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*English isn't my first language*
*This review is covering all 3 seasons of the anime*

Junjo Romantica is quite popular. It is known to be one of if not the greatest shounen-ai anime of all time. Many people praising it for it's "realistic story" and "interesting story." Not going to lie. When I heard this, I got quite interested. I do enjoy watching some shounen-ai shows. I always love seeing two guys fall in love with each other. Same with two girls. However, when I sat down and watched all 3 seasons of this anime, I was shocked by how underplayed this anime was.

Story: 5/10

Interestingly ... enough, there are 3 stories to this anime. Usagi/Misaki, Hiroki/Nowaki, and Shinobu/Miyagi. I'm not gonna lie, as generic as some of the stories for the couples are, they are quite interesting. Each pairing bringing us something interesting to see. I also enjoy how these couples do in their everyday life situation. Such as Usagi being a manga author, Hiroki being a college professor, and Miyagi dealing with the death of his wife. These are the REAL parts of the anime. I also love seeing Misaki shoot to get into the college that his brother wanted to before their parents died. And as cliche as some of it, I do enjoy watching them. However, the anime suffers from being repetitive, predictable, and even cliche. Oh dear, dead parents. Oh dear, gotta tell my brother I'm secretly gay (which never happens). Oh dear, dead wife. It follows way too many tropes that we seen in other romance anime, and done better. Also, the anime tries to pull you into certain stories that would be very interesting, but unfortunately, never gives us these things. Such as Misai telling his brother he's in a gay relationship. Usagi and Misaki have been in a relationship for 4 years and yet he STILL hasn't told his brother. I understand that it would be difficult since you are worried that they wouldn't accept you for you, but it's just ridiculous. And the pacing is poor. So many things are dragged out that should not be dragged out. Like Misaki accepting the fact he's gay, Miyagi realizing there's an 18 year old in love with, etc. The story isn't bad, but there needs to be some polishing.

Art:

4/10

I do like some of the colors that mix in. It gives you a good feeling of what kind of show you are watching. The backgrounds are in also quite nice. Nothing special, but nice as is. The animation itself is stilted. The characters move so awkwardly most of the time it becomes funny. The character designs are quite awkward themselves. Not to mention that the semes and ukes look the same. Season 3 does fix the animation making it more colourful and less awkward, but still a little funky looking. Not terrible, but needs some fixing up. The facial expressions on Misaki are really good though.

Sound:

4/10

Takahiro Sakurai, the voice of Misaki, is wonderful. His performance is real for all 3 seasons. He is having so much with the role it's just beautiful. It's so enjoyable. Everyone else does great as well. The voices match the characters well. The soundtrack, however, is bad. Maybe it's just my taste in music, but it's bad. The openings, to me, are unbearable. They are so annoying. The ending songs are mediocre. Nothing stands out. Not bad, but not great. Really bad soundtrack, great performances.

Characters:

3/10

Misaki, even with a few redeemable qualities, is a fucking idiot. I know he's human. Humans make mistakes, but this guy is just so fucking stupid and annoying that it's just irritating. Usagi tells him a million times not to do something that would seriously hurt him. And he does it anyways even knowing the consequences. And, for some reason, every single guy that is somehow related to Usagi falls in love with him. For no reason. Why him? I don't fucking know. Usagi is abusive. He constantly throws Misaki in the car, tells him he can't go out, forbids him from calling other people, he's an abusive boyfriend. He even basically MOLESTS HIM IN EPISODE ONE. What they have isn't real love, it's lust. They have sex EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. Hiroki and Nowaki are characters I enjoy. Hiroki is a college professor who struggles constantly, and Nowaki is always there for him. He truly loves Hiroki. They are a real gay couple. They are the only realistic couple in the entire anime. They are both interesting. Shinobu is an annoying, possessive freak that no one would ever associate themselves with ever. His actions would make people run away from him in a second. If something doesn't get his way, it's like it's the end of the world I want to kick him in the fucking throat. Miyagi has no personality whatsoever. Their relationship is decent despite the age difference. I do like how their romance and relationship develop. Usagi's editor, is as useless and boring. Her only joke is getting mad at Usagi for not meeting deadlines. Everyone else is forgettable and bland.

Enjoyment:

5/10

Despite my rage and frustration, I did somewhat enjoy this show sometimes. I did still want to see what was going on. I was still interested in what would happen next as predictable as it was going to be.

Overall:

Junjo Romantica is a below average anime with some decent art, a few decent characters, slightly enjoyable story, but still fails with some unrealistic relationships, predictable story and idiotic characters. I still do recommend this show to people who enjoy the shounen-ai genre and aren't as critical as me. You may get to see something in the characters that I just can't. YOu many enjoy the strange art style. You may like the predictable story. Or if you want to pass time, then I guess this wouldn't be so bad. Anyone else, I don't recommend it. It still suffers from serious issues. I heard the manga wasn't much better so I'm not thrilled. Not a terrible anime, but not a good one either. That's why we have Sekai Icchi Hatsukoi, which is like Junjo Romantica, but did everything 100% better.

4/10

*This review contains spoilers*

*English isn't my first language*

Black Bullet is an anime that got a lot of people hyped up in Spring 2014. Many comparing it to Attack on Titan. It was known to be one of the best anime of Spring that year. However, many agree that the ending was disappointing. Making no real sense and contained awful writing. It's not just the ending. It's the entire show.

Story:

Black Bullet is an anime where monsters known as Gastrea invade the earth and humanity is left for their own survival. Gastrea infected little "children" (I'll get to this later) turning them into monsters. And ... now it's up to our main hero Rentarou to put an end to these creatures along with his sidekick Enju. What's good: I like how the Gastrea infect little "children." That's interesting to see what could happen to these kids. Everything else is done in the most awfully executed way. First off, let's talk about how these "children" are all little girls. Not a single boy is infected by this. THERE IS NOT A SINGLE LITTLE BOY IN THIS SHOW. ONLY GIRLS. Do you see where I'm going with this? It's loli bait. It's done to attract viewers in the most disgusting way. Also, the story is filled with inconsistencies. Like, how they're always like "Oh the outside world is dangerous" and yet they make these girls go to school because????????? These little girls who were infected by Gastrea and Rentarou forms a bond with them and then ALL OF A SUDDEN they die. What was the point of that? They were never brought up again. The pacing is horrendous. It takes them like 2 minutes to defeat this monster that they say will take a few hours, but nope the anime decided that showing the struggle was too much so time skip. And how our main villain decides to team up with Rentarou because??????????? The ending makes no sense and it leaves you wanting more but guess what? We don't get one. The story leaves many things left unexplained, is filled with plot holes and inconsistencies.

Art:

It's decent. Nothing spectacular, but decent. The characters designs are fine, the action scenes when they aren't rushed is well animated, the backgrounds are really nice to look at, the CGI is okay, but nothing is done amazingly. It's just fine. Nothing is amazing, it's just decent.

Sound:

The voice actors do a fine job portraying their characters, they sound believable. I like how the female voice actors do an excellent job at portraying the little girls voices. It sounds believable. The soundtrack, however, is mediocre. Nothing stands out. The OP and ED are as basic as you can get.

Characters:

This show comes with a decent amount of characters, but they are all written HORRIBLY. Our lead, Rentarou, is about an interesting as watching grass grow. He doesn't develop, he doesn't do anything that makes him stand out from the rest of the crowd, he's your basic lead. Enju is that fly that keeps swarming around your head that you want to smack but you never can. She's a useless, one dimensional character who has a tragic backstory only to hook you into her to find something interesting about her. Kisara is the bland "Love interest?????" who does nothing to the show. She is there for the sake of it. Our main villain and his daughter are the bad guys who are behind this whole thing but later decide to join up with Rentarou because. Then we have Rentarou's dad who is only there for one episode and is never brought up again. Then we have the girls who are only in there for an episode and are never brought up again. Then we mention Rentarou's dead mother only once and is never brought up again. Basically, every character is useless, unlikeable, selfish, bland, etc.

Enjoyment:

Trash. Utter trash.

This anime is nothing more than dog shit. Every character is either bland, stupid, useless, etc. The story is full of inconsistencies and plot holes, the ending is clustered mess, the pacing is awful, the anime is AWFUL. PLEASE DO NOT WATCH IT. It sucks. If you want a better anime, watch Attack on Titan even as mediocre as it is. Just do not watch this piece of shit.

-THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A FEW SPOILERS-


Charlotte seems to be the "Key" title that sticks out the most from the bunch. Not only is it an original story, but it also has a darker and more complicated story. Yes. COMPLICATED. As it is a Key title, many people got hyped up for it before it came out and it has become one of the most popular shows of not only the Summer 2015 season, but in 2015 as well. So how is it really?

Story: 3/10

As with all the Key titles, Charlotte starts off as this happy, school feeling slice-of-life show. A few episode later it dives ... down into deeper and darker themes with the characters revealing something different about them. The entire show mostly plays out on the darker moments rather than the school life and that is something I appreciate from it. However, it doesn't save the story from being a rushed mess. Like Gakkou Gurashi, Charlotte's story doesn't know what it wants to be. It jumbles from a happy slice-of-life show to dark action show with a hint of mystery. The story seems as if it's changing it's mind every 5 minutes from the two themes since it wants to be both but it doesn't know how. Also, it's very rushed. We have a death in episode 6 from a character we should care about but the anime gives us so little time with that character. Instead, it gives us a baseball episode and a camping episode. Those episodes should've been used for us to learn about the characters more. Every episode after episode 6 is a Steins;Gate wannabe mindfuck. Only not that good kind. With a rushed story and such little episodes, everything seems to complicated to follow.

Art: 5/10

Charlotte was brought to us by studio P.A. Works. Responsible for shows like Angel Beats (another Key anime) and Nagi no Asukara. And the production values for those shows are beautiful to look at. While the shows themselves may not hold up well, they still have beautiful art and animation all around. This however, kind of does that, just in a very toned down kind of way. The animation in the opening is beautiful and really brings out P.A. Works potential with their animation skills. Not only that, but the colors and backgrounds (excluding some of the character designs) mix in pretty well. Another thing I like is how when the tone shifts, the color pallets would change in tone and it does it wonderfully. But the rest of the animation is pretty mediocre. The characters movements seem very sloppy and a bit too quick for the type of anime this is. Also, the hair and the eye combination for some of these characters just doesn't mix well together. Nao's sea foam type hair and dark blue eyes just seem so off. The lead singer for the band who is blind has pink hair and light blue eyes just looks so mismatched. The animation isn't terrible or bad by any means, but for P.A. Works, it's kind of a let down.

Sound: 5/10

Highlight of the show. This show gets props for having a great opening and ending song. The opening gives out a happy, cheerful but subtle deep themes that just fit perfectly for the show. The ending is a much more so somber that also fits the show well. Also, the show has a great cast of voices that all put great effort into their performances. However, even if the sound is good, the soundtrack on the other hand is lacking. It sounds just like a bunch of things we've heard of before and some of the soundtracks that play do not match with the scene the anime is showing us. However, that doesn't weigh out the good performances by the cast.

Characters: 2/10

OH BOY HERE WE GO. The worst part of Charlotte. Nao while actually a pretty interesting character doesn't do much or develops. Otosaka, the main lead, goes from a bad ass to a bland and uninteresting character by episode 3. Otosaka's sister plays a major role in the show but she's the same moeshit, "ONIICHAN!" stereotype we've seen in a billion of other shows. Rest of the characters? Who cares? They don't do much to the show or show up at all. Even the new character don't do much at all. They're just there to give Otosaka his orders while just standing around. What am I supposed to feel for this idol chick with her dead sister ability? NOTHING. Since the anime barley gives her any screen time. The guy with the glasses not only has no point to the anime, but he's one of the most pointless characters I've ever seen. Key's worst characters to date.


Enjoyment: 3/10

I liked some of the action moments and watching Nao. That's it. Most of the time I was just checking the time and begging this anime to be over and done with. It was painful to sit through to the point I felt like dropping it. I very much dislike dropping series and I didn't want this to be my first.

Overall:

Wasted Potential: The Anime.
Charlotte has a misguided and jumbled story, average animation (though not exactly a bad thing), HORRENDOUS CHARACTERS, and a rushed ending that makes you go, "What was the point of it all? Why did I watch this atrocity?" P.A. Works has never really been good at drama anime or good at anything in the matter, but this feels like a new low for the studio. And I though Glasslip from last summer was a bad anime by P.A. Works- and even though it's bad, it's not Charlotte bad. I really would like to see something good from P.A. Works for once. FOR ONCE. I guess that's too much to ask. I recommend staying away from this series. Even though it has a good opening and ending and a good cast that gave out great performances, it doesn't save the show at all.

3/10

(FIRST REVIEW)
(ALSO SPOILERS)

Gakkou Gurashi (School-Live!) is an interesting anime that blew up in the Summer 2015 season. Many people praised it for being unique, dark, and a fresh new take on the zombie genre. It has moe girls and zombies. 2 things to bait the anime community in. So how does this "masterpiece" hold up?

Story: 4/10

The story in this is so average. The story changes in tone shift from being a cute, moeshit, slice of life show from a dark and depressing Madoka Magica take. However, it does it horribly. There's no weight to either of these sides to the anime and it just ... makes the anime seem lazy and lacking. Also how some episodes would just focus on moeshit rather than the actual story we all came it to see. It acts like it doesn't care at all. However, something I can say about the story is how it takes some risks. I was surprised by how this show deals with some tragedy and the way it does it is quite impressive. Doesn't excuse the story from being lackluster and bi-polar.

Art: 5/10

Lerche was everywhere spewing out shows in the Summer season. Too bad all of them were fucking trash but at least they had some decent art. I like how the characters movements are so fluid in some scenes and how their movements would change with the tone. For example, Kurumi attempting to kill some zombies would have pace that's quicker rather than usual when she's just standing in the slice of life would. I also like how well the color pallet would stick well with the tones as well. Keeping it dark and creepy when it needs to. But sadly, that's basically it. The art does nothing to stick out but instead it just blends in with other anime. Also, most of the animation is SO STILTED. All the characters mostly do is just stand around talking. It seems like they even forgot they were in this terrible show. Not much to say, the art and animation are just average.

Sound: 4/10

The voice actresses showed some emotion in their performances here and there but nothing really seemed to stick out as well. They at least tried I'll give them that. A good thing about the sound however is the music box that would play here and there and would sound like it's dying right at the end when something bad happens. Yes, music boxes have been done to death in anime, but it was still a nice touch. As for everything else? MOESHIT TO THE MAX. Nothing in the soundtrack stands out at all. It's the same shit we've heard over and over and over again in other slice of life, cute girls doing cute things anime. Average.

Character: 3/10

Holy shit, where do I begin? These characters are so 2-dimensional. None of them have a personality nor do any of them develop.

Yuki is just the same old ditzy girl we see in all anime before who acts like everything around her is fine. She has a personality but it's annoying and she does not develop.

Kurumi is the tomboy who had to kill the love of her life (THAT IS NEVER BROUGHT UP AGAIN) who has no personality. She is a blank slate.

Yuuri, the worst character, also has no personality. She's just there to make food and keep the club under protection. Another blank slate that doesn't develop. The anime tries and make her seem different and attempt to "develop" her by attempting to kill Kurumi when Kurumi is turning into a zombie. It was handled horribly since Kurumi and Yuuri barely shared a bond together so how are we supposed to care? I sure as hell know I didn't.

Miki is an overprotective character who tried and seems like she cares for the club. Another blank slate who kinda develops but is done also horribly.

Everyone else is a waste of your time. The characters are the worst part of the entire show.

Enjoyment: 5/10

Although it was painful to watch sometimes, I still kind of enjoyed this anime. I was still intrigued on everything that was going on and was just begging that this anime would get better, but nope.

Overall:

Gakkou Gurashi is a dumb, moeshit, same old slice of life show we've seen a million of times in other series. The only thing that this show does different is that it has zombies. It has 1-dimensional characters, average art, a weak story that doesn't know what it wants to be, and a soundtrack that makes you want to drill your ears. You want a good slice of life show? Go watch Aria the Animation. At least that one has good characters, better art and a story that's actually well written. Stay away from this anime. It's just another show that goes into the trash just like every other anime from the Summer 2015 season. Lerche has fucked up big time.

4/10