I've got a relatively light update today, one that proves that brevity is hardly a bad thing and that the shortest anime may often prove to be the most interesting anime. First off, I have Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor, a spooky animated adaptation of Kafka's short story expertly done by the Oscar-nominated Koji Yamamura. Following this, we have an even shorter piece:a series of one-minute-long shorts made as television spots and directed by people as diverse as Michael Arias, Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii, and Makoto Shinkai. It's quite a good little series, actually...I'd highly recommend checking it out.

In contrast, our one full series of the day turns out to be....a disappointment, shall we say. Allen brings us a review of the abysmal Infinite Stratos, and his take is that apparently, mecha and harem just don't mix well. Heh. One of those genres must be a non-polar molecule....

Bad science puns aside, we'll be back with a meatier update next week, with Tim bringing us several new reviews. Until then.

-Nick Browne

Simple as that.

We're going to start at the top, and work our way to the bottom in terms of quality this update. First up we have Nick with the excellent Kure-Nai (which was finally licensed recently), as well as Aiden with the fun Kill Me Baby!. And then we round off the top reviews of the week with Allen's review of Gakuen Alice.

In dead center we have Stig and his review of the third (and to date final) Koihime Musou series, Shin Koihime Musou ~Otome Tairan~.

And dead last we have me, reviewing the 10th anniversary "celebration" that is the infamous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira. Given this OAV's reputation, I don't think any more needs to be said, do I?

See you next Monday for Memorial Day Weekend!

- Tim Jones

So this time around we have Nick and I's reviews to showcase.

As for me, I give a second opinion of Kino's Journey, an anime I've been meaning to see more of for YEARS. And I finally did just that, and I really liked it. Click here for the whole review.

In return, I gave Nick the sorely overlooked My Neighbors the Yamadas, since it was one of the few Ghibli movies we didn't have a review for. Click on the title for the full details. (I also like this film.)

Of course, we still have 4 more reviews this week, too! Allen gives us two new reviews with Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple and Kimi Ni Todoke (From Me To You)'s 2nd season. Click on the titles to read the reviews.

Aiden gives us a sequel as well with his review of Amagami SS+ plus.

And lastly we come back to Nick again for his second review of the update; Nakedyouth.

And with that we end this week's updates. Whether or not our last duo of reviewers will do their respective anime is unknown. We'll let you know in the future!

(Also, man I was right about May being warm here. 66 degrees Farenheit / 18.9 degrees Celsius right now in the morning alone.)

- Tim Jones

So, we at THEM decided to do a little title choice switchup, where six of us basically drew lots and chose each others shows. It's kind of like the Reverse Secret Santa thing... except it's not quite secret. Or has anything to do with Santa or Christmas. Or... well, maybe I should just introduce the two shows we'll be having in today's update.

And so, I chose GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class for Aiden Foote. It was a bit of a longshot, and it appears he ended up somewhere in the vincinity of what I would've given it for a review and a rating. If you want to know what that is, well... then you'd have to go in there and read.

In return, Aiden added himself to the list of people who apparently thinks I need more Samurai/Edo drama shows on my repertoire. As such, I went through The House of Five Leaves, and came out of it a better man in the end. (Or at least one with another great improvement to my personal collection.)

As for who's up next... I have no idea. Or maybe I do, and I'm just... not... telling... Either way, stay tuned, and we'll get you sorted out, hopefully in the near future.

- Stig Høgset.