What if “Romeo and Juliet” met “My Bride is a Mermaid”? You would end up with “Nisekoi”, a quite entertaining romantic comedy, although one can argue the use of the term “romantic”.

“Nisekoi” (“Fake Love” or “False Love”) tells the tale of high school student Raku Ichijo, the son of a leader of the yakuza faction Shuei-Gumi. A new kid is on the block, yakuza faction Beehive. There is that gang/turf war confrontation and this can only lead to bloodshed and unwarranted police interest. Into Raku’s life leaps Chitoge Kirisaki….literally. Blondie jumps a wall to find Ichijo there and knees him in the face. Ooooops! However, this little incident causes him to lose his locket (you can see the monstrosity hanging from his neck). He discovers she is a transfer student into the school and forces her to look for the locket. Their deep and abiding hatred foments at this time.

Upon returning home, Raku learns that the Shuei-Gumi and Beehive gangs have agreed to settle their feud….by pairing their leaders’ children. Raku learns that his girlfriend-to-be is none other than Chitoge. For the next three years, they must pretend to be in a relationship to maintain peace between the gangs. If they fail at any point, the truce is off and everyone dies! No pressure, right? (more…)

OK, this particular ‘romantic comedy’ is a real workout, redefining what is meant by ‘comedy’ and how much perversity you are willing to except.

The initial concept for “Recently, My Sister is Unusual” (“Saikin, Imōto no Yōsu ga Chotto Okashiin Da Ga.” “Lately, My Little Sister’s Been Acting A Bit Strange, But.”) is simple enough.

Yūuya Kanzaki (guy at the end) lives with his father, as Mom has been dead for many a year. Suddenly, Dad meets widow Kyoko and before you can say ‘yakisoba’, they get married. Kyoko brings to the family her daughter, Mitsuki (short black hair), who is potentially 16 (they both possibly are. They never say an age, but that’s a usual age for this stuff) and is upset at the recent turn of events. She is cold, stiff and stand-offish from Yuuya. Well, too much is happening too fast for her.

One day, on their way back from school, as they cross a pedestrian bridge, Mitsuki suddenly faints. When she awakes, she discovers she has been possessed by a ghost, the flirtatious Hiyori Kotobuki (can you find the wings? Good!). Here’s the trick: Hiyori was killed near this bridge (and isn’t that always nice to have in a romantic comedy) without professing her love for her ‘big brother’ Yuuya. She has to get to heaven, so she needs to construct these golden steps to get to the gate (no, those wings are as useless as a politician in winter). (more…)

Now, let’s drop the pretense. “I Wanna Be the Strongest in the World” is just a really thin excuse to show off female wrestlers and their body parts. The plot of the original story was practically transparent but the OVA drops everything.

There may be more than three shorts I ran across (about five minutes each), but you get to see all that you want to see.

Somewhere in the bowels of the Berserk Gym is a special room, a room filled with mud, so the ladies can learn all there is to know about mud wrestling. Is this an Olympic event or is Hooters hiring? So the ladies learn that mud is slippery and, in trying to acclimate themselves as to what to do, costume tops gets pulled down and the boobies come out, unfettered and uncensored. There is squealing and not caring that one is topless amid other topless ladies as we slop about and slide through and roll hither and thither. (more…)

The only thing tougher than being smart as a whip is being the descendant of someone who was the smartest whip in history. Try filling those shoes!

“Galilei Donna” tells the tale of the Ferrari sisters, Hazuki (20), Kazuki (17) and Hozuki (13), who are direct descendants of the great Galileo. It is now the year 2061 and the world is in an energy crisis. For some odd reason, the world has declared war on the Ferrari sisters, accusing them of terrorism against a corporation (and we all know how badly mistreated and misunderstood corporations are) and are actively hunting them down to find them guilty and bring them to trial for energy theft. It’s like “Alice in Wonderland”: ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards.’

However, the girls have a task, a very special and important task set before them: they are to find the seven sketches that Galileo made of the moon through his first telescope, as there are clues within these sketches to something referred to as the Galileo Tesoro. Well, the evil misunderstood corporation Adnimoon, who are trying to make certain that the world has enough energy, are doing what they can to corral these wild women. The girls are aided by Anna Hendrix, who, right from the get-go, you feel oddly about, and not just because of those jelly-roll curls she sports. (more…)

“Outbreak Company” has the strangest idea for an anime I have seen in some time: what if you could import your culture to another race?

Shin’ichi Kanōu (right on the midfield line) is a young otaku, almost a hikikimori, who is offered a job by Jinzaburō Matoba (not pictured; he’s a stiff, anyway) because of his vast knowledge of anime, manga and video games. Just after meeting his new employer, he is kidnapped, awakening in an alternate world with a fantasy setup. Shin’ichi then is informed that he was in fact selected by the Japanese government to help improve his country’s relations with this new world by establishing a company to spread the unique products of the Japanese culture to this raw, unexplored market.

Ah, but in a show like this, there are always dark motive and hidden agendas. A portal of some ilk has been discovered by the Japanese, which takes them to the Holy Eldant Empire. There, he is going to teach everyone about the glories of anime and manga and gal games and figurines and body pillows and whatever Akihabara has to offer….but at a stiff price. (more…)

“My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy (“Ore no Nōnai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Rabu Kome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru”), also known by the abbreviation “Noucome”, is a show with a rather original concept and situation. Our hero, Kanade Amakusa, (dead center guy) has a terrible condition. He’ll be riding on the Freeway of Love in his pink Cadillac when, out of nowhere, he will be given two choices. Now, neither of these choices is all that swell, but he has to choose it and do it, otherwise, he gets a blinding headache for not choosing and STILL has to choose it and do it.

Many of these ‘choices’ are weird and/or perverse. As a result of his actions, he has tainted his reputation with his classmates and other people around him. Needless to say, this makes getting a classroom buddy difficult, so getting a date is very difficult. One day, a choice he makes on his way home from school causes a mysterious, beautiful young girl to fall from the sky and land RIGHT ON HIM. Amakusa discovers that she, Cocolat, was sent from the God World to assist him in completing a series of missions given to him directly by God himself. After completing these missions, the “Absolute Choices” curse will be lifted from Amakusa; but should he fail in completing any of the missions, he will be stuck with the curse forever. (more…)

“Kin-iro Mosaic” (“Kin’iro Mozaiku”, or “Golden Mosaic”) also appears to be a caliber of nothing show, as we follow these five friends in a year of school.

The story actually begins five years earlier when Shinobu Omiya (second from left) spent some homestay time in England with Alice Cartalet (to her left). Much to the surprise of Shinobu and other folks in the school, when Alice is fifteen, she joins her at her school, accompanied by Alice’s friend, Karen Kujo (can you find the other blonde up there? Good).

We also meet Shinobu’s friends, Aya Komichi (long pony tails) and Yoko Inokuma (red head).

We follow them through a year of understandings and misunderstandings as they try to overcome language barriers and cultural differences. (more…)

This is certainly a stunning example of a ‘nothing’ show. OK, things do happen, but they are not of great or grand designs, as least not in our lives. But such is “Non Non Biyori”. The title is a bit confusing, as it means “Non non weather”, but then that means we are mixing language (‘non’ is French for either ‘no’ or ‘not’, so I read this as Not not weather? Should there be a hyphen? But I digress).

Greetings and welcome to the countryside village of Asahigaoka. Being where it is, like, not even on the map, many conveniences are several miles away and the school consists of only five students, each of whom come from different grades of elementary and middle school.

Hotaru Ichijo, a fifth year elementary student from Tokyo (the tall number on the far right), transfers into the Asahigaoka Branch School and adjusts to countryside life with her new friends. Taking role call: (more…)

Another demon show, “Strike the Blood” tells the tale of Akatsuki Kojou, who was a regular kind of student, until an incident turned him into a vampire, as well as the Fourth Progenator. He lives on an artificial island complex where all caliber of monsters, demons and other mystic types reside in peace and solitude. However, dark forces are afoot (don’t these guys have any place to call their home? They are always afoot, causing mayhem and driving up the insurance rates) as they seek to unleash horrors and terrors unimagined….like a Miley Cyrus tour.

As the Fourth, he is viewed with a great deal of suspicion from the other Three Bosses. Just his mere presence is enough to tip the balance of power and the other three feel it would be best if he was dead. Akatsuki? All he wants to do is go to high school and be left alone; he wants no part of this craziness. Well, he doesn’t get a say in the matter. Since it helps things if he was pushing up daisies, the Lion King Organization dispatches a Sword Shaman, but she is to observe the Fourth and then decide to dispatch him, should he prove a danger. That happens to be Yukina Himeragi, who is a mere 14 years of age, but as tough as they come. (more…)

“Beyond the Boundary” (“Kyōkai no Kanata”) certainly starts off strange enough. High school student Akihito Kanbara (blonde guy in middle) goes to save his fellow schoolmate, Mirai Kuriyama (red glasses) from committing suicide, as she is standing on the other side of the top-floor fence of the school building. Following his pleas not to hurl herself into the stratosphere, Mirai suddenly stabs Akihito with a sword formed out of her own blood. She is shocked to discover that Akihito is an immortal “half-youmu”: the offspring of a supernatural creature called a youmu and a human. Mirai herself is a Spirit World Warrior; a specialist who protects humans from being affected by youmu. She is also the last surviving member of her spirit hunting clan.

The series is how their lives become intertwined, as Akihito seeks to help Mirai gain the confidence to kill youmu…so that she may stop attempting to kill him as practice.

They are currently located in a photo shop that doubles as the exchange house and information center for the Warriors. You see, when you defeat a youmu, they leave behind what looks like a jeweled rock. That is worth money and (more…)