Future Diary

This is a story I think I will have difficulty fully describing. But we have 26 episodes with the option of English Dub. The show came out in 2011-2012. In Japanese the show is Mirai Nikki.

It all starts out with a friendless boy named Yuki. He created some imaginary friends, except they turned out to not be so imaginary. Deus Ex Machina("God in the Machine") who is the God of Time and Space. Deus bestows him with a Future Diary which as the name implies, tells him his future. At first he just uses it to his advantage with normal kid stuff like getting the answers to tests. But it turns out there are others with Future Diaries.

Deus had set up a Game with 12 people all with their own types of Future Diaries. They must fight to the death. The reward for winning is replacing Deus as God. So the fight begins.

Yuki is joined by Yuno, a girl who is obsessively in love with Yuki. He goes between being creeped out and enjoying her company over the course of the show. But she is important for his survival in this game of death.

Eventually Yuki makes some other friends after narrowly surviving some intense scenarios. Even after his school is bombed and a whole bunch of dogs try to eat him. But Yuno doesn't like him having friends outside of her.

Without trying to give anything away, things get super crazy and fucked up around episode 20. The show goes into a whole new way by adding some elements that change everything. Of course there were hints from the beginning about it, but trust me when I say that you are not prepared for the stuff that goes down.

This was a surprising and thrilling show with a lot of psychological moments. It earns a score of 10 out of 11.

The Wire

Many believe this to be one of the best HBO series to ever exist. And it is not hard to see why. The series came out between 2002 and 2008 with a total of 5 seasons and 60 episodes. Each episode is about 55 minutes long with some of the season finales being 90 minutes or so.

The show follows a few different groups throughout the seasons. But mostly the Cops following the Drug Trade, and the Drug Traffickers. Characters will come and go, with some dying at some points. But as you watch all 5 seasons you will see everything linking together and connecting. We get to see the web of interconnecting cogs in the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

The first season is all about setting up a Wire(an electronic monitoring of phone usages) on Barksdale's gang of drug peddlers. We get to see the inner workings of the police department as well as what goes on in a gang. We get to see the politics of a drug dealing hierarchy. It's not just the kids on the street selling the drugs. Throughout the series we never abandon the characters we meet in this first season. Even when they aren't being directly investigated we still see them in their lives.

Season two deals in the smuggling that occurs on the Baltimore docks. We meet a large variety of new characters. We see some of the issues that come to the working folk of America. Technology and cutbacks taking these good hardworking folk and forcing them out.

Season three gets back into directly hunting down and catching the gangs again. But mostly it gets into the idea of what just might occur if Drugs were to be legalized.

Season four may be the most interesting of them all. This looks into the school systems. It reveals the problems and corruption that the US school systems have. Specifically going into the problems of teaching students only test questions. We don't teach our children to learn anymore. It shows us something that helps to explain why America is so low on the world scales in Education. They of course point this toward just intercity black children. But it hints at so much more.
This season also goes into the politics of the city. A man working toward becoming Mayor and the corruptions and dark dealing that occur in a public race like that.

Season five gets back into taking down the drug dealers. But because of political issues and funding problems the police are unable to fully do their jobs. So a horrible plot ends up being created. This season wraps up everything that occurred in all the previous seasons as well as some new issues that come about here.

This really is an incredible show. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a cop show with some of the most intricate and fascinating story arcs. You will find that over time you will grow to hate then love then hate some characters. One of the things I like most about the series is the Theme Song. It's the same song but performed by different artists for each season.

The show easily earns it's 11 out of 11.

Shimoneta

Japan has banned all sexual content, including the speaking of dirty words. This comedy will tell you all about that, more specifically the fight against this. 12 episodes that came out in 2015.

Everyone has been fitted with monitor devices that records all lewd words and actions. There is a special police force called the Peace Makers(PM) that are alerted to any of these, and they will punish any criminals. But what does this mean for society? Japan is now has the highest Morals in the world, but students don't know where babies come from. No one is even allowed to masturbate on their own because that is a lewd action that would be monitored by the devices.

Well luckily there is Blue Snow and her terrorist organization SOX. She fights the tyranny of these laws to that people will be free to say dirty jokes and view whatever content they desire. She blackmails Tanukichi Okuma into joining Sox, and with him by her side they reek all kinds of trouble. They pass out lewd images, hack computers to present vaguely sexual content, and try to help students understand that there is nothing wrong with some dirty jokes.

Student council president Anna works to stop SOX's efforts, while at the same time giving herself over to her newfound sexual obsession with Tanukichi Okuma. It all started with one accidental kiss, and her love juices just wouldn't stop flowing.

The show is clever with it's comical censorship of the lewd words, images, and actions of the show itself. You can't help but laugh as it works to make as many sexual jokes, innuendo, and puns as possible. Another interesting little thing is that the end credits change slightly with each episodes. It adds new characters to the dancing scenes as they are introduced. It's really all good fun.

I liked the show a lot. It was well done, and the sexual jokes were hilarious to a dirty mind such as mine. The show earns a 9.5 out of 11.

Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri

If only there was some sort of portal, or a window, wardrobe, police box, or oh I don't know, maybe a Gate to another world. With 24 episodes that came out between 2015 and 2016 this show made incredible strides from it's original novels.

A Gate opens in Japan that leads to a world of magic, animal people, elves, and more. But from the moment the Gate opened, we were attacked. Good thing we had Itami, an off duty otaku who managed to be right in the middle of things. He saved hundreds of people until the armed forces could arrive. This earned him his promotion. The promotion came with more responsibility and more work, the kind of stuff he never wanted. After all, if he only works to pay for his hobby.

Itami ends up leading a unit into this new land and ends up saving more people in the process. In doing so he gets his 3 companions: An Elf named Tuka, A Mage named Lelei, and a Goth Lolita Demi-God named Rory Mercury. With his unit of soldiers and his 3 companions they go out into this world helping people and end up in the middle of political turmoil. 

You see when the Japanese armed forces came through the Gate to make sure we wouldn't be attacked again, the king sent his and all his allies armies in for the attack. They were utterly destroyed. They had horses, swords, spears, armor, dragons, and more. But that didn't stand a chance again guns, tanks, helicopters, and mortars. In a matter of hours thousands died. And throughout the series this same thing kept occurring. The King or his mad son kept trying to send armies to destroy and control, but they were constantly just knocked down. Even the Great Fire Dragon that all feared in the land was hurt when fighting these soldiers.

I really liked this show. I was laughing my head off more than once. The fights were incredible. And Rory Mercury's want laugh as she slaughtered her opponents was fantastic. This show was so great it earns itself an 11 out of 11.

Danganronpa

Do you know who did it? Well you better figure it out or you'll die too. This video game was adapted to this interesting anime in 2013. It had a total of 13 episodes each being the usual anime length.

Ever played the board game Clue? It's kinda like that, except if everyone doesn't point out the correct killer you all die.

15 students have been selected to live inside a sealed school building with no way out. Then a weird black and white robot bear shows up saying he is the principal. He sets up some basic rules: only the girls bathrooms lock, no boys allowed in the girls changing room, don't damage the principal, murder a fellow classmate and get away with it to graduate. You know, basic.

The episodes tend to go like this. Someone dies, everyone investigates and grows suspicious. Next episode is the class trial, everyone discusses and analyses their findings to identify the killer among them. And as stated before there are stakes involved. If everyone correctly identifies the killer, then the killer is punished with death. But if everyone fails to identify the correct killer, then the murderer "graduates" and is allowed to leave the school for the outside world. And everyone but the killer is then punished with death.

I must say the show is kinda fun with all the psychological drama and intrigue that goes on. But the best thing about the show is that if you pay close enough attention(and I mean really close attention) you could solve each murder. Things are revealed in the trial that you couldn't have known, but in the investigation episode before the trial there is always that KEY clue that would lead you the audience to the correct answer. 

The show was really fun to watch. Trying to figure out who would be capable of murder, and which characters were most likely to be killers in later episodes. Plus plot twists. I also found it interesting that the show doesn't use gore in the traditional sense. All blood is colored pink instead of the red. This made it so instead of paying attention to the gore, you paid more attention to the clues and the characters involved. I give Danganronpa a 10 out of 11. A great watch.

Highschool of the Dead

Did someone say fan service? Cause if you did, then you will absolutely love this ecchi. 12 episodes, each 22 minutes. That's all. I mean sure there's zombies or something like that. Plus a super creepy teacher. But mostly lots of boobs. I kinda feel that of each episode, there is probably more shots of boobs and asses than there is anything else. Okay, so that's not entirely true...

What a nice day in which to be broody and not be in class. Oh! Who is that at the front gate making a ruckus? No worries, school staff is taking care of it. See there's the muscular teacher yelling, wait...OMG Blood! I don't know about you, but that's how my spring semesters usually started. 

How about we introduce the players. There is the broody baseball guy. The girl he had a thing for with a long stick. The pink haired super smart yelling girl. The geeky yet weapon genius. The large-breasted school nurse. And finally the crazy badass sword lady. Did I leave anyone out? Well a few other people show up later, like a dog, and a girl. But for now 6.

They all start off in pairs in different parts of the school as people keep getting bitten and the infection spreads. A whole bunch of fight scenes with plenty of up-skirts and boob jiggles later, now they are all a team. They manage to escape the school, with some unwanted baggage(another teacher and other students). All kinds of stuff happens. They lose weapons, they shoot people, they find a place to stay where all the girls can have pretty much 2 episodes to be mostly naked and all over each other and the guys. 

Now I am know my description doesn't do the show justice. It is pretty entertaining, especially so if you find the amount of fan service to be comical. But the show has impressive animation and some of the fights are incredible to watch. The characters have some interesting backgrounds that come together for the whole pretty well. 

I enjoyed watching the show. It had some interesting stuff to go over. But it still spent a lot of time on body parts, which while entertaining in their own right, made it so at times it felt nothing was happening. I give the show a 7 out of 11.

Mike & Molly

This comedy started back in 2010 and ran until 2016 were it was cancelled after 127 episodes. These 6 seasons are somewhat complicated as they decided to change the entire direction of the show at the start of season 4. Seasons 1-3 episodes are around 22 minutes long. Seasons 4-6 are usually just under 19 minutes.

Two people. Mike and Molly are both over-eaters. They meet at an Over-Eaters Anonymous meeting. After one disastrous first date, Mike is convinced that this is the woman he will marry someday. It was love from there.

The series goes pretty simply for the first few seasons. Season 1 exploring their relationship. Season 2 planning for the wedding. Season 3, lets make a baby. Then it completely changes. The director changed their view on the show. They wanted to take it into a completely new direction. So even though the last episode of Season 3 ends with Molly saying she's pregnant, Season 4 starts with her apologizing that she may never be able to give Mike a kid. No explanation in the show, no real mention of any of it.

Season 4's revamp sucks. The nice little love story comedy turned into a full fledged sitcom. Full of waiting for the laugh track and a lot of really stupid jokes. They changed the storyline into midlife crisis and more problems with money. Oh and now all the character are dating instead of doing something not stupid, or including more actors. Most importantly in my opinion is that the show took out the Over-Eaters Anonymous visits completely. I liked them showing this aspect of the characters. It showed them as humans with addictions and that they were actively trying to work through it.

Because of the major differences between the seasons I will rate them separately. I enjoyed the seasons 1-3 quite a bit. The story advanced and was sincere while adding comedy. It deserves a 9 out of 11. Seasons 4-6 were difficult to get through. The last half of season 6 gets back to that sincerity, but that season is only 13 episodes. I forced to give these last three seasons only 4 out of 11.

One Punch Man

One Man. One Hundred Push Ups. One Hundred Sit Ups. One Hundred Squats. Ten Kilometer Run. One Incredible Costume. One Punch.

My goodness was I wrong. My friend told me about this show saying how amazing it was. I looked at the general animation, and the picture above and thought "Yeah Right." It wasn't until months later that by random happenstance that I was watching videos on YouTube and came across one of the fight scenes of One Punch Man. It was the training fight between Saitama(AKA One Punch Man) and his "apprentice" Genos. After that I had to watch the show. Right afterwards I apologized to my friend. The next show he recommends will be the first thing I watch afterwards. Also available in English Dub.

I saw a post of #ExplainAnAnimePlotBadly that really did sum this show up pretty darn well.
Identity Crisis. 100. 100. 100. 10. Identity Crisis.
You see, Saitama wanted purpose. So he decided to become a Superhero. But his training made him so strong that nothing could withstand a single punch. What are you to do with your life when you have no challenge?

The cyborg Genos sees his strength and decides he has no choice but to become his apprentice and learn as much from him as possible. And while Saitama attempts to explain his power, it is blown off and ignored.

The show uses a few different styles of animation throughout its 12 episodes. All it seems to work perfectly for what they are trying to show. Plus it adds to the hilarity of the show. The fight scenes are epic, and the humor is incredible. I am not much of a laugher, but One Punch Man had me shaking my chair with laughter.

This is a show that I looked at the cover and tossed it away. I am so glad I eventually picked it back up. I have to give One Punch Man the well earned score of 11 out of 11. This is a great watch.

Malcolm In The Middle

151 episode over 7 seasons from 2000 to 2006. This comedy of a crazy misfit family was great for both youth and middle-aged people alike. 22 minutes an episode we found enjoyment through the antics and derangement these children managed to ensue and the mind games with the mother. Oh and Bryan Cranston.

The show mostly follows the 3rd child Malcolm. A genius he wishes only to be like everyone else. His cool older brother forced into Military School. His idiot and violent brother. And the youngest Dewey...he's hard to describe. Then of course there are his parents. The loud and angry mother, and the adorable fun loving dad.

Malcolm is constantly struggling with his intelligence and his wish to have fun. But I think the biggest part is that his high intelligence gets him into just as much trouble as his brothers because they often do their antics together. These antics include: beating up others, making a balloon launcher able to strike blocks away(but using much more foul things that water balloons), sneaking out to parties, and more. Malcolm tells us his struggles and mistakes by breaking the 4th Wall and talking directly to the audience.

Everyone grows over the series as they learn new lessons. But the family remains social pariahs being despised and feared by almost everyone else. The neighbors shun them, other students fear dealing with them in case the violent brother beats them up. Of course a few people drop into their gravitational pull over time, but just about all of them have their own rejectable qualities.

Characters come and go over the 7 seasons. Even the oldest brother who was a constant character experiencing his own adventures away from the family grows less and less seen. Till the last season where he is only in 5 episodes or so.

I enjoyed the show. It was redundant at times as they did pretty much the same thing over and over again. But they managed to add some new aspect that kept me going through the series. I must give the show a 7 out of 11 however.

Community

This 2009-2015 show has a fairly large cult following. It didn't actually do great ratings-wise so got canceled in the last season which was then picked up by Yahoo for its final season. This beloved by its cult show had a total of 110 episodes, each being about 22 minutes long. Except that is season 6 when the episodes were around 28-30 minutes long.

This oddly diverse group of misfits come together as a study group that help each other through a variety of issues and odd encounters. The show takes place at Greendale Community College, a school that is terrible for education but great for messing around. The school offers classes such as Ice Cream Tasting, Grifting, Baby Talk, Theoretical Phys Ed, and Can I Fry That?(the answer is yes) Of course it has some "real" classes such as Spanish, Biology, and Billiards. 

But those are just the classes, mostly we have our Jeff- the talker, Brita- the against everything, Pierce- the old racist, Shirley- the black housewife, Troy- the black sports star, Annie- the jewish over achiever, and Abed- the arab aspberger super computer. Oh and there's Chang- the chinese wants to be in the group.

This school allows these people do pretty much whatever they want. Pillow Forts, dry land Sailing, Talent Shows, Mafia style Chicken vendors, and of course the infamous Paintball Wars. There are multiple Paintball episodes throughout the series.

There are rumors here and there about a movie, but nothing substantial that I could find.

The show is a great comedy, but does go downhill after season 4. 3 of the main characters end up disappearing and they attempt to add a few new ones here and there. It remains funny, but kinda loses a bit of its heart. I enjoyed the entirety of it greatly, but only finished the last season out of loyalty. In all I give the show a 9 out of 11.

Soul Eater

The Grim Reaper! Of course...a high pitched, silly, and childish-looking one...But The Grim Reaper. This show came out 2008 with 51 episodes. Each one being the usual 20-22 minutes long.

Collect 99 souls, and then 1 witches soul. To do so lets you become a Death Scythe. This gives you the privilege of getting to be one of Lord Death's personal weapons. This is the basis of the first few episodes. Meisters fighting alongside Weapons to collect souls and defeat witches. 

Lord Death decided to start a school in which to train young Meisers and Weapons to become successful reapers themselves. These Weapons are also students as they are beings that can turn into weapons(capable of evolution). The weapons vary on what they become, such as twin guns, blades, scythe, gloves, a spear, a lantern, and more. The meisters must connect their own souls to their weapons so that they resonate at the frequency. By doing so they are able to unlock their full potential. 

The show mostly follows 3 meisters and their weapons. Maka and her scythe Soul. Blackstar and his blade Tsubaki. Death the Kid and his twin guns Liz and Patti. Each has their own backstory and life issues that are manifested throughout the series. These 7 join forces repeatedly, but also fight each other just as often. 

The students are sent on a few "simple" missions that turn out to be not as simple. Eventually these missions add up to the great Arachnophobia, a witch from long ago returning to the world. She then releases the Kishin, Asura. A being that started as a Meister who then ate the soul of his own weapon. Following this there are missions to obtain odd magical objects, then the final showdown.

There of course is plenty more, like the teacher Franken Stein who likes disecting and stitching things back up. Or the witch Medusa who uses a variety of snakes to succeed in her goals. Or even Maka's incredibly creepy father who in the Dubbed version is voiced by Vic Mignogna, though you would most likely know him more as the voice of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Honestly though, I wasn't that big of a fan. Maybe it was because I kept comparing it to other animes like Fullmetal Alchemist, or Dragonball Z and more. But the story was pretty weak, and rather boring at times. The ending was a little more entertaining, but even that ended with a message of heart bullshit. Some of the fights were entertaining, but they had a lot of talk. Then finally there was Lord Death. He was just obnoxious. In the end I can only give the show a 5 out of 11. I wouldn't recommend it.

Grenadier

Boobs + Guns! What more could you ask for? Well actually a lot I'm sure, but that's what this shows got. In an age where guns are taking over as the primary weapon, leaving swords relatively obsolete. But is fighting the answer? With only 12 episodes this short anime does have a relatively simple story. Each episode is the usual 24 minutes long, but has the option of both English Sub & Dub. The series came out in 2004.

The story follows Rushina Tendo, a buxom blonde with the innocence of the worlds issues. She trained to be a double/protector of Tenshi. She was told to strip her enemies of their barriers so that they would change. Her smile would break these barriers down and remove the will/wish to fight. If no one wishes to fight then peace could be possible. She struggles in her adventures to do this as the smile is often not enough on its own. So she uses her gun to defeat her opponents to strip them of their will to fight.

The story is so short that she only meets a few people. But with each one of them she manages to leave an impression. Some even join her on her quest which quickly leads itself back to where she began. The first appears in the first episode. Yajiro is a swordsman who almost lost himself to killing during wars past. In these battles he grew to hate all gun-wielders as they are unable to feel the full weight of the lives they take as it is only the pull of a trigger instead of the force and resistance required when using a blade. This belief does create some conflict between himself and Rushina. But this resolves itself quickly as she does not kill her opponents, but only maims some of them.

There is a number of special weaponed people who stand in her way as she goes back to her teacher. But she makes her way through to the end and to the ultimate conspiracy. Ultimately leading to a fight with a buxom woman like herself. By reloading their revolvers with a flex and bounce of their breasts and the speed required to load them all with a simple flick and spin. 

The animation is well done, and the story works well for its length. But for the most part I did find it a little boring. The show get a 7.5 out of 11. I only recommend it for its length making it interesting enough for that. But I do consider it to be a good thing it isn't longer.