Leo Rates Anime

A coming-of-age suspense set in an isolated utopian village of espers where some children mysteriously disappear. Featuring a lot of scary realism, strange culture, and goblin-like monsters. It's Houseki no Kuni , but with a far stronger anthropological approach. The setting is also slightly similar to Ergo Proxy . Also similar to: Madoka Magica . 25 episode conclusive adaptation of a novel. 10/10★ - Horror disguised as a child's play. Strengths: world-building, mystery, pragmatism. This anime is scary. It looks like fun: children, school, super-powers. But every shot has a dark tone on it that anticipates some monster jumping out and devouring everybody. It's frightening. The environment this anime creates makes your heart forget its beat. At first glance, it's just another school anime. Except it's a school for children that can do psychokinesis. It looks weird, exotic. But ultimately it's just a bunch of children living in a different, fictional

A slugfest story of an underground boxer, no-ID, no-name, not-civilian, from the slums who wants to win a robotic arms boxing tournament in the sci-fi city that anyone may enter, proper civilians only, and show everybody what's the real deal about boxing. It's like Redline , but with boxing instead of racing, with a touch of Cowboy Bepop . The fights aren't as good as those in Hajime no Ippo , it seems to focus more on the journey. Also, Megalo Box commemorates the 50 year anniversary of Ashita no Joe , so it's probably like a sci-fi spin-off of that. 13 episode anime original. 8/10★ - A cool story with a boxer. Strengths: hype, artwork, soundtracks, rap, grittiness. Weakness: boxing. A boxing anime that gets you worked up, with gorgeous art, music, and some pretty dark plot. Enjoyable from start to end. But ironically, despite great-looking, the fights don't feel that special. Like virtually every sports anime since ever, it's the tale of the und

A bloody battle school harem  featuring freedom-loving guy transferring into an all-girls school where man-haters armed with police batons and even actual swords "correct" the male delinquents into... crossdressers? Also he needs to collect five seals from the top five swords to be allowed to leave school grounds. It's like Prison School , but less about female anatomy and more about the girls and sword-fighting styles. 12 episode arc-conclusive partial adaptation of a manga. 10/10★ - A refreshing take on a detestable genre. Strengths: the main character, the girls, the fights, the pacing, well, everything. Full of curious surprises: a competent MC, blades that actually draw blood, characters with very thick traits, a mysterious plot. A great mix of action, comedy and sad backstories. What do people want in a battle school harem ? Is it the battles that are actual fights and people actually end up in the infirmary? It's got it. Is it the weird school wit

An epic isekai with an office worker reincarnated inside a VR MMORPG as a overpowered undead sorcerer of evil. Living in his guild fortress where all monsters and NPCs are his loyal underlings, feared by humans. He campaigns to find the other guild members, his old friends, in the game world. Everything that other isekai anime with OP MCs are not, that is: good. The unparalleled power of One Punch Man with the teacher-figure of Ansatsu Kyoushitsu . 36 episodes total, 3 seasons, partial adaptation of a novel. 10/10★ - The most epic anti-hero anime. Strengths: bad guys thinking they're strong and getting obliterated, dynamic between the main character and the underlings that look up to him. Weakness: the overarching plot moves very slowly, so it's probably never going to be concluded, though the arcs are enjoyable.. Incredibly satisfying to watch. The main character carries the show by doing his part well, being competent, considerate, and at the same time very hu

An edgy story about "hope," "despair," a bunch of girls, an emotionless transfer student the main character saw once in a dream, and a creepy cat with contracts that grant one single wish like a lamp genie in exchange for you to become a magical girl and fight witches. Mix Persona 4 with Houseki no Kuni , replace the fun with long-winded bad sci-fi explanations from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei , narrate it like Bakemonogatari , add some magical girls in it, then you have this anime. Also similar to: Shinsekai Yori . 12 episode anime original. 2/10★ - Too much talking and overly dramatic. Weaknesses: weird artwork makes fight scenes artsy but sub-par, whole cast is dumb as a rock, way too much exposition. Frustrating. Entirely based on little girls' feelings, rejects logic. Forcibly paced at a crawl, lots of explaining its magical girl system and characters avoiding saying important stuff. Just like in Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei , no matter how m

An absolute idiot, high-tension high-school girl, pesters everyone with her boundless stupidity, specially the guy she likes: A-kun, an A+ student osananajimi who's grown real sick of her annoyance but can't get rid of her. Stupid like Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu , fast like Saiki Kusuo no Psi-Nan . 12 episodes of 12 minutes, slice adaptation of a 4-koma manga. 9/10★ - Hilariously detestable idiot character. Strengths: misunderstanding even the most basic concepts of life, A-kun total lack of empathy to what he considers an animal instead of a girl. Weaknesses: pervyness, panty shots and groping. Constant laughter; the short episodes of 4-koma go through jokes instantly. Yoshiko's total lack of intelligence will make you lose faith in humanity. Here we have a character so unbelievably dumb that comparing her to monkey is offensive to the monkey. Every time you'll feel surprised to discover a new and unexpected way in which Yoshiko lacks brains. Whatever y

A little girl esper child-soldier teleports from another world into a rich top-brass Yakuza's apartment and breaks all the expensive furniture. Terrified, he lets her live there. Feeds her. Lets her go to middle-school as if she were his daughter. Wait a second, what's this caregiver setting?! A mix of Nichijou and Alice to Zouroku , or a mix of Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan and Beelzebub , with bits of Gintama sprinkled on top. 12 episode slice adaptation of a manga. (it seems because of rules about the representation of Yakuza on TV some content wasn't adapted.) 10/10★ - Exceedingly ridiculous and unexpectedly captivating. Strengths: way-over-the-top comedy, character development. Weakness: too few fights despite Yakuza, esper and kung-fu characters. Great animation, clever comedy, and such endearing child characters I briefly felt I understood what a daughteru is about. Surprising in many ways. The very first few minutes of the anime is all you need to realiz

An isekai  harem of an overpowered bland self-insert teenager who used to be an adult game-developer corporate-slave until one day he got exhausted from overwork and died by truck-kun , err, I mean, safely went to sleep and woke up in his game world? Probably the same thing as Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.  but I dropped that one first episode so I wouldn't know for sure. 12 episode partial light novel adaptation. 1/10★ - Enragingly mediocre. Strength: dirt cheap pet-slave-girl moe , if you are into that. Weaknesses: nauseatingly self-insert MC that will give you brain cancer, obnoxiously unexciting writing. Incomprehensibly bad. Worst main character I've ever seen. That this source story got an adaptation is honestly mind-boggling; anything else would have been likely a better alternative. Today I find myself asking: what makes a good protagonist? Whether lawful good or chaotic evil, motivated or lazy, heroically sympathetic or mind-my-own-business apathetic,

The feels-filled period melodrama of an emotionless ex-child-soldier amputee girl trying to understand the meaning of love. A Jormungand  that doesn't deal with arms but with feelings, or a single-player Mahoutsukai no Yome . 13 episode conclusive light novel adaptation. Plus one OVA, set somewhere in the middle of the 13 episodes. 10/10★ - It made me feel human. Strengths: character development, extraordinarily detailed, excellent scene-writing, artwork and soundtrack. Weakness: a few child vs. soldiers battles feel ridiculous; can be off-putting, but not the focus of the anime and mainly used as a plot device. A heart-wrenching no-emotions PTSD child story that stands out for its dedication to character instead of world or plot; brings out every slight emotional change with mesmerizing attention to detail. Many anime deal with sad traumatized child victims you'd want to protect, but often fail to make you attached to them, distracting you with other stuff inst