Dantalian no Shoka

As a child, I was quiet the reader. I would read almost anything from mystery, to action, and even the stuff in between. When coming across this anime, I couldn't help but to smile, and feel a warmth spreading over me, because it had to deal with books and mysterious powers, and it was set in one of my favorite times in history: The Victorian Era.

The story for this anime is almost simple: a young man named Hugh Anthony Diswald, living in London when his grandfather dies, and leaves him the estate, along with his massive library. When he arrives at the estate, and goes down to the library, he meets a young girl named Dalian, the black biblioprincess, who is one of the keepers of 906,666 deadly books called the phantom books-books with special powers that enable strange things to happen, such as resurrection, hypnotism, and other strange occurrences. Together, the seek out phantom books to bring about the balance of the world.

The story in mind had premise, but it felt like later on in the anime that nothing truely connected. In the episodes, it seemed that a point could be elaborated upon, but it didn't happen, and the characters by the next episode were relaxing again. The story in each episode sort of got repetitive, due to the fact it was basically start of in house to meet problem character, to investigation "could there be a phantom book," to discovering phantom book, to battling crazy person with phantom book, to crappy end of episode.  True, while I do like episodic anime, this was a bit too serious of an anime to really pull the episodic execution, and thus the biggest failure of this anime.

The characters for this anime were likable, if not a bit dull. Diswald has an interesting back story of being a former army pilot, but they only expand on this at the last minute, and I truly wish they did more with that. Dalian was the token tsundere loli of the series, and just being as much use as just saying "Hey, I sense a phantom book," and she grants access to the library that has all the books to stop the phantom book, and even then, Diswald is responsible mostly for stopping the rampage of the book. The minor characters were very forgettable, and even the ones that they tried to make seem important were still easily forgettable.

The art for this anime was what actually drew me into this anime. It has a serious tone to it, but also has a light-hearted tone to it, which make me happy. In the anime, the art was fluid, and the effects for obtaining the books was interesting. The characters were well designed, though I felt like that the side character designs were repeated,and I had a hard time distinguishing them sometimes.

Overall, despite its flaws, I enjoyed this anime, even  though at the end it seemed to stop making sense. I liked the concept, I just wish that they had gone a bit more in depth with the characters, and perhaps not make it so episodic in nature, and have a bit more character development. Also, this anime was too short and serious to even pull off the episodic execution.
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Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun

It seems that androphobia, or the fesar of men, is a common fear in anime, and they sometimes play it up to the fullest in anime. It add for amusement, much to the girl's embarrassment and fear, and somehow when she is running away from the guys, her panties always end up getting shown, or her boobs get grabbed. This situation is gaining speed in the anime world, now even more than ever, and the anime Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, or Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun is almost no exception.

Our story starts with Ninomiya Shungo, a kid who seems exceedingly good at martial arts, and he lives with his sister because his parents are traveling the world. One day, a girl named Tsukimura Mayu, who, you guess it, has androphobia, and goes to live with Shungo in order to help cure the phobia. As it turns out, Mayu is also a succubus, and thus attracts the attention of males, making her in even more awkward situations. Later on, a rich heiress named Houjou Reika comes to live with Mayu and Shungo, but some how ends up to be their maid. The series mainly follows the three heroes' relationships with each other.

I will be the first to admit, I do like the androphobia situations, however, this anime did not play it off that well. I felt like the androphobia only played into the first three episodes, and that's it; all the rest of the episodes, she seems unaffected by men. Also, they did not have the constant draw from men that they had in the first three episodes. I'm just a bit upset how they didn't have the androphobia going through the whole series, and the eventual point they go to was utterly rediculous.

The important characters were well distinguishable from each other, in hair color and personality. Mayu, the pink haired one, usually is flustered and is usually trying to catch Sungo's attention. Reika, the blue haired one, is a rich ojou-sama, or the character that thinks everything should go her way, and our token tsundere, with more tsun than dere. Shungo is our typical harem lead, though he has the martial arts skills that most harem leads lack, though he is still 2-D as most of them it feels. Our side characters were still rather distinguishable, such as Hosaka, Reika's butler or servant, along with Shinobu, Reika's maid.(They never truly say what they are to her, just that they serve her.) Other than that, most of characters were regrettably forgettable.

The art was alright in my mind, though I was not a bit enthused on how the character's eyes were drawn. Yes, I'll admit to liking the moe eyes, where they take up half the face, but in this anime, it looked tacky and wrong. The eyes also did not have that much detail to them that I'm used to seeing in a moe or harem anime. The animation was a bit inconsistent, but still passable. With that, I just wish for a bit that the eyes were a bit smaller, or just  bit more detailed, though it is a rather old anime, I guess I can forgive that. Also, the designs of the characters were also decent, however I have seen better, and I have seen worse.

Overall, this anime a good harem and/or ecchi anime just to kill time. It is not the best anime I have ever seen, however, it was not the worst. (That honor goes to some of the flash anime I have seen or Aki-Sora) I do recommend people to see it if they're looking for a decent androphobia anime.