My Little Monster

A refreshingly fast paced and bold anime rom-com that works as a great stress buster. My Little Monster derives a lot of its good elements from Maid Sama, quite noticeably. It follows the story of an emotionally confused girl who can't help being a workaholic, and a socially misunderstood boy with an extremely forward demeanor. It's like they took Maid Sama's plot and changed it a little to prevent getting caught, much like that homework assignment you "did yourself" back in college. That being said, My Little Monster introduces just enough of its own novelty to make it an interesting watch, especially because of how quickly the anime progresses and develops character relationships. 

The star crossed lovers in question are Shizuku and Haru, two contrasting personalities who somehow realize they complete each other in a ying-yang-ish manner. The plot starts with Haru's issues at school and inability to make friends, then progresses to his immediate infatuation with Shizuku who makes him feel safe but also confuses him. We see a lot of serious relationship commentary complimented by well done comedy and levity through supporting characters and ridiculous settings. There are small running plot points, but the overarching theme is understanding if Shuzuku can handle this kind of a relationship and figure out what she really wants. The people are real and likeable, and the story telling is succinct while engaging, what more do you need from an anime rom-com? (thank god because I can't do 100 episodes of build up to hand holding like with most other mainstream shows). 

What I don't like about this anime is that while it's fast paced, there's a lot of annoying back and forth where Shizuku keeps changing her mind about being in love or not. Additionally, Some of the humor is strained and makes certain serious scenes awkward, but all other aspects are fairly well done. 



My personal ratings are:

Story: 2/5
Character Development: 3/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5 

Overall recommendation: One angry chicken 

My Hero Academia

Shonen Jump's new front running anime has already made the halls of fame with a massive fan following, its own global conventions, and a couple of box office friendly movies. My Hero Academia is an instant classic that follows all shonen tropes the usual viewer loves, with an added spice of social commentary that makes us reflect on more than just the plot outcomes. The anime balances light and heavy elements well to create an action packed, adventurous show full of tasteful plot points and comedy. Not to mention, it does really well on character building and has some of this years most compelling protagonists. I think watching MHA is like making a new best friend, it gives you a happy and safe feeling, even though there are times when it can be annoying and steals your french fries (maybe that's just my friends).

The story is set in a world where a majority of the population is born with a quirk or a power. Society has reformed as a result of these abilities and new jobs have come into existence, a prominent one being professional super hero. We start by following Young Midoriya who was born quirk-less, but desperately wants to become a hero. On a faithful day he inherits a power called 'One For All' from the worlds greatest hero, All Might, who sees potential in Midoriya's future. From there he joins the world's top hero training academy UA High and is paired up with all kinds of aspiring heroes, each with their own backstories and intentions. He even comes face to face with his childhood bully Bakugo who has more to him than meets the eye. This is the story of how a class of ambitious yet problematic heroes face the world's toughest generation of villains, especially when they learn that not everything in the real world is black and white. 

My issue with MHA is that it was intentionally made to appeal to masses and become mainstream. Because of this you see many cliché shonen tropes and filler arcs that can offset an otherwise serious storyline. That being said, this is still one of my favorite shonen anime and it's a must watch for you.

     

My Personal Ratings Are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 4/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 3/5 
Enjoyment: 5/5 

Overall Recommendation: 20% Delaware Smash! 

Catch MHA on Hulu, Netflix and Crunchyroll across different regions. 

Irodoku: The world in Colors

Irodoku is a slice of life, shojo anime with one short season of thirteen episodes. It's a sweet and cute show that isn't very plot intensive, but rather focuses on the sentiment behind its story progression. Watching Irodoku feels like staring at a cuddly teddy bear- it's attractive to look at, and makes you feel warm for a second, but you'll get bored if you keep looking. While I still do recommend giving it a watch, don't let it become your primary anime, it works better as something to fall back on when you need a break from everything else. 

The story of Irodoku follows a high school girl called Hitomi and is set in Japan 2078. It's well known that the world has rare individuals who are able to perform magic, Hitomi's family is full of such mages. Hitomi is colorblind and very introverted, she does not try to make friends and has some deep rooted abandonment issues because of her childhood. Determined to broaden Hitomis' perspective, her grandmother, Kohaku casts a spell on her and sends her 60 years into the past. In the past, Hitomi meets teenage Kohaku and now attends school with her as a transfer student, whilst trying to figure out how to return to the future. The story then explores how this extremely closed of girl manages to join an arts and photography club and makes genuine friends. She opens her heart to new experiences also falls in love for the first time. It's also interesting to see how she initially hates magic, but now begins to enjoy using it because it gives her a chance to see colors and make others happy. But as reality catches up, we must ask, what happens when she returns to the future?     

What I dislike about Irodoku, apart from its snails pace on story progression, is that it completely disregards any laws of time travel. There are no consequences or paradoxes that should be created by her actions in the past, which I find really illogical. They also have a great start to building characters, but don't really pull through in making them interesting enough to support the plot. In the end, just watch this anime for its 'feel good' factor, it does not have much else going for it. 

      

My personal ratings are:

Story: 2/5
Character Development: 3/5
Dialogue: 2/5
Music: 3/5 
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall recommendation: A Monochromatic Photograph 

Irodoku is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.  

Kaguya-Sama Love Is War

           

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War or 'Kaguya-Sama Wa Kokuraswtai: Tensai Tachi No Renai Zunousen' is 2020's most popular romantic comedy, and here's why. While early scenes in the first episode feel preachy, complicated and depict characters that are designed to look distant or unrelatable; these negative aspects clear away pretty quickly. The anime recognizes those uncomfortable feelings it initially gave you and goes on to make fun of it by introducing much whimsy and idiosyncratic sub plots. What emerges is a tastefully senseless comedy that allows you to let your guard down and enjoy. 

Kagua Sama's story follows the student council president (Miyuki Shirogane) and vice-president (Kaguya Shinomiya) of Shuchiin Academy, a prestigious Japanese school. Both of them fancy the other but have twisted ideologies about the power dynamics in a relationship and refuse to be the first one to confess to the other. They deploy several nonsensical tactics to force the other into making a move but end up in a romantic stalemate every time. There are refreshing side characters, as other members of the student council, who add to the chaos and create great comedic situations. The anime also takes its 'love is war' title seriously, as each episode is divided into segments that has battle results and victors announced, which really gets you in the competitive mood. You'll want to pick sides and support your character as if your watching a sporting game, however most results leave you thinking 'eh?' and giggling to yourself. That's the essence of Kaguya-Sama: it attacks you with jokes inducing fits of laughter and when you think its over, it sneak attacks with context to make you giggle. All in all, it's a great experience and a must watch if you are a romantic comedy fan. 

Disclaimer: anyone looking for a fast paced show with a developing plot and introduction of casual relationships, stay away. By season two you'll be pulling your hair out and yelling at the screen asking for some tangible story development. So I repeat, watch Kaguya-Sama just for the laughs and leave your desire to see evolving love interests for my next romantic anime review. 

         

My personal ratings are:

Story: 2/5
Character Development: 4/5
Dialogue: 3/5
Music: 3/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Recommendation: Battle result- Kaguya Sama wins. 

Watch Kaguya-Sama Love Is War on Netflix and use a VPN if not in your region. 

 

K

The winner of the shortest anime title award is... K! This anime is beautifully chaotic and extremely fast paced. K is very much like what you'd expect from an orgy: nobody knows what's happening but you'll definitely enjoy all of it. Despite the strange story progression, you will always be engaged by the plot points and happy with their conclusions. I love the art-style, visuals and battle choreography in K, it has some real top tier stuff. It even has one of the best sound tracks in the anime world, guaranteed to get viewers pumped. A must watch for action fans; this is a story of loyalty, power, friendship and of modern day kings.      

K stands for 'King' which is a concept this anime revolves around. An ancient power allows 7 kings to exist in the world, the kings are assigned a color and abilities that they can share with their clansmen. The story will follow certain kings very closely and the relationships they have with their followers. We start with getting thrown into a turf war between the Red and Blue kings who fundamentally don't agree with each other's ideologies. Then added into the mix is a boy called Yashiro Isana who seems to be a regular school student but is suddenly targeted by other clans because a viral video has surfaced in which he claims to be the new colorless king and murders a friend of the Red king. this entire story unravels in a very engaging manner and does not fail to entertain. K is very good at captivating its audience, in fact, I challenge you to watch the first five minutes of episode one and not progress further. You'll have so many questions like, who is Yashiro? how will the conflict get settled? How do other kings fit in? and the only way to know is by diving deeper. 

Now I know that I've already described K as chaotic or confusing, but let me tell you to what extent. The anime has a unique world set up- different species exist, government/society structures are different, magic selectively is in play- but NONE of this is explained, like ever! You have to contextually figure everything out including what I've explained in the paragraph above, which tends to cross a line between intriguing and downright frustrating at times. I think that some blanks need to be filled, we as viewers can't just assume everything. 

       

My personal ratings are:

Story: 4/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 3/5
Music: 5/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall recommendation: No blood! No Bone! No Ash!

K is on Netlix and Hulu in most regions. Use a VPN if not available in yours. 

High School DxD

                 

Turn away kids, we're about to discuss some adult content. Us anime fans and weebs constantly fight the social stigma of anime being broadly classified as hentai or tentacle porn by normies who just happen to always walk in on us when something questionable is on our screens. Now while I respect this fight and would throw down with anyone, at any time to defend the integrity, complexity and wholesomeness of anime; lets be honest for a sec. We all eventually come across at least one erotic, raunchy or sexually promiscuous anime that we secretly or 'ironically' enjoy. Sometimes I just want to turn my mind off and watch absolutely ridiculous and inappropriate content, for these moments there is the gem that is High School DxD (forgive me lord for I have sinned). 

Bless the writer of High School DxD for actually coming up with a story line to demonstrate the actual plot here (if you know what I mean). But even he doesn't try too hard, as the story follows Issei Hyodo who is a pervy high schooler with the dream of becoming a Harem king (he basically wants to be Hugh Hefner). Poor Issei is killed on his very first date and is resurrected as a demon by Rias Gremory who is a demon aristocrat's daughter and is collecting people to join her household. He also becomes the next wielder of the famous Red Emperor Dragon who resides in his right arm and becomes his partner in combat. Issei pledges his loyalty to Rias because... well... because she puts the DxD in the title of the anime. As the story progresses many more are added to this new family and everyone has romantic interest in Issei, leading to several hilarious stand offs and spicy scenes. Surprisingly High School DxD has extremely well directed fight scenes and great visuals involving power-ups and transformations. You almost get involved in the intense fights until you remember that Issei powers up based on his erotic desires and not the usual hero driven motives. 

This goes without saying, but the biggest fallback of the show is that you can't watch it with anyone nearby or even in earshot. You also begin to get bored of the same plot device being used time and again i.e damsel in distress who riles Issei up enough to get angry and take out the bad guy. But despite my description, High School DxD is not Hentai, it's doesn't cross that line and still focuses on comedy and story progression over the shady stuff. So give it a try!

              

My personal ratings are:

Story: 2/5
Character Development: 3/5
Dialogue: 2/5
Music: 2/5 

Overall Recommendation: Boosted Gear Level 3!

High School DxD is on Netflix in most regions. You might have to use a VPN. 

Nisekoi

Nisekoi is a romantic comedy that's just the right amount of ridiculous for it to be a fun and light binge. This anime makes for a great stress buster with its slapstick comedy and purposefully complicated love triangles that are guaranteed to amuse you. The love interests of these poor characters are in such disarray, that unraveling them would be harder than finding a needle in a stack of needles. But that's what makes Nisekoi so good, the nonsensical story progression and tastefully done romantic moments or "accidents" make for great comedy.  

The story is so stupidly chaotic that you'll have a great time just watching each character muddle up their love life while desperately trying to fix it. It starts with the introduction of Raku Ichijo, the sole heir of an old yakuza crime family who has no particular interest in being a criminal. When he was young, he made a promise to a girl, they both agreed to marry each other if they ever met again in the future. To remember this promise he keeps a necklace with a lock in it, while the girl holds on to its key. Many years later, Raku moves on and falls for another girl in his class called Onodera. Before he can confess to her, he meets Chitoge, the daughter of a mafia family. Their respective crime families go to war with each other and to prevent things from getting bloody, Raku and Chitoge decide to fake being in a relationship so as to bring peace between the families. While Raku and Chitoge are absolutely different types of people who initially hate each other, their fake relationship brings them closer. Throw in the fact that Onodera actually loves Raku back, there's a murderous mafia butler spying on them and that the key bearing girl from the past is potentially nearby, and you get a beautifully nonsensical love story.  

Of course Nisekoi's not perfect, the story progresses in a painfully slow manner. Imagine being on a fishing trip, but every time you think you've made a big catch, it's just junk. Just like that, Nisekoi will toy with you, letting you think there's going to be a juicy love story development- but instead they'll delay any outcome and keep you hanging. But besides this, it's a cute and fun watch for rom-com lovers!

      

My personal ratings are:

Story: 2/5
Character Development: 3/5
Dialogue: 3/5
Music: 2/5

Overall Recommendation: One accidental girls changing room entry

Nisekoi can be streamed on Crunchyroll and on facebook watch. You might have to use a VPN based on your region. 

Your Name

          Your name or 'Kimi No Na Wa' is an iconic anime movie. Not only is it the world's highest grossing anime film with box office earnings just under 358 million dollars (hot damn!), but also has won more awards than I can list here. Why is it so good you ask? Well for starters it's because the creator of Your Name, Makoto Shinkai, is an artistic and creative genius. The visuals and animation style are in a league of their own. In fact every image is so vibrant that you'll be watching with a guaranteed glimmer in your eyes and you might even shed a tear just because of its beauty. Strange thing is, if you ask me to categorize this movie in just one genre, I simply can't. Your Name has everything in it, it's the very definition of a multi-layered plot. But more than that, this one movie encapsulates everything good about anime as a medium, not because of what qualities it has, but because of how it makes you feel.

I don't want to give away much here, but I'll describe he basics of its story. We follow the lives of Taki and Mitsuha who are starkly different people. Mitsuha lives in a rural town and wants nothing but to get out of there and live a fast paced city life. Inversely, Taki lives in Tokyo and is a student struggling to find a corporate job while working part time as a waiter. They one day realize that they're connected somehow and switch bodies from time to time, just for a short period. The story continues to explore the reason for this phenomenon and how the two begin to understand each other, without really meeting. Now I know you'll think this is a sappy and overdone body switching plot, but trust me this doesn't even scratch the surface, there's so much more to it that I can't talk about without spoilers. I'll say it again, the story is genius and unexpected, just go watch it (all hail Makoto-san). Now the cherry on the top here is an absolutely amazing soundtrack done by a band called The Radwimps. They even redid all their songs in English to go with the English dub of the movie which is just some sheer dedication. I genuinely listen to at least one long from this soundtrack everyday. 

I have no criticism for Your Name. I think it has everything a great anime needs and anyone who finds faults here is just reaching for something that isn't there. I actually think I just wrote this post as an excuse to re watch the movie despite having seen it eleven times before. Just go watch it, bring your non anime watching friends along and you might convert them too (I've used Your name to convert many a person into anime lovers).
        My personal ratings are:

Story: 5/5
Character Development: 5/5
Dialogue: 4/5
Music: 5/5 

Overall Recommendation: One Casual Introduction 

You can rent or buy your name on Amazon or Google Playstore for under five dollars. If you need to stream it illegally then at least try and buy its DVD in the future when you have the money.    
      

Assassination Classroom

                    

Most people will look at this anime and go, "ew I don't want to watch two seasons of what seems to be the story of a smiley emoji with tentacles!". To be honest that's what put me off from watching this for a long time as well, but man was I mistaken. Assassination Classroom is like a Picasso painting: it seems odd at first glance and actually most definitely is. But as you keep looking, it turns into something beautiful and you find yourself unable to turn the other way. Once you get past and accept the existence of a yellow octopus like creature, you are guaranteed to enjoy every second of this mindless comedy and will somehow get attached to its characters despite the far fetched ideas being thrown at you.

The story, though ridiculous, is very straightforward. Koro-Sensei is a super being that can travel at the speed of mach 20 and has many superhuman powers making him virtually indestructible. He has decided to become the homeroom teacher for class E at a prestigious school which is full of social outcasts and delinquents. The government discloses just to class E students that he was artificially created and was responsible for the destruction of 70% of the moon (casual flex right?). If not assassinated, Koro-sensei will destroy Earth by next March. Seemingly out of hubris, he agrees to train this class into assassins with the aim of eliminating him but is overconfident that he can't be killed by any human. The government agrees to this opportunity and will give the students a bounty of 10 billion yen if they actually kill him. Wait you know what, none if this is actually straightforward...this anime is complicated as hell! I won't get into the intricate details of this premise, they explain everything well in the show. There's also focus on the student-teacher relationship between 25 students in class E and their new strange teacher who's actually pretty amazing and manages to understand them better that any other teacher they've had. On top of all this, the comic way in which the students balance their killing intent and their regular school lives is what really makes this anime stand out. 

Assassination Classroom does have its faults. The show can get too unrealistic even by its own standards and too often switches between intense comedy to heartfelt emotion without good transition. That being said, I do believe the good outweighs the bad and they've done a great job developing the complicated character that is Koro-sensei.  

My personal ratings are:

Story: 3/5
Character Development: 4/5 
Dialogue: 3/5 
Music: 2/5

Overall Recommendation: 10 Koro-Sensei Tentacles 

Assassination Classroom has be found on Netflix India and Crunchyroll.