Otaku-sama no Review: January 2013

Ah, yes. There's the famous Sword Art Online, which has captured the hearts of many, and K, the great work by GoRA and GoHands. However, in this small retrospect, I'd like to mention anime titles that I feel are under-appreciated. Sure, Sword Art Online is a beautiful romance with epic battles and K is full of sparkles and beautiful character designs, but there's more to fall anime than those two titles.

First of all, there's Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, a romantic comedy (?) that I've simply fallen for. Chuunibyou follows Togashi Yuuta as he enters his first year of high school, in the hopes of never having to face his imaginative self from the past. Also known as the "Middle School 2nd Year Syndrom", chuunibyou describes an early teenager who believes they 'know it all' or have special powers. This was certainly a great watch; a wonderful love story between a boy who wants to be normal and a girl who is anything but normal.

Next, there's Zetsuen no Tempest, a deep and somewhat comical plot involving the power of magic and Shakespeare. If I've never liked any of Shakespeare's works before, I certainly do now. Shakespeare quotes just seem somehow more 'poetic' in Japanese than in any other language, at least to my ears. In Zetsuen no Tempest, we watch a suspenseful story unfold, featuring the protagonists Fuwa Mahiro and Takigawa Yoshino. And let's not forget the magic; Mahiro and Yoshino are both able to use magic by finding items left by Kusaribe Hakaze, leader of a clan of magic users. A tragic death, a mind-bending mystery–this work is without-a-doubt the epitome of Shakespear-related anime.

Finally, I'd like to commemorate Psycho-Pass, an anime with a futuristic setting and wonderful character designs done by the famous Amano Akira herself. Though it irks me when people compare characters from Reborn! and Psycho-Pass, Amano-sensei clearly did a great job on both. Psycho-Pass includes rather dark tones, but has happy, and almost cheerful scenes at times. You might describe it as horror, but creepy or not, it's still a beautiful work of art. With the development of technology comes gruesome crimes, and it's up to the newly hired inspector–Tsunemori Akane to get to the bottom of those crimes.

Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai Official Site [JP]: http://www.anime-chu-2.com/

Zetsuen no Tempest Official Site [JP]: http://www.zetsuen.net/

Psycho-Pass Official Site [JP]: http://psycho-pass.com/