One interesting issue with the neglected series is that they’re either incredibly good, or incredibly bad. Unfortunately, you can’t always strike gold.

OverDrive

Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to learn to ride a bicycle.
Good: Decent enough music.
Bad: Yawn… err, where was I?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10
Sports-anime have never really been my thing. Strangely enough, I never really had a good reason to avoid them. Finally, OverDrive gave me one. God, that was awful. The main bad point about this anime isn’t really that it’s bad, but the whole thing is just so incredibly boring. I felt myself nearly fall asleep after the first few minutes. Oh and the main character is a fourteen year-old loser who’s never ridden a bicycle before and will somehow end up as the best cyclist ever without having to practice hard like everyone else does. I definitely do not hope that all sports-anime are as bad as this one.

Fuyu no Semi

Short Synopsis: Quite an interesting setting: Ezo. Two guys who want to open up Japan to the rest of the world fall in love with each other (yes: guys).
Good: Nice historical backgrounds.
Bad: A tad boring, but that may have been because I watched this right after OverDrive.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
I was quite surprised to see Ezo as the main setting in this OVA. It takes place perhaps a few years after Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, but without the magic and supernatural elements. What was even more surprising that I heard the name of one of the main characters: Akizuki. After a while, it appears that this wasn’t Youjirou, but Keiichirou. Brothers? Anyway, the episode self didn’t make me too enthusiastic. It does have some interesting historical elements, but most of the episode looked like some strange version of a dating-sim.

Saint Beast

Short Synopsis: I’ve been wondering this myself.
Good: Nice OP and ED, I guess, albeit a bit cheesy.
Bad: Oh god the Engrish… the horrible, horrible Engrish!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
My impression of Saint Beast can be described in one word: forgettable. Yet again, nothing of the episode caught my interest. Heck, now that I’m writing this, I can hardly remember what this anime was about anyway. I believe it was about six bishounen-angels who live happily in a mountain-cottage, until they get summoned by a Greek God-ish type of guy. I can hardly imagine recommending this one.

Love stories. These things are a very tricky thing to do, as they won’t work without some good development, unless they don’t take themselves so seriously. Most love-stories I’ve seen look too much like each other, and are rather undeveloped.

Nagasarate Airantou

Short Synopsis: A typical loser ends up on an island with only young girls.
Good: Could have become good…
Bad: …if it didn’t have the most horrible concept to work with, didn’t include the main character, blood-noses or fanservice, didn’t seem to think that a guy screaming, getting beaten-up, hurt or getting chased was the funniest thing ever, etc.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
It took me a while to figure out that “Airantou” is actually a horrible katakanification of the word “island”. Obviously, I think that my opinion on this one is clear by now. Okay, I do admit I chuckled at some parts, I liked it when the characters went crazy, and the evil smiles had potential. But why the heck did the creators find beating up the main character over and over and over and over again funny? It’s horribly dull and his screaming and nose-bleeds are some of the most annoying scenes ever. If the annoying parts are scrapped (including the horrible concept) though, this could make quite an interesting anime, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen. Definitely dropped.

Romeo x Juliet

Short Synopsis: Juliet, a former princess now lives underground, in the same city where she used to live. There she gets saved by a boy: Romeo.
Good: Nice production-values, great ED
Bad: …Gonzo…grmblrg…..
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
Okay, I may only have read certain parts of the book, the beginning not included, but I doubt that this first episode was very true to the book. For starters, I never recall Juliet having lost her throne. Someone once commented about how Gonzo likes to add their own elements to the stories they adapt, and only now I realize what that means. Heck, if I’m not mistaken, William Shakespeare even makes a cameo-appearance. I don’t think I’m happy about these changes. In one thing, it did make the story more generic. I was looking forward to seeing this, as the book featured a type of storytelling that you don’t usually see in anime. I also definitely do hope that Gonzo won’t be thinking of a different ending. I’d love to see such an ending, which makes perfect use of the different character’s weaknesses: their naivety. Les Miserables proved that staying true to the book doesn’t mean a bad thing, and I’m fearing that Romeo x Juliet will somehow ruin this classic, in an attempt to make it “mainstream”. Still, the episode itself wasn’t bad if you see it as just another anime, and not “another Romeo and Juliet story”.

Gigantic Formula

Short Synopsis: Somewhere in the near-future, each major country possesses one strong mecha, which fight each other. Two children end up piloting Japan’s.
Good: Excellent production values, beautiful character-designs.
Bad: Makey no sensey.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10
It’s such a pity. If I had to guess, then the creators spent lots of effort to create some very high-quality graphics, music and scenes, only to realize that they ran out of budget to hire a decent writer. The graphics look amazing in this one, but it just makes no sense. I kept wondering how two children can end up piloting such an important mecha, but it appears that all of them are very highly skilled. Even more than normal adults. I really do hope that the future episodes will give some explanation about why these characters are so skilled, as they need every little piece of background they can get after this first taste of the series. Thankfully, near the end of the episode we got a small flash of the history of the main character, but that definitely was not enough. At all.

Short Synopsis: As expected, more people die. The culprit seems to wear a white Noh-styled mask. Kaoru, meanwhile, makes a fool out of herself.
Good: Glad to see the brilliance of the first two arcs finally returning again! Kaoru was quite funny.
Bad: So far, Ayatsuri Sakon’s only bad point was its predictability, but even that was absent from this episode.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10

I never thought to see some actual consistent updates from Ayatsuri Sakon again, but surprisingly the Ayatsuri-Sakon project released yet another new episode. And I’m glad to say that, apart from the ending of the second arc, this is one of the best episodes yet. There are probably two reasons for that. First of all: Kaoru. I really like this arranged marriage of hers, and the fact that she fell in love with it anyway. She was so cute when Ukon kept teasing her. ^^;

The second reason is the fact that throughout the episode, you’ve got almost no idea of knowing who the real culprit is. Right now, I’m suspecting that the youngest son is behind it, but why would that be? When the previous arcs tried to side-track the viewer, the events were rather transparent. But this arc manages to throw in not one side-track, but lots of them. At one point of the episode, everyone has a possibility of being the culprit.

There’s a lot behind this mystery that still isn’t clear yet. For example, why did the culprit have to wax the floor, when he could have timed the attack perfectly. If it was a mistake, and the slippery floor was actually meant to fend off the killer, and Naoto was the real victim, then why didn’t the culprit kill Naoto off the second time? How did the culprit make Kouei end up in the car-crash? It’s hard to believe that everything is the work of just one person.

Memorable quote: “Hyu hyu! You two are sizzlin’!” - Ukon