Anime Review Roundup

I told you that we had entered an anime drought. It's why there were no reviews last week, and why there is only one new title reviewed this week. Fortunately I had some back catalogue titles to look at to round the numbers up. First up is a show that I have been looking forward to for a long, long time. I finally got my mitts on School Rumble: Second Semester - The Complete Series. Revelation began releasing the first series a couple of years ago, but for reasons too tiresome to recount, that never got past the third volume. It's a fast paced comedy show, inventive and original, with a central trio of gormlessness carrying the story. Tenma Tsukamoto loves Oji Karasuma, but he's oblivious. Kenji Harima loves Tenma, but she's oblivious. It sounds like half a hundred other high school romantic comedy anime, but School Rumble eschews the usual tropes and clichés to offer something fresh and invigorating.

Next up was my first encounter with Requiem From The Darkness. You may have noticed my enthusiasm in the earlier paragraph for School Rumble. You'll find a distinct lack of enthusiasm here for this horror anthology show. It's got moody visuals, it has an atmospheric sound design, but in every important respect, the story or the characters, it comes up as wanting. See just how mundane it is by clicking on my review for Requiem From The Darkness: Volume 1.

Finally, it was the new anime, and I got to look at Soul Eater: Part 1. It's a shonen action show, but not like any I have seen before. It's a show about shinigami reaping souls, but again, it's as far from Bleach as you can physically get. Soul Eater is Studio Bones' 10th Anniversary show, and they've put a lot into making this horror action comedy special, with a world and character design that is stylish and comic-gothic, animation that is energetic and inventive, and writing that is tight, fast paced, and engaging. It's a show that is some 51 episodes in length, but this first instalment gives us a healthy chunk of 13 episodes to be getting on with. See what I made of Soul Eater by clicking on my review.