Lovely Complex

I don't usually watch anime about high school romance, but I really liked the premise of Lovely Complex. There is nothing special about it - a boy and a girl are high school friends who always argue but later realize they like each other. Seems generic enough, doesn't it? Except for the fact that she is 14 centimeters taller than him. A love affair between a "midget" and an "amazon. *gasp*

I liked the fact that the writers really gave them a reason to be friends. Even though they constantly bicker, they like all the same things and enjoy doing them together. The first half was fun and interesting as Raza was slowly realizing that she had the hots for Otani. And Otani was blisfully oblivious, but not completely emotionally detached.

Unfortunatelly, after Raza confessed her feelings, the story started spiraling down. She turned into a love obsessed puppy chasing after Otani and crying in every episode that he was not returning her feelings. Otani turned into somewhat of a jerk who couldn't make up his mind about Raza. Even after he realized he liked her and they became a couple, they didn't even act like one. He seemed to be much nicer to Raza before the whole romantic drama started. I didn't like the fact that he was constantly smacking her and telling her that she has to work hard to make him love her. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for Raza or to be mad at her for acting so pathetic towards a guy who didn't even seem like he cared much about her.

Some of the characters I found pointless, like Haruka, who would have been much more likable if he created a love triangle between him Raza and Otani and made Otani sweat. The little cute girl who ended up to be a boy was a bit of an overkill.

Full Metal Alchemist

After reading so many positive reviews about Full Metal Alchemist, I did not see what the big deal was at the very beginning. It starts out a bit slow and follows the same routine just like any other anime of the genre. Ed and Al are two brothers who search for a mysterious Philosopher's Stone and help other folks along the way. At the very beginning there is plenty of action and humor, but the story starts to really develop after about 15-20 episodes. What starts out as a generic action/comedy, turns into something a lot bigger than that.

Every episode develops the story further on. Every single character is significant to the plot, even the ones from the very first episode. The story is a lot more than just searching for the powerful artifact, it tests human character and resolve to survive. And most of those characters change and grow as the story progresses. Full Metal Alchemist is so craftily put together, that I didn't even feel like I was watching a cartoon, but someone's life unfold. It is wonderful story, characters, setting, plot twists. I cannot think of any faults, maybe except for a bit of a slow start.

The story of Ed and Al is one of the most tragic ones I've ever seen. The relationship between the brothers is both comical and endearing, and the song "Brothers" (which is sung in Russian) made their story so much more heartbreaking. For them it wasn't just a journey to reclaim their bodies, but also the loss of innocence and childhood, and "Brothers" hits it right on the nail.

Trinity Blood

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Trinity Blood. Even though there are a lot of very visible flaws, I still liked the series. The story takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world were the Vatican rages a war against the vampires. It is a combination of mecha mixed with a Gothic fantasy. Such variety should've produced a fairly interesting plot, but unfortunately, Trinity Blood borrows too much from other anime with the same overused characters as everywhere else.

Abel is almost identical to Vash from Trigun - a gentle blubber mouth, who hides a dark side below a friendly exterior. He is always broke, tends to act silly, but then he turns into a terrifying monster with god-like powers. And just like Vash, he has the polar opposite brother-like nemesis, who is conveniently named Cain.

Besides coping from other anime series, Trinity Blood lacks a well developed story line. Is it about vampires and humans trying to co-exist, or Abel's personal struggles? The series doesn't seem to be episodic on purpose, but there is very little focus and it jumps between the characters without any visible purpose. The ending takes the series a full circle. It seems like Trinity Blood didn't really accomplish anything, because it ends right where it begins. There is absolutely no plot progression of any kind. It's full 24 episodes of none stop action, nuns with big racks and space ships, very flashy animation and very little story line. It's not that the writers didn't know how to write a good story, I really liked the development between Esther and Ion and many of the real historical references gave it an edge, they just seemed to have problems with focus and closure.

After listing to so many negative aspects of the show, one would ask: why do I still like it? Simple, I found the premise and characters very interesting despite the lack of development and copycat ideas. With better writing, Trinity Blood could have been turned into a fully blown saga of apocalyptic proportions. And so many plot twists should've been made into a lot more than just a mere 24 episodes with a huge window for a sequel. The only possible redemption for the series is a long sequel with a more centralized story line. It looks more like a clumsily put-together prologue to something bigger, than anything else.

D. Gray-man

D. Gray-man is another great title from the shonen style anime. It starts out fairly basic - a young boy with strange powers, Allen Walker, joins a secret organization, Black Order, and becomes an exorcist. Exorcists use a divine phenomena, Innocence, in their fight against the dark phantom called Millennium Earl, who wants to fulfill an ancient prophecy by destroying the world. He targets those who are in mourning and creates Akuma (demons) from the dead.

The beginning episodes follow the general outline where Allan, Kanda, Lenalee, and later Lavi fight Akuma from one episode to another. The episodes circulate between these characters and their missions separate from each other. I like the fact that the episodes do not only concentrate around the main guy, Allan, but show the capability of the rest of the characters, who can function without him. Lenalee is surprisingly strong for a female character. She doesn't require any help in fighting Akuma, and manages to destroy a level 3 demon all by herself.

I didn't like the morality trips between the characters. Their holier-than-thou, "I want to fight even though I'm badly injured and I don't care if I get in the way" attitude to be extremely annoying. A lot of the dialog revolves around convincing each other that even though they are valuable assets, they should stay on the sidelines and not get in the way. Why? Because you are injured and you will get in the way! Also, there are some very heavy Christian themes that might be offensive to the religious folks. Some of the biblical stories are twisted. If you are religious and tempering with the Bible stories offends you, do not watch this.

If you're a fan of Bleach, you will mostly likely like D. Gray-man. It is not as comedic and violent as Bleach, but the story is very interesting and many of the characters are similar to Bleach's. But more importantly, there are no filler episodes!

Darker Than Black

Darker Than Black had a lot of promise at the beginning. The premise is about superhuman assassins or contractors fighting amongst each other and their effect on humans. But after a few episodes the whole series started spiraling down.

There is no concrete story line. It's very episodic and without any real focus. I didn't see any significance in most of the characters and most of the episodes did not make sense. Once there is a seemingly interesting development, the next episode is about something completely irrelevant. It felt like the writers did not know what to focus on - Hei or everyone else around him. There is also no explanation about where the contractors came. What did it take for a human to become a contractor? And the ending was too abrupt and without any real closure.

I liked the action sequences and the music in the openings, but other than that I could not really follow the story. There is no character development and a lot of plot twists did not make sense. I wanted the plot to focus on something specific, instead I got a lot of segmented and forgettable story lines.

Vampire Knight

Oh, boy....where do I start.... Even though I actually found Vampire Knight entertaining, I thought the plot and characters were extremely cliche and with the same rehashed ideas as many of the previous vampire stories. This is Twilight all over. And I am not a fan of Twilight.

The story takes place in the world where humans and vampires are learning to live together. The Cross Academy has 2 class sessions - The Day Class for humans, and The Night Class for vampires. The students of the Night Class look older than the human students, more sophisticated and popular. Yuuki is a young girl, part of the Day Class, who is also a guardian with duties maintaining the peaceful environment at the academy. Basically, whenever the vampire students enter the school grounds, she has to fend off hoards of love struck Day Class students EVERY DAY. Zero is her partner and the boy with whom she was raised by the academy's chairman.

But, wait, it gets better! Yuuki has the Twilight syndrome of being extremely clumsy and awkward, but still manages to have everyone fall in love with her. Kaname is the leader of the vampire students, a noble (pureblood) vampire, who is often seen lounging around and daydreaming about Yuuki with a sad face, and he also likes to break his chest pieces. Zero is a second rate "made" vampire who loathes himself and other vampires and doesn't like to open up to anyone. Yuuki, of course, chases after both of them and can't decide whom she likes more. This Yuuki/Kaname/Zero love triangle is just hilarious. She can't maintain her composure every time Kaname-sama talks to her and jumps up every time he says her name, but she is perfectly alright with letting Zero suck on her neck.

I dislike the character of Yuuki. She looks like a midget in comparison to Kaname and Zero. Why girls like that are considered to be popular is beyond me. While both Kaname and Zero look like adults, she looks like a hyper 12 year old who is eager to protect everyone, but hasn't a slightest idea of how to do it.

The series are a combination of drama and comedy but I found the transition between the two to be extremely clumsy. The scenes where Zero deals with his vampire transformation look more comical than tragic. As Yuuki's true identity is revealed, it gave me a better understanding about why Kaname is in love with her, which made it even more disturbing. And the ending left a huge window for season 3.

I've read countless comments on youtube that season 3 will be released in January 2010. If that's the case, I personally hope that Vampire Knight will break free from the kiddie fantasy stereotypes and take on a more Gothic approach. I don't think that Fruit Baskets and vampires mix very well. And I still want to see more of Yuuki/Zero romance.

Death Note

Death Note is probably one of the most distinct and visually beautiful anime series in the recent years. It tells a story of Light Yagami, a young man with a strong sense of justice, who wants to cleanse the world of evil. He finds a death note, dropped by a shinigami, that gives him the ability to kill. But can he use that power in moderation or will it completely consume him?

The psychological battles between Light and L are mind blowing. It's all about outwitting and out thinking your opponent with the least amount of force. Even though the battles are done in silence, they are extremely psychologically powerful. There is no closure, things just keeping piling up as Light sinks deeper into darkness.

But, unfortunately, Death Notes is not without flaws. The first half of the series was astounding, with an explosive plot. Then, after some characters were moved around and replaced, I found it a bit hard to follow. When the main hero is both the protagonist and antagonist, there is a certain expectation of how the story would end. Until the end I was hoping to be surprised as the plot twists never turned out as I expected. But, unfortunately, the ending was as bittersweet as I predicted.

Julia