If there was a series strong enough to crack my top ten, then it's this one.
When Tadano starts high school, he wants nothing more than to remain average but that becomes difficult when he meets Komi whose stoic beauty status makes her the most popular girl in school, but after a bit of analysis, Tadano guesses that Komi has a communication disorder that makes it difficult for her to speak to people. After a touching session of opening up with the blackboard, Komi reveals that her dream is to make 100 friends, thus begins Komi's journey to make as many friends as she can before high school ends.
As someone who suffers greatly with social anxiety, it's pretty much a given I would instantly like Komi Can't Communicate but it goes that much further by making Komi one of the sweetest protagonists ever made.
The manga in particular uses small bits of narration as well as facial expressions to communicate when Komi doesn't talk which is a nice touch.
The other characters shape up just as well, each one being just as awkward as Komi is making everyone feel included and keeping everything grounded in kindness.
It's a phenomenal read and the anime manages to capture that same feeling.
Dub wise it's probably better in sub as Komi communicates alot in written notes, but from what I've heard it's okay.
Final Verdict: Easily a candidate for my top ten anime, and Komi definitely fits in my top ten female characters.
Now a look back to the first full manga from Ken Akamatsu who is now the most significant figure in the medium right now.
Hitoshi isn't really good at anything except for computer programming, his latest A.I, Saati is a sweet girl who would make for the best girlfriend for him, he ends up getting more than he bargained for when Saati comes to life during a thunderstorm, this begins a whirlwind romance as Saati's unique programming brings new life to Hitoshi's dull existence.
More A.I appear with prototype Toeni and duel gendered Forty, with all the chaos going on from rival love interests, genius hackers and malevolent computer viruses, Hitoshi has more than he bargained for.
This never made it to anime but from what we get it's very much reminiscent of the Love Hina Akamatsu rather than the Negima Akamatsu while borrowing heavily from Ah My Goddess and Video Girl Ai, which argubly means it's been done better but for what it's worth, it's a fairly decent read.
As to why Ken Akamatsu is currently the most significant person in the medium, last week he was voted into the Japanese government's House of Councillors, his main goal is to sort out the copyright and censorship laws as to not penalise creative freedom with blanket bans on certain things, this is a big deal as Anime and Manga deals with an identity crisis as of late as it contends with a global audience that in this era includes people who aren't fully educated on the subject (a.k.a Twitter) so interesting times ahead.
Final Verdict: It has been done better by other series but is pretty solid for a sci fi romance.
Wait didn't you already review this? Nope this is different, although it's still wrestling.
The anime starts with the Dream Angels being completely annihilated by their opponents the Foxy Ladies, no matter how illegal they fight, with the Dream Angels left utterly defeated and injured it's left to the Wanna-be's to try and avenge them, but not wanting to see them end up like the Dream Angels, the coach brings in some specialist equipment to train the girls. Eri and Miki build up their reputation to fight the Foxy Ladies but the two girls find that their strength keeps increasing with each body blow they receive, prompting Eri and Miki to confront the owner of said equipment only to discover the sinister truth.
This is Dirty Pair, Eri and Miki are obvious expys of Kei and Yuri it's around the same period circa 1986 and the fact that Dirty Pair has used a wrestling plot for an episode even with similar themes is no coincidence, heck they even act like the Dirty Pair.
It's very flawed, the Foxy Ladies are clearly mismatched in weight compared to their opponents and the plot twist at the end feels like an ass pull.
On the other hand I do like the atmosphere and setting and it's nice to see a celebrity cameo from Demon Kogure (prominent metal singer in Japan)
No dub but was strangely licensed for western release, so the intention was there.
Final Verdict: This proves that the Dirty Pair formula can work in any setting, it's okay but seriously flawed.
Let's go dumber for our next review.
Sweet Diva are an idol pop group that just named Sakura as their top idol, while preparing a concert at a wrestling venue, a wrestler named Rio insults them, not wanting to take it lying down band members Elena and Sakura challenge Rio only to both be beaten pretty easy, Sakura still feeling sore about the ordeal announces that she wants to go pro to pay back Rio proper, after intense training and many losses she finally defeats Rio only to then decide that wrestling is a better career, how will Sweet Diva ever get Sakura back?
This is everything from gratuitous fan service to melodramatic cheese on a platter of pineapples, it's anime where you switch off your brain and hope you don't feel dumber by the end, it's saving grace is the fact that Sakura doesn't suddenly get good over night, she has to be taught to change her attitude to be able to compete, just training ain't gonna cut it, so at the very least the creators know how sport works, still doesn't change how bad it is but at least it's laughably bad.
Dub is pretty standard and actually not bad.
Final Verdict: You don't have to try too hard to get a good chuckle out of this series, it's definitely a midnight after a few drinks anime.
I spoke in length about the best anime but what about one of the worst?
This one is a doozy, teenage boy Sakura is destined in the future to create a miracle tech that stops women aging after the age of twelve, this has the unintended side effect of creating immortality in humanity as well as the more disgusting implications, leading god to order his assassination at the hands of Angel Dokuro, but Dokuro doesn't want to thinking he can be redeemed leading god to send someone else, putting Dokuro at odds with heaven's will, unfortunately Dokuro has a habit of killing and reviving Sakura due to her unnatural other worldly power as well as her spiked club, leading the hapless Sakura to wonder if death is a better option.
First off, the premise alone is exactly the kind of thing Twitter should be complaining about, not the popular stuff that has nothing offensive at all, just thinking about this premise is uncomfortable.
It would've been more redeemable if it wasn't a one joke series that out stays it's welcome, none of the other elements help much either, there's an attempt to give students photo realistic animal faces but it's just flat, it's over reliance on excessive comedic violence in the same vein as Itchy and Scratchy loses it's value after a while, it's really not a good series.
Dubbing, I don't care, it's probably terrible.
Also Helluva Boss does a better job of killing terrible people, next time call them for a series that does the death agents from heaven or hell a million times better.
Final Verdict: A deeply uncomfortable premise with nothing to offer other than the same joke every episode.
