Reno-chan's Anime
take a look at Reno-chan's Manga| Seen some▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Angelic Layer (TV) | Good | This benefits from having lovely CLAMP character designs. It's pretty cute, and the battles with the dolls are fun to watch. However, some of the plot devices are silly (I'll refrain from spoilers), and one of the characters comes off as a creepy pedophile, though he's not. I'd watch more if given the chance, but from the first disc, it was nothing special, and not something I'd buy. |
| Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (TV) | Very good | Loads of fun, haven't finished since I realized it was licensed...too bad Geneon died. |
| Boys Over Flowers (TV) | Good | When I saw that I was showing something called Boys over Flowers at Sugoicon a few years ago, my heart sank. Happily, I was pleasantly surprised that this shoujo actually has a likeable main character who isn't simply a whiny girl who bemoans her romance issues or needs rescuing. In fact, most of the cast is pretty interesting and likeable. I'd watch more of this in a heartbeat, but it's just not something that I would buy. |
| Coyote Ragtime Show (TV) | Good | This is basically what you would get if Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star had a kid, and you added in some goth-loli robotic assassins and Ocean's 11. Somehow it works out, and is a lot of fun. The fact that the main character is is insanely charismatic pulls the show together. |
| Daddy Long-Legs (TV) | Decent | |
| Den-noh Coil (TV) | Excellent | |
| Dragon Ball (TV) | Good | Amusing, but not enough so that I would actively hunt down more of it. |
| Elf Princess Rane (OAV) | Good | Wandered in on this at a con, and it seemed like it would be a good show for those pining for more Dragon Half. It was over-the-top comedy, completely pointless, and in a fantasy setting. I just wish I'd seen the beginning. Planning on buying this to add to my collection of comedy fantasy. |
| Elfen Lied (TV) | Good | Honestly, I rather liked this one for the violence. It's the sort of thing I would watch in a bad mood to blow off some steam. |
| Golden Boy (OAV) | Very good | Perverted, hilarious, fun! |
| Hajime no Ippo (TV) | Masterpiece | I really like the characters...enough so that I like watching this despite not being a fan of boxing. |
| KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple (TV) | ||
| Kimagure Orange Road (TV) | Very good | Another romantic comedy that I ended up screening at a con, this one I actually bought several discs of. I'd call it the best romantic comedy anime I've seen, simply because it's the only one that I liked enough to buy. Since the license expired, I plan on buying the rest of the discs as soon as I have the money. |
| (The) Legend of the Galactic Heroes (OAV) | Masterpiece | This is possibly the most amazing anime I've ever seen. I can't judge for sure since I've stopped watching it temporarily due to the death of a character. I'm scared to see the psychological repercussions on his friend and how it affects the war. Everything is thought through, realistic, and even minor characters are developed. |
| Lupin III: Part II (TV) | Very good | |
| Maze (TV) | Low quality...yeah...but it's kinda funny :D | |
| Mushi-Shi (TV) | Excellent | |
| (The) Story of Saiunkoku (TV) | Excellent | What Fushigi Yugi should have been! A likeable female protaganist, lots of pretty boys with personality, cute interactions and politics! |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants (OAV) | Excellent | This is amazingly, incredibly bad. In fact, it's so bad, that it's one of the most amusing anime I've ever seen. Combine oldschool TMNT, Transformers, a bunch of anime cliches, and a bunch of B movies, and you have this gem. Highlights include: Krang letting all of the foot soldiers go on vacation (Hawaiian shirts included), NASA portrayed as McDonalds munching idiots, Splinter being able to do ANYTHING, Krang and Shredder bickering like a married couple, and so much more. Bonus: Turtles hitching a ride on the space shuttle. |
| Seen all▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Akira (movie) | So-so | This had great animation for its time, and surpasses some animation that comes out today. However, the story was fragmented and I didn't care about any of the characters. Sounds like the manga is the way to go with this, but the movie failed to interest me enough to bother with the manga. |
| Alien Nine (special) | Weak | Good: Realistically depicts how a child would act if forced to fight scary, violent aliens with an alien partner/symbiont. Good animation. Bad: Realistically depicts how a child would act if forced to fight scary, violent aliens with an alien partner/symbiont. I wanted to throttle the main character for being such a whiny crybaby. Many questions left unanswered. |
| Angel Sanctuary (OAV) | Bad | Another series that suffers from characters that aren't likeable. The huge theme of incest really bothered me, and the story of warring angels and demons didn't interest me at all. Basically it came off as poorly written and disgusting. |
| Animation Runner Kuromi (OAV) | Excellent | This little OAV manages to be entertaining and informative. |
| (The) Animatrix (OAV) | So-so | Good and bad shorts combine to make a mediocre OAV. |
| Appleseed (movie) | So-so | This movie was very pretty...and suffered from uninteresting characters, a dragging second half, and all around mediocrity in everything but the animation. |
| Aquarian Age the Movie (OAV) | Awful | Good: It's over and I never have to watch it again. Bad: Randomly introduces characters, has their friends die off, doesn't develop them, has reeeeeally weird inclusions such as Dracula, Hannibal, Lancelot, and completely lacks a coherent or interesting plot. |
| Barefoot Gen (movie) | Bad | Good: The depiction of the Hiroshima victims is horrifying. Bad: Fails completely in making you care about the characters. Has inappropriate comedy that doesn't seem to fit with the purpose of the movie at all. The cartoonish style of animation makes it hard to feel for the characters or take the movie seriously. |
| Bastard!! (OAV) | Good | I rated this good because it can be a lot of fun to watch, not because it has a quality story line. The main character, Dark Schneider is hilariously arrogant, and the supporting characters are either amusing because they're there to make fun of stereotypical fantasy characters or for their over-the-top qualities. If characters magically regrowing limbs and coming back to life with little to no explaination isn't your thing...you probably won't like this. But if you like heavy metal, fan service for both sexes, and fantasy-comedy, this is great. |
| Black Lagoon (TV) | Very good | Good: Slick animation, over the top action with guns, Revy is amazingly hot and cold-hearted, Dutch is cool and amusing. Basically just a lot of fun to watch. Bad: Style over substance. Not for someone who wants to watch an anime that will make them think. Bullets miss the main characters even if they're standing perfectly still. |
| Boogiepop Phantom (TV) | Excellent | Good: The character designs, color palate, and blurring of the edges of the frame combine with the music to create a wonderfully creepy mood. Figuring out what's going on can be a huge amount of fun. The characters are interesting, though many are pretty much contained to one episode. Bad: Some people may not like that the story doesn't make sense until the end. You basically have to watch it in one sitting to understand it properly. |
| Buso Renkin (TV) | ||
| Castle in the Sky (movie) | So-so | Good: Ghibli's high animation standard is met. The idea is interesting. Bad: I simply couldn't connect with ANY of the characters. The story is pretty character driven, so I couldn't get into the story. |
| Cowboy Bebop (TV) | Excellent | The loveable crew of the Bebop just draws you into this series, and the stylish animation, fights and wonderful music, keep you entertained. It only doesn't rank as a masterpiece because its episodic nature meant that some episodes weren't as good as the others, and there are two which I won't be watching again. |
| Cowboy Bebop: The Movie | Weak | The animation was gorgeous, to be sure, but to me it lacked some things that made Bebop so wonderful. The characters seemed stiffer than usual (emotionally, not visually) and didn't seem to behave quite like themselves. The music didn't seem to be quite as good as the series. Electra was uninteresting and her character was poorly fleshed out. Vincent failed to interest me at all. Overall, I came away feeling very dissatisfied and felt that the movie was worse than my least favorite episodes (Boogie Woogie Feng Shui and Wild Horses). |
| Descendants of Darkness (TV) | Decent | The animation is nice enough for the time, and the bad guy is appropriately evil, but none of the stories it tells are really compelling and I didn't get attached to any of the characters. |
| Dragon Half (OAV) | Good | This series is silly. Wonderfully, amusingly silly. When the plot revolves around a half-dragon, half-human teenager who's going to see her favorite singer, Dick Saucer, (who happens to also be a dragon slayer) along with her friends, you can't go wrong. To top it off, the ending theme is called My Omelet and is set to Beethoven. |
| Excel Saga (TV) | Very good | This show is best seen in small doses, so that you don't go crazy or get sick of it. If you enjoy parodies, this show is one of the best, with each episode dedicated to a different genre, including: sentai show, school drama, shonen anime, shoujo anime, scifi show, and a parody of itself. And that's just scratching the surface. However, as is typical of episodic shows, a number of the episodes just fall flat compared to the others. |
| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (movie) | Very good | This is pretty much just eye-candy. I'm a die-hard FFVII fan, and I'll be the first to say that this is just a feature length piece of fanservice for people like me. You get to see most of the characters from the game again, in gorgeous CG. There's a bit of humor, flashy fights, and a plot that won't make sense if you didn't play the game (though some people I know who have played the game still think it's utter BS). |
| Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (US CG movie) | So-so | This movie was visually amazing when it came out (though I felt that the movements were clunky at times, the faces were astounding), but the plot was pretty cheesy, and all of the interesting characters are under-developed or killed off. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it didn't have Final Fantasy tacked on to the title, since I'm a fan of the games, and it simply didn't live up to most of them. |
| FLCL (OAV) | Bad | I honestly never understood why so many people seem to think that this show is so amazing. To me it was disjointed, visually unappealing, and filled with characters that I actively disliked. It seems the sort of thing that you'd be forced to read in English class if it were a poem or a novel. The teacher would go on and on about how brilliant the symbolism was. Meanwhile, you'd be sitting there, wishing that you could read something that was more straightforward, and that your teacher would stop pulling meanings out of his bum. I'm not trying to say that there isn't symbolism or meaning behind FLCL, but it seems that too much is read into it, too much credit is given to it, and that watching it is more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. |
| Fullmetal Alchemist (TV) | Decent | Good: The first half was amazing. It combined drama with comedy better than any other series I can recall seeing. Many of the characters are likeable. Bad: The second half became convoluted, and less interesting. The ending was simply weak, and angered me. After hearing that the manga is different, I picked that up, and am currently reading it. |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa | Bad | I hated what they did to Al's character. I hated how he dressed like Ed. I hated that Ed was in our world to begin with, since I disliked the end of the series. And I hated the ending and the fact that it didn't deal with a bunch of loose threads. Oh, and Hughes' other self...I'm not even going to go into how much that pissed me off. |
| Ghost in the Shell (movie) | Not really good | This literally put me to sleep. I don't know if I've seen an anime I found more boring than this one. |
| Grave of the Fireflies (movie) | Masterpiece | This was the saddest anime I've ever seen, and I cried for most of my first viewing of it. The use of silence really helps the emotional impact of the story. |
| Haibane Renmei (TV) | Masterpiece | This is another anime that made me cry. The show was beautifully done with well developed and believable characters. |
| Haunted Junction (TV) | Good | This may not be quality...but it is pretty funny. The laughs are mostly cheap, but it entertained me enough to finish it. |
| Hellsing (TV) | Not really good | Good: The main characters are stylish and powerful. Alucard is fun to watch. Bad: Inconsistent animation, when it diverges from the manga the characters that are introduced are bland and stupid, and the story goes down the drain. |
| Howl's Moving Castle (movie) | Good | Howl may be the most unappealing main male character of any Miyazaki film I've seen. Sophie's faith in him bothered me to a degree. |
| (The) Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV) | Masterpiece | Amazing characters, comedy, space action, everything a space opera fan could ask for. |
| Kiki's Delivery Service (movie) | Good | This is a nice children's movie that I would show to my younger relatives (if the English dub weren't so bad). However, I didn't feel that it had as much for the adults as some Miyazaki films do. |
| Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren (movie segment) | Good | |
| Kino's Journey (TV) | Excellent | When I first heard that this involved a talking motorcycle and towns based around one theme, I was skeptical. However, this anime has a quite beauty all its own. |
| Kino's Travels: Life Goes On (movie) | Excellent | |
| Last Order Final Fantasy VII (OAV) | Weak | Not only does this change facts known from the game, it's just not interesting. As much as I like seeing the characters animated, I was very disappointed with this. |
| Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie) | Masterpiece | The best Miyazaki film in my opinion. Epic. |
| Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (movie) | Decent | Your average Lupin III episode is better than this, sadly. |
| Master Keaton (TV) | Excellent | Looked like I might like it even before I saw Monster and decide that I had to see/read everything by Naoki Urasawa. It's very laid back, and Keaton can do pretty much anything, so this isn't for everyone. |
| (The) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV) | Not really good | Part of my disappointment may have been because of the hype, but I didn't like this at all. The episode order struck me as pretentious and gimmicky. Haruhi was downright annoying, with the other characters being annoying moe stereotypes (this was probably the point, but it didn't pull off the parody well). Kyon's sarcasm was slightly redeeming, but only because he was annoyed with the elements of the show that *I* was annoyed with. |
| Mermaid Forest (OAV) | Very good | Enjoyable horror in which the bad guys have interesting motivations. |
| Mermaid's Scar (OAV) | Not really good | The motivations of the main villain in this were sketchy at best, making the whole OAV tedious to watch. |
| Metropolis (movie) | Weak | I HATED everyone in this. |
| Monster (TV) | Masterpiece | |
| My Neighbor Totoro (movie) | So-so | I was bordering on bored when watching this. I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone. |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV) | Excellent | I actually enjoyed the "whiny" characters for their development and mainly ignored the mish-mash of religious mumbo jumbo. I thought that the ending of the show could be interpreted from a psychological point of view, so I was satisfied with it. |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (movie) | Decent | |
| Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective (TV) | Decent | This is really mediocre, and is like an anime version of Anne Rice's vampire novels. The main redeeming features are the main character's blood sword and the opening theme. |
| Ouran High School Host Club (TV) | Excellent | Every episode (except for the last few) are chocked full of laugh out loud moments. The characters are lovable. There's nothing to dislike here other than that it only got 26 episodes. |
| Outlaw Star (TV) | Very good | Good: It's a fun ride with decent animation and some fun characters. Bad: It's nothing outstanding, and the end seemed abrupt and a bit inconclusive. |
| Paranoia Agent (TV) | Good | This would be better...if it weren't so pretentious. |
| Perfect Blue (movie) | Very good | |
| Pet Shop of Horrors (TV) | Good | Good: The stories are pretty creepy, the people get what they deserve, and watching D and Leon interact is highly amusing. You can get more of the same by reading the manga. Bad: Animation a bit dated (didn't bother me), there isn't enough of it, the episode with Evangeline Blue falls short of the others and has an annoying song that repeats itself. |
| Pokémon 2000 - The Movie (movie 2) | Decent | |
| Pokémon 3 - The Movie (movie 3) | So-so | |
| Pokémon: The First Movie (movie 1) | Good | |
| Princess Mononoke (movie) | Excellent | This would be a masterpiece if it were a tad less preachy. |
| Record of Lodoss War (OAV) | Decent | Bad animation and annoying main characters drag this show down. The secondary characters (especially Orson and Woodchuck) are the only redeeming parts. |
| Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal (OAV) | Very good | This is the sort of Kenshin I wanted in the TV series! Wonderful animation to boot. |
| Scrapped Princess (TV) | So-so | This struck me as being rather generic: none of the characters were anything new and interesting, and the plot wasn't enough to drive the show by itself. I was basically MST3King the show by the end. |
| Seikimatsu Darling (OAV) | Good | Adorable! |
| Serial Experiments Lain (TV) | Decent | It took me 3 tries to finish this series. I think it had potential, but it's incredibly pretentious and ends in a mess of psuedo psycho babble that hurt my mind... |
| Shinesman (OAV) | Decent | This is pretty campy, but just isn't as funny as it could have been. |
| (The) Slayers (TV) | Very good | Aside from Amelia being a tad annoying, this is amazingly fun, and the dub isn't half bad. |
| Slayers - The Motion Picture | So-so | This feels like a lackluster extra-long filler episode. |
| (The) Slayers Next (TV) | Very good | Amelia is far less annoying than previously, and this has all the good elements of the first series. |
| (The) Slayers Try (TV) | Very good | Philia takes over the annoying bit from Amelia, but it's still a good time. |
| Sorcerer Hunters (TV) | Decent | This should have just stuck to it's slapstick comedy formula instead of trying to get all dramatic at the end. It sort of ended on a sour and bizzare note. |
| Spirited Away (movie) | Very good | While I enjoyed this film, it doesn't live up to some Princess Mononoke or Castle of Cagliostro. |
| Steamboy (movie) | So-so | The movie that never ends! It could have had a nice conclusion somewhere near the middle, but the director had to have it drag on to show off the fancy animation. I wanted to escape the theater, but I was with a relative. |
| Tokyo Godfathers (movie) | Very good | One of the few xmas movies I can watch that doesn't come off as too saccharine...though it is kinda sugary. |
| Trigun (TV) | Weak | Good: Wolfwood and Legato were interesting. Had some comedic moments. Bad: Vash's idealism was flawed - he'll destroy your town, but won't kill you...killing is never the answer. I disagreed with this, and his adherence to it and general immaturity annoyed me. The series was riddled with pointless filler and lame, uninteresting minor villains. |
| (The) Twelve Kingdoms (TV) | Very good | I know that this got cut short and that the ending isn't that great, but it sounds like up until then it's better than any non-comedy fantasy anime I've seen. So, while I'm not going to buy it, I'd like to see it. |
| Vampire Hunter D (OAV) | So-so | |
| Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (movie) | Good | This only gets a good rating because it's one of the prettiest anime I've seen to date, and the action is pretty good. The story isn't particularly compelling, D and Meier are the only likeable characters, and the ending is just cheesy. I'd say read the novel instead, unless you just want to see some flashy action. |
| Voices of a Distant Star (OAV) | So-so | |
| When They Cry - Higurashi (TV) | Decent | Overall, the idea was great, but some of the story arcs/retellings were far more interesting than others. The mystery and suspense does a good job of reeling you in, but then the super-deformed depictions of the characters faces when they're being violent is off-putting. Because of that fact alone, it truly suffers. I felt that the show lacked closure, as well. If I'm going to watch a mystery, I'd prefer that [i]most[/i] of the questions are answered. |
| Witch Hunter Robin (TV) | Decent | I don't know if I would have finished this if I weren't watching it with friend. Which is saying something, since I was the one who bought the boxset. It starts off monster of the week, gets a little more serious later, and fails to produce any interesting or sympathetic characters. It seems that the whole point was having serious looking people in black be boringly serious. Completely failed to grab my attention, I haven't been so squirmy while watching an anime since the second half of Hellsing or Trigun. |
| X (movie) | Bad | This anime had pretty character designs and animation. It had no character development, a condensed plot, and made very little sense due to being condensed. I didn't latch onto any of the characters, so the movie was a complete waste of my time. |
| Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report (movie 2/1994) | Good | Sort of like a condensed story arc from the main series...and not a particularly good one. My main beef with it was that the character designs were different from the series, and the way that their noses were drawn made them look like they were sunken into their faces instead of coming out of their faces. Overall, it was nice to see the character in action, but it wasn't anything great. |
| Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files (TV) | Excellent | This is the anime that got me into anime. Before I would casually watch what was airing on TV, but when I happened across the first episode the first time it aired on Adult Swim, I was hooked. I love the majority of the characters in it, villains included. I really need to like the characters to latch onto an anime, and with such an appealing and varied cast, it was no problem with this series. I enjoy that the fights are quicker than in DBZ, and that the characters never become as ridiculously powerful as in DBZ. Basically this is my feel good, all around favorite. It doesn't rate masterpiece only because the animation is sub-par for it's time. |
| Will not finish▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| (The) Adventures of Mini-Goddess (TV) | Bad | |
| Air (TV) | Weak | Too generic, character designs too sugary. Moe... |
| Arashi no Yoru ni (movie) | Awful | This would have been a cute kid's movie...if it hadn't had weird gay overtones between the wolf and the goat. As it was, it just came off as disturbing, especially since there were times where the wolf wanted to eat the goat, or the goat's love for the wolf was shown by his willingness to be eaten by him. I have nothing against shonen ai. I have everything against shonen-ai that plays to furries. |
| Arc the Lad (TV) | Weak | Generic fantasy, poor animation quality, uninteresting characters. |
| Arjuna (TV) | Weak | I only saw one episode of this, and it didn't interest me. I might have been interested in watching more, but it sounds like it is far too didactic and has an episode that it pro-life. I think I would hate this if I saw more. |
| Ayakashi - Samurai Horror Tales (TV) | Decent | It's probably the culture differences, but I didn't find anything in this to be horrifying at all. |
| Azumanga Daioh (TV) | Weak | My pedo-sense is tingling! |
| Banner of the Stars (TV) | Weak | Honestly, I saw this dubbed, and the horrible dub turned me off. |
| Bartender (TV) | Not really good | I had high hopes for this, but it's incredibly episodic and the bartender is the most flat character I've encountered in years. |
| Belle and Sebastian (TV) | ||
| Berserk (TV 1997) | Decent | I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting (except maybe Caska), and having heard how it ends I just don't want to bother finishing the series |
| (The) Big O (TV) | Decent | |
| Black Blood Brothers (TV) | So-so | Seen: 1st episode. This looks and feels like every vampire show, book, or game I've ever encountered smashed into one. I mean, the main character looks like Alucard and D's lovechild, and he acts more like Shido. Not much hope for this one. |
| Black Cat (TV) | So-so | Sort of generic : / I would've watched more (saw about 11 episodes), but other than Sven, I didn't like anyone. |
| Black Jack (TV) | Too long, not interesting enough, and too hard to obtain to finish. | |
| Black Jack 21 (TV) | Good | I really like Black Jack, but something keeps me from throwing myself into this series as much as I normally would for something that's a mystery, medical drama, and involves traveling. I'm not sure if it's Black Jack's little companion, Pinoko, or the fact that when he puts on surgical gloves it looks suspiciously like a magical girl transformation sequence. It is pretty enjoyable, I just don't like it as much as I expected to. |
| Bleach (TV) | So-so | I only like shonen shows when I love the characters, and these chars do nothing for me. |
| Blood+ (TV) | Weak | Is this supposed to be an action show? The characters and action both leave much to be desired. |
| Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (TV) | Bad | Gross shock humor and no redeeming value. |
| Blue Submarine No.6 (OAV) | So-so | A bad mix of 3-d cgi and standard 2-d animation makes this hard to watch. |
| (Le) Chevalier D'Eon (TV) | Decent | Nice animation, but the characters were mostly wooden and the mercury-filled vampires(?) were just silly. |
| Chobits (TV) | So-so | Insipid. |
| Claymore (TV) | So-so | Maybe I'm being too harsh, but after 2 episodes I get the feeling that the main male character is going to be incredibly whiny and emotional for the whole series, while Clare will be incapable of showing emotion...I don't think I'll seek out more of this unless someone shows it to me. |
| Cluster Edge (TV) | Weak | |
| Cromartie High School (TV) | So-so | |
| Cyborg 009 The Cyborg Soldier (TV) | Not really good | |
| D.Gray-man (TV) | Decent | Toned down from the manga, which wasn't interesting to begin with. |
| D.N.Angel (TV) | Decent | I would liken this show to Chobits, though perhaps not quite so insipid. Dark is appealing, but all too often absent. |
| Death Note (TV) | Good | Good up until the point where my favorite character bites the dust. |
| Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z (TV) | Weak | Maybe the producers shouldn't have tried to make an anime of something referencing anime? |
| Digimon Adventure (TV) | Saw dubbed on TV...it wasn't awful, but I'm way older than the target audience, and have no desire to see more. | |
| Dragon Ball Z (TV) | Decent | Fun enough until the Cell saga, really started sucking in the Buu saga. It's a good gateway drug to anime, but the fights take way too long. Vegeta was pretty likeable. |
| Ergo Proxy (TV) | Good | Can't wait to finish this series. I gave up downloading the fansubs at episode 14 when I found out that it was licensed. The mood is wonderfully bleak, Real is hot, Pino is adorable, and Vincent is puzzeling. |
| Escaflowne: The Movie | Not really good | |
| (The) Familiar of Zero (TV) | So-so | I would find this show a lot more enjoyable if Louise weren't an awful, domineering *****. The generic Harry Potter ripoff with generic characters is actually pretty fun to watch, except for when the main character is being beaten by Louise with a riding crop. |
| Fantastic Children (TV) | So-so | Plot sounds interesting...or it could be really bad. |
| Fate/stay night (TV) | So-so | Pretty enough, but the main character was a dolt and none of the other characters interested me. |
| Figure 17 (TV) | Decent | This is sort of like a combo between Alien Nine and Haibane Renmei, but the Alien Nine elements win out to make this not very watchable. If the main character weren't so whiny, I'd be okay with it, but I don't want to keep watching it just to see if she develops a spine. |
| Fruits Basket (TV 1/2001) | So-so | I liked some of the supporting characters from the few episodes that I saw, but Yuki and Tohru both got on my nerves. I'd watch more if it was shown at some sort of social gathering, but not on my own. |
| Full Metal Panic! (TV) | Not really good | |
| Fushigi na Koala Blinky (TV) | ||
| Fushigi Yugi (TV) | Weak | Miaka is the kind of character that makes me hate shoujo in general. |
| Gakuen Heaven (TV) | Decent | Cute enough shonen-ai harem series. Generic pretty boy characters. Dropped because it wasn't compelling or funny enough to keep my attention. |
| Galaxy Express 999 (TV) | Weak | OH NOES! I JUST KILLED YOU BUT NOW I'VE DEVELOPED AN IRREPLACEABLE BOND WITH YOU! LET ME SHOUT YOUR NAME REPEATEDLY! |
| Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (TV) | So-so | The art is interesting...and painful to the eyes. The main characters strike me as boring, whiny (Albert), or tritely mysterious (the count). |
| Genshiken (TV) | Excellent | This show is great ^_^ I just wish that it was longer, since I'm already past where it ends in the manga. A nice look at the lives of some college-aged otaku in Japan. Quite humorous |
| Ghost Hunt (TV) | ||
| Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV) | Weak | Almost as boring as the movie! |
| Ghost Slayers Ayashi (TV) | Not really good | |
| Ghost Stories (TV) | So-so | |
| Gravitation (TV) | So-so | Shuichi is even more annoying than in the manga. I didn't realize that was possible. I was scheduled to show this at a con...why do I always get the crappy BL? |
| GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (TV) | So-so | Honestly I couldn't watch any more of this after he got in a fur suit. |
| Gunslinger Girl (TV) | ||
| Gurren Lagann (TV) | The characters seem a bit over the top and I don't like mechs...I'm not gonna rate it since I've only see one ep, but it's not doing anything for me. | |
| .hack//SIGN (TV) | Bad | ***Most of the shows that I will not finish failed to capture my interest within the first 2-3 episodes, though some I watched a little bit longer. They aren't necessarily bad...just generic, lacking in interesting characters, or have below average plots. Some of them may improve drastically after the point where I stopped watching them, but I decided that from what I'd seen, committing the extra time to watching more would be a waste.*** I've enjoyed my share of MMOs, and this simply doesn't live up to them. It had me dozing off, and I didn't like any of the characters except for Bear, but he wasn't enough for me to watch this snooze fest. Gave it about 9 episodes before giving up. |
| Hataraki Man (TV) | Weak | Soooo...she has to go into man-mode to do great work? That's not sexist at all! |
| Hell Girl (TV) | Bad | This show is way too formulaic. The first four episodes were all so similar I was fidgiting in my chair during them. The formula goes: 1) Introduction of some social problem a kid is having 2) Kid goes to the Hotline to Hell website and types antagonist's name 3) Rules are gone over (takes way longer than the rules in Pet Shop of Horrors, which at least doesn't always have the same resolution) 4) Girl pushed to breaking point 5) Antagonist taken hell. It would be a lot more interesting if some of those entering contracts with Enma Ai were jealous, or if entering the contract didn't work out for the person. Also, it fails to be creepy, and is at times unintentionally funny. |
| Hellsing Ultimate (OAV) | Good | This is doing what the anime should have done. Following the manga, and doing it with consistently stylish animation. Don't watch this if you want to think, it's all about the blood and coolness factor. |
| Honey and Clover (TV) | So-so | This was sort of charming for a while, but about 8 episodes into it, I got tired of how it seemed to be going nowhere, and Hagu-chan was annoying. Morita is what kept me watching as long as I did. All of the other characters were bland. |
| Hunter X Hunter (TV 1999) | Good | This is pretty enjoyable, but I was sad that it was toned down from the manga. |
| Inuyasha (TV) | Decent | Fun for a while, with some likeable characters, but it drags on for far too long and is repetitive. |
| Jarinko Chie (movie) | This movie has a very strange flavor. While the human interactions are pretty compelling, there's a strange sub-plot going on where there are talking cats...and one of them loses one of his balls to the other in a cat fight. This actually becomes critically important later on in the movie, and kept me from getting into it. | |
| Jing: King of Bandits (TV) | Decent | Jing is sort of like a combo of every other shonen lead I've ever seen, and since he's the only character other than his bird in every episode, he just can't carry the series. |
| Jyu-Oh-Sei (TV) | So-so | I sort of sensed that this was going downhill around episode 7 or 8, and stopped watching even though it's only 11 eps. From spoilers I gather that the ending is so incredibly stupid that I missed nothing, and would have hated it had I finished it. |
| Kaleido Star (TV) | This show looks like it would be good, but honestly I feel like it has nothing for someone of my age. | |
| Kanon (TV 2/2006) | I accidentally watched this...I thought it was something else, and this is not a genre I would watch voluntarily. | |
| Karin (TV) | Decent | This show is sort of fun...but it just didn't have anything special to offer, and the comedy wasn't such that I felt the need to keep watching it. |
| Kemonozume (TV) | So-so | Aside from the hideous art, no one in this was remotely appealing. |
| Kiba (TV) | Decent | This seems to fall into the realm of "generic fantasy anime." Kid falls into an alternate world? Check. Kid is somehow super powerful? Check. Has people controlling monsters? Check. It's animation and character design are nice enough, and after 3 episodes I didn't dislike it enough to not watch any more, but with a bunch of better series out there, it's on hiatus until someone puts it in front of me, I have to screen it at a con, or I hear that it develops into one of the most compelling anime stories ever. |
| Kiddy Grade (TV) | Decent | It wasn't as bad as some of the other stuff I've screened during my video staffing, but this is yet another show that suffers from sub-par characters. |
| (The) Legend of Black Heaven (TV) | Decent | The idea of music being used for fighting has been kicked around. This time it's an aging ex-rock star that’s going to save space with his sound. It's more comedic than I thought it would be, but not comedic enough that I can say I like it. The main character is very irresponsible, and literally ran off once, leaving his son alone at a playground, so that he could play the guitar (I'm not going to say galactic hero here, since he's just in it for playing the guitar as far as I can tell). |
| Living for the Day After Tomorrow (TV) | So-so | Too slow for me, and I have this nasty feeling that the brother and sister are going to hook up. |
| Loveless (TV) | Weak | Ritsuka and Soubi's relationship was rather creepy (my pedophile alarm kept going off), and the characters didn't interest me. Neither did the silly idea of having virgins lose their kitty ears when they had sex, or the odd battles that kept occuring. I've watched the first 5 episodes 3 times (curse being unlucky with the shows I got as a video room grunt at cons), and I still can't remember anyone's name outside of the main two, or the terminology. Completely failed to interest me. |
| MÄR (TV) | Good | Generic shonen that's fun enough, but you've seen most of it before...except for the talking hammer. |
| Martian Successor Nadesico (TV) | Good | |
| Maya the Bee (TV) | ||
| Mezzo (TV) | ||
| Millennium Actress (movie) | So-so | I feel that Kon's work is really hit or miss. This movie could have been great if he hadn't stuck the documentary maker and his cameraman into the flashbacks. |
| Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OAV) | ||
| Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (TV) | Weak | |
| Momo: The Girl God of Death (TV) | So-so | |
| Monster Rancher (TV) | ||
| Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water (TV) | Decent | I enjoyed the comedic characters and the action...but not enough to go buy it. |
| NANA (TV) | So-so | While I don't mind the punkish Nana, the other one is the sort of female I absolutely hate in anime. Overly emotional, boy crazy, and useless. |
| Naruto (TV) | Weak | This has flashbacks from the SAME episode. That's really all there is to say. |
| Neo Ranga (TV) | Weak | |
| Nighthead Genesis (TV) | Weak | |
| Ninja Scroll (movie) | Weak | |
| Ninku (TV) | Bad | I've only seen the first episode, but it doesn't look too promising. The ugliest child I've ever seen in anime is the ex-commander of a bunch of elite ninjas, and has a very gaseous penguin as a friend. Also, it says it's in the 3rd year of the Edo period, which is 1605. So will someone please explain the cars and motorcyles to me? |
| Noir (TV) | ||
| Omishi Magical Theater Risky Safety (TV) | Weak | |
| Oruchuban Ebichu (TV) | Very good | An insane, perverted version of Hamtaro... made of win. |
| Paradise Kiss (TV) | Not really good | I don't usually like shoujo, and this was no exception. Too much drama, I didn't like the characters, and I REALLY didn't like the character designs. They reminded me why anime characters don't usually have colored lips: it makes them look like they have facial herpes. |
| Peacemaker (TV) | So-so | An annoyingly spunky midget as the main character, a random pig for comedy, and generally uniteresting first 5 episodes do not make me want to watch more of a show. |
| Pilot Candidate (TV) | Not really good | It's like it popped out of the Mech-o-Matic. Amazing in its mediocrity. At least the character designs were sharp and colorful, if not very original. |
| Pokémon (TV) | Good | I honestly can say that I liked the first season, and the next one was decent. Team Rocket is great. I've outgrown it, though, and it's too long to finish. |
| Pumpkin Scissors (TV) | Decent | Gonzo mangles another anime that could be good by lower animation quality and having directionless episodes! |
| R.O.D -The TV- | Very good | I absolutely adored Anita, she's the sort of girl I wished I was as a child. |
| Ranma ½ (TV) | Good | Brainless fun. |
| Ranma ½: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China (movie) | Decent | |
| Reign: The Conqueror (TV) | Worst ever | Perhaps this would best be used for interogating criminals...prop their eyes open with toothpicks and force them to watch this ugly, stupid drivel. |
| Renkin 3-kyū Magical? Pokān (TV) | Very good | |
| Requiem from the Darkness (TV) | So-so | The episodes I saw were all rather interesting, if formulaic. Not that horrifying, though. |
| Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV) | Weak | I thought the character designs were rather ugly, and Anthy's pet (is it a monkey, a mouse, an alien?) was the creepiest looking mascot I've seen. I thought the whole idea of dueling over Anthy was stupid, as was the thing with the staircase, the crappy song that played when they went up it, the recycled animation, and all of the characters. This is the kind show that makes me avoid shoujo. |
| Riding Bean (OAV) | ||
| (The) Rose of Versailles (TV) | Good | This show seems to be quality, but I don't want to watch it enough to download all of the episodes. |
| Rozen Maiden (TV) | Decent | |
| Rurouni Kenshin (TV 1996) | Decent | Sano is likable and so is Kenshin when he's Battousai, but Kaoru is really annoying, and the good bits seem few and far between. |
| Sailor Moon (TV) | Decent | This isn't really quality, but it's kind of fun to watch when really bored. |
| Saiyuki (TV) | So-so | I saw nothing in this show. It seems to have been made to appeal to fangirls. |
| Samurai Champloo (TV) | So-so | I can't stand the hip-hop elements and the characters were generic. |
| Sci-Fi Harry (TV) | So-so | I have head explodey! |
| Sgt. Frog (TV) | Good | This is a fun little show, with the most amusing opening and ending themes I've seen since Excel Saga. The fact that the characters seem to be able to hear the announcer half of the time makes for some amusing scenes. |
| Sherlock Hound (TV) | So-so | |
| Shuffle! (TV) | Weak | |
| Sister Princess (TV) | Bad | Another show I screened at a con, this harem show with little girls was unappealing...because it was a harem show with little girls. It failed at being humorous, charming, cute, anything that a harem show would have to be for me to watch it. The animation and character designs were generic, but pretty decent. |
| Space Pirate Captain Harlock (TV) | Weak | Maybe I just don't like the Lejiverse, but I could barely make it through a single episode. |
| Spice and Wolf (TV) | Decent | |
| Spiral (TV) | Weak | |
| Steel Angel Kurumi (TV) | Weak | |
| Strawberry Eggs (TV) | Considering that it's about a guy crossdressing to get a teaching job, it's not as bad as it could be, but the characters and story weren't compelling. | |
| Tenchi in Tokyo (TV) | So-so | |
| Texhnolyze (TV) | Good | The mood was well developed, but I got the impression that this was going to be depressing and that I wouldn't like any of the characters. |
| Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~ (TV) | So-so | Probably won't watch much of this series. The school is quirky, but I'm not much of a fan of high school romances, especially when they feel as derivative as this one does. The two guys who befriend Aoba are seem like they may be clones of Kyosuke's friends from Kimagure Orange Road. None of the main characters had interesting personalities. Honestly, the most interesting characters were the teachers: an okama is the music teacher, the science teacher tries to test new medicines on his students, and the literature teacher is on the verge of death (his passion for teaching seems to be keeping him alive), and a crazy baby chicken that beat up the incredibly stereotypical seven foot tall black guy who's in Aoba's class. |
| Utawarerumono (TV) | So-so | The character designs are pretty cute, and it honestly didn't seem too bad (though it didn't seem to great, either). But when I found out that it was based on a hentai game, I decided to not bother with it. I don't think it's going anywhere, and won't finish it unless someone who's taste I trust pushes it on me. |
| Vampire Princess Miyu (TV) | Decent | The horror just feels watered down, and Miyu and Larva have a lot of unexplored potential. |
| (The) Vision of Escaflowne (TV) | Weak | Whiny unlikeable characters? Check. Eye-stabbing noses? Double check. Interesting anime? Nope. |
| Volcano High (live-action movie) | Bad | |
| (The) Wallflower (TV) | Decent | The character designs aren't very appealing, and the Nabeshin humor doesn't work with this show as well as it did with Excel Saga. Didn't really like any of the characters. |
| Welcome to the NHK (TV) | Good | This was headed in too much of a depressing direction for my taste. I can do depressing, but not with this subject matter. |
| When They Cry - Kai (TV) | ||
| Witchblade (TV) | Bad | |
| Wolf's Rain (TV) | Weak | I didn't like the characters and it didn't grab my attention. |
| Zipang (TV) | Very good |