Jeoffrey

I was expecting Shonen Maid to be rubbish, and I also expected to drop it quickly because gender-bender style costumes are somehow not my thing really. The reality, however, must be suspended, and this is a pretty funny slice-of-life anime series that is inoffensive and quite entertaining because of the eccentric uncle Madoka Takatori who is quite fascinating. I am very pleasantly surprised and often have to smile, which means it is better than average. 6/10.

There are a lot of things that cannot be explained logically, and my penchant for cute silliness is one of them. Rilu Rilu Fairilu, meanwhile, is an insanely colorful and childish affair that overuses chibi and mainly offers only cuteness. The narrative reminds me of Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama, which I quit after the first episode, so it is nothing to write home about, rather the opposite. This is the kind of thing that should be mainly entertaining for young children, and adults are probably going to find it quite boring. However, I am not exactly a normal adult, so I am enjoying the cuteness and childishness for now. Sure there are characters I could do without (the majority of them in the "beautiful fairies" category) even though the rest are quite endearing and, for example, Lip is fine. So this is an anime series that I would probably only recommend to hardcore moe fans and small children, and I obviously know that the actual quality is something other than my subjective opinion. However, I enjoy this show, so now I am going to start carving out a little door and look for a key for it so I can get a proper look into this world of Rilu Rilu Fairilu - 5.5/10.

♪ If there's something strange in your neighborhood. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! ♫ The fascinating Ghost Stories struck me as a Japanese version of Ghostbusters, where the main characters are children, and the ghosts are, of course, adapted to local traditions. The show is not that scary and is not a fully-fledged horror anime by any means, even though the atmosphere of some of the narratives is quite good. By making stand-alone episodes, the feeling you get from each episode is also quite different. What I did not get a very good impression of, however, were the characters. The only one I was able to grow quite fond of was Amanojaku. As far as the kids are concerned, the girls were pretty good, especially Momoka Koigakubo; however, I found the male cast very annoying. Keiichiro Miyanoshita was probably the most extremely annoying character, and his whining got on my nerves quite often. However, the other two boys also had moments when they got my back up. I sometimes even wished one of them would die... I think this is quite an average show because while it was interesting, I had to force myself to finish it. I also had to shut out thoughts of how nice it would be if some of the characters died a slow and painful death. 5.2/10.

I thought this was quite an interesting short film. I have to say that you can cram a lot into five minutes. Plus, even without words, you can say a lot. 6/10.

My Dear Marie is an anime that shows me, how would Victor Frankenstein look like if he were Japanese, and if his story were not horror but rather a romantic, slightly erotic comedy. Otherwise, I thought that it was quite interesting; I quite liked the characters Marie and Hibiki, unlike Hiroshi, whom I was not too impressed with. I do not enjoy it when the "harem master" is a total douche, and every girl lusts after him. I think that is rather unbelievable. The animation is pretty acceptable considering it is from the 90s, even though honestly, even then, animation was better than this in general. Hence, the animation in this movie is just average. The soundtrack did not stand out, so it probably was not that bad. It has a pretty interesting narrative even though it is largely based on a love story. It is entertaining, and there is a decent amount of good old uncensored fan service. In the end, I think it is above-average because I found it quite intriguing. 6/10.

As an adaptation, this is pretty bad. Cramming a lot of characters, their interactions, and power struggles into a complicated narrative with a running time of twenty-five minutes does not work. The narrative also does not properly explain the past or introduce the characters and their motivations. So a person (me) who is not familiar with the original source material does not have a chance to get a handle on this. Sure, it is nice that they explain where it takes place at the beginning, although the storytelling is pretty bad on the whole. I honestly have to say that even the anime synopsis here or on any other anime database told the story much better than how it was told in the short film. I was too often lost; I did not understand who was who and what they were up to. I did not get why everyone was after Guan Yu, why that insanely insufferable white-haired crybaby had a second ego. I did not know what Cao Cao was up to, and if his relationship with Guan Yu was a love/hate thing or if there was something else going on. So for someone who is not familiar with the premise, it is hard to get into. So who is it for? Well, probably for experts in the subject matter and those who like bishies and especially characters with cat ears. I do not fall into the first category, and I would rather watch Spice and Wolf again because Guan Yu does not come close to the shaggy-haired goddess Holo. In the end, this movie did not do much for me. On the other hand, I did not find it offensive, although I am not awarding it more than 3/10.

I had written a review where words like mediocre, passable, etc., were used very often. Before I posted it, I read what others on FilmBooster had written and deleted the whole thing. The reviewers have said all there is to say. Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens is an average/standard show with one exceptional goddess (Nagi). However, that does not justify awarding more than 5.5/10, in my opinion.

Robot on the Road is a short story about the fact that the word robot is masculine, or maybe about the fact that it does not work out if you pick up hitchhikers, or that on the internet, even the biggest anonymous zero can be the greatest number one. In other words, they managed to cram quite a lot into those ten minutes; it was funny, informative, and there were oppai, so it is an appealing bite-sized treat for pretty much any group of anime fans. 7/10.

In a few words: this is brilliant! Humanity Has Declined is not just absurd; it is incredibly insane. Humanity Has Declined is an original show mainly because of its pastel colors, likable characters, and unpredictable storylines. It is sweet, funny, and simply oozes optimism. Plus, it looks like a happy little show for kids. However, there is an allegory for various aspects of society and culture in many entertaining and, most importantly, engaging narratives. Humanity Has Declined has so much to give, and I believe it could entertain even the more discerning viewers. The narrative does not progress chronologically, and so it is quite possible that you may feel a little lost while watching the first few episodes, although, on the other hand, it quickly becomes quite captivating. So not only am I completely satisfied, I have no problem watching this again at any time because, as I wrote in the introduction, Humanity Has Declined is a brilliant piece of work. 9.8/10.

I was definitely more interested in Concrete Revolutio: Superhuman Phantasmagoria - The Last Song than the first season. However, I agree with something I read on a forum that if the first season had not been what it was, then the second season would have had nothing to build on. Granted, it was still a series of stand-alone episodes, and some episodes, like the episode "Devila and Devilo", were really, really weird; however, the fact that I knew the setting and was more or less shown what actually happened made it all make a lot more sense. Plus, watching that weird fight between the agency and its former member was quite interesting, and I found the conclusion with the attempted sacrifice in the style of Code Geass’s Zero and the outcome of it really well-executed. So Concrete Revolutio: Superhuman Phantasmagoria - The Last Song was definitely quite an original if also very peculiar show. I found some episodes interesting and others just very bizarre. However, because of the unusual execution, the quirky characters, and in my opinion, a very respectable ending that wrapped everything up (although not really), my final impression of the show is quite good. 6.4/10.