Kyoufu Shinbun (2014)

You know, it's not often that I say an anime is MADE for LOSERS. I will often say that an anime is made BY losers (for example Ninja Slayer), or will say that its fanbase is composed of losers (say One Piece), but it is indeed quite rare to find an anime that was exclusively created to please LOSERS.

The protagonist, Kigata is a 13-14 year old kid, that suddenly one day gets cursed. A newspaper is delivered to him every night that prophecises events of the next day (at the start it was "disasters" but by the 6th episode it was pretty much random ... events). Each time this newspaper is delivered however, he loses a portion of his life that for some bizarre reason hasn't even come close to killing him by the 16th episode where the anime ends. Each episode is pretty much standalone or in chain with another 2 at most, following individual stories that the protagonist is somewhat part of (like kagewani only with much more awful art). Actually a simple parenthesis mention isn't enough here.

THE ART IS ATROCIOUS. I mean, if I didn't know any better (and I don't), I'd say they made the art exclusively with Manga Maker Comipo. No, this is not some subtle advertising, the art style is IDENTICAL. "Well, both Yami Shibai and Kagewani used paper puppets art, and they turned out alright." Yes dearest, but they were both aesthetically pleasing, I assure you that is NOT the case here. But enough about the art, lets get to the real problem of this piece of crap.

Have you ever met a conspiracy theorist? You know, someone who fanatically believes in supernatural phenomena or government secrets and is desperately trying to convince you about them? Well, the general tone of the anime is "You were right conspiracy theorist! We showed them! Good job!". Kigata is usually the said conspiracy theorist, often turning with the "I told you so." look at the end of each episode to the viewer and explaining how the supernatural was hiding beside us all along. The real problem with the anime though is that NOONE IS MAKING FUN OF HIM. The society around him is overly accepting of the bullcrap he's coming up with. and by the end of the series he's even somewhat popular around school (yeah, keep dreaming morons).

My favorite (read "worst") part is by the final episodes, when supposedly aliens are rumored exist and the PHYSICS PROFESSOR takes the class on a night-trip so they can VIEW UFOS. And the class is totally ok with that. Do I even need to describe on how many levels this is stupid and basically the fantasy of a loser? Not to mention that the protagonist befriends a hot alien chick (hahahahahahahahahahah... Yeah right...).

And lastly... You know... An anime that has "fear/horror" in its name... Shouldn't it have some sort of... You know... Horror? Like someone dying, bleeding out, getting decapitated, etc etc? Horror news is 100% kid-friendly through and through, and in all honesty that pisses me off. With the exception of an "evil villain of villainess" (that for some unknown reason the protagonist couldn't fight 3v1), who got axed off-screen by a yeti, noone ends up getting hurt.

Pros:
-...I got nothing.

Cons:
-Awful art.
-The whole anime is a fantasy of a conspiracy theorist.
-No "horror" or "news".
-Convenient plotholes that make no sense here and there.
-The protagonist's "I knew it all along." speeches towards the viewer.
-Illogical and overly accepting world that is nowhere near realistic.

Stay away.

Oh boy, it's been such a long time since I last written a review. Ok, so, this is probably the most unpopular anime out there. Maybe it's because ONA scares the hell out of people. OVA is somewhat acceptable but ONA? Not so much.
Kyoufu Shinbun is actually a very good ONA.

So the story goes something like this: a boy gets a creepy newspaper every night delivered straight through his room's window. It tells all kinds of scary news that actually about to happen. Every time there's something else going on. He investigates and discovers some unusual stuff.
The stories are great. Even though they ... are about supernatural phenomena, they are very much close to reality. Also, the characters are talking about real events that happened in real life. This contributes not only to the plot, but to the viewer as well, for they will learn about strange and mysterious events that really occurred.

The art is good. I mean, it's not bad and it's not great, just good. And it's actually not that important. The story pretty much makes up for it.

All in all, this one is truly worth watching.

The year is 1974 and Kigata Rei is haunted by a newspaper that is delivered every night at midnight. This is heavily based on the manga including the art and the pacing. Older manga tended to infodump A LOT whenever it got the chance as the artist wanted to make sure that the readers were all on base. It's similar to the way it's done in Light Novels to where paragraphs are dedicated to explaining everything before finally getting back to the story. This anime is no different. Most of the episodes are nothing but exposition on spirits, astral projection, yetis, psychic powers and UFOs. ... So if you aren't up on those things, this is a good intro anime to all that.
However if you've been around and know about all that, this anime is long winded. The Pages in BLue for example are mostly about the history of UFOs than any actual story of Erina.
If you can look past the 70s style drawings and the infodumps, it does have a few "real life" tales to tell about the various subjects.