Anime Review - Oreshura

"Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru", "My girlfriend and childhood friend fight too much", Oreshura, is a harem-like romantic comedy anime, released in 2013 January-March, produced by A-1 Pictures, known for Sword Art Online, Black Butler and Fairy Tail. Oreshura is a bowl of fresh air, as it is nice and relaxing, while being good. It looks generic and it is for the most part, but there some things that are a bit different. Let's get to it.

Story
Oreshura follows our protagonist Eita Kido, a new highschooler who lives alone, is working very hard to become a doctor and is completely anti-love. He is very smart and a top student at his school. One day, the beauty of the class, Masuzu Natsukawa, after noticing that Eita is the only free boy at school who hasn't confessed to her, decides to make Eita her fake boyfriend, to dissuade the boys from confessing anymore. Eita is, at first, totally against, but Masuzu starts blackmailing him with his own notebook, which was inadvertently sent to a book store and Masuzu found it. In that notebook, are all the embarrassing delusions Eita had in junior school, and that he tried to forget. He definitely doesn't want the notebook to be exposed and, as a result, he accepts to be her fake boyfriend. His childhood friend Chiwa Harusaki, who has a crush on Eita, quickly learns about that and of course get upset. So, right here, the meaning of the title is revealed. But of course, this isn't the whole thing.
Masuzu creates a strange club: "Maiden Society For Performing Your Own Life", to help people getting more popular. At first, only Masuzu, Eita and Chiwa are members.
Two others major characters appear later on: Himeka Akishino, a girl with many delusions just like Eita had before; and Ai Fuyuumi, the tsundere and student comitee member. Both harbor feelings for Eita too, of course; and they both join the club later on. Something I LOVE about this anime, is that ALL 4 girls confess to Eita. Everyone of them. Most of the time, we hardly even see 1 girl confessing. Even in To Love-Ru, only 3 girls out of 14 have confessed. Here it is 4/4. Credits for that!
This is an anime I really enjoyed a lot. It is a calm and relaxing show, that made me feel comfortable through all the episodes. It certainly isn't unique, but I felt nice watching it. It has a comfortable atmosphere, not something you find much nowadays.

Characters
Compared to other romance harems, Oreshura doesn't have many characters, which adds to the calm impression and feeling I got. Despite being few, they were pretty enjoyable and likeable. We have:

• Eita Kido, the anti-love protagonist. After his parents divorced, found new companions, and abandonned him, he decided to despise romance, which he does. Now, that doesn't mean he is a romance brick; actually, he is one of the very few romantic comedy protagonists, who understands that girls are after him; high credits for that. He is a top student at school, and decides to become a doctor, due to some events. He is calm, analytic and serious. In the past, however, he had many delusions, which he tried hard to forget. When he gets very emotional, it is possible he reverts back to his delusional self for a short time. Comedy guaranteed.
• Masuzu Natsukawa. Like Eita, she is anti-love, because she is sick of having constantly all the boys confess to her. She is one of the biggest bitches in anime history! While she is beautiful and seems kind and nice, she is actually sarcastic, selfish, arrogant, bossy and even cold sometimes, while toying with people for her own amusement. However, there is a reason behind that. But, even with all that, I don't hate her; but I certainly dislike her. She does have emotions and her funny moments, too, so it compensates.
• Chiwa Harusaki, Eita's childhood friend. She is a short, cheerful, energetic, funny and very cute girl, who adds joy and funny moments to the series. She has a crush on Eita since a long time, but she really started showing it, after Masuzu's appearance. She is my favourite character of the show.
• Himeka Akishino, a mostly silent and shy girl with delusions just like Eita's. She believes hard as steel that she was Eita's girlfriend in a previous life, and tries to "regain" Eita's affection in her "present" life. She is very funny and cute.
• Ai Fuyuumi, the tsundere of the group. She is a member of the school hall comitee, who is serious and strict when doing her job. At first dislikeable, I started to like her more and she became cutter, as more of her dere side was showing up. She harbors feelings her Eita, of course.

There also a few supportive characters like Eita's aunt, Eita's best friend and Masuzu's little sister, who's also a bitch.

Though generic, they are all great and enjoyable characters, with matching personalities, that didn't make me bored a single instant.

Sound

For a generic-looking harem romantic comedy, the sound and music is this anime is pretty good. Not an epicness, but still very good. It matches the different scenes very well, either they are relaxing, funny, energetic or dramatic, especially the music playing when Masuzu is activating her bitch mode. The opening "Girlish Love" is nice, cheerful and catchy, while the ending is also catchy and beautiful. The voice acting is done very well, with each voice matching each character very well. Noticeable voice actress: Ai Kayano, who voices Ai Fuyuumi, who became more popular after voicing for Shiina Mashiro (Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo).

Animation

Being produced by A-1 Pictures, producers of Sword Art Online, it was evident the animation would be good, and it was. Smooth, colorful and beautiful, a good job was done. The characters aren't of the best detail, but their expressions are well done. I also noticed, that they all had a sort of cuteness to them, which isn't a bad thing.

Final Verdict

Story : 7.5

Characters : 8.2
Sound : 7.1
Animation : 8.1
Enjoyement : 8.8
Total : 7.94

Oreshura is a nice romantic comedy, with enjoyable characters and a story that is good for a genre like that. It has its own small unique things, and combined with appropriate music and good animation, it becomes a nice show to watch. Like I said, it is a bowl of fresh hair, as it is relaxing and entertaining. Romantic comedy fans should check this one out.

This ends my 5th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163

MyAnimeList profile: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow

Anime Review - Yuushibu

Yuushibu is yet another anime CERTAINLY NOT with a strange - or stupid - name. "Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku o Ketsui Shimashita", "I couldn't become a hero, so I reluctantly decided to get a job" or "Yuushibu". That's definitely NOT a weird name. It is a 12-episode ecchi, fantasy, romantic comedy, animated by AsRead, a supportive anime studio which helped for Zero no Tsukaima, Fairy Tail, Hayate no Gotoku, Sword Art Online, Madoka Magica a.o; they also have a main work which is very well-known: Mirai Nikki. And this time, the story has to do with... working at a magic shop?!? Yep, another strange premise. Let's get to it.

Story
Yuushibu resolves around our main protagonist, Raul Chaser, an employee at a magical shop called Leon. Before working there, it is revealed that he was a "hero" who was battling against demons and his dream was to become one of the greatest. However, when the demon lord was defeated, all these "heroes" weren't needed anymore and were left to the side, Raul being one of them. With his dream crushed, he started working at Leon to live. His daily life was monotone and boring since then, while there aren't many customers. One day, someone appears at the shop and wants to apply for a job at the shop. Raul and the others find out that the new recruit is Fino Bloodstone, the daughter of the previous demon lord. Having grown all her life in the kingdom of her father, she doesn't have much common sense, speaks about violent things while selling items, but is very carefree and positive. Her personality tires Raul, who tries to make her adapt to the environment of the shop, that she does slowly and steadily. For like the first 9 episodes, there isn't anything special at all. At the 10th episode, a sort of more serious stuff happens with Fino as the descendant of the demon lord and the "heroes", but nothing super amazing. This anime is more like a relaxing moment, which isn't bad, even if there are better ones. Be aware you may facepalm at some points.

Characters
Without being bad, the characters are not anything special either. You have the generic main guy, bored with his life; the main big-breasted over-energetic girl; the silent girl; the supportive 2nd guy; the air-head; the annoying tsundere; the I-secretly-love-Raul chick; the so-cheerful-and-kind-it-becomes-creepy girl; and the bossy pettanko. They are overall likeable - except the tsundere - and enjoyable to watch. Very generic, but not bad. [...] There is one thing I couldn't understand about Fino though: How the hell did she manage to hide her huge breasts with just a small jacket in the 1st episode?!?!

Sound
Nothing special with the sound either. The opening is catchy and the ending nice though. For the rest, it is like the generic romantic comedy music. As for the voice acting... Well, it certainly wasn't great, but I think each voice fits the characters' personalities pretty well; especially since coming from new people.

Animation
The overall animation is good, without being great. AsRead already having a lot of experience in anime production, made a good job at making the animation colorful, smooth and fluent. The few action scenes in the beginning and ending are also done very well, even reminding a bit of SAO, which by the way, was a visual masterpiece. It was done well enough to make the world of Yuushibu look great.

Final Verdict
Story : 5.5
Characters : 7.2
Sound : 5.5
Animation : 7.8
Enjoyment : 7.1
Total : 6.62

Yuushibu is a relaxing and funny romantic comedy, with overall nice characters and good animation, but mediocre music and a not great premise. If you have nothing to watch or want something simple and relaxing, you may want to give Yuushibu a chance.

This ends my 4th anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163

MyAnimeList profile: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow

Top 10 Most Powerful Anime Characters

Here I will present the 10 most powerful anime characters in my opinion. Before starting, I have to specify a few things. 1) The list is totally opinionated, so if you don't agree with me, then it's okay and by all means leave a comment on your thoughts of this subject. 2) The characters I will present are ONLY from anime I have seen. Notice that I have NOT seen One Piece, Bleach or Dragon Ball. So no Luffy, Ichigo, Aizen, Ulquiora or Goku in here. I'm sorry, but that's how it goes. 3) No more than 2 characters per anime, otherwise it would be unfair. 4) There will surely be VERY important spoilers in the list. You have been warned.
Now that this is out of the way, let's go to the list. Enjoy!

10) Eve (Black Cat) / Yami (To Love-Ru)
Two characters of the same spot? What is it, a tie? Not exactly. More like same character, with same name, apperance and almost similar personality and background... And very similar powers. Both Eve and Yami are human weapons created by scientists. Eve has nanotechnology implented inside her body, while Yami is more simply an alien living weapon. Both have the ability to transform any part of their body, even their hair, into a weapon: sword, mace, hammer, chainsaw, drill, dagger etc. They can also transform into or gain characteristics of animals, like wings or fish-tails, helping them adapt to their environment. Transforming in whatever she wants to fit the situation she is in, is OP.

9) Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic X)
Shadow, the ultimate life form, created by Professor Gerald Robotnik, has its place in here. This small black humanoid hedgehog, rival of Sonic, has great abilities. Not only is he faster than Sonic, he is also overall stronger than him. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Shadow is able to teleport, create space distortions, launch missiles and beams and create explosions of Chaos energy. He is also a great melee fighter, with stength in his arms and legs, and having some nice techniques. When all 7 Chaos Emeralds are together, Shadow transforms into the golden Super Shadow, where he becomes immensily powerful and almost unbeatable for some time. And to become even stronger, he can dismantle the rings he has around his wrists, at the side effect to become fatigued soon after. The only reason he is not higher is because his super form is limited in time.

8) Naraku (Inuyasha)
Inuyasha is an anime where the power level is much much lower compared to other anime. However, Naraku is someone you don't want to fuck with. This half-demon responsible for Inuyasha's, Miroku's, Sango's and Kikyou's dark pasts merits this spot on the list. His evilness is so strong, it could even be considered a weapon itself, considering he won't hesitate an instant to do what he does. He is able to summon many tentacle-like branches and roots he can control at will, that will pierce, wind up and crush anything it founds. He also has a huge army of poisonous flying insects, the Saimyosho. An extremely powerful miasma envelops Naraku's body and its branches, which will melt anything it makes contact with; he is able to create strong barriers, blocking most incoming attacks; while his final form in a gargantuan spider so huge, that you can enter the body of the spider. However, inside it, beware of the constant miasma and of the strong illusions Naraku can cast on you. He is a powerful character which has been shown countless times.

7) Hakuoro (Utawarerumono)
Hakuoro is a very strong and capable warrior, as it has been seen many times. However, what puts him on the list is: he is a god. Yep, just that. Unfortunately, we don't see him much in his god form. However, we do know for a fact that he is immensily strong. When a god, he takes the form of a huge monster, becoming a savaged beast, destroying anything in his path, stomping, biting, punching and crushing everything. He easily destroys the land's most powerful robots in seconds, showing no mercy. There really isn't much more to say about him, however.

6) Alastor, God of Retribution, "Flame of Heaven" (Shakugan no Shana)
Alastor, the Crimson Denizen, that Shana made a contract with to become a Flame Haze, is here. Most of the time, Alastor has the form of a pendant around Shana's neck. Even, without showing any power, we know he is strong; all Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens - even Bal Masque - know about, respect and fear him. In all 3 seasons, Alastor's true power is shown only one time, at the final episode of the 1st season. But, that single time is more than enough to conclude that he is freaking overpowered. Shana, upon activating her ultimate spell, awakened Alastor who engulfed the whole Seireiden - Bal Masque's HQ - and a part of the city, into gigantic burning and destructive flames, that can turn mostly everything to ashes. In the episode, Alastor doesn't seem to have any form; it almost seems like his body is the flames themselves. In the movie however - which is, basically, a sumed up version of the 1st season - , Alastor takes the form of a sort of huge titan with horns, big teeth and shit. Moreover, Alastor's power becomes greater, the more enemies there are around him, as he directly absorbs their power.

5) Makarov Dreyar (Fairy Tail)
The 3rd and 6th guild master of Fairy Tail, this kind and cheerful old man is someone you don't want to fuck with. As a member of the Ten Wizard Saints, Makarov has proven many times how much powerful he is. He can use some fire, wind, ice and requip magic. But his real power starts with Light Magic; he can create devastating beams or strong shields, blocking most hits. Speaking of defenses, his most powerful one, "Three Pillar Gods", is so strong it could completely block one of Hades' most powerful attacks, which devastated Tenrou Island later on. Then comes his signature move: Titan; as it sounds, Makarov becomes huge, big enough to become as big as Tenrou Island, enhancing his strength exponentially - enough to destroy Hades' main airship with a single punch - and immensely increasing his durability, as shown when he took the blast of Grimoire Heart's Jupiter Cannon head on, with only a moderate bruise on his arm, or when he was able to block and endure Acnologia's attacks, the most powerful dragon in history. Finally, he is shown to be able to use one of Fairy Tail's three legendary spells: Fairy Law. Basically, when activating, Makarov gets enveloped by a bright light and a sort of explosion of light occurs, dealing very heavy damage to whoever the user sees as an enemy, leaving friends and bystanders completely unharmed. It is so powerful that Makarov defeated another member of the Ten Wizard Saints, Jose Porla, in a single blow.

4) Zeref (Fairy Tail)
Zeref is considered the ultimate strongest and most evil mage of all times. He has a sort of double personality, due to the too enormous amount of magic power he has acquired. First is his normal personality, the super evil mage who shows no mercy or pity and will kill anything in his path, while having total control over his powers; the second one is an emotional, calm and life-caring young man, who sometimes loses control of his magic power, which bursts out randomly. One of his powers is very simply to kill any living thing he desires, releasing his magic in the form of a burst, a wave, a pillar or a projectile, like he did with Zancrow and Hades. Another one is to infuse life into objetcs and transform them into powerful demons, like Deliora or Lullaby. Finally, there is a constant dark aura around Zeref. While being on Tenrou Island, just him standing there made the trees and plants die. He is not higher, because the true extent of his power still hasn't been shown.

3) Madara Uchiha (Naruto)
Before even starting, I will say that I don't know much about Madara, as I dropped both the anime and manga of Naruto during the war; as a result I won't be able to say much about him. I am aware though, that Madara was, together with Hashirama Senju, the foundator of Konoha. After barely surviving the battle he had against the latter to decide who would become the First Hokage, Madara came up with a plan that would make him the ruler of the ninja world, years later. Just like every Uchiha, Madara possesses the Sharingan, but also all of its powers; however, he has attained such mastery of it, that, after many years infusing himself with Hashirama's cells, he managed to get the legendary and extremely powerful Rinnegan, an eye technique with various effects, like magnetism, super summoning, jutsu repeller, masterful sensor and soul retriever. He has attained the power of eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and ultimate Susanoo, a huge weapon-holder warrior-like impenetrable shield, strong enough to slice a mountain or a meteor in half with its sword, with the same power as a Tailed-Beast.

2) Hashirama Senju (Naruto)
Like Madara, I don't know much about Hashirama. I do know however, that Hashirama is a living power-house, with a huge amount of chakra in his body. Hashirama was, together with Madara Uchiha, the foundator of the Konoha Village and became the first Hokage after defeating the latter in a duel to the death. His elements are water and earth and combining them he creates his unique wood element. He can summon pillars, pikes and monsters made of immensely chakra-powered wood. His jutsus are also capable of being powerful enough to seal the power of the Tailed-Beasts inside their holders again, if they go out of control, even the Ten-Tails. He is also one of the very few to have gained the power and skill to enter Sage Mode, which increases every skill, technique and jutsu of Hashirama immensely, to the point he was able to destroy Madara's Ultimate Susanoo.

1) Eucliwood Hellscythe (Kore wa Zombie desu ka?)
Many of you may not have even heard of this character. If that's the case, let me introduce you. Eucliwood is a beautiful and cute girl, from an ecchi, romantic harem comedy anime. Then, how can someone like that be stronger than Zeref, Madara and Hashirama? Eucliwood is so strong that if she had to battle 1 vs 10 with all the previous characters of the list, she would win without even sweating. First of all, she is a necromancer from the underworld with a huge amount of magical energy and her primary weapon is a giant scythe she uses efficiently. She is also capable of transforming into a Mahou Shoujo, gaining huge powers. However, what distinguishes her from everyone else is her Reality Warping ability. With it she can revive people from the dead, heal others and - her greatest weapon - afflict death. Just by saying the word "Die", Eucliwood is able to kill a person in an instant. Poof! No prerequisites. Just like that. It is that simple. Now, you could think, "Someone could just shoot a powerful beam from a big distance and kill her, before she can speak." Good thinking, but... there is a small problem. Eucliwood is (almost) immortal. An immortal Mahou Shoujo Necromancer who can kill just by saying "Die". That is pretty strong! However, she does have a weakness: herself. Her powers consume so much power that, if she uses them too much, she will experience pain in her head and eventually faint (not die). Same goes for her healing powers: she suffers pain equal to the amount of damage she healed; in other words, the wound/pain is transfered to her. I am not totally sure, but I think the only way for her to die, would be for her to use too much of her powers. To prevent that, she constantly wears a magical armor to suppress her powers and only communicates with paper notes. That doesn't change the fact that Eucliwood Hellscythe is so immensely strong, that I don't think even Goku could beat her or survive to her; the only ones who could would be other immortal characters. To put it simply, Eucliwood is the character with the less possibilities of losing.

This ends my third top 10. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinion on this list or your personal strongest anime characters. Thank you for reading.

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163
MyAnimeList account: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow

Anime Review - Toradora!

Christmas is only in about a few hours. And I thought; what better Christmas anime review than Toradora? Why? Because some of this anime's most important moments take place in winter and Christmas. Enjoy.

Toradora! is a 25 episode anime, which was animated by J.C. Staff, and with the following genres: Romance, Comedy, Slice of life, Drama, School. It is without any doubt, one of the best in its category. Out of the shows I have seen, the only one that surpasses Toradora! is Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. But, even in its second place, it is a great show. It is funny, touching, beautiful and, at times, tears-bringing anime that should please all romantic comedy fans.

Story

Ryuuji Takasu, our main protagonist, is a normal high school student that many are afraid of. Why? Because of his eyes, and at times, creepy face, he is thought to be aggressive or a delinquent, even by the teachers, while he is actually a very good person. Only two students accept him as he is: his best friend, the intelligent and diligent, yet a bit strange, Yuusaku Kitamura and the super-energetic, crazy, cheerful and smiling Minori Kushieda, for whom Ryuuji has a huge crush. One day, as he is walking in the hallway, he is bumped into by Taiga Aisaka, the female protagonist - who is known as "Palmtop Tiger" due to her small size and violent attitude - who knocks him out with a punch, for not stepping aside. He later discovers that Taiga is in love with Yuusaku, after Taiga inadvertently puts an empty love letter into the wrong bag. After the misunderstanding cleared, and Ryuuji confessing to Taiga that he loves Minori - who is Taiga's best friend - they decide to help each other to get closer to the one they love and ultimately confess to them. Taiga lives alone in a spacious apartment right next to Ryuuji's house. As Taiga's house is a complete mess and Ryuuji is a cleaning freak, he decides to help her with cleaning and food, like friends. However, as time passes, Ryuuji and Taiga start getting closer and having feelings for each other, ultimately completely falling in love.

This show is actually a big nest of love interests, which is a great part of the slice of life and drama aspect of it. Although the idea is simple, the way it is done is just perfect. The romance is not pushed, the characters act accordingly to their feelings, logic and heart, and it builds up a beautiful and touching atmosphere that moved more than one. The drama is pretty deep and displayed well, especially since the characters do not react illogically, and their emotions get to us in a touching way.

As for the comedy, it is amazing. There were many scenes I was laughing out loud, and that's a good thing. The majority of the comical relief comes from Minori, but Yuusaku and Ami get their share; while the two protagonists are more for the romance dramatic aspect, even if all five played their part in both comedy and drama very well. The comedy was very relaxing between the dramatic scenes, and at the same time, it was making us feel at ease, while keeping the biggest dramatic and emotional parts for the last episodes.

As always however, no anime is totally perfect. Toradora had very few mistakes, but I still have to tell them. The one that stood out the most for me is that exact same drama. Even if it was very good, I felt like it was too pushed at some points. I felt that some dramatic scenes were far-fetched, thus making them unreal, while normally they would have felt completely possible. I mean, there are moments where there are dramatic scenes one after another, again and again, which made me feel like the show was doing too much, and as a result ruined a bit of it, making it look fake and impossible to happen to anyone ever. The second thing is that I would have liked the anime to show a bit of the past of the characters, especially the one of Ryuuji; and, most importantly, that they would have made 1-2 episodes of the close future (about 3 years later) of how all the characters lived after graduation and what they did. That would have been very interesting and enjoyable. But that's really it. This anime is so great that I don't have much bad things to say about it.

Characters

The characters in this show are amazing, well thought, with great personalities which made me eager to see them again and again. The chemistry of bonding and relationships was executed effectively, without any awkward feelings left behind. We have:

• Taiga Aisaka. Female protagonist and one of the best and most popular tsunderes. She is brutal, stubborn and negative at first, while being cute and beautiful, with an under-developed body. She is very bad at interacting with people, except with her best friend Minori. She is in love with Yuusaku, but doesn’t have the courage to confess to him. However, slowly after meeting Ryuuji, they quickly develop a friendship that will eventually turn into love, which is guessed from the very beginning.
• Ryuuji Takasu. The main guy of this show. He is a kind and self-sufficient 17 year-old boy, who has a bit too much of an obsession with cleaning, and whose eyes make him look like a delinquent, creating misunderstandings. He is best friends with Yuusaku and has a huge crush on Minori, but doesn’t have the courage to confess. He starts taking care of Taiga, because she is incompetent of doing it herself, and Ryuuji can’t stand it. He quickly starts having a strong bond with her, slowly approaching true love.
• Minori Kushieda. A cheerful, crazy, energetic and athletic girl who is Taiga’s best friend. She often does or says weird things, which make Taiga and Ryuuji usually wonder what she is even talking about. She often takes part-time jobs more like a hobby than for a living. Despite being air-headed at times, she is someone who cannot be fooled easily and is able to see through people’s real goals.
• Yuusaku Kitamura. The best friend of Ryuuji, he is a smart and, most of the time, serious boy who is in the top students of the school and is vice-president of the student council. However, he has, like Minori, an unusual personality, as he will sometimes follow her craziness or even do weird things on his own.
• Ami Kawashima. She is a beautiful, “kind” and “generous” girl who has worked as a model and is Yuusaku’s childhood friend. In reality, she is a spoiled and arrogant bitch, who sometimes toys with people for her enjoyment. There is a kind of reason for the 2 first, but it doesn’t change the fact she’s a bitch. She has developed unstable relationships with Taiga, Ryuuji and Minori, as they often argue and clash. She also develops some feelings for Ryuuji, later on.

There are, of course, other characters that have an important supporting role, like Ryuuji’s mother, the student council president, and the four friends. They all are enjoyable - even Ami – and they were created very well, with realistic personalities, facing real-life problems and how they react to them. We feel compassion for them, as we understand their decisions and what they go through. The atmosphere itself that they create is strong and attracts you to the show. The bonding between all characters is done in an amazing way, and we feel the intensity of it from the main characters.

Music

The music in Toradora was very good. Without being an audio masterpiece, the soundtracks were either giving me energy or making my feelings come out, most notably “Lost my Pieces”. They were fitting the show’s moments very well as they were emphasized. The ending songs were nothing special. The openings, however, were really nice, especially the first one: “Pre-Parade”, which was sung by the voice actresses of Taiga, Minori and Ami. The voice acting was executed well, too. Rie Kugimiya does once again a perfect job in the voice-acting of Taiga. Well-known Junji Majima, Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura voice Ryuji, Minori and Ami respectively, while Yuusaku is voiced by the less-known Hirofumi Nojima. Every one of the voices were matching the characters greatly, making them even better and attractive.

Animation

The animation of Toradora was done by J.C. Staff, famous for their previous works on Slayers, Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima. Considering that, you already know that it is going to be good. It is not as amazing as ZnT or SnS, but it is a romantic comedy, which doesn’t need that much of an epic animation, so there’s no problem. It was nevertheless, done well, as it was smooth. The colors, without being super duper amazing, were matching the atmosphere of the scenes, being colorful when there is joy and comedy, and being darker when there is sorrow and drama. The characters were designed well and we see they put a great effort in the face expressions.

Final Verdict

Story: 8.9

Characters: 9.4

Sound: 8.2
Animation: 8.1

Enjoyment: 9.5

Total: 8.82

To sum up, Toradora is an amazing slice of life, romantic, drama, comedy anime, close to being a masterpiece, if it wasn’t for its over-pushed drama and medium animation. Toradora is my 5th favourite anime of all time, right now, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t dislike romantic comedies. And for those who happen to be in that category, you should give it a try, since it is more unique than the others.

A very nice, enjoyable and entertaining show that makes our feelings come out a lot.

This ends my third anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.

And also, Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163

MyAnimeList profile: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow

Anime Review - NouCome

"Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru", or "My mental choices are completely interfering with my school love comedy" or to make it simple "NouCome", is a new 10-episode romantic school comedy anime, animated by Diomedea, that finished airing a few days ago and has gotten quite popular in a short time.

Story

The plot revolves around generic high school male character Kanade Amakusa, who is suffering from a curse: "Absolute Choices". This curse requires him to select an action from a list of 2 or 3 options that appear before him at any time, and he has no control over the choices that appear; and he MUST choose one of the options. To make things worse, almost all choices are to make him do or say embarrassing or perverted things; as a result, he has tainted his reputation to the lowest point possible. One day, while coming back from another awful day at school, he makes a choice that causes a beautiful girl fall from the sky, which was named Chocolat; well, that's an original name. He soon discovers that she was sent from God to help him cure his curse. To do that, he has to do completely ridiculous missions given to him by God himself. It is every single bit as hilarious - and also stupid - as it sounds. [] This show reminds me a bit of Date A Live. Both were very enjoyable shows, with funny scenes and other stuff, but at the same time, the whole premise is so stupid, you sometimes wonder if you should even watch it. Well, if you can handle big amounts of stupidity (in the setting), you should give it a watch, because it's a good show. [] As the episodes go on and Kanade completes missions, there is a kind of development in the story, but not enough to be on equal level as the comedy. Also, the more missions he completes, the less embarrassing and bad the choices are, while still not remaining great. Meanwhile, as your typical school romantic comedy show, there are A LOT of girls, and every single one of them have more or less interacted with Kanade. The three main girls - Chocolat, Furano Yukihira and Oka Yuoji - are also the principal love interests, and bring much of the comedy aspect, too.

Characters

Most of the time, for anime like this one (with stupid premises), an important factor to make it enjoyable is the characters. So, were NouKome's characters good? Yes, they were. And actually very good at moments. All the characters that we care about are enjoyable and likeable. Even if most of them are generic archetypes, they don't look like it so much, which prevents us from getting bored. Kanade, even though being a generic protagonist, the situations he gets into makes him very funny. Then, we have the three main girls. First is Chocolat, the mysterious god Messenger. She is a beautiful blonde girl, who falls in love with Kanade very quickly. She has a childish personality and often is like a dog, as she follows orders as sit, lay down, or catch, and has an ahoge that she wags, just like a dog would wag its tail. She is a big sweets glutton, which she eats all the time. Due a loss of her memories, she can't help Kanade with his curse much at all. She is cute, cheerful, positive and easy-going, but could there be something else about her?

Furano Yukihira is a semi-tsundere flat-chested girl with an extremely strange sense of humor and will often tell jokes with a blank expression. When she is talking in public, she uses a deeper voice, but when she normally has a very soft voice, which she hides along with her passion for cute things.

Oka Yuoji is a cheerful, hyperactive, smart and air-headed girl, who is kind to everyone. But for her exact same hyper-activeness, people try not to be too close to her. While not knowing the reason behind them, she is aware of Kanade's missions and is sometimes willing to help him.

Then we have Seira, the sadistic student council president, who seems to know a lot about Kanade's curse; Oka's best friend Konagi, who is extremely kind, pure and innocent; Ayame, a prideful and harsh huge-breasted bitch; Yuragi, a young girl who calls everyone big brothers and big sisters; and Utage, a loli teacher who has had the same curse as Kanade in the past.

All of them have their funny moments and are enjoyable overall.

Sound

As far as I remember, there wasn't any memorable music in the show. There are these nice generic music for romantic comedies, without anything standing out. The opening theme, "Sweet Melty Love", was a bit catchy, but still nothing special. The ending theme however, "Taiyo no Tsuki no Cross", is a nice and at points beautiful song. The voice acting was done well, counting the fact that most of the voice actors are not well-known or new.

Animation

The animation was done by Diomedea (Studio Barcelone), known for creating Campione and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. It was great and beautiful, with well-designed characters and background details. The animation was colourful and smooth during the whole show. It is not a masterpiece of visuals, but it is still very good.

Final Verdict

Story: 6.5

Characters: 7.7

Sound: 6

Animation: 8.2

Enjoyment: 9.2

Total: 7.52

This show is very funny and relaxing, with a slight romance, enjoyable characters, smooth animation, but a stupid premise and not special for the sound. As I said before, if you can handle stupidity in anime well, you should give this one a watch.

This ends my second anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163

MyAnimeList profile: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow

Anime Review - Death Note

For my first review on this blog, I will be talking about Death Note. It is a psychological mystery thriller with supernatural developed by MadHouse.

Death Note is, I believe, one of the most popular anime series ever, and when it came out, it got a huge hype. But the question is: did it deserve it? Hell yes! Even now, this show is considered as one of the very best, and I can see why. Everything in this show is done extremely well in a great and realistic way. It is a 37 episode anime with great psychological taste to it, revolving around what is good or evil, what is true or false, based on dreams and ideals, and how the people would react if the world was about to change completely.

Story

Death Note resolves around a brilliant 3rd-year high school student, named Light Yagami, who is extremely bored with his life and sees the current world as trash. One day, while he's in class, he sees from the window a notebook falling from the sky and landing on the shool yard. After class, he goes to pick it up. The notebook is titled "Death Note" and is blank, except from some "rules" written on the back of the cover. The first and most important one says: "When you write someone's name if this notebook, while having his/her face in mind, that person will die." At first, he doesn't believe it, but still takes it. Once home, he hears the news on TV and sees the picture of a man who took young kids in a kindergarten as hostages. What best time to see if the Death Note is the real thing. And it is. The man dies, at the surprise of Light. After trying it a second time, it is now clear that this notebook is no joke... Ultimately, the owner of the "Death Note" - a Shinigami (God of Death) - appears before him and explains to him basic things about it, while saying that it now belongs to him. From that moment, Light will start eradicating evil people, like thieves, serial killers, robbers, kidnappers etc., while playing the role of "God of Justice", which is exactly what he wants to become: the god of the new world he will create, by keeping only the good people alive. As time goes on, everyone becomes aware of the non-stop mysterious deaths on criminals. Everyone calls the one behind this, "Kira". The police has absolutely no clue at all on how to stop that. That's when it is decided to get the help of the mysterious best detective in the world, codenamed as L, who has already succeeded in difficult past investigations, but has never appeared in public. However, L's methods are not agreed by most and in the end, only very few members of the police remain to help him... And the huge confrontattion betweem Light and L begins. The one tries to over-smart the other at every moment, and it is done perfectly.

Then, around half-way of the show, a small twist happens, with the DeathNote falling into someone else's hands, with both Light and L trying to stop him.

And then... and then... comes a moment. A certain moment. A certain moment that made many fans rage like crazy, and calling this show stupid and shit... Something I certainly do not agree with.

After 2/3 of the show, new characters appear, and even though they were great too, because of that moment just before, many didn't like them... A stupid reason. -_-

Overall, the story is amazing, executed perfectly with great evolution and realism, that keep us eager to see more.

Characters

As for the characters, there are quite some, and everyone of them has a role in the story. But from the bunch, only 6 are amazingly important: Light Yagami, L, Ryuk - the Shinigami of Light; Near - who appears in the last 1/3 of the show; Misa; and Rem - the Shinigami of Misa Amane.

Light Yagami is the first protagonist of the show. He is a prodigeous high school student with a strong sense of justice. He is extremely smart and mostly predicts what is going to happen. He is in constant battle with L, who gave him trouble more times than he can count. Originally, even if he is very dissatisfied with the justice system, he does have feelings, yet not very deep. However, through the use of the Death Note, we gradually see him becoming tainted, malevolent and heartless, without mercy or compassion. He is charismatic with great social skills, and through that, he uses others as tools to achieve his goals. However, his deep sociopathic interior, overestimation and thought that he is never in the wrong become important faults later on.

L is the second protagonist. He is very intelligent, though his desheveled and languid appearance masks his amazing powers of deduction and many question his abilities upon listening or seeing him. He has almost zero social skills and only communicates with the world through his assistant, Watari. His intelligence rivalises with Light's - and in my opinion, L is smarter than Light - and he quickly becomes suspicious of Light. He is ready to use extreme measures to succeed in his investigations, which is not always approved by the police.
In general, the characters were great, with intense interactions, as we see their decisions and actions, their result and the reasoning behind them. It's not just: "I do this, because I can"; and that's a huge good point for it. Everything has a reason, everything is thought thoroughly, with an impact on the current and/or future situations. Instead of strength and super powers with explosions and shit, this anime has intelligence, predictions, analysis and brain war, which are equally good, or even better than super powers, in certain cases.
My favourite characters were Nate River ( a.k.a. Near or N) and Ryuk. Ryuk is such a creepy, yet extremely funny character, who plays a pretty important role, that isn't always noticed. As for Nate, he is considered the second L, and is very intelligent as well. He may not have a huge female fanbase, but he's pretty great. I like how he is amazingly smart and leads a whole anti-Kira organization, while having a childish attitude and playing with toys all the time. Interestingly enough, Nate's beliefs were rooted in Tsugumi Obha's beliefs (the writer of the Death Note manga). [...] I personally don't hate or dislike Misa. She was annoying, true, but I liked her most of the time; and even if she just a blond chick who isn't the smartest person out there, she still contributed a lot to the story.

Sound
I really liked the music of DeathNote; it has some of the most amazing soundtracks. It was intense and was corresponding the situations perfectly. Each character had a appropriate soundtrack that made me feel even closer to the characters to them, while liking them more and more. It was deep and had an important role in the enjoyment of the show. The voice acting was also great. Every voice was matching the characters very well and made them very realistic, enjoyable and memorable.

Animation
The animation for the show was well done, too, without being extraordinary. It is definitely not the best, but its dark colors suited the atmosphere of the series greatly and helped it becoming more intense when it had to. I especially liked the scenes where the 2 protagonists were alone, Light is red and L is blue, confronting each other as hard as they can with everything they have; it was really bringing something enriching to it.

Final Verdict

Story: 9.8

Characters: 9.0

Music: 8.6

Animation: 7.7

Enjoyment: 9.8

Total: 8.98

This show is a great masterpiece for me. It is even more important since it is one of the two anime that made me an anime fan, and is 9th in my favs. It is amazing and very well-made. It is a must watch for every anime fan out there.

This ends my first anime review. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment, if you want to express your opinions. Thank you for reading.

Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/scorpy163
MyAnimeList account: http://myanimelist.net/profile/PureShadow