Best New Anime about Love (2021)

Romance is probably one of the most liked anime genres. It just makes you feel hundreds of emotions at the same time, making you all warm and fuzzy inside. The second year of the Coronavirus Pandemic, that being 2021, not only gave us with a bunch of action-packed anime, but also had some romance in store for us. So, without further ado, let’s introduce them!

Komi-San Can’t Communicate

Komi-San Can’t Communicate Manga is just amazing. It was a highly anticipated anime and 2021 really blessed us with it. The story revolves around Shoko Komi who is a socially awkward high school student. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t communicate with others. Her dream is to make 100 friends and one of his classmates, Tadano, decides to help her in realizing her dream. He must help her communicate with different people in order to get her new friends.

Horimiya

The anime adaptation of Horimiya was another surprise for the fans this year. It is one of the best romantic anime to date. The story involves Hori and Miyamura who are two high school students. Both of them have different personalities at school and different at home. Both of them happen to know about each other’s true personalities and grow close together. Their sweet love story begins that makes us feel all warm inside.

My Next Life As a Villainess

The second season of My Next Life as a Villainess came out earlier in 2021. Catarina Claes is the main character of the series who got reincarnated to another word. As she has dealt with all the death flags in the first season, she can lead her life peacefully now. However, Catarina is unaware of the challenges the new people are bringing at her school. The game she’s playing is not over yet. 

Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Girlfriend, Girlfriend has to be the weirdest romance anime of all time. However, it's pretty interesting in its own way. The story introduces us to Naoya Mukai who has no luck when it comes to love. However, luckily, he’s able to date his childhood friend, Saki Saki. Now , when he’s trying to commit to the relationship, he receives a confession from another girl named Nagisa Minase. Naoya rejects her at first but later decides to ask Saki Saki to date her as well. Saki Saki has to submit and their twisted relationship begins.

Bokutachi no Remake 

Bokutachi no Remake is a beautiful story that introduces us to Kyoya Hashiba who is not doing well at his work. One day, he wakes up 10 years in the past when he’s still in the university. There, he meets all the people from the future that he admired. He befriends them and decides to turn his life around this time.

We're ready when you are... Let's get cozy with these awesome romance anime!

Better yet, we definitely recommend you to watch these anime with your loved ones!

Or with your cats, dogs, iguanas, you name it...

Anime Recommendations of Summer 2016!

Welcome to my Top 5 Recommended anime for Summer 2016! Hot days, long summers, and soul searching aside, I've based these 5 shows on the following criteria:

• Character development and depth - Does this show give me the heebie jeebies at the sight of the protagonist's situations? Do characters outside of the protagonist develop and grow to contribute to a fantastic story?
• Summer feeling - Not just warm weather, palm trees, and beach episodes, but also energetic characters, hype factor, and of course slice-of-life style relevance to the viewer's life come into play!
• General enjoyability - Is "enjoyability" even a word? Regardless, we all watch anime to get different things out of it. Some watch for shounen excitement, others for moe anime girls. What makes a show enjoyable? Keep reading and find out!

Without further ado, here we go!

WARNING - Spoilers abound! I attempt to give you enough synopsis to understand the rating, but sometimes that means giving a little plot away. I would recommend reading if you have seen a PV and know the general synopsis of the show already!

1. RE:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

MAL Score 8.76
Genres



RE:Zero follows protagonist Natsuki Subaru on a "journey" in a fantasy world... sounds familiar, right? Is that not 50% of every new anime to come out in the past few years?! Well, it is different this time as our protagonist has literal plot armor. He cannot die, more accurately he has a curse he calls "Return By Death" which allows him to restart after death, at arbitrary save points in time along his journey.

You would think this would lead to hilarious restarts and comical interludes. But that is further from the truth than you'd expect. RE:Zero has viewers on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens to Subaru next, how he will attempt to right the wrongs of each iteration of himself, and see the growth of all characters involved in the process. While this show is an ongoing series and only technically counts for Summer 2016, it is a must-watch for anime fans, will likely become as popular as household names like Suzumiya Haruhi, and has as much character development, heart-stopping moments, and endearing characters as any of the top anime out there.

Character Development: 5/5

Summer Feeling: 3/5

General Enjoyability: 5/5

2. Amanchu!

MAL Score 7.28
Genres

Diving, diving, diving! And you thought Free! was the best swimming anime out there. Amanchu! is really an experience. If you don't get a "It's Summer!" feeling out of this show, I don't know what is wrong with you. 

Pikari, the show's resident optimist and driving force (or rather, "diving force") brings her classmate Futaba into the world of diving and with it comes a slice-of-life show lauded as one of the many showcased "golden age of slice-of-life" shows of the past few years! If you plan on watching it, please don't expect psychological depth, but its definitely worth a watch in the summer!

Character Development: 3/5

Summer Feeling: 6/5 !!

General Enjoyability: 4/5

3. Shokugeki no Soma (Ni no Sara)

MAL Score 8.56
Genres

You can get whatever you want from whomever you'd like to get it from. Right now. At least that's how things work at Totsuki Academy, the most elite cooking school in Japan, and possibly the world. And the means of getting what you want is through "Shokugeki" or a "Food War" as the dubs call it. Whoever wins an Iron Chef style competition can claim whatever they'd like from the loser. 

This is the world that our skilled Shounen protagonist Yukihira Soma lives in. Season 2 ramps things up in the Autumn Elections, and the episodes are fast-paced and rewarding. There isn't much of a summer feeling or even any character development here (what do you expect from a cooking shounen series) but the payoff per episode is definitely top tier!

Character Development: 2/5

Summer Feeling: 3/5

General Enjoyability: 5/5

4. New Game!

MAL Score 7.46
Genres

Ever wanted to be a game designer?! Work at the game company of your dreams to help bring the sequel to your childhood game to life?! Well, that is the premise of New Game! - you get a peek into the life of Suzukaze Aoba in her 18th year of life, as a character designer for her favorite Game company, "Eagle Jump". This slice-of-life show has hints of "Working!!" and "K-On!" everywhere. This is a sure-to-please show for those who like to make, play, and watch cute girls make games!!

Character Development: 3/5

Summer Feeling: 3/5

General Enjoyability: 5/5

5. Orange

MAL Score 8.05
Genres

Have you ever written a letter to your past self? How about a diary? If you have, I bet 80% of those who have wrote about their love life. But how would you react if the letter told you that you will fall in love and lose that love in 10 years time? That would be the conflicting situation that Naho is in.

This romance / drama / shoujo anime speaks to our nostalgia for high school romance and has hints of supernatural in the form of Naho's future diary entries. While each episode is well directed, the going can get pretty slow so the enjoyability factor is low. Otherwise, I highly recommend this for fans of the genre!

Character Development:5/5

Summer Feeling: 4/5

General Enjoyability: 3/5

Anime Review: Vandread

 Anime Review!

Vandread

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Men are from Mars and women are from Venus". If you like any part of that phrase, you should watch Vandread. In Vandread men and women live on two different planets in space and hate each other! It all begins when three peculiar guys get caught by a pirate ship, from Mujer the planet of women. Oh and there's giant mechs like in Gundam! And then it all gets better from there!

The male planet of Taraq values manly qualities
Like toughness, valor, honor, honesty,
endurance, and strength.

The main character, Hibiki, pictured above becomes the hero of the ship, just like in any other giant mech show. However he can only unleash his full power when his ship is "combined" with a female ship and a girl is sitting on his lap! Now isn't that ecchi!

The female planet, Mujer, is more in tune
with feminine qualities like harmony
and resilience. And don't forget good
old female scorn.

This show has a lot of hidden sexual tension within it. It's a great show to watch after a long day at work or school. I have to admit that the battles are anti-climactic and boring. But the plot is reasonable and will keep you watching, if only to see how much men get to know the women and vice versa.                                                                This show is on netflix!

I recommend it, but you'll have to see for yourself.

Spring 2012 Anime!

What Spring 2012 Anime are you looking forward to? 

Stay tuned for our recommendations as you make your wish list from the line up below!

-chansu

Anime Review: Level E

Most of you are probably saying: "It's about darn time!"
And I'm saying it too. So without further ado, we will start to review anime instead of just recommending anime.

Reviewing is a tough game because, review too much and the good parts of the show are spoiled and review too little and no one knows what the heck your talking about. Reviewing too little can almost be like a Judge in a cooking anime... very vague... "This has so much flavor, and the texture is very rich, but the aroma!..."
They can make it work but we can't...

So I'm going to set up a review system. When you watch an anime there are certain things that we all look for. They are as follows: Character Development, Artistic Appeal, Opening and Ending Originality and Interestingness, and Plot Complexity. These are our FOUR anime judging qualities and by reviewing this way we can avoid spoilers, I think. So let's begin!

LEVEL E

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Science fiction
Level E is about the prince of a planet called Dogura who comes to Earth to keep from being bored on his home planet. His name is Ki El Dogura but his nickname given to those who know him is Baka because he likes to play pranks to keep from being bored. Ki El Dogura is a genius and possesses one of the highest intelligences in the Universe. This show is about the various people he "influences" both from Earth and from other planets. This show is also about the prince's three bodyguards who serve as comic relief throughout the show.

 The Prince of Dogura is the main character

Character Development

Character development is low in Level E because the series is only 13 episodes long and is broken up into three mini-arcs about different people that the prince influences to pass the time. Some reviewers have said that they would like to see more of one character or another. I think the story would have been better if it was longer so each of the arcs could have more character development. 

Yukitka, the baseball jock that many people wanted to see more of in Level E. Was it because he acted a lot like Yusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho?

Artistic Appeal

The artistic appeal of this show is good, it could be better to compare with other anime. The style of animation is a bit like a new Yu Yu Hakusho. Some scenes are aesthetic such as the depictions of space from Earth. 

Opening and Ending Originality and Interestingness

The opening and ending themes are both interesting. They are not that generic type of anime opening. I think the ending is better than the opening, that's just because I like male J-rock bands better. Check it out for yourself!

Level E Opening

Cold Finger Girl by Chiaki Kuriyama

Level E Ending

Yume Mugen No Kanata by Vivid

Sorry there's no ending theme on youtube...

Plot Complexity

How many times does the plot "get good" before the end of the series basically. Since the show has four mini arcs, each one has a suspenseful twist. This makes me recommend this show. But since it has four mini arcs you don't know much about the characters by the end. The message the show gives off is that aliens are just like us, they're no more good or evil than we are (well people in Japan).

OVERALL: RECOMMENDED

Anime Recommendation::: Blue Exorcist (Ao no Exorcist)

Imagine waking up and coming to the breakfast table to hear:

 Except it's not a breakfast table but::

While getting jumped...

And then your father says:

 O Lord, bind a milestone around it's neck so that it shall never again rise fro the depths of the Leviathan!

Then turns into this...

 The king of demons...

Wow that's one long day isn't it?? 

Either way to find out what's really going to happen you're going to have to watch Blue Exorcist (Ao no Exorcist). I would give an in depth review but I already think it's awesome and don't want to spoil any of it before you give it a chance. I really recommend watching this anime...

Here's the awesome opening by UVERworld, Core Pride.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko {{Spring Anime Recommendation}}

What's tube shaped, squishy inside, and is filled with savory moe? A chikuwa? No! It's...

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko!

[Lit. "Electric wave girl and youthful boy"]

Now, this season is currently being heralded as the rebirth of anime from the flames of natural disaster, and there are plenty of great series' to see, but Denpa Onna is highly recommended! Sankakucomplex lauds it as the "Cutest anime this season"! And there's no denying its kawaii factor... Here's the inside scoop on the plot!

Niwa Makoto is a boy who values youth very

much. He thrives on adolescence and enjoys tabulating the pluses and minuses to his "Adolescence Points." He moves from the countryside to his aunt's place in the city after his parents go abroad. Expecting an especially youthful life in his new environment, Niwa's disappointed to find that his aunt Meme Touwa is the weirdest and flirtatious 39 year old beauty he could ever (not) ask for (apparently advances from your aunt decrease Adolescence points) and she even has a daughter who is equally as strange!

Erio Touwa is a girl who claims to be a spy from outer space. She wraps herself in a futon and hardly ever removes it (even to the extent of eating inside of it!) and listening to television static, mumbling about how "the Earth is being targeted!"

Niwa also meets a super eccentric girl at school (Ryuuko):

...and an especially tall girl who likes unorthodox cosplay (Maekawa):

As strange as his life is becoming, Niwa only finds pluses to his Adolescence points at school...

Until he sees the true beauty and adorableness of his cousin Erio! Niwa makes it his duty to debunk all of her alien conspiracy beliefs to find the truth behind the mysterious Erio.

So why is Denpa Onna so dang cute? The character designs! Have you experienced moe like THIS before? Well?



[She is an alien from planet MOE!!]
Denpa Onna is a very balanced show (although it focuses on cuteness mostly, there is actually a real plot! Yay!)

[The main cast of Denpa Onna, if there were an "Under 40's" age limit.]

If you like comedy, moe, and a couple heartwarming moments of adolescence and craziness, then Denpa Onna is just for you! Highly recommended!

-chansu