What I watched in APRIL 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

b Ghost Slayers Ayakashi: Finally managed to track down a cheap copy of Part 2.  This is a quirky series, consciously starring a middle-aged protagonist and a weird cast of characters.  The dub has some really shining moments (a great and unusual performance from Crispin Freeman is a delightful highlight), the plot is episodic with an overarching story that ends tragically in some OVAs (not tragic on the level of, say, Wolf's Rain, but still a bummer), and there is some really weird stuff in here.  It mixes history with fantasy and mythology, and I like it.

b Pandora Hearts: It started in giggles and ended in tears. Even if it didn't get to end like the graphic novels will, it still managed to get that part right.  Pandora Hearts is the story of a boy named Oz, who, on the day of his ceremony to become an adult, ends up attacked by mysterious cloaked figures who say his very existence is a sin and send him to the Abyss, where he meets a girl called Alice who makes a contract with him, so they can both escape.  When they get back to the real world, 10 years have passed there, and they band together with some shady characters from an organization named Pandora to track down Alice's memories and figure out who the cloaked people were and exactly what Oz's sin is supposed to be . . .  Towards the end, it veers off pretty sharply from the ongoing manga series, but it managed a somewhat decent ending, so kudos to it.