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I ventured to watch this anime with expectations quite high since I was intrigued by the synopsis. At times it came up to my scratch, at time it didn't, and finally when I finished watching it, here's what I have to say.

Story - 7

In a nutshell, Yoshino a childhood "friend" of Mahiro follows him in his quest to find the killer of his mysteriously murdered young sister Aika, in the meantime in order to find the killer Mahiro had made a deal with a real mage, and side effects of this deal include saving the world and traveling through time. It's an original formula, though ... it does pretend to be more than it actually is; still it does its job and keeps you in suspense for a while.

Lets be clear, this anime consists of two separate halves, first 12 or so episodes, and the rest episodes afterward. First half of the story is quite thrilling and closely resembles a detective story in fact: here are two childhood friends, a mysteriously murdered "sister", bizarre phenomena that turn whole towns into graveyards of iron and agents of magic. There's the tragic music, and citing from Hamlet and Tempest by Shakespeare and otherwise romanticist stuff including time paradoxes and so on. And would have been desirable if it continued in the same spirit, yet the second half falls victim to awkward romcom. There is significantly less action, but more long-winded dialogue that doesn't contribute much to the character development and as a result that acute feeling of impending dramatic events is distilled.

Art - 9

Quite beautiful clean style, with spectacular design for magic spells. The animation is good enough, smooth and consistent throughout the series; it looks especially great during action scenes.

Sound - 7

The music has some dramatic tunes, quite to fit in the whole Shakespeare theme. I won't call it particularly stunning because it wasn't exactly memorable. I disliked most of OP and ED songs, save for those rendered by Nothing's Carved in Stone, because to my mind they didn't quite fit to overall mood of the series and strikingly fell out of picture.

Character - 8

The characters of Yoshino, Mahiro and Aika in Zetsuen no Tempest are pretty much the key elements to the plot. As implied in the series, they represent the characters from Shakespeare's plays, Hamlet which is a tragedy and Tempest which has a happy end. And throughout the series they have to strive to win their happy ending. Aika's character undoubtedly is the driving force behind the plot. Though not apparent in the beginning, her true importance and real extent of her power will blossom in later episodes. The secondary characters aren't anything special and mostly appear for comic relief or plot narration.


Overall - 7.5

It was quite enjoyable experience despite it being a little long-winded at times. If you are a fan of magic and time paradoxes, then this anime is right for you.

I had my doubts about watching this anime back in fall, but in the hindsight I have no regrets. For me Psycho-Pass became the sci-fi highlight of the recent years, and definitely one of the better anime of 2012. I can wholeheartedly recommend it to any sci-fi anime lover who is looking for something other than mecha or virtual survival games.

To start with, I'd like to emphasize that this anime isn't aimed at younger audience. For once it has quite a display of physical and psychological violence, but moreover it contains quite mature concepts and references to books and media which would more familiar to ... adults.

Few words on idea and concept behind it. In essence Psycho-Pass deals with a form of crime prevention, which inevitably draws comparisons with Philip.K.Dick's "Minority Report". While both share the similar idea, their practical execution is nothing alike and I strongly believe that it's not fair to call this anime a clone of Minority Report. It's very different. Another similar anime that comes to mind is Ghost in the Shell series: both deal with future cops, investigations and cybercrime. Personally, I found Psycho-Pass easier to watch in a sense that it has less philosophical references, which sometimes overflown in the GiTS.

Now for the actual review *SPOILERS WITHIN*

Plot.

Like mentioned above, Psycho-Pass deals with crime and crime prevention. In the future the cutting-edge technology allowed to create Sybil System, which analyzes scans of person's bio/cymatic field thus reading into psychological state, natural talents and inclinations, and well the probability of committing crime, a so-called Crime Coefficient. Futuristic cities are equipped with such scanners and so is the police, whose aim is to isolate individuals whose Crime Coefficient is above certain limit (thus being deemed dangerous)....or eradicate them if Sybil System deems them beyond help. The isolated individuals are sent into psychological rehab facilities where they can restore their normal state of mind, while those eradicated poof into a bloody firework. And so on lives the perfect society that knows no violence. But for every perfect system, there is a perfect criminal willing to dismantle it. Even more so when the "perfect" system hides nasty secret of its own.

Art.

Art is quite delicious. City backgrounds are lovingly done, very reminiscent of those you'd see in GiTS movies. There's plenty of lights and lens effects which add to the ambiance. The overall design is very realistic. You won't see large-eyed heroes with rainbow hair or something; the characters indeed bear strong resemblance to those of Hitman Reborn. Only main female lead stands out like a sore thumb with her deliberately moe appearance. The animation is smooth and lifelike in most of the eps, action scenes feature good flow and a bit of cinematic slowmotion.


Sound.

Sound is definitely one of the strongest points of Psycho-Pass. It has excellent OPs and EDs in both seasons, two of which are performed by EGOIST. The sequences themselves are flashy and very stylish with nice 3-color graphics, which became PP's signature (at least for me XD). The soundtrack itself is excellent with some of bone-chilling orchestral pieces (I'll never be able to perceive the Ode to Joy like I did before). I have no complains about voice acting. In my opinion the voices matched all the characters and there was more than enough emotion involved.


Characters.

Characters....lets say while they are a complex bunch with some twists, they are also quite stereotypical. We have a by-the-book-at-all-costs guy (Ginoza), the-ends-justify-the-means guy (Kogami), an old-wise-cop (Masaoka), a light-hearted flirt (Kagari), a lesbian (Yayoi) and many more. Akane, the lead female character may also seem like your typical helpless idealistic girl at first, but I assure you she's not what it seems and in truth she has balls of steel. Makishima, the main bad guy and coincidentally my favorite character, bears strong resemblance to Yagami Light in being that sort of genius villain and that intense bond of opposition he forms with genius cop type, Kogami.


Now the good, the bad, the ugly.

The good thing about PP is that it's a fresh idea in the sci-fi anime market which has been drowning with mecha nonsense. It's strongest point is that it's aimed at older audience and therefore it maintains a good balance between gore and mental violence at the viewer, and the latter will keep you on the edge of your seat. The crimes are wonderfully cruel and present interesting philosophical ideas. Having said that, PP is easier to watch in this regard than GiTS where characters' dialogs often times consist of non-stop quoting of various writers and philosophers. PP has it as well, but to a lesser extent. Another strong point is that main character actually shows significant development, something you don't expect at all. Combined with steady pacing, it's quite a successful formula.

The bad thing about PP is that there's a very obvious shift in the atmosphere and pacing after the first half of the show. Gradual crimes abruptly reach a peak and much bigger events start taking place, I'd say a little too soon, which cheapens the gritty effect of the first episodes. It almost felt like the original idea for this anime had more episodes than just 22. Another bad thing is the way secondary characters are handled. We get a peak in the past of but a few of them, and in the end they don't bear strong relevance to action events at all. That's not to say that characters are bad though. I really found Makishima a fascinating villain but we never even got to see his personal reasons for committing crimes, or wanting to eradicate the system. Without that story seems incomplete.

Now for the ugly thing, which is definitely ending. No, it's not hideous or completely Urobutcher-like, or anything. It just doesn't seem to put a full-stop, a dot, to the line of plot. Instead of end of line we've got a metaphysical three dots and story never truly ends. Sure there is some philosophy and hidden message in it too, but honestly would you expect that kind of ending after watching all the episodes? The cycle isn't broken.

Despite the drawbacks, it's a very solid anime with a nice break from power play, mecha and military. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys GiTS or William Gibson stories. The ending? Just ignore it.

So what happens when you expose a group of people to a supernatural and unexplained phenomenon that breaks out of blue in our small small world? Sometimes they die. Sometimes they get insane. Most often they obtain supernatural powers.

At a glance Darker than Black is same old formula: an unexplained occurs, people magically obtain equally magical abilities and then Professor Xavier, pardon me, someone with enough brain figures out a way to brings such people together and put them to good use, for better or for worse. And then some choose path of evil, some choose path of good and some choose to be a ... superpower for hire. In Darker than Black it's mostly the latter.

Plot.
Like I mentioned above, Darker than Black may seem like an old formula but yet it has new taste to it. And so two mysterious anomalies known as Hell's and Heaven's Gate appear out of blue in two distant parts of the world, rendering areas around them into completely isolated areas somewhat akin to silent zones. What's more, somehow natural stars are gone from the sky. Meanwhile more and more people start manifesting supernatural abilities. As Darker than Black starts, there is little known initially about either Contractors, or Gates, or the link between the former and the stars. What makes this anime different from others with same concept is that the nature of Contractor is defined by word itself. They have to pay - sometimes severely - for the powers they use. And so following a contractor BK201/Hei who's working for mysterious syndicate we learn more about the world, the contractors and their types and his own personal quest.

There is no linear plot from point A to point B whatsoever. The story is, by and large, quite episodic, built in 2-3 episode arcs. What ties all these episodes together is Hei's personal quest rather than any particular events. That being said, the episodes offer diversity. We have episodes that focus on main characters, those which focus on supporting characters and those which are there just for the sake of humor. I can't say that in the end we learn everything, but most important questions will be answered - and rather satisfyingly at that.

Art.
The art is very solid, offering clean designs and vivid, lively colors. The surroundings are rendered beautifully, with full attention to light effects. Special effects pertaining superpowers are done well: nothing extraordinary but quite nice, with smooth animation. The character design is not exactly breathtaking but it's memorable enough.

Sound.
The soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno is absolutely fabulous. Darker than Black sports a wide range of ambient music, ranging from airy jazzy tunes to gorgeous instrumental pieces, my favourite being Yin no Piano. Battle and action themes are adrenaline-filled and will please rock lovers. The voice acting is great, especially for the protagonist. You can always hear the switching of his personality, each "mode" having a very specific manner of speech and voice tone.

Characters.
I loved practically all the characters, and this anime presents quite a party of truly different ones. There's quiet and perpetually melancholic medium, there's an awkward cop, there's a perverted middle-aged detective, there's a Bond-like agent and much more. Hei/BK201 undoubtedly steals the show with his unidentified personality; his professional and private personalities being like black and white and you'll be always wondering who he truly is, why he is like that, and whether he was the same prior the events of anime. The antagonists of the series could be sympathized with, which in fact makes certain episodes only more dramatic.

Overall.
DtB is a truly interesting anime which manages to combine a solid plotline with episodic narration. It has action, it has mystery, it has drama and it has humor and it has some bittersweet romance, believe it or not. Most importantly it's a classic, winning formula with a little fresh twist that definitely deserves your attention.

Aquarion Evol, what a ride it was. Legendary battles that took place more than 12,000 years ago, separated lovers, futuristic world, high-school, vehicle pilots possessing supernatural abilities, giant robots powered by orgasms...

Wait what? But alas, that's exactly what it is. First time you'll see it, you'll be like wtf; second time you'll see it you'll be face-desked and probably crying tears of laughter. That in a nutshell, is what Aquarion Evol is about. It's a bit of every genre (musics included) and it manages to make them work together at that.

Aquarion Evol is not meant to be taken too seriously though. It has unimaginable ... amounts of cheesy-corny moments (take that orgasm-driven mechas for instance) and quite a bit of melodramatic high-school scenes, but it's all perfectly bearable if you'd grin and laugh at it. If you seek military or action driven mecha anime, you'll probably be bitterly disappointed.

Story.
The main story is simple. One futuristic world experiences systematic human abductions due to unknown entities called "abductors", and the students of futuristic academy being the mecha pilots they are have to fight this unknowable unknown. With time, the intentions of abductors become clear and our heroes will be faced with tough choices. Meanwhile the main hero, a freshly enrolled student of aquaria academy, discovers mysterious competitor for the love of his life which is revealed to be tied to a sinister prophecy and a legend. The story per se, is not bad. Apart from main protagonists the series explores a bunch of secondary characters and gives some insight into the events of previous series, so you won't be left in the dark. The issue with this kind of story is that any side-story episodes do feel like fillers and the series would have been better without few of them. Otherwise this anime loses some of its event-driven focus. Unfortunately, this lack of focus and coherence becomes even stronger towards the end of the series, some events prior the ending come off as baffling and illogical.

Art.
The art is gorgeous. You'll want to stare and stare at beautifully rendered backgrounds inspired by Shanghai and Venezia. The light and sfx are also quite on par. The anime boasts memorable character designs. Animation is smooth and lively, particularly during the battle scenes.

Sound.
The soundtrack is filled with loveable ambient music, consisting from instrumental pieces, most notably crisp and dreamy piano arrangements. It also has quite a few songs in it, Aquaria Mau Sora probably being most beautiful out of all. The OP has classical epic feel to it, and it basically carves itself in your memory.

Characters.
Overall characters are a likeable bunch. It's shame though that Aquarion Evol suffers same disease as most shounen anime: the protagonists are much less appealing than secondary characters. Hell, even antagonists look better against main duo. By main duo I mean Amata and Mikono by the way. Amata no thanks to his way too meek demeanour comes off as spineless, and Mikono pretty much embodies that I-am-useless-but-I-try-to-be-better girl stereotype. Naturally these two would engage in all sorts of silly melodrama, but hey something gotta sustain romantic suspense, no? Having said that, I very much prefer secondary characters including minor antagonists. They offer much more badassery and humor. In the end of the day, even villains of Aquarion Evol are not that villainous. Misunderstood, driven to despair, having no other choice, but not inherently evil evil.

Overall.
Pretty enjoyable anime spiced with cheesy moments and humor, with both action and mystery involved. Well, minus the fillerish melodrama. A little awkward considering it's both high-school AND mecha, but still watchable. Me, I personally loved the music most. And Kagura's manner of speech :D

Take 1/2 LOST, add 1/4 Gantz and spice it with Mirai Nikki. Dish out with beautiful tropical landscapes and you will get Btooom!

Short story long, Btooom! is another anime that features a mysterious survival game in which much like in Mirai Nikki the players are meant to eliminate competition in order to survive. Or they could work together to achieve better results and together figure out what brought them all on a beautiful deserted island. What's more, what they have to do in reality is very close to the gameplay of a popular video/computer game called Btooom!

Plot. In all honesty the plot is quite intriguing ... and yes it did remind me of LOST somewhat. In the beginning there's a lot of mystery as to what brings the protagonists here, how many players there are out here, who's behind this massive kidnapping and much more. The "gameplay" concept of this anime is also very cool; simple and effective. As the story goes, a lot of questions will get their answers though don't expect absolutely shocking plot twists. Most of the episodes will leave you thrilled because action scenes are rather satisfying.

Art. The art is very good. Beautiful tropical island reminds me the fresh screens from Far Cry 3. The landscapes are lovingly detailed and there are great light/shadow effects. Characters are decently designed and overall are pleasant to the eye. Animation quality is very good, movements are smooth and life-like.

Sound. The OP is wonderful with upbeat rhythm and sweet animations. It fits just right to an action-filled anime. The ED is traditionally much more soothing and gentle, more instrumental too.

Characters. This is probably the weakest point as of yet, though definitely it doesn't ruin the anime considering that there should be second season down the road. Ryouta, the main protagonist, will probably get on your nerves quite a bit. His backstory unveils that he used to be a complete gaming junkie with no ambitions and goals and no regards to his family. Of course he will get to regret it all and repent his ways, but that's not my issue with him. My issue with him is his surprisingly "shounen" ideology of getting through such a grueling experience with his hands unstained, which is too naive and doesn't quite fit well into seinen aura this anime has. Sadly he doesn't change in that regard even by the end of the season and displays quite a number of such childish fits.
Another source of disappointment would be Himiko, a necessary set of nipples in this anime. Her backstory reveals several rape attempts and her struggle for survival. It's honestly quite expected that she'd act hostile towards male characters, still she comes around way too slow before even acting civil. The biggest letdown is that before she meets the main guy, she's perfectly able to stand up for herself, yet after the meeting she is reduced to a typically helpless big-boobed female which worships her hero (= read damsel in distress). Oh yeah speaking of boobs, they actually did a scene when a bomb ricochets off Himiko's. Glorious, isn't it.

Regardless, the relationships between the characters are taken slowly and steadily which is a big fat plus because it adds more realism and prepares good base for further episodes.

Overall, it's a very decent anime that combines nicely both action and suspense and does a good job portraying relationships and mind states of people in extreme situations. It's definitely better than similar survival titles like Mirai Nikki or Deadman Wonderland. This season completed, I'm actually looking forward to see the continuation.

It's hard to say what my expectations were when I ventured to watch Mawaru Penguindrum. I suppose I expected a mix of mystery and comedy, at least that's what I initially thought looking at its cover images. Well penguins too, of course. Well never judge anime by its cover, right? Not that I didn't get comedy or mystery or penguins, it's just that Mawaru Penguindrum is much much more than that. In the end, it's very goal is to prove that nothing is what it appears to be on the surface.

Art. It has definitely solid art and animation quality. The character design is nothing fancy, ... but perhaps this is very point : to showcase what's behind those common faces you'd see in daily life. There are cute "survival strategy" sequences which are very well executed in terms of creativity and style. You won't see super flashy effects in this anime, but then again, it's not an action to be packed with fx. Instead it focuses on adding surrealistic touch to the environments. There's also quite a creative approach to depicting some supporting characters and general crowd.

Sound. I can't say I fell in love with any OP or ED here, but they did fit the feel and style of the anime. The soundtrack itself is quite enjoyable actually; at very least it's not annoying and keeps around that feel of mystery and surrealism.

Plot. I must say that it's probably one of the most creative concepts I've seen in a while. It's weird, it's unrealistic and yet at the same time it's incredibly gripping. Long story short, two young men (two brothers) are faced with a task of finding a mysterious Penguindrum in order to save their terminally ill younger sister. Seems like an ordinary tale? So I thought as well in the beginning.
Truth to be told, the first couple of episodes may seem to be too dragged out with slow pacing and numerous "survival strategy" moments (the musical parts of which I shamelessly skipped). I was raging at the whole Penguindrum deal. I mean wtf, we don't even know what it is. And we don't need to actually; it's a macguffin. Anyway, afterwards the story pace picks up being lavished with fair share of comedy and suspense. One of the most wonderful features of this anime is that it's genuinely funny when it wants to be funny, and genuinely creepy when it wants to be creepy. As the story goes, you will face more and more surrealism and suspense, and believe me, at the end of each ep you will be sitting at the edge of your seat.

Now some feel repelled by amount of surreal plotlines to the point of losing track of what is what in the story, which is probably also true. It's not the kind of story where everything is on the surface and you may want to watch it again in order to grasp it. Another drawback is that some of the questions about characters and events pretty much stay unanswered to the very end, and this may seem like a major flaw. For me it didn't affect the enjoyment I've got from the series; I almost felt like I didn't need those answers at all.

Characters are a lovely bunch. Like I mentioned before, nobody is what she or he seems like to be on the surface. The happy family of brothers and sister, your average school girl, a kind and gentle school teacher, a brilliant actress...Everyone has a skeleton in a closet; not precisely a dark secret but a secret nonetheless. Some characters wonderfully combine comedy relief with creepiness which is what makes it fun to watch. In the end, everybody undergoes a change, big or little. Oh did I mention penguins? Because these are adorable too and watching them is like watching a comedy inside a comedy.

Overall I definitely watching with my breath held. It was hilarious and nerve-racking and very touching indeed. The comedy followed the recurring theme of treating people like trash and that followed some magic-surreal scene. In the end of the day, I didn't mind the puzzling events in the beginning, the penguins and macguffins and the way this anime ended. If you mind all those things, then it's not for you.

Project K. What can I say? I have mixed feelings about it; more importantly it is a typical sad case of great concept ruined by terrible execution. Here's why.

Lets put the story aside for a while, and talk about the concept. The concept for Project K is arguably fresh and creative. I won't call it particularly innovative but it does wonderfully so combine elements of sci-fi and fantasy. Seven Kings and their vassals endorsed by that special power, street gangs, military-like organizations and a high school and an inevitable evil mastermind behind all the events. It's a bit of everything and I suppose that's why ... it is non-standard. With proper attention to each and every bit of that we would have probably received a truly memorable anime. And here's where Project K fails hard. Being only 13 episodes long it does nothing to process those ingredients into an edible dish. We never as much learn about the origin of power that is inherent to kings or how they received it. Is it magic? Is it science and technology? Who are other kings? What is factual peculiarity of their power? What is the story behind the crater thing? etc. Same pretty much goes to every other plotline and character.

Plot itself is somewhat messy. We've got a mysterious murder and gangs who are going after the culprit who is in turn the main protagonist who suffers from amnesia who later discovers kings/vassals/magic and the actual murderer. Seems like a very action packed anime huh? Well it isn't. Good 2/3 of it we are having character interactions and chases which have very little to do with actual plot and hence the very gist of it is unveiled during final eps. Such uneven pacing keeps you hooked only during very first and very last episodes, becoming rather annoying in the middle. Most plotlines go nowhere and a lot of things are left unexplained, such as who's Neko, where's slate, past of certain characters. It just doesn't fall in place. That being said, amnesia is an awful plot-device.

Art. Now art is one of the few strong points that K has. Animation is smooth and beautiful featuring great camera angles and spectacular special effects. The art itself imitates a cross-processed film which makes it look bright and optimistic, easy on the eye. The character design is hit and miss. Some are nicely designed with a distinguished look, the others are your typical janes and joes you'd find in any anime. Overall, it's a visual eye-candy although the quality declines towards the end of series.

Sound. Another strong point. The soundtrack is crispy with some lovely piano arrangements, if a little repetitive. I have nothing much to say about OP and ED, they are both quite decent, but not the kind of songs that would stuck in your head.

Characters are poorly fleshed out and present nothing original. We have typical personality-less school mob. We have an odd main hero who acts somewhat like Haru from Tsuritama. We have Neko who is in a sense a cardboard copy of Shiro (Deadman Wonderland), and we have Kuro (a lovechild of Kanda x Sebastian). In fact we have a ton of characters which are implied to have had interesting ties to each other in the past and present, but sadly it is never fully unfolded in the anime. It's not to say that characters are annoying or boring from the start, not at all. What I imply is, with the length of anime, it just seems unreasonable to put such a crowd in and toss hints about their complex history. If it was 26 eps long, that would be fine. Alas, it is not.

Overall, it's easy to watch. Project K is that kind of anime that is perfectly watchable if you turn your brain off and just relax. It's not the best anime ever, nor it is the worst one. If you are looking for something other than just swords and mecha, this is probably a good choice.