That was getting a little unwieldy to edit. And with how iffy this editor is.... well, better safe than sorry.

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Tonari no Youkai-san (or Yokai) Spirits of the Neighborhood (I guess).

One might think this is a slow-paced or healing Anime, but there's a hit of something a little dark too by the end of the first episode.

In the rural Japanese town of Fuchigamori, three friends are discussing how Takumi's cat Buchio has transformed into a Nekomata. After 20 years as the beloved family pet, he has been reborn as a twin-tailed cat, and he's a bit shy about it. The poor fellow has a long road ahead of him filling out registration paperwork and health insurance forms....

On the way home, the young girl in the trio, Mu-chan, runs into Jiro at the bus stop. Jiro is a humanoid crow spirit who watches over their valley. (His father Tazenbo is a Tengu). She tells him about the new arrival but he seems to know already.

Takumi asks Buchio if he can use any Yokai powers yet, but he has no idea. It's suggested that he go and talk to Jiro and his dad. Later, after visiting them, Jiro introduces him to Yuri Tachibana, a bakegitsune. When they first meet, she's a redheaded woman with a scowl the strikes fear into Buchio's heart. Jiro hasn't told him why he's brought him there, so she demonstrates by first manifesting fox ears, then transforming into a fox-woman. Nekomata are also natural transformers, and Jiro has brought him to her so she can tutor him. It's subtle at first. She has him cutting the stems of flowers with a pair of scissors and points out how subconsciously he's transformed his paw to the point he can use them, but that the real lesson is to consciously transform his hand into a human one. By the end of the day, he can do both hands.

Mu-chan also visits Jiro as he's making Inari sushi and they talk about some upcoming religious festivals. Watch carefully when Jiro makes an offering on the family shrine....

The lantern festival has Mu-chan's family waiting by a small fire on their doorstep to greet the spirit of their grandfather. At one point Mu-chan wishes the Oshoro she made to bring back her grandfather would have also brought back her dad. (The Oshoro is a little horse model she made out of vegetables and in the spirit world it turned into a horse.) Her grandfather's spirit lays a hand on her shoulder and tells her her father wouldn't like her to think of him as dead.

Later, her mother is taking a phone call from the police. Her husband has been missing and the detectives think he has been sucked into the void between the living and spiritual realms. She hasn't told Mu-chan, but after discussing it with Jiro and Tazenbo, the two of them discuss how Mu-chan can see it. And in the final scene, she is seeing it as a black fog collecting behind the trees at the side of the road.

If you like a contemporary view of Japanese mythology, this show should be right up your alley.

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Sentai Daishikkaku - Go Go Loser Ranger

So apparently this show was made for Hulu, and you can tell by the animation it has some budget behind it. The concept has been summarized out there. Basically when the bad guys appeared with their floating fortress over the city 13 years ago, the Dragon Rangers basically killed all their bosses the first day. The only fighters left were their mooks, the Dusters, who are effectively immortal because they get blasted to dust and eventually re-form themselves. None of them are leadership material (And I guess there are 26 of them, since they're lettered A-Z, although it's hinted some may have left already). Apparently that first day they worked out a treaty that they would stage fights every week, and lose every week. Every week the Dusters have to come up with a new Monster, and one of them transforms into this false boss (since, being made of dust, they can effectively transform into anything). They're running out of ideas however.

D, though, has gotten pretty sick of the whole business. And even though he's off shift that Sunday, he goes down anyway, first impersonating a spectator, then joining the battle and refusing to get blown away by the ultimate weapon, and when he attacks, the Red Keeper tells him to mind his place before cutting him harmlessly in half.

D re-forms on the roof of the complex in his human shape, where he again meets the girl he met before the battle. She and her partner are recruiters for a sort of Dragon Keeper's auxiliary, who maintain security to keep the battle from harming the spectators. When they first met, they tried to recruit him, but he turned them down. Up on the roof he decides that he will join up after all. He wants to be on the side of the power, of the winners, so that he can then bring them down.

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