Yowamushi Pedal

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/18179/Yowamushi_Pedal

Name: Yowamushi Pedal 弱虫ペダル
Sequel: Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road
Side-Story: Yowamushi Pedal: Special Ride

Status: Completed
Episode: 38 + 24 (grande road)
Release Date (for eng subs): -

Summary:

Otaku Sakamichi Onoda has just entered high school and plans to join the anime club. In middle school, Onoda didn’t have any friends with whom he could talk about anime, games, Akihabara and other otaku things, and he is hoping he can make such friends in the anime club, but he finds out it's been disbanded. In order to reestablish the club he tries to find 4 other people who would like to join.

Since he was a little boy, Onoda has ridden his mamachari—a bulky bicycle with a step-through frame mainly used for short rides, such as for casual fun or to pick up groceries—to go to Akihabara every week to check out or buy otaku things. Fellow freshman Shunsuke Imaizumi and bicyclist, while training, notices a boy (Onoda) riding his mamchari up a steep road.

Freshman and road racing cyclist, Shokichi Naruko visits Akihabara to get some Gundam plastic models for his younger brothers and meets Onoda who catches his attention because of the his cycling skill on the mamachari and later find out they go to the same school. Later on, both Naruko and Imaizumi try to convince him to join the bicycle racing club, but will he?

Summary: http://myanimelist.net/anime/18179/Yowamushi_Pedal

Personal Ratings: 3.5

Idea: 4 / 5

Yes, sports animes are really mainstream and cliche in the anime world, but I have never come across a cycling sports anime. But I guess the recent trend for bikes and wheels have been increasing, thus giving birth to this anime and manga.

The starting of this anime was pretty unique - unlike a lot of other sports anime out there - yet there is still that little bit of cliché in it. It’s a very intense sports anime, but at the same time it incorporates that slice of life genre into the anime.

Overall, when I compare this anime with other sports anime out there, it follows the cliché path down to the little details, yet adding in other elements into the anime to help it go that one step further.

Execution:

Development: 4.5 / 5

This anime slowly introduces the sports cycling to the viewers. Unlike most sports anime; like baseball, soccer, tennis, etc. Cycling, in Japan (and maybe some other countries), is not known as a sport, but more of a mode of transport. So introducing cycling as a sport from the point of view of a normal typical high school Japanese student, who – like many others – uses a bicycle as a typical mode of transport, and slowly explaining to us the difference between the two, really guides the viewers along. Many other sports anime out there lack this thorough explanation, simply because they just assume that viewers already know the rules of the game because it’s so popular. But this foundation actually sets a firm ground for the understanding of the whole anime. Competitions, and basically anytime they cycle on a road racer, are made even more captivating just by this.

This anime has a slow build up, and takes each stage and each step in chronological order. Partly due to cycling’s competition nature, which allows them to do this. They are able to take a step into the different stages of training, and then into the competition itself. In most sports anime, there are a lot of times where competition (matches) and trainings are alternate. However, because cycling only has that one competition, at allows the anime to have that chronological progress.

Emotions: 2.5 / 5

I guess the emotional part for this anime is quite ok. There were parts where u feel the hype and the tension of the characters, but I feel that it still pales in comparison to the better emotional sports anime out there like Ace of Diamonds and Haiykuu. I think that there were many parts which could have had better expressiveness. 

Especially the emotional scenes during the race. I think the main reason why they don't have that emotional impact is because of the pace of the anime and the tension of the characters. The pace of the anime is kept fairly constant, which causes viewers to lose their focus on the anime. The tension of the characters are kept relatively the same, and mainly follows the cliche paths from the mainstream style. So, viewers are already expecting whats to come next, thus the level of emotion goes down.

Planning: 2.5 / 5

Of course, like any other sports anime out there, there is that lack of the flow of proper logic throughout the whole race. Things like stamina didn’t really add up at the end of the race, and each race was a close match, despite all the huge problems and large gaps.

For the first sprinting checkpoint in the first stage, I really didn’t think that they should make Izumida that strong - after all beating Tadokoro despite not being the best sprinter doesn’t make sense as to how anyone else could have beat Shinkai.

Then there is this thing with Midousuji. Logically speaking, he should have been just a little better than Imaizumi, judging from their past races results. But in the race the whole time, Midousuji was like some kind of god - he never get tired despite having race by himself in many checkpoints.

For the enemies in the race is also another problem. Apart from Midousuji, I do not believe that there isn’t any other contestant who are not able to compete with Hakogakou. Certainly there would be other good school from the past contest that had a close match with the campaigns - like the mystery school that won 2nd the last competition.

I did think that the sudden competition with Hiroshima was quite sudden. It felt like they were such an unknown school with no screen time before that, and all of a sudden they appear and disrupt the whole match at the beginning of the 3rd day. I hope that in the 3rd season of this anime, they would appear again.

Main Character Development: 3 / 5

In my eyes, there wasn't really much character development for Onoda, mainly because there isn't much change since the first episode. The only thing that changed was not his personality, but his cycling knowledge.

Of course, along the way there were some development and slight changes due to the situation and the other club member’s words. I feel that even the other side characters has more development than him. But I’m looking forward to the next season, where I hope they would show us more development in his character.

The development for each character doesn’t follow any order; but it being in a random order makes it a lot more exciting and unexpected. Though I did feel that there was some inconsistent development of characters. They seem to only wait to the character’s episode before developing their characters, but I feel that the constant build up of development would be a lot more suitable for this anime - especially for the characters that matter. Most of the characters are pretty much unheard or go unnoticed for most of the anime before they actually decided to use them a section of the race - e.g. Shinkai. But in the end I still felt that they did make it the right choice to select certain characters to develop along the way.

I realised that in this anime, each and everyone of the characters have their own phrase which they always say. It can be a double edge sword; having them do this really reinforce their personalities, and make it easier for the viewers to understand each character within a short period of time, especially for such sports anime which many different characters. Of course seeing it for the first time, it didn’t really felt like such a huge fault, but after watching it for the second time, I realised that doing such thing can really make the anime a little stale - it becomes boring, because there is very little in depth development of the characters.

Side Character Development: 3 / 5

Their characters were really created well. Each and everyone of them have that charm point, but I did feel that the main characters lacked more in comparison to Hakogakou, which is really ironic. Like how Manami has his beautiful glass wings, etc.

Hakogakou - to me - was much better team than the main team. I really didn’t like how they kept introducing new “problems” with occur within the team. And it didn’t make sense for them to win despite all those problems which they occurred in the race.

I did feel that Hakogakou overall stood out a lot more because of the amazing storyline and development behind it. The main characters just pales in comparison. Especially because Hakogakou’s developments occurs during the race and not before, makes it a lot more impactful.

While I did feel that Manami was a character created just for Onoda, I really like the competition between the two of them at the end of the anime.

As for Midousuji’s character. I did think that they picked the right timing to develop his story. Just when the viewers are getting annoyed with his personality and tactics, suddenly dropping a really touching story about him just really makes it unexpected. But I did think that it had more potential to move people more. Especially about the bike (I noticed it’s the same bike that he first bought).

Seiyuu: 4 / 4

I think one of the best choices for this anime was Naruko's voice actor - Fukushima Jun, Manami's voice actor - Yonaga Tsubasa and Midousuji Akira - Yusa Kouji. 

I've known Yonaga and Yusa from many other roles they play in, and I was already loving Yonaga's voice a lot. But yet again in this anime, he surprises me with his voice acting skills. I've never really heard Yonaga use his lower voice in voice acting throughout the whole show. And his voice just matches Manami so well, that it was so natural. Many of the times while I was watching the anime, I find myself getting more and more captivated by Manami because of Yonaga's voice.

Yusa-san on the other hand, I thought I was already very familiar with his voice, because he has a very unique voice, and you can easily identify him. But I've honestly never come across Yusa-san voice acting a psychological character - and a pretty crazy one at that. It was totally different, and it didn't cross my mind that Yusa-san was the one voice acting Midousuji. A very good job indeed; I really love how he was able to portray that level of craziness and creepiness from Midousuji.

Fukushima Jun, on another hand was some one that I didn't know before this. He hasn't really played many roles yet, but he is definitely a natural Naruko. His accent was also pretty clean and powerful. 

Art Ratings: 4.5

Anime art is definitely a lot nicer than the manga art for this series. Overall the character's body types and proportions are kept more to the realistic side.

I liked how there is a mixture of different types of character design for this anime. There is the mainstream anime boys design - Onoda, Naruko, Manami, etc. And then there is also the more funky looking characters - Makishima, Toudou, etc.

I can see that for certain scenes they use a 3D (or motion, whichever you call it) animation and most of the scenes in their usual normal format. Like I always say, I really don't like it when they mix the two types of animation together, because there is an obvious difference between the two of them when you mix when together. But for this, the 3D was really kept the the minimum, and there wasn't really much they could do when they want to show the detailed cycling motion.

Recommended for:

Gender: Male & Female

Age: 13 and above

My Ratings: PG

Recommended Anime: Autumn 2015

Autumn 2015

Shoujo:
Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru

Shounen:
Haikyuu 2
K: Return of the kings
Noragami ARAGOTO
**One Punch Man
Owari no Seraph 2
Tokyo Ghoul: Jack


View List of Recommended animes here: http://strawberryshortcake-reviews.blogspot.com/p/recommened-animes.html

* Highly Recommended for this season (Sequels not included)

5th Anniversary UPDATE!!

Hey~ It's been about 2 weeks since my "5th anniversary" post. Finally completed my Code Geass review, do check it out.

Now for the awaited "special post". Basically I decided to do a short cover for unravel in a capella version. Even though I said it's "acapella" i just mean that there is no music. This is recorded from my phone, so the quality is.... well pretty much shit. But do enjoy it :)

PS. I know I have a lot to improve on.

Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/1575/Code_Geass:_Hangyaku_no_Lelouch

Name: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Sequel: Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2

Status: Completed

Episode: 25

Release date (for eng subs): -

Summary:

On August 10th of the year 2010 the Holy Empire of Britannia began a campaign of conquest, its sights set on Japan. Operations were completed in one month thanks to Britannia's deployment of new mobile humanoid armor vehicles dubbed Knightmare Frames. Japan's rights and identity were stripped away, the once proud nation now referred to as Area 11. Its citizens, Elevens, are forced to scratch out a living while the Britannian aristocracy lives comfortably within their settlements. Pockets of resistance appear throughout Area 11, working towards independence for Japan.

Lelouch, an exiled Imperial Prince of Britannia posing as a student, finds himself in the heart of the ongoing conflict for the island nation. Through a chance meeting with a mysterious girl named C.C., Lelouch gains his Geass, the power of the king. Now endowed with absolute dominance over any person, Lelouch may finally realize his goal of bringing down Britannia from within!

Summary Source: Bandai Entertainment

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/1575/Code_Geass:_Hangyaku_no_Lelouch

Personal Ratings: 4

Idea: 2 / 5

Mecha, political and strategic type of anime. An anime similar to the gundam and other mecha series. So it itself isn't realy a unique idea. The underlying concept for this anime is very typical. You can pick any mecha type series and be sure to hope that almost 90% of the animes are similar to this.

Unique use of Idea: 3 / 5

From the Mecha point of view, Code geass stick strictly to the use of mecha on earth. Many of the mecha anime out there, at some point, would have their setting in outer space. However, Code Geass sticks to their use for Mecha as military weapons, and focuses more on the politics and strategy then the fights. Strategies are more in depth and well thought out than most of the other animes out there.
Unlike a lot of mecha anime that have their characters start out as either an ordinary student, or a military student, Code Geass starts their main character off in an unusual way.

While Lelouch maybe a "ordinary student", he starts off with a connection between the enemy's forces - he is the youngest prince. And he has no military knowledge what so ever.

Execution:

Development: 4 / 5

There are some problems regarding the smoothness and the execution of the anime. I feel that the timing of certain episodes and scenes were just not right, and not chronological. There are a lot of times where I can feel the time gap in between the episodes, which makes it feel like a break in the plot itself. It gives the anime a little disadvantage when it comes to fulfilling viewer’s expectations of the anime (same problem with robotics;notes) when it comes to cliff-hanger endings. So instead of a steady gentle up slop build of the story, it felt like a bumpy uphill route.

As for the tactics, I’m not sure if I’m being fair comparing it to a recent anime, because it would be unfair in terms of quality, but Aldnoah Zero did a much nicer and cleaner job in this aspect.

The anime puts Lelouche in a very unrealistic and hard situations, one in which – most of the time – is created by he himself. However, there are many times this restrictions do not apply to him, because he “cheats”. I do think that there should be a reason for all those restrictions he put himself in. If not it would be a useless and unneeded part of the anime. Aldnoah Zero on the other hand abide by all the “rules”, which is what makes it unrespectable and appealing.

In this anime, there isn’t really such a thing called the “right” or the “good” side. There are only difference of opinions. It is precisely because of this biasness that actually ensure that the predictability of this anime remains minimal. The un-biasness also gives a more realistic side to the anime, making it targeted towards a more mature group of people. Honestly, even until now, I do not feel that I grasp the whole content of the anime. The content itself is very rich and full. It is hard to grasp and understand every single thing at every stage of the anime.

Emotions: 4 / 5

There are times which I feel that the anime has a lot of emotions, but sometimes I feel the lack of it. I’m not sure if this was because of the unsmooth progress of the anime.

As for other emotions like anger, I did feel that there was a lack of anger coming from Lelouche.

I think this is probably due to the lack of attachment to his past, because much anger raised from his past with the royal family. A good and long OVA about Lelouche’s past would have been nice.

There was a nervous factor that pops up for certain scenes, so I think the anime did fairly ok for this category.

Planning: 4 / 5

The balance between the action, tactics, and daily life was really good. When I watched this show, there wasn’t a single time which I thought was boring due to the unbalanced selection of length in any category of the anime. There would always be a refreshing, fun, breather episode to help the viewers balance out the heavy content. However, those episodes do not feel like a filler episode, but has actual connections to the whole anime and story line itself.

To show more planning, I did think that they should have somewhat introduced all the related character – mostly Lelouche’s siblings and family members – in the first few episodes. I especially think that introducing to us his family would have helped with the understanding of the storyline a lot better.

Character Development:

Main Character: 5 / 5

For 1 thing, I actually like how they were not very biased to Lelouche, just because he is the main character. They were true to his character and abilities, to the point that it was a very realistic anime. Every character in this show has their negative and positive side. If I were to give an opinion, I would say that this anime is actually a very negative anime, and it really shows the ugly side of humanity. Almost no important character in this show is spared from this.

Side Character: 5 / 5

One thing is for sure is that they make the weirdest side characters, but you can't really tell it in this season. I think that they didn't neglect the development of the side characters, and each and every one of them were very well thought out and they had a very distinct characteristic. They were smart in actually meeting the minimum requirement needed for each character, so that most of the time would be focused on the story line, in a way that was fulfilling enough. Most anime tend to neglect the side characters a lot.

Seiyuu: 3 / 4

I don't think that I have any complains about their casting, but somehow I'm just not very satisfied with Fukuyama Jun (Lelouch) and Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku). For Jun, even though I thought he was probably the perfect Lelouch, I did think that there was too much of a significant difference between his "kind" voice and his "zero" voice in the show. It becomes such that there was too much of a gap between the two, they almost feel like their 2 totally different person. But never the less, I really like "Zero's" voice. 

As for Sakuai, I did think that he probably played the best "Suzaku" he could with his vocal range. But somehow I didn't feel very comfortable with his voice throughout the whole show. I could tell that he was trying to keep his voice on the same tone while doing different vocal expressions, but it just made him sound very uncomfortable and out of his element.

For the side characters, I really love their voices.

OST:

The OST tracks itself is really pretty and gorgeous. However, the use of the OST within the anime itself was not very good. There were a lot of times that they suddenly change the OST track or stop the track in the middle. There were no proper transition or any smooth fade out of the tracks. So there were some scenes which felt sloppy and choppy because of the OST.

Art Ratings: 3
Honestly, it would be unfair to compare the animation and the art of this anime to the recent animes, mainly because of the advanced in technology and the differences in taste and preferences of the viewers that changed over time (since this anime can be considered "old").
However, if I were to judge based on the design, I would have to say that it pales in comparison to other mecha anime like gundam. The Mecha design was not very fantastic, and it didn't have that 'wow' factor in it, and honestly, when I first saw it, I was really disappointed.

As for the character design, I thought that it was quite good, the character's personality and appearances compliments each other.

But obviously, code geass's strong point do not lay in their artistic side, but the storyline itself.


Similar Animes:
Aldnoah Zero
Both Mecha anime, and both main character relies on strategic performance in their battles, while their rivals (Suzaku) relies on physical and machine capabilities. In both animes, they also have a discrimination between two groups of people.

The difference would be that the main character for aldnoah zero has some form of combat abilities, while Leleouch literally has close to none. Politics in the anime is also not as in depth as code geass.

Death Note
For Death Note, the only similarity is that there is a clash between 2 intellectual person. Death note keeps their action scene minimal, and both their main characters do not have have fighting abilities. There is also no mecha involved in this anime.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
I would say that all gundam anime comes under this. Most, if not all, gundam animes have some form of politics in their shows, and mainly action. The only difference there is would be that there is minimal strategic planning involved.

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 16 and above

My Ratings: PG-13

5th ANNIVERSARY!!

Hey people, to today marks the 5th year since I've started this blog.

Yes, I know i have not been posting recently, because of school and renovations and stuff, but I'll probably start posting up more reviews starting from now, because I've finished my school and going off for intern, so I'll probably have more time for this blog. So please stay tune!!

I'm still keeping track on the animes I have to do a review for, so I'll probably try to get that done as soon as possible!!

I wanted to do something special for the 5th anniversary, but I didn't have time because of finals. I'll probably post something for the anniversary on a later date.

I'm a lot more active on twitter these few days, so you can follow my twitter at https://twitter.com/AngeIaAgness. Beware of fujoushi materials though.

If any of you actually are like a huge Tattsun fan, I actually have a twitter acc delicate to him. I do translate his blog and stuff (not very accurate tho) https://twitter.com/tattsunfacts.

Till next time~

Recommended Anime: Summer 2015

Summer 2015

Shoujo:
*Akagami no Shirayuki hime
Junjo Romantica 3 (yaoi)
Rampo Kitan Game of Laplace
Working!!! (season 3)

Shounen:
*Aoharu X Kikanjuu
Charlotte
Durarara x2!! Ten
*Gangsta
GATE
God Eater
Overlord
Prison School

Spring 2015 (Now still on-going)

Shoujo:
*Ore Monogatari

Shounen:
Arslan Senki
Baby Steps 2
Daiya no Ace 2
*Shokugei Souma


View List of Recommended animes here: http://strawberryshortcake-reviews.blogspot.com/p/recommened-animes.html

* Highly Recommended for this season (Sequels not included)

Donten ni Warau

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/21743/Donten_ni_Warau

Name: Donten ni Warau 曇天に笑う Laughing Under the Clouds

Status: Completed

Episode: 12

Released Date (for eng subs): Every Saturday

Summary:

When swords were outlawed in the eleventh year of the Meiji Era, the mighty samurai population began to dwindle. Those who rejected the ban on blades rebelled, causing violent unrest to erupt throughout the countryside. To combat the rise in criminal activity, an inescapable lake prison was constructed. Three young men, born of the Kumoh line, were given the duty of delivering criminals to their place of confinement—but could there be more to their mission than meets the eye?

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/21743/Donten_ni_Warau

Summary Source: FUNimation

Personal Ratings: 3

Idea: 3 / 5

Setting in an olden world, with mythical believes, isn't all that rare. There are many others out there which I've come across. Though, this story line concentrates more on the mythical believe than those war animes that specializes in strategical war patterns. Where a strong ayakashi or youkai is being kept inside a human, it is quite a common idea to have.

Execution

Development: 3 / 5

I felt that the story line and the execution itself was quite good, however, I did think that there were a lack of developments in some areas of the story, and 12 episode is just too little for the anime to have that proper development.
The anime can be divided into 2 parts;

Firstly the part about Tenka being the vessel for Orochi, and the 2nd part being that Soramaru found out that he was the one who truly had Orochi within him. The first part seemed to be taken care of with much care and attention, but the 2nd half seemed kind of rushed, especially the last part where the large battle scene was taking place. Honestly, much of the battle scene seemed to be done half hearted-ly, I didn't like how the logic doesn't flow during battle scenes. I wanted something more packed with action and techniques, rather than a random monster shooting random beams at people.

Emotions: 2.5 / 5

Honestly I only found the first part the most emotional, the rest of the scenes just lack that impact.

The first part about the eldest brother dying, was probably the most emotional one, even though there wasn't much character development before he died, and the viewers probably didn't really felt that large attachment to that character yet. But using the other character's reaction towards his death and showing us how important he is to them really made it a lot more emotional.
However, I was pretty disappointed with the rest of the development. It had so much potential to be filled with loads of deep emotions, but it just wasn't that impactful. The biggest disappointment would be when Soramaru found out about his true identity. I really thought that it I should have felt a more frantic and regret (because it actually meant that Tenka died for no reason.) But I actually didn't really felt much. There wasn't much of that impact, probably due to the lack of time and also the organization way.
The next scene would be when it was found out that Shirasu was actually all along together with the Fuuma clan and had plot it all to betray them. I'm not sure if it was because it was done in a rush, I didn't feel that kind of shock when it turned out he was actually betraying them. I felt that they should have really made the betrayal scene big and impactful. Because that scene was in the middle of a huge mess, with a lot of things going at ones, this one was kind of over-looked.
However, I actually felt quite emotional over his death, and the way he died. But I think that that's just cause of my biasness towards him (he's my fav character).

Planning: 3 / 5

I thought that the planning was quite good, especially with that plot twist about Tenka.

I did think that it was pretty well thought out, however, I think that giving us more hints about Tanka being alive earlier would have been a little better.
I also did think that the planning on the Fuuma clan would have been shown better if they did show us or hint to us the existence of Shirasu's brother, instead of just suddenly bringing him up at the ending.

Rather than the planning, I think there was an issue with the organizing. I thought that the timing where they put in the whole episode of the first generation's fight for sealing the Orochi was out of place, and really appeared out of no where. Thought that maybe putting that episode in either before the Soramaru started finding out his true identity, or after introducing Botan to us would have been better.

Main Character Development: 3 / 5

Main character here would be Soramaru. I did think that to a certain extent there was somewhat a development, especially in the first half of the anime, but it the development in the 2nd half seemed really rushed.

In the 2nd half, when Soramaru was turning into Orochi, that part seemed really fast. I felt that they should have showed random killing within the town and Soramaru waking up not knowing anything but found certain things strange (like having random arm aches or something), but they actually only showed us one such incident.

I just felt that they spent way to much time in the first half of the anime, when there wasn't much development.

Side Character Development: 2 / 5

The anime can be divided into 4 main parties: The main family (which are the main characters), Yamainu Squad, Fuuma Clan, and others (which basically consist of all the ancestors and all the other side characters). Honestly, the only one which was very well developed was probably the main characters, but all the other parties really lacked that development, even though I feel that they play an important part of the story.

For the Yamainu Squad, I actually did like how they hinted here and there about Tenka's past relationship with the Yamainu Squad, and had that mystery on why he left the good lingering here and there, which makes the viewers real curious. However, I felt that once the truth was revealed about their relationship and everything, that their characters didn't actually play a huge role or anything within the story line, except for 3 characters. The rest was pretty much not needed. As for the Fuuma clan, their past was really well developed. Telling us first about what happened in the past about what they were once known for, and than about the massive murder which occurred, and than later to talk about how Fuumas came out (their origin for their white hair and purple eyes). However, I did felt that when it was revealed that the Fuuma clan did not died out, and that Shirasu was actually pretending to be a good person the whole time, in order to revive Orochi; everything felt like it happened so fast, that it felt like there wasn't enough development of Shirasu's brother and Nishiki. I think that actually dropping more hints about Shirasu's later betrayal, and showing about about the whereabouts of his brother would have made it better.

Seiyuu: 4 / 4

Awesome seiyuu, but I do realize that I might be biased here, because many of the seiyuus cast here are popular seiyuus. 

But yes, I did think that Nakamura (Tenka), Yuki (Soramaru), Sakurai (Shirasu), Tsubasa (Chuutaro), Shimono (Takeda Rakuchou) and Miki (Naoto Kagami) did a very good job in their roles.

Yuki definitely did a good job in expressing many emotions for Soramaru, especially when using his deeper and more serious voice, yet still being able to maintain that soft side of Soramaru (instead of using that huskier voice when voice acting Eren from Shingeki no Kyojin).

For Sakurai, I did think that he was the perfect fit for Shirasu, especially when looking at how his character was going to change from being a "good-two-shoes" to a person that betrayed the Kumo clan. Sakurai's did manage to maintain that consistent character and aura that Shirasu have despite being on either side. When Shirasu betrayed the clan, you could hear that there was much sadness, darkness and also loneliness in his voice, which really brings out Shirasu's character, despite only being shown for a few minutes.

Art Ratings: 4
I felt that the animation itself was really smooth and constant throughout the whole anime, especially the fighting scenes.
They had this trademark art style going on, making it easily recognizably. And I really really loved the character design (ok, might be a little biased here cause of Shirasu). Though I didn't really like how Tenka's hair was drawn (random hair sticking out here and there). 

Similar Animes:
-Work in progress-

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 13 and above

My Ratings: PG-13

Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/23251/Gugure!_Kokkuri-san

Name: Gugure! Kokkuri-san 繰繰れ！コックリさん

Status: Completed

Episode: 12

Released Date (for eng subs): Every Monday

Summary:

Kohina Ichimatsu, the self-proclaimed doll, called out the fox ghost Kokkuri-san with a suspicious incantation! But it was a story of the past where Kokkuri-san was able to answer any question you had. Nowadays, it relies on a certain search engine, but is actually bad at anything digital. He was going to possess Kohina, but got worried about her living all alone and devotes himself to do chores as if he was her mother. On top of that, the dog ghost Inugami who is infatuated with Kohina and the old good-for-nothing supernatural raccoon dog Shigaraki decide to root themselves with her as well! 

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/23251/Gugure!_Kokkuri-san

Summary Source: Crunchyroll

Personal Ratings: 2.5

Idea: 3 / 5
This anime is a slice of life, comedy anime. There is a lot of different kind of anime that comes under these two genre, so don't think it's all that unique. The idea and setting, however, it's set in both the olden area and the modern area, so it has it's own uniqueness in that area.
I think that the uniqueness of this anime comes from using the popular superstitions "kokkuri-san" game. At first I really liked this idea, and was really thrilled when they use certain belief in their jokes, however, it kinda seemed like they forgot about this fact half way down.

Execution

Development: 2 / 5

In comedy animes, there is usually not much plot to develop because of the nature of the genre. No exceptions to this anime; there was really no plot to develop, each episode was on it's own. Though, there was some development in the last episode, about Kohina and her loneliness.

Emotions: 2 / 5

It's a comedy anime, so it's basically suppose to make you laugh, but it totally didn't make me laugh at all. There were episodes which I thought was pretty funny, but in the end none of them did make me laugh. Though, I did feel a bit emotional in the last episode. 

Planning: 1 / 5

There were absolutely no signs of planning at all. I'm sure that most comedy story lines are usually this way, there they just start out with a basic story line and build it up along the way, without thinking too much about it in the beginning.
Each episodes can be seen by itself, though the base of the story line is in episode 1. It might have been better if they did show Kokkuri-san and his past, or his side of the story. From there they can show us the characters who are related to him, and then introduce them later in the episodes.

Character Development: 3 / 5

Main character here would be Kohina and Kokkuri-san. Kohina's character development would probably for her to be more human-like, interactive, and to make at least one friend. Honestly, there is barely any development in her character. I really wanted to know if her acting like a doll is really due to her being lonely, of is it just because she wants to be one; until the end, they didn't really give us a conclusion as to the reason behind her behavior. Though her behavior didn't change until the end of the anime, they did show us more sides to her personalities. Other than her main personality of being emotionless and liking cup noodles a lot, they did show us about how she interacts with other characters, which enables the viewers to see more into her character. Though I think because of her mundane personality, her character tends to get swallowed up by Kokkuri-san.
As for Kokkuri-san, his character development would be he involvement with Kohina. There is that difference as to how important he is to Kohina from the first episode to the last episode, you can see that the position he stands in Kohina's life and by the way he acts, that there is that development, even though Kohina may not be treating him any differently.

Side Character Development: 3 / 5

Side characters would include all the "full-time" characters that appears; Inugami, Shigaraki, Tama and Yamada.
Inugami can be considered a main character, but I didn't want to mix him in with the two mains. Inugami, is basically the same type of character as Kokkuri-san, and have very similar points. But their personalities are very different. Inugami places a lot of importance into Kohina, so even if Kokkuri's and Ingami's personalities over powers Kohina's, Inugami's obsession over Kohina ensures that she doesn't get lost.

Seiyuu: 4 / 5

I really loved the seiyuu cast, but I maybe a little biased on this, because I follow most of the seiyuu cast in this anime (OnoD, Sakurai, Chiwa, Rina) But honestly, I really did think that OnoD did do a good job with this comedy anime, compared to his usual cool and low voice. His voice really made the scenes a lot more funnier.
Rina also did a really good job with the narration. Narrations, I find, is usually done by a male, but I think using a refreshing female voice here did lift up the slightly moody feeling that came from Kohina.

I'm not sure if using different seiyuus for the male and female version of Kokkuri-san and Inugami was the right choice, because I did feel that the change between the genders was really huge, there wasn't that kind of familiar essence that bring the two together for either character.

Other:

Like in most comedy shows, this anime doesn't stick to the form of reality, and pulls out really outrageous ideas.

Art Ratings: 4
Character designs and animation is really very well done. It has that simplicity incorporated into the characters, which suits the whole story line.

Similar Animes:

Kami-sama Hajimemashita
For these two animes, it's set in a modern theme, yet they both incorporate mythical believes. They both have a fox ikemen main character, and is both under the comedy genre.
The only difference would be that Kami-sama Hajimemashita is more towards the romance genre that comedy.

Barakamon
Set in a modern, yet still have that 'olden' feeling; for Kokkuri-san it's because of the many mythical characters, while for Barakamon it's because it's set in the country side.
Characters are also similar, where the main characters are 1. A male adult 2. Female kid. (just for your info, OnoD voice acts both the main character in both anime).
Their both under the slice of life and comedy genre. The only difference would be that Barakmon is more slice of life and sticks more to the logical side of life. 

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 13 and above

My Ratings: PG-13

Akatsuki no Yona

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/25013/Akatsuki_no_Yona

Name: Yona of the Dawn 暁のヨナ Akatsuki no Yona

Status: Completed

Episode: 24

Release Date (for eng subs): Every Wednesday

Summary:

Akatsuki no Yona centers around the princess of the Kingdom of Kouka, Yona. Despite her father’s disapproval, she’s in love with and plans to marry her cousin, Soo-won. However, her world gets turned upside down on her 16th birthday, and she is forced to flee from the palace. Now, with her friend and bodyguard Hak, Yona must set out on a journey to find out and fulfill her destiny.

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/25013/Akatsuki_no_Yona

Summary Source: Crunchyroll

Personal Ratings: 3

I know that this anime has a manga, but I have not read it, so I wouldn't actually know how close is this anime in comparison to the manga, but I think it should be quite close.

Idea: 2 / 5

I've actually seen quite a lot of this type of anime since young. It's been the popular kind of adventure anime since the later times. Usually it would also be set in a fantasy land, and with the olden kind of feel to it. There would also be some "mythical" and "magical" part to the anime and the characters.

On the other hand, there are only a handful of anime where the kingdom gets overthrown and the spoiled princes is forced to live in the outside lands.

Unique use of Cliche ideas: 3 / 5

I think that it is save to say that close to none of the similar anime I've seen so far actually focuses on the enemy who overthrow the kingdom. And for this anime, it's actually good to see that there are no distinct black and white area, but mostly gray. Usually for this type of anime, the person who overthrow the peaceful kingdom is always thought to be evil, and would misuse the kingdom's riches, and that the only remaining family member of the previous bloodline, would usually bring back that sucess to the country.

It's good to see that the previous king was not all good - in that sense that he did't actually do good for the people in the rural areas, and didn't prosper the country (mostly about not treating diseases and help fight against the rich who are misusing their powers). The only good which he probably did was probably to avoid war.
It's also good to see that Suwho, the person who overthrew the kingdom was the one actually making all the right changes to the kingdom, and not making things worst.

Execution

Development: 4 / 5

I can usually count on adventure type of anime to have that proper development (with the exception of some anime which lose their motive halfway). The motive for this anime would obviously be to gain back control of the kingdom. Although they have only come halfway down the story, I think that it's actually really developed and you can see the process - how far this anime has come, and also how would the anime continue and end (to a certain extend).

Of course I did minus mark because it's a very cliche and predictable plot, and also, because of the last episode.

In the last part about the yellow dragon, I honestly thought that there would be another nice development for the yellow dragon's character just like all the other dragons and people whom Yona met, so I was actually caught off guard by the simplicity. I didn't actually like how it went. It just felt like that last one happened that way because the author couldn't come up with anymore ideas or that they wanted to just cut short everything and most on to the next stage of the story.

However, I did give the anime some credit for actually developing the other side of the story - the story from Suwon's point of view. Usually animes like this would be too concentrated on the main plot to actually bother about the enemy's side. Either that, or they would usually just show an episode or two just for the sake of it. But this anime has that perfect balance between the two.

Emotions: 2 / 5

I don't think that there was really any much emotions felt during the whole anime other then the first part and some other parts.

The first part was kinda of like the mixture of fear, sadness and devastation. I did think that they did a good job with it. They pioritized fear first in the first half, and then went to concentrate on the sadness of Yona's father's death. Smart choice, because when there are two strong emotions, it's actually very hard to get it through to the audience at the same time.
Other than that, I didn't think there was much. I'm sure that they tried to go with the sad kind of theme in certain mini arcs, but I don't think they did a good job, because I wasn't really feeling it. Of course they tried to use things like the differentiation between the treatments of the dragons to actually bring out the emotions, but it just wasn't really enough. I think that if they actually had done things a little differently for Shin-ah (blue dragon) it would have turned out more beautiful, especially since they already had that beautiful past laid down.

Planning: 3 / 5

I think that this kind of anime doesn't need to have that kind of planning right from the start of the anime. Usually it's plan as per arc, which in this case is for every dragon or people they meet. There really isn't much to say for this, because there isn't really anything outstanding or wrong about it.

Main Character Development: 3 / 5

For this section, I'm only going to be talking about Yona. Yes, I did somewhat see the development in her character, although a little cliche. Her character only drastically changed once in the whole anime, not gradually. I thought that having that slower process would have made her change more acceptable.

The drastic change came about when she finally got up on her feet and got herself together after he father's death. Honestly I think that it's too sudden a change, and it lacked that gradual process of changing one's self.
I honestly didn't really liked how her personality changed to that cliche main character-type of personality, and after her change, she suddenly became the most perfect person there is out there.

I also didn't really like how they just kept their focus on her so much that they pretty much neglected the side characters. You can see the huge difference in treatment for the different characters.

Side Character Development: 3 / 5

I did think they did quite a good job for the side character developments during the different small arcs, but I think that after they are done with their arc, they are usually just left there, and there isn't really much development after that.

For the blue dragon, I really thought that his story line was the prettiest. The flashback and the whole mystery suspense part was really good. But after he decided that he would go together with Yona, the development stops there. Sure there they did some comedy with the his personality and stuff, but I did feel that there was this change in personality that was quite sudden when he decided to follow Yona.

Like I said before, I really didn't like how everything was in this format where every dragon had their own story line, and then suddenly when it came to the yellow dragon, they just drop the bomb and the end. It really disrupts the whole flow of the anime.

Seiyuu: 4 / 5

There is kind of like that mixture of seiyuu in this anime. Most of them are pretty popular, but there are also those that didn't make an appearence for quite sometime, and also some newer seiyuus. I'm not very sure about choosing Nobuhiko for the role of the blue dragon. Even though the blue dragon doesn't have many things to say, and it's usually mostly sound effects, I thought that a person with a lower voice would have been better.

Compliments going to Kobayashi Yuusuke (Su-won's voice actor), Yamamoto Kazumotmi (Min-soo's voice actor) and Morita Masakazu (Ki-ja's voice actor). I thought that their voices really complimented the characters, especially Kobayashi-san. I was quite shocked to see that he didn't do a lot of roles, because I thought he was the most outstanding one in this anime (even in the midst of quite a number of popular seiyuus). I see that they did pick another seiyuu to voice act the character's voices when they were kids. Honestly I didn't think it was necessary because the scenes were not a lot, and could have done without it.

Art Ratings: 3.5

It's an okay art. I did feel that certain way they draw the hair was a little out of place, but nothing too major. I really like the way they actually draw the eyes. They kind of remind me of Hakkenden's art. 

Similar Animes:

Arslan Senki

It's similar in the sense that the princess (in this case it's the prince) gets betrayed by an insider, forcing him the flee his country, and set on a journey to retrieve back his kingdom. The setting is a little different, since Akatsuki no Yona has that touch of Chinese-Korean style to it, while this one it more towards the European style. 

Scrapped Princess

Pampered Princess running away from people who are trying to kill her with only a few trusted and caring people with her. 

Nanatsu no Taizai

Princess sets out on the journey to find 'knights' to bring back her lost kingdom back. It's very similar to the 'dragons' that Yona sets out to find. The setting is also similar; a more European war styled setting and the whole story also takes place in a fantasy land. 

Utawarerumono

I kind of forgot how this anime went, but the setting is kind of similar to Akatsuki no Yona.

Recommended for:

Gender: Female & Male

Age: 13 and above

My Ratings: PG-13

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/23273/Shigatsu_wa_Kimi_no_Uso

Name: You Lie in April 四月は君の嘘 Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Side Story: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso OVA

Status: Completed

Episode: 22

Release Date (for eng subs): Every Thursday

Summary:

Piano prodigy Arima Kosei dominated the competition and all child musicians knew his name. But after his mother, who was also his instructor, passed away, he had a mental breakdown while performing at a recital that resulted in him no longer being able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing was perfectly fine. Even two years later, Kosei hasn't touched the piano and views the world in monotone, and without any flair or color. He was content at living out his life with his good friends Tsubaki and Watari until, one day, a girl changed everything. Miyazono Kaori is a pretty, free spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her personality. Kaori helps Kosei return to the music world and show that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kosei was used to.

Summary Source: MangaHelpers

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/23273/Shigatsu_wa_Kimi_no_Uso

Personal Ratings: 4.5

This is probably one of the most beautiful anime throughout the whole of 2014 and 2015. A total recommendation to people who haven't watch this yet. It's a sad anime that isn't exactly a tragedy.

Idea: 4 / 5
This anime takes place in a middle school setting. Honestly I think that usually most anime happen in high school, so there is that difference (not a very big deal). Looking pass the music side of the anime, it's actually a very subtle shoujo / romance anime, it's very different from those normal shoujo anime that concentrates mainly on the main character's love story. This anime doesn't have all that complex love story line, but a very straight forward one.
Classical Musical anime is quite common out there. The ones I've seen is probably Piano Forest and Nodame Cantabile. But for them to actually combine the two genre together and focus on both side of the story so thoroughly, I thought it was pretty rare.

Execution
Development: 5 / 5
The story line concentrates on Arima Kousei, and his piano path. It mainly shows how he overcame his weakness after the incident where he mother died 2 years ago, along with a little relationship complications on the way.
The development for this story is amazing, everything so thoroughly done. There is also that balance between the two genre. Usually I feel that the anime would be one lob sided on one genre, and forget about either the musical side or the romance side. But for this anime, it isn't the case. Though I did think that there would be at least one more performance where Arima plays with Kaori (just because I wanna see their duet). The story develops in stages, and the stages are differentiated through performance, every time Arima performs, it's one stage.

First stage would be starting to play the piano again. He meets Kaori and Kaori forced him back into the piano world.
The second stage would be that he overcomes his fear for the piano. When performing with Kaori, Kaori pushes him forward, and made him went pass the stage of fear.
The 3rd stage would be finding how to play with feelings poured into his piano, his playing style changed throughout the whole time he was playing as he tried to find the most comfortable way to play style; where he actually played the piano the whole time thinking about Kaori.
The 4th stage would be accepting his 'talents', his talents for not being able to hear the piano notes when he plays. In this stage, Kaori was out of action and couldn't play the violin anymore, but going forward to play the piano despite all that. He accepted his 'talents' and no longer saw that as a liability, a punishment from his mother. In this stage he also accepted his mother's gifts and her death.
The 5th stage would be the concert with Aiza. Here you can tell that Arima is already on the way to his route of success, he played the piano with feelings, talents, and everything he learnt from his mother. In the 6th stage, he find himself facing the same situation that happened 2 years ago, when his mother passed away. However, Kaori's words pulled him through and helped him overcome everything.

Emotion: 4.5 / 5
Honestly this anime is overflowing with emotions, be it love, sadness, or fear. But it can't really be felt from the characters themselves, but from something deep within you. It leaves that lingering sadness from within you, and you can't get rid of it even after the whole anime ends.
After watching every episode of this anime, I honestly couldn't stop thinking about it. But I did think that they could have done some scenes in a flashier manner.

Like the scene whenever he flashback to the time with his mother. I thought that they could have done something to make us feel more for little Kousei. Like the thing about Kousei getting beaten up by his mother when he plays the wrong note or something. Showing the exact scene as a faded background under the scene where they actually mention it (I think it was the scene showing little Kousei walking and people all around him where talking about him), I think it would have gave the scene more impact.

Planning: 5 / 5
There isn't really any thing that really show that they the whole story from the beginning. But you can tell, when you look at this anime, as a whole, that this story is by itself, and was planned from the very beginning. Everything came together really nicely.
I just thought that in the 2nd half of the anime, there could have been more Kaori scenes, since she does play a very huge part of the story.

Main Character Development: 5 / 5
As mentioned above, this anime really has a very good development process. The main characters, mostly Arima, Kaori and Tsubaki has the most attention. For this I'm going to include only Arima and Kaori, since they are the two most important characters.
Kaori doesn't have as much development in the 2nd half, but you can tell through little actions, how she felt about Arima.

As for Arima, well this whole story is basically about him, so the story's development is basically his character development.

Side Character Development: 3 / 5
Tsubaki's character is really developed, mostly because of her feelings towards Arima. They really focused on her in the 2nd half of the anime, and her character development was really good. There's only one thing I'm a bit confused. Tsubaki and Watari are both childhood friends of Arima, but it seems like they just kept showing about Tsubaki and Arima's childhood days, and Watari is usually not seen in them.
I think that Watari wasn't really well used here. I think Watari is the only one who knew what was going on from the middle of the anime till the end. Be it Arima's feelings, Kaori's feelings or Tsubaki's feelings. And I think that he actually really played a crucial role in the anime, just that we don't really see that. He was the one backing up everyone.

Like in the first scene, he goes to Kousei and Tsubaki and suggested that the two of them are dating. It actually kinda shows how he knows how Tsubaki feels about Kousei, and in probably indirectly getting her to realise her feelings for him.
In the middle of the show, there were some scenes which really suggested that Watari already knows that Kaori likes Arima, not him. He also knows that Arima likes Kaori (I think everyone does). It's proven when Arima tells Watari he likes Kaori, Watari wasn't shocked at all. He really backs them up as much as he can, dragging Arima to see Kaori and things like that.

For the other supporting characters like Arima's competitors - Aiza Takeshi and Igawa Emi, even though they did play a part in helping Arima find himself, and there are many things about their childhood has a pianist, but I think that there was a lack of interaction between them and Arima outside of competitions. Of course Takeshi's character is much more developed through his younger sister - Nagi.
As for Nagi, I think that she played her part in developing the main story line, but it seems more like she had her own mini story line going on there.
For Seto, I just think that they could have showed her in the beginning (with Arima's mother, whenever possible), instead of suddenly having her jump into the story.
Overall, for the side characters, I think Tsubaki (she's kinda the main) is the only one which they paid a lot of attention to, the balance between the characters of the same level is different.

Seiyuu: 4 / 4
I have no complains about their selection of seiyuus at all. I think they were all very natural, with the exception of Hanae Natsuki (Arima's voice actor), being outstanding. I really loved his clear, low and slightly husky tone. He also does all the 'comedy' parts really well. 
Bonus: OST 
There are 2 sets of OST, the OST which was made for this anime itself, and the classical pieces they chose for this anime. Their both really really done and really very well picked up.
For the classical pieces, I thought that they really picked the piece based on the emotions which Arima was going through.

The first song, which was what Kaori played, started out slow and subtle, and then there is that sudden outburst where everything was just flashy (louder, and faster). Because we were suppose to feel that Kaori is a very flashy and reckless girl, choosing that piece really show cased that.
The 2nd song, where Arima first played together with Kaori, they chose a piece which can showcase both the piano and violin, one which the violin and piano (somewhat) have a solo part, to show the Arima hitting the keys real hard, and how Kaori tried to over shine him. There is some soft and intense part of the song which were really used to the fullest - the soft part for the beginning and the part were Arima gets lost in the deep sea (where he can't hear the notes), and the loud flashy parts for when they show their struggles.
The 3rd song, where Arima played a piece for his first competition in 2 years, they really choose a piece which wasn't as pleasing to the ear to really emphasize how reckless and unrefined his playing is, especially since he hasn't played for 2 years. The song, of course had a really gentle and nice sounding part, which was the part they played for when Arima found his new play style.
For the scene where he played together with Nagi, they chose a piece which reminded everyone of their childhood, something that most people would have come across, a track from sleeping beauty (classical ver.).

The OST for this anime was really really beautiful. After the anime, I just kept listening to the OSTs. I have actually done up a playlist of my favorite tracks. Do check it out here: http://strawberryshortcake-reviews.blogspot.com/2015/03/best-of-shigatsu-wa-kimi-no-uso-ost.html

Other:
I really liked the script for this anime. There were many things that they used a more abstract way to convey to us about the character's feelings. The tend to use shorter sentences that link together to tell us the story.

Art Ratings: 4

Honestly the animation is really pretty, but the art is just about average. 

From what I heard, they actually use motion camera to capture the motion of the pianist when she / he plays the piano, and actually animate it, which is why the finger animation on the piano was so smooth. You can tell when they actually used the 3D motion thing, because there is a difference in animation as compared to the normal 2D animation. The good thing is that it isn't as obvious as Nodame Cantabile.
I just thought that they could show us more of the fingers. Like when they show other things, while the pianist are playing the piano, they could use it as a faded background. The animation for the Sakura petals dropping and everything was really very pretty and smooth. beautiful use of animation throughout the whole anime. 

As for the art, I actually didn't really like how the art looked at first, so it took me awhile to get convinced to watch this anime. But after awhile, honestly, it didn't bother me at all. And everything just came together so beautifully. 

Similar Animes:
So first off the most similar anime: Nodame Cantabile. Their both mostly about classical music with a romance story line. But honestly, the story line itself is really very different. Shigatsu is mostly about Piano with a bit of violin. For Nodame Cantabile, it focuses on a wider change of classical like Oboe, orchestra, conducting, etc. Nodame Cantabile is a more classical intensive anime compared to shigatsu, and the story line isn't as developed or as anywhere near as beautiful as Shigatsu. Nodame Cantabile's setting is also in university, as compared to Shigatsu which is set in middle school, so there is that huge difference.

In terms of classical genre, I think that Shigatsu is a lot more similar to Piano Forest. Piano Forest, as the name suggest, focuses a lot more on piano, but they don't have that romance side to the story, it's just simply about Piano. The setting for Piano Forest sets in elementary school, which isn't really much of a difference with Middle school. The Piano scenes are also very similar to Shigatsu.

In terms of the romance, drama, sad side of Shigatsu, I would say it's similar to Clannad and Clannad after story. The build up is basically the same, very thorough development, and a sad ending. Although I must say that Clannad lacks a lot in comparison to Shigatsu. Clannad is also mainly comedy until the ending, and honestly the whole of the first 2/3 of Clannad is basically rubbish, but in order to feel the full force of the ending, you would have to watch through the whole load of rubbish.

Recommended for:

Gender: Female & Male

Age: 15 and above

My Ratings: PG