Okay, so this episode was meant to be a step back: an intermezzo to flesh out the characters between the action. And even here this series sets itself apart by avoiding and subverting so many tropes that it almost gets scary.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see that this series can be really funny when it wants to be. That book joke in which Mirapoc was sent to look at a seemingly important book, which turned out to be a cheesy romance novel was absolutely hilarious, not to mention the big advantage of having a show that only is about adults: alcohol.

And yeah, it was also really nice to see a bit of what the characters were like when they were younger. I didn’t expect that to show up this early in the series. But yeah, the thing that stood out the most was this: Volken has run off and betrayed the Armed Librarians. In your average anime, you’d see his childhood sweetheart angsting, and then finding some deus ex machina to turn everything back so that they can be together again. So what does Mirepoc do? She erases her ownmemories and rids herself of any memories she has of Volken. Talk about subverting to the extreme!

Also, is it me or does the main character of this series change with every episode? First we had Volken, then Hamyuts, then Colio and now Mirepoc, and yet I have still no idea who is supposed to be the real main character of this series…

…and in a way, I like that. It really makes this show unpredictable.

Also, new animation for the OP. If the visuals are any indication to future action scenes, I’m really going to have to take back my statement of this series having unimpressive animation.

And on another side-note: someone gets smashed into a wall and stands up with dust all over her clothes. Finally a show that realizes that walls aren’t made of cardboard!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Touya… Touya… Touya. What the heck do you think you’re doing? Every time you think this bastard couldn’t possibly surpass himself… he does. WTF.

In any case, let me start with summarizing the major flaws that made the first season so unbearable:
- The set-up itself: how the heck do all these five girls pick Touya of all people to fall for. However, you can’t hold this against the second season, as it’s already part of its premise.
- The huge amount of drama that resulted in people who kept missing each other. This doesn’t return in the second season.Touya bought an answering machine, and he and Yuki actually meet a lot.
- The huge contrast between the drama: it was either incredibly subtle, or totally not. And really, the second season has been much better balanced in terms of drama.

yeah, as much as I hate to admit it: this was a really emotional episode. For the first time in this series, I really felt along with the characters, without being hampered by angsty melodrama getting in the way. The drama was definitely heavy (I mean, Touya kissed two girls WHO WEREN’T YUKI), but it felt much more heartfelt than anything I’ve seen in that first season. Am I going crazy?

Yuki.. finally she too gets suspicious of Touya, thanks to a major screw-up that he made. Or rather, two. First of all, he flaps out about how he’s been meeting Yayoi. Nice one there, dude. On top of that, when Yuki proposes to go and see Rina together. Touya declines and says that he’s got enough to do. ONLY TO SEE RINA THAT DAY, AND KISS HER. Holy crap, what an asshole. On top of that, he also starts ignoring Yayoi, even after Yuki already left, which also puts him on bad terms. Not to mention that some mysterious dude has photographs of the two hitting it off together.

I really feel like this episode was the beginning of the end. And someone shoot me: I’m beginning to like this series again!!
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ah, we get a look into the authors of cheap romance novels. Again, it had a very simple conclusion: just start writing good novels! The fun in this episode yet again came from exploring the life and carreer of this guy.

As I’m also somewhat a writer, I can identify with him a bit: so you’ve written a masterpiece. Then what? You’re popular as hell thanks to your hard work. Now what? I can understand how this guy would eventually fall into a habit of writing stuff that sells good, yet are utterly crappy and formulaic. For a starting author, this means complete suicide, however an already famous author can pull this off and still sell items.

While I’ve never written a masterpiece myself, I do recognize how you can be incredibly passionate about something when you first start out. If you happen to know the right techniques, then despite your lack of experience you can put down an incredible piece of work.

This episode was all about getting in the right mindset. It’s not about writer’s block; this guy was very able to churn out novels if you ignore his vomiting problem. Instead, it was focused on getting him from writing half-assedly to passionately. And that’s something I do recognize from my own writing, especially with my episodic reviews: the more passionately I write abot an episode (whether it was good or bad), the better that entry is usually going to be.

… and yeah, you could probably guess that this wasn’t such a passionately written entry. -_-
Rating: * (Good)

So yeah, compared to the previous seasons, this Autumn Season is a bit of a step back. The problem isn’t the huge amount of moe-shows; every season has that. It’s also not a disappointing season because of the lack of mecha; in fact, that’s rather refreshing for a change. Instead, I think that the reason is that while there are a few truly interesting series, there just aren’t enough of them.

Because of that, my top 10 is going to be a bit weird again, especially places 8, 9 and 10 are probably going to raise a few eye-brows here and there. But yeah, let’s just be glad with the things that we have. It’s not a bad season in either way, and these three series are also really enjoyable (otherwise I wouldn’t have put them in my top 10 this month at all ^^;)

Right now, I’m watching too many series, and I still need to drop two or three of them. any suggestions as to which ones?

#43 (new) - Himitsu Kessha Taka Tsume Countdown - (2/10) - This is just a very lazy attempt at comedy. It almost feels like a Sunred rip-off, but nothing feels like any effort was put into it. The jokes are dull and overused. Skip this one. Dropped.
#42 (new) - Kiddy Girl-And - (4,5/10) - Look, I really hope that what everyone’s saying about the Kiddy Grade franchise is true, because the first three episodes of this series have been outright terrible so far. If I had to pick one thing that annoys me the most, then it’s the lead character’s voice actress. I want to bash the screen every time she opens her mouth, and she just won’t shut up
#41 (new) - Miracle Train - (5,25/10) - Kenichi Kasai is an amazing director, but even he couldn’t do anything with this bad of a source material. It would have been a nice series, if some ACTUAL TIME was spent on fleshing out the different females, the bishies wouldn’t look so ridiculous, they’d behave like actual people, rather than stereotypes and the humour wasn’t so dull. Dropped
#40 (31) - Shugo Chara - (5,75/10) - Shugo Chara, while fillerish, wasn’t exactly bad. It was decent, though Shugo Chara Party somehow just decided to screw its current target audience, and focus on small children instead, making the series lose the small bit of magic it still had. Dropped.
#39 (new) - Kämpfer - (6/10) - Very, very generic moe fighting show. It’s really not subtle in all its fanservice jokes, the lead character is utterly ridiculous and the rest of the characters also are dull and one-dimensional. Dropped.
#38 (new) - Gokyoudai Monogatari - (6/10) - This could have been a nice idea, but it’s badly written. The characters all act like complete imbeciles, but none of it is really funny or enjoyable. Nobody acts like how he’s supposed to act. Dropped.
#37 (30) - Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - (6,25/10) - My big problem with Nogizaka Haruka is that its sense of humour is abysmal. It’s supposed to make people laugh, it made me cringe. Besides, I’m not interested in the otaku-business at all, so this still just isn’t my kind of series. Dropped.
#36 (29) - Koihime Musou - (6,5/10) - The characters in this show are just too stupid for me. I tried giving it a second chance, but I don’t think I’m ever going to like this series’ cheesy sense of humour and stupid cameos from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Dropped.
#35 (new) - Fairy Tail - (6,5/10) - You know, I like a good shounen once in a while, but when said shounen proceeds to rip off just about every other shounen with badly executed humour that tries way too hard, I bail out. Dropped.
#34 (new) - Nyan Koi - (6,75/10) - For a show about felines it has the most unrealistic and boring cats I’ve seen in a long while. The romance was promising… before it went down the road of generic harem. Dropped.
#33 (28) - Asura Crying - (7/10) - I’m still not exactly sold on this series. The characters are just too stupid and stereotypical for me, and lack any sort of charm. Dropped.
#32 (new) - A Certain Scientific Railgun - (7/10) - Perhaps a fun series for some, but not for me. Especially that twin-tailed lead character was a pain to watch. Dropped.
#31 (new) - Sora no Otoshimono - (7,25/10) - I’m really not a fan of fanservice humour, and especially the unsubtle kind often just bores me. I think it’s not much of a surprise that I quickly dropped this series when the panties started flying around.
#30 (new) - Inu Yasha - (7,5/10) - The first episode didn’t motivate me to watch the rest of this series. Sure, there were some potentially interesting storylines, but not interesting enough for me to want to sit through hundreds of episodes. Dropped
#29 (new) - Seitokai no Ichizon - (7,5/10) - Out of the teenaged moe comedies this season, I agree that this has been the best. The problem however is that it also got old really fast. That’s why I’ve dropped this series before it could get too boring, because the characters just are too stereotypical to really make this work in the long term.
#28 (25) - Needless - (7,5/10) - I’ve finally dropped this show. It was fun while it lasted, but I’m trying to cut back on the amount of shows I’m watching each season, so this one obviously had to go. Dropped.
#27 (new) - Table Cat - (7,5/10) - Well, so it’s obvious that this show really isn’t going to become anything special, but it nevertheless consists out of some decently amusing antics. And hey, the episodes are only five minutes long, so not much effort has to go into watching this.
#26 (new) - The Sacred Blacksmith - (7,5/10) - Here’s the thing with this series: I fully agree that it has potential. If the creators handle it well, they can get a nice story out of this series, despite the overload of moe. But within 12 episodes? I don’t think so. Wake me up when a second season gets announced. Until then, dropped.
#25 (11) - Natsu no Arashi - (7,5/10) - Here’s the thing with this series: the first season was fresh, it had enough material to work with and kept throwing in new things to keep it interesting. The new season has focused three of its four episodes on Jun’s cross-dressing and Hajime’s ignorance about this. That’s way too much, and really a sign that this series’ creativity is running out. The jokes feel forced and overused now. The story itself seems to be advancing pretty nicely though, so at least that’s a good thing.
#24 (new) - Kimi ni Todoke - (7,5/10) - At this point, Kimi ni Todoke is a fairly standard shoujo series, clichés included. The first four episodes haven’t exactly impressed me, but there is potential for the future. The characterization for the lead male may be dull, but the three lead females have a nice chemistry between them. Whenever they’re not into some sort of forced drama.
#23 (new) - Cheburashka Arere - (7,75/10) - One thing I like to do with all of the short-episoded series this season is save all of them during each week, and then watching them all at once. Cheburashka Arere is… well.. very childish, but it’s nice, simple and enjoyable. It’s a bit nonsensical at times, but the quirky characters are surprisingly likeable for a show about nothing.
#22 (new) - Winter Sonata - (7,75/10) - Okay, so it didn’t really help that the series started out with a flashback, turning this supposedly mature romance into yet another teenaged romance. What annoys me the most is the male lead right now: he’s trying too hard to look rebellious and cool at the same time. However, I do have to say that the show is well animated, or at least that the motions of the characters are very well done and imaginative.
#21 (new) - Kobato - (7,75/10) - I’m not yet sold on this series, but I can see some potential. Especially Kobato is an incredibly genuine character, and the story, albeit dull, is nicely told. If it’s building up to something, I’d like to find out what that is.
#20 (new) - Thriller Restaurant - (7,75/10) - Yeah, this is pretty much a kids’ shows, but I’m actually enjoying it. The stories are incredibly simple, and often they’re quite a bit flawed, but the storytelling keeps me interested. Also, since the stories are all very short (usually around ten minutes), it makes this series into something like a quick fire horror stories anime. Oh, and the music is also pretty good too.
#19 (new) - Yumeiro Patissiere - (7,75/10) - I really didn’t expect anything from this series when I first started watching it, but I have to admit: it’s pretty solid. It goes along perfectly with this season’s line of surprisingly good kids’ shows. The lead character is likable, but a hard worker. And regarding the drama: every time it starts it really seems like it’s going down the path of cheesy and overdone drama… only to prove my suspicions wrong and turning into something genuine.
#18 (22) - White Album - (8/10) - Ah, Touya. How I hate thee. I have to admit though: as a character, this guy is pretty good. He’s a complete bastard, but a well-developed one nonetheless. I’m going to withhold my judgment for this series at this point, because I have no idea whether it’s going to turn good or fall apart completely in the end.
#17 (23) - Hetalia Axis Powers - (8/10) - Haha! 38 episodes in, and finally The Netherlands show up. I like how we’re portrayed as an evil bastard.
#16 (15) - Kuruneko - (8/10) - Perhaps not the funniest month for Kuruneko thus far, but honestly I don’t mind. It’s fun enough to watch the lead character and her tendency to voice everything over. This series really doesn’t need anything more, and it knows this.
#15 (new) - 11Eyes - (8/10) - This really is something I didn’t suspect from an eroge adaptation: it’s actually pretty good! Sure, the slice of life is annoying, but the characters are well defined and have their own share of depth. They’re all interesting to watch, and the direction during the action-scenes also knows how to keep everything interested. Very nice, but can it do everything it wants in just 12 episodes?
#14 (new) - Letter Bee - (8/10) - While the start is a bit cheesy and follows the standard start of a shounen series, I actually see potential in this. The chemistry between the two lead characters is pretty nice to watch, and any series that has a forest of broccoli in it deserves extra points.
#13 (2) - Konnichiwa Anne - (8,25/10) - Watching this show is like driving across a very hilly road. It can be amazing at times, but at others it can be really painful to watch with all its cheese. This month, it kept hovering somewhere in the middle: the episodes dedicated to the Hammond family were great: you really see a lot of detail into dysfunctional families. The episodic stories however… weren’t good. They were cheesy, and at this point I’ve really had it with those cheesy stories from this series.
#12 (new) - Sasameki Koto - (8,25/10) - This series is really surprisingly good. This mostly can be attributed to the lead character, who is really fun to watch and has an excellent voice actress. Especially episode four was hilarious. But (and this is a pretty big but), this series has a pretty simple formula, hasn’t it? How long is it going to take until it gets dull? I fear that this series isn’t going to make the end of this season.
#11 (new) - Kuchuu Buranko - (8,25/10) - Kuchuu Buranko did well in setting itself apart from Bake Neko and Mononoke: this isn’t a series that should be enjoyed because of the depth of its stories, but rather because of its entertainment value. Its unique style of storytelling and the crazy visuals are a lot of fun to watch, and while the characters may not be as deep, they’re lovable and interesting to watch. I don’t see a classic here, but at the same time I see no way in which this series can possibly screw up.
#10 (new) - Anymal Tantei Kiruminzoo - (8,25/10)

Call me crazy, but I’m really enjoying this series. It may be aimed primarily at kids, but I keep thinking that the creators put a layer of adult jokes behind the cute and cuddly exterior that will fly past the kids’ heads. And yeah, it has the catchiest opening EVER. ^^;

#9 (38) - Tentai Senshi Sunred - (8,25/10)

Still no signs of any loss of inspiration. In fact, every episode has been a hit so far, and the writers seem better than ever at this point. Let’s hope that it can keep this up.

#8 (12) - Marie & Gali - (8,5/10)

This series still doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. This month yet again showcased a number of very creative episodes. I especially loved the birthday episode, which was surprisingly touching for Gali.

#7 (13) - Cross Game - (8,5/10)

For Cross Game, this month was mostly build-up to the second half of this series. The baseball match was nice enough to watch, but it really doesn’t match up to the baseball matches in Touch. Nevertheless, now that the second half has started with the arrival of “her”, I’m curious to see where the creators are going to take this series.

#6 (10) - Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini - (8,75/10)

I know fully well that the set-up of this season and its short length isn’t going to make it surpass the Yin-arc of the first season, but nevertheless this has been a very interesting sequel so far. It’s come with an interesting story and a rock-solid execution and action-scenes in which many things happen at the same time. Everyone has different ideals and purposes and it deserves in my top 3 of series that started airing this fall season.

#5 (11) - Kemono no Souja Erin - (8,75/10)

It’s taken a while, but the plot has really heated up. It’s been really well prepared by the first half of this series, and the fruits of all that build-up are really showing off now. Especially now that the politics and the main story have converged, we’re in for a great finale.

#4 (new) - Armed Libarians - The Book of Bantorra - (8,75/10)

Excellent series. It’s got a multi-layered story already four episodes in. It’s surprisingly well written, it’s got a strong cast of characters and especially Hamyuts Meseta rocks. The animation disappointed a bit in the first episode, but even that got better in the subsequent episodes.

#3 (8) - Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - (9/10)

The past month has really given the plot of this series a whole different dimension to the storyline, in a large number of surprising plot twist. I’m really starting to see how well this series is constructed.

#2 (new) - Aoi Bungaku - (9/10)

What an amazing series so far. No Longer Human (the first story to be adapted by this series) just keeps getting better and better, with an amazing set of visuals and a very tight direction that just keeps your attention. Definitely among my highlights of the Autumn Season.

#1 (16) - Umineko no Naku Koro ni - (9/10)

An amazing month for Umineko. The plot took a completely different turn with a number of amazing plot twists. Beatrice has really shown that she’s an awesome character with this, and episode 18 has been the highlight of the entire series for me. On top of that, the murder mystery just gets more and more intriguing, and it’s always a blast trying to find out what’s really going on behind the buckets of red herrings thrown at the screen.