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Before you instantly downvote this Review for not being a 10, 9 or 8; I'd like to remind you that a 7 should be considered a "Good" RATING. Anything above a 5 should be considered "good". MAL reviews are broken, but I'm at least trying to fix mine. Please take the time to read it all.

Here's a quick TL;DR rundown of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

1- You've probably seen it before. There's nothing special about this Anime. The story is just a sequence of events thrown together so as to fit as many gags as possible in, the characters are recycled, the gags are overused. If you're looking for plot, or great comedy, you won't find it in Nyaruko.

2- The Anime is character based. As with all Anime targeted towards an Otaku audience aiming to be as marketable as possible, Nyaruko's strength is with it's characters. They're memorable, they're funny and they each have their own distinct trope. Some people maybe see this as a bad thing, and in a sense it is, but for what Nyaruko is aiming for, it's succeeded in making the characters as fun as possible.

3- Because it's a character-driven anime, the art and character designs are great. Who cares about plot when you have these beautiful pictures to look at? Or so they want us to think. It's not that bad though. They designs are clear-cut, distinct and present the constant moe and service very well.

4- The music is good. Catchy OP; better ED. All's nice and well. Of course, they're just OPs you've heard a million and ten times before in other Anime, and Nyaruko doesn't even try to be original. It knows it doesn't need to be.

5- It's a light hearted watch. As I've said on countless other Anime, don't take it too seriously. No; it's not GREAT, it's not groundbreaking and it certainly won't appeal to everyone. But if you want something light-hearted and fun, and you enjoy squealing at moe characters and laughing at over the top gags, then you'll probably enjoy this. read more

Accel World. Wow.

Let me be honest here. I went into this Anime expecting it to be just the usual Shounen, Sci-Fi, Action, Garbage that's marketed toward teenage boys these days. And in a sense; it is. But it does so perfectly.

In the sense of Story (so far that is) Accel World takes a basic plot premise and massively expands on it. I see no holes, I see no deus ex machina, I see no excuse for the writers to shove in an extra battle or character death or fanservice shot. Everything looks planned out, everything looks structured; it looks like Accel world is heading in the exact direction it needs to go.

In the terms of it's Genre and it's Target Audience; Accel World succeeds. It plays to it's strengths; it doesn't try to be original; and in the act, it ends up being so. I see Accel World as an example of what we could have got if Guilty Crown or Mirai Nikki weren't train-wrecks.

Won't comment much more now; will leave room for the next few episodes. read more

Now; I'm going to try and write a balanced review for this; all I've seen so far are people giving ridiculous 10s or others being stupidly harsh on a show they've only watched 1 episode on. These are the kind of reviews that shouldn't be making front pages and are written by people who shouldn't be writing reviews at all.

Upotte!; most "controversial" Anime of the season. Never have I seen so much (unneeded) hate on something so harmless. It seem people just like to hate on an Anime for the fun of it. Here's a top ten Run Down of the Anime;

1- It is NOT a masterpiece. Stop treating it like it should be one and stop rating and reviewing it as if you were expecting it to be the breakout Anime of the year, and then were bitterly disappointed.

2- It is HILARIOUS. If you watch it with an Objective, completely neutral mindset; you will laugh, A LOT. If you watch it while thinking it's "moe ecchi garbage" you will not find it funny. Simple as.

3- It's very informative; yet it does not take itself too seriously. This show knows exactly what it's talking about; and it plays with the premise spectacularly.

4- It's targeted at a MOE-ECCHI FANBASE. Do not complain about it if you do not enjoy these things. You know what you're getting yourself into.

5-However, it's surprisingly action-packed. Recent episodes have given us very impressive and smart action sequences.

6- The Art is horrible. You have been warned. There's nothing good to say about it. At all.

7- The characters are GREAT. Each character is original, likeable and marketable. I can already see the fanbase being split off into FNC, M14, L1A1 and SIG fanboys.

8- It caters to everything. Loli-con, Onee-chans, Nekomimi, Moe, Elf, Ecchi, it's all there. Throw in some perverted jokes and very well done fanservice and you have yourself fap-bait. Remember, MALE-OTAKU audience.

9- It's completely original. You probably haven't seen anything like this. I don't even know what genre to classify it as. It's either Genius or Very Stupid.

10- It's enjoyable in a very light-hearted way. It's meant for comedy and ecchi after all. It's not Shakespeare. But (once again) it is VERY funny and VERY enjoyable.

There we go. My two cents. We're all entitled to gives 10s and 1s to what we want; but we're not entitled to push these opinions on other people. I'm trying to counter the ridiculous reviews out there that are doing a massive disservice to this otherwise very well made Anime. Give it a fair chance. read more

Hyouka Review - Updated for Episode 3

Finally we're going in a direction. I think 2 episodes of Character introduction were a pretty good way to handle it; but episode 3 gives us a true glimpse into what Hyouka really has to offer.

Story - 8

Bumped this up a level simply because episode 3 finally got me interested. Who is Chitanda's Uncle? Why is so so special? What happened at the Classics clubs 45 years ago? When an Anime succeeds in making me long for the next episode in order to get answers; then it's done it's job well. We can finally see some "mystery". Now, if they can keep this going for 20+ episodes without getting dull is a different story.

Art- 10

Hyouka excels when it comes to Art. Clean lines, perfect lighting, cut shadows. It does everything immaculately. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that it's the best animated show this season so far. But the point is, Hyouka does quite amazing things with it's art, in that it fully emphasises it with long cuts and off-angle shots reminiscent of "5 Centimetres per Second" and "Bakemonogatari". What can we expect from KyoAni?

Sound - 7

Bumped this down a score simply because I think the use of Classical works in the anime (such as in Episode 3, my Favourite; Air on the G) feels forced and out of place. They use the music at the wrong time, during the wrong scene and I don't really think it fits in with the Anime at all. They seem to want to add them because they somehow create an air of "intelligence" or "exclusiveness" to the Anime; which I think is wrong. The original work besides that isn't anything special that has stuck in my head yet.

Just now realised there isn't an OP. Don't know what to make of that.

Also, voice acting. Very good. It's only when you start actively noticing (and enjoying) a character's voice that you know a voice actor's done well. In my case, Chitanda. I'm a sucker for moe.

Character- 8

Besides the fact I do not like the Protag in the slightest (most lame, overused excuse for a character insert I've seen), the other 3 are actually quite well made. They each have their own likeable aspects. Of course, we're only 3 episodes in so we're not going to get any depth. However, I can quickly see Chitanda becoming another fan-crush. Heck, even I'm falling for her.

Enjoyment- 8

So far; Hyouka is a very calming watch. It you watch it expecting some sort of Masterpiece or Brain-Boggler then you'll be disappointed. If you watch it snuggled up with a cup of tea (or coffee, whatever floats your boat) and relax to the gentle soundtrack, soft voices and hidden comedy then you'll be sure to enjoy it. Hyouka is all about undertones, and if you don't like Anime that's in your face and overly excessive and loud, you'll probably enjoy it.


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If you plan to watch this anime with the assumption you'll get a lot of moe loli-fanservice, then you'll be sad to know that there isn't much of it.

What you do get however, is a very deep, touching story, that's very thoughtfully written. It tackles a lot of different, difficult topics and approaches them in a very realistic manner. The result is a very sweet anime that breaks from the norm and is a great optimistic, thought-provoking watch.

I won't say any more here as nothing much needs to be said. Watch with low-expectations (as I did at the beginning) and you'll be sure to have them far exceeded.

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Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

Steins;Gate

Because it's full of holes.

Yes, it was very enjoyable. And yes, it's much better and smarter and more sophisticated than a lot of anime out there.

But it could have been even better.

Steins;Gate didn't live up to it's potential. What it gave us is only a fraction of what I think it should have. Why do I say this?

Well, for an audience that doesn't watch much sci-fi, this is an amazing anime. I'd highly recommend it to anybody that isn't really into science-fiction as a taster.

But if you watch or read sci-fi; or if you even have a basic high-school knowledge of Physics, you'll be picking out holes in this series every episode. The number of paradoxes created, and the amount of stupid crap spouted by some of these characters was enough to ruin the show for me. (CERN? Seriously? Dystopian future world controlled by CERN? Do they know anything about the scientific world whatsoever?)

The series starts slow, but it operates and moves at a good pace. The main character Okabe Rintarou, is ear-grindingly annoying at first, coming across as incredibly forced fan bait.

But eventually things start to pick up, and it's during the final quarter of the anime that it really begins to shine. The soundtrack is amazing, the characters are deep and structured and layered, and anime will have you feeling fulfilled and whole by the twenty-fourth episode.

It's a shame that it couldn't reach it's potential. But what we got wasn't bad at all.

Scruff

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WARNING- Nothing like the OVA.

I for one was very disappointed. I enjoyed the OVA, the art was great, the soundtrack was amazing, and the voice acting perfected. (Yeah the story could have been better.)

But what the OVA did right, the adaptation did wrong.

The art-style changed. Character designs were completely redrawn. The designs in the OVA were great, but in the anime they just look bland and half-hearted.

The voice-acting and the music weren't as bad, but they still don't quite match up to what the OVA gave us.

And the story... well that was just stupid. It's another Otaku bait anime that wants to give us kawaii-moe girls in a high school drama for 5 minutes and then have random intense fantasy battle scenes thrown in because we obviously don't have attention spans that can put up with it. According to BRS, if we don't see swords and tits every few minutes, we'd get bored and stop watching.

The problem is, for this anime. It's true. read more