OK, I was drawn to this series by the title: “The ‘Hentai’ Prince and the Stony Cat”. Well, I jumped on “Panty and Stocking” and “Chu-Bra!” and I found those very entertaining shows, so why not this one?

This revolves around Yokodera Yota, a second-year high school student. He has a reputation on campus as being the biggest pervert around, but he has a problem: he cannot express his emotions well. One day, a good friend of him comes up to him and unloads all of his smut collection on him, as he has been cleaned of his impure thoughts. All he did was make an offering to the stone cat statue at the base of a tree on the high peak in town. What it does it takes what you no longer want and gives it to someone in greater need of it.

As he goes up there to make his offering of a body pillow, wishing to be more open with his emotions, a girl comes up to him, Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi, and makes her wish of being more of an adult and not show her emotions so easily. The cat grants their wish and the next day at school is a total disaster. He cannot tell a lie; she cannot feel anything. They work together to try and find who received their tokens and try to get it back so they can be who they once were, as who they are now is nerve-wracking. (more…)

Ritsuka (dark hair) and Sobei (light hair.. but this rave isn’t really about him)

Loveless is just one of those anime I could watch/read a thousand times and never get tired of it; I absolutely adore it. I have spent hours of my time (which I don’t have a lot of anymore since school started) watching and reading this particular anime/manga combo. Loveless has slowly but surely taken over my heart. I suppose one could say that is a normal reaction for me seeing as I have I have said same with multiple anime but I am insisting still, that Loveless is a special case. It has secured its spot in my list of addictions (which includes One Piece, Naruto, Ouran High School Host Club, and a bazillion others) because it has taken the word “neko” to an entirely different level, it speaks the importance of keeping memories, and its characters left me spellbound.

Now you may be wondering what I mean’t by ‘it has taken the word “neko” to an entirely different level’. In the anime/manga all of the younger characters are cat people. Now I suppose you’re wondering why only ‘younger characters’… well it’s because they haven’t been in a “serious” relationship yet. In other words, they haven’t done anything promiscuous. (Thank God, seeing how the main young characters are twelve!). Most people don’t necessarily think of stuff like that when they decide to create a new manga. Normally it’s based off of one of the more popular topics like Giant fighting robots or zombies. It’s quite unique that they would put so much detail into such a topic. (more…)

This was a movie that was shown at Anime Expo 2013, but I got shut out of the viewing for it. Part of the interest in the film was that Sentai Filmworks had a convention contest going on and this was one of the locations to get a “Words” sticker. Get the six stickers and you would win a prize (of a black t-shirt. Not too good in the blazing summer sun of Los Angeles).

As it turned out, I had an opportunity to catch “Garden of Words” in a different location. Not as good as the big screen, but I did get an idea as to what it is all about.

The first thing it is all about is less than an hour. That’s right; this film clocks in around 46 minutes, which really gives the feeling of incompleteness. And since it came from the same people who brought us “Children Who Chase Voices from Deep Below”, it also embraces the same problems as with that film, in that things are set up but are not really carried through to a conclusion. Perhaps they are making a statement that things are never really done, but life moves on, but this isn’t life. This is a film and we expect, nay, demand closure to some extent. (more…)

This is a very black or white series. You will either love it or hate it, but you will never be uncertain about it.

“Flowers of Evil” (or, as they call it, “Aku No Hana”) is doing things I rarely see in animation and I have never seen in anime. First, it is rotoscoped. For those who do not know what that is, you film live action, then animate it. “Through a Glass Darkly” was the last time you may have seen it (or not; it was a stinky film). What this means is that you have a more natural look, but the movements may come off as stiff or stilted, as you are not employing squash-and-stretch techniques of normal animation.

Second, because of the more natural look, standard anime tropes are gone. With the exception of one fantasy sequence, there is no turning to stone and crumbling away or sliding into chibi style or anger bars flashing at one’s forehead when things go wrong.

Third, the more natural look means the world is dirty and grimy and depressing, so there are chipped concrete blocks and cracked roads and torn posters and rusting signs and stained walls and weed growth. Certainly not crisp and clean, no caffeine, as you see in even the most action-adventure animes. (more…)

This is a classic fake-out show, in that you think you are going in one direction, and then get yanked into another, oblique, area.

“The Devil is a Part-Timer” tells the tale of Dark Lord Satan, ruler of Enta Isla. It is not enough that he rules with an iron fist and a steel will; he must have it all, so he basically shoves in all the chips and does a massive four-front war on the neighbouring lands for total and complete world domination! (Enter dramatic music here.)

Initially, he gains the upper hand, as no one was fully prepared for such an onslaught. However, the tides of war turn against him and not only are his armies driven back, his own land gets invaded by all four of the lands he hoped to subdue. Rather than suffer the ignominy of defeat and the humiliation of capture, he takes his trusted general Alciel and jump through a dimensional portal. But be assured, he will return to exact his terrible vengeance and terrible it will be. However, they land in Sazazuka, Japan, to discover that this is a land of little magic and the once towering figure of Dark Lord Satan (massive biceps, eight-pack abs, thighs that could crush your skull) is now a twenty-something guy who looks a bit of a wiener. He is just another citizen of Japan and has to live as a mortal. (more…)

“Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Bride” is actually the second season of this show, but it really didn’t matter to the telling of things. Sure, I probably should have watched season one, but I thought THIS was season one. Besides, they explain the characters well enough that I didn’t think it was necessary to watch “Samurai Girls” to get up to speed.

The series takes place in an alternate version of Japan called Great Japan, in an alternate timeline where an alternate Tokugawa shogunate remained active and has remained isolated from the rest of the world. The male lead, Muneakira Yagyu, has come back from training to find that the dojo is in such a bad financial state that the only way to save it is to turn it into a maid café. The crew of trainees/maids consists of, from left to right:

Hanzo Hattori, the one who already looks like a maid,
Yukimura Sanada, the one with the fan in her hand,
Mitsuyoshi Jubei Yagyu, red-head with the pan,
Matabei Goto, nearly pantsless,
Sen Tokugawa, brown hair at the end.
One who is missing from this line-up is Kanetsugu Naoe. (more…)

Life in Japan must be tough, as all kinds of weirdness happen to the point where the odd is the norm. We are in the future (same as it ever was) and for the past 30 years, there have been these ‘spacequakes’. The original one claimed the lives of at least 150 million people. Since then, smaller spacequakes plague the world on an irregular basis.

Shido Itsuka, a seemingly ordinary high schooler (the guy with the tie) comes across a mysterious girl at Ground Zero of a spacequake, Tohka Yatogami (purple at the far right) and learns she is one of the “Spirits” who are the real cause of these spacequakes that occur whenever they manifest themselves into the world. He also learns that his sister Kotori (the red demon at the left end) is the captain of the airship Fraxinus, crewed by the organization Ratatoskr, and is recruited to make use of his mysterious ability to seal the Spirits’ powers, thus stopping them from being a threat to mankind. However, there is a catch: to seal a Spirit, he must make her fall in love with him and kiss her. Not just any kiss, but the Kiss of True Love, Ariel….I mean….never mind. (more…)

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…)

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…)