Photon - The Idiot Adventure (Rating: 8/10)

Space rebel Keyne Aqua escapes from her evil pursuer, Papacharino Nanadan and winds up on Planet Sandy. On said planet lives Photon. He’s a very sweet young boy, with incredible physical powers. He’s also not very smart. But when the two get married by accident, Photon will do anything it takes to protect Keyne, both from Papacharino and from the evil Galactic Emperor. Joining him is Aun, his high strung, obnoxious, but well meaning (?) childhood friend.

You wanna have some idiotic fun? Well, this is the series. It’s in the title. From the creator of Tenchi Muyo comes this insanity. You’ll laugh with Photon for 5 episodes. What about the 6th one, you ask? Well, that 6th one might be more at ease in a horror drama. Yeah, the Galactic Emperor is seriously fucked up. Photon is incredibly sweet and loyal. So much so that his battle cry is “You made her cry”. If he tells you that, you’re in for a severe beating. Aun’s power is to stop time, but she’s not immune to it. So if Photon wasn’t immune to it, she’s be stuck there forever. That was a pretty good subversion of a useful power. Did I mention there’s nudity? Because there is. Keyne spends almost 2 episodes naked. Yummy. I also love the animation. Lots of details in the movements. They don’t make them like this anymore. Sad.

A/V from R2 DVD. Subs from Niizk.

My Roommate Is A Cat (Rating: 8/10)

Mikazuki Subaru is a depressed, shy novelist. He’s not very good with people. Also, he does not want a cat. Through no fault of his own, he ends up with a cat. Little did he know that bonding with the little creature would help him learn how to let other people into his life. Haru, the stray, has had a rough life. So she doesn’t know how to trust humans. She does not understand why this strange human would try and take care of her. It must be a trick.

Tattoon Master (Rating: 6/10)

 Hibio Hibino does not like women. He thinks they are needy, selfish and unreliable. This stems from his relationship with his own mother, who, being an archeologist/adventurer, was never around for him. But one day a mysterious girl shows up looking for him, holding a picture of him and his mother. She wants to marry him. His opinion does not matter. What's more, she has special powers.

A cute, short, OVA. The story is nothing special, but never has any chance to develop because it's so short. I watched it because of the art style and animation. It's not bad, but nothing special. Used the R2 DVD and the subs from mottoj.

Sentimental Journey (Rating: 6/10)

 

Based on a series of dating simulators named Sentimental Graffiti, this anime series is another unusual jab at the genre (the other one is Seraphim Call), this time by Sunrise.
It also focuses on individual stories, this time that play out like an epilogue to the scenario on the games. 12 girls, 12 episodes. You don’t need to watch them in order. Unlike Seraphim Call, this one is not as experimental, though it does share the trait of having several director and writers. The stories are, for the most part, slice of life romance.

If you’re wondering why the girls in this show seem familiar to you, even though you never watched, or even heard of the anime, or why the name makes you think “I’ve heard this before”, then you might have been first introduced to this series through a little game called Sentimental Shooting. The game was a bullet-hell shooter where you shot clothes off the girls from Sentimental Journey, while dogging lasers and shooting down spacecrafts. Game was hard as balls on normal. And then I found out that if you beat the 2 stages without dying or using your energy, you fight a secret boss. FUCK! THAT!. On hard difficulty you die instantly.

A/V from R2 DVD, subs from R1 release.

My Next Life As A Villainess (Rating: 9/10)

 

When **** ******, a 17-year-old otaku wakes up in her favorite otome visual novel, she’s as happy as can be. That is until she realizes she’s in the child body of the villainess of the story: Katarina Claes. Since she has extensive knowledge of the way the story goes, with Katarina either killed or exiled at the end, she vows to not let that happen. For all her plans though, all she really has to do is be nice to everyone. Lucky for her she’s such a goodnatured idiot that being nice to people is something that comes natural to her. Thus begins her journey from the main villainess to the main heroine.

Bakarina is an adorable idiot that must be protected at all times. She’s also a harem protagonist who does not care about gender. By the end of the series she has everyone in her harem. Of course, she’s completely oblivious about it. I loved this show. It was very cute and funny. I think it’s impossible to hate Karatina. BTW, I dislike “Catarina” so my subs have “Katarina” instead. Now we wait for season 2, which will go completely off the script of the game, so Katarina will have zero idea what will happen.

A/V from BDMV, subs from Erai. Included the 4 trial versions of Fortune Lover.

 

Shichinin No Nana (Rating: 8/10)

 

Suzuki Nana has an accident with one of the weird inventions her grandfather made. Thus, she is split into 7 Nanas, each an aspect of her personality. They have to join back together in one year, but until then they have to keep the fact that there's 7 of them a secret, while also studying for entrance exams and trying to confess to her/their crush.

From the director of Mazinger Z, Gundam G and Getter Robo: Armageddon (what the hell?) comes a cute little comedy with a dash of super-natural. It gets a bit angst-heavy in the final episodes, which is why I recognized the direction to begin with. That, and the sound effects for the battles were very familiar. This is also the anime that made me realize how inferior English dubs are. You see, in the Japanese, each Nana has a separate voice (some high raking ones at that), while in the English dub they just use one voice for all characters, which makes it very hard to figure out who is talking at times. As for the show, I liked it. It's a bit smarter then it seems. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the original Nana acts quite independently, while the other 6 are almost always acting either in unison or on the same idea. Which makes me think that the machine didn't so much split Nana in 7, but split her in 2, then split the second one into 6. Like putting a prism in front of a light beam, you end up with 1 white stream and 7 colored ones. Which is also a hint for later.

Take note: the subtitles are VobSubs from the R1, which sadly does not match 100% with the R2 (for some reason). This means that the timing of the subtitles is a bit wonky at times. Also, episode 19 in the R2 does not have the preview on the discs.

Elf Princess Rane (Rating 9/10)

 

A very funny, but much too short OVA. It saddens me that this went unfinished.
I couldn’t stand the fact that the only DVD remux was a completely shitty English dub only version.
Video from zrdb. Audio and subtitles from Dual-Duality.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (Rating 6/10) [RAW]

 

Kusakabe Maron is your average 16 year old girl by day. She goes to school, hangs out with her friends, gossips about crushes. But by night she becomes the Kaitou Jeanne, God’s messenger. Guided by her guardian angel, Fin, she goes out to purify artwork that has been possessed by devils, thus turning the people who adore them into servants of the devil. The problem is the only way to purify the devils is to seal the thing they are possessing, thus to the rest of the world Jeanne is stealing precious artworks. To make it worse, her best friend Miyako is the daughter of the police detective assigned to catch Jeanne, thus she usually comes with them. And to pot is off, there’s another Kaitou who’s out to seal the same devils. Could he be working for Satan himself?

And oldie but a goldie for me. I used to watch this on RTL II back in the day. I really enjoyed it for what it is, but to be honest it is quite dated. The character designs are 90’s shoujo, with HUGE eyes. The animation is decent for the time, but falls in and out of quality. The story is nothing special… at first. What I most remember this for is the absolute brutal twist in the last arc. It came almost completely out of nowhere, but was actually foreshadowed. But you wouldn’t really catch the hints on the first viewing. Also, if you want to break someone emotionally, that was one hell of a good way to do it. The series is quite long, at 44 episodes, and tends to be a bit angsty at times. Maron is not a happy girl and might actually suffer from depression. She definitely does by the start of the last arc.

R2 DVD remux, but no subs. Stardust is working on this show. They’re up to episode 15.

 

Psycho-Pass - Sinners Of The System (Rating: 9-7-7/10)

 

Crime And Punishment
A runaway vehicle driven by Izumi Yasaka, en route to the Public Safety Bureau building, is reported shortly before it crashes into the building. Izumi is a counselor who recently ran away while working at a latent criminal isolation and rehabilitation facility known as Sanctuary. Now Inspector Shimotsuki has finally been given the opportunity she had been waiting for—to be the primary investigator on an important case. This case follows Shimotsuki and her team of Enforcers as they uncover the secrets of Sanctuary.

First Guardian
Enforcer Teppei Sugou, former ace pilot of the National Defence Army’s 15th Integrated Task Force, is visited by a scout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and invited to rejoin the military. While considering the offer, he recalls his last months of service. Many lives were lost during the operation, including Itsuki Otomo, Sugou’s commanding officer. However, three months later, following a massacre at the Ministry of Defence, Otomo was spotted at the scene on camera. Now a suspect in an act of terrorism, Sugou cooperates with Enforcer Tomomi Masaoka and CID Division One as they hunt his former mentor down.

Beyond Love And Hate Is ___
Following the incident in the Southeast Asia Union (SEAUn) in 2116, Shinya Kogami resumes his vagrant journey. In a small South Asian nation, Kogami rescues a bus of refugees under attack by armed guerrilla forces. Among the refugees is a young lady by the name of Tenzin, who begs Kogami to teach her how to retaliate against the enemy. Just what do the girl who wishes for revenge and the man who has exacted revenge see as they gaze upon the edge of a world from which there is no escape?

These three movies tell side-stories about certain charatcers. They were all quite good, but I’m very fond of the first one, because it made me like Mika a lot. And sets her up for Psycho-Pass 3, where she’s great. Second movie was a bit of a let down, but not bad. Third was pretty much the same as the last Kogami movie.

Source is BDMV. Subtitles from Mysteria. Descriptions from MAL, for once.

 

Psycho-Pass 3 - First Inspector (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 recommended him for the job. Watch as these two break enough rules solving cases to give their chief, Shimotsuki Mika, an aneurysm.

I’m recycling the description because this is a direct continuation. If you liked season 3, this is literally more of it.

Subtitles from Erai.

 

Digimon Adventure - Last Evolution - Kizuna (Rating: 9/10)

 

Taichi and the other chosen children spend their everyday lives balancing regular live with stopping while digimon that come though random digital gates from destroying everything in their path. But once people start falling into comas they realize that something very bad is happening. And they are right. But it’s not what they expected. Sometimes growing up means having to leave things behind. Things you cherished as a child.

Grab updated subs here.

FANBOY MODE ACTIVATED
Holy fucking shit! This is it. This is what I wanted. A fantastic Digimon Adventure movie. I absolutely loved it. It had everything I could have asked for. The plot was engaging. The characters acted like they should have. The battles were meaningful. The message was powerful. TOEI can actually pull it off. What a sendoff. What a finale!
FANBOY MODE DEACTIVATED

Now that we got that out of the way… This was a great movie, on all accounts. Sure, it’s only 90 minutes long, but what a ride. From start to finish it played with my heart. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t exactly a happy movie. But even so, they managed to insert some great humor. Bad place to put that stuff, Taichi. The directing this time was on spot. The reveal of Neverland gave me chills, as did the titular last evolution. I can’t believe I’m praising this so much after the disaster that TRI was. BTW, it’s still canon. This takes place after the supposed resolution of the TRI story line. Doubt they’ll ever make that though. All in all, I enjoyed this far more they I thought I would.

About the subtitles, I used @bgette0&ok&sekkusu&ISSOUj&Eosmon as a base, and made the following changes:

• added missing lines. There were a lot of missing lines. I mean like… a lot. Small, short… but some very important. Including the actual final line in the show.
• corrected badly translated lines. There were a lot of lines that were straight up wrong. Some changed the entire meaning of the conversation.
• corrected poorly translated line. Some lines read like they were made of an English dub, filled with slang that characters wouldn’t use.
• corrected the names and terminology. Used the original Japanese names and terminology. None of that DigiDestined crap. They are chosen children.
• split lines. There were a lot of lines that were not split correctly. Like when two character were talking at once.
• fixed timing. Many lines had terrible timing. This was a pain for me because I hate timing.
• fixed OCR errors. There were a few of these as well.
  

Battle Athletes (Rating: 7/10)

 

Humanity has been though a lot. After the devastating war on 2015, followed by a global calamity that almost wiped out the planet, humanity battled an alien force for decades until a stalemate was reached. It was decided that the victor would be the one to outperform his opponent in physical prowess. After a surprising victory by the humans, they dedicated their lives to perfecting the human physique. Now, in the year 3XXX, women around the world compete to be crowned the most athletic woman in the solar system: the Cosmo Beauty. Kanzaki Akari is such a woman. The daughter of the previous Cosmo Beauty, she wins herself a spot in the most renown training facility, University Satellite. But she soon learns that the student at this university are expected to perform at a much higher level then she even thought possible.

A blast form the past. Battle Athletes is based on a series of PC games where you trained Akari in different sports to win the championship. You might be familiar with the more popular TV series, but this 6 part OVA was the base for it. It’s not a bad entry at all, and sets the stage quite well, but it is a bit rough around the edges. The animation is fluid but wonders off model often, and the pacing is lightning fast. Still, it’s quite enjoyable and will even enhance your enjoyment of the TV series, as some of the characters here are prototypes for the TV show.

Subs from the official R1 release. Them being from the 90s, the timing is not so good and they took some liberties with the translation. Nothing too bad though. Thank god they stopped translating the -san as Ms/Mr. I always hated that.

The 8th Son! Are You Kidding Me!! (Rating: 6/10)

 

Ichinomiya Shingo, your average salaryman one day wakes up as Wendlin, the 8th son of a rather poor noble family in another world. Knowing that he can’t get back home and that he won’t get any money from his family he sets out to study. What he finds is that he has an amazing aptitude for magic. And as luck would have it, he stumbles upon a powerful magician that agrees to teach him how to use his magic. And thus begins Wendlin’s adventure that will have him maneuvering through the tough political world he’s now in, even though he has no clue about it.

I’m make a “stop me if you’ve heard this one” joke, but this one is a bit different then most isekai series. For one, Wendlin, while quite powerful, is not completely overpowered. He doesn’t really have the skill and mindset to be a powerful warrior so he tries to make friends and build a party. Mostly of pretty girls, of course. But this isn’t a harem anime, so he only has one real love interest. Also this series focuses much more on the political aspect of the world, and much less on the magical battles. I appreciated that. Wendlin himself gets pretty much strung along the political narrative, with the royal house having big plans for him, his will regardless. Quite a decent show, but don’t expect any mind blowing animation here. With the exception the the bizzarely good opening theme nothing really stands out, production wise. Still, I enjoyed it a bit, and you might too. There’s no fanservice here, if that’s what you’re hoping for. It’s more of a slice-of-life type of deal. Not even a bathing episode. Don’t don’t worry. There is still an appearance for something that has been creeping up in a lot of isekai lately: mayonnaise. What the hell is it with isekai anime and mayonnaise? Does Japan have such good mayonnaise that is can calm the hearts of all?

 

Hataage! Kemono Michi (Rating: 7/10)

 

Shibata Genzo, undefeated wrestling champion, is about to go finish his final match. After that, he plans on retiring and opening a pet store. Genzo is a huge animal lover and can’t wait to have as many pets as possible. Sadly, he is trasnported to another world just as he’s about to win. The princess of that world tells him that he is the chosen hero, and he must exterminate the magical beasts that roam the world. So Genzo suplexes her, gets the hell out of the castle and goes on to open a pet store. On the way he has a wolf girl, a dragon girl and a vampire join his company. Most of them are useless though.

OK, so this is not your regular isekai. Genzo has zero interest in fighting magical beasts. He wants to capture them an open a pet store. Thing is he is also really strong, so nobody can really get him to stop doing whatever crazy thing he’s doing. He will also beat the crap out of you in you ask him to hunt monsters. Or call him the beast killer. Genzo has a one track mind: are animals involved? No? Then he doesn’t care. Shigure is the only reason he still has any money. Hanako and Carmilla spend money instead of making money. This is a fun show about a crazy wrestler beating up people and looking for new animals to bring home. Sure, everyone is a bit of a one-trick-pony, but it’s entertaining enough. Also, more shows should end with a wrestling tournament.

Subs by Erai.

 

Butobi!! CPU (Rating: 8/10)

 Akira has saved up all his money and finally managed to buy himself a computer. But having missed the sale on the new 9821 model, he buys one from a back-alley vendor. When his gets home he realizes he didn’t buy the 9821 computer, he bought the 2198 gynoid. Still, she is far more advanced then a computer and will do whatever he asks of her, and more.

A short 3-episode ecchi anime from the late 90s, and a great one at that. Not only does it have a star-studded cast, but the plot is not bad at all. And it’s quite funny with all the references to PC culture. Of course the evil computers are Nacintosh, and the virus is represented by a worm. The animation is pretty damn good, and there’s actual (though completely obscured) intercourse. Lots of boobies are in full view though, as Mimi has no nudity taboo. Akira’s one lucky bastard. Give it a shot, you will probably like it.

The subtitles are from the R1 release.

Sengoku Collection - Part 1 (Rating: ??/10)

 

Attention! This is only the first half of this series. Unfortunately, the BDMVs for the second half were never shared (except for volume 9). I am releasing the first half in hopes someone who had the missing volumes will see this and maybe share them. Thank you.

One day, for reasons unknown, many of the generals from the Sengoku period are transported to our present world. Said generals are, of course, all female, and must learn to adapt to the the present, where wars are no longer fought. Some adapt easy, taking jobs as idols or models, while others have a hard time finding a purpose in this peaceful world.

Sengoku Collection is a very odd series. It’s a 26 anime series with over 14 episode directors. Because of this the episodes themselves are vastly different from one another. One episode might a comedy while the next one will give you depression. You might go form a SOL to a revenge story. My favorite is the one that recreated a famous battle as a fight between children in kindergaden. Some episodes are fantastic, some are terrible, and most are in between. Think of it as a goodie bag where you don’t know what you’re going to get. While there are no changes on the BD, I do believe the quality is much better: http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/91JFFNNU

Subtitles from FFF.

 

Shinchou Yuusha (Rating: 9.5/10)

 Newbie goddess Ristarte is given the task of saving the S-Ranked world, Gaeabrande. She must select a hero from another world to be the hero of that world. While searching through the list she sees someone with stats much higher then is normally found. Ryuuguuin Seiya seems like the perfect hero: strong, handsome and with amazing power right from the start. But in her excitement in finding such a powerful hero, Ristarte didn’t read the fine print: Ryuuguuin Seiya is overly, impossibly cautious.

Oh man, one of my favorites in these past years. For starters, Seiya is not just cautious, he’s at a level of paranoia that would make Batman rethink his life. That old man in the village? Could be a monster in disguise. The flower that little girl gave him? Could be a cursed item. That harmless slime? Could be the final boss. This makes Ristarte’s life very difficult because it takes forever for Seiya to actually do something. But when he does, it’s only because he’s Ready Perfectly. He WILL defeat his enemy in the most overkill manner possible. Ristarte is also comedy gold and could be used for an entire archive of reaction faces. Her voice actress did an amazing job. But it’s not all fun an games here. In fact, the later half of the series takes a hard turn from Konosuba Avenue to Dark Souls alley. If you missed all the foreshadowing about how cruel this world is, and didn’t at least partially realize why Seiya acts the way he does, the final arc might blindside you. This also has the effect of making the series really funny only once. Because as soon as you know why Seiya does what he does, it’s no longer funny to see him do it. I think that’s the mark of a great show: on the second watch it’s like you’re seeing a completely different depiction.

Subtitles from AnimeFreak.

Strike The Blood III (Rating: 8/10)

 

Akatsuki Kojou thought he would finally have some peace and quiet after the Knight of the God of Mistakes ordeal. Of course that doesn’t happen. The now peaceful island is under threat from the world renown terrorist organization: Tartaros Roses. And their leader is someone very familiar to to Kojou.

This is the third season, so you should know what this is about. I gotta love how they keep making more of this. This may be my favorite battle-harem. The quality has not dipped since this show first started, but the plot sure has deepened. It’s actually quite hard to keep track of all the damn factions and what they’re trying to do. One thing’s for certain: Kojou keeps getting more battles, more hot girls and more familiars. Isn’t un-life great?

From here on out, it’s my release. No, sempai, it’s our release.
I used Lean for 01-06 and Mushin for 07-10. Lean is a little better then Mushin. But unlike Mushin, Lean is dead. Also, STB was never a very cerebral show. That, and there is no other choice.

 

Hakubo (Rating 5/10)

 

Set in the beautiful Fukushima, this is the story of young violin player Koyama Sachi. She meets a boy who loves painting, and develops a crush on him. But the boy, Kijinami Yuusuke, is still suffering from the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. How will she get close to him so she can confess her love?

OK, who keeps giving Yamamoto Yutaka money? I only ask because this project was crowdfunded and got 21 million yen. That’s about 2000$, or something. Anyway, this short movie is fine. The problem is it’s JUST fine. So why did I watch it? And why did I encode it? Well, it’s short, at only 50 minutes. And it does look nice. And it reminded me of Sound Euphonium. It’s not close to being that good, but I did enjoy the “subtle” jabs at “other properties” Yutaka put in the movie. That takes balls. No class, but balls. Actually, that’s Yutaka in one sentence. No preview this time cause… the hell was I supposed to put in them?

Subs from Erai.

 

Seraphim Call (Rating: ??/10)

 

In the future of 2010 (show’s old, folks) in the city of Neo-Acropolis 11 girls go about their lives, facing their problems and trying to get by. These are their stories.

Seraphim Call is definitely anime. But it’s not a normal anime. Sunrise made thins thing in 1999 as some sort of experiment. Every episode except the last focuses on one of the 11 girls, and with the exception of episodes 5 and 6, they are separate, individual stories. The way they are directed, scripted and acted is also different for each story. One episodes is from the perspective of a stuffed animal, another might only have a single character shown, while another might be told chronologically disjointed. This is more of a strange art project, and I found it fascinating. Production wise the show must have had a very small budget. There are animation corner cuts all over. They will actively try not to focus on the mouths of the characters while they are talking, as to avoid needing to animate it. Episode 12 especially is guilty of this. All in all, I think this is an interesting anime, if only to focus on the different storytelling methods it included.

Subtitles are from the official R1 release.