Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai

I noticed a number of negative reviews for this so I think it's a good idea to understand who the target audience is here - young teenagers. There are certainly some slightly thought-provoking bits, but Konomini is by no means groundbreaking. **Story**: A bit of a hit and miss. On the plus side, it tries to emphasize how life is always linked to death, both as an unfortunate consequence of certain events and as something that happens to all living organisms (hence, the title of the anime?). Also, the cycle of life and seasons is something completely natural and takes time. Snow comes in Winter, Sun comes in Summer. It sounds obvious, but it's nice to see an anime which focuses on this. The downside is that we have some plot lines which are not entirely relevant - random super powers and an oversimplified lesson on evolution. Yes, again, target audience. The ending could've been better as well - a little less predictable maybe. **Art**: Fairly generic early 2000s. As others have said, nothing to write home about. **Characters:** A 7/10. Interesting, but a little flat. I was expecting a little more from the main male protagonist, but then again, the series has only 13 episodes. **Enjoyment** It made me sad towards the end so that's a good sign, but overall it's really a 7/10 kind of material. It's entertaining, somewhat thought-provoking, but could've been a lot more.

"I- I don't think you could ever hate the person who gave you your name" - Akari This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, is one of the fine works of Gainax that is well known as the creator of Evangelion. You can easily see there are a lot of similarities between the two of them. In this anime, however, there less shocking scenes and more lovely girls to be seen so I can say it's generally pleasant to watch for fun. As I said above, I noticed there are quite a few similarities between the two, like the stunning actions/movements, cute and bossy ladies, and the simple yet dramatic scenarios. But, rather than that, this anime spends the large parts of it on comedy, romance, and boobs, I- I mean its fan-service scenes. Actually, you are allowed to see the nudes of all the female characters of this anime. I think that's wonderful. I- I mean the challenging spirits of the creators. I scored it not so high because of its unfortunate roughness, and the lack of originarity of the characters' personalities(they seem to be from the other works with a little bit arrange...), but if you like a romance which decides the fate of the world and beautiful boobs I mean this beautiful world, maybe you should watch this anime!

Welcome back to the world if anime studios Gainax and Shaft were actual people in the real world that they could conceive a lot of unique and weird kids of their own. Now I’ve already ventured through Mahoromatic before and I know what content to expect from these two studios. Takeru and Ryou are high school students who work doing deliveries for the former's uncle. One night, the two go to investigate a mysterious light in the woods only to find a young girl. Takeru and Ryou are attacked by an alien, which is defeated when Takeru transforms into a powerful and strange looking beast himself. The girl, whom the boys’ name "Hikari" (light), is taken in by Takeru when she confesses to having no memory of who she is. They are later joined by Jennifer Portman, an American scientist with an interest in the boys and Hikari; Ioneos, a shape-shifting robot loyal to Hikari; Kuon, a little floating alien; and Akari, Hikari's "sister". The series follows the daily lives of its characters as they learn about the human condition and face the incoming monsters. Now upon watching this series, I started to notice a trend within the show, such as taking in an unknown possibly non-human young girl into your place, the main male characters somewhat hate their current life based on stuff in the past (very horrible things), robots are involved, the kicked-in sci-fi element, an older but annoying character who drunks a lot, a harem of girls who crushes on you, the tsundere who’s really has a crush on you, the other alien girl also completely unknown of Earth’s customs. In fact, this is more like the twin of Mahoromatic. Unfortunately, this is the ungrateful/unimaginative twin who can’t think of anything significant besides basically being a copycat to the older source. The story is very generic from the get-go, if you know much of Gainax or Shaft properties. The characters give or take, are basically the anime stereotypes we know but hell, I don’t love them that much. Takeru is the miserable pessimistic yet turns a little optimistic teenager who’s often lazy & unmotivated but can transform a powerful primal being……but only for a few episodes that’s ever mentioned. Ryou is Takeru’s best friend who captured the hearts of many girls at his school (including Sakurako and Amika – yeah, that’s all they get for character description) and always has this feel-good position whenever about something and also his sister Kimi, who is the stereotype of kid sister who knows way too much of their age…..and yet I don’t give a damn. Mari is the typical tsundere character, who is also in love with Takeru and oh yeah, she’s also his cousin. Then comes the lone foreigner (or American) Jennifer Portman, who I swear is more like the molesting teacher in Mahoromatic or Misato & Ritsuko in Evangelion but more annoying, drunk, and not that funny. She’s just being unbearable whenever she appears. There’s also Shinichi Asakura and Daijirou Matsumura, who always want to fulfill their sexual fantasy ever since meeting Hikari and they are really just beating (or in this case, fucking) a dead horse with that stereotype. For the animation, what did you expect from Gainax and Shaft? Fan service is all around the place from her, but that isn’t why the anime isn’t that great and the budget constraints do show many times here with speed lines, weird and awkward movements, and often contrived pacing. The opening theme is actually very intense and has the dramatic feel set for the show while the ending theme is too much fluff and no twist. BGM is marginally okay but nothing home to write about. The dub by ADV Films was decent but some of the voices just felt too irritating, especially from some of the female characters (mostly Jennifer), but other than that, there was nothing noteworthy of the dub but passable. FINAL VERDICT: This has the same elements of the other Gainax/Shaft series, but this is just pure laziness and dribble from beginning to end. I can’t recommended this series unless you want to experience déjà vu but shorter. Personally, I suggest you watch Mahoromatic over this but unlike this, it has a better, more interesting story and a better lead female character.

I heard some things about this anime so I decided to give it a shot. Here's my review: Story/Characters Basically it's a boy meets girl love story of sorts mixed in with some sci-fi drama and comedy. There's really nothing wrong with that format, but it gets overused and many of times, it's always the same. In this anime it's no exception. The love story part would have been nice if they actually made better characters, but the characters just plain suck. Hikari is your prototypical goodie two shoes with a "dark" side (yeah didn't see that one coming..rolls eyes) and Takaru the male lead is just a moron who just does whatever he feels. I mean this girl literally falls out of the sky and a freaking monster attackers her and they Takaru and his friends don't even seem the slightest bit scared or consider this to be a strange situation? I mean seriously? It's just hard to believe that the characters just go along with everything; makes me feel like I'm getting trolled. Anyways, just a bad story and bad characters overall 3/10. BTW did I mention it goes by really fast. I mean the girl is literally in his house the next day like nothing ever happened. Yeah right. Artwork Not particularly great. It's very simplistic, no high details any where, it's just mediocre to be honest. Sound Ehh I watched the English version and it was just plain bad. I mean freaking terrible. Half the time I couldn't understand jack squat they said. Maybe I'll watch the Japanese version, but..it's a pretty below average anime so I think I won't waste my time on it. The music at times was very please. For example when they contemplate things it gives you this very good piano or strings music that fits the mood just right. Can't really say the music was bad, it was pretty decent. Overall Overall I was like "ehh" watching this show. I never really laughed, never felt anything for the characters, it was just ehh..By the end I was like wow that's it?..terrible. I pretty below average anime and that's not good. Ugly definitely, beautiful...hell no!