I debated whether to consider this a short-run series. It comes in at 11 shows, but that last one is a kind of recap, clip show, overview of things and seems more like a send-off than a real episode, although I do consider series runs of 11 or less a short-run. We’ll let you decide.
This is a very odd show. Odd in the sense that every character in this show is quite intelligent, learned, educated and knowledgeable on a variety of issues. Because of that, the show can get a little prolix and overly scholastic, as you learn the history of cocktails, the stories behind many famous drinks and what it is a bartender really does.
We are in the Ginza, a very popular area of Tokyo, where all sorts of bars and watering holes exist. But there is a very hard to find one, Eden Hall, where you go to for more than a mere libation, but a chance to reflect upon your life and where you want it to go. The man behind the bar, Ryū Sasakura, is a bartending prodigy who is said to mix the best concoctions anyone has ever tasted. But that is because he knows what it is you really need before you do and it isn’t merely booze, but both a tonic to revive and a statement to bring your life into focus.
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…)
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…)
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…)
As of late, I have seen a lot of shows based on or associated with on-line gaming, like “Sword Art Online” or “Accel World”. Even “Tower of Druaga” felt like a videogame, although that kind of took the mickey out of itself.
“BTOOOM!” is another such show. Now, the online game of “BTOOOM!” is like Halo, except the only weapons you have are bombs. You have to figure out ways how to blow up the enemy team. Your overall scores are rated, but individual effort counts as well.
Ryōta Sakamoto (the one in black to the right) is an unemployed 22-year-old, potential hikikimori or NEET, who lives with his mother. In the real world, there is nothing special about him, but online, he’s one of the world’s top players and the only Japanese to be in the Top Ten of Btooom! One day, he awakens in what appears to be a tropical island, though he has no memory of how or why he has come to be there. (more…)
Well, this is an interesting series about an Arms Dealer who is a genuine contradiction with a title that initially does not make any sense, “Jormungand”.
Let’s talk about her. The potential albino (or perhaps she doesn’t get enough sun; hard to tell), white on white, is Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, an international shipping corporation that secretly deals in the arms trade. As one of the company’s unofficial weapon dealers, she carefully sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcement agencies as most of her work is actually illegal under international law. But money is where you find it and she has no reluctance to sell to anyone, but has a caliber of conscience.
Most of the people up there are her bodyguards and have extensive military experience, so let’s run them down (it is a rather capacious cast, both on this side, plus those forces that wish to do her harm): (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…)
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…)
The Japanese title for this is…(take a deep breath…) “Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai”, which means “I Have Few Friends”, but we know it better as “Haganai”. Look, it’s another school-based anime! How original! And we have a new transfer student! Doubly original! And he’s having troulbes fitting it! We hit the trifecta!
OK, let’s put the snarkiness aside. Kodaka Hasegawa (the guy in the middle) is a recent transfer student to St. Chronica’s Academy, a Catholic high school. As with every other school he has ever attended, he finds it difficult to make friends there because of his naturally-blond hair (inherited from his deceased English mother) and fierce-looking eyes, which make him look threatening.
While doing something on campus, Kodaka comes across the equally solitary and highly abrasive Yozora Mikazuki (the one to his right) while she converses with her imaginary friend, Tomo. Realizing that neither of them have any friends or social skills, they decide that the best way to improve their situation is to form a club, The Neighbor’s Club, intended to make friends and learn social skills.
They slowly start to acquire members, as these folks are also social misfits for one reason or another:
Sena Kashiwazaki, that busty blonde up there. She has a double whammy: she is rich and her mother is the school’s head teacher, so there is a seething arrogance about her and no one wants to be her friend. (more…)
