Jeoffrey

Mär Heaven is a very nice and occasionally amusing shounen anime series that I found quite engaging when I saw it a few years ago; I remember liking Dorothy the witch a lot. 7.5/10.

Himegoto is a gender bender anime series and almost everyone who looks like a girl and has a skirt is actually a boy, and the only person who wears pants is a girl for a change, and then there is the student council, which are girls in girly clothes and are having a lot of fun. It is quite funny in places, although I found it a bit scary at times. Luckily, the running time was perfectly fine for me given the genre, and it was just something short and wacky to let off steam. 4/10.

If it were not for Rurumo, who I managed to grow very fond of within a few episodes, this show would have been awarded something between one and two stars. However, I am awarding it three stars because of the main female protagonist, whose cuteness, combined with her strange, emotionless nature, kept me entertained. I also rate it weak three stars because of Shibaki's mother, who managed to make me laugh at times. Normally I might award more. After all, when I enjoy something, I put the rating up quite a bit, perhaps beyond the average, because my viewing experience was above-average. However, the show itself may not be above average, and Shibaki and Chiro were unbearable at times. The girls, who kept chasing Shibaki and making it more of a farce than Shibaki himself, often managed to cross that line. All in all, I found it entertaining and gushed over the main female protagonist, and at times I felt like banging my head against the wall, so the result ended up somewhere in the middle. 4.8/10.

If Her Flag Breaks is a harem anime series with a strange storyline revolving around a slightly frustrated main male protagonist with a somewhat psycho edge and a peculiar ending. When you finish watching it, there is a sense of relief you made it through in one piece. Also, by the time you (or I) have a chance to figure it out, you are left in a daze and bored, even though you keep watching because you are waiting to see what comes out of it. I am awarding this one star for the nice animation and another star because it somehow managed to keep me watching until the end. 3.5/10.

Z/X: Ignition is another anime series based on a card game, even though it does not present the game, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!. It offers a narrative with some characters and cards from the original game. In the not-too-distant future, the story takes place when five black holes suddenly appear in Japan. Various monsters started pouring out of them because these holes are actually portals to different dimensions. The goal of each dimension has become the destruction of the other four, and to this end, they are aided by the local population and a device resembling a playing card. Well, as it happens, the nondescript main male protagonist, who has only the best intentions, becomes the owner of one such card and gets a pretty winged lady as his partner (he catches the card). With her help, he tries to intervene in the fight around him and makes friends out of enemies. It is a pretty good mash-up of angels, robots, various mythical creatures, and mythological characters. It is also full of all sorts of clichés and rather predictable twists. It was fun to watch, and while it was not very entertaining, it was not offensive. In other words, it is worth 3/10 because I finished it intact.

Normally this show would be worth three stars, the animation is nice, the soundtrack is interesting, the story, well, what was left of it did not really bother me, in short, it was easy to watch. The reason why I added one more star is that it is funny. Most importantly, there was Mashiro in it, another strange and weird character that I found very entertaining and made me feel good. 7/10.

There is a wacky and crazy road trip full of unbelievable situations and a wacky sense of humor, though what else would you expect from Dumb and Dumber? Harry and Lloyd are back, and from the opening joke, when you find out why Lloyd is actually in the asylum, it is obvious that he is in great shape. Plus, Jim Carrey is once again perfect in his role and can show off and goof off like no one else can, and Jeff Daniels proves that he may be the only one who can keep up with Carrey. If anyone was worried that these guys were getting too old and did not have it still in them, I could assure them that they convinced me otherwise. I was wonderfully entertained for the most part, so I cannot rate it any differently than the original movie, although one of those stars is probably out of sheer nostalgia.

It started so nice... When I saw the beginning of the first episode with that cheerful male protagonist on his important mission in all those bright colors, I thought it would be another good fantasy anime series. When he ran into Leone, and she robbed him, I thought it would probably be funny too, and when the rich girl took him in and invited him home, I had a warm feeling and I was excited that there would be social issues involved. Over the next few minutes, I was cruelly let down and found that nothing was as happy and playful as I thought. However, I was in for a pretty rough affair where even the cutest characters have secrets; the good guys are the bad guys, and who knows if they are good at all when they murder people, even if they only murder the really bad characters. In other words, nothing is as it seems. This surprising sobering up, the sudden change of pace, and overall mood had me enthralled, and I suspected this would be very good. The following episodes did not disappoint me either; the pace and mood changed so often that I remained fixed and grew to like the characters, although that was another mistake. As I have discovered, it is very popular nowadays to kill off some main characters now. Then, however, the creators of Akame ga Kill take this almost to an absurd level, which could be rivaled only by George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire (i.e., Game of Thrones). However, unlike Game of Thrones, Akame ga Kill does not have a very deep plot. So as the episodes go on, it more or less degenerates into something akin to Mortal Kombat. Instead of dealing with the problems of fighting against a corrupt society and dealing with social issues, it is only about survival. I was still excited and determined to solve this puzzle, so I resorted to something I do not normally do and read the manga. I was blissfully surprised to find that the manga was just as moody as the anime series and that there were perhaps even more brutality and gritty scenes than in the anime series (as is usually the case with manga). It left me in silent awe and a combination of utter satisfaction, and there was a slight aftertaste because the material I was indulging in was quite gritty in places. I was convinced that this anime series would be one of my favorites. However, as it happened, I was unpleasantly surprised again because, towards the end of the anime series, the plot sped up considerably. Some rough passages (Wild Hunt and his rampage) and the love story subplot (I am not going to reveal who it involves) were left out. The narrative was slightly edited (for which I had to knock the rating down in exasperation). Obviously, the anime’s creators were heading towards a conclusion, and I suspected that there would not be a second season, so the only thing left to sort out in the last few episodes of the anime series was the answer to the question “Who would survive?” Here, I was repeatedly unpleasantly surprised and my favorite characters got killed off except one (I will not say which one, let me surprise you). To sum up, Akame ga Kill is not an anime series for sensitive and romantic souls. It is not an anime series for fans of complex narratives and complicated storylines. However, I believe that it will appeal to lovers of simplicity, sudden twists, and action-packed scenes with an excess of animated violence. 7.3/10.

The only reason I watched this particular movie was that I wanted to know what the hell dragons had to do with the legend of King Arthur. I lasted almost half of the movie, even though it was an ordeal, and I had to laugh at times at the awkwardness. There are some crazy costumes, weird cinematography, poor visual effects (except maybe the dragon), charmless actors, and terrible acting, compounded by an awful narrative that must have had the knights of the round-table turning in their graves. Anyway, Titan Global Entertainment just joined Asylum on my "switch off as soon as you see the name" list.

The Book of Life is a really fresh, original, and lively animated movie. It has a nice narrative, pleasant soundtrack, interesting animation, and charming characters. I was entertained, and I know now that Mexico is the center of the universe. 7.5/10.