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When it comes to writing this review I unfortunately made the mistake of making the second last entry of this entire storyline my first time experiencing this story but despite not having much knowledge about the overall story since it spans a period of 9 years over three seasons and 7 films I can recognize what the biggest weakness of this entire film. It's a set-up film for bigger and grander things that personally I don't think it should really exist or a lot of the fluff throughout this entire film could be eliminated and the necessary/important things could be added to the final storyline ... film of this entire series because nothing is worse than trying to get people to watch a film without offering a proper conclusion until the reach the next and final film. It ultimately teases the audience, keeps them waiting, when this story could easily be resolved in a much shorter timeframe instead of needlessly trying to tell it in two films.

Free! Movie 4 - The Final Stroke is a competitive swimming anime that focuses around the characters Haru, Rin and Ikuya as they take their skills as accomplished swimmers in Japan to the world stage by travelling to Sydney. Australia to see how they match up with the best in the world while dealing with their own insecurities and interpersonal conflicts before and after the Sydney competition. Each of the main swimmers throughout this film have different ambitions with regards to what they want to accomplish and what swimming style they want to adopt and excel at in order to become the best in the world. Even if your a fan of the series or this film is the first film you watch in the series you'll definitely have your favorite swimmer you want to cheer for by the time the film ends. We also see their rivals and what they want to accomplish in the world of competitive swimming as well. Let's just say without spoiling too much, that each of the main swimmers throughout this film didn't ultimately accomplish what they wanted to achieve on the world stage and there is a lot of time spent trying to figure out what each of the swimmers need to do in order to excel in the world of competitive swimming even if it means permanently damaging friendships or adopting a new and harsh work ethic in the process.

I think one of the biggest problems with this film is there is way too many characters and it's hard to find enough time to address the most important characters throughout this films story and I almost feel there is a lot of time wasted on needless and pointless dialogue. It also doesn't help that for a competitive sports anime there is actually not a lot of swimming throughout this film and even the swimming that happens in this film feels incredibly lackluster without any significant build-up or tension every time each of main characters is in a race. I think it's often hard to make a sport such as competitive swimming incredibly engaging since most races can finish between the one and two minute mark and it's hard to have any significant build up for a sporting event that ends just as fast as it starts. With team sports that last a lot longer you often have the luxury of making things incredibly back and forth and even more engaging through each period, quarter or inning.

By the time the film ends many of the attitudes of the characters have changed as they prepare for the next competition and it gives you something to look forward to as you wait to watch the final film in the entire storyline. In a way, maybe it's good that the second last film was incredibly lackluster so it gives you something much more epic and fulfilling to get into.

I think one of the biggest positives going for the film is that it is beautifully animated. There is plenty of 3D mixed with the 2D animation style and I really have to give a lot of credit with regards to how the water was animated. The way that the water was animated throughout the film is incredibly beautiful and very addictive to look at especially in the racing scenes. The competitive swimming scenes for as brief as they were, still were wonderful to watch and beautiful to behold despite how short they were. There was a lot of detail put into how the characters were animated but sometimes some of the characters look very similar to each other. The music was incredibly fitting throughout the entire anime with not one musical track feeling weak. The music matched each scene it was showcased in and I do enjoy the abundance of very ambient melody style tracks throughout some of the stories much emotional moments. I did watch the film subtitled since I think it's the only way to watch the film, but one character in the film actually spoke english in the film and unfortunately it didn't sound very professional and in fact it was incredibly jarring which took me out of the film.

Ultimately set-up films can be both a blessing and a curse. They have the ability to tease you and to get you excited for the actual conclusion for a long and detailed story, but in this case it's at the cost of making the second last film of a dedicated storyline incredibly mundane and lackluster so that the final film will hopefully blow you away which is ultimately what this film suffers from and what it probably aims to do. It does get me excited to watch the final concluding chapter of this entire film but I truly wish there was more competitive swimming and a much more dedicated approach to specific character development instead of jumping around to as many characters as humanly possible in the second last film of this franchise. At the end of the day, the film isn't good but it's not bad either. I'm just hoping that this lackluster appetizer leads to a very satisfying main course of a final film for this series.

We journey into the world of Yona of the dawn directly from the end of the original series and even though in this three part OVA they didn't get very far in their overall journey it still serves as a great addition to the Yona of the dawn story-line. The sad reality is unfortunately this is the last time we'll get to enjoy the Yona of the dawn story in animated form. After these three episodes, you'll have to read the manga if you want to continue this truly epic story-line.

This OVA is going to convey a lot of emotions as you watch these ... three episodes. You'll feel humour, remorse, tragedy, love, sadness, and by the end your going to feel a sense of enlightenment because by the end of this OVA you'll fully understand the four dragon warriors and their unbreakable spirit. When the main series ends you almost feel a little cheated because every dragon warrior had their story addressed for the most part minus the yellow dragon warrior Zeno. He appears in the very last episode of the series but not much is really known about him. You don't even get to see what his powers or his story is. However, in this OVA two of the three episodes focuses on Zeno and his story as it relates toward his journey with regards to being one of the dragon warriors. His ability is probably the most powerful out of all the dragon warriors but it comes with a lot of baggage which in his life is completely unavoidable. This OVA also shows the history of the first set of dragon warriors and how they have more of a connection to the present group of dragon warriors then the average viewer may think.

The OVA tricks you from the very beginning. Yona and her merry group of warriors stop at a hot springs resort where they can finally relax. Your first thought when you see this, oh so they're making this kind of OVA which is probably going to focus on some kind of gratuitous fan service which would be totally expected from any seasoned anime fan, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. The first half of the very first episode focuses on hot spring shenanigans but it's not necessarily about the fan-service but it's more about the playful banter that the four dragons have towards each other while including Hak and Yun in their shenanigans. The second half of the first episode delves a little deeper into Ki-ja's past especially as a child when he first obtained the white dragon's power.

The animation is still as beautiful and detailed as what it was in the main season of the anime and the second episode of the OVA has it's share of bloodthirsty battles in which it's not afraid to show quite a bit of blood and violence. At the end of each OVA episode you get a different ending song for each episode and it's an excellent listening experience because each musical track matches the tone and mood of each ova episode. Unfortunately in this OVA, there is no opening song or opening credits.

Unfortunately there is very little time with Yona throughout this three episode OVA, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think deep down the purpose of this OVA is to give some deeper insight into the history of the dragon warriors to make sure throughout the end of the main season of Yona of the Dawn and OVA that the viewer has a deep understanding of each dragon warrior, their powers, and their motivations but in order to do that you absolutely must watch both.

Such a crying shame we'll never get to see more of this story in anime form. It truly is a compelling series.

Often in the world of anime, the first season of a specific anime sets a high bar of what to expect which is why in most cases anime that have multiple seasons tend to struggle to capture the magic and the originality of the very first season. However, in the case of the Jubei-chan the second season completely outshines the first season by focusing on a character driven narrative and not falling into the trap of making the second season of this anime a shallow product by reusing a lot of the same ideas that were used in the very first season of Jubei-chan.

The ... differences between both seasons are incredibly staggering because the second season delves more deeply into the history of Yagyu Jubei and the history of the Yagyu clan and how it was split between two rival clans and also in this anime Jiyu Nanohana has a rival by the name of Freesia who believes she is the sole owner of the lovely eye-patch because she is a the daughter of Yagyu Jubei who was imprisoned in a glacier for 300 years after a battle that Yagyu Jubei had with Kita Retsusai who was the leader of the Northern Yagyu Clan.

At the very start of the series, Jiyu is excited to return to a normal life after the events of the first season but suddenly a mysterious figure by the name of Ayunosoke (who bears a resemblance to Koinosuke who gave Jiyu the lovely eye-patch from the very first season) appears to her with the lovely eye-patch in tow which completely scares Jiyu off because she has no desire to be Yagyu Jubei and she confidently felt that there was no reason for her to use the power of the lovely eye-patch again especially after the events of the very first season.

One of the most enlightening things about this anime is as much as the viewer would like to think they have an idea of where the story of this anime is going, it actually does an amazing job of breaking away from some of the very predictable tropes of what you would expect out of an anime such as this. The anime pretty much abandons the different enemy that attacks Jiyu each episode which was pretty prevalent in the first half of the first season of Jubei-chan and in the grand scheme of things there aren't many villains that Jiyu has to fight throughout the entirety of the second season besides Freesia, Kita Furo, a group effort of the Siberian Yagyu clan, and a secret final enemy that acts as a great twist in the story when you kind of figure that Freesia was always going to be the final battle throughout the entire story. It is always appreciated when an anime does an excellent job of throwing a curve ball on who the true villain is in both seasons of Jubei-chan - the best thought process is to never assume you know where the story is going because who never know who may pop up to become the final adversary of Jiyu by the time the story concludes.

The story is ultimately focused on Jiyu and her reluctance to accept the power of the lovely eye-patch. For the first 75% of the second season, Jiyu does everything in her power to avoid using the power of the lovely eye-patch and during the times that she does transform in the first 75% of the season - she only transforms because she is forced to do it or someone forces the eye-patch on her in order for her to fight the enemies that present themselves to her. She has no interest in becoming Yagyu Jubei and she is incredibly willing to let Freesia obtain the lovely eye-patch in order to become the rightful owner of Yagyu Jubei's power. It's not until late in the season where she realizes that there is no escape with regards to her responsibilities and ultimately her destiny as the rightful heir to Yagyu Jubei's power. She realizes this with help, guidance and encouragement from her dad and the character Mikage who takes a more prominent role in this season of Jubei-chan. I often feel the story is much more mature in the second season because the greatest conflict throughout the entire anime is Jiyu's mind and her desire to have a normal life while constantly dealing begrudgingly with the destined path that initially she does not want because of the lovely eye-patch. On top of that, Freesia constantly intrudes into Jiyu's life unbeknownst to Jiyu that she is the mysterious swords-woman that wants to own the lovely eye-patch and she does this covertly by trying to sabotage Jiyu's life by getting close to her father and telling lies about her in school. Despite all this Jiyu just wants to make a new friend out of Freesia despite not knowing that this girl secretly wants to ruin her life and obtain the lovely eye-patch for herself.

One thing and probably the first thing you'll notice in the second season of Jubei-chan is the obvious upgrade in animation. The animation is a lot more smoother and a lot more colourful than the first season of Jubei-chan. Fight scenes are much better animated, shown in more detail and they certainly last a lot longer than many of the fight scenes in the first season of Jubei-chan. However, much in the same way of the first season - The opening of the second season is pretty much the same as a the first season. You just see Jiyu simply riding her bike forward for about 30 seconds before it transitions into the start of each episode. You would figure for an anime that took 5 years to see a second season of, they would put a little more effort into their opening. The music is pretty much standard for what you would expect out of an anime such as this. There aren't really any musical tracks that are overly memorable but at least none of the music is unbearable to listen to either.

Thankfully this season managed to tone down the horrible comedy which unfortunately is just as bad as what it was in the first season of Jubei-chan. The comedy is pretty much relegated towards Bentaro and his gang with the inclusion of Shiro. Thankfully they have less of a presence in this season compared to the last season and they're pretty much the comic relief along with the Siberia Yagyu gang. The comedy is incredibly poor because I don't recall at any point where I laughed throughout the second season and there are countless times where there are some incredibly heartfelt moments or even an important exposition dump that are ruined when these characters show up that completely take you out of the scene. The comedy is absolutely not needed especially when this season is much more focused on character development than the first season of Jubei-chan. The relationship between Jiyu and her dad is not as strong as what it was in the very first season, but there are a few moments when you get to see that endearing father daughter relationship especially when Jiyu's dad breaks a promise to her with regards to his writing profession.

At the end of the day, Jubei-chan 2: The Counterattack of Siberia Yagyu proves that original ideas can be improved upon and it's nice to see the last aspect of this world and Jiyu's story end on a high note rather to end on a sour note. Once the second season ends you often feel like that this is the true conclusion of the overall story and as far as I'm concerned they did a wonderful job with it. I think if they kept the horrible comedy out of the series, I think it would of had a more positive and lasting reputation with the anime audience. However, it's an interesting premise and journey worth getting into if you can muscle through the less then stellar first season.

One of the most important genres in the world of anime is the mecha genre. The Japanese have such a vivid imagination when it comes to drawing and animating huge robots. It's easy to hold that legacy when your country is responsible for creating timeless and epic giant mecha series that are still being created and reinvented today such as Macross and Gundam. However, in 1988 to 1989 a 6 part OVA was a produced by a relatively unknown group of companies at the time (Gainax, Victor, and Bandai Visual) by the name of Gunbuster that helped change the landscape of mecha anime forever by ... attaching a really touching story, well rounded characters, beautiful mechanized combat, and an ending that is still talked about to this day. As far as I'm concerned, Gunbuster managed to leave behind a world renowned legacy in 6 episodes that many mecha anime struggle to do in this day and age even across full episodic seasons of over 20 episodes and even multiple films.

The story of Gunbuster focuses on the character of Noriko Takaya who joins the space academy in order to follow her father's footsteps who was killed when his ship was attacked by space aliens. Her time at the academy isn't the greatest because she struggles with all the mech training due to her own insecurities. However, she gets chosen by Koichiro "Coach" Ohta to represent Japan as part of the top squadron program in order to fight against the alien threat. She joins another recruit by the name of Kazumi Amano who Ohta firmly believes that she can be just as good of a pilot as Kazumi with enough training. Unfortunately, when Noriko gets chosen to be a part of the top squadron program it leads to even more bullying from her fellow classmates because they feel like that she only got picked because of her father's legacy and not because of her skill set. However, she proves them wrong as she manages to gain more confidence through training and practice in order to be the best mech pilot she can be in order to deal with the upcoming alien threat.

There really is a lot to say with regards to how good this anime is because I did truly enjoy it. The first thing I do want to talk about is Noriko's design. Noriko has that anime girl design that is absolutely timeless. Even for the people who have not watched this anime before, I can almost guarantee you that in some way, shape, or form we have come across the character design of Noriko when it comes to consuming anime of all types across all genres. It's such a simplistic cute design but yet it works. There is just something about the 80's style aerobic style fashion mixed with the shoulder length hair and an epic headband that just works and it shows in the world of anime art that sometimes often simplistic designs with regards to female characters can be genre defining especially when its attached to an anime project as timeless as Gunbuster. Beyond Noriko's timeless design, she can be a bit of a hard character to cheer for especially at the very beginning because starting off she can be incredibly whiny and very annoying which can be incredibly off-putting. However, as the anime progresses you get to see her evolution from a doubtful whiny character to a true force to be reckoned with and you'll be cheering for her every step of the way when she starts to accept responsibility for the insurmountable task that has been bestowed upon her and Kazumi.

Even despite it's short length at 6 episodes, Gunbuster does an excellent job of increasing the scope of the overall story especially with regards to its setting. The scale of the universe gets grander as we progress through the story. For example, the first episode takes place strictly on Earth, while the second episode takes place on a space station just outside of Earth's orbit while performing missions in the immediate solar system, while episodes 3 and 4 take place in Interstellar space before the crew manage to return to the Earth again. It shows that in order for Noriko to evolve as a character she has to get further and further away from her comfort zone to a point where she is uncomfortable and she has to grow and mature as a character. It's a great way to showcase a series and to keep evolving it as a whole by constantly changing the setting and getting the characters to adjust to the new setting that their constantly put in. The one thing this anime does not struggle with is pacing because it keeps things going at a steady pace almost too quickly. Even if this anime doesn't address attacking the alien threat that threatens their civilization until episode 4, it uses the first three episodes wisely in order to strengthen character development and the overall plot in order to make this story the strongest it can be.

I think the overall theme of this entire anime from my perception is that everything comes at a personal cost. I think despite the upbeat sunny disposition of the opening of this anime it does deal with some incredibly hard hitting issues and by doing this it show's the maturity of the story that it's trying to present. By the end of this story everybody has lost something. Even though people die throughout this 6 part adventure, the greatest lost that the main characters suffer is ultimately time. The anime takes a lot of pride in using some smart science especially when it comes to space travel. The further that Noriko and the rest of the Gunbuster team travel in space the more time that is being lost on Earth even though as their traveling in space they are staying the same age while all of their friends that they left behind on Earth are getting older. Even doing a simple mission on the far reaches of the local solar system that would only take a few hours for the gunbuster pilots translates into 6 months time on planet Earth. We get to see this first hand as the next time Noriko makes it back to planet Earth on episode 5 all of her friends that she left behind at school are much older than her which gives her a feeling of loneliness because she is making such a tough sacrifice in order to protect the planet from the Alien threat. Ultimately the gunbuster team is successful with regards to dealing with the alien threat but it comes at great cost and great sacrifice but yet despite all the personal cost and personal sacrifice that all of the main characters endure the anime ends on not necessarily a happy note but a somber yet positive note. The anime has a legacy of having a truly wonderful and timeless ending and it's probably known as having one of the greatest endings in the world of anime because it conveys so much emotion while doing something so simplistic yet so impactful.

The smart science is not only applied to space travel but there is a lot of effort put into interesting ways on how to deal with the alien threat and why the aliens are the way that they are. I wouldn't necessarily say that the science is realistic per se, but it's done in such a way that it could be believable if you really wanted it to be. The alien threat doesn't really have much depth. They're just emotionless insect style creatures that have no dialogue that are just focused on consumption and destruction. There is great thought and detail with regards to how the gunbuster team deals with them beyond the weapons of the actual gunbuster mech. These alien forces number in the billions and when your dealing with an alien force that size all the lasers and missiles in the world ain't going to help so you have to be a little inventive when it comes to dealing with an alien force of that size even if you leave a lot of permanent destruction in your wake.

With a title called Gunbuster, yes you do eventually get to see the Gunbuster even though it takes a bit of time to reach that point. We don't truly see the gunbuster in action until episode 4. You may feel cheated when you realize that you don't get to see the main mech in the series until after half the story is over but look at it this way. There is no real reason to bring the gunbuster out if you have no threat to use against it. The gunbuster team doesn't have much of an opportunity to fight the alien threat until episode 4, so it seems pretty pointless to showcase the gunbuster unless there is a purpose to do it. However, when the gunbuster is released onto the alien threat, boy is it a powerhouse to behold. It's a combination of two spaceships that transform together to become this giant piece of beautiful weaponry. There is an incredibly amount of detail put into the transformation of this beautiful mech and it has a tremendous amount of weapons at it's disposal against the alien threat. You really get to see the full capabilities of the gunbuster during episode 5 when the gunbuster fights against the alien threat within close proximity to jupiter. For as good as episode 5 is, it's really the best gunbuster action throughout the entire series. While there is Gunbuster action in episodes 4 and 6 - it just doesn't come close to the epic action that you see in episode 5 which is damn crying shame.

With regards to the level of animation. The animation in this anime is absolutely beautiful. It starts off a little inconsistent in a few places in the very first episode but it finds it's groove incredibly quickly. There is great detail put into many of the designs of the mechs and the spacecraft and even in sections of the anime where there is very little animation there is an incredibly amount of detail put into the background stills that add an incredible amount of emotional depth. There is an interesting thing done in episode 6 of the anime where the entire episode is in black and white compared to every other episode which is in full colour. Everybody often thinks that it was due to budgetary constraints but according to the director of the ova series, it was purposely done that way to add a sense of bleakness to the episode. Episode 6 also uses a lot of animation stills throughout the final climatic battle and while you may believe it's a cop out with regards to how well they showed the coloured animated space battles of episode 5 I think it's perfectly fitting for the overall mood of episode 6 and some of the themes it was trying to portray. The final episode is where everything comes full circle and a lot of characters are left with some really tough decisions on how to proceed with their lives since episode 6 takes place 15 years after episode 5 happened. I think it's a smart way of portraying your episode and it really goes to show that colour doesn't really mean much if you tell and animate your story incredibly well.

The music is incredibly epic from the upbeat opening song to the beautiful space opera ballads during the intense mecha combat scenes and it also uses a wide array of very beautiful ambient tracks throughout the animes most sad and heartfelt moments. There is a lot of effort put into making sure the right music is played during each scene that the anime presents and as far as I'm concerned there is not one weak track throughout the entire adventure.

This is also one of those anime that can be enjoyed regardless if your watching it subtitled or dubbed. Despite the anime being released in 1988-1989it only recently got it's first and only English dub in 2023. There is not a lot of voice acting alumni throughout this anime except Lisa Ortiz who plays the role of Noriko's best friend Kimiko. A lot of the voice actors for this anime only got into the anime voice acting industry in the mid 2010's and for some voice actors they didn't get involved in the anime industry until the 2020's but personally as far as I'm concerned there is not one weak English acting performance throughout this entire series. I would say for the majority of the people that have watched Gunbuster before have probably experience the subtitled version with the original Japanese dialogue but I would highly recommend giving the first and only English dub a try because it seemed like they truly cared about putting some really good voice acting talent behind these timeless anime characters.

For as good as Gunbuster is - I do have a few problems with it. I think the most glaring issue is cramming as much as possible into such a short time-frame of 6 episodes. I understand budgetary constraints but things do really fly by quickly in this anime with regards to story and in these 6 episodes a lot of specific plot points do get addressed but there is always a part of me that feels like that many of these plot points especially when it deals with specific character interactions could of been built upon even better then what they were in the original product. They get enough done to keep the story flowing but there is always more I wish they could of done with specific characters but with 6 episodes you can only do so much before you need to move on. I think if the money existed for a 12 episode series - I think that would of been the perfect amount of episodes to flesh out the majority of these really heartfelt character defining moments especially when they interact with other people throughout the entire story. Another problem I do have with Gunbuster is the absolutely unnecessary fan-service. There are scenes in the anime especially a gratuitous bath scene with the female mech pilots that feels completely shoe-horned in for nothing more than just to show the female pilots naked in episode 2. As far as I'm concerned it serves no real purpose and in a way I feel like it cheapens the entire Gunbuster experience. It may be fine if your a teenager and your desperate to see some anime boobs but I think the anime would of been far better off if the gratuitous fan service was left on the cutting room floor. There is a scene in the final episode of Gunbuster where Noriko replicates the action of the gunbuster ripping out it's own chest to grab it's degeneracy generator to set up an explosion to take care of the alien threat and as a result she ends up ripping her own shirt exposing a breast and I'm completely okay with that because there is a lot of feeling and emotion behind it, but this story really didn't need that bath scene. I almost expect every anime I watch to have some sort of fan-service but I think fan-service only works where there is some humour or awkwardness behind it. When you have a story that is very engrossing and very entertaining as far as I'm concerned you don't need the fan-service.

Gunbuster will always be a timeless watch and it's truly mandatory viewing not only for mecha fans in general, but for the entire anime community as a whole. It's an anime where you cheer for the main character right from the very beginning and your with her throughout every challenge she must endure right to the very end. It's timeless for a reason and it's still going to be talked about and admired not only for what it did for the mecha anime genre, but for what it has done for anime as a whole. If you have the right team behind you - you can tell a really compelling story with some really great combat in a very short time-frame. The ending of this anime will stand as one of the best endings in the realm of anime. So if you have a chance to watch it - certainly take advantage of it and you'll understand completely why this anime has the incredible reputation that it has.

Cyberpunk is one of those genre's that really excel in the world of animation especially in Japanese anime because your not constricted with regards to what your imagination can come up with. I think one of the reasons why I truly like cyberpunk especially in the world of anime especially in 1990's because there are many shallow qualities I like when it comes to enjoying cyberpunk anime of the 1990's. The shallow qualities are over the top violence, a corrupt mega-corporation, solid action, a complete disregard towards innocent life, and an easy to follow, simple story. These shallow qualities may not exemplify top tier film-making ... but you can give me a shallow enjoyable product over something that tries to be revolutionary any day of the week. It is the fact that this 4 part OVA covers all of the qualities of what makes a cyberpunk anime enjoyable to me is why I love Eightman After so much.

When I did watch this anime, I watched the English dubbed version which took all 4 parts of the OVA and compressed it into a film and it actually works because everything blended in really well. The English dub for this is surprisingly well done with a lot of veterans of streamline pictures lending their voice talents for this title. Personally the only fault I can really give for the English dub is the voice actor for the sidekick kid throughout the anime was a little annoying, but I wouldn't really chalk it up to the voice actor but more from the curse of whiny sidekick suffering from whiny sidekick syndrome.

The plot of Eightman after is pretty much a sequel to the original Eightman anime from the 1960's. The story focuses on a private investigator by the name of Hazama Itsuru who has been hired by Professor Tani to investigate a cyber parts theft. A relatively simple job leads Hazanma into a world of dirty politics, and a corrupt mega-corporation as he gets himself more and involved with the case. During his investigation he meets the original Eightman's love interest (Sachiko Yokogawa) who helps him with his investigation. Early into the investigation he gets potentially fatally wounded by a cyborg infused thug it is at that time that a new Eightman shows up looking to clean up the streets from evil cyborg thugs looking to wreak havoc and destruction upon the city. There is another small subplot throughout this film where Hazanma promises a young kid that he is going to help find his father as well which will eventually get addressed as we progress through the story.

If your any kid or teenager of the 80's the first thing your going to think of when it comes to this anime is the original robocop film from 1987. The similarities between this anime and that timeless film are absolutely remarkable and it wouldn't surprise me if this OVA borrowed elements from that film since it was made in 1993. The action is actually remarkably solid and while the overall story of the anime is really nothing to write home about. It's a story that we've seen done in many films across all genres but despite the simplistic nature of the plot - it doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's one of the reasons why a plot like this works because even if we have seen it before - it never grows tiresome even though it may become predictable.

The action throughout this anime is hard hitting and completely unapologetic. This Ova is certainly not afraid to show it's fair share of blood. There are many occasions where you get to see Eightman rip off the cyborg limbs of many of the thugs that he actually goes against. Many of these enemies meet their end through very horrific means. Also, this film is not afraid to showcase horrific acts of violence towards innocent civilians regardless if it's a corrupt cyborg cop shooting everything in site to a bunch of cyber infused football players attacking/injuring and even killing opposing players and fans in a football stadium.

The anime moves at a really good pace and it also does an excellent job of showcasing how deadly many of these cyborg enemies are because they have weapons such as blades, missiles, their over the top strength and a wide array of incredibly detailed machine guns that they use in order to try to dispatch Eightman. I will give the film a lot of credit because it keeps you on the edge of your seat with regards to who the main villain is and even characters that you may think as having a minor input in the story actually have a much more importance presence throughout the film as the story progresses.

Animation is relatively solid for it's time even though there are certain sequences and move sets that Eightman uses that kind of reuse the same animation over and over again, but I simply see it as a small cost cutting measure and it doesn't affect the overall importance of the film. The music is really good and gets very high energy when the action starts to ramp up in many of the battle scenes that this anime showcases. The film ends on a great positive note with all the loose ends seemingly tied up.

Eightman after is a great anime that cements the fact that anime can always work in the world of cyberpunk just as long as you make your product a little sleazy and a little violent. It's just too bad we didn't get more when it comes to Eightman in the realm of animation. It's just a solid piece of sci fi entertainment that is willing to get a little dirty with regards to being entertaining and I firmly believe that is what this ova is going for. Just remember that this title has the tendency to be just as good as other titles such as AD Police Files and Cyber City Oedo 808 with regards to cyberpunk anime so definitely check those titles out as well.

A battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness where the forces of light barely win in a monumental battle for the fate of the world and as a result the forces of darkness have been sealed away. How many times in the world of anime and the world of fantasy have you heard of a plot line along those lines. Does this anime really excel about making this typical fantasy trope memorable. Sadly, No. It does however manage to tell a somewhat competent story but it often gets weighed down by it's own Buddhist mysticism and religious methodology when it should ... really focus on being more entertaining and more engaging. At least in this anime, the enemies are Neo-Nazi's and it's a good day when we get to see Neo-Nazi's get their asses handed to them.

The story of Spirit Warrior: Peacock King focuses on the character of Kujaku who lives as a Buddhist monk that tries to live a relatively care-free life until he and his friend Ashura are attacked by a bunch of demons on a bus that starts off Kujaku's around the world journey that leads him to the revelation that his purpose in this world is far greater than what he could of ever imagined. In the meantime the Neo-Nazi's are going around the world in search of an item called the Dragon Orb which holds the power of darkness and the leader of the Neo Nazis (Siegfried Von Mittgard) wants to unleash the power of the Dragon Orb in order to become the Regent of Darkness in order to continue the legacy of Adolf Hitler who is constantly referenced throughout this two part OVA.

As Kujaku is discovering his past and learning what his purpose is, he encounters a group of characters that either accompany him or help him along his journey because Kujaku slowly realizes that he may have more spiritual power than he initially surmised. It's as his journey progresses the he discovers the truth about his origin, his father, an unknown twin sister and how he is going to be integral to make sure that the forces of darkness do not get unleashed into this world. This pretty much sets up the overall plot of Spirit Warrior: Peacock King.

The first thing I do want to say is that the English dub for this anime is incredibly sub-par which is pretty typical for a U.S. Manga Corps release with no recognizable names for the most part in the world of animation. Your probably much better off watching this subtitled. It's not really bad per se, but it's not particularly good either.

Even if the animation is not the smoothest throughout this two part OVA, I do appreciate the amount of detail they put in especially with the character designs. The designs of the monsters and the actual look of the Neo-Nazi's is incredibly detailed while the character designs of the protagonists come across as pretty bare bones basic minus the odd exception. The background art of this entire anime is absolutely breathtaking because it does take full advantage of the many settings that this anime takes place in. We get to go to places such as San Francisco, Germany, Japan, China, and even the mountains of Tibet. There is a painstakingly amount of detail put into the villains castle in Germany to the demonic castle that arises from the mountains of Tibet when the final action set piece is about to happen. The action when it does happen is incredibly solid with the main character Kujaku using a wide array of spiritual blasts and his other cohorts using a variety of really cool attacks such as marbles that can be flicked with such incredibly velocity that they act like bullets and another character uses an axe attached to a chain in order to dispatch his enemies. This is one of those violent anime that is not afraid to show a bit of blood, gore, and a little bit of nudity. The gore while may not reach to levels of what you would expect from fist of the northstar, but when dealing with a lot of Nazi imagery you can't be afraid to show a gratuitious amount of violence especially when your constantly being bombarded with a lot of nasty imagery.

The anime does often get weighed down with a lot of buddhist mysticism that can come across as really cryptic which can actually slow the pace of the anime quite a lot. To be honest, I don't really think the anime really needs it. It does a good job of setting up the plot, and building up the history of why certain events have transpired but when it starts getting into talking about Buddhist mysticism I often feel like that time could be used for better character development or even more time spent with a few of the action set pieces that this anime has. For two 50 minute ova's you don't really have a lot of time to delve into character development when you need to keep the plot going a relatively steady pace.

I will admit, for as disjointed as this anime can be from time to time. It does a really good job of keeping you on your toes with regards to what or who the true villain of this animated story. It's not as clear cut as what you would expect and it actually works in the anime's favor. I often feel like that when the anime decides to get on with the action and it can be entertaining it's far too short and I always felt like it can be brought up to the next level with regards to keeping the viewer engaged, but it really doesn't. The animated battles are far too underwhelming and far too inconsistent and even though it leads up to what you would expect to be an epic conclusion it falls short with the human characters not taking center stage while the spirits (gods) of the protagonist and antagonist leading the charge with regards to the final confrontation. These gods are drawn incredibly beautiful but it doesn't live up to what could be a grand battle on an epic scale.

At the end of the day, the anime does end with a proper conclusion but I often feel like that despite the artistic freedom that this two part OVA had, it truly couldn't take advantage of it because it focused too much on things that couldn't really engage the viewer. Even looking at the opportunities where it could be entertaining it never lasted long enough or acted incredibly inconsistent on what it was trying to show. It is still an adventure worth looking into for the beautiful imagery not only in the backgrounds, but with the villains detailed design. It's not the most engaging piece of cinema out there, but the story is easy to follow and with two 50 minute ova's it's not too much of a time sink and you might find a few things to enjoy about it. Ultimately, it's a watching experience with a lot of missed potential but despite that there could be a few enjoyable things to take out of it.

My knowledge on Pokemon is very limited despite the fact that I recognize pokemon as the single anime that truly opened the floodgates with regards to popularizing anime in the west especially with young kids. Even though pokemon as a whole is truly marketed towards kids and I have caught a few episodes of the anime series here and there I do appreciate the fact that when pokemon enters the realm of making incredibly compelling films they surprisingly put enough effort to make the films not only enjoyable to kids but also enjoyable to adults as well. Before I watched this title, I had only ... ever seen the first pokemon movie and I did enjoy what they did for the first movie.

First of all, you can't go into a film like this for high expectations. It is a pokemon movie after all, but while it's not nor will it ever be the most engaging piece of cinema it actually excels on what it tries to do. There are a lot of boxes you have to check off in order to make a pokemon movie engaging and fun and Celebi: Voice of the forest certainly does the majority of them with a few minor flaws.

Celebi: Voice of the forest focuses on a pokemon trainer by the name of Sammy who encounters and protects Celebi from a pokemon hunter. Celebi who is a mystical pokemon uses it's power to whisk itself and Sammy 40 years into the future where he meets Ash Ketchum and his friends who travel in the mystical forest in search of rare pokemon. They end up meeting and partnering up with Sammy in order to stop Celebi from being captured by a man and and a member of team rocket by the name of the Iron Masked Marauder who wants to capture and control Celebi by using a special type of pokeball called the Dark Ball that has the ability to capture a trainers pokemon, turn them evil, and max out their power to the highest level. He also enlists the help of team rocket favorites Jessie, James, and Meowth who are still on their never ending crusade to capture pikachu but they serve more as comic relief than anything else which is not really any different from their presence in the world of pokemon.

The one thing I will really priase this film is the quality of animation. I do love the fact that you can see such a huge upgrade in the animation when seeing pokemon make the transition from a television series to a film. The animation is absolutely breathtaking especially when you see Celebi flying around in the forest and in some of the many battles you'll see against different pokemon there is some really great attention to detail albeit miniscule to the untrained eye about how intricate some of these pokemon battles are. When ash's pikachu battles a croconow during the opening credits and it's not as simple as each pokemon just performing a single attack against each other. It's a lot more detailed than that because there are actually a lot of playful wrestling and attacking from each pokemon but the animation is so fluid it feels so different yet so rewarding from any other pokemon battle that you ever seen. This style of battling and the fluid animation that comes from it is also seen in other pokemon battles as well especially when Ash and Sammy takes on some of the pokemon that the Iron Masked Marauder unleashes through this dark pokemon balls.

The movie in itself doesn't have the most diverse cast of pokemon. Since this pokemon film takes place mostly in the forest your going to see a wide array of bug and ground type pokemon but there are cameos of flying and water style pokemon as well. Beyond Celebi we also have the appearance of another mystical pokemon by the name of Suicine who is integral to the story because he helps Ash, Sammy, and the rest of the gang defeat the Iron Masked Marauder. For as basic as the plot may be, the final third of the movie is a battle of a very epic scale where they take on a dark corrupted Celebi who has taken residence in a giant forested golem wreaking havoc on the forest.

The music is incredibly fun with some really good English tracks and I have a lot of fondness for the opening track born to be a winner. The film does manage to have some very heartfelt sad moments and even though it doesn't have the most in depth character development, one theme it does showcase is that the concept of time plays an important part on how a friendship can be established and strengthened because by the very end the story manages to come full circle in the world of pokemon and you'll be amazed on how this film connects to the very first episode of the pokemon tv series because it shows great care with regards to respecting the source material while retaining the positive qualities of what makes pokemon enjoyable to begin with.

The film is very brisk 75 minutes so your not given a lot of time to flesh out the story as much as you would like to be but it does get the job done adequately enough. There is not much in the way of humor and team rockets antics might be funny to your average child but it kind of falls flat if your watching this as an adult because if you've watched any aspect of pokemon we get so use to watching Jessie, James, and Meowth fail so many times nothing really feels new and inventive. For as evil as the Iron Masked Marauder he is truly a shallow one dimensional villains that only seeks to overthrow Giovanni as the leader of Team Rocket and try to take over the world with his Dark Pokemon. That is pretty much hum in a nutshell.

With a simple story, some heartfelt moments, beautiful animation and a great attention to detail when it comes to pokemon battles - this film is still a solid entry in the world of pokemon. It may not give you biggest emotional heartfelt punch like the first film and the overall setting is very narrow minded but despite the tight time crunch of the overall film it manages to cover a lot that would make any pokemon film enjoyable to begin with.

I've been a huge Japanese role playing game fan my entire life and even though I'm familiar with many of the tropes that come with jrpg's when I see an anime that gives me a vibe of playing an actual Japanese role playing game there is a strong tendency that I'm going to enjoy it. However, the yona of the dawn anime not only gives you the feeling that your going on this grand adventure but it tells a really compelling story in the process with a lot of depth even though it has a few minor pitfalls.

Yona of the dawn focuses on the ... story of Princess Yona who has lived a very spoiled and stress free life in the kingdom of Kouka. She has two childhood friends by the names of Soo-Won and Hak that adds a bit of excitement throughout her life. Her father, the king of the kingdom of Kouka rules with a strict focus on non-violence because he never wants his daughter to ever have to encounter the horrors of conflict. Unfortunately within the very first episode a vile act of betrayal from her childhood friend Soo-Won leaves Yona's father dead and gives Soo-Won the perfect opportunity to ascend to the throne so he can bring out his vision of uniting the kingdom. This act of betrayal causes Yona's spoiled life to come crashing down and due to Soo-Won wanting to ascend to the throne her existence serves as an obstacle that needs to be eliminated in order for Soo-Won's plan to come to fruition. However, through the efforts of Yona's other childhood friend Hak, she is able to escape the castle and she has to deal with the incredibly harsh realities of the real world and she has to grow up in order to plot revenge against Soo-Won and take her kingdom back.

It was in the early parts of her adventure that she was directed to seek out an oracle that will direct her with the knowledge that is necessary for the success of the Kingdom of Kouka. It is with her visit with the oracle that they talk about the kingdom's creation myth which is a story that was told to Yona by her father (King Il) when she was a little girl. The creation myth focuses on how four dragons bestowed their power to 4 individuals to protect the human embodiment of the crimson dragon who is an individual with crimson red hair. It is believed that Princess Yona is the human embodiment of the crimson dragon so she sets on a quest to help recruit the 4 dragon warriors with the assistance of Hak, and the oracle's caretaker (Yoon) in order to to help rid her kingdom of evil. This is the main plot of Yona of the dawn but unfortunately it takes 7 episodes to reveal the the main plot of this anime.

The strongest aspect of this anime is definitely it's story but it's also a story that is centered around a really strong leading lady. Yona starts off as a really annoying character from the very beginning with her incredibly bratty and selfish behavior but you as a viewer don't have to put up with these qualities for a very long time because the moment her world is turned upside down with the assassination of her father in the very first episode, she knows the her life as a sheltered and spoiled princess is over and she grows up incredibly fast to adjust to the changing environment she is put in. I will say that her character has more than enough time to develop properly and by the end of this anime you'll be cheering for her every step of the way. Even though she has more than enough protectors to help her through every difficult aspect of the journey, Yona herself doesn't want to perceive herself as weak and she will find any way to contribute to the cause the best she can, regardless if it's helping the countless strangers she encounters on this journey, to boosting the morale of all of her traveling companions to even learning how to defend herself by training with a bow and arrow and even a bladed weapon of some sort. As the story grows and evolves so does she and it's a great sight to see.

There is also incredibly depth put into many of Yona's traveling companions (Hak and Yoon). We also get a good amount of time with at least 3 of the 4 dragon warriors to understand their motivations, their powers, and their past. Yona also has enough time to build good personal friendships with these three dragon warriors. Unfortunately the final dragon warrior (the yellow dragon warrior Jeno) doesn't show up until the very last episode of this anime so we get to learn very little about him. There isn't a lot of time in this anime spent with the villain Soo-won and his accomplices but the brief glimpses of him throughout this entire anime shows that he is not your typical one dimensional villain and he has multiple instances where he acts as a wolf in sheep's clothing because despite running a kingdom through treacherous means he can easily bounce between being gullible and naive to being sinister and manipulative in order to build the kingdom that he wants to build in his own eyes.

The story is incredibly strong throughout this entire anime but it also suffers from being a little too ambitious and because of that the anime encounters pacing problems as well. The sad reality is the story is simply too big to portray into a one season anime and you really don't want to sacrifice character development in order to push the story along because this anime has the luxury of having strong and relatable characters throughout the entire story. There will not be a proper conclusion to overall arching plot of this anime which is a damn crying shame so if you want to see the story continue your going to have to read the manga which is still not finished. It's too bad this anime didn't have the budget to be multiple seasons but it's something that often happens in the world of anime so you just have to be grateful with what you can get.

As far as I'm concerned there is not one annoying character throughout the experience and that in itself is quite an accomplishment. We get to see the many layers of each of the main characters for the most part and we get to see aspects of their past that define their personalities and what they expect out of themselves and out of this journey that each of them are pursuing. As Yona journeys across the kingdom she truly gets to see how harsh the world really is and there is actually a lot of suffering that is taking place in the world that she had no idea was going on when she was a spoiled and sheltered princess. The state of the kingdom feels like an elaborate chess game because there are different elemental clans that each contribute to the supposed balance of the kingdom. It gives the series a sense of maturity that makes it an incredibly easy watch.

The action in the anime is well done but incredibly inconsistent not only in frequency but with how it approaches violence as well. You'd figure for an anime that has a huge Japanese role playing vibe you would have action set pieces in just about every episode but it's simply not the case. Action happens very sparingly throughout the anime but when it is done, it's done incredibly well. However, I think the biggest problem with the action is that as the journey progresses the amount of violence is heavenly toned down. Within the first 6 episodes, there is quite a bit of death shown throughout the anime. The character Hak is shown cutting down soldiers and giving them mortal wounds and the anime is not afraid to show bloodshed, but as the anime is finishing up you can see that the violence is heavenly toned down. There is a huge battle that takes place across multiple ships against an army of mercenaries but not much in the way of blood is being spilled. The enemies are either knocked out or incapacitated and in my eyes I kind of feel like it cheapens the entire experience. It's either you decide to be violent or not decide to be violent because you can't have both. I know anime wants to be taken seriously because it truly does have a really good plot and some really good character development but if you want your anime to be mature then you have to stick with it and not downgrade it. Which brings me to the humor in this anime. There are quite a few moments of humor of this anime but it's not really needed and feels completely out of place when its dealing with such a mature story. I will admit that Sinha's animal companion Ao which is a squirrel made me a chuckle quite a few times throughout this adventure.

The music throughout the anime is average at best. It's serviceable and effective in the scenes it is showcased in. The opening and endings themes feel mostly generic but I will admit that the second opening theme is a bit of a banger and I have been enjoying it quite immensely. The animation is pretty generic for anime offerings in the mid 2010'a but it's definitely not to its detriment. Nothing about the animation feels cheap or reused and I have no complaints over the animation quality throughout the entire experience.

Overall, Yona of the dawn is a great experience that takes its greatest strength from proper and detailed character development by wasting no time by making the main character someone to cheer for right from the very beginning. It may not be the most action packed anime out there but an easy to follow story can dull the pain of a few of the uneven inconsistencies this anime has. It's just too bad that they couldn't finish the overall story in anime form. However, in the world of anime you can't always get what you want, so enjoy the beginning part of the ride at the very least.

Magical girl anime can often breach into other genres but if your going to breach into another genre you have to put a little more effort into what your presenting because you run the risk of being mediocre because sometimes the tropes of most magical girl anime is not enough to save the story that your trying to present. Taking some aspects of a magical girl anime and placing it in a present day samurai settings sounds like a good idea on paper but unfortunately this anime really misses the mark with regards to making it entertaining.

The genesis of this anime focuses on a ... 300 year old ninja rivalry between Yagyu and Ryujoji clans and how the master of Yagyu clan (Yagyu Jubei) defeated the leader of the the Ryujoji clan (Taiko Daiyu). After the battle Yagyu Jubei has imbued his power and skill into an object known as the lovely eyepatch and he has instructed his assistant Koinosuke Odago to find a worthy successor to the power of the lovely eyepatch and it took him 300 years to find that successor which is a 14 year old girl by the name of Jiyu Nanohana.

Jiyu is incredibly relucant to accept the power of the lovely eyepatch, however the Ryujoji clan is seeking revenge for the defeat of their master. The current leader of the Ryujoji clan (Hajime) wants to obtain the power of the lovely eyepatch and discover all of its secrets because without it the Ryujoji clan will not be able to rule Japan as completely absurd as that sounds. Due to their ambition Jiyu is called into action in order to stop the Ryujoji clan from fulfilling their plans. She doesn't do this alone because she has the help of Koinosuke, Hajime's twin brother Shiro who is a trained high school samurai, her father Sai, her two female school friends. and a small gang of high school boys (The Ruffians). The majority of these characters serve as comic relief more than anything else without adding much depth with regards to the story that is being told in this anime. I think the characters that do contribute most to the overall story are definitely Shiro and Jiyu's dad Sai.

The strongest aspect of the entire anime from my personal opinion is definitely the relationship between Jiyu and Sai. It is established very early in the anime that Jiyu's mom died and that Jiyu's father has a serious mistrust of doctors due to a doctor's misdiagnosis that led to the death of his wife. When the anime decides to take a break from it's very painful and uneventful comedy, there are some incredibly touching one on one moments between Jiyu and her dad because he is incredibly protective of her since he lost his wife due to illness and he lives with a lifetime of regret because his job as a novelist kept him away from his family. There is an even an episode where Jiyu is injured and her does everything in his power to protect her and be there for her. The relationship between them is incredibly endearing and when things got serious you can count on Jiyu's dad to do the right thing for his daughter.

I think one of the worse aspects of the anime is some really god awful dialogue mixed in with humour that more often than not misses the mark rather than hit the mark. I think one of the things that personally irritated me is that every time a character introduced themselves, they would go into this long spiel about who they are or what their accomplishments were. For example Jiyu, would go into this brief spiel when someone would call her Jubei when she was in her teenage girl form and she had to correct them every time. It's necessary the first time you hear it, not necessary the 5th time you hear it. The same thing happens with the character Shiro. Shiro we don't need to hear your accomplishments in the world of swordfighting in high school competitions every time you introduce yourself. The humour in this anime has more misses than actual hits. There are moments where it does make me chuckle, but the majority of the moments completely fall flat. The humour goes from very obscure places without any significant build up such as characters being animated differently, random nonsensical verbal outbursts, and characters just doing stupidly outlandish things that don't make any sense. Personally I don't mind stupidly outlandish things but only if they're done right and they're actually outlandishly funny.

You figure with an anime with the Ninja girl in the title this anime would be rife with action but surprisingly it's not as action packed as you would like to think. Most of the episodes end with a battle of some sort but the battles are so quick and brief, lasting no longer than a minute it's hard to feel satisfied when the action does start to happen. I will admit though the final fight in this anime makes up for it because it is the best battle throughout the entire anime. While the main villain is not particularly engaging it does keep you invested by changing it up with regards to who the main villain really is. The first few episodes follow a standard monster of the week format, with each of the enemies that Jiyu has to face are actually here school-teachers who all end up being minions of the Ryujoji clan. Once they are defeated, the secret power of the lovely eyepatch unleashes itself which eliminates the ryujoji grudge from each member that gets defeated by Yagyu Jubei's sword so they can return to a relatively normal life. After the first few episodes it gets out of the monster of the week format and we get a little backstory into the history of the ryujoji/yagyu rivalry while Jiyu is trying to balance her mundane life as a high school girl to becoming a powerful ninja when the need arrives.

The anime also suffers from some pretty useless characters that are not needed throughout the storyline. The gang of Ruffians especially the leader Bentaro who acts as a love interest toward Jiyu. Apparently the love story is completely one sided with Jiyu not really caing one way or another despite all the attempts that Bentaro tries to perform in order to get her to pay attention to him, but it feels like such a wasted plot point in which another plot point could be better utilized. There are even a trio of very upscale girls that have a crush towards Shiro, but there is literally no background story to them and I think they're placed in the anime to act as comic relief and even that doesn't work.

The music throughout the anime is serviceable but not overly memorable. The anime does not really do much to really captivate the viewer since the opening of the anime is literally 30 seconds long with just one animated scene where Jiyu is riding her bicycle in front of the view while looking in multiple directions. That's pretty much it. It's probably the most boring uneventful anime intro I've ever seen out of all the anime I've watched over the last 30 years.

Ultimately Jubei-chan - The Ninja Girl: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch is an interesting premise that is barely above serviceable because it is bogged down with useless side characters, ineffective comedy, and a criminally low amount of action. There are a few good things about this anime with the father-daughter interactions being the strongest aspect of what this anime has to offer. The anime does an excellent of closing off the loose ends throughout the story with a fairly touching ending so despite all the problems that I have this anime, the good does barely outweigh the bad. I certainly hope the second season does a better job of what the first season did, but at the end of the day it's worth experiencing this anime just for the different approach to the magical girl formula.

Do you love cats. I certainly love cats. As a cat owner of two adorable kitties that mean the world to me - I've actually been fortunate enough to own as many 5 cats in my household between my wife and I so anytime I get to experience an anime that has kitty cats I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it even if the kitty is living inside a banana.

Bananya is a 13 episode series in which every episode is only 3 minutes long that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It is a series that is mainly directed towards pre-schoolers ... but I assure you that if you love cats or if you love things that are obnoxiously cute you'll definitely get your enjoyment out of it.

You can't really expect the most in depth story especially when each episode is only 3 minutes long but the allure of this anime is you get to see Bananya and his friends get up to mischief in various ways. I guarantee by the end your going to have a favourite bananya character. Even though it's an anime directed towards a very young audience there are actually some pretty good laugh out moments throughout the entire anime. I do have a lot of fondness for the episode where Bananya gets to interact with a mouse, and where him and his friends get to interact with a balloon.

None of the Bananya characters actually talk, but each episode is explained by a narrator that gives a very detailed description of the mischief Bananya and the rest of his friends are up to in each episode. At the end of every episode the character gives us a quick and detailed description of each of Bananya's friends.

I assure you that each episode will make you smile ear to ear, and some will even give you pretty epic laugh out loud moments. It even has a really adorable ending song. The series is pretty much animated with adobe flash with very minimal effort. I don't necessarily think it's to the anime's detriment though. The main allure to this anime is that it's incredibly adorable and it can make you laugh.
I think one thing we can learn out of an anime like this is sometimes a minimal effort can be enjoyable if you focus on being funny and being adorable. Deep down it's a quick enjoyable watch that will be sure to cheer you up. It's a sure fire way to cure depression and add a bright side to an otherwise miserable day.

With every episode only being three episodes long, it never overstays it's welcome and gives you the perfect amount of cuteness and hilarity without being too overbearing. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it's still an enjoyable watch all the same. I'll be the first to admit, I even own a Bananya Coffee Mug.