Murenase! Seton Gakuen (Series rating: 8/10)

Mazama Jin goes to Seton Academy, a place where all sorts of humanoid animals go. Too bad he hates animals because of a traumatic childhood experience. Worse for him is that he is fancied by Ranka, an extremely excitable wolf girl who will not leave him alone until he joins her pack. She does not have a pack. But because Jin wants to get on Hitomi’s good side, since she’s the only other human in the academy, he joins her cooking club. There he meets several other animal girls. And he will never have a peaceful day again.

A bit of a spin on the animal-girl genre. These girls actually share a lot of traits with the animals they represent. For example, Ranka is so short because as she was growing up in extremely cold temperatures her sister gave her her coat to keep her warm. Since she never experienced the cold, she never grew larger to compensate. It’s also why her sister is gigantic. Jin is very knowledgeable about animals an will use this against them. He is kind of mean to them, but to be fair… most of them are very annoying. Hell, you might actually lean things about animals from this show. If you’re looking for cuteness, there’s that. If you want some fanservice, there’s that also. If you’re looking for comedy, definitely. A very enjoyable comedy.

Subtitles are from Erai. Made the ones for the special myself.

Psycho-Pass 3 (Series rating: 8/10)

Shindou Arata and Kei Michael Ignatov are the new inspectors assigned to the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division Unit 1. While Kei is more of a by-the-book kind of inspector, Arata is a wildcard. You never know what he’s really thinking and while his desire to solve cases is admirable and genuine, his methods are quite unorthodox. I guess it’s no surprise that is was Tsunemori Akane herself that recommanded him for the job. Watch as these two break enough rules solving cases to give their chief, Shimotsuki Mika, an aneurysm.

After the abysmal second season I was ready give up on the franchise, but held off on dropping it because I wanted to give the 3rd season a chance after the surprisingly good side-story movies. I was pleasantly surprised. While Arata comes off as a bit of a Gary Stu, with his “mentalist” abilities, fantastic physical skills and him already knowing Akane (all traits of a poor fanfic self-insert), I ended up liking him. While I hold of on calling him a “good guy”, for several reasons, his tactics and how he threw himself into action made him much more fun to watch then I expected. But it was Kei who was my favorite. A no-nonsense guy who wants to always do the right thing but will bend the rules for what he believes is right. Also, his background says he’s half-Russian, but I only know this because some people keep calling him an immigrant. He looks just like the rest of them. Weird. But it was what season 3 did with Mika that made me love it: she’s not awesome. They promoted her to district chief, and she’s quite good at it. She still has outbursts, but most are justified because Arata just arrest a diplomatic envoy to lure out a criminal because she told him to get it done “by any means necessary”. She’s the angry police chief in 90’s movies. If you’re wondering where Akane is during all of this? Spoilers. Special note for the action: damn well done fights.

Subtitles, OP/ED and chapters are from the Mysteria release. Thank him/her for taking the time to add the OP/ED.

Kyokou Suiri - In-Spectre (Series rating: 7/10)

When she was a young girl, Iwanaga Kotoko was taken by youkai and made a into an intermediary between the spirit and human world. The price for this power was an eye and a leg, though it’s not certain who exactly took them. Now, years later, she works on solving mysteries involving the supernatural. She also has a tremendous crush on a young man she once met at the hospital (and might have been stalking after): Sakuragawa Kuro. One day fate reunites the two and they decide to work together on solving these mysteries. Kuro isn’t a regular human either. By ingesting the flesh of two different youkai he gained abilities himself.

Well, this definitely wasn’t what I expected when I watched the trailer. If you’re thinking this is a high-speed, supernatural, action-comedy, you are wrong. It does have these elements, but the show is actually quite slow. This is a character driven thriller where dialogue is the main part. Some might call it boring, and at times it did seem to drag on too long, but what makes or breaks shows like these are the characters. Luckily Kotoko, for me at least, carries the show. She’s a genius at solving and investigating while being unashamedly horny for Kuro, who’s having none of it. Kuro’s kind of bland at first, but the reason for his lack of emotions is made clearer later. The two are a lot of fun to watch, but I won’t blame you if you find the final arc to go on for far too long. Because it does. Still, I enjoyed it.

Beastars (Series rating: 8/10)

This is a world where herbivores and carnivores live in peace. Or at least, that what it looks like. In reality, the world is very chaotic. Carnivores are treated as criminals if they even show a hint of following their instincts. That would be completely unfair if not for the fact that many carnivores are one snap away from killing and eating someone. This society is hanging by a thread and the news that a herbivore student at Cherryton Academy was killed and eaten is just the knife needed to let everything unravel. Legosi is a huge wolf. He looks scary, is quite strong and towers over most other students. But he's a very gentle boy, just trying to get by without frightening anyone. He's in the drama club and he is best friends with the deer Louis. He develops a huge crush on Haru, a dwarf rabbit. But is this actual attraction or does he just want to eat her?

Well, I didn't think I'd enjoy this one so much after finding out it was CG, but it kind of worked. I mean, it was going to be strange from the start, might as well have the visuals to match. It also helps that the people working on this did their very best to capture the emotions of the characters. They still look a bit strange to me, but that's because these are human bodies with animal heads. I absolutely loved Legosi. He's a huge dork who can't even talk to a girl he likes. I found it both admirable and sad how he did everything he could to make himself seem non-threatening: he keeps his hands behind his back to hide his claws, he slouches to seem smaller and talks with his head down to not show his fangs. But he's not a complete pushover and can hold his own in a fight. I know many people hated Haru for being a slut (?), but I like her. She's feisty, doesn't take crap from anyone, and is brave without being too stupid about it. I mean, most herbivore girls wouldn't hang out with someone like Legosi, and in fact run away from him immediately. Yeah. her indecisiveness about who she really wants was painful at times, but these are supposed to be teenagers, and she was never trying to hurt anyone.

Subtitles are from PAS. Now we wait for season 2.

Hell Teacher Nube (Series rating: 8/10)

Nueno Meisuke is starting his brand new job as a school teacher. A teacher in the worst placed school on the planet. Why? Because it’s constantly haunted by demons, ghost and goblins. Fortunately for his students, not only is Nueno a highly skilled exorcist, he also has a devil sealed in his right hand. He can call upon the powers of said devil to fight other supernatural creatures. When he’s not protecting his students he’s trying to win over the heart of fellow teacher Ritsuko. Sadly for him, Ritsuko hates the occult and since Nube is almost always followed by something odd, he’s chances of hanging out with her are slim to none. And that’s only the beginning of his problems.

Hell Teacher Nube is another 90’s anime that I love. I always liked series that feature Japanese supernatural creatures, and this series has them in spades. But wait, because we also have some decent comedy and a surprising amount of fanservice for a show like this. Gotta love the 90s. One thing I loved about this show is that it’s not always the same pattern. Sometimes the creatures they face aren’t even malicious. Some just misunderstood the actions of the humans, or they were trying to help but unaware they were doing harm. Sure, there are plenty of evil ones as well. But even for most of those, the battle is not so simple. Many times the monster is too strong to fight directly so it must be weakened as per its legend. Other times Nube is simply no match for it and must find some other way of defeating it. You never really know how an encounter will go. The students are lots of fun as well, even though most of them are stereotypes: Kyoko is the tsundere, Hiroshi is the dummy, Miki is the prankster, etc. They’re all endearing though.

The subtitles are all form the BakaBT releases, but I need to explain. The subs for the TV series are passable, but not great. The subs for the movies and OVAs are much better.

Popotan (Series rating: 8/10)

Ai, Mai and Mii are three sisters that live in a magical, Christmas themed house. The house can travel though space and time. The only problem is that it does so on its own, at random. The girls are on a journey without an actual destination, and they never know how long they will be in one place before the house moves again. Each of the sisters has a special power: Ai can talk to flowers, Mai has enhanced physical attributes and Mii can heal injuries. They also have an android maid, Mea, who takes care of them while always making snide comments on the side. Join the group as they travel around Japan hoping to finally end their journey and be able to settle down somewhere.

One of my first ecchi anime. You want nudity? We’ve got it. Every single female character, main and side, gets naked at least one. One of them literally just because. So this is a fanservice comedy, with plenty of laughs and boobies, right? WRONG! This shit’s DEPRESSING. The first half tried to be a comedy and hide all the drama in the back but the second half stops pretending and goes full angst mode. And I loved it. The story is pretty damn good and pretty damn sad. And it makes sense. The house functions like an unstable TARDIS, and will leave you behind if you’re not there when it leaves. Even so, you never know how far into the future you might be sent and if you made some friends, they’ll probably be dead of old age even though it was only 5 minutes for you. Also, Keith is a piece of shit, but goddamn can he fight. And good luck getting the opening song out of your head.
The source is the R2 DVDs while the subtitles come from the R1 DVDs. Internal VOBSUBS.

PS: In the extra folder you might notice something called “The Traid AMV”. For those too young to know, The Triad was a fansubbing group that subbed this show back in the days. For the final episode, they made a small AMV style thing, thanking the creators as well as their staff for working on it. I loved it, so I included it.

Inuyasha (Series rating: 9/10)

Higurashi Kagome is a slighly average 15 year old girl. She lives at the Higurashi shrine with her family. While wondering around the old well of the shrine, she accidently falls in it and comes out in feudal Japan. Turns out she is the reincarnation of a famous priestess: Kikyo. Not only that, but inside her is the powerfull Shikkon Jewel. One the jewel exits her body after being attacked by monsters seeking it, she has no choice but the release Kykyo’s old foe: Inuyasha. But while Inuyasha is rude, brash and very impulsive, he hardly seems evil. At least not evil enough to seal off in the first place. What happened between Inuyasha and Kikyo? And what will happen now? By accident the Shikkon Jewel is shattered into hundreds of pieces, each dangerous on its own. Kagome and Inuysaha have to travel together and find all the shards while uncovering the plot that got Kikyo killed and Inuyasha sealed.

Oh man, nostalgia central. One of my first long running anime. I love it to pieces, but I can admit it has some serious problems, mostly in charatcer growth and pacing. But I sill adore it. The animation is pretty damn good, the charatcers memorable and the fight exciting. Naraku is one of the biggest pieces of shit in anime histroy, while Sesshomaru is one of the coolest anti-heros ever put to film. I hope you enjoy this as mush as I do. Don’t forget to also watch the 4 movies and the final season (get Rizel). Also, since this is a huge show, let me know if you find any errors.

Cutie Honey Universe (Series rating: 6/10)

Meet Kisaragi Honey. She’s the sweetest girl you’ll ever meet. She’s also very pretty. You might just say she’s perfect. Well, she might just be. She’s an android built by her “father”, professor Kisaragi. But one day, Honey comes home to see that her father was killed by members of the Panther Claw: a terrorist organization willed with monsters. You see, Honey is not just a perfect android, she’s a perfect weapon. Thanks to the device implanted in her, she alone can face and destroy Panther Claw, led by the ruthless Sister Jill.

OK, so Cutey Honey is a really old property that has been around since the 70s. This is the 5th animated show. It’s completely unrelated to the others and can be watched right now. It’s quite fun. I enjoyed the updates this version brought, especially for Panther Claw who gained a lot of character as a whole. Hell, my favorite character IS from Panther Claw. Still not sure what Jill’s goal WAS, but she made a pretty good villain. Just so you know, this series gets very depressing at times. I mean REALLY depressing. If I had to find fault, it would have to be the short length, which didn’t let all characters grow. And the animation is a bit wonky. There is fanservice, but no actual nudity in the show. Weird, I know. If you want nudity, that’s what the end cards are included for.

Itai No Wa Iya Nano De Bougyoryoku Ni Kyokufuri Shitai To Omoimasu (Series rating: 9/10)

Honjou Kaede has never really played a MMORPG game before. But her friend convinces her to play a really popular new VR game. So she does. After naming her character Maple, she goes out to have adventures. But she has no idea what she is doing. Since she doesn’t want to get hurt she puts all her point into VIT. Unfortunately this doesn’t let her do anything else but take damage. Lucky for her that the game she is playing is completely broken. You can do anything in this game. This is one of its selling points. But that also means you can do any stupid thing as well, and the game has to try and account for it. So Maple keeps getting more and more skill because she keeps doing things that the game doesn’t really understand and tries to correct itself. Why would anyone stand still and let venomous insects bite them? Because they are immune to venom. Is Maple immune to venom? No. But she should be. So now Maple is immune to venom. Watch Maple make friends, create a guild and stumble into over-powered skills and abilities that would make even a self-insert isekai protagonist cower in fear.

Oh man, I had so much fun with this. Maple is the sweetest thing in the world. Not only is she cute as a button, but she basically has the personality of a happy-go-lucky puppy. There are no real stakes in this show. It’s just a slice of life. The fun comes from seeing what Maple does next, as the admins can’t nerf her since she became the mascot of the game. And she just keep piling on OP abilities and additional transformations ranging from angel to Cthulu.

Yu Yu Hakusho Movies (Movies rating: 6/10 and 9/10)

Urameshi Yuusuke is your typical teenage delinquent. But underneath it all he has a good heart. So good that when he dies saving a little boy, the spirit realm is stumped. They had not planned for him to die since, by their calculations, there was no way Yuusuke would try to save that boy. Now he’s stuck as a ghost. But if he agrees to become a spirit detective and subdue violent spirits, he’ll be brought back to life. And thus begins Yuusuke’s new life. Making friends, enemies, learning new moves, and one day maybe saving the world.

So yeah, a couple of days ago a pretty good BD version of the show came out on torrents. I thought I’d sweeten the deal with the movies. YYH was one of the first battle shounen I ever saw. I really liked it. Sure, it had TWO tournament arcs, but they were fun as hell. Now, the first movie is really just one third of an actual movie. It was part of a triple feature alongside a DBZ and Dr.Slump promotion. It’s really just an extra episode of the show, with a simple plot: get back the golden seal that was stolen. The second movie is where it’s at. Full length and in my opinion one of the best movie a shounen franchise ever got. A loved the story, the battles were intense and the cinematography was top notch.