“High School DxD – New” is the second season of this show. There were so many loose ends left at the end of the first season, the only real question was “When is season two coming out?” Now it has, and we continue on with both training and fighting.

Let us recap the cast, for those who may have forgotten:

Issea Hyodo is a demon, smack dab in the middle.
To his right is the president of the Occult Research Club, Rias Gremory
The three lovelies above are Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou and Asia Argento.
(There is another guy, Yuto Kiba, that’s him to the far right, with his marvelous new sword).

Now, with the battle between demons, fallen angels and angels still raging, the Church decides to send out its own minions, those two spandex-clad femme fatales, Irina Shido and Xenovia. (more…)

This is another entry into the “Women and Weaponry” genre. We started with “Upotte!” went to “Girls und Panzer” and now we have “Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3“, which we’ll call “C3-Bu”.

Yura Yamato (front and center) has just transferred to the prestigious Stella Women’s Academy, but is having a hard time fitting in, as her timid nature and robust fantasies of what could happen seem to take over her waking life, so she is all by herself. She is asked to join the airsoft club, but is scared off by the more forceful members of the club, which include (left to right, as always):

Honoka Mutsu, tactics and logistics
Yachiyo Hinata, sniper
Karila Hatsuse, close-quarters combat
Rento Kirishima, support and back-up
Sonora Kashima, club president and Yura’s roommate. (more…)

Another show with a monstrapatious title, this is “Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!”, also known as “WataMote” and for those of you not fluent in Japanese, we’ll call it “No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!”

It revolves around Tomoko Kuroki, as she is going to be a first-year in high school. Having conquered dating Sims games, she believes, to the very fiber of her being, that she will be fiercely popular. She painfully discovers this is far from the truth as she winds up being an unsociable loner and is forced to take a long hard look at herself for the first time in years.

I had a very difficult time with this show, as I was never really certain if it was a comedy (as she makes all these horrible mistakes and missteps in trying to break out of the jail she has put herself in) or a tragedy (as we kind of see a slide into insanity, as she is unable to cope or understand what is going wrong with her life). All of her attempts meet with failure and there is honestly no one she can turn to for guidance, help, a shoulder to cry on, or perhaps something from the local WacDonald’s to nosh upon. (more…)

This is not your father’s Gatchaman. I wasn’t even aware there was a caliber of precursor to this series, but that is not necessary to view at all for this one.

“Gatchaman Crowds” takes place kind of now (summer of 2015). For those who may not know, Gatchaman were originally a five-member superhero ninja team, assembled to combat the forces of an international terrorist organization of technologically advanced villains, known as Galactor, from trying to take control of the Earth’s natural resources. (And if this smells like “Captain Planet”, you can be forgiven).

However, almost nothing has been taken over from that series to this one. In our brave new world, the gatchaman are people with abilities who are assigned to protect this planet, initially from these odd creatures called MESS, who look like an assembly of squares and can change their shape within the squares. A new gatchaman is recruited, Hajime Ichinose (dead center), who lives in Tachikawa City, where these G-Men are based. (more…)

As far as fantasy shows goes, this is a little different, although the topic was explored by Chevy Chase and Benji many years ago; however “Dog and Scissors” is far more entertaining than that film (and ruined the careers of both of its stars. Did you ever see Benji work again?)

Kazuhito Harumi is a high school boy who is obsessed with reading books. The only thing better than a book, is two books. He is currently reading the massive “Deadly Sins” series by Shinobu Akiyama, and it has been over a year since the release of Book Six. When will Book Seven, “Lust”, come out? One day, while reading at a local cafe, a robber storms in, intent on thievery. One person, a woman, is so busy writing something that she is oblivious to what is going on. Harumi is shot and killed when he attempts to protect this random stranger.

The Fates, however, look kindly upon him and reincarnate him as a long-haired dachshund. He has retained his personality and ability to read, but when he speaks, it all comes out in barks and yips. At the pet store he is currently languishing in, Kirihime Natsuno comes in to purchase him. There is a telepathic connection between the two, as they can understand each other’s thoughts, although she can speak to him and have him understand. (more…)

OK, aside from a weakness for romantic comedies, I have another one for mermaids. This series is certainly going all out for it, as I cover both genres. Calloo Callay!

“Namiuchigiwa No Muromi-san” (Muromi-san on the Shore”) begins with our male hero, Takurō Mukōjima, who sits on a jetty all day and fishes. One day, he lands a ningyo (a Japanese mermaid, which helps, as they ARE in Japan), Muromi (to his immediate right) and has a chat with her and her strange friends. Now, this show also goes by the title “Muromi-San and the Legendary Beasts”, and Takuro (or Takkun, as Muromi calls him) gets an excellent chance to meet the lot of them. Whether he wanted to or not. Maybe you should find another place to fish.

The rest of the cast, this time going right to left, are: (more…)

Oh, my, my. Another romantic comedy; what a surprise. Well, I can’t help myself, although this one has an interesting premise to start out with.

“Kamisama Hajimemashita” (or Kamisama Kiss”) tells the tale of Nanami Momozono (our wide-eyed maiden up there). She has a hard life. Dad has run out on his gambling debts and on his family as well. Mocked by classmates and eventually evicted from her apartment, as she is destitute, she rescues a man who is terrified by dogs (even though the dog was nothing to be afraid of). Mikage, the rescued man, to show his thanks for her help and assist with her plight, lets her stay at his house, but there are provisos. Hidden provisos, as is always the case. Even a starving man will eat scorpions.

Mikage is actually an Earth Deity. Tired of the whole responsibility of being one, he transfers all his power to her, so now Nanami is the new Earth Deity. This sadly ticks off the familiar that resides at the house (which is actually a shrine), Tomoe. He is a rather sour and cranky type of fox familiar (more…)

This actually is a two-part series, in that what happens in the first half has almost no bearing on the second half.

Now, it doesn’t help that it started out as a dating sim game. “Photo Kano” (“Photo Girlfriend”) tells the story of Kazuya Maeda (Mr. Front and Center), who was given a digital camera from his father. All of a sudden, there is an uptick in his popularity and presence (neither of which he had before), as he learns to not only take good photos, but gets involved with a series of girls, each needing something else from him, both romantically and photographically.

From shows One to Six, we see Maeda run through his paces. There are two photo clubs on campus, but the first one, The Photography Club (the one he joins) is more interested in taking those flirty, ecchi-like snaps of the student’s body…..I mean, the student body. The second one, the Photo Club, is more serious about what they do, so the two clubs are always in conflict with approach and goals and results. (more…)

Another horror offering, this one approaches it with a different angle. Is there blood? Not as much as you may think, but there is still a large caliber of terror and destruction.

The proper title for this show is “Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge” or “The Severing Crime Edge”. Let’s talk about Kiri Haimura. If there is anything he loves most in the entire world, it’s cutting hair. He will cut anyone’s hair and he does a fabulous, fabulous job with it. He then sees this girl, Iwai Mushanokoji. She has hair down to the ground, because it is cursed. It cannot be cut by any means (chain saw, blow torch, laser beam). Yet, somehow, Kiri can do it with his simple scissors. But we learn these are no ordinary scissors.

These are “Killing Goods”. People in and of themselves are not killers, but when they come across the implement that will allow them to become killers, they are possessed by their tool of choice. That pair of scissors (and why is it a ‘pair of scissor’ when there is just the one? Is it odd to call it scissor?) belonged to an ancestor of his, Norma Grayland, who owned this pair of scissors which could cut flesh and bone and he purportedly killed over 200 lost souls in the 1860s. (more…)

Confession time! I bailed on this show after three episodes. Yes, horror is not a genre I go chasing after and the title of the show, “Corpse Party: Tortured Souls”, certainly should have been enough of a tip-off, but I decided to try it out anyway. It was a dismal failure for me. Then I learned it was four shows and an OVA so I went back in to tough it out.

Now, this entire crew is not in the full run of the show, but it offered a picture of the nine players in it for the anime, and that is the grouping in the middle. We are talking about the girl in the red dress lying down, the two atop her, then we move to the right another seven. Shorty and to the left, Red Book and to the right might be in the manga or the video game, but I didn’t research that far.

We are at Kisaragi Academy and it has been a very successful school festival. The seven students are, left to right: Ayumi Shinozaki, Sekio Shinohara, Satoshi Mochida, Satoshi’s younger sister, Yuki, Naomi Nakashima, Yoshiki Kishinuma, Mayu Suzumoto, Sakutaro Morishigem and class assistant homeroom teacher Ms. Yui Shishido. We also have to include that one in the red dress, Sachiko Shinozaki, as well (note that she doesn’t cast a reflection. Shhhhh!) (more…)