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Story/Character
I don't think I have ever watched a 24 episode shounen (seinen?) anime that paced itself as well as Garo. The anime manages to have a clear-cut good versus evil story, while managing to show permanent character growth. Too often, anime series have their protagonist grow as a person for a fight, and then fall back to their old ways once the fight is over. What stuck with me most about Garo is that when a character changes, they change for good. The story was able to use its characters and plot to integrate love on all different levels - paternal, maternal, romantic, and love ... of country in a way that may have been a little cliche (for some forms of love), but was certainly believable.

Art
I should mention that I typically do not like mecha anime. I can't enjoy fights between robots. Although the suits of armor that the knights transform into look a lot like robots in mecha, I enjoyed the art throughout the show. This might be because there were more details in the armor than you would usually see on a robot in a mecha anime, or it might be because you never saw the knights in a "pilot" seat controlling their armor. While I don't think that the fluidity of motion was great (it wasn't bad) the characters all had pretty intricate clothing and accessories. Their hair was (largely) more simply drawn, but that was compensated for by having relatively unique hair styles. Towards the end, some of the monsters decreased in art quality, but overall both the good guys and bad guys were drawn well.

Sound
The sound/music was fitting. I don't really pay too much attention to the music throughout series; it takes a lot to get my attention. I didn't like the music enough to really pay attention to it, but that just makes the sound average/just above average. The theme song was intense and matched the feeling of the series nicely.

Enjoyment
Occasionally the story feels like it's lagging a bit, but it's still captivating to the point where you want to find out how everything is resolved. I should mention that the show manages to include sex and perversion without falling into any of the ecchi cliches (like magical falling - falling and then landing on a girl's breasts/in the 69 position; walking in on girls changing; male characters animatedly describing bust sizes; etc.). That said, although there are occasional jokes, the series falls short of being laugh out loud funny at any point.

Overall
Writing this review, I was a little tempted to lower the overall score because some of the flaws I pointed out. That being said, I found myself unable to because some of the good things I mentioned - particularly the intricate art for the characters and permanent character growth, makes the series stand out in a way that other similar anime I watched failed to.

This is basically a story about an overpowered MC with a messiah complex teaching 3-4 anime stereotypes how to fight lame-looking monsters. There is a little PG fanservice here and there.

Story:
A misunderstood MC is placed in charge of misunderstood students. Throughout the series the MC holds a smug 'knew-it-all-along' attitude, which gets under (my) skin. It cannot be said that he grows as a person during the story, and only the last two-three episodes show any real character development in his students. I'm sure next season they'll be back to square one though. I guess I should note that I say that there are three ... stereotypes, but I think two of them are really common. The third girl thinks she is a goddess and is above training, which is pretty original to me. That being said, knowing that that's what she is, you will now be able to guess most, if not all of the things that she will say and do during the series.


(I like to know annoying quirks common to series before I start watching them, so here they are some listed out.)
Cliches
- Mascot Character: there was no annoying all-knowing talking pet in this series. The MC did a pretty good job of taking its place though.
- Hidden Power: the main character did have a hidden power, but not in the traditional sense of a main character suddenly discovering he's special and while he's weak now, he'll be the strongest someday in the future.
Fan Service
- Magical Falling (somehow end up in the 69 position or groping the girl's chest): I don't remember there being any of this.
- Perfect? Timing (opening up the door on someone changing): There was a lot of this.

Art:
The monsters looked lame and the MC looked lame when he powered up to fight them. The characters generally had fluid motion, although I can think of some exceptions. Other than that, I should note that the anime does not have a 1990s-style animation to it.

Sound:
Sound doesn't typically affect my enjoyment of a series too much, although if I really enjoy the soundtrack, it can have a +1 effect on my overall rating of the series. The soundtrack for this series was pretty nondescript in my opinion.

(Sound Pt 2)Voice Acting:
For voice acting, one of the few things that bother me in a series is when female characters have masculine voices or male characters have excessively feminine voices. That was not a problem in this series; however, I should note that since I found the dialogue and plot to be corny, I can't really bring myself to say that the voice acting was good. I guess I should also note that there's not a lot of English in the series, so there aren't many (if any) places for Japanese actors to butcher English pronunciation.

Other:
The MC is a bad OP character, since he gets his butt kicked and doesn't really show a lot of speed/power, particularly towards the end. Now usually, you'd like an OP MC to look cool when they go into their super-sayan equivalent. He does not. The main character looks as though the animation studio was on a low budget when they got to make him fight hard. To be fair, throughout the series, but especially towards the end the enemies they fight make it look like the story was written for 10 year olds. Maybe it was, in which case if you're a preteenager or child or want to watch something for that age range please ignore my review.

I've thought a lot about what I think is useful when starting to watch an anime - criteria that might change my thoughts as to whether or not to watch a series. I’ve customized this list to what you typically see in ecchi series. First I give the criterion, then I define the parameters of the criterion, then I state how the series matched up against the specified parameters. I also note how things like art and the soundtrack affect my overall rating of a series (along with what I thought of the two components), if anyone is interested in that.
I don't claim that ... this criteria will be universal - different people have different tastes and value different things, but this review is what would make/break watching a series for me. Mild spoilers ahead.

Annoying Mascot Characters
1. It's not a matter of whether or not the mascot character is annoying, it's a matter of how annoying the mascot character is.
1) There is not a clearly defined mascot character in this series. Occasionally the main romantic interest acts as a mascot character, asking really simple questions so things can be elaborated more for the viewer, and offering overly-simple frustration at whatever unfortunate circumstance is unfolding. That being said, the main romantic doesn't often do that and when she does it's only mildly annoying.

Art
1. I find art to be pretty subjective. If I find it to be particularly good, it might +1 my overall opinion of the series, but I typically don’t hold it against a series for being averagely animated for the time it was animated.
1) The art in this series was pretty average, nothing eye-popping and almost nothing distractingly bad. If I had one complaint about the art it would be that the most of the main female cast had breasts that were big just a bit beyond the point of believability. I personally find female characters more attractive when I think that finding someone with their proportions in the real world is not impossible.

Friend Quality (MC-Male Friends)
1. The male friend(s) is/are (a) pervert(s) who do not get much characterization outside of getting the MC into trouble
1) That’s essentially what Teppei’s group of male friends are. There are two distinctions to be made: first, Teppei is the ringleader for his group of friends; second, there is a male friend Teppei has who is constantly ignored – he’s generic, but outside of the parameter of the stereotypical male friends in ecchi series.

Gratifying
1. The MC is not a hopeless loser with no talents and horrible grades. If he is, when he improves, his improvements come relatively early in the series and they stay for the duration of the series.
2. When the MC has to fight, he fights. (This doesn't have to do with the MC fighting well, just not being a pushover.)
3. The MC hones his skill and visibly improves throughout the series (when there's action in the included genre)
4. Romantic interests are forthcoming about their feelings (both the MC and the girl involved)
1) The main character certainly was not a loser, and not a clear-cut winner either. His grades weren't mentioned at any point throughout the series, so we're left to assume he's okay there.
2) When the MC had to fight, he fought, with little or no prompting from other characters.
3) The MC had good swordsmanship, but did not visibly improve it throughout the series. There was character skill progression, but it was more learning how to function in high-society (think Hayate no Gotoku without the ridiculousness and you'll have a decent perspective of what the training was like).
4) The MC was not too decisive during the course of the series about who his number one female was, he seemed to enjoy his female counterparts equally, there weren't any surprises about who he somewhat leans towards at the end of the series. The female counterparts are all pretty forthcoming about their feelings, there was one girl who was kind of a tsundere, but she was definitely forthcoming by the middle of the series and not particularly violent.

Magical Falling
1. The MC somehow ends up in the 69 position or groping the female foil(s)' chest more often than humanly possible
1) This is an ecchi show, so it does happen; however, it's much less frequent than other ecchi shows. Also, the female character(s?) play(s?) it off much better than other ecchi show female character(s) do.

Memory Problems
1. The MC has forgotten a promise to a childhood friend
2. The MC has forgotten the face of a childhood friend he made a promise to
3. The MC has amnesia
1) There were no MC memory problems in this series

Predictable Transfers
1. If they're an antagonist in one episode, they're in the MC's class the next.
1) The only predictable transfer was the MC into the academy, and it was by no means painful to watch.

‘Special’ Main Character
1. The MC is somehow distinguished during the course of the series from his peers – be it a special power or sudden change in social status
1) This happens – you know what it is from the summary given on MAL

Soundtrack
1. This rarely has an impact on my overall rating of a series, but I do feel I should note when I think a soundtrack is particularly memorable
1) I thought the soundtrack was good, in that I remember thinking it was good as I watched the series; however, I don’t remember any scenes that really hit home for me because of the music – which sometimes happens to me when I watch anime.

Voice Acting
1. I'm not particularly judgmental about voice acting, the only thing that really bothers me is if there's a male character with a particularly effeminate voice or vice versa
2. If there is English in the subbed version, there either isn't a lot or there is not a thick Japanese accent with characters who are supposed to be native/fluent English speakers
The voice acting was fine in both regards.
1) I remember thinking (as I was watching the series) that the antagonist for this series has a great voice actor.
2) There was not a lot of English in this series.


1) One thing that bothered me about the show was how clear-cut the themes were, despite them dealing with complex topics which don't really have an answer to them. One of the themes is more 'money more problems'. Another one of the themes seems to be, 'poor people shouldn't blame rich people for their being poor, they should just stop being poor'. This really just left a bad taste in my mouth, if they left some characters and some plot more up to the viewer to decide what is right and what is wrong, I would have been much happier with the quality of the story.

(mild spoilers)
There were four things that really stood out to me when watching Shinsekai yori. The first, especially in the beginning of the series, was how much it reminded me of playing an MMORPG. The characters had designs that were similar to characters you'd see if you combined Kingdom Hearts and Natsume Yuujinchou. Additionally, especially in the beginning of the series, the soundtrack is something I'd expect to hear in an MMORPG. That being said, one of the reasons I don't feel like I can give the anime a 10 is because for a while in the beginning of the series, it feels like the ... plot is connected the same way an RPG would - where in order to get plot, you have to approach characters or complete an event/reach a checkpoint.

The second was the timeskips. I was not expecting to watch characters grow up during the course of the series. It was really well done, especially considering that the nature of the society allows for a sort-of reset of the characters over time (I never found the 'reset' to be detrimental to the growth of the characters as individuals, and that's a really fine line) - often I find that timeskips leave a lot for the viewer to wonder what happened (e.g. how did they get so powerful), but this is not really a shounen-type show.

The third point kind of ties into the second. Despite there being powerful espers (some of the art and concepts for the espers and their abilities/training of their abilities is quite amazing) and uncontrollable antagonists, this series never has a shounen feel to it. Characters are presumed to get stronger during the course of the series, and the writers did make it a point to show that some espers are much more powerful than others, but the show never took the direction of 'we have to train to get more powerful than the monsters,' it was always, 'we have to find a way to stop the monsters.' Furthermore, all societies in this show have realistic fears, and they react in a way that's really believable.

The fourth point ties into the third, while the show's premise is somewhat farfetched (depending on whether or not you believe in espers), the social forces that help to shape the show's theme are very believable, in that they're probably being used right now to shape societies and justify shaping societies across the globe.

If you were to take the classic, quiet girl with a large chest with a crush on the MC since they were kids; the large-chested foil who wants the MC just because; the moderate-chested girl who learns to love the perverted antics of the MC, and the clear romantic interest with a small chest and a tsundere personality, and add a moderate-bust sized cold killer, that'd be the entire female cast of the show. (I typically don't define anime girls by their bust size, but in this series, the screentime on just their faces and just their busts are about equal.) Throw in the perverted ... MC who has a power everyone wants and that's the story in a nutshell.

I watched the entire series because I read a review that said it got better after episode 6, I think it got better at episode 5, but (at least for me) it didn't keep on getting better to a level that was enjoyable.

The art is good, not great. The sound is not really memorable (but to be fair, that's a critique I have with most non-music series). The characters are walking cliches. If you like seeing the same scene of a girl being held up by tentacle-like things as her clothes fade away, followed by the MC getting a magical power up and saving the day (repeatedly during the course of the series), then you'll probably like this show.

The story ends so thoroughly in 12 episodes that you're pretty sure there wasn't much to the story to begin with.

Let me first start off by saying I'm one to drop anime series that fill up most of their time filled up by generic character plot devices; for example, a guy and a girl bumping into each other in the hallway and the guy somehow managing to grab the girl's breasts (you've seen the rest play out a thousand times).

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru skillfully manages to avoid most of those plot devices. From a little sister who can best be described as her own person, to main character who's ranked third in the nation on standardized testing, but his relationship with ... his foil character doesn't hinge on their ranking - in fact, her ranking is never even mentioned (at least in the anime.)

Moreover, as the anime weaves in and out of romantic comedy, the protagonist's cynicism is explored while really leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether he's right or wrong. It's never preachy - characters and their situations are just used to question the morality of what they're doing.

I did find myself looking for something different or groundbreaking in terms of how the series ended its season, but I didn't really find that. Because of that, I couldn't bring myself to give this series more than an 8.

I should note, I don't really average scores for story/art/etc, it's just my overall impression of the series. I think that great animation tends to have a +1 effect on my ratings. This series didn't have great art, if it had animation like Hyouka, I would have given it a 9.