Karen Senki is 11 episodes long and can be seen in full on Crunchyroll. It is unclear if another season was ever planned.

CGI-anime is still relatively new. Most of the titles I've seen usually have characters that are too animated, (Meaning: they can't just sit still, they have to be waving their arms) too sugary, too emo/edgy, too cell shaded or otherwise they look like one of those rip-off dollar store films. 

On rare occasion, I'll see an anime done in MikuMikuDance, which fixes the animation issues, but then the show will last less than a YouTube clip.

And then there's Karen Senki.

The series was made in Taiwan and Japan, and comes from the creative minds of Ouji Hiroi and Kousuke Fujishima. They originally worked together on the Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) manga, which still retains a cult following.

The storyline for Karen Senki belongs in the 1990's. It harkens me back to all the shows U.S. Manga Cops. used to produce on VHS, and it's very clear the creator of Sakura Wars wrote this. There's a dark story here, but it's told with tons of high speed action, where the gore and the action makes sense and isn't over abundant.

It's a post-apocalyptic world. At some point, humans had invented robots with perfect A.I. Some of these machines proved to be useful min everything from war machines to just basic, friendly models. And then one day, it happened. Racist robots. Robots that treat humans like garbage. Before long, the robots figured out that they don't actually need humans to survive, and all hell broke loose.

On one such day, a young girl named Karen was out with her parents and her little sister, Touka. Touka was obsessed with anything to do with magical girls, and wanted so badly to be one... when suddenly, she was killed by a robot, and in the fatal blast, Karen lost her eye. So begins Karen's war against the people who robbed her of her family.

As far as the characters go, I really only find myself caring about Karen and her dead little sister Touka. Karen is trying to avenge the death of Touka, but Touka seems pretty good at handling her own, avenging herself. After the first time I saw Touka emerge, she became my favorite character. If you like psychotic-cute characters like Harley Quinn, you'll probably like Touka, who treats the murder of the machine empire as simply, playtime. The fact that she kills with a Magical Girl toy makes it all the more fun. Batteries may not be included, but they are hardly necessary when you can use your own spirit power to wipe out an army.

Karen, not to be outdone, when she's not producing her sister from her stomach, (Yes, it looks like she's giving birth to her dead sister in every fight) is firing her wizard gun and outwitting the enemy.

It's hard to really like the other characters, though I pity Eleanor. Her lover cheated on her, smacked her around the minute she confronted him, and then was killed in front of her, and now due to her mark, she ends up asexually reproducing herself nearly every time she dies. Junkshop is that annoying character in every action movie, who somehow cheats death way too many times. His brother Xiao-gang is also a movie cliche, as the moody emo boy you know better than to trust. The other supporting characters are just not memorable, and often eat up too much screen time. Seek is your average, overbearing "tyrannical government-racist" villain, who is trying to curb the human population.

Luckily, the dialogue scenes are few, as the writing leaves a little to be desired. The action scenes do a better job of storytelling, so after a while, the killing actually becomes artistic. 

The series abruptly stops at eleven episodes and ends on a cliffhanger. Karen gets her revenge, but we last see her falling backwards into an abyss, leaving her fate up to your imagination.

Karen Senki is action packed, thrilling, dark, and highly cerebral. This is the CGI Anime we have badly needed to kick-start the new medium, and the writing beckons for re-watching. At only 10 minutes per episode, it's a quick binge too.

​Hi-sCOOL! Seha Girls is available on Crunchyroll and on Hulu. While the series has ended at 13 episodes, new figures are being produced by GoodSmile, and the girls are featured in a few mobile video games.

Hi-sCool! Seha Girls is a show that had a ton of promise early on, but needed hefty work with writing towards the end. Still, it's proven to be the best thing for parents to introduce their kids to SEGA with, and has a cult following.

The premise was pretty cool, three girls go to SEGA High School, to learn about SEGA and their video games, and there was plenty of video game humor directed at those of us who grew up with the iconic SEGA theme. The commercial break eye-catches are worth pausing, as they feature awesome video game trivia.

The first three episodes were great with jokes,but as the episodes went along, the acting from the girls became over-acting, where they get too hyper, and their motions become exaggerated. They started having self-esteem issues where the scene didn't call for it, and it started being a little aggravating. Eventually, the show had fewer SEGA jokes, and more scenes of Saturn and Dreamcast freaking out over everything, and Mega Drive trying to over analyze each and every game. 

The running gag of Saturn always being held back, despite being the more powerful of the three was a cute joke about the Sega Saturn console being wrongfully forgotten, but the joke got old after a few episodes, as did the cliche of Mega Drive being an emotionless wallflower, simply because she is older and smarter than the other two, and wears glasses.

One running gag that fits however is Dreamcast's use of the internet. Anytime she needs to look for something online, her brain makes dial-up sounds. It's a very cute gag, for a character that is the most baby-like of the trio. Dreamcast's adorable nature has actually helped to revive interest in the console, and the gag was actually a great way to teach younger audiences about the internet.

The designs of the girls were all done by the artist KEI, and you can really tell, because all three girls look like Miku Hatsune. Mega Drive even has a similar shirt to Miku, while Saturn has very Miku-like sleeves and pigtails, but with KAiTO's jacket opening. Dreamcast is the most original of the three, with a Dreamcast controller as her headpiece. The show was made with the freeware MikuMikuDance, so it's a cute tie-in, but it's very obvious KEI was probably working on another Project DiVA round of costumes while drawing the girls up. Even his other sketches for other consoles are reminiscent of Miku. Since Project DiVA is also made by SEGA, this will be forgiven.

Speaking of, I'm a little surprised that it took an entire team of animators to make the series, when the average 13 year old MMD user can whip out the same sort of show alone. With each episode being under 12 minutes long, it's not hard to imagine one or two Momi Cup winners making the show, and yet this had a team of more than 20 people. Too many cooks spoil the pot as they say. This could be a reason why the show lacks focus.

The opening and ending credits tease NiGHTS and Chao involvement, but they remained absent from the show, save but for background toys. There was little to do with other teased games, like Altered Beast, and even Sonic was barely around except for cameos and one strange episode where the girls rode on him. SEGA royally missed out on the tie-ins here. Perhaps this was a problem with licensing, but it's an absolute shame that the most popular characters were overlooked. 

Predictably, the three girls are Moe representations of the Sega consoles, and other girls they see in a tournament are more of the same. While we never get to see much of them, there is a KEI drawn girl for Game Gear, Pico and a few other forgotten SEGA consoles. And yes, each girl looks more and more like Miku.

The series ends where we discover the school is just a figment of the collective imagination of the SEGA developers. When the three girls graduate, they are sent through time, and each one becomes a home console for a random family. It's a cute nod to the girls' origins, and provides a simple enough explanation for all the weirdness, but ultimately is a tear-jerker ending.

Overall, it's a cute series. It's colorful, educational but isn't very strong. But then too, it doesn't overstay it's welcome. At just 13, 12 minute episodes, it's just right for a TV-G crowd.