Leav­ing little to the ima­gin­a­tion, Baka to Test to Shokanju fea­tures pre­cisely what the title spe­cifies. The first three epis­odes are a grab bag of dif­fer­ent influ­ences that run the gamut from the quick fire rowdi­ness of Excel Saga to the fantasy-high school blend of Maburaho, suc­cess­fully mix­ing them all into a […]

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Organised with care and attention into:

• 3 episode taste test,
• akihisa,
• Anime,
• baka,
• baka to test to shokanju,
• battle,
• contest,
• idiot,
• minami,
• mizuki,
• review,
• school,
• summoned beasts,
• tests,
• yuji

Another series another las­ci­vi­ous story seed, this time with the form­a­tion of a high school under­wear club by a girl smit­ten with all things under­wear. Rolling one’s eyes and plough­ing into the first three epis­odes of Chu-Bra!! it becomes increas­ingly appar­ent that this isn’t the naughty teen­age giggle parade that is expected […]

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Organised with care and attention into:

• 3 episode taste test,
• Anime,
• bra,
• chu,
• chu-bra,
• embarrassed,
• haruka,
• hiroki,
• nayu,
• panties,
• review,
• school,
• undergarments,
• underwear,
• uniform,
• yaku

With a premise remin­is­cent of My-Otome and cham­pi­on­ing the cur­rent trend of snotty faux-aristocrats, Ladies versus But­lers starts as it intends to con­tinue: copi­ous, point­less fanser­vice. The frantic first epis­ode is chase across pala­tial school grounds which sees girls of an acutely fair dis­pos­i­tion faint at the very sight of a teenage […]

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Organised with care and attention into:

• 3 episode taste test,
• Anime,
• aristocracy,
• butlers,
• fanservice,
• fondling,
• kanokon,
• ladies,
• ladies versus butlers,
• review,
• school,
• snooty,
• snotty,
• young

Step­ping back into Moon­phase ter­rit­ory while sim­ul­tan­eously rid­ing the resur­gent interest in vam­pires, SHAFT and dir­ector Akiy­uki Shinbo take on the adapt­a­tion of a manga infam­ous for its racy con­tent and viol­ent over­tures. The first three epis­odes of Dance in the Vam­pire Bund demon­strate little of the lat­ter and a lot of […]

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Organised with care and attention into:

• 3 episode taste test,
• Anime,
• blood,
• fangs,
• keyframes,
• loli,
• review,
• school,
• shaft,
• vampire,
• werewolf,
• young

Five Cen­ti­metres Per Second
On first watch­ing Five Cen­ti­metres Per Second, the over­bear­ing sad­ness of Takaki’s jour­ney from love­struck adoles­cent to down­trod­den adult is depress­ing; the piano music that fol­lows him through the three stor­ies of the film is a heart­beat of yearn­ing for times gone by. Sub­sequent view­ings but build upon this and more than […]

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Organised with care and attention into:

• 5 centimetres per second,
• 5cm/s,
• akari,
• Anime,
• anime of the decade,
• byousoku 5 centimeter,
• children,
• kanae,
• makoto shinkai,
• movie,
• nostalgia,
• piano,
• school,
• snow,
• takaki,
• wistful