PSotD - Mai Kaze + Updates

Good evening. I'm in quite a good mood tonight. I restarted my anime marathon addiction. Around December 2011 I had put watching anime on hiatus mainly because I got sick and tired of the repeating (naive) storylines. But last night I realised that I had a lot of stress built up from "life", and it occurred to me that I had been feeling pretty depressed for over two months. I knew I needed a way of releasing these negative emotions. Previously, I found that drowning myself in music was an effective solution. Sadly, as of last week this antidote stopped working; No matter what music I listened to (even my beloved Gackt), they were not able to lift me from my depression hole. Last night I decided to start watching anime again, and it was a good decision. I'm feeling pretty good right now, having watched two animes, Another and Chaos;Head (edit: I also watched Accel World). As you may have noticed, today I posted an anime review on Another. This review (and hopefully many more to come) is independent of the anime reviews that MegaBubbletea has been writing, and the opinions are solely mine, pumpkin_so77.

Back to topic, tonight I want to share a song from one of my favourite animes Hakuouki. There's plenty of bishies to drool over in this anime so get your towels ready!

Title: Mai Kaze 

Artist: Aika Yoshioka
Year: 2010

Notes: Opening song for the anime Hakuouki: Hekketsu-roku.

DDL: From Gendou music (Requires account - it's easy to make one!)

Anime Review (v.P): Another

This anime is not for the faint-hearted. A rather gruesome horror story and it all began 26 years ago with a severe case of denial and a curse.
Warning: There will be blood, lots of blood. If horror is not your cup of tea DO NOT watch this. If you get scared rather easily I also suggest that you don't watch this at 2:30am.

Synopsis: (from myanimelist.net)

26 years ago, in a third-year classroom of a middle school, there was a student named Misaki. As an honors student who was also good at sports, the charming girl was popular with her classmates. When she suddenly died, her classmates decided to carry on as if she was still alive until graduation. Then, in the spring of 1998, a boy named Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to the class, and he grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere in that classroom. In particular, there is a beautiful, aloof girl named Mei Misaki who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures.

Review:

[STORY] It was a well paced and fully developed story. I did not find any part of anime that included useless information. All character developments helped enhance the suspense of the horror story and the progression of the story made logical sense.
From the first two episodes your inner senses would tell you that something was "not quite right" and that you suspect something terrible would happen soon. The shock comes in episode three when the first "death" happens. It was a crucifying death. I thought that the slow-motion effect of the death succeeded in contributing terror into this horror story.
I was quite pleased with the ending. It wrapped up the mysteries posed at the beginning of the story. One good aspect was that it didn't end with a "happily ever after" feel.
Rating: 9 (*Note: all ratings are out of 10.)

[ART] The average "school story" art, with big eyes for both males and females, slender faces and pointy chins. The backgrounds used were the typical Japanese neighbourhood and school grounds. There was nothing spectacular or unique about the artwork. This is in favour of the anime, because I think the main focus should be on the grotesqueness of the story and detailed artwork would just be a distraction for the viewer.
Rating: 6

[SOUND] I felt indifferent towards the OP and ED songs in this anime. They're not songs whose tunes stick around in your head. For a horror story, the producers could've chosen better songs.
However, I enjoyed the voice of the seiyuu that played Misaki.
Rating: 4

[CHARACTER] The characters were well developed. Sufficient information was provided to keep the suspense of the story going.
Rating: 6

[ENJOYMENT] Three words, I loved it. It had all the elements required for a good horror story. There were several parts of the story which I did not expect and thus created a big impact on me when the "truth" or event was unveiled.
Rating: 8

[OVERALL] A very "delightful" horror anime. This would definitely be on my "Re-watch list".
Rating: 8.5