re actually playing music, not only is it extremely lazily done, but it also doesn’t even sound good. So far, every time they’ve played music, it’s just a compilation of reused shots and sloppy animation with some random Japanese song in the background.

I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with this show if it at least looked good, but it even fails in that department. The character designs are really jarring and hard to look at, which is disappointing since otherwise the art isn’t too shabby. I just wish it was used in a better way.

If you want to watch a music anime, watch something like K-on or Nana instead. This show is just a waste of time, and extremely boring at that.

Girlfriends, boyfriends, I’m sure most of us have wanted one at some point, or already have one. For those of us who don’t have one, do not fret, Hajimete no Gal is here to indulge you into the experience of having a girlfriend or boyfriend, whether you want it or not. This will not be a painless experience however, so strap yourself in and prepare for the worst, and I mean it.

Imagine this: You are just an ordinary guy, and your classmates forced you to ask a hot girl in your class to date you. After she almost turns you down like the loser you ... are, she instead decides to accept becoming your girlfriend, but is it too good to be true? In most cases, yes, this would be too good to be true, however, in Hajimete no Gal we say "screw the rules! "and make the unlikely happen.

While the premise may seem enticing at first, the show doesn’t do much to expand on it, leaving you with an empty shell of nothingness for a majority of the show. If you’ve seen at least a couple harem/ecchi anime before, then you’ll probably see the pattern Hajimete follows through its episodes. This doesn’t mean that it has nothing going for it, because it does. Every episode centers on our main character experiencing something new for the first time, whether that is visiting his girlfriend’s house, going to karaoke or even getting a job. Of course, you also have your obligatory beach episode that every harem/ecchi seems to have, but I won’t get into that too much, since I don’t mind it.

Another problem is the pacing, it feels really rushed. One moment the characters are doing something random, and in the next scene something dramatic happens without leaving any time to digest what happened. This wouldn't be a problem if the show in question was all about the randomness like Nichijou, but when you add a random element to what seems to be a semi-serious show, at least for me it doesn't work at all.

If you thought you were going to get some nice uncensored scenes, then think again. I watched the uncensored version, but instead of being presented with uncensored material, they instead decided to censor a guy’s boner through his pants, because that’s totally the best way to make someone interested in your show. The censored version is even worse by the way, they censor stuff like the girl’s panties for no reason, which is a big no-no for me especially when it’s an ecchi show.

The characters are for the most part dull and forgettable. The male characters except for the main character don’t really serve a purpose except for being there, which of course entails in almost no character development whatsoever. There’s even a literal pedophile saying that he only wants to fuck little girls, and that 15 year olds are too old for him. There’s not much else to say about them other than that you can literally replace them with clones of Ichika from Infinite Stratos and the experience wouldn’t change that much.
The females are for the most part attractive, if you ignore their humongous almost Eiken-level boobs and the fact that their personalities are barely there. If you’ve even seen a screenshot from the show, or even the cover, you should know what I’m talking about. They feel unnaturally large, especially for high schoolers, since you are not supposed to have such big boobs when you’re between 16 and 18 years old, but hey, what do I know, right? This is anime we’re talking about, where the impossible can happen at any time because the creator allows for it.

As for the art, it isn’t that bad, but it doesn’t stand out either. There was never a moment where I went “wow, this is totally worth it for the art” instead it was kind of just meh. It serves a purpose, but don’t expect anything fancy, since you’ll be disappointed.

The opening was decent enough, and I actually liked the ending theme, it was catchy and felt like a nice end to each episode. Other than that, the rest of the OST was pretty forgettable, mostly just common background music for the sake of having music.

Hajimete no Gal had some okay moments, but the sheer amount of pointless scenes, straight up useless characters and unnecessary censorship pushes my buttons just a little bit too far, and in the end it was a massive disappointment. What could have been an interesting and creative take on the genre instead becomes your run of the mill harem/ecchi show with too many dumb things to explain. If you can, stay away from this show, it is really bad.

Seeing as this is an ongoing manga (there are only 13 chapters available at the time of this review), I will only be covering it up to that point.

"Aharen-san wa Hakarenai", or "Aharen Is Indecipherable", is a short length comedy about a girl who can't seem to be understood. I know this doesn't sound very interesting on its own, but so far it's really funny and charming. It reminds me a lot of "Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge", or "Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless" in the sense that the characters act in a similar way. Instead of revolving around Tanaka being lazy and Ohta reacting to it, ... we have Raidou, who's trying to get closer to Aharen-san.

Each chapter is about Raidou and Aharen being in different situations, ranging from being in class to going to the game centre. It follows a pretty straight-forward pattern, starting out with either them being in class, or them hanging out, and ending in either them becoming closer or with a funny joke.

If you want a pretty funny and charming manga, definitely give this a try.

Swimsuits; perhaps you’ve heard someone mention these, or maybe you’ve seen one yourself. Whatever the case, you’ll certainly know everything about them after watching this special. Most commonly found in the summer, they’re the hottest of the hot when it comes to summer attire. You may be wondering, “Well, how does this pertain to the One Room special?” and to some degree you would be correct in your assessment. However, this special is all about exactly that; swimsuits. You’ve got your classic school swimsuit, your extremely revealing swimsuit and your regular swimsuit, all tied together by the presence of our three female “protagonists”.

Logically speaking, you ... wouldn’t expect a special like this to have a lot of content, however One Room takes this one step further by just rehashing the exact same scenes from the main series, but this time the girls are wearing swimsuits! Ecchi fans rejoice, what a truly great improvement that is. This is especially the case with the third girl, who in the original episode was embarrassed by her underwear hanging out to dry, which is fine I guess. Makes sense, seeing as First-person-kun was in the room with her. In the special, she’s still embarrassed by her underwear hanging out, but she is completely fine with First-person-kun seeing her in a swimsuit like it’s no big deal. If logic is something you follow, you’d better find someplace else to look, there’s not a lot of it here.

I will give credit where credit is due, the art is decent for a special like this. That’s as far as I’ll go with the praise though, since it’s one if not the only redeemable qualities of this special. Everything else is bare-bones at best, leaving you with the feeling of, “Wait, did that just happen?”

With that I bid you farewell, leaving you with just one final quote to end this madness.

“One Room was a mistake.” - Hayao Miyazaki

There comes a time when something becomes so bad that not even the good aspects can salvage it, and this is certainly the case with Pupa. From repetitive events to scenes that almost made me vomit, Pupa does everything it can to make you hate it. If that was your intention Pupa, you certainly did a great job in doing so.

If I had to describe Pupa’s “story” (if you can even call it that) in two words, it would be “dreadful mess”. It’s basically just torture porn. Utsutsu, our main male character, tries to save his sister Yume from becoming a monster due to some ... virus, who then proceeds to eat him alive. After she’s done with him, he revives, because he also has some sort of virus, and the episode is over. Next episode, rinse and repeat until episode 11. Episode 12 however is completely different, but it establishes nothing remotely interesting and leads me to believe that the creators just gave up and said, “Well, if people didn’t like episodes 1-11, then why not fuck with them and produce a useless ending that has nothing to do with the rest of the show?” “Great idea man! *High five*”

The characters are as generic as you can get, the only thing I remember about them is that Utsutsu has a scar over his left eye. That’s it; they left no impact on me. Not even the black-haired woman (who I think I’ve seen in a hentai by the way) made me care about her, she was just kind of there.

I think the worst part about Pupa is the fact that they decided to censor out some of the bloody and violent parts, while keeping in others. For instance, in one scene a knife is censored out for some reason (don’t know why), but then like a minute later Yume is in the middle of eating her brother and that’s not censored? What is that about? You decide to censor out a knife but not a guy being EATEN ALIVE? Come on, you can do better than that.

Continuing from my last paragraph, even if the show wasn’t censored and we got to see all the blood and gore, the art and animation is so basic that it wouldn’t even look decent. You’d think that since the episodes are only 4 minutes long, they would have to spend less money per episode which would lead to better art and animation, but that’s where you would be wrong. They instead decide to save as much money as possible by making low quality frames and character models.

I can’t really enjoy something that portrays itself so badly and makes me want to stop watching it. I can’t see how anyone would enjoy this, unless you’re into torture porn or vore I guess. But even then, there are better options out there that don’t make you want to rip your hair out at how infuriating it is. Not many shows have made me angry while watching them, but Pupa became one of them, and for that I salute you; You’ve entered the pit of no return, the place where only the worst of the worst get permission to enter. You can never leave, and you will never hear from me again. Say goodbye Pupa, you will not be missed.

To summarize, Pupa is an awful mess that not only repeats itself every episode and has a horrible ending that ties nothing together, but also makes you angry at the fact that the creators actually made this irredeemable pile of junk. Don’t watch this, unless you’re a complete masochist or into torture porn and vore. You have been warned.