“I’m tired of being gray.” - Houtarou

There’s something truly tragic behind that quote. I feel as though Houtarou must have at one point in his life tried to have a rose coloured life, but failed and gave up. As we saw in episode two, when he was watching the rest of the club laughing and talking, he felt he couldn’t connect with them. To him he felt he was completely detached from them. He was trapped by his life of grey. No matter how hard he tries to escape, he can’t. 

Though, it is clear that he commends and is jealous of those who are able to exert energy. As he says, the grass is greener on the other side. He looks at the people around him and all he feels is tired, but for what reason? It’s because of his own life. He wants to find something that interests him. So when looking at everyone trying their best, he finally decides he wants try his best, too. 

Houtarou is a character who has managed to capture my attention completely. Within these past five episode, watching Houtarou slowly try to change his ways, has proven this series’ worth. A story that is constantly moving isn’t always necessary. In the case of Hyouka, I’m watching a character who I really care for, try to change their life. It truly strikes a chord with me, and makes every episode extremely interesting.

I really liked Bakemonogtari, so seeing it return once again in the sequel Nisemonogatari is such a treat! This first episode gets right back into its crazy antics and I loved every minute of it! Such an awesome script and even if the anime is mainly only dialogue, I was interested from start to end. 

This may not necessarily be the type of series everyone will love, like I mentioned, if you are not a fan of a dialogue heavy story, run away now! If you’re curious about this season having not seen the first, you can still watch it and understand enough of it, but it may be difficult because it has such a unique style of storytelling that may be hard to get into at first. 

Anyway, so basically this was just a fantastic 20 minutes for me. Not much else to say besides the art is still great and this anime is just genius. Can’t wait for more episodes!

Episode Rating: 9/10

When it comes to anime adaptations from 4-koma manga, it can really be a hit or miss type of deal. Kill Me Baby didn’t create any fluidity in its pace, so it acted just as a 4 panel manga would if put on screen. Setup, setup, setup, joke. This ends up predictable, and although it works on paper, it doesn’t work on screen for 20 minutes of it.

In this first episode, we grow no attachment whatsoever to the characters. We have no reason to accept their quirks, and because of that, it all translates to just being annoying. 

Because this episode only tried to rely on its jokes, it’s all I could really judge. For the most part, they weren’t all that funny. As it got closer to the end, I’ll admit the jokes did pick a bit, but I’ve still seen better. 

In a way, this anime has no soul. It’s just a shell that is throwing out a million jokes in hopes that at least one will work. Of course this could still change if this series tries to give its characters, some actual life, but I’m betting it won’t.

Episode Rating: 5/10

For the most part, I think the people who have decided to give this anime a chance, it was just to see how this ridiculous plot would play out. It turned out pretty much how you would expect and I’m glad to see it will only run at 3 minutes because any more would be too long. 

The premise was creepy to begin with, and the reality of it was not much different. Our main character, due to looking much much older than his age, was thought to be a child molester. I don’t even know what to think of it. It wasn’t really funny. Anywho, I’ll continue to watch just because its so short and so weird.

Episode Rating: 4/10

I’m a big fan of this series, so it’s great to see Natsume already back again for its fourth season! It also seems like this season isn’t taking its time and instead is getting right into the action. So the storyline this time, as I expected, is going to be mostly focusing on the exorcists, which I think should be very interesting. 

This was a strong first episode that unlike in the last couple of seasons didn’t want to spend too long just recapping what happened. I like the change from the usual pace this show brings, but I hope as the season goes on we’ll still move a bit away from the main story with the exorcists to show some more of the fantastic standalone episodes that this series always has to offer. 

Episode Rating: 7.9/10

I knew to not expect closure from this season of fate/zero because we were warned at the beginning that this series was going to be split in two parts and continuing when April rolls in. Nonetheless, I expected some sort closing moment in the least to create a distinguish between this season and the next, but that definitely wasn’t the case. We got a cliffhanger ending! 

And although I like the idea behind a cliffhanger ending (it was successful for Code Geass)  it doesn’t work that well for Fate/Zero because we can get an idea on what to expect from the battle, especially since it is nowhere near a “final boss moment”. With that said, season one’s ending leaves us more with a three month hiatus feeling than anything else. 

And yet, I really don’t mind because episode 13 was still fantastic! 

I love the interactions between Rider and Waver and this episode was full of them! This episode also created some build-up and character development. The art was incredible as per usual and when you look at it in its entirety, all I see is another strong and entertaining episode from Fate/Zero. 

The wait till April may feel long, but at least its comforting to know that the action we long for will begin right away! 

Episode Rating: 9/10