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ART 7/10
Iblard Jikan is a slide show of pretty background pictures, with occasional movement featuring unnamed and completely irrelevant characters which are animated in visibly different style, breaking whatever illusion Iblard Jikan tried to achieve with its oil paintingish backgrounds. Iblard is a fantastic looking place with floating rocks and all kinds of random thingies.

STORY 1/10
There is none.

SOUND 2/10
A dull unimaginative elevator music plays through the entire slideshow.

CHARACTER 1/10
There were none.

ENJOYMENT 1/10
If you enjoy looking at your computers screensaver for long periods of time, this show is for you. However, I don't find pleasure in that kind of leisure at all.

OVERALL 1/10
This is not entertainment and really isn't anime either. Iblard Jikan is a slideshow of pretty pictures with a zoom & pan effect coupled with drowsy soundtrack. read more

Gyo is a waking nightmare. Some people think it's just plain disgusting, or it doesn't have a decent plot, or it doesn't explain anything in detail, or lack of character developement. Neither do nightmares, and this is why Gyo is so great. It is there and fills your screen with grotesque imagery and your head with a fitting landscape. That is what it does, and does it brilliantly. The atmosphere in Gyo is just right for a nightmare. Everything is a bit off and out of place in this piece of bizarre horror.

Bad things first: my biggest complaints are not the characters, as for a nightmare acting a bit too normal despite the massively unfathomable situation is yet again only strangely fitting. The biggest complaint is over-use of CGI, which at few points breaks the illusion this show provides.

Suddenly, apparently out of nowhere masses of rotting dead fish start to crawl on the ground with strange mechanical devices. Nobody apparently cares. Sure they make news, but at first everyone just sits by idly and takes pictures. Then people start dying, and from there on Gyo only gets more and more bizarre and increasingly disturbing and terrifying. Just by glimpsing the short story synopsis one might shrug their shoulders and think "well, it sounds rubbish" - and that is what it is! It makes no sense at all. It is never explained why it happens. It is not supposed to make sense. Origins of phenomena are shed light on, but how it developed is never revealed. If you can adjust to thinking that you are indeed watching a nightmare instead of dark science fiction survival drama, you will love Gyo for that. In one particular scene something that is extremely out of place but still strangely fitting happens, which only increases the feeling that this indeed is a nightmare visualized. That's why I loved Gyo as a horror fan, as it does what Clive Barker has been trying to do for years and in what H. P. Lovecraft only partially succeeded due limitations of medium.

Gives you a nightmare to gaze upon. read more

First things first: I'm not a moeblob fanatic and generally dismiss slice-of-life shows, but I like Ichigo Mashimaro very much, because despite the characters being impossibly cute and the show never having anything important going on, this show is first and foremost a piece of comedic brilliance delivered by cast of awesome characters and even better character synergy. This is already well evident in first minutes of the first episodes, when Nobue greets the viewer with cheery voice and tells she's a 16-year-old high-school student, only to correct her statement a moment later admitting in laconic voice that she's actually 20 and then proceeds to "borrow" her little sister's money for cigarettes. From there on, it only gets better.

The characters in this anime are outstanding. The best thing about the characters is that the kids (Miu, Matsuri, Chika & Ana) are Kids, and Nobue is an Adult. I capitalised those letters on purpose, because this is where Ichigo Mashimaro truly shines. The kids are easily compromised emotionally, and seek attention & acceptance of Nobue. Nobue in turn acts like a young adult with sense of responsibility: caring over the kids and observing their play. Some might mistake her habit of hanging among the kids as hanging with the kids, but I see it differently. She doesn’t really play with them but plays along if necessary, and doesn’t hesitate being abruptly strict & unfriendly if things go too far. She is not exactly friends with them, but she is friendly. These are all subtle but important differences. This quite realistic child-adult relationship is clearly visible in one particular episode, where Nobue simply ignores Miu because of Miu’s shenanigans. What happens then? Miu who seeks attention by acting increasingly irritating suddenly stops the act, starts crying, and complains that Nobue doesn’t care about her! The character interactions of children of this level of realism are rare in anime, and thus simply a pleasure to watch, especially when the context of realism is one of the most enjoyable comedies around. I don’t feel like writing detailed individual character descriptions, but they are varied and nicely avoid being striking stereotypes. Nobue for example smokes, drinks, vexes kids occasionally & procrastinates on school tasks – so much for being the admirable onee-sama. Chika is at first glance “The Normal”, but in the end easily tags along for mischiefs and misunderstands things. Miu is the hyperactive comedic epicentre with wildly rampant thought patterns reflected in her speech & actions, but she’s also the leader-type acting as the driving force of the group.

Finally, as for the currently top-rated review by Ranivus, I really must point out that he most likely hasn’t watched this show and/or doesn’t understand what loli and fanservice mean. This is NOT a loli anime and there is NO fanservice, let alone having loli fanservice for heaven’s sake! To further emphasize what I meant with Ranivus not having actually seen this show: kids in the show all eat the same school food during lunch whereas his claim goes “different individual lunches all the kids in the classroom are eating”. They are not eating home-made bento. The claim “there’s no music whatsoever during the show” is also plain wrong, because there in fact is background music on several occasions. I suggest ignoring his review, as it is simply misleading in every single aspect other than the facts that this show indeed is cute and pastel-coloured and features kids. Then again, that is evident just by looking at the first image that comes by googling.

Just to make it perfectly clear: if you are looking for a show with lolis flashing their pantsu and providing ample fanservice, then this show is not for you. However, if you want one of the best & funniest slice-of-life comedies with surprisingly realistic adult-children interactions, then you're looking at the right show. read more

When I first finished this anime, I gave it 8. But I wasn't entirely honest with myself. This anime is possibly the anime I've subjectively enjoyed the most. As a pure episodic comedy, it won't be as deep as Erog Proxy or other mature anime, and there was my mistake: I was trying to compare a comedy to dark toned artsy series with deep plots. Then I raised the number to 9, thinking it had some shortcomings, but today after I yet again rewatched some of my favourite scenes I decided to give it a straght 10 and write a review. For me, Nichijou represents the pinnacle of comedy par none. This is just so good.

What makes Nichijou so special? It is hard to pick any single factor, since the wholeness is constructed out of small pieces which overlap flawlessly. The art style is extremely good for Nichijou. It's colourful yet edgy & plain, granting the characters adequate space for conveying the subtlest comedic effects. The character expressions and body language are simply priceless. This effect is then enhanced by the awesome seiyuus who really breathe life into their characters with unique voice talents - all of the characters have their own speech quirks, speech patterns and tones. It gets never monotonous with Nichijou! Every character then has own distinct personality, enhanced by their expressions, body language and seiyuus. Every single one of them has something slightly off normal. The characters resulting from this kind of build where all the bases are well covered are pure diamond, and they really drive the jokes forward at a break-neck speed.
Despite Nichijou being mostly about cheap Monty Python -esque flood of gags, the jokes work so well because the characters are so well designed & performing. This doesn't only apply to the main characters, but extends to the plethora of supporting acts as well.

The only weakness Nichijou has as a comedy are some of the recurring jokes and some really high-flying extended jokes which only manage to create a humongous what-the-hell-did-I-just-see-what-is-this-I-don't-even inside viewers head. Some sketches are also aimed on pure "cute" side of the scale instead of the "humour". However, I've concluded this variety is actually a good thing: it actually makes the pacing better and gives the viewer some time to breathe between extremely hard-hitting jokes. Mony Python's Flying Circus which now comes second on my list of all-time best comedies failed at this. Just try marathoning it and you'll notice you are a bit numb after just two or three episodes. This doesn't happen with Nichijou.

I can't praise this anime enough. It simply has to be experienced, as words are not enough. You can't ever explain perfectly what makes things funny and others may not share your idea of "fun", but I'm rather certain that everyone can find something to enjoy in Nichijou. read more

Hands down the most enjoyable anime of winter 2011... if you just can shut down your higher level brain activity for 24 minutes. Loaded with fanservice, appealing stereotypes, and so thick harem lead that he makes yeast look like an expert in reading human emotions, this is truly entertainment at its purest form.

STORY
No story to speak of, this anime follows interactions between socially awkward stereotypes, more of those later.

ART
I really like the art direction on this one. It's like crossover of Mayoi Neko Overrun and Denpa Onna, both actually animes with similar characteristics to this one.

SOUND
Very good. Seiyuus are top-notch in their roles, especially Kanae Itou as Sena, the archetypical tsundere princess. Yes, the very same voice actor who played Fumino in Mayoi Neko! Also, Kana Hanazawa who plays the gothic-loli Kobato also played the gothic-loli Kuroneko in Oreimo. So delicious, ku ku ku~
Soundtrack isn't that thrilling, but both OP & ED I've actually listened every time, which I do rarely.

CHARACTERS
Oh what a joy ride of stereotypes. Harem lead that is as thick as panzer armour. His little sister dressing like gothic loli and acts like video game character. A childhood friend that is irritating & bullying, but oh-so-fragile and pretty. A dominating rich beautiful blonde tsundere with H-cup living in mansion, also so fragile it's moe. A mecha-loving perverse girl genius. A cross-dressing bishounen wimp serving tea in meido-dress while not being gay(?).
And on top of them all we get: a loli nun with cute fang and pale skin, propably with health problems, calling main character onii-san and so gullible it is impossibly moe. What more could you possibly ask?!

ENJOYMENT
This show is the embodiment of enjoyment. Pantsu per minute ratio is about perfect, fanservice is very generous, characters flaunting their goods are perfectly varied, characters are safe stereotypes so you don't have to think, and plot is propably too DEEP for you. This is the show you want to watch while slightly or heavily intoxicated, or even when sober! When on my saturday anime afternoon I have three new episodes to see, this one gets always watched first. Oh, and three swimsuit episodes in a row? You got the idea.

OVERALL
Go watch this show. read more

I just have to review this one shortly. Angel Cop is a rarity: anime that tries too hard to feel & look like western animations, and fails at it miserably. Definately product of 80's, Angel Cop manages to insert every single 80's cliche there is into this short 6 episodes. You will get psychics resembling hard rockers, a cop so badass he isn't even wearing shirt under his brown leather jacket while riding his motorcycle (his name is Raiden, too. Now that's rad!), rewind scenes showing multiple times how heroine takes off her helmet, evil gigantic corporations, hair metal... you'll get it all! Also, I just have to mention shoulders from the art side. Every person boasts shoulders which would make Brock Lesnar jealous. Yes, even the females.

The plot... well, there isn't much into it. It was all explained in one long conversation, which frankly had nothing to do with main characters, they were fighting elsewhere. I can't tell for sure: despite being only 6 episodes long, Angel Cop is pretty confusing at times - in a bad way.

Nevertheless, I kinda enjoyed watching this. It's so camp and hilarious in its absurdly horrid way that it's borderline genius. Meant to be serious and aimed for adults, I smiled all the way. I considered dropping it after every episode, but like a dog returning to his abandoned barf, I resumed watching. Will remember this one warmly. read more