A very common and wide spread genre among movies, book, comics, and (even) anime is sometimes overplayed post-apocalyptic stories. Although at times this genre is so overused that it can make corny, pitiful, and even down right bad productions, Chrome Shelled Regios proves it's not one of the latter. The story is set on a future earth, infested with polluted air, and beasts called contaminoids, with the only shelter from this harsh world being the Regios (massive walking cities). In this horrible future a young, and mysterious man named Layfon arrives in the Academic City of Zuellni to start life anew only to be dragged back into the military and world of martial arts. Mixed in all this, fighters use DITEs, transformable objects that turn into various weapons, and Kei, which is like chakra or Midi-chlorians in this world.You have to watch the anime to see the various and unique ways these are used in fighting in comparison to other anime.

It's quite good, and though some characters are very stereotypical of anime (including a "moe" style character) certain including Layfon stick out with distinctive personalities. My biggest complaint of all, near the end, everything seems rushed in an effort to end the series, leaving many question unanswered. The show is definitely worth a watch and is available on Netflix and Hulu.

Like most people, I have a list of thing that I absolutely hate. Things like Miley Cyrus, Jail Break, and black licorice fill my list of hatred, ,somwhere in the top ten near Hitler, is Excel Saga. This anime documents the misadventures of Excel Excel (yes her first and last name are the same) as she and her sidekick Hyatt do missions for the secret organization of Across. While Excel and Hyatt serve Across, many side stories continue and occasionally coming back to the main story. 

My main problem with Excel's idiocy is that makes it hard to get any fragments of humor out of a lot of the jokes. Many times jokes are reused to the point of predictablilty and the characters' gags are similar, if not the same, from episode to episode. Also the series attempts to poke fun at other genres making one episode a detective show and another episode turning Excel Saga into a romance, but the attempts are feeble and on don't always come Across (pun intended). I will admit that I did laugh once or twice, but it wasn't enough to make up for the ridiculously bad jokes. 

The series is available on Netflix and Hulu, but it's not worth the time wasted watching it. 

Rideback is an amazing anime with a compelling storyline. The main story involves Rin Ogata, a dance prodigy who after suffering an injury decides to quit her craft, finding a new love in Ridebacks (Ridebacks are essentially motorcycles mixed with robots). The side story involves a government agency called the GGP trying to fight terrorism using Ridebacks. It's not until the main story and side story converge that this anime becomes a great anime.

The switch over from a sports anime to a anime attacking government control is seamless and quite amazing. I highly recommend this anime to anyone at all. It's available on Hulu in both subbed and dubbed forms.

If you want hilarious hijinks, a tropical setting, and a girl who has an entire world in her stomach, than Hare+Guu is an excellent choice. I love this series because no matter how many times I watch it, I always find it hilarious. Based on the manga by the same name, Hare is a boy that grows up in the jungle with his mother. When he goes out to do his chores one day, he is mysteriously swallowed by something and then brought back up. The something turns out to be a mysterious pale-skinned girl named Guu who causes nothing short of chaos. From switching between a cute girl to a scary-faced one, Guu makes Hare seemingly go mad. It isn't always fun in the jungle, but with a shapeshifting, physics-defying being like Guu, at least it's always interesting. You can check out this series on Netflix.