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An animated adaptation of the decades-long medieval fantasy-adventure novel series, Guin Saga focuses on a leopard-headed man named Guin with no memories of his past and finds himself tasked with having to protect the young twin heirs in line of the throne to the kingdom of Parros, Remus and Rinda.

Guin Saga is a series that many older anime fans may reflect back to older medieval fantasy-adventure anime titles like Record of Lodoss War and Berserk with its storytelling and characters. For an older series, Guin Saga offers a rich world that it takes the time to explore dabbling into medieval elements, magic, and supernatural creatures. Many key characters within the series get a good deal of dimension and depth that help make them more interesting and defined beyond whatever character types they would have typical for fantasy-adventure titles that include Guin having a tactical mind when confronted with battles, characters like Remus and Istavan feeling inferior in their quests to gain acceptance or power, and the Mongauli general Amnelis shown to have her vulnerable side she reveals to those close to her. The plot for the series is also an engaging one having its twists and revelations revolving around the struggles that Guin and his allies have against the Mongauli forces, Guin attempting to learn more about his past, and other parties shown to take advantage of the conflicts between the Mongauli and Parros armies for their personal gain.

Praises aside, Guin Saga does carry some issues that hurt its quality at points. It can get a bit melodramatic at points in its first half that mostly focuses on Guin aiding the Parros twins, resorts to deus ex machina fairly often to resolve some major storyline conflicts, and some major characters are a bit underdeveloped compared to others. Also, the series is left intentionally open-ended as there are hints of events yet to come involving major characters within the series like Guin, Remus, and Istavan that are left unresolved.

Visually, Guin Saga was above average in quality when it aired in 2009. Character designs are given a good amount of detail while retaining the traditional anime aesthetic, while Guin's design sticks out as a rather unique one thanks to his leopard head. Scenic shots feature vivid color and a good amount of detail applied to the show's diverse settings that include castle towers, caverns, and dark forests. Animation is mostly fluid with characters having smooth movements and action scenes having decent choreography in situations that include traditional sword fighting and occasional unique abilities coming from enemy threats.

While having some hiccups in its storytelling, Guin Saga is otherwise a mostly solid title that offers an expansive world, mostly fleshed-out characters, and an engaging, complex plot revolving around classic story elements of old-school medieval fantasy-adventure titles that fans of the older genre are likely to have interest in checking out.

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Made by the same light novel writer behind Oreimo, Eromanga Sensei is another otaku-themed romantic comedy focused on teenage light novel writer Masamune Izumi trying to bond with his younger stepsister Sagiri, a hikikomori who he later learns is an acclaimed online illustrator named Eromanga Sensei known for drawing erotic female artwork.

Compared to Oreimo that at least believably explored public perception to life as an otaku, Eromanga Sensei opts to go into more conventional territory for its storytelling with all the cliches and pandering you can expect out of many modern anime titles. All the female characters are shown to be cute and following whatever typical characters types hammered to death from many conventional titles with Sagiri a tsundere, Megumi the genki girl, Elf the ojou, and Muramasa the traditional girl. Masamune mostly follows the doormat nice guy character type typical of rom-com titles and, not surprisingly, develops a small harem of girls that develop romantic interest in him that consist of Sagiri, Elf, and Muramasa. While these four do have some dimension to their personalities, there is little growth they face nor much depth throughout the span of Eromanga Sensei's run as they are still stuck with the same character types they were introduced with when first introduced.

Eromanga Sensei's two particular areas of focus in this series are the light novel industry that Masamune is part of and his relationship with Sagiri. For the former case, Eromanga Series doesn't really offer anything too poignant in exploring the light novel industry as it felt mostly like a backdrop to Masamune's complicated harem situation when Elf and Muramasa eventually take interest in him. For the latter case, the series goes for the same siscon vibe that Oreimo gave off with exploring Kyosuke and Kirino's relationship with both the mentioned siblings implied to have romantic interest in one another. Eromanga Sensei is much more direct and blatant with expressing Masamune and Sagiri's relationship here, yet goes the typical "wussed out" route with making the two stepsiblings so the relationship is more palatable for its audience considering the controversy faced with Oreimo's ending a few years earlier.

But the most uneasy thing for me with watching through this series has to do with the sexualization of middle school girls that pop up at points throughout Eromanga Sensei. Sagiri is only 12-years old within the series and shown to have an obsession with having girls undress and show off their undergarments to use as models for her erotic drawings. In one rather uneasy scene for this reviewer, Sagiri undresses to put on a thong with the intent to use herself as a model for her latest piece of artwork. Even the obligatory beach episodes came off making me feel a bit squicky with Elf and Muramasa donning some fairly skimpy swimsuits. While the series does go about with depicting all this tastefully enough to not make it a full-blown ecchi title, it's still likely to turn away some anime fans who offend easily.

Between the tiresome anime cliches, the incestual attraction between Masamune and Sagiri, and the rather squicky casual sexualization of middle school girls found within Eromanga Sensei, this easily stands out as one of the worst titles I've seen for 2017 thus far. Unless the typical otaku pandering schlock milked to death in recent years grabs your interest, avoid Eromanga Sensei like the plague.

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Yuri on Ice focuses on the interactions that world-acclaimed Russian figure skater Victor Nikiforov has with motivating the struggling Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki, as his figure skating instructor. Alongside the two, a young Russian figure skating prodigy named Yuri Plisetsky striving to make a name for himself on the world championship level and becomes a rival to Yuri K. Note that to differentiate between the two Yuris for the remainder of this review, I will refer to the older Yuri as Yuri K and the younger Yuri as Yuri P.

Before I get into this review, I suppose I should cover the major element that has gotten this series both acclaim and notoriety in the form of Victor and Yuri K's relationship. There are fans that assume that the two eventually start up a homosexual relationship later in Yuri on Ice's run and enough implications are dropped where I could see where this assumption could come into play. While this reviewer has no personal gripes with homosexual relationships and I think the handling of the chemistry between the two is far better than what I would typically see out of many yaoi anime pairings, I think what the series shown with their relationship is more ambiguous than anything since it could be argued both ways that the two are either romantically involved or develop a close friendship by later in the series.

Yuri on Ice's main attraction is the developments that face the main trio of the series with the two Yuris and Victor. All three have their own different motivations with their involvement with one another as Victor was suffering from lack of motivation due to his flawless figure skating career before seeing Yuri K's skating performance, Yuri K coping with anxiety from the downward spiral of his figure skating career as Victor coaches him back into competitive condition, and Yuri P transitioning into the world championship scene for figure skating. Victor and Yuri K develop a fun and great chemistry with one another throughout the series as they develop a close relationship with one another due to both finding aspirations to gain from one another. Yuri P finds his youth getting to his head at points with his figure skating performances as for all his talents, he lacks the emotion to put into his work, usually lets his reputation get to his head, and hates making himself vulnerable to those outside his family. While much of the focus on Yuri on Ice involves the chemistry between Yuri K and Victor, it still devotes some time in featuring some gradual development with Yuri P's character as he becomes motivated to better himself after seeing Yuri K's work. The only issues I really had with the series are its rather underwhelming efforts to implement exaggerated comedic elements into its storytelling and the rather open ending it left, implying there may be more to come for Yuri on Ice down the road potentially.

On the visual end, Yuri on Ice easily makes for one of the better animated TV anime titles for 2016. Character designs are given a lifelike look compared to the traditional anime design with realistic bodily proportions and there are a good number of attractive male character designs to hook in female audiences for this series. The animated highlight of the series obviously comes from the show's figure skating routines as they are fluid in movement and an engaging spectacle to watch, especially considering this is only the second anime I've seen focused on figure skating since I seen Ginban Kaleidoscope years ago.

While many sports anime typically attract a niche audience at best, Yuri on Ice offers enough engaging elements with its storytelling, visuals, and characters that allow it to appeal to a more wider audience in spite of its focus on figure skating and its ambiguous relationship between Victor and Yuri K. Even if you aren't interested in sports anime, I'd at least recommend checking out the series in its entirety once to see what all the hype for the series is about.

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Real Drive depicts a series of episodic and storyline-driven cases where a group of cyber divers are tasked with diving into the cybernetic network known as the Metal when delving into any cybernetic-related cases. Throughout the series, each case tends to vary from the mundane to the serious which can involve anything from Minamo's school life to more serious cases that require physical work from Souta and Holon. It also serves to explore various implementations of how the Metal can affect the lives of the island residents for legitimate and illegal activity, in the same vain the Ghost in the Shell franchise explores how the lines between being human or machine are blurred with the cyborg members of Section 9. Essentially, Shirow Masamune is the creator of this series and his heavy dabbling into sci-fi and philosophical elements are all over this series.

Yet for as nicely told as Real Drive's story elements are, it still suffers similar weaknesses as Ghost in the Shell in that Masamune gets too immersed into dabbling into his story and themes at the expense of developing the characters of his work. This is especially apparent with the more mundane stories that Real Drive often explores compared to Ghost in the Shell, as Real Drive doesn't take the time to thoroughly explore and develop its characters. While getting some background exploration, the characters mostly exist in advancing the plots for each case explored and Minami makes for a rather weak protagonist as she mostly contributes little to the advancement of the anime's plot beyond the series showing off her naiveté.

On the visual end, Real Drive is above average for a 2008 anime sporting clean details, realistic character designs, and gorgeous scenic shots. Animation is quite fluid for the most part without loss of detail and offers some variety in what the series can show off that include fighting scenes, net-diving into the Metal, roller skating, and swimming.

Overall, I suppose you could think of Real Drive as a somewhat lighter and more mundane take on Ghost in the Shell as it dabbles into somewhat similar themes as Ghost in the Shell with man's relationship with technology and how it affects us in various aspects. The limited character exploration does hamper the series somewhat and is more apparent than Ghost in the Shell. Still if you crave another sci-fi title dabbling into philosophical themes like Shirow Masamune's classic cyberpunk series, Real Drive offers an engaging and more mundane focus on such storytelling.

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Ajin focuses on our main lead, Kei Nagai, discovering he is an immortal being called an Ajin capable of resurrecting and regenerating from all damage once killed and manifesting shadowy-like forms called IBMs to fight on his behalf. This leads him to go on the run as once Ajin are discovered, they are captured and used for experimentation by the Japanese government. Also adding to this conflict is a terrorist organization made by Ajin who threaten to exploit the corruption of the Japanese government in retaliation for their treatment of Ajin.

Ajin is quite a bit of a mixed bag in quality, but I shall focus on the positives to the series first. The series does a solid job with fleshing out the capabilities of the Ajin as such where characters utilizing their abilities like Kei and Sato are able to analytically plan out how to use their abilities and work around their limitations, including occasions where they commit suicide to fully recover themselves in the event of injury. The series also offers some surprising twists and fleshing out of its plot for later episodes regarding the mentalities and motivations of major characters, notably with Kei and the government worker Yu Tosaki. Also, the show's animation is quite fluid with engaging action sequences and great cinematography employed during some key scene points, this shown most notably during one of terrorist operations committed by Sato and his group.

Beyond these points though, Ajin does come with a fair number of major issues. The show's direction on being a dark and cynical world is a bit too much on the heavy side and can come off feeling forced, especially with how many humans in the series regard Ajin. This is most evident with major characters like Kei, Tosaki, and Sato who all have cynical outlooks on life and make morally questionable actions for either their own self-gain or advancement of goals. In spite of the great fluid movement by its animation, Ajin's use of 3DCG animation in a style similar to Knights of Sidonia does make its character designs look artificial in their appearance and their movements can usually look unnatural compared to how the IBMs get rendered. Also not helping matters is the series ends at a rather major point in its storyline that appeared to be deliberate in setting up Ajin's second season.

While Ajin does have some engaging story elements and twists, its attempt at painting a dark and cynical mood felt forced and its key characters were hard for me to care much for. While your mileage may vary with how you warm to this series, I don't see myself being invested enough to venture into Ajin's second season.

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his second Fist of the North Star series is meant to provide further fleshing out of Kenshiro and the Hokuto Shinken fighting style as it explores their origins as Kenshiro reunites with an older Lin and Bat to fend off a new enemy force, before having to rescue an abducted Lin from the Land of Shura, a country that encourages a brutal "survival of the fittest" mentality in raising male warriors.

On the one hand, this series runs at a more shorter length thus it avoids most of the major issues that plagued the first FotNS series with repetitious plot developments and having enough recap episodes. One of the series antagonists, Hyoh, also gets enough fleshing out early enough to make him a likeable character who is merciful and finds himself victim to his brother Kaioh's manipulations to oppose Kenshiro. Plus, being on the Land of Shura leads Kenshiro to take on more challenging foes compared to the original series, meaning he isn't as much of an unstoppable force as he was depicted throughout much of Fist of the North Star's first half.

However, FotNS 2's attempts to have the same amount of pathos as the first series with following Kenshiro's quest has a good number of issues. The biggest problem I have with this season is it felt like there was no reason for it to really exist. The first series, in spite of its flaws, had tied up all its loose ends rather well and there were no hints of things to come from the first series that would allude to this second anime's events. Sure, it was nice to see Kenshiro return again to continue offing scumbag baddies in messy ways. But in spite of the additional back story it provides, this could have been better explored if the series was some sort of prequel to FotNS as it didn't make any narrative sense to structure the series as a sequel in my personal opinion.

Overall, this second series for Fist of the North Star felt like somewhat of a step down from its first series. While improving on some of the first show's issues, it brings about a major one with the choice of story direction it provides since it didn't make much sense setting this series up as a sequel. Still if you're looking for more Fist of the North Star's bloody action, this series should continue to entertain you.

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As many readers of my reviews may note, I typically don’t tackle manga titles since anime is more my main priority of covering. But upon learning the premise of With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child almost three years ago, it caught my interest for both personal reasons and seeing how mangaka Keiko Tobe would approach exploring autism as to my knowledge, the disability has not had a serious exploration within any Japanese anime or manga series. The manga focuses on the challenges faced by the Azuma family as they try raising their autistic son, Hikaru, as With the Light explores his life from birth up to junior high school.

To go into the personal reasons that With the Light caught my interest, I shall confess that I am on the autistic spectrum in the same vain that the manga’s lead, Hikaru, is. Growing up had its highs and lows for me with autism. I had a delay in being capable of talking compared to other toddlers growing up and even through school, had to take speech therapy classes due to my struggles with properly pronouncing and expressing words. I was placed in other special education programs such as occupational therapy and a Resource Room to have adequate support in handling school life with my disability. I also struggled often with understanding proper social behavior and interactions with others as I got into enough misunderstandings growing up that led me to being bullied and teased by other kids my age. The struggles I had in school on many occasions caused enough stress for my parents. In spite of these issues, I still benefited from having a strong desire to learn, engage myself in whatever interests I took up, and being the first within my family to graduate from college.

Reading through With the Light and relating it to my experiences growing up, the manga does very well at believably exploring the challenges an autistic child can deal with. The desire for repetitive routines and differences in processing information are typical traits for those on the autistic spectrum, and the social challenges that come with it also get explored when Hikaru’s behavior causes enough stresses for his family and friends due to the misunderstandings and inconveniences it can cause. The toll this can take on Hikaru’s family and friends does get focused on as well with Hikaru’s family gradually learning how to work around their son’s disability and dealing with the ignorance that others have with understanding it.

Outside of its believable exploration of autism, With the Light also features an interesting exploration of how the Japanese perceive and take care of those on the autistic spectrum. While many Americans have gradually come to better understand and provide support to autistics in spite of lingering issues that still need addressing, the situation for autistics in Japan is much worst. Many schools are underequipped to handle caring for students having a mental disability and many teachers lack training in teaching styles that can work around the cognitive issues faced by said students. Also, the Japanese translation of the word meaning “self-closure syndrome” creates a stereotype to many in assuming that the blame for the person’s actions is either their own or the parents instead of genetic inheritance being a factor. This is actually truth in real life as Japan faces struggles with valuing individual worth due to its “group over individual” cultural mentality and the country’s mental health services are underfunded and understaffed, with many staff members lacking adequate training to provide sufficient services to varying mental disorders.

Outside of exploring the everyday lives experienced by Hikaru and his family, the series also devotes time to exploring issues that affect friends and acquaintances known to Hikaru and his family. Issues such as family abuse, neglect, and institutional corruption are touched upon with exploring supporting characters and Hikaru’s family often find themselves caught up in handling or learning of these conflicts.

One thing I should note with With the Light though is the series can get quite heavy with emphasizing its exploration of autism at points throughout its run. Melodrama is often milked to dramatize the emotions felt by its characters in handling their everyday situations, especially in cases where Hikaru’s mother, Sachiko, is trying to understand her son and be responsive to his needs. While there were points where I found this dramatization to be overdone, it still helped enhanced the manga’s major scenes that highlighted developments with Hikaru’s family and other characters learning to better understand the challenges faced by Hikaru and others dealing with various disabilities.

Another issue with the series is that it does lack a proper ending as it ends inconclusively during Hikaru’s middle school years, though this can’t exactly be faulted on quality since Keiko Tobe was struggling with a serious illness that eventually took her life in 2010 and left the series in a permanent hiatus.

Overall, With the Light met up to my expectations rather well in its believable exploration of the challenges faced by Hikaru’s family in raising him despite his disability and the issues that Japan as a whole has with accommodating individuals with disabilities. It can be overdramatized at points with emphasizing its themes. But this is perhaps one of the few titles you can find in Japanese media that offers a serious and believable look at the challenges of raising an autistic child.

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Fist of the North Star was one of the more popular shounen anime titles that aired throughout the 1980s alongside Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya. However, the series had a good deal of controversy among Japanese audiences since it was one of the more graphically violent titles made during the decade and this comes to a good degree from the many gory ways that martial artists in the series can slay their foes, the most notable of which being Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken fighting style where he attacks his opponent's pressure points to make their body parts explode in gory goodness. This was censored to varying degrees throughout the anime's run as the violent deaths were retained, albeit with color filters and silhouette shots in many scenes to reduce the severity of the gory deaths.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where gangs of thugs prey on the weak and vulnerable to have any remaining food and resources to themselves, Kenshiro is the sole hope of many to slay any gangs threatening the innocent. While aiding innocent villagers, Kenshiro also must spar with enemy martial artists exploiting the turmoil of the time period to try claiming control and dominance over those they take over, including those who were Kenshiro's close friends or relatives growing up.

Fist of the North Star is notable for some elements to its storytelling that buck the typical trends for many shounen action titles. Whereas many such titles have protagonists who are teenagers with a love for fighting, Kenshiro is an adult wary of the changing times where the strong prey on the weak. While he is merciless towards those deliberately preying on the innocent, Kenshiro will show restraint in fighting those who are fighting him against their will and comes up with ways to free or inspire said characters to get out of their situation.

Also in spite of the heavy amount of machoism the series milks from being so focused on heavily-muscled men, the series doesn't glorify the fighting it offers. Kenshiro is consistently depicted as a character suffering continuing torment from the changing times of the post-apocalyptic world and finding himself forced to slay those he holds close bonds with due to their ambitions causing the innocent to suffer. Later episodes feature him having to slay members of his fighting style and other martial artists who get negatively impacted by either the changing times or learning the ramifications of how their fighting styles effect their bonds with others. At the same time, Kenshiro also becomes acquainted with martial artists who do ally with him in combating enemy gangs and martial artists. The series also devotes some time to focus on the backstories of its major characters and how they are affected from either the post-apocalyptic landscape or the ramifications of learning a martial art.

In addition, the series isn't afraid to kill off some of its major characters. As Kenshiro comes to confront more challenging enemy threats in his struggles, those he comes to ally with are occasionally casualties in the conflicts that he deals with. With the series providing enough focus on these characters for fans to build a connection with them, it makes their deaths hit hard with the audience and helps provide solid pathos for the series. Other than one specific instance that happens with one major character, the series doesn't cheapen any major character deaths by using some sort of plot device to undo the deaths of said characters as many later shounen titles have a bad habit of doing.

Still setting aside these praises, Fist of the North Star still has some major issues that impact its quality. A good number of episodes suffer from repetitious plot developments where baddies are doing their evil deeds, Kenshiro slays the mooks, a bigger mook comes in to try stopping Kenshiro, and said bigger mook eventually is offed no differently from his subordinates. This is a major issue throughout much of Fist of the North Star's first half that is reduced in later episodes as Kenshiro takes on more challenging enemies, but still occasionally rears its ugly head at points.

Other flaws to the series include the number of recap episodes employed and the show's animation. There are a decent number of recap episodes employed by the anime in later episodes to drag out the anime, the most notable being a five-episode stretch of recaps between Fist of the North Star's third and fourth arcs. In addition, the animation for the series hasn't aged too well with its regular use of animation shortcuts, character designs using dated fashions and looks, and the fight choreography being rather underwhelming.

Overall, Fist of the North Star offers some decent storytelling elements that allow it to buck the typical plot elements you would find in a shounen action series. However, it still carries some major issues with some repetitious episode developments, frequent use of recap episodes, and dated animation. Still, it is one of the better quality titles of its genre and if you are a fan of shounen action titles, I would at least recommend it over many of today's popular shounen battle anime like Bleach or Dragon Ball Z.

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Tanya the Evil offers an interesting premise in that our lead, Tanya, is actually the reincarnated form of a male adult human resource worker whisked away to an alternate 1920s-era world by a being proclaiming itself to be our world's god (which Tanya acknowledges as Being X due to being atheist) and forcing him through suffering the perils of war to make her (how I'll address Tanya the remainder of this review) a believer. In spite of her predicament, Tanya defies Being X's influence on her hellish life by enrolling in her country's military as a mage, as the world in which she lives in is capable of utilizing magic for use in combat.

Tanya the Evil's run is driven primarily by how our lead reacts to her unique predicament. Having her past life's experience as a human resources worker and the knowledge she gains taking part in the Empire's military, Tanya becomes a seemingly young prodigy to the military who is ruthlessly able to plan out effective strategies and tactics to dispatch enemy threats with her squad. While seemingly doing this with the best of intentions for the Empire on the surface, Tanya is secretly trying to use her achievements as an opportunity to get high enough in the military's ranks where she won't have to be active on the battlefield and defy Being X's efforts to force her into worshiping it. But between the incompetence of her superior officers and Being X's influence to stir things on, Tanya finds things often not going her way in spite of the increasing achievements she makes on the battlefield.

In addition, the series also sports some of the best quality animation I have seen for the year thus far. This is best highlighted by the aerial magic combat scenes that Tanya and her soldiers can have confronting enemy squadrons as there is plenty of fluid movement and engaging choreography to get out of the show's intense action. In addition, the anime faithfully creates settings and clothing based upon the 1920s European time period that Tanya the Evil is set in, alongside the magical technologies employed by mages to fight in battles.

If there is a weakness that can be said about Tanya the Evil, it would have to be Tanya being the main focus of the series. As the main hook of the series, this can be a double-edged sword. Granted, Tanya doesn't exactly have the most positive traits as a character and the series is well aware of it by delving into her reactions to her unique situations, which can make for some engaging black comedy and philosophical focus on the flaws of religious faith. However if Tanya's character is a turnoff for watching the series, then there is little else that one can enjoy out of it beyond its action scenes. There aren't many other characters given prominent focus or depth, and the plot mostly focuses on Tanya's involvement in battle and her mounting issues between Being X and her military superiors. Not helping matters is the series ending inconclusively as Tanya the Evil's light novel source material is still ongoing as of this review.

Overall, Tanya the Evil is solid entertainment in exploring Tanya's actions and thoughts dealing with being on the battlefield and attempting to defy a divine being. However as this is the main hook of the series, this can turn away fans if they want more to it besides focus on Tanya and are not fans of her character focus. While I did enjoy what Tanya the Evil offered up, I wouldn't necessarily find it among the best titles that 2017 has offered thus far thanks to the narrow focus it employs on Tanya's exploits.

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Scum's Wish focuses on teenagers Hanabi and Mugi making a pact together to form a temporary relationship to satisfy their sexual frustrations from unrequited love until they are able to successfully hook up with their love interests. Outside of our main leads, the series also delves into the personal problems plaguing some of those close to Hanabi and Mugi in regards to intimate relationships and how this affects our two leads.

Scum's Wish sticks out from many romance titles in a number of ways. First, it explores the negative ramifications of unrequited love as seen from the experiences of any teenage character in the series. As seen throughout the series, Hanabi, Mugi, and several other characters are shown to exploit the desires and vulnerabilities of those they start sexual relationships with to satisfy the urges and frustrations they have with lacking the ideal companionship they desire. The characters realize with time how flawed it is to have a relationship that relies purely on sexual interactions, how this could hurt any positive relationships they have with those close to them, and gradually learn to find their own ways to move on from these negative experiences to find a romantic relationship they can form more positive connections with.

The second way that Scum's Wish sticks out is that it doesn't idealize the relationships formed by its characters. The characters are believably flawed in how they cope with not having the relationships they want, whether due to inexperience dealing with such emotions or having the obsessive desire to seek companionship through sex. All relevant characters in the series are focused on to show how they met up with and developed feelings for their love interest, as well as showing the negative toll that their issues have on their mental state when it comes to trying to understanding how romantic relationships are supposed to be more than just sexual relations.

The third way that the series sticks out comes in regards to how it treats its sexual content. Scum's Wish isn't afraid to focus on intimate scenes between its characters as they are important in showing how the characters regard sex in their actions toward those they initiate the act with. While certainly not appropriate to show for younger or more sensitive audiences, the acts are tastefully depicted and do well at showing the flaws of many of its characters with how they regard sexual acts.

This being said, Scum's Wish isn't without its flaws. The series can turn off those who can't connect with the actions and decisions made by these characters that I have taken notice of, as there are points where the characters can come off as repulsive and selfish with how they exploit others to satisfy their carnal desires. Personally, I was not turned off by many of the characters in their behavior, though Noriko's character did grate on my nerves at points with how obnoxious her voice acting came off. The only characters that I did not feel satisfied with in their relationship developments came with Narumi and Akane, as the resolution of the relationship came off a bit forced given the issues that Akane dealt with from being a nymphomaniac.

Still, Scum's Wish made for one of the more interesting titles I had a chance of seeing for 2017 thus far thanks to the psychological focus it offers up on the flaws of its characters with handling unrequited love and understanding how there are more to relationships than just sexual acts. It won't be for everyone given its sexual content and how low a number of the characters can go with their developments. But it still made for one of the more better watches I've gotten out of recent anime titles for the year thus far.

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