Anime Review Roundup

It looks terrible, but when it comes to the story, Ajin: Demi-Human Season 2 - Collector's Edition is really quite exceptional. I know I said that about the first season, but it bears repeating, if like me you tend to metaphorically judge books by their covers. The first season set up quite a complex world of Ajin, so-called immortals that can project their power as a dark, humanoid cloud of energy visible only to other Ajin. But in this world, they are discriminated against and feared. I would have thought that such a complex story would be impossible to resolve in just thirteen more episodes, but Season 2 manages to plot an unexpected, but really quite engaging way through its narrative minefield, with only one or two minor missteps along the way. Click on the review to see what I mean.

Chaos;Head, and for the last time. Chaos;Head looks terrible and it is terrible. There are shows that you watch and re-watch and eventually tire of; there are shows that suck outright the first time you watch them, and then there are shows like Chaos;Head, which I so desperately wanted to like that I gave it three chances to change my mind. It is after all a semicolon show, in that same narrative universe, or near enough as Robotics;Notes, and Steins;Gate. But the animation is cheap, the characters are abysmally poor, and the writing is dire. This is a story about the collision between delusion and reality, where what certain characters imagine winds up manifesting in the real world, and secret forces are working to warp the collective perception of society. That’s practically a blank cheque to any writer, the kind of Maguffin that the holodeck was on Star Trek, and this is the best that they could come up with. What astounds me is that there is a sequel of sorts, Chaos;Child.