Now this list will prove today that I can appreciate today's anime as well as the classics, the point of this is to showcase what I consider to be really good shows that came out in 2015 or have continued new seasons in the case of some, this will prove that despite being 30 years old later this year I can still appreciate the new stuff. The obvious criteria is that they must've been released in 2015, there isn't an order in this list either. Without further delay lets begin.
Nisekoi
This was the series I reviewed last time out and is the best choice available for Romantic Comedy, even if the formula is tried and tested it's a well polished and well made anime.
High School DxD
If you want ecchi done with a good story you can't go wrong with High School DxD, a sexy adventure that enlightens all the senses while taking away the cliches that plague the genre. You'll be pleased to watch this anime for the story.
Durarara!!!
If you want a story that's challenging to work out then look no further than the street anime Durarara, Ikebukuro has never been so fun and rewarding.
Assassination Classroom
If you want your fix of violence then take a look at Assassination Classroom, an original idea that keeps the Shonen Jump crowd feeling fresh.
Kantai Collection
Miss Strike Witches and want something to fill the void? Look no further than Kantai Collection the Warship Strike Witches. Battleships have never looked so Kawaii
Wish Upon the Pleiades
Watch as car maker Subaru makes a better Magical Girl anime than Sailor Moon Crystal. Car makers keep watching.
Uta no Prince-Sama
Love Live with Pretty Boys, which is fresh and new and surprisingly good unlike Love Live.
Ore Monogatari
The sweetest most rewarding love story you'll ever see not just in anime but in literature.
God Eater
A relatively young yet awesome video game franchise looking for more love and anime is the way forward.
Kuroko's Basketball
Okay fine, if you want a good sports anime you can't go wrong with Kuroko's Basketball, it's the only one on this list I don't like but compared to it's other counterparts it's the best your going to get.
The Rolling Girls
Want a light hearted coming of age story? Have a go at Rolling Girls, it's intelligence and story telling will serve you well.
One Punch Man
Rewriting the Shonen Genre one punch at a time. One Punch Man is the best Shonen Series since Dragonballz who ironically is the competition but our bald hero is more than just pure strength. Give it a watch you won't regret it.
Valkyrie Drive
Somehow MOE weapon girls is a thing and yeah it works and Valkyrie Drive is your one stop place for it.
Mysterious Joker
If you want a show with a classic feel for the modern age then look no further than Mysterious Joker, a good old fashioned Phantom Thief story.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Miss the Gundam of old where it was full of war, death and depression? Iron Blooded Orphans brings you full circle after Gundam's weird obsession with fighting Model Kits.
Cute High Earth Defense Club Love!
Miss Ouran Host Club? Then go take a look at this Magical Boy series where Fabulous Secret Powers actually mean something.
Brave Beats
The strangest anime you'll watch this year but proving Disco isn't dead and you can turn it into a Maho Anime, give Brave Beats a watch.
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma
It's Food Porn........literally. Trust me when I say this, the first episode will have you wanting to cook in seconds.
Go Princess Precure
The latest incarnation of Precure comes with dresses so pimped out that a Disney Princess would call them gaudy. While the nature of Precure is always to switch to a new team every season, get yourself motivated for the next installment with the current one.
Snow White with the Red Hair
If you enjoyed the Atelier game series then Snow White with the Red Hair should satisfy your appetite in the Fantasy genre.
Now for an anime from the category of romantic comedy, it's Nisekoi.
Raku Ichijo made a promise when he was a child to a certain girl that when they meet again they'll be married and still keeps the over sized locket in the hopes that he may one day see her again, however in high school his love life is rather complicated so try and keep up.
First the characters
Raku Ichijo: Is the eldest son of a Yakuza Family he likes a girl named Kosaki Onodera but is forced into a false relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki in order to avoid his family and her gangster family going to war. He's also on the receiving end of a one sided relationship with the police commissioners daughter Marika Tachibana.
Kosaki Onodera: Likes Raku but is too shy to confess her love to him, she holds a key that could potentially open the locket.
Chitoge Kirisaki: Forced to play the girlfriend of Raku's due to the potential family war and is clearly a tsundere about it. Also has a key that could potentially fit the locket.
Marika Tachibana: Actually remembers Raku as a kid and is his self proclaimed fiancee, also has a key to the Locket.
Seishiro Tsugumi, Haru Onodera and Paula McCoy: Get dragged into the harem somehow.
Yui Kanakura: A young teacher of whom is Raku's childhood friend. Also has a key to the locket.
Other Characters: Not important.
So yeah this love, whatever you call it is very convoluted but hold on a minute.....Childhood promise, lead female is a tsundere, other female characters are a shy girl, violent masculine type, hyperactive girl, sickly girl who actually loves the lead male, big sister type, brat; lead male is pretty clueless about everything and ends up in weird situations, will probably end up with tsundere anyway.
THIS IS LOVE HINA!!!!
A better written Love Hina but Love Hina none the less, and it only becomes more blatant when you get Hot Spring Episodes, Beach Episodes and even a Theater Play. That is classic Ken Akamatsu but unlike Akamatsu's works, fan service is downplayed, the romance is believable, the situation while done before sets up the story perfectly and the comedy timing is done to perfection, every facial expression is funny and the comic timing always hits the mark.
My only complaint is that it's a lot longer than it needs to be and that the harem gets too crowded late in the series, otherwise this is a good series. No dub that I know of so I can't rate it but would be done okay in dub.
Final Verdict: While it borrows pretty much it's entire plot and setup it does a much better job of it than they did. Nisekoi is hilarious, the story is well structured and I only hope for a decent payoff at the end. It does get a bit crowded later on but shouldn't damage the story too much.
Happy New Year everybody, now lets start the year by talking about snails. This is the Film Turbo.
Theo is a garden snail who dreams of speed and hopes to be like his idol, 5 Time Indy 500 Champion Guy Gagne, but his obsession has made him an outcast and his brother Chet has to pick up the tab for his misfortunes. But after a near fatal accident with a prize tomato, Theo runs away to be alone but another incident throws him through the nitrous of a dragster giving him the powers of super speed. After another bout of misfortune involving a kid on a trike, Theo and Chet get thrown out of their garden and end up in the run down strip mall of Starlight Plaza where they are captured by Taco worker Tito who brings Theo into the world of Snail Racing; amazed by his speed and encouraged by a gang of racing snails, Tito enters Theo into the Indy 500 to live out his dream.
Now this looks like an idea that would never work but it really isn't that bad. It's very cheesy but like films such as the Brave Little Toaster it takes an idea that has nothing working for it and somehow makes it work.
It does help that the characters are likable, the jokes hit their mark quite well and there's no bad cliches, it's just a film about a really fast snail.
Really Turbo is one of those films that hits the mark as a cult classic film, it's not overly groundbreaking but it doesn't need to be, it tells its story and that's all you need. If you want something more complicated then don't bother with this film, if you're only looking for fun then give this film a shot, you won't regret it.
I'm going to get a lot of flak for this review as I know how popular this show is but I have a hard time defending this show as it just leaves me feeling frustrated. It's Love Live School Idol Project.
Otonokizaka Academy is about to close due to a lack of applicants much to the dismay of student Honoka Kosaka, but she gets an idea after seeing School Idols perform for another school and decides to give it a try with her friends in the hope of drawing in new students to keep the school running.
However her path is littered with obstacles including the student council, a disgruntled Idol fan and the most common trope, overdoing it until you collapse, but Honoka's enthusiasm is enough to create the idol group Muse with it's members in all high school years and with the power of love and friendship and colorful pop songs will keep the school open.
Where have I heard this story before? Oh yeah Girls Und Panzer did it first and better.
Where have I heard Honoka's character before? She's an expy of at least three other anime vocalists and pretty much every female lead in every other shojo series including the majority of Pretty Cure, Pretty Rhythm and too many other shows to name, her character has been done to death.
Now is Honoka's predictable character going to be excused by what she does in the show? Never. What she does is easy to predict, the people who criticize her will always shut up and she will inevitably succeed even in the face of the worst luck.
Are the other characters any better? Not really, I've seen all these other characters before as well with the exception of Nico Yazawa who may not be the best character but she's at the very least original in design for a show like this.
Okay what about the music and the animation and choreography in the music videos? The music is catchy but the actual performances are not that good, the CGI doesn't blend as well as say Super Sonico and the choreography is messy.
There's no dub to judge so what's the diagnosis.
Love Live is okay by anime standards but my god is it horribly overrated.
First off there are much better Idol shows; AKB0048, Aikatsu and even the catalog of Vocaloid's most poptastic music videos offer better viewing.
Second there are better music anime in general; K-On and Super Sonico are amazing, even BECK Mongolian Chop Squad and Black Heaven are worthy watches and I also remind people of the classic Macross franchise as well as one of the oldest music friendly anime franchises of the original Bubblegum Crisis.
And finally despite the fact that I don't like many things that are popular, at the very least the likes of the Shonen Jump stuff, Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan are popular for a reason, I don't see the same with Love Live no matter how many times I watch it, it's not worthy of all the praise it gets. What am I missing? What is the appeal? Is all people want in an anime a bunch of school girls in idol dresses looking pretty and singing and dancing to current day J-Pop music? Or is it because, like Hamtaro it's another ultra safe anime?
I honestly don't know, whatever point I'm missing, I cannot enjoy this show for what it is.
Final Verdict: Love Live does nothing new. It relies entirely on tried and tested story lines, tropes, characters and even existing idol shows. I cannot see why this show is so popular, to me it's okay but horribly overrated.
I really want to do at least one positive review before the year is over as the one after this one isn't going to be a good review, you'll see why then I come to it. But for now lets review the manga only series Waltz no Ojikan.
Tango Minami is a Ballroom dance instructor and school student, however he stopped liking Ballroom and tries to maintain a cool image by doing break dancing much to his mother's dismay. Hime Makimura is a shy awkward girl, who curses her namesake as she feels that she hasn't got the qualities of a princess like her late mother said, however a chance meeting with Tango and a moment of curiosity outside the dance school draws her into the world of Ballroom Dancing, along with help from fellow dancers Yusei and Sumire, not only will Hime become the princess she was always told she could become but Tango will return to competitive Ballroom where he belongs.
There's an obvious reference to the whole Cinderella story and Hime even comments on doing that play, with this memorable quote: "When my class put on a play in Kindergarten, they chose the thin, cute girl with big eyes to play Cinderella, I was Mouse #4" but this is a much better take on Cinderella as a whole. Okay it doesn't feature any of the traditional elements but it doesn't need to, the whole premise is Hime going through a transformation from a girl who felt that she wasn't worth anything to a girl who feels she has a chance to become something great, it's a believable transition from hopelessness to hope and it's all done through her interactions with Tango rather than someone giving her it on a plate much like the Fairy Godmothers normally do. There's a wonderful scene where after tons of dance training she shreds so much weight that when she does enter her first dance competition she looks really beautiful and that's not through just reward that's effort creating a reward and she accomplishes it because she wants to, that's a much better lesson than what Cinderella already teaches us and the ending is such a good payoff as a result that you tend to forget the awkward love triangle from mid book 2 to book 3.
It's a relatively short story, being only three books long, not quite enough for a full series in anime form but none of Natsumi Ando's work has, but I feel it should, it's a great story and deserves some love.
Final Verdict: A perfect way to showcase the Cinderella story in a believable way that's actually achieved through hard work and perseverance, the pay off is worth reading through a few awkward love triangle moments to get to.
