Anime of the Year 2005-I Winter - Karas

Slow beginning of the year, and among decent ones Karas is at least memorable

1. Air   [Kyoto Animation] (Finished 12/12) Tags: Drama, Romance, Supernatural  Yukito Kunisaki is on a journey in search of the Winged Maiden who was bound to the sky centuries ago, after hearing an old childhood tale from his mother. As Yukito shows his puppet show to people in an attempt to make some money, he finds himself in a small town in which he did not expect to stay very long. However, when he meets an unusual girl named Misuzu, things take a drastic turn as he is invited to stay with her. By staying in the quaint town, Yukito soon becomes friends with the locals. As he gets to know them better, he learns of their problems and decides to help, putting his search for the Winged Maiden on hold. With his search on hold, and his growing attachment to Misuzu and the small town, will Yukito ever find the Winged Maiden, or is she closer than he thought? Watched it twice, hated it immensely both times. One of the most overrated stories ever.   Overall Rating: 5/10

2. Aa! Megami-sama! (TV) Ah! My Goddess ああっ女神さまっ [AIC] (Finished 3/24) Tags: Seinen Comedy, Romance, Supernatural In a world where humans can have their wish granted via the Goddess Help Hotline, a human, Keiichi Morisato, summons the Goddess Belldandy by accident and jokes that she should stay with him forever. Unfortunately for him, his "wish" is granted. Suddenly, Keiichi is now living with this gorgeous woman all alone, causing him to be kicked out of the all-male dormitory he was staying in. But soon, after they find lodging in a Buddhist temple, Keiichi and Belldandy's relationship begins to blossom. Although they are both awkward and rather uncomfortable with one another at first, what awaits these two strangers could turn out to be an unexpected romance. There's been over a decade since OVA, and finally its issues are addressed. But result is not great with a lot of mediocre and simple content introduced.   Overall Rating: 6/10

3. Mahou Sensei Negima! Negima! 魔法先生 ネギま！ [Xebec] (Finished 3/26) Tags: Shounen Harem, School, Super Power Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural, Ecchi 10-year-old Negi Springfield is a wizard-in-training, and needs only to pass one more test in order to become a Master Wizard. Unfortunately, his final task is a bizarre one—to become a English teacher at an all-females boarding school. As soon as he arrives, he completely embarrasses one of his students, Asuna Kagurazaka, and replaces the teacher she loves, which garners her hatred. To make matters worse, Asuna learns that Negi is a wizard, and promises to tell unless he helps her out. But unfortunately, circumstances force them to work together to do many things, from fighting evil wizards to helping the class pass their final exam, with a lot of humor, magic, and romances thrown in. Sampled it several times, and it's too simple and nowadays feels morally old.   Overall Rating: 6/10

4. Peach Girl Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane ピーチガール [Studio Comet] (Finished 2/25) Tags: Shoujo School Drama, Romance With her gorgeous, tan skin and long, bleached hair, former high school swim team member Momo Adachi seems like the kind of girl who could get any guy she wants. In reality, however, she is only in love with Kazuya "Toji" Toujigamori, a baseball player whom she fell for in junior high and who reportedly only likes pale-skinned girls. Despite her attempts to change her appearance, many of her jealous classmates have begun spreading rumors about her promiscuous and "easy to get with" personality. Momo's friend Sae Kashiwagi is always there to comfort her, but is secretly the source of the rumors about Momo as part of her own scheme to steal Toji. Further complicating things is Kairi Okayasu, a popular male student at Momo's high school who has publicly declared his love for her and is determined to date her. Hoping to find love in a nearly impossible predicament, Momo must navigate complicated love triangles, back-stabbing friends, and her insecurities about her appearance to discover who she really i There has been non-sexualized anime about gyaru culture already, so this one begins a streak of sexualized ones. It's so primitive that I could not even tolerate it for three episodes.   Overall Rating: 5/10

5. Girls Bravo: Second Season GIRLSブラボー second season [AIC Spirits] (Finished 1/13) Tags: Shounen Harem, Isekai, School Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Ecchi  Small for his age, Yukinari has been bullied and abused by girls all his life. Now in high school, he has developed a rare condition: whenever girls touch him, or even come close, he breaks out in hives. Imagine his surprise, when he is suddenly transported to the city of Seiren on a mystic world invisibly orbiting the Earth, and populated with vast numbers of women and very few men. Fortunately, he has a new friend, Miharu-chan, whose touch inexplicably doesn't affect him. More of cringe fanservice in the second season.   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. Mahoraba: Heartful days まほらば ~Heartful days~ [J.C.Staff] (Finished 3/26) Tags: Shounen Iyashikei, Visual Arts Comedy, Drama, Romance Shiratori Ryuushi is a young artist-in-training, about to start studying at a vocational school. Arriving at his new lodgings, Narutakisou, he finds himself the focus of attention for the collection of weirdos that inhabit the place. He also meets and falls for the landlady, Aoba Kozue, who seems to be both lovely and charming. However, Kozue is not what she seems to be... in fact, she's more. Boarding house setting is quite good for romcom, but Mahoraba is typical. It delivers what you expect of it, but does not offer much more or anything exceptional .   Overall Rating: 6/10

7. Xenosaga The Animation ゼノサーガ THE ANIMATION [Toei Animation] (Finished 12/12) Tags: Mecha, Space Action, Sci-Fi The year is T.C. 4767. Four thousand years have passed since humanity abandoned its birthplace, the planet Earth. Beset by the hostile alien Gnosis, mankind is now scrambling to find ways to defeat this threat to their existence. The development of KOS-MOS (a specialized android with amazing capabilities) by Vector engineer Shion Uzuki was one response to the threat. But when their ship is destroyed by the Gnosis, Shion and her companions find themselves thrust into the middle of a battle with no clear sides... Rather bland space mecha, at least without experiencing the game.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Futari wa Precure: Max Heart ふたりはプリキュア ー マックスハート [Toei Animation] (Finished 1/47) Tags: Mahou Shoujo Action, Comedy, Fantasy Shortly after the fall of the Wicked King, the Queen of the Garden of Light lost her memory and came to Earth, in the form of a 12-year-old girl named Hikari Kujou. Now, she—with the help of Nagisa and Honoka, endowed with new costumes and powers—must find the 12 Heartiels, which hold the key to restoring the Queen's lost memories. For together once again, they are Pretty Cure. First episode has a familiar flow, not sure it something changed.   Overall Rating: 6/10

9. Starship Operators スターシップ・オペレーターズ [J.C.Staff] (Finished 13/13) Tags: Military, Space Drama, Sci-Fi For the 73rd class of cadets of the Defense University of the small planet Kibi, a shakedown cruise on the fleet's new starship "Amaterasu" is a fitting lead-up to graduation. As they are returning to their home planet, however, they are shocked to hear news of a declaration of war by the aggressive Kingdom against Kibi. When their planetary government surrenders without a struggle, the cadets decide to launch their own war, aboard the "Amaterasu". To gain funding, they make a deal with a galactic news network - and find themselves the "stars" of their own "reality show". Unfortunately, this is the kind of reality show that can get you killed... It tries to be Yamato in a trivial way with lots of SOL in addition to space battles. And execution can be described as mixed at best. I struggle to remember anything memorable after watching it, maybe apart of politics.   Overall Rating: 6/10

10. Buzzer Beater  [TMS Entertainment] (Finished 2/13) Tags: Sci-Fi, Sports Hideyoshi is a homeless boy living in New York in the near future, who survives by hustling other kids in basketball games. But now he's been drafted into a pro team-a pro team with a very unique goal. There once was a time when humans dominated the game of basketball. But times have changed, and now the physically superior alien players have taken over the game, and there are barely any human players left. But Hideyoshi's team-the first all-human team to compete in the Space League-intends to change all that, and bring the championship back home to Earth. Unusual, yet still silly spokon.   Overall Rating: 5/10

11. Gallery Fake ギャラリーフェイク [TMS Entertainment, Tokyo Kids, Minami Machi Bugyousho] (Finished 3/37) Tags: Seinen Adult Cast, Visual Arts Mystery Fujita Reiji is the owner of an art gallery, Gallery Fake. He deals with fake items, and is also familiar with the black market. However, he has a special talent for art, and used to work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as a curator. I used to watch everything Seinen, and this is another horrible representative of it. Episodic and super boring, but maybe it feels like that for me because of mystery genre, very similar to detective mystery.   Overall Rating: 5/10

12. Jinki:Extend ジンキ・エクステンド [feel.] (Finished 4/12) Tags: Mecha Sci-Fi Aoba is a young girl who loves to build models of robots. She lived alone with her grandmother until her grandmother passes away. Shortly after she is kidnapped and brought to a secret base where she discovers a huge robot. The piloted robots fight against Ancient-Jinki in The Grand Savanna, but the true meaning behind the fights is hidden. Aoba works hard at the base so one day she can pilot one of the robots and discover these secrets. It's primitiveness extended, feeling dumber after just a few episodes.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. UG☆Ultimate Girls Ultimate Girls UG☆アルティメットガール [Studio Matrix] (Finished 2/12) Tags: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Ecchi  During a monster attack on the city, which is something that happens quite often, Silk and her two friends try get close to the attacking monster for a better view. An unfortunate choice of location to watch from leads to UFO-man, the city's giant protector, to land on the girls crushing them to death. Feeling sorry, UFO-man blames their death on the monster and promises to bring Silk and her friends back to life by lending them his power but the catch is that they now have to become the city's protector as well. Some cosplay kaiju superhero nonsense parody.   Overall Rating: 5/10

14. Transformers Galaxy Force Transformers Cybertron トランスフォーマー ギャラクシーフォース [Gonzo] (Finished 1/52) Tags: Mecha Adventure, Sci-Fi Forced to abandon their home planet of Cybertron due to the threat of the Blackhole, Optimus Prime prepares to lead his autobot warriors to Earth. Just as they are leaving they are confronted by Vector Prime who warns Optimus Prime of the threat to the galaxy if the four Cyber Planet Keys are not gathered in time. However, Megatron has plans of his own for the universe. As they embark on the search, they land on new planets which are inhabited by different Transformer races as well as the Convoys who lead these planets. Won't hit the dead horse.   Overall Rating: 5/10

15. Magical Canan Magical Kanan まじかるカナン [AIC ASTA] (Finished 2/13) Tags: Drama, Fantasy, Supernatural Five dangerous "seeds" have been stolen from their vault in the world of Evergreen and taken to Earth. Natsuki, an agent of the Queen, has been sent to retrieve them. However, he cannot do this alone and enlists the aid of Chihaya, a middle school student, who is "the only one" who can help him. With his aid she transforms into Magical Warrior Carmine in order to save the humans possessed by the seeds. Questions abound though, such as why Chihaya's mother appears to know all about this secret activity, why Chihaya remembers her father who reportedly died before her birth, and why she dreams of Evergreen, which she has never seen. Source is old bad visual novel imitating Sailor Moon poorly.   Overall Rating: 5/10

16. Lime-iro Ryuukitan X らいむいろ流奇譚 X CROSS ～恋, 教ヘテクダサイ.～ [A.C.G.T.] (Finished 3/13) Tags: Harem, Historical, Mecha Drama, Supernatural, Ecchi  It was Meiji 38 (1905), the Russo-Japanese War that had begun since the previous year was getting hard. In this severe circumstance, they reorganized the Raimu Squad. The members of the Raimu Squad were the girls. They were just like other ordinary girls who went to schools and yearned for love, except that they had "Raimu." Inukai Tsuyoshiro was a young man who was newly chosen to be the leader of the squad. He was ambitious to fight for Japan. When the young man met the five girls, the new chapter of "Raimu" began. Terrible source, terrible original, terrible sequel.   Overall Rating: 5/10

17. Shin Chou Kyou Ryo: Condor Hero II Legend of the Condor Hero II 神鵰俠侶 II 襄陽風雲 [Nippon Animation] (Finished 3/26) Tags: Historical Adventure, Drama, Romance  Continuation of Legend of the Condor Hero. It's in Chinese, it's sequel, it's nauseatingly culturally narrow and pretentiously epic making it feel even more like bad parody.   Overall Rating: 5/10

18. Oretachi Ijiwaru Kei おれたちイジワルケイ [Karaku] (Finished 0/14) Tags: Comedy An anime about Kei's daily life. Not found.   Overall Rating: 0/10

19. Karas 鴉 -KARAS- [Tatsunoko Production] (Finished 6/6) Tags: Gore, Super Power Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi The world of the humans and the world of the demons (youkai) have overlapped one another, leaving humans to walk the streets of life as they normally would, while demons walk, hidden from the naked eye, down the very same streets. A seemingly young woman named Yurine and her servant, the Karas (from the Japanese word for "Crow"), have long maintained order and balance between the overlapped worlds, ultimately keeping the demons from interrupting the lives of humans. However, humans have come to forget and jest at the existence of demons, and no longer understand the privilege it is to live without fear. Disgusted by this arrogance, an old Karas turns his back on the laws he had once upheld, and in his human form, named Eko, he creates an army of Mikura, or mechanized demons, to ready an attack on the human race. A young man named Otoha inherits the powers of the Karas and takes his place at the side of Yurine, who claims that his soul called out for her while he lived the life of a human. They live in the world of the demons. It is now up to Otoha to prove himself as a Karas, and restore the balance that Eko threatens to upset. Meanwhile, a superstitious police officer named Sagisaka and his rational new recruit, Kure, follow the trail of the murders dealt by Eko's Mikura, as well as the trail of a rogue Mikura named Nue. The prophecy unfolds from here into a grave revelation for all in the city. Beautiful fighting action with good and bad demons, but can't call it something outstanding.   Overall Rating: 6/10

20. Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan 撲殺天使ドクロちゃん [Hal Film Maker, Nomad] (Finished 4/4) Tags: Gag Humor, Gore Comedy, Ecchi Sakura Kusakabe, a mere junior high student, has committed a horrible crime. Or, rather, he will commit a crime—20 years into the future. The crime in question? He will prevent all women from developing past the age of 12, with immortality as an unintended side effect. As a result, the angel Dokuro Mitsukai is sent from the future as an assassin, armed with with a magical spiked bat named Excalibolg. However, rather than kill him, Dokuro wants to take a different approach. She resolves to be a constant nuisance to Sakura, in an attempt to prevent him from focusing on anything long enough to create his criminal technology. With Dokuro going against orders, the angel Sabato is sent out to complete Dokuro's mission. Between the impulsive Dokuro—who often murders Sakura with her bat before reviving him with the magic words "Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi"—and the electric baton-wielding Sabato, Sakura's life will never be peaceful again. Some nonsense for cute gore lovers? Not finding it funny.   Overall Rating: 6/10

21. Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu イリヤの空、UFOの夏  [Toei Animation] (Finished 6/6) Tags: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi  Asaba Naoyuki is an ordinary high school student. As a member of his school's press club, he's just spent the summer camping outside the local military base, in hopes of seeing the UFOs that are secretly kept there, according to local legend. Returning to school, he meets a strange girl, Iriya Kana, and gradually comes to realize that she is more than merely strange - and that a dark secret lies beneath the world that he knows. A rather weird show in the sense that something goes on and on and then ends, and there's no real story in all that, just some pointless low pressure drama. Just a drag.   Overall Rating: 5/10

22. Long Dao Qi Yuan DragonBlade: The Legend of Lang 龍刀奇緣 [-] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Action, Fantasy  A town is attacked by a deadly creature, it can only be stopped with the Dragon Blade. The one person who knows where the blade is won't tell Lang, and even if he did, untold peril will fall on anyone who dares to find this legendary weapon. Something like kung-fu panda, also a musical, for me a bore.   Overall Rating: 5/10

23. Hurdle ハードル [Magic Bus] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Drama Yuuki has to move from Yokohama to a rural city and becomes the target of bullying. Not translated. Aged SOL, drama, crying - everything as I like.   Overall Rating: 5/10

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