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Sometimes I wonder why I shouldn't just want animes whose review were really high. That way, the chances of them being good would be much better and I don't have to sit through those animes that weren't all that great. Fate/Stay Night is one of those animes that I wished I had seen sooner because it was definitely one of the better animes out there. With high reviews from my other reviewers, it certainly not only met but exceeded my expectations.
Review

Story

I think after watching animes all these years, animes that combines action, magic, a little of romance and comedy ... are the types that I much prefer to watch. This anime fits all of those needs. With an action pacted story sequence and a slow by developing love connection, it certainly made me happy to see it contains all the elements I prefer.

The overall scenario of the plot isn't something new, a big fight every so years to determine the fate of the world, but it certainly has enough of its own uniqueness to prevent it from being dull. The story goes like this. A battle for the Holy Grail occurs every now and then to determine who is worthy enough to receive the Holy Grail. Upon receive the Holy Grail, the "Master" and the "Servant" are granted one wish. However, something usual happened in the last Holy Grail War that ultimately continued onto the next. What it is, I won't say to prevent any further spoiling of the plot. But imagine this, how would you react if King Authur was a female? How would you react if instead of being the King Arthur everyone looked up to, this King Authur was looked downed upon because she couldn't lead?

Without going into any further details (and if you haven't noticed already, most of my reviews now are very incomplete when it comes to the story), this plot of this anime is certainly worth watching. And I am not just saying that because this happens to be of the genres of animes that I liked. I am saying it because it was actually good. The plot moves on with a nice flow to it and each little thing that occurs only adds to it.

Characters

Following in the covention of most animes of this type, this anime has all the characters you would expect: a brave and noble warrior, a person whose brains are beyond normal, a character with a sad past, and a hero who is useless at the start but becomes cruicial by the end. While I end up liking most of the characters, I must say that I was not totally impressed with the development of some of them. At times, the development just seemed too slow and there are still quite a few amount of questions I have regarding these characters. Unfortunately, I will probably never get the answers to them because there doesn't seem to be a sequel of any sorts.

One of the things I look for in animes is how the characters interact with each other and how they got that way. Does it seem reasonable for one character to fall in love with another? What is it about that other character that would allowed this love connection. Every action has a consequence and every consequence is the product of an action. So, I really don't like animes that has one character being totally devoted to another character without some kind of reason. With that long rant aside, for the most part, I felt that this anime was able to do just that. Provide enough information that if this was real (I know, this isn't real but when it comes to human interactions, it should be), these individuals would behave the same way.

Animation

Near flawless. I am actually watching other animes that were being produced at the same time as this anime and I can see a clear difference it quality between them. The characters look good and so do the surrounding. The fight scenes are well done and that makes it quite exciting. The only complaints I have is that some of the scenes were a little too dark (though it was during the night so I am just asking for too much).

Sound

The truth is, I actually heard the first opening theme of this anime a long time before I even watched it. That song was one of the best I have heard at the time and still does to this day. Really nice vocals though the lyrics doesn't really match up with the beat. The ending theme I am not too excited about but it is really bad either. The rest of the background music is good as well though I might need to get back to you on that once I get a chance to finish listening to the soundtrack.

I didn't had any complaints about the voice of the characters either. There isn't something where like other animes where some of the characters voice sounds like they are constantly whining.

Conclusion

A very good anime by all means. Personally, I thought it could go a lot longer and from the looks of it, there does not seem to be a sequel happening in the future. Too bad because I really liked this anime. My suggestion to you who are reading this review is to watch this anime if you haven't. It will certainly be worth your time.

Luckily I play a little mahjong, so I can keep up with some of the jargon, but the more complex variant scoring rules went beyond me.

Saki, based on the manga by Ritz Kobayashi and adapted into anime by Gonzo looks Like it may just be something fun about mahjong!

Still, I was impressed. The art makes the show look like it might be a fluff piece, with very little actual mahjong. If anything, there was more mahjong than moe in this show. Sure, there is plenty of zettai ryouiki, blushing and other elements that make you wonder if the show was actually meant to be a ... moe moe romantic comedy, but the show itself and the characters have interesting personalities. I really liked that they didn’t try and teach you the very basics, perhaps that will come later in the series.

The art is solid, and as I said above, if there wasn’t so much time actually spent showing tiles moving around the board, you might think this was going to be a harem show. The backgrounds are colorful, with moderate detail. There are a lot of pastoral scenes, which, I suppose, imply that this show is set somewhere in the country. The character animation is very full, and there is some morphing into super deformed mode for comic relief. If anything, I was actually kind of impressed in how they handled the actual mahjong games themselves. They used very agressive cuts and dramatic poses to keep the action during the games moving. They cut out a lot of the middlegame posturing and jumped to the lichi, ron and tsumo for each hand. It really sped up the game, and focused on the scoring. Overall I found the pacing to be terrific, and very well balanced between action, plot development and character development.

Iam sure that a lot of people are approaching this title with some skepticism…but if you are into mahjong…or even just curious about mahjong, I think this show will be worth a few episodes of attention at least.

Shinigami No Ballad is a 6 episode series consisting of 6 short stories (each story 1 episode long).　The main premise of the story is centered around a Shinigami named Momo and the people she deals with.　(By the way, A Shinigami is a ‘gatekeeper” to the afterlife’)　While there were great moments in the　individual stories, I found the series as a whole to be rather lacking.　Although all of the story premises we’re great, the last 3 episodes suffered from a bad case of “cheesy storytelling”.

Story 3.8/5
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The first 3 episodes we’re brilliant. The stories we’re all done very well with a great “mystery” aspect to them.　Granted, its difficult ... to pull of an effect story in 20 minutes, but from the first moments, these episodes we’re quite enthralling. (4.5/5)　Now, where this series suffers (and gets a much lower score) is in the last 3 episodes.　As stated above they suffered from a case of “cheesiness” and seemed rather predictable and bland.　If they had maintained the same momentum as they had with the three preceding episodes, the series would have been MUCH better off.

Characters 2.2/5
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Not good. It honestly felt as though it could have been the exact same character playing in each episode.　There were no “defining characteristics” that made individuals stand out from episode to episode.　Nothing memorable or exciting in the character department.

Sound 3.5/5
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The music and sounds were very fitting and well executed most of the time.
There we a few moments when the style seemed out of place with the atmosphere, but by-and-large, a job well done.　The musical style is your typical anime-esque type background music. A helpful bout of strings, piano, and electronic keyboard create a classic anime atmosphere.　The sound effects were very standard and casual, but well placed and executed.

Art 4/5
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It would be silly to expect complex animation or art style in an anime as simple as this one.　Though the art wasn’t exceptional, it did fit the style of the story perfectly and had a rather unique feel to it.　Job well done.

Overall 3.5/5
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In the end, Shinigami No Ballad was a rather decent anime.　The first half of the series excelled with excellent plots and storytelling. I just wish they had stuck with it for the last half as well.　Although not extraordinary, the anime as a whole was an enjoyable watch and certainly not a waste of time.

Recommended to anyone who wants to see a series that light-heatedly experiments with the idea of death and reflection on ones own life.