If you’ve been missing the murderous, power-hungry overlords that vampires were before Twilight came along, Seraph of the End will be a pleasant throwback to the era of bloodthirsty badasses. While it’s far from perfect, Seraph has guts — some of them are splattered on the floors and walls, but it has them.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan draws on almost thirty years of writing, granting it a vast world and vibrantly developed plot. Titling the series a “heroic legend” is not an understatement. Arslan is every bit an epic saga in its themes and scope, proving itself unafraid to tackle difficult questions on scales ranging from personal beliefs to the governance of entire societies.
Battlefront presents a unique story from the earliest panels and does its best to develop a rich world. The series features a city teeming with a mix of humans and interdimensional monsters and successfully makes it feel normal. Despite a looming fate-of-the-world trope, the anime might prove to be an effective combination of strong characters and unique environments.
In the cyberpunk city of Neo Saitama, Kenji Fujikido has suffered the murder of his wife and child during a brutal ninja turf war. Possessed by the bloodthirsty ninja soul named Naraku, Kenji finds himself surrendering control to Naraku in his thirst for vengeance. Together they become the Ninja Slayer.
Plastic Memories is poised to steal the hearts of even the most robotic of us if it plays its cards right. So far it’s done just that. The series offers a fresh (and possibly prophetic) glimpse at the ever-narrowing boundary between natural and artificially created life.
The first episode of Gunslinger Stratos was a breath of fresh air in an anime season filled with bloated sequels and outright duds. The future-scape is believable, the characters are unique, and the action is in your face until the last second of the pilot.
High School DxD is the riveting tale of an angel who falls, is murdered, and then resurrected as the servant of a powerful devil…isn’t it?
Fans of the Ghost in the Shell franchise will be ecstatic to see this light-speed reimagining of the Arise storyline. Written and directly by the same people who made the original four Arise videos, the new anime plunges veterans into the Ghost world with remorseless speed and intensity. For everyone else, there aren’t enough drugs in the world to figure out what’s going on.
Re-Kan! markets itself as a comedy, which is wonderful because otherwise we wouldn’t have known that watching a sociopath talk to herself for 24 minutes is supposed to be funny.
Fate/Stay Night is back from its winter hiatus and looking as gorgeous as ever, but the same problems vexing the first portion of the series are still lingering as we head into the spring season. Everything people love about Unlimited is still present and as vibrant as ever, but the crawling pace and episodically-limited settings seem to be here for the long haul.
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