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Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru is a strange and lovely creature, always moving elegantly forward, never missing a step or faltering in its pace. Its best attribute is its maturity compared to the shonen screaming of most other sports anime, but I feel like that also takes from it a certain energy or je ne sais quois (compared to, for example, Prod. IG's own Haikyuu), which is maybe its only real flaw.

KazeTsuyo starts with one of the best first episodes I've seen, unafraid to play around with nonlinear narrative and doing so effectively, but the rest of the series refuses to take risks in terms of ... narrative and cliche. KazeTsuyo sucks at creating tension from competition itself, but really isn't trying to do so -- long-distance running, of course, is not the most exciting of sports, a fact that probably turned many fans away from the series. But what KazeTsuyo understands better than most sports anime is that drama and emotion need to be inculcated during the non-sport moments to make the competitions meaningful, that the context and milieu of the team's races is the best tool in a sports anime's arsenal and not, as so many other series have opted for, weaponized backstories delivered just before the finish line. This lets races be mercifully short -- an episode long at most. The actual backbone of the series is fairly cliche: underdog sports team blah blah blah training hard blah blah rival blah success. If you want an original story, look elsewhere; sports isn't really where you'll ever find that anyway. But KazeTsuyo does atypical things within that typical story, and that is where its strength lies.

The real surprise was the animation quality. Production IG have always been capable of great things visually, but are inconsistent at times. I've always felt that too few of their titles actually get the TLC they need and end up looking fairly samey as a result. Not so with this one. Among anime that aren't going for distinctive styles or art direction (and weren't made by KyoAni), Kazetsuyo is among prettiest ever made. This is especially apparent in the forest in eps 12 & 13 and with the qualifier in ep 16; you have to see this stuff to believe it. Sound quality is good but the music is outstanding. Each track balances well with the scene it serves, and if any song repeated during the entire series, I didn't notice it.

Character is extremely important in sports anime, and KazeTsuyo realizes this, giving us ten-plus characters, each with a fair quantity of depth and with none (save perhaps the twins) falling into cliche territory. Haiji is one of the most deeply original and intriguing characters in recent memory; I can't think of another character in any anime that I watched as intently as I watched him whenever he was on screen. Toyonaga Toshiyuki did an amazing job bringing this character such a unique blend of vigor, mischief, and general hardassery. Our protag Kakeru starts out generically angsty (a la Haru or Kageyama), but the gradual revelation of his backstory slowly builds him into something significantly better. His flashback in episode 13 is the most shockingly good moment in the entire series -- masterfully handled, with audiovisual static and color that fades as it progresses, only to shock back to reality at the pivotal moment.

KazeTsuyo is a series a lot of people slept on these past two seasons, and to their detriment. It lies on the border between very good anime and art, and fully deserves its current spot on MAL as one of the best sports anime in recent memory. In fact, it's somewhat restored my faith in the genre itself, after several years of forgettable series since the debut of Haikyuu and YowaPeda. If you're even tangentially interested in sports, or just want a good character-driven story, give this one a chance -- it's a series that will give you a run for your money.

Has anything ever caught you so off guard that even days later you find yourself at a loss for words? That's how Nagi no Asu kara made me feel. Except without the loss for words part, clearly, judging by this review.

No anime ever surprised me like Nagi no Asu kara. I would be remiss not to begin with the animation quality. This anime made me pause several times throughout the series simply to gawk at how beautiful it was. It was hard to focus on anything else, even several episodes in, as the quality never really flagged. The filigree sun filtering through the water, the ... packs of fish floating through the water-air, ornate scrolls in sacred places, the gradient of clouds in the sky, all of it is stunning, saturated, and beautiful. Buildings have a distinct, vaguely marine architecture above water, and below the surface a semi-Mediterranean style creeps in as well. P.A. Works was the right studio for this, and their love of the pastoral filters beautifully into NagiAsa, with rusty old ships and street signs being given a life and beauty all their own. Art director Higashiji Kazuki (Charlotte, Angel Beats) should be given a lot of credit here for putting a 26-episode series on par with some of the best movies I've ever seen, never mind serial anime, in terms of lovingly detailed and ornate art. My only animation complaint is that the character animation slips a bit at the start of the second cour, but it's not enough to detract from the series.

The pretty pictures aren't just window dressing for a quirky moe slice comedy, which I feared from the previews -- that idea went out the window somewhere between Manaka's cursed knee-fish farting and Akari's confession in the especially-stunning 5th episode. Horribly unlikeable and un-compelling characters at first slowly develop depth and pathos with time until you forget that they ever seemed flat in the first place; Miuna especially went from near comic relief when first introduced to a deeply vibrant character, all without NagiAsa straining at any facet. Still, a few characters (Kaname in particular) had virtually no substance throughout the entire series.

The ending of the each cour includes scenes as gripping as any to come out of anime, reminiscent of Made in Abyss or even bringing to my mind the ending of the old Berserk anime, such was the pathos they were able to bring out. The denouement of that scene to begin the second cour gives depth and gravity to the characters' suffering, though the time skip could have been handled slightly better. Inter-character interactions and relationships always are balanced on the knife-edge that separates the sentimental from the truly absurd (a love pentagon? hexagon? octagon? how many sides can this thing have?), but it somehow works for NagiAsa, and nothing feels forced. There are better works for character development and love polygons (Toradora comes to mind), but there is plenty to hold the series down and plenty of development to make every leg and every angle feel real and meaningful.

NagiAsa's soundtrack is ordinary, and a 26-ep anime could use a few extra tracks so we don't hear the same ones so often, but it is well-done and well-used. The first OP and ED are serviceable but the second of each, and especially the 2nd OP, truly shimmer and showcase the series' artistry. (And the second OP's subtle change after [REDACTED] is a nice touch.) The sound effects are fantastic, especially the low atmospheric rumble or faint whalesong just present in some of the underwater scenes, especially the ones accompanying the saltflake snow, that give them an eerie or forlorn undertone.

Things like underwater echoes and the ability to speak naturally underwater are also the correct decisions for making a work of this kind, even though they don't necessarily fit known laws of physics. NagiAsa's fantasy setting is one that has the courage NOT to explain itself, and that's part of its charm. It has the guts to give you underwater newspapers, tomoebi (google "sun dogs" -- they're real, actually), and saltflake snow and not explain a goddamn thing about how it all works. And you know what? I appreciate that. And this isn't to say they skimped on worldbuilding -- there's an entire mythos, cultural stigmas, rituals, a world that grows and changes over time, hell there's even part of a god living in a shack outside town. What more could you want?

The message of the anime (as well as its protagonist) embodies this bold, almost flippant attitude as well: Have courage even in dark times, like Hikari's light, let your deepest desires surface, lest they be washed away with the tides of time.

If you like fantasy, slice of life, romance, or if you just want something a bit different that's also a feast for the senses, you'd be remiss not to check this out. I know I gave it the maximum score, which in MAL-world means I must be biased and delusional, but it's anime the way it should be -- gorgeous, poignant, deep, original, without fanservice, queerbaiting, or miscellaneous pandering. It's an anime that stands on its own two feet and is proud of what it is -- just like its own characters.

Oregairu Zoku produced some truly shocking and touching moments, but also, at one point around episode 7, made me lose hope and get so close to dropping it that I had to read future episode synposes to regain confidence in the series, and specifically to find reassurance that its glacial pace might yet lead anywhere worth going. In the end, it was worth the ride, but barely. And I got frostbite.

The second season changed studios from Brain's Base to Feel, which certainly added some pop and panache visually, especially in backgrounds, since BB seems incapable lately of producing anything but flat, boring colors. Episode 2 ... particularly highlighted this, with vivid fall colors and the gorgeous bamboo walk scene. Those gushing over Feel for this anime, however, seem to have ignored the awful CGI cars and trains and the not-quite-fluid animation for the characters' movements and facial expressions. Hachiman's ahoge no longer moves to express himself, Totsuka isn't quite as cute (an unforgivable offense), and Komachi looks like every other little sister instead of a mischievous brat. But now we have hair shine! That makes it all worth it, right?

If the change in animation can be easily explained, the change in tone from season 1 cannot. Gone is the humor that made Oregairu worth watching in the first place, and we are instead treated to the sort of perpetual melodrama, purposefully unresolved tension, and willful misunderstandings that characterize the sort of mass-produced rom-com tropes that Oregairu can never really decide if it wants to parody, to lampshade, or to emulate. Its track record, then, is that of a show that can't decide what it wants to be or wants to do; the fact that this very question is a theme in the lives of our high school protags in the series is a strange sort of irony. They can't answer it any better.

Character development is very slow-paced for the main trio and, in the case of Yui, nonexistent. Side characters get it liberally, including outstanding scenes for Hayato and Ebina, and some touching Hikigaya household moments with Komachi, but Hikky's character arc is the most troubling. Just as Oregairu can't decide on its own tone, it also can't decide on its own message: Does Oregairu have a message of its own apart from Hikky's? Does Hikky need to change, or is he strangely fine just the way he is? These are questions I felt were unresolved in S1, and S2 continued to be uncertain for a surprisingly long time. Hikky's occasional "I need to change" moments are perpetually forgotten the next day, when he continues acting as he always has. This cheapens the emotional impact of the moments that preceded it, and eventually made me feel like I couldn't even trust the series anymore.

The scenes at the amusement park near the end feel more fleshed-out and self-aware as the series begins heading towards its climax, but is bogged down by perpetually annoying characters like Miura, whose goals are kept in obscurity for no real reason, and especially Haruno, who seems to exist only to torture her sister; the fact no one ever stands up to Haruno throughout the series is incredibly frustrating, and a missed opportunity at character development for Hikky, among others. The final episode is touching and well-considered, and the final scene does bring some amount of closure, but is too little too late to make this an actually good anime and is, in fact, a cop-out, even after you decipher the obscure language they used to cover up this fact.

Zoku is technically superior to its predecessor in several ways but loses most of its charm, all of its humor, and instead opts for cheap melodrama of the sort that the first season played for laughs. It forgets how to be funny, doesn't find anything deep to say, and meanders its way towards a forgettable finish.

BokuHaka is a pretty entertaining read that is exactly as outlandish and hilarious as it sounds.

I was leafing through some of the lesser-known upcoming anime, and this series came up. When I saw the summary, I knew I couldn't go on with my life without at least taking a peek at the manga, and before I knew it I had gone through all the chapters I could find.

The characters are great. Koyuki wants to have a normal high school life, but class chuunibyou Hanadori has other plans, which usually involve deep-seated delusions of a supernatural sort. Toss in a scheming friend who finds their antics ... together amusing and another who can summon bad luck seemingly at will, and a world of humorous aggravation ensues. The characters don't feel one-dimensional whatsoever and show small hints of future development, which gives an air of continuity that lets BokuHaka exist as something much more substantial than a run-of-the-mill gag manga. That sort of development is also the most a reader could reasonably expect after so few chapters (at least, those few I could find in English), so the question of whether the characters are handled well in the long term is, understandably, up in the air.

The originality of each new chapter of the story really made an impression on me, and I think the variety on show in BokuHaka, such as the boys accidentally destroying school property or ruining each other's Animal Crossing villages, is one of its strong points for sure. The story is mostly episodic so far, with the only overarching plot being Koyuki's universally failed attempts to distance himself from Hanadori, and as in many comedies the plot is more of a static object from which to hang humorous situations than something that drives the manga forward.

The art isn't spectacular, but is reasonably polished, and the mangaka seems fully capable of switching from a light style to a more dark, action-oriented one whenever Hanadori's alter egos have to seal away the forces of darkness or whatever he seems to have decided upon that day. This contrast helps to bring out the humor in each scene. Koyuki's reactions to his annoying friends include drifting off into the deep recesses of space or, more commonly, making a vacant expression that indicates he has completely given up inside, all of which are drawn very well, with either a flourish or with flat simplicity, respectively. The fact that all of the characters are rather easy on the eyes helps, too -- though that may be a personal preference.

As you've probably gleaned by now, the humor is silly and situational without over-relying on the outlandish and the ludicrous to carry the punchline (although there is plenty ludicrous going on). BokuHaka's humor is very well-balanced, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to seeing it animated, too.

When I read the first chapter of Vanitas no Carte, I was instantly hooked. Action sequences, incredible costumes, everything was drawn with extraordinary attention to detail and with a good deal of style. The relationship between the main two characters was funny and felt real to me, and the mangaka has some serious guts to reveal how the entire manga will end at the end of the very first chapter. It sunk its teeth into me as soon as I read that.

In short, I think it's one of the best opening chapters I've ever seen. Which is why I'm mystified how it all got so ... muddled so quickly to make me drop it. I think too many plot points and too many characters were introduced too quickly, until it reached a point at which I started flipping back pages to try and remember who was who. The art often has style overpower substance to the extent that I can't figure out what's happening, only that it's being done with great panache, until reading the manga feels like riding a very attractive but still out of control roller coaster.

Secret organizations of vampires operating in steampunk turn-of-the-century Paris should be a slam dunk, but in the end not even Vanitas' pretty smirk can save this.

Inasmuch as this was a sports anime and not a drama with a sports backdrop, this was really predictable plot-wise. It still has a good cast, though, and does its tried and true sports anime tropes well enough that it's worth a watch. I think if it were from a lesser studio it might not have been worth finishing, but KyoAni always seems able to bring the best out of whatever they make, and their soft sentimentality worked well with Tsurune. The art direction was really well done here, and the scenes that felt like they should pack a punch emotionally truly did artistically as ... well. I only wish I felt like I had watched an archery anime and not another boys' feelings simulator. They might as well have been playing tiddlywinks.