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Kotonoha No Niwa is one tasty little morsel! It is short, sweet, and simple.

The scenery is simply gorgeous and the animation is stellar. Every frame is yummy. The attention to detail is incredibly rich.

While some found the story lacking I quite enjoyed its blatant simplicity. Sometimes things are complicated in life, yet sometimes they are simpler than we think. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling things, thinking things, doing things just because. No other reason, things just happen. Kotonoha No Niwa is a story of things just happening to two different people, and resulting in their gravitation towards each other. There could be more to ... the story, yes. Much more in fact. But there doesnt need to be more.

The characters may not be developed to the extent that many movies have done, but it is not necessary. Their emotions are raw and clear. It doesn't matter where they come from, who they are. They are just two ordinary people, so even without character development we should all know exactly what it is like to be them, who they are. Their designs also reflect that normality, giving then generic yet unique facades.

I cannot stress it's simplicity and that I found that simplicity to be something quite wonderful.

Give it a go, especially if you enjoy subtle stories and gorgeous artwork.

Sakamichi No Apollon is, to put it simply, a taste of life.

I watched it on a whim when I was looking for a show to watch and ate through all the episodes in one night.

The story is realistic, I feel. It touches upon some really human emotions, the simple ones. The ones we deal with in our everyday lives: the happiness we acquire from those around us, confusion, misunderstanding, love (not necessarily romantic love). The plot sucks you in and by the second episode you are attached to the characters completely. The ups and downs they have, you feel too.

The art is simply stunning. Simple, ... yet effective. The characters have distinct features that are unique and interesting. While there are the occasional sausage hands and some odd blobs, usually even down to the fingernails are done in a very tactile way. The animation is smooth and clean.

Sound, well it has to be good for a show with a music theme! And it was. I enjoyed listening to both the jazz the characters played as well as the jazz that was in the bg music. It moved from classical to jazz appropriately based on the mood. Even though the singing was mediocre, I actually quite enjoyed the cover of "My Favorite Things".

Character is the only place where this show lost a pinch of its greatness. And its only because of the relationship between Nishimi and Ritsu. I felt that them never having a real good romantic moment was a bit of a letdown. It was always one or the other in a bad mood or misunderstanding. I feel like all the other characters got their "happy ending" except these two. Even Sen is happy despite vanishing after he crashed his bike. But the ending made up for most of it. I was left feeling like "everything is ok and is going to be ok in the future" which is how i like to feel at the end of a show. So only 1 point lost here!

I thoroughly enjoyed this show! It felt real - relate-able. Visually and sound-wise, yummy. Good characters. Cliff hangers at ends of episodes were perfect and made me want more. Its a melancholy show that fluctuates between heartache and simple but wholesome happiness. You go up and down, but you are sure to feel good at the end! A must watch!

I am a fan of Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World manga. I have been looking forward to the anime adaptation since I caught wind of its making....

....and I am thoroughly disappointed with the outcome.

The storyline and character/story development in the manga was solid and enjoyable. The anime is a total spastic, rushed mess of chaos. It starts off in the middle of a scene. Now, thats not a bad thing in itself, BUT in this case, it was. Even thought I have read the manga, I was totally confused. Where was it? What was happening? Why were Alice and the Twins being ... chased? It was never brought up again what was going on.

On top of this, we are introduced the characters in a list-like fashion, not as Alice meets them and learns about them.

Plot: nonexistant....wonderland is not supposed to make sense, yes, but its supposed to be rhyme with reason, ordered chaos, not just running around showing up here and there for no reason at all.

A few scenes ring true to what the manga storyline told, and had the rest of the manga been followed, this might have been more of a success.

Also, for some reason I do not understand, the makers decided to make this a movie, not an episodic show. An episodic show makes more sense for the storyline. Everything ended up being too rushed in the movie.

Overall, I don't recommend anyone watch this if they have NOT read the manga first. Absolutely nothing will make sense at all. For those that have read it, the movie still wont make that much sense, but it makes up a bit for the complete lack of character introductions and development.

School Days: NOT a nice romantic anime about the drama of high school romance....well there is drama - ALOT OF DRAMA - but not just normal drama.

Ok, so to all who HAVE NOT WATCHED this anime please note that I will go through my scoring here without spoilers, but after I will put a header under which will be (you guessed it) spoilers....so don't read past that line if you want the suspense.

SCORES:

Story - 7
I give it a 7 and not a 2 because, the horrific ending DID make me want to beat many of the characters to a pulp. For me, an anime is ... only successful if it can make me FEEL some emotion...and boy this one did! I was so pissed! Uhhhhh! I can't even talk about it!

Art - 6
Fair, but MANY scenes look like they were done too quickly and not enough detail was put into them. Others where great, the detail in the closeups on hands was pretty impressive. Eyes were good despite being the common anime girl eye style. The lack of highlights made the later scenes even more...creepy.

Sound - 6
Eh..ok..nothing special though.

Character - 3
Characters started out with good foundation and felt emotionally present and realistic but by about the 6th episode I started to wonder if the staff had changed the characters personalities w/o changing their faces and names. All of a sudden they were all weird and so FAKE.

Enjoyment - 3
I liked it very much until, again, about the 6th or 7th episode. When Katsura started acting REALLY weird and some more secrets about Makoto came out, I was just getting annoyed. One, I wanted to sock Makoto and two I wanted to slap Katsura into sense! In the end: VERY BAD TATSE in my mouth, so to say. Really not liking the disturbing end...

By the way, why is it not labeled at pshycological or horror here? IT NEEDS TO BE!

Overall, watch of you like (semi)perfect situations that turn out wrong in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. This ends with no innocent "school days" love!!!!

OK SPOILER TIME!



I REPEAT: SPOILERS BELOW - DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED!



I just finished the show and DAMN THAT S**T FACED B*****D MAKOTO! He was all innocent and then BAM! Sex maniac! I was like WTF?!?!?!?
And Katsua: SORE LOOSER! CLINGY B**CH! even after Makoto is DEAD! she friggin cuts off his head and rids off into the sunset hugging it! Thats SICK! @.@

Damn, all the girls were ok...and then they all turned into backstabbing whores! I am SEVERELY DISSAPOINTED in how this show ended....Im not even gonna try and watch the OVA's unless they are different. F**K! I need so SERIOUS flowers, and rainbows, and sunshine with ALOT of unicorns on top right now!

Imidoki!: Nowadays

A simply amazing little short manga. I recommend Imidoki! for anyone look for a light romantic manga. The Characters are not shallow and the plot is unique. Great short little manga!

Rating: A+

First Anime I ever watched and I have to say that it was a simply amazing first experience with anime. Although many would say that the style is either outdated of the sound to muted, but both make the series a completely different experience from any other anime I have ever seen.

Rating: A++

I would recommend this anime to ANYONE, both guys and girls!