Toradora!

"Since ancient times, the dragon has been the only beast to equal the tiger. Even if you're not by my side right now, I will leap through space and time and always be by your side."

Tora means tiger. Dora (doragon) is how "dragon" pronounced in Japanese. These words represents the two main protagonist in this series.

Toradora! とらドラ! is an 25-episode anime based on a series of 10 light novel with same title, written by Yuyuko Takemiya and illustrated by Yasu, published by ASCII Media Works. This light novel is also adapted to a manga series.

This anime follows Takasu Ryuuji, a male high-schooler who inherits his father's intimidating eyes. Despite his scary look, he is actually a kind hearted guy, and experts in house chores like cooking and cleaning. He has a secret crush on his cheerful and active classmate Kushieda Minori, who is a bestfriend to Aisaka Taiga, a cute little girl yet is the scariest and fiercest girl in school.

When going home after school, he accidentally finds Taiga's love letter addressed to Ryuuji's bestfriend, Kitamura Yuusaku. After some fights here and there, Ryuuji and Taiga ends up helping each other to get the person they like, besides going to school together as they are neighbors. However, this caused misunderstanding to the whole school, who thinks Ryuuji and Taiga are dating. In addition, a pretty but annoying model also Kitamura's childhood friend, Kawashima Ami, enters their school, making Taiga pissed and jealous.

Can both of them get the ones they like? Or will they eventually become a couple instead? Watch the anime here

Toradora! is not just another ordinary triangle love story. It's a complex love story, but it is presented in humorous way and contains a lot of life philosophies as well. This anime is fun to watch, especially the cute and lovable relation between Ryuuji and Taiga, and their effort to get the person they like, without knowing that the one they are looking for actually really close to them.

(+) Uniquely presented love story

(+) Good character development

(+) Nice soundtrack background music

(-) Contains a lot of swearing and bad words

(-) A bit confusing towards the end

In numbers

Story = 3.5/5

Artwork = 3.5/5

Animation and Color = 4/5

Character Development = 4/5

Soundtrack = 4/5

Overall = 4/5

Genre = comedy, drama, romance, slice of life, school life

Demographic = shonen (some people say it's shojo.. confusing)

Original Creator = Yuyuko Takemiya and Yasu

Director = Tatsuyuki Nagai

Seiyuu = Junji Majima (Ryuuji), Rie Kugimiya (Taiga), Yui Horie (Minori), Hirofumi Nojima (Kitamura), Eri Kitamura (Ami)

Kyou Kara Maoh!

"Justice be done!"

Imagine this. An average 15-years-old male high schooler, who often gets bullied by the seniors, is actually a king the Great Demon Kingdom (Shin Makoku). It seems like a dreamy fairytale in broad daylight, isn't it?

Nope. It's real. Let's get flushed in Shibuya Yuuri's world in the anime Kyou Kara Maoh!

This anime, Kyou Kara Maoh! 今日から㋮王! is based on a light novel and manga written by Tomo Takabayashi, illustrated by Temari Matsumoto, published by Kadokawa Shoten. This light novel has been made into 3-seasoned anime series.

This series follows the adventure of Yuuri and his friend Murata Ken, in the alternate world of Shin Makoku after coming in contact with water, toilet water, lake water, everywhere!

His black eyes and black hair suits the specifications of a Maoh, makes him feared by villagers when he first arrived in Shin Makoku. He later rescued by a guardian commander Conrad Weller and brought to Blood Promise Palace.

In the palace, by his cheerful and caring nature, Yuuri befriends and sometimes fight with the noble Wolfram von Bielefeld (who later get engaged with Yuuri), Gwendal von Voltaire, and advisor Gunter von Christ. They travel together to rule Shin Makoku, solve problems inside and outside the kingdom, strenghten diplomatic relation with other countries, and save for forbidden boxes who can bring both trouble and power.

Can Yuuri be a great Maoh? Follow his journey in the anime here !

Kyou Kara Maoh! is an enjoyable anime to watch. The storyline is extraordinary, creative, and contains a lot of hillarious stupid-slang jokes that can makes you go rolling on the floor. Characters are well made, and each character has something to offer to the storyline, making it more exciting and lovable. Sometimes the diplomacy scene are a bit boring to watch. However, the battles and fighting scene are nice to watch. This anime contains light amount of shonen-ai, not the yucky kind, it's rather funny to see Yuuri-Wolfram couple.

Overall,

(+) Nice artwork

(+) Good character development

(+) Unique and humorous story

(-) Sometimes it's dragging

(-) If you don't really like too much number of characters, this anime can make you a bit dizzy

By number..

Story = 4/5

Artwork = 4/5

Animation and Color = 3.5/5

Character Development = 4/5

Soundtrack = 4/5

Overall rating = 4/5

Genre = action, adventure, fantasy, drama, comedy, romance

Demographic = shojo / bishonen (I can't define..)

Original Creator = Tomo Takabayashi and Temari Matsumoto

Director = Junji Nishimura

Seiyuu = Takahiro Sakurai (Yuuri), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Conrad), Mitsuki Saiga (Wolfram), Akio Ohtsuka (Gwendal), etc check this out

xxxHolic

"There's no coincidence, only inevitable"

"xxx" in the title has no connection to nudity whatsoever, as this seinen anime is free from fanservice. However this anime, which pronounced as "Holic", has a very deep story and contains a lot of life philosophies.

xxxHolic ×××ホリック -- xXxHoLic is a 24-episode anime, based on a manga with the same title serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine created by CLAMP, a group of female mangaka.

The story follows a high schooler named Watanuki Kimihiro, who possess a power to see spirits, even attracting them. He feels so disturbed with this ability. One day, he stumbles into a magical shop that can grant people's wishes, owned by a witch Ichihara Yuuko with her servants Maru and Moro, and Mokona. Watanuki wants to get rid of his 'special ability', and thus he has to pay to Yuuko as a part-time employee, helping Yuuko with spiritual things and do housework chores.

In his part-time job, he discovers more about life, friendship, love, and learn more about himself as his life evolves with his friend-rival Doumeki Shizuka who has ability to purify evil spirits, and his crush Kunogi Himawari.

What do Watanuki learn about life? Will his wish come true? Watch the anime!

xxxHolic offers a unique way to learn about life philosophy and about Japanese spiritual tradition as well. Yuuko often speaks out wise quotes which you can learn out of it. In spite of being a supernatural anime, this anime is both thrilling, sometimes scary, yet humorous.

Pros and cons

(+) Contains moral values, wise words, and life philosophy that we can learn from

(+) Unique theme and story

(+) Good character development and exploration

(-) Not proportional artwork

(-) Some of the episode are boring

(-) Contains very deep story, might be difficult to digest for some people

Story = 3.5/5

Artwork = 3/5

Animation and Color = 3/5

Character development = 4/5

Soundtrack = 4/5

Overall = 3.5/5

Genre = supernatural, horror, slice of life, thriller, drama, comedy

Demographic = seinen

Original creator = CLAMP

Director = Tsutomu Mizushita

Seiyuu = Jun Fukuyama (Watanuki), Sayaka Ohara (Yuuko), Kazuya Nakai (Doumeki), Shizuka Ito (Himawari)

Yakitate!! Japan

"This is great!"

Like to eat various kind of bread? Or like to make cakes, cookies, and bread? Then you can check this anime out.. I bet you will love it.

Yakitate!! Japan 焼きたて!! ジャぱん is a manga created by Takashi Hashiguchi. It serialized in Shogakugan's Shonen Sunday since 2002. 25 tankobons have been released, and for your information, this series won the 2004 Shogakugan Manga Award for best shonen manga. A completed series of anime has been released, produced by Sunrise and being broadcast in TV Tokyo.

Yakitate!! Japan follows Azuma Kazuma, a 16-year-old teenager who likes to make and innovate bread. He has high creativity and special ability, Solar Hands (the hands are warmer than body temperature), which allow him to ferment bread dough faster. He wants to make Ja-pan, bread that represent Japan's culture and cuisine, and even replace rice in Japan. In order for his creation to be known by people, he applies to Pantasia Main Branch store. This is the first stepping stone his great journey to be a great bread artisan.

By entering the serious world of competition and bakery industry, Azuma meets a lot of other artisan, like Kawachi Kyousuke from Kansai who is comical and cause a lot of laughs throughout the series, Azusagawa Tsukino the owner of Pantasia Southern Tokyo where Azuma and Kawachi work , Suwabara Kai a samurai who also a skillful bread artisan, and a lot more.

Will Azuma's creation become well known by others? Can he be a great artisan? Read the manga, and watch the anime!

Yakitate!! Japan is very fresh anime. This anime features a lot of humor, mouth-watering breads, techniques to make delicious bread (this might be important for you who like to make bread), comedic reactions when eating the breads, which are very entertaining to watch, to release stress and increase your mood meter to happy :D

(+) Delicious, mouth-watering bread, yummy..

(+) Contains a lot dose of humor

(+) Nice artwork

(-) Too melodramatic

(-) Too many characters (in my opinion)

(-) Sometimes the humor are more annoying than entertaining

Story = 3.5/5

Artwork = 4/5

Animation and color = 4/5

Character development = 3/5

Soundtrack = 3.5/5

Overall rating = 3.5/5

Genre = cooking, comedy, action, drama, romance

Demographic = shonen

Original creator = Takashi Hashiguchi

Director = Yasunao Aoki

Seiyuu = Yumiko Kobayashi (Azuma), Shuuhei Sakaguchi (Kawachi), Takayuki Sakazume (Suwabara), Chihiro Otsuka (Tsukino), etc.. full credits is here

Fate/Stay Night

"I will save everyone"

Imagine you are a victim of great war and disaster. You want to do something to protect everyone.. but in the end it all fails because you don't have enough power.

That is how Emiya Shirou feels. Shirou is a victional character from light novel, game, and anime series Fate/Stay Night フェイト/ステイナイト. The light novel is created by Type-Moon. Fate/Stay Night is also available in PC games and PlayStation 2 game. A movie entitled Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works was released in Japanese theaters last January.

This series follows Shirou, a high schooler and also a sorcerer. 10 years ago, he was a victim of a great war called Holy Grail War, left him alone and orphaned. He was rescued and adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu, and the two lived together in Fuyuki City.

Shirou learns of his foster father's failed life ambition is to become a "Hero of Justice", a guardian of mankind who could protect the weak and innocent. Touched by Kiritsugu's conviction, Shirou affirms to his foster father that he intends to devote his life to achieving that distant ideal. To do this, Shirou pleads with a bedgrudging Kiritsugu to teach him sorcery, but being born without the capabilities of a magus, Shirou proves to be talentless in almost all the fundamental sorcerous disciplines.

Shirou is a very kindhearted and helpful student. His traits make his friends often take it for granted and ask him to do a lot of jobs. One day, when he is on the way home after cleaning the school archery dojo, he sees Tohsaka Rin, one of his schoolmates with her servant Archer are figthing other servant Lancer, who is skilled in using spears. Lancer happens to see Shirou takes a look at their fighting (which are not supposed to be seen by mortals) and runs after him. Unfortunately Shirou is caught by Lancer, has his heart pierced by spear, and passed out (but not dead, pleace notice). Rin saves him with some kind of jewel.

Feeling better, Shirou walks home, and finds out that Lancer is still after him, even in his house. Panicked, Shirou escapes to the warehouse. In the same time, a magic circle appears in the warehouse floor. Lancer got him and nearly kills Shirou when the seventh servant, Saber, is summoned from the circle and fights Lancer, therefore Shirou is saved. After some confusion, Shirou realizes that he is involved in Holy Grail War, where all the servants have to fight each other until the only one win and the winner has the opportunity to take the Holy Grail.

Want to know what happens next? Will Shirou and his servant Saber win the war? Watch the anime here

Fate/Stay Night is a very exciting anime and has unique theme. It contains a lot of cool fighting scenes between the servants, features a number of greatly made characters as well. Overall, the storyline is fine, and the character development and interaction is explored very well, and every character has enough on-screen time. This anime shows with friendship and the power of love, mixed with war and sorcery. If you like gore and violence, this anime might be the right one for you.

In summary,

(+) Great and enjoyable fighting scenes

(+) Well-made characters

(+) Unique theme

(-) Complicated storyline

Story = 4/5

Artwork = 3.5/5

Animation and Color = 3.5/5

Character development = 4.5/5

Soundtrack = 4/5

Overall rating = 4/5

Genre = action, fantasy, fighting, war, supernatural, drama, romance, comedy

Demographic = shonen

Original creator = Type-Moon

Director = Yuji Yamaguchi

Seiyuu = Noriaki Sugiyama (Shirou), Kana Ueda (Rin), Ayako Kawasumi (Saber), Junichi Suwabe (Archer), and more.. just check it here

Bleach

"The power in my hand was gained for her sake!"

What pops up in your mind when you think of the word "shinigami"? If you have watch Death Note, maybe you will remember Ryuk the black shinigami. However, this is a whole lot different shinigami story.

Bleach ブリーチ is a well-known manga series created by Tite Kubo since 2001, which serializes in the famous Weekly Shonen Jump. Tite Kubo chooses the word "bleach" instead of the black outfit for all his shinigami characters. He related the term "bleaching" to the shinigami's work is to cleanse and purify Hollows and also send spirits to Soul Society (in general term, heaven). Bleach has been adapted into an anime series, 2 OVA, and 3 movies, also numerous games.

The story is about Kurosaki Ichigo, a 15-years-old teenager. He is able to see spirits. One day, he sees a girl wearing black kimono in his room. She introduces herself as Kuchiki Rukia, a shinigami. Because of an accident of a big Hollow attacking his family, Ichigo wants to fight and instead, injured Rukia badly. Rukia lents Ichigo her shinigami power in order to purify the Hollow and let it goes to Soul Society. However, Ichigo absorbs all her powers and Rukia becomes powerless. So, Ichigo has to learn and subtitute Rukia in her shinigami duties.

Rukia who lost her powers, takes gigai form of a teenage girl and studies at Ichigo's school. They interacts with other students like Inoue Orihime a girl that loves Ichigo but has lost her brother who becomes a Hollow, Sado Yasutora a big guy who is actually gentle and kind friend, also Uryuu Ishida a genius Quincy. Three of them later have great powers who help Ichigo a lot during stressful time.

They also meet up and often discuss with a shop owner who is actually a former shinigami, Urahara Kisuke. Rukia starts to enjoy her life as a human. However, Kuchiki Byakuya, Rukia's brother and 6th Division captain alongside Abarai Renji, Rukia's childhood friend and also 6th Division lieutenant, comes to Karakura Town and takes Rukia back to Soul Society. The leaders in Soul Society have decided to execute Rukia for her big mistakes, staying in human's world for too long and lent her powers to human. Ichigo can't accept this and fight Byakuya and Renji. However, he lost and his shinigami powers are taken back.

How is the continuation of the story? Can Ichigo save Rukia? Read the manga here and watch the episode here

Overall, Bleach is a very interesting anime. It explores shinigami in a unique way whereas each shinigami has attractive appearance despite their black kimono uniform, interesting characteristic, and cool battle techniques (shikai and bankai). Bleach also features exciting and wow-ing fights with lots of blood, which makes fans love Bleach even more to wait and watch their characters fight will all might and techniques.

(+) Great fighting and battle scenes
(+) Well-made techniques for shinigami (the shikai and bankai)
(+) Good character design

(-) Dragging storyline
(-) Too many characters and filler episodes

Story = 3/5
Artwork = 4.5/5
Animation and color = 4/5
Character development = 3.5/5
Soundtrack = 3/5
Overall rating = 3.5/5

Genre = action, adventure, fighting, fantasy, supernatural, school life, comedy, drama
Demographic = shonen

Original creator = Tite Kubo

Director = Noriyuki Abe
Seiyuu = Masakazu Morita (Ichigo), Fumiko Orikasa (Rukia), Yuki Matsuoka (Orihime), Noriaki Sugiyama (Ishida), Kentarou Itou (Renji), etc.. full credits is here

Kin'iro no Corda ~ La Corda d'Oro

"Everyone can enjoy music!"

While many anime focus on fighting and romance, this anime stands out by its unique theme, the beautiful, romantic, and enjoyable world of classical music.

Kin'iro no Corda 金色のコルダ is the original manga title of La Corda d'Oro, which means "the golden string". This shojo manga series is created by Yuki Kure and had been serializing in LaLa magazine since 2004. Fourteen volumes had been released in Japan.

The manga is adapted into 25 episodes anime by Koei, and broadcasted by TV Tokyo, entitled "La Corda d'Oro~primo passo~". Two extra episodes are added with title "La Corda d'Oro~secondo passo~".

The story begins when the main protagonist, Hino Kahoko, rushes to school because she is late. Then she meets up with a magical music fairy named Lili, who grants her a magic violin which can plays any song as long as she knows the tune.

At first, it seems very nice to her to have a magic violin around. However, things get complicated because she is forced to join school concour and compete with students from music department who are professional and amazing in playing musical instrument like Tsukimori Len, the cold violinist, Hihara Kazuki the cheerful and friendly trumpet player, Yunoki Azuma the popular flute player, Shimizu Keiichi the quiet and young cello player, and Fuyuumi Shoko a clarinet player who is not confident of herself. Later, a general department student who can play piano very well Tsuchiura Ryoutaro joins the concour because of Hino.

As time goes, Hino gets used to her new life and befriends the students who participates in concour. She practices hard to catch up with everyone. She is able to play beautiful and graceful tune with her magic violin. With her warm and kind personality, Tsukimori, Yunoki, Hihara, Shimizu, and Tsuchiura fall in love with her.

Who is the lucky guy to get Hino? Will she win the concour? Watch the anime and you'll find out!

La Corda d'Oro is a very unique and sweet anime. I bet girls will love this anime. For those people who watch this anime, I guess they will fall in love with the music as well. Besides the well-made character design and good animation when the characters are playing musical instrument, this anime is supported with greatly played classical songs.

(+) Good character design and animation
(+) Great soundtrack
(+) Unique storyline

(-) Too melodramatic scenes
(-) Sometimes the anime uses the same scene for many times (if you notice)
(-) A bit slow pace

Story = 3.5/5
Artwork = 4/5
Animation and Color = 4/5
Character development = 3/5
Soundtrack = 4.5/5
Overall rating = 4/5

Genre = music, romance, drama, fantasy, school life
Demographic = shojo

Original creator = Yuki Kure

Director = Kunitoshi Okajima
Seiyuu = Reiko Akagi (Hino), Kentarou Ito (Tsuchiura), Masakazu Morita (Hihara), Kisho Taniyama (Tsukimori), Daisuke Kishio (Yunoki), Jun Fukuyama (Shimizu), Akemi Satou (Fuyuumi), etc.. check this out

Naruto

"This is my way of ninja!" - Uzumaki Naruto

This series is one of the most popular anime nowadays. It is well-known by people - young and old - around the world.

Created by Masashi Kishimoto, the manga is currently published in Weekly Shonen Jump since 1999. The anime itself has 220 episodes which is divided into 9 seasons and broadcasted by TV Tokyo.

Naruto ナルト is an anime series which focuses in the world of ninja. The main protagonist, Uzumaki Naruto, is a cheerful and playful child who is actually the host of the dangerous Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox. He is an orphan and has nobody to talk to because almost everyone in Konohagakure (the hidden village of the leaf) are afraid of him. He enrolls in ninja academy and fails a lot of exam there. He has difficulty to do some ninja techniques because of his enormous amount of chakra (inner energy).

One day, his teacher in ninja academy, Mizuki, asks him to steal a forbidden scroll. Naruto decides to train using the scroll and manages to master a jutsu called Kagebunshin no jutsu, a technique for making a lot of shadow clones. Actually, Mizuki is a traitor, so the other teacher, Umino Iruka, tries to protect Naruto. However, Naruto's Kagebunshin saves the day.

After he graduates from academy, Naruto is placed in Team 7 with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke as his teammate, and Hatake Kakashi as the teacher.

Together they do a lot of missions. The story goes on as they develop their techniques and relationship. More characters appear and each of them have their own important roles in the plot.

Naruto is an enjoyable series, suitable for teenagers and above. The artwork is good, the animation is fine, the story itself is outstanding. The character development is also good here.

Naruto is thick with friendship and teamwork. However, like common shonen anime, it does contain some violence and bad words.

In summary..
(+) Good artwork
(+) Great character development
(+) Good storyline

(-) Too many character
(-) Too many filler episodes

Story = 4/5
Artwork = 4/5
Animation and Color = 3/5
Character development = 5/5
Soundtrack = 4.5/5
Overall rating = 4/5

Genre = action, adventure, fantasy, fighting, comedy, drama
Demographic = Shonen

Original Creator = Masashi Kishimoto

Director = Hayato Date
Seiyuu = Junko Takeuchi (Naruto), Chie Nakamura (Sakura), Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasuke), Kazuhiko Inoue (Kakashi), etc.. just check this out

You can watch the episodes here

Welcome!

Konnichiwa minnasan!!

This is my blog, AnimeReview.

Here I will share my reviews about anime series I've watched, my fellow anime lovers!

If you have any question about anime, you can ask me through comments.

I hope this blog can be useful for you..

Arigatou!!
^^