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Disclaimer: This review of Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan – Tsuiokuhen (hell of a title), is just my opinion of the show. It was formed after watching it and I would encourage you all to do the same and form you own. The written word is powerful but not to be taken as truth without question. I will also keep this as spoiler free as I can so with that out of the way let us begin.

Rurouni Kenshin or Samurai X as it is known in English is a somewhat classic anime from way back in the 1990’s. It was about a swordsman named ... Kenshin, who served as an assassin during a great rebellion. Meiji Kenkaku Romantan – Tsuiokuhen is the prequel to this long running series that deals with the main characters life before the events of the original. It is like a short clear cut version of the back story that you can watch as a sort of primer so you don’t have to piece everything together over multiple episodes. Even with the limited amount of the original I have seen I can say it cleared up a great deal for me and if nothing else it gives you the origin of that iconic scare sported on Kenshin’s cheek.

Overall the story is paced nicely. Something is achieved in each episode and the tale is moved forward without any excessive leaps or plot holes of note. Characters that are introduced are used to some magnitude never being left completely idle or meaningless. There are a number that lack development but I feel confident in saying this is because they play a greater part in the original series. There were times I found it difficult to follow some of the information as it is oft given in a brief or undetailed fashion. But once again I found this likely due to the prequel nature of the show.

The other honorable mention’s in this are the animation and the action. The pallette used is not what you would call vibrant by any means but the animates have used contrast very well. They also did a splendid job of sowing seasonal change. Granted that the change was from autumn to winter, but the transition was visible and I found it quit well dun. The action was also well animated and the swordsmanship was, to a degree, realistic. There were no laser beam cuts or moving faster than the eye attacks going on. It all had form and weight behind it. You can almost visualize people actually fighting like that and once again I found it refreshing.

So let us now wrap this up. I quite enjoyed this one and as a prequel it has done its job in making me want to watch the original Rurouni Kenshin. Having seen this short series first I now feel I would understand and get much more from it as well. It is not something I would pas up as standalone ether. It was well animated and fleshed out to the point that the story told during this for episode OVA can be judged on its own merits. I will say however that the English voice acting was sub par but you will get over it by the end of the first episode. It’s a good all rounder that everyone will get something from so give it a go.

I have been Kergen and you have been reading. PEACE!

Alright then let’s jump right into this, rip that bandaid off fast. If you are reading this review there is a good chance you already know what it is you are getting into but on the off chance you don’t I will give you a quick run down. Boku no Pico is a style of hentai known as a shotacon. Shotacon is Japanese slang that basically describes an attraction to young boys. So this is a porno about a guy having sex with young boys. Now if that hasn’t got your attention/made you run for the hills then by all means read on.

Being as ... this is a hentai there is not much to comment on in the way of character development or story as both are thin if not nonexistent. If there is a story to be told it would be something about forbidden romance between a man and a much younger man and while I guess you could call some of it romantic there is no real substance for a story here, so I won’t call it one. What I can comment on are the art and the characters themselves, so I will start with the art. It is good and that’s about all there is to say. It was well animated with a good amount of detail put into everything. In truth I wish this level of animation existed in more anime but as with the rest of the porn industry the production values will be great, its there howl thing after all.

Now we get to the characters. Oh what a tangled web of complexity this isn’t. The only toons of note in this are the grandfather, the teacher looking guy and Pico himself. The grandfather is a sort of NPC looking dude that hangs out in his bar. He spends his days spouting half sentences and not giving a flying fornication that his cross dressing grandkid is spending LOTS of time with an older guy. Honestly he could have put a stop to this thing ten minuets in but he just sat there motionless. That’s bad grandfathering right there. Next is the older guy, his name btw was Tamotsu. He was that sort of teacher/collage looking guy I mentioned before. Again there is not really any character hear. He sees Pico naked on the beach, meets him at the bar, falls for his “boyish charm” and then a hentai is born. As for Pico, he is the biggest trap I have ever seen. The first time I saw Pico I was expecting admiral Ackbar to run out screaming. Being 100% honest with you, without the sex scenes you would never guess this kid was a boy he is that trapy.

Now before I peace out on this one I feel the need to address those handful of elephants that have quietly shuffled into the room. My reason for doing this review is simply that I was asked, I like a challenge and this was most certainly a challenge. The next thing is quite a series point I feel the need to make. I have avoided the use of the word this howl time but I must now make a point of saying that this is basically about a paedophile. It is my strong opinion that such things are just a no go. Yes this is hentai and there isn’t much you can’t get away with in hentai but this is honestly sick. It is presented innocently and beautifully but the fact is its child porn. I am not here to judge or anything but come on guys. There is a line, its thin but its there.

Any how, that was my review. I hope you got something from it and as promised,

Peace Out!

Where to begin.... I may as well go with the normal rant about this being my opinion, how I will do my best not to give spoilers or how any likeness to real life people or events is strictly coincidental. As for me my over all impression of the anime was hard to describe and after many hours of thinking I have settled on the term "uncomfortable". No mater what was happening be it a heart wrenching moment of sorrow, a blood boiling fight or a spine chilling moment of realization, something felt off, but most of the time in a good way. Watching it ... was like having a crush on someone you know you shouldn't. You like them, but something is just not right about it. Its not bad, its just not 100%. You know what I mean right? Any how on the the reviewing.

JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken is a surprisingly deep an well written anime. It takes a rather stock and by today's standards, a well used formula of vampire hunting and goes in a slightly different direction. The first thing to note is that the vampires in question were the old kind, violent, charismatic and with over inflated ego's. I found it quite refreshing to see the good old blood suckers from back in the day before they were over primed emo kids that shine in the sun instead of turning to dust. The origin of the vampire they opted to use was also out of the norm and honestly quite clever as well. All in all the villain's of the show were a nice cut above the standard throughout. It was unfortunate that I didn't feel the same about the hero's but to each there own.

The story itself is told in two parts. The first is a form of origin story, not of the vampires or of the hunters, but of the Joestar family to which the protagonist come from. It tells the tail of JoJo's grandfather and his struggle against the evil menace and the artifact that created them and concludes with the legacy his family is to inherit down the ages. This was, in my opinion, the best part of the show. The characters were better written and there relationships were much deeper compared to the second part of the story. I fell the show would have been improved over all if they had made this part two or three episodes longer but alas it was not to be so. It succeeds well as a prolog and dose a spectacular job of filling you in on the law without giving anything to big away, I only wish they could have kept the pace through out the 26 episodes.

The second and by far the longer section is when the story begins in earnest however. Set around fifty years after the events of the first part we are greeted with the protagonist saving a young man from some crooked cops. From this simple event everything seems to snow ball into a series of completely unrelated things resulting in a battle for the world. The true evil is revealed rather swiftly and goes a little further down the rabbit hole before deciding it should probably try and explain itself a little. It was around 4 episodes into the second story the water got muddy. Rapid introduction of unimportant or seldom used characters and a lack of explanations were the worst of it but ultimately not hampering. Despite all that it dose keep a steady flow of action and story development going, it just gets a bit messy. This mild fault in the writing however was the only major problem I had with the show. Most of the other things were little and nit picky and not really worth a mention.

On a more positive note is the attention to detail in the world of JoJo. I don't claim to be a historian but fore each time period from the two story arch's they remain quite true. From the clothing to the technology all the way to the speech pasterns it felt real. A strong case was maid for this at the beginning of the second story set in America 1938 when we see JoJo being sold a "new" soda beverage. Not going to spoil the surprise but I found it quite funny and well plaid. The art stile was also quite interesting. It was quite exaggerated with lots of hard lines and inhumanly bulky muscles. It took me a little bit to get used to it but in the end I came around on it. I will say however it was a big influence on the "uncomfortable" feeling the show gave me.

So to sum up JoJo. Its a solid 7 from me. Good. I honestly recommend it to anyone willing, I doubt you will regret it. It is quite accessible to all levels of watcher as well. Its got enough action and trash talk to get you going but deep enough that the story watchers will get a good run from it as well. Take a swing and go for gold. JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken is worth the spot on you watch list.

Rock it out and anime on!

Disclaiming begin. This is what you would call an initial review. It is my impression of this show after watching a good handful of episodes. This is a long series and if I am to be honest I don't think I will finish it. As a side note to all you nintendians out there I am not a fan boy nor am I a hater. This is just a review from a dude that watched the show. On to it we go.

This show is about as Saturday morning cartoon as it comes. It is cute as all hell and not in the traditional anime style ... but more in the god dam I want to punch it sort of way. There was nothing overly smart or even particularly interesting about the story either. On top of it all every thing and every name is a pun, and Meta Knight is some sort of Spanish (castanet entrance music and all). Now I don't claim to know much about Kirby but that seems a bit off to me. None of this is necessarily a bad thing though. It makes for great background watching. Some ambient noise to study with or just to play when cleaning or something. The opening song is a good laugh as well.

I could go on with how the characters don't have a lot of depth to them or how simple the animation is but It would not be far to do so. There is an over arching story and there is also 3+ seasons so I have no doubt the characters will grow in a very Pokemon style pattern, gradually. Of the 10 odd eps I watched there were still moments that had me laughing so I think it will defiantly get better. The "winks" made to the fans of the small pink monster are less than subtle so a true lover of Kirby will get a kick out of this one no question.

So to wrap it up I say have a go and decide if its for your self. It is a great one for the kids as it follows a very simple and repeatable template and as I said its can quite easily be watched on the hand so its not the worst for the older generation.

Fan boys/girls gonna love I can tell you that.

DISCLAIM! This is as always, a collection of my own opinions and yada yada. I will do my best not to put in any spoilers but for once I don't thing that will be much of a problem. Onward and upward we go.

Wear do I begin with Serial Experiments Lain? I honestly don't know. This is really on hell of a mind fu*k. "Lain" as I will now refer to it for short is a psychological drama of the highest order. Or at leas of the highest order I have seen. From start to finish I struggled to wrap my brain around what was going ... on to the point wear I truly think that is what the were going for. It is very dark as one would expect a psycho drama to be and I can say that this is wear it shines through to me. Don't worry friend I am about to explain.

Lain is an older anime, 1998 to be exact (17 years old at the time of this review). I shouldn't have to tell you that in that time animation and sound quality along with the technology to go with it, has grown in leaps and bounds. This translates more or less to the amount of effort needed to be put in to the anime to achieve the desired affect. For a show made in such a dark age of technology to be able to reach you in the same way is quite a feat. The use of colour and sound in particular is outstanding. The use of long, drawn out shadows is a constant as well as the hum of static. Little things like this are key to setting the mood of the show and they do a spectacular job of it. Something else quite spectacular that a friend of mine commented on during the last episode of the show was the way they animated the eyes. They are realistic, I mean very realistic. But not using the normal anime style faces and eyes all the emotion displayed felt real. It also allowed for subtle emotion to be conveyed well... subtly. It really was an amazing thing.

Not quit as amazing a thing was the story. I have already mentioned that this was a twisted tale. The broad strokes as I see them is a philosophical argument about the end of human evolution and the blurring of the real world and the web, or wired as it is know in Lain. Questions like "is there really a god?" and "am I really me?" are tossed around like candy at a kids party, but no one ever answers them. Such is philosophy I guess. There are also a number of "twists" right near the end that had me going "what?..", but twists tend to fall short when the plot cant be followed to begin with. In short its a thinker that you MUST think about. If you don't bother to do it you will get nothing from this one.

SO what do we say to wrap up Lain... It's good. Very good. Well worth the watch and I can say there is definitely re watch value to it as well. It is not something I would give to a new comer or a young one though. I would also not watch this one before work. I tried that and it left me with odd thoughts for most of the day. I can almost guarantee you will be lost with the story but like I said if you think about it its quite provoking.

So in the end I would say have at it. For an older anime it holds up well and as long as you go into it with an open mind you will at least feel smarter by then end of the 13 eps. Once again I have been Kergen and you have been doing a thing. PEACE!

Disclaimer: This review is my own opinion, take it for what its worth. I will be breaking this down into the stages MAL uses for rankings as there is a lot to cover with this one. As normal I will do my best not to spoil and keep it to the broad strokes. In addition I will worn you now. Watching this with friends is a no no. YES it is a bit risque, YES there are some very confronting things about this show, but that is not what I am talking about. There are a lot of girls in this one, to the point ... wear there are like 4 male characters. And this mas of girls is hot and I mean HOT. I am telling you this now because I will not be held responsible for starting waifu war 4. Why 4? Simple! Because we all know waifu war 3 started when HuniePop was released, get with the times people. Que theme music aaaaaand GO!

Cross Ange: Tenshi to so on and so forth is an action, sci-fie, ecchi... ish anime that dose a splendid job of just about everything. It was a masterfully crafted peace from start to finish with only a small handful of what one might call "glaring" flows to it, but I don't want to scare you off it so I will leave them until later, like right at the end. For now, I must gush like the fan boy I am.

This was without question one of the best things I have watched in at least a year. I was in love with this anime right from the first episode. It was fast paces but was not afraid to slow down the tiniest amount when it wanted you to feel things. It plays with the full gambit of emotions. Love, hate, sorrow and a hole bunch of others I cant seem to name coz well... I'm a guy, but trust me they are there and in spades. Not going to lie, there was a point in time this show jerked a tear out of my eye. Other times I was literally laughing out loud, right before being angry for the same reason. It was like a roller coaster of emotion, not a crazy one but from episode to episode it definitely gets you. Some of the time the feelings are not the sort you should have for animated girls but hey, that's never stopped us before am I right internet? The big kicker to it all though is that its all about the basics of human nature. The need to be in control or how we don't relay function alone. The fact that they tell the story with fuck off robots is just gravy. Ok that may have been a bit of spoils but if you haven't gotten that from the first two eps your likely watching this anime for the wrong reasons. 10 for 10 on enjoyment. Moving on...

This first thing that hit me about this anime was the outstanding use of colour. I am a devout follower of the high and mighty "Lord Vivid Colours" and I can say without a doubt this anime would pleas him. The pallet was vast, all the colours and not just a splash on a brown back drop modern day FSP style. What starts as a peaceful setting drenched in bright pinks, yellows, blues and whites gos down a darker path as the mood of the show changes. The are quickly replaced by blacks, grays and reds but stay with me I am not taking back what I said earlier. It takes an episode or two but the colours return in full force as the disposition of the characters improve and the reality of the world sets in. When the mood is good the colours are bright. When it is bad the pallet changes to reflect it. It is as much a part of the story as anything else and it helps immensely with the fast pacing of the show that there are visual ques like this to help keep the viewer on track. On a less ranty note the art over all was very well done with a lot of sharp lines and easily identifiable shapes, nothing just blended into the back ground. Each peace of furniture and the people on screen were easily recognizable but it very rarely felt cluttered. The distinct lack of copy and paste throughout the show was also very refreshing. 10/10 art team, well done.

Next down on the list of numbers is the characters. Good ol' characters. You know what? There are lots of them and they are good. Not what you might call amazing but considering the pace of the show (fast as hell), I think they have done really well. Almost everyone has at leas a minor bit of character development no matter how short there life span may be or how close to the main story they are. And on the off chance they don't get developed they are acknowledged strongly enough that you know they are real. No single character feels phoned in and aside from the occasional mob there is no mas melding of opinion, people are always butting heads over something. There are plenty of twists in the development of the main toon pile as well and most of the time it is a bit of a surprise. I say surprise and mean it but occasionally there are some ill timed or even impossible shifts in mood. This is another factor the dev team seemingly utilized in the telling of the story that mostly worked in there favor... mostly. As I mentioned before in my disclaimer there is a lot of girls in this one and it IS a touch ecchi so there was bound to be a good amount of.... let us say lesbianism going around. This is not entirely forced though. On many occasions it is in fact used to make a point about the world they are living in or to legitimately build character. Some times it works quite well as a point puter acrosser, but other times it falls short, and then there are times when it is just strait up fan service. It was unavoidable but it is also mostly good..... 8/10 characters let us move on.

SOUND! Not a lot to say on this one. I am not one to pay much attention to the sound in anime, or anything really. Due to my work I have a gift for hearing when something is wrong but that is about it. With that being said I didn't hear anything wrong as fare as the soundtrack went in this one. The action pacing of it did mean there was always some sort of music going so a lot the background was drowned out but the fight noises were responsive and seemed different enough that they didn't just meld into explosion. Normally this sort of thing would only warrant a 6 or 7 from me but in this case its a solid 8 from the theme music. It just fits. I don't know what the words are in English, I didn't have that sub file, but it sounded right. So 8/10.

Now the hard sell. Story. I say hard for what seems like a number of reasons, but relay its just one. I found it SUPER hard to pick up and follow over all. It seemed to take forever for the story to kick in and then it would piss off for an episode or two and come back. The hole thing was just so fast paced that each episode up until the last third felt like individual events that some how strung together. It was a simple mater to pick up on the "foreshadowing" for me but I cant say if that's because it was obvious or just my veteran status picking up the right bits. I know I have already told you how much I loved the different methods used to tell the story and I do stand by what I said. But telling a story well doesn't make it a good story. The problem being that this IS a good story. It is deep and full of emotion, conflict and real issues that face the human race, though it is a tad embellished (meh its anime). They just over paced it. It felt like they had something truly great in the works.... and then they gave it to Michael Bay. All being said there were no plot holes for me to dig out and the last 8 or so episodes saved it hard. I will be re watching this one down the line, probably after its dubbed, just to see if I can follow it a bit better. It dose have a somewhat "Blade Runner" feel to it in that I think I would understand more the second time around. So right now I am going with a soft 6. It was a good story when I could find it and it was told brilliantly and in interesting ways. But I can say it irked me how long it took to kick in and was defiantly not my favorite thing about this show.

So to cap it all off. Right from the start this show goes hard. Balls to the wall. It's speed setting goes from about 8 up to 11+. It throws things at you constantly in what I assume is an attempt to keep you from following the story 100% but keep you entertained enough to keep watching, and it dos it SO well. All is grand with this show and I would say to all seasoned anime watchers to get on it. On the flip side though, if you are new to the sport of anime watching I would let this one rest till you have a winter or two under your belts. I have been at this game for almost twenty years (that's right I started animes when I was 7), and it took me a bit to latch on to this. I mean, I may just be a dumb ass. Stranger things have been proven true. But as a rule of thumb I find I pick up on things in anime quit well. I stand by the Masterpiece ratting I have given and defy any who think otherwise, but that's what the Internets are for and as I said, personal opinion.

I have been Kergen and you have been reading this review. CONGRATS and go forth to bigger and better anime.

Figures I would smash this out before bed having just finished this. This slice of life and a half anime is one of the most memorable I have watched in a long time. Not that this is saying much as slice of life is not really my bag, as it were. But still I had a lot of fun with this one. As will be the norm with my reviews I will spoiler worn and disclaimer right now. All that is about to be said is my pov so feel free to bitch about it but don't take offense as I don't mean any. ... I will also do what I can to avoid spoilers but I make no promises. Que theme music!

The story is a simple one. A bunch of school outcasts want to make friends so they start a club to do it. The reality being they are so awkward that they don't realize they have become friends in the proses. To go along with it is a strong helping of fan service and comedy but they are secondary at times and always surprisingly organic. I repeat this is very well written and aside from the mid episode break screen thing's that all anime seem to do there is no needles panty shots or tits in your face for the hell of it.

The sound is also something I noticed in this one, witch again is not something I am normally big on noticing. Everything just had the right sounds. Nothing seemed generic, just realistic. There is a heap of character development as you would expect from this genera and all the characters there are interesting in there own right. I honestly cant say that I hated anyone in the show or was more interested in one over the other.

This is starting to get long... again, man I have to get better at short reviews haha. So on the hole I would say this is a great show. It is honestly making me rethinking my stance on the slice of life anime I had that much fun with it. I will say though, and I would like to remind you of the disclaimer now, that it got big points for being some what relate-able. I know I am a social orc with most of the world, and I know that is true for most of my friends. I can also say having been in the need community for so long that it is generally true for all of us. It's a bit of the "if you cant laugh at your self who can you laugh at" sort of thing.

So that's more or less what I thought about this one. Hope it helps you make a decision on it. As always keep fighting the good fights and anime on. Peace!

Ok so this is my first review on the ol' list and I am notorious among friends for spoilers so I will do my best with that in this review. As a stranded disclaimer this is all my opinion and if you disagree then that's your choice and it is a perfectly good one. So lets jump right in. Akame ga Kill is one of the few anime I can call a true masterpiece, however, this dos not necessarily mean I liked it.

I have herd many people call it the "Game of Thrones" of the anime world and that is something I would agree with. ... I am not the biggest fan of GoT either but this is not the place for that. All I will say is that the similarity are plenty and comparison will happen. The major likeness are the writing and characters. I will tackle each of them one at a time so it doesn't become a big ass mess of block text. First up I will go with the charioteers.

The characters are varied and well fleshed out, they are just not well explored. All back story is delivered in cameo esc flash backs and only in one or two eps per toon. It is not an infective method to do it but it is slow. the other falling down with this is that they left little to no room for development. the characters don't change much if at all through out, you just get a better understanding of who they are. As a rare up side, the series also explores things from the "bad guys" perspective. No I am not talking about the main villain but rather his subordinates. They are a group of people similar to the main protagonists and there will be more than a few times you will find yourself going for them and feeling sad when they... well get dead.

Next on the list is the writing and this is wear the spoilers may poke there way in. It is a dark anime, perhaps a bit to dark for the average watcher. In the true fashion of GoT there are many deaths of people you will likely be loving, along with a lot of dark behind the scenes dealings. Intrigue and politics are abundant as well as violence and indecency. This will hit you square in the feels at one point or another and there is nothing to be done about it. The writing is gritty and not at all toned down for the screen but it had one MASSIVE problem I could pick with it and this was without question the reason it took me so long to finish this one. All events or sub plots are dealt with in two episodes. There is nothing long running apart form the main plot. For some of you this may not be a bad thing but for me it kept me off the hook for a bit.

Now that the balk is out of the way we can go with what made this show unique and perhaps the biggest pull it has. In a world wear OP magic and incomprehensible combat skills are basically non existent a bunch of weapons were mage so that an anime could be made all flashy. I am not kidding, this is one of the most common folk filled worlds ever. The items in question are known as "Imperial Arms". In essence they are like Zanpakuto from Bleach. There are a bunch of magic weapons with all manor of powers and in various shapes and sizes from a simple sword to a pare of big scissors. It is a well executed power system wear no one person has a stronger weapon than the next so it all comes down to the skill of the user and how comparable with there chosen weapon they are.

Well this was longer than I wanted so I will cut it off hear with a recap. In my eyes this is a masterpiece well worth the 10/10 I have given it, but it is not relay for me. If you got right into GoT then you will probs love this one. If you have friends that are well into GoT this may even be a good gateway show for you to drag them into the wonderful world of anime. But again I feel I must say this is a very serous show, all comedic relief ends about 5 eps in so I would not recommended it to may no veterans. I have no regrets about watching it and I would recommend that every one drop it in there bucket list to get through, but once was enough for me.

Well that's my thoughts. Hope they help you in some way.
Love Kergen ;)