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A remote town called Jouga is home to a pervasive myth about ancient, humongous wolves that once roamed the area. These wolves are still spoken of in local religious ceremonies and even revered as gods. A river divides the town between the old and new districts. It is to be noted that the people of the old district do not think kindly of those who have embraced the more modern culture. The story takes place as two siblings, Hiroshi Kuzumi and Mana Kuzumi, move to the town with their father, Masaaki Kuzumi, to seek inspiration for his occult novels.

Before Hiroshi can even settle in a neighbor girl, Isuzu Tsumuhana, latches on to him, confesses her love, and tells him that they will be together. Mana, who is in a wheelchair, dislikes the situation from the start. Mana does not seem to want to get along with anyone. When Issei Tsumuhana, Isuzu’s older brother, shows up Mana’s attitude changes. Issei also gets along well with their father, Masaaki, whose books he professes to enjoy. In fact, everyone at school and in town are so damn happy to see new people. Everyone wants to know more about Hiroshi, continually pestering him all throughout class.

One student, Ogasawara, tries to drag Hiroshi off to join his activity club, but is scolded by the class president Nemuru Kushinada. For the rest of the day Ogasawara seems jumpy and scared of everyone. Later that night we see Ogasawara running the streets of the town, his eyes glowing red. A group of masked figures stalk him in the shadows cast by a red moon. The leader, a young girl with a giant scythe, strikes him down. Elsewhere, a mysterious man reacts to the death he somehow feels.

The next day everyone seems to react like nothing happened. Nemuru says that Ogasawara “moved away” suddenly. Hiroshi and another newcomer to the town, Kaname Asagiri, discuss the strange disappearance. Both feel uneasy, especially when Nemuru requests a private audience with Isuzu. We see the two girls exchange heated, yet muted words. The only words we are left to hear are Isuzu saying that she will protect Hiroshi.

This series keeps a great deal of its cards hidden at the start of this series, yet shows just enough to get you to play the hand. The mystery of the town and the wolves, demons, and the warnings to keep off the streets at night set a great mood. While the horror aspect of the series is still mild, it is mounting.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Watch part of episode one after the break…

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Hakureiryou high school provides students enrolling in its servant education program a fully paid scholarship. Students in the servant-ed group are trained up to be proper maids and butlers under their superiors in the upper-ed program. The upper-ed program is comprised of girls from affluent families. Akiharu Hino, having recently lost his parents, has entered the academy to have some place to stay. There are only 5 boys enrolled in the academy as of episode two.

Akiharu runs into Selnia Iori Flameheart on the path to the school. She marks his as a strange and suspicious person, berating him while he tries to walk away, and the eventually charging after him. They collide and land in an classically inappropriate one-hand-grope position. Selnia then begins to chase Akiharu across the school hurling insults and epithets. Akiharu clumsily gets himself into more trouble with more girls as he tries to find his freedom. Its only when Tomomi Saikyo intervenes that the girls stop chasing him.

It turns out that Tomomi knows Akiharu, and worse yet, used to bully him in elementary school. Akiharu overcomes his initial terror at this realization and attempts to fit in with the others in the servant-ed program. Selnia, unwilling to forgive what happened, attempts to make Akiharu as uncomfortable as possible. She arranges for him to serve her during tea; havoc ensues. A clumsy maid pours hot soup on Akiharu; shower scene and unintentional groping ensues. Que sera sera…

There have been both censored and uncensored versions released to various outlets. I leave it up to you whether you wish to watch a scene that is 80% obscured or 100% over-the-top unnecessary. The reason I ranked this series a C was due to the funny situational comedy that surround Akiharu PULLING the rating back from a D due to stooping to a lowest common denominator to get a fan(service)-base. Without the excessive nudity, but still keeping the outright ecchi themes and situations, this could have ranked higher.

Maybe companies should have more confidence in their writers; allow a STORY to develop, not just a few extra boob shots to make their rent.

Overall Hook Rating: C

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Ichiro Irabu is an eccentric psychologist who seeks to cure people’s ailments in a variety of unorthodox ways. Ichiro takes three forms throughout the episodes; a young version, a normal version, and a oversized stuffed bear version. He also has a fetish for watching people get injections, so most do not make it out of his office without a complimentary vitamin booster. Ichiro’s nurse appears from time to time to assist with shots and driving but otherwise stays out of the way smoking or reading. Her name is Mayumi and she is seen wearing Gothic-Lolita fashion with dark and dismissing attitude.

Each of the patients Ichiro sees are followed from December 17th through December 24th and their life crosses that of the other major characters (11 in all) who will be seeing the doctor over the same time frame. From time-to-time, the action will pause and Fukuicchi, a “doctor” on behalf of Fuji Television comes in to describe the various medical terms or to give warnings about the symptoms present in the series.

The first patient to visit Ichiro is a young trapeze artist, Kouhei Yamashita, who thinks his new partner is sabotaging his routine and letting him fall. While picking apart his past, Ichiro determines that his fear of new people is what is causing him to think he is being plotted against. Due to growing up in a circus family, he never really made connections to new people. Overcoming this allowed the act to get back on track (he was self sabotaging). The second patient is Tetsuya Taguchi who wakes up one day with a permanent erection. While we are lead to think that his failed marriage and cheating ex-wife were the cause of his issue, it turns out that his being a push-over was the cause. He works in an office of mostly women that order him around; he never “stands up” for himself, so “it” did it for him. When he finally gets the courage to voice his own opinion, the problem goes away.

It may take you a little effort to get past the surreal style of the series, but I believe it helps with the psychological aspect of the overall story line. By mixing video, rotoscoping, 3d rendering and traditional animation the director (who was also staff on Cowboy Bebop and Serial Experiments Lain) achieves additional un-ease on the part of the viewer. All the psychological talk and intense atmosphere might leave you feeling a bit insane yourself.

Overall Hook Rating: A

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Fumizuki Academy, like most good schools within comedic anime, has some quirky policies. The first is their grading and sorting system. Each year, students are put through a comprehensive examination to determine their rank for the school year. Class A students spend the year learning in a palatial hall with top of the line computers, books and snack service. Class F students have worn out tables, under-stuffed bean bags and ratty floor mats to keep them company. The rest of the classes fall in between at various levels of splendor to squalor. Our story follows a second year student named Akihisa Yoshii, Class F.

Akihisa is joined in Class F by one of the smartest girls in the school, Mizuki Himeji. Mizuki fainted from fever during the placements test and was disqualified with a zero grade; leaving the class during the test meant failure. She has a crush on Akihisa because he was kind to her. Minami Shimada is the only other girl in Class F and hides her feeling for Akihisa behind random brute violence toward him; they are childhood friends. Yuuji Sakamoto is the representative of Class F and is friendly with Akihisa; he treats him as a side-kick at times. Yuuji is rather smart but is unmotivated by grades, so he failed his way into Class F. Kouta Tsuchiya is the resident pervert of the class and excels in health education related subjects, partly due to his perverted study of the female form. Hideyoshi Kinoshita rounds out the main group of Class F students and is extremely feminine in appearance. He hates the fact that he is frequently mistaken for a female. Hideyoshi’s twin sister is in Class A.

The various classes are allowed to challenge one another to an Examination Summons Battle (ESB) where the students test scores power a summoned being (shoukanjuu) to fight for them. If a classes’ representative is beaten, or other set terms met, the match is over. Winners can take the losers rooms, items and/or pride as a prize. Class F starts the year off right by challenging Class E to an ESB on the first day of class. Due to Yuuji’s strategy, the balance of Class F hold off Class E until Mizuki could complete a makeup test, there-by powering up her shoukanjuu to Class A level. Yuuji decides that Class F will not take Class E’s room because as long as they have nothing to lose, they will be fearless. Class F is then challenged by Class A (to put them in their place), so Yuuji plots to take Class A’s room but this ends in a miserable defeat due to his overestimating his own abilities in Japanese history. Class A’s representative, Shouko Kirishima, makes Yuuji go on a date with her as her prize.

This series is pretty fun to watch and while stocked with some nearly “template” character types, keeps some degree of interest in them. So far the series is a bit perverse without being overtly crude (except for that Kouta guy, always trying to peep).

Overall Hook Rating: B

Side note… I’ve been at this for over a year already? Wow, Anime Ima turned 1 and I missed its birthday -_-

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A war in a vaguely European setting has left Kanata Sorami, a young girl, orphaned. She is found alone and crying in a gutted building by a female bugler. Years later she has grown up somewhat, although still quite young, and has enlisted in the military to become a bugler like the woman who saved her. Her assignment is a town called Seize, known to the military as the Time Telling Fortress. It is here that the first two episodes, and presumably the majority of the series, will take place.

On her way through the town, Kanata is distracted by a local tradition in which people are dousing each other with an orange colored water. She is met by a woman named Rio Kazumiya, who turns out to be her superior, and scolded for her lax ways. While cleaning up, Rio shows her a bell charm her father left her. In a humorously prompt manner, an owl swoops in and steals the necklace from Kanata’s hand. Rio sucks up her disappointment and instructs Kanata get to their base.

While Rio goes off the participate in her special role in the town’s ceremony, Kanata is drawn to the bell’s sound and down into the ravine near the town. While she manager to secure the bell, she falls into the water below. Under the water is a huge golden skeleton of some headless bird, possibly relating to the town’s history, but never divulged in the first two episodes. Rio hears Kanata bugling for assistance and eventually rescues her.

Now united, Kanata is introduced to the other members of their platoon. Filicia Heideman is the group’s leader followed by Rio as the sergeant major. Noel Kannagi is the platoon’s pilot and mechanic, yet has not been able to make the needed repairs to their defunct mecha-tank. Kureha Suminoya is a stubborn private and the platoons tank gunner. Kureha seems to be out to hate Kanata, but warms to her during a “mission” to seek out a ghost in episode two.

This series suffers greatly from the glaring comparison to K-ON in the makeup of the group and even in the character design themselves. Pushing this aside, the story is floating on a rich world yet has taking very little active interest in pursuing the greater story thus far. On the plus side, the scenery is beautiful.

Overall Hook Rating: C

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Naozumi Tsuchida is trying to get his post-school life together. He has accepted the first male teaching position offered at a local kindergarten called Hanamaru. Working in the classroom next door is a lovely yet aloof young woman named Nanako Yamamoto. Besides them there are two other teachers named Kawashiro and Kusano who run separate classes at the school. The principle is rather forgiving of his shortcomings early on, as she sees his potential. If only life were that easy…

On Naozumi’s way to work the first day, running late as it was, he noticed a young girl waiting out by the street. His role as teaching coming out, she stopped and asked her what she was doing and where her parents were. Her name was Anzu and she was waiting for her mother. She then erroneously analyzed the situation based on what she saw on TV and decided that he was hitting on her! To make matters worse, her mother, Sakura, encouraged her behavior and played along.

Upon reaching the school, Naozumi found out that Anzu was in his class. She proudly announced that he hit on her and she was going to marry him. This being said in front of the entire school, parents and staff turned Naozumi into a bumbling fool attempting to explain. He then, as the series progresses, attempts to win over Nanako but finds no luck.

Anzu makes friends with two other girls; the spacey yet genius Hiiragi and the emotional and fragile Koume. The series seems like it will focus on this core group of girls and Anzu’s interactions with an ever more flabbergasted Naozumi. It is revealed that Anzu’s mother, Sakura, was in high school with Naozumi but left after becoming pregnant with Anzu and leaving for the USA with the father (who was an art teacher at the high school).

This series is cute, but barely made the B grade as there are only two directions I feel the series can go, and both have the potential to be a letdown. The situation with Anzu’s parents was a bit creepy as well.

Overall Hook Rating: B-

Check out episode one after the break…

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Kobato Hanato has come to Earth fulfill a mission in order to win herself the ability to go somewhere she needs to go. We are not yet informed of her destination, nor how she will be getting there. Hell, we don’t even know where she is from. Is she an alien or angel? Whatever the case may be, she is on Earth to mend the broken hearts of people she comes in contact with.

But not so fast! Before Kobato is allowed to begin, she is given a day long trial to see if she will be able to fit in with humanity. Her overseer, an animated stuffed dog named Ioryogi, constantly criticizes her shortcomings. He also blasts her with fireballs when she messes up bad enough. During her day she meets sleazy men who try to escort her away to some secluded place; she accidently creates an awesome hot-pot out of veggies, meat, chocolate and milk; and shows off her singing ability to calm a crying baby, which draws a crowd of people around her.

It is when an old woman come to thank Kobato for singing her grandson to sleep in the park that Ioryogi gives her tragically bumbled day a passing grade. With this he bestows her a glass vial that will hold the tokens representative of the repaired hearts she creates. She sets off bugging every person she meets to allow her to help, with predictable results.

Kobato ends up at a kindergarten with a man named Kiyokazu Fujimoto, who rescued her from punks in episode one, and a woman named Sayaka Okiura. She is allowed to work there and starts to bond with the kids due to her slightly naive and innocent nature. One boy in her group opens up to her about his absent father when she reveals that she does not know her father either. When Kobato praises him and his hard working mother the boy’s heart mends, gaining her a small candy-like token in her bottle.

While the series is cute and slightly unique in its implementation, I do not know if more details are forthcoming. The pace is very slow and fortunately the comedy helps bridge the portions where you want some progression. I grade it “B” in hopes that this will get rolling now that she is actively seeking hearts.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Suspense

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Aoi Bungaku varies from its anime brethren by nature of its source. Parts of this series are derived from various classical Japanese works; six in all. The first two episodes comprise half of the story No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. Episodes 5 and 6 are from In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom by Ango Sakaguchi, episodes 7 and 8 are from Kokoro by Natsume Souseki, episodes 9 and 10 are from Run, Melos! also by Osamu Dazai with episodes 11 and 12 each being their own complete story consisting of The Spider’s Thread and Hell Screen by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

No Longer Human takes us inside the mind of a monster. Not your average monster, but instead a young man who feels no connection to his fellow man. Yozo Oba grew up the privileged son of a wealthy congressman yet feared upsetting his father. In flashbacks we see Yozo, still a young boy, being abused by a group of women; cowering under his father’s gaze as he challenges his plans for him; and growing further apart from his humanity.

It is not until a boy in his class sees through his disguise that Yozo admits he is a monster, whose visage takes Yozo’s place in the mirror. As Yozo grows up he begins to lie, cheat and steal through life. He lives off allowances from his ever more irate father until he is cut off. It is at this point he meets Tsuneko, working under the name Mayumi, who has been abandoned by her ex-convict husband and has all but lost the will to live.

The two of them spend an intimate night describing their loath of life and decide to commit double suicide. They load up on sleeping medication and leap from an ocean cliff (Tsuneko asks Yozo to push her off). Guilt begins to stab into Yozo after this action and he follows her into the abyss. Yet, he survives the attempt and later recovers in the hospital. His lingering guilt begins to unravel him further and he wishes to attempt to carry out Tsuneko’s wishes to become more human in her next life. He makes a pact with himself to makes this opportunity his second chance at a normal life.

The atmosphere, artwork and story laid out in this half of the No Longer Human story just blew me away. It contains a great deal of internal turmoil and deep psychological insights that really pull you into the characters. I have just put this series at the top of my to watch list.

Overall Hook Rating: A

Genres: Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Romance

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Tomoki Sakurai’s morning start off much the same as any young male in a generally ecchi series. His family is away on a trip and his equivalent-age female neighbor, Sohara Mitsuki, lets herself into his house to wake him up in the mornings. Life is good… and above all, predictable. This is what Tomoki desires in his life, but change is on a collision course!

Tomoki has been having a recurring dream of an angel asking for his help ever since he was young. He wake with tears in his eyes, which concerns Sohara to the point of her asking him to see professional help. Tomoki, however, write this off as nothing. Her second plan is to drag Tomoki to meet Eishirou Sugata, the president of The New World club. Eishirou understands completely about this phenomena, so he claims, and shows the two a mysterious floating black hole over earth that is supposedly linked to the dreams.

Tomoki, Sohara and Eishirou agree to meet under an giant, ancient cherry tree to watch as the spot moves over their town. First Sohara cancels on Tomoki, soon followed by Eishirou. As Tomoki wonders why he even bothered to come he gets a panicked call from Eishirou telling him to run; the spot has apparently become unstable. Before he can take action on those words, Tomoki sees what appears to be an angel crash to earth. His conscious won’t let him leave her on the ground as hundreds of falling pillars begin to decimate the countryside.

Just as one is about to crush them both, the “angel” wakes and flies them to safety. This creature introduces herself as Ikaros, a Pet-Class Angeloid – Type Alpha, and promptly bonds to Tomoki as her new master. She informs Tomoki that she exists to carry out his every wish. This is where the story ends up following the perverted Tomoki on his exploits for one and a half episodes of my two-episode review process. I would have rated this series higher except for the latter two-thirds of the second episode consisting entirely of Tomoki making all the girls panties fly off. This barely makes its rating, and will fail utterly if it doesn’t get to the over-story ASAP.

Overall Hook Rating: C

Check out episode one after the break…

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Magical

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Fiore is a country where a sizable portion of the population has some manner of magical abilities. Due to this, magic is a common and traded commodity amongst the people. those who use magic are referred to as wizards. While their sources of magic may be varied, they all join together in guilds to further their pursuits. One such guild is called Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail’s members are a rather rough and disparate group of wizards, but they are quite powerful.

The story follows Lucy Heartfilia, a fledgling Stellar Spirit wizard who wishes to join the Fairy Tail guild. The meets with a popular, charming, yet vain wizard calling himself “Salamander of Fairy Tail.” She nearly falls under his charm magic but a young man named Natsu Dragneel, who is looking for someone named Igneel, blunders in and breaks the spell. He assumed that the man going as “Salamander” may in fact be Igneel… he wasn’t. Lucy buys Natsu and his cat Happy lunch as thanks. Knowing that she needs to get in Salamander’s good graces, she eventually agrees to join him at a party on his boat.

This party turns out to be a trap to lure women into a slave ship headed to another country. While Lucy attempts to ward off Salamander’s advances, as well as his minions’, Natsu makes a sea-sick entrance to defeat them. Lucy is pulled off the boat by Happy’s wing transformation, but end up in the water when the spell wears off. She then uses her magic to summon Aquarius to beach the fleeing ship. Aquarius, after making a few threats to Lucy, does as she is told and beaches the ship with a tidal wave.

Back on dry land, Natsu recovers and reveals himself the be the true “Salamander of Fairy Tail,” then promptly defeats the impostor. This does, however, destroy large portions of the town and they are forced to flee back to the guild hall. Natsu extends an invitation to join the guild while he, Lucy and Happy run for it. The guild turns out to be a bit more unprofessional and wild than Lucy would have anticipated. She takes a job with Natsu to get away from it all and the remainder of the second episode involves us seeing a bit more of her power, Natsu’s compassion and a little bit of history all around.

This series is pretty funny and the only negative I can see with it would be that if it does not buckle down the main story line early in the season, it will lose out big time. That aside, I’m looking forward to watching this series.

Overall Hook Rating: A