This is one of those stretches of episodes that is best appreciated not for what it is, but for what it is setting up.

This can't be filler…what the Jolly Roger IS it? This weird relationship between the pointless and provocative keeps the fans watching while being more than kind to newbies as well, but needless to say: this is not the best One Piece has to offer.

Like the curriculum at its titular academy, which embraces every contradictory whackjob idea in the world, Occult Academy is a mess. It's also a lot of fun. Go figure.

With this set of episodes Brotherhood forges ahead down a completely different track from the first series. New characters, redefinitions of old characters, and spectacular action sequences are all highlights in material which goes to greater extremes of silliness and graphic content.

Part II does drop the ball on occasion, but it makes up for its lapses with an onslaught of parodies and sight gags that reaches heights not dreamt of in Part I.

While the initial BL-vibes are only just that, there're only so many blushing peer-invested boys you can ignore in an all boys' dormitory before your minds start thinking something's up. Then again what's a little arousing shampoo sniff between guy friends? It's all about the women here anyway.

Supernatural mail carriers deliver messages to the living from beyond the grave, with widely mixed results, in this 2008 offering from J.C. Staff. Despite some moe trappings, the surprisingly involved storytelling offers biting social commentary as it explores some very dark territory.

A Drunken Dream may not float everyone's boat, a substance over style menagerie of ideas and life, but those who take the time to explore it should not be disappointed by the experience.

Deliberately unconventional and even alienating at times, Five Leaves doesn't forget that it must also entertain. It just does so without pandering or compromising.

Perverse, overwrought, and executed to near perfection, this adaptation of Matsuri Hino's vampire melodrama qualifies as one of anime's great guilty pleasures. Both in guilt, and pleasure.

Though this catgirls-from-space series gives every outward indication of being just another Magical Girlfriend/Harem series, its cleverness, subversion of genre conventions, and willingness to push its genre's envelope help make it one of 2010's biggest and most pleasant surprises.

It hops, skips and jumps through a number of familiar genres ... Yet each tale comes with its own physics-defying twist, the kind only Nagaru Tanigawa can dream up. In short, Haruhi's boredom is anything but.

In case you missed it somehow during the first half, part two of Initial D's Fourth Stage broadcasts its message loud and clear: If you aren't here for the racing, then you may as well not be here at all.

Yes, it takes almost a full nine chapters for two fighting wizards to beat the daylights out of each other—and it's nine chapters very well spent.

Clings to the traditional shônen ideals of friendship, challenge, and victory, only with our hero wielding a pen instead of a sword. Literally.

A laid-back hero butts heads against a quartet of powerful Dukes in this space opera laden with classical European styling. The series definitely gets better after a weak start and should be of particular interest to those who favor sci fi anime with a broad scope which features action but is not a slave to it.

Unfortunately this first volume still falls short of being much past mildly-entertaining, especially when things start looking too familiar – Koyuki is kidnapped and Kyounosuke is now enrolled in her school, you say? In combination the story and art may be enough to give Wolf God a fighting chance but it's not likely to leave many howling for volume two.

The book tries almost too hard to be everything at once: a mystery wrapped up in an enigma wrapped up in a slice-of-life slightly-magically-realistic school story.

The main couple of the story is actually the least worth wasting words on, and this is a serious problem for the show. There are good ideas with above-average execution, but they're lost in the noise of something not really worthy of attention outside its own world.

Does the world really need another vampire story right now? Digital Manga seems to think so. Perhaps it's the success of their Vampire Hunter D releases, a manga cult-classic, or maybe it's just certain outside influences. Either way, Crimson Cross is about as ‘vampire’ as you can get… unfortunately.

How much you like this blending of horror and high school romantic comedy/drama clichés will largely depend on how jaded (or not) you are about the Zombie Apocalypse genre. It certainly delivers on its promise of plentiful action, bloody violence, and fan service, though, and tells a remarkably good story so far.

This isn't the series firing on all undead cylinders; it's the series cleaning up its loose ends before closing shop.

Sasuke tries to depart the Hidden Leaf Village, and Naruto tries to stop him, leading to their long-awaited head-to-head in this regrouped rerelease of earlier boxed sets. While some parts are tedious and typical franchise and genre flaws are evident, this set has some of the first series' best content, too.

The bad news is that the improvements in plotting and strong new characters are overshadowed by a more negative difference between the seasons: the 1st was slow, but the 2nd is boring. Il Teatrino's writing is sharp, but its direction is limp.

If something in the show interests you, chances are it's resolved here, and probably via an earth-shaking butt-kicking.

Well suited to its place in the Doki Doki imprint, which bolsters series intended as go-betweens from shoujo to boys' love, Alice 101st achieves the shoujo character-driven charm with an inkling of boys' love bait for the fans. If you enjoy coming-of-age stories told in parallel to honing a creative craft, then Alice the 101st could very well be a book for you.

A capable high school girl gets involved in an all-women underground fighting tournament to save a new friend in this five-episode OVA from ARMS. A kissing cousin of Ikki Tousen, the series is largely not worth watching unless dependence on nudity-laced fan service works for you.

Throws everything it has into high-energy humor, knowing full well that neither its plot nor its characters can carry it. And for the most part, it works.

Prior to this there was always a chance, however slim, that the series would somehow salvage itself. After episode seven alone, no such illusions remain.

A youthful-looking high school student is the subject of warring amorous interests from fox and wolf yokai in this poor excuse for a Magical Girlfriend/Harem series. While it is distinctive for its girls' sexual aggressiveness and allusions to Japanese folklore, its early episodes are thoroughly outclassed by other series in its subgenre.

How much you enjoy Welcome to the Space Show will depend largely on how much you value a coherent narrative.

...mix Dengeki Daisy's more predictable shoujo-elements with a hint of school drama, a dash of computer hacking and a cellphone to tie it all together and you have a winning combination that feels far less average in its execution..

Has its weak spots, but they quiver, pale and frightened, before the joie de vivre stamped on every other page.

Ichigo visits the Visoreds to learn how to control his Hollow side, and the ultimate goal of Aizen's grand plot gets revealed, in this latest Bleach installment. While it does have some interesting developments, it does not do anything excitingly different or break any new ground.

For those who enjoy the thrill of massive robots fighting each other, this feature is pure animated bliss, although the act of cramming a TV story arc into two hours does hamper the plot. Not that anyone really watches this for plot substance anyway.

If Touch is the honor student and Fighting Spirit the friendly jock, then Slam Dunk is the class clown. In a good way.

There have been better volumes of Negima! than this one. The kind of churning and plot maintenance going on in this installment doesn't make for very effective storytelling.

The one big knock against Zetsubou-sensei has always been that the humor is hit-and-miss—but Volume 6 looks like the first to have nonstop hits all the way through.

The do-or-do-not power-debate parallels to Ando's own personal questioning as a whole – how much effect can a person's words have and what is someone's personal responsibility to stop being a bystander to injustice? While its direction remains up the air, Maoh Juvenile Remix opens with a compelling first volume full of questions worth trying to answer.

Premier assassin Golgo 13 is out to execute a baker's dozen of hits in this dubbed release of the first quarter of his first TV series. This purely episodic series gets its appeal from its widely-varied scenarios and watching Golgo's consummate professionalism and unstoppable skill in action, not from character or plot developments.