Chaika the Coffin Princess

Summary
5 years ago, the 200-year-long war between the alliance of six nations and the Gaz Empire came to an end when Emperor Arthur Gaz, the Immortal Emperor of the Gaz Empire, was finally killed by eight warriors known as the Eight Heroes. In the present, Toru Acura is a former Saboteur who lives with his sister Akari. While out foraging in the forest, Toru encounters Chaika Trabant, a white-haired girl who claims to be a Wizard, and saves her from a man-eating unicorn. Taking note of their skills as Saboteurs, Chaika hires Toru and Akari for an important task; she is trying to gather the scattered remains of Arthur Gaz from the Eight Heroes. Chaika reveals that she is actually Princess Chaika Gaz, the former Emperor's daughter, who managed to escape in the chaos following her father's death and wishes to find her father's remains, so that he may be given a proper burial.

(Copied and Adapted from Wikipedia)

My Review
So from that summary I bet you think this show sounds pretty interesting, right? At the very least it sounds like a sound concept that would form the makings of a decent show. Well, if your train of thought was heading in those directions then let me tell you now; you are absolutely correct.

Disappointingly correct even.

This show can be summed up in a single word: decent. It is neither exceptionally good nor exceptionally bad. I don't want to call it generic, as that word has gained a very negative connotation in recent times, but generic is what it is. However with that said, I don't dislike this show either.

First let me get the usual out of the way. Chaika was animated by studio Bones, so of course I have no issues with the animation. I don't remember much of the music from the show so I'm going to say 'unmemorable' for the most part with the exception of the opening and ending themes, which are both nice and catchy little songs that sound so good in combination you'd swear they were two songs by the same artist (though I checked and surprisingly they aren't) that are almost guaranteed to get stuck in your head.

Now as for the show itself, in terms of story this one is a little hard to talk about. Partly because of spoilers and partly because I simultaneously have a lot of things to say and very little to say. It's strange and rather frustrating, but I'll give it my best shot. If I had to describe this show, it's story and characters and world all in one, I'd say that it's a lot of cool ideas. That is not intended as praise. Basically throughout this show I always felt like the author just gathered together a bunch of ideas that he thought sounded cool and simply slammed them all together with no real rhyme or reason with a very 'just cuz' mentality. Why do wizards carry giant sniper rifles that channel their magic? Just cuz. Why is there a seldom seen race of animal-like demi-humans facing prejudice? Just cuz. Why are the Emperor's remains massive sources of magical energy? JUST CUZ.

Don't expect much of an explanation for anything in this show. If you're lucky you might get a one- to two-sentence bit of half-assed exposition about something like the demi-humans, but more often we get nothing at all. The show puts something cool on display and we're just expected to go along without questioning too much. I'm still waiting to find out what exactly Saboteurs are and what the story behind their Iron-Blood Transformation is, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Granted it is possible that these questions are answered in the show's currently airing second season (which I have not yet seen and as such this review is only discussing the first season) but I seriously doubt that all of my questions from season one will be answered. As far as the source material is concerned, I don't care. Even if these questions all have clear answers in the light novels that does not help me in any way since like many people I am only watching the anime.

The characters are fortunately much easier to talk about. They are annoying. Our protagonist Toru is a pretty typical protagonist that would fit into any of your standard shounen fare. Akari is his fairly unintelligent sister who is indiscreetly in love? with him, and yes you are allowed to find that creepy. Lastly in our main cast (not counting the shape-shifting dragoon which I'm adding to the list of 'barely explained but still kind of cool things' this show has) is the title character Chaika, who is undoubtedly the most annoying character in the whole lineup. If I have to read through Chaika's poor grasp of language one more time I might hemorrhage (I can't even imagine watching this show dubbed). There are also plenty of secondary characters, most of whom you will either lose track of or stop caring about and only identify by their affiliation.

Final Opinion
Chaika is the sort of show that I don't like talking about; a show that is just plain average. Okay, maybe a little above average but still not really a standout work. Some people seem to really like this show, but I don't get it. And it's strange because this show had all the things that I usually love, but just didn't seem to work out here. As for a recommendation, there isn't any good reason not to watch this show, but there's no real reason to watch it either. Feel free to give it a try if you have time, but there are other things you could be watching.

Log Horizon

Summary
Players of the long-running fantasy MMORPG Elder Tale wake up one day to the realization that they have somehow been transported into a world resembling the game they had been playing. With no one seeming to know anything about why or how this has happened to them the players set about trying to find a way to exist in this new world they find themselves in. Throughout the chaos one player by the name of Shiroe sets out with a small band of friends and allies in the hopes of accomplishing this very task, as well as to find the answers of what exactly has happened to everyone and whether or not they can return home.

My Review
Every once in a while, in between your Naruto's and your One Piece's, you find a hidden gem that by all means ought to be the big thing everyone's talking about but for one reason or another hasn't gotten the hype it deserves. One rather good example of this would be the show I'm going to talk about today, Log Horizon. While this show isn't exactly undiscovered it hasn't gotten nearly the amount of attention I would have expected. There are two major reasons for this: the first being that this came out in 2013 and everything that came out in 2013 was mostly being overshadowed by the success of Kill la kill; the second reason being that most people, like myself, assumed from the first moment we heard about this that it would just be a shallow rip-off of Sword Art Online or the much earlier .hack//sign. Rest assured that it is not. Also, as a relatively big fan of SAO I can tell you without the slightest trace of hesitation that Log Horizon is orders of magnitude better than what we got with Sword Art Online. In fact, I'd even say this is one of my favourite shows in years.

While this isn't the first show to take place in an MMO this show does do something it's predecessors never did; making the MMO world actually function and feel like an MMO. Anyone who's played one of the popular MMORPG's of today will recognize familiar things in the way our characters fight, how people travel and live their day-to-day lives, and a hundred other things that make you feel as though this game could actually be made in real life.

The story is the main focus of this series and fortunately it's a good one, or at least an intriguing concept. Our character's main goal is not to escape from the game or to defeat all of their enemies but to make their new environment livable and to build a home for themselves. And all of this is done in a surprisingly realistic way, as our protagonist Shiroe is not the typical hot-headed swordsman of most of these shows but rather a cool-headed strategist. He doesn't achieve his goals by sheer force but by intellect; he studies his surroundings, learns the rules, and then (the best part) figures out how to break the rules. But it's not all just calm discussion and planning, this show has plenty of action and an abundance of humour to keep things from ever getting dull.

The characters are a little harder to praise than the story. If pressed I'd have to concede that they're stereotypes, however that doesn't make them any less entertaining to watch. Between the far-too-serious ninja Akatsuki, the not-at-all-serious perverted knight Naotsugu, and Rundel Haus Code (who is in and of himself his own stereotype) there is plenty here to keep the viewer entertained.

The music to this show is even better. Both the opening and ending themes are extremely catchy and while I took a while to become acclimatized to the opening song I can now say with certainty that, in my own humble opinion, the opening song 'Database' is AWESOME. Better than the opening for .hack, better than SAO. Seriously. As for the rest of the soundtrack my only complaint is how overused many of the tracks on it are and how noticeable that becomes later on in the series.

My only real gripe with this show is it's animation. While the animation is good most of the time and the background art is a joy to look at it's the character designs that let down expectations. These character designs just aren't as impressive as they should be and this is especially noticeable with Akatsuki, who despite being the focus of a running gag about her own cuteness has one of the least cute designs imaginable for her character. She's not the only one with a problem like this either (am I the only one who finds Shiroe's eyes hard to look at?) and when the battles with the goblins and sahuagin start prepare yourself for some of the most bafflingly terrible looking monsters you've ever seen.

Final Opinion
Log Horizon is one of the better shows in recent years. While not as popular as Sword Art Online and unlikely to gain the same following as .hack it's still well worth your time and money once it's finally been released in the west. I could recommend this show to anyone and I really can't tell you enough to watch it as soon as you're able. I eagerly await the second season to expand upon this world that we've only been shown a glimpse of.

Future Diary

Summary
Yukiteru (Yuki) Amano is your average spineless shut-in who has no friends except for his imaginary friends Deus ex Machina and Murmur. One day Yuki is given a special prophetic diary function for his phone by Deus who is revealed to be not a figment of Yuki's imagination but the actual God of time and space. Deus reveals that as he is dying he must name a successor to take his place as the omnipotent master of the universe and to that end he has constructed a contest for several humans to compete in as a way of determining the best candidate. Yuki is one of those chosen to participate in this battle royale, with the victor being the last person still alive by the end. In order to survive Yuki chooses to partner up with another contestant, his stalker Yuno, who is not quite what she seems.

Review
Future Diary (or Mirai Nikki as it is also called) is one of those shows with a very large, very vocal fanbase who often hail it as THE GREATEST ANIME OF ALL TIME! These people can often be somewhat defensive when their treasured show is criticized.

This is one time I'm glad no one really reads my posts.

I'm just going to say it now; Future Diary is just shit. This show tries so hard to do so much and in the process ends up doing so little. This show is unpleasant, confused and often tedious and I really don't know why people make such a big freaking deal over it.

First let me talk about the only good thing in this entire show and probably the only reason most people like it; Yuno. Yuno is really just a great character and she pretty much carries the entire show all on her own. The ultimate in scary yandere girls, Yuno is really just awesome and she's probably the only thing making this show at all watchable.

Such a shame that the rest of the characters absolutely suck. Aside from perhaps one of the other characters (Ninth) none of the other characters in Future Diary are at all worthwhile or likeable. And hands-down the worst of them all is our protagonist Yuki. Yuki is unremarkable, bland, boring, and enough of an annoying pussy to put Shinji from Evangelion to shame. I do not make a statement like that lightly. While I still don't find him quite as bad as, say, Ganta from Deadman Wonderland it's still a pretty close call and constantly placing him next to Yuno just makes Yuki all the more terrible by comparison.

Where the characters fall flat the writing sadly does not pick up much of the slack. Ignoring the terrible, terrible pacing of the show for a moment I'll give you one reason why it's difficult to care about this Godhood-Fate of the world-Battle royale story that drives the show: because the show itself doesn't care. Our protagonists literally spend the majority of the show AVOIDING THE STORY, only participating in the contest when they themselves are attacked and generally trying to avoid doing much of anything. If the protagonists of the show don't care, then why should I? The only time when they start caring about the contest is close to the end when a poorly done character transition turns Yuki into what I like to call 'diet-Lelouch' and suddenly they both go on a manhunt. And when that's done they go back to being exactly as they were before; both avoiding the plot and Yuki being an annoying little bitch.
As for the ending of this show... I won't spoil anything but I will say that it needs some serious work. As far as endings go this one is particularly interesting in that it introduces more plot holes than you would ever believe possible, all along with one immense plot hole so magnificently large it basically turns the entire story up until that point into nonsense.

Also this is a minor gripe but why are there so many rape scenes in this show? I counted three which is difficult to even attempt to justify and quite honestly just leaves me feeling kind of uncomfortable.

Final Opinion
Mostly what I get from Future Diary is just wasted potential. This show could have been so good and yet it turned out this way. I really don't understand why so many people love this show so much; even if it has that one really awesome character it's sort of like throwing a fine diamond into a bucket of shit. I really can't recommend this show. Seeing Yuno in all of her obsessed psychopathic glory is great, but it's just not enough to justify the rest of this anime.

Kill la Kill

Quick Summary
At the prestigious Honnouji Academy a girl by the name of Satsuki Kiryuin has established a cruel dictatorship ruling over not only the students of the academy but the teachers, staff, and all residents of the city surrounding the academy. By issuing superpower-granting outfits called goku uniforms to those students most loyal to her and those deemed worthy she maintains an iron grip on the populace and effectively stands above the law. One day a transfer student by the name of Ryuko Matoi appears at the school wielding a giant scissor blade and challenges Satsuki directly with inquiries about the recent death of her father. Satsuki's followers promptly beat Ryuko to a pulp and she only narrowly escapes. The next day Ryuko returns to the academy wearing a sentient sailor suit named Senketsu who can grant Ryuko powers in much the same manner as a goku uniform but to a much greater degree. Equipped with Senketsu and her scissor Ryuko proceeds to fight her way through the academy, intending to dismantle Satsuki's power structure and learn the truth about her father.

Review
Okay... so yeah. Kill la Kill.

This one might be a long one. Unsurprising as it seems everyone on the internet has something to say about this show. Time, I suppose, for my two cents regarding this matter.

Made by the same people who gave us Gurren Lagann Kill la Kill makes no secret of what type of show it is from the very beginning. I should make my thoughts on this show clear right now; Kill la Kill is quite possibly the stupidest show I have ever seen. With that said, it is also one of the most entertaining action shows I've seen in quite a while. But what kind of show is this really?

For starters it's an action show. You could probably work that out from the title. More surprisingly this is technically a magical girl anime, complete with transformation scenes and ridiculous outfits. And with that as an awkward segue I'll launch into the only reason I'm talking about this series at all; our main heroine's outfit.

I'm sure you've already seen pictures of this outfit on the internet so you can already guess what most people say about it. It has been said that this outfit is above and beyond in terms of fanservice, as well as making no sense whatsoever as battle armour. Let me address those statements right here. As revealing (extraordinarily revealing) as Ryuko's outfit is I'd like to point out that we who watch anime are in no way new to fanservice. This is above and beyond what is average, true, but it's also true that there is much, MUCH worse out there than this (Queen's Blade anyone?), and that's even before you get into actual hentai, so I'm willing to be a little more forgiving to the fanservice than some others may be. I don't dislike the outfit because of it's impracticality as a battle outfit either (well okay, maybe that does bug me a little but again I've seen worse) considering it has long been accepted practice for magical girls to dress in outfits that make no sense for combat.

No. I dislike the outfit because it just plain looks stupid.

I have never seen an outfit that looks more ridiculous in my life and I pity whatever poor cosplayer is foolish enough to try this one. It doesn't look cool, it doesn't look comfortable, and more than anything it makes Ryuko look like a rejected design from Witchblade. The scissor blade I like a lot more because I think it honestly makes for a pretty cool weapon, but that alone is not nearly enough to compensate for what this girl is wearing. It's a shame because I actually like Senketsu as a character and I think he looks good on Ryuko in his sailor suit form, but the minute he transforms he quells any arguments in his favour.

Now... I suppose I should discuss other factors of this series. Not much to say after that outfit, but here we go.

The animation in Kill la Kill is decent. It's nothing great, and the art style takes some getting used to, but it gets the job done. The soundtrack is much the same in that regard with enjoyable but completely unmemorable songs, with two exceptions. The first is Don't Lose your Way which is notable only for how overused it is and how annoying it ultimately becomes. The other is a surprisingly awesome little song (Blumenkrantz) which is easy to spot, playing whenever there's a strong evil presence onscreen.

The story I can sum up in a few short words; it's incredibly dumb and makes almost no sense whatsoever. For example, in this show there is a well-funded and highly skilled terrorist organization which calls itself Nudist Beach. Let me repeat that: an army of nude terrorists with vast resources refer to themselves as Nudist Beach. Did I mention this show is kind of stupid?

As for the characters, there's not much to say. Aside from Ryuko and Satsuki no one really stands out enough that I'd devote time to describing them here. Characterization isn't too bad mind you: it's actually pretty decent, especially with the elite four. Still though, by the end of this show the only characters you'll have spent much time thinking about are the aforementioned Ryuko and Satsuki.

Final Opinion
Kill la Kill isn't anything you'll have to think too hard about, and it's probably better if you watch this one with your brain turned off, but it certainly is entertaining. If you like action scenes and explosions your sure to find something to like within Kill la Kill. I'd give this one a solid recommendation.

Witch Hunter Robin

Quick Summary
It's the present day, and witches infest the world sowing destruction and chaos wherever they tread. Though humans for the most part are unaware of these practitioners of the black arts living among them an organization called Solomon (the STN) exists to fight these witches and protect humanity. One day the Japanese branch of Solomon (the STN-J) receives a new member; a young witch-hunter named Robin with a great talent for the witches' Craft (specifically fire-magic). As time goes on however, it becomes clear that not all is as it seems as the STN-J begins to unravel the mysteries of the organization they serve as well as the witches they hunt.

Review
 Uuunnggghhhhhh. I'll admit, this was not an easy one.
Let's get this out of the way straight off; I'm aware that a lot of people really like Witch Hunter Robin and that I'm probably not the best person to talk about it. This series is definitely meant for a specific kind of viewer and that sad to say is not me. I usually consider myself pretty versatile and able to give an objective view of pretty much anything but this series certainly pushed my powers of objective judgement to the limit. Still, I'm here to give my thoughts on this little piece of work and that is what I intend to do. So let's go.

Right off the bat the series makes a bad first impression. The first several episodes are painfully slow paced and have a rather clumsy feel to them, as if the show was trying to figure out what exactly it was doing. Fortunately things do begin to pick up speed as the series progresses (around episode 7 or 8 I think is where things begin to flow properly) and luckily this is also where the characters begin to develop somewhat as up until this point they had essentially been a set of prepackaged stereotypes (you have the ditzy blonde, the uptight manager with a Hitler-stache, etc). While I do appreciate the series picking up speed I still can't accept such a weak start. This is never ok and it only serves to deter people who might have otherwise liked the series but dropped it after the first or second episode.

The sound is also something that gets better with time though admittedly it never really fit my tastes. The opening and ending themes to this one are decent, some nice guitar for the opening but overall it's nothing memorable and I found myself skipping through the songs quite a bit. The series soundtrack is much the same, though at the beginning I think they were terrified of anything being quiet or otherwise they never learned the effectiveness of silence to convey a mood as we are constantly hammered by a mess of noise. It becomes a touch oppressive and you breathe a heavy sigh of relief when the series starts having actual quiet moments. The voicework in the English dub unfortunately does not improve in the slightest; though to be fair that may be more to do with the script than the voice actors. For some reason everyone keeps pausing mid-sentence before continuing. I don't know what that's supposed to achieve but whatever the objective I think it fails. Also, the cast is apparently comprised entirely of parrots as everyone repeats EVERYTHING.
P1 "Look over there! It's a witch!"
P2 "A Witch?"
P1 "It's a witch and he's going to kill us all!"
P2 "Kill us all?"
It borders on the hilarious, this constant need for clarification, but most often it just comes off as annoying.

The animation is a mixed bag. On one hand I don't care for the character designs at all, but at the same time I can't say the animation is actually bad. Usually. It's actually rather good at times, though that's not surprising as the action scenes are so minimalist they barely even deserve to be called action scenes. People looking for a good action series, this is not for you.

There's more I could say about Witch Hunter Robin, but really I think I've covered all I need to.

Final Opinion
I'll admit that I don't care much for this one. I know that I'm not really the best person to discuss this series and it's possible I'm completely missing the point of this show, but I'm sorry; I just can't get into it. I wouldn't say this is a bad anime by any means, but I just don't see what's so great about it either. I'm not really sure who to recommend this to, but if you're the sort of person who would like this then there's a good chance you've already seen it and don't need my opinion. When all is said and done it's not at all easy to tell whether or not you'll like Witch Hunter Robin; watch it or don't, it's your choice.

Black Cat

After viewing Black Cat I'm left feeling lukewarm. On one hand, there is a certain enjoyment to be had from this one; a simple sense of unintellectual fun that I'll have to come up with some sort of name for eventually. On the other hand however, I can't escape the simple fact that this show is outright mediocre. The dub is weak, the story is weak, the characters are quite weak, and the soundtrack leaves much to be desired. The setting is sadly quite generic and sporting the tropes of every shounen ever put on display, but without any of the ridiculous cheesy passion that makes that sort of thing acceptable. So if the sound, story, setting and characterization are all sub-par, what causes people to like this series? Execution.
Black Cat is style over substance. Whether or not you like this show will be based entirely on whether or not you like the execution. Unfortunately, I didn't care much for Black Cat's style; that's just my personal preference (I just can't understand the hatred this show seems to have for establishing shots). That being said, I can see how others might love the execution and how that might forgive a lot of the shows shortcomings to them.
Unfortunately, as I said before if you don't care for the style the story won't do much to pick up the slack as it's so completely average. And as I also mentioned; the characters are generally rather weak. Few have decent backstories and with the sheer number of characters we have to deal with here it's no surprise they mostly come across as underwritten and unmemorable. For the record however, I did always look forward to two characters coming onscreen: Creed (who's actually a pretty decent villain with a good voice actor coming across as more than a little creepy) and Kyoko (who at the very least made me laugh a few times). Outside of those two however, the majority of characters seem defined by their superpowers. It's just lazy writing and though it never really gets tedious at any point, the shallowness here is not at all hard to see.

When all is said and done I don't know if I could recommend this one; the execution might make it worth your time if it fits your tastes but otherwise this is just a fairly average little series without a major draw. Check it out if you can't get enough of this kind of thing, but otherwise you won't be missing out on much by skipping this one.