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Kotarou Higuchi is a young boy with a lot of troubles. His mother died when he was young, his father is away often for work leaving Kotarou to take care of things around the apartment they live in and, on top of that, he's not the best student and has to study hard just to get average marks, but wait! One day a mysterious girl claiming to be an angel moves in next door and won't leave him alone.

You know, to be honest, Pita Ten has what sounds like an extremely typical plot. In mahou shoujo this is usually the sort of situation you find, the main variance being: is the guy a pervert or not? The story with Pita Ten though, well...it is a bit typical at first. Still, later on in the series it evolves into a much more serious tone that questions the roles people have in our lives, how death will affect people and subtly touches on human nature as a whole often. But the thing I love especially about the series was that it really did touch my heart, from the sweet moments to the sad ones. Although Pita Ten's story is somewhat typical, it does what a lot of series in the genre cannot and makes you yearn for a happy ending for all the characters, not just what might be perceived as the main couple, no matter how impossible that is. (Also, no, Kotarou is not a pervert).

The art is by Koge Donbo, which, in my opinion, almost instantly means it will be remarkable. The character designs are all very cute, if not original. Still there are almost no points in the series where the art is anything less than wonderful (not counting, I suppose, the moments where the characters a chibi for humorous purposes, but even then they succeed in being quite adorable). Koge Donbo doesn't quite have a perfect or mature art style, but her style fits the story perfectly and only makes the series better.

Almost all of the characters are in sixth grade (the last grade of elementary school in most of Japan) and so they are quite focused on middle school entrance exams often. Usually I find this a worn out character storyline, but somehow it isn't in Pita Ten. The characters only develop more in what they hope to achieve by these exams (Ayanokoji in particular has a lot of character depth around this). Although I've known some people to call Misha (the main character who claims to be an angel) annoying, I loved her from the moment I started reading (and took up her name as a nickname for about two years). I think once more of her past is revealed you can forgive her for being slightly annoying. All in all the characters were very good since most of them have quite interesting pasts and almost all of them do something important to move along the series, which seems to not be the case often, as supporting characters fade in and out without much importance in a lot of other series. Happily this is not the case in Pita Ten, where almost all the characters are immediately lovable (there is one exception in my opinion, but isn't there always?)

On a personal note, Pita Ten was the first manga I really read and bought all of the volumes of. I've sold most of my other manga series over the years, but Pita Ten is still on my bookshelf. Often times I go back and read a few chapters randomly, and a few times I've read the whole series in one sitting. It's the only series I do that with and it's because I enjoy it so much. Pita Ten starts out as a bit of a light-hearted manga with some romance, drama and comedy, but over the course of the series it begins to evolve to show you more and more of what's going on until everything is revealed to be completely different from your initial opinion. The first few volumes don't feel like much besides some laughs and a bit of budding romance, but they are fun to read. Past that things take a turn for the even better as the comedy and romantic elements become a bit less and the supernatural and drama pieces show up more and more. Pita Ten is one of those series that goes from cute and bubbly to deadly serious to romance to...well you get the idea. However, unlike a lot of series, Pita Ten does it with nearly flawless execution, meaning you get just about everything you could want without it feeling too weighed down.

Overall, Pita Ten probably isn't the best series out there, it definitely isn't original and it isn't trying to be. To me Pita Ten isn't about falling in love or finding love. Instead it's more about loving life and all the ordinary things around you. The entire series, for as many sad scenes as it has, never fails to make me happy. Anyone looking for a sweet story, that gets bitter at sometimes and silly at others, but never loses its beauty, should find their perfect fit with Pita Ten. read more

When it comes to yaoi, there's honestly not many series that can come close to Yatteranneeze.

The story may seem cliche to many people. In fact, I know I've seen the same basic idea in a few shoujo mangas. Hiroya is a good kid on the student council who consistantly gets good grades and never does anything you would even consider calling rebellious. Misaki is smart enough when he applies himself, but he never does as he's too busy being the opposite of Hiroya, as rebellious as is possible for him to be. And naturally they're the main characters and the couple focused on in Yatteranneeze. Hiroya decides he needs a change and he wants none other than Misaki to teach him how to be a cool kid rather than an upstanding student. If that were all there was to the story it would maybe get a 6 from me, but there's much more to it than that. Yatteranneeze is one of the few yaoi series I've seen actually focus on a lot of issues facing gays and people in general, including homophobia, AIDS, rape and more. Overall the story was a great blend of comedy from Hiroya (who is, at times, overwhelmingly innocent), drama and romance, all excecuted in a way that makes you want to keep reading.

I'm a bit biased on the art. I love mid-90s manga artwork and Yatteranneeze is a prime example of this. The character designs are all relatively simple, which fits the series as it's only portraying relatively normal students in Japan. Overall I really liked the artwork of the series though it wasn't anything revolutionary it went along very well with the series and was always consistant and at times was very beautiful.

I have to say if there is a bit of a downfall to the series it's character. However I'm still giving it an 8 for very good. Character development was actually superb, by the end of the series you can see how all this time has affected the main characters and even some side characters. However I never really loved any of the characters. Misaki is the only exception, the rest of them were nice enough and didn't make me want to stop reading, but I wasn't overjoyed with them in any way.

Often times I find series more enjoyable than anything else, which is how I felt reading Yatteranneeze. Every chapter ended in such a way that I wanted to read the next one. The romance is believable and the drama is somewhat over-the-top at times but it makes it even better. Overall I found that I wanted Hiroya and Misaki to stay together, whenever something threatened their relationship I would actually become sad because I wanted them to be together. I rarely care about couples that much in any series, which just shows how much I enjoyed this one.

So overall I give Yatteranneeze a nine. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a good love story, as long as they're open-minded to yaoi, because I think that even someone who isn't a fan of yaoi could read Yatteranneeze and see past the fact that it's two boys to the point that it's as simple as a great love story. read more

To watch Princess Princess you have to keep in mind, it's a bit weird.

First off, the story. If we're really being honest here, it's kind of something out of a fangirl's mind. A prestigious all-boys school where a lucky few [/sarcasm] are picked to dress up as princesses. Yes, you did hear that right, boys dressing up as princesses is the basic idea of this anime. And is there any more story than that? Not really. There's a bit of character development, one actual relationship involving one of the main characters and a teeny bit of shounen-ai to make the fangirls, who are undoubtedly watching, happy. So the story gets a 6 from me, it's not terrible but it kind of makes you go '...really?' to accepting the fact that, not only would this happen, but that anyone would agree to it (thought the perks the princesses get are nice).

Don't be fooled by the anime's picture. The art is decent enough, but it's nothing special. I do have to give props to whoever designed the princesses outfits, at times they were really cute. Character design was alright, but it's all stuff you could find in any other anime, therefore it's just good, nothing more than that.

Sound, well it's nice. I'm a big fan of Romi Paku who does Yuujirou's voice and the other voice actors are good enough. The music was so-so. Usually I love or hate OPs and EDs, Princess Princess didn't give me much feeling either way. Sometimes I half-listened to them, other times I skipped them. I don't actively seek the songs out to listen to them, but they weren't bad.

The main characters are pretty typical, yet you're almost sure to love them anyway. Yuujirou even made it to my favorites, though I rarely put a character on their who isn't from one of my absolute favorite series. They all have their own quirks and backgrounds which, for a series of only 12 episodes, were explored adequately enough to leave you hoping for, but not needing, more. In a way I wondered why I loved the characters because I've seen them all before, but I think it's the weird situation Princess Princess throws them into, forcing them to cope with it, it's fun to see.

So enjoyment? That's a 10. Despite all its flaws and drawbacks Princess Princess is a fun watch. If you're looking for a blatantly yaoi/shonen-ai series, that's not what it is. Nevertheless I'd recommend it to anyone who can stand just a bit of boy-on-boy action and those same boys wearing dresses at school. As I said, Princess Princess is weird, but if you can take the plot for what it is (something that would never happen, but somehow does) you'll have a good time watching.
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If there's one thing Soul Eater has it's...well, everything.
The plot's only downfall is that it feels just the smallest bit tired. Shinigami's...didn't I just see those in ____? But the originality of how the usually tired elements are used more than makes up for that. Half the time while I'm watching I find myself thinking 'oh, this is going to happen...' and then being proved wrong over and over again. Rarely do I find a show, especially an anme, that can do that. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out what's going to happen in a show, but Soul Eater surprises me often and I love that.
The artwork, which maybe not amazing and detailed, is wonderfully cute. It's meant to be more cartoon-y, that much is obvious, and it does a wonderful job just being that and nothing more. The consistency, which is hard to find in anime, is superb. I never find myself thinking someone looks even the slightest bit different from the first to last episode I watched.
The voice acting is also good. I do find myself somewhat annoyed by Black Star's voice, but I think that's the point, he's a self-centered character who speaks loud and proud and honestly, it's done well. As always Mamoru Miyano does an amazing job as Death the Kid, but I will admit to being a bit biased on that as he's my favorite seiyuu. Overall the voice acting and sound is very good.
Characters have to be one of my favorite thing about the series. I like all of them or hate them, but in such a way that I hate them because they're there to be disliked. Death the Kid, with his OCD about symmetry, is among the most interesting of characters. Chrona, while somewhat minor, is also a great character, partly because he's androgynous. (I say 'he' because I think he's a boy, but in reality his gender is not confirmed in either the anime or manga). As mentioned before I don't like Black Star's attitude, but I do find him to be a good character. Maka is the only character I'm not thrilled about, she's somewhat bland, but she is cute. Oh, and before I forget, Dr. Stein is quite the character, I wish he showed up even more than he does, he's always good for a laugh.
I enjoy the show immensely and I'm incredibly happy I started watching. It has many elements that make it enjoyable to watch: comedy, drama, action and small hints of romance, but not so much that you're drowning in it!
Overall the show is a lot of fun. I can't see why someone wouldn't get hooked on it. I'm always eagerly awaiting the new subbed episodes, and I'm happy to hear Funimation picked it up, just hoping the dub is decent, but either way Soul Eater is definitely one of my favorite animes. read more