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After a woman is attacked by a kid with a golden baseball bat, the police launch an investigation to track down the assailant, dubbed "Little Slugger" ("Shounen Bat" in the Japanese dub) but soon enough the race is on to find him as more and more people are attacked. For a while, Paranoia Agent seems like a slightly off-beat detective series. But with this being an directed by Satoshi Kon, things are not as straightforward as they might seem at first.

Each episode focuses on a different person or group of people associated with the Little Slugger mystery, while two cops are on the case trying to figure out who the kid is and what his motives are, but things soon become more complicated. There's a big psychological element in the series, and there are times when you're not quite sure what's supposed to be real and what isn't. There is a trio of episodes around the middle of the series that can be described as filler, but it's worth pointing out that they are actually quite enjoyable filler, and the quality of the episodes is no worse than the rest of the series.

The animation in Paranoia Agent is excellent. There is great attention to detail and the backgrounds look superb. Some of the character designs are a little weird, notably a few of the male characters having large mouths and tiny eyes. As such they may not be to everyone's tastes, but it does make a refreshing change from the typical anime character design where almost everyone looks improbably good.

Susumu Hirasawa does a very good job in the music department. The opening theme is bizarre, but at the same time pretty good. Combined with images of the cast standing in random places, laughing maniacally for no apparent reason while some sort of apocalypse goes on behind them, makes for one of the oddest opening credits ever seen, but also one of the best. The ending theme is equally weird, but unfortunately just sounds rather annoying. The voice acting in both the Japanese and English dubs is very good, with the voices matching the characters quite well.

Paranoia Agent is not quite as good as it could be, but none of the problems are big enough to significantly hurt the series. The characters are interesting, the animation is stunning, the plot is deep, and all the twists and turns will keep you guessing until the (rather confusing) ending. The conclusion is a bit of a let down, but given the nature of the series it's not like it's a big surprise, and its still a decent episode in its own right. It's a testament to the writers that they can juggle science fiction, comedy, mystery and psychological drama, and do a surprisingly good job on all fronts. There are moments of violence, as well as the occasional themes of suicide and paedophilia, so this series may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you're into psychological series, Paranoia Agent is highly recommended. read more

At first glance, Narutaru appears to be some sort of shoujo 'mon series for kids. It has the most upbeat opening theme you've ever heard, and starts off fairly relaxed and uncomplicated. But initial appearances can be deceiving, and soon enough themes such as suicide, rape and genocide all start to feature prominently, all involving young teenagers.

It's an interesting subversion of the whole Pokémon-esque genre, and one which had the potential to work out really well. However, Narutaru is held back a number of problems, chief of which is that it only adapts the first half of the manga and doesn't compensate for the loss of the other half. Story arcs are set up and then abandoned, characters get involved and then just disappear, and most of the mysteries go unresolved. Because of this, the majority of the characters' motives and personalities are not sufficiently explored, and as such end up being rather shallow and two-dimensional, making it hard to care about what happens to them.

The art is rather poor and in need of work. The dragon designs are not bad and are fairly varied, but that's about the best thing it has going for it. Everything looks rather bland and uninteresting, and times it looks like the artists weren't really putting the effort in at all.

The background music is well done, helping to reinforce the dark, unsettling atmosphere of the series, which juxtaposes neatly with the deliberately ironic theme tune.

Ultimately, Narutaru is a series with great potential that is let down by some shoddy execution. The story arcs are fairly good, but for the most part they don't go anywhere because they don't get a chance to finish. Had the series been expanded into a 26 episode anime, it could perhaps have resolved the lingering plot threads and allowed some time to analyse the characters and their motives. Add in some better art and this series could have been a quite interesting take on the Pokémon-esque genre. But the way it is, Narutaru is average at best. If you're a fan of horror anime it's just about worth checking out, but don't expect anything spectacular. read more

Following on from the hilarious slice of life anime series Minami-ke, Okawari continues the story of the daily lives of the Minami family and their friends. For its second season, Minami-ke switches to an entirely new production staff (though the voice actors remain the same), and the difference shows. Okawari changes quite a few things about its predecessor... mostly for the worse.

The main problem with Okawari is the fact that it often seems to forget that it's supposed to be a comedy. Opportunities for jokes frequently go wasted, and the jokes that do appear are usually rather lame. There's the occasional moment of humour, but for the most part with Okawari, it's like just watching the daily lives of the three sisters, waiting patiently in the hope that something funny might happen. Most of the cast from the previous season make a welcome return (although Hosaka isn't as funny as he used to be, as he now just does random things for no apparent reason), but newcomer Fuyuki is a somewhat annoying and tedious character. We never even get to see Touma's brothers ("the other Minami family") in this season, which is a shame because they were pretty good characters in Minami-ke.

Another problem with the series is the gratuitous amount of "fanservice", to the point where this could essentially be called an ecchi anime. The series never misses a chance to follow the characters into the bath or show them with little or no clothing for whatever reason, and of course there's the obligatory public baths episode, which seems to be mandatory with all slice of life anime these days (though to be fair, that particular episode is one of the funnier ones).

One thing that has improved over the first season is the art. For the most part it's pretty competent and there's no significant problems, however there is one issue: for some reason, background characters are all fully animated, with hairstyles and everything, except they're blacked out so you can't see their faces. It looks kind of creepy when you see it in motion, and takes quite some getting used to. Especially when they talk...

The sound and music are fairly good. Both the opening and ending themes for the series are a little strange and don't quite fit the tone and genre of the series, but at the same time they're not bad.

For all its faults, Okawari could be a lot worse. The series can be funny when it tries, and it never gets bad enough as to be unwatchable. Okawari fails to live up to the standard set by its predecessor, but it's not a bad series either. If the writers had concentrated less on unnecessary ecchi and more on humour, it could have been a winner. read more

A cyberpunk series from the creator of Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze is a very dark and gritty anime, filled with lots of violence, sexual scenes and a general feeling of gloom and despair. Set in the underground city of Lux, the series follows several characters who are all caught up in a seemingly inevitable war between the three rival gangs that rule the streets.

Lain's influence is readily apparent on Texhnolyze. Both are slow, contemplative cyberpunk series which make heavy use of ambient music and visuals. Texhnolyze takes this a little further than Lain did though. If you like your anime fast-paced and uncomplicated, this probably isn't the series for you.

Texhnolyze is an anime that doesn't really care too much for words, and often prefers to let its images do the talking. This idea is taken to its extreme in the first episode, where there is almost no dialogue throughout, rendering it rather indecipherable and unfriendly to anyone who might want to watch the series. Fortunately, later episodes are not quite so avant-garde, but the series remains a somewhat "quiet" anime, limiting the amount of dialogue spoken and instead making use of implication and symbolism.

Given this lack of dialogue, it helps that the ambient music is absolutely astounding, contributing enormously to the dark and moody atmosphere. The OP (Guardian Angel by Juno Reactor) is well chosen, fitting the cyberpunk theme perfectly. In fact the music in Texhnolyze is some of the best ever seen in an anime.

As well as the music, the tone of the series is also made apparent in its art. Lux looks suitably dirty and downtrodden, with a colour palette consisting mostly of browns and greys, and the occasional use of overexposed scenes gives it a menacing look.

There's loads of violence and despair, and at times it's not the easiest story to follow. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to work out what's going on, though in fairness it's not the most complicated storyline ever, just difficult to decipher. Unfortunately, although the series has a strong set of characters, we never really get to know them as well as we could have. Also, the pacing is a little too slow at times, particularly at the start of the series. For the first few episodes it almost feels like the series is going absolutely nowhere, but fortunately it picks up the pace after about five episodes or so. Basically, this is not a series for everyone, but if you're willing to accept its flaws then Texhnolyze is a great anime series, recommended to fans of the science fiction and psychological genres in particular. read more