First Episode Review for: Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyou

Summary : Young lad who is the grandson to the lord of the demon parade, juggles his duty to this legacy with his desire to be a normal schoolboy. This is the second series

Animation : Nice and clear, just normal anime fair

Plot Potential: Sorry I can’t comment on the plot yet as the first episode was a background flashback, with only 2 mins on the current time

Characters: All the original characters are there, and judging from the closing credits there is a new super team of bad guys to match the good guy, so that’s a good sign.

Music: It’s OK, nothing wrong but nothing memorable

Reminds me of: Well err the first season really

Overall: The original was good (I would class it as “high quality background”) and this looks as is it might be a match for it, which is rare for second series where they have done a conclusive end to the first one, but I think I will keep an eye out for the next one.

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!

First Episode Review for: Blade

Summary : Marvel’s Blade Character takes his turn to receive the anime treatment

Animation : Looks EXACTLY like the X-men and Iron Man anime that preceded it, dark and very shiny, must be the official Marvel anime look. Pity they did not keep the Wesley Snipes look, the costume is from the movie Blade, but he is now bald and slightly chubby in the face

Plot Potential: Not bad, not bad, quite a lot of rote stuff, but they are adding plenty and the set pieces are as good as any other anime

Characters: Blade’s monologues are good, and the new support characters (well new to me as I’m not normally a Blade fan) are surprisingly deep

Music: Like the animations this has been done in the same vein as the other 2 Marvel Animes

Reminds me of: Other Marvel Anime

Overall: With the success of the X-men and Iron man adaptations, and the general obsession with vampires , this was going to happen sooner or later and they continue to do a good job of the conversions

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!

First Episode Review for: Kamisama Dolls

Summary : A teenager with a dark past tries to move on, however his past and nasty robots soon catch up with him

Animation : Medium/high quality of animation with a special effort made during explosions and battle scenes

Plot Potential: Lots of plot potential, even in the first episode I was surprised twice, but for a serious one like this it will have to start digging into to a good story plot in the next couple of episodes and we are still just on background so far.

Characters: Likable if not too original, the main protagonist is not as dopey as is normal for these kinds of action anime

Music: Music is ok, but they seem to have raided Akira’s miscellaneous sound effect library

Reminds me of: neon genesis evangelion and Pokemon mixed together

Overall: Despite not knowing what was going to happen next, I was not left ‘into’ this story, so I’m between “watch if I run across it” and “wait for the next episode”

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!

First Episode Review for: YuriYuri

Summary : Klutzy Girl starts her first day of middle school and her search for ‘presence’

Animation : Very much standard quality Anime

Plot Potential: Sorry but I can’t find any plot at all, on the plus side that means there is little stress involved

Characters: Initally stock charaters (if well done ones), the older sister’s fixation on the younger one is done in a dark and frightening way which contrasts well with the rest of the charaters.

Music: Nice catchy music

Reminds me of: Lucky Star

Overall: An easy-going anime, nothing special, in our house we would call it “background anime”

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime’s that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!

First Episode Review for: Usagi Drop

Summary : A 30 year old man’s grandfather dies (aged 79) leaving behind a ~7 year old girl and the family (and more specifically the lead male) try to decide what to do with her

Animation : Subdued animation with a major attempt to go for realism, good attention to detail and pleasant on the eyes

Plot Potential: Amazing potential, and already showing its colours

Characters: good original characters, a lot of growth potential, and good bit in this first episode was the contrast between the lead little girl and the bratish spoilt child of one of the other family members, really put you on the little girl’s side.

Music: Subdued opening tune, pleasant chirpy closing theme

Reminds me of: Nothing, I cannot remember an anime that deals with such a difficult social issue (particularly tricky in Japan) without merely using it as a justification of a persons actions later in the series e.g., “he sought revenge for being abandoned”,

Overall: It may be much more serious than my normal stuff, but it was fascinating, I’m going to watch this series with great interest.

Disclaimer: These are mini reviews of anime’s that are fresh out in Japan and are not licensed in the UK, buy them once they have been licensed or at the very least buy the merchandise, remember if the anime makers make a loss, THEY WILL STOP MAKING ANIME!!