Jeoffrey

I wish I could say Otherside Picnic is a good and interesting anime series, however, I have unfortunately already seen Flip Flappers. In my opinion, the atmosphere, imaginativeness, and cultural references, as well as mystery, a satisfying plot and also affectionate relationships between the main characters - all of these (and other aspects) were all pulled off in a much better way in Flip Flappers! At first, I was intrigued, drawn to the idea of a mysterious and dark world where mythology and reality mix and where lives are literally on the line at every moment. I liked that you had to follow some rules to enter this world, like pressing the buttons in the elevator in a precise order. However, it then started to become more and more irritating as the episodes went on, as it suddenly seemed like getting to the other side was actually quite easy and the gates were almost everywhere, even in your own backyard. Also, the world on the other side turned out to be more light than dark, and truth be told, I got more goosebumps watching other stuff like Kemono Jihen. Yes, it has some interesting ideas, like the "world in-between”, and I like the mystery around Satsuki and speculating as to what her relationship with the two girls (especially Sorawo) is. This (mystery around Satsuki) is going to be the main reason I am going to watch the next season if there is one. Of course, I am hoping the next season is going to be a lot more interesting, have more creatures, different environments, and everything is not going to often feel inexplicably empty and sometimes like a “B-movie” (in terms of plot, emotion, and animation). 5/10.

In this show, the main male protagonist is not "just" an overpowered character as the reviewer biasim1 said, there is another main trait that this whole insane comedy/parody is built on which is his naivety. This protagonist is so naive he believes everything that people around him say, which is mainly that he actually has below average strength compared to others in his home village. However this is not true when he is compared to ordinary mortals, as he is so strong it is embarrassing! You will find that most comedies are based on the main protagonist doing absurd things without being aware they are somehow absurd. I am not saying this is in any way a positive thing, because the storylines and jokes can sometimes become quite repetitive. On the other hand, I did sometimes find it quite amusing, so it is not all bad. Some other aspects of this anime series are equally absurd, including, for example, the completely insane motivations of all the "villains", which in the very end made me facepalm and despair on two occasions. It was so incredibly stupid! However, at the same time it was absolutely logical within the context of this anime series. I also enjoyed how colorful this was and also the energy this anime series had, and because of that, I did not really get bored. Likewise, I also kind of understand what all the girls see in the main protagonist Lloyd. After all, he is unaware he is actually a humble, decent, honorable, naive lad, and he is not egotistical about it all. He turns out to be quite a strong and brave protector, and a true potential hero of the future. He manages this all without any major negative character flaws, which actually makes it a bit unbelievable and more rather like a happy-go-lucky children's fairy tale, but oh well... Some of my favorite characters include the "hero" Allan, who acted like everything had just fallen into his lap when he was not expecting it, and it would not surprise me in the least if this whole anime series became all about this great legend, and about all the incredible deeds of this (un)ordinary man. Riho was my favorite of all the girls, as she seemed somehow the most normal person in the whole harem. Of course, there were other characters like Alka and Selen (Cursed Belt Princess), but I found them irritating at times although it was obvious the screenwriters had deliberately written Cursed Belt Princess that way. In the end, I do not feel disappointed, in my opinion it was an average insane/absurd anime series, and I even managed to laugh. 5.5/10.

I probably enjoyed the spin-off Cells at Work! Code Black a bit more than the second season of the original Cells at Work! anime series, and not just because it is longer, darker in tone, and more suspenseful. Everything in the show means a lot more to me rather than, say, the way a healthy body works, because as I have gotten older I have also struggled with some of the issues highlighted in the show (stress, alcohol, smoking...) to some extent and so on. Truth be told, it is quite an intense show and I think that if I had weak nerves or a stronger will, then thanks to this anime series, I would perhaps be able to quit some of my bad habits (or at least I could try to for a few months). Unfortunately, however, that is probably not going to happen. I like that there is a real point to this show, because if it helps anyone quit habits harmful to their health, then it has served its purpose. I can fully empathize here because this time we know some specifics about this concrete human body (for example, you can determine that it is a middle-aged man or even older - so same as me). I also liked the idea of the cells' daily struggle to live in an inhospitable environment, especially finding their motivation to continue their work. I also really liked the idea that it almost suggested that death is the moment when your own body and its cells just give up on you. Equally, I appreciated and reflected on the fact that a near-death experience usually leads to a drastic change in lifestyle, that there can be a real effort to change, and it can be a long-term thing for most people (again, it seems to be about willpower). The show also present the fact that when something is wrong with you, your health problems suddenly start to pile up pretty quickly. The way the necessary interventions (medical interventions) were depicted was also quite interesting. I liked the characters and the soundtrack was fine, even if the animation was a bit lacking (not just compared to the original Cells at Work!). Anyway, I found that this show was valuable and informative, which I appreciate, and I am giving this a thumbs up, because now I am aware that Joffrey could easily end up like this one day too... 8.2/10.

I suppose because at my age I am not really the target audience for this kind of series. I must confess that I was not too keen on this anime series at first. One reason is that I often found a lot of the main characters (Terra, Stella, Sky...) quite irritating to the point of being almost unbearable. The first couple of episodes were a terrible cringe-fest for me - in other words, I am just too old and not into these teen romances anymore. I also found a lot of things in the show were a bit peculiar, like there is a school full of teenagers, but then there are only three teachers?!?? Fortunately, this anime series’ air of mystery kept me intrigued - and somehow the screenwriters managed to draw me in to thinking about and wanting to know who the Burned Ones and Bloom are, etc. I somehow enjoyed the last two episodes, so now I do not feel like I wasted my time, and I would even go as far as to say that I would happily watch a second season, even if it borrows a few storylines directly from Harry Potter like the first one has... This is really not a bad anime series, it is quite enjoyable, and in the end the storyline really piqued my interest. It is probably not such a good thing that Beatrix and Riven were the most interesting characters in this series so far, however, the question is whether it is down to the bad drawing and depicition of most of the other characters in the foreground (there is no point writing about characters as good guys and villains in purely positive or negative terms, because no character is perfect or blameless here), or my poor taste and strange inclinations... 5.5/10.

Vlad Love is a really peculiar anime series. At first, it all seems like a sort of madcap comedy, as there are all sorts of crazy things going on and they feel like they were just thrown together in a really disorganized kind of way. However, the show then starts gradually turning into more of a peculiar homage to various movie classics as it goes on and becomes less and less funny and more serious in tone. I still cannot make up my mind whether I liked the way it unfolded in that way. Well, okay - so the creators of this anime series just really like movies, not necessarily monster movies, although due to the subject matter, monster movies are predominantly featured. It starts off full of some insane ideas, eccentricities, frenzied energy, and mild violence (it is a slapstick comedy, after all, according to the tags). The show then gradually turns into a kind of strange mash-up of different scenes and storylines on all sorts of themes (mostly inspired by movie classics), and the initial playfulness and imaginative storyline start to be much more about various expressive animation techniques and styles. On the one hand, I liked that part of the anime series, because some of those hand-drawn scenes and static images are really impressive and counterbalanced my rather cold indifference to the animation that is normally used in this anime series but which I found rather underwhelming. However, on the other hand, the static images also do seem to spoil the fluidity and natural course of the storyline from time to time. Another peculiar thing about this show is the way they alternate between the two openings. Musically, I like them both, one is delightfully energetic, whereas the other is more romantic and sentimental. Originally, I thought that they had designed it in such a way that one would be the opening for the crazier episodes, and the other would be the opening for the more dramatic ones (which would have been a brilliant move), however, after a few episodes, I realized this was actually not the case. As a comedy, I think there were some amusing moments, and I found a few of the jokes were very funny. However, at the same time, a lot of the jokes were a bit weak and I did chuckle a little, but nothing more. For every one of those moments, there were two or three others with jokes that left me completely cold, and truth be told, I did not find it very funny at all, I just raised an eyebrow and thought "really?!?". In other words, my fun-o-meter was showing that this anime series was rather average in terms of the number of jokes that were actually funny. As far as the characters go, I thought the episodes where Banba was the main focus and the driving force of the storyline were a bit more entertaining. The teacher/school nurse who turned up sometimes and her "looong story" was probably the movie homage I found the most intriguing. I thought the other characters, I am afraid, were really forgettable and rather nondescript, and that includes Mai herself, unfortunately. I would probably make an exception for the fathers of the two main female protagonists, as I would for the dashing cosplayer girl because I actually thought she was properly bonkers... So this is a peculiar, original but also contradictory anime series. However, I now have to rate and describe my impression of it somehow, so I am going to give it a long, hard look and after a lot of thinking regarding everything I have written here, probably award a very slight thumbs up. After the first season - I think it is slightly above average. 6.1/10.

The Mouse has another surefire hit on their hands with Raya and the Last Dragon. The animation is gorgeous, the soundtrack fits the movie perfectly, the setting is quite enchanting (especially for lovers of Eastern culture). In addition, I really liked the characters but the actual story - it is so basic, unremarkable, and extremely predictable... I found that I really was not surprised by anything at all in this movie, everything was just so very predictable. There was also no real suspense, I did think it was sometimes moving, just not as much as it needed to be for a truly unforgettable experience. In other words, everything about this movie apart from the conventional and, in my opinion, not very original story was quite enjoyable. I think that this movie could have been amazing, captivating, and original because all the ingredients for it are there. However, in the end, it is just another safe bet for Disney. Delightful, but rather predictable. 6.7/10.

First of all, I am slightly disappointed that the second season of Cells at Work! is so short. Eight episodes is really not that much, especially when half of it is actually just the Cells at Work!! The Movie (that have already been aired) split into four episodes . However, I think you have to appreciate that there was not much source material left for a second season (as actually, only the sixth volume of the original manga series remains unadapted). Plus, it is forgivable considering the new episodes are still more or less as good as in the previous season. Again, some interesting new facts emerged, and I enjoyed watching the engaging depictions of some of the processes in the human body that I was somehow already familiar with. In addition, they also tell you things you can know from even a simple Actimel commercial (did you know that there are billions of friendly bacteria living in our bodies that have a beneficial effect on your digestion? I did!). It was also quite tempting to compare all of this to the spin-off series Cells at Work! Code Black, because both series sometimes had episodes that featured the same part of the human body that were aired in the exact same week. Of course, the atmosphere of this show was still quite light (again, especially compared to Cells at Work! Code Black), which was only disturbed by the great comeback of a familiar enemy. This great enemy does not seem like such a terrifying threat which would make me throw my pack of cigarettes in the trash and never go back to them, and still somehow strikes me as more like a misunderstood cell that I almost sometimes sympathize with... Anyway, I quite enjoyed these few new episodes, I perhaps even learned something, and I even smiled occasionally - so, I am now satisfied. 7.8/10.

This movie is so full of good jokes, crappy jokes, interesting scenes, disgusting scenes, imaginative situations, awkward moments... On the other hand, there is one legendary scene that people will probably still remember twenty years later whenever this movie is mentioned, and that is the fantastic speech by Gary at the end. I may possibly be a very peculiar person, however, I just find it really funny, clever, and apt and whenever I think about it, it makes a lot of sense to me, and I can easily apply parts of it to contemporary society. Truth be told, it even helped me cultivate an air of indifference towards that dirty word started with D because I just smile and say to myself, it is better than being Kim-Jong Il. 6.3/10.

First of all, I have to mention that I am writing this review on behalf of a friend of mine, not because I have any particular desire to do so myself. I normally avoid reviewing hentai. I do not feel the need to somehow regularly and publicly reveal my thoughts about this genre or indeed my sexual preferences. This is because I am quite old-fashioned and prefer to keep that sort of thing to myself (or at most in the pub when I have had a beer or two)... However, I shall make an exception in this case, because you should be able to write about anything after all. I shall have to try and control myself a bit so I do not fall into the trap of using explicit language as well (so I am considering this as a bit of a challenge). Secondly, this is not the first time I have watched this erotic anime series, I saw it a few years ago and abandoned it after watching the first episode (and I also skipped through the first episode of Words Worth Gaiden). Even back then, I made some rather pertinent observations, and now carry them along with a traumatic vision called Stallion! This character burns itself into your retina. Once seen, you just cannot get him out of your head, and it is the first thing you are going to think of whenever Words Worth is mentioned. It also does not help that he is in the very first sex scene in the show and trust me, you just do not want to see that! Anyway, having now finished watching this anime series, I have to say that Stallion is not the worst thing about this show. The two pig guards were even more horrific! In other words, this anime is partly a bizarre zoophilia porn show, which unfortunately does not mean anything to me. I do not find this show appealing (in fact, absolutely the opposite), and I do not want to see something like this please again - ever! I guess I could never properly appreciate the likes of Nina, as I am really not into cat girls either, and this is part of the reason my friend will never convince me to play Nekopara... Other scenes which did not feature the animals were actually pretty cool. However, after saying that, casual rape is not exactly my cup of tea, so I am going to write off the first episode as an off-putting opening. Then, nothing was really going on in the second episode. I thought it only got interesting from about episode three onwards when some of the story started to develop more and it looked like the prince Astral especially was finally at least good for something. On the other hand, Astral was quite an entertaining character in the first few episodes, with it being like a game of Hide and Seek, with (un)expected plot twists. Sure it has a story, there is some lore (probably mostly due to the fact that it is based on an RPG game), however, I cannot say that I found it as engaging as others. I have seen a lot (really a lot) of fantasy movies and TV shows, and I have played a lot of fantasy games. I have also come across a lot of hentai in the almost twenty years I have been watching Japanese anime, and I think this particular anime series is nothing really outstanding or extraordinary. I would also say that story-wise, it is average, maybe a little above average at a push. This is because it is not that unusual in the world of hentai, to have a more meaningful storyline besides all the fucking. Rance is a great example of fantasy hentai with a decent story (nowadays it is probably considered to be a classic) and then other names just pour out like Dragon Knight, Dragon Rider, and Dragon Pink. I think that if I tried hard enough, I could even come up with a lot of other examples which do not even have Dragon in the title... There is another show about an aspiring nobleman that ends up being a pretty entertaining and watchable harem anime series, however, I cannot think of the name of the show right now... I even put the word "plot" into the search engine on some hentai sites and found a few other shows that I have seen but have not rated yet so that potentially interested parties might have something to compare it with. On the plus side, the animation is pretty good for its time, it is done in a style I like in general, and the animation studio has a real sense of detail beyond what you would normally expect from hentai. I also managed to grow quite fond of Sharon, so let us just say I might actually have a favorite character... Even Astral does not seem to be as much of a dumbass over time like he did at first, however, starting to think of him as better than that is never going to happen. So yeah, it seems to be going well but then Stallion and those other atrocities come back to my mind and I just cannot bring myself to award more than 5.1/10.

Words Worth Gaiden successfully joins the ranks of nominees for the "The Most Useless Sequel to Anything" award. It is an absolute tragedy of a show and has a totally pointless story. When half of the running time is still being taken up by a horse and a frog and their erotic interspecies adventures with girls, it feels a bit depressing and you just feel quite sick to the stomach. Damn, this bizarre animal porn is just too much and I ask for whom was it made?!? It was definitely not made for me! The main male protagonist in this show acts just as moronic as he did at the beginning of the original Words Worth anime series, and the graphics throughout the whole show are really shit as well. If you want to read a more extended analysis, there is a review by Honza135 who warned me about this sequel and he was right, this is a massive load of...