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Great Teacher Onizuka effectively mixes raunchy humor with a bit of an edge, a huge amount of hilarious scenes involving Onizuka's unstable lovable-loser-with-attitude persona, a collection of wild situations that any prime-time comedy would be proud to sport, and a stiff shot of hard-hitting commentary on the frightening issues surrounding modern youth and their education. The result is sometimes touching, occasionally eyebrow-raising, and always very funny. Add to that clean, effective art, quality directing and writing, and absolutely spectacular Japanese dialogue, and you've got yourself an instant classic.
Highly recommended to anyone who's not overly sensitive to mature humor and unflinchingly harsh portrayals of the grown-up-too-fast ... nature of many kids, GTO is uproariously funny and still manages to say something serious quite often

I have to admit, before I watched this Anime, I thought it’ll be another of those lame half-assed attempts at milking an established franchise. True, this Anime doesn’t live up to the name of the game but don’t let that deter you from watching it! Especially if you are sick and tired of Anime clichés. The reason I like this Anime is because it doesn’t not fall into the trap of Anime clichés. (Well, it does manage to dodge them really well.)
As an action Anime, this Anime fails horribly in its action. It’s action is mediocre, often ending as quickly as it began. Dante doesn’t ... spend too much time on killing a single demon in the game but that doesn’t mean the producers can skimp on the fighting >

Black Cat is a quite nicely animated show. Since there are many battles, often with supernatural powers involved, this is an important issue. Battles flow smoothly, and, despite the crazy mix of powers involved, it is kept at a fairly realistic level. The settings themselves seems to be some odd kind of mishmash between western surroundings coupled with various futuristic elements like huge laboratory setups and the occational computerized add-on. Even one of the main characters is an example of that, but more on this later.

Sven Vollfied is maybe one of the most hilarious and charming goofballs I've encountered within this kind of genre. I've ... heard him described as a mix between Vash the stampede and Spike Spiegel, which might be accurate, I guess. (Having seen neither of the aforementioned shows, I can't confirm that, but it sounds.... well, sound.) At first glance, he seems like quite the harmless guy. He often gets into arguments with the local cafe hostess for never really seeming to be able to pay for the coffee he drinks while he sits there and read whatever newspaper he can get his hands on. When things get serious, however, he's shown as more than able to handle himself.
Black Cat is..... he's interesting, I guess, for a character who is named Train Heartnett. There, I said it. TRAIN! HEARTNETT! He is the aforementioned top agent and assassin in Chronos, sporting nearly supernatural abilities at handling his firearms, a simple looking handgun with a "XIII" marking on it. While he isn't the most interesting conversationalist in the group, he never disappoints when it comes to making battle scenes look kickass. (No pun intended.) In the duration of the show, he leaves Chronos at the urges of a young girl, and eventually joins up with Sven and the others after their rescue operation.

The... well, the target of said rescue operation is Eve, a nano-machine construct made for battle. When we first meet her (yes, HER), she is held captive by a person who intend to break her -- to prepare her to become the ultimate killing machine, which is made all the more unsettling, seeing as she looks like a young girl. In fact, she reminds me a lot of another young girl in another show I've seen recently; namely Ren from Erementar Gerad, a fact that is made all the more apparent seeing as they're both weapons by nature. Of course, things never go as planned, and inevitably, she meets up with Sven, who promise to take her away and to teach her more about what it is like to lead a human life.

It would seem that the last character, Rinslet Walker, is the only one who doesn't seem to be blessed with anything remotely close to supernatural powers. Not that it makes her helpless by any means, though, as she might very well be the Faye Valentine to Sven's Spike/Vash combo. She's sneaky and intelligent, but also fairly able to look after herself when she heads out on her own.

Of course, the antagonists seems to be filled with the same kind of strange people that makes up the main team. Ranging from voodoo practicioners to kids on hoverboards a la Back to the future. From bespectabled men in large hats to young schoolgirls with flame attacks. And in the leader's chair, we pretty much have a Sephiroth-type character at his most insane. They've got plans, they've got powers and mr. Sephiroth seems to harbor a rather unsettling interest in our main lead Train. You know, Train Heartnett, our ex-Chronos operative? Yeah, I'm still rather taken aback by that name. Bear with me.Thus far, there has been explosions. There has been large fights and interesting character introductions. This show never sits still for long, because there are always people to rescue or hunt down, always things to figure out and locations to find. And, from what I've seen, there are also change in alliances, which is bound to keep things interesting. Few shows have been so flamboyantly energetic as Black Cat, and for all that I love slower, more reflective shows, I would have to admit that I LIKE this show. A lot!

Given the voracity of the backlash against the “not-so-bad” rating that Naruto received upon initial viewing by a fellow reviewer, I am certain that many readers eagerly anticipate a reviewer that, upon broader viewing (or even being of dissimilar gender from the original critic), will vindicate their pristine opinion of this title. Unfortunately you, the reader, are stuck with me. While I don’t think poorly of this title by any stretch of the imagination, the buzz pervading Naruto is plainly more hype than substance.

So where does the hype begin you ask? Right off the bat. From the very beginning of episode one this title more ... or less pronounces itself to be of the cookie-cutter Shonen Jump variety, and only a somewhat above average one at that. The character for which the show is named, Naruto, is quickly introduced, and even before the end of the first episode the viewer is completely aware of the ultimate direction of the plot: Naruto will someday become the strongest ninja of his village and receive the highly coveted title of Hokage. But knowing the end of the plotline isn’t as much of a killjoy as one would expect. It is the ride that counts after all. However, in the case of Naruto the ride is tantamount to that of an old, wooden roller coaster: sometimes thrilling and often nostalgic, yet still quite a bit rickety and easily outdone in terms of excitement and quality.

The characters, like the plot, are mostly OK while being admittedly cliched. Uzumaki Naruto, our primary character, is much like the leads of many of the most popular fight-styled anime. Like Goku (of Dragon Ball fame), Naruto is headstrong, motivated (mostly to become stronger), and cares deeply about his comrades. Like Yuusuke (of Yu Yu Hakusho fame), Naruto is rambunctious, brash, and a bit of a slacker. Despite his being particularly formulaic, Naruto at least combines the finer qualities of his predecessors. Such can not be said of his archrival Sasuke, a figure for whom blandness knows no depth. In fact, many of the characters fall somewhere in-between Sasuke’s blandness and Naruto’s charisma and coolness. You will come to care for the cast of Naruto for sure, just not at any deep or meaningful level.

The animation, much like the characterization and plotting, is spotty. At times great while at other times shoddy, the quality of the animation here lacks any real consistency. During the arcs in which the animation is still on the minds of the animators, the viewer is treated to a fluid frame-rate and artistic renderings that leave little to be desired on the part of fans of the manga. Nevertheless, when the animation is bad it is painful. At these times the once faithful renderings degrade to craptastic levels. It is as if you can feel the framerates slipping before your very eyes. Like most aspects thus far examined, the animation of Naruto is a mixed bag indeed.

It is perhaps a bit unfair though to judge a fight/action anime based upon factors such as characterization and plotting. True to its genre, it is in fight/action scenes that Naruto receives is highest accolades, though that isn’t saying a whole hell of a lot. Despite very wide employment, the fight scenes manage to remain remarkably fresh. With such a large extended cast, invigorating and unique fighting styles/techniques manage to continuously infuse action sets with life. Additionally, the background music manages to add some tension to these scenes quite effectively. There are some negative aspects to the action sets however. One is the overemployment of certain special techniques, particularly Naruto’s Shadow Clone technique, a move in which he creates multiple clones of himself. When a character uses the same move over and over and over and . . . well, things get bland and repetitive. Another detriment is that the sheer number of fights impedes the potency of plotting. Still, the combat stages are pretty intense and there are plenty of scenes for action fans to get pumped about.