IMHO. 'Made in Abyss' ~ was made in the abyss of the authors' dark imagination

Stories about 'stalkers' exploring special places where laws of physics work differently and danger awaits at every corner are nothing new. After all, the novel that became the source of this very word - 'Roadside Picnic' by the Strugatsky brothers, Soviet sci-fi writers - was published half a century ago.
It's not a coincidence that 'Made in Abyss' is actually mentioned in Wikipedia in the end of the article about 'Roadside picnic' as a story exploring similar topics. It tried to, but...
What a difference between these stories. The deeper the characters get into the Abyss, the shallower the story becomes, finally ending in typical Japanese 'guro' with a close-up on bodily injuries and deformations, violence and blood, which does its author no credit.
Brave children who venture into the unknown and succeed even more than grown-ups - this isn't new either. But hey, it's hard to sympathise with the characters who knew exactly what could happen in the pit and took no weapons with them. Or with the characters who stayed on the surface and made no attempt to stop or bring back or help the young children. I have to remind that the Abyss had been explored at least for several decades, all creatures within the anime frames were listed in textbooks, and adult cave riders were even met as deep as at the 4th level.
The horrors of 'Roadside picnic' made me sympathize with the characters and think about their reasons, actions and fate. The horrors of 'Abyss' made me want to vomit.
Reducing a mystery to explicit shock-content devaluates it completely. In this case, killing all pleasure that the setting could promise, all the wonderful views of the imaginary world and all the magical soundtrack. Did you have to create all this beauty just to forget it ever existed and show tortures for an hour and a half?

At some point, when fantastic landscapes are left behind and the author starts to enjoy depicting gore instead, I lost all hope in Abyss.

IMHO. 'Shugo Chara' ~ is longer better than shorter?

If I were asked what anime to recommend for a young boy, I would be in a puzzle. But ask me what a young girl may watch, and I have a ready list of anime series for all tastes - from anime adaptations of tales and children's books to new takes on classic fairy-tales and completely original slice-of-life stories.

Would 'Shugo Chara' be in that list? I doubt. At least I didn't expect to see a 'PG - children' rating for an anime which goes beyond kabe-don scenes and scenes of 'he caught her when she was falling', introducing scenes of ear-biting, ice-cream licking, which don't really look vague at all, to say nothing of cross-dressing and a girl with a brother-complex kissing her brother in the lips.

I mean, this 'inserting a key into a lock' moment... Should it really be so obvious?

Unfortunately, 'Shugo chara' lacks originality in everything. This idea of a girl with a special ability to purify spirits, this search for a special something that has unique powers and can grant wishes, this school club that has a secret mission, and, as if these qualities were connected, a glass orangery with a small tea table.

This is a warning to all anime directors on Earth: attempts to make short anime out of long ongoing manga maybe more or less successful, but any attempt to make an anime series longer than it could be if it followed its manga source - be damned.

I've seen it already in anime like 'Sugar Sugar Rune' or 'Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne'. Filling anime with fillers, forgive me this tautology, makes it hardly watchable. 51 episodes were probably tolerable, but 51 episodes followed by 51 episodes, which were, in their turn, followed by 25 episodes nobody really asked for, were a disaster, not only because there were so many, but because  there was hardly any story in them. Compare with Sailor Moon, which has its own share of fillers, but manages to present an exciting, developing (sic!) story including not one, but 5 arcs, while being 200 episodes long.

Why I didn't rate 'Shugo chara' as 1, or 'appalling', and gave it an 'average' 5, is because it was partially watchable, these watchable parts being the comic relief of moments that could otherwise overburden me with Spanish shame. Talking about saving the world is watered down by simplistic reasoning.

Discussing serious matters is interrupted by an angel adjusting her halo.

And 'dokidoki' moments are watered down by discussing the realistic aspects of 'hiza-makura'.

It never hurts to have just a little self-mockery.

In fact, 'Shugo chara' had much more potential than was used, thanks to the wonderful character design done by the original manga creators. Girls could find many various designs, not only girly frilly dresses or Japanese kimono, but also signature leg warmers, chokers and wristbands, with plaid pattern and 'Gothic' elements. As for men's fashion... I think I may have been missing slender guys in leather.

The only good thing 'Shugo chara' introduced, in contrast to borrowing from manga, was voice acting, since music was very, very secondhand. I was almost ashamed such nice seiyuus spent so much time voicing this nonsense. Here is the list: Aki Toyosaki, Saeko Chiba, Kanae Itou, Kana Asumi, Nana Mizuki, Yuuichi Nakamura, Akemi Kanda, Ayumi Fujimura, Junko Minagawa, Rie Kugimiya, Atsushi Abe, Mitsuki Saiga and many others. Akira Ishida was probably still bound by his contract of 'voicing a hundred of 'mystery-man-who's-watching-over-the-main-characters'. Not that I consider any of them my favourite seiyuus of all times, but they are good when together, creating that atmosphere of happiness, which was so abundant in 00s. Maybe they weren't absolutely special like older seiyuus I admire, but they have become kind of  'silver age' for me. The only exception was my beloved Miyuki Sawashiro. She stands out whenever she is involved. Even before I realised it was her, I was captivated by that voice.

In fact, that may be the reason why Yoru, the cute cat-resembling 'guarding character', became my favourite character out of all. I could literally give anything to stop this guy making such a sad face.

P. S.

I remember some maitres of anime describing how young animators should come out into the world and look at as many things as possible to be able to draw them naturally. Well, out of all animators who created 'Shugo chara' only one seems to know what violin looks like when played. And that is despite the fact that violin is not just an item for a single episode, but an important recurring theme.

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IMHO. 'Tokyo ravens' ~ makes me wonder if it were a wise decision to quit watching slice-of-life

I don't think there is anything in the world that would make a boy interested in shoujo genre, at least if he wasn't initially into those lovey-dovey stories. But making a shounen appealing for girls is easy, just add several comrades who are even stronger and more handsome than the main character.

It might seem that due to this, 'Tokyo ravens' is head and shoulders above other shounen series - you know, since apart from a typical harem of a shy tsundere plus a loud tsundere plus a positive girl also tsundere a bit and a tsundere loli, gathering around the main character, there is a nice harem comprised of a loyal friend, a mysterious teacher, a righteous warrior and several other types.
Is it enough to make a shounen good? Unfortunately, no. It's probably not the best idea to try outwit yourself when writing the story. Setting a premise of an adult world where everybody lies means creating a maze, but it's no good when the creator of the maze forgets, well, not the way out, but the very fact that such a way is necessary.
I swear there are other anime based on an unfinished work or simply not that allow for the ending to feel like a real ending, at least of certain chapter. Unfortunately, instead of the culmination I was hoping for - a culmination for only this section - things gain momentum up until the second half of the last episode, but if there's no time to untangle what has been messed, there's no peak as well. The crude attempt to end the chapter in a moment of romance fails in my eyes, because, I must confess, I don't find it particularly appealing when the guy only realises and confesses his feelings after his beloved get killed...  As did fail the attempt to show that there is nobody wrong or right in the real world, which is why former friends and colleagues turn into enemies and former foes can become allies... It's also too crude, you know. I bet by the end of the series nobody of those dudes fighting other dudes at full blast could say what they were fighting for. Or not fighting, as for some of them.
What a waste of nice music, especially that opening by I've Sound reminding of some of the most recognisable songs of Shimamiya Eiko, wonderful voice acting and, I'm surprised at myself for saying this, art, including the 3d parts.

And what a waste of this beautiful concept of modernXcombat onmyodo. Those spells intertwining mantras and ancient words sound absolutely magical.

'Otome Youkai Zakuro' ~ justified risk

an anime based on an ongoing manga, created by Hoshino Lily who was specialising in BL, and directed by Chiaki Kon, who is famous for the same thing. the previous works influence my opinion very much and I was not particularly happy to know that two main people responsible for 'Zakuro' have worked on shounen-ai - that meant for me that 'Zakuro' would be overloaded with fanservice for girls

 especially when the original graphics has FOR_GIRLS written all over its 'face'

however, I was mistaken. 'Zakuro' turned out to be pretty decent, tolerable shoujo, even though it is not a masterpiece

story and characters

are typical, if not cliche. at first sight, we have nothing more than
a type widely considered to be tsundere

a shy but deeply feeling girl

and girls with a positive attitude towards everything and inspiring positive feelings into everyone

coupled with a self-confident ikemen

a cool guy

and a young but serious guy

the characters meet for the first time, devote themselves to common cause, get to know each other better, their feelings grow, they reveal some secrets of their past, constantly save each other, at some point the main Heroine turns out to be a greater existence than she seemed, is captured, the company starts off to rescue her, the Heroine obtains her true power and delivers the final blow to the enemy herself
a very, very boring skeleton it must seem. if there are things that can save a poor framework, than all of them were used in 'Zakuro' to compensate for that

first, the right use of the characters types. those types either become a platitude, or are made into believable characters. the latter happened in 'Zakuro', fortunately. we get to see different kinds of behaviour, different kinds of relationships, different kinds of interactions and reactions, and no one seems odd. moreover, 'Zakuro' offers such likeable characters that I could not follow my usual pattern 'choose one character and forget about the rest'. I used to call this feeling a 'respect', but I am not sure if it does not incline towards 'sympathy', or something else. I am trying to say, even if I was not personally a fan of this or that type of character, I 'could not take my eyes off of them'. the 'shoujo' level did not go overboard either
and humour - that last straw that can save anything. monsters who only want to scare but not to hurt

silly actions of characters who were supposed to act cool

'childish granddaddy' type of characters

and adorable, cute, almost useless characters like Mamezou

this balance is not something easily achieved, in my mind
天晴れ！

music

is the second thing which saves 'Zakuro' from being a mediocre 'watch-and-forget' anime. the BGM composer is said to be Sugimoto Masaru. however, if you have a look at the OST booklet, you will see another name - Nanase Hikaru. while Nanase is responsible for many beautiful and bewitching songs, Sugimoto is an unknown figure to me, but I am happy to get to know his works

OST is something I would call an OST masterpiece. everyone has his own principle on how to decide whether an OST is good or bad, but what I appreciate the most is when the composer(s) is/are able to create different kinds of music for different situations, and when the music presents some interest separately, not as a background. oh, and one more criterion - though I have a great respect towards experimental OSTs, I am not in favour of replacing analog instruments with a single synthesizer. 'Zakuro' OST uses classical instruments, and even violin is not violated as usual manages to create symphonic sound

OP theme was what I liked the least, though 'twas not bad. ED themes were much more interesting. I remembered 'Sakura Taisen', 'Ikoku' and some other anime where seiyuus sang theme songs
天晴れ！

voicing

seiyuus of 'Zakuro' are a group of the most popular, famous and demanded ones. just look at this list: Nakahara Mai, Sakurai Takahiro, Hanazawa Kana, Toyosaki Aki, Horie Yui, Hino Satoshi, Kaji Yuuki, Okamoto Nobuhiko, Kondou Takayuki, Komiya Kazue, Ishizumi Akihiko, Tamura Mutsumi, Iguchi Yuka, Tomatsu Haruka, Inoue Kikuko, Kotobuki Minako. I guess creating 'Zakuro' was pretty expensive due to such a list. however, they all coped with their roles so brilliantly that I was absolutely delighted. the main characters' seiyuus were predictably good, but Tomatsu-san  impressed me with an unexpected low voice. the 'old school' Oohara Sayaka and Inoue Kikuko were just as one would expect them to be. the only thing I could wish for is probably Nakahara putting more effort into training how to portray crying 

天晴れ！

graphics
probably some of the pictures were done in a lazy manner, but the extent of laziness was not critical. mostly I liked the bright vivid colours which, independently of whether you admit it or not, always liven up the atmosphere and cheer up the spectators
if only there were more pictures of the city itself... since Meiji, Taisho and Showa are my favourite periods in Japanese history (as well as 19-20 centuries in world history) I wanted to see more views creating the epoch, but I only saw the 'Ministry' itself, Kei's mansion and a few streets

unlike wider perspectives, facial expressions were done very well

which were sometimes contributing to the atmosphere of the moment so that my heart almost skipped a bit

天晴れ！

conclusion

there are anime series that have a strong basis which seems trustworthy from the very beginning. 'Zakuro' was the opposite. however, I have no regrets I risked. right after the start, due to likeable characters, overwhelming music and interesting plot I felt like I finally found the type of anime I was searching for - the one that made me feel like I felt in my early days, when my breath was easily taken away by what was happening on the screen. 13 episodes in one gulp!
天晴れ、天晴れ、天晴れな～！

'Seiken no Blacksmith' anime ~ I have been dreaming about...

'Sacred Blacksmith' is an anime with a lot of good surprises and a single bad one. let me start with the good side

plot and characters

surprise #1

I have dreamt of watching something more watchable than an average entertaining series, and 'Blacksmith' proved to be exceptionally tolerable in terms of ecchi. I would name it 'verbal' ecchi. after only 1 real ecchi moment - when Cecily's chest armour broke and Luke had the honour of seeing her breast, resulting in severe punch by Cecily - the whole 'ecchi' was expressed with constant chats about the boobs size - which is, at least, better than really showing them

surprise #2

I have dreamt of seeing an interesting story and believable characters - after seeing so many stories made out of thin air which left me no choice but to drop or to endure until the end, being completely bored. 'Blacksmith' turned out to be even more interesting and believable than I could expect. the usual scheme of mine while watching an anime is to find a character whom I like and to wait for his appearance. cases when I have several characters whom I like can also be found. the rare case is when I like all of them - and 'Blacksmith' just joined this squad. I have my favourites here, too, but I can honestly say no one pisses me off. by looking at the cover I expected to see the usual 'tsundere' heroine and 'tsundere' hero, cute loli and arrogant miss. what I got instead was a perfect set of main characters each of them interesting and much more human than I thought. the supporting ones were also convincing. one of the key points for me in anime is when characters manage to exceed the level of moving archetypical dolls with nothing but cliches inside. on the other hand, those archetypes are preserved and well-framed with circumstances, stories of the past, decisions of the present and hopes of the future

I cried when characters said something sincere and touching

and laughed when someone behaved unusually

and I was delighted to see every character having his own personality, beliefs and principles. and of course I was especially pleased to see Cecily say something like this, after hearing another person's opinion

and I was especially pleased to see Aria supporting Cecily and becoming her friend. for some reason this kind of friendship looks to me a bit... forsaken... in the modern animes... huh?

graphics

surprise #4

I have been dreaming of something truly saturated. pastel colours are good, but sometimes one would want to see a splash of paints, too, am I wrong? like I said, I am easily impressed with vivid colours, and easily fascinated with imaginary worlds... even with thick lines, I like when everything is like this

and like this

seiyuus
surprise #5
you're kidding? one more time??? really??? Fujimura and Okamoto together????
when I understood I am able once more to hear this combi I was in 7th heaven. the other seiyuus also did not disappoint me. no, this sounds kind of weak... they were all really good, especially the main quartet - Toyosaki-san and Toyoguchi-san, apart from the two I mentioned

conclusion
and also, I have always thought that a heroine jumping on a table and walking on it toward some 'evil' guy is cool. and I have dreamt of seeing it. this is not a reason why everyone else should watch 'Blacksmith', 'tis just one more pleasant suprise