Bodacious Space Pirates

adventure/sci-fi/action 

Age Rating: 13+

Marika finds out that her father has died.  She never knew him though.  And her recently deceased father was a space pirate; a captain, in fact.  And she’s inherited his ship.  

This anime was great and I enjoyed it a lot.  Very fun and upbeat.  It was too short, in my opinion.  Two downsides:  There are so many potentially fantastic characters that they don’t get into.  If they had made it a season longer, they could have delved into the development of those characters more (the only really developed characters are Marika and one of her friends).  The plus side to there not being tons of character development is that the story was well put together.  Other downside: I do not know why it was necessary, but the makers decided to have two of Marika’s (female) upperclassmen in school be in a relationship with one another.  You don’t know this until all of a sudden:  la de da~~~~h they’re kissing in front of you.  Then proceed to kiss twice more in the same episode.  Luckily, it’s limited to that single episode.  But, overall I’d give this anime an … … … … 8.5.  It had a good story, good animation, fun characters, fun action.  They left enough things unsaid that they could (and I hope they do) make another couple of seasons.  Rated 13+ only because there’s a lot of sci-fi content in it (and an episode of kissing girls) that smaller children wouldn’t understand.  Wow, that was a long review.  Whoopsies.

Valkyria Chronicles

action/drama/romance/comedy

Age rating: 15+

This anime basically consists of various persons joining their country’s militia to help fight in the war that is destroying the common folks lives.  Squad 7 is formed, and these comrades in arms accomplish many things together.  

This anime is, by far, one of the best I have seen.  It is fun and lighthearted and humorous.  You don’t want to stop watching.  This anime gets a huge 10 out of 10.  I loved it.

Sailor Moon

drama/romance 

Age rating: 8+

This is brain rotting material right here.  Do not watch unless you’re looking for some good laughs.  Please do not watch this seriously; I’m afraid you will no longer be able to think.  It gets a 7 for entertainment, but minus two or three points for cheesiness and incongruity in the story line.  So……………a 4.3? 

Where's the synopsis?  It doesn't deserve one.  (It almost didn't deserve a picture.)  Plus I'm pretty sure most people have at least a vague idea of what it's about.  I watched only the first season because I was feeling way too stupid from watching it to continue any further; my brain felt like it was melting.  I may watch some more at a later time, if I'm ever in the mood for extreme girly cheese.

Ranma 1/2

action/adventure/comedy/romance 

Age rating: 18+(for inappropriate content only) 

Ranma Saotome has been training with his father since he was very young to take over the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.  Now the two are introduced to the Tendo’s family and Ranma is told that one of Tendo daughters is to be his fiancé.  Ranma has a small problem though:  when he has cold water dumped on him, he turns into a girl.  Many, many adventures follow.  I give this anime a 9.  I loved it.  It is extremely random, but very funny.  Other opinions may vary.  This show goes beyond what I like to call un-naked-nakedness into naked un-naked-nakedness.  It probably doesn’t make sense unless you’ve already noticed this in other animes already.  Basically, girl Ranma ends up being top naked, but it’s not in a way that is lucrative at all.  He’s just naked.  That’s all there is to it.  I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone under 17, and even then to mature 17 year-olds.  By the way, this anime has NO closure at the end.  If you want to watch the anime and then read the manga afterward, the anime follows the manga pretty exactly up to Vol. 22 Ch. 6.  Starting with 7 is new material though.  All of which concludes very nicely at the end.  Yay for closure.

Angelic Layer

drama/action 

Age rating: All

Misaki Suzahara discovers the world of Angelic Layer, consisting of dolls that you control with your mind, when she moves to Tokyo to live with her aunt.  She hasn’t seen her mother in years and her latest discovery leads her to her mother.  Very fun and lighthearted story about overcoming hardships.  It does have some very humorous parts in it due to some of the characters.  This one would be a 9.

Cowboy Bebop

action/drama/sci-fi/thriller

Age rating: 15+, maybe leaning towards 18+?

Spike Spiegel, a bounty Hunter with a dark past, lives on bounty to bounty, barely making it each time, or not making it at all. His partners Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein the dog all help him in his adventures from planet to planet.  

Okay.  Frankly, I terribly dislike the ending of this anime.  I’m not going to give spoilers, but the last three episodes stunk.  I mean, they were good, but I hate unhappy endings or sad endings or anything of that nature.  What is this Shakespeare!?!?!?!  I don’t think so.  Anyway.  The rest of the show is fantastic.  The movie is…………  If you have similar views on endings like me, either don’t watch the show, or don’t watch the last three episodes, or just know that you won’t like them.  Without the last three episodes, the show gets a 9.5.  With the last three………… a 7.  So, there you go.  Ugh, but really, it was so good.  Why did they have to go kill the ending?!?!

Age Rating

It occurred to me that I should put age ratings on these to show what kind of audiences would be okay to watch them.  The rating will go after the genre line.  I think this shall be my rating system:

-         All – shows with this rating would be suitable for all audiences

-         8+ - shows with this rating might be a little sensitive or just not very interesting at all for children under 8 (I’m not quite sure how useful this rating is).

-         13+ - shows with this rating would probably have more violence than you want younger children watching

-         15+ - shows with this rating would have more mature themes, more violence, content inappropriate for younger persons, etc.

-         18+ - shows with this rating would only be suitable for adults because of thematic content, violence, content inappropriate for younger persons, etc.

-         D15+ - shows with this rating should fit under 15+, except I would never recommend to someone who is LDS because of its level of ‘dirtiness’ (D).  These will rarely come up.

-         D18+ - shows with this rating should fit under 18+, except I would never recommend to someone who is LDS because of its level of ‘dirtiness’ (D).  At the moment, I have not watched a show that fits under this rating and hopefully I don’t ever accidentally stumble across one.