Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, 1998-1999 - Teen Blade Runner in sexy power suits. Well-done action conspiracy drama, with cheesy gratuity all around. For bright-eyed teen dreamers, closeted or no.

Trigun, 1998 - Lone gunman space western comedy. Tame plot, simple characters, some amusing fight scenes, but the gag wears thin, and doesn’t go anywhere interesting. For middle-school guys.

Hikaru no Go, 2001-2003 - Slow-moving sports anime disguised as a gradual introduction to the game of Go. Simple characters, some interesting Heian-era stuff every few episodes, and a peek into Japanese Go-tournament culture. For kids interested in the idea of the game; other Go players will probably just be frustrated.

Boogiepop Phantom, 2000 - Complex spooky horror/noir mystery done non-linear vignette-style. It’s fun trying to imagine following the action well enough to put the pieces together. The audience, like the cast, is made of high schoolers.

Yami no Matsuei (Descendants of Darkness), 2000-2001 - Big gay magic vampire detective swoon-core. Mystical angsty bishonen character drama, diluted with Saturday-morning creature battles. For girls with Victorian sensibilities, or sensitive boys.

Texhnolyze, 2003 - Numbing dystopian amputee rant, dipped in political machination. Interminable shots of people walking. A practical alternative for those considering cutting themselves to see what it’s like.

.hack//SIGN, 2002 - Deathly slow junior role-playing melodrama. For people new to the fascinating world of inter-personal relations, and the wonders of the Internet.

Shadow Skill, 1995 - Glam-renaissance Saturday morning magic fighting yawner. Some nice motion at times, and the tourniquetted space boobery is amusing, but the simple script, the generic peasants, and the mullets all play like a Heavy Metal Bible story. For medicated pre-teen boys.

Full Metal Alchemist, 2003 - Pseudo-mystic teen space western with an anti-mystic undercurrent. Simplistic pseudo-alchemical ideas merged with simplistic pseudo-scientific rationales. Generic characters and sub-standard animation (lots of shortcuts). Audience is pre-teen boys of modest intellect and few social skills.

Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, 2003 - Standard-issue high school foreigner humor sitcom. Explosions and swimsuit fan service for the guys, sappy unrequited romance for the girls, and slapstick for everybody. Interminable corn. Intended, like most shows set in high school, for those in junior high.

Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin), 1996-1998 - Heavy-handed Meiji-era wandering samurai assassin melodrama. Plenty of poetical declamation during beautiful, well-animated disembowelments, like a boar in a tea ceremony. For the angry high school boy.

The Big O, 1999-2000, 2003 - Super-contrived amateurish golden age Batman knock-off, with mecha. The film noir and classic sci-fi callouts in an appealing Dick Tracy style can’t hide the datedness of the stock anime characters and obvious plots. Even the theme song is a blatant Flash Gordon ripoff. For the uneducated film fan.

Ping-Pong Club (Ike! Ina-chuu Takkyuubu), 1995 - Doofy Japanese middle-school hijinks: nudity, B.O., things that look like homosexuality. For the Japanese middle-school boy only.

Gunbuster (Top wo Nerae!), 1988 - Teen fighting robot school 80’s space opera. High density zeitgeist (leotards, training montages) and the full array of anime tropes versus the lovecraftian space horror. For Japanese preteens in 1988.

Popotan, 2003 - Mildly magical girls in lots of unlikely gratuitous boob and panty scenarios. Random unfunny slapstick, glacial plot development. Bizarre in its nonchalant juxtaposition of naked preteens and unabashed breast worship with otherwise grade-school-level morals. Audience seems to be newly-pubescent boys of unambitious intellect.

Hare Tokidoki Buta (Tokyo Pig), 1997-1998 - Silly swino-centric hijinks, for young children.

Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens), 1981-1986 - Overbearing immature characters interacting for some reason. For overbearing immature people.

Dragon Ball Z, 1989-1996 - Endless juvenile Saturday morning fantasy fighting phenomenon. Repeatedly made into amateur Linkin Park music videos. For boys.

Ranma 1/2, 1987-1996 - Puerile gender-swapping comedy. For the sexually naive.

Yu-Gi-Oh!, 1998-2004 - Shameless ad for the childish card fighting game of the same name. For boys.

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