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I am now all caught up with Shokugeki no Soma also know as food wars. It's basically a sports manga but instead of a sports the high schoolers face each other in cooking competitions (the version of which they bet something is called a Shokugenki). I first started watched the anime (which is coming out when I write this) which I thoroughly enjoyed and then after I got into manga decided to stop watching the anime and to just read the manga. That said, the anime is quite awesome with excellent music, visuals, and adaptation of what happens when people eat tasty food. Even so, ... having to wait a whole week to learnt what happens next is pretty annoying. Food Wars is a manga with a great sense of momentum meaning the vast majority of the time I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. I want to see how the character's deal with the situation, I wanted to see who will win the cooking competitions which is not clear and often quite surprising. I wanted to see what dish is going to be made, and I wanted to see what kinds of crazy analogies the judges use to describe the dish. It's all very enjoyable, filled with a great sense of competition especially coming from the battle analogies and the contrast threat of expulsion (which is the equivalent of death in this manga). It's also occasionally laugh out loud funny especially when it breaks the forth wall like when their is an intense ping pong match and there are boxing that says remember, this is actually a cooking manga. It was a awesome read and I look foreword to future chapters. 10/10.

This Manga has got a dark Mid evil fantasy setting and centers around a Swordmen's who carries a huge sword named Gatts and a very ambitious mercenary commander named Griffith. The story starts in the middle with Gatts alone and going on a few quick adventures before he meets and try to kill a creature he calls Griffith. The manga then goes back for a least a hundred chapters (maybe 200) to explain the backstory. It then goes past the opening chapters to continue the adventure. This manga is freaking amazing. A huge epic adventure worthy of the hundreds of chapters. This manga holds ... nothing back. Over the top violence, horrific daemons, sex, nudity, rape, human sacrifice, religion, growth, comrodory, and lots of death. It may not be something I want to read while someone is looking over my shoulder, but it was something I wanted to read at almost any other time. My only complain is that the Manga isn't anywhere close to being finished yet. I know One Piece is the most popular manga (I've quite a ways into One Piece and plan on continuing to read though it this summer). If you can deal with a darkness that holds nothing back, I would recommend reading this first. 10/10.

Kingdom is a very long manga series (its on chapter 432 and I think it will 700 chapters sense the manga took the time to acknowledge chapter 350) that takes place at the end of the warring states period of Chinese history. China is divided into 7 constantly warring Kingdoms with you following the story of the Kingdom of Qin. You follow numerous character's thought out a very a period of many years (so far at least 9 have past) most importantly a rising star of the army named Shin and the king of Qin El Sei. Without wishing to spoil anything, the story is ... epic but also personal. This is just as true of the large military engages as it of the political intrigue. It's about the struggles of the individuals in the larger war torn context. It's complex and really exciting. I've spent many nights now reading Kingdom for hours always wanting to know what it going to happen next. So it's a real page turner. It's also got great larger then life character's. The hero's and their enemies alike are all well developed and easy to understand and sympathize with. It's sad when they die. It's exciting to watch them grow. The writing is also really impressive. Not only the grand overarching narrative, but the tactics in the battles are intricate, realistic, and interesting. This is how warfare was conducted in warring states China. You have calvary, archers, and infantry. You control their positioning and send them to attack the other enemy. Thousands and thousands of people die in all big clashes and often time they are sacrificed in the name of the larger tactical plan. You take advantage of hidden detachments, the ability to improve your troops moral, and the terrain such as devising forts or taking advantage of the high ground. To top it all off, Kingdom gives the impression of being based on actual Chinese history. When a big plot point occurs, a text box will appear saying what sentence on paragraph this was based on from ancient Chinese historical texted. Anyway, reading Kingdom up to now has been wonderful. I can't wait for the rest to be released. 10/10.

After walking around Hong Kong and thinking about, I've decided I don't want to continue watching the show. I have two main criticisms. First, I've watched a lot of anime and this is the first one where I felt like I wanted to read a plot to understand what was going on. Many of the plot points revolve around complex middle ages trade deals which while interesting are really hard to follow. My second criticism is in the jarring tone shifts. For example, one episode the characters are being escorted by a Sheppard and everything is light and fun. The next episode the character is ... a about to go bankrupt and in the course of single episode he starts getting desperate and turning on his partner. Admittedly it's an understandable response but it bothered me especially sense I enjoyed the lighthearted stuff so much. Outside of this the characters, especially Holo, are quite interesting. The setting being Europe in the middle ages is also quite interesting with the complexities of village life during that time which such actors and the merchants, the kings, and the churches all mentioned in a very realistic fashion. The music also stands out, not only the opening and closing themes which are quite good but the distinct intermental mostly flute music that playing during the anime. In summary, there are many things to like about this anime but I find it somewhat confusing and that it doesn't hold my interest. 7/10.

Everything that made Durarara!! great transfers 100% to this season completely intact. The great characters, the slow reveal of information, and the string puller behind it all. New character's are introduced including a kid who wants to take after Izaya and Izaya's twin sister, the three of whom are quite interesting and compliment the cast nicely. A new gang comes to the city headed by a man who is a womanizer which means he retains himself whenever a women is involved making his fights quite funny. At the end of the day, it's more of the same Durarara!! but it looses a bit of it's ... magic the second time around. Still it's fantastic. My guess if you like the first season then you will also like the second. 9/10.

This is a brilliant anime especially it's second half. It revolves around a host of interesting characters who are part of the schemes of an information dealer to (as far can be gathered) entertain himself. This kept my head turning all throughout the show. What is the information dealer planning? Was he the cause of this or that plot point? Will he succeed? His plans on the one hand seem like both they have an inherit logic that gives them a life of their own and yet can be stopped in their tracks if people did something as simple as start sharing information. The anime ... is also great in how it slowly reveals more about the characters and the plot. Some times it will jump back in time to explain a situation you saw earlier. Other times the anime will take a break from the main plot to explain charterers back story. Every single one of the many character has a great back-story and is incredibly likable. In particular, the three high schoolers who seem like the least interesting characters in the first half of the anime get such a central and interesting role in the second half that when I realized how much power they had and what a stark contrast it was with their depiction in the begging of the anime, my jaw dropped. By far my favorite charater is the information dealer. A man who reminds me a lot of Lecouch from Code Geasse, he is a wicked smart scheme and could be called the villain in all this. Yet, he has hierarchical control of the characters or does much fighting himself. He selectively leaks information to various parties in order to get them to do what he wants. Despite causing so much disruption in people's lives, he is in a sense liked by everyone. Multiple times he both gets a character into a bad situation and then goes though the effort to get them out of that situation. Charater's know what he is like yet choose to keep interacting with him. It makes him my favorite character in anime right above Lelouch. Another thing I like about this anime is the Bacano! Easter eggs. The first intro is a lot like the Baccano! intro, a computer password is Baccano, you can see Baccano posters in the city, and two Baccano character even show up at one point. It's really well done and brought back pleasant memories of when I watched that anime. Basically, I think this is a killer anime. It just pulls you in and keeps you thinking all the way though. I give it my highest recommendation. 10/10.

This is quite a brilliant movie. It is able to compress strong feelings that come from watching the second half of Stines;Gate and cleverly put them into a single 90 minute movie. The plot of this and of the second half of Stines;Gate are very similar but the roles are switched. It was really cool to see a character face an incredibly hard and sad choice and then see that while the initial choice make sense, it was one that was impossible to live with. I'm sorry if that is spoiling to much, but because the movie is so plot heavy is really hard to ... talk about without discussing it. Basically watch the movie and be prepared to experience the core of Stines;Gate all over again.

This is essentially a 24 minute epilogue to Stines;Gate. Stines;Gate was one of the first anime I ever watched. Seeing this so many months later reminded me how much I liked the characters in Stines;Gate. Just to see them in all their unique glory be together is incredibly enjoyable. It also has a great ending with the words "closer your eyes" and then the playing of the full Stines;Gate theme. If you have finished Stines;Gate, don't miss a chance to be with these great characters again. 9/10.

The first thing about Shinsekai Yori it that it's a sad anime. The world may be beautiful, but the beauty does not extend beyond the scenery. The world is very mysterious and very threatening. Children go missing and rumors of monsters that hunt lonely pray are common knowledge. The anime starts being about 5 friends in their childhood. It ends being about 2 of the friends 12 or so years later. This anime is willing to kill characters in gruesome ways so no one is safe. The anime is partly about power and powerlessness. All the humans in this world have amazing telekinetic powers but ... they always seem to be on the knifes edge of the existence due to the ease with each these powers can get out of control. There is another race of intelligent beings that call humans gods who work with the humans but are show to be willing to attack humans from very early on the series. Both The Giver and Physco Pass come to mind when watch this anime as examples of foreboding tightly controlled communities. There are also complex relationship in which more then one main character is bisexual and their are hints that free love is used as a means of control reminding me of Brave New World. Even the name, From the New World, seems to directly reference it. As far quality goes, I found the begging parts a bit slow and the character's reactions be to intense for the events going on. The best thing at that point was the mysterious world which I wanted to know more about. Later on when the characters grow up a war breaks out. I found this part of the show significantly more enjoyable. I have a small gripe with that part in that is there is a character who died who gives the protagonist advice. I kind of thought that whole part of the story was weird and distracting. Overall, it's a very intriguing anime that gets better as you watch it. If you like tense dark anime like Madoka Magica or Mi-HiME, this is very much worth watching. 9/10.

This anime is an absolute joy to watch. It's about a calligrapher who goes to an Island and get befriended by the locals. That's basically it. It's got very little story. You watch the character live in life on the Island and have fun with the locals. It's benevolent, it's funny, the animation style adds to the humor, it's real with character's having understandable flaws which if anything makes them more likable, the translation is great with local islanders having dialogue as if they were from the rural part of the United States, the relationships the main calligrapher develops with the kids on the Island ... are extremely touching without being sad, and the music is excellent. Not just the opening theme, but the ending theme is incredible as is the music that plays during the anime. The only two things that come to mind that may be an issue are the mother is a little to physical in her interactions with the characters (at one point she is literally punching another character in the face because of something he said) and given the very loose story and lack of drive from episode to episode it may not be as good if binged watched. These are very small complaints. This is my favorite anime since Tokyo Ghoul. It absolutely wonderful and definitely worth watching. 10/10.