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March Comes In Like a Lion may have you draw some parallels to Your Lie in April in that both focus on teenage boys gifted in particular talents who suffer some sort of mental trauma due to facing strong familial pressure to engage in their talents and getting out of whatever trauma that is negatively affecting them. In the case of March Comes In Like a Lion, this involves Rei and his interest in shogi as he is under pressure to use the winnings from his victories in the game to maintain living independently from his estranged adoptive family. However unlike Your Lie in April, this series offers some major improvements in how it explores its somewhat similar premise.

Whereas Your Lie in April resorts to melodrama in exploring the issues surrounding Kousei and Kaori, March Comes In Like a Lion is more grounded in the exploration of Rei's situation. While Rei is cynical and isolated to engage with others, the series does not overdramatize these elements to his character and the growth he undergoes to improve himself is more gradual instead of in large spurts as Your Lie in April does with Kousei. Also while Kaori serves as the sole trigger for Kousei's growth in Your Lie in April, Rei's growth is undergone by gradually bonding with others in and out of the game of shogi that he is part of.

Another strength that March Comes In Like a Lion has over Your Lie in April is the exploration of its supporting characters. Whereas the majority of characters in Your Lie in April were mostly irrelevant in the series, many of the characters in March Comes In Like a Lion have their roles to fulfill in the gradual growth of Rei's character and a number of them even get fleshing out to give them more depth and not feel like mere archetypes as much of Your Lie in April's cast.

And finally, the last major element that March Comes In Like a Lion is more polished in than Your Lie in April is the execution of its comedy. This was a major issue for my viewing of Your Lie in April because of the style and timing meshing poorly with the anime's more serious developments. With this series, its comedic timing is better executed to not be as abrupt in presence during more serious scenes and is more diverse in style depending on the situation that plays out for a comical moment, being either subtle or over-the-top without taking away from ongoing developments occurring within said scenes. While my mileage did vary on when I chuckled during March Comes In Like a Lion's comical moments, I did appreciate the anime's better timing and diversity of comedy compared to Your Lie in April.

Still, this isn't to say that Your Lie in April edges over March Comes In Like a Lion in some areas. The visual presentation in Your Lie in April is far superior in detail and animation, as March Comes In Like a Lion utilizes a pastel-like animation style similar to Honey and Clover. While the character designs look decent with this drawing style, scenic shots looked washed out in comparison to Your Lie in April and the animation is noticeably not as fluid in comparison. Also whereas Your Lie in April had a conclusive ending, March Comes In Like a Lion ends inconclusively as its manga source material is still ongoing as of this review and a second anime season of the series is expected to continue the anime's plot when it starts airing during the Fall 2016 anime season.

Still in spite of these minor issues with the comparisons, March Comes In Like a Lion is a series that can still stand on its own feet with the quality storytelling that it offers in exploring the developments of Rei's character and others who interact with him throughout this series. A definite recommendation if you have interest in character-driven comedy/ dramas.

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Violinist of Hameln is a dark medieval-fantasy based drama focused on a pair of adventurers and childhood friends named Flute and Hamel who find themselves chosen to defend humanity from the threat of the demon race, who seek the means to resurrect their sealed ruler Chestra. The series is actually known to be a rather divided one among those fans who have been able to see this obscure and forgotten 1990s anime series for some major reasons related to its presentation and storytelling, that I will touch upon.

First, let me touch upon the biggest criticism of the series and one that would be hard to dispute in the form of its visuals. The series was animated by Studio Deen who, with a few exceptions, are known to often cut a number of corners with the animation to their titles. Violinist of Hameln is perhaps one of the worst instances of the studio's use of limited animation as there are a great number of still shots shown throughout the series at many points and becomes quite noticeable particularly during the title's action scenes. This is a rather glaring annoyance as the series otherwise sports decent scenery shots and character designs, especially with some of the designs of the demons that Hamel and others battle throughout the span of the series.

Another divided element of the series, and one where your mileage could vary, has to do with its choice of storytelling. From what I gather, the original manga source material for Violinist of Hameln was quite a bit more comical in its storytelling to the point where it was almost like a gag manga series and having a rather light mood throughout its run. But much as what was done for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime, this anime adaptation of Violinist of Hameln is a reimagined take on the series that is more darker and serious in its mood and themes with themes of tragedy, revenge, and deception being found throughout the anime's run. Personally, I loved the reimagined take on the anime's storyline as it dug into the more traditional storytelling tropes of medieval-fantasy titles with the adventures of Hamel and his comrades, and created some pretty engaging and dramatic developments that made the stories of many characters, both human and demon alike, rather sympathetic and relatable thanks to the struggles they face with comprehending the tragic and shocking developments they come to learn of their pasts and even their very comrades. This especially hits Hamel's character hard throughout the span of the series as he struggles with understanding his origins and attempting to come to terms with them as he learns more about himself while on his adventure. The ending that results from the dark path that the series takes is bittersweet, yet very fitting for the tragedies faced by a number of its characters in spite of the much different mood that its source material offered.

Another highlight of Violinist of Hameln came in the form of its soundtrack. Consisting of a mix of classical musical pieces played from some of the magical music used within the series and hauntingly powerful tracks, they are very effective at complementing Hameln's dark storytelling and do their part to make up for the anime's underwhelming animation for me.

Overall, I can understand where Violinist of Hameln would not be for everybody thanks to its subpar animation and much different style of storytelling. Still while the visual quality is defensible to judge, I can't say the same things for its storytelling style as it helps create an engaging tragedy involving those caught up in the conflict between humans and demons throughout Violinist of Hameln's run. If you are able to look past the subpar visuals, you will find yourself quite engaged to this lost gem of 1990s anime since it has never received an American video release nor has it even been picked up on legal streaming sites like Crunchyroll or Hulu.

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Sword Art Online is an anime that popularized the "trapped in another world" storytelling premise that is overexposed in varying capacities with a number of recent anime and was originally explored a decade earlier than Sword Art Online with .hack//SIGN. Like the mentioned show, both have divided opinions among fans for one reason or another as many were turned off by .hack//SIGN for being dialogue-heavy and not as full of action compared to Sword Art Online, an element which is one part of what drew fans more easily to the series. However what may be more accessible to casual anime fans does not always necessarily make for a good quality series, and Sword Art Online is rife with plenty of issues throughout its run.

First, let us explore the core element of Sword Art Online that drew in its fans in the form of its "trapped in another world" premise. For the world of the series, the thousands of players trapped in the online game are forced to play through it in order to free themselves from within it and will actually die in real life if their online avatars are killed while within the game. The series gets into some decent ideas with exploring how this could affect players in differing capacities, but a myriad of reasons related to story focus and pacing kill the amount of depth this could have gotten and felt too dumbed down as characters like Kirito seem too well-adjusted mentally to their dilemma. This pales in comparison to its predecessor series, .hack//SIGN, which actually devotes time to exploring the mental trauma this situation would have on its affected player, Tsukasa, who goes through varying stages of development with his character throughout the series as he copes with and tries to comprehend the circumstances that have him trapped in the MMORPG he is in.

Plotting is another issue that Sword Art Online suffers greatly from. The anime is divided up into two arcs with Kirito getting into different conflicts with two MMORPGs that he takes part in for Aincrad and Fairy Dance. Many fans think of the Aincard arc as the best arc in regards of quality since Kayaba Akihiko was a seemingly competent and morally ambiguous villain with the plans he had to trap the players within his game. However, the arc suffers from rushed pacing that makes the narrative a bit disjointed as it jumps through different points of time in exploring Kirito's interactions with different players and fighting against either enemy monsters or rogue players. While Fairy Dance arc has a more smoother narrative, its storytelling lacks the high stakes of the Aincrad arc and has a rather pitiful excuse of a villain compared to Kayaba. Also as the series is heavily focused on Kirito (who has his own issues I will elaborate on shortly), he is rather overpowered as a player as this kills the stakes of any major battle we see him in and in cases where he would be in some sort of crisis, the anime resorts to deus ex machina a great deal to have situations swing in his favor.

Characterization is also an issue with Sword Art Online as this seems to have quite a bit to do with the series being a sort of otaku gratification title with how it is structured. As our lead character, Kirito doesn't have much going for him in the way of depth beyond being your typical good-natured hero who is overpowered and feels too much like an audience surrogate for fans to get immersed into his experiences within online gaming. In addition, he seems to have a lucky streak in attracting many relevant female characters within the series to him thus leading to a needless harem scenario. As there aren't many other major male characters within this series, the choice of having nearly the whole female cast attracted to Kirito appears to be deliberate from the show's creators as the mentioned female characters are not allowed to be on Kirito's level in combat and don't get much depth beyond whatever affection they have toward our male lead. This especially hits the female lead of the series, Asuna, hard in later episodes when she becomes Kirito's main love interest and her character's strong-willed demeanor from the Aincrad arc takes a big hit in the Fairy Dance arc.

In terms of visuals, Sword Art Online is a bit of a mixed bag. It sports gorgeous and highly-detailed scenic shots found within online and real-life settings that are a treat on the eyes and character designs are decent in detail as well. Battle scenes are a mixed bag as there are moments of decent animated sequences, particularly during the Fairy Dance arc when the flying mechanic is utilized. However, animation shortcuts are utilized at a number of points with still and pan shots, which stick out rather prominently during heated battle scenes.

Overall, I find Sword Art Online's reputation for the "trapped in another world" premise of anime to be greatly overhyped. It comes with plenty of issues for its plotting and characters, and feels too much like an otaku gratification title with the depiction of Kirito's character throughout its run. If you really want a good "trapped in another world" anime within an MMORPG, you'd be better off tracking down .hack//SIGN as the series does a much better job with exploring the psychological effects of being trapped in an online game.

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Betrayal Knows My Name focuses on a teenage orphan named Yuki who gets caught up in a conflict between the human Zweilt Guardians and the demonic beings known as Duras. The Duras seek to kill Yuki due to his powerful ability called God's Light being a potential threat to their efforts to take over humanity. Outside of the Zweilt Guardians, Yuki also has protection via Zess, a Duras who is a traitor of his kind due to his mysterious contract to protect Yuki from enemy threats.

Before I get into reviewing this series, I should address something that is fairly infamous with this anime and that comes in the form of the implication of it being a boys-love anime thanks to the close relationships that involve Yuki and Zess and a couple pairs of the Zweilt Guardians being young men. Having watched through the series in its entirety, I did not really see much that would elude to the possibility of the male characters showing any interest in one another, beyond possibly some romantic implications played up about a major revelation concerning Yuki's character and how it affects his bond with Zess. Even with these developments, this element to the series does not do anything to get in the way of the title's storytelling and I don't really get why there have been those making a fuss over it.

Setting aside the matter, Betrayal Knows My Name offers a solid amount of buildup in developing its story and exploring a number of its major characters. The series takes its time with exploring more of its supernatural elements with the mysteries surrounding Yuki's powers, the Zweilt Guardians, and the Duras' seeking to kill him off. Also going along by its title name, betrayal is a major element with a few of the major characters within the series that include Zess and some surprising characters who are acquainted with Yuki. In addition, the series devotes episodes to feature focus on the backstories and origins of a number of the characters that include Yuki, a number of the Zweilt Guardians, and even what led up to their official formation.

Setting aside praises, the series also comes with its fair share of shortcomings. There are a fair number of things unclear about elements to Yuki and Zess' relationship, including what led Zess to betray the Duras and what connections he has to Yuki as a result of it. I also felt that the drama coming from Zweilt Guardians efforts to protect Yuki due to concerns for his well-being came off as overdone considering his abilities and how huge a threat he can to the Duras' while willingly wielding it. The final episodes of the series also rush through its final conflict with a group of Duras that our heroes go up against, which ends inconclusively due to the show's manga source material still being ongoing.

Presentation wise, the show's a bit of a mixed bag. The visuals suffer from awkward character designs where the characters seemingly have the same facial designs and the animation is a bit stiff in regards to movements and milking animation shortcuts. On the plus side, the show's soundtrack does a good job at effectively conveying the proper mood during dramatic moments and battle scenes.

Overall, Betrayal Knows My Name is a solid supernatural action-drama that offers a solid amount of plot and character developments to keep you hooked on the show for its full run. While having its issues with plotting and visual presentation, it's still worth at least a rental to get a sense of the supernatural world it offers up.

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ReLife is a comedy-drama focused on a NEET young man named Arata Kanzaki who participates in a one-year experimental project where he is regressed into the form of a teenager via taking a mysterious medication and re-experiences life as a high school student, as a means for him to repair whatever personal defects prevent him from being a productive member of society. While under the project, Arata puts up with the behavior of his supervisor Ryo Yoake, tends to some of the personal problems affecting his classmates, and reflects on the personal problems of his past that led him into becoming a NEET.

ReLife strikes up a solid balance of light comedy and drama in exploring everyday life as a high school student and the personal problems that affect Arata and several of the high school students he comes to befriend during his participation in the ReLife project. The students that Arata encounters go through the typical pressures that teenagers face growing up such as struggling to make friends, jealousy between rivals, and first love. The series is also not afraid to tackle some darker territory when Arata's backstory is focused on that elaborates on how he became a NEET and it offers a rather painfully believable look at life within a former employer he worked with that he is still recovering from. While the comedy for the series can be a hit or miss relying on the typical goofing off from teenagers and bemused expressions made by characters in response to specific situations, the strong focus on the developments of the characters and their personal problems more than make up for the shortcoming. It also offers up a surprising twist on exploring who the first volunteer for the ReLife experiment is within the high school, yet makes sense when considering the particular character's personal problems. The series ends inconclusively with Arata still in the middle of participation in the ReLife experiment, but the series is supposed to be getting a sequel OVA series starting early next year that is supposed to be tying up loose ends with the show's storyline.

In regards to presentation, ReLife is less than extraordinary. The show's visuals have solid character designs sporting a decent amount of detail, though animation shortcuts are a frequent occurrence throughout its run and especially become apparent during its later episodes. Its soundtrack relies heavily on piano pieces to convey its light and heavy dramatic scenes. The effectiveness of this is hit-or-miss as I found it effective during the show's more mundane moments yet not so much during its more heavier dramatic moments, especially in the case of Arata's backstory).

While having some hiccups with its presentation, ReLife is still one of the better 2016 anime titles I got to see thanks to its effective mix of comedy and drama in exploring the typical developments of growth faced by teenagers and Arata having the opportunity to relive them through his current experiences in the ReLife program. It's a definite recommendation if you enjoy anime that are a bit more mundane with their storytelling, in light of this show's setup leading to it for our male lead.

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In this second series of Iron-Blooded Orphans (which I'll refer to as IBO for the remainder of this review), Tekkadan serve as bodyguards to a new organization created by Kudelia to help restore the independence of Mars while also contending with the remnants of Gjallarhorn, when the military organization's credibility to the masses became damaged following the events of the first series. However as the series progresses, multiple parties are able to exploit Tekkadan's brutal reputation on the battlefield to decredit them and cause things to go on a downward spiral for the group as the series progresses.

IBO's second season will perhaps become remembered in time among Gundam fans as one of the more darker and bittersweet entries in the franchise to date, and for good reason. The first series established Tekkadan as a team of tragic anti-heroes consisting mostly of child mercenaries who knew only how to fight throughout nearly their entire lives and sought to break out for themselves as an independent entity by taking on the job of protecting Kudelia to get her to Earth and reveal the corruption of Gjallarhorn. As mercenaries, they are not hesitant to kill any enemies that get in their way and will strike up deals with any party or organization that will assure them success, hence their dealings with Teiwaz and Gjallarhorn's McGillis Fareed.

In the second series, Tekkadan have become instant celebrities to the people of Mars for their exploits in exposing Gjallarhorn's corruption. While Orga and the other members hope this would allow them to become an honest business due to their association with Kudelia, their brutal reputation among their enemies and the dealings they made with questionable entities eventually comes back to haunt them in later episodes. Through complicated manipulations and politics, Tekkadan's public reputation among the masses eventually becomes tarnished and the associations they established with questionable parties unravel. While I won't spoil too much else of what happens with Tekkadan, all I will say is that the series returns to the days of older Gundam titles where you would never know who would wind up a victim of the travesty of war and IBO cruelly delivers on showing how Tekkadan's reputation eventually comes back to bite it hard.

Outside of its focus on Tekkadan, IBO also takes a decent amount of time to explore more about the complicated power structure within Gjallarhorn and further develop the character relationships within the series. The series devotes time to exploring McGillis' motives and past, which turns out to be a rather tragic one due to being an illegitimate child of one of Gjallarhorn's influential families. In addition, more of the power structure within the organization is explored with the Seven Stars, those making up the seven most influential families within the organization.

A number of the show's character relationships also have time to get further fleshed out and focused on. Some of them are on the romantic side and serve to show more of the human side to the mecha pilots of the series, this most notable in Mikazuki's relationships with Atra and Kudelia as he starts to better understand human social skills. Others serve to explore how character relationships have deteriorated due to the complicated manipulations that occurred in the ensuing conflict between Tekkadan and Gjallarhorn, this notable with McGillis as his manipulations lead his former friends in Gjallarhorn to show hostility toward him as they learn more about his actions and motives.

In terms of presentation, IBO's second season retains the high-quality visuals and fluid animation of its first series that made mecha action scenes a treat to see. This combined with the title's great musical composition within action and dramatic situations offers it one of the best overall presentations within the past year for an anime.

Overall, the second season of IBO is yet another excellent recent addition to the Gundam franchise as it offers a tragic and bittersweet end to the struggles of Tekkadan that will remind fans of older entries in the franchise coming from Yoshiyuki Tomino. A definite watch for fans of the Gundam franchise, provided you have already seen IBO's first season.

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Sweetness and Lightning is a slice-of-life title focused on widowed father and teacher Kohei and his daughter Tsumugi, who get together with one of Kohei's students, Kotori, to make delicious meals at the restaurant of Kotori's mother. The series mixes around some light humor and drama with exploring the everyday challenges that Kohei has with raising his daughter as a widowed father and establishing their current relationship with Kotori for the three to get together to learn to prepare meals.

What makes the premise for this series work is that it strikes a balance of both being relateable to audiences thanks to Kohei and Tsumugi's domestic situation, and the cooking component making for an immersive component thanks to the work and satisfaction that goes into cooking and eating them. With the mundane feel of the series, Sweetness and Lightning has Tsumugi believably behave for a child her age (and voiced by a child seiyuu as well) and undergo many of the typical quirks someone of her age would have such as amazement of experiencing new things. hating to eat certain vegetables, and raising tantrums if something doesn't go her way. It also believably explores the joys and challenges that Kohei can have with raising her on his own where he can lose his composure if Tsumugi misbehaves or does anything to concern him, and both of them also show signs of coping from the loss of Kohei's wife through enjoying the meals that they prepare with Kotori.

The cooking component of the series makes for the very heart of the series. While the premise would seem like a dull one due to the slice-of-life genre it is part of, the series offers enough focus on the developments of our trio of characters in cooking meals throughout the span of the series. Compare Kohei's skills with food preparation at the start of the series as a complete novice to how well he can manage by the end of it with the subtle improvements he has made in learning to cook. All the cooking scenes with the three show them getting satisfaction out of meal preparation and eventually able to salivate from the results of their hard work with a tasty meal. The visuals for the series also go to great lengths to show off believable detail with the food made, and make the viewer feel just as tempted to try out said prepared food.

Overall, Sweetness and Lightning made for a charming and surprisingly enjoyable slice-of-life anime thanks to the nice balance of believable focus on Kohei and Tsurugi's everyday life and the focus on their cooking sessions with Kotori. A definite recommendation for slice-of-life anime fans.

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Tokyo ESP is focused on the struggles of high school student Rinka Urushiba and several others who are granted esper abilities from mysterious fish that enter their bodies. While making sense of their unique predicaments, Rinka and her comrades have to deal with an enemy organization trying to organize an esper resistance against humanity by using the mysterious fish to force people into becoming espers.

My thoughts on this series as a whole are a bit mixed. The series starts out like Berserk and Ga-Rei: Zero where you are tossed immediately into the main conflict of the series without any buildup before the second episode takes events before said conflict starts off to show how it got to that point. I've started to get irked when titles pull this type of plot structure off because it risks turning off first-time viewers of the series who have no clue what they are in for. But setting that gripe aside for now, the second episode and onward do a great job for the most part at establishing its characters and building up its plot to show the characters reacting in varying ways to gaining their esper powers. Established characters have their motivations explored for how they utilize their newly acquired esper powers and why they protect or oppose humanity utilizing them. The series also explores the origins of the mysterious fish that grant espers their power and how this knowledge is being abused by the enemy esper organization. In addition, the animation for the series is quite impressive with highly-detailed scenic shots and character designs, as well as fluid and smoothly animated action sequences that are a treat to see in fights that break out between espers and/or military and police forces.

Setting aside praises, the series does come with its fair share of issues. Being based on a shounen manga series, the idealist bent that many titles of the demographic have in presenting their characters has a bad habit of coming up quite often throughout the series. This is quite notable with our series lead, Rinka, who seems single-mindedly interested in upholding justice and being a hero, which makes her character seem two-dimensional and hard to connect with as a result. The series also gets in the bad habit of seeming to get a bit too preachy and heavy-handed with the whole "being a hero" belief in opposing the enemy esper organization at large. Not helping matters is also the inconclusive ending as another enemy appears to enter the conflict with little established about them and still being at large, a typical issue with many anime given the title's manga source material was still ongoing at the time Tokyo ESP began airing in Japan.

Overall, Tokyo ESP decent plot structure and buildup in focusing on how its major characters respond to gaining esper powers and what side they will take against an enemy esper organization, that gets somewhat marred by the typical idealist bent that many shounen titles fall into and its inconclusive ending. Still, it is a decent sci-fi action/ drama title that is worth tracking down if such titles catch your interest.

Note: Pay attention to the start of episode 1 and you'll catch a cameo appearance from Ga-Rei Zero's Kagura and Yomi. For those not in the know, both Tokyo ESP and Ga-Rei Zero are made by the same mangaka, Hajime Segawa.

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Coppelion is set in a future where the city of Tokyo has been left abandoned due to the city becoming inhabitable due to the high levels of radiation contamination that plague it. In the search for surviving inhabitants of the city, a trio of genetically engineered teens called Coppelion are tasked by the Japanese Self-Defense Force to track down survivors as all of them are immune to the negative effects of radiation and each have their own unique special ability.

On the surface, Coppelion offers some storytelling themes that would make it seem like a solid sci-fi adventure title on paper. The series is set in a "what if" future showing what could happen if Tokyo was ravaged by nuclear radiation as a result of the nuclear reactors that powers its society. Within this future, Ibara and the members of her Rescue Unit are tasked with tracking down survivors within the nuclear-ravaged Tokyo that offer up their moments of genuine suspense as the girls are often at risk when rescuing survivors between preventing victims from being exposed to high levels of radiation they can otherwise survive to enemy threats exploiting their survival efforts to stir up terrorist acts for their personal gain. The series also dabbles into questioning the humanity of others, which those among the Coppelion and whomever is left behind in the radiation-infested Tokyo dabble into as characters feeling like outcasts or not human due to being different from other people cope with these developments in varying ways, both good and bad.

Unfortunately, Coppelion gets hurt greatly by the limited run time of its series length. At only 13 episodes, it felt like the series was trying to compact whatever storytelling it had to tell. Many of the characters get limited depth, mostly being reduced to character archetypes and not getting enough fleshing out to make their motives and developments relatable for me. Some major plot developments do get tacked on with melodrama that make emotional moments hard to take seriously at points and others that do not seem to get enough fleshing out, due to a mix of both the anime's seemingly compressed feel and the series also lacking a proper ending.

Visually, things are a mixed bag for Coppelion. While sporting highly detailed and vast background shots of the barren Tokyo landscape, the quality of animation shots and character designs tend to vary. Designs of the various radiation suits worn by human characters have variety to their designs, but character designs often looked unrealistic in their bodily proportions and some shots inconsistently depict their designs with a thick outline that stick out prominently from the gorgeous background shots. Animation is hit-or-miss as there are some moments where shortcuts are relied upon to conserve on budget, while others feature some great animated sequences such as some later fight scenes with the Coppelion and a final battle involving a giant spider robot.

Overall, Coppelion is a series that seemed like it wanted to explore quite a bit in its run, yet suffers since it is handicapped by its limited run time in how much it can explore within its 13-episode run. Perhaps if the series were given a longer run time, it could have had more time to convey its ideas and provide more fleshing out of its characters. But as it is, the series offers a solid premise on paper that is sadly crippled by the amount of time it has to tell its story.

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My Love Story focuses on the relationship developments between the big and intimidating Takeo and the beauty Rinko, whom Takeo saves from a molester aboard a train. Like Kare Kano, My Love Story sticks out from many romance anime in that rather than build up to our main couple eventually confessing to one another and starting up their relationship by late in the show's run, the couple confess and start up their relationship early in the series thus focus is then devoted to exploring the developments in their relationship. The series takes its time in slowly developing our main couple's relationship that include going to the beach together for the first time, their first kiss, and the first test in commitment to their relationship.

While it is admirable that My Love Story's premise sticks out quite prominently for a romance title, it does have a major flaw for me in the fact that the individuals making our main relationship don't have much going for them in the way of depth. Takeo is your archetypal imposing male lead in terms of appearance while having a sweeter side, and Rinko is not much better beyond being your beautiful and kind female lead. As there is not much to the couple in regards to personality and depth, this made it hard for me to care much for their relationship developments in spite of its premise sticking out from the norm for your typical romance title. The remaining characters in the series are not better in this regard as many of them also follow archetypes typical of high school themed anime and had little for me to grab my interest for them.

The visuals to the series stick out prominently with its beautiful scenic shots, bright and vivid color, and well-detailed character and object designs. Food admirers might find themselves foaming from the mouth in seeing the nicely drawn cakes and pastries that are often made by Rinko whenever she meets up with Takeo, adding further to the great presentation of this series.

Still in spite of its visuals and somewhat fresh premise, My Love Story is a tricky series for me to want to recommend. Our main couple doesn't get much in the way of fleshing out and the so-called pureness of their relationship felt a bit saccharine for me at a number of points throughout the show's run. While it is considered one of 2015's top titles by anime fans, your mileage may vary with how well you perceive it.

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