Uta~Kata

Title: Uta~Kata

Genre: Magical Girl

Story:
A young schoolgirl looks into an enchanted mirror and meets a mysterious girl who grants her the use of magical powers for the summer.

Review:
This anime I was most surprised about. I saw the first 2 episodes with friends at JACON. When I first watched it I was all like okay nice warm fuzzy magical girl anime but no it really got kinda dark as the anime went on. The first 6 episodes or so are basically about Ichika getting used to using her special powers and hanging out with friends. The later part of the anime starts to go into Ichika using more of her feelings in her magic and it causes... well you'll just have to find out. All of the characters get a little bit of character development along the way and even Ichika's two tutors, who are twin guys, play an important part as well. The part that was really interesting was that there was a different outfit for each episode and each outfit was designed by someone different. Like 1 outfit was designed by the manga-ka for Love Hina and one outfit was designed by the manga-ka of Excel Saga and another by the manga-ka of FLCL. Just to name a few, those were the ones I remembered anyway. At the end of each episode they show you the original sketches by the artists. I was a little concerned that the ending seemed a little too quick. I was also curious about some of the characters preferences (like do they like the opposite sex or are they just being friendly?). All in all I enjoyed this anime more than I expected.

I think overall Uta~Kata deserves a 8.5/10.