The most obvious question to ask about Working!! is where it sits with regards its contemporaries. The easiest answer is: somewhere between Azumanga Daioh and Minami-ke. This puts it in an odd position where its intended audience is concerned for it's not surreal enough to garner a cult following and not accessible enough to be immediately appealing. Sure the idea of a violently androphobic girl is quirky, but the restaurant setting is littered with customs and rituals that are foreign enough to be disconnecting. The series then occupies a middle ground, rarely laugh-out-loud hilarious but frequently inspired, inventive but tends to grind its best ideas, fulfilling and satisfying but lacking the spark that would elevate this beyond a fleeting curio.
there is a baffling fixation on the cross-dressing of boys as beautiful girls, and their relatively blasé acceptance of it
When Sota is recruited on the street by the diminutive and infectiously cheery Poplar, he is inducted into the world of the Wagnaria restaurant. Staffed by a cast of misfits which includes a layabout, parfait devouring manager, Kyouko, an overprotective sword-toting waitress, Yachiyo, the ordinarily demure but in fact freakishly strong Mahiru, and Hiroomi whose talent for leveraging information about his co-workers provides him with an easy day's work. Sota by comparison adores small and cute things but after being repeatedly punched by Mahiru, vows to cure her of her androphobia. Meanwhile all manner of shenanigans transpire in the restaurant starting with the adoption of Aoi, a wayward teenager who the head manager, Hyogo, meets on his travels to find his absent wife. And despite what the quiet Maya may claim, she is just another one of the varied and off-beat employees that make Wagnaria so eclectic.
Hironori Toba, producer of Angel Beats, said in an interview prior to its premiere that thirteen episodes wasn't enough to tell the story Jun Maeda had envisioned. He was lying. Somewhere between the baseball episode and the protracted and overblown ending it becomes apparent the series doesn't know what it's doing beyond trying to force the audience to feel something for its tepid and underdeveloped cast. Trapped beneath a script which oscillates from terrible to appalling and a story with more holes and useless caveats than development is some mediocre commentary and a smattering of interesting ideas. It is saddening such high production values are wasted on a show that with some tightening and tweaking could have been immeasurably better.
prancing between ideologies like a hummingbird with ADHD
Otonashi is dead. Now trapped in a mysterious purgatory, he must fight alongside other teenagers against a mysterious girl named Angel who is determined for them to enjoy a school life as normal students. Unlike the other members of the haphazardly coordinated battlefront though, Otonashi doesn't have any memories of how he ended up in purgatory. Everyone else it seems either to have perished in the most ignominious of ways, or wandered in rife with emotional baggage. The war against Angel is not without its complexities though and it is up to an eclectic group consisting of a hacker, a ninja, a judo champion, a spacey rocker and myriad others to tackle each challenge as it arises. Uncertainty is endemic and who was once foe may become friend, they may even meet God himself in this world.
One criticism that could never be levelled at Baccano! was that it was unoriginal. So too can this be applied to Durarara!! which defies its lacklustre predecessor by going full bore for a modern thriller with supernatural overtones, eking out some social commentary along the way. Featuring an expansive cast and set in the city-within-a-city, Ikebukuro, the series has an eye for the dramatic and though ostensibly the story is bifurcated, it covers a variety of stories that involve murder, urban gang conflict and domestic abuse through to a love triangle between school friends and a Russian sushi chef's desire for more business. It is a stunningly constructed series and though it has its stumbling points, by and large it demonstrates that with the difficulties of an involving story and an engaging cast down, everything else comes naturally.
despite his obvious knack for information gathering, his actions are limited to spitting into the maelstrom rather than orchestrating it
When Mikado arrives in Tokyo, his friend Masaomi shows him around Ikebukuro, and though he doesn't realise it, he is now deep within a world populated by an outlandishly strong bartender, a fox-like information broker, a Dullahan on a journey from Ireland to recover her missing head as well as a cornucopia of gang members, students, foreigners and all points in between. The effervescence the city enjoys though is soon ruptured by a brewing street war, leading the charge is the brutish Yellow Scarves who sprung up after the dissolution of the previous ruling gang, the Blue Squares; however a shadowy internet group called the Dollars have also made some headway. Meanwhile a violent sword wielding lunatic has antagonised the Black Rider and it seems someone wishes for all of this conflict to spill over. The city certainly has its share of miscreants but whether its cosmopolitan nature will survive the brewing trouble may just rest in Mikado's hands.
Takashi Watanabe obviously woke up one morning, head still groggy from a night of drink, drugs and debauchery, one hand clutching a napkin with a list scrawled on it - ninjas, cyborgs, magic, gods, dragons, breasts - and in the other a production contract, sloppily signed by himself. There is no way else a series as bonkers as Ichiban Ushiro no Daimou could have been born except from some ill-informed bet or dare. Cramming this amount of content into twelve episodes means dispensing with a consistent art-style, rounded characters and coherent storytelling; that the series hangs together at all depends entirely on the infectious enthusiasm and deviant pleasure of wondering where the story could possibly go next.
a show that Michael Bay would create if he were a long time anime fan, slightly deranged and on the breadline
Despite Akuto Sai's desire to become a High Priest - a peerless champion for good - his Constant Magick Academy aptitude test predicts he will become a fearsome Demon King. Panic amongst the student population ensues and although Akuto remains defiant, forces begin to align themselves both for and against his ascension. Ancient clans such as the samurai Hattori and black magic Etou become involved, just as the ruling government sends an android to keep watch; Akuto isn't alone however, his childhood friend Keena and spirited minion Hiroshi stand by him, doubly so when the fearsome dragon and loyal servant of the Demon King Peterhausen is unearthed. Akuto's plan to remake the system of gods and scriptures may yet come to pass, though maybe not with him as the soldier of justice he envisioned.
Please note: the remainder of this post contains images of nudity, if you are offended by these or are otherwise unable to view these images within your municipality due to laws or moral obligations, please do not proceed.
If the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when Mikoto launches the titular railgun for the first time, no further evidence will be needed to understand that Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a breed apart. Even when a large part of it is peppy storyline is fruitless meandering, the climaxes of the two main narratives tickle all the right areas of the brain for those looking for something different from the magically imbued children genre. The series is funny without using fan-service, touching without being saccharine and poignant without being overbearing - a grab-bag of amusing antics with a smattering of potent character-lead drama and, contrary to the title, maintains a pleasant disregard towards science.
Fast, brutal and free of the pace-killing monologues which are so often interspersed, these fights are the crowning achievements
Set in the same modernist city as its predecessor, Toaru Majutusu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), Academy city's primary form of law enforcement is the volunteer service, "Judgement". A key member of the 7th District's branch is Kuroko Shirai, a skilled teleport user who also happens to be the room mate of Mikoto Misaka, one of only a few fifth level ability users in the city. When an urban legend of a method to artificially increase one's ability level turns into fact, the number of petty crimes within the city's multitude of districts increases; more worrying however is the torpid state users fall into after limited use. A lugubrious researcher could be involved with the dissemination of the "Level Upper", but it is only the tip of a larger plot though, one which could well tear apart Academy city and those who reside within it.
