Mawaru Penguindrum

New project from the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara. The story will center around the lives of three siblings: Kanba, Shouma, and Himari Takakura, with Himari as the female main character.

First impression: “OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE CUTE PENGUINS”. But in all seriousness, the first episode messed with my mind, but I’ll get to that later. I love the artwork, the colors. The setting is so vibrant and the cut out cardboard by standards are awesome. Unfortunately, I found the dialogue and the characters dull, cute but dull. I’m not actually sure what the plot line is, but be warned, it includes incest and penguins. I’ll have to watch further for more, which I probably will do since there’s a hype on this series. It’s still ongoing…but I recommend it just because I find it appealing to the eyes.


2x2 Shinobu (Ninja Nonsense)

Ninja Nonsense is an absurdist comedy centering around Shinobu, a ninja apprentice, who is attempting to pass her ninja exams while Kaede, a normal schoolgirl, studies for her school exams. As a part of her exam, Shinobu is ordered to break into Kaede’s room to steal her panties by her instructor, Onsokumaru. Shinobu, who despite her enthusiasm, possesses little if any actual ninja skills, believes herself to be invisible and ‘sneaks’ into Kaede’s room. Since Shinobu is perfectly visible to Kaede, the mission does not go as planned. Despite all of this, Kaede takes pity on Shinobu and the two become close friends. Shinobu trains alongside other male ninjas identical in appearance, though one is known as Sasuke.

I laughed so hard throughout the first episode. It’s kawaii + ecchi. If you plan on watching this, get used to sexual innuendos and a clueless ninja. The anime only has 12 episodes but one episode was enough for me. It’s one of those “watch once and done” sort of deal.


11eyes

Adaptation of the 11eyes -Tsumi to Batsu to Aganai no Shoujo- adult PC game from developer Lass. The fantasy adventure revolves around seven teen classmates transported to another world of fantasy and magic where they must defeat six black knights in order to return home.

I believe the first episode went something along these lines; blood, eye patch, panties, apocalypse, then tentacles. The first episode was completely wacko. The first scene was a flashbacks of a “shaman king, spiritual figure weapon”-like type girl killing her brother. My first reaction was, “Ok, this isn’t going to be a cute anime with school uniforms”. But then it became just that, including panty shots along with a guy with an eye patch. The idea of an entire other universe wasn’t made too clear during the first episode so when the screen broke (when I say “broke” it’s similar to when you’re ambushed in ffx2) you see monsters appear and disappear over a two minute interval. Overall, the first episode didn’t make it for me, so I wouldn’t recommend it to you.


No, it is not a yaoi but if you wanna get technical, it’s somewhat of a Shounen-ai.

No.6. An utopia. Inside the citizens lived peacefully and luxuriously. Sion was one of them, unquestioning authority until he met Nezumi. A stray fugitive boy who held a knife to his throat but to Nezumi’s surprise, Shion did not scream but instead helped him. Years after the boys depart, their roles are switched and Sion is arrested for treason but is saved by Nezumi. He takes them to the area outside the walls of No.6 and conspiracies inside the utopia begin to make themselves clear.

For starters, it didn’t live up to my expectations. The relationship between Sion and Nezumi was rushed and some scenes felt they were made to please the audience instead of helping develop characterizations or plots. There are a lot of holes in the story line but it was interesting to watch. The science fiction plot bring many unpredictable twists and turns. But don’t even get me started on the ending. The anime was fine until the last couple episodes. If anything, this series should have been a lot longer since it’s unrealistic to be able to shove the entire concept into the short number of episodes.

The animation and the use of characteristic expressions were well done. The writing of the characters themselves, not so much. The music was a little strange but understandable.

I am seriously debating about reading the manga, hoping it will bring a better name to the series but in 11 episodes, No.6 managed to give themselves a score of 6.5/10.


Sons of Satan? Yes please.

Ao no Exorcist was one of the hottest animes this year.

Every day demons are around to cause havoc to humans. They roam everywhere but the God of Demons, Satan, isn’t able to roam the living/human world of Assiah without a strong enough host that can contain him and all of his powers. So naturally he creates his own hosts, sons, twins, Yukio and Rin. The twin boys are brought up by a human exorcist in hopes of having a normal life. But when Satan kills the man who brought them up, Rin decides on becoming an exorcist to get revenge. Oh and when I say exorcist, I don’t mean holy crosses. I mean guns, bombs, legit weapons.

What started out as an anime filled with vengeance and action later turned into something more settle. Later it began to revolve around on Rin and his lack of ability to study, although Rin has made quite the character development, the story line because less and less, how do you say it, believable? After all how can a group of exorcists in training hope to defeat the God of all Demons?

The action scenes featured in this is quite short and dramatic, but enough to keep you entertained. The comedic parts are tied in frequently to give the audience a chuckle. I personally loved the soundtrack and the characters are amazing lovable as well as the artwork.

But like most animes, it’s rushed, left many unanswered questions, and differed from the actually manga since the manga series hasn’t been finished. But judging the anime solely on itself, with only 25 episodes, I’ll give it a 9/10.I may be a little biased since I really enjoyed the anime.


Besides having one of the most amazing fan base in the world, this anime is near the top of my list. The characters are so well written and there is not a character that I dislike. Not to mention the soundtrack is amazing.

In a world of death, the Millennium Earl turns the mourning into demons. The exorcists are the ones who defend the world from the demons aka “akuma”. D.Gray-man mainly focuses on one exorcist by the name of Allen Walker. This cute white haired boy goes on a journey to search for his master as he fights a number of akuma with a team of exorcist. Allen is special, he is the only one who can see akuma with the power of his cursed eye. Along with that power is his weapon, powered by innocence or the will of God is fused with his body. A rare weapon since most of the others’ “innocence” is fused with a material item. There are many arcs and battles the exorcists go through but the real battle begins when the Earl and his “family”, the Noah, begin killing off the strongest exorcists.

I find the story very original, though it’s hard to actually “win” since the Earl constantly has people turning into demons. Some story arcs I had to push myself to finish, though semi-interesting it could drag a little. The anime is balanced between comedy and action. Near the end the group the Noahs, seem a little more like comedic characters than the dark, evil villains like in the beginning, just a little.

The ending of course was a cliff hanger like most since they decided to make it while the manga was still being written. But this anime consists of 2 seasons and 103 episodes.

9/10.