Mouretsu Pirates (Anime)

In the distant future where people sail through space, piracy is not a crime, its a job. Letters of marque are given to pirate captains and their descendants to license legal pirating activities for show. One high school girl and member of the yacht club, Kato Marika, is such a descendant, inheriting one of the most famous pirate ships from a father she never knew. Now she has to adapt to her new way of life whilst trying to maintain a high school girl's life as well.

(Anime: 1 Season, 26 episodes, Finished)

From a title that translates into Bodacious Pirates, One would expect a lot more than the series delivered. The story isn't a bad idea and it makes for a very interesting sc-fi series, what with great art work, dynamic special effects, and a few flashes of comedy and action thrown in. But that's it really; the series is only 'interesting'. It doesn't stand out in any category and comes across as being very sluggish. The story isn't bad, but it seems to get wrapped up in the whole science fiction aspect and spends too long going "look, we think this is how people will pirate in space". The plot is devided into several arcs but none of them really wow you, and mostly have nothing to do with one another, just one story after the next. The characters a mediocre, and a lot of the time very annoying: they seem to be able to do anything without hassle and spend most of the time being giggling girls (The cast is 80% female, and no there is no fan-service). The whole thing feels like it was building up to a climactic conclusion, but after the first two or three episodes you soon discover the whole anime runs at the same tone and pace. Good, not great, an entertaining sci fi and a VERY laid back series, sums up Mouretsu Pirates nicely.

Rating - 

5/10

High School of the Dead (Anime)

One day, Zombies break out all over Japan and the rest of the world, causing chaos and deaths everywhere. A high school is one of the first major break out points and one boy, Takashi, survives the first out break with a group of friends, a teacher and a young girl and dog are now stuck in the middle of a zombie (known as 'Them') filled city. Now they have to get through it to find their missing families and get out before they all die, or worse.

(Anime: 1 Season, 12 episodes, Finished. Manga: 7 volumes, stopped)

To review High School of the Dead (HSOTD), I have to try to be fair, but to sum up the series, it yo-yo's from an epic horror action story to a bad porno. Dealing with the latter first, there is an inordinate amount of fan service and echi moments (trying to sum it up, the people who survive are Takashi, his childhood crush, a senior in his school, a classmate who likes him and a teacher with huge boobs....it doesn't have to try hard to become porn). Personally I don't mind saying the occasional touch of fan service is ok, but this goes over the line A LOT.

Once you get past that though, this is a thrilling and terrifying series, with a good deal going for it. It even a good deal of subtly message undertones, an takes a good look at how people hold up under this sort of event and how society and people try to stay sane through it all (it doesn't go well for most of them). This is something which isn't really looked at by most horror/zombie films and it really helps to expand the genre a bit. Also there is constant referencing to old RPG games with the ideas of objectives and character classes, which again is interesting to note. It doesn't do much for the story but it is fun to keep an eye out for.

The rest of HSOTD isn't too bad either. The story is pretty good when you consider the above points, but it does go to some dark places so be prepared for that (although to be honest most of the hard core stuff is dealt with in episode 1), and also the manga stopped running without having a decent conclusion, which is frankly annoying. All the characters (in spite of the harem quality to them) are fun to watch, non more so than the military trained, trigger happy, eccentric lunatic Hirano who is probably the best character of the bunch. The fights and action scenes are fantastic, mixing traditional zombie survivalism with some down right bad-ass-ness. In the end, once you get past the porn aspects and the lack of a decent conclusion, HSOTD, becomes is the ideal companion for any fan of horror movies and a great watch for most anime fans.

Rating - 

8/10

Natsuiro Kiseki (anime)

Four high school girls are close friends in their local town; Natsumi, Saki, Yuka and Rin. They used to spend all day together, but then Saki says that she has to move away. After fights and squabbles the girls decide to spend the rest of summer making enjoyable memories, aided by a magic rock that, when the four make the same wish, uses magic to make that wish come true.

(Anime: 1 Season, 12 episodes, Finished)

Tremendous fun and a hell of a good ride to watch, loveable from the word go. This series has everything, a touchingly sweet story line, gorgeous art work and lots of adventure and highjinks. Probably the one big flaw is that the story often feels like it is suggesting the characters are more than just good friends, and that is a shame because it spoils an otherwise perfect plot. No one in the series ever openly says anything like that of course, but the idea is just subtly planted there to bother people. And sometimes this is emphasised by moments of unnecessary fan service that feels very out of place. But apart from that the characters are thoroughly enjoyable, giving four different character points that touch the hearts of any anime fan. Then there is the magic side of things: at first glance this sounds like a kiddy theme but it really isn't. It is a fun device that ties everything together and wouldn't make the series great with out it. And it creates all kinds of mischief that will have you side split with laughter or smiling warmly with emotion. So if you ignore the unfortunate double entendre, Natsuiro Kiseki, becomes a must watch.

Rating - 

9/10

Sankarea (Anime)

Chihiro is an ordinary high schooler who lives at a temple, apart from having a fetish for zombies and only being interested in Zombie girls. When his cat dies, he finds an old book with instructions on how to bring back the dead and tries to bring his cat back to life as a zombie. While he is practicing, he meets the princess of the school, Sanka Rea, who lives a privileged but manipulated lifestyle. Her father is overly possessive of her, but all she wants is to be a normal girl. After an accident, Chihiro revives Rea as a zombie, and so begins his days of observing her whilst trying to keep her body alive.

(Anime: 1 Season, 12 Episodes, Finished (?)

There is a lot about this series which was quite interesting, but unfortunately it lacked a great deal. The story is a very interesting idea, taking the classic zombie horror genre and giving it a minor change (namely that there isn't a huge zombie apocalypse and the 1st zombie girl is basically just a normal girl who is undead). For people who were expecting another High School of the Dead this will either be a welcome break or a let down (although there is enough fan service to certainly challenge HSOTD). There are some interesting edits and the art work is enjoyable to watch, but not all that different from mainstream designs. The characters a bit swing and miss: the main character Chihiro is both irritating and a kind person, so its hard to discern whether to like him or not. There is a great/crazy villain in Rea's father, and the rest of the characters are fun to watch although they don't stand out too well, with the possible exception being Chihiro's mentally weak grandfather and caretaker sister.

Honestly the real trouble of this series is that it spends a lot of time setting everything up. There is not real closure from just these twelve episodes and the whole structure feels like it is meant to lead into a bigger story that is only vaguely touched upon. If there is a second season lined up then it will be greatly received, but thats all season one feels like; a prequel. Overall Sankarea is a good series but leaves you wanting just a little more.

Rating - 

7/10

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Another crawling Chaos (Anime)

One day, Mahiro Yasaka is attacked by a strange monster on night. His life is saved by the Cthulhu deity Nyarlathotep, a.k.a Nyaruko, who has come from the galactic space police to protect Yasaka and earth and more specifically to read up on earths entertainment industry. All the while trying any method she can think of to get Yasaka's attention, and get him into bed. Now she spends her days with Yasaka protecting him while meeting other Cthulhu deities who have other interests in Nyaruko and Yasaka.

(Anime: 1 season, 12 episodes, Finished)

The description makes this series sound pretty random, and thats because it is. The writers clearly though 'how many parodies can we cram into 12 episodes?': the answer is A LOT. Half the series is devoted to ripping off other shows and making a laugh out of it (From what I saw, there was Kamen Rider, Gundam and many others. You're head will ache from trying to count them all). But unfortunately that becomes the best bit of the series, and the rest if very mediocre. The story and animation are very mainstream, nothing new or exciting on that front. There are several characters (male and female) who have an interest in the protagonist who is content to ignore them all or stab them with forks. Although this sounds fun, the characters with interest are very off the walls looney and this can be very annoying. There are some rare glimpses of sweet emotion that make up for it but overall you can see why Yasaka gets annoyed by them at all. There are some good moments of humour from all this, but they don't stand out agains the multitude of parodies. If parodies are what you're into then you'll love this show, but the story will get old really fast so don't expect too much from the rest of the show.

Rating - 

4/10

Aquarion Evol (Anime)

12000 years have passed since the time of Aquarion, and the earth is under threat again. An alien species is coming to earth and stealing women from humanity. The only ones who can fight back is a school that is split between boys and girls. They pilot three robot sets that combine to become the mighty aquarion robot, but because of an old accident, there is a rule that the opposite sexes can not combine together. That is until one day, during an abductor attack, the boy Amata, who has golden wings on his heels, and the kindly girl Mikono climb aboard one of the machines and combines with another boy and girl, breaking the seal and unleashing the power of the new Aquarion Evol.

(Anime: 1 Season, 26 episodes, Finished)

At first glance this looks like a remake of the great sci-fi series Sousei no Aquarion, but it soon becomes clear that this is in fact a direct sequel to it (give or take 12,000 years. I still don't understand how they came to that number). And this was a great reveal because to be honest the end of Sousei no Aquarion left me feeling a little unsatisfied. And Aquarion Evol does a fantastic job of not only meeting the requirements of the previous series, but also exceeds it in a number of ways. Firstly it meets the standard action sequences and giant mecha fights that we've come to expect from Sousei, and goes a lot further by introducing many new attacks and abilities that are guaranteed to be both awesome and laughable at times. Anything you can think of, there may be an attack for it. Then there are the characters of which there are plenty. All of which have their own unique powers as with Sousei and there are lots of relationship webs forming amongst them that are half the fun of the series. There is even a cameo from some of the original cast (including Fuudo Zen, not to give away too much but his deal is finally explained). There are lots good romantic moments, comedic antics and great fights, all culminating in a fabulous series, making up for everything Sousei lacked. One last note: there is a punchline about the series that is almost impossible to see, and when it finally gets sprung on you, then expect to smack yourself in the face for not seeing it.

Rating - 

10/10

Zetman (Anime)

A secret organisation once created a new species of monstrous creatures known as players to fight in gladiatorial combat. But those players rebelled and escaped, hiding among the humans of society. During the rebellion, one scientist steals the creature Zet, a player who is more powerful than any other, but can become almost 100% human. The scientist wants to raise Zet as a human and names him Jin. Several years later, Jin realises his true powers and decides to fight against the players to protect humanity.

(Anime: 1 season, 13 episodes, Finished)

This is an exciting and full throttle anime, even if you have to use a flash light to look through all the dark to see it. It's a fantastic science fiction, with a good dose of mystery and action thrown in for good measure. The story is very good, leading to a lot of grim ideas that smell of real issues, but get thrown off by the overall fiction of the piece. I'm not going to lie, although there are a lot of exciting moments, these are put along side some very intense moments. There is a lot of blood, people getting ripped apart,  violence torture, and this can all get a bit too much at times, so Zetman may not be for everybody. The evil creatures are actually pretty well developed and designed, and they are given a good story line to match. Then there are the good characters: Jin is a bad ass guy and easily likeable as the main hero, but there is another hero Kouga who tries to fight using a scientifically developed super suit. He honestly gets pretty annoying and lame in places, not having any of the same flare of cool factor as Jin. There are lots of support characters and most of these are more likeable than Kouga but I don't want to give away too much so i won't go into all of them. There is plenty to offer from Zetman, especially if you are a fan of darker stuff like the new Batman trilogy. But as i said it will become a bit hard core so just brace yourself for that.

Rating - 

8/10