Recommends

Anime

• Naruto
  
• Death Note
  
• GTO
  
• Fullmoon wo Sagashite
  
• Fruits Basket
  
• Bleach
  
• Slam Dunk
  
• Hikaru no Go
  
• Hajime no Ippo
  
• Yakitate!! Japan
  
• Ichigo 100%
  
• Hunter x Hunter
  
• Yu Yu Hakusho
  
• Full Metal Alchemist
  
• Full Metal Panic
  
• Love Hina
  
• Initial D
  
• Gundam Wing

• Naruto
  
• Death Note
  
• GTO
  
• Detective Conan
  
• Full Metal Alchemist
  
• Ichigo 100%
  
• Hajime no Ippo
  
• Hunter x Hunter
  
• Flame of Recca
  
• Slam Dunk
  
• Love Hina
  
  

• Iryu Medical Dragon
  
• Kurosagi
  
• Liar Game
  
• Hana Yori Dango
  
• Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
  
• Nodame Cantible
  

Reviews

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (finished 08.12.2006)
Weird anime, with a weird girl, that's my first impression. Though that view changed toward the end of the series else I'll also be dubbed as weird. This series gave the reasons why I'm watching anime. If you ask me, I probably came up with the same realization as Haruhi that's why I can relate to this anime. Like Haruhi, I'll probably be bored doing routinary activities that everyone else does. Sometimes I wish extraordinary things to happen, from Kyon and I quote "Deep in my heart, I wished that aliens, time travelers, ghost, demons, espers or evil organizations might pop up in front of me."

Story wise, it’s not bad. The episodes with Suzumiya Haruhi *insert Roman numeral* are deep but most of the episodes are your ordinary school-life comedy anime. However, Kyon's voicing out of his thoughts is in every episode is what I consider the strongest point in this anime. Also, I don't even know where genre this anime is inclined since most of the episodes are based on several anime titles I've watched before, the romance just happened in the last episode. At one point, I've been thinking, should I take this anime seriously or not?

The episode order is rather unique, and if you ask me it’s neither good nor bad. It confused me most of the time though, especially episode 4 after Yuki's revelation that she's an alien the next episode is a baseball game revealing most of the characters' abilities. But when you get the hang of it, I mean if you know you should follow Haruhi's ordering in the preview, you'll realize it’s an amazing feature. It balanced the seriousness and the comedic factor in this anime. If they aired it in order, I would probably be disappointed with the ending.

Character design is cute, probably one reason why I can never be bored with this anime. To be honest the deciding factor to watch this anime is when I saw Haruhi's cute face in some guy's avatar in one of my forums. The OP and ED are cute too. Especially the ED dance, something I can never be tired of watching.

In conclusion, this is a nice anime with balanced comedy and deep meaning into it. It not something from your ordinary anime genre but somehow it can be considered an all-in-one package.

Ichigo 100% OAV (finished 08.07.2006)
This review is coming from the very same person who gave Ichigo 100% anime a perfect 10 in all aspects. Though it pains me to give this kind of review, however, this is what I felt after watching the OAVs. But I will not revoke my previous rating regarding the anime because that is also what I felt after watching it.

I was really disappointed with the OAVs, I thought there is nothing much worse than the Ichigo 100% manga ending, but I was wrong, dead wrong. I watched the 2004 Jump Fiesta (OAV1) after the series, I'm lucky that I didn't have my copies of the rest of the OAVs because I might've missed the chance of reading one of the best manga in my opinion (with exception with the ending). OAV 1-3 are within tolerable levels but 4-5 are already Rated R for retarded. What a waste of production! I can't believe they did this especially to an OAV! I was expecting a good continuation for the anime but all they do is mess up again. There is no saving this anime because of what they did and to capture the very essence of the manga they have to either cancel the OAVs (at least) or remake the anime. A 19 volume manga doesn't deserve a 12-episode anime series and 5-episode (with last 2 episodes nothing to with the manga) OAV.

The plot development is pretty bad, I'm not just saying from the point of view of having read the manga. This is deja vu of the last volumes in Love Hina. The first 3 OAVs have connection with the manga (at least some scenes) but they deleted the scenes that really give an impact and replaced it with light scenes or fan service. For example, in OAV1 when shooting the movie for the cultural festival they removed Nishino's confession that she still wanted a relationship with Junpei to something that the entire incident was all planned by Film Club to shoot a more realistic movie. In OAV3 when Junpei was trying to escape Oumi Academy they removed the part where he shouted at Nishino Fan Club members to stop following Nishino everyday because its bothersome for her to be followed by a large number of guys especially at work and getting beaten up for being cocky. This scene was deleted and replaced by Junpei beaten up by Film Club members because they thought he had a date with Nishino. They removed the drama that would’ve made this series a very good one if you ask me. But if there is a single strength in the OAVs or the anime for that matter, that would be removing all the unnecessary things that made me feel worse while reading the manga. That would be Amachi, Satsuki's advances and Nishino wanting Manaka for herself. These chapters are unfair to Aya, and I felt that the anime sided with the East side all throughout.

Character development is also bad in this OAV, even for the well-developed characters from the anime. They are trying to introduce manga characters like Chinami and Kozue to the series but all they do is have them popped up in scenes for no particular reason and having them tagging along in the next episodes. Aya might've saved me from giving this review but after OAV5, I just can't accept everything. OAV5 I believe is from Omake 14-15% (omakes has nothing to do with the original plot) but they made it an episode, I for one liked that particular omake but there is supposed to be a limit and this is way going way overboard, it destroyed the whole series!

The drawings are much worse than the anime, though the anime drawings is not entirely bad because it still captured the cuteness of the characters and enough for me to fall in love with Aya. Though I admit its really hard copying drawings from Kawashita (yes, I dropped the honorific -sensei for giving me a bad ending of Ichigo! Beh!), being known for her very detailed artwork, though majority of her characters are recycled.

Sounds and background music can't be compared to the anime. I personally like the anime background music but this OAV has nothing in particular. This is because I watched the anime special after OAVs (Yui chapter, her best chapter IMO), and realized that the anime still has its good points, the special also saved me from giving a much harsh review that what I'm already writing.

If you want a good continuation where the anime left off I suggest you postpone watching these OAVs and read the manga. I'm sure you'll feel the same way as I do afterwards. The anime made me read the manga, which is good point I probably continued Ippo if I watched the OAVs first. Though I can't say much about the manga ending, (yes, yes I've ranted enough) the manga will keep you hooked for days and I consider it one of the best manga I've read.

Initial D: Fourth Stage (finished 08.09.2006)
Fourth Stage still has the touch of the original Initial D. It never lost its glory till the end of the series. I thought the battles will be repetitive and there will be dozens of comeback enemies, but it was the opposite. They introduced new enemies, fought new battles and a new Fujiwara Takumi.

The first few races was centered to Takumi alone afterwards they'll just mention that Keisuke won, it made me a bit disappointed thinking the races will focus only on Takumi, but I was wrong. When I think about it, the whole Fourth Stage might've focused on Keisuke. In the end they both grew in this expedition. Though I don't like the idea of Ryousuke being like a god. All-knowing, giving them the directions and predicting matches. There are still battles that left me stunned, which is really good considering this is the fourth installment.

The story was balanced; it didn't focus on racing alone but the ordinary life of the racer. Even though Mogi was never in this installment, the Kyoko x Keisuke relationship somehow replaced it. It is one of the few things I look forward to other than the races.

The art improved from the first and second installments and the background music in battles is nice. All in all you won't be disappointed in this series.

Ichigo 100% (finished 07.22.2006)
It’s been a while since I last watched something from this genre (ecchi, drama, romance). I thought I've seen them all, and with all the disappointment I've shoved this genre until I encountered an H doujin from Tukumi Daifuku. Yes, what introduced me back to this genre is an H doujin (the art is great probably surpasses even the anime). I had this anime piling dusts in my bedroom and decided to watch it because the girl in the doujin is cute, but it introduced me back to drama anime.

Ichigo 100% reminds me of my days in high school (in my dreams, of course). The first few episodes bring me back to Love Hina. A geeky looking girl, really cute when glasses removed and hair unbraided plus the entrance exam for Izumizaka. I have a low tolerance regarding animes copied from other titles or something I've already seen before. But right now, for me, this anime surpasses Love Hina. You see, in Love Hina they did so many unnecessary things which I didn't like, it was weird in a sense especially towards the last part in the manga; fight scenes galore. In addition, essence of the the "childhood promise" was lost towards the end.

This anime reminded me of all that, I said if this ended up like Love Hina, I'm willing to give up on this genre, but I'm glad it didn't. In comparison, ecchi, comedy and drama is equally distributed in this series. Not too much ecchi (I'd rather watch H), not too much comedy (which will end up like Love Hina), and not too much drama (like Boys Be). I was really moved especially the dorama-like background music in some scenes. But more importantly, it was Toujou Aya that made me like this anime. A bit personal but I really fell in love with her in the series, probably the type of girl I really want to meet.

All in all for a 12-episode series the introduction of characters and the plot advancement is nicely done. I’m not too particular about the ending because before I started watching, I already have my copies of the manga and perfectly understood it would not end well, there is still oavs right. Even though it came from an ecchi genre the music and the story gave it a dorama feel. Right now I'm not even in the middle of reading Ippo manga (26 out of 76) but this time it’s the fighting anime I'm willing to set aside to read the whole 19 volumes of this manga.