snivets

When I heard that there was going to be an anime adaptation for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I was pretty excited. I'm not sure if the phrase "cult classic" is quite right, but people seem to really like it, and as I've said before, I'm not a huge manga reader. Anyway, I figured if everyone liked it, so would I. Well I didn't. And I tried. I finally ended up dropping the show after realizing that I was watching it out of a sense of obligation to a well-known thing. I'll admit I feel bad about not finishing it, but I just couldn't make it through. Here are my reasons: Reason 1: It looks like a... See full review

To add to my bafflement over this series, I heard today that a sequel has been green-lighted. What the actual fuck? (Unless it's a sequel that is actually a prequel, in which case it should have come first, because this show was confused). Story: The "plot" was an absolute fustercluck. It's like Nanamine from Bakuman got in on the scriptwriting, along with 50 of his internet advisors, and then everyone also had caffeine-induced ADHD on top of it. It felt like someone tried to throw in everything that was cool into one place, stirred the pot, and then spun it around in circles. From the... See full review

If I had to use one word to describe this anime, it would be, "Delightful." Story: Uchouten Kazoku did a great job of showing rather than telling its story. It has a "chaotic comedy" appeal which is underscored by sad and serious moments. The story has an intricacy that reminded me of Baccano!, although the genre is completely different. Lots of characters, interacting at various points throughout the story, gradually revealing a bigger story. It does well with bringing up past events by focusing on the parts of the past that are relevant to the story without using drawn-out... See full review

The world of BL is filled with manga/anime like this one: a shallow story with flat characters, numerous-and therefore difficult-to-accept-as-realistic coincidences, low-quality animation, and drama for the sake of drama, otherwise known as one of the lowest forms of entertainment: melodrama. Story: Barely existant, the first episode consists of Riju's father, Chisato, trying to scare away his friends because he's paranoid that they're out to have sex with Riju and then Riju's friend Shunsuke confessing his undying rabu for Chisato. In the second, Riju is revealed to have  a boyfriend, then everyone... See full review

It really doesn't get much better than this. Makoto Shinkai has knocked this one out of the park--every time I watch one of his movies, I wonder if his art can get any better. Hold on to your hats, because somehow, every time, he manages to produce a work of quality that completely overshadows his earlier works. And that, my friends, is no easy task. *Spoiler Alert* Story: Keeping it simple, the story is a bittersweet romantic tale of a boy who meets a stranger in the park on rainy mornings, when it is his rule to skip first period. He has a dream to become a shoemaker; she drinks beer, eats... See full review

I almost gave up on this one because of the characters' propensity for making long-winded speeches about Exodus/Genesis/time travel/twisting logic/bizarre Shakespeare references. Ultimately, I would consider Zetsuen no Tempest very, very average. The characterization is fairly strong, but the particulars of the world ending are annoying vague and feel contrived. Too much in the story exists because you know the author thought it was cool. Take it or leave it: it's not a drop-it-like-it's-hot show, but neither is it a must-watch show.

Sakurasou was an anime which managed to hold my interest despite its fairly average storyline. It never made me bored, but I never went beyond feeling lukewarm about each week's episode arriving. Something was missing in it for me, and I'm not quite sure what that was. Not a bad show by any means, though. Story: Basically, a school/slice of life story about some pretty crazy characters, most of whom have talents that set them apart from "normal" people. It utilizes typical plotlines [school festival, foreign friend arriving to take someone home, threat of their home being shut down] to explore... See full review

I almost dropped this show after the first episode, due to Sakura's exceedingly awkward behavior. What this show had going for it was the whole "limits of justice" theme, and I was hoping it would develop more strongly in that direction. After all, first episodes are tough to pull off (a good example of a good first ep would be Ouran HSHS). Story: Well, I definitely wished I had dropped it early on (and the only reason for continuing was hope and the fact that the subbers released it during my few slow days for the season). What a crock of crap. In fact, it was so hokey and fakey and... See full review

This anime is reeeeeally Japanese and I definitely wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. It has layers and layers of meaningful levels, is full of references to parts of Japanese culture that the average international viewer wouldn't usually know about (including myself--I could often tell there was a reference without knowing exactly what it implied), and it bases much of its humor off kanji and wordplay. If you watch Joshiraku and all you giggle at are the girls' antics, you're probably missing half of it. Story: Not rated because there really isn't one, just a series of sketches. Animation: Pretty... See full review

What a great little show! This is slice of life at its absolute best, a portrait of a Japanese family who runs a small business during the 1960's. I'm a huge fan of accurate period shows of any kind, but this one really does justice to the times. Story: Episodic, with all of the stories referencing the time period. Three-wheeled trucks, tension between hand-made and machine-made industries, black TV giving way to color, old radios, memories of the war, the Olympics, baseball. Additionally, the episodes each show some kind of strain or tension being placed on the family and showcases how they deal with it... See full review

This is a preliminary explanation of why this show is so awesome; I promise to do an edit/real review when it's over. (Edit: See below) As a literary nerd, the game of karuta has long delighted me. If you like poetry, literature, love stories, or Japanese history check this anime out right now! Do it! If you want to read the poems as the show airs, skip the online wikis. My suggestion is Peter McMillan's highly acclaimed One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each; he's a poet as well as a scholar and does an excellent job with the translation and notes. The book is very readable, and jam-packed with background... See full review

Watching Lain and then Haibane Renmei a while back got me on a bit of a Yoshitoshi Abe kick. What I very quickly realized was that NieA Under 7 is nothing like Haibane Renmei, or really, any of Abe-sensei's other projects. I found out later that NieA was what they worked on after Lain finished, and it was supposed to be a kind of break from the dark and heavy themes found therein. Furthermore and unfortunately for me, I was only able to get a hold of the English dub, which has very likely tainted my opinion of NieA herself. Story: It takes place in a small town in Japan, set in a future where aliens... See full review

Love Lab is pretty average in terms of characters and production values, but it is quite a cute show. This will just be a brief review. Brief Summary: At an all girls' school, Maki, the student council president, is secretly interested in how to attract a boyfriend. Riko discovers this secret, and is forced to join the student council because of a misunderstanding: Maki thinks Riko is a "love expert." Story: The story itself isn't anything new or unusual, but the misunderstanding about Riko's "love expertise" persists until it becomes a roadblock for the characters' relationships with... See full review

I liked the first season of this show. I intensely disliked the second. Story: I felt this season lacked a strong central theme/story thread. Last season, the central theme was "finding acceptance for Kirino's weird hobby." And it worked well. This season's theme seemed to be fanservice. The stories were lame, disjointed/unrelated to each other, cobbled together, and lacked coherency. Characters: Annoying/10. Didn't really develop any further, except Saori, but she turned out to be boring. Too many tsundere chars, and way too much arguing over Kousaka. Lamesauce all around. Overall: Too... See full review

An otherwise boring high school boy, Kasuga, is tempted by the left-behind gym clothes of his crush. Startled by a noise as he picks them up, he runs off, only to find that he has inadvertantly stolen them. Terrified, he hides them at home. Shortly thereafter, he finds out that Nakamura, a rebellious member of his class, saw him steal them. Using his secret as leverage, she blackmails him into a "contract," though what it is or what she wants remains ambiguous until the end of the series. Story: Basically involves Nakamura continuing to be a busybody, Kasuga trying to normally date the girl... See full review

This was a trainwreck of an anime. All-around epic fail. The one exception was the character design, which was simply sumptuous and was the only thing that kept me watching. Utimately, the art was completely a waste given the content. Wait, was there even content? But I digress. Story: The story didn't make sense at all until the last episode, and even then it made hardly any sense anyway. The characters were flatter than cardboard and about as flavorful. The main character was a nameless airhead and couldn't even make a decision without relying on the (male) characters around her. Characters... See full review

I'll admit to being a pretty big sucker for shoujo, but what really endeared Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun to me was Shizuku's startled reaction, the one where her pigtails stood straight up in the air, as well as Haru's hilariously random behavior. Even better, I think this show is an example of Shoujo Done Right, and is free from a couple obnoxious tropes I will mention later. Story: Lighter on plot and heavier on character development, although it wasn't the huge or meaningful type of development; mostly just looking at the difference between Shizuku in episodes 1 and 12. I thought event sequences/timing were... See full review

Btooom! is a lot like the move Saw. It is (yet another) video-games-become-real-life story, and the premise is that "bad people" are chosen by someone who knows them to get dumped on an island for a life-or-death survival game wherein everyone is armed with bombs. Except that Saw took the scenario to an uncomfortable extreme, thereby much more interestingly making a point. I'm not sure Btooom! even had a point to make. Story: Anyway, the story was weaksauce, containing no clear thematic direction, and coming to very little resolution at the end. We supposedly see the main character come to grips... See full review

As excited as I was for this show and at the beginning of it, it ultimately fell short of my expectations for several reasons which are the meat and potatoes of this review. But what are potatoes without a little bit of cheddar cheese and context? One of the things you may be thinking is that the premise of Natsuyuki Rendezvous is really similar to AnoHana. All I have to say on that subject is that, yes, the premises are essentially the same, but there were things AnoHana did much better than Natsuyuki--another reason why it fell short of my expectations. Another comment I'd like to air is that a lot of... See full review

Although I only gave it a slightly higher-than-average score, there's plenty to be entertained by here. Story: A high school girl, Marika, finds out that she has the chance to inherit her father's Letter of Marque and become a pirate aboard the pirate ship Bentenmaru. After accepting the position, she goes on various adventures, and the story basically takes place in a series of problem-arcs. One of the things I really liked about the arcs was that they alternated between her pirate life and its problems and her high school life and its problems. I thought that this set up made for a much more believable... See full review

As far as two episode romance OVAs go, this one was not bad. Story: It was fairly typical. Girl moves to remote town. Boy falls in love with girl. They go out. She has to go back to Tokyo. Well--that's the basic back story, which we get flashbacks to during the "real" story, which is that boy is on a school trip to Tokyo and is trying to meet up with girl. Unusual for an OVA, there's a lot of meat in the story here, including boy's previous romance with another girl from the same small town, as well as main girl's family issues. What could've been melodramatic (a la True Tears) wasn't, instead... See full review

I'd never heard of this when it popped up on one of my viewing sites and the title, translating to "Stars Stuck Together," struck me as kind of cute. Kuttsukiboshi is a yuri anime. There is girl-on-girl action, and a brief shot of incestuous het action-interrupted, but aren't nudey parts showing, and the story (otherwise) focuses on the development of relationships. Just so we're clear about what you're getting into. Story: Kiiko has developed telekinesis and other mind powers following a car accident. Her friend, Aaya, knows this and encourages her to strengthen them. Then one day when Aaya... See full review

What a cute short! I really enjoyed Tonari no Seki-kun! Seki-kun sits next to Yokoi in class. She always notices him playing around (and the ridiculous games he invents are dee-lightful), and thinks she should be scolding him...but then she gets sucked into his games and ends up being just as distracted as him. So, yeah, hilarious. And not long enough to become annoying. If you like shorts and comedy, this one will be a solid choice.

Action-driven yet human-focused, Teppou Musume does a fantastic job of keeping the tension high in this tale about a group of part-human, part-beasts who are terrorizing Edo. The story is fairly basic, driven by a hunter girl who moves to Edo to join her brother. There, they participate in the hunt for the "Fuse," half-human, half-dog beings who are eating human beings. Along her journey, she inadvertantly makes a connection to one of them. I thought the story was good, yet sparse, and not terribly deep, but certainly interesting in a "touching-on-themes" type of way. The characters... See full review

Despite the fact that KyoAni never intended for Free! to be anything more than a 30-second studio promo, I think they did an excellent and interesting expansion of the original clip. After the attention it got online they'd've been dumb not to take advantage of what was clearly a potential market--but it's still great to see a studio delivering such a grand product purely because the fans asked for it. Brief Summary: Childhood friends Haru, Nagisa, and Makoto realize that their other childhood friend, Rin, is back from Australia. Rin doesn't seem to want to relive their glory days of swimming... See full review

This will just be a brief review to kind of collect my thoughts about Kin-iro Mosaic. Light on content (a la K-On or Tamako Market), thin on plot, and heavy on high-pitched moe and friendship, Kin-iro Mosaic is a fairly average show. There's no overarching plot except developing the girls' friendships, but even that seems light and full of silly jokes. I think my biggest complaint though, is that I never really believed that Alice and Karen were from Great Britain. Sure they had blonde hair, but they never really acted like Europeans. I can't criticize this point too much, because the show never... See full review

As I watched the final episode of Silver Spoon, a single word came to mind to describe this anime. "Thoughtful." But also thought-provoking. Brief Summary: A "smart kid" who has trouble fitting in at his traditional middle school is encouraged by a teacher to apply to an agricultural high school. Once there, he learns a lot about how food is produced, as well as learning how to make friends. Themes: Making friends, business realities, the difficulties of being in the agricultural industry, how food is made, the value of hard work, the value of struggling with large moral issues (for... See full review

UtaPri is an extremely light series. It was very pleasant and easy viewing, and didn't have any glaring flaws despite its very stereotypical reverse harem nature. Basically, a plain girl with no obvious talent makes it into prestigious school for idols and entertainers, actually has lots of talent, makes friends with a bunch of hot guys who all try to get her to be their exclusive composer, eventually causing them to form a 6-man idol group. Story: I ranked the story 4/10 for predictability and cheesy moments, the kind where I rolled my eyes and said, "Am I really watching this?" Don't let that... See full review

In comparison to some of the other works to come out of the Young Animator Training Project, Ryo's story is somewhat vague, takes place in a historical era (which probably requires prior knowledge of Japanese history [which can be assumed when writing for a Japanese audience]), and doesn't really have a lot of meat or development. I was kind of surprised by how weak the story was, and I didn't really think the animation itself was all that special. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a waste of 25 minutes, but if you're not a history buff, you might consider skipping this one.

This installment of Oto na Joshi no Anime time brings us 3 episodes and 3 stories, each about a Japanese woman and her life. We are shown a day or two in the life of each one, and watch her interact with the people around her, while we listen to her thoughts, which are often different from what she says and does. Through each story, we touch on social issues, all of which are of pressing concern for contemporary Japan and particularly women. Story: Fabulously done, the stories follow each woman through her daily life. We are shown how their life seems normal, and as the episode develops, we find out that... See full review