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Short Review:
Very close to a 9, pending further adaptation (I haven't read the manga). Essentially, like a spiritual successor to FLCL, CSM is high-stakes, hilarious, endearing, action-packed, has great characters and character catharsis while dealing with serious themes that others in its genre would never think to touch, yet executes its portrayal of such themes in such a masterful way. I also believe that this story is sort of a subversion of the harem genre — being a critique of harems that portray young boys that get smothered and loved by older women. Such shows that it subverts portray these interactions as being playful and ... fun. Meanwhile, CSM shows us that if such interactions were to actually occur to a young kid, then we should see the adults involved as absolutely gross and totally manipulative. CSM is doing the Lord's work through just this aspect of the show alone.

Short Review:
Record of Ragnarok is completely unique in a couple of ways. First, the show somehow absolutely enthralls and captures attention on its fights even though it has borderline terrible animation. I think this is because the show does an excellent job of building the legend and grandeur of its characters through telling their story. This leads into its second unique aspect — the show actually attaches us to the short-lived characters it introduces through their backstory and somehow makes us take everything seriously amongst its entirely cheesy, yet fun, backdrop (tournament of gods versus humans is so over the top).

Short Review:
I don't understand the hate this season got. Probably because I haven't read the manga. In a vacuum, this season was hilarious and very exhilarating, making me want to know what happens next, in a way superior to the first season. I think this is for one main reason, which leads to a hot take I have: Saitama wasn't featured that heavily. In my opinion, based on the little of it that I have watched/read, OPM excels when Saitama isn't featured too heavily. And so, when you introduce a much more compelling, interesting, and funny character than Saitama in Garou, then you see that ... the show would actually fare much better if said new character was the real main character. That's right: if Garou was the main character, then I think OPM would be even better than it is now. Focusing on Saitama holds back the potential of the show. I understand the reason Saitama was made to be the main character, the whole idea is a parody/subversion of the superhero genre. However, OPM tries to have its cake and eat it too. What I mean is that the series wants to be this funny parody yet also wants to be a high-stakes action show. This dichotomy can only work for so long before the one-punch schtick gets old and makes things feel a bit pointless and lame. Shifting to Garou as the main character would positively change the show in two ways that addresses these problems. First, Garou, though extremely strong, is not unbeatable and we see him struggle and fail to get better and get to the top like all other shounen protagonists. This makes it so we don't get too bored with our main character and we can see meaningful development in the main character in relation to the major events that are going on in the story. Second, making Garou the main character still maintains the subversive aspects the original concept had but instead of the main character being stupid OP, the main character is a deranged lunatic of a villain who has nefarious goals that are hilariously expressed through the same rhetoric as normal battle shonen protagonists (e.g., Garou yearns to be the strongest villain much like how Naruto wants to become Hokage).

Short Review:
SDC just isn't as interesting as other parts of the series; it can actually be quite a bore sometimes unlike any other part in the franchise. I believe this is for two reasons: First, Jotaro is one of the least interesting and personable Jojos and he also is succeeding one of the best characters in the entire franchise, Joseph. Second, the arcs and villains leading up to the ending are just not that interesting. Maybe only a couple of the villains that the heroes fight along the way to Dio are memorable at all, and only superficially. Third, the rest of the supporting cast ... is not very cool. Yes, this might seem like a very shallow critique, but one of the main things that makes Jojo so unique and exciting is how — uniquely, in Araki's over the top yet sublime style — its characters are so badass. On top of that, the characters are not very fleshed out either, although this has never been a strength of the franchise to begin with.

I’ve been trying to watch Kaichou wa Maid-Sama! (I’ll just call it Maid-Sama from now on) for a while now, but due to one of the worst dubs I’ve ever heard in my life, I gave up on it (I don’t really like to watch romance anime in Japanese and I almost always prefer dub to sub for any show). So, when they finally did a redub (ty Sentai) I was pretty excited. Anyway, back to the series at hand: this show is by J.C. staff and, as hinted about before, is a romance (a Shoujo romance, to be specific). I’ll let you read the ... synopsis on your own if you so wish because this is all I really have to say in the preamble.
Let’s get the aesthetics out of the way first:


Art and Animation:
I can start right off the bat by saying that I really liked the art style of this show. It was a really wholesome and fun art style and really fit the show well. Character design was also a real strong point as well; Misaki’s character design was especially great and all female cast members were unique looking. As for the males, it seems like all of the males who were trying to “get” Misaki had blonde/light hair for some reason. This was really weird to me since most Japanese men have black hair. Another thing the show does well in the art department is the use of Chibi. I for one, usually think Chibi is overdone and annoying but, this show pulled it off really well by using it mostly on the “3 idiot” male characters (it was quite funny every time you would see them in Chibi). The colours of the show were great as well, they were very glitzy and sparkly especially when it came to deeper moments between Usui and Misaki; this show was not afraid to showcase its bright colours. The animation was fine as well, there’s not much going on movement wise in shows like these, but when there was a lot of movement, it was solid. Also, I’d like to mention that when something dramatic would happen (Usui “shockingly” saves Misaki) the show would do this slow-mo dramatization thing which I found pretty hilarious because of how corny it was.


Sound:
I’ll be honest, the shows soundtrack was not my cup of tea. I always skipped the opening after listening to it once and I didn’t even bother with the ED. As for the OST, there’s usually like 3 main tracks they go to. The very happy and “cute” song they use when everything is fine and normal, the very sad sounding one for when someone is having a flashback or something – I really hate this one, it always sounded so damn creepy to me, and the excited and glamorous track for when something totally “ZANY!!!” is happening. Overall, it’s okay, but just not my taste. Voice actors were solid as well, I thought Misaki’s VA matched her personality very well.


Characters:
Maid-Sama features a wide array of characters, but the majority of the focus is put towards our main couple (obviously), Usui and Misaki. I will comment on the supporting cast all at once first though. Essentially, the show mostly uses its background support cast for comedic relief. There are times however where the story revolves around one of the side characters. The most notable comic relief characters are the “3 idiots” as Misaki refers to them in the show. They are easily my favourite characters from the whole show due to their idiotic (yet funny) charm. The rest of the cast usually has one trope attributed to them that defines them really (not much depth for many of them). There’s the 3 idiots as mentioned before, the other employees at the Maid Café, the Vice President from the student council and his sidekick Kanou (I also like him for being pretty much the only sane character towards the end), Aoi (obligatory trap), and the main rival against Usui for Misaki’s love, Hinata. Now, I’m not going to go through each and every one of them so I will say that the most notable ones here are Hinata, Aoi, and Kanou. These side characters don’t really matter much in the long run though since this is a romance between (mostly) two individuals: Misaki and Usui. Starting off with Misaki, I can say she is a very likeable and strong female lead. She doesn’t like to play the damsel and she actually has a personality to her. Sadly, this is ruined about her as the series progresses on as she keeps getting “saved” by Usui. It really gets tiresome and repetitive when you keep seeing that she can’t do things she heavily resolves to accomplish alone (which is the main point and drive of her character) and then this perfect alpha male saves her. Speaking of Usui, well, plain and simple he’s pretty much a douchebag. He is “perfect” in everything he does and has no personality or backstory at all (no backstory yet, until the girl figures it out like many other shoujo). His only goal in life (as far as we see and know) is to get with Misaki, but he’s such a little twat about it that it’s unbearable to watch sometimes. Other than that, we know nothing about him at all and it really isn’t the sign of a good character to be perfect at everything he does. This makes Usui very very irritating towards the end of the series. I didn’t mind him at first (I actually kind of liked him), but as the series progressed, especially when Hinata was introduced, it seemed more and more clear to me that he was just an arrogant, hollow, maniac for the fan girls to fall in love over.


Story:
The story is about a hardworking girl who is the strict student council president of her high school while also working as a maid at a café (to her embarrassment) and how she falls in love with a guy who figures out her secret. The antics mostly revolve around her trying to cover up her secret of being a maid from everyone she knows from her high school. As with any romance, the show heavily relies upon the dynamic between the two main leads. This dynamic is the driving point of the story and is what keeps you invested to keep watching. There are story arcs within the show that focus on different side characters but, usually it comes down to our main heroine who has to make a choice or take on a task and our male lead will always help her on the way whether she likes it or not. Essentially, this show is a romance with a tsundere through the eyes of the tsundere. As I mentioned before, the show relies heavily upon the chemistry and bond between the two leads. In the beginning, the couple seems very natural and likeable, but later on things turn for the worse as Usui’s major flaw of being flawless becomes apparent. Essentially so, if they spent more time developing Usui as much as they tried to develop Misaki i.e. give Usui an actual personality, not make him a knight in shining armour deus ex-machina, then the show’s romance aspect would have flowed much better. The romance between the two becomes really irritating and rushed towards the end when the love triangle between Hinata, Usui, and Misaki is formed. Usui shows his truly irritating possessive side and Hinata is thrown away like trash, making you dislike both main characters even more. On top of this, it doesn’t help that they rush Usui and Misaki’s romantic development greatly in one episode. They do the same thing as they’ve always done in this last episode but, instead, *SPOILERS* Misaki finally draws this conclusion that she loves Usui. This doesn’t really make any sense, comes out of nowhere and had very little foreshadowing, seeing the fact that she was acting pretty much the same before this towards him as she was throughout the whole story.


Overall:
Despite the gripes with it, I’d say Maid-Sama is, overall, actually a really enjoyable show for the most part. It becomes a little unbearable to watch and cringy for me after episode 20. Though enjoyable, it is flawed, character-wise and plot-wise (the romance). The show was very funny at times, so in a sense it did serve its purpose there. But, if you’re going to have serious moments in a comedy-romance (you usually do) you have to make sure they are executed well. A lot of this shows dramatic faults came from Usui and how unrealistic he could be. The dynamic between the two main leads fell apart as the show went on and you were left with a hollow slice of life with a rushed ending and no feeling of satisfaction. I’m pretty sure the ending was Manga-bait so don’t spaz out for me for my thoughts here. Also, I know some of you fangirls/boys will think I hate this show, but I don’t, I just think they could’ve done better. Please don’t get your panties in a twist; if there is a sequel and Usui gets some development and overall, the show improves, I will give it a higher score (lol definitely won’t catch me reading the manga, sorry). As for now though, this show is a 'meh' for me.

Final Score: 5/10

[Slight Spoiler Warning]

Hyouka is a slice of life anime that does a very good job of referencing famous mystery novel authors, yet fails to be a good mystery itself. Hyouka is a Kyoto Animation show with a generic high school setting (of course) and features trade mark, cute, moe, animation. I am not a huge fan at all of slice of life shows as they offer little to no substance plot wise but, I was oddly excited to watch this series because I am a huge mystery fan. On top of this, I heard Houtarou was a very cool and laid-back character ... that resembled Kyon (Haruhi Suzimiya). But, sadly, I was extremely disappointed after watching the show unfold with its dreadful pacing.

Art/Animation:
The art here is very similar to other Kyo-ani shows such as K-On!. It has that moe, cutsie style like K-On! and has very detailed backgrounds. The colour tones of this show is what can be described as “lazy” which relates very well to our main character. The character designs were not too out of the ordinary either but, one note to make is that our main female lead, Chitanda, looked a little too much like Mio (black haired lead) from K-On!. The animation was also very nice and fluid. Overall, the art and animation were both solid while the character designs were a bit too generic.

Sound:
All of the opening and ending themes for this show were forgetful and boring. The opening and endings sounded like generic pop music and I honestly skipped them most of the time. The background music for this show was mixed. Half of it was happy slice of life music while the other half was more mystery themed. The mysterious background music playing while Houtarou did his deductions actually did a very nice job of making the mystery itself seem more suspenseful than it really was. The other slice of life type music was not very memorable and actually wasn’t played that often giving the show a more mysterious feel at times as well.

Characters (this is where the bashing begins):
The show features 4 main characters... first up, you have our main protagonist, Houtarou Oreki who is a laid back, lazy guy who likes to conserve as much energy as possible (by not doing anything). This makes Houtarou very boring. Houtarou is not special in the least; he doesn’t have any interesting ideas or deep monologues and rarely provides comedic relief unlike other characters who are similar to him. All Houtarou can do is solve mysteries and only does it (usually) when the main female lead forces him to. That brings up another point about him; Houtarou believes in always conserving energy yet is always falling victim to Chitanda’s pleas to solve pointless mysteries. He can easily avoid this but, he doesn’t, instead it seems like he grows feelings for her yet he continues keep up the charade of conserving energy which brings up yet another point. He gets little to none character development. During the film mystery arc, it had appeared that there would be some character development for him but, sadly, it lasts for about one episode and he goes back to being his old self again, never changing and never expressing his true self. The next character, our female lead, is Eru Chitanda. There is not much to say about her other than the fact that she is extremely annoying. In the beginning, her curiosity was sort of cute but, after a while it really gets frustrating because all she ever does is get curious. She is an airhead girl who apparently is, somehow, one of the smartest people in the school. She doesn’t provide much other than the occasional suggestion for a mystery, being Houtarou’s master, and doing absolutely nothing. The male side character, Satoshi Fukube, is your average overly energetic character, albeit he does have the most depth than anyone else in the cast. He is constantly struggling with being better than his best friend, Houtarou, and also has some love issues with the female side character. Though, none of this is actually that deep at all and it really just seems more melodramatic than anything e.g. they were crying over the fact that Satoshi broke some chocolate for Valentine’s Day that the side female character made. The last character is Mayaka Ibara (the female side character mentioned earlier). There’s not much to say about her, she’s just a basic tsundere type character who really loves manga; doesn’t provide much more than some manga club drama.

Story/Plot:
This is where Hyouka really fails miserably for me. Basically, Hyouka is set up in a way where there are multiple mystery arcs and these mysteries are what the plot consists of. The thing is, Hyouka starts off pretty strong with the first real mystery of the show (which is what the show is named after). This mystery is more serious and more important than any of the other mysteries presented but, it only lasts about till episode 5. After this one there are some other mysteries that are completely useless until we get to the film mystery. This one was actually quite intriguing and suspenseful and it was fun trying to figure it out with the characters. Disappointingly though, this is where all the good regarding Hyouka’s mysteries and plot ends. After this we are left with the big build up towards the crazy school festival. Now this is what really bothered me about this show. For 4 or so episodes we get no mysteries at all! During this time all we see is “fun times” at the school festival and extremely slow build up/set up for the school festival mystery. In fact, the mystery is solved in 2 episodes! I wouldn’t really say it was solved either since in those two episodes there was no deduction process by our main character, he just figured it out. In contrast, during the film arc, it took the main character quite a lot of thought and effort (which we actually saw on screen) to figure out the mystery but, here we just see Satoshi trying (and failing) to solve it himself and then all of a sudden Houtarou solves it. Even more frustrating is that, after this arc ended, the rest of the mysteries, I wouldn’t even consider mysteries. They were even more useless than the earlier more “important” big mysteries. Basically, towards the end of the show nothing happens at all (this is about 5 or 6 episodes). To top it all off, the series ends incomplete with no ending in sight and an open ended “romance” where Houtarou is too scared to actually admit his feelings. Overall, some mysteries were very fun to watch (two or three) but, in the end most of them were completely useless and mundane. Also, this mystery show stops showing mysteries for about 4 episodes just to build up to one lack luster conclusion for one bad mystery. Other than the 3 main mysteries in the show, the rest is just useless with the main purpose of taking up space.

Overall:
The art for the show is generic but, functional and the animation and detail is spot on. But, the character designs are a little generic. The sound matches the different tones of the show at times and the music playing while the characters are trying to solve a mystery adds a very fitting feel to the show. But, the opening and ending themes to the show are forgetful. Overall, the aesthetics are fine. The characters are dull and mostly generic with little to no character development. Some of the mysteries in the show are fun to watch but, most of the show is filled with useless fodder that does nothing and is “solved” within one episode. Also, the show stops for 4 episodes for a stupid school festival. The story and characters mostly fail. Overall, Hyouka is a mystery anime with more references to actual good mysteries than having good ones itself. And for this reason I am utterly disappointed and feel since it didn’t accomplish being good at what it was supposed to be that it is, in fact, worse than average.


Final Score: 4/10 :(

As a huge fan of the psychological (mostly thriller) genre, this anime was a diamond in the rough. I have not seen a series that did so well in presenting and going through human psychology. Not only that but, Aoi Bungaku also takes a look at issues involving human morality. The whole series consists of 6 works of fiction from Japanese authors. On the surface the idea sounds dull as it relates with classic Japanese literature, which as we’ve seen in multiple school SoL anime, are apparently a bore to read. Though I don’t know what the original pieces of ... work were like, I can say without a doubt that this adaptation turns these suggested ‘boring’ pieces of literature into something very interesting that will open your mind to a different perspective on human psychology and morality.

Art/Animation:
I’m not a huge expert on art, or animation for that matter (only expertise I have is grade 9 art). But, even an amateur can tell that this series does a very nice job in changing its colour tones for each story. Some of the darker stories such as No Longer Human and Hell Screen had a much darker tone and much darker colours as compared to In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom which had a more colourful palette in its creation. These tones were the most prominent thing to me visually. The character design was also very solid and matched the character personalities to a tee. General art work and backgrounds were also very solid.

Sound:
There are no openings for this anime as almost each episode is instead started off with a narration, explaining the story, its background, and a little bit about the author. I find this refreshing and unique as it gives you very useful information before heading into the story. There is not much music playing in the background in the anime, especially when there is dialogue. But, in the few instances where there is a musical score in the background, it matches the tone of the series very well. The first series, No Longer Human, had much more dramatic and eerie music playing, in contrast to Kokoro which had more poppy SoL type music playing. The OST for each series represented what type of setting/genre the story was placed in.

Characters:
This section is hard because there are a lot of characters and in some stories they’re main focus while in others they are not that important. In fact, most of the stories focus more on the themes and the message of the story than the characters. Because of the nature of this series, I will not do a character review section.

Story/Plot:
Aoi Bungaku has a variety of 6 different stories, each conveying their own message and having their own meaning. All of them are unique and interesting and I didn’t find any of them to be below average. I will do a rundown of my thoughts on each one.

- No Longer Human:
The first piece of literature to be shown in the anime is in my eyes, the best one. No Longer Human shows the life of a man, named Yozo Oba, who has lost all hope in his humanity and, for the most part, life. It shows the inner thought process of a man on the verge of suicide, as he is disowned by his father for following his dreams. You see how he hits rock bottom due to the traumas of his past actions and childhood horrors. The author does a great job of delving into human psychology as it is shown how and why Yozo has completely lost faith in himself as a human. The piece not only shows how sensitive and powerless we really are as humans, but also how society can make us this way with its generalized standards.

- In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom:
This story is much more basic in comparison to the first. It tells the story of a bandit who falls in love with a mysterious yet beautiful woman and how he does anything for her. I feel this is one of the weaker stories as it doesn’t really convey a message of deeper meaning. Instead, it just shows how easily humans can be manipulated and used; the comedy also doesn’t really help or fit in.

- Kokoro:
Kokoro is another great adaptation, but goes towards a more slice of life feel as opposed to the rest of the stories. The plot in this one is basically, without spoiling too much, about a love triangle. Yes, on the surface it sounds very dull and out of place, but if you take a deeper look you can see that the story shows the struggles of suppressing human emotions and how understanding each other’s (very powerful) emotions can play a key role in life in general. On top of this, the story adds a twist by adding a second, non-canon, episode in the adaptation. This episode shows the importance of perspective and really makes you think about the situation differently. The episode shows the story in the perspective of what was deemed as the ‘antagonist/rival’ of the first episode. I found it a very unique and necessary part, and without it I feel the story would probably be much worse.

- Run, Melos!:
Run, Melos! was another not so great adaptation out of the bunch. Though it tells an interesting story about the importance of friendship, the message wasn’t very inspiring or new. The moral of the story was generic and mundane, thus I did not care much for this title.

- Spider’s Thread:
Spider’s Thread was an adaptation of a children’s book with a very basic and generic moral; it wasn’t very interesting as I have heard stories like it many times before except with a much lighter tone.

- Hell Screen:
This story is has a great message that could last forever and told in a very short and precise manner using the same type of fairy tale style setting as used in Spider’s Thread. The main point of the story was to show how art can fight oppression and help express many things. Hell Screen shows how influential art can be and how loud it can speak to someone. It also shows how a ruler having absolute power is corrupt and can ruin a nation.

Overall:
Aoi Bungaku is a great series of 6 short pieces of classic Japanese literature with some great themes explored in them. The art was very solid and added a certain tone that matched each story very well. The sound, though lacking, was nice and the background music, just like the art, gave life to the story and matched it very nicely. The stories were also a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of other shows out. Though not all of them were great in my eyes, they were still well done and each had a unique atmosphere to them; none of them were below average. The only major gripe that I had with the series that brings it down from getting a higher score is of course, the inconsistency. By that I mean the difference in the stories and how some were much better than others. Other than that, I feel Aoi Bungaku is one of the better anime I’ve seen even though it can be a bit hit and miss with so many different stories.

Final Score: 8/10