For those of you who have been following this show, “High School DxD” has two big things going for it….the left one and the right one! I place this show in the crowd with other boson-heavy offerings like “Sekerei”, “High School of the Dead”, Ikki Tousen” and “Maken-Ki” (to name but a few) and the OVAs now push it to the maximum, straining the limits of everything as much as Rias’ blouse is strained by her….achievements.

The OVAs are nothing more than to offer window-fogging reasons to glom onto unfettered bosoms. The shows are being done for two reasons: (a) a story like this in the regular run of episodes would impair the show’s ability to promote the main plot line and (b) to highlight the coming of the third season of the show (which will probably be concluded by the time this review hits the street). (more…)

I have notice the sheer amount of OVAs out there, as of late. It used to be that an OVA came out when there was a tale or two to tell that would not or could not fit into the standard run of things (like “Darker Than Black” #26) or you wanted to do something really goofy with things (Attack on Titan’s “Monster Character Theater”) or you were using it as a bridge to a new season of a show (“To Love-Ru”). But I am noticing that almost every show is trotting something out, so I guess this will be as big a part of anime as fan service (and if the OVA IS fan service, well…………..)

Now, I have done a full review of “OniAi” (Onī-chan dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne! “As Long as There’s Love, It Doesn’t Matter If He Is My Brother, Right”), but I was a bit surprised to see this OVA come out, as the series concluded over two years ago. It is a five short-run series (about five or so minutes each) and done in this extreme Chibi style. And the plot? What have I told you about using the words ‘plot’ and ‘OVA’ in the same sentence? These are merely an exercise to get your inner ecchi on, but it’s not all that pervy, as we do it in this style, so things lack a sense of ‘realism’. (more…)

This is a kind of a magical girl show, but “Magimoji Rurumo” (or “Magi Moji Rurumo”) does not follow the same arc as others of this genre. It all starts at school (as does a huge amount of animes and mangas).

Kota Shibaki (that’s him on her right) is a high-school boy whose only interest is girls, but he is so openly perverted about it, the ladies avoid him. Well, he IS kinda icky. One day, he finds a book in the library about how to summon witches. (I don’t remember my library having books like this. Sure, maybe a science book talking about the just-launched Sputnik satellite, but we can’t ever be up to date on things.)

He tries it as a joke, but it turns out to be the real thing: an apprentice witch named Rurumo appears, to grant him a wish. Shibaki helps Rurumo and she, in return, refuses to take his soul. Well, that’s the nature of contracts with witches. Time passes and Shibaki wishes he could see Rurumo again. His wish is granted immediately as Rurumo falls from the sky and crash-lands in front of him. Well, a lot has happened. He finds out that as punishment for Rurumo not taking his soul, she’s been busted down to an apprentice demon. (more…)

This is a show with a rather capacious title. It is referred to as “Locodol”, short for “Futsū no Joshikōsei ga Locodol Yattemita” or “Normal High School Girls Tried Being Locodols”. OK, a Locodol stands for “Local Idol”, which would be a person (a girl, in this case), who is a city-wide idol or regional-wide idol and not someone nationally known.

In the town of Nagarekawa, Nanako Usami, (second from right), a normal high school girl, is approached by her uncle to become that “Locodol”, partnering with upper-classmate normal high school girl Yukari Kohinata, (second from left) to form the idol unit, Nagarekawa Girls. As the girls use their talent to promote the city of Nagarekawa and their businesses, they are joined by normal high school girl Yui Mikoze, (far right; she wears a costume of Uogokoro-kun) and other normal high school girl Mirai Nazukari, (far left) who serves as Yui’s substitute. (more…)

I usually do not like post-apocalyptic shows, as it always presents the fall and demise of society; however “Sunday Without God” certainly goes in a different direction than you surmise. But there is a big problem with the logic and physics of this dying world we find ourselves in.

It is the future. Fifteen years earlier, God abandoned the world, but initially, didn’t tell anyone. The world made two discoveries: no one was dying and no one was being born. God later came down to say that Heaven was overcrowded (What? Really? And God couldn’t do anything about it?) and that there would be no new admittances and that we were on our own. But it’s like “Death Becomes Her”, in that you have to take care of your body. You can still die, but you just kind of hang around as your body rots away.

In this village of no given name, we find 12-year-old Ai Astin (dead center). Her mother was a gravekeeper, but since she was the last person who could really die and did so, Ai has taken over the position. She tends over the 134 graves in the village, ready for the day when she has to use them. A stranger comes into the town and proceeds to kill everyone, as he looks for this mysterious Hana. His name is Hampnie Hambart (to her right). Since she has no reason to stay in the village and he has places to go, they set out on a journey to try and find Hana and even to help Ai in her quest to save the world God has abandoned. (more…)

Ah, young love. Is there anything more beautiful than young love? Well, maybe an ice-cold bottle of a long-necked Teutonic brew on a painfully hot day, but that’s just me. And I haven’t had young love in a long time. I remember, in my youth, when I was young and a youth and….ahem! Back to the review of “Tamako Market”.

Tamako Kitashirakawa (second from left) is the eldest daughter of a family who runs a mochi shop in the Usagiyama Shopping District. One day, Tamako encounters a strange talking bird named Dera Mochimazzi (I assume you can find that one) who comes from a distant land, searching for a bride for his country’s prince. After becoming overweight from eating too much mochi (a bird who’s a pig?), Dera ends up becoming a freeloader in Tamako’s home. The series follows the everyday life of Tamako, her friends, family and neighbors, and this peculiar bird. (more…)

As I mentioned earlier, there has been a lot of romantic comedies coming out. This one “Wolf Girl and Black Prince” (“Ōkami Shōjo to Kuro Ōji”) is an interesting take on things in the realm of high school love.

The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. Well, you had best produce, so she claims that the handsome boy in a candid photo on her phone is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyōya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika’s weakness and treats her like his dog.

And, I mean, he is really mean. He doesn’t exploit her or really blackmails her, but he is as cold as they come and Erika feels trapped into this all. This is where some of my resentment crops up. A couple of opportunities arise that she could dump him and just write it off as ‘things didn’t work out.’ It also brings up the second question: what if her two friends, Marin Tachibana and Aki Tezuka, are also faking it and they really don’t have boyfriends? Just a thought. (more…)

Well, we have another entry into the magical school genre, but this one tries to be something more than, say, “Negima!” or “The Irregular”. But things get muddled. Welcome to the world of “Trinity Seven”.

Kasuga Arata (do you need help in finding the guy?) lived a normal life together with his childhood friend and cousin, Hijiri Kasuga, in a small town. However, everything changed on the day of the Black Sun, and a magus (mage) appeared before him. The Black Sun caused the Breakdown Phenomenon which destroyed the town where he lived. Because of this, his normal life was artificially reconstructed by a grimoire that his childhood friend had left. The appearance of the magus led him to a new life in the Royal Biblia Academy and meeting the members of the Trinity Seven. And who are these members? I am glad you asked! From left to right, we have: (more…)

“Shiro Bako” (“White Box”) tells the story of five girls from high school who want to make it in anime. Having personally worked in television, radio, movies and theater, I could really connect with the problems that occurred. It’s just that they have ALL the problems happening. You can get a lot of them, but not both complete pages of the menu. Still, it makes for good stories and the overall idea of seeing if you can overcome adversity to attain your dreams.

In Kaminoyama High School, animation club members and good friends (left to right), Misa Tōdō, Ema Yasuhara, Aoi Miyamori, Midori Imai and Shizuka Sakaki, put together a really stunning anime for the cultural festival. All state they want to get into the anime industry. We flash forward two and a half years later. Ema and Aoi both work for Musashino Animation. Ema is a key animator and Aoi is a production assistant. Misa works in 3D animation for computer graphics studio Super Media Creations. Midori is in college, learning to be a scriptwriter and Shizuka is a voice actress for Akaoni Production, but is still trying to land a position. She works as a waitress otherwise. (more…)

As a bother-in-arms companion piece to “Denkigai no Hon’ya-san”, we have “Gekkan Shōjo Nozaki-kun” (“Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun”), which tells the tale of a manga artist who is somewhat successful in his endeavor.

High school student Chiyo Sakura (red head up there) has a crush on schoolmate Umetaro Nozaki (the one off her left). When she confesses her love to him, he mistakes her for a fan and gives her an autograph. When she says that she always wants to be with him, he invites her to his house and has her help on some drawings. Chiyo discovers that Nozaki is actually the renowned manga artist Sakiko Yumeno. She then agrees to be his assistant in order to get closer to him. As they work on his manga Let’s Fall in Love, they encounter other schoolmates who assist them or serve as inspirations for characters in the stories. (more…)