On the whole, I liked the premise of the series as it seemed pretty promising. I'd been curious about the manga and seeing the anime was available on the Crunchyroll, I decided to give it a whirl. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. The animation is top notch at times and the English subtitles had no glaringly obvious issues that I noticed. Kyoko is a great character. I particularly like that she doesn't do the stereotypical crying of rivers over Sho's betrayal and instead goes a little nuts. Her losing her ability to love was a great twist, and well played as she is otherwise an okay girl with a few twisted quirks. However, the series as a whole is fairly predictable and it emphasizes the comedy too much for my taste, to the detriment of the story. A lot of otherwise great scenes are ruined by chibi animation, exaggerated physical gags and facial expressions, screaming, and just plain silliness. This just does not suit me at all, and I found it quickly turned me off to the series.

I also found the series quite predictable, to the point I only watched the first 4 episodes, scanned two middling episodes, then skipped to episode 25, and wasn't lost at all. It because pretty easy to guess how Kyoko would react to situations quickly, such as her stalking of the agency representative, and his coming to grudgingly admiring her (while fearing her) enough to support her efforts. Ren Tsuruga, Sho's rival whom Kyoko is seen cursing early in the series, was the obvious one to become her real love interest (and presumably true love by the series end). Though really, his attraction is hard to understand since he seems to have as much personality as a blade of grass. The childhood connection that is eventually revealed between them was an interesting twice I didn't expect, but left unexplored by the end of the series and largely unknown to them. The anime itself also doesn't really end at all. It stops right in the middle of an actual bit of trouble then just leaves it there without resolution. It also leaves Kyoko and Ren's romance largely up in the air, which is a secondary annoyance.

All in all, if you like over the top romantic comedy with a lot of gags and exaggerations, you'll probably like this series. If you actually want a romance with a little comedy that has the right amount of drama and good story that would go with the stated premise, look elsewhere. From reading reviews of the manga, it seems the same problem exists there regarding the comedic element, so while it appears to have a more fleshed out story-line (and Sho actually remains a rival for Kyoko's affections), I think I'll be skipping it as well.

Rating: C-

This series features absolutely gorgeous music and animation, making it well worth the watch to me. It also has some interesting story elements that work well. Usually in this kind of story, where some girl is given a magical ability, she's just happy to have it and uses it to the best her ability. However, Kahoko struggles with feelings of guilt that she is able to play beautifully with no real work or talent, and in doing so is besting those who have true talent and have played since childhood. As she grows to know her competitors, her feelings of guilt increase, yet she also cannot just walk away, give up her new found passion, nor let Lili down by dropping out of the contest. And though the violin will allow her to play, that doesn't mean Kahoko is instantly a perfect violinist. She has to struggle to learn to read music, lear more about musical styles and composers, and practices her violin for hours on in. I really like this element of the series, and the final results.

Against this backdrop, we learn more about the pasts of the various male competitors of the contest, each with their own hardships and pains from their love of their instruments. Of course, being a harem style series, some of them do fall in love with Kahoko, though not always in the ways one might expect. I do wish they had also covered Fuyuumi's past a bit, but for the genre its not surprising that the other female characters as basically background noise. The main characters however are generally well done and well-rounded. I love Kahoko's personality. Even at her low points, she is generous natured and an all around good person, despite her rather lack of ability to notice the obvious affection swirling around her.. Hihara's effusive personality is fun, especially as he grows fonder of Kahoko. Tsuchiura and Tsukimori's clashes were well-played, with just the right amount of balance between personal dislike and respect for each other's talents. Azuma is a downright hoot with his double-sided nature! Also interesting to me is that with the introduction of Lili in the first episode, I expected him to be the annoying "mascot" character, but he isn't. He usually appears most episodes, but only briefly and never in a really annoying fashion, which again is a nice touch.

The ending of this series managed to surprise me in multiple ways, some good, some okay. Generally in these series the girl ends up having to make a choice of who she loves the most, and Kahoko's choice was both unexpected and yet not a total surprise when one really rethinks the series as a whole. The events around the final leg of the contest are also different from what one might expect in this type of series, but also fit well with the story as a whole and actually made for more pleasant viewing. The story does have a two-part special, La Corda D'Oro ~secondo passo~, which quickly introduces a new musician who is hiding his abilities after suffering a set back and to fall in love with Kahoko. It isn't a bad add on, but it doesn't really add much to the series either except to repeat how the others felt about Kahoko's music and to show where she is with her "love". There is also a ten volume manga adaptation which has been published by Viz Media. I haven't had a chance to read it yet beyond a one chapter preview, but I plan to see if I can find it in stores locally to check it out.

As a whole, I do recommend the anime. Despite a few flaws, it held my attention enough that I stayed up till 4 in the morning watching most of the series straight through, and as soon as I woke up I watched the rest. I will caution that Aniplex's subtitles are not super top notch and almost every episode has one or two grammar issues, but it isn't so bad that it kills the enjoyment of the series. All 26 episodes, plus the two episode special are free for viewing without requiring membership, so in the end, it costs nothing but time. Of course, if you love it, you still won't be able to buy it on DVD, which is one drawback.

Rating: A-

The manga alcove in my Library - already low on space!

With my home desktop down since I moved in August, having my laptop die a few weeks ago was a serious blow! I had no recent backups and the hard drive suffered from massive mechanical favor. I lost ten months of my life! So I haven't abandoned my baby here, just haven't had much time to do reviews because I had to get a new laptop and get it all set up, then try and rebuild what was lost. I still haven't gotten my book and video databases going again, so my online lists are behind for the first time since I launched them. I'm working on getting my home desktop back on-line. I have all the parts and am getting it all installed and set back up. Also finally, after years of being so lazy, implemented a real backup system. At the same time, I've been working on getting all of my books unpacked from the move. Yes, TEN months later, all of my babies are finally shelved again!

That means I can get back in the groove! Coming up I plan on reviewing Ristorante Paradiso and La Corda d'Oro, two series available free (legally) on Crunchyroll. I may also review Crunchyroll itself and Skip Beat. For manga reviews, I have Ballad no Shinigami and Hot Gimmick in the review queue. So stay tuned!

Kimera

On the whole, this wasn't a bad little OVA. In some ways, its a fairly stereotypical depiction of vampires, except they come out during the day and there appears to be some different "levels" though this is never really explained. The art in the series is fairly good, with nicely detailed backgrounds and great character designs. In particular, during the opening sequence a hunting dog is shown and I was happy to see that it was fairly realistic depiction of one rather than the usually cartoony style dogs seen in most anime series. That was a nice touch to me. As a note, it does have one partial rape scene, which is well drawn but borders on the hentai line.

If you aren't bothered by that one scene, it is certainly worth watching once, but I probably wouldn't bother buying it. There are too many plot points left unexplored because of its short length to have it really be a top notch story. I'd be curious to read the manga to see if it goes into some concepts more, particularly the past events.

Rating: B-

Fruits Basket, Volume 22 (04/01/2009)

Hell Girl, Volume 02 (04/01/2009)

Castle of Dreams: Stories from the Kare Kano Creator (04/03/2009)

We Were There, Volume 03 (04/03/2009)

Ghost Hunt, Volume 03 (04/04/2009)

Pearl Pink, Volume 01 (04/04/2009)

Platinum Garden, Volume 02 (04/04/2009)

Platinum Garden, Volume 03 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 01 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 02 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 03 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 04 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 05 (04/04/2009)

Ultra Cute, Volume 08 (04/04/2009)

Chibi Vampire, Volume 13 (04/14/2009)

In the first volume, we are introduced to these two as they meet unexpectedly at a park when Rei asks for directions and Kira, without answering, quickly sketches some on the back of a picture she drew. When Rei later sees the picture, he keeps it thinking its beautiful, then realizing Kira is in her class, he starts bothering her until she answers wanting to know more about her art. It also introduces Harumi, another classmate who wants Rei for herself and quickly is infuriated by Kira being the new object of his attention, and Tatsuya, Rei's best friend. Of course, Harumi resorts to bullying as the two grow closer, while Tatsuya deals with his own crush on Kira while realizing Rei is falling for her.

As the series progresses, though, each of these seeming "stereotypical" characters branch into conflicted, multi-dimensional characters. Rei is rough, he can be violent, and is a known player, but with Kira he finds the gentler side of himself and a sense of peace as he struggles to remember, then face, the multiple tragedies in past and the deaths of his mother and brother. He also quickly is shown to not just be someone motorcycle hobbyist, but a professional racer with both the ambition and skills to become a world class champion. Through their sometimes rocky relationship, Kira not only comes to terms with her own haunted past, she finally mends the part of herself broken long ago and finds her own inner strength in her love for Rei. Of course, things aren't completely easy, as not only do they have to deal with Harumi, though she quickly turns around and becomes Kira's best friend after seeing just how strong the quiet girl can be, but also a thieving upper classman, disapproving parents and teachers, and a downright psychotic kid from Rei's past who doesn't like seeing Rei changing. As noted earlier, the main series is 15 volumes long. There is also a sixteenth volume, Mars: A Horse With No Name, which is a "prequel" story in that it tells how Rei and Tatsuya first met, but it really is best read after the main series.

Mars is one of my absolute favorite shojo series. I honestly re-read it 2-3 times a year, or more. The story has a lot of depth, with interesting twists and turns that are, at times seemingly over the top, and yet amazingly realistic. While Soryo does include some "standard" elements of this type of story, she also avoids taking the easy way out of situations, and doesn't wrap up many of the subplots in neat little bows. Her art is well done, with a wonderful range of expressions in her characters and an amazing attention to detail in scenery and, particularly, the many motorcycles seen throughout the series. She also does well in including just enough information within scenes to explain the motorcycle world to those who may not understand it, without overloading. Tokyopop's translation of the series is not bad. There are a one or two places with pretty obvious grammar errors that make sentences awkward, and I suspect they tried to "Americanize" a little, but for the most part, its well done. It is easy, to me, to see how this series was one of the top selling ones in Japan when it was released, and as all of it is still available, I still highly recommend it.

Rating: A+

Bleach, Volume 26 (03/03/2009)

Nana, Volume 15 (03/03/2009)

Hell Girl, Volume 01 (03/07/2009)

Hell Girl, Volume 03 (03/20/2009)

Hell Girl, Volume 04 (03/20/2009)

Hell Girl, Volume 05 (03/20/2009)

Prétear, Volume 03 (03/20/2009)

Some anime for a change thanks to BestBuy's dumping all titles at 50% off!

My-HiME, Volume 7 (03/03/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club: Season 1, Part 1 (03/03/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club: Season 1, Part 2 (03/03/2009)

Ghost Hunt: Season 1, Part 1 (03/08/2009)

Magic Touch, Volume 1 (02/07/2009)

Ultra Maniac, Volume 4 (02/07/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 01 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 02 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 03 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 04 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 05 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 08 (02/13/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 11 (02/13/2009)

Juline, Volume 02 (02/17/2009)

Juline, Volume 03 (02/17/2009)

Juline, Volume 04 (02/17/2009)

Juline, Volume 05 (02/17/2009)

Kiss Blue, Volume 01 (02/19/2009)

Red (02/19/2009)

Sunflower, Volume 02 (02/19/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 06 (02/20/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 07 (02/20/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 09 (02/20/2009)

Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 10 (02/20/2009)

Ceres, Celestial Legend, Volume 04: Chidori (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 02: Oracle (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 03: Disciple (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 07: Castaway (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 09: Lover (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 10: Enemy (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 11: Veteran (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 12: Girlfriend (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 14: Prophet (02/24/2009)

Fushigi Yûgi, Volume 15: Guardian (02/24/2009)

Nana, Volume 14 (02/24/2009)

One Night Lesson (02/24/2009)

Passion: Forbidden Lovers (02/24/2009)

Rave Master, Volume 32 (02/24/2009)

Say Please (02/24/2009)

Ultra Maniac, Volume 01 (02/24/2009)

Ultra Maniac, Volume 02 (02/24/2009)

Ultra Maniac, Volume 03 (02/24/2009)

Ultra Maniac, Volume 05 (02/24/2009)

We Were There, Volume 01 (02/24/2009)

We Were There, Volume 02 (02/24/2009)

Chibi Vampire, Volume 12 (01/10/2009)

Ceres, Celestial Legend, Volume 03: Suzumi (01/17/2009)

Ceres, Celestial Legend, Volume 06: Shuro (01/17/2009)

Ceres, Celestial Legend, Volume 07: Maya (01/17/2009)

In Bleach, high school freshman Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, to his own annoyance. One day, he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a "Soul Reaper", as she is working on battling a menacing spirit called a hollow that preys on regular spirits. Injured while protecting Ichigo during the fight, she tries to transfers half her power to him but he ends up taking all of them. After battling and defeating the hollow, Ichigo begins training as a Soul Reaper to complete Rukia's duties while she recovers from the power transfer and attempts to integrate herself into human life by disguising herself as a student at Ichigo's school. However, her giving him her powers is claimed to be illegal, so months later she is arrested, returned to the Soul Society, and sentenced to execution. Ichigo sets out to rescue her, with help from several of his classmates who begin to discover they have their own unique powers as well. As they work towards where Rukia is being held, they encounter a variety of Soul Reaper captains and learn that Rukia's reason for execution may not be what it seems.

On the face of it, Bleach has the trappings of a typical extended shōnen series: a group of characters forms around a powerful central character (Ichigo), they must battle various enemies with each battle generally leading to an increase in strength, skill, or a personal improvement/revelation, while the enemies grow more powerful as they leading group does. No matter how strong the group gets, they are never as strong as the main character and depend on him in the end. However to me, Bleach manages to take these stereotypes and make them unique and interesting. While Ichigo is the most powerful of the "good guys", the others do grow strong without him rather than having to depend exclusively on him to save their butts and while Ichigo is physical strong, they aid him battle inner demons. The battles are varied and, quite frequently, its hard to decide if the bad guys are really all that bad. The whole world of hollows, Soul Reapers, and the Soul Society is richly and deeply developed. The plot twists are excellently executed and plausible without being easy to see coming from a mile away. And, despite its length, the series is thus far managing to avoid being repetitive nor redundant, as it moves into its second (or third, depending on your point of view) major arc with the introduction of a new kind of enemy and Ichigo's growing semi-desperate battle with his self. It certainly doesn't hurt that the characters are all unique, well developed, and just plain interesting. Their back-stories are, again, well-crafted. There too the series bucks some trends. Orihime may have an overly developed bust and initially comes off as an air head, but as the series progresses, her intelligence and warm personality shine through, and while often subtle, she is shown to perhaps be one of the wisest of the group.

I may be a "girl" and I normally pass on this type of series, but Bleach just plain rocks. It has made me laugh, cry, and yell out loud (always a good thing). I think its a great series for both male and female readers (even if its probably that the romance between Ichigo and Rukia will never actually be bluntly declared. Now, Bleach is certainly a serious investment for anyone interested in reading it, with 25 volumes released here, 37 currently in Japan, and it is still on-going. So I'm not about to just say "go grab it all." I would suggest doing like I did and checking your local library and reading maybe the first 4-5 volumes of the series, up through 10. If you are still wanting more, then buy them. Fortunately, Viz does seem to realize the series is a bit hefty for getting into later in the game, and they released a box set containing the first 21 volumes of the series. It has an MSRP of $150, but Amazon has it for $102) , which works out to less than $5 a volume. Can also check eBay (which is how I bought most of my volumes). If you can spare the coin, I do recommend picking it up, because despite its length, it has plenty of rereading value.

Rating: A+

We meet a girl named Kaname Chidori, who is some special kind of person called a "Whispered"-a concept left unexplained in this first disc though it seems obvious she is similar to the girl we saw at the beginning. Irregardless, the terrorist group wants her so Mithril sends three of its troops to protect her, with young Sousuke Sagara going undercover in her school. From there, the series goes from a seeming dramatic series to a complete and total comedy of errors. Kaname is a gorgeous girl, with a bad personality (all guys seem to agree, she's perfect till she opens her mouth). Sousuke is supposedly this elite soldier, but he's so hard wired with ridiculous hair-trigger reflexes and literal minded that he jumps at the least little thing, overreacting to basic everyday things, usually resulting in Kaname thinking he's a pervert or a creep and abusing him for it. Seriously, as quick as he reacts, its a shock he hasn't killed half of his own troops. Towards the end of the first disc, things get more dramatic with Kaname captured by the terrorists after they hijack an entire plane to get her (overkill). By this time, of course, Sousuke's gone from seeing her as a job to someone he likes and wants to protect, making him become emotional the one time he shouldn't.

For me, this series was falsely advertised with its original packaging (the later collection package is a bit more matching to the feel of the first episodes), and it just didn't really meet my expectations. It wasn't bad, per se, but the idea of going through 24 episodes of stereotypical comedy situations and the already overplayed "OMG, you pervert" and of watching Sousuke attempt to pretend to be a normal high school student instead of a soldier just didn't have much appeal. Still, I was vaguely curious about the whole Whispered thing and what happened to that first girl, so I rented the second volume. However, while waiting for it arrive, I discovered this series has two sequels of 13 episodes each, both with the same silly focus of Sousuke trying to hide his identity while romancing Kaname. At that point, I wrote the thing off as just not worth the effort.

If you like lots of comedy and don't mind an overplayed, never ending idea of hidden identities and overly stretched out obvious romances, it might be a series for you. For me, disc two was returned unwatched.

Rave Master, Volume 31 (12/09/2008)

Bleach, Volume 25 (12/13/2008)

Prétear, Volume 1 (12/31/2008)

Thanks to a nice sale at RightStuf, I finished off Sugar, as well as picked up most of My-HiME (sans the end)

A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Volume 2: Friends and Dreams (12/09/2008)

A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Volume 6: Sugar Baby Love (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 1 (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 2 (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 3 (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 4 (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 5 (12/09/2008)

My-HiME, Volume 6 (12/09/2008)

Nazca, Volume 1: Blades of Fate (12/09/2008)

Nazca, Volume 2: Blood Rivals (12/09/2008)

This series apparently has an excessive love of long scenes where characters just sit and stare, either at themselves in mirrors, into space, or at each other, and somehow you're supposed to know what important events just transpired. Sorry, but give me dialog, give me a voice over, give me action, but don't expect me to magically guess why some guy whose name I didn't even know was so into looking at himself two minutes into the series! The series producers also apparently like a lot of dark scenes (as in actual dark, dark colors, low light, etc), though in some ways it works for what little bit of story you can get from things.

Most of the characters felt very flat. Only Ichise and the blond doctor/mad scientist, appear to have any motivation, personality, etc. And even then, Ichise is seriously lacking in the personality department. He obviously has a strong will to live and loved his mother who died, and he maybe has conflicting feelings about his father who apparently was hanged by a mob. The doctor likes experimenting and improving her work, has some seriously mental defects, and likes sexually molesting her patients. That's about it. The rest of the characters seemed almost background, even Ran who is supposedly an important character for the series. Psychic girl should be interesting, but instead barely speaks and does that damn staring thing. It doesn't help that most of the character designs are also rather ugly. Ran is cute in a freaky sort of way, but that's about it.

I supposed some folks will say I'm just not "existential" or "intelligent" enough to appreciate such a "deep" series. Maybe its true, who knows. But bottom line is, I doubt most people would enjoy this series, and I didn't find it worth even bothering to attempt to finish watching all 22 episodes. I have better things to do with my times, like clean my house and count the hairs falling off my shedding dog.

Rating: F, its only good points are the soundtrack and some nice visuals

What are some of the ones I'm reading or have read? Well, current series I'm reading include Ballad of a Shinigami, Blood+, Trinity Blood, Chibi Vampire, and Kino no Tabi, as well as the single volume Calling You. On the whole, I find them very interesting reads, and enjoy them as much or more than other novels. Occasionally some, particularly the yaoi stuff from DMP like Ai No Kusabi, suffers from such a hideous translation that its nearly unreadable. However, except for that Ai No Kusabi, all of the ones I've read have been pretty well done. In particular, Ballad of a Shinigami, published by Seven Seas, has been beautifully treated here. Most companies that bring over novels print them in the traditional paperback format, and convert all images to black and white except the cover. However, Seven Seas is releasing their novels in the original light novel format with all of the color pages include, and on higher quality paper, making for a gorgeous release. The only real draw back of light novels is that sometimes the English printers cancel series mid-release, as Tokyopop has done with Chibi Vampire and Kino no Tabi, leaving you without the entire series, which can be very frustrating. Still, I don't think that should deter you too much, as the more people who get into reading them, the more likely the companies are to keep printing rather than stopping.

So, would you consider reading a Japanese light novel? I hope so! Much like anime and manga, it runs the gamut of genres, story lines, etc. If you'd like to give a light novel a try, you can read a free seventeen page sample of Ballad of a Shinigami: Momo the Girl God of Death here (PDF), courtesy of Seven Seas. If you like what you read, the first two volumes are available for purchase at most major book stores or online. You can also check out my reviews of some of the first volumes of light novel series I've read, including Ballad of a Shinigami, by going on the "light novels" category.