demographic: seinen
'REDLINE': Faster Than The Speed Of Love December 24, 2014
Even if the story's little more than a placeholder, 'REDLINE' seethes with visuals so propulsive and uninhibited, they alone guarantee it a place in anime history
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'Cowboy Bebop': Bohemian Rhapsody December 22, 2014
Under 'Cowboy Bebop's rollicking humor and sassy action lives a question borne from the long dark night of the soul: are you living, or just existing?
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Short Takes: 'Witchcraft Works Vol. 1' December 03, 2014
Magical hijinks in high school are the jumping-off point for this enjoyable story with no small amount of potential, but also unnecessarily confusing visuals
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'Hellsing Ultimate': Or, The Dracula-Vs.-Nazi-Vampire-Burning-London-To-The-Ground Blues November 21, 2014
Looking back over this legendary and now-concluded OVA series, it's striking to realize how it all amounted to a great deal less than it might have seemed
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'Shiki': Human Monsters, All-Too-Human Monsters October 31, 2014
The horror at the heart of this horror story lies in how it toys so adeptly with our understanding of 'human' and 'monster'
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'Claymore': The Beautiful And The Damned October 10, 2014
Rare these days is the series with an all-female cast where character, story, and drama are the goals, not titillation or eye candy
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'Berserk': War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning October 06, 2014
Limited and fragmented as it is, this brutal fantasy still achieves wonders, thanks to the sheer strength of its storytelling and the force of its vision
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'Paranoia Agent': We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us October 03, 2014
The real monster in Satoshi Kon's genre-defying black comedy of horrors is human nature itself
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'Ghost in the Shell': The Dreaming Machine September 26, 2014
Twenty-five years on, one of anime's seminal groundbreakers remains as alluring, intriguing, confounding, and problematic as ever
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'Ghost In The Shell: ARISE: Border 3: ghost tears' September 19, 2014
Part three of 'ARISE' is an improvement on the first two installments, but the ineffable alchemy we saw before in the franchise still hasn't quite manifested itself
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'HAL': Are 'Lovers' Electric? September 05, 2014
Even while this love story between a human and a robot is sincere and affecting, it's up to the audience to tell if it has one too many twists for its own good
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'Mononoke': To Extreme Sickness, Extreme Remedies July 25, 2014
Long unavailable in anything but fansubs, this psychedelic horror-fantasy anthology is bewitching and intoxicating
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'Flowers of Evil': O Rose, Thou Art Sick July 21, 2014
An overwhelming experience, and a finely crafted one, but also harrowing and unpleasant from beginning to end -- even if that's supposed to be the idea
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'Knights of Sidonia': For The World Is Hollow And He Has Touched The Sky July 15, 2014
The first anime to be distributed exclusively on Netflix is dazzling and enjoyable enough to feel new, but plays it safe enough to go mainstream
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'Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress': The Beauty Of The Beasts May 21, 2014
A gorgeously-designed surface isn't all that's beautiful in this compelling reworking of elements from the classic tale of 'Hakkenden'
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'Nyaruko: Crawling With Love!': In Her House At R'lyeh, Cute Cthulhu Waits Giggling May 12, 2014
Plenty of laughs ooze forth from this 'cute Cthulhu mythos' comedy, but it's most intriguing for how something so dark is made fodder for something so silly
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'Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III: The Advent' April 28, 2014
The third of the 'Berserk' films brings us to the long-awaited end of the beginning, and reminds us the TV series still did some things totally right
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'Robotics;Notes': Hey, Gang! Let's Put Together A Giant Mecha! April 23, 2014
Next to its cousin 'Steins;Gate' this sunny robo-fantasy bulks small, but it still supplies an entertaining ride
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'Psycho-Pass': Do Androids Dream Of The Silence Of The Lambs? April 07, 2014
Somewhere between 'Blade Runner' and 'SE7EN' lies this show, which sees its dangerous ideas all the way through to the bitter and brilliant end
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'[C] - CONTROL': Money Is Not Our God March 24, 2014
As money becomes increasingly abstract, from Bitcoin to bubble-bursting financial derivatives, this series becomes all the more prophetic and fascinating
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'Ghost In The Shell: ARISE: Border 2: ghost whisper' March 10, 2014
The second installment in the 'Ghost in the Shell: ARISE' series eschews insight and thematic complexity for straight-up action
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'Ghost In The Shell: ARISE: Border 1: ghost pain' March 03, 2014
Even if 'ARISE' falls short of the heights of 'Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex', it's still a model of ambition and vision for anime
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'Jormungand': A Bullet In The Head, Or Two In The Feet? February 05, 2014
This poor man's 'Black Lagoon' embodies many of the problems inherent in a show about antiheroes and gray areas
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'Ikki Tousen': Another One Bites The Dust January 13, 2014
It's dismaying when a show like this can barely even deliver the action and titillation it promises
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'Attack On Titan': Titanic, In Every Sense January 06, 2014
One of 2013's best shows, which manages to both shoot itself in the foot and not be limited by that
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