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"So I'll teach you... what it means to enjoy the night."

Yamori Ko is a 14 year old boy who has become disillusioned with his everyday life when the realisation that the average schoolboy persona he's always strived to upkeep isn't as average as he had once thought; although being alone never made him feel lonely, he's only now recognising that he's really never had anyone that he could truly call a friend, or at least no one he'd be certain would reciprocate the feeling. While he's friendly toward his peers and polite to all, he's always been apprehensive to take the plunge and strike up ... a real one to one friendship with those around him, and above all, serious emotions, particularly those pertaining to love and affection, entirely elude him. This all only truly sets in when he receives his first love letter, sent by a classmate confessing her feelings for him, and he can finally acknowledge that he cannot comprehend the whole idea behind dating or having a crush on someone whatosever. What's the purpose, or end goal? Such a demoralising revelation leads him to essentially drop this feigned persona altogether, no longer attending school, as he kept up his grades only out of a sense of duty to begin with, not communicating with anyone except his Mum, and finally, making the truly delinquent decision to creep out of his home after-dark one night. It's on this secret rebellious escapade that he has a chance-encounter with the bewitching Nazuna, who just so happens to be a vampire in search of her next mark, and after her identity is revealed and further explained to Ko, he makes the very questionable and vaguely explained decision to have her turn him into a vampire. But the catch here is that, for a vampire to turn a human into one of their "offspring", the human must first fall in love with them, and for someone as oblivious to romance as Ko, this proves to be quite a hurdle. Thus begins the usually fun but often lackluster friendship and eventual romance between the pair, one that I have quite mixed feelings about.

Initially, I was thoroughly impressed with this series, as often times vampire anime, or modern vampire media as a whole, are sulky, predictable, and uninspired stories, but I felt like this series could've been in a lane of its own. The first scene of a movie, or first episode of a series, is absolutely crucial, as it has the job of setting the tone for the remainder of the story, and episode one of Yofukashi no Uta was excellent, a perfect introductory episode giving you just a bite-sized sample of what you assume you should expect going forth, and ample intrigue surrounding the main duo without bogging itself down. It makes you wonder what kind of awful toll Ko's recent breakdown has taken on his mental state, and leaves you to ponder just what Nazuna's intentions for Ko may be, who she really is and what's her story, while also seemingly handing you a signed and sealed promise that this will be a thrilling ride with some macabre undertones throughout. The final moments of this episode were so impressive I thought immediately I ought to start taking notes, as this series was almost certainly shaping up to be a hit, one that I'd want to write about, but that slowly faltered as each episode went on. The primary issue is that it becomes quite quickly apparent that while there is an end goal, of Ko falling in love and becoming a vampire, there's obviously no clear course for getting from Point A to Point B, and the series takes various turns in all sorts of directions. One episode having Ko play counsellor for another couple, with another episode portraying him playing the role of detective, and yet another that has him working as a masseuse, all occurring in-between episodes of him and Nazuna playing hooky round town. It's hard enough to write an engaging and intelligent series that's purely based on romance, so making one based on a character who doesn't know how to love but wants to is obviously a big challenge, and it really shows. Some of the best anime I've seen have had absolutely no clear path to their end goal whatsoever, such as Natsume Yuujinchou or Aria, but those series are Iyashikei, and also pride themselves on their unrivaled excellence in telling singular stories that tug at your heart strings in all kinds of ways, building up their individual tales into one perfect whole, but though it may seem Yofukashi no Uta is going for something similar to this "individual tales" idea, none of them are particularly memorable or enjoyable past some small entertainment value in the moment, as almost all the side characters involved are given no development and are relegated to a single character trait. There's Asai Akira, a deadpan schoolgirl who worries about Ko's flippant attitude and relationship with a vampire, but that's about all there is to her. Anytime she as a character tries to contribute to the story, such as when she states she doesn't like staying at home and avoids it when possible, we're not told why, and when she tells Ko to start coming to school as it's his responsibility, she's completely disregarded and seems to accept it. There's Seki Mahiru, a popular and studious teen also attending Ko and Asai's school, who wants to spend more time with Ko much like Asai does, but that's about all I can say for him as he's literally not given an ounce of personality. The thing is, these two are more prominent in the series than any of the other side characters, such as Ugiusu or Kikyou, and I can't write more than a line or two about either, so what does that say about the character writing in this anime? And I wish I could say it was limited to the rest of the cast and not the protagonists, but that's only half true. I definitely do like both Ko and Nazuna, they have an undeniable chemistry as they really do always give a genuine sense of having fun together, and both their VA's, particularly Nazuna's, really gave solid performances that attributed to their charisma as individuals and a pair, with their humor playing off each other rather effectively, but by the end of the season, while Ko seems to be coming out of his shell a little more, we still know next to nothing about Nazuna past some offhand information. She subtly drops the fact that she became a vampire decades ago, but not how, and simply states that she spent the years idling her time away with video games and nighttime walks. This easily could've afforded an opportunity to flesh her out as a person, but that's the extent of what we're told. A lot of the time the pair seem like they really do suit each other as just friends and not a couple, because the chemistry I've talked about is almost all a friendly chemistry, not romantic, and more often than not the scenes that are meant to be lovey-dovey are a tad forced, with Nazuna regularly seeming coercive or downright lecherous. Leading to the main controversy that does need to be addressed about this couple, as everyone else is explicitly pointing it out. Ko is FOURTEEN, Nazuna may look of a similar age, but based on what she's said she must be anywhere past THIRTY, and I want to clarify that large age-gaps in anime, particularly taboo ones, generally don't bother me, IF they're handled correctly. This one wasn't handled at all, it wasn't even mentioned. Like a "Don't say it, don't think it" situation, Ko never once asks her, and Asai who does nothing but worry over Ko, is afraid that he's dating a vampire, not a 30 year old woman, so it's just... never brought up. This is a major failing in my opinion, as it's not just something silly that can be swept under the rug. He's not even nearly 18 or 21, he's a child, at least TRY to broach the subject.

At the very least, the one constant attraction that never spiraled downward as the series went on was the art. Gorgeous visuals that had me stunned right from the beginning, and played a huge part in prompting me to still continue with writing a review. It had a really unique sense of style, with some stellar directing in the visual sense, and phenomenal use of colour schemes as the duo dance and fly through the city at night, the stars as their guide. As the theme of the story pertains to what kind of fun the nighttime brings, virtually every scene takes place after sundown, so you're treated to shot after shot of the starry sky, which would usually be something you grow accustomed to after a couple episodes, but LIDENFILMS consistently kept it fresh by redoing the background pieces with different angles and shades, the sky ranging from densely filled and brimming with a deep purple, to sparsely lit and coated in a golden yellow. They knew just when to douse the screen in an ominous blood-red and when to drain it of all life leaving it sullen and gray, loading each scene with an appropriate atmosphere for the emotions it was trying to invoke in the viewer, which was only slightly let down by the content of each scene itself, but it stood to show that the animators really wanted to test themselves with how far they could take their given material. There's whole scenes drawn with only the use of one color in its various shades, just dazzling to see, and these displays of artistic talent alone are more than enough to sink your teeth into. The lighting effects were strong too, especially when it came to playing with shadows, as vampires by nature are creatures of the dark, lurking within said shadows. There were several very impressive shots of Nazuna creeping in or out of the shade that really stood out, and they had some creative scene/shot transitions in a similar vein too, always keeping it new so each episode was eye catching, right down to the mid-episode eyecatchers that were highly detailed and tailor-made for their respective episode. Character designs were all pretty and unique, and the animation was fluid, so much so that there were a handful of sequences I had to rewind a bunch of times just to capture everything. Similarly to how the art and animation always keep you optically focused, there was also a killer soundtrack keeping you tuned in, not a huge catalogue by any means but there were a few solid tracks that all either fit a pop or rap tag, suitable for the setting of delinquent life on the streets after hours. The light, pop-rap mix OP, "Daten" by Creepy Nuts, that played at the beginning of the first episode had me looking forward to what kind of musical stylings they'd stick with, and my hopes were far exceeded with the crazy catchy ED full of energy, titled "Call of The Night", also by the same band. The rap duo did an amazing job on both songs, and I found it hard not to sit and play out the end theme in its entirety when each episode finished, even it's saucy lyrics paired with Nazuna slinking and thrashing about on various sets, or how they let splashes of colour soak and spray onto the beige canvas paintings of her were a treat.

Just like Ko asking "What's the purpose of dating?", I found toward the final few episodes when it was really taking all sorts of detours, I couldn't help asking myself "What is the purpose of this series?" Beyond simple entertainment, which is certainly present, does this series have any real staying power, or is it just another mindless romance anime that never progresses? It's obviously a hit with the fans as it's currently sitting at a highly respectable score of 8.06, but generally an anime with such a high score would either need to be incredibly well-written, or be incredibly low-brow and accessible to casual viewers, and I can't see this series as being either. It's by no means trashy or insulting, but it's not very intelligent nor engaging, just a smidge above flat average, and that's largely thanks to the visual aspect and a handful of nice moments. If this is a standalone season with nothing further adapted, then I feel like even a 6 is very generous, but for all my griping about it, I'm still giving it a 6, because it provided me with a few laughs, a likable if not shallow couple, and some true visual prowess, with a potentially interesting premise and cast that has plenty of room to soar and build upon what's been established if a second season is booked, which I truly am holding out hope for, as I want to see this series be deserving of its high score. It runs at a relatively slow pace, and has some light fan-service to it, even a few surprisingly violent scenes from an otherwise fluffy anime, so in the end, I'd say I still did relatively "enjoy the night."

"The ability to get lost in the music is a wonderful thing."

The question of "Why?" is an infinitely deep or dismally shallow one that could be applied to almost any aspect in your life: "Why am I still working this job?", "Why am I friends with these people?", or "Why am I doing this?", and it's the central question of the series Dance Dance Danseur, another animated gem from MAPPA that follows Murai Junpei, an energetic teenage boy grappling with the modern concept of what it means to be "manly", equating manliness with being cool and popular, taking up Jeet Kune Do and soccer in ... his pursuit of the answer, all the while harboring a secret love of ballet and a painful longing to take the stage, yet apprehensiveness to take the plunge out of fear of judgment, but when given the chance, he can't help but be stuck on that very question, "Why am I doing ballet?". He's partly aided in this search for clarity by the other two leads of the series, Mouri Luou, a quiet and mysterious boy his own age with astounding hidden skills and a curse to bear, and Luou's cousin/Junpei's classmate Godai Miyako, the beautiful but lonely ballerina who is the first to spot Junpei's potential, and with this trio you have a rich and complicated chemistry that carries through the series and unravels in unexpected directions more and more as each episode passes.

I felt like Junpei was a really solid protagonist all the way through the story, having his own moments of weakness particularly pertaining to his wrestling with the barriers that come with starting ballet at such a late age when compared to his peers, and faltering at times but never letting it seep him into a slump. It was honestly refreshing to see that he's so faulted, faced endlessly with the repercussions for his actions and that when he does try to do things his own way and brute force through the hurdles with his usual bubbly exuberance that it's not without dire consequence, and this only provides bundles of opportunities for growth, both in ballet and life itself. He could always get you roped right into his excitement, almost wanting to jump right out of your seat alongside him whenever he's stunned by someones display of skill. Miyako on the other hand, although she wasn't quite thrown to the wayside, I did feel she came off a little less developed or utilized than her male counterparts, with slightly more thought given to her towards the end of the season, whereas Luou was every bit as enjoyable to see in action as his new rival on the scene, Junpei. It's a trope as old as time, but when done effectively, the idea of having two polar opposite protagonists with a burning rivalry hot enough to fire them both up above and beyond their limits is a concept I really love to see, and it was portrayed in excellence here. The darkness surrounding the solemn Luou provided a good backstory and great payoff for him as a character, written every bit as delicately as his dancing. I did feel the series was a little short on cast for the most part, but on the other hand it gave them a lot more room to develop these three characters further and the spare time was spent doing just that, building up a murky relationship between the trio. Yet I still felt that there were one or two side characters that I really would've loved to see get more than a fleeting moment of screen-time such as Natsuki, but I'd imagine that'll be saved for season two, if it's ever in the works.

On to the true star of the show; the art and animation. You wouldn't expect any less from MAPPA with their near spotless track record, but the art in this series is never short of spectacular. Admittedly, it took a full episode for me to get used to how the faces were poised and animated, as the shape of each person's eyes can make it look a little like they're about to burst into tears at times, but once I became accustomed to it I think it truly let the series stand out even more, especially from a character design standpoint, even leading to some of the most gorgeous shots of the whole show being the simple eye close-up shots, and this is a show that's packed with pretty frames as is. The lithe bodies and slender, long necks truly portray an image of grace, and each of the main dancers looked nothing short of beautiful every moment, and I mean seriously beautiful. Each fluid movement, every step and spin in unison, whenever there was dancing my eyes were simply glued to the screen, with the crown going to episode five; an absolutely monstrous performance that rivals any given shounen battle sequence while perfectly displaying the power of story-telling through ballet and captivating its audience with elegant yet intense dancing and choreography, and morose orchestral music to set the tone for a visual war on stage, with Junpei and Luou at the center of the spectacle as the prince fighting tooth-and-nail against a heavenly demon. Even if you don't plan on watching this gorgeous serious, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't at least watch through this episode and give the play its due diligence, but it wasn't even the only time I was left in awe at how much love the studio poured into this anime. Playful use of lighting always set a fitting tone for each scene, a handful of shots of the endless, twinkling night sky, and one of my favourite, very neat aspects was Junpei's "shiny drops of sound"; little flecks of dazzling light that sparkle and pop through the air whenever he witnesses a dancer in action who he truly reveres. Even the way the dancers silhouettes prance and sprawl beneath them and pour out across the stage was like magic.

As a whole the music was perfect for this series, with the background music always fitting to the related scene and queued up well, never overpowering it either. The OP and ED too, while I felt they could've been a little stronger for a series that's quite musically inclined, they were cheery and catchy tunes, but were definitely visually superior, with the ED being a type of scrapbook collage of the core trio going through the motions, followed by a mish-mash of the various cast members' faces crammed together, and the OP being the wholly unique, amusing idea of "a POV of a day in the life of Junpei", following him through his eyes of an average day at school, prancing and skipping his way through life, and giving us a little more insight into his view of the world around him. And finally, the live orchestral pieces played during performances or practices were superb, absolutely demanding your attention every bit as much as the stunning display of skills they're accompanying without ever overstepping their boundaries, a perfect meld of audio and visuals that will always pull on your heartstrings at any given chance, so the intro and outro songs are more than forgiven for being a little average when compared to the phenomenal, striking pieces of art you're listening to through some episodes.

It's been a few months since I've watched an anime that I felt deserved a written review, and to be honest, as captivated as I was with the first four episodes of this series, it was after finishing episode five that the moment arrived where I said "This is something special". I've watched Ballroom e Youkoso and I'm aware of the numerous comparisons people have made, but as much as I loved that series, I don't believe there was any one performance in it that even closely rivaled the play shown in episode five. To sum this scene up in a word, a fitting word for the series in its entirety even, it was simply enchanting. In that regard, I'd actually liken this series to Akebi's Sailor Uniform, CloverWorks adorable slice-of-life from earlier this year, in terms of it's charm and whimsical air about it that captures your heart and won't let go until you've watched the whole season and you're crying out for another. There's stunning animation, art and choreography, well-crafted characters, a solid story with plenty there to draw you in, and many other aspects or subplots I wanted to avoid spoiling involving romance, the undeniable difference between talent and hard-work, and the troubles that family brings, all culminating in a satisfying ending with one last, lovely dance.

"The world might think it's weird, but who cares. We are who we are."

Sometimes, the most silly premises can give birth to the most enjoyable shows, with Love After World Domination being a pretty good example of this; a forbidden love story of a Hero and Villain crossing the ultimate line and engaging in a secret romantic relationship. The hero team are the Gelato 5, a riff on the Power Rangers, or their Japanese origins the Super Sentai, while the villains are the Gekko Secret Society, a typical shadowy organization you'd likely also find the Rangers dueling, turning this series into a romcom parody of ... the tokusatsu genre that's so popular in Japan, with it's live action monster battles and heavy use of special effects and props. There seems to be a rise in these tokusatsu inspired anime lately, such as the SSSS. franchise or the recent Ultraman anime, but where this series shines is in the fact that, while it doesn't entirely skim over its combat aspects, it puts a much more lofty focus on the dating endeavors of our main couple, the hero Aikawa Fudou, or Red Gelato, and the villain Magahara Desumi, or Reaper Princess, as they strive to experience a high school romance, all the while hiding it from the public and their peers.

Right off the bat in Episode One, there's an undeniable and abundant charm to the main protagonists, as they enjoy a quiet date upon a hilltop among the cherry blossoms, clearly nervous as everything about being a couple is new to them. It serves as a nice little introduction to the pair and how they act and react with each other, but as things get tense and they're about to engage in the lewd act of unprotected handholding, on only their third date no less, Blue Gelato appears and the pair immediately spring into action, pretending to duel each other to shoo Blue away, waiting 'til the coast is clear to go back to relaxing together again. This paints the picture for what the majority of the comedy is really, the couple trying to enjoy being a couple but consistently being interrupted at the best moment. This doesn't occur every single time, nor in the same way each time, but if you're looking for a deep romance this isn't that kind of show. We do however get plenty of cute moments, with a lot more focus on developing the main characters as people rather than as a couple. While Fudou does get good development and is a thoroughly enjoyable character though, Desumi is the clear star of the show, as we see plenty more growth from her than any other character, as well as more background, and info on her family and the circumstances surrounding her joining Gekko. While it's easy to chalk up why a person would become a hero, such as protecting the weak or touting justice, the reasoning for becoming a villain usually requires more than guessing, especially when it's a character as sweet as Desumi, but I won't comment further than this. What I will comment on is the great job they did at conveying the romantic side, and the general human side, that there is to any hero or villain. They may be people who posses near-superhuman strength and go about doing battle in the streets on a daily basis, but when they're not donning their fancy costumes and waving a flag of peace or doom, they are just people after all. Take Reaper Princess, she may parade around the streets in a skull mask and a ridiculously skimpy outfit, commanding subordinates who are so terrified of her they pass unfounded rumours about how her favourite meal is raw bear meat, and wreaking havoc on the masses, but when she gets home to her cozy dorm room and steps out of the outfit, when the mask falls, she's just Magahara Desumi, as average as an average teenage girl can be. She does pilates, she loves fashion and keeping up with the latest trends, she gets the top grades in her year, and above all she enjoys spending time with her friends, most specifically her boyfriend. It's these out-of-the-costume scenes that are the real highlight in the series, the human side of things. I did however find that the rest of the cast were a bit of a mixed bag. There were some excellent, lovable characters such as Desumi's sister or Pink Gelato, some that were well-written and likable but I would have enjoyed seeing more of like Green Gelato or the rest of the Princess Series, and some that were virtually nonexistent throughout the series like Blue and Yellow Gelato.

I didn't expect much of the animation based on what I'd seen before starting the series, and to be fair it was never really extravagant, but there was the occasional scene where you could tell they'd put in extra effort to make it more detailed and smooth, more eye-catching. The art itself was pretty though, some really nice scenes like the aforementioned cherry blossom hill date looked great, the obligatory beach episode was a really nice one, and overall the character designs were great. Really expressive and unique each time, you could see a genuine effort was put into each persons characterization and the designs of their costumes. It was also a shocker to see how well choreographed the fight scenes were, and while they may be few and far between, often happening off-screen while our main duo are having secret dates, they were certainly impressive to see when they did occur and I'd say could likely rival any actual Super Sentai series. Realistically, I could see a series like this being padded to the max. They do show the Gelato 5 or the Princess Series performing a transformation sequence every now and then to get into costume, but generally they skip it or condense it to a few seconds, and while they do also use a little stock footage for some of the larger, more generic fight scenes with the grunt soldiers, they still don't use much of that either. A lot of studios nowadays would've dragged that transformation out to 30 seconds or more and threw in a bunch of boring grunt fighting scenes in every episode just to eat up screen-time. While it's not much of a gripe, they did skimp out on the music a little. The BGM is pretty acceptable for the scenes it's applied to but not particularly memorable at all, and the ED was a nice song with a series of cute frames depicting Desumi dolling herself up before departing for a date to the amusement park with Fudou. While I did love the visual aspect, the song itself again doesn't stand out much at all and evaporates from my memory right after it finishes. I do, however, think they hit a home-run with the OP, Koi wa Explosion, a high-tempo jazzy song that serves as a nice introduction to each of the heroes, followed by the mysterious villainous organization, shrouded in darkness at their round-table. Not sure if it's just me, but I found it to be highly reminiscent of the first two Love is War OPs, and it fit this series very well.

Like I said above, this really isn't a series with great romantic progression, it's a silly comedy about an adorable couple learning to be a little selfish for once and think about what they want, to be with each other, rather than always following what others expect of them. Bottom line is, while there weren't any bad episodes, there were a few segments that felt a little deflated, and it ends as a slightly above average comedy that's a tad predictable, but there's still some good laughs and genuine twists, and there's an enjoyable cast present, though Desumi and Fudou's shoulders were likely aching from carrying the series so much. Thankfully, they carry it enough for the show as a whole to be an entertaining watch for anyone that enjoys these easy-going romcoms or anyone who thinks they would enjoy a solid Power Rangers parody.

"I'm so embarrassed wearing this bikini!" says the villain who proudly runs around town in her lingerie every night. Apparently, she isn't aware it should be the other way round.

"I see the reason you are so kindhearted, is because you always had someone there to hug you."

Ousama Ranking is a fantasy anime abundant with charm, every episode was filled to the brim with wonder and excitement, but also apprehensiveness and fear of the vast unknown, with excellent world-building that relies on the simple premise of "show, don't tell", and pulls it off perfectly, with all of it's mystique, it's diverse regions, and creative beasts, but what truly carried this series for me was its diverse cast of characters with all of its moving pieces. So many fantasy series rely on generic evil villains who ... commit heinous acts for the sake of world domination or other typical evil desires and a hero who has to save the world purely out of duty, but these were nowhere to be seen in Ousama Ranking. I found every characters motivations to be well-thought out, and while I may not have agreed with them each time, it was fully understandable why or how they came to their conclusions. The first two episodes serve as an excellent introduction to our pair of protagonists, Bojji, the deaf and mute prince who, despite being next in line to the throne, is belittled and snubbed at every turn because of his disability and inability to stand proud, and Kage, who comes from a race of living shadows, a race who as a whole face a terrible amount of prejudice and belittlement, not unlike how Bojji is treated. It's only when Kage begins to see the similarities between himself and Bojji that the two start to form a connection which bears a beautiful bond that comes to fruition across the show, from their highest highs and heartwarming moments, giving you a giddy smile, to the lowest lows, the tragic, heart-wrenching moments which leave you in tears right alongside the characters, feeling every ounce of their troubles.

Bojji himself as a character honestly had me worried going into the series, with the fact that he's seemingly so weak and such a crybaby, which generally is something I can't put up with, but while he cried a little too often it also never felt whiny or out-of-place, you could always feel the weight on his shoulders, and the pain he was carrying around with him. Yet he also caught my attention with the fact that he was much like Fushi at the beginning of To Your Eternity, mute and not very worldly or courageous, almost a blank slate but not to that extreme a degree, and it had me thinking of the possibilities. How far can this kid really go? I do love a good underdog story, but only when the set up and payoff is truly satisfying, and thankfully this is a satisfying underdog story through and through. I'm trying to avoid spoilers in this review as much as possible so I don't want to delve into these characters growth exactly, but Bojji really does have great development, along with some other characters such as my favourite, Queen Hiling, who initially seems like the typical "evil step-mother" trope from any given classic tale, but over the course of the 23 episodes, given more backstory and growth, she went from a character I'd turn my nose up at (pun intended), to my favourite in the series. I loved every aspect of her, from her character design and voice acting, to her mannerisms and development. On that note too, the backstories included in this series were phenomenal in their telling and timing, comparable to One Piece in the sense that not only were they well planned out and gave you a great insight into these people and their relationships, but were also implemented at perfect times, some being withheld until much later in the series and completely flipping your perspective on the character in question, with Hiling being an excellent example. A woman who went from being a nun to a Queen raising someone else's child, seeing her earlier days and how stern she always was with Bojji while secretly doing her utmost to earn his trust and love, and comparing that to the present day with her present growth keys you in on so much more about her as a character. On the flipside, Kage in my opinion wasn't nearly as developed as either of these characters, and more often than not felt quite one-note, being more like a cheerleader for Bojji. I can see that his mentality from the beginning was to hedge all his bets on Bojji and essentially become his little helper which I'm not opposed to, and while I did still like him and his Doraemon-esque 4D pocket, he did lack much change over the course of the series. I did also feel like the Ranking of Kings itself could've been more prominent, it was an interesting system where an outside organization of some sort (which was never fully explained) would place a rank on each of the kingdoms, based on population, military might and other typical statistics, but we're only ever told of the rankings of two of the kingdoms, and it never played much of a role in the story either apart from the beginning of the series.

I'd liken the art and character design more to a Cartoon Network series like Adventure Time or Disney's Gravity Falls than any anime that comes to mind. I did say this is an anime that's got oodles of charm, and a lot of that can be credited to it's sugar-sweet moments and lovely characters, but I think the animation itself takes the cake in that respect. The use of highly-detailed and elaborate, grungy backgrounds and environments really make the cartoony character models pop in every scene, and although it might sound like it shouldn't work, it does so with ease. The characters almost look as if they'd been drawn by a child, really encapsulating that fairy-tale feel that the series was clearly going for, with this fact being especially obvious if you watch both of the ED's which look straight out of a children's picture-book. Speaking of the ED's, both were nice, gentle songs to finish out each episode on, but where the music really shines is in the OP's. The first one is King Gnu's "BOY", a happy-go-lucky, cheerful theme depicting Bojji and Kage setting out on a journey and exploring what the world has to offer, with some frames of the other character's interspersed, leaving you to wonder what these characters intentions and paths are, plus whether or not Bojji really will take the plunge and set out, or where he may possibly end up. A really cute theme to start the series off and leaves you pondering on where things may go, but just like the animation as a whole, it's rather deceptive in how cutesy it is, as you reach the latter half of the series and events are occurring one after another to really make you question who's on who's side and where things can go from here, as the tension rises and its all coming to a head, in comes the second OP, Vaundy's "The Naked Hero", which I daresay may be one of the best anime openings I've ever seen. Now that you've been properly introduced to our core cast and been given enough mysteries surrounding the extended cast and the perceived threats incoming, the script is completely flipped with this song, at first a melancholic acoustic solo opening succinctly depicting the troubles of our primary protagonists, before the the heavy drums and guitar kick in and it becomes more like a tragic rock song. Never has an anime intro alone made me so sad to see it each time, it perfectly captures all of the series' lowest points while also holding out hope for the light at the end of the tunnel, and I could write a full review on this song itself and its astounding visuals alone but I'll leave it here. I place a huge emphasis on intro songs to anime as I feel they're such an integral part of the series, especially if used correctly, so when I see so much love and care gone into one that earns massive points from me, and I should hope this song could one day become nearly as iconic as something like Hacking to The Gate from Steins;Gate. I also have to add though that the sound design and voice acting in general for this series was brilliant, always queuing in haunting or morose music at the worst of times to hit you even harder, and effects for weapons clashing or magic being cast always sounded unique. Kage, Hiling and Miranjo in particular I always felt to be excellent in portraying their excitement, their pain, when their flustered or overjoyed, very emotional performances overall.

I was surprised to see so many negative and average reviews for this series, given how high the score is and how much I loved it myself. A lot of the criticism seems to fall on the issues of lack of deaths and lack of evil for evils sake, and I'm usually one to get annoyed with "plot armour" in series like these myself, but I felt these aspects were more apt and believable attributes for this series than any other I could come up with. It's meant to be a fairy-tale, and even if there's sadness in the middle, it ought to be a happy ending after all. There are no true villains or black and white, only truly gray. For a series so chock full of events and world-building, it also manages to keep a brilliant pace, with no episode wasted and always dense without feeling bloated or relying on exposition dumps. It also touches on a lot of great themes and ideas such as the search for acknowledgment or persecution based on race or disability and handles these topics well. This is easily one of the best fantasy anime I've watched in a long time, one of the most charming, heartfelt and tear-jerking I've likely ever watched and so far my favourite anime of this year, though we are only halfway into the year and I've still got a lot to catch up on, so this remains to be seen. It'd be a crime to not renew this for a second season once there's more source material to adapt.

And Queen Hiling is Okaa-san of the year.

"No, all of you taught me. You showed me how great it is... to do your best."

Inokuma Yawara is a teenage girl who wants nothing more than to be normal. She loves fashion, wants to learn how to cook, and someday get a boyfriend, but secretly, she's a judo prodigy, something she takes no pleasure in being. Taught by her five-time national judo champion Grandfather, Jigoro, since she was about four years old, she's now been put through rigorous, daily training for over a decade, but her Grandfather feels this grueling practice behind closed doors will only push her abilities so far, and so before ... he reveals her abilities to the world and announces his plans to send her to the Barcelona Olympics and earn the People's Choice Award, he proposes a slightly unusual plan; he wants to find her a rival, a professional athlete good enough to crush her and in the process, teach her just how high of a summit the top of the world is to surmount. Enter Honami Sayaka; a rich heiress, roughly the same age as Yawara, and hailed as an all-round athletic genius, being an international champion in tennis, horse-riding, and gymnastics among a litany of other sports, to the point that shes become completely disinterested in her achievements and regularly trashes her trophies and medals for fun. Yet there is one sport shes never dipped her toes into, namely judo, and when coaxed by Jigoro's abilities, witnessing him toss her bodyguard twice his size and half his age in a split-second, and his teasing that he has a pupil capable of taking on the world, she knows immediately what her next sports venture will be. Thus begins the story our main character, Yawara, and her heated rival Sayaka, a judo prodigy versus a jack of all trades but master of none, as they and a large cast of judo players of all sizes and backgrounds vie for the titles of national and world champion in their respective weight classes. Since this is quite a lengthy series that also covers a lengthy span of time, at 124 episodes, an hour long special, and a 90 minute sequel film, I'll try to hold back but there will be some spoilers.

Going into a series all about judo, I was more than a little hesitant, since I've absolutely no experience with or knowledge of the sport, and they certainly don't hold your hand either, only allowing you to learn all the terminology, rules and moves by paying attention to the matches as they occur, with no info dumps or long explanatory dialogue scenes to get you up to date. It doesn't pose much of an issue though, as there's enough consecutive matches particularly towards the beginning for you to get caught up on how points are earned and such. Once I bought into the hype, especially as the series goes on and the stakes continually rise, I found myself really getting excited with the matches. They're fast paced, and limited only to grapples and throws, making it a rough and tumble, yet deeply strategic game. Yawara's signature move, the lightning fast Ippon Zeoi, an overhead shoulder throw, is such a simple yet mesmerizing move that leaves both the fans and the viewer stunned, with her opponent being flung at such a startling velocity that they look as if they're being brought to light speed. Sometimes you could even hear a pin drop with how her flawless moves leave the spectators with bated breath. Her Grandfather's idea of judo is "The gentle way wasn't built in a day", or in other words, "The flexible command the strong; The small command the large", and Yawara is the embodiment of this style of judo. She's short and slim, completely unassuming, yet she's always entered into the open weight divisions, meaning the players aren't separated by weight classes, and she's often facing challengers who tower over her, making it all the more interesting seeing how unstoppable she is. Another great inclusion is not only having multiple angle shots of some of the finishing throws, but they'll occasionally have the commentators watching the slow-mo action-replays to see how the move was performed inch-by-inch. It's not just Yawara that's a treat to watch either, I was engrossed in the matches fought by all of the biggest players, and was torn several times in who to root for, not just because I'd like to see them as characters succeed and have their hard work pay off, but I also simply want to see more. More of their unique fighting styles, and more crazy match ups too. Even off the mat, Yawara is still a treat of a main character. She's lovely, bubbly, and always lending a helping hand, even to her opponents. Even though she knows full well that Sayaka wants nothing more than to flatten her, she'll still tell her how much fun she has playing against her, not to mock but encourage her, in her own way. She does have a strange naivety that prevents her from reading the room, but it plays into her innocence. Regardless of the fact that she's a girl who's touted as the worlds strongest, she's still gentle in every sense of the word, and a rather unique trait of hers is that even though shes on the fast-track to becoming the Queen of Judo, she doesn't feel a drop of pressure to win. Rather, she outright wants to quit by any means possible, to leave it all behind.

The driving factor of the series, initially coming as quite a surprise given her immense talent, is Yawara's struggle with wanting more than anything to become a regular girl, not unlike Usagi Tsukino's reluctance to go back to being a sailor senshi and give up her everyday life in Sailor Moon R. Yawara feels that if she continues down the path her Grandfather has locked her into, she'll never be able to live a normal life, or go to her dream college doing a Home Economics course. On the other hand, her Grandfather won't even try to see it from her perspective, and while it's understandable that he'd be so adamant she doesn't stray from his teachings after all these years under his wing, his approach isn't to talk to her one-on-one and convince her to get back at it, instead resorting to constant schemes that back her into a corner or guilt her to the point that she feels forced to take part in her upcoming matches. This formula is repeated multiple times through the majority of the series to an exhausting point, and is only really interesting the first or second time; Yawara doesn't want to do judo anymore, he guilts her into playing, she feels the love of the sport again, before quickly finding another reason not to participate anymore. It gets pretty stale, pretty quick. This is where Sailor Moon greatly differs. While Usagi steps up to the plate and accepts her fate, winning over the viewer with her bravery in choosing what she must do, not what she wants to do, Yawara never makes the distinction right to the end. She never fully commits to the sport, yet she never permanently drops out, and I'll commend her for begrudgingly choosing to play regardless, but it doesn't mean much when her heart is never in it. The other repeating pattern is with Yawara's love interests. There's two romantic partners presented, the third-rate reporter from the third-rate sports newspaper Matsuda Kosaku, and the rich womanizer Kazamatsuri Shinnosuke, with the former being the clear one to root for, and the latter being being the one to worry about. While Shinnosuke says time and time again he's in love with her, he sleeps around on a regular basis, on top of having a fiance, yet Yawara always seems taken in by his silver tongue. On the other hand, Kosaku only has eyes for her, but can never find the time to get the right words out, or regularly falls victim to misunderstandings, and here's where the second issue arises. Every time Shinnosuke is about to finally win her over, his fiance magically appears. Every time Kosaku is about to get the words out, his camera-woman and admirer Kuniko says something to give Yawara the wrong impression and Kosaku does nothing to clear up the misunderstanding, prolonging the "Will they? Won't they? Who will she choose?" ever more. It gets even more stale than her inability to quit judo, as at least in that aspect, her Grandfather is sneaky and creative in how he goes about tricking her, while on the romance front, several times its only prolonged because Kosaku refuses to speak up and clear the air, leaving Yawara feeling like it'll always be a one-sided love. I genuinely like all the characters named, except the shrill and spoiled Kuniko, but I can't get past the glaring issues that they present, as this series already has mild pacing issues with the down-time between tournaments, and the prolonging of these two central points only drags it on longer, not to mention that its rarely stated how much time is passing episode-to-episode. A certain a block of about 10 episodes takes place over the course of a year, a far quicker pace than any other point in the series.

It can look quite dated at times, most evidently in the beginning, as the series began in 1989, but after running for three years the quality certainly rises, to the point that I was a little taken aback comparing just how much it's changed from episode 1 to episode 124. It's certainly the kind of anime I'd love to see a remake, or at the very least a remaster of, because there's some truly stunning scenes that still hold up even to this day, but I'd like to see them do more than just hold up. There's some good camera work too, with the transitions between a lot of scenes keeping things fresh, and a lot of the backgrounds are well detailed too, but its pretty clear where they cut corners, particularly at tournaments when you can see the crowds blurred or out of the shot altogether. Yawara! is based on a manga written by Urasawa Naoki, famed mangaka for monstrously popular works such as Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto, all of which are high-tension, psychological thrillers full of suspense and embroiled in mystery, yet the only real sign he had any hand in this work is his signature character designs, which I've always loved. Everyone looks uniquely styled, and Madhouse did a great job in animating them, especially with Yawara undoubtedly being, as the title suggests, a fashionable judo girl. She's pretty, petite, and certainly prioritizes being fashionable above being a judoka, cycling through plenty of outfits and hairstyles as the series goes on. Most notably in each of the OPs we see slideshows of Yawara modelling dozens of different styles, almost unrecognizable at times with how she's dolled up. Fashion in anime is something I've always had a great interest in, and it goes beyond simply visual appeal. While that is a major factor, it should also serve to tell us more about the characters from one look, like how Kosaku rarely ever changes clothes due to his poor paychecks, while Sayaka is draped in the latest and most expensive dresses and jewellery at all times, never wearing the same clothes twice. Even while throwing people through the air, she and Yawara still manage to portray an image of beauty.

The special hour-long episode wasn't much to talk about, a simple story to be watched roughly toward the end of the series or afterwards. Slightly higher quality in terms of animation, but barely any of the usual cast of characters as it primarily follows Yawara as she teaches judo to a group of kids. Not much happens but it's a nice little side story, so if you enjoyed the series you'll enjoy this too. More noteworthy is the 90 minute finale film, made to truly and definitively finish out the story. Episode 124 was honestly a little lackluster and left me wanting far more than we got, but I at least still liked how open-ended it was. If you use your imagination you could easily picture how things play out in the future. Then comes the finale film, which sets out to tie up every loose end, which I wasn't opposed to, but the execution was a little jarring. It's seems to be set several years after the series finale, but it becomes evident early on that they've done a light retcon. From what I could tell, they just moved all of the previous events forward so that the main series ended in 1996 instead of the actual year it ended in, but everything else was roughly the same. It turned out to be pretty good in the end, with almost everyone getting a happy ending, or at the very least getting what they deserve, but unbelievably they still manage to cram in another one of Kuniko's ridiculous ploys for attention, having her steal and purposely crashing a car just to pull Kosaku away from Yawara's matches. With only an hour and a half to work with, I was really disappointed that they had to drive one last unnecessary wedge from the girl who wants what she can't have between Yawara and Kosaku. The matches at least were a joy to watch, with one I wanted to see being glossed over, but all the rest being well animated and hard-fought. I also would've assumed the art would be better given that it was released four years after the TV series stopped airing, but it's of almost identical quality in terms of animation and such, which is to say while it still looked very good, it should've looked far better than it did.

As mentioned, the source material for this show is a manga by Urasawa Naoki, but I was more than a little skeptical when I realised this and really couldn't see it panning out well, given that all I'd seen of his work was the polar opposite of Yawara! It's a borderline-shoujo series, almost predominantly slice-of-life with plenty of romance in it, a mix that I wouldn't have even thought he'd be interested in writing. I wouldn't say he absolutely nailed it, but it's a definite testament to his talent that he can jump into such a different genre and still create an enjoyable story. It's unnecessarily dragged on by the recurring delays I talked about, and there's a number of characters introduced that are sort of just phased out, never to be mentioned again, but that doesn't subtract from it being a fairly original series that has plenty of exciting and suprising moments, oozing with his usual brand of reactionary comedy. There's a variety of talent that worked on it, such as the director Tokito Hoshino who worked on Touch, the sound director Urakami Yasuo who worked in that role for a massive catalogue of shows such as Detective Conan, Code Geass, and several Gundam entries, and the voice of Yawara herself Minaguchi Yuko, long-time VA who played Sailor Saturn among many other characters. Yawara! is certainly worth a watch if you like a longer series or a less portrayed sport, and certainly if you like slice-of-life, girly anime. It's got some good messages in there, like how a single photograph can capture a perfect moment in time, immortalising it forever, or just how fast life passes you by when you're always too busy to notice. Plenty of great voice acting, a great cast of characters, and a great, fashionable judo girl.

"But I'm so glad. You really did make friends. That alone... makes me so happy."

Akebi's Sailor Uniform is a slice-of-life school anime in its truest form. There's little to no drama, no tragic pasts to be confronted, no bully's to deal with, it's simply a series that follows the coming-of-age story of a teenage girl named Akebi Komichi, starting with her first day of high school. She's a girl who grew up in the sticks, going to a middle school with a headcount of exactly one; just her. Although all through her younger schooling years the only company she had in class was her teacher ... and at home was her family, she never let this dampen her spirits, and set her sights on two goals; the simpler goal being to one day wear the signature sailor uniform of her Mother's old high school, Roubai Academy, and the larger, more daunting goal of making as many friends as possible once she enters high school. Starting with a fantastic first episode that sets up our image of what kind of person Akebi is, along with one of the greatest cringe-worthy scenes (in an awfully relatable way) I've seen in a long time, the "story" is set in motion. I put story in quotation marks because there really isn't one to speak of, just the average days of high school girls navigating uncharted waters.

As we're introduced to our cast, entirely comprised of Akebi's classmates save for a few, it seemed overwhelming at first with the amount of different characters to juggle for a twelve episode series, and while I definitely feel some of them deserved a lot more screen-time, I never felt like any of them lacked characterization or that I was getting lost with who's who. They're all unique enough in terms of appearance and personality that I never found issue placing a name to such a large list of faces, as is common with some of these school-based series that depend on a litany of copy-paste characters to carry scenes. The only drawback of completely avoiding any trite drama or heavy issues is that sometimes they can seem pretty shallow, as series like Natsume's Book of Friends (a personal favourite of mine) have proved you can more than succeed by doing a slice-of-life, easygoing series that also has tragic or even heartbreaking moments, without straying too far from the genre. If anything, it's a slice-of-life, and sometimes life isn't so pretty. What this series opts for instead is much lighter, simpler, and more than anything, relatable issues that undoubtedly everyone at some time in their life, during, before, or even after high school have dealt with to varying degrees. What exactly is my talent? Will I be able to make friends? How can I broaden my horizons? You could push yourself out of your comfort zone to join an interesting club, maybe pick up a new instrument, or even just try honing your craft at something you've done privately all your life, so you can finally announce to the world "This is who I am, and this is what I can do." We see each character deal with these small but sometimes terrifying issues each in their own way, each coming up with their own answers more often than not with the help of their friends around them, and that's where the beauty in this series lies. Three of the episodes I found to be particularly noteworthy for this were episodes six, seven and eleven, but each and every episode stayed true to the core team at work; friendship. You could analyse every other angle or theme of this series but at it's core, it's all about friendship, and it manages to portray each of these individual friendships between every classmate perfectly.

The two stars of the show no doubt are Akebi Komichi herself, and the person I'd say is her best friend from the bunch, Kizaki Erika. Akebi's abundance of energy, straightforward honesty, and talents in varying sports make her a gleeful, outgoing, and lovable main character, both for the viewer and the characters around her. Often times with similar main characters I find myself rolling my eyes and thinking "How could they be so universally beloved, both in the series and by the fans?", but this time I can certainly say I'm a fan myself. Erika in contrast is a little more reserved, she's musically talented as oppose to athletically, and seems to be more careful with how she approaches people, unlike how Akebi is always unapologetically herself. This contrast between the two creates a great dynamic and it's always a treat to see them growing ever closer, with episode six in particular being my definite favourite, as it's entirely spent following these two and their budding friendship. Twenty-something minutes of pure sweetness, truly. It's lovely to see too in the later episodes how much they look up to each other, just how highly they think of the other person without ever verbalising it, or noticing the pedestal the other has put them on. It was also really fitting to see the shot of Akebi at the end of episode one giving a polite smile and a "Good morning" to a classmate entering the room, compared to the shot again of Akebi at the end of episode twelve giving an exuberant grin and a "Morning!", showing just how much she's grown in such a short time.

The animation, in a word, is fantastic. Tonnes of smooth sequences that I was rewinding again and again, I couldn't get enough of just watching Akebi running to school, or seeing her friends giving it their all during sports practices. The countryside area surrounding her house was just as beautiful as watching her run through it, with shots of rivers and rice-fields leading to cherry blossoms and hill-climbing stairs, I swear some of these shots belong in an art museum. So many face close-ups that had me sat in awe, the level of detail gone into the eyes alone is astounding. The famous Volume 1 manga cover illustration, Akebi mimicking her favourite idol's pose, that occurs in episode two gave me a genuine shiver. I quickly became a big fan of the character design, with the slender figures and bulbous eyes being very visually appealing, and especially when they do their hyper-realistic zoom shots they really spill their budget on making the girls look as pretty as possible. Between their eyes glistening like huge jewels, and their hair looking so natural, as layered and detailed as possible, beautiful is the only word I could use to describe such frames. Also, I'd never have thought that I'd be saying a scene where a girl clips her toes nails then sniffs the clippers was fantastic both in execution and animation, but I can't lie. Yeah. Which leads me to the borderline fan-service-y side of this series. Including that scene, there are a number of instances with questionable content, such as multiple bath scenes, or Akebi asking for and receiving leg pics from a friend (a woman of culture I see), and by the halfway point, all I could think was "This is the most yuri non-yuri series ever", and was wondering was it going to go in that direction, but it never crosses that line, nor does it venture into ecchi territory or feel like its trying to push a different kind of agenda. I guess it is, after all, based on a Seinen manga even if it appears as Shoujo as they come. As for sound, I found the majority of the cast to be well voiced, like how Akebi always had a great energy and enthusiasm or how Kamimoku always sounded half asleep, as they should, and the background music served each scene well. I wasn't in love with the OP but I do think it was a fitting song choice for this kind of series, and the visuals were a perfect collage of memories these girls are making with each other each day. The ED on the other hand was the opposite, while it was a simple collection of almost entirely still images that could've been a bit more spruced up, the song itself was lovely.

All in all, I keep using the same word, but it's the one that I keep coming back to; what a lovely series. It managed to catch me out more than once by keeping things consistently cutesy, only to hit me with a totally unexpected heartwarming scene that brought out a tear or two. Seeing Akebi go from friendless to overwhelmed with friends in itself was really nice to see, but it really got to me when you see the moment that it all hits her and becomes too much for her, as she finally gets to tell her middle school teacher that she has friends now, and they share a moment of joyful tears in such a quiet but powerful scene. She seemingly hadn't a single friend, even going so far as to say she's never really talked with anyone her own age before, so you can only imagine how crushing a weight it must've been going to an entirely new school with entirely new people, people from every walk of life, not to mention people finally her own age. Yet every episode she goes on to make more and more new friends, not by worrying herself into a hole over how to present herself or by fearing rejection, but by being her most honest self. It was nostalgic, it was excessively cute and, overall, it was very well put together and I'd a smile on my face watching every episode, but I can't help but feel it was missing something. I'm a big fan of slice-of-life and CGDCT shows, namely the aforementioned Natsume's Book of Friends, or Non Non Biyori, but there's just some aspects that set those anime too far ahead of this one. I wanted to give it an 8/10, but really can't push it past a 7.5. CloverWorks really seem to be on an unbelievable roll this past year between this, My Dress-Up Darling, Spy x Family, and Horimiya, not to mention the slightly less praised Shadows House and Wonder Egg Priority, so I'm hoping they manage to keep the ball rolling going forth, and would also love to see Akebi coming back for a second season sometime in the near future.

By the way, her little sister Kao is Imouto of The Year, too adorable.

Is she, or isn't she?

Key: the Metal Idol is the story of a young girl, or more accurately a robot, named Mima Tokiko, or as most people refer to her, Key, in her quest to become "human". This mission is given to her by her Grandfather Doctor Mima on his deathbed, recorded on a tape as his last will with the simple instructions to "make 30,000 friends" and humanity will be hers. With such a vague explanation and so little restrictions given, how would you go about fulfilling this request? Attempt to make 30,000 individual friends? Maybe start a cult and gather 30,000 ... followers? Or would you possibly become an idol and gain 30,000 fans? It's with these dying words that Key is spurned on to move from her home in the quiet rural village of Mamio Valley to the city of Tokyo, searching for her humanity and unaware of the numerous trials awaiting her, as while she makes her way toward the city, a rival from her Grandfather's past who's enamored with the warfare potential of robotics, Ajo Jinsaku, sets a deadly plan in motion.

To quote one of the best scenes from the series itself, "It's still too early for spoilers", so I'm going to try avoid giving too many specific details on the plot, as I found that one line to encapsulate the series as a whole perfectly. The premise sounds unique yet simple, and I certainly haven't done it justice with my short description, but it's the type of anime that's best appreciated going in with a blank slate, and the increasingly cryptic story takes almost the full run of 15 episodes for all the mysteries to unravel and secrets to come to light. Huge comparisons can be drawn to well known and beloved series like Serial Experiments Lain and Boogiepop Phantom in terms of story-telling and cinematography, with Watanabe Takashi having worked on both the latter and this series, and while some people may find it a little ways off measuring up to either of those series, I believe it still manages to hold its own and cement itself as an original story with something to tell. Its the type of series where the more I thought about it after finishing it, the more I was recognizing recurring themes and ideas that were prevalent from start to finish, with more minor focus on some ideas such as the iron mask almost of all of us live behind, showing our best face to the world, while concealing our true one, and also the more majorly explored ideas such as man creating machine in his image as God created man, and the potential consequences, not to mention how great a cost that may come at, or the pursuit, and eventually obsession, with perfection and likewise what would be required of you and to what fate would you eventually be resigned. Arguably though, I would say the most obvious overarching theme is the commentary of Japan's idol culture as a whole, and the depiction of the idols as nothing more than puppets on strings that could be cut at any given time if they don't dance to their owner's tune is all over this series.

To comment on the animation, the series was released through the mid 90's, so a portion of the animation looks a little dated now and some character designs can be a tad bland, but there are several noticeably higher quality scenes, particularly the fight scenes, which are few and far between but when they appear, the word graphic isn't exactly apt, the violence is more-so simply brutal. Crowds always look detailed, costume design was good particularly for the idols and Sakura, and the majority of environments and backgrounds still have a touch of quality and are highly varied, but where it truly excels is in it's robots. Not only is each robot as a whole superbly designed, from the Terminator style mechs of Ajo Heavy Industries to the collection of oddities and prototypes designed by Doctor Mima, the close up shots and the deep delves into the inner-workings of these machines themselves, showing their ticking gears, firing pistons and swirling liquids are always mesmerizing when they burst onto the screen. Speaking of mesmerizing, the intro sequence; a perfectly ominous string of shots, alluding to events to come, and events long passed too. Key's gentle prancing down an endless checkered corridor, her exiting through a pool of liquid as her human exterior is washed away to reveal her cold, steel interior, and the night-time city depicted as massive, churning cogs, as it's shadow is cast down on a lonesome Key and she steps between each of the cogs spokes, very reminiscent of Steins;Gate's OP, are all so simple yet so eye-catching to see at the beginning of each episode, accompanied by a haunting and melancholic song of loneliness and wishing to be found, to connect. This show is chock full of simple to interpretive imagery right up to it's final moments, but even without trying to discern the messages within, you can easily appreciate how pretty the image is in itself regardless.

I did say that the show was lacking a little in character design, but the one stand out by far in terms of design is key herself, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. She's as robotic as they come, with the most deadpan expression and monotone voice you could imagine. Her hair is frizzy and bordering on grey, her skin is near-translucent and frame is excruciatingly thin, and her eyes are glassy and unwavering. She truly stands out as memorable visually, but like I said, it's a double-edged sword. She's so deadpan and robotic in every single scene that she ends up overshadowed by the majority of the other cast in terms of likability, but even when it comes to screen time, most of the other characters are put in the limelight far more often than Key to push the story forward. What does keep you interested in her as a character and her journey though, and the reason I put that question at the very top, is that you find out pretty early on... that nobody believes Key is a robot at all. Even though she's the very definition of a robot and introduces herself as a robot to anybody and everybody, even her best friend Sakura thinks she's just delusional. Everyone else would be forgiven for not believing her, since the general population believes robots to be no more than a concept in their world, and nobody is aware of who Key's Grandfather is either, except Sakura knows full well who he is, since she also grew up in Mamio Valley. The evidence for vastly outweighs the evidence against, yet Key is treated as a child with some form of trauma or potentially autism, despite clearly being more than a regular teenage girl. This is just one of the mysteries that keeps you embroiled in her character and the story as a whole, as you even start to doubt yourself as to whether or not the robot is a robot, or just a confused little girl.

When I saw this series was titled "the Metal Idol" and had the music tag, I was expecting a lot more songs than there actually was, but thankfully it turned out not to be such a bad thing, as the songs that were included were of exceptional quality. There was plenty of pretty good background music in each episode, but as for the main songs the highlights by far were Key's "Lullaby" by Shibahara Chiyako, Miho's "Memories of Sand", also by Shibara Chiyako, and my personal favourite, the OP mentioned above, "In The Night" by Kijima Sario. None of these three songs are at all what at least I would expect when I hear the term "idol music". They're tragic, heartfelt and beautifully sung, and to be honest I've had them playing on repeat constantly, even while writing this review, and I can still vividly recall each piece of the series they're attached to as they're playing. The sound design was pretty good over the course of the series in other aspects too, particularly again when it comes to the robotic aspect. Hearing the sound fade out as the gears crunching in Key's head get louder and louder, before they're abruptly cut off by a static crackle or a blast of steam being exerted always sounds so satisfying, and as each episode ends we're inevitably given another close up of Key's iron mask accompanied by the swelling, foreboding tones of the series ED, "I'm Standing By You" by Kijima Sario.

The only true issue I think I had with this series was the pacing. While I was thoroughly engaged in the story and everything it was bringing to the table, some episodes really did crawl by at a snails pace, with scene after scene of dialogue and very little of it being of real substance besides maybe adding more mystique, and the biggest criminal for this was episode 14. I'd have finished this series about three days ago and typed up my review, but for better and for worse, when I sat down to watch the final two episodes, I realised they're both an hour and 40 minutes long, each. While every other episode is the average 24~ minutes, the final two are about the length of a regular film. At first I was delighted to have so much extra content, but episode 14, to put it bluntly, is 100 minutes of exposition. No exaggeration, almost the entirety of it is split between two scenes, going back and forth, of characters laying out the entirety of the history, background, and the answers to near enough to every riddle laid out during the previous 13 episodes, and while it was incredibly informative and cohesive, it honestly came across as lazy to reveal so much in a gigantic info dump in the penultimate episode. The cohesion and how well every single dot was connected were what kept me sitting there for the entire duration, albeit a little annoyed, but the saving grace, when we've finally reached the climax of the series, is the explosive final moments of this second-to-last episode, leading into the finale. While I was more than a little wary going into the last episode, I enjoyed it to the point that I actually watched it twice, with a grand ending more fitting than I could have hoped for. Episodes 14 and 15 are like night and day, and while I understand the necessity for 14 to be dialogue heavy if they want to tie-up the copious amounts of plot-lines and give 15 the true ending it deserves, I can't forgive it for how much it dragged on, no matter how good the pay off.

I really didn't think my review would go on so long, but there was so much I wanted to talk about, and so much I loved, that even while trying not to go into plot developments I just kept typing and typing. I had initially even planned to give it a 7 upon first typing this up, but decided I'd re-watch the finale, rewrite this a tad and bump up the score to a well deserved 8. It can be slow and a little dated, but it's a series that has something to say, with solid art, and enough lurking in the shadows to keep you coming back for more each time. Severely underrated and not even 4,500 people have it completed.

It has to be at least 30,000.

Mild Spoilers

I decided I'd stick this trashy OVA on for some mindless entertainment, going in with absolutely no expectations or knowledge of what to expect besides the worst, and maybe because of that I came out almost pleasantly surprised. Almost. Yes I did give it a 3, because it is still mindless, filled with inconsistencies, and is trashy in every aspect, but so long as you don't go into it expecting anything of substance its a pretty entertaining piece to point and laugh at.

The story is set in New York's worst precinct, so naturally it'd be safe to be expecting obscene violence and gang related ... crime, and you'd be correct, but nothing will prepare you for the actual level of crime presented. Chinese suicide bombers, a cyborg mafia don, and a cop killer in a Predator-style robot suit are just some of the "average" criminals the main characters, "Mad Bull" John Estes, his newbie partner Daizaburo Edi-Ban, and later veteran cop Perine Valley have to deal with on a given day. These 3 make up our main cast, but I found the only noteworthy character to be Mad Bull himself. Daizaburo and Perine get little to no development, we're never told of their backgrounds or past, and at a stretch you could say Perine has a small character arc, but Daizaburo is given no real spotlight and feels consistently overshadowed by Estes. We're told of some of Estes' past exploits and about his old partner, shown plenty of his regular routine such as how he's always spending "quality time" with seemingly every lady in New York, and constantly gifted with scenes of his insane natural prowess such as when he let a bomb go off in his hand and walked it off, or lifted and attempted to flip an actual tank. When we first meet him you'd assume he's simply a brute that shoots first and asks questions never, but as the episodes go on you'll see there's a softer side to the Mad Bull that he doesn't like to make known. In comparison, Daizaburo isn't given the same treatment whatsoever, we have no idea what he gets up to on a given day, he has no spectacular moments, and we finish the final episode having learned nothing about this character. Perine on the other hand, who's supposedly a star cop, has a couple of good action sequences, but again we know nothing about this character, and the sad truth is that more often than not shes treated as nothing more than eye candy for the viewer, being stripped bare on several occasions. One sequence involves her being caught in an explosion which conveniently results in her not being injured, but her clothes being completely torn off, and this is a trend the OVA consistently follows of introducing female characters just to have them stripped or worse at least once before the episode is over. I get it, they weren't going for a story-heavy, character-driven series, but these points just needed mentioning.

Animation wise, pretty subpar, it was made in 1990 but I think even compared to any late 80's/early 90's anime I've watched it was fairly low quality. None of the characters really stood out visually and the villains designs were just lazy. A number of scenes were very visually jarring, room dimensions being off, camera angles making objects or people appear larger than they should be. One particular shot had a street angled upward, but the cars parked on it aiming downward? It had me laughing and scratching my head as to whether I was losing brain cells watching this. Again, in most shows that kind of thing would have me frustrated, but here it just added enjoyment to seeing how many more obvious mistakes I could find in such a short series. The amount of awkward and shabbily animated sex scenes crammed into these 4 episodes is a joke in itself. For the sound, there was no OP, but each episode had a different ED, with 2 and 3 being pretty good but I wasn't a fan of the first or last ones. None of the other music throughout the series was particularly memorable, and a lot of the cartoony sound effects used throughout ranged from cheesy to simply unfitting.

This OVA clearly wasn't going for a deep story or endearing characters like I said above, and relies entirely on shock factor and over the top action sequences, but there is COPIOUS amounts of gore and violence, with people being eviscerated by swords, blown apart by shotguns, or the animators clearly not knowing or caring how bullets work as several times Mad Bull is shown decapitating people with just his revolver. While all completely silly, they do usually keep it fresh enough with how the cannon fodder get slaughtered for you to stay entertained, but by about the halfway mark in the fourth episode, the action combined with the final episodes poorer than usual plot had me borderline wishing it was over. A word of warning, a lot of the very graphic violence is of a sexual nature which would be seriously off putting for a lot of viewers. It's not once or twice, but at least several times in some episodes and comes off as pretty offensive, even by this anime's standards.

Overall, episodes 1 and 2 were the best of a bad bunch, and episodes 3 and 4 weren't as good as I felt they were trying to go more plot oriented, which certainly wasn't this OVAs strong point to begin with. It's episodic so there's not really an overarching plot, and that in itself could have been fine if only the individual stories were more interesting. On that note, I was hoping it'd at least end with a bit more closure, but I didn't realize it was 4 episodes adapted from a 27 volume manga which I've no intention of reading. I'd recommend watching this only if you're looking for a short, dumb, action-packed series to watch while taking a break in-between actual good shows, and only if you're not bothered by glaring issues in story and animation, or hectic amounts of graphic sex and violence of all kinds.

There will be spoilers ahead, not that you should care. This isn't an anime anyone should waste their time watching to begin with.

If a man is willing to cheat on his girlfriend with you, you can be certain he'll one day cheat on you with someone else. After finishing this series I was left with two main questions; first and foremost, why do any of these girls, let alone every single one of them (yes, the entire on screen cast except one girl) have affection for the protagonist ranging from simple romantic interest, to psychotic obsession? There's a single flashback sequence showing him try to ... cheer up one of the girls after a bad encounter with two other students left her in tears, but in every other scene at the beginning of the series hes shown to be quiet, awkward, and not all that interesting, and towards the end hes shown to be pushy, easily aggravated by slight inconveniences, and most of all he's become an egomaniac who all the girls are fully aware is sleeping with half the school, as shown by Hikari commenting that just because his girlfriend isn't around, he's contacting every girl he can think of for "company". She even goes as far as looking through his recent phone calls to reveal he's called roughly 24 different girls, all of who's names don't appear in the series at any other time. We're meant to believe hes got girls lining up just to spend time with him, and not one of them cares that he has a girlfriend? Or that he's also already seeing every other girl you can think of? The funniest part of this is that the breaking point for every one of them, when they all finally decide to cut ties with him, is when they find out one of them got pregnant, and suddenly he's now damaged goods. If even one girl clearly stated her reasons for being so passionate about him apart from "he's my boyfriend" or "I've known him since middle school, he was nice back then", I wouldn't have had such an issue with the "romance" in this series, but it all just felt so shallow and random the entire time, not to mention that the protagonist seemingly only thinks with his lower brain, and not a single girl can resist him when he immediately gropes them.

The second question, why oh why would he not break up with his original girlfriend Kotonoha? I could care less if he wants to whore around with every girl in his school, he's already shown how trashy and inconsiderate he is of any of the girls feelings over and over, but at a stretch I can rationalise why he chooses each girl, at least at the start. He isn't getting physical intimacy from Kotonoha, so he jumps to Sekai. Sekai is mad at him and he sees an easy opportunity when approached by Otome, so he jumps to Otome. Kiyoura, who is supposed to be Sekais best friend, offers herself up to convince him to stop seeing other girls and be faithful to Sekai (look how that worked out), so he takes advantage of that situation too. But all the while poor Kotonoha is under the impression that they're still dating? He avoids her every chance he gets, but when he sees her he acts like nothings wrong, so what exactly is the benefit of stringing her along like this for so long, if he gains nothing from her romantically or physically? I find it hard to understand why every single character mistreats her so much, or how no teachers or her parents seem to pick up on it at all, even when shes shown to be in an almost catatonic state in the final two episodes. I also just want to add that I had high hopes that Taisuke, the only other male character, would be the one to liberate her from this insane obsession for the protagonist, but instead he goes on to assault her, in a ridiculous and entirely distasteful scene that, while short and not all that graphic, was entirely unnecessary, and was followed up by him asking Kotonoha out for dinner, since they "had such a great time together". She never mentions this to anyone, and there's absolutely no repercussions for his actions. The scene simply serves as yet more shock factor that falls entirely flat.

Those were my primary two issues with this series that I really needed to address, but there was literally nothing else I enjoyed about it either. None of the music or sound stood out at all, the art was bland and in parts choppy, with a handful of noticeable errors here and there such as faces distorting, and the voice acting was flat, with Kotonoha and Makoto in particular being the worst of the cast. I've read the manga before, and while it was far from good, it was short, mildly entertaining for a quick read, and above all it was leaps and bounds more believable than the anime adaption. I specifically chose to watch this because I knew the story panned out differently to the manga, but I never thought it was going to be almost the exact same story, except now Makoto is a massive playboy who's cheating with the whole school instead of just Sekai. It all felt so incoherent and random through every episode, as if shock factor was all they had in mind. Even the final scene, where the protagonist finally gets his comeuppance, felt so unsatisfying after all that waiting. No final words, no dragging it out after all the chaos he's reveled in, it was just over like that. The only shock factor in the scene was how terrible the blood effects were. I will admit, the one scene that would've gotten a laugh out of me if I wasn't already expecting such random nonsense to happen was when the writers clearly gave up since the final episode was almost over, and they had Kotonoha and Makoto proclaim their "love" in front of the pregnant Sekai, before groping each other and playing a game of tongue twister as she screams like she never expected the serial cheater to cheat on her.

There wasn't a single moment in this series where I could truly relate to any of the characters choices or motivations, and a lot of the time I could barely even understand them. As shown above they're all made out to be completely driven by an inexplicable lust for the protagonist, in some cases so uncontrollable they'd even kill him, or kill for him. Some of them were at least tolerable towards the beginning, but every single one of them managed to make themselves unbearable by the end. This is the first time I've ever given a series 1/10, and I didn't really expect to ever do this as a 1/10 series to me is something so unbearable you can't find a single redeeming factor, one genuinely likable character, any impressive scenes, or a simple reason to sit through it, even if just to point and laugh at it, but this series had me shaking my head and saying "Why though?" in almost every single scene. This isn't a series I'd recommend to anyone, for any reason, and I see now why the MAL score was so ridiculously low.

This was my first review, I just really felt the need to write this after sitting through 12 episodes of this garbage.