Review: Bikini Warriors

The United States has a history of cartoons designed to promote toys. With properties like Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Mighty Max, the hope of the shows’ producers is that you buy the toys seen in the series. But there aren’t a lot of anime specifically based on any type of toy or figure line. I’m sure the producers would like you to buy a figure based on one of the characters, but more times than not the anime is based on a manga.

Which brings us to today’s subject: Bikini Warriors. It’s a short anime series based on a line of ecchi figures, which typically doesn’t instill confidence in the show’s quality. In fact, when I first saw the show’s listing on Anichart, I immediately thought show was just going to be nothing but fanservice and trash. But then I noticed that the show’s logo looks a lot like the logo for Dragon Warrior a.k.a. Dragon Quest.

“Is this show a parody?” I thought. Turns out it is. And it’s not trash.

Review: Ai-Mai-Mi Mousou Catastrophe

Last year, I wrote a review of Ai-Mai-Mi, a short length comedy series about three schoolgirls in a manga club. Except, of course the show was actually about anything but three schoolgirls in a manga club. While I thought the first half of the show was bland and uninteresting, it did start to win me over in its second half. So when its sequel Ai-Mai-Mi Mousou Catastrophe was announced, I was interested to see if the show would continue to improve.

Let’s see if that happened, shall we?

Review: Wakakozake

Sometimes the elevator pitch of a show can be a really hard sell. For example, let’s look at the elevator pitch of the subject of today’s review, Wakakozake. The elevator pitch is “Woman eats food and talks about it.” Not exactly the most exciting pitch in the world. There aren’t any ninjas, pirates, or giant zombies to be found! So when I’ve talked about this show to my friends, it’s been really hard to sell them on the show. With that said, let me tell you why I love Wakakozake and why you should absolutely check it out.

Review: Pupa

The largest problem short anime face is trying to create a complete episode in 5 minutes or less. In theory, comedy series are the easiest to write for this format as punch lines can be set up and delivered in a very short amount of time. But what about the horror genre? Typically, horror requires time to build up mood and atmosphere in order to create a scary experience. So can a horror show with 5 minute episodes achieve that goal? Well the anime series Pupa tried to do just that. Although, that may not have been the show’s intention...

Review: Encouragement of Climb Season 2

The original season of Encouragement of Climb was a real surprise to me. Despite having episodes than ran less than 5 minutes each, the show managed to pack a ton of story, character development, and charm into its limited running time. It really managed to stand out among the other short form anime airing at the same time. However, because each episode was so short, the show left a feeling that there was so much more they could be doing if given the time. Not to mention, the ending left the impression that there was more to be done. As a result, fans of the show were left hoping that they would be given more time and more episodes.

Guess what? That’s exactly what happened.

In a rarely seen move, season 2 of Encouragement of Climb evolved from a 12 episode season with 5 minute episodes, to a 24 episode season with 15 minute episodes. Technically, that means it turned into a full length series. Needless to say, the episode and time increase was shocking. As a result, Encouragement of Climb Season 2 manages to improve on the original season in every way possible.

Mind Wanderer: Mysterious Girlfriend X Review

Some people consider certain anime to be too weird for them. Me? I like to take weird head on. That’s why I chose to buy today’s topic of discussion; a romantic comedy with a very unique… twist. Back in 2012, I sure did hear a lot of people talk about this show due to that very same twist. And with the unique reactions this show was getting, how could I not give this show a look? So pour yourself a drink and enjoy the Mind Wanderer review of Mysterious Girlfriend X.

Review: Ishida & Asakura

Typically, the episode length of a short form anime ranges anywhere between 3.5 and 5 minutes. But what happens when an anime is only 12 episodes long and has an episode length of only 2 minutes? Is it possible to convey a comedic story with a credits sequence in such little time? Well, the anime series Ishida & Asakura sure gave it a shot.

The question is: were they trying?

Review: Encouragement of Climb

My original introduction to short form anime in the beginning of winter of 2013 was not that great. With the first couple of shows I watched I noticed I was having the same problems with each show. These problems included low animation quality, unfunny jokes, and a plot that seems to go nowhere. To say the least, my initial impression of short form anime was that no studio was going to invest the money to produce a quality product.

Then I started to watch Encouragement Of Climb, and all my problems went away.

Review: Ai-Mai-Mi

If you follow the latest anime simulcasts coming out of Japan, you may be aware of the existence of the short length anime series. For these shows,each episode only lasts 5 minutes, or less, in length. Back during the Winter 2013 season, I first discovered this type of show when I finally began to pay attention to anime simulcasts. In fact, I got a good taste of the short format because there were six short series airing on Crunchyroll that season alone.

In theory, the short anime format is certainly more than capable of working. The internet has proven that you don't need a full 11 minutes to set up and tell a proper story line. In the case of comedy series, it should be even easier considering you can build up to a punchline in very little time. But can it work for an anime? To start my foray into short length anime, I decided to watch Ai-Mai-Mi, a show about three female students in a magna club. At least, that's what they want you to think the show is about.

Mind Wanderer: Sonic The Hedgehog (SatAM) Review

Welcome to the premiere edition of Mind Wanderer, a cartoon video review web show. Today, we will be looking at Sonic the Hedgehog (also know as Sonic SatAM). Personally, when I think of early 90s shows from my childhood, this is one of the shows I think of. I wanted to see if the show held up. By the end of 2014, there will be five animated TV series based on Sega's Genesis hero. Surely, at least one of them is good. Right?

Trailer: Mind Wanderer

This is the debut trailer for the new cartoon review web series, Mind Wanderer. Here you'll find videos spotlighting various animated shows and movies from my collection along with discussion of my thoughts and who I think would enjoy watching the show or movie. While I do like to have fun on the show, don't expect a large portion dedicated to sketches that have little to do with the subject at hand. After all, it's about the animation, right?