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Tunshi Xingkong / Swallowed Star is a Chinese production. It has a basic enough storyline: there is a post-apocalyptic world, our use of atomic bombs created monsters, there are superlative warriors fighting against these monsters, and there are good and bad people alike within the warrior cast as well. The main character is the son of a low-earning family and wants to improve his family's fortunes by becoming a warrior, and his main rival, the boy who wanted to bully him and yet didn't have the power for the said bullying, tries very hard to make him pay for a small humiliation that leads to ... lots of elaborate and extremely lawless schemes.
Now, I have very mixed feelings for this show. Firstly, many people like the great visuals, but for me, 4K or whatever, they look like the forced animation of video games' video stories. You can see every single hair in one's head, but they cannot walk properly, so that's not my cup of tea. Secondly, the storyline, poor lad attempted to be tormented by the rich jerk is too outdated and too unnecessary. Still, the in-military-squad relations, the camaraderie of the group members, the family's love for their son who can improve their fortunes, the love story that is there but for no great reason (its origin is related to her worrying about him due to bullying attempts) are all positive sides to this series, in addition to great monster fights and alright schemes. I am not a great fun of its musical score, either.
What bothers me the most, though, is the fact that the episodes are extremely short. I am saying that as a man used to the 22 minutes episodes with 1 1/2 minute songs at the beginning and end of an anime show. Swallowed Star starts the new episode only at 2 minutes 52 seconds mark, has a very lengthy scene divider at the middle (possibly longer than 45 seconds, didn't time it), and, it stops at the 19 minutes mark, making the episodes just about 15 minutes in length which is, to be honest, ridiculous.
As a result, we have a show which is alright to watch but I wouldn't miss if I hadn't watched it for a year. I don't understand the people voting in MAL, either as this show has a superlative rating but better-scripted, better organized Arifureta has far, far lower ratings. At the end, I cannae tell anyone to not watch it, but I can't recommend it wholeheartedly, either. It is the perfect "mixed feelings" animated series for me.

I really, truly liked Arifureta. Alright, yes, it has a simple, link-the-dots scenario, it has a generic unwilling isekai hero, it has villains out of a light novel, it has friends that are no more friends, it has an always-developing harem, and so it is a generic isekai light novel adaptation. There is even CGI that even I can understand to be CGI. There are parts that are out of the traditional anime storytelling, too, though: you understand our main man Hajime Nagumo is a loner, a bullied lad who is transported to another world with the wish of a god; he has obtained some ... ability to manipulate the elements in the soil and yet, as in real world classroom, that doesn’t make him the best labyrinth explorer/adventurer only by flashbacks, from the reactions of other characters and so on. You see him with his torn-down adventurer gear with his left arm missing at the end of an episode, and lo and behold, at the beginning of the next episode Hajime-kun has a suit that would compete with Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who attire as well as a metal and fully (mechanically) operational left arm without the anime telling us how he received it. There are time-laps and you still understand that from the way the story unfolds. That approach made me very happy. Besides, he becomes stronger by facing obstacles head-on and being creative and that pleased me, too. Yes, the harem people are very generic, yes there are times I wished Hajime-kun was a bit less terse and churlish, but still I like how he is portrayed and I like his cute and attractive isekai entourage. So, whatever many others may say, I emphatically recommend Arifureta.

Good Lord, that was boring. I mean, Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? / And You'd Think There's Never A Girl Online starts alright, in fact it start quite well. However, things not only don't improve but they also regress from that promising start.
So, there's that lad who plays video games and gets acquiainted with a girl who cannot understand the difference between real life and gameplay conditions, and they discover they are at the same school and then with others they form a school club to play a game so she would understand that real life and play are different mediums.
And ... guess what, from then on, till the very end it is "Rusian this" "Rusian that" and nothing changes and nothing improves and strange things just become normalized.
Maybe I miss the main point of this anime series, but I found it to be tiresome, pointless, and frankly, useless. Maybe you might enjoy it.

I really, truly wanted to love Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. A lot. It started alright, too: an interesting lad without memories gets brainwashed to become a premium assasisn and gets associated with an emotion-free girl named as "Ein" while he becomes "Zwei," the second amnesiac assassin.
Then, he learns his name, then he keeps working as an assassin, then he takes in a small girl as his protegee, then he is betrayed from every possible angle by every possible person and scenario. The thing is, all these are up to episode 18 and from episode 18, it is only downhill in terms of storyline, ... consistency, credibility, belieavability, and things get complicated and the series ends in the worst possible way, without any meaning to what has happened.
The problem is that there are a myriad tropes used in Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom (and why, oh why, does the name have to contain two Phantoms? It's quite alright for it to be named Requiem for the Phantom) from the idiot who sees the best in the emotionless assassin girl to Nazi-like German scientist to manipulative female mafia boss. All these might have been used to make a coherent story and et this opportunity is wasted. I seriously thought at the first few episodes that the series goes very slowly but it will be a great story, worth grading a neat 9/10 or 10/10 and then I am now struggling to leave it at 7 and am thinking it possibly deserves a 6/10. I am so disappointed.

This is one hell of a great anime series.
Yes, Senpai wa Otokonoko / Senpai is a Crossdresser touches some taboo subjects (especially if you think about the Japanese society) with ease and elegance.
Senpai wa Otokonoko is an amazing show that includes such issues as cross-dressing, teenage homosexual and heterosexual love, insecurities, broken family ties, irresponsible parenting, compliance or incompliance with societal norms, and if you are not triggered by any of these issues you don't even feel there is a strong discussion going on while you watch it - you just see a series about friendship and tolerance.
It may be the best written show ... since Hoshiai no Sora / Stars Align. I fully recommend it.

Buddy Complex is a mecha anime. It has Aobu Watase, an average 16-year-old high school pupil, go 80 years into the future and be part of a group of mecha warriors with special abilities. He meets a tsundere lad of his own age named Dio Weinberg, and he also runs into the girl who had saved him in 2014 from the attack of a mecha from future named Hina. Then, events carry on.
Now, what makes the Buddy Complex anime wonderful for me, grading it nearly 3 points above its average at MAL is the fact that I wanted to carry on watching it. Dio and ... Aobu are very interesting and loveable characters, one can understand where these two stand in terms of their backgrounds in the story. The production quality is above average and mecha battles are really, truly great. The music score is average. Yet, as I already mentioned, it made me watch it one episode after the other; and ,for the first time in my anime watching years, I started watching an anime and watched 13 episodes and then two extra storyline-concluding-episodes, in one sitting from 15:30 till 01:30. I have had never done this before; not even while watching the best mecha anime I know which is Eighty-Six. So, it was an extraordinary and very pleasurable experience for me. This anime therefore means a lot to me. As a result, from a personal standpoint, I recommend Buddy Complex wholeheartedly.

Now, Qualidae Code is an anime I liked a lot and many people have mixed or negative feelings about. It is probably due to expectations.
The anime series has a simple enough plot: youngsters that were kept in cryo-sleep had woken up with powers referred as “world” in them, and, are fighting against invading aliens from an alternate dimension. The question is, is this a rightful fight. We have seen many SF anime, manga, and TV series based on the concept and at times Qualidae Code resembled the film Island a lot in the first few episodes – at least for me. The quality of animation ... is not great, music is not bothersome but is not a real supporter of the storyline, either.
So, why do I recommend it with such a high score, then? Because it ticks important check points for me: does it contain easy-to-follow and good male and female characters? Yes. Does it have witty exchanges and enjoyable banter between characters, especially between the two male leads? Yes, plenty. Does it involve redemption? Yes. Is it fun to watch? Yes. Are there good fight scenes and innovative gadgets or fight plans? Yes. Does it show how friendship and solidarity are important? Yes, indeed. I therefore liked Qualidae Code a lot. Others might not due to freezeframe dialogues in which only the mouth of the talking person is moving or the lack of great, involving music, or for plot related reasons.
Still, Qualidae Code and its main characters Ichiya and Kasumi are pretty dear to me and I recommend it.

Kaicho wa Maid-Sama (the President is Maid-Sama!) is a wonderful, wonderful anime. It is heartwarming, with every character doing their best to survive in the high school world -from the three idiots to the eponymous Maid-Sama aka Misaki- and there is a constant air of feelgood in the series. It is a bland of romcom, slice of life, and -sometimes farcical- comedy and it creates the balance so well. It is hard to believe it was made 14 years ago, to be honest, because it catches the dynamics of everyday life and everyday feelings so very well.
The story is sort of ordinary – there ... is the poor girl who has to work after school at a maid café to support her family and the rich, athletic, good-looking guy who falls for her and her constant refusal to believe that he can fall for her. However, what makes Maid-Sama so different and so successful is the attention to detail in every single character, from the main characters Misaki Ayuzawa and Tokumi Usui to the cross-dressing Aoi, the girls and boys of the high school they attend. They are all very well written and the dialogues are fun and possible to have in real life.
Another thing that makes this anime series so great is that it can be watched without feeling cringy at any point, with a smile in your face, and with great ease of mind – and therefore it is very suitable for extreme binge-watching. I recommend Kaicho wa Maid-Sama to anyone interested in laughing and feeling good while watching anime.

This is one gem of a slice-of-life family anime. It focuses on the daily lives and interpersonal relations of 23 years old Hayato, 12 years old Mikoto and Minato, and six years old Gakuto Yuzuki who had lost their parents two years ago.
Now, the show has very good writing. The stories are clear to understand and follow. The characters are very easy to differentiate from one other, the side characters are very appropriately placed. The four boys are their own people but also form a coherent family structure and that is hard to arrange. Gakuto is an amazing character, and, the others are very ... well portrayed as well. The narrative does not make one cringe with either clichés or disbelief, and creates very relatable family relationships on screen. It was the best family anime I have seen since the incredibly superlative Gakuen Babysitters.
The animation is good enough - nothing too complicated but nothing half-baked either. The anime has a very nice opening theme, a nice enough closing theme, and music in the episodes do not make you fall in love with it and yet it doesn't disturb you either. However, it is the stories, the warmth and solidarity of family members (and, of neighbours) that holds this anime together.
I can strongly recommend the Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai to anyone who has a heart :).

Yumemiru Danshi wa Genjitsushugisha / The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist is one of my favourite new Light Novel adaptations, however, looking at here, there are many people who think differently and probably they are Americans who think in such a logic that “Eww, that guy harassed the girl for 2 years and now the narrative is like trying to get them together? That’s so politically incorrect.” If you are not American and Scottish, Japanese or from whatever origin, though, it’s a nice romantic comedy and it actually focuses more on the main character Wataru Sojō’s development as a person and how his relationships actually ... encourage many people, mostly insecure high school girls than how the girl in question, a certain Aika Natsukawa becomes another victim of the Stockholm Syndrome.
The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist is a rom-com anime, has great coming of age side stories in it, and it is a quite remarkably good adaptation of the Light Novel series of the same name. The characters are fun, it shows interesting and nice aspects of family life and of friendship, of how part-time working is in a high school student’s life, and, has great side-characters. The character drawings / animation is above average, and my only complaint might be that at some scenes you cannot say whether it is Sojō or Yamazaki that we are looking at till you hear the voice actor’s dubbing and other than that I am very pleased with this fun high-school rom-com and recommend it to everyone interested. I mean, it is as good a rom-com as any that doesn’t star Hugh Grant.