Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed

First time I heard this series, I was hesitant to watch it due to the fact "shinigami" or other death-related themes are proliferative in the anime market these days but boy...was I wrong. :D Story: 9/10 The story is well-made with "death letters" being the main dish. No beating around the bush since all storyline will end with each episode in the early parts. Although at first, it may be bit confusing, especially Fumika's story but will eventually be revealed later on. Art: 8/10 Not as appealing or dazzy such as Shakugan no Shana but J.C. Staff made good use of the artwork and styling. Some episodes however arenot consistent with the animation quality but only in fair details. Sound: 8/10 BGM done in the series was good and very much appeal. ALI Project made use of their stylistic approach for the OP theme making it haunting and adds a mystery around the series. The ED theme also was done fairly but not compared how the OP was done. Character: 9/10 Character styles was done nicely in good amounts such as Fumika, Chiaki and especially Fumika's father character of evil but pure intention. Character development leaves a fair amount to the series due to it being short thus focusing mainly on the main character (Fumika). Voice acting is good especially Fumika and Kanaka. Enjoyment: 9/10 Considering "death" as one of the factors in the series, the average otaku might be intimidate at first due to some "controversial" topic such as child abuse, suicide, and school bullying. Nevertheless, this series aims to expose the dark side of humans and how people came to notice that death may be the answer. Overall: 9/10 Although the sensitive topics the series is shedding light on might be a cause of disbelief and confusion, this anime did aim to teach us how fragile human feelings are. This is a highly recommended short anime series to watch if you are looking for psychological and rare slice-of-life-but-dark theme. Happy watching! ^__^

For a series that is only 12 episodes long (at the time this was written I have heard nothing of any plans to make a second season) Shigofumi is an Anime with amazing depth and a very well written story. It is one of the best anime's I have seen in a long time, certainly one of the best anime series I have seen with less than 20 episodes. Story - 9 As I said before the writing in Shigofumi is amazing in itself, even more amazing is the fact that it is presented gradually over the span of 12 episodes at a perfect pace.I have seen many short anime's try to rush the plot to make it fit but Shigofumi's story fits so well that it would be madness to have more than 12 episodes. The story itself is filled with multiple plot twists and it really pulls at the heart strings in many parts. One of the hardest points of any story is nailing a good ending in the resolution. Shigofumi does not get a perfect score since it does leave some of the more supernatural elements of the series and the late introduction of a few characters unexplained/undeveloped but in the end these elements only play a minor role in Shigofumi so they hardly take away from this Anime's memorable plot. Art - 8 Nothing really special to mention about the art in Shigofumi. Its well above average and I have not complaints about it but I have seen a few anime's that manage to top it (Clannad for example). I wouldnt call Shigofumi eye candy but it is still far above the art found in most anime. Character design in particular is excellent, each of the reoccurring characters have a unique appearance so the viewer should never get them confused. Sound - 8 As with the art, the sound in Shigofumi is far better than most but not the best by any means. Everything from the voice acting, to the music, and even the subtle sound effects are very nicely done though they simply do not stand out as much as the story or the... Character - 9 In the span of only 12 episodes, Shigofumi not only managed to do an incredible amount of character development (without relying too heavily on flashbacks) for the main characters, but it also even managed to provide some background info on some of the minor characters. Even more so almost all the characters are likable (except for the few who are not meant to be) and you will find yourself sympathizing with more than one of them at at least one or two points in the series. Each character has a specific personality which they follow extremely well, in fact I dont think any of them ever "broke character" in the series. To give you an idea of how well done the character's are in this series, at the end of episode 12, while the credits are rolling, some of the more prominent reoccurring characters are shown. As each was shown I found that I instantly remembered each of them, not for what they did, but for who they were. I can say the same for only a handful of other animes. Enjoyment - 8 If you want an action packed anime, Shigofumi is not what you are looking for. If you want an anime with lots of boobs, Shigofumi is not what you are looking for. If you want an anime that will make you laugh so hard that you need a friend on standbye to shock you back to life, Shigofumi is not what you are looking for. But if you want an anime with an absolutely amazing story, well developed characters, and all in the span of only 12 episodes, Shigofumi is certainly what you are looking for. Even if you are just looking for a good anime to watch, you could do alot worse than Shigofumi. Overall - 8 Truth be told, I debated giving this anime a 9 (the same score I gave Clannad, Death Note, and both seasons of Code Geass) but I finally decided to settle for an 8 for the reason that Shigofumi does do a few things wrong IMO. First of all it never goes into much depth about the supernatural elements of the story, we are just given the bare basics of it which is really all we needed to know for the main plot, still it does leave a bit of curiosity on the part of the viewer. The other thing that Shigofumi does wrong is that it does introduce about 1 to 3 new characters in the last few episodes that are presented in a way that implies that they are important or that we should know who they are but then we are never told who they are or their character is never developed at all. The main example here is the woman/women who Chiaki talks to in episode 11. It is implied that she and Chiaki have some sort of friction between them and that she is related to the supernatural element (which as I said is underdeveloped) but other than that, nothing else is revealed about her. Despite these tiny mistakes, Shigofumi really is still an absolutely amazing story and I highly recommend it to nearly all anime fans.

Okay, first review on the site, I'm not really one for long essays, and I've only just recently got into anime so apologies if it's not very technical but felt I wanted to pass my view on. When I first read the summary of the anime I was very excited, the plot semt really intresting and just the type of anime that I was looking for. It was also a short series therefore I completed it within 24 hours (barely) the opening couple of Shigofumi were really good, very nice. Kept me intrested until 3am in the morning and that is a task all on itsown. But when I came back to it the next day (very excited may I add) I was sadly dissapointed.... I felt the episodes were hit and miss, some were actually quite powerful and moving, and as people have said already dealing with very touchy subjects, it was like a rollercoaster ride, on minute I would be hitting the 'next episode' quicker than a kangaroo on steroids, and then for the next couple of episodes it took me great strength to not just turn it off and drop it. I never felt very close to characters, I didn't feel sympathy, I dont feel they were developed well enough, the main characters I thought were pretty bland and unintresting in my personal opinion. Although the plot had potential, and I did get what was going on eventually, I just felt it could have been handled better (maybe with it being such a short series they just didn't have time to fully develop the characters well enough for my taste) I shall end with some positives for the show because despite it seeming like a loathe this anime, it probably wasn't as bad as what I am making it out to be. First of all I though both opening and ending songs were really nice and atmospheric and went well with the show. I especially like the ending which I have even downloaded. The picture and art in the show is very nice with fluid motion throughout. If anything the sound and art really brought the series up in my eyes, and I have said before some episodes were really gripping and very good, and at points I was actually gripped and thought that it was going to go somewhere. But overall I just think the story didn't really contain any 'wow' factor for me, I did not really care much for any of the characters (especially the annoying and tbh quite useless sidekick staff) and while some episodes were quite thrilling and gripping and I do appreciate and respect that they were touching on real life problems and tragedy's (abuse, teen suicide, bullying etc etc) I still found some of the episodes rather boring and hard to get through. But I loved the art and soundtrack, and I must say the ending was quite touching.