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What is worse? An anime that sucks from the beginning or an anime with promise that bombs? In my opinion, it's always the latter, because one never invests times in the former.

Maji de Watshi is about a high school dude with no power surrounded by chicks with a lot of it. A plot we've seen a million times. This one is hardly refreshing. The only difference is that this anime tries to make some political statement, but fails in every way imaginable. In the meantime, there's cheap ecchi that's terrible and rehashed episodes within the arc itself so that one's viewing displeasure isn't focused on ... just one thing. Awesome, right?

Maji de Watshi is easily one of the worst anime I have ever watched. Not only is the main character rendered so impotent by weakness and stupidity, enough to make Perez Hilton look macho, but at the same time, the story is expecting the viewer to believe he's actually a genius tactician!!! The animation is fine, but the logic is missing in all aspects. One scene actually depicted a girl who is supposed to be able to move quickly enough to fight 5 people at once, shooting a bullet through an arrow AND through the string of the firing bow while in motion. Then, five seconds later, the powerless main character somehow grabs her arm and stun guns her. Epic retarded laziness is the only way to describe this.

There's no payoff, by the way, if you're looking for something to hope for. It ends as badly as it begins. Avoid... this... show!

Take an artist who decided not to care about realism for a change (AT ALL) and have him draw the most outlandish hero set against the backdrop of a school whose students learn absolutely nothing in an environment of gambling with constant life-and-death stakes. Throw in the most laughably demented villain who would have to be gay is he wasn't so evil, lots of fanservice that doesn't apologize to anyone, and snappy writing that makes you think twice at every turn and what do you get?

Gamble Fish. This manga is so incredibly bad, it's awesome. And when I say awesome, I mean I can't WAIT ... for the next chapter.

Shirasagi Tomu is a genius gambler searching for his captured dad, so he enrolls in Shishidou, a gambler school, to find challenges and earn enough money to get him back. Turns out, the headmaster, a psycho nutcase that makes this story so great, is the one holding Tomu's dad prisoner. That's convenient right?

There's really nothing else to explain besides that. The manga is a series of arcs where Tomu goes up against the best of the best in gambling showdowns. Cards, pool, dice, riddles - it's all game and the author shows he's a master of wit and surprises.

Seriously, give this manga a shot. If you remember not to take it seriously, you're going to be hooked!

Ugh, the lovefest for this terrible show is sickening. Let me tell you all why this show is awful:

You know the plot. Little kid is benefactor to billions, has an army of maids that will do anything for him, etc. We know the storyline. And that's fine. The genre exists because shows that do it right can be fun. (See Hayate no Gotoku, Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de, even Ah! My Goddess) A fantasy escape of sorts.

But this is none of those things. In fact, this show is worse, because it had potential and bombed. First, it starts off as a complete ... ecchi comedy. Episode 1 is 95% ecchi with one-liner jokes and the main character running around his big castle trying to get away from a thousand naked girls trying to smother him (which by the way is getting real old. What boy aged 12 to 90 would do that?) Now guess how much that happens the rest of the remaining 11 episodes? Maybe twice. The show then completely flips into some kind of sob story about his main maid and how her "secret" might tear them apart.

So fail part 1: absolutely no tone or theme is set up, leading the watcher down a road of certain disappointment.

Second, what little hint we get of a protagonist is actually some busty chick who is god-moded the few times we see her to where there's little hope of anyone beating her until all that's left for the artist to do in order to back himself out of his own corner is to come up with a rediculous deus ex machina that borders on razziedom. Seriously terrible. I almost am tempted to reveal what happens just to save you all from it.

Third, there's no conclusion. No one grows from this. It's like it's back at day one when the final episode concludes. Apparantly, the end is supposed to set up a "2nd season" but there's no reason for anyone to want more. That's like asking for more food-poisoning after throwing up all over the bathroom. You throw the bad food out is what you do.

Avoid this show like you avoid viruses. Please.

Short and sweet: there's only one reason to watch this: ecchi. The manga is one of the ecchiest around. A legitimately fun story, too. But the anime has to take out all of the naked that makes it great, so for anyone who wants to enjoy the manga's huge draw in anime form, the specials are for you. And the special for the second season is faaaaaantastic. If you're a girl... well.... sucks to be you, but guys can't not like this. That's it. Enjoy!

I got really confused when I started reading this. It was recommended to me by way of another manga I enjoy so I gave it a try. Wa! is essentially many short strips with punchline gags. About 7 or 8 characters in school make pop culture references and spin them into jokes. Think Zetsubou Sensei, Seitokai Yukuidomo, or Lucky Star. A real problem with Wa! is that it starts off poorly. The concepts and writing style aren’t defined… like, at all. So the reader has trouble deciding what it’s supposed to be.

... However, once you get a feel for it, it actually begins to grow on you. Now that I’m 8 chapters in, I’m assured of laughing every time I get a new one. All of the characters are clichéd, but that was the intent. Much like Zetsubou, the mangaka overly emphasizes their usually overdone characteristics until you can’t help but be amused and remember why those archtypes were so popular in the first place. To top it off, the art is actually very good. It’s just hard to realize at first because it’s not there all the time. Even good drawing is used as an effect and even sometimes as a pun itself. It’s brilliant when you realize it, but it’s too subtle to understand in the first two chapters, which may or may not be a good thing.

I recommend this manga, but it’s early. Perhaps I’ll revisit a review when it gets to 20-25 chapters.

Kimikiss Pure Rouge was one of the first anime I ever watched. Knowing it was from the same director as Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabile – two brilliant anime in their own right – I had to watch it. But after I finished, I refrained from doing a review for it, simply because I didn’t want readers to think I just gave perfect scores to everything. Needless to say, Kasai is simply a mastermind that makes the cogs spin to perfect time, but I didn’t know what I had stumbled upon at the time.

However, recently I have been watching an anime strikingly similar to ... Kimikiss’s style called Hatsukoi Limited and when I realized how utterly pale it was in comparison to Kimikiss Pure Rouge, I had to try to realize why. Hatsukoi is a 13 episode disaster waiting to happen and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t end in a burning crash. There’s almost two dozen characters, nearly all of whom have a crush on someone who likes someone else. It’s littered with pointless dialogue and fanservice. Now, don’t get me wrong – I enjoy my share of fanservice, but it doesn’t belong in an anime with a complex story crippled by a 13 episode timeframe.

And so Hatsukoi shows just what it was that Kimikiss did to get it right. Essentially the story surrounds the love stories of two friends, Kouichi and Kazuki. Kazuki is an outgoing boy who happens to fall for the perfectionist, seemingly emotionless deredere queen (you know… a total hottie with a broken heart underneathe her tough 180 IQ exterior.) and Kouichi is a shy boy with an old childhood friend who happens to come stay with him after being “overseas” for the last few years. It’s A-standard stuff, but Kimikiss takes these typical plot-lines with a potential for disaster and turns it into megawatt, emotional stuff simply by sticking to what Hatsukoi and many other anime refuse to do: make sense. For example in “Anime A” when a boy trips over something… usually air… what happens? He does a face plant into his love interest’s chest right? Well, let’s just say that in Kimikiss Pure Rouge, if a character trips… he just takes an extra half-step and continues on as if nothing happened. So in the same breath, when a typical plot device we all know comes along in Kimikiss, the most common thing that should happen actually happens, and it’s amazing, because it’s a totally new experience! Everything makes sense and it allows the watcher to both sympathize with the characters while predicting what’s eventually going to happen. And it makes it that much better when it takes a turn and surprises you, because you can’t help but want more.

It’s surprising how much you’ll end up rooting for all of these characters. The creators of this anime get romance right in so many ways (including the ending – by far the best I’ve ever experienced in any romance anime.) that every episode is an experience that ramps you up and calms you down at the same time. And it doesn’t hurt that Futami Eriko is one of the greatest characters ever conceived. (Once you watch episode 20, you’ll sneer at other characters in different anime that are similar to her simply because they can’t compete.)

Watch this anime if you like romance in any form. I won’t say it’s the absolute best there is (for me that’s Nodame) but it definitely gets things right. And when you’re looking for something new to watch, isn’t that the first true requisite?

I wasn’t going to bother writing a review with six other reviews for this manga written; however, after seeing that all the other reviews are a total lovefest without actually attempting to get to the heart of it, I had to do something about it.

Essentially, this entire series is a slice-of-life “love story” about one guy and one girl revolving around track and field in high school. Yamato lives in a womens’ bathhouse with his aunt, who owns it. Suzuka, a star high-jumper, also lives there, right next door. She’s a perfectionist, he’s clumsy, but hard-working. Yada, yada, you see how it goes.

It’s actually a ... simple singular issue that defines this manga. The creator of this manga, Seo, is a very good story-teller. The artwork is above standard, the issues are complex and hardly betraying of its goals and the characters are sublime if not too badly clichéd. (Although sometimes a few of them look way too alike.) The world around them is magnificently established – once you get 50 chapters in, you feel like your know Tokyo by heart and you feel like you know every room of the bathhouse and the school. Seo turns the clock fantastically and from great angles to always give you a new experience. Plus he has a solid grip of the human body and watching the characters in action almost makes them move to the readers’ eyes. However, there is one matter that every reader should know about before starting this manga and it was something that I wish I had been told before I started it myself

Suzuka is a total bitch.

Now, for some people, maybe even most, that’s ok. They find it appealing or cute in some way, especially when she drops her barriers and seems cute. But for the majority of the time, she treats Yamato like dirt. And I’m not talking in a normal tsundere way. There are many times when she’s outright cruel and vindictive, stubborn beyond belief and hardly appreciative of what Yamato goes through just to win her affections. It got to the point where I was literally pissed at her, but there was nothing I could do because I was already so far and I wanted to know how it ended. But the readers must know this going in and hopefully I at least warn some people so they know what they’re getting in to. I didn’t end up hating Suzuka in the end, but I was close, because I knew… I absolutely knew… that Suzuka didn’t deserve Yamato, not by a mile. Yet, he remained blind, even when she treated him so horribly. She had no excuse and the author never gave us one.

All in all, this is a good manga, especially if you’re in the mood to find someone to despise. And while it could be spoiling, the romance is still quite good with several original moments. This is a recommendation… but a recommendation with a warning.

MOD EDIT: Review contains spoilers

I am so thankful for this OVA. While the last episode of Origination was utterly fantastic and had me on the brink of tears, this truly helped give me closure from the depression I felt immediately after finishing this incredible series – an extreme feeling of loss. I think one of the only problems I had with Aria as a series (and trust me when I say, it’s a very small problem) it’s that Alicia seemed TOO perfect, to the point where she was almost detached from everyone else.

In every episode, she never showed fear or anxiety, anger or pain. And ... near the end of the series, when she dropped the bomb she was getting married, it seemed almost illogical, because if she was so close to Akari, why didn’t she ever tell her she was seeing someone? It’s funny, because I often wondered how it was possible guys never seemed to approach her. Then all of a sudden near the end, she’s not only been seeing someone, but she was ready to marry him! Why wasn’t he even mentioned? He should have played some part or at least been mentioned in my mind.

That’s the only qualm I’ve ever had with this series: that Alicia didn’t seem to have full humanity – she was basically a goddess. But this OVA, I think, was meant to address this issue. She was sad when Grandma left and she was apprehensive about taking a student but she fell in love with Akari - truly in love as a sister - rather than as a watchful protector. And when you see this episode, you really feel a lot more strength when you think of the last episode of Origination, when Alicia visits Akari after retiring. Before, it felt like that visit would be one of just a handful and Alicia was gone pretty much for good, much like Grandma’s first student, who also married and moved away. But, with this episode, it was more and it really gave a finishing touch to Aria. You know that Alicia won’t be at Aria Company anymore, but she will always be nearby and Alicia and Akari will forever be the best of sisters and friends.

This was fantastic and I would even go so far as to say it is impossible to appreciate the full breadth of this anime series without this last episode.

This is the first time I've written a review right after finishing an anime, simply because it was so wonderful, so magnificent, that it overwhelmed me with emotion. Called Aria, I'd been taking my time enjoying it, rather than burning through the episodes, which I could have done. Trust me when I say this is the first time I've given perfect tens and Aria is worth every point.

At the final minute of a perfect end to the series, I was overcome with both glee and sadness. Even now, as I think about how this series is actually over and I won't have anymore episodes to ... watch, it saddens me, because that's how good it was. It's inspired me to become an even better writer so that perhaps one day I can write something that will make people as sad - just because they love it that much.

Aria is about three young girls who are training to become gondoliers - gondola riders. They live in a city called Neo-Venizia, which is a future Venice. And the show is generally a slice-of-life tale of these girls growing into their own and becoming Primas, which are full-fledged gondoliers. Full of amazing music, charm, and heart-tugging little stories that could give you happy dreams the rest of your life, Aria is unique in its broad imagination and detail. The world of Neo-Venizia puts you at ease and then fills you with wonder, much like a ride on a gondola itself.

Akari, the main character, and her senior, Alicia, run Aria Company. Every day, Akari learns more and more about this wondrous city as she and her two new friends, Aika and Alice, practice together. They meet fascinating characters and discover secret places tucked away, all while learning about themselves and the ones they look up to. And surrounding these times are breathtaking landscapes and scenes drawn by the finest of animators.

And after three seasons, when the first part of Akari's story comes to a close, the author somehow turns the story full-circle in a masterful job of penmanship that ranks in the upper echelon of magnificent writing. Not only does it make your heart pound with overwhelming feeling and love, but it gives you hope for the new generation - a new story waiting on the horizon.

For anyone who loves a fantastic story that could end all ails with one cute "Ehhhh?" from Akari, I would recommend Aria. I guarantee you will be changed forever, even before Alicia can say, "Ada ada!"

I think Japanese television is superior to American television. I do. I think that Japanese anime is truly great and because they limit most of their shows to one or two seasons, they allow for great stories with conclusions and romance and moral lessons that you could never get in America, where all that matters is extending the life of every show until people stop watching it.
However, there is also something negative that, unfortunately, inherently comes with anime as well: incredibly bad endings. It’s almost unfathomable how every now and then, you can watch a perfectly normal show and then be greeted with an ending ... so egregiously bad, that you are actually laughing out loud. To date, I’ve never watched an American show and laughed at a really bad ending, but I’ve watched at least three of four anime series where this has happened. (Certain examples are Blue Drop and Magikano) It’s truly disappointing, however, when you come across a good show where this happened, because you’re enjoying yourself and you get hit with an anvil.
Well, sadly enough, Mahoromatic Season 2, without a doubt, comes packed with the worst ending I have ever, ever seen. I had tears in my eyes as I laughed at its ridiculous last episode, and then when that died down, my mouth was merely agape. Now, I could go on and on about how miserably bad it was, but I’m not going to bother, because it’s that disconnected. If I had seen only the first 11 of the 13 episodes, I could write a completely different review with a lot of positives, so I’ve decided that’s what I’ll do now.
The story is essentially about a parentless boy Suguru, who is rich enough to hire a maid. His maid, Mahoro, is a hot, retired, android warrior who used to work for an organization designed to keep the peace between alien forces that are waging war in Earth’s skies without humans knowing about it. There are two catches: 1. She’s going to run out of life force in less than two years and 2.) she was forced to kill his father, who was a commander of Vesper, her old organization. For the first 11 episodes, Mahoromatic’s second season gives a lot more of what it gave us the first season: some good laughs, sweet moments, well-done battle scenes, and a lot more fan service. Plus, there was romance, which was great, since it wasn’t really assured if the show was going to turn that corner with the two main characters. And for the first ten episodes or so, its mainly fluffy slice of life – there isn’t any real drama as one would think upon reading the synopsis of the story. In that way, the story is actually charming and the unique characters only make the show more appealing.
There’s a lot to take from this show and I would recommend it to anyone as long as they are fully aware that the ending to this anime is essentially the worst on…. like… earth. That’s all. I can’t say much more than that.