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It is perhaps with a small amount of irony that I find myself watching Psycho-Pass (here after just Psycho,) given how it was essentially Production I.G’s previous work on Ghost in the Shell and subsequently GitS: Stand Alone Complex that really got me watching anime a short while ago. And while a small number of things may have changed since then, I pretty much just find myself back to square one watching Psycho, and to be quite frank, I couldn’t be happier.

Set in the kindling years of the 22nd century, Psycho is a show that keeps up with a small specialist team of detectives ... and officers as they go about righting the wrongs of the futuristic society in which Psycho is based. As mentioned, one might immediately begin to draw parallels between it and Stand Alone Complex, but outside of setting and character professions, any major similarities end there. Where the latter focuses more on a world with prosthetics and the subsequent array of problems that might occur from such products, Psycho focuses on an idea that feel’s much more foreign to what we know. Less an array of problems, and more one of colours.

In this future we, or at least Japan, have developed the technology to be able to categorise one’s metal state and place it under a colour. From this technology it is possible to work out how an individual is best suited to live their life to their fullest potential but more importantly, it’s possible to work out how likely it is that one will divulge in criminal activities, embodied in a number called a “Criminal Coefficient”. This is all possible with the aid of the Sibyl System. Despite such a thing being created with the pure intentions of making society a happier and less dangerous place, it’s pretty clear by the end of the first episode that the way things are, are impossibly flawed.

Our main female character of Akane Tsunemori is a new detective on the beat working at the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division, an organisation in which there are two tiers, the Inspectors and the Enforcers, with the former being people who have a clean criminal record and the later being those who have been designated by Sibyl as criminals, but have been given a second chance in which they can help society rather then hinder it.

This presence of a hierarchy immediately set’s up an interesting dynamic between the seven characters that form the team which the show keeps up with. Akane is a very strong character, she’s intelligent, strong minded and well spoken and as a result, doesn’t really like the way things are with the system opting more to trust her own co-workers based on her own judgements rather then that of Sibyl. A controversial ploy considering that Sibyl’s judgement is supposed to be final, any dispute of that system is to dispute the entire grounds on which Psycho’s society is based. But as the viewer you will notice these problems to, you end up sympathising with Akane since she’s a small voice of logic in a world where self judgement of a situation isn’t valued.

As a result of all this, Akane is a pretty likeable character; she’s feminine enough to seem believable yet not enough to consider her a sexualised character in the slightest. I.G struck a nice balance with her and they deserve credit for rendering such a convincing lead.

Thankfully, the same can be said for most of the other six characters that populate the team at the CID. They way they interact with one another really hint’s at quite a lot of history between them and really strengthens the feel that they have been working together for quite some time and have seen their fair share of shit in that time. Over the course of the show we are slowly but surely given reasons as to why certain characters interact with one another in certain ways and it really strengthens some of them as being much more then another set of 2D cardboard cut-out clichéd characters.

With that said, I do unfortunately have to use the word “some” when referring to those other six characters because while most of them are likeable, only around three of them actually receive the aforementioned development, with the rest being more their for convenience and structure rather then really adding anything to the show. For instance, one episode takes place in the middle of the series focusing on events taking place years before the series begins concerning the addition of the Enforcer Yayoi to the team. While it is an entertaining episode, it’s really only there for pacing purposes and doesn’t really add a huge amount to Yayoi’s character who up to and past that point, has very little screen time, let alone development.

Playing second fiddle to the characters is an entirely different aspect of Psycho that is superbly well done, its setting. Production I.G has this knack for creating worlds in the mind that both feel entirely fantasy yet firmly rooted in reality. There’s a strong attention to detail that remains consistently intriguing from start to finish, if you’re anything like me then you will just get a kick out of seeing how all these various elements pair together, seeing how people live in this future and how it differs from our own. It’s a really solid use of the medium and it’s supported by a strong sense of life and clutter amongst the various backgrounds that will caress your retina which is further made all the more awesome by this lovely mechanical tech that I.G like to do with all that fancy 2D/ 3D malarkey.

A great example of this can be found in the guns that the Enforcers use, the “Dominators” that you have probably seen in the promotional art for this show. Their design is more akin to that of an accessory or an item to serve as a fashion statement rather then that of a law enforcement weapon. It really is quite a striking design so it’s no surprise to see I.G use it in quite a lot throughout the show.

But what use would a weapon be if Psycho didn’t show it of? While the gun looks really cool and all, sequences that actually involve it being used along with some actual action are few and far between with most of them being over pretty quickly. That’s not to say their bad, their enjoyable alright, the fighting is well choreographed and the limitations of the Dominator as a weapon only capable of being used when the targets Criminal Coefficient is over a certain mark adds a layer of complexity that is referenced throughout. But these moments really aren’t the focus of the show so don’t go in expecting an action extravaganza, you won’t get it here.

Music also play’s a key part in these sequences to, with more upbeat tracks getting me pumped for what ever is about to play out with more serine tracks playing more at times of discussion then danger. The music doesn’t just consistently complement what ever is on screen but it enhances it. The same can be said for the voice acting to which is all way’s delivered convincingly and consistently and I never found my immersion being broken from the show as a result of poor line delivery.

The real kicker to Psycho however is in its story. Initially, Psycho might appear to be an episodic show which, given the setting and the premise, could easily work. But after a few episodes Psycho really step’s a few things up and begins to have a more continuous structure. These bunch of episodes were easily the highlight of Psycho for me, as the world and its various aspects are introduced, were let into a string of gruesome murders that are intertwined with previous events in the world that we are not initially made aware of, but slowly let into what happened and what bearing it has on the characters at play.

The pacing throughout these episodes is immaculate and I really had a “Just one more episode” feel while watching them that made me want to find out how things divulged deeper and how circumstances developed. There’s a pyramid scheme of lunatics at play here and seeing how they try their best to screw things over hold’s its own charm. The final two episodes of the opening half play out like an engrossing game of cat and mouse that had me glued to my screen the whole time and they, as well as the episodes in the run up to this part, were by far the most engrossing and well executed part of the whole show, and the most fun I’ve had watching something in quite some time.

Unfortunately though, after the mid way point things take… a dip shall we say? After being given a selection of wacko’s up to this point were left with just one main antagonist, a white haired bloke who everyone call’s Makishima. And while it was pretty obvious that the show really wanted us to resent this guy for all the horrible things that he does. Generally he’s just an intelligent chav, and the re-occurring rivalry between him and our male lead Shinya Kougami feel’s overly exploited and generally not all that interesting when going into detail.

This isn’t helped either by the fact that the pacing of the show takes a dip as well. While the first half builds up to what I could immaturely describe as a premature climax, in which Makishima tries to fuck over society, the second stumbles trying to get back into the flow of things. In the second half of the show we see Makishima execute two more schemes to try to ruin everyone else’s fun but in both cases they just feel poorly thought out. The first one focuses a lot of pretty much just screwing over the Sibyl System and during these segments there is *a lot* of exposition about the Sibyl System and it’s various flaws and shortcomings. And while there are quite a few relatable themes at play such as questioning how free an individual is and pondering just hopeless shoving someone in a prison in the plan that their mental state will improve despite being surrounded by people in a similar state, generally I just found what they talked about when discussing it rather meh.

To use the aforementioned show of Stand Alone Complex as an example, the Sibyl System isn’t really something we can relate to in the slightest. SAC focused on the topic of prosthetics and while the current technology is still in its infancy, it’s not hard to bend your mind and see how things would play out in the world of SAC. As it currently stands we don’t really have anything to parallel Psycho’s Sibyl to in real life and to have such a foreign concept receive so much attention throughout the course of the show really doesn’t help much.

This is further accentuated in one particular scene in which a man beat’s a woman to death in the middle of a street. On one hand it’s an interesting thing to see how confusing a concept aggression is in this peaceful utopia, but on the other hand it’s the same peaceful utopia that spawned our very much aware of violence team of hero’s. It’s not a huge issue, but there’s no denying a feeling of disconnect between our main characters and the world that they inhabit beyond the fact that most of them are latent criminals.

Finally in the last attempt that we see playing out from Makishima, there’s a distinct lack of logic in the proceedings. Without trying to give too much away, the final scheme could be described as the lowest risk, highest reward plan out of the bunch and it really makes the question of, “Why he didn’t just do it all sooner before he had the cops tailing him?” linger in your mind.

In the end, Psycho-Pass isn’t a perfect show, in fact there’s a pretty big “to do” list of improvements if a season two was to ever happen. But the opening half of the show is so superbly well done and so engrossing that’s I feel like I can let slide most of the dip in quality that the second half experiences. And even then I still found the second half pretty enjoyable simply down to the setting and aesthetics on display. In case I haven’t made it clear enough, if you liked Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex then you should probably give Psycho-Pass a punt, just be warned to expect similar flaws. But over all, it’s really not a bad show.

A friend of mine once told me that a show lives or dies on its characters, and while this statement may seem rather self explanatory, it’s shame to see just how often such a fundamental part of a show can be left in the dust to make way for other aspects to receive more polish. While I do appreciate and admire said other aspects reviving polish, it goes without saying but regardless as to how much time is spent making some action sequence the most eye poppingly vibrant array of colours to ever be put into film, I generally won’t find them all that interesting ... if I don’t give a damn about anyone involved, regardless as to if I like or dislike them.

Spice and wolf is a show that realises that it can’t try to be the jack of all trades, but it’s quite happy being the master of one.

S&W begins following the travels of a merchant called Laurence through what can only be described as a mild fantasy version of medieval Europe, whilst stopping by in a local town, Laurence accidentally picks up our other main character, a Pagan wolf-god in human form (abit with wolf ear’s and a tail) who goes by the name Holo. She wishes to be aided to travel to her home up north and from there on out, S&W focuses less on the destination and more on the journey.

Simply put, the two characters of Laurence and Holo are both wonderfully realised and their interactions with one another are a joy to watch. Part of this charm extends from the fact that their characters are rooted in reality, Laurence himself is just a ordinary guy who just happens to be in extra-ordinary circumstances and similarly Holo, despite being a wolf, is a rather human character, flaw’s and all. This isn’t a show about action sequences and nor is it one about forced relationships, instead S&W get’s by on solid writing and acting alone.

Initially in the opening few episodes conversations had a tendency to flow un-naturally every now and then but as time goes on it becomes quite clear that Laurence and Holo become more relaxed with one another and both the writing and the acting reflect this subtle change over time. Though it’s well worth mentioning that more then just this change is captured well; Brina Palencia gives a sense of playful regality to Holo which perfectly reflects her character as one to not act without thought nor having not thought out what to do when acting, even in the most serious of situations. Though her mannerisms also play a welcome role in defining Holo’s character, flicks of a tail and ear flops speak more then words ever could and this is carried over to other elements to. Even Holo’s posture, pose and language seek to reflect her status as a wolf at times and it really is a splendid use of the medium.

Holo isn’t the only one standing in the spot light though and Laurence thankfully get’s a similar treatment. J. Michael Tatum employs a cautious and collected tone to Laurence, which given his current occupation go rather well in hand with another more curious tone as he consistently seeks to find a new way of making profit via an opening in a new market or at the suggestions of others.

Together, the two of them are constantly poking fun at each another and making snarky remarks at the expense of one another. None of the interaction feel’s forced and never does the show stoop to include risqué scenarios to appease fan service. The relationship between Laurence and Holo feel’s natural as it develops over time and it is by far the best thing the show has going for it.

Unfortunately though, S&W doesn’t just have character interaction on its plate as is suffers from doing a number of other things fairly well, but not really all that well in comparison to the aforementioned interaction.

The first of these is what actually happens in each episode, throughout its length, S&W encompasses a small number of story arch’s that play out in a way that I could only really describe as finance battles, with great focus spent of detailing how the economy works in the world of S&W, and just as much time spent talking about how to take advantage of it for the sake of profit. And while I can applaud the decision to try and stem high risk scenarios from a source other then gratuitous violence, I can’t deny the fact that generally, I just found the proceeding’s of these stories dull. Their pacing is more at home on the medium that S&W was originally written for but in a TV show spread out over a number of episodes they loose their appeal.

To an extent, these stories do serve a purpose quite well because they allow us to see more from the main characters. Seeing the otherwise calm Laurence loose himself over his current situation and subsequently seeing how Holo reacts to this new side of her friend does continue to aid their development as characters, and in that regard the show still holds its appeal throughout these sequences.

Or at least it would do if it wasn’t common for the two main characters to be separated for what ever reason in such sequences leaving us with the small selection of side characters that populate S&W’s roster. None of these characters are massively deep in any way and nor are they voiced in a way to write home about, and it’s unfortunate to say it, but even for a world that holds quite a bit of potential, it doesn’t really have anyone else to show for that fact, and it’s a real downer considering how well things are handled else were.

Another problem with said finance battles is that they primarily take place in city’s and the art work for the city’s is a place were the budget of S&W is quite present, for the most part, the streets are rather empty giving an almost convenient lack of life to the environments. This is excusable given how much time it takes to animate a crowd, but the problem really stems from the streets themselves. If you go into any urban environment you will immediately notice a lack of coherence between structures, building heights and widths vary here and there and each architect’s own style can be seen adorning each building with love. S&W doesn't really capture this not nearly well enough to give the cities a sense of vibrancy in amongst the chaos of urban living, the repeated vanishing point perspectives and rather dull straight edges that are pretty common give the setting an almost sterile feel to them that really doesn't lend its self well to the setting or show considering the length of time that is spent in said cities.

It’s worth noting though that the country side backgrounds are generally an exception to the rule and do remain pleasing enough to the eye throughout the show’s duration.

Animation is unfortunately another area where the show suffers from it’s budget, while expressions look nice enough most of the time, and the aforementioned mannerisms are lovely, for the most part the character art and the character animation is below par and rather choppy. This is excusable given the rare need of smooth animation, but it’s a shame to be honest, and I would love to have seen it a bit smoother, or at least weightier at times.

To summarise, Spice and Wolf isn’t the jack of all trades, nor is it a masterpiece, but it does what it does well and deserves credit for being a lovely and rather slow experience. If you’re at all interested by all means give it a punt, because with any luck you might just like it more then you though you might.

Just mentioning the mere premise of Upotte is probably going to be enough to put the vast majority of people of from watching it, unless you’re the kind of person who has gone through enough classical conditioning to be immune to what ever the minds of the people of Japan could throw up next, then you may as well try to forget Upotte’s name entirely and just leave it at that.

At a glance Upotte may just appear to be your typical clichéd Japanese school girl anime, but there’s a catch, a safety catch, the girls who appear to be your pretty standard anime school ... girl aren’t in fact girls at all. Their guns.

Every aspect of the characters, be it their appearance, nationality, eating habits, what they wear, their relationships with other characters, how confident they are and even how the react to certain environments both physically and socially is entirely dependant on the gun model that they just happen to be. Subsequently, this can lead to a lot of humour of the eye rolling variant as Thompson submachine gun is given large breasts as a result of a large drum magazine and a T91 assault rifle is given a g-string as a result of an adjustable stock.

It’s worth noting that not all the characterisations of the guns are this perverse, there does exist other parallels such as height dependant on gun type and family relations influenced by manufacturer. This said, more often then not, the aspects that Upotte wish’s to bring to light are often perverse.

This taken into consideration, one thing I can assure you is that if you have not had any previous experience either in the military or owning a firearm, then your going to learn about guns, and your going to do so in a way that you probably never though that you would. Beyond the aforementioned character interactions, Upotte often takes the time to deviate away from what plot there may be in the episode to explain gun history, varying ammunition sizes, what purpose certain gun types have and other pieces of gun related information. While it may seem odd to call Upotte educational, given its niche subject matter, odds are you will probably come out knowing more then you did going in.

But Upotte doesn’t have its sights focused solely on teaching you about guns, as mentioned, this is an anime about school girls and their varying emotional happenings with one another. The main characters of Funco, Sixteen, Elle and Sig (respectively a FN FNC, M16A4, L85A1 and an SG 550) provide a varying amount of characteristics. Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses ranging from the cocky and brash to the shy and humble. All of the characters are fairly likeable at face value but throughout the series there is very little development to their characters.

What’s worse is that Upotte has a habit of introducing new characters that serve no purpose other then to fill up time during the episodes, they are incredibly shallow in character and their interactions between themselves and the main characters feel poorly thought out. The only exception to this is Japanese Teacher (note this is how he is referred to through the entire series), a recurring character throughout the entire show and the only one aware to how odd it is that the girls are all assault rifles. His casual interactions with the girls provide some light-hearted comedic moments aside from his interactions with FN FNC which range from dull to emotional in a way that doesn’t quite work. While not a hugely likeable character he does fit quite well into the show as he finds himself questioning just what is normal anyway?

This said, there is one big draw to Upotte and its characters, at times the show can be very funny, while I’m sure that its type of humour won’t appeal to all, but there where times when I found myself pausing the video to laugh out loud, not because it was so poorly executed but because it was honestly funny. There are jokes that were lost in translation and others that only the most grizzled of gun enthusiasts will get, but there are many that are pointlessly hilarious and unsurprisingly, often involved the imaginative use of guns.

In contrast to this though, and as a result of this being a show about guns, there are five episodes housing two over arching storylines with an emphasis on action sequences not seen in the rest of the show. The action sequences aren’t really anything to behold, they aren’t animated any better then the rest of the show and most shots really boil down to a character standing still firing a gun. Instead their entertainment value derives from an emphasis on realism, seeing the characters work together as teams to accomplish a goal, executing plans laid out by one another and working around their flaws holds some undeniable charm and the setting contrasts well as it explores the characters enough to further their likeability.

But as mentioned, these sequences suffer from a similar issue that the rest of the show falls under, an impossibly average animation quality. The animation is rarely ever smooth even in times when the show could easily benefit from it, and during certain frames the characters might appear off model which is also a big downer. This isn’t aided by the mediocre art direction that the show takes, while the gun’s do look nice and it’s quite clear that there has been a decent amount of effort put in place to get them to that stage, the background art just remains purely functional throughout, I never found myself even noticing it, and while this could makes sense from a composition stand point to draw attention else where, the show never takes advantage of this opportunity and suffers as a result.

Where Upotte really suffers however is in how it’s earned its age rating of 17+. Through out the show there are many scenes taking place in bath rooms. While the interactions between the characters are appropriately casual for good friends, the amount of nudity in these scenes, while never explicit, feels forced and contrast's with the feel of the show somewhat. This isn’t aided by the near constant panty shots throughout the show which again, feel forced. Other pandering’s to fan service include the unexplained cat ears and tails on AK-47’s, the unexplained dog ears and tail on a Galil and the unexplained elf ears on a Finnish rifle (das racist).

I understand that such things like cat ears are common place in anime, but the creators of Upotte realised that they could get away with just about anything so long as they provide some half arsed justification for it, in all the cases I mentioned above, no parallels are drawn between the guns and these features so in all cases it just feel's like the creators where trying to expand their audience as much as possible by appealing to varying sexual fetishes. One scene in particular depicting a sadistic lesbian Sako Rk. 95, contains content of a masturbatory nature and it feels neither well executed nor consistent with the feel of the rest of the show. While nothing on show throughout Upotte’s length can be considered flat out gun porn, the show does dip near to such low’s and consistently doesn't benefit as a result.

In short Upotte is not all that great, but what is has going for it you won’t find executed is such a fashion elsewhere, when it’s good, it is thoroughly enjoyable, don’t go into it expecting a masterpiece, but at only 10 episodes long, it’s hardly going to waste much of your time either.

Tl;dr- Operation Flashpoint: Kawaii Crisis

Mushishi is a show keeping tabs on a white haired bloke called Ginko, unlike most peep's, Ginko can see plankton like creatures called Mushishi that inhabit his world. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and due to their mostly obscure nature, they have the habit of causing negative things to happen to those around them. Ginko makes his living by taking advantage of his ability's and helping those who have problems as a result of the mushi, each episode focuses solely on a single story and there's no real order or over arching narrative at play here.

The best thing about Mushishi ... so by far is the character of Ginko, he's so different and unique I can't name another character even remotely like him, if I had to describe him to someone I'de call him the most soft-spoken bad ass to ever be written, he's never boastful, brash or barges into situations without a seconds thought, he's calm, knowledgeable and immensely caring of those around him. As a result of his likeability, it doesn't really matter that all of the characters that Ginko meets will only be around for the duration of the episode.

The show in turn manages to keep it's self interesting through its structure, as mentioned, each episode revolves around Ginko helping other people out with Mushi related problems, but since the only limitation of what the Mushi can do is the imagination of the writer, many different and unique stories are told throughout the duration of the show. In turn though, Mushishi doesn't remain a purely happy show as it might initially give the impression, there are some truly saddening episodes which provide some nice emotional variety to keep things fresh.

Another huge boost to the quality of the show is the setting, the choice of feudal Japan goes a great way of adding to the sense of wonder and mystery since it seems so foreign yet rooted in reality. The background art goes a long way is helping this, since to put it simply, its beautiful, it add's so much to the crispness of the setting and makes each individual frame something to behold.

The writing is also spot on, the pacing is well done throughout each episode and the topics touched upon felt well thought out, at the end of each episode there's sense of awe that I had leaving me to ponder my thoughts for the rest of the day. This said, at times Mushishi can feel like it explains alot in a little space of time, I wouldn't call it an anime that requires your full attention or multiple viewings to understand, but there are moments when things can be missed and I found myself rewinding the video in the hope of understanding what just happened, I'm not sure if this is down to poor writing or the occasional mistranslation, but it's a minor issue that happens rarely.

There are a few other issues that I have mind, for starters, the animation really isn't anything to write home about, for the most part it boils down to your clichéd "moving of the mouth without the jaw" type of animation, however, this can be excused since the show never really needs well animated scenes with lots of frames plus the voice acting makes pretty much all the dialogue bearable, while I can't say from a huge amount of experience with the medium, Mushishi does have the most consistently good voice acting I've ever heard, there isn't a single voice that I would consider "bad" and it only really dip's down to "average" quality now and then which helps with the immersion of the show.

What has a tendency to break the immersion mind is certain frames of character art, for the most part it's just fine but now and then the animators got lazy and just don't draw the faces. I realise that this is done pretty commonly in hand drawn animation due to the limitations of the medium, but the instances I refer to are shot's where the characters face's aren't even that far away. It's not a deal breaker but it can be a pain here and there.

Getting into the raw nitpicky stuff, there were two episodes that I felt where rather meh, one involving a rainbow and the other involving a woman who was loosing her memories, while neither was poorly handled, I just felt they lack a sense of mystery that made the rest of the anime so enjoyable to watch, but this is only two episodes.

Another thing to pick at is the character designs, while there's initially nothing wrong with them, and for the most part they look nice (especially those dressing gown things everyone seems to be wearing all the time, they look nice). I found that different age groups of different sex's all looked very similar, especially the youngsters. While not a deal breaker I couldn't help but have a sense of deja vu when the show introduced a new character who looked like an old one, for the most part, hair styles and cloths are the only things to use to tell them apart.

Generally you should probably watch it, yeah... go watch it.