This is another in the “Girls Who Save the World” genre, but, potentially, taken to the zenith of the idea. Also, sharing a lot with shows like “Upotte” and “Strike Witches”, “Kantai Collection” (also known as “Combined Fleet Girls Collection” and the nickname “Kancolle”) really goes all out with things.

In this Alternative Universe, although there is a World War going on, it is not fought with the other peoples of earth, but an alien group, bent on World Domination. “We will control all the Fun Size Snickers bars, so there!” Hahahahahahahahaha…………ahem! We are fighting on the high seas with girls who are battleships. By the style of ship and airplane, as well as off-duty garb, I would put this somewhere between 1938 and 1941 (if we were using a real calendar). Our heroine Fubuki (brown hair, second from right. It was hard to find a group shot of most of them that could be easily comprehended as to what was going on that wasn’t also smut smack) has been asked to join the task fleet. She is a destroyer, but we have all grades of ships: torpedo boats, aircraft carriers, communication ships, battle cruisers. (more…)

I guess I should get around to this show; after all, it is #4 on my fan service list. “Gurren Lagann”, known in Japan as “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” (“Pierce the Heavens, Gurren Lagann”) is a giant fighting robot show, but it is done differently than most GFRs, so I personally was able to tolerate a bit better, despite some pacing problems. But let’s get down to brass tacks, eh?

We are on Earth. Well, I assume it’s Earth. Does it matter? But we aren’t ON Earth; rather, underneath it. Simon (but pronounce it as ‘Simone’, he’s front and center) is a digger and may be the best one that they have in our underground enclave. He dreams of a better life, but he ain’t gonna get it. Stick to your drill, boy. He is befriended by Kamina (Mr Flashy up there in the Oakley or Maui Jim or Ray-Ban shades), who needs people to recruit into his dream of visiting the surface world. Oh, you should hear the guffaws around that one! One day, Simon finds a drill-shaped key. Well, it’s cute, so he hangs onto it. (You can just see it under his crossed arms). (more…)

Yeah, this is another “Girls Who Save the World” anime, but the operative word here is ‘save’. I’ll explain “Isuca” as we go along.

We start off with Shinichirō Asano. To the entire world, he appears to be your typical anime high school male: just a tad on the clueless side. He follows some woman down a darkened street or alleyway or another caliber of pedestrian pathway. She then turns into a gigantic soul-sucking centipede or some other ilk of icky bug (please, keep your comments to yourself about women until the end, OK?) He is saved by a bow-wielding archer that cuts down said bug woman in nothing flat. This woman is Sakuya Shimazu, a well-liked classmate. We also learn that she is destined to be the 37th head of the Shimazu family, who, for generations, have been sealing away youmas and other nasties that crawl in the night (but no politicians. Drat, but you can’t have it all).

It is decided (not by either of them) that he is to move in with her and basically run the household. You see, Sakuya does not play well with others, can’t figure out which end of a frying pan to use and needs all the help she can get. Shinichiro needs a job and there you have it. The series contends itself with several storylines: Sakuya’s struggle to be the next head of the family while learning her skills, how helpful Shinichiro can/will/is going to be to her and himself and how they both/all deal with the very mysterious Isuca, a force to be reckoned with. (more…)

I actually had a chance to view this about six months earlier, but the capsule description seemed a bit uncertain and I’m not a fan of music shows. I find they are in the area of sports shows, where we end up focusing too much on the performance and the show loses something about the people. But then I heard that this was a really romantic series, the best in the past few years. On Free Comic Book Day, one of the offerings was a manga sampler, of which the first chapter of this tale was shown. Well, with all these promotions, I had to see it.

The show is “Your Lie in April”, known in Japan as “Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso” (“April is Your Lie”) and tells the story of piano prodigy Kousei Arima (glasses up there). He dominated the world of piano competitions and became famous among child musicians. His mother, who was also his instructor, was a very tough taskmaster. She died and he had a mental breakdown while performing at a piano recital at the age of eleven. As a result, he was/is no longer able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing is perfectly fine, and he completely disappeared from the scene. (more…)

With the end of the first season of “Tokyo Ghoul”, there was still a huge amount of work to do and things were not properly resolved. The second season, which appears to be called “Tokyo Ghoul Square Root of A (“Tokyo Ghoul √A”), picks up where the first season left off and therein lies the troubles.

The first season was trying to help us understand what Kaneki was going through (that’s Mr. Moody up there), a person who was a college student, and now is a ghoul. Couldn’t you have chosen a better major? He suffered a huge amount of tortuous abuse at the hands of Jason last season and dispatches him at the start of this season, but decides to join Aogiri Tree, a fierce ghoul group who clash with the CCG (Commission of Counter Ghoul) over a degree or supremacy and of whom the aforementioned Jason was part of. The problem with the show, overall, is that we turn into the Dragon Ball Z Syndrome: endless fighting amid endless fighting when we are not endlessly fighting. I mean, it’s like the Churchill quote: “…we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” And they proceed to do just that. (more…)

This was a show that started off with good promise, but got bogged down in details, so that it lost a huge amount of steam in the process. “Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend” (“Saenai Hiroin no Sodatekata” “How to Train the Ordinary Girl to be a Heroine”), tells the story of Tomoya Aki. He is a textbook nerd otaku, as he also has a blog where he reviews EVERYTHING: mangas, animes, video games. I think he even rates the figurines that one can get as well. His life is wholly, solely devoted to this, and he practically has no time for anything else…except his part-time job to fund all of this madness.

But he has dreams and hopes and ideas and what he wants to do is make a visual novel computer game, but not any VN game; it has to be the Greatest Game Ever for Eternity! This is fueled by a vision of a beautiful girl he saw at the top of a hill, cherry blossoms fluttering about her. Well, he is an idea man, but is skint on being able to produce what he wants. To this end, he enlists the help of several girl supports, for script and art design and music and whatnot. Two of them are in his class, so he tries to inveigle school beauties Eriri Spencer Sawamura (left) for designing the artwork and visual approach, and Utaha Kasumigoaka (right) for writing the game scenario. (more…)

Another food/dining/eating show, this is also a fabulous example of a genuine ‘nothing’ show, as nothing really, really happens and it takes 12 episodes for this to spool out. Although called “Koufuku Graffiti”, it is also known as “Gourmet Girl Graffiti” or “Happy Cooking Graffiti”. It started out life as a 4-toma, as the pacing of the episodes and the presentation of the events show it.

OK, on the menu is Ryō Machiko (center), a second-year middle school girl who has been living by herself since her grandmother died. Despite having exceptional skill in cooking, Ryō has felt her cooking hasn’t tasted all that marvelous. Then she meets her second cousin, Kirin Morino, (left) who comes to stay with her on the weekends to attend cram school in Tokyo and shows her the key to great-tasting food: eating together with friends and family. Sorry, did I give something away? Oh and on the right is Shiina, a schoolmate and IN the same class as Ryo. (more…)

Are there genuinely that many food shows out there? Or am I just coming upon them all at once? This offering, “BONJOUR♪Sweet Love Patisserie”, (Bonjour Koiaji Pâtisserie; yes, that musical note is required) tells the story of Sayuri Haruno (can you find the cupcake with the cake?) Now, Fleurir Academy is a prestigious culinary institution (and aren’t they all? I mean, do you really want to go to Duane’s School of Dinner Preparation and Stuff?) and all the people here are destined, fated, kismeted (is that a word? It is now) to go on to bigger and better things. It’s like “Toriko”, but without that nonsense food.

Our heroine is here on a scholarship, which is unheard of. NO ONE gets a free ride here, but here she is (and on that take, it reminded me of “Kitchen Princess”). Now, to make matters worse, her actual teachers are these four-star hunks, oozing with charm and sophistication and plate appeal that it’s a wonder any of the girls can make their confectionaries. They are (clockwise from lower left) Ryo Kouduki, Gilbert Hanahusa, Yoshinosuke Suzumi and Mitsuki Aoi) and are the veritable kings of the campus. (more…)

This is a show that I refer to as “We’re getting the band back together”, as it involves a sojourn of truth and having to find the necessary components to make it all work. Kind of like “Akatsuki no Yona”, but everyone knows everyone directly and not by inference. Such is “The Seven Deadly Sins” (“Nanatsu no Taizai”).

Ten years earlier, a group of knights known as the Seven Deadly Sins were disbanded after they supposedly plotted to overthrow the Liones Kingdom. Their defeat came at the hands of the Holy Knights, but rumors continued to persist that they were still alive. Now, the Holy Knights staged a coup d’état and captured the king, becoming the new, tyrannical rulers of the kingdom. Let me get this straight: you saved us from one type of tyrant to install yourself as another kind of tyrant. Nifty. The third princess, Elizabeth Lyonesse, (cutie pie to the far left) starts out on a journey to find the Seven Deadly Sins and enlist their help in taking back the kingdom. (more…)

With that wretched cliff-hanger close to season one, you could bet your bottom dollar that there was going to be a season two and wrap up this tale of interplanetary war. “Aldnoah.Zero 2” tells of the continuing adventures of (left to right) Slaine Troyard, Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia and Inaho Kaizuka.

As Season One concluded, Slaine had shot, at point-blank range, both Asseylum and Inaho, but spared the life of Count Saazbaum. Slaine is now a Vers pilot, working for Saazbaum, and is busily destroying all he can. It has been 19 months since the close of season one and things are pretty much where they were before that. However, the show now dissolves into one of political machinations. Slaine has some agenda at work, but he seems to be at crossed ends with it. His plans are befouled by three problems:

1) Inaho is still alive. Despite a shot to the head, he survived and is more of a foe than ever.
2) Asseylum is in a coma and there is no telling when, if ever, she may emerge.
3) He is trying to set up a silent coup, where he has all the power he needs to do what he needs to do.

The show spins forth this tale of destruction and redemption, but things get a little too bulletproof for comfort. There is a major subterfuge going on, but I will let that come to you. It is especially shocking, if you are aware of the incidents of the close of the first season. And there lies your problem. (more…)