Retrospective Look – June 2011

Divine: Overall, X-Men was more enjoyable than Wolverine. While the story was just as straightforward, it had some interesting twists pertaining to Professor X and Yui’s past. As the series progressed, it become fairly clear the Mastermind/U-Men subplot was going to be followed to a tee, so it’s hard to fault Madhouse for executing the script they had planned. To their credit, there was a lot more emphasis on developing the story than just mindless action, particularly in Cyclops’ case. When the action did pick up, the “Reassembly” opening theme always added a nice dramatic flair, even if it was a bit overused. Cameos from other Marvel superheroes in the finale, including Iron Man, were a nice touch. It was a decent series that leveraged Hisako’s involvement, but still nothing to write home about.

Divine: I wasn’t sure what to make of this light novel adaptation, even when the seemingly unrelated arcs started to come together and depicted how the fate of the country was torn between the Ministry of Occult and Science Academy. They didn’t come together very seamlessly, but I was willing overlook that once Saubure’s problems escalated in the final two episodes. It wasn’t all that surprisingly to see how things concluded between Kazuya and Victorique, given that Seyrun elder Sergius’ premonition’s been pretty spot on. That didn’t take away from the epic way it played out though, especially with the fated showdown between Albert and Cordelia. The ending itself was pretty surreal and seemed like a bittersweet one, but luckily turned out to be much better. GOSICK is story-driven series that’s definitely worth watching.

Divine: What started out as an original series that’s “safe” for younger audiences ended that way too. DOG DAYS is a very innocent and happy-go-lucky for the most part, which isn’t all that unexpected from the director/writer duo behind Nanoha. Leo’s premonition served as a nice suspense builder, but didn’t have much of an impact in the end since Shinku helped resolve it without any hesitation. Also, the drama in the last two episodes felt really forced and completely tacked on, centering on a new problem with Shinku’s return to his own world. It was hard to get emotionally attached, so it even took away from the climactic battle in a way. Looking back, I didn’t mind the more lighthearted fantasy that this series turned out to be because of the cast involved, but it’s still pretty forgettable when it’s all said and done.

Divine: T&B is still one of the most refreshing series to roll around in a while, both in terms of the premise and the characters themselves. I’m not always dying to watch the next episode, even with the recent developments surrounding Ouroboros/Jake and the murder of Barnaby’s parents, but I almost always watch it first when given a choice between other series. Kotetsu remains one of the biggest reasons that I prioritize this show, since he always means well but is constantly faced with a generation gap with the other heroes. The tomboy Pao-Lin (Dragon Kid) is one of the few exceptions, hence why I really like her character (and her one-piece Bruce Lee-like jumpsuit). Seeing as we’re only at the halfway point and Jake’s already been dealt with, I suspect Lunatic will wind up as the ultimate antagonist.

Divine: “Super ultra great delicious wonderful danger.” Someone really has to tell Japan that they can’t just slap English adjectives together as they please, even if I found Yuuko’s overly descriptive outburst pretty hilarious. Her idiocy is by far and large the funniest aspect, which includes her pathetic attempt to perform magic tricks when she’s sick. The Shinonome household has been funnier as of late though, particularly when glue is involved and Sakamoto’s about to get suffocated. His outbursts reminded me that we really need to see Shiraishi Minoru in more roles, outside of the KyoAni ones that he seems to be guaranteed. The second half of the series is looking up as the two different sides finally meet with Nano attending school and befriending Mio, Yuuko, and Mai. It’s like the best of both worlds, but I can just picture the Nichijou universe imploding on itself as a result.

Takaii: The other slice of life show that I’m covering has been progressively getting better every week. The past few episodes have been a bit more structured, reinforcing the jokes and making them that much funnier. And without forcing my brain to go from something funny to something random every skit, it feels like I’ve been able to focus more on the show rather than the skits themselves. Oh, and did you know that Inadera Yuki from Nirgilis loves this show? (:

Divine: Oga vs. Toujou at last! It was pretty awesome seeing those two powerhouses go blow-for-blow, marking the first stretch of episodes that I really didn’t care about Aoi’s reduced screen time. They more or less made up for it in the following episode anyway, with Aoi’s grandfather and his quick assumptions of her granddaughter’s relationship with Oga. I really like how the focus on Beel’s been lessened as of late, even as the plot continues to revolve around him, simply because it meant less of his electric crying that’s been heavily overused. Furuichi constantly getting shafted is still great on the humor side of things, especially now that he and Oga find themselves in the demon world. The most recent episode left me wondering if Alaindelon’s daughter is as attractive as she seems, or if she’s just another “trap” that Furuichi’s going to fall for.

Divine: To coincide with the start of the new season, I was looking for an excuse to drop one of two long-running shounen series and Toriko was the likely candidate since I’m much further in Beelzebub. Well that won’t be happening just yet, seeing as the current Regal Mammoth arc has rejuvenated my interest a fair bit. The inclusion of Battlewolf Terry, Rin, and Sunny adds more character dynamic to the group, particular Sunny who’s voiced by Golden Boy star/veteran seiyuu Iwata Mitsuo, whereas the GT Robos of the evil organization Bishokukai serve as antagonists that test Toriko, Coco, and Sunny’s limits as Heavenly Kings. The fighting aspect has also picked up, which appeals to the shounen fan within me even if I wasn’t holding out for it. I’ll watch a few more episodes and see how I feel about the show later on.

Divine: It really felt like P.A. Works was prepared to end the series at 13 episodes, judging from the ending sequence. Thankfully they didn’t, as it would’ve left a lot to be desired on the Ohana x Kou front. At this point, I’m holding out for a special moment between them in the finale, seeing as Kou wasn’t taken to Kissuisou like I hoped. Regardless, I really enjoyed the change of scenery to Tokyo since it brought Satsuki back into the picture, and resulted in Minko and Tooru spending some time together, even if the latter always had Ohana on his mind. Satsuki’s visit to Kissuisou had some really nice family bonding moments, plus a really cute one when Ohana got drunk on juice. Her flashbacks were interesting as well, though I don’t know if it was necessary to have Itou Kanae voice her teenage self to make it even more obvious that she was just like Ohana.

Prooof: What is it about this series that’s so satisfying? The characters are believable and have depth to them, and I really think viewers can relate to their situations. It’s easy to sympathize with them too, as they handle their problems and issues, and everything comes together to form a pretty good story that is quite enjoyable. I found the skits touching and sweet, dealing with a wide range of issues including family, friendship, romance and work, and most of the characters are likable too (except for Takako). It’s a laid-back show, but with a nice balance of drama and humor, it’s never boring and makes me feel warm and fuzzy at the same time.

Takaii: After a handful of episodes dealing with the strained relationship between Ko and Ohana, and the beginning of what I’d call “cutting ties” with the first half, this series seemed pretty intent on highlighting that Ko and Ohana are going to face tough trials in the future. Not to mention that Ohana being clueless about Tohru and Minko has changed from annoyingly mean to surprisingly likeable. With our beloved Okami, it’s been a treat to watch her slowly open herself up and dare I say it, start to show her affection for Ohana! With a huge backstory involving Satsuki and her mother and relationship problems everywhere, I can’t wait to see what P.A. Works has in store for us.

Divine: I gave Oretsuba the benefit of the doubt and held onto the possibility that the ending would turn some heads. Unfortunately, it was too random for most of the episodes, and quite frankly, very “messy” as well. The switching personalities between Takashi, Chitose, and Hayato became a running joke after it was revealed, so the romance aspect never picked up in any substantial way. Asuka and Hiyoko made some headway in that regard, but often slapped our main protagonist around and killed the mood. Midway through, the premise had a lot of potential, which could have led to a fair bit of juicy drama, but evidently that wasn’t what this adaptation was striving for. The ending was interesting, since it gave new meaning to both the ending and the narrator of the story; however, I’m hard-pressed to find a good reason to sit through all twelve episodes.

Divine: Much like its predecessor, Fireball Charming’s humor didn’t always click with me. It was an expectation I had coming in, so I was primarily watching this for the CG aspect and whatever quirky laughs it could provide along the way. Well it sure delivered in that sense, particularly in the episodes that featured Drossel and her one-wheeled motorcycle, which was pretty awesome to watch in slow-motion with multiple camera angles. Very Matrix-like. I also loved seeing all of Drossel’s different “hairstyles” to go with the curvaceous hips of her older generation self. The baseball and “Charming Mankind” episodes were some of my favorites, the second of which definitively linked this as the prequel of the original series and even explained why Drossel can never remember Gedächtnis’ name in the future. These 5-min shorts are worth checking out for the CG work alone.

Divine: I was pretty thrilled about the inclusion of the Honnouji Incident, since it put Akechi at odds with Nobunaga for reasons that fit the series’ own spin on history. I wasn’t so thrilled about how this pachinko game adaptation became more and more generic as it progressed though, even after Date-sensei’s true objective was revealed. The idea of Nobunaga as a benevolent and apologetic ruler threw me off as well, and led to a somewhat cheesy turn of events when she rallied all the others in a group cause at the end. On the flip side, I do think Ieyasu looked pretty good in her “new armor”, in that hot and psychotic sort of way, and served as a good antagonist to the storyline. The ending wasn’t too bad either, and had a nice touch with Shiro showing up, leaving things open to a sequel with another dimensional leap, regardless of how unlikely one is.

Prooof: The fights are exciting, the animation is decent, but the story is still extremely uninteresting. This arc isn’t bad as a showcase of all the different powers of the captains using large-scale battles, but seeing your favorite captain in action would pretty much be the only reason to watch it. Kageroza is a dull, unmenancing villain, and Nozomi also fails to stand out from any other hastily designed filler character. I suppose there have been worse fillers, but Bleach still fails to impress.

Divine: My sentiment from the first season carries over — Kaiji is extremely riveting yet unbelievably irksome to watch. When I finished the first season in two days, I was spared the antagonizing weekly wait, which is pretty unbearable given how the anime stretches out every scene and milks the suspense for all its worth. They serve as great cliffhangers, but my patience wore thin and I ended up reading the manga to confirm a suspicion during the Chinchiro arc. I went on to read the popular pachinko “bog” arc that’s being animated now, since it seemed dumb for Kaiji to leave everything up to chance yet again. I couldn’t believe the arc spanned roughly 90 chapters and was completely drained when I read it all, so I’m not too keen on sitting through that again on a weekly basis. I’m putting this series on indefinite hold as a result, and may pick it up once it’s done just to see how the material was condensed. A great series to watch, when it’s done airing.

Divine: Like with most two-cour series, I enjoyed the lighthearted first half of Steins Gate that saw a fair bit of goofing around and experimenting with D-Mails. I love Okarin and Kurisu’s back and forth bickering as much as the next person, but it’s good to see the story switch over to a more serious tone now that we’re past the halfway point. This includes the recent developments surrounding Mayuri, which I’ve been waiting to see ever since I inadvertently spoiled myself while looking into this adaptation. Knowing what was coming didn’t take away from my enjoyment whatsoever, since the urgency in the Higurashi/Madoka-like attempts to change the past turned out to be as suspenseful as I hoped. I did rage a bit in the Final Destination-like turn of events, but not before I was left just as speechless as Okarin for a good while. I love where this is going.

Takaii: Oh my god. What happened to the lighthearted show that dealt with the problem of trying to figure out how to travel through time? I’ll admit that the whole D-mail idea was a little weak to be considered time-travel, but I never expected things to hit the fan in a single episode. As I watched Okabe try to prevent a chain of events from happening, I felt my arm start to shake. I wasn’t not sure if it was from the fear of knowing what was about to happen or the rage from watching him fail to prevent it, but I was downright speechless at the end of it. Why can’t every day be Tuesday?

Divine: Short 15-minute format notwithstanding, this didn’t shape out to be another B Gata H Kei like I had hoped. The series lost a lot of steam midway through and wasn’t something I particularly looked forward to watching. Most of my enjoyment came from Pi and Ku-chan, since Hayao and Natsu’s relationship continued to progress at a snail-like pace even after they started dating. However, the ending was kind of bittersweet, making the series feel somewhat worthwhile in retrospect. It’s just too bad it doesn’t stand out in the comedy or romance department. Style-wise, the presentation was reminiscent of Gathering’s Tono to Issho and verged on Yuruani’s Flash-animated comedies — not quite what I was hoping for.

Divine: It was pretty clear from the get-go that A-Channel is more about the slice-of-life aspects than the laughs. Coming in with that expectation, I enjoyed every minute of Run, Tooru, Nagi, and Yuuko’s first year of high school together. Studio Gokumi deserves special praise for featuring a character song every episode — and fairly decent ones at that — to help bridge the gap between itself and highly successful K-ON. A-Channel definitely caters to a similar audience as K-ON, and is recommended if you enjoyed the daily antics of the Houkago Tea Time girls. Yuuki Aoi was awesome as Tooru, using a new voice to portray her with as she tries to make all her roles distinct. For a show of this genre, it turned out to be everything I was hoping for and more.

Takaii: A show full of girls doing what they do every day — the definition of a slice of life. While this show hasn’t been the strongest in terms of being fun to watch every week, it does have that cute and charming appeal going for it. With a strong group of main characters, each with something unique about them, it’s not too difficult to get through each episode. Plus with a new insert song every episode, there’s an endless amount of songs to listen to later on! All in all, I’d have to say that A-Channel provides a fun watch for anyone looking for something to make them smile for a while.

Divine: I still find it hard to believe that Nagai Gou had perverted and random humor thoroughly incorporated into a manga 38 years ago, but Dororon Enma-kun proves that he did just that. In this renewal project, the randomness is really over-the-top even by today’s standards, as there’s no end to the Youkai Patrol’s whimsical ways. Be that as it may, the humor was pretty hit-and-miss for me. Anything that involved the relatively more sensible Harumi was generally funny, as was Enma ravaging Yuki at every opportunity and Enpi refusing to wear clothes. I like how the show never took itself seriously, but the plot was downright random, even when the finale loosely tied together all the craziness that happened before. As a longtime fan of anime, I’m still glad I watched this, just so I have a better understanding of what was popular back then.

Divine: Although the humor had its ups and downs, I still enjoyed it all the same just like the first season. It’s not always easy to get the humor in SHAFT’s adaptations after all, but Kanako did make it a lot easier with all her outbursts from being victimized — often by her own stupidity. Her younger sister Miki (Katou Emiri) showed up out of the blue too, providing some interesting romantic developments. I just wish we could’ve seen more of Matsurika and Shizu. The same goes for Mariya, who took a backseat for the majority of the series and let the jokes stem from Kanako herself. He was far too passive in this sequel, having grown tired of threatening Kanako all the time. At least he was still rocking the opening theme, which I really like for some reason. There’s something about Kobayashi Yuu and craziness that always seems to work.

Divine: As a sports comedy, Softenni never really broke out of the mold it set in the very first episode. However, it did get better once Akadama’s team members were introduced, and even more so when Kurodama’s Shidou Misaki (Kotobuki Minako) showed up and dominated everyone on the court while getting dominated off of it. Along with Hiratsuka Yura (Toyosaki Aki), Kurodama saw two-fifths of the K-ON cast — something that had me wishing the other members made an appearance to complete it. After all, the cast is what really made the show for me, particularly Itou Kanae and Kitamura Eri in the lead roles. The inter-school interactions were the next best thing, making this one of the more enjoyable XEBEC adaptations as of late. Unfortunately, that’s not saying a whole lot, so this will go down as another guilty pleasure of mine.

Divine: Azazel-san remained the funniest series of the season for me and even took a semi-serious turn with the introduction of the butt-ugly angels that are after demonic grimoires. It never seemed to have any difficulty flipping between the two either, and came back with even more hilarious moments involving Rinko in the second half. The laughs got better when she became the object of ridicule instead of Akutabe’s freakish clients. I figured Moloch’s incident was going to change the direction of the series, but nope, the series wouldn’t have any of that and continued to dish out the laughs with Azazel and Beelzebub leading the way. It’s too bad Akutabe wasn’t around more, after seeing him kick some angel ass. In any case, it was nice to see things end on a comedic note, though they sure had a flair for the dramatic leading up to that point. Beeyan!

Divine: The humor of the Abnormal Seminar never failed to gross me out. Making me laugh was a different matter, except in the final four episodes where it really struck a chord. I’m not entirely sure why I found Komugi’s indirect kiss experiment as funny as I did, but I’m fairly sure it had something to do with Anna falling victim to a urine/semen mixed drink. Then there was the episode with all the guys going over to the “Dark Side” after trying to suppress their sexual urges, and using “The Force” to orgasm from their imagination alone — up to 15 times in a row. The lewd humor worked well when Nanako was front and center of it all. The BL stints were amusing too, as were Ichikawa and Anna after learning about the latter’s childhood trauma that brought about her alternate personality and false life. That’s assuming you can take dirty jokes of course.

Divine: The show with the fake-out harem premise never wavered from its actual family value-oriented progression, and 13 episodes later, I have to say it was even a bit too cute and innocent. There was a fair amount of sappier moments, which I didn’t particularly mind if the alternative was a more fan-service-filled approach like Zero no Tsukaima. To the series’ credit, the soundtrack brought out all those scenes really well. I still saw Naoya’s growing affection for Lotte in the fatherly sense, even though it was hinted to be something more. Diomedea’s latest adaptation may not be anything special, but in a day and age where there’s an abundance of violent action-oriented anime, I enjoyed watching a heartwarming series to balance things out. At the same time, the relatively laid-back pace makes it difficult to recommend to the average anime fan.

Divine: Seeing as eroge adaptations have a tendency to go for the main heroine route, I’m pretty happy that the story explored Ibuki as a possibility, even though she never really had a chance to begin with. Surprisingly, there were only really three potential candidates amidst all the girls, namely Ui, Ibuki, and Madoka. I was rooting for Madoka because she fell in love with Kazuma when they were just kids, so that should say something about how I felt about the conclusion. Overall, Hoshikaka was better than the adaptation of feng’s other game, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka. It was reminiscent of Fortune Arterial, which had a similar generic feel yet turned out better than I originally gave it credit. While it’s still nothing special in the grand scheme of things, at least it reached a definitive conclusion with Kazuma confessing to the girl he likes (albeit with a lot of help).

Divine: Well they sure made me eat my own words when Chihiro’s arc turned out much better than Jun’s. Keima’s unorthodox approach with a “mob character” that inadvertently won her over turned out to be one of the best arcs animated so far. The problem with Jun’s is that it was hard to believe Keima got her to see him as her equal when all he did was get her really depressed and then console her. The emotions felt pretty forced, but I still enjoyed it because of Toyosaki Aki. The finale on the other hand was absolutely hilarious with the chubby Clannad-style character design for Yotsuba and the original Gundam parody. It was right up there with the finale of the first season and foreshadowed the upcoming girls too. Hopefully Manglobe will be up for a third season, because this sequel had everything that I loved about the first one, plus more Elsie and Haqua.

Takaii: Hey it’s another sequel that I’ve covered! Kami Nomi’s season two gave me exactly what I wanted — more of Keima and his antics moving toward a new goal. Ever since the Chihiro arc, I’ve loved how the show keeps poking at the idea that Keima is starting to regain hope in the real world. Sure, watching the captures play through is fun and I’m glad that the situations were completely different then the first season’s, but I’ve been excited to see what happens when Keima realizes that he’s invested so much time and effort into something that he doesn’t get to keep. While that aspect wasn’t looked into this season, it gives me hope that another season could appear!

Divine: For me, this continuation more or less concluded at episode six, which was finale-worthy in its delivery. After Sasha left Suirei Academy and headed back to St. Mihailov, the series completely changed gears and became an idiotic fan-service-filled affair with very little intent to get onto the next arc. I was pretty forgiving of that change-up because the first half was really good, but it got to the point that seeing Mafuyu and Tomo again could only offset the lack of development so much. The only redeeming aspect was seeing Jita slowly come around, along with the bits of humor poking fun at the series itself. I don’t really understand why the producers decided to spend so much time on the trivial stuff, seeing as the final episode really picked up by starting the Athos vs. Meteor arc. There’s clearly more source material to work with, so it’s a shame they didn’t leave any episodes to actually animate it.

Divine: A lot of viewers may have found C a little hard to understand, but the story worked well with a little suspension of disbelief, much like all sci-fi fantasy series. Most importantly, the developments didn’t contradict the premise the series established. Still, I can see how it’s easy to lose sight of exactly what Kimimaro and Souichirou were trying to accomplish with their actions, leading to a lot of confusion on the interpretation of the ending. It definitely required some thinking to grasp, so if you’re confused, I would actually recommend watching it again. The thought that went into understanding the story was one of the reasons I really enjoyed it, plus the fact that there was no clear indication on whose ideals were correct. The finale was intense, so I have no problems recommending this original series to most people. Just be prepared to think.

Prooof: Things really took a turn in terms of craziness in the last few episodes. The fast pace did mean that it was easy to get confused and lose track of all the mechanisms at work, requiring some time to process what had happened. With the battle of ideals between Mikuni and Kimimaro forming the backbone of the show, I felt that the lose-lose situation and the lack of a “right answer” was one of the most interesting points of the show. Unfortunately in the end, many factors just conveniently fell into place for Kimimaro and his allies and largely avoided the consequences of their actions. The assets and the fights were an interesting addition, but again these mechanisms were not explored in-depth so the parallels can be murky. The premise was very interesting, but in the end I find it difficult to recommend this series.

Takaii: The first noitaminA show airing this season almost lost me along the way. I’ll admit that I really enjoyed watching deals and the integration of some basic economics was cool. On the other hand, I’ll admit that the concept of C was pretty confusing. Besides never explaining what C was, I would’ve liked to see the internal working of the Financial District was explained in more detail. The money press and its effect on reality were a little too vague for my liking. It still amazes me how Mikuni managed to figure out how to work the darn thing so well. In the end, I wish a better ending had surfaced, but at least I know the future still has possibilities. OPEN DEAL!

Divine: There’s little doubt in my mind that this was the drama of the spring season. It was a roller coaster of emotions that started off by putting us into a false sense of security with how easygoing Menma was. The emphasis was not on Jinta proving her existence to the others, but the emotional burden from the guilt they all carried since her death. Rationale and common sense goes out the window when emotions are involved, and that’s just what we saw with the Super Peace Busters. The ending may not have gone the Sixth Sense/Fight Club/Perfect Blue route like I was hoping, but it was hardly a disappointment. I will admit I found it really awkward when everyone was bawling their eyes out and revealing how they truly feel, because the acting felt a bit unnatural. I did tear up a little bit in the final scene though. Great series. “We found you Menma!”

Prooof: People aren’t perfect, and Anohana portrays this quite well as the characters try to come to terms with Menma’s death. I found it painfully frustrating seeing the selfishness of each of the characters hurting the people around them. They are young and naive, but also dealing with a really tragic situation that no one is coping properly. Flawed characters do not make a flawed series though, and their issues resulted in some powerful scenes that really hit home. It’s sad seeing everyone stuck at various stages of denial, anger, or depression, but in the end, they finally crack, admit their true feelings and confess their selfishness in a very emotional climax. I felt some parts were a little too dramatic, especially in the finale, but all in all it is a decent drama that I would definitely recommend.

Takaii: Single-handedly, the only show this season to make me cry pretty hard at the ending. Even with all the little issues I’ve had with this show, noitaminA shows tend to have something that makes them shine. In Ano Hana’s case, its spectacular ending is what would drive people to watch it. I’m a fan of happy endings, and I think this is probably the best way show can handle the death of character without using some sort of deus ex machina. Leaving with a sense of closure, Ano Hana brought a smile to my face full of tears.

Divine: It felt like a bit of a cop-out when Riko’s plea bargain turned her good again, but I loved seeing her back and flirting with Kinji to really get Aria jealous. The same goes for Aria with Shirayuki, which provided ample entertainment on the harem aspect. The progression wasn’t too bad once Jeanne d’Arc came into the picture (Kawasumi Ayako in another Fate/stay night-like role), even though the plot itself was pretty weak, strung together by only Aria’s desire to clear her mother’s name. Despite that flaw, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters interactions. I didn’t mind some of the fillerish episodes either, particularly the one that led to more screen time for Reki. Premise-wise, I also liked the idea that the characters are descendants of famous fictitious figures, including Vlad who was made out to be a video game-like boss. The ending also left the door open for a sequel by foreshadowing the next arc with the appearance of Kana, who’s actually Show Spoiler ▼

Divine: Even without the monsters, this series has the same, almost inexplicable charm as Bakemonogatari. There wasn’t much of an overarching plot, so it was clear to me that the goofy “springtime of youth” characters interactions was what it was all about. This started with Makoto getting Erio out of her futon, and led to the romance aspect care of Ryuuko that was very cute to watch. I actually thought Erio would be more central to the story, but Maekawa really stole the spotlight in the latter half with her easygoing yet observant personality. Yashiro was late to the party but quirky in her own way, and left a lasting impression thanks to Igucha Yuka’s alien speech. The baseball match wrapped things up decently, and it isn’t even the actual conclusion to the series (ep 13 is BD only). I may not be able to pinpoint the exact appeal of SHAFT’s light novel adaptations, but they’re always fun to watch. This is one of their better looking productions too.

Divine: I can’t speak for the manga since I stopped myself from reading too far ahead, but as far as the anime is concerned, the switchover to Scar Chain and their attempt to get word out about the cruelty in the prison did provide a decent climax to the series. Genkaku and his Undertakers served as good intermediary antagonists, and further emphasized the insanity that goes on in G Block. It’s just too bad Ganta and Shiro’s subplot couldn’t be covered without completely rewriting the script and removing the possibility of a sequel. The way things ended definitely left a lot to be desired, even though I can understand the rationale behind leaving the story open-ended. In terms of providing a dark and gruesome adaptation that will make viewers want to check out the original source material, I feel that Manglobe has succeeded in that regard.

Prooof: With only twelve episodes in this adaption, it leaves off on a rather ominous ending. It was still a fun ride, even though I’ve already read the manga, and the plot is full of intrigue — it’s chock-full of mysteries and twists that I found quite riveting. There is no shortage of violence and gore, which makes the story all the more hard-hitting as the characters struggle to survive against forces that toy with their lives. The villains and the anti-heroes were some of the best I’ve seen and were a lot of fun to watch. Even with a lot of characters taken out and some disappointment over several of the episodes throughout the season, things really started ramping up after the revelation about the Wretched Egg, so I thought Manglobe did a decent job with this adaption.

Divine: Being a two-cour series, AoEx has had the luxury of exploring the school-life aspect and building up the characters. To that end, it’s been fun watching Rin and others grow as exorcists, particularly Izumo who had a rocky start and finds herself blushing like crazy when a young boy tells her she’s cute. I enjoyed the beach episode with Youhei (Kobayashi Yumiko) waaay more than I probably should have, simply because Izumo kept showing the girlish side of her tsundere personality. While the introduction of Cath Sith (Takagaki Ayahi) was pretty touching, I’m looking forward to seeing the story shift to a more serious tone in the second half, now that Mephisto has Amaimon checking on Rin. I’m also waiting for Yamada to reveals his true identity, having accidentally come across that info while researching. The climactic battles will surely come later on.

Prooof: Rin is so immature and annoying. Watching him got on my nerves because his stubbornness reminds me of my own little brother, and also of many other shounen protagonists. I also noticed the usual shounen flaw of spending way too long explaining the situation during the heat of battle. Some of the fillers fell short as well, and I see the show deteriorating somewhat after a strong start. Complaints aside, I’m sticking around to see how the main plot progresses, but even that is moving slowly because of all the little side stories.

Takaii: One of my favorite shows of the season, it never fails to provide something that grabs my attention and keeps it all the way till the ending credits roll. Whether it’s the immense amount of action or the loveable characters that all have their own unique traits, I can honestly say that every Sunday is a treat with both Iroha and Exorcist giving me everything I want. With the overarching plot making me question what Mephisto is up to, I can only see more good things for this show. Plus, this show is so good that if I didn’t know some episodes were filler ahead of time, I would have never known.