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[A Forest of Tights]

Tights. According to Merriam-Webster, tights are “a skintight garment covering the body from the neck down or from the waist down”. In this particular anime, we will refer to them as a skintight garment from the waist down.

Denier. According to Merriam-Webster, denier is “a unit of fineness for yarn equal to the fineness of a yarn weighing one gram for each 9000 meters”. In other words, a material with low denier tends to be sheer, smooth, and silky, whereas a material with high denier tends to be thick, durable, and sturdy. For example, a 30 denier tight (sheer) is finer and and ... smoother than a 60 denier tight (opaque), which is thicker and sturdier.

Now, why do we need to know these definitions?

There are two reasons why I listed them: 1) this entire anime revolves around tights and deniers, so it's important to have some information about it, and 2) it helps to differentiate amongst of our main characters. For example, Yua Nakabeni wears 30 denier tights, Ren Aikawa wears 60 denier tights, and Homi Moegi wears 110 denier tights; when one notices Yua's tights it will be more transparent and smoother looking than Homi's tights, which are darker and thicker. A pretty important distinction.

Anyway, if you have a fetish for feet, thighs, or tights, then you will enjoy this show, as there are many scenes and camera shots focusing exclusively on these parts.

STORY:

It's clear from the beginning that the main focus of this show is on tights, feet, and thighs. In fact, the first few scenes involves Yua bending her knees, with the camera zoomed in on her tights and thighs, and taking a picture of a puddle of water, and as she begins to leave, the camera is still focused on her tights. This simple scene highlights what we, as the viewers, can expect from this show. Many, many tights and thighs scenes!

Miru Tights has no story, rather it's a collection of “slice of life” events from three highschoolers' and a teachers' perspective. There will be many normal and mundane life events, such as rain drenching one's clothes, working at a part-time job, receiving punishments, and dealing with ripped clothes. And, yet somehow in every single episode, Miru Tights is able to squeeze in many sensual or suggestive scenes, usually involving tights or thighs. For example, Yua likes to cosplay while showing off lots skin, Homi sleeps in her swimsuit with tights on, the teacher makes sexual advances on a young boy, an interesting foot 'massage' takes place in the classroom, and we get to watch the point of view of cat. Overall, the story is nonexistent, however its fanservice scenes of tights, thighs, and feet is plentiful and well-intended.

SOUND:

The opening song features no lyrics or vocals, but piano music that plays soft-sounding notes, and in the background, there are stunning walking animations of highschool girls wearing tights as its main camera shot. The ending song entitled "True Days" is your typical J-Pop, and like its opening intro, this outro also features many scenes of our main characters' tights, foots, and thighs from various camera angles and shots. Moreover, there are three versions of this ending song, i.e., the voice actresses will sing their characters' solo version of it during episodes when their character is the primary focus.

The voice acting is pretty good. It should be noted that any sensual or suggestive scenes were vastly improved by the voice actresses' quiet, soft-spoken, and, occasion, flirtatious-sounding voices. The background sounds features many effects that emphasize on tights and the characters that wear them, for example, tights tearing apart, tights stretching and being pulled towards the waist, water dripping from the rain and clothes, and many others. Overall, the sound design for Miru Tights is excellent.

ART/ANIMATION:

Miru Tights is a beautifully animated show. Whether there is a fast and slow moving camera shots, the scene will not lose a single frame, and the character/object animations move a with crisp and fluid motion. The scenes where the movement animations and camera shots are slowed down are amazing; these scenes are intentionally slowed down to emphasize the fanservice, such as 1) the girls slowly putting on their tights displaying their bare legs and underwear, 2) flowing skirts that reveal their tight covered bottoms, and 3) random leg and feet movements covered by their tights.

It should be obvious from the first few seconds, but you're going to watch many scenes of tights, thighs, and feet from various camera shots and angels. The zoomed in shots of these parts only reinforces the notion that tights, thighs, and feet are the main focus of this show. It also helps that the art is very polished and detailed, most noticeably when featuring those prominent parts. Overall, the art and animations are outstanding, especially when it comes to the level of detail for our main characters' legs and feet.

CHARACTERS:

While the show does provide much screen time for our main characters, there is surprisingly little to no character development, personality, or memorability. The characters are cute, pretty, and beautiful to watch on screen, however their only real purpose is to act as a vehicle to show-off their tights, thighs, and feet. Every main character in this anime wears tights and is either a 2nd year highschool student or a teacher.

Yua Nakabeni is a 2nd year student with dark blue, long hair and wears 30 denier tights (sheer). She has a twitter account where she posts cosplay images of herself, e.g. maid outfit, nurse, bunny suit, and school uniform, and also likes to flirt with Ren Aikawa.

Ren Aikawa is also a 2nd year student with light brown, shoulder-length hair, and wears 60 denier tights (opaque). She works at Berry Cafe as a waitress.

Homi Moegi is also a 2nd year student with black, short hair, and wears 110 denier tights (thick). She is a rich girl (as noted by the personal driver in episode 1), is part of the swim team, and has a younger brother.

And finally, Yuiko Okuzumi is a 27-year old homeroom teacher for the three main characters. She has brown, long hair, and wears glasses and 20 denier tights (sheer). It's hinted that she likes to make sexual advances on naive and innocent highschool boys.

ENJOYMENT:

I expected to watch a show about tights and I got what I expected: tights, tights, and more tights. I was not disappointed. I enjoyed every moment of this show, and I hope that Japan will create a second season.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]
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(Attack of the Giant Insects)

Giant Insects. Girls with large breasts. An isolated island. This combination usually spells death, danger, and destruction. And what do you know, there will be death, danger, and destruction. There will be nudity along with several guro scenes, there will be shitty-looking CGI insects, there will be unlikable characters who do morally questionable actions, and finally there be an inconclusive ending to an otherwise terribly written story. Overall, if you are expecting a good story from this OVA, then you will be very disappointed. On the other hand, if you are expecting giant insects attacking our characters, then ... you might enjoy this OVA.

STORY:

Summary: Oribe Mutsumi and her classmates are stranded on an island after a horrible airplane crash. Mutsumi believes that they will be rescued in roughly three days. Little did they know that the island is inhabited with giant insects. Now, it's up Mutsumi and her knowledge about insects to help others survive the coming days, or die trying.

The story is simple and based on the anime title alone, you can expect an island with giant insects to inhabit the place. Throw in a few high school students, and we got death and destruction everywhere.

Unfortunately, the first couple of scenes doesn't depict that, instead we are treated to one of Mutsumi's past memories. The memory takes place in high school, where she was forced to strip nude in front of Jinno Misuzu and her posses. Then, Chitose shows up and stops them, and then it suddenly jumps to where Mutsumi and her classmates, that includes her bullies, are stranded on the island.

That entire scene was just to show the strong relationship between Mutsumi and Chitose. Why did they throw in that random nude scene, I don't know, maybe for fanservice. Anyway, my first thought was that, they didn't need to throw in the random strip scene. But, fanservice is fanservice.

After that many guro and nude scenes occurs, Chitose gets kidnapped by the insects, she gets rescued, and then the episode ends with everyone surrounded by a nest of Ixodids (i.e., ticks). It's basically an inconclusive ending, however the producer state that this OVA is only a “prologue to the full anime project”. So hopefully, this anime gets a full anime project soon, otherwise the ending will fail to answer many lingering questions.

For some manga reader, there were several differences between this OVA and the manga, for example, (1) the anime fails to depict the death and insect rape of the first dead girl on the screen, instead the anime shows her shriveled up body alongside two other classmates; (2) the anime fails to show Jinno Misuzu having sex with the teacher; (3) the anime depicts how Mutsumi got into liking insects, but this occurs much later in the manga; and finally (4) the anime fails to depict the airplane crash and the scenes that follow.

Considering that this is an OVA, it's understandable that many scenes were left out, but couldn't the producers try to create a longer OVA? Instead of 22 minutes, they should have made this OVA, at least, one hour long, removed many unnecessary nude scenes and upped the guro. Overall, the story is terrible and not very good, unless you enjoy our main characters getting attacked by giant insects.

ART/ANIMATIONS:

The character and background designs are okay, not outright terrible, but mediocre and uninteresting. The trees, plants, and buildings are plain and not very detailed, but just enough to show that the characters are in an unfamiliar forest. Most of the characters have very generic looking faces with little to no scars or other distinguishable features; it's only when the characters are dead, or in the process of dying do we see different and interesting facial designs.

It should be noted that many of the female characters have large and voluptuous breasts, which serves no purpose other than fanservice. Conveniently, the first couple of scenes depicts our main character stripping completely nude, exposing her large breasts for everyone to see. Other moments of nudity includes: Chitose being “insect raped”, and a random female character with her clothes ripped and shredded apart being eaten alive.

The animations are also okay. The action scenes, while tense and thrilling, are far and few in between and, short. These action scenes are improved by the shitty-looking CGI insects, which by its nature appears grotesque and hideous, but the CGI effects further propels that grotesqueness. I don't know if those CGI insects were intentionally or unintentionally created like that, but its effects are well appreciated.

SOUND:

The sound design for Kyochuu Rettou is probably its strongest point. You can hear the sounds of insects flying, insects crawling or scurrying, insects beings smashed or pulverized in half, people screaming and yelling, high-pitched piercing sounds, and loud chatters and vibrations amongst the insects. It's also unsettling to hear insects flying overhead looking for their next prey, or hearing the sounds of several characters yelling and crying for help as they're being eaten alive. These scenes only reinforces the notion that Kyochuu Rettou is a horror series at its core.

The voice acting is outstanding as every voice actor and actress is able to express many various types of emotions, such as fear, distress, disgust, panic, relief, joy, and shock. The background music is mainly there to reinforce the atmosphere and horror elements that are prevalent throughout the series. And finally, there is no opening song, but a dread and dreary ending song that forebodes future events.

CHARACTERS:

It's understandable that there will be little to no character development for an OVA that last one episode long. However, during that time, I found some characters to be unlikable, detestable, and sometimes downright cruel. For example, Kamijo Atsushi, the wannabe leader for the group, doesn't care about rescuing Chitose, the class representative. And when they did find her, he only rescued his friend, and himself, leaving Chitose and Mutsumi to fend for themselves. Jinno Misuzu acts likes a Bitch, and bullies Mutsumi in school, even forcing her to strip in front of her.

The other characters are cliched and unremarkable. Mutsumi is the smart one in the group and has knowledge about many types of insects, unfortunately nobody is willing to listen to her or let her be the official leader. Chitose acts as the stereotypical strict class representative, who is very righteous and wants to save everyone, even those who don't deserve to be saved. Matsuoka is a kind, athletic girl with a strong moral conscious, willing fight at the very front and attack anything in her way. There are several other characters, but they have little presences on the screen or are killed very quickly, making them a non-essential character.

Overall, besides two unlikable characters that cause unnecessary drama, everyone else is boring and cliched. However, that's to be expected from a single OVA episode. Furthermore, it's hard to feel sympathy for any character that has little to no screen time, and then they suddenly die.

ENJOYMENT:

For a 22 minute OVA, it has served its purpose, I mean the anime is called, “The Island of Giant Insects”, and what do you know, there are a bunch of highschoolers struck on an island with giant insects. The premise and story sounds stupid, the characters act stupid, and even the way certain characters die is stupid. Overall, a terrible story with awful writing combined with unlikable characters equals an unenjoyable experience. The only thing I'm looking forward to is, if they do turn this story into a full series/season, then I will enjoy the deaths of many characters, as most of them are unlikable and irredeemable.

[How to Behave at the Movies – Re:Zero Version]

This manner movie was shown before Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Memory Snow began, this three minute movie explains to the audience what manners are unacceptable.

Demonstrating these manners will be the entire cast of Re:Zero, i.e., Subaru, Emila, Beatrice, Pack, Rem, and Ram. And, in standard fare, these demonstrations are performed by their cute and tiny Chibi versions, where they narrate and perform wacky skits, jabs, and puns.

Providing most of the commentary is Yuusuke Kobayashi, who voices Subaru, and he does a fantastic job, especially when he starts encouraging everyone in the audience to yell “E.M.T”. ... Other special mentions includes Rie Takahashi, Satomi Arai, Inori Minase, Yumi Uchiyama, and Rie Murakawa, who voice their respective characters beautifully, providing individual commentaries on which manners are unacceptable.

As mentioned earlier, the Chibi art style is very cute and well animated, although the animations are stiff and jerky, but that's charm of most manner movies. It's a low budget movie whose purpose is to convey a very simple message: please behave and follow the rules.

These are the rules that the audience should follow:

- Mute/silence your mobile phone.
- Please refrain from making conversation while you are watching.
- Smoking and use fire is prohibited.
- Carrying dangerous things is strictly prohibited.
- Recording and flash photography is strictly prohibited.

Thank you and enjoy the movie.

[The Quiet Girls]

From the studio that brought you Rance 01: Hikari wo Motomete The Animation, Koikishi Purely☆Kiss The Animation, Baku Ane: Otouto Shibocchau zo! The Animation, and Real Eroge Situation! The Animation, comes Studio Seven's latest series entitled Joshi Kausei.

STORY:

It's a story about three “silent” high school girls and the random events that happen to them. You'll watch the girls get involved in some strange skits, such as riding a skateboard, playing with each other's thighs, be concerned about fortunes, and create origami in a family restaurant. And to spice things up, the girls are also involved in some risque situations like wearing wet clothes ... after a rain shower, having a hand print near one's thigh, and planking over your sleeping daughter. Three-minutes of silent action. It doesn't get more exciting than this folks!

ART/ANIMATIONS:

Be entranced by the stunning plainness of its art and animations, you can appreciate the lack of details from its background art, the rigid movements of non-human objects, and the plain and uninteresting character designs. You can also contemplate as to why Studio Seven's other works, mainly hentai adaptations, appear more refined, animated, and well-produced, considering their previous history, this should be their specialty, unfortunately it doesn't show here.

SOUND:

Watch as the characters move their lips and speak dialogue, but alas, no dialogue is heard because every character live in a world of silence. Watch as the characters create various sound effects from squeaks, squeals, and cries to grunts, sighs, and moans, accompanied with many facial expressions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, embarrassment, shock, and concern. Hear multitudes of background music that successfully fits the mood and tone of the scenes in question. Hear a 30-second ending song called “Silent Days” that is accompanied with moving animations of the girls in different locations through images, playing with water guns, wearing school swimsuits, flying on a rainbow, and looking over the bridge.

CHARACTERS:

Meet our three protagonists: “delinquent” girl, glasses girl, and short-haired girl. “Delinquent” girl is beautiful and cute, has long, light brown hair, carefree, and somewhat unlucky. Glasses girl is calm, composed, and levelheaded, and has long, light blond hair. Short-haired girl acts childlike and is naive, and has short, black hair. Be impressed by the show's lack of character development, its lack of character personalities, and its lack of memorable characters.

ENJOYMENT:

So, sit down and watch as the time quietly goes by, and by the time episode 12 rolls around, you'll have forgotten what the previous episodes were about. But, that's okay, this series isn't suppose to be memorable, its a quick “cash-grab” for a studio whose strengths lies in hentai adaptations.

P.S: Our “delinquent” girl finally says one line of dialogue, and that's “I'm home!” What a fitting line for the end of this series.

[The Touch of Life]

Japan has always been the pioneers of creating ridiculous and strange stories for Anime. Take for example Akikan!, where steel and aluminum cans become magical girls and battle each other, or Hametsu no Mars, where convoluted stuff happens for no apparent reason, or Shimoneta, where the Japan government has banned anything lewd, but a group of “perverted terrorist” decide to go against the status quo.

But now, Japan has a released a show about how life magically appears from a tea cup, a plate, and even from one's breast. First, all of these “magical people” came from the Sengoku Era, where they all ... conveniently appear in front of the main character. Second, they all want to either be the wife or mistress of our main character. And lastly, our main female character is a 14-year-old girl, who demands to be impregnated by our main character. And did I mention that another 14-year-old girl also wants to do the dirty deed.

What a shit show! At least, it's a short shit show.

STORY:

Summary: our main character, Nobunaga, is a middle school teacher, who wants a girl to love him and for her to appear in the most gal game-like situation possible. And while, cleaning the storehouse, the most gal-game-like situation happens – a 14-year-old girl named Kichou appears from thin air in front of our main character, declares to be the wife of Nobunaga, and wants his child. Thus, begins the story of Nobunaga gaining as many wives and mistresses as possible, while dodging child protection laws.

For a show with a strange premise, it has an interesting concept: Nobunaga having the ability to touch certain objects or people, and somehow resurrecting former Sengoku Era “spirits or souls” to appear in them. It's bizarre, but nothing to outlandish. Unfortunately, the first concept fails to answer the questions: how did he get these powers and why did these powers appear now?

These questions are never explored any deeper beyond our main character putting on black gloves to prevent anything he touches from resurrecting. However, even when our main character does this, he still manages to resurrect somethings.

Other than that, the show is basically a harem show, i.e., legal loli, big-breasted girl, glasses girl, trap, etc, that involves many ecchi situations, i.e., breast grabbing, breast sucking, suggestive poses, etc, and many misunderstandings. Basically, it's similar to many other harem shows, except this one is only 7 minutes long, which I'm assuming cut out many important events from the manga, making the show even more bare-bone than it needs to be.

SOUND/ART/CHRACTERS:

The voice acting is decent if one is able to hear what they saying as the background music is occasionally louder than the character's voices. This is very annoying and distracting. Both the opening and ending songs, lasting roughly 30 seconds each, are your typical J-pop, nothing interesting or worth noting about.

The character are cute and are very well designed, however this is Studio Seven, which is known for creating stunning and amazing character and background designs. In other words, while this series is more polished and refined than compared to Joshi Kausei, Studio Seven's other series released this year, it doesn't measure up to the details of its hentai titles. Although, watching the character's faces pop up to censor any suggestive body parts is pretty amusing.

The characters, while having some personality, are still the same old tropes and cliches that are seem in similar shows, such as the big-breasted girl, the glasses girl, the trap, the legal loli, etc. And in typical fashion, each character's soul or spirit has a regret that is sexual or suggestive in nature. For example, big-breasted girl's regret is not having her breast sucked enough, so the main character decides to suck her breasts. Another example is the glasses girl, who creates yaoi content and wishes to see the main character get boned by another male character. Now, as for our main male character, his personality is non-existent, and his only purpose is make retorts and gather as many wives and mistresses as possible.

ENJOYMENT:

It's another harem show. Either you like the genre or you don't, unfortunately this one is not that good.

[A Snow Festival]

For a series that is renowned for its brutal death scenes, spectacular action sequences, and unrelenting feelings of dread, depression, and misery, will learn that this OVA doesn't contain any of these elements.

Instead of scenes filled with gore and violence, they will be replaced with wholesome moments of children playing and frolicking in the snow, Subaru making witty comebacks and anticipating his date with Emilia, Rem/Emilia acting cute and cheery, and Beatrice acting her usually tsundere attitude. It's refreshing to watch a series that's known for its dark elements to have moments of happiness and relief.

STORY:

Now, its story is simple and can be ... summarized as: Puck has too much mana, and is releasing this excessive mana, thus creating a cold and harsh environment in the mansion. Subaru, unable to tolerate the coldness for two additional days, convinces everyone a create snow festival.

While, the OVA is only an hour, it manages to pack many funny moments, (i.e., Emilia and Rem getting drunk, and the Subaru and Roswaal snowman combination), reveal Puck's backstory, add foreshadowing (i.e., Bond of Ice OVA, and Beatrice's mother), and add some references (i.e., KONOSUBA, Statue of Liberty, and Transformers). It's funny, heartwarming, and pleasing to watch Re: Zero without all the gore, violence, and suffering of its main series.

ART/CHARACTERS/SOUND:

The lighting effects are really well done, especially towards the end when Puck releases some more mana and makes it snow over the entire city. Great use of starry night sky with the green and white effects. Interesting art style during the first couple minutes of the OVA, and the great character design is as pretty as its main series was. The voice actors and actresses reprise their roles and they do an excellent job at capturing the emotions and mood for each character. And as mentioned earlier, Puck and Beatrice reveal some backstory about themselves, which will be explored in the upcoming OVA and main series.

ENJOYMENT:

Overall, this was a laid-back and pleasant OVA, showing the characters just enjoying themselves. It was interesting and entertaining.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]
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(The Art of “Special Massages”)

Massages are, by definition, the act of treating the body by rubbing, patting, etc, to promote circulation, suppleness, or relaxation, and our male protagonist certainly does these acts. Fortunately, this is a “hentai short”, and we need to apply hentai logic, so our male protagonist will perform massages, but also “special massages” to special individuals. So, for six minutes, i.e., five minutes of actual animations and a one minute ending song, you will witness the powers of the “special massage”.

STORY:

Based on Mizuwari Neko (Toyo)'s Webtoon Comic entitled 'Traditional Job Of Washing Girls' Body', this show is titled ... 'Araiya-san! Ore to Aitsu ga Onnayu de!?' or in English, it is called 'Miss Washer!: Her and I in Female Bath!?'

Besides, the awful broken English title, the show's title makes it fairly obvious what it's about and what's going to happen.

Our male protagonist, Souta Tsukishima, is a back washer, filling in for his grandfather, who had just suffered back pain. And as luck would have it, the day he fills in for his grandfather is a day where a bunch a high school girls came to get washed. Included in that bunch is Aoi Yuzuki, a girl that constantly harasses him. However, he later learns the truth, and soon, a relationship blooms between Souta Tsukishima and Aoi Yuzuki.

In terms of adaptation, there were many rearranged or excluded scenes, however some notable ones include: 1) the introduction of the rival male character in Episode 5, and 2) the exclusion of Souta having sex with Mei Sasakura. Other than that, the show perfectly captures the growing love between Souta and Aoi, and it's great to watch from beginning to end. Or if you don't care about the romance, then you can enjoy the length foreplay and suggestive scenes, which is equally great to watch.

Tags: fingering, breast groping/fondling/sucking, doggy style, cowgirl position, missionary position, standing position, threesome, and outdoor play

ART:

Having beautiful art and animations should be the minimal for any 'hentai show', and Magic Bus Studios has certainly provided that quality. The female characters are bright, cute, and 'full-of-energy'; and their body design have perky breasts, smooth-hairless skin, and slim curves. The character's facial expressions are lively, emotional, and expressive, mainly during suggestive scenes.

The animations were outstanding with most being dedicated to creating detailed and lengthy sexual scenes, although, there were some fast cuts, these are usually occur in non-sexual scenes. And finally, the camera shots like to focus on peculiar body parts, mainly the breasts and groin areas, but also on the shoulders and backside.

SOUND:

While, the show lacks an opening song, it makes up for it by including an ending song that sounds like the two female leads strolled into a karaoke bar and began singing the lyrics on the screen. In this case, the ending song was accompanied with a black screen and rolling credits, and nothing else. It is unusual, but the song was decent, nevertheless.

It should be noted that there are many background musics that play to fit the tone of the scene and create a distinct mood. And finally, the voice acting is pretty good, especially the moans and groans that are typical in hentais.

CHARACTERS:

For a show that involves many suggestive and sexual scenes, there are several character development moments, such as 1) Aoi slowly admitting to loving Souta, 2) Souta knowing that Aoi loves him and pushing for her confession, and 3) Sasakura creating tension between Souta and Aoi so one could confess to the other.

Souta Tsukishima is a first year student at Harusa Academy and is in the boy's volleyball club. While wearing a white headband, he becomes Sansuke, a back washer that is experienced in giving massages and “special massages”. He may be bland, but at least he's not dense. Aoi Yuzuki is, also, a first year student at Harusa Academy and is in the girl's volleyball club. She is the typical tsundere character that is cold and harsh on the outside, but mellow and sweet on the inside. Mei Sasakura is a second year student (i.e., senpai) at Harusa Academy and is the captain for the girl's volleyball club. She is kind and caring, and likes to create tension whenever the situation arises. Takasugi-senpai, introduced in Episode 5, likes Aoi Yuzuki and acts as the typical “love rival” to Souta Tsukishima.

ENJOYMENT:

Over the course of 8 episodes, there was more romantic development between the Souta and Aoi than most regular anime series, which, to me, is both hilarious and sad. It also helped that both characters were likable and willing to progress their relationship, instead of making it stagnant. Still, its suggestive content is what, I assumed, pulled most people and you won't be disappointed. Overall, for a “hentai short” this was one of the better ones.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]
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(Heart of Glass)

On April 25th , roughly a year and month later, Studio Hoods Entertainment have finally released episodes 11 and 12 of Märchen Mädchen. These two episodes will serve as the necessary closure to this magical fairy tale, but after waiting for so long, does the show provide a “happy ending” or does it end in “darkness and despair”?

After watching both episodes, the show does deliver a “happy ending”, but, that and the action scenes are the only good things from the show, everything else remains relatively the same. The story continues to suffer from cliches, weak and lazy ... writing, and lack of tension and buildup. The sound design contains the same opening and ending songs along with the same voice actresses. The characters continue to follow the same old stereotypes. The animations are better, but it's a minor improvement. Overall, not much has changed from one year ago, and that's a damn shame.

STORY:

Synopsis: Episode 11 and 12 picks up directly after Kuzunoha Girl's Magic Academy defeats the American team. From there, unimportant stuff happens (i.e., confrontation with the German team, discussions of worries and anxiety, Fleck monster, etc), then Lynne Daves, one of the American magical girls, turns psycho and becomes a Fleck monster. And now, everyone must stop this Fleck monster before it destroys all the Origins in the world.

Of course, because this is a fairy tale, there has to be a “happy ending” and there is one. However, just because the ending was satisfactory, doesn't mean the rest of the show can be dismissed. In fact, everything up to this point was boring and cliched, and it didn't help that the composition was weak and lazy.

Now, speaking of lazy writing, it's disappointing that there was no battle shown between the Kuzunoha Girl's Magic Academy and the German school, only the ending results were discussed, but that, too, was very disappointing, considering there was no clear winner.

Some positive things about these two episodes include: an explanation into Hazuki Kagimura's power, especially “Glass Heart”; who Hazuki Kagimura's mother was and how she died; and the “confession scene”.

Overall, while these two episodes provided the audiences with a solid conclusion, it didn't salvage the series and only prevented it from becoming bad to outright terrible

SOUND/ANIMATIONS/CHARACTERS:

As mentioned earlier, the opening song titled “Watashi no Tame no Monogatari ~My Uncompleted Story~” is sung by fhána, while its ending song titled “sleepland” is sung by Reina Ueda, both of which are heard in the original show. They are okay, although not very memorable. And as usually, the characters are voiced by the same voice actresses, and they do an excellent job, providing a whole range of emotion and energy.

The art and animations are better than what was seen during the first 10 episodes. But, this is a very small improvement. These improvements could be seen in the fight against the Fleck monster, where lots of moving characters were involved and multiple spells were fired off at the same time. Other than that, the character models still look outdated and not very good, there were some disproportional bodies and objects and distorted or derpy faces, but not very noticeable.

The characters still follow the same tiresome tropes and stereotypes that are common in the world of Anime. The Russians usually have short silvery hair with a military uniform, and come from a poor farm land. The Indian characters have tan skin with a headpiece jewelry and robe. The British, German, and American characters are all very competitive and have blond hair. And finally, there will always be one American character that causes many problems, or will start a calamity. And finally, the character's weapons and battle uniform are based on their fairy tale origins.

ENJOYMENT:

Much like the ending to this show, where a miracle was needed to save the day, one could draw similar conclusions to its' overall status, i.e., it will take a miracle to make this show redeemable. And unfortunately, the ending isn't enough to redeem it. The show was hampered with production issues that led to awful and dull animations, off-character models, and lack of diversification for character appearances and facial expressions. In addition, these issues delayed episode 9 and pushed episodes 11 and 12 to more than a year. Still, even if production was amazing, the show would have to overcome the disastrous composition and awful story, and the unappealing characters. A hurdle that Studio Hoods Entertainment cannot overcome. And so, this marks the end for this fairy tale story. A story that will slowly fade into obscurity; never to be viewed again.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]
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[A Seriously Underrated Show]

From the studio and creator that brought us Kemono Friends comes their latest show: Kemurikusa. This original show is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi that hooks the viewers with its slow revealing mysteries and excellent world-building, dynamic character interactions, wide set pieces, and great soundtracks. The 3DCG may take some adjustment and getting used to, but it’s not necessarily awful. In short, anybody that’s familiar with Tatsuki’s work should watch this anime.

And also, did you know that Kemurikusa translates to “smoke grass”, “smoke plant”, or “smoke weed”. Yep, this is literally Winter 2019’s dankest anime. Thank you, Tatsuki.
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STORY: 

Synopsis: A trio of red-haired sisters, living in a post-apocalyptic world overwhelmed by a red fog, must fight against red robotic ‘bugs’, while searching for water and other resources. One day, the sisters find a large source of water and encountered a “human” named Wakaba; an encounter that would forever change their lives.

For a show that has a short and simple synopsis, the story is more complex than that. There are many unanswered questions regarding our main characters and the world they live in. Some questions include: where do all the red bugs come from, what is a “Kemurikusa” leaf and what does it do, who is Wakaba, what happened to the world and how did the destruction occur, who is the first human, where did the blue walls come from, what are blacked out words in the memory leaf, etc. These question will not be answered in the first episode nor the second, but rather over many episodes. And the show does an amazing job at revealing these answers and truths.

Each episode reveals a tiny bit about the world and its characters through dialogue, visual, and audio context. Some examples include: robotic ‘bugs’ come in various shapes and sizes and can be good or bad, Kemurikusa have many powers with multiple usage, the world is divided into several large islands, etc. There are also many different locations, such as abandoned office buildings, amusement parks, the “Sky Bridge”, villages, railway tracks and stations, etc, and they are stunning to look at; the world-building is well done and throughly explored. With the help of Wakaba’s curious nature, these areas, the nature of the Kemurikusa leaves, and several main characters are also explored. All of this combined makes Kemurikusa a very intriguing and engaging anime.

ANIMATION/ART: 

Upon viewing the first episode it should be no surprise that this show uses 3D character models, which I believe is good, with CGI animations. Now, usage of 3DCG in anime has mostly gotten a bad reputation, mainly the art style could appear strange or the animations could be stiff and janky. 

This show, in my opinion, doesn’t have a bad or strange art style, in fact, its usage of lighting and color are amazing, for example, 1) a stale gray and black world is lightened up with bright colors of red and green with the occasional blue and yellow, and 2) when a character or bug ‘dies’ their body deteriorates into glowing leaves and drifts away. Both examples highlight how beautiful colors and lighting effects can have on a show. Now, the composition is fantastic; the use of abandoned villages and tall office buildings, ruin houses, decaying trees and vegetation, etc, are all framed and shot to provide a sense of desolation and passing of time. It’s haunting and intriguing.

The show’s animations are sometimes smooth and fluid, and other times they are stiff and janky. The fight animations and choreography are okay and not very exciting, thankfully, they are brief and few in numbers. Also, there is the occasional still images that provide context for what is happening on screen. Overall, the animations and art are good.

SOUND: 

The voice acting is hit-and-miss with Rin’s and Ritsu’s voices being the most standout and noteworthy, while Wakaba’s and Rina’s voices are too high pitched and somewhat annoying. Wakaba’s voice is most annoying when he’s saying his favorite catchphrases, such as “So Interesting!”, “Wow!”, or “I see!”, and when he’s being ‘too curious’ about everything that surrounds him. Rina’s voice, on the other hand, is just too high pitched and tries too hard to be the typical loli character. However these complaints are very minor and negligible after a few episodes.

The sound design is pretty good. Its opening song titled "KEMURIKUSA" by nano features heavy drums, multiple guitars, a piano, and the singer rocking it out to our characters walking in various settings and fighting the red bugs. The ending song titled “INDETERMINATE UNIVERSE" by Yuuyu is your standard J-Pop that features background images showing our characters connected to a red-string and when some characters die, they deteriorate into glowing leaves and drift away. The endings’ background images heavily implies whether our main characters are die or alive, this is a disturbing and interesting way to reveal answers. Both songs are great and well worth listening too. The background music is also pretty good as it sets the perfect mood and tension.

CHARACTER: 

The show heavily revolves around its central characters, i.e., Rin (tsundere), Rina (Loli), Ritsu (cat girl), and Wakaba (“human”), to drive the narrative and progress the story. Moreover, there are many moments of character interactions, which enhances the development of our characters. Along with our central characters, we have some secondary “characters”: Midori-chan (Kemurikusa tree), Ai-chan (Kemurikusa fish), Shiro (beeping Roomba bots), and the mysterious “dead” sisters (Ryo, Ryoku, and Riku). These secondary characters play a vital role in progressing the story and strengthening the development of our main characters.

Our main male character, Wakaba, is unique in that he can sense and detect “warm spots” through the thick red fog. These warm spots can be anything  related to the red bugs, or red trunk and tree branches. He talks a lot in a high pitched voice and is very curious about everything that surrounds him. This is both good and bad. It’s good because we, the viewers, learn more about the world, the Kemurikusa powers, the red bugs, and who the characters are. In general just about everything. On other hand, it gets annoying and somewhat tiresome after awhile. Still, he’s nice, kind and willing to help the sisters whenever they need it.

Our trio of red-haired heroines, namely Rin, Rina, and Ritsu, are sisters who are not normal humans, i.e., they drink copious amounts of water, they use Kemurikusa leaves for numerous activities throughout their lives, they jump and leap further than normal humans, and they emit a bright glow when fighting the red bugs. Rin is a self-determined, serious, and tough girl, who has a reverse ponytail and white scarf. Rina is a short, energetic, and exuberant girl, who has the ability to make multiple clones of herself, eats many types of metal, and wears maid clothing. Ritsu is a soft-spoken and caring girl, who always appears tired and has cat ears; she also controls a Kemurikusa tree named Midori-chan, and uses it to scout for enemies or for transportation.

ENJOYMENT:

From its simplistic and short synopsis to its robotic and apocalyptic setting to its trio of red-haired heroines with masked background details. Everything seems to be shrouded in obscurity. But, like most series, not everything will be explained in the first or even second episode. It takes time. And this series is no different, it slowly and methodically reveal answers and truths over the course of the series. This coupled with its excellent world building hooks the viewers in wanting to learn more about the story and setting. Accompanying the setting and story is the good sound design, mainly its rocking opening and ending song. Additionally, while its art and animations, at times, appear janky, its composition and lighting are outstanding. The character interactions are frequent and provide many moments of character development, still some characters like Wakaba can be somewhat annoying. Overall, though, this series provides entertainment in the form of a slow-revealing mystery, great soundtracks, stunning compositions and lighting, and proper character development. A good series in my opinion.

[Breaking News: Man Literally too Angry to Die]

[Alternative Title – Goblin Slayer Threat Level at Maximum]

They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.
- Intro Dialogue to Doom (2016)

Having watched Goblin Slayer in its entirety, I can’t help, but be reminded of the video game Doom (2016). In fact, the quote above perfectly encapsulates what Goblin Slayer is really about. Killing, slicing, dicing, burning, piercing, bludgeoning, ripping, and tearing goblins apart. The violence is brutal and extremely gory. Our main protagonist, Goblin Slayer, will use any means necessary to kill as many goblins as ... possible. During the first episode, he kills by himself, while keeping count, exactly 22 goblins. That’s a lotta damage. And also a lotta dead goblins. But, to our main protagonist any dead goblin is a good goblin.

Goblin Slayer is also a very controversial series. It goes without saying that violence and gory isn’t what made this series so controversial rather it’s the sexual content and rape. Within the same first episode, we have the gang-raping of a female adventurer and the molestation of another one. Future episodes contain implied rape and torture of many female adventurers. And while the series could have minimized these elements, I believe it adds to the setting and enemy characters, i.e., the world is dark and brutal, and goblins do terrible things to female characters.

However, if you’re like me, who only watches to see Goblin Slayer kick ass, then you’re not going to be disappointed. In fact, I would argue that watching Goblin Slayer kick ass alone makes this series really entertaining and worth watching. Everything else be damned.

STORY:

Goblin Slayer is a dark fantasy based on the light novel and manga of the same name. The series sticks to its source material and doesn’t remove any of its ultra-violence and sexual content. It should be noted that this series is not a isekai, where the main character is transported to another world and does whatever shit the main character needs to do. There are no fun adventures in this series, just death and destruction. Mainly the death of many goblins and other creatures, and occasionally some adventurers. But, that’s just the general setting of this world, i.e., it’s dark, cruel, and merciless.

If I had to simplify the story, it would mainly be about Goblin Slayer’s “adventures”, how one man elects to do only goblin quests, in order to satisfy his anger and thirst for revenge. And, of course, based on his adventures you can expect numerous goblins to be killed in the most brutal ways possible. In fact, he would go as far as kill goblin children because to him “the only good goblins are the ones who never come out of their stinking holes”, which unfortunately the goblins never do, so he has to kill them all. And I have to hand it to him to stick to his principles: to kill every single goblin in the world.

Now, one may notice that some episodes feature ‘slice of life” moments, such as Goblin Slayer repairing his equipment, interacting with other adventurers, participating in shopping, checking his surroundings on the farm, etc. These moments are pretty boring, but it does add to the setting and provides some characterization for our main character. Furthermore, there are plenty of scenes where episodes focus on different characters along with their actions, fanservice from the main female characters, and jokes and laughs. However, in Goblin Slayer fashion, our main character doesn’t care about other adventurers beyond his own friends, he doesn’t care about the fanservice from his female companions and friends, and he doesn’t care to have a sense of humor. The only thing he cares about is knowing where the goblins are and killing them.

CHARACTERS:

Our main character, Goblin Slayer, does what his name implies. He slays goblins, and nothing else but goblins. His reasons for killing goblins and only goblins originated from a tragic event that occurred in his childhood, i.e., the death of his older sister, and the destruction of his village. These two awful events changed him and, on that day, he swore vengeance against every goblin in the world. It’s this vengeance that allows him to keep on living, in fact, even in situation where he should have died, he gets back up, and continues to kill as many goblins as possible. He’s literally to angry to die. I have to admire his dedication and devotion to killing these goblins, even when he’s about to die.

And because, Goblin Slayer is our main character, he gets a lot of screen time and thus get some character development, e.g., he changes and becomes friends with other adventurers, he works with other adventurers as oppose to working sole, and we learn about his reasons for vengeance. Our other companions, mainly High Elf Archer, Priestess, Dwarf Shaman, and Lizard Priest, don’t really have much background information and their personalities are somewhat the same, i.e., they are all kind, caring, and concerned towards Goblin Slayer; they are much more cheerful and happier than Goblin Slayer; and their appearance and job description are implied in their name.

Some tidbits that I like about Goblin Slayer include: 1) he speak little to no words, mainly sticking to phrases like, “I see”, “that’s right”, “yes, that’s right”, and is that right?”; 2) he’s not swayed by woman and their advances even when he’s seen them nude, and finally 3) his eye become bright red indicating he is angry and filled with rage, this happens quite frequently.

ART/ANIMATION/SOUND:

Goblin Slayer’s art and animations are hit-and-miss. On one hand, they feature outstanding battle scenes with fasting-moving animations, such as sword-swings, arrows flying though the air, people rolling and dodging attacks, and, of course, brutal executions and various attacks. They also feature a great setting, e.g., dark and narrow caves, wide and spacious fields, and dimly-lit caverns, thus creating an effective atmosphere and ambiance. However, there is the obvious and overused CGI Slayer that somewhat clashes with the cartoonish-look of other characters, especially the female adventurers. I guess the creators deliberately did this to make Goblin Slayer standout, but more importantly to make him appear like a badass. Which, in that case, I could forgive because every time he starts fighting and kicking ass, he does look badass. Another noticeable feature is the number of close-up shots of the female character’s pink and glossy lips, I guess the creators did this to show that the females have wits and charm, or just to make them appear sexier in front of Goblin Slayer.

The sound design is also pretty good. The background music does an excellent job of providing the right mood for the right moments. such as heavy badass music before and during fight scenes. The opening song is dark and eerie which is perfect for a dark and brutal setting. The voice actors and actress do a great job at making the characters feel alive, especially our main character who, thankful, doesn’t sound too “dark and edgy”.

ENJOYMENT:

Having read Goblin Slayer, the manga version, I already knew what I was getting into, in fact, I was looking forward to watching this series. And did it disappoint? Not really. Goblin Slayer stuck to its source material. It doesn’t shy away from implying rape and torture scenes, and the numerous ‘glory kills’ only reinforce the dark and brutal setting. I’ll admit the story and characters are somewhat simple and straightforward, especially the characters, however its entertainment value lies within this simplicity.

What I mean is this: Goblin Slayer, our protagonist, kicks ass and kills goblins, anytime and anywhere. That’s it. And for me that’s what makes it so enjoyable, watching this ‘madman’ or ‘crazy bastard’ kill a bunch of goblins in the most brutal manner possible has never been so entertaining. As, for the story, it’s basically a depiction of Goblin Slayer’s “adventures”. A vehicle that showcases what Goblin Slayer does to the goblins. And we all know what he does to them. And this alone makes this series worth watching.