Anime Reviews

This page is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION I will put add more details and reviews when I get around to it.

Note: There is no spell checker on the text editor I use to make these pages... so expect many typos.

These are some different anime I have watched and enjoyed.

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

B A fun and cute slice of life about a woman who lives with dragons in a little apartment. The dragons are of course anthropomorphic and can turn into uhhhh buxom women for some reason. Why would this be a beneficial thing for dragons to be able to do?  A lot of juvenile humor about boobs, etc. though so you might not enjoy it if you roll your eyes at that sort of stuff.  

Lucky Star

A- *lil b voice* classic Some of the humor is dependent on familiarity with specifics of mid 2000s otaku culture and that stuff does not hold up as well. Enough slapstick, which transcends time and space, to make up for this though.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

AStill very affecting all these years later. Classic bildungsroman with lots of heavy handed references to psychoanalysis and kabbalah / gnosticism. People really don't talk about how the comic relief w/ Pen Pen and Misato being drunk really mellows out the sturm und drang that can be a bit overbearing otherwise. 

Blue Submarine No. 6

C-One the anime I watched when I was suffering from e coli in gradeschool. I remembered it having a particularly moving nostalgic and morose atmosphere. While it does have a lot of cool setting and worldbuilding, the asinine story and terrible CGI prevents it from being a compelling rewatch as an adult. 

Kill La Kill

B- I am glad the Studio Trigger fad has sort of run its course. It is sort of the Quentin Tarantino of anime where just like referencing stuff / being over the top is supposed to be cool for its own sake. Also frankly just too many nopples. You cannot really watch this with your friends because there are just big ole boobs floppin everywhere.

Yokohama Shopping Log

AOne of my favorite OVAs. An apocalypse with no violence or catastrophe where humanity slowly fades into a blissed out and peaceful twilight. There are androids but nobody quite knows why. Chilling out in the country side, watching the ruins of human hubris sink back into the sea. Heavy mood and dripping with atmosphere. Great 90s synth and guitar bossa nova typa soundtrack.

Non Non Biyori

A+ Ren-chon is the revolutionary subject.  We should all be more like her in our daily lives.

Gunbuster

AMy favorite mech anime. I have a still of the last scene where Gunbuster explodes showing its biomechanical innards future humanity rejoices up on my main composer page. I put that picture in the score of an orchestra piece I wrote in 2015 as well. As far as I know, it is the originator of the "time moves differently in deep space so you age at a radically different rate from your loved ones" trope also mined with great power in Voices of A Distant Star. Another thing that Christopher Nolan stole from an anime in his Shit Movie Interstellar from 2014.

Is The Order A Rabbit?

B+That poof ball thing does not actually look like an abyssinian(sp?) rabbit. The studio needs to pay the animators to go on a Rabbit Observation Trip so they can better represent rabbits in their work. Cute and relaxing anime nonetheless. Sometimes these shows that glamorize working in cafes, as a game designer, etc. rub me the wrong way. Where is the episode where the unionize? We need more social realism and class conciousness in these sorts of shows.  

Clannad

C-Just go on a date for gods sake.

Clannad Afterstory

C+Just get married and wait for your wife to die from a terminal illness so you can save her w/ time travel for gods sake.

New Game!

B-Similar issue irt Class Conciousness as Is The Order A Rabbit? Relaxing watch though. Maybe worse here... I am pretty sure being a game designer is a gruelling and thankless job with insane hours and no recourse to collective bargaining.

Gurren Lagan

AGotta love it. So much soul. When those Gainax fellxs went and formed Trigger they really fell into self-parody. A much more extreme version of when people talk about late Bergman and Fellini movies being like those fellxs "making a Bergman movie" or "making a Fellini" movie respectively.... instead of just making a movie. Gurren Lagan is dope though. Big Ass Robots.

Monogatari Series

A-/F-Mind-bending story about language, subjectivity, and the roles of narratives both self-penned and osmosized from broader culture play in our "care of the self" constitution of ourselves of individuals in a matrix of consumerism and pre-capitalist forms of identity intersecting in weird disjunctive ways. lush polystylistic visuals that change scene to scene,,, never for their own sake but for specific narrative reasons. However, the attitude towards sexuality and gender that the show takes, particularly when dealing with literal childen, is absolutely vile and I cannot really recommend the show because of that. Who cares if she is a 300 year old dragon vampire lady or whatever........ Get Help.

Grappler Baki

ASo dope... he is STRONG. He fights a PRAYING MANTIS,,, OBAMA is in it,,,, the Netflix version is an awesome adaptation. I whole -heartedly recommend. The most over-the-top fighting anime you can think of but in the naive way that is awesome instead of the boring self-aware way.

K-On!

B-Does not really reel me in like other Kyo-Ani lighthearted series in the same vein like Lucky Star.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumaya

AEndless Eight introduced a generation of weebs to the joys of Slow Cinema. Seriously though... I can understand how it must have been irritating when it was airing,, watching the whole arc in one go is quite rewarding IMO. You understand Yuki's motivations in the movie a lot better as well. 

The Ancient Magus' Bride

B+Cool nature vibes... the scene where the old dragon dies is really moving. Her kinda being Human Traffic'd is pretty fucked up though.

Violet Evergarden

Yu Yu Hakusho

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

A I am a JoJo Head what can I say. Part 4 is my favorite both of the anime and manga. Great characters. I like the orphic thing where the hands pull you into the underworld if you look back in that alley. Kira's death is great.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Initial D

Elfen Leid

Cardcaptor Sakura

Fist of the North Star

Soulja Boy Anime (this would be cool)

CowBoy BoBo

Serial Experiments Lain

Fruits Basket

Demon Slayer

Re:Zero

Steins;Gate

Fate/Stay: Night

Mawaru Penguindrum

Sarazanmai

Yuri Kuma Arashi

Brave New Animal

Plastic Memories

Angel Beats!

Charlotte

InuYasha

Fullmetal Alchemist

Ghost In The Shell

Gundam

Toradora

Anohana

Mushi-Shi

Aria

Madoka

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