Genres: Comedy, Fantasy

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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: 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…
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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

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Harem

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With a self debasing swath of humor, the student council of Hekiyou Gakuen kicks off its fully tongue-in-cheek animated parody of…. itself? Well, it also takes shots at Dragonball Evolution, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, H-games and harem series in general. Their school’s method of electing the student council members is by popularity, so naturally some stereotypical female roles spring up in the 4 core members. the fifth member, known as the blue-chip seat, is filled by the highest scoring student academically.

Kurimu Sakurano is the runt of the group, but also holds the position of president of the student council. By her side is Minatsu Shiina, the council’s vice-president and sister to Mafuyu Shiina, the treasurer. The fourth female member is Chizuru Akaba, the secretary. Ken Sugisaki, the only male in the group, fills the blue-chip seat. Fortunately for him, and most unfortunately for the group, he is a massive h-game fanatic and sees the council as his harem. In fact, nearly the entire first episode revolves around his images of the group as his harem.

Into the second episode, Kurimu is dealing with the fact that her grades are the lowest of all the members of the student council. She spends most of the study time they arranged snacking, pleading and whining about her difficulties. When the results come in, no one is surprised to see she performed horribly. One by one they take turns bashing her for wasting their time and efforts. Its only afterward when she asks Ken for help after a meeting that she shows his serious and caring side.

In the last few seconds we see a blond girl plotting outside the student council room. Perfect timing for a hook, and it seems to have done the trick. It’s a good time to pick up a new comedy as my recent viewing has been far too serious for the holidays. Have a good holiday people!

Overall Hook Rating: B

Watch the beginning of episode 1 after the break…

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Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

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Sawako Kuronuma could be your average high school girl: striving for popularity, playing sports and excelling at her studies. However, her downfall lies in both her mannerisms and lack of ability to communicate with others. Where most people would talk normally with their peers, Sawako will drift off into spooky discussions or actions that make others mistake her intentions. Instead of making oneself known to others in the room, she has a habit of silently appearing behind them, appearing much like the ghost from The Ring. This effect has student’s labeling her Sadako (the name of the ghost girl from The Ring).

Sawako strives for friends and understanding from those she interacts with, but know that she is unable to truly communicate. That is, until she meets Shouta Kazehaya. On Shouta’s first day at their school he got lost on the way to the campus. Fortunately, Sawako was there and was able to direct him correctly. It’s not until later that she realizes that she had none of her usual problems while talking with him. Shouta is extremely charismatic and is admired by many of the girls at the school. Sawako thinks that he is the more radiant and cheerful person she has ever met.

Now slowly gaining her confidence, thanks to Shouta, Sawako begins to interact with two other classmates who used to mock her: Ayane Yano and Chizuru Yoshida. The girls discuss the upcoming “bravery challenge” where they will send pairs of students into the forest at night and see who chickens out. They volunteer Sawako to be the ghost, but in the end she accepts on her own terms, as it would be fun. Shouta meets up with her later than night, thinking she didn’t show up that night, and thus leaving him by himself. He begins to express his feeling toward Sawako when the class begins teasing him for hanging out with her. Afraid of affecting his social status, Sawako tells everyone that nothing is going on and then leaves.

Shouta takes this as a message that Sawako is not interested in him. But soon after, she does begin to feel something for him. When Sawako uses her umbrella to shade an abandoned puppy from the rain, she gets drenched. Shouta helps her dry off and the girls lend her some clothes to wear for the day. During the beginning of the semester, she seats are being assigned, no one wants to sit by Sawako. Shouta, Ayane, Chizuru and soon to be another of their group Ryuu Sanada take up the positions around her, proudly showing their support.

This anime may sound slow moving, but it is a very sweet story with well placed comedy to keep the momentum flowing. The occasional chibi aspects are not overdone and you will find yourself with a grin on your face in no time.

Overall Hook Rating: A

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Supernatural

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Junpei Kousaka hates cats. He is allergic to them, they annoy him… even the fat cat his family owns, Nyamsus, constantly picks on him. It goes without saying that as a comedy, it’s all downhill from there. On his way home from school he innocently kicks a can into the trash. However, fate decides that he will miss this attempt and instead behead the statue of a neko-jizo, a cat guardian deity. This act brings upon his the curse of the neko-jizo; if he does not assist 100 cats with their tasks on earth, he will become a cat himself. This is when he begins to hear the voices of every cat around him.

Knowing that his allergies would probably kill him at that point, he goes about seeking alternate ways to break his fate. He first consults with the monk at the cat shrine, Keizou Kirishima, about the history of this deity. Midway through the long wandering stories dating back to the Edo Period, Junpei begins to argue with the monk’s cat, Tama. Tama explains the curse to Junpei further and he begins to hallucinate that he is becoming a cat (after badmouthing the cat deity). He wakes in his bed again, only hazily remembering what happened after the hallucination that day.

Junpei ’s first task is the stop a bully from picking on stray cats in his neighborhood. As it turns out, this bully is his friend (and secret crush from school), Kaede Mizuno. He tries to explain to her that, unlike the dogs her parents own, cats cannot be handled roughly. Nyamsus and Tama begin to harass Junpei and he ends up yelling at them to just “knock it off already.” Kaede assumes he is talking to her and runs off apologizing.

In attempts to complete his second contractual obligation to a cat, Junpei is reintroduced to Kanako Sumiyoshi, a friend from his distant past. There was a time when they were younger that she had feelings for him. She took a situation she walked in on out of context and began a long running feud with him. The cat, however, requires Junpei to pass on its feelings to Kanako for it, as she took care of the cat for some time. A few tears are shed, but things end up MOSTLY patched between the two. This moment also begins the roll of this series toward a more harem-ish spin.

This series has some good potential and as long as the harem aspects to not get trashy, we should be in for a good show. As anyone with cats will know, they find a way to get as close as possible to those who want nothing to do with them. This does add a bit of slapstick comedy to the situation, and we have yet to see the series take a fully serious note.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Check out a clip from episode 1 after the jump…

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Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Science Fiction

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There exists a technologically advanced city wherein roughly 80% of the populace are developing powers due to the cities highly advanced technology. This facility is named Academy City; its inhabitants are part of the “Brain Development Program” where in psychic powers are developed. To keep order within this city, powerful students are drafted into “Judgment”, as task force who deals with mundane and super-powered crimes.

We meet Kuroko Shirai and her roommate (and crush) Mikoto Misaka dealing with a group of thugs who are pestering a younger student. While Kuroko is an actual member of Judgment, Mikoto is not… yet she is one of the seven most powerful people in the city (we will later find out why her nickname is Railgun). As soon as the punks are dealt with, the girls must return to their middle school to undergo a “System Scan”, which is code for an analysis of their primary abilities, ranked Level 1 through Level 5 (the strongest). Level 0 is reserved for those with no powers.

Kuroko plots to get closer to Mikoto by allowing her cohort at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, a chance to meet her hero (Mikoto). Kazari’s good friend, Ruiko Saten, also tags along. Ruiko is considered Level 0, having developed no powers as of yet. While the foursome is out they come across a bank robbery in progress. The two Judgment members (Kuroko and Kazari) step into action and begin to control the scene. in the commotion, a boy has wandered into the battle and is taken hostage by one of the robbers. Ruiko grapples him away from the robber and gets a boot in the face for her troubles.

The robber, now empty handed, steals a car and attempts to run down the one girl left standing in the middle of the road… Mikoto. She tells Kuroko that she will handle the situation. As the car bears down on her, she flips a coin into the air. Electricity begins to flow about her body and focuses toward her outstretched hand. As the coin returns in line she flicks it, releasing all the stored power… the Railgun. This pinpoint blast of power upends the car and sends it spiraling through the air. The day is saved!

Into the second episode the mood lightens somewhat to focus on more of the day to day school life, Kuroko’s crush on Mikoto, and other zaniness. The tone of the series took such a sudden shift that it worries me that it might spiral downhill. On the positive side, the concept and the Railgun itself is just epic.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Watch part of episode one after the jump…
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Genres: Comedy, Romance

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Saku Oyagi only ever wanted to sit inside and read peacefully. His neighbor, Mihoshi Akeno, had other plans for his free time. From the time they were in the first grade together, Mihioshi was dragging Saku out to play or to go star gazing. Mihioshi wishes to pass on her love of the stars to her best friend… but he is resistant. She decides to climb a tree to get Saku a star but falls, injuring them both. Saku’s family moves away, and he holds some animosity toward her for his broken arm (and that she never came to say goodbye).

During Saku’s freshman year of high school he is moved back to his home town. While his intentions are to forget the past, he runs right into Mihoshi again. Now a senior member of the Astronomy Club, Mihoshi is desperately recruiting members to meet their 5 person minimum enrollment. Saku is, again, very resistant at first. Once he learns that Mihoshi couldn’t see him off because she was in the hospital from the fall, he finally comes around.

The remainder of the cast if laid out, including: Sayo Yarai, a mostly quiet girl who tries to keep Mihioshi in check; Takeyasu Roma, the Astronomy Club president (whos weak constitution leads to much bleeding from the mouth); Masashi Edogawa, Saku’s new friend from the freshman class; and Hime Makita, who has a crush on Saku since he complimented her on her hair during their entrance exams.

This series is very cute and seems to have enough open ended love interestes to remain interesting for now. While it could have taken the traditional harem route, I find it stays a step above, earning it top marks.

Overall Hook Rating: A

Watch the first part of episode 1 after the jump…
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Genres: Comedy, Ecchi, Harem

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Teppei Kobayashi has a simple, predictable life. His family lives in a modest home near a railway line, he practices with his sword, and is happily unaware of the events spiraling toward him. The news on TV shows stories of affluent families who are dying in mysterious auto “accidents” that are anything but accidental. At dinner his father asks him what he would do if he found himself in that situation. Teppei brushes this off, as it doesn’t apply to a simple person like him, but says he would do what he had to do.

Teppei leaves for school, and notes in the voice-over that it was the last time he saw his parents alive. Saying his last goodbyes, he sets off to live with his grandfather. On the way to his grandfather’s offices he saves Charlotte Hazelrink, a princess, from attackers like those most likely responsible for his parents death. They share a small uncomfortable moment (well, maybe a little too comfortable of a moment) after they are safe, then go their separate ways. Later at his new school, the Shuuhou Gakuen academy, they will meet again in much the same way.

In the interlude, he learns that his mother, Kanae, was heir to the Arima family. His parents “accident” fits the others he had watched on TV; Teppei is filled with a desire for vengeance. His grandfather, Isshin Arima, adopts him as his new heir… warning him to temper his anger and wait for his enemies to make themselves known.

After Teppei (who has now taken the Arima family name) has been announced as the heir and escaped the social scene there-after, he runs into Maria van Hossen, a skilled fencer. He decides that the best thing to do while uncomfortable is to let his mind rest with a little sparring. They briefly match swords until his grandfather and Maria’s father let them know that they are engaged in an arranged marriage.

Teppei’s reactions to the sudden social status upgrade, the new school, personalities and quirks of his status are quite humorous. The underlying seriousness of the situation hides under the tide of perverse humor and general social uneasiness. While not a huge fan of the general harem genre, this one has its own merits.

Overall Hook Rating: B

Watch part of episode one after the jump…
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Genres: Comedy, Drama, Magical

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Six hours is more than enough time for your life to get turned completely around. For high school student Yumiko Christina Ichinose, a confrontation with bullies is only the start of her new life. Yumiko was born with purple eyes and silver hair, making her a natural target of ridicule. These traits also denote her magical heritage.

Able to take no more, she runs away from home carrying the one artifact left behind for her by her great-grandfather; his magic staff. She hopes that a school could train her to use the magic she is supposed to have, but is unable to comprehend from her great-grandfather’s journals. However, she is not the only person interested in the staff. A mysterious man in a white suit, who glows with a radiant light, confronts her and requests the staff. When refused, he makes it his goal to kill Yumiko.

While fleeing this man, she makes her way to the magic school on an old flyer she has found. Here she runs into Koyomi Morishita, another magician in training… one who apparently knows her already, but “not yet,” hinting at some potential time or perception warping. They are also joined by Soshiro Anehara, brother to the yet to be seen Misa Anehara who runs the school (as far as we are told thus far).

Koyomi uses her powers to turn the man in white’s attack “code” (the term used for the magical energies of the modern digital age) into a metal wash basin to drop on his head. He notes that this is actually an unskilled, yet powerful move… while he examines the situation, the girls run off. Yumiko finds herself lost and alone and is soon attacked by the man’s pet (a two headed dog beast with a whip-tail). Mimicking the man’s earlier attacks, Yumiko managers to repeat the “code” he used and saves herself. Angered by her success, he returns… but he is eventually repelled by Misa, making her first appearance to Yumiko.

The second episode flashes back to Koyomi’s joining the school and her basic training. We learn that Misa is a VERY accomplished magician; probably the best in the world. The attempt at using “code” and technology as a digital incarnation of analog magic was a step in the right direction. This method of doing something different than the majority of magical girl series did not add much to the series as of yet.

Overall Hook Rating: C

Watch episode one after the jump…
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