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I normally wouldn't consider writing a review of something I had only seen 4/24 of, but for this, I'll make an exception, because it has a high rating but I found it about as enjoyable as a kick in the balls.

This series appears to be targeted at people who want lots of guys crossdressing with hints of yaoi. That's not me, but it explains the rating of this series to some extent. If that's what you want, you might like this show.

The plot and characters also bother me. The main character is all style and no substance. On the other hand, if you want to watch a cartoon kid pretend to be brilliant and important while doing nothing but look fancy in expensive cartoon clothes while his butler does all the work, this might be the show for you. The butler is also shallow. He has unspecified powers with no apparent limits, and no real personality. The plot also only pretends to have any depth whatsoever.

Voice acting is fine, though not great. Animation is OK for most parts, but the 3d things look bad and the action scenes are terrible.

In conclusion, this series is strictly inferior to Chevalier d'eon and El Hazard the Magnificent World for any kind of person I can think of, and not worth watching if you don't like crossdressing guys and/or yaoi.
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Read Or Die is a short, well made, unserious anime, with lots of action using supernatural powers. It's worth watching. Anime watching librarians might especially like it. Animation is sort of "older-style" but well done. Characterization is done fairly well, but with the number of characters and short length of the OVA, they can only be given so much depth.

This is something to consider the next time you want to watch an action anime, that isn't too serious, with unique action using supernatural powers and a somewhat "jazzy" style. However, I would not suggest watching it if you really hate engrish, as there's quite a bit. read more

If you only like moe, ecchi, or comedy anime, Denno Coil is not for you. If you insist on hacking being somewhat realistic, Denno Coil is not for you. If you are a very serious person who only likes Akira, Grave of the Fireflies, and Serial Experiments Lain, Denno Coil is not for you. If you hate kids, Denno Coil is not for you. Otherwise, I think you should try watching it.

Yasako's voice is, I think, very soothing. It's impressively different from some other characters her voice actor has done.

One notable thing about this anime is that none of the characters have pink hair or something, but are still distinct.

I rated Denno Coil an 8, which is "worth buying" on my scale. For me, it never reached the high points of some other anime, but it's consistently good, and I don't regret watching any of it.

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Things go pretty slowly for a while, but if you're watching and wondering if things eventually pick up, well, yes, they do, around ep. 11, and most of what happens is explained, although it's not really anything as complex and sophisticated as Stand Alone Complex and there are certainly a few loose ends and deus ex machinii. (Not as complex as Stand Alone Complex? Just call me Unrealistic Expectations Man.) Normally I drop a show 2 eps in if it doesn't catch my interest, but this is a favorite of one of my friends here, so I kept watching.

What do I think? I think it could have used a bigger animation budget and could have been cut down from 26 to 22 or even 20 episodes.

Animation is kind of low budget. Fantastic Children looks and feels like it was made in the '80s. The color palette should have at least been more vibrant. I mean, sure, you have only so much money for your budget. But if you look at, say, Noir, or Requiem from the Darkness, they managed to have some interesting animation without spending a ton of money on it. What if everything looked like the paintings in the ED? OK, maybe that's impractical, but it's still possible to look interesting on a budget.

There is way too much time spent on shots of people just standing around, or extended close-ups of people looking surprised. There are a few things where a situation is first explained, then shown. It would have been better if it had just been shown. And, in general, the pacing is just a bit too slow for me. It's not that I don't appreciate Mushishi or Kino's, but that's not the style of this series. You can almost but not quite just skip a couple of the early episodes. Just don't watch eps 1-10 when you feel like watching something where lots of stuff is happening.

There are a few pretty silly things. The guys with hats, for example. It's also a bit disappointing how not all of the characters that a lot of time is spent with get to actually do much.

Voice acting is good. (The characters get intense towards the end, which is tough to do.) Some of the music, like in the last parts of ep 18, is alright too. (Yes I like the ep 18 Russian version of the ED better. So sue me.) The ED is mizu no madoromi, sung by Origa, by the way. But why oh why did they have to have some of the characters try to sing?

So is it worth watching? Does the ending deliver? Overall I'd give it a 7, which means worth watching but not worth buying, and I'd say it's better than or but worse than or . The drama and action pick up continuously towards the end, so the second half is better than the first. If you haven't seen, say, Gankutsuou, I'd suggest watching that before this, but Fantastic Children isn't *bad* and I don't regret watching it. The characters aren't cardboard cutouts, and there's not anything else like that to make me *dislike* it. There are just better series out there. I guess I'd suggest watching it if you like puzzle series and Final Fantasy. Especially Final Fantasy. I'd say it reminds me most of El Hazard the Magnificent World, minus comedy and with somewhat better characters and somewhat slower paced and a bit less coherent and most importantly minus the awesomeness of cat-based armor technology.

Well, I hope this review can help someone decide whether to watch Fantastic Children, but I somewhat doubt it. read more