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…)

In the world of anime, there are two kinds of aliens. There are the mean, nasty, ugly ones that will rip you apart like you are a loaf of fresh bread. They are usually slopping over with testosterone and have abandonment issues, but they will still kill you dead, dead, dead. (Don’t invite them over for scones and lawn darts, OK?). The second kind of alien are very cute and cuddly female aliens with a pair of twin moons that would stop a supernova. “To Love-Ru” is certainly no different than “UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie”, “Heaven’s Lost Property”, “Waiting in the Summer” and/or “Cat Planet Cuties” in this approach. (Hmmm…..why does this introduction sound so familiar?)

For this go-around, we tell the story of Lala Satalin Deviluke (and her first name is both a noun and an adjective), the First Princess of Deviluke, whose family rules the Galaxy (move over, Darth Vader!) However, being royalty has its problems and she is being forced into a marriage for political gain. Disliking all her suitors, she flees, but the Deviluke army is in hot pursuit on her gorgeous and ample behind. (more…)

We’re back at school. Again. Again. Man, I have been in school longer, via these animes, than I was when I really went to school. OK, this one is “Kokoro Connect”. The story involves five high school students, from left to right, Yoshifumi Aoki, Himeko Inaba, Taichi Yaegashi, Iori Nagase and Yui Kiriyama, who are all members of the Cultural Research Club. One day, they begin experiencing a phenomenon in which they randomly swap bodies amongst themselves…for starters.  As these five friends face many different phenomena at the whims of a mysterious being known as Heartseed, their friendship is put to the ultimate test.

Initially, it involved what it is like for a girl to be a boy and vice versa, but they also learn secrets about each other they never knew, despite all their time together. To make matters worse, Heartseed (whom you never see; all it has done is taken over another person’s body when he has to communicate with them) lets them know this, and a bunch of other stuff will be happening. This includes not being able to control one’s actions and reactions, as well as deep-seated desires coming to the surface at inappropriate times. The third incident has to remain hidden, as it reveals some plot-changers.

OK, body-shifting is not new. In fact, not only is it a mainstay of science fiction, hentai also seems to like it as well. But for our purposes here, these tests are meant to do two things: allow Heartseed to see how people react to changes in their environment and to determine how strong these friends really are. (more…)

A brief description of this show could be “Japan’s answer to ‘South Park’”.

“Crayon Shin-Chan” (or just “Shin-Chan”) follows the adventures of the five-year-old Shinnosuke “Shin” Nohara (the guy getting his cheek pulled) and his parents, Hiroito (Hiro), Misae (Mitsi), baby Himawari (Hima) and Whitey the dog, their neighbors, and friends and is set in Kasukabe. Not that it matters. It might as well be in “South Park”.

Shin is the kind of boy that you would fling into a pile of poodle doo…except that he might like it. He is rude, brash, crude, disgusting and perverted and lives in the realm of his tiny world, oblivious to those around him.

The art work is intentionally bad. If you tried ‘traditional’ animation with the writing that is presented (and it is some of the best writing I have heard for a show, as they have dropped all pretenses that this is a ‘cute’ show), it would not work. The art work needs to be as crude as the topics and their presentation.

This is a show where you can give a review, even if you haven’t seen the end, as it is a series of vignettes about their life together, such as it is. The arc where they have to live in a crummy apartment complex while their house is being rebuilt is pretty funny, as all their neighbors are at least as crazy as they are, if not more so. (more…)

I am wondering if this is the era of the odd relationship for anime. This isn’t as weird as “Mysterious Girlfriend X”, but it is a very off-beat kind of romance. “Acchi Kocchi” (or “Place to Place”) follows the friendship of five classmates.

The three on the left are: Sakaki Inui, Mayoi Katase and Hime Haruno. The story really revolves around the other two: Tsumiki Miniwa (who is very neko; when you first see her, you think she IS a cat person) and Io Otonashi. They have a peculiar relationship in that they deeply care for one another, but don’t really show it and kissing is something left for fish to do.

This is also a ‘nothing’ show, in that nothing really happens and we are seeing episodic adventures in the course of about 16 months of calendar time. This is not that big of a problem, as they do not fall into the standard romantic comedy tropes. Things are just askew enough to allow for surprises. The episodes themselves are broken into two tales, Part A and Part B and they are not all that dependent on the other. The stories do proceed in a time lineal manner, but you can miss an episode and not have it impact on the next one, except you would miss some of the strangeness.

There is another feature of the show, and that is pictographs. Some of the action is defined by arrows rotating in circles (as you can see above) and the players could be identified by arrows moving across the screen. This just adds another layer of oddness to the show. The tales themselves are light (fun at the arcade, Valentine’s Day, cooking class, summer break) and you are never worried about things, but you really want to see more of their relationship. It is as if they know what to say, but cannot find the words or the right time to say it, or present it in a manner that is easily understood by all. (more…)

And now for something completely different…..a school-based anime. Here comes another one, just like the other one.

Welcome to school! This is Haroniwa Academy, also known as Sandbox Academy. Medaka Kurokami is elected Student Council President, despite her being a first-year student, with 98% of the vote. She institutes a suggestion box, dubbed the “Medaka Box“, for her fellow academy students to make suggestions and requests. Together with her childhood friend Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, (spikey head at the far right) Medaka is determined to address any kind of request by the students, from finding lost dogs to cleaning up club buildings and even fixing personalities. During the course of the series, Kouki Akune (that luscious manly hunk at the left) and Mogana Kikaijima (glasses girl) are also recruited by Medaka to become part of the Student Council. (the dorky-looking dude is Misogi Kumagawa, VP of the student council).

Oh, keep in mind that the shot of Medaka does NOT do her justice. She is certainly the most boobilicious character to come down the pike in the last 20 minutes. I HIGHLY recommend episodes 5 and 6, as they take place at a swimming pool. Roll your tongue back inside, prole!

The first season (yes, there is a second season, which just started) looks at how Medaka tries to answer all the problems that are presented to her, reforming those who need to be reformed (like Kikajima, who is a money-grubber) and giving opportunities to others to improve or at least not be as big a pain. However, the season-ending arc has her running afoul of Myouri Unzen. (more…)

One thing I have noticed lately are ‘informational’ animes. If we were to call them ‘educational’, you would run away screaming into the night. One is “Spice and Wolf”, which tells, in a rather oblique manner, the laws of supply and demand and how economics work. Another would be “Upotte!”, which gives a history of modern weaponry and the history behind some more popular arms.

“Koi to Senyko to Chocolate” (also known as “Love, Elections and Chocolate”) is another of these, which gives an inside view into how the election process works in general, and school elections for our tale.

Welcome to school! We are at Takafuji Private Academy, a large school with over 6,000 students. Yuki Oojima (the focus of everyone’s attention above) is a member of the Food Research Club, along with seven others, including his childhood friend Chisato Sumiyoshi (the buxom number in the 1 o’clock position). Let’s run down the rest of the crew:

Nozomi Edagawa, 3 o’clock. She is younger than everyone, but was skipped grades as she is a girl genius (or mad scientist).

Mifuyu Kiba, 5 o’clock. Although she is a year older than everyone, an ailment held her back a year. (more…)

I was looking for something festive for the new year. I’d hoped the banner said Happy New Year. It says Welcome to the Student Council

First off, Happy New Year fellow anime lovers! This message will be delivered late but shoot I’m writing this on the morning of January 1st. Hope you all managed to go out, party, and have a great time because I’ve been sick with mono all week. Besides really sucking this means that I’ve gotten to dig through a ton of Soul Eater episodes.

But this article isn’t about Soul Eater. It’s about a lesser known anime, Seitokai no Ichizon Lv. 2. I happened to stumble upon the original series, Seitokai no Ichizon, a while back. Keep in mind I’ve only seen 8 episodes of Lv. 2 thus far, but at 10 episodes to conclude the series I think I pretty much know where this is going.

The synopsis I’ve written goes for both shows since they are both pretty much plot-less: Four attractive girls are on the student council. There’s the president, Aka-chan. Despite being one of the older ones and in charge of the student council, she is the most childish: insecure about her extremely small stature and possessing a wild sweet tooth. She also happens to be my favorite ^__^ Then we have Chizuru. She is very womanly, somewhat seductive, and loves to baby Aka-chan, who she finds to be adorable. Minatsu is the bold tomboy with athletic skills. Her little sister, Mafuyu is the adorable one who loves BL and video games and often refers to herself in the first person. She’s also scared of boys.

The fifth spot is open to whichever student gets the highest grades in the class. Ken decides to work as hard as he can to become top student not because he wants a promising future (because really what sixteen year old actually cares about that?) but because he wants to spend his afternoons hanging out with all the girls. Ding! Ding! Ding! You got it. It’s a harem! (more…)

Be forewarned, this is the most disgusting show I have ever seen, and I saw “Elfin Lied”, but I’ll explain.

“Mysterious Girlfriend X” is about Akira Tsubaki, the guy to the left, who has transferred into this school. One of his classmates, Mikoto Urabe, the Veronica Lake-type, is an odd fish. She bursts out laughing one day, but no one pays her any heed. One day, she is sleeping in class and is awoken by Akira, but she leaves behind a puddle of drool. He decides to (are you ready for it?) take a little taste of it. What? A drool-licker? Ugh! Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh! Who the crud licks people’s drool off their desk. Obviously, this was not done in the health class.

He falls ill (and no wonder! Why don’t you just lick her gums while you’re at it?) and she stops by to tell him he has ‘love sickness’. This now means that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, although she is physically and emotionally distant to him. SHE calls the shots here. And should he decide to hug her without warning or permission, she whips out a pair of scissors she keeps in the band of her panties and will scissor away that which needs to be snipped. After school, they walk along the same street until they come to the junction where they go their separate ways. Before they say good-bye, she offers him a fingerful of drool each day. The drool can transmit feelings, among other things, between the two of them.

It’s just that the drool is rather viscous, somewhere between honey and motor oil and it presented with such prominence. The fact he gloms onto it like it’s honey (or motor oil; he’s a weird bird to begin with) just adds to the unsettling nature of their relationship. (more…)

It is the future. (Well, it’s always the future, isn’t it?)  In the year 2046, Neuro-synchronization, a technology system that allows humans to manipulate their five senses, has become widespread to the point where people can access the Internet and enter virtual worlds through a device known as a Neuro-Linker (you can’t see it in the picture, but it looks like a neck collar, but it only spans around the back from jugular to jugular). Haruyuki “Haru” Arita (that short, fat boy, right in the center) has low-self-esteem due to constant bullying. To escape the torment of real life, he logs in to the school’s virtual world network where he plays squash alone and always gets the highest score.

One day, he logs on to find his high score has been topped (and by a huge margin). He is then asked to meet the person who did this. It is the Student Council Vice-President “Kuroyukihime” (just behind Haru), who is smart, beautiful, popular and elegant, everything he is not. She offers him access to a very secret program, Brain Burst, which is a virtual reality massive multi-player online game. You have a character that you make better by winning one-on-one battles. This Brain Burst program slows time (although it appears frozen in the real world) to play this game and to potentially manipulate your real time surroundings.

Brain Burst also carries with it a painful price to pay: lose all your points and not only do you lose the Brain Burst program, you lose all memory of it plus you can never install it again. Kuroyukihime wants Haru’s help as she wishes to reach the highest achievable level, which is level 10, and meet the creator of Brain Burst in order to learn its true purpose, but in order to do that, she must defeat the other level 9 users who are known as “The Six Kings of Pure Color,” the leaders of the six most powerful factions in the Brain Burst world. Haru agrees to help Kuroyukihime to repay her as well as overcome his own weaknesses. (more…)