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What would you get if you took a medieval fantasy anime and made the focus balls-to-the-wall action? You would get Murder Princess!

Story - 5/10
The story starts off with a coup d'etat against the royal family of Forland, and in the process, the king is killed. During the chaos, however, he has his only daughter (he has a son who is away), Princess Alita Forland, escape. During Alita's escape, she runs into a bounty hunter named Falis. A series of events causes them to switch bodies. Alita, now in the body of Falis, begs Falis to save the kingdom. At first, ... Falis (who is in the body of Alita) refuses, but after Alita offers to be her servant and let Falis take the throne, she changes her mind. They then storm the palace and take back the throne.

The story isn't exactly a stand-out one - it's not terrible, but it's not great, either. Besides, when you're watching something like Murder Princess, you're not watching it for a deep and complex story - you're watching it for balls-to-the-wall action.

Art - 7/10
The animation was done by Bee Train, whose other notable works include Noir, Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, and .hack//Sign (I cannot comment on those works, since as of writing this review, I have not seen them), and it's actually rather visually pleasing - it's not the best animation I've seen, but it is good for what it is. It's also rather colorful - in fact, watching this has actually made me want to watch other Bee Train works.

Sound - 8/10
This is a case where it's just easier to hear it for yourself instead of to have someone describe it for you. The OST fits the mood perfectly, and it's one of those things where I can't really think of the OST without thinking of the scenes that accompanied a track. The dub is also very good, with Colleen Clinkenbeard (Rin Asogi, Monkey D. Luffy, Nice Holystone, Ran Mouri) playing Falis, and Monica Rial (Haruka Shitow, Shiro, Chane Laforet, Stocking Anarchy) playing Alita.

Character - 7/10
While Falis and Alita are somewhat typical for their roles (Falis is a basic hot-blooded bounty hunter, and Alita's personality is similar to Princess Peach), they do manage to come across as likable - they aren't played to complete stereotypes, and we do get to see their characters get fleshed out a bit. Plus, Alita undergoes a lot more character development then you would imagine.

Enjoyment - 10/10
I love action anime. I was not disappointed after I finished this show. I wouldn't exactly call this a guilty pleasure. This is one that I would say that you should watch at some point (the next time you feel in the mood for a short action-heavy show, consider watching this).

Overall - 9/10
This is easily one of my favorite OVAs, and I'll definitely be rewatching this in the future.

RIYL: Black Lagoon, Scrapped Princess, Needless

Every genre of anime has to start somewhere. For example, the Real Robot genre would not exist if it was not for the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and most "Manly" anime would be completely different were it not for Fist of the North Star. And random comedy/parody anime would not be what it currently is without Excel Saga.

Story: 10/10
The reason I give the story such a high score isn't because of the overall plot - it's because of the episodes. Each episode of the show (With exception of the clip shows, as well as the last episode, which was made to purposely ... get the show canceled) is designed to parody a different genre of anime (some episodes actually parody multiple genres of anime, and even have direct references to other shows). The only genre that I can think of that wasn't parodied is the harem genre - but given the fact that, well, I can't really think of any harems that came before Excel Saga (the only one that I can really think of that's really of note is Urusei Yatsura - and it's extremely debatable if that's a harem), this is actually something I'm willing to forgive. I even found the parodies that I had no knowledge of the source material hilarious - they were just executed so well.

Art - 8/10
The animation still looks pretty good - it's not choppy, and while it is a bit rough, it has aged very well. It's also really colorful - and that's something I really appreciate an anime for. Not much else I can say here.

Sound - 7/10
Now, if I was simply talking about the soundtrack, I would give this a 9/10, since the OST is pretty good, and the opening theme is easily one of my all time favorites. However, I'm also including the voice acting in the dub (I watched the dub)...and this is what will make or break the show for you. Not because the dub is a bad one (I would have switched to the sub if that was the case), but rather, because of Excel's voice. See, Excel has an extremely hi-pitched voice. In fact, Excel's original voice actress had to stop voicing Excel and let someone else handle the role because the strain she put on her voice was very severe.

Character - 10/10
The show's cast is a very diverse one, so I'll describe the 4 main characters, Excel, Hyatt, Menchi, and Lord Ilpalazzo. Excel is a dumb blonde, but she's self aware of this - in fact, the last episode has her state that she is a moron; most of the episodes would not have the plot that they have if it wasn't for her screwing up the missions assigned to her by her master (and target of her affections), Ilpalazzo. Hyatt is a direct contrast to this, being extremely quiet; however, she constantly dies. Menchi is a dog that Excel "adopts" as an emergency food supply, and he is constantly in fear of being eaten - it's not until near the end where he overcomes this fear and starts to bond with Excel. And lastly, IlPalazzo is Excel's superior (and the head of ACROSS, an organization dedicated to, predictably, world domination), except in his case, he's more of just reluctant to put up with Excel - he is constantly shown doing other things, like learning how to play guitar or playing a visual novel on a handheld gaming system.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I found myself laughing at jokes I didn't even understand. THAT'S how funny this show was. And Excel won me over after one episode - THAT's just how likable of a character she is.

Overall: 10/10
I would not recommend this to a beginner, since most of the jokes will fly over your head. This is a title that the more anime you have seen, the funnier you will find it.

RIYL: Gintama, FLCL, Is This a Zombie?, Martian Successor Nadesico

I've noticed that there are 3 types of Anime specials.
The first type is the "sequel" type - it basically wraps up any remaining loose ends in a story (this is used when there's not enough loose ends to justify making a second season, but the ending doesn't tie up all of the loose ends).
The second type is the "side-story" type - these can either expand on a scenario that is briefly mentioned in the main series, or they can just be a scenario that could have happened, but when is never really specified (if it's the latter case, there's generally a fair amount of fanservice ... in the special).
The third type is the "unaired" type - Basically, they take an episode that they originally had as part of the main story, but were unable to air due to content in the episode.
The DearS special falls into the third type, but also kind of fits the second one.

Story - 4/10
It's a basic hot springs episode - and there's a lot of nudity. You can tell that it was meant to air as part of the main TV series, since it seems like they try and advance the story when they aren't focusing on the fanservice (at least, that was what I got, since the site I watched this on had this special listed as episode 10, and the ending listed as the special for some odd reason). However, the fanservice is pretty excessive - so if you don't like a lot of fanservice, you should probably stay away from this special (although you probably shouldn't watch this special in the first place if you haven't watched the TV show it's attached to).

Animation - 4/10
The art is the same as the series. It kind of reminds me of the animation style from Gundam SEED, except it's not nearly as good. The art is colorful, but the style they use isn't visually appealing.

Sound - 5/10
The soundtrack is just forgettable. I couldn't really name anything notable. I don't rememberr the voice acting being particularly good or particularly bad.

Character - 5/10
My opinion on the characters for this show is a case-by-case basis - while I actually kind of like Neneko, there's also Mitsuka, who just irritates me (she's like what would happen if Yurika Misumaru or Misato Katsuragi was much more sexual, and didn't have any of the other traits that made her likable). Overall, however, my opinion on the cast is just "meh".

Enjoyment - 3/10
The only reason I watched this was because of how bad I had heard the main series was, and the site I watched it on had this listed as episode 10 (and the last episode was listed as the special). It's a good timekiller, but that's it.

Overall - 4/10
You probably shouldn't even watch this if you haven't watched the main series, and the special isn't really worth sitting through the entire 12 episodes of the main series. Just go watch Heaven's Lost Property, Ai Yori Aoshi or Chobits if you want something similar to this that's much better.

Alternative recommendations (for both the Special and the entire series): Chobits, Heaven's Lost Property, Ai Yori Aoshi, Oh! My Goddess

(Note that this review is based off of the TV show alone, and does not include the OVA)

Occasionally, whenever I watch a show, I'll wonder if the show has a function to serve aside from provide entertainment, and if so, what is that function (this isn't exclusive to anime - I've wondered this while watching shows like Numb3rs and Burn Notice)? Even if I'm watching an anime based off of a manga, I still will have this question every now and then. Pilot Candidate was a show that I found myself asking this question.

Story: 5/10
The story is somewhat standard for a mecha show ... - Humanity is under attack from an alien race (called the Victim in this show - insert Tumblr joke here), they've been cornered into one last bastion, and their main defense are giant robots. However, there's a slight twist here - it focuses on the training program for the pilots - a "Pilot Candidate" system. This is actually somewhat unique, as I can't think of another show that does this - most of the time, the main character either "falls into the cockpit", or pretty much starts off piloting the mecha (Gundam SEED is an example of the former, and Gundam 00 would be an example of the latter). This, combined with the cast of characters (who I'll talk about in a second) and some of the plot threads that were introduced (but never resolved, as this show was canceled in Japan before it finished airing) leads me to believe that this show was supposed to act as a somewhat more child-friendly version of NGE. The plot was one that was suited for 24 episodes instead of 12 - it would have worked better if they had planned on having the first season consisting of 12 episodes cover the graduation of the class, and then have the second season (if it came into existance) focus on the struggle against the victim.

Art: 3/10
The art on itself is somewhat similar to the style from Martian Successor Nadesico, and while Nadesico's art style was fine for the time it came out, it's out of date in Pilot Candidate's case. Also, I find the fact that Xebec chose to animate the mechas using CGI to be a rather baffling one, considering the fact that I can't think of any other mecha anime they've made where they used CGI to animate the mechas - they drew the mechas by hand in Nadesico (which aired before Pilot Candidate), and Fafner of the Blue Sky (which was also made by Xebec, and aired after Pilot Candidate) featured hand-drawn mechas as well (while the aliens in Fafner were made using CGI, this was done to make the aliens appear more...well, alien in contrast to the surroundings). Heck, I've heard people call the CGI used in Blue Submarine No 6 (which I haven't seen as of writing this) better - and that show was by Gonzo, who are infamous for bad CGI.

Sound: 7/10
The music is actually really great - it's basically something that sounds like it's from an epic sci-fi movie in the same vein as Star Wars.

The dub, on the other hand...not so much. While this isn't the worst dub I've heard (I've seen the dubs for Garzey's Wing - which is worse than Pilot Candidate in terms of dialogue - and Love Hina - which is worse than Pilot Candidate in terms of the voice acting), it's a really bad one - although it's definitely one that you can make fun of (so if you want to watch this show to have a laugh, I recommend the dub for maximum enjoyment). In fact, the existence of a dub for this show baffles me, mainly because, as previously mentioned, this show was canceled before it finished airing in Japan - while Deadman Wonderland also suffered this fate, that show actually got a good dub (and that's probably part of the reason why it enjoyed so much success in the U.S.).

Character: 3/10
Most of the characters are pretty stereotypical - if you've seen most mecha shows, you can probably fill in the blanks regarding most of the characters (the mentor is a grizzled old vet, the love interest is a tsundere, one of the best friends is a know-it-all, the rival is an emo kid, etc). The only one that's really of note is the main character - mainly because he's like a very excitable combination of Ash Ketchum and Kira Yamato, except he has none of the redeemable factors of either character.

Enjoyment: 2/10
The only reason I actually watched this was because of the fact that Adult Swim has never aired this series a second time - in fact, they supposedly took out a banner saying that they would never air the series again. And if that doesn't give you an idea of how bad this series is, consider this: the anime was one of the main factors that killed off the manga.

Overall: 3/10
I guess if you watched the series as a kid, it's worth watching again just to see how much it aged. But if you didn't grow up watching it, then you're not missing out on anything if you choose to skip this.

Alternative recommendations: Gundam SEED, Nadesico, Fafner, Vandread

Another day, another terrible Idea Factory OVA.

Well, since I reviewed Mars of Destruction and Skelter + Heaven, I might as well get this one out of the way.

Story - 1/10
The plot to Generation of Chaos, as far as I can tell is basically what would happen if you took the main mechanic of Pokemon, had it be used for creatures more akin to Digimon, and put it in a universe of a generic version of The Slayers. However, this feels less like an OVA meant to accompany a game and more like the prologue to an actual anime. That never got made.

Art - ... 1/10
The animation is by Idea Factory, and it is easily some of the most atrocious I've seen. And I know the animation is dated, but even at the time it came out, it still was terrible. Mainly because Excel Saga started to air at the same time, and it had animation that was a million times better than this show. Also, the CGI is atrocious, but at least they have an excuse here - CGI was still new to anime, and as such, it was easy to screw up.

Sound - 1/10
The sound was...decently mixed, but extremely forgettable. And I can't really say much more.

Character - 1/10
The characters are either generic or forgettable - Chiffon (our main lead) falls in the former category. I would go into further detail about the rest of the characters, but they were so forgettable that I couldn't even tell you what they looked like.

Enjoyment - 1/10
The worst part about this is that it's not even funny to watch - at least with Mars of Destruction, you can do a group watch and MST3K the whole OVA. This isn't even "so bad it's funny" territory.

Overall - 1/10
Just skip this one

Alternative recommendations: Slayers, Pokemon, Digimon

(Note: this is my first manga review, so I would appreciate feedback)

For the most part, anime adapatations of video games have a bad name - sure, there are some good series out there (i.e., Gungrave, Canaan), you have a terrible adaptation out there (i.e., Green Green, Mars of Destruction). But you don't hear a lot about manga adaptations of video games. So, what do you get when you take one of the slightly lesser-known entries from one of Nintendo's biggest franchises and turn it into a manga? You get something that's actually quite enjoyable.

Story: 5/10
The story is basically a manga retelling of the ... plot to Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, and is condensed down into 10 chapters. This means that a lot of content is cut out - and it feels like they missed a lot of opportunities to show more fight scenes in the dungeons they cut out.

Art: 7/10
Not really much to say here. It's pretty much what I expected. It's cartoonish, but somewhat pleasant to look at.

Character: 7/10
I'm not that familiar with the other characters (since I haven't played that much of Oracle of Seasons - I just haven't gotten around to playing more of the game), but Link is just like I imagine he would be (if he could talk, obviously).

Enjoyment: 8/10
If you liked the game this is based on, chances are you will at least somewhat enjoy this manga. And hey, Link talking in here isn't as bad as you might think it would be - it's definitely a million times better than the CD-i games where he talks.

During the 1980s (and 90s), there wasn't really any quality control when it came to anime that was brought over to the U.S. So, for every really good OVA/anime that was brought over to the states (i.e., FOTNS, Megazone 23, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket), there was at least one anime that was pure ultraviolent schlock (i.e., Cybernetics Guardian, MD Geist, Violence Jack). However, Ultimate Teacher stands out among all the OVAs that were brought over to the states - mainly because instead of being another ultraviolent schlock title, it's a comedy OVA in the same vein as Excel Saga.

Story: 6/10
The story ... is...really confusing. It starts off with a test subject escaping from an underground lab that holds government experiments. However, instead of terrorizing the neighborhood like in a stereotypical horror anime with this premise, the test subject, a man named Ganpachi who had his DNA spliced with that of a cockroach, decides to become a teacher - but not just any teacher; THE Ultimate Teacher. He arrives at a run down school that has been overrun by a school gang, and the leader of the gang is a girl named Hinako (no relation to the girl from those OVAs) he met while on his way to the school. He tasks himself to restoring order at the school - in any way possible, and that means defeating Hinako - whose strength comes from the type of panties she wears (despite what this might imply, there actually isn't a lot of fanservice in this show - at least when you compare it to, oh say, Gunbuster). And eventually, one of the people who is part of the lab that Ganpachi escaped from tracks Ganpachi down - and then the plot becomes too complex for me to explain.

Art: 3/10
The art here has not aged well, but even if I was reviewing this at the time it came out, I wouldn't give it a very high score, mainly because the animation isn't very good even for the time it came out. There aren't any animation errors per say, but the art style hasn't aged well.

Sound: 7/10
Nothing really drags it down. The dub isn't terrible (at least the U.S. dub, anyway - there's a U.K dub, but I can't comment on that one, since I haven't seen it), but it's not a stand out dub, either.

Character: 7/10
Ganpachi is a character that you really have to see in order to understand him. It's pretty much impossible to describe his personality - all I'll say is that it is kind of what you would expect if a human had a cockroach's personality. As for Hinako, she's pretty much a tomboy, except she gets her strength from her Lucky Kitty underwear - in fact, taking it away from her (or revealing it) is pretty much her kryptonite.

Enjoyment: 9/10
It's just so hard to describe. It's easier if you just watch it to understand it.

Overall: 8/10
It's pretty hard to track down a copy (I believe it's currently unlicensed), but you can find it on Youtube (both the U.S. and U.K. dubs) if you want to watch it.

RIYL: Excel Saga, FLCL, Gintama

Since I recently finished what is now my favorite anime, xxxHolic, and I have a tendency to start a show I end up hating after I discover what becomes my favorite anime, I decided to try and watch something short that looked really bad so I wouldn't waste too much time; so, I chose to watch this show. Man what a mistake that was!

What is Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de (which translates to mean World War Blue, and as such, I will be referring to the series as it's translated name), you might ask? Well, have you seen Excel Saga? Have you ... seen Wreck-It Ralph? Have you ever inhaled paint fumes to get high? If the answer to those 3 questions is "Yes", then congratulations! You've seen World War Blue.

The story of World War Blue is basically a fantasy version of the console war between Nintendo and Sega, with Nintendo being the villains. It's pretty basic from there.

For characters, we have Gear, our main character who is supposed to a parody be Sonic the Hedgehog (insert joke about going fast here), standard strong female character Oppai-I mean Opal (who's supposed to be a parody of one of the characters from Fantasy Zone; I guess she's supposed to be the love interest for Gear; and if you couldn't figure it out from the "nickname" I gave her, she's also the show's "Ms. Fanservice" character), Nel (Gear's younger sister who's an extremely useless character, and a parody of Nei from Phantasy Star 2), Til (who's a parody of Tails from Sonic; he dies at the start, so we feel no connection to his character due to the fact that we didn't get to know him, and we are unaffected by his death) and easily the most bizarre character of them all, Tejilof, a gigantic pervert who's a parody of Tetris of all things (I'm not kidding) - in fact, Tejilof is such a pervert that one of the first things he does is literally grope Ramsus, the general for the army of the country that represents Sega.

The only action scenes that were actually remotely interesting were the ones involving Opal, mainly because she seems to undergo the closest thing this show has to character development - she decides to push her ability, which allows her to fire bursts of energy from her fingers, to her limit, which causes her pain.

One of the few good things about this show is that it actually does look good - and the sound isn't bad, either. It's a shame that the rest of the anime doesn't look as good.

Lastly, there were 2 franchises that seemed absent that had a good reason to be present - the first was Mortal Kombat; I feel it was absent, since both Sega and Nintendo got a copy of Mortal Kombat, but Sega did not censor their version. It would have made much more sense to have a character who's a parody of Mortal Kombat instead of one who's a parody of Tetris - and some might argue that having a living parody of Mortal Kombat would make this show too violent, but the amount of fanservice already makes this inappropriate for kids.

The other franchise that seemed absent was Megaman - but I actually consider this a good thing, since I grew up playing Megaman. And I would have hated for Megaman to be associated with this piece of work.

I guess if I had to say one good thing about this anime, it has made me kind of curious to try the manga, which looks a lot better.

Alternative recommendations: Log Horizon, Excel Saga, Wreck-It Ralph, Ixion Saga DT

Since I reviewed the infamous Sleeping with Hinako, I figured I might as well review the other Hinako OVA that I've seen, Training with Hinako, just so I never have to think about it again.

Now, whereas in Sleeping with Hinako, I only saw that because I watched a reaction video to it, this one I only watched because I had heard it was really bad. While this isn't the worst thing I've seen...it definitely is one of the stupidest.

This is basically an anime version of one of those exercise videos you see - you know, one that your mom or dad has. ... Except it's most likely for a different "type" of exercise for certain anime fans. It's basically Hinako doing push-ups, pull-ups, etc. I actually kind of understand the existance of this, because of games like Wii Fit, Kinect Sports, etc., but that doesn't change the fact that it's stupid.

Animation and sound are passable - they aren't terrible, but they aren't good, either. Nothing really stands out, so I can't talk about them.

The only character in this OVA is Hinako - well, technically, the viewer is a character as well, since this is from someone's perspective. However, Hinako has no personality - she's literally a ditzy pair of boobs. I'm not kidding.

Obviously I didn't enjoy this, and, to be honest, I don't understand why anyone would want to watch this. This obviously isn't meant to be a serious exercise video, since they choose to make every shot extremely fanservicey, so it can't be meant to replace an exercise video. And there are tons of better shows out there that offer just as much, if not more, fanservice than this, so there's no real audience for this show.

Alternative recommendations: Playing the Wii Fit video games, joining a gym

Technically, I did not watch this anime - the only reason I saw this anime was because someone else (The BlackCriticGuy) did a reaction video, and they played the video up in the top corner. However, I saw enough to have an opinion on it.

If I had to give Sleeping with Hinako credit for one thing, it's this: it literally has the most honest title of any anime. Mainly because for the most part, it's literally 40 minutes of a girl sleeping. Sure, there are some dream sequences every now and then, and there are a few moments where the pair of ... boobs named Hinako (seriously, the fact that she has big boobs is the only thing that I can remember about her) wakes up and does something (the one thing I remember was her getting a midnight snack - I'm pretty sure that there was something else she got up to do). But other than that, it's basically 40 minutes of her sleeping, and they show this with leering panty shots and fanservice-heavy shots.

This actually could've been clever if they had had the camera man start to get off and we saw Hinako's reaction - at least that would be funny. Or if it had just been a hentai, that would've at least been easy to explain to someone who walked in when I was "watching" it. How do you explain watching this?

The only areas that aren't 1s out of 10 are art and sound - but they were just mediocre.

Seriously, if you're looking for something to get off to, why would you watch this? Most harem anime will probably do a much better job of arousing you, and you could just watch a hentai if you want to get aroused. How can anyone justify watching this?

Alternative recommendations: That film that's basically a real-life version of this, Sekirei, Highschool DxD