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Surrender Artist's Anime

take a look at Surrender Artist's Manga
Seen some Rating
Death Note (TV) Decent
Okusama wa Maho Shojo (TV)

I don't believe that I can accurately and consistently rate a things on a numerical scale, especially not a fairly granular one and trying to do so is a little bit of a nuisance, so I have simplified things for my purposes. I use only the masterpiece, very good, decent, not very good and bad ratings. If another rating appears, it's a mistake. Most will fall within middle three grades, with masterpiece and bad being saved for special cases. The ratings also try to include some self-awareness, so something that I adore, but can perceive serious faults in that I overlook might merely be rated as very good or even just decent and occasionally something that I didn't particularly enjoy, but can see merit in will be rated as very good. The extreme ends of the scale will generally require more consonance between my emotional and 'critical' reactions.

Seen all Rating Comment
009-1 (TV) Very good
3x3 Eyes (OAV) Decent
3x3 Eyes: Legend of the Divine Demon (OAV) Decent
8 Man After (OAV) Decent
A.D. Police (TV) Decent
AD Police (OAV) Very good
Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (movie) Decent Ah, alas and alack, this sequel is not the equal of its wonderful predecessor. It still has ample grandeur, the charming anachronisms and wild space operatics, but it isn't as engaging and wondrous. It uses a few of the first film's tricks, but less well and without the novelty that they had the first time 'round. The narrative also seems choppier and sketchier than before. The first film had its leaps and gaps, but the sequel feels far shakier. The rough, violent opening feels almost ill-fit to the franchise, sapping the watcher's spirit too soon. This film tries to fit like a worn, familiar own glove, with all of the warm memories and familiar feelings of past times, but something does quite work. The cast is very similar in form, even if they aren't all precisely the same characters. I was pleased to see more of the Conductor, even if he's mostly just for fun, but the new character, Metalmena, is given too little attention relative to how interesting she might have become. She has an agenda and certainly some demons, but they aren't taken very far and what becomes of her seems almost insultingly pointless. What really disappointed me, however, was that there wasn't enough Maetel. I realize that Tetsuro is the point of the story, but I always seem to fall more for the characters around the protagonist, especially those as intriguing and enticingly melancholy as Maetel. This is especially true in the very nicely done English version, which has Kathleen Barr reprising her excellent portrayal of the character. Oh well, it was good enough to watch once and perhaps again much later.
Agent Aika (OAV) Not really good
AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission (OAV) Not really good
Air Master (TV) Very good
Akame ga KILL! (TV) Not really good
AKB0048 (TV) Very good
AKB0048 next stage (TV) Decent
Akira (movie) Decent
Aldnoah.Zero (TV) Not really good
Alien Nine (special) Very good
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (OAV) Decent
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (TV) Not really good
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH! (OAV) Not really good
Android Kikaider - The Animation (TV) Not really good
Angel Beats! (TV) Decent
Angel Cop (OAV) Not really good
Angel's Egg (movie) Very good
Animation Runner Kuromi (OAV) Very good
Animation Runner Kuromi 2 (OAV) Very good
(The) Animatrix (OAV) Decent
Apocalypse Zero (OAV) Decent
Appleseed (OAV) Not really good
Appleseed (movie) Decent
Arcadia of My Youth (movie) Very good
Armitage III (OAV) Very good This is more coherent and convincing than "Armitage III Polymatrix". Its greater length and episode structure make allow the progress in the characters and narrative to be more convincing and closer to natural, although it isn't quite long enough to make them quite right. The secondary characters, except for Lieutenant Randolph in the first two episodes, have the same respectable English cast as the compilation film and I prefer the voices for the lead characters better in this version. Skip Stellrecht's voice might not be quite as fitting for Detective Sylibus as Kiefer Sutherlands, but he sounds more invested in the part and B. G. Mills is probably my favorite voice for Naomi Armitage. I don't usually care for or about electronic music, but the score for "Armitage III" fits it well and is fairly distinctive. I really like the look of the series, but, then again, I'm a sucker for the older, rougher look of things made before digital animation conquered the industry. The story is often quite interesting and rewards paying attention to it, but it does sometimes feel slightly slipshod. I find the characters endearing, especially Naomi Armitage for being so lively and Rene D'anclaude for being a delightfully cackling lunatic, but I wish that the secondary characters had been made more of and some of the developments aren't entirely convincing within the time available. In the end, I'm always left wondering of the parts that seemed not to make sense or merely impenetrably confusing are puzzles to solve or just disconnected nonsense meant to offer illusory depth. Perhaps the supplementary false newspaper reports and other media that once read accompanied the series in Japan might have helped that. The last episode hurls a lot of new elements into the story and always leaves me confused. I really enjoy watching this, but do so sometimes in spite of itself and the ideas that it holds on gender, besides the title characters absurd, if distinctive, clothing, might be rather uncomfortable, if not subtly repellent, depending upon one's interpretation.
Armitage III: Poly-Matrix (movie) Decent My many Saturday mornings in elementary and junior high school spent watching it has cultivated a special fondness for this film in me. It's built upon a respectable crime story and has some interesting themes. I even halfway like Kiefer Sutherland's sleepy portrayal of Ross Sylibus, although it would have been better if he sounded more interested, and I thought that Elizabeth Berkley gave a fine voice to Naomi Armitage. Despite those virtues, the story and characters sometimes seem just as disjointed as one might expect from a ninety minute film compiled and cut down from two hour and twenty four minutes of original video animation, although not disastrously so. The two star leads don't outshine the rest of the cast, making their grandly ballyhooed presence, if not the whole endeavor, superfluous. Even so, I can still almost always enjoy watching this again.
Armitage: Dual-Matrix (movie) Decent I'm not sure how this sequel came to pass. I know that its predecessor had sold well, but making a sequel six years after the original seems like striking while the iron is cold. It hangs together better than Armitage III Polymatrix, as one might expect for something purposely written as a film rather than cut down out of a longer series of episodes, has some emotionally effective moments and a good, though ill-lit, climactic fight. I still like the characters and the titular Naomi Armitage wasn't, despite some early appearances, denatured by her maternal rôle. I want to like this film a lot, but it feels trifling and shorter than it is. It hews to the themes of the first film, but grows nothing new out of them and sometimes seems inconsistent with it. Juliette Lewis gives a respectable voice to her, but is a little inconsistent and hardly worth the exuberant 'star billing' that she is given. The rest of the cast is generally pretty able, although Ahmed Best is almost as obnoxious as one would expect of the man who gave Jar Jar Binks a voice. It isn't an especially attractive film either. The character designs seem softer and muddier than the originals, especially that of Naomi Armitage herself, and often seem poorly animated. I suspect that too new miracles of technology are to blame for its faults; it is certainly to blame for the painfully obvious computer-generated vehicles. There are a lot of too-quick, too-fast panning over static images, which I hate. Then again, as badly as I complain, like what came before this, I can still reliably enjoy watching it now and again.
Assemble Insert (OAV) Very good "Assemble Insert" is funny, charming and demonstrates admirable brevity. It's quite funny at times and kept me ever smiling as I watched it. There are no inexplicable strings of words and events masquerading as jokes, no endless winding roads to punchlines that would have been funny five minutes before they arrived and a tolerable dose of crazy shouting. The characters are likeable and go together remarkably well given how little was and could have been done to develop them. To tell the truth, when the second episode closed, I found that I wanted more, but I'm not sure that there could have been more, at least not successfully. It is probably for the best that "Assemble Insert" remains just a sweet, hour-long treat that doesn't risk losing its charm or welcome by dragging on too long.
Avenger (TV) Not really good
Azumanga Daioh (TV) Very good
Baldr Force EXE (OAV) Not really good
Banner of the Stars (TV) Decent
Banner of the Stars II (TV) Decent
BASTARD!! -Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy- (ONA) Decent
BASTARD!! -Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy-: Hell's Requiem (ONA) Not really good
Battle Angel (OAV) Decent
Beast Wars: Transformers (U.S. TV) Very good
Berserk (TV 1997) Very good
(The) Big O (TV) Very good
Birdy the Mighty (OAV) Decent
Birdy the Mighty Decode: The Cipher (OAV) Decent
Birdy the Mighty Decode:02 (TV) Masterpiece
Birdy the Mighty: Decode (TV) Very good
Black Lagoon (TV) Very good
Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (OAV) Decent
Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (TV) Very good
Black Rock Shooter (TV) Very good
Blame! (movie) Decent
Blassreiter (TV) Decent
Blood Blockade Battlefront (TV) Very good
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (TV) Decent
Blue Drop (TV) Very good
Blue Submarine No.6 (OAV) Decent
Bodacious Space Pirates (TV) Very good
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan Second (OAV) Not really good
(The) Book of Bantorra (TV) Decent
Bubblegum Crash (OAV) Not really good
Bubblegum Crisis (OAV) Decent
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (TV) Very good
Burn Up! (OAV) Not really good
Burst Angel (TV) Decent The plot for this seemed oddly ramshackle. It seemed as though they knew what stories, characters and themes they wanted to have in it, but never entirely worked how they fit together out. The series begins by introducing us to Kyouhei, a culinary student who is hired to cook for a team of female mercenaries, or whatever they qualify as, which leads one to presume that he'll be an important character, but most of the time he's a peripheral one who often disappears. This isn't a bad thing as nobody really wants to watch a series about a whiny wuss, but it's indicative of how ramshackle and erratic this series sometimes is. Half of the four women have limited parts themselves. It's really "The Jo Show, Starring Jo", which isn't bad because Jo is pretty cool, but she also a bit thinly drawn and her supposed close bond with Meg must be accepted on faith and the assertions of those around her, because it's never very well shown by their interactions. Jo has one or two quirks, a tragic background and rescues Meg whenever necessary, which is very often. None of the characters are bad enough or obnoxious enough to hate, but they aren't portrayed well enough to really care about, and the story just doesn't hang together enough to feel compelling. This was a disappointment, but not an infuriating one.
Burst Angel: Infinity (OAV) Decent
CANAAN (TV) Very good
Cannon Fodder (movie) Very good
Casshern Sins (TV) Not really good
Castle in the Sky (movie) Very good
Chaika - The Coffin Princess (TV) Very good
Chaika - The Coffin Princess Avenging Battle (TV) Very good
(Le) Chevalier D'Eon (TV) Very good
Chihayafuru (TV) Masterpiece
Chihayafuru 2 (TV) Very good
Children Who Chase Lost Voices (movie) Not really good
Chrono Crusade (TV) Decent
Claymore (TV) Very good
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (TV) Very good
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (TV) Decent
Colorful (TV) Not really good
Combustible (movie) Decent
Coppelion (TV) Decent
Corpse Princess: Aka (TV) Decent The titular Corpse Princess, Makina Hoshimora, is cool, fearsome and interesting, even if she is made to explain what Shikabane Hime is too many times, but she isn't the protagonist. That honor belongs to Ouri Kagami, who isn't quite a routine whiny milquetoast, but is nevertheless beige incarnate. He isn't very interesting. Some of the action is impressively animated and clever, but some of it just seems strangely generic. There are some engaging incidental characters; the Shikabane Hime whose lost her chance to make good on at last realizing her purpose in life was quite effective. It's a shame that the show wasn't more interested in characters like that. It tried at the end, well the episode before its clip-show finale, to evoke an emotional response and even had the right ideas about how to do it, but it hadn't engaged my feelings even by then, so it didn't work.
Corpse Princess: Kuro (TV) Decent Ouri Kagami remains a better than average milquetoast, but is still as exciting and interesting as the color palate of a timid midwestern housewife. This is a greater problem this 'round because he is expected to carry a greater share of the emotional burden of the series, which is made of good ideas, but does not succeed as assembled and executed. This carries through to the other characters, who seem more interesting than Ouri, but aren't seen or used enough to really matter. The antagonists talk about their, "nature," a great deal, but it never makes sense. A lot of things are talked about a lot without making very good sense. I usually wanted to see what would come next at the end of each episode, but I wouldn't've minded if I couldn't.
Cowboy Bebop (TV) Masterpiece Late on September 1st, 2001 I sat down in front of the television in my bedroom after having spent the evening with friends of my family and turned it on with a spontaneous desire to watch some anime, but no expectation that it would be satisfied. I set the channel to 39, which was at the time Cartoon Network, and was greeted by the last act of "Asteroid Blues", then "Stray Dog Strut". That was a wonderful incident. The series enlivened my latent interests in anime and jazz, so besides being excellent on its own merits, I owe some of my most fulfilling interests to it. I, a serial-addict, shouldn't love a predominantly episodic series so well, but it remains my unassailable favorite.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Very good
Coyote Ragtime Show (TV) Not really good
Crest of the Stars (TV) Very good
Cyber City Oedo 808 (OAV) Decent
Cybernetics Guardian (OAV) Bad
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (ONA) Very good
Cybersix (TV) Decent
Cyberteam in Akihabara (TV) Not really good
Dai Mahou Touge Omake (OAV) Very good
Dark Cat (movie) Decent
Darkside Blues (movie) Not really good
Dead Girls (OAV) Decent
Dead Leaves (OAV) Decent
Deadman Wonderland (TV) Decent
Death Parade (TV) Very good
Debutante Detective Corps (OAV) Not really good
Demon City Shinjuku (OAV) Decent
Desert Punk (TV) Not really good
Destiny of the Shrine Maiden (TV) Bad
DEVILMAN crybaby (ONA) Very good
Devilman Lady (TV) Decent
Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia (OAV) Decent
Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy (OAV) Decent
Dirty Pair: Project Eden (movie) Decent
Domain of Murder (OAV) Decent
Dominion Tank Police (OAV) Very good
Dorohedoro (TV) Very good
Dragon Half (OAV) Decent
Dragonaut - The Resonance (TV) Not really good Dragonaut failed to meet my expectations, or maybe it exceeded them. I'm not sure, because I had been given to expect it to be really awful, but instead found it to be merely not very good. I didn't mind watching it and once the story began to move more swiftly, it became reasonably entertaining, but the first third of the series was tedious and the last third sometimes dull. The story wasn't especially novel, despite some novel trappings, but it would have been acceptable 'science' fiction, were it not filled with arcs that seemed not to much serve the larger story. The characterization and motivations in this series were generally very thin and confusing. There were several characters whose motivations and natures were incomprehensible. None of the characters are very interesting, especially not the ostensible leads, who are sometimes outright annoying, especially Jin. The only remotely interesting characters were a child's handful of the secondary ones and they only barely rose above the low bar of the series. The computer generated dragons were better than the average for Japanese television, but not especially impressive and I didn't like their designs. So much of this feels like it was just animated from an outline, moving speedily from bullet to bullet of underdeveloped idea without enough to bridge the gaps. It's a pity, because some of the bullets could have been the making of a good series. As it stands, I expected wretched and got lousy, which I could watch with some empty-headed pleasure, but hardly remember.
Durarara!! (TV) Very good
Early Reins (OAV) Not really good
(The) Eccentric Family (TV) Very good
Eden of the East (TV) Decent
Eden of the East: Paradise Lost (movie) Decent
Eden of the East: The King of Eden (movie) Decent
El Cazador de la Bruja (TV) Very good
Eureka Seven (TV) Very good
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (movie) Decent
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (movie) Very good
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (movie) Very good
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time (movie) Decent
Excel Saga (TV) Very good
Fafner: Heaven and Earth (movie) Decent
Fantastic Children (TV) Very good
A Farewell to Weapons (movie) Very good
Fight! Iczer-One (OAV) Not really good
Figure 17 (TV) Very good
Flag (ONA) Decent
FLCL (OAV) Very good
Flowers of Evil (TV) Very good
Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club (TV) Decent
Fullmetal Alchemist (TV) Very good
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV) Very good
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa Decent
Galaxy Express 999 (movie) Masterpiece Woo-hoo! I first saw this film a long time ago when it aired on The Sci-Fi Channel on a few Saturdays a year in the middle of the nineties. I hadn't seen it in at least thirteen years when I at last got the DiscoTek release and it was one of this incredibly rare moments when something is just what one hoped it would be. It's been long enough that I had forgotten much of it, but I was surprised by how much I remember and how much became quickly familiar. I the gentle, sad aloofness of Maetel, the creepy desperation of Shadow, Tochiro's fate and the entrance of Emeraldas, my God, Emeraldas, stayed with me, unmoored from their origin, for so long. This is a film of boyish fantasy and I loved every minute of it. The story has its contrivance and conveniences, but it so enraptured me that I didn't care. I'm half ashamed to admit it, but Galaxy Express 999 made me giddy. The film has a curious blend of grandeur in scope with an intimacy of characters. The events that happen are often of immense scale and impressive appearance, but the cast is small and endearing. What's more, it's all beautiful to behold. The animation is impressive and the artwork is sumptuous. None of it makes any scientific sense; Tetsuro and Maetel are traveling through space on a steam train, whose windows may be opened in the vacuum to no ill effect, and encountering spaceships that look like dirigibles with wooden sailing ships strapped to them, after all, but there's something marvelous in that. It's just a joy to behold. It's also really good in English. Kathleen Barr gives an excellent voice to Maetel; slightly quiet, unearthly and tinged with inescapable sadness. Saffron Henderson also does commendable work giving Tetsuro a voice that sounds convincingly like a young boy and managing to act well in that voice. For at least a little while, I won't be able to stop smiling.
Galilei Donna (TV) Not really good
Gall Force - Eternal Story (movie) Not really good I remember liking this film when I watched it on The Sci-Fi Channel. I might have been twelve years old at the time. I like the way this film looks. The designs are quite good and the animation ranges from competent to good. The old English language version isn't especially good, but it's not so bad as to override a taste of nostalgia. The chief faults lie within the storytelling. It almost seems as though the creators wanted to make several different films, but had only the resources for one, so they breathlessly piled them together, thus giving us a film that inelegantly switches its plot every quarter hour or so. It begins as a typical space opera about grand fleet battles, then turns briefly into a story about a loose-cannon pilot who comes and goes too swiftly for us to care much about, then becomes an ostensible claustrophobic horror story about fighting a monster in the tight confines of the ship, then it leaps into what wants to be a more serious science fiction plot, which it does, to its credit, hold to for the rest of the film, even if it does so by way of becoming a jungle survival story with a surreal dream interlude along the way. Besides being unconvincing and less than coherent, this run-on plot amounts to a film that isn't terribly exciting. The characters have perfunctory personalities, but the film does little better than sometimes dashing by efforts to elaborate upon its characters on the way to the next waypoint in the plot. That plot isn't very-well thought through either. it tries to be thoughtful and novel, but the idea isn't unfamiliar and it seems to have been executed by someone who wasn't very thoughtful or creative working from the partial notes of someone who also was. "Gall Force Eternal Story" wasn't a hour and a half of nostalgia and I will probably watch it again, but it probably wouldn't be worth it if I hadn't seen it when anime seemed so wild and new as I transfixed by it for so many Saturday mornings of my childhood.
Gambo (movie) Decent
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (TV) Decent
Garo the Animation (TV) Very good
Gekigangar 3 (OAV) Decent
Genocyber (OAV) Not really good
Ghost Hunt (TV) Decent
Ghost in the Shell (movie) Decent
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV) Very good
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG (TV) Very good
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society (movie) Very good
Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie Decent
Giant Robo (OAV) Very good
Gilgamesh (TV) Very good
(The) Girl Who Leapt Through Time (movie) Very good
Golden Boy (OAV) Decent
GoShogun: The Time Étranger (OAV) Masterpiece
Grave of the Fireflies (movie) Very good
Gun Frontier (TV) Not really good
Gunbuster (OAV) Decent
Gunslinger Girl (TV) Very good
Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino (OAV) Decent
Gunsmith Cats (OAV) Decent
Gurren Lagann (TV) Decent
Haibane Renmei (TV) Masterpiece
Heat Guy J (TV) Very good
Hells (movie) Decent
Hellsing Ultimate (OAV) Decent
House of Five Leaves (TV) Very good
Humanity Has Declined (TV) Very good
(The) Humanoid (OAV) Not really good
ICE (OAV) Decent
Ikki Tousen (TV) Bad
In This Corner of the World (movie) Very good
Infinite Ryvius (TV) Not really good
Iria - Zeiram the Animation (OAV) Decent
Iron Virgin Jun (OAV) Not really good
(The) Irresponsible Captain Tylor (OAV) Decent
(The) Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV) Decent
Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade (movie) Masterpiece
Jormungand (TV) Decent
Kakegurui (TV 2) Decent
Kakegurui twin (ONA) Decent
Kekko Kamen (OAV) Decent
Key the Metal Idol (OAV) Decent "Key the Metal idol" feels as though it could have been a really wonderful series. The premise is deceptively simple and almost childish, it has a great lead and a terrific opening sequence. For its first thirteen episodes it flirts with being something great, being held back by a sort of lack of drive in its story; it isn't quite aimless or even badly plotted, but just seems to have a looser grip than it could have. Even with that limitation, it was interesting to watch, sometimes hit remarkably poignant notes and Key herself was an intriguing lead. Episode thirteen was particularly intense and interesting; it put the series on the cusp of greatness. Then episode fourteen came and it became TV on the radio for an hour and a half. Episode fifteen was more active, but put Key out of the limelight while a lot of characters, most of him were dull or little-developed, dashed around agonizing and talking about the diminished lead character, which largely served to remind me of how I'd rather have been watching her. The closing just largely fails to give satisfaction in the various ways that it suggests that it might and ultimately dithers over some needless agonizing before trying to supply a climax, which isn't anywhere near the emotional or narrative height that it could have been.
Kick-Heart (movie) Very good
Kiddy Grade (TV) Decent
Kids on the Slope (TV) Very good
Kill la Kill (TV) Masterpiece
King of Thorn (movie) Decent
Kino's Journey (TV) Masterpiece
Kite (OAV) Very good This is a strange, quite distinctive and enthralling thing. I am not quite sure what to think of it, save that I enjoyed it. I could not help but feel that the director did not mean for it all to be taken quite seriously. The preposterous sequence that begins with a fight in a lavatory and ends with an explosion is ridiculously spectacular and even its more mundane violence is surreally excessive. That excess is often spectacular to watch. The action scenes are excitingly animated and cleverly choreographed. Despite the excesses within them, the director offers us only a few of them, so the action never bores me as the relentless strikes of a kung-fu film might. The violence and sexuality of it all is strange amidst the calm, almost contemplative pace and style of everything else. Although it is shorter than an hour, it proceeds patiently and accepts its limits rather than fight to blaze through as much as it can possibly force into its length. It’s often not entirely forthcoming or explicit about facts and motives, never driving its characters to issue direct exposition. This is especially effective in the portrayal of Sawa, who keeps an appearance of girlish cheer through much of the experience, but changes bit by bit from scene to scene in an interesting, satisfying way. That approach probably contributes very much to my appreciation of it. It cultivates a curious mood that inspires one to find or at least wonder about subtle feelings and implications that might be lurking within each scene and spoken line. That could be mere illusion, but if that’s so, it’s a satisfying one to fall for. I liked the English language version very well. The actors are cavalier about pronouncing Japanese names, but do exceedingly well in the more relevant work of delivering their lines well. Sawa and Akai are especially well portrayed, each sounding just as I they should. “Kite” looks nice too; besides being well animated, the characters have interesting character designs. Sawa is drawn prettily enough to be unassuming, but still able to hold an edge when needed. Akai is designed to exude the smug sleaziness that permeates his character and Kanie looks strikingly weird with his wide, scarred and bug-eyed face that seldom betrays much expression. The secondary characters are well drawn as well in ways that complement their parts in the story. The backgrounds are often rendered in dark, moody colors and drenched in shadows. The music is quite respectably done, especially the avant garde jazz that underlies many scenes serves the ears as well as the rest serves the eyes; it provides a feeling of subdued chaos to them. The whole affair has a satisfying air of film noir about it. There is sex in even the censored version that I watched, but it didn’t feel really momentous or unnerving, which perhaps just reflects upon some depravity lurking within me. It didn’t feel irrelevant and it does contribute to the atmosphere of the experience, but it never produced a deep emotion or other response from me, so I am left to feel as though something has been lost in taking “Kite” off of the hentai shelf. It nonetheless remains a very striking, absorbing work that bears being seen more than once and certainly stays in mind for a while after each time.
Kite Liberator (OAV) Not really good This is very strange. Half of it is a story about an adolescent assassin, akin to Sawa from the original, but then the other half is a weird horror story about astronauts who become bone monsters after eating special space food and being exposed to solar radiation. The two are ostensibly tied to one another and do converge, but they are not in harmony. The bad space horror seems only to interrupt and distract from the assassin story. The greatest virtues of th original "Kite" were its careful pacing, mood and tight focus upon a few characters in a minimalist story. "Kite Liberator" has a wider focus and lighter, almost flippant mood. Sometimes it seems to be leaning toward the good sense of its forebearer, but upon the cusp of that, or even just the cusp of the cusp of that, we are thanklessly directed to worry about some annoying scientist and space monsters. I had scarce sense of who Monaka was and none of why she was doing what she did. I didn't mind that Sawa wasn't the protagonist of "Kite Liberator", but I did mind that her replacement was a thinly-drawn piffle. Most of the action scenes were even lacking, with little of the preposterous flair that Yasuomi Umetsu so reveled in before. Perhaps he needs to be forced to make pornography to produce something worthwhile.
Kurau: Phantom Memory (TV) Very good
Kyousougiga (TV) Very good
Labyrinth (movie) Decent
Lagrange - The Flower of Rin-ne (TV) Decent
Lensman (movie) Decent
Lily C.A.T. (OAV) Decent
Little Witch Academia (movie) Very good
Little Witch Academia (TV) Decent
Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade (OAV) Very good
Locke the Superman (movie) Very good
Lucky Star (TV) Decent
Lupin III: Part IV (TV 2015) Decent
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie) Very good
Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (TV) Very good
Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (movie) Decent
Lupin the IIIrd: Jigen's Gravestone (movie) Decent
Lupin the Third: Part 5 (TV) Very good
M.D. Geist (OAV) Bad
M.D. Geist II - Death Force (OAV) Bad
Macross Plus (OAV) Decent
Mad Bull 34 (OAV) Decent
Madlax (TV) Very good
Maetel Legend (OAV) Not really good
Magic Knight Rayearth (TV) Very good
Magic Knight Rayearth 2 (TV) Not really good
Magical Witch Punie-chan (OAV) Very good
Magnetic Rose (movie) Very good
MAPS (OAV 1994) Not really good
Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (movie) Decent
Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion (movie) Decent
Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust (movie) Decent
Maria the Virgin Witch (TV) Very good
Maris the Chojo (OAV) Not really good
Martian Successor Nadesico (TV) Decent
Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness Decent
Master of Martial Hearts (OAV) Bad
Mazinkaiser SKL (OAV) Decent
Meganebu! (TV) Very good
Megazone 23 (OAV) Decent
Megazone 23 Part II (OAV) Very good
Megazone 23 Part III (OAV) Not really good
(The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) Decent
Memories (movie) Very good
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (OAV) Decent
Metallic Rouge (TV) Very good
Metropolis (movie) Very good
Mezzo (TV) Decent
Mezzo Forte (OAV) Decent
Michiko & Hatchin (TV) Very good
Mikagura School Suite (TV) Decent
Millennium Actress (movie) Masterpiece
Mind Game (movie) Very good
Mini Pato (movie) Decent
Miss Hokusai (movie) Decent
Mitsudomoe (TV) Not really good
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OAV) Very good
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OAV) Very good
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (movie) Very good
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky (movie) Very good
Mobile Suit Gundam UC (OAV) Decent
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (TV) Not really good
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (OAV) Decent
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Special Edition (movie) Decent
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (movie) Decent
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OAV) Very good
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (OAV) Decent
Moldiver (OAV) Decent Very little of "Moldiver" rewards or encourages thinking about it very much. If much more than the dab of mind needed for basic sensory awareness and language processing is applied to it, the 'science', motivations and story might well dissolve into a mush, although not an unpleasant one. The show looks quite nice and I found the characters easily likeable. It even manages to be amusing a few times and is, with a few exceptions, consistently, if very lightly, entertaining. Some of the action sequences seemed truncated or limited, although I can't say whether they were and whether budget or poor planning is to blame, but they are reasonably compelling. The English language version is respectable, and is quite good by the measure of its era, and I find oddities and imperfections of this era strangely endearing, provided that they aren't too severe or abundant. "Moldiver" is a largely unexceptional series, but it does enough right and enough not badly to be a suitable way to pass a few not-especially-valuable half hours.
Monster (TV) Very good
Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit (TV) Masterpiece
Murder Princess (OAV) Decent
My Neighbor Totoro (movie) Not really good
My-HiME (TV) Not really good
My-Otome (TV) Decent
Natsuyuki Rendezvous (TV) Very good
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (movie) Very good
Neo-Tokyo (movie) Very good
Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV) Decent
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (movie) Decent
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (movie) Very good
Night is Short, Walk On Girl (movie) Very good
Night on the Galactic Railroad (movie) Very good
Nobunagun (TV) Very good
Nodame Cantabile (TV) Decent
Noein - to your other self (TV) Very good
Noir (TV) Very good
Now and Then, Here and There (TV) Masterpiece
Odin - Starlight Mutiny (movie) Bad
(The) Order to Stop Construction (movie) Very good
Outlaw Star (TV) Very good
Ozma (TV) Decent
Paprika (movie) Masterpiece
Paranoia Agent (TV) Very good
Parasite Dolls (OAV) Very good
Parasyte -the maxim- (TV) Decent
Patema Inverted (movie) Decent
Patlabor 2: The Movie (movie 2) Masterpiece
Patlabor WXIII (movie 3) Decent
Patlabor: The Movie (movie 1) Very good
Perfect Blue (movie) Very good
Phantom Quest Corp. (OAV) Decent
Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ (TV) Decent
Ping Pong (TV) Masterpiece
planetarian (ONA) Very good
Planetes (TV) Very good
Pluto (ONA) Very good
Porco Rosso (movie) Very good
(Le) Portrait de Petite Cossette (OAV) Not really good
Possessions (movie) Decent
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal (ONA 2014) Not really good
Princess Jellyfish (TV) Very good
Princess Mononoke (movie) Very good
Princess Resurrection (TV) Not really good
Princess Tutu (TV) Masterpiece
Prison School (TV) Very good
Project A-ko (movie) Very good
Project A-ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group (OAV) Decent
Project A-ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody (OAV) Decent
Project A-ko 4: Final (OAV) Decent
Project A-ko: Uncivil Wars (OAV) Not really good
Psycho-Pass (TV) Decent
Psycho-Pass (movie) Decent
Psycho-Pass 2 (TV) Not really good
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (TV) Very good
Puni Puni Poemy (OAV) Decent
R.O.D -The TV- Very good
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis (TV) Very good
RahXephon (TV) Decent
Rayearth (OAV) Decent
Read or Die (OAV) Decent
Red Garden (TV) Decent
Redline (movie) Very good
Reign: The Conqueror (TV) Not really good
Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV) Masterpiece (dub & sub)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie Decent (dub & sub)
Riddle Story of Devil (TV) Not really good
Rideback (TV) Decent
Riding Bean (OAV) Decent
RIN - Daughters of Mnemosyne (TV) Very good
Ringing Bell (movie) Very good
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (U.S. OAV) Decent
(The) Rose of Versailles (TV) Masterpiece
Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise (movie) Very good
Ruin Explorers - Fam & Ihrie (OAV) Decent
Running Man (movie) Decent
Saber Marionette J (TV) Decent This series was sometimes weirdly grueling to watch. It is bloated by an annoyingly great abundance of preponderantly vacuous, dull and unimportant episodes. Among these is a serviceable story, albeit one that is hobbled by contrivances as idiotic as powerful gynoids being handily neutralized by a fear of mice and as outright asinine as a strategic computer being disabled because the male lead inadvertently urinates on it. I did not make that up, whoever wrote this show made that up and he should be ashamed. Despite this, the characters are often quite endearing and show real change as the series progresses. Despite the harem arrangement of the series, it’s far more innocent than prurient and the lucky man feels a genuine, sincere sense of obligation toward his charges. It is sometimes very emotionally effective; its methods might not be especially novel or subtle, but they are quite competently done. I like much of the look of the series too. This is aided by an English version that is surprisingly well-done. The main characters mostly have quite suitable voices and a few are excellent. Maggie Blue O’Hara gives Lime a perfect voice that is cheery and childlike, but not squeaky or cloying. I also really liked Venus Terzo’s portrayal of Tiger. The character designs are idiosyncratic, but, notwithstanding some of the absurd combat-strippers wardrobes employed by Gartland, but I found them appealing and distinctive. I also remain an easy mark for hand-drawn animation and the style of the last decades of the twentieth century. It is thus a shame that the series seemed not to have enough money to animate many of its action scenes fully or at length. The most bothersome problem that I have with this series is that it makes me think. I do not mean that it is challenging or provocative, but rather that whilst watching it, I notice many things that make no good sense and cannot resist pondering ways, often rather obvious ones, in which it could have been better. When this happens, it means that something about the series is took lacking for me to not be interested in its faults, which I am almost eager to ignore in other cases when I am otherwise engrossed. Most seriously, I found myself persistently wishing that it had given at least a critical glance at gender rôles and social orders, rather than just assuming conventional ones. It would have been a far better series even if the ultimate maturation of the Saber Marionettes had been to find their own lives and desires rather than to fawn more effectively over their master. Ultimately, “Saber Marionette J” has some merits and virtues, but is hobbled by many very typical faults and ignored possibilities that I can’t help but retain a little fondness for as a guilty, nostalgic pleasure.
Saber Marionette J Again (OAV) Not really good
Saber Marionette J to X (TV) Not really good
Saber Marionette R (OAV) Decent
(The) Sacred Blacksmith (TV) Not really good This series disappointed and irritated me. I have my predilections and among them is one for female protagonists, which this series superficially satisfies; however said predilection is in fact more particular, being as it requires that those protagonists be interesting, competent and be allowed a modicum of dignity. In meeting that sterner demand, “The Sacred Blacksmith” fails. Cecily Campbell is a thinly conceived, incompetent knight wearing preposterous armor that protects only her shoulders and the upper half of her torso and is lovingly crafted to meet the curvature of her very large breasts, although in one episode she is forced to dress like a maid, which is of course much better. One should be fair in noting that the other knights of the protagonists order wear the same inadequate armor, although with the added benefit of armored skirts, but theirs isn’t so pruriently shaped. The series often makes ostensibly comic mention, doing so at least once in every episode of its first half, of Cecily’s breasts, chiefly through envious statements from other women, who are of course nearly as fixated upon certain secondary sexual characteristics as the collective will of a junior high school locker room. That irritating fixation might be tolerable if Cecily’s feebleness and ineptitude were merely the beginning of showing her progression as a knight, but the series never really gives a true sense that she becomes stronger-willed and better skilled, rather it leaves whether the occasional scenes of her training yield anything ambiguous and tends to make her successes in combat seem attributable to the very powerful demon sword that she is, for reasons that I never found very convincing, given early in the series. The series often takes time to demonstrate her ineptitude in various ways, but gives little in the way of her virtues or her becoming abler. It might have done so if it were longer, but it is only a dozen episodes long, but it acts as though it has more time to spare. There are languid scenes of meals and idleness, to say naught of the entire episode dedicated to buying one of the secondary characters a pretty dress, that could have been sacrificed without loss in whole or part in favor of allowing more time and substance to the series’ three story arcs. Of them, only the first seems in proper order. The second arc introduces characters whose story doesn’t seem resolved by the end and seems as though they are meant to come back in the future. The third story arc concludes the series, but feels more like a season finale as the looming threat of the series has not be resolved and the villain escapes a definitive fate. It is at least a fairly pretty series. The designs are appealing and the animation is good. It even pays some attention, thought not very much, to developing the world that the story is set in. The series has a few sound ideas as well, although they are undermined by the dearth of chemistry between Cecily and the titular blacksmith, who is in fact something of a secondary protagonist. I also appreciated the accuracy and realism of the weapon designs. The swords and other arms look like historically plausible weapons rather than the preposterous things wielded in so many other series. This series wasn’t an utter failure; rather it was more an annoying disappointment. I was hopeful when I began this series that it would prove to be worth my watching, but I’m ultimately just irritated by having gone to the trouble.
SaiKano: Another Love Song (OAV) Decent
Sakura Trick (TV) Not really good
Samurai Champloo (TV) Decent
Sands of Destruction (TV) Decent This series was surprisingly entertaining and endearing. The principals aren't terrifically deep and rich characters, but they are a fair way better than flat and very likeable too. It isn't much of an action series as fights are slightly uncommon and generally unimpressive, though serviceable, but it's nonetheless seldom boring and is even sometimes compelling. Kyrie flirts with being a tedious milquetoast, but never quite becomes one and is never lingered upon long enough to become irritating. Morte is a pleasantly willful badass and Toppy is a teddy bear who looks like a pirate, but speaks with a coolly heroic voice and from time to time whomps whole platoons of enemies. The English version is very well done; especially on the parts of Luci Christian as Morte and Robert McCollum as Toppy. Most of the series is fun, sensibly simple adventure stories; it doesn't make for a memorable epic to be revisited ceremoniously, but it's satisfying to watch at least once. I wish that it had been a longer series; the writers could probably have drawn the characters into enough single adventures to sustain more episodes and had time to develop an arc with a richer conclusion.
Sasameki Koto (TV) Very good
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (ONA) Very good
Scrapped Princess (TV) Very good
Sea Prince and the Fire Child (movie) Decent
Serial Experiments Lain (TV) Very good
Shamanic Princess (OAV) Decent
She, The Ultimate Weapon (TV) Masterpiece This series began very well and had guaranteed that I would have a very favorable opinion of it nearly from the beginning, but then I watched episode nine and it became something even better and more affecting than I had expected. I never cried as I watched it, which its reputation and content makes seem odd, but as it crept on, I felt a growing sense of strong, restless discomfort and despair that is just as significant and perhaps more enduring than tears. It often erred toward the melodramatic, which was occasionally annoying, but the strong emotions on display were more often as compelling as they seemed to want to be. I really appreciated the indirect way that the consequences of war for the civilian population were portrayed in references to things like coffee being impossible to get and oblique references to the miseries visited upon other places. The efficacy of that subtlety was enhanced by the almost abstract nature of the war. The enemy and cause of the conflict were never really named and even though the perspective of the series was Japanese, there was scant nationalism or patriotism on display. This made war seem as though an alien malevolent force, detached from reason or purpose. I also really loved the disconcerting shifts in attitude that Chise showed as the aspect of her that was dedicated to being a weapon become stronger and more at odds with her essential personality. I was content with the English version. I think it strange that Viz didn't commission a well-seasoned studio, such as Animaze, to provide the English language version, but despite that, the Mark Atherlay and especially Melissa Hutchinson, after some early unease, perform their parts excellently and several supporting characters, especially Abie Hadjitarkhani as Tetsu and David Arendash as Mister Kanawa, are very well played too; the rest are either competent or too minor for their faults to matter much. The series looks splendid as well. The designs are quite good, especially for Chise's weapon form, and the music, which is sometimes appropriately spare, is very suitable. It's an excellent and memorable series that I'm very glad to have seen.
Shiki (TV) Not really good
Short Peace (movie) Decent
Silent Möbius (TV) Decent
Silent Möbius: The Motion Picture Very good
Silent Möbius: The Motion Picture 2 Decent
Simoun (TV) Very good
(The) Sky Crawlers (movie) Very good
Sol Bianca: The Legacy (OAV) Decent
(il) sole penetra le illusioni ~ Day Break Illusion (TV) Not really good
Solty Rei (TV) Decent
Space Adventure Cobra - The Movie Very good
Space Dandy (TV) Decent
Space Dandy Season 2 (TV) Very good
Speed Grapher (TV) Not really good
Starship Operators (TV) Decent
Stink Bomb (movie) Decent
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie Decent
Strike Witches (TV) Bad Controversy, some curiosity and a misguided hope that I might be surprised suckered me into watching this and my stubbornness didn't let me stop watching, even after I had begun to really dread each new episode. The fanservice is obnoxious, but it's the exaggerated, relentless 'cuteness' and its banality that really drove me to madness.
Sukeban Deka (OAV) Very good
Summer Wars (movie) Very good
Sword of the Stranger (movie) Very good
(The) Tatami Galaxy (TV) Very good
Tenamonya Voyagers (OAV) Decent
Tenchi Muyo! GXP (TV) Bad
Texhnolyze (TV) Not really good
They Were 11 (movie) Very good
This Boy Can Fight Aliens! (OAV) Decent
Tiger & Bunny (TV) Very good
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (TV) Very good
(The) Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk (TV) Decent
(The) Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk (TV) Decent
Trigun (TV) Very good
Trigun: Badlands Rumble (movie) Decent
Trinity Blood (TV) Not really good
tsuritama (TV) Very good
(The) Twelve Kingdoms (TV) Masterpiece
Twin Signal (OAV) Not really good
Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (movie 2) Good
Venus Versus Virus (TV) Decent
Venus Wars (movie) Not really good
Vexille - 2077 Isolation of Japan (movie) Not really good What a dreadful, tedious film this was! I found myself wishing for its end less than halfway through it and regretted not having stopped watching it after ten minutes as I had almost done. There's simply nothing in this film that I found interesting. The characters barely deserve to be identified with that term because they're so terribly basic and standard. The premise was slightly interesting, but the story built upon it is a dull, routine bore. I suppose that I should concede that the animation looks fine and the character designs are appealing, if generic, and stuff gets blowed up real good, but that's about it. The only times that this film provoked some response other than irritation were when a character whom I found annoying was shot, I don't know or care why, and when two characters were reduced to limping around after one another in a scene of inadvertent comedy. This film never entertained or amused me sincerely or ironically. If not for its modicum of technical competence and lack of anything really offensively bad, it would be a complete failure.
Video Girl Ai (OAV) Very good
Violence Jack (OAV) Bad
Violence Jack 2 (OAV) Bad
Violence Jack 3 (OAV) Bad
Voices of a Distant Star (OAV) Very good
Wanna-Be's (OAV) Bad I don't even know how I came to own the weary old tape of this that I one day found haunting my collection and I have since exorcised it thence. This was a strange, ugly little thing. The characters looked and were either bland or ugly and somehow I couldn't find Japanese women's professional wrestling to be a fitting setting for what appeared to want to be a science-fiction-action-drama. Sometimes it was dull and a few times it was strange, but it was rarely anything like good.
WATAMOTE (TV) Very good
Weather Report Girl (OAV) Decent
(The) Weathering Continent (movie) Very good
Wicked City (movie) Decent
A Wind Named Amnesia (movie) Not really good
Witch Craft Works (TV) Decent
Witchblade (TV) Decent
Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil (TV) Not really good
Wolf Children (movie) Decent
(The) World Is Still Beautiful (TV) Very good
Xenosaga: The Animation (TV) Not really good
Yona of the Dawn (TV) Very good
your name. (movie) Very good
Yuki Yuna Is a Hero (TV) Decent
Yurikuma Arashi (TV) Very good

Will not finish Rating
Adventures of the Little Koala (TV)
Cyborg 009 The Cyborg Soldier (TV) Decent
Dirty Pair (OAV) Decent
Elfen Lied (TV) Not really good
Full Metal Panic! (TV) Decent
Fushigi na Koala Blinky (TV)
Inuyasha (TV) Not really good
Lupin III: Part II (TV) Very good
Maya the Bee (TV)
Mobile Fighter G Gundam (TV) Not really good
Mobile Suit Gundam (TV) Decent
Mori no Yōki na Kobito-tachi: Berufi to Rirubitto (TV)
Pilot Candidate (TV) Bad
Rosario + Vampire (TV) Bad
S-CRY-ed (TV) Decent
Samurai Pizza Cats (TV)
Shin chan (TV) Very good
Shin Tetsujin 28 (TV 1980)
(The) Super Milk-chan Show (TV) Not really good
Thundercats (U.S. TV) Not really good