OK, Season Two is upon us for “The Neighbor’s Club” (or, the new title “Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT), where we build on the good will and storytelling of the first season to expand up our little entourage and see them grow and mature into the adults of the future. Sorta.

Part of the problem with a second season is if you do not have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish, you are just retreading, or following the same path or sticking with that which worked, rather than expanding outwards. And this is exactly what happens. It is as if they got to a point they feel good with and left it at that. The only one who is trying to move forward (of sorts), is Rika, the mad scientist, who goes through a transformation to be something else, so she looks really different.

We still have the verbal fisticuffs between Yozora and Sena, as well as the battles between Kobato and Maria, but Kodaka is still just as clueless on things, even when aspects of his past are brought forth. The injection of conflict into this show seems kind of artificial. I am also amazed as to what people remember from their youth. I have foggy notions and nothing truly concrete, but these folks recall it like it was earlier in the day. (more…)

This is a rather silly harem comedy with a twist. Originally known as “Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!”, we also know it as “Nakaimo – My Little Sister is Among Them!”

Let’s talk about the guy in the middle, Mikadono Shougo. He is the only living heir to the Mikadono Group, some big we-own-it-all company. For him to take over the reins, he needs to graduate from school as well as finding a life partner. However, things become complicated as he learns that his father, Kumagorou, had an illegitimate daughter, who is also watching over him as well as attending the same school. This leads to Shougo trying to find his sister. He has scar on his forehead from an accident when he was kid and this caused him to lose bits of his memories and, of course, it is the critical ones.

Well, as soon as everyone at school find out whom he was, the ladies flocked to him, with these five as the leading candidates. Also his handler, Risa Seri, kind of gave him permission to sow his wild oats, but he is conflicted in that he may want to explore merger possibilities, but what if it IS his sister? Can you think of the scandal?

The series revolves about him trying to figure out who his sister really is and what is going on behind the scenes. (more…)

On the surface, “Senran Kagura” is like any other kind of fighting girl show. Akin to “Maken-Ki” or “Freezing” or even “My-HiME”, it follows the tale of girls with special abilities and the training they need to go through to learn how to use their powers best to defeat the forces of darkness and evil and cruelty and icky things.

Now, the big question is “Are they Shinobi or Kunoichi?” Shinobi is a term used for a covert agent or spy ninja who engages in unorthodox warfare. Kunoichi is a term for a female ninja. Well, to be honest, it really doesn’t matter, as whatever ninja skills they might be learning is completely inundated by unrelenting fan service.

Let us run down the cast of characters. From left to right we have:

Asuka, the leader and a second year, she barely passed the promotion exam and is carrying on the ninja tradition from her grandfather
Ikaruga, a third year, very serious about being a ninja as her brother was bypassed to give leadership of the clan to her
Katsuragi, a third year and a touch of a pervert.
Yagyuu (but that spelling changes on who’s doing the subbing). A first year, she is a prodigy and uses an umbrella as her main weapon. Very protective of Hibari.
Hibari, also a first year and new to the group, she is both child-like and cutely clumsy. (more…)

One of the hardest things is to find a good entrance anime, to get people interested in the genre, without scaring them off. I mean, you don’t open with “Elfin Lied” or “Baccano!” or “Gantz” and then be surprised when they run screaming into the sunset (or sunrise, depending on the time of day).

“Squid Girl” (or also known as “Invade! Squid Girl”) tells the story of Squid Girl (Whew! What a relief. If she had some other name…..) who is the forward force of an invasion. She is bound and determined to conquer humanity, who have polluted her waters and made life miserable for her and her kind. To this end, she comes ashore in some part of Tokyo, (I assume, no name is ever given, so I have to make a guess it is) and decides to take over the Lemon House, a yakisoba snack bar at the beach, to use as her base of operation. (more…)

OK, I’ll be honest: I had ZERO intention of reviewing “Rosario + Vampire Capu 2”, as I did not feel it warranted a review. I still feel it doesn’t, but I have not seen a show go so overboard from one season to the next as badly as this one. But when your daughter nips at your heels like a demented Chihuahua, demanding to see it with you for some ‘bonding time’, you get trapped.

All I can tell you for certain is something happened over class break. By the time the whole gang gets back to school, Yokai Academy has changed its name to “Upskirt U”. If the dresses were any shorter, they might as well be a long shirt. It got so bad, I starting counting the number of panty shots. Even “Colorful” (the TV series, not the movie) wasn’t this bad and it was strictly about panty shots.

Is there a plot? Much like Lindsay Lohan’s career, it has completely evaporated. The cast of characters (and for those who don’t remember, we’ll run them down for you) are from left to right: (more…)

This is another long-form anime. We are at 52 episodes and there is apparently no end on the horizon, but this is not a “Houston, we have a problem” kind of issue. This is a story that takes a long time to tell and needs practically every episode to do it. Much like preparing to go into space, you can’t slap it together and hope for the best.

The Space Brothers in question are Mutta (to the left) and Hibito Nanba (to the right; the dog is Apo). They have always been interested in space and its exploration, but feel that their circumstances at birth set their fates in motion for the life they now lead.

Mutta was born on the day that Japan lost in the World Cup preliminaries (for those keeping score, October 28, 1993). Hibito was born when Hideo Nomo became the first Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter in US Major League Baseball (September 17, 2006, for the record).

Despite being the older brother, Mutta has always trailed his younger brother, especially when he got into space first. Mutta became a car designer instead. We now flash ahead to 2025. At his career, while on the job, Mutta’s boss makes an injudicious comment about Hibito, so Mutta head-butts him (a la Zidane) and gets fired. Unable to live as he had, he has to move in with Mom and Dad, who needle him endlessly about his job status. (more…)

This is another of those series that has a monstropatious title, but gets reduced to something more manageable. Some know it as “Onii-chan dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne!” (which comes out to “As Long as There’s Love, It Doesn’t Matter If He is My Brother, Right!”), or “Oniai” for short. This is another brother-sister anime, but with more screwball situations. Our femme fatales are:

Ginbe Haruomi Sawatari
Akiko Himenokoji (the sister half of the brother-sister team)
Arashi Nikaido
Anastasia Nasuhara

The brother in question, Akito Himenokoji, isn’t shown and he really is used more as a foil for the misplaced desires of the ladies than anything else.

The story tells of how Akito and Akiko were separated for six years and have come back together, with both attending Saint Liliana High School. Suddenly the student council (which consists of all five of them) moves into this rather grand house and they all have to live together. It seems each and every lady has a fixation upon Akito and, adding to the mayhem, are Alisa Takanomiya, who was Akito’s adoptive family at to whom he is her fiancée (much to the shock and chagrin of everyone) plus Kaoruko Jinno, who is an editor at the publishing house where Akito has his book published. (more…)

“Joshiraku” (or “Rakuga Girls”) tells the story of these five rakuga performers. Oh, what is rakuga? It is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller sits on stage. Using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props (although none of the girls use props), and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head.

However, the art form has fallen of desperate times and the girls play to rather light houses. Although we do see them in action, doing their stage bits (mostly at the end of the story; kind of like hearing only the punch line), the bulk of the action takes place back stage, in the dressing room, as they have long discourses on…..nothing. And let’s not ask the question that if they are all back stage, who’s performing on stage?

They are Kukuru Anrakutei, Gankyō Kūrubiyūtei, Marii Buratei, Tetora Bōhatei and Kigurumi Harōkitei and we see their actions and interactions together. Kukuru is the newest member, so she is more of a protégé, learning how to do this performance properly. (more…)

What is it about romantic comedies which bring out the berserk fan service? Now, it’s ‘bad’ enough that “To Love-Ru” is pretty berserk as it is (as evidenced by the still from one of the episodes above), but someone felt that the show didn’t go far enough (and how much farther could it go? Further? Man, I always get those two mixed up), and they decided to put together the strangest set of OVAs ever. Now, it kind of serves an odd purpose, as we meet Lala’s younger twin sisters (oh, man, my fornix is getting quickly overheated at that potential scenario) Nana and Momo, who will bring even more mayhem to Rito in the next installment of the series “Motto To Love-Ru”.

Do you really need to know what the plot is? I mean, almost all the OVAs I have seen put together have a plot that isn’t much more that a wire frame from which you can show boobs. In fact, the first episode of the OVA is a discussion about boobs and somehow….No, I can’t tell you, as it is so deliciously ridiculous at to what happens. You really have to watch them all, as they bring out every leftover thing that they felt they couldn’t put into the show, as they hardly left anything out of the shows to begin with. (more…)

When the first season of “Medaka Box” came out, I really like the tales of this rather extraordinary girl believing that she could help all people, despite how craven or churlish or selfish they were to begin with. I got a bit concerned regarding the season-ending arc with Unzen (he’s the runty white-haired guy with the evil grin at the far right), but the promise of the second season seemed bright. Promises, I guess, are meant to be broken, and “Medaka Box: Abnormal” makes sure there aren’t any pieces to pick up.

At the Sandbox Academy, there is the mysterious Class 13, which is filled with Abnormals: people with very special abilities. With Unzen in hospital for a while, there is a vacancy in the class (man, what a tough school) and Abnormals who haven’t attended class since the Hiroshima Carp last won the World Series decide to show up and help push forth the Flask Plan. This is a plan to create the perfect human being (yeah, we all know where that ends up. Hasn’t succeeded before, won’t succeed now. PS, the Carp went 61-71 last season).

In order to put a stop to this, (uh, the Flask Plan, not the Carp) Medaka and Crew (the three in the lower left) seek out advice from Meguro Kurakami, Medaka’s…..older brother? Why hasn’t he made an appearance before this? (Blue hair, upper left). Aside from learning of the existence of an older brother (who is a major pervert and has a sister fixation), we also learn that he was an early administrator of the Flask Plan, but no longer believes in it, so left it all behind. (more…)