Oh, like you didn’t even comprehend that “Kamisama Kiss” (“Kamisama Hajimemashita”) would have a second season? Really? Let’s look at the closing line from my review of the first season: “And with the coupler end (and a pair of OVAs out there), this show is far from being over.” I win! I win! I….*ahem* Let us proceed.

It’s been about a year since Nanami has taken over the shrine and there is to be a Gathering of the Gods, the Divine Assembly. Think of it like a giant anime convention, but without the vendor’s room. Well, she is the Earth God and needs to go, but there are all kinds of troubles with that. Who is going to ‘mind the store’, as it were? (And that opens the door for some delicious humiliation of Tomoe). Once there, Nanami makes a huge discovery about the Gods: they are a lot of preening prats. There is not a whole lot of god-like behavior from these folks, more like shore leave for a bunch of sailors. It is an amazing arc, as Nanami really grows as a God and her understanding of those around her. Also, that they are not any different than regular people: shirking work, sleeping in late, pigging out, inappropriate actions. Maybe it’s more a political convention, eh? Anyway, this series of adventures (including an excursion into the underworld) takes up half of the season, but it doesn’t feel forced or imposed. (more…)

This isn’t necessarily a ‘girl who saves the world’ anime, but “Akatsuki no Yona” (“Yona of the Dawn”, also known as “The girl standing in the blush of dawn”) certainly embraces a woman who goes from wallflower to being front and center (that’s her, front and center).

We start off in the kingdom of Kouka, with Yona as your typical pampered princess, whose biggest concern might be chipping a nail (actually, it’s her flaming red hair; she hates it). Along with her bodyguard Son Hak (off her left shoulder) and childhood friend Soo-won, they live a happy, sheltered life….until on her 16th birthday celebration, she sees Soo-won kill her father, King Il, and engineer a coup. The reason behind it, the king was weak and deserved to die. Well, that’s been a pretty good reason to kill rulers since we’ve had rulers. Yona and Hak escape, as Hak is the Thunder Beast and can use that blade of his to devastating results. Sadly, both of them fall to their deaths from a high precipice while being pursued by the palace forces.

That puts a major crimp in things, as Soo-won was going to marry Yona, to give legitimacy to what he wanted to do as king. He can (and will) still proceed, but it just makes things a whole lot tougher. However, our demoralized duo is not dead, but has taken refuge with an oracle of some ilk, Ik-su. Offering his young apprentice, Yun (far right), as a guide, they have been instructed to hunt down the Four Dragons, as they have pledged their fealty to the King of Hiryuu castle. Wait, but she’s a girl, so she’d be queen, right? Shhh, it’s the emotional import. As the rightful heir and eventual ruler, she gets their support. Oh, and they aren’t real dragons, with scales and a forked tail and breathing fire, but they have the attributes of a dragon. In my picture up there, you see all four of them (I’ll break down that cast a bit later). (more…)

Why do you have a movie based from a TV series? I find the reason is that you want to wrap things up nicely, you don’t need a full-run season to accomplish that and the movie will allow you to play out the emotional angles better. I can take 70 minutes to really tell my story, rather than having to break in up over three attempts of 24 minutes each. But that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed success and, sadly, the “Tamako Love Movie” fails to deliver.

There is a review out there on the series itself (“Tamako Market”), but the initial skinny is that Tamako Kitashirakawa’s family runs a mochi shop. One day, a bird comes in from a foreign land, helping the prince of his country look for a bride. Tamako was a good candidate, but eventually declined the offer. I assumed the movie was going to look at the aftermath that was caused by these odd people showing up and being a caliber of mooch for four or five months.

The movie starts off on the home island of Prince Mecha Mochimazzi, his sister Choi and the useless bird emissary Dera. They are busy making mochi and wondering aloud how things are going for Tamako and her friends. We then see them and…and…and…for 83 minutes, nothing happens. The main thrust is that Tamako seems adrift, as she does not know what she wants to do with her life. Mochizō Ōji, her rival, her friend and her companion, is planning on going to Tokyo and further his education. It appears she will take over the family business. Oji has to tell her of his decision to leave, but cannot find the gumption to tell her. Tamako decides that she will put forth a great deal of effort with the baton club to be able to participate in a cultural festival and showcase their talents. (more…)

There are times that you like a caliber of blind-side anime and this one, “The Testament of Sister New Devil”, ( “Shinmai Maō no Tesutamento”) certainly delivers in that category, as it starts off like any other blended family anime.

Basara Tojo (that lost male youth up there) is a first year high school student. He and his father, Jin, live in Tokyo, just the two of them (as mom died a few years earlier). Out of nowhere, Jin announces that he got married, is going on some business and son is to take care of his new step-sisters, Mio (redhead) and Maria (silverhead) Naruse. A bit after they arrive, we discover that they are more than they appear (although a lot was given up during the opening credits). Mio is a Demon princess and heir of the former Demon Lord, Wilbert. (Wilbert? What kind of demon is named ‘Wilbert’? That doesn’t sound too scary to me). Maria is a succubus and is Mio’s follower and guardian. They aren’t true sisters, but emotionally they are.

They actually try to force Basara from his house, using mind control and other demonic curses, but then we learn HIS truth: he was a member of a hero clan (which explains all the scars they have. Like dad and son went to the tattoo parlor to get matching tats?) and wields great powers. Dad and son eventually speak, Dad advises him on the task set before them all and tells them that they are now all family, or at least more than total strangers. (more…)

So, with the conclusion of the second (and potentially, final) season of “Chaika, the Coffin Princess”, it is now time to trot out the OVA, so we can tell a story that otherwise would not have fit into the full run of things. The OVA is actually two half-episodes, where the Red Squad and the White Squad come into contact with one another while avoiding the Kliemann Agency (more or less), but this is done more to be goofy than any real import, much like “Darker Than Black” Episode #26, which was goofy and silly and funny and completely out of character with the show’s original dark and dismal run.

In this outing, the guys and gals are still looking for the parts of dismembered Daddy and come to a location to hunt them down, not knowing the other team is there. The tone here is far lighter, as they have to work together to escape the situation they are in, but it is not done as dramatic or intense as seen in the series; more like a minor inconvenience or annoyance, like bees living in your head. And when Akari has to flatten David twice for doing the same perceived pervy thing twice, well, it’s all for giggles and laughs. (more…)

The OVA for “The Fruit of Grisaia” (or “The Gray-Colored Fruit”) is designed to keep you interested in the show, as a movie (in theory) comes out in April and a new series follows shortly thereafter, but they come off as more unrestricted ecchi. All of the ladies seem to want to do the Wild Thing with Yūji Kazami, but it is done more for our benefit as the viewer than for anything that Yuri might want, or that the ladies are seeking.

I do not need to see a woman, dressed as a Playboy Bunny, riding a giant carrot like Slim Pickens did with that nuke in “Dr. Strangelove” or some girl who gives Yuri a real scrub down in the bath, washing everything including his shower nozzle. No, that’s not a euphemism; she really washes down the shower nozzle. Look, it just might be better for you to watch the shows (they run about six or so minutes each) to understand why they do what they do, as it does not make a lick of real sense, either as an OVA or in the general run of the show. And to make matters worse, it comes off as a painful obligation to do these histrionics, rather than a blossoming girl, experiencing the pangs of first love and true romance and….oh, just take off your clothes. Or, as seen above, a tantalizing glimpse of panties. (more…)

For those of you who have been following this show, “High School DxD” has two big things going for it….the left one and the right one! I place this show in the crowd with other boson-heavy offerings like “Sekerei”, “High School of the Dead”, Ikki Tousen” and “Maken-Ki” (to name but a few) and the OVAs now push it to the maximum, straining the limits of everything as much as Rias’ blouse is strained by her….achievements.

The OVAs are nothing more than to offer window-fogging reasons to glom onto unfettered bosoms. The shows are being done for two reasons: (a) a story like this in the regular run of episodes would impair the show’s ability to promote the main plot line and (b) to highlight the coming of the third season of the show (which will probably be concluded by the time this review hits the street). (more…)

As I mentioned earlier, there has been a lot of romantic comedies coming out. This one “Wolf Girl and Black Prince” (“Ōkami Shōjo to Kuro Ōji”) is an interesting take on things in the realm of high school love.

The story centers around Erika Shinohara, a 16-year-old girl who tells her friends about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. Well, you had best produce, so she claims that the handsome boy in a candid photo on her phone is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyōya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. Unfortunately, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist. Sata takes advantage of Erika’s weakness and treats her like his dog.

And, I mean, he is really mean. He doesn’t exploit her or really blackmails her, but he is as cold as they come and Erika feels trapped into this all. This is where some of my resentment crops up. A couple of opportunities arise that she could dump him and just write it off as ‘things didn’t work out.’ It also brings up the second question: what if her two friends, Marin Tachibana and Aki Tezuka, are also faking it and they really don’t have boyfriends? Just a thought. (more…)

Well, we have another entry into the magical school genre, but this one tries to be something more than, say, “Negima!” or “The Irregular”. But things get muddled. Welcome to the world of “Trinity Seven”.

Kasuga Arata (do you need help in finding the guy?) lived a normal life together with his childhood friend and cousin, Hijiri Kasuga, in a small town. However, everything changed on the day of the Black Sun, and a magus (mage) appeared before him. The Black Sun caused the Breakdown Phenomenon which destroyed the town where he lived. Because of this, his normal life was artificially reconstructed by a grimoire that his childhood friend had left. The appearance of the magus led him to a new life in the Royal Biblia Academy and meeting the members of the Trinity Seven. And who are these members? I am glad you asked! From left to right, we have: (more…)

The second season of “Sword Art Online” is out, and they did the same thing on this approach as with the last version, and that is to have two full story arcs. The first 14 episodes, “Phantom Bullet”, have Kirito as a kind of cyber cop. There is a new VRMMMORPG called “Gun Gale Online”, a real shooter game. A character walks about named “Death Gun” who shoots another character and they disappear. It later turns out that the real-life person whose character was shot in the game is dead.

This happens two more times and people are scared that there is a way for your avatar to get shot in the game and that it kills the real you. Kirito is asked by Kikuoka Seijiro of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Virtual Division to investigate this. He dives back in and signs up to be in the Bullet of Bullets competition, where he proves himself to be very competent, despite using a light saber…..I mean, a Photon Sword. There is a real funny incident involving his character, but I’ll let you find that one yourself. Kirito is befriended by Sinon, a sniper person in the game, who has severe psychological problems outside the game (can’t reveal; plot point). (more…)