2016 May 6ᵗʰ. Pandora Hearts!

おはよう!

I've always loved this... But I'm too lazy to actually finish it.
I'm weird.

今日

Well, here's Pandora Hearts.This was one of my favourite anime when it came out, though I never got to check out the manga. The manga, by the way, apparently had only just finished production back in 2015! How amazing, for a show that ended in 2009.

Not to mention, y'know, *Points up*

But I'm getting off track. This anime is Pandora Hearts, stylized as PandoraHearts, or パンドラハーツ （PandoraHātsu） In Japanese. It is, basically, about an admirable youth named Oz, the heir to the Vessalius dukedom of his time, who is quite literally pulled into an entirely new world. Well, a new dimension really. Through the anime, Oz tries to help, control, and judge a parasitic demon girl who stuck with him when he passed back into his world from the next—Alice.

Xerxes Break, that clown.

The adventures they have together are quite exciting, and would most often fall into the ‘Psychological thriller’ storytype. If that's your thing, go for this one.
If not, there is still more fun to be had, as Pandora, a certain organization which happens to often associate with these two—er, one-and-a-half?—has quite a few interesting characters in itself. Many fun personas, numbering among them an unaging seeming-witch-girl, a... Creepy white-haired ‘clown’... And a raven. So to speak.
Besides all that, the anime definitely does not take itself too seriously. There is never a disappointment when it comes to how much humour they will leave in their episodes. Mainly from utterly silly characters, of course. There's also the cute little hints of love between the 25-year-old child and the, what, thousand-year-old(?) demon. If you're into that.

Basically, it has something for just about everyone. Unless you're looking for a school life anime. Not that there's any deficit of those out there, if you were.
ANYWAYS
If you'd like to watch it, it is, by some miracle, on Crunchyroll, here.
In addition, it may be found on Kissanime here, and Gogoanime here.

And now,
Farewell.

2016 April 29ᵗʰ. ERASED!

おはよう!

Hiya. Again, a short post. I think that it's probably not worth making this one very long because most people have already seen this anime, anyway.
Oh well. Short posts hurt me; they make me feel like Alantutorial or something.

Tutorial!

今日

Today I'd like to present to you my impression of the anime ERASED, known also as Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (The Town Where Only I am Missing).
Basically, it's got a really cool premise, and nice art. If you haven't seen it yet, at least see the first episode. Please. Blah-blah-blah.

Total inconspicuousness.

I really did not want to watch this at first because children annoy me, but, as it turns out, the protagonist, Fujinuma Satoru, is quite mature. Suspiciously mature, even.
*Hint hint nudge nudge*
All of whoever made this anime seem to be very good at setting mood, seriously. You should try it.
Anywho, if you'd like to see it (even if I haven't convinced you, do it anyway), here it is on Crunchyroll.
Here on Kissanime, and here on Gogoanime.

2016 April 22ⁿᵈ. The Empire of Corpses!

おはよう!

Hello, people, and welcome to possibly the least helpful post on this blog.

今日

Today, we're looking at an anime movie, which, unfortunately, already aired in theatres April 19-20ᵗʰ. As such, there is no way, currently, to view it. Legally. Wink wink nudge nudge.
To add to that, making references to this film without having direct access to the source is quite difficult, so this will have to be cut rather short.
Moving on from that,
This film was, in a single word, fantastic. I've not been able to speak a bad word of it since I saw it. Honestly, the characters, besides occasionally being adorable, were perfectly rounded out by all other characters around them. In all, it was a well-entwined piece.

THE EYES

The character design was Attack on Titan-level intense
The action scenes were intense,
The dramatic scenes were tear-worthy,
And the dub's voice acting was really quite well done.
Overall, clearly, I recommend this. Whenever it comes out for purchase. Or sooner. Wink wink nudge nudge.
Anywho, for more information on the film, and its synopsis, visit here.
For more background and related projects' information, visit here.
That is all for today. Good day, good fellow.

2016 April 15ᵗʰ. Death Parade, Again, Again, Again!

おはよう!

This is going a lot longer than I thought it would~

"Just... Just let me rest!"
-Anonymous viewer

今日

Again, we are back to Death Parade. This anime is finally, by the [REDACTED]ᵗʰ episode, interesting.
Now, do you remember when I said Decim had a heart?
Well...

I now plead for you to watch this anime. This is not the final post over it, no, but the plot is thickening. I am getting invested in this anime, and I need you to be too. Or else Oh wait the therapist said I shouldn't say things like that because it scares people
AHEM, ANYWAYS,
I shall stop spoiling anything, but I must say, this anime is getting quite far into human emotion—and not quite in the way I first would've thought. Now, if you please, check this anime out here, on Kissanime.
Here on Animehaven, and here, Gogoanime.

2016 April 1ˢᵗ. Death Parade, Again, Again!

おはよう!

Heya folks. Short post today.

今日

This week's post is, again, again, Death Parade. The third post on this show, and the second in a series of 3–4 posts on the subject.
So far in a nutshell, the psychological themes are developing, and seem very relevant. I am still pleased with this anime.
On my list of predictions from the first post on Death Parade, before this review chain, some more are to be checked off:

  Number one is still debatable, though seems fair to say.
  Two is a check, and quite a disappointing one at that. I shall say that is a fault of the show. Some of the characters seem a bit dull.
  Three has yet to happen—at least, for the Arbiters' rules.
  Four is definitely beginning, but there seems to be no main character. Just a rotation.

So far, many more of the characters have been introduced. I dare say all of them. They seem to, for the most part, have their own quirks and opinions. That is definitely a plus for this show, and seems to be one of its main themes—that every viewpoint on their work is represented. I do like this theme, as it seems to be designed for (everyone to like it).
Alas, more information will be delivered...
Next time.

The following information is a cut from the previous post, for information on viewing:
Now, if you'd like to watch this anime yourself, it is not on Crunchyroll. So, below are three links to the show on other decent anime streaming sites.
Here is the link for Kissanime. Here for Animehaven, and here, Gogoanime.

2016 March 11ᵗʰ. Death Parade, Again!

おはよう!

Hi, humans. Just so you know in advance, I won't be posting next week, as I'm going to be away, visiting my girlfriend Acin, a distance of the length of Great Britain from my computer.

Oh well, see ya' on the 24^th or so.

Promise me you won't do anything horrible while I'm gone!

Oh, we promise!

今日

Just amazing. I should do typesetting.

Hello, hello. Here we have, again, Death Parade. You may remember this anime from a couple weeks ago—you may also remember I had said I would be doing a review of it.
Well, here I am.
But wait! There's more!
This review, (though really more like an impression post), will be split into two or three parts, this being the first.
This post will be over episodes 1–4. The following posts will be mainly over their sections, but may also tie back into these.
THAT BEING SAID,
This anime is pretty good.
At first, you see, I thought it was terrible. Mindless, slightly psychological-thriller gore or something. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked second episode came.
Well, the second episode still wasn't much. But the third episode was really nice.
This anime has, so far, brought me to some tears. Some of the themes of death by the fourth episode really hit me, for some reason.

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” –Edgar Allan Poe.

Ahem, well, anyways.

Aw, Decim, you do have a heart!

So far, the first and last predictions I made on the first post over this have kind of half come true. There seems to be a human, (Or, at least a former human.), though it is unclear as to whether or not there is yet any main character.
And for the first one, it seems as though some emotion is contained in Decim.
How cute.

But anyhow,
As far as themes go, this anime gets quite a bit of liberty with what they'd like to talk about. They can pull any character with any backstory out from the aether at any time, and it's totally appropriate. So far, the things they've touched on are, well, touching to me. If you have a heart, and/or an emotionally difficult life, you'll find something in this anime to be taken good, or bad. It's up to you.
This is confusing. I shouldn't be writing right before midnight, anyhow.
Anyhow, I'll see you next time with more Death Parade. Or not. Depends on what is posted next-next week. Either way, I wish you a good 10–15 days. Farewell!
Now, if you'd like to watch this anime yourself, it is not on Crunchyroll. So, below are three links to the show on other decent anime streaming sites.
Here is the link for Kissanime. Here for Animehaven, and here, Gogoanime.

Postscript:
I'm not even linking to Funimation for this anymore. They have some ridiculous member sign up with an age restriction for this. I just want to watch the dang show, people! I don't want to join your sh*t!

2016 February 26ᵗʰ. Death Parade!

おはよう!

Well, I mean...
For next week I have planned to do this same anime again, but as a review. I had been told by my friend, who suggested this to me to begin with, that it is not, in fact, entirely about killing unborn children with darts. Plus, the first episode only had one of the several main-looking characters in the opening.
So, I'll get a chance to laugh at how wrong I am about something! Finally!

今日

Hello. Is it me you're looking for?
Ahem, I mean, *excited yet incredibly serious tone*, today's anime is Death Parade.

Decim, the boring.

Its name in Japanese is "Desu Pareedo," which is not incredibly exciting; just a transliteration into Japanese of the English title.
Anywho, what happened in this one episode I saw was that some couple unwittingly decided which of them could go to heaven and which to hell over a game of darts, with many dramatic plot twists and dead babies along the way. Obviously, if this was the whole show, I'd go straight to a 2/10 rating, (Didn't I used to do those? Ratings?) but luckily its true purpose is totally unestablished by the first episode. Hooray?
With knowing practically nothing about this show, then, I shall list off some predictions to hopefully correct later.

• Decim, the bartender arbiter-of-the-damned fellow, will probably have some sort of confrontation that changes how he feels about his patrons
• If he has coworkers, they must take turns or something with different sets of games.
• Rules of a game will be broken. At least once.
• There'd better be at least one human who stays in limbo with them, maybe they could be the main character.

Anyhow, this post is just terrible since I really don't want to talk about what actually happened in the episode, y'know, since I was warned it was irrelevant and all.
So, with all that, I'm out of here.
If you want to beat me to watching the rest of this, perhaps, here is the link on Crunchy--
Oh, wait, no it's not. Because Funimation took exclusive streaming rights in America. Again. God bleep it.
Here on Kissanime, and here on Animehaven.

2016 February 19ᵗʰ. No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!

おはよう!

Whelp, I've exhausted my to-see anime list. That went by waaaay faster than I thought it would. Now, then, there was one anime I had really wanted to do an impression of, but held off since I had promised the others, but now...
...I forgot what it was.
Dang, I feel old. My last birthday was only a couple weeks ago; I'm already feeling the years piling on...

You whippersnappers get off my blog!

今日

This one, I thought I'd love this one.
Nooooope.
The protagonist's name is Tomoko. Kuroki Tomoko. I thought she looked like a fairly cute little loli in what pictures I'd seen of the show, but now that I've watched it, I am just... Disturbed. Yes.
Now, to business. This anime's full title in Japan is Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!, translated into English as No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Which is quite a mouthful, no matter where you come from. In light of that, it has been given the wonderfully succinct nickname of Watamote. Thank dog.
This anime seems to be about the tribulations of one socially awkward girl, fresh into highschool, who struggles with the fact that she can't seem to get herself to become popular. I wouldn't say that the show is cringe-worthy, because that seems quite unfair. It's clearly hyperbole on modern asocial or introverted behaviour, which is actually quite severe in Japan. But, the anime did make me uncomfortable. Very, very uncomfortable. I, myself, used to be incredibly introverted, and still am to a good degreee; but the kind of humour used in the show reminds me of a few morally darker, real people that I know. It made me feel strange indeed.

Muttering out a tiny "Goodbye." Seems about right.

Including my slightly shifted perspective on it, I didn't really like Watamote much at all; though some parts did make me laugh, I think the humour just wasn't for me.

I, for one, have many a-times gone to check out something I've heard negative reviews of; simply because I know the large difference between the reviewer and I, and some of the things they hated just sound devilishly good to me. In this, I hope that some of you will check out this show as well; since I'm just being a strange, grumpy Cire over it.

There are parodied brands all over this anime, it's great.

Or, maybe, if you're sensitive or do not at all enjoy tongue-in-cheek humour, you won't check it out, and I may have saved you some time in your day.
Either way, I can hardly stop whatever your heart desires, so here's the link on Crunchyroll.
Here on Kissanime, and here on Animehaven.

2016 February 12ᵗʰ. Free!

おはよう!

Ah. Ha ha. I did not have this in mind back in October. Free!, of all things.
Though by this point I think my mind's already as shattered as Link's personalities, so nothing makes sense anymore.
On another note, I've been starting way too many sentences with the word "So" recently. I think I've been cursed.

今日

So!
...Dang it
Today's anime is the oh-so-popular and not-at-all controversial Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, (as the first season is known). Watching this, I felt all sorts of perplexed. But let's not get into that; the anime seemed okay. From the first episode, all I can really say is that further testing is necessary. (Well, all I can say besides the rest of this). Rin, the purple-haired boy you see in the .gif yonder seems to be quite the dynamic character so far, leaving the largest gap between his childhood and the present. Presumably, further on in the anime, we'll learn all about his four-or-so years of sexual abuse by his Australian swim coach. I can't wait~!

Er, on another, more technical note, this show has nice graphics. And I don't just mean nice 'views,' (if you're into that), the show actually has a nice mix of good animation and the occasional computer-generated bit. It invoked intense feelings best described, ironically, as 'Not bad.' Honestly, it's 4:30 AM early on a Friday as I write this and I have no idea what I'm talking about anymore. I'm just going to end this here.
If you want to see this show, (I liked it oωo) here's the--
WAIT A MINUTE
I just... I entirely forgot to mention at all what this anime was about. Here's the rundown:
Some child swimming-prodigy, Nanase, seems to have a rivalry brewing with his friend and former grade school swimming-clubmate, Rin. Some neat stuff occurs and the entirety of Nanase and Rin's old club happens to meet up in a new, fancy highschool. about four years later. Fanservice-y shenanigans ensue. ...And swimming. Mostly swimming.
SO!
...Dang it
If you've any desire to see something that sounds even remotely like that, then here's the link on Crunchyroll.
Remember, the first season is Iwatobi Swim Club, at the bottom of the page on Crunchyroll. The second is called Eternal Summer. That being said, here's the link on Kissanime, and here on Animehaven. Have fun!

Postscript: Animehaven has started to use pop-up ads that open in new windows when you first get on the site, and I am just about ready to rip the [ᴇxᴘʟᴇᴛɪᴠᴇ] off of whoever originally thought that would be a good idea as an advertising mechanism.
...Now have a good day. See ya'.

2015 February 5ᵗʰ. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

おはよう!

*In monotone* "Hi, I'm Cire, and I'm addicted to anime…"
*Rest of group, in unison* "Hi Cire."

今日

So!
Today's anime happens to be the wonderfully succinctly-named Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka, known to most English speakers as Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, or simply abbreviated to DanMachi.
For the sake of the eyes and hearts of the people I hold dear, I will use in this the quick "DanMachi." Sound good?

I could have never seen this nice, pretty crystal!

Now! Onto the good stuff!
First things first: This post is a bit of a misnomer in its typing, Impression, as I have actually been exposed to this project before—when I read the light novels.
That said, I did only read the first two light novels. When I had heard there was an anime adaptation coming for it, I was quite excited. Though it did surprise me greatly that the entirety of the first two novels is covered in the first two episodes. So, of course, I stopped watching so I could catch up with the books before I continued.
Sliiiiiight problem with that: I never went back and read the rest.
Just to think—I may've never have seen the beautiful Loli goddess in GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR! The humanity!
But, I digress.

Bell: a name, befitting, that
strikes fear into the hearts of all.

DanMachi! This is an anime about the adventurer Bell Cranel, the sole member of the dirt-poor clan of the goddess Hestia.
His power is dubious at best. He likely could not be invited into any of the more established guilds, such as that of Loki…
It's not told in the books, to my memory, nor in the anime how he joined the "Familia"—guild—of Hestia. We can all come to our own conclusions on that. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
But, as it seems, he is quite attached to his rank. I can appreciate that loyalty. The story begins, however, with an encounter by Bell with a dangerous monster. Oh no, the horror!

This beastie, the Minotaur, is the first we see of the creatures of the Dungeon. And, presumably, for some, the last they see; as it seems to be far beyond the capabilities of Cranel to handle. Not that that's saying much, but still…
Luckily, some seemingly deus-ex-machina bullsh*t (No pun intended) happens, and Bell gets out of it mostly unscathed.
The story progresses nice and smoothly,

Magical crystals are collected, lolis are begrumped. The usual. Until, suddenly…

CATGIRLS?!

Not this scheisse again... Er, I mean, oh my gosh. Wonderful. Cue my imminent seizures of joy.

To save you from having to see or hear that, I now present you with an ultimatum:
Walk away now, or take this link, to watch the show on Crunchyroll.

Here are the links on Kissanime, and on Animehaven. 

2016 January 29ᵗʰ. Log Horizon!

おはよう!

Oh gosh, I'm getting anxious over the next post. Please, no one spoil Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? for me ;^_;

I'm on to you...

今日

So-ho-ho, Log Horizon. Or, uhm, Rogu Horaizun as the katakana would have it.
The most recognizable thing about this anime to most people would be that it has clearly taken inspiration from .hack, the same source as the wildly popular Sword Art Online.

.hack//G.U. Dang, I loved that game.

I think you can clearly see that I know nigh nothing about this anime—seeing as how I almost typed that it was secondary inspiration for SAO, despite apparently having been released two years after the aforementioned subject of this post. (Thanks, Wikipedia, for your fact-checking glory.)
SO, INTO THE CONTENT.
    The first thing I am greeted by as I pop into the first episode of this anime is, you guessed it, demon weasels.

Why is it always demon weasels?

Well, really Briar Weasels as they call them. But still, ankle-nibbling little devils—what I call them.

After this, we get to see some nice introduction into what the h*ll is actually going on in this place filled with evil plants and magical balls:
Shockingly, the wonderful game the loved and played and loved to play seems to have captured all of its online players within itself. Who ever could have predicted such a thing.
Anyways, the usual happens; alliances form, cute lolis are met, and someone ends up going through a painful physical metamorphosis. Just like every Wednesday.
After that, however, something quite interesting is revealed: Their prison, the game Elder Tale, is mapped onto the real shape of the Japanese archipelago.

All in all, as I tire from writing, I would watch more. If you watched SAO and hated all the love and peace nonsense, this seems to be a good anime for you, too. Thumbs up. *Ding*
So, if you plan on giving it a try, here is the link on Crunchyroll.
Here are the links on the aptly named LogHorizonEpisodes(.com), and on Kissanime.
Happy leveling!

2016 January 22ⁿᵈ. God Eater!

おはよう!

Blame the reason you're not seeing Spice and Wolf today on Holo's wolf titties.

That little troll.

今日

God Eater!
That font for the title just irks me; in EATER it uses what looks like greek sigmas (Σ) for the E's, despite it being pronounced GOD SATSR.
Although the R is an appropriate nordic-runic R. So that's nice. But inconsistent.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT TYPOGRAPHY!
Today's impression is God Eater. From what I had heard about this show beforehand, it was almost an identical clone of Attack on Titan.
From what I've seen, I have to agree.
I mean, come on. Seriously? Lookie here, a big circular wall surrounding the last bastions of humanity from the outside giants.
I mean, the backstory is different. (As far as I know, I've not read the full backstory for Shingeki no Kyōjin.)
But still,
Seriously?
*Muffled sounds of grumpiness*
But, alas, all is forgiven. Y'see, how could anyone stay angry at this anime? No way could that happen, not with...

GIANT BAD*** GUN-SWORDS

I'm sorry. I had to.

But in all seriousness, the anime was okay.

...A little bit under okay. I didn't really like it. The animation looked like cel-shading, it made me really quite uncomfortable.

The story behind it seemed kind of average, as well.

If you really still want to watch it, I'm not stopping you.

So here is the link on Crunchyroll.

Here is the link on Daisuki, and here on... Hulu? I am so aggravated by Hulu, I'm not even going to check if that link works. But if it tickles you, you may try that site to watch it.

See ya'!

2016 January 15ᵗʰ. Orenchi no Furo Jijō!

おはよう!

Oh my god, oh my gosh. I can't believe I did that.
...But on another note (he huu hue hue), the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack has been sounding really good to me recently. Listen to it, seriously. It's great.

I didn't realize how much I needed this in my life

今日

This is totally appropriate, just keep reading.

First of all, I swear this is not what it looks like.

(Alright, it's, like, 43% what it looks like)
That is a man in a tub with another few people. And a snail.But I swear, it's fine. They're anthropomorphic sea creatures; (Nothing below their waists).

But I should mention that, from this point forward, if you are made uncomfortable by overt themes of yaoi, you may wish to pass along on this post. (Though the characters are all technically heterosexual, you know what I mean.)

SO,

Today's anime is Orenchi no Furo Jijō. The Circumstances in my Home's Bathtub.

I was going to do a first-impression of this later in the year, but for, uh, personal reasons I went ahead and decided to do one now.
Y'see, it was decided that it'd be a first-impression. It's just, the episodes are 4:00 each, and I may've gotten a ~bit~ carried away and watched the entire series.
So now you see, it's a review. Hooray!
This anime is friggin' great.
It's incredibly cute, funny, and the characters don't overstay their welcome.
Er, well, it's debatable that the anime is about Takasu, the merman, overstaying his welcome—but that's not the point. The side characters exeunt just at a time leaving you wishing they would stay; that is, the show has really quite-nice pacing.
While all goes on in this happy world of Tatsumi—the human—and his friends, you can kind of feel just a sense that everything is a bit off.
Something just seems wrong in the atmosphere, (and it's not the giant fishman living in Tatsumi's tub).
It's like every character is, deep down, just a little bit evil. Manipulative, working for an agenda, whatever you'd like to call it. And it makes it all the better.
Speaking for myself, also somewhat evil, that mood makes the show all the more relatable and hilarious.
Now, I'd really rather you just watch this. The episodes are four minutes in length, so it's not too huge of a time commitment.
Here's the link on Crunchyroll.
Here it is on Kissanime, and here on Gogoanime.
...As for that Gogoanime site, its TLD is .io, but it refers to itself within the site as ".tv." Something about that discomfits me; I suggest using the other two sites first in priority.