This is the sequel of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, another anime I really liked. The series starts out pretty decent. A new enemy appears, who defeats Nanoha in a fight. The premisse of another one of those action series.

Well, those predictions get totally trashed into the ground by the next following episodes. The creators managed to create the most amazing person for the "antagonist" of the show, and the other bad guys have some of the most depth ever seen. Especially the middle episodes are just too sad to watch, and they only get better and better as the story unravels.

But yeah, with a show like this, there was no way for the ending to be not predictable, and yes, the last two episodes indeed seem to go right the way you suspected it. Still, the creators manage to make something decent out of it.

The characters, as I’ve already said, are extremely well developed. The main characters may look a bit like other main characters, but all the other characters totally make up for it (after all, Nanoha already got her screentime in the first season, so now it’s time for the other characters to shine, the creators made the right choice for that).

As for the graphics and sound department, this show certainly delivers. The art looks great, the character art is extremely cute and the CG looks amazing. If you however, compare it to the prequel, it’s very hard to see any improvements in it. You would expect that the creators would put a bit more time in the show to make the graphics even better. The music also is wondeful, fitting each and every scene. Well, almost every scene. The ED and the commercial tune really break all of the tension the series had been building up. That is a bit of a pity.

Why you should watch this: If you like cute character art, a heavy dose of morality and furthermore a great story, then you should watch this.

Paradise Kiss doesn’t really rely on heavy cliffhangers or tensions. It’s mostly a love story, with people acting, a couple of unstabilities in the relationships, with all of it revolving around a fashon show. The show just has one climax, at the second last-episode, but apart from that, it’s just a very laid-back anime, focused on character interaction, no more, no less.

Some people may enjoy this, but I became a bit frustrated by it. The only reason I kept watching was because of the amazing OP and ED. I was looking forward to them every time I watched the anime. But I guess these kinds of shows don’t really appeal to me. The first episode was also a bit delusional, as there are a lot of wacky things going on, which had me smirking quite a few times. This really gave the impression that we’re dealing with some kind of love-comedy. Well, the comedy stopped entirely after the beginning of the second episode.

Overall, it had its interesting moments. The climax was really enjoyable to watch, the character art is different than other anime, but it looks awesome, and the ending deserves a few thumbs up. I’m just not the type of viewer who enjoys these kinds of love-shows, and twelve episodes long may have been a bit too much.

Why you should watch this: If you’re into fashon or romance shows, then this is the anime you should watch.

This episode is different from the others as well. When each episode looks so much like the other, you really begint to notice (and appreciate) the tiny differences. This time, along with the usual case, we also see a girl (TOO cute, by the way) who can sense the prescense of Ai. Her father is some kind of journalist who’s writing an article about Jigoku Shoujo, so he decides to check it out. At first you believe that the father’s justout for money and a story, but when his daughter suddenly gets extremely shocked, he does show that he’s a good father. Overall, I like these characters. It seems like they are going to be appearing a lot more in the show. Especially the daughter is an awesome character.

The case in this episode is a girl who’s been pushed off a building. Normal anime would in this kind of case show the falling proces, and make use of some cool-sounding sound-effects when the body hits the ground. In Jigoku-Shoujo, this is executed in the exact opposite way: the falling process is never shown, but we do get to see how the body hits a car and ends up unconcious. That only makes it more heartbreaking.

Another thing Jigoku Shoujo excels in, is the character art. They somehow succeed in making each and every character look beautifully. This is extremely pleasant to watch.

I want more. Hehe.

This sure was one awesome episode! The Fukurou and Karasu finally have their serious fight, and right in the middle an uninvited guest appears. Afterwards, things happen you SO NOT expect during this stage of the anime. That made it even more awesome to watch. The fights also got a little messier character art, but the smoothness of the camera movement has increased a lot. The purple haired girl (yes, it appeared to be purple, not pink *slaps memory*) also gets some airtime as well.

With all of this happening this episode, I’m really curious what the second half of this brilliant anime will be about.

How amazing the pacing of this show is. Here I was, expecting an action-packed episode, but due to the incredibly fast pacing the action-part only took five minutes. Ah well, not that I’m complaining. :P

Anyway, this episode, we also get some explanations about how the world in which the story takes place is built up. It apparently has something to do with quantum-particles. I’ve been educated in physics for five years, but I can’t verify what’s been told there. The overall story sounded pretty reliable, but I don’t think anyone with minimum physical knowledge would understand it.

We also learn about some new relatives of a couple of the main characters: Isami’s brother, and Harkua’s father. The former was a real surprise, including the fact that Isami has another sister, and both of his parents died. Overall, he looks like a nice addition to the cast. The latter has found himself a nice place in the story. This was, of course, bound to happen once during the series, and I guess this is the time. Yuu’s father remains a mystery at this point though, so I wonder what the creators have in store for him.

I’m still wondering about the mysterious Noein, who appeared at one point during the series. I’m guessing he’s the key figure of all this. I also think that he’ll eventually play the role of the bad guy.

Wow! I loved all of the conflicts that arose in this episode. The pink-haired girl gets to be more than someone who just obeys others, friends from the future are now treating Haruka and Karasu as enemies and it seems that there’s another party coming into play, but this time from the current timespace’s government. This is promising to be very interesting. The next episode is going to be awesome.

I’m also looking forward to the moment in which Isami and the others realize what happened with their future-selves. It’s promising to be awesome. I’m also wondering whether we get to see the past versions of the pink-haired girl and Atori. It’d be interesting to see what developments they’ve gone through.

Haruka’s getting a bit of a support role this time. It’s also nice to see that Karasu gets discovered fairly quickly by Haruka’s friends. Most anime wait till the end of the series to reveal this kind of information.

This episode was again full of ingenious plot twists. The borders of good and bad get thrown aside, even more than what happened in the previous episodes. Furthermore, we get some nice moral issues put in front of us.

Overall, I liked this episode. It is by no means the best Mushishi has ever delivered, but I still enjoyed this while watching. The view of immortality was also nicely executed, without making it seem too powerful. I was also really surprised at the desicion the guy made at the end. Any other character from any other anime would have made the other choice.

I may have said it before, but the idea that the calm, quiet and unsocial Sakon becomes a total different person when he weilds a puppet, is pure brilliance.

Anyway, this episode started another arc, and itstarts of awesomely. There’s a huge load of new, unique characters, each with his or her reasons. Under normal circumstances, I would have hated these kinds of characters. Ayatsuri Sakon however, somehow manages to make me feel along with each and everyone of these characters, and succeeds in not making them annoying or anything for even a second. Some of the characters get explored a bit, and a person gets killed. All of this is executed brilliantly and accompanied by some awesome music pieces.

I’d love to see the outcome of this.

Shuffle! is another one of those popular harem shows. According to a lot of people it’s one of the better ones. The setting is a modern-like world, but in which the gods and the devils have made contact with the humans. This doesn’t really have an huge influence on the storyline though, except for creating the excuse to include some magic in the show.

The show is basically one guy who gets to have five different girls around him, who are all in love with him. The first half of the series shows us a peaceful pacing, with Rin and the others just having fun with each other. In the second half of the anime, each of the important characters gets their own airtime to reveal, explore and solve their own storylines, with Rin, of course, in the middle. I was very amused when I noticed one episode entirely devoted to two unimportant side-characters.

The problem with this anime is that all goes a bit too easy, and there are lot of events who need some kind of reason, but are based on coincidence. While other events with a reason were better off based on coincidences. Also, the fact that the characters keep telling Rin that they love him gets annoying after a while. Sure once is okay. But ten times, per episode, per character really is a bit too much.

About the individual stories of each of the characters. Some were very interesting, while others a bit disappointing. I also felt that the climax already came in episode 20. The climax itself was extremely awesome, but it did make the last four episodes seem like some sort of epilogue. The story presented in the last three episodes didn’t have the power of episode twenty, and it’s also very predictable. I also felt that, at the epiloge of episode 24, the only one who changed in comparison to episode 21 was Primula, while her role was extremely small during that period.

This show, of course, also has lots of good points. Each of the characters act very natural among most circumstances, and it’s enjoyable to watch the whole bunch just having fun with each other. The side characters all have something unique in them, so that’s something to watch out for. The drama moments are also mostly greatly executed. Overall, it was a decent watch.

Why you should watch this: If you’re into fanservice and cute girls, you will like this.

So, right now I managed to see the first episodes from a couple of shows the shows that will be starting to air this season. If I have anything to say about it, it will be this: my expectations were totally wrong. The dull-looking series turned out to have a lot of potential, while the cool looking series kindof messed up.

Fate/Stay Night:
This was the most anticipated anime for this season, although it didn’t really impress me. The main character is nothing special. Just a guy, who is very kind, has special powers, and somehow ends up with a couple of girls. The magic system may have some potential, but that part hasn’t been shown yet. That’s why I think I’ll follow this for a couple more episodes.

Kagihime:
This was one of the series I was anticipating the most for. It really reminded me somehow of the story of Alice in wonderland, and lots of fairytales. So I was expecting a wonderful world full with lots of different stories and tales, all coming together to one writer. I’m a huge fan of those kinds of stories, so it could have been amazing. Alas. It turned out to be horrible. The show revolves around stories called "Alices". That may be a good premisse, but the awful thing is, that the fact that they exist is mentioned lots of times. But what’s in those stories (the most important thing) is never mentioned. Furthermore, this show ended up dedicated to fanservice, instead of storytelling. The characters all have ridiculously huge haircuts. Well, only the characters that play a part in the anime, of course. The main character also, of course, ends up liked by all the girls without having to do anything for it. Sigh, what a disappointment.

Anyway, now the good stuff. :)

Wings of Rean:
Yes, this is an action series. Yes, this revolves around heavy machinery. But still, it does work somehow. The biggest thing I like about this anime is the pacing. It’s only been the first episode, but it’s already been a roller coaster ride from begin to end. The main characters are also very interesting, you could almost say that they’re unique. Let’s hope they stay interesting like that. It’s also interesting to see that the creators managed to combine the technologies of today with some futuristic air/watership designs. This can be pretty interesting.

Magikano:
I started this series with the image of another dull harem show in my mind. It is indeed a harem show, but that’s not the most important thing. This show is one of those select shows that has you laughing from begin to end. I seriously reccommend this to people who are looking for a few good laughs. The characters are each very interesting. They’re not unique, but they do have a certain feeling that makes them very enjoyable to watch. My only concern is that the show may not be able to keep up with the same comedy level as this episode.

So, that’s it. I may be blogging some of them, but I’ll decide that after watching some more episodes.