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DOGS: Bullets & Carnage is an example of how NOT to make a thrilling gangsta story.

DOGS is a 4 episode OVA from 2009 that follows 4 individuals that have an inseparable connection to a mysterious underground city. See, I'd elaborate more but there's a severe lack of worldbuilding and depth for that to be the case.

Each episode focuses on a different character but the runtime of each episode is only 15 minutes. 15 MINUTES. David Production (terrible studio name, might I add) actually thought that 1/4 of an hour was enough time to have good characterisation and plot progression.

Speaking of characterisation, the characters are mind-numbingly ... dull. I don't care about them because they don't capture my intrigue, and they don't capture my intrigue because there's no depth or mystery given to them. There is one semi-interesting character, Naoto, and her episode makes an attempt to give her some depth, but the keyword is "attempt." It's unsurprisingly unsuccessful and her story is never fully expanded upon due to the short runtime of her episode.

The soundtrack is flavourless. The art is insipid. The animation is mediocre, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the action scenes. You know, the aspect that you should be hyped for. Not that the scenes themselves are good to begin with. For instance, there's one scene in episode 2 where the opposition of our MC, Badou, miss him while he's standing still. How do you miss your shots when the target is STANDING STILL!? HOW!? Another instance is that there's a time delay on the bullet shots. Wow. As if this anime couldn't be even more incompetent.

Arguably the most disappointing aspect of DOGS is the immense lack of gore, despite the anime literally being subtitled "Bullets & Carnage" and being tagged as 'Gore' on MAL. Now, I'm not saying the amount of bloodshed should be on the same level as Elfen Lied. But if you're gonna have "Bullets & Carnage" as your subtitle, yet have no more gore than a slightly darker than average shounen, just give up.

DOGS: Bullets & Garbage is unfathomably unremarkable and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Is it possible for a slice of life anime that revolves around cute girls doing cute things to also be an ecchi? In a word, yes.

Bakuon!! is a cute slice of life anime in a similar vein to K-ON! but it revolves around motorcycles. It follows a prominent cast of female characters, each with their own unique personalities who... I think you get the picture.

Bakuon!! is the closest you'll get to an ecchi CGDCT title. Now, there IS such thing as an ecchi slice of life (see Tawawa on Monday), but for an ecchi CGDCT title SPECIFICALLY? Aside from this title, not really. That, other ... than its motorcycle gimmick, is the only distinction that separates this title from other similar works. But hey, you gotta distinguish yourself from other titles in your field somehow. For an anime about cute girls doing cute things, it's VERY heavy on fanservice. Not too surprising once you find out the creator used to do hentai prior to this series.

Other reviews have said what I could say about Bakuon!! so I'll keep it brief.

It's obvious that the motorcycle aspect of Bakuon!! is treated with as much relevance as a script for a porn film and shifts more of its focus onto the girls being cute and sexy, what with all the close-up shots of their jiggling breasts, Rin's most defining physical characteristic (other than her big tits) being that she has the Suzuki logo branded on her ass and a scene where the girls wash their bikes in a swimsuit. You heard me, a fucking swimsuit.

Bakuon!! is a pretty weird show. Now, I enjoyed it more than I expected to despite me knowing absolutely nothing about motorcycles, but aside from that (and Rin's big tits), it doesn't really offer much, which is fine. Just don't expect anything more.

Cute girls really are the key ingredient to making an anime about anything work, huh?

How could a show with nudity and parodies be so colourless?

Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de/They Are My Noble Masters (or KimiAru for short) is a late 2000s anime based on the eroge of the same name. From that description alone, this seems like your average ecchi harem rom-com anime. That's because it is.

The premise is as follows: two siblings who are displaced by their abusive household relocate to the city and become household servants to the three daughters of the Kuonji family: Shinra, Miyu, and Yume. Now, there's clearly a hint to a more serious story underneath the ecchi/harem elements so we ... should see it play out, right? NOPE! The anime chooses to ignore this element until the final 2 episodes and expects us to give a fuck. Maybe I would if every episode that preceded the finale DIDN'T prioritize harem hijinks and unfunny comedy over decent characterization and story progression.

Every character is the same archetype you've seen before in similar works in its field. Ren is your run-of-the-mill harem MC who's afraid of sexual advances. Mihato is the onee-sama with a brother complex. Shinra is the seductive ara-ara type. Miyu is the tsundere loli. Yume is the happy-go-lucky girl with big tits. I don't think I need to elaborate any further.

For an ecchi, KimiAru is quite innocent. There ARE nipples shown, but it's a lot more restrained on the actual ecchi elements themselves, making the anime less titillating than the average title in its field. There's a scene with Yume where she forgot her panties on the way to school and the camera cuts to her ass, but it's censored with her face. If you're going to edit the buttocks of a girl in an ecchi, why bother having nudity in the first place?

There's another scene where the head butler lambasts Ren for his cowardly behaviour and says "Have you got no balls!?" which, you guessed it, is also censored. Talk about inconsistent and incompetent censorship.

The score is unremarkable. The OP & ED are nothing noteworthy. The art is nothing to write home about. It reminds me of those hentai OVAs from the late 2000s. Not surprising since this is an adaptation of an eroge, after all.

But there are positives to this title. If you look at what KimiAru is tagged under, you should see the following theme: Parody. That's the closest this anime gets to having an identity. There's one episode where the first half literally parodies Death Note! And not just that, but D.Gray-man, Sailor Moon and Shuffle! just to name a few more titles. Some of the parodied series have characters that are voiced by the same VAs in KimiAru, which makes the references even better! There's even a scene where they break the fourth wall and outright tell you to play the visual novel to understand the lore of a certain character! I gotta respect that in full honesty!

In short, KimiAru is not a good anime. But it's not a terrible one, either. It just has very little going for it once you strip away its parodies. It's a harmless watch, but if you want a slightly better ecchi harem rom-com surrounding butlers, watch Ladies versus Butlers! instead.

Wasted potential of what could've been an underrated title in the realm of horror manga.

Sayuri is a supernatural horror manga written and illustrated by the author of High Score Girl, Rensuke Oshikiri. The premise is simple: a boy named Norio and his family move into their first house that's later revealed to be plagued by darkness.

What Sayuri excels at is atmosphere. It opts for a creepy ambience, approaching its setting with a slow-moving pace and a degree of apprehension that undercuts every instance of supposed tranquillity. Its story lacks comedic moments and weirdness that's incongruent with its tone, persisting its feeling of dread that only ... escalates further as Norio and his family continue to be plagued by grief and misery.

At least, that's what it does for the first volume.

You see, once you get to the second volume, the creepy ambience that was present in the first dissipates entirely. Without getting into spoilers, the story shifts tone and becomes anticlimactic. For a story that initially started out as a slow burn horror that focused on evoking a sinister atmosphere, I find that incredibly jarring.

The characters are basic, which should be expected from a story that only lasts 15 chapters. The characters that did get development are Norio and two others, but to explain the last two would be diving into spoiler territory.

The art is nothing to write home about, but it's well-suited for the horror genre. Oshikiri makes a strong use of shadows to reveal only a slice of what's scary, leaving the rest to your imagination. A technique that I thought worked well to the story's advantage.

Sayuri isn't a bad manga, just one that wasn't properly utilized to its full potential. Regardless of my qualms, I still recommend it for the atmosphere alone.