You watch it, you rate it!

Title says it all. Once you finish a series, you must rate it here! Give me something to read / type about when I can't sleep at 3 in the morning!. I'll be going through my entire anime collection over the next... year or so... This should be fun.

Ai Yori Aoshi / Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~
Romance / Comedy / Harem

Animation: A-
Story: A
Dub: D
Sub: A+

While not as good as the manga, mainly because of the lack of nipples and an end to the story, it's still an entertaining watch. These series were one of the first I bought once I got into my anime addiction ( The manga was my second complete series too), and some of the scenes still get to me. I just couldn't find myself getting into the dub though, and everytime I heard Aoi call Kaoru KARU-SEMAH I cringed. DVD 2 was a little fuzzy for some reason... though I can't remember if it was always like that. Maybe my blu ray player is upconverting it weirdly O_o.

Overall Suggestion: Must watch

His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano)
School life / Comedy / Romance

Animation: C+
Story: A
Dub: B-
Sub: A+

Probably one of the only titles animated by gainax that I actually like.... Kare Kano is a nice little story of high school romance. The thing I liked about the series, and especially the manga, was the whole story didn't revolve around the main characters the whole time. They went into some good side stories with a lot of the other characters. Like a lot of other anime thats based on incomplete manga... the ending just leaves you wanting more. The animation though was kind of hit or miss. You would have scenes where the characters were moving VERY smoothly, and then you would have some scenes where they looked like they just scanned pages out of the manga and added music to it.

Overall Suggestion: Must watch.

Next Up:
Either Koi Kaze, Berserk, or Eureka 7.

Next up:

Koi Kaze
Drama / Incest

Animation: A-
Story: A-
Dub: B+
Sub: A-

Among all of the anime I own, this story is unique. There are a lot of subjects that Ive not seen in most anime, such as a serious incestual relationship, but it's handled in a way that isn't offensive, and that you actually feel bad for everything the characters had to go through.

This series isn't for everyone though. You kind of need to watch it with an open mind. If you go into it with a "OMG THIS STORY IS INCEST DISGUISTING" attitude, you will pretty much hate the whole series. Just take it one step at a time and you will see that this isnt the typical incest / lustful relationship that is mostly seen in hentai anime and manga, but one of love and consideration for the future.

Overall Suggestion: Watch

(I finished watching this a week or so ago)
Clannad /// Clannad After Story
Drama / Comedy / Romance / School life

Animation: A+
Story: A++++++++
Dub: N/A
Sub: A+

Where to even begin. For starters, never have I ever bawwed like a little bitch more then when I was watching this show. It has squeezed Ai Yori Aoshi / Cardcaptor Sakura out of their number 1 (tied) spot on my top anime list.

Clannad, based on a visual novel by Key, follows the story of Nagisa, Tomoya, and their friends through highschool and the decade or so following their graduation. The series is a mixture of both comedy/romance/drama and some very very tearjerking story arcs. Throughout the series, you learn more and more about each of the characters and why the are they way they are.

The animation is simply beautiful and the character designs are very easy on the eyes. Would you expect anything else from Kyoto Animation? Throughout the series, you will see some flashback-esque scenes with a little girl and a robot in a world that has already ended. The animation technique used for the girl is something I don't think I've ever seen before (or at least that I can remember). You have to check it out yourself because I do a piss poor job of explaining things in words. It's awesome.

Some people object to the ending of afterstory saying something about how it 'Cheapens' a certain event that occurs about 80% through after story. Below is a chart showing the events in clannad and how they unfolded. The said "event" had already happened in the alternate time before the anime series even started. Had it not all the illusionary world scenes would be extremely misplaced and lots of key events with some of the side characters would never have occurred. Ugh. I don't think im doing a good job at all of explaining this show.

Here is the timeline:
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/9232/clannadtimeline.png[/img

Overall suggestion: BUY IT. A MUST WATCH (Watch alone -.-)

Next up: Rurouni Kenshin Season 1

Rurouni Kenshin Season 1
Comedy / Action / Historical-ish


Animation: B+
Story: A-
Dub: Did not watch dubbed... actually totally forgot it had a dub.
Sub: B+

I'll admit back when I first heard about kenshin, I thought that it had to be the most retarded story ever. A manslayer who doesnt slay anything? Reverse blade sword? Roflamofzlzl. No.

Then I got bored and ran out of stuff to read. At the time I used to work full time at a borders bookstore, so I thought id give some random series a shot. Kenshin was one of those series (along with Girls Bravo and some other bad bad manga). I was hooked after the first volume. I ended up finishing the whole 20 something manga volume series in just a matter of days. After I was done, I wanted more. I immdiatly went online and ordered seasons 1-3 in the economy pack (Or w/e media blasters calls its bulk re release)

Season 1 stays pretty true to the manga, which imo is always a plus. There was some filler here and there but nothing of bleach caliber. The season itself covers the manga volumes up to where the Kyoto arc and Shisio-sama make their appearance.

The voices for the characters were done quite well. Kenshin's VA was especially interesting. From the joking kenshin to the "im about to break my vow not to kill" kenshin, the VA did a perfect job of portraying the character.

The animation itself was pretty good. There was some 'quality' moments here and there, but nothing that detracted too much from the viewing experience.



The fight scenes were very well animated and I noticed very little of that shaky jitterery crap that a lot of older series have (Go see Maison Ikkoku. I got seasick in my bed at times). You'd be hard pressed to notice that this was made in 1996. Holy crap that was 14 years ago almost to the DAY that it first aired in Japan.

Well. It's time for Season two. I'm already sitting here smiling as I'm typing this. I cant want for shishio to make his appearance.

On a brief side note: Has anyone had issues with Media Blaster brick sets coming in with loose disks / broken cases? Season 1 of kenshin and berserk both were broken for me. /annoyed.

TL : DR overall suggestion: A very good watch. Recommend buying it, or at least renting.

Season 2 up next. ETA to review: 3 days.

Rurouni Kenshin Season 2
Comedy / Action / Historical-ish


Animation: B+
Story: A+
Dub: No
Sub: B+

The whole season revolves around one arc this time, with master vilian Shisio making his bandaged appearance. Good fights, great story, no downtime. It was just awesome fight after fight after fight.

Quality of animation was decent, and kept up with season 1.

Overall Suggestion: Buy it. If you are cheap, find out what goes on in season 1 and just buy season 2. You won't be disappointed

Next up: Maho Shojo Lyrical Nanoha.

Armitage III
Action / Sci Fi


Animation: C
Story: C-
Dub: didn't watch
Sub: B

I'm kind of curious about how many people have ever even heard about this title.... I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. I purchased this title around the time when Geneon went under. It was down in the bargain bin for some cheap price so I just nabbed it. The series itself isn't horrible... but it's not something that I'd classify with high rewatch value....

The story takes place on the planet Mars. There is some crazed nutbag going around killing people who actually turn out to be a line of robots called thirds... machines that look feel and fvck like humans. Detective Ross Sylibus meets up with cop whore Armitage to find this evil robot hating fiend.

Blah blah blah, more uninteresting stuff happens and more Thirds get their heads blown off..... It's finally revealed that armitage herself is a Third. Blah blah more random crap happens and we get to the end of the series.

Overall: Not really worth buying. It's HARDLY even a rent worthy title. A mediocre way to waste time if you have nothing better to do, but that's about it.