Shiki [Show]

Ahhhhh, the good old creepy horror show. I haven't watched one in a while.

Man, this show was creepy. 

Where do I start.

Shimizu Megumi is the one fashionable citizen in Sotoba, a quiet town snuggled in the mountains with only a population of 1300 people. She longs for the city, and has a terrible hatred for the town and it's people.

One day, just overnight, a strange family moves into the large castle on the hill, and after Megumi goes to visit them, she goes missing and becomes the first victim in a series of strange deaths. One by one, the towns people start falling ill and the doctor grows frantic to find the solution.

This was so, so creepy. I overall enjoyed it, but there was one thing I didn't like about the show.

I'm not a huge fan of the shows that tell you everything before hand, and then the show is just about the characters trying to figure it out. A few episodes in, it was pretty obvious who was responsible and what they were doing. However, it took the characters almost up to episode 20 to completely figure out what was going on. It was so obvious, you're sitting there pulling your hair like "JUST FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY." If they had figured it out sooner, the show might have been half it's length.

However, both the individual character designs and the music was great. There was only one character that really got on my nerves, but he was mostly a side character and you didn't see him that much anyways.

The OVERALL character design wasn't great, however. No two characters had a similar style, and it looked like every character was done by a different artist, almost. I liked all the individual designs. I liked the creepy family's design, Megumi's design, the doctor's design... however they overall didn't give off the feeling that they belonged in the same show. 

Overall, though, I really liked the show, and I would recommend it to anyone who's into the paranormal and creepy.

You can watch it for free, subbed, here. 

Madoka Magica [Show]

 Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
"Make a contract with me and become a magical girl!"
Hah. Hahaha. Hahahahahhaha. HAHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA.
The main plot of Madoka Magica is that Madoka Kaname

runs into a weird strange cat thing

who tells her "make a contract with me, and become a magical girl!" He promises that in exchange for becoming a magical girl, he'll grant any wish she wants. And thus begins the adventures of the magical girls, savers of the world from evil witches.

I have to say, my favorite thing about the show was the cool witch worlds. Every witch has a sort of enclosed space where they live. The entire world, including the witches, have a stark animation difference. The whole world looks like it's created out of newspaper clippings, animated through stop-motion. Everything has a flat feel, except for the characters themselves. Here's a few examples (click on them to make them bigger):

In regards to who you should show this show to..... don't judge this show by it's cutesy cover. Netflix has it rated TV-14 and has it listed under "dark" and "ominous". It is indeed very dark, and gets dark very quickly. I'll post a few comments that were under Netflix's comment section:

"Madoka Magica may look cutesy and fun at first glance, but it's actually anything but that... This is a dark show, so showing this to an 11  year old girl is definitely not recommended, but to everyone else who is old and mature enough to handle it, I absolutely recommend it." 

"Don't be fooled by the childish/girlish looking designs, it's actually quite an adult show."

"I just got finished with the first episode and only gave it a shot because of the reviews I read. They're all going on about the fact that it may look like something a little girl would get into... it actually sin't- that the anime has a lot more mature content than some eleven year old could handle... There's the dark tone overlapping everything already and it's just really amazing... Now I advise to anyone who thinks this wouldn't be worth their time to give it a go." 

The whole comment section makes me laugh so hard. But I do indeed recommend it. I love it so much, and it really is worth it. 

You can watch it on Netflix either dubbed or subbed, or if you don't have Netflix, you can watch it for free subbed here. 

Summer 2014 Shows!

Whoooooo, Spring has been a wild ride! Sorry for the lack of posts, between finals and just barely keeping up with my Spring shows, I haven't had much time or motivation to post anything, really. But pretty soon I'm going to let out a mass production of posts on the completed shows I watched recently and the airing shows I've been following.
I've been currently following:
Soul Eater Not!
Irregular at Magic Highschool
Akuma no Riddle
No Game No Life
Tonari no Seki-kun
Mekakucity Actors
So expect some reviews on a few of those coming soon!

This Summer's expected anime is going to be pretty cooool.

Ao Haru Ride

Air date: July 8th

The popular Ao Haru Ride gets turned into an anime! I've always been fond of Shoujo manga, and I haven't read this one yet. I'm now regretting putting it off, though. Learn more about the show and watch the PV here. 

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal

Release date: July 5th

Ugh.

UUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Heichou agrees.

I can't decide if I want to watch this or not to be honest. I've always been against Sailor Moon cause it kind of put a bad light on most magical girl shows. It kind of set the standard and the stereotype for magical girl shows, and after it got super famous, it seemed like most magical girl shows felt like they had to copy Sailor Moon. 

HOWEVER.

The animation actually looks pretty good and the plot doesn't sound bad. I might watch it for a while and just see how it goes. Learn more about it and watch the PV here. 

Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus

Air date: July 11th

Another uuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Okay, I know I said this would be bad, but IT LOOKS SO GOOD, GUYS. 

It follows an arc from the actual manga WHICH IS GOOD, RIGHT. Like, they're not just coming up with material on-hand. 

I've always liked circus-themed things.

I've heard this story arc is really good from the manga-readers (I don't normally associate with the Black Butler fanbase cause they kinda scare me, but I thought I'd take a peek and see what they thought). And the animation seems a little improved from Black Butler II, but don't take my word for it. Learn more about it and watch the PV here. 

PSYCHO-PASS: New Edit Version

Air date: July 10th

I tried to start Psycho-Pass, but I wasn't a huge fan. I'm thinking the remake might be better, so I'll give it a shot. The original 22-episode series will be remade into 11 one-hour episodes. It will prequal the upcoming Psycho-Pass 2, coming in October of this year. Learn more about it and watch the PV here. 

Sword Art Online II: Gun Gale Online

Air date: July 5th

/VIOLENT SCREAMING.

I'm so exciteddddddddddddddd. Sword Art Online II: Gun Gale Online. What part of that doesn't sound totally and completely awesome. This is the one thing I'm totally looking forward to this summer. 

I'm told Kirito plays as a girl this time, which would also be more totally awesome. 

I just-

I don't even know what else to say anymore.

Learn more about it here, and watch the two PV's here and here. 

So that about wraps things up! I hope you're as excited as I am for the new shows coming this season! Stay tuned for a t o n of posts in regards to the Spring shows, and other already finished airing shows I've watched. 

Princess Jellyfish [Show]

WHOOO. MY FIRST ANIME SHOW POST IN A WHILE.

Alright, this one is Princess Jellyfish.

Okay, you see this girl? She's pretty, right?

WRONG

IT'S A GUY, BABY.

Although, he's actually kinda cute when he's not in drag. 

The main character is a girl named Tsukimi, who lives in a girl's-only apartment as an aspiring illustrator. She's a little awkward and shy, and is known for her love of Jellyfish. 

By accident, she lets Kuranosuke, who she thinks is a girl, crash on the floor of her room in the apartment after he helps her buy a Spotted Jelly at a nearby pet store. The next morning, she finds out otherwise, and struggles to keep the secret from the other girls in the apartment complex. Kuroanosuke demands to let him come over more often cause "the place is totally 20's retro!", so Tsukimi finally agrees as long as he stays in drag. 

The episodes consist of their adventures as she finds out that Kuroanosuke belongs to a wealthy family with a great influence in the political world. They also struggle to keep Kuroanosuke's identity as a guy a secret, in fear of the death punishment!

This really was a funny, funny show. However, the story didn't really end, which left me a little sad. But, overall, I really enjoyed it. There was also a lot of West Culture references that made it a lot of fun. And I'll admit it-

.....Kuranosuke makes a really cute girl. 

Another 0 [OVA]

Okay, this was really really cool.

So, I finished the Another OVA, and it was so cool.
The basic plot of Another, was that there was a girl named Misaki. She died, but since she was super popular, nobody wanted to believe it. So they went on pretending that she was there, and even arranged to have her desk put in the class picture at the end of the year. However, after the picture was taken, you could see Misaki still sitting at her desk, as if she never left. Spooooky, right?
Well the deal with the OVA was that it was "episode 0". It was the episode before episode one. Kind of the prequal. Misaki is the blue twin in the above picture (and the pink one in the below picture), and it kind of tells her story, how she died, and what she was like.
The cool thing about this was that most OVA's tend to do the continuation. Or "bonus material". Sometimes OVA's are placed afterward, sometimes they don't really go on the timeline at all. The Black Lagoon OVA sort of continued the story, but the Black Butler OVA was somewhere in the middle.
Another 0, was the before. The story that was never told.

Also, just another random thing.
I hate these dresses:

They're so uuuuggglyyyyyy.