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)