I really hate these long titles.
Nishimura is a regular player of Legendary Age a popular net game, having been stung by rejection from an alleged female player for in-game marriage, he ends up marrying a cleric named Ako vowing to keep the real world and gaming separate, but when the guild master asks for an offline meet up, the players are revealed to be Nishimura's classmate, the class president and Ako all being girls, however Ako still treats Nishimura as her husband unable to really exit her game persona, a school club is formed with the mission to help Ako open up to real life.
This is an interesting one as it covers a subject that isn't often talked about, there are real life cases of shut-ins not being able to distinguish real life to gaming life often ending more tragically, you are left guessing quite often how bad Ako's case is, at one point you even believe she's a game character who enters the real world but there are many points where she does have a high degree of self awareness like her high level of FPS skill compared to the others, the anime isn't long enough to really explore this and fails to take advantage of it's gaming plotlines, we get baited a few times into thinking were about to have a common trope only to subvert it, despite being technically a harem, it doesn't act like one.
Dub is fine if very basic.
Also the art style makes it look like all the female cast wear lipstick.
Final Verdict: It doesn't really take advantage of it's setting but it's at least competent at writing characters.
Strange I've not reviewed this yet.
The Spooner continent is divided into two sets of people, Parsoners and Sorcerers, however it soon becomes clear that the Sorcerers are abusing their powers against the Parsoners, under the guidance of Big Mama, the head of the church, a small band of heroes made up of Carrot, Marron, Tira, Chocola and Gateau set out to eliminate the rogue Sorcerers but there maybe more to the team than what it seems especially when Carrot is such a pervert.
The series is a nice transition between Grindhouse and anime more akin to today, they never pull punches when it comes to eliminating Sorcerers but the cast is much lighter in tone compared to anime before them and no characters shows this better than the Misu sisters Tira and Chocola who both become dominatrixs in battle, equally Carrot who absorbs magic to turn into a monster, it achieves a balance not seen much in anime at the time of the mid 90s and really underrated as a series.
At no point does anything feel over done or out stays it's welcome, it's a solid anime.
The only complaint is the horrific treatment it got in the West, in fighting at ADVFilms caused the series to go through many re-writes of the localization and voice actors were quitting in protest, in fact this is probably the first example of westerners going against the original script, a practice that quickly died out in ADVfilms but came back in a worse form more recently with the inserting of political statements that have nothing to do with the anime or changing characters to suit an agenda when that isn't what the original writer intended.
It's a bad practice and needs to stop.
Final Verdict: A great series spoiled by a bad western release, it fits proudly in the middle of an era that transitioned from it's more violent era into what anime is still today.
Time for some more Grindhouse anime.
Beings called Remnants are invading Japan and the only one who can seal the gate is the hapless Takumi who is protected by his loving sister Hazumi who really loves Takumi as they are reincarnations of lovers from a previous era who stopped the remnants last time, since sealing the gate means death, nothing is stopping Hazumi from claiming her brother.
This looks like a typical Grindhouse anime, needlessly violent and has a style that says that this is adult but then it gets really silly, this is a parody of a typical Grindhouse anime and one which ended Grindhouse in it's ultra violent form until the west dragged it out a bit longer, this really needed to be a parody otherwise it's just madness, it gets a tentative pass for it being a comedy but as anything else, Project A-Ko did it better and way earlier, it doesn't help that the tropes it's working with are not obvious enough for it to be a good parody.
Dub as far as I know is available but I watched it sub.
Final Verdict: Saved by being a parody but were still figuring out what it is parodying.
Proving that romance isn't dead in anime is this title.
Yukimura and Himuro are scientists at Saitama University when out of the blue, Himuro confesses her love to Yukimura, the shock of the confession prompts the two to discover the science behind the concept of love with help from the rest of the lab.
This is how I thought Big Bang Theory would go, scientists falling in love and working out why, while Yukimura is played pretty straight, Himuro drops a number of cute emotions while carrying out the experiments, the dub suits the environment as science jargon is easier to decipher through spoken language rather than reading a sub, a rare moment that the dub is superior, but it's not immune to the trappings of anime romance, like "My Senpai is annoying" the anime has a lot of needless drama with two moments in particular being a massive mood whiplash from the light hearted series, made more irritating by the fact that they close both season 1 and 2, but I honestly believe our lead couple as well as the supporting cast can power through it, Himuro especially is ten kinds of adorable.
Final Verdict: A strong cast that does have a few story hiccups that can be easily over looked.
Back to the Grindhouse for more lost anime.
The story revolves around a planet featuring a band of mercenaries who discover a sacred weapon that can wipe out their inorganic foes but take the planet with it, the whole feature is basically them running from these mechas but the only thing anyone will remember about this feature is the unique art and the space girl Rasa who has the most well drawn butt in animation and they spare no expense in showcasing these assets, otherwise you will barely know what's going on, the manga is an artistic master piece but doesn't translate nearly as well to animation, it's best saved for the art books unique to the 80s anime era, the dub is nothing to write home about either but at least it's competent.
Final Verdict: I haven't a clue for this one, it's history is far better explained by an actual anime historian than me.
