...what are you watching...

Shingeki no Kyojin 23-25! the end of season one. I'm a fan of animes taking a break while the manga continues on. The identity of the female Titan is revealed. Glad to see Arwin had a clue long before the failed mission. I'm still wondering when Eren, Arwin and Mikasa will try to find out what Eren's father was hiding. They try and capture Annie. The final episode's battle was pretty awesome. ~10/10 rating~ Even with the gore, violence and inappropriately funny-looking titans, everything else about the anime was excellent. This definitely ranks up there with Hagaren and HXH in terms of memorable anime. It seems they've reached volume 8 of the manga and the mangaka estimates that he'll wrap it up in 20, so it'll be a bit of a wait to see what happens. Mikasa and Levi are pretty badass characters.


Hakkenden S2 12-13! the end. Skipping a few minor story details, the crazy nun gathers the 8 people with beads so that she can gain Fuse Hime's powers. This was a guilty pleasure anime since I was only watching for the attractive characters and the bromance. The manga isn't complete, but the anime plot was actually ok. It reminded me of Fushigi Yuugi without the annoying female characters. ~7/10 rating~ The anime was by no means great, but boy band fluff isn't so bad once in awhile.


Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 11-12! the end. William is taken into Hell, puts on the ring of power and unleashes Solomon's power. Rather corny for the climax. And rather anti-climactic. Out of this and Hakkenden, Hakkenden was the better boy-band anime. ~5/10 rating~ Kevin was the only unintentionally amusing character in the show.


Monogatari S2 11-13! 11 is a flashback. 12 starts the Nadeko arc. She starts seeing the snake again. She's not as interesting as she was the first time around. The theme song is rather bland.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 96-98! features the Phantom Troupe who travel to their 'hometown' so to speak to get rid of the chimera ants who have taken over. It's nice to see what the side characters' powers are after seeing them do barely anything of note in the past. Kalluto, Killua's younger brother's point of view is interesting. After the two episodes on the Phantom Troup, 98 returns to Gon and Killua. There's some seemingly bad news about the series moving to a 1am timeslot from the 11am time. There is concern over the future quality and audience...hope those concerns remain unfounded.

Can't say that this fall's new anime list looks interesting, but here are a couple shows that did not have websites that did not have too much moe:
Samurai Flamenco - the title made me laugh...supermodel turned superhero
Pupa - brother and his sister who has turned to cannibalism...wtf japan and their cannibal genre...titans not enough?

Monogatari S2 10! anticlimactic, but sweet end to the time travel arc. Even though I keep looking forward to some action-packed climactic battle and they don't give me it, I do like how they resolve their problems.

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 9! cultural festival at the school...zzz....

Hunter x Hunter 2013 95! Gon's 30 days are up and everyone plans to fight their opponents. Killua's sad face worse than Gon's sad face.

Shingeki no Kyojin 22! After Levi shows off his skills and helps Mikasa save Eren, the aftermath of their mission has everyone devestated. I can see why fanboys like Levi.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 93-94! Funny how Gon knew how to plan his date with Palm out without any big fuss, while Killua was pretty clueless. The two episodes were very cute. Palm is the epitome of scary girlfriend.



Hakkenden S2 3-7! Shino teaches kids that were once abandoned at the red-light district. A small blind girl takes a liking to him. And then Shino investigates a town where the local deity was killed. Sosuke meets his other half. Anticlimactic episodes, but there are a few cute scenes. In episode 6, Shino learns that the members of his boy band all possess the beads that he was looking for. Nachi's cat, Kaede is able to sense the beads. I like the megane guy with the ice/snow princess. They are attractive. Episode 8-9 is a sad arc about a boy wanting to find flowers for his mother, but it turns out that the side character, Shinobu, is important.

Monogatari S2 9! After Araragi saves Hachikuji's life in the past, Araragi and Shinobu return to the present to find a world full of vampire-zombies.

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 9! However terrible the anime is, William's lack of any religious inclinations is amusing when the angels and demons keep angsting around him.

Shingeki no Kyojin 20-21! Ugh, the gore, suspense and cliffhangers! They are able to catch the female titan only long enough for her to call her fellow titans who start to devour her. The army retreats, but Erwin suspects the female titan is hiding as a fellow soldier. She attacks Eren's group and well, massacres them and eats Eren. Mikasa, the best female character in any anime right now, despairs for a split second before going right after her.

Monogatari S2 3-8! Hanekawa stays with the Fire Sisters. Shinobu shows up separated from Araragi. A couple new characters are introduced...maybe they are from the movie I didn't see yet or from Araragi's arc? Anyway, Hanekawa-cat confronts the tiger on her own, but finally Araragi shows up to help. I don't find her character too interesting and am glad they wrapped up this arc with some action and Araragi properly rejecting her. Episode 6 is a recap of Tsubasa-cat. 7 starts off Kabukimonogatari with Araragi and Shinobu time-traveling so that Araragi can finish his homework.

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 3-8! It gets a little tedious that everything that comes out of Dantalion's mouth is bad dialogue from a boys love fanfic. Anyway, the Church learns that William is the Elector. His butler, Kevin, arrives as the new priest at the school. And another candidate appears. While the animation quality dropped, there's still some entertaining comedy mixed in with the bromance angst. I liked the funny twist with Kevin. This is far from a great show, but fluff is ok once in awhile.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 88! End of their training. Gon vs Knuckle starts. Shoot lurks in the background. Another strong chimera ant is born.

Shingeki no Kyojin 14! The new opening theme song isn't as epic as the first, but I enjoyed the action-packed new visuals. In this episode, Eren is put on trial with his life at stake. The recon group is able to gain responsibility of him.

Hakkenden S2 2! End of the doll arc with more mysteries thrown into the plot.

Monogatari S2 2! Hanekawa via 'black' cat visits the tiger, and she meets Senjougahara. The girls get to know one another.

Blood Lad 2! Fuyumi angsts a little over being a demon while Staz sprays his saliva all over the town so nobody thinks twice about him or her. A girl with transport magic appears. The show has its silly fun moments, but I think I'm going to drop this. I think I've seen most of the jokes before.

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 2! William sorta befriends another demon who enrolls at the school. Like Hakkenden, it's a show about good-looking boys doing cutesy things and action-like things; ie. entertaining the female viewers.

Uchouten Kazoku 2! Day in the life of the tanuki brothers...and a tender moment with their mom/prince. Eccentric family, but fairly dull show thus far. Dropped.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 87! Thought Gon punched Knuckles in the groin or something. That was a confusing scene. Nevertheless, Kite is being turned into a Frankenstein-like doll. Netero and the other two are slowly killing off the chimera ant leaders. And Gon and Killua continue to train now with Knuckles' help.

Shingeki no Kyojin 13.5! skipped the recap episode.



Monogatari S2 1! It's a new school year and Hanakawa meets backpack-less Hachikuji on her way to school. She also sees a white tiger and her house burns down. Senjougahara finds her sleeping in the abandoned cram school building and forces her to stay with her. Araragi is not in this episode. It's female bonding/fanservice time.

And the new shows:


Uchoten Kazoku 1! Humans, tengu and tanuki.

+ Attractive production (Zetsubou Sensei-ish...with a wider color palette)
- Bland episode

Quick impression~ A young male tanuki dressing like schoolgirl runs errands for his grandfather. It appears that this should be a comedy, but it's lacking effective humor. The episode doesn't do much to get you interested in whatever story it's trying to tell.



Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 1! I like how fanboys post 'yaoi' warnings when describing this anime show. This is based on a Zero-sum manga, so there's bound to be some light bromance.

+ Eye-candy
+ Goat-butler!

Quick impression~ A straight-A bocchan finds that his uncle has lost their family's fortune. William Twining and his one loyal butler search his home to find something to sell so that William can pay his school's tuition. I like that he attends a Catholic school but doesn't believe in god and such. They find a demon in the basement, but William believes him to be a con artist. The demon sees William as the descendent of Solomon who will choose the leader of the demon world while Lucifer is hibernating. This was actually fairly comedic. Unfortunately, the manga is not complete so the anime will unlikely cover much of the meat of the manga.



Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi 1! The Sunday without God

+ Interesting title and premise
- Really? a loli-gravedigger? (...well, 'gravekeeper' with a decorated shovel)
+ the main character's father's name is Humpnie Humbert...WTF...LOL.

Quick impression~ Heaven and Hell were too crowded so God forsake the world. Humans couldn't die or reproduce. Apparently, a gravekeeper could grant a peaceful slumber to the zombies that form after a human is 'killed'. Ai is the town's gravekeeper. One day she meets a traveler with her father's name and finds that all of the residents have been 'killed'. If Ai wasn't so annoyingly loli, this may be an interesting show.



Blood Lad 1! Ao no Exorcist vibes....

+ Bright, colorful production
+ Amusing

Quick impression~ A young, well-endowed female human wanders into the demon world. Staz, a vampire, is a big otaku and the leader of the gang who finds the girl. The girl is inadvertantly killed; she is now a ghost. Staz vows to turn her back into a human. Judging from the opening song, this is your typical shounen fighting show, and like typical shounen shows, it's fun. I do hope the female character gets some sort of power. (Vampire, ghost, and werewolf characters...sounds like the 'Being Human' trio..anime style)