Another series airing EVEN NOW in Japan. The title translates to "The Monster Next to Me," but Crunchyroll has given it the name "My Little Monster." I don't really like either of those translations, so I'll just call it 'Kaibutsu' for the time being.
It's shojo romance/comedy and does not actually involve any real monsters, to my moderate disappointment. However, the cast are all outstandingly lovable in their varying methods of being socially inept, and the story so far as me curious when these two kids will finally start going out. I'm betting around episode 12.
I guess I haven't really said very much about it. Main character Mizutani Shizuku is a quiet, diligent girl who considers her studies and her future the most important thing in her life. She is, at one point, assigned to deliver handouts to the truant who is supposed to occupy the seat next to her, Yoshida Haru, who was suspended for fighting, and who hasn't come back since the suspension was lifted. Due to a chain of circumstances which mostly revolve around Shizuku pointing out that Haru's 'friends' are being jerks, he realizes that she's being nice to him, and that he likes that, and he likes her. So begins the rolling ball of awkwardness that is their relationship.
Haru is both very intelligent and very stupid, and is, in himself, a fascinating character, both respectable and easy to look down on. Shizuku, by contrast, plays a very natural, human protagonist, who is nonetheless antisocial and logical to the point of weirdness.
Eight episodes in, it's come a long way, but is remaining fun and interesting. Definitely a series to watch, if you're looking for some fresh romance/comedy.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: B+
I'm not sure if I'm just being really generous with series lately, or if I'm just on a long run of series that are actually quite good.
"Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai" means "I Don't Have Many Friends," and it is abbreviated "Haganai." (After the -wa, -ga and -nai endings of the nouns and verb. You write Wa with a Ha when you're using it as a particle in Japanese.)
And really, it's a show about two girls (the two in the front) being totally unbelievable bitches to each other.
The premise is that our main character (Kodaka, the boy wrangling lolis in the above image) has naturally part-blonde hair which looks like a bit of a bad dye job. In Japan, this is a sure sign of a delinquent, and due to a bit of bad luck, he acquires and maintains this reputation after transferring to a new school, and remains friendless for over a month. Things change when he encounters a girl talking to her invisible friend, and they manage a conversation about how difficult it is to make friends, and how there's no easy way to do so. The girl, Yozora (the front left in the above image), founds her own club and has Kodaka join, the Neighbors club, dedicated to making friends.
Needless to say, the kind of people who would want to join a club for making friends are the kind of people who have no friends. And there's universally a reason they don't have friends. Reasons vary. Sena, (front right), is too popular, rich and attractive enough to be treated as anything but an object of jealousy by girls and of lust by guys. Yukimura (in the maid outfit in the back, male) is a weenie little trap of a boy (maybe?), and is constantly bullied and mocked, and joins to become more manly like the presumably violent and delinquent (he's not) Kodaka. Add in genius pervert Rika (front center), Kodaka's little sister (the goth loli) and their 10-year-old nun teacher advisor (the nun in the back) and you have the Neighbors club, a bunch of failures at life and making friends.
In the end, it's Kodaka and a bunch of girls (and Yukimura, who, on Yozora's orders, dresses like a girl so that he can learn to express his masculinity properly... or probably just because Yozora is a bully) wind up hanging out and doing whatever it is they feel like, which mostly involves them being a petty bunch of anti-social bullies.
The series runs with a fair amount of fan service, mostly involving bathing suits rather than underwear, and usually deliberately shown.
And yet, despite being a fan servicey harem series about a bunch of characters who are terrible people to each other, I find myself really having enjoyed watching it. I laughed, chuckling to myself and saying "oh my god, Yozora you're such a bitch," "... and now Sena is petty," or "Rika, you are the most amazing pervert ever."
There is an overarching plot beyond Yozora and Sena constantly trying to one-up the other, and the series does discuss friendship, (Yozora and Sena, despite being truly outstandingly rude and even cruel to each other, are clearly friends) but you have to read fairly closely between the lines if you want to try to gather any significant meaning or story.
But you know what? Haganai isn't trying to be deep, it's trying to be funny. And if you want to watch some cute girls be kind of pervy and extremely bitchy to each other, you'll get a set of great laughs out of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. And if you're interested in deep and meaningful stories... well, there's a little bit there for you to. But if you like seeing more than one guy in your anime, or actually expect anything like sanity or realism in the depiction of characters, this is a show that will disappoint.
Edit 7/13: So, I'd like to note that I was wrong about sane depictions of characters in this series. Once you've seen the second season and have figured out the characters' motivations, everything they ever do makes perfect sense, and once you think about their situations, even the extremeness of Yozora's bitchery and Sena's gullibility do not seem unreasonable.
I'm not sure if I'm just being really generous with series lately, or if I'm just on a long run of series that are actually quite good.
"Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai" means "I Don't Have Many Friends," and it is abbreviated "Haganai." (After the -wa, -ga and -nai endings of the nouns and verb. You write Wa with a Ha when you're using it as a particle in Japanese.)
And really, it's a show about two girls (the two in the front) being totally unbelievable bitches to each other.
The premise is that our main character (Kodaka, the boy wrangling lolis in the above image) has naturally part-blonde hair which looks like a bit of a bad dye job. In Japan, this is a sure sign of a delinquent, and due to a bit of bad luck, he acquires and maintains this reputation after transferring to a new school, and remains friendless for over a month. Things change when he encounters a girl talking to her invisible friend, and they manage a conversation about how difficult it is to make friends, and how there's no easy way to do so. The girl, Yozora (the front left in the above image), founds her own club and has Kodaka join, the Neighbors club, dedicated to making friends.
Needless to say, the kind of people who would want to join a club for making friends are the kind of people who have no friends. And there's universally a reason they don't have friends. Reasons vary. Sena, (front right), is too popular, rich and attractive enough to be treated as anything but an object of jealousy by girls and of lust by guys. Yukimura (in the maid outfit in the back, male) is a weenie little trap of a boy (maybe?), and is constantly bullied and mocked, and joins to become more manly like the presumably violent and delinquent (he's not) Kodaka. Add in genius pervert Rika (front center), Kodaka's little sister (the goth loli) and their 10-year-old nun teacher advisor (the nun in the back) and you have the Neighbors club, a bunch of failures at life and making friends.
In the end, it's Kodaka and a bunch of girls (and Yukimura, who, on Yozora's orders, dresses like a girl so that he can learn to express his masculinity properly... or probably just because Yozora is a bully) wind up hanging out and doing whatever it is they feel like, which mostly involves them being a petty bunch of anti-social bullies.
The series runs with a fair amount of fan service, mostly involving bathing suits rather than underwear, and usually deliberately shown.
And yet, despite being a fan servicey harem series about a bunch of characters who are terrible people to each other, I find myself really having enjoyed watching it. I laughed, chuckling to myself and saying "oh my god, Yozora you're such a bitch," "... and now Sena is petty," or "Rika, you are the most amazing pervert ever."
There is an overarching plot beyond Yozora and Sena constantly trying to one-up the other, and the series does discuss friendship, (Yozora and Sena, despite being truly outstandingly rude and even cruel to each other, are clearly friends) but you have to read fairly closely between the lines if you want to try to gather any significant meaning or story.
But you know what? Haganai isn't trying to be deep, it's trying to be funny. And if you want to watch some cute girls be kind of pervy and extremely bitchy to each other, you'll get a set of great laughs out of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. And if you're interested in deep and meaningful stories... well, there's a little bit there for you to. But if you like seeing more than one guy in your anime, or actually expect anything like sanity or realism in the depiction of characters, this is a show that will disappoint.
Edit 7/13: So, I'd like to note that I was wrong about sane depictions of characters in this series. Once you've seen the second season and have figured out the characters' motivations, everything they ever do makes perfect sense, and once you think about their situations, even the extremeness of Yozora's bitchery and Sena's gullibility do not seem unreasonable.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Episodes 1-7
So, I've added Kyoto Animation to my list of studios (after Shaft and Gaianx) that I will just watch everything they produce because it's gold. Their current project is an adaptation of a two-volume Light Novel series of the title seen above.
(Man, I'm watching a lot of series these days that are just long strings of words in Japanese. "Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!" is usually translated "In spite of my adolescent delusions of grandeur, I want a date!")
It's about a boy (Togashi Yuuta) who, before entering high school, was a delusional sort who wore a long jacket, carried a oversized fantasy resin sword, spoke in an incredibly melodramatic fashion and called himself (in Engrish) "Dark Flame Master." However, at some point he realized how incredibly embarrassing this is and stopped doing it, trying to forget everything about it and move on, making a fresh start in high school.
Unfortunately, a girl (Takanashi Rikka) moves into the apartment above the one where he lives, and she still does stuff like that, wearing a medical eyepatch (to seal her 'Wicked Eye') and a bandage on her left arm (covering a seal on the power of the harbinger of darkness), making combat poses at everyone she meets and talking a lot about her mana, chimera familiar (a stray cat she put wings on), the evil Priestess who shares the apartment she lives in (her big sister) and how she must be ready for battle at all times. Due to a momentary indiscretion when Yuuta is attempting to cleanse himself of his past forever, his neighbor (also his classmate) overhears of him being Dark Flame Master, and attempts to befriend him as a dark sorcerer who is also facing the threats that she faces.
... And we've all been there? Right? ...Right?
Anyway, as someone who is only about 90-95% over his own adolescent delusions of grandeur (Chuunibyou literally translates as 'Eighth-grader disease'), I find the premise to be nostalgic and amusing (and that's without mentioning Kyoto Animation's eye-melting artwork), and the execution to be effective and interesting. Rikka and Yuuta are hardly the only characters who have ever suffered from chuunibyou, and it's not portrayed as a life-destroying disease as much as a phase that may or may not have deeper roots.
A part of me wants to write an entire essay on the idea of adolescent delusions of grandeur and how they figure into society, grow and evolve and how accepted they are even in adults, but this is an anime blog.
So, instead, I'll say that Chuu2Koi (that's the official abbreviation, apparently) is pretty good, so far, and is likely to be high on my list of recommendations to my more grown-up nerd friends. Since we all were like that, once upon a time.
(Man, I'm watching a lot of series these days that are just long strings of words in Japanese. "Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!" is usually translated "In spite of my adolescent delusions of grandeur, I want a date!")
It's about a boy (Togashi Yuuta) who, before entering high school, was a delusional sort who wore a long jacket, carried a oversized fantasy resin sword, spoke in an incredibly melodramatic fashion and called himself (in Engrish) "Dark Flame Master." However, at some point he realized how incredibly embarrassing this is and stopped doing it, trying to forget everything about it and move on, making a fresh start in high school.
Unfortunately, a girl (Takanashi Rikka) moves into the apartment above the one where he lives, and she still does stuff like that, wearing a medical eyepatch (to seal her 'Wicked Eye') and a bandage on her left arm (covering a seal on the power of the harbinger of darkness), making combat poses at everyone she meets and talking a lot about her mana, chimera familiar (a stray cat she put wings on), the evil Priestess who shares the apartment she lives in (her big sister) and how she must be ready for battle at all times. Due to a momentary indiscretion when Yuuta is attempting to cleanse himself of his past forever, his neighbor (also his classmate) overhears of him being Dark Flame Master, and attempts to befriend him as a dark sorcerer who is also facing the threats that she faces.
... And we've all been there? Right? ...Right?
Anyway, as someone who is only about 90-95% over his own adolescent delusions of grandeur (Chuunibyou literally translates as 'Eighth-grader disease'), I find the premise to be nostalgic and amusing (and that's without mentioning Kyoto Animation's eye-melting artwork), and the execution to be effective and interesting. Rikka and Yuuta are hardly the only characters who have ever suffered from chuunibyou, and it's not portrayed as a life-destroying disease as much as a phase that may or may not have deeper roots.
A part of me wants to write an entire essay on the idea of adolescent delusions of grandeur and how they figure into society, grow and evolve and how accepted they are even in adults, but this is an anime blog.
So, instead, I'll say that Chuu2Koi (that's the official abbreviation, apparently) is pretty good, so far, and is likely to be high on my list of recommendations to my more grown-up nerd friends. Since we all were like that, once upon a time.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai
Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai: B+
So, yeah, it's pretty good. Way, way better than I expected it to be. It doesn't actually have any creepy brother/sister romance (though it mentions it a lot, both Kirino and Kyousuke think it's gross).
Oreimo is mostly about otaku, and otaku girls especially. It's a little bit about ostracism and coming out. It's also a little bit about hentai games and the people who play them, who really aren't bad people. It's also a little bit about family, and about the strangest things bringing siblings together.
It's... kind of hard to recommend, for all that, though. Overall it's completely competent, good even, but the story doesn't really resolve anything, though progress is made; we get to know a lot of characters and they're fun to watch. Mostly it's a story about some things happening and some lessons being learned. It's an anime that talks a lot about anime, dojinshi and Japanese games, so you've gotta be pretty into those if you want to be able to really get behind it.
If any sort of discussion of brother/sister romance (whether it occurs or not) utterly grosses you out, or if you're hoping to see fan service or action, go ahead and walk on by. If you're interested in a slightly off-color look at how otaku are perceived, you could do a lot worse than Oreimo.
Oh, one last note: If you watch it, note that there are two Episode 12s, the 'Good End' and the 'True End'. This is a reference to visual novel scenarios which have multiple endings, often which you'll need to complete the game multiple times to see. Anyway, in terms of the 'should watch' order, the Good End comes before the True End... even though they're kind of alternate universe versions of each other. It's only weird because the series is 15 episodes (16 if you count the two episode 12s) long, and the plot continues as if the True Ending happened, not the Good Ending, but if you watch only one you'll miss out on a little bit? Just watch them both in that order and trust me.
So, yeah, it's pretty good. Way, way better than I expected it to be. It doesn't actually have any creepy brother/sister romance (though it mentions it a lot, both Kirino and Kyousuke think it's gross).
Oreimo is mostly about otaku, and otaku girls especially. It's a little bit about ostracism and coming out. It's also a little bit about hentai games and the people who play them, who really aren't bad people. It's also a little bit about family, and about the strangest things bringing siblings together.
It's... kind of hard to recommend, for all that, though. Overall it's completely competent, good even, but the story doesn't really resolve anything, though progress is made; we get to know a lot of characters and they're fun to watch. Mostly it's a story about some things happening and some lessons being learned. It's an anime that talks a lot about anime, dojinshi and Japanese games, so you've gotta be pretty into those if you want to be able to really get behind it.
If any sort of discussion of brother/sister romance (whether it occurs or not) utterly grosses you out, or if you're hoping to see fan service or action, go ahead and walk on by. If you're interested in a slightly off-color look at how otaku are perceived, you could do a lot worse than Oreimo.
Oh, one last note: If you watch it, note that there are two Episode 12s, the 'Good End' and the 'True End'. This is a reference to visual novel scenarios which have multiple endings, often which you'll need to complete the game multiple times to see. Anyway, in terms of the 'should watch' order, the Good End comes before the True End... even though they're kind of alternate universe versions of each other. It's only weird because the series is 15 episodes (16 if you count the two episode 12s) long, and the plot continues as if the True Ending happened, not the Good Ending, but if you watch only one you'll miss out on a little bit? Just watch them both in that order and trust me.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Ore No Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga nai - Episodes 1-4
The title translates to "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute." It's usually abbreviated to "Oreimo," and it's been out for about 2 years now.
I didn't pick this series up for a long time because the pitch for it sounded extremely creepy: Boy finds out his perfectionist model little sister is a closet otaku because he discovers a little-sister hentai game hidden in an anime DVD box.
It sounds like a setup for a kind of gross brother/sister love story. But I'm 4 episodes in and while there are occasional points in that direction, it doesn't look like it's going to be a main plot element, and I honestly hope it stays that way.
Instead, so far it's been a thorough examination of being closeted about something. While it takes the context of being a closet otaku (Otaku being a much worse word in Japan than America), with Kirino (the eponymous little sister) dealing with a father who does not approve of this sort of thing and friends who she can't reveal it to for fear of ostracism finally talking to her brother about it after her cover is blown.
Her brother, not being an otaku himself (and being a little creeped out by it) nonetheless says he'll do whatever he has to to help his sister, and so gets dragged into meeting with her new otaku friends and doing his best to help her live her life the way she wants to.
So, in short, it's going up pretty high on my list of "Series that are way better than I thought they were going to be."
I didn't pick this series up for a long time because the pitch for it sounded extremely creepy: Boy finds out his perfectionist model little sister is a closet otaku because he discovers a little-sister hentai game hidden in an anime DVD box.
It sounds like a setup for a kind of gross brother/sister love story. But I'm 4 episodes in and while there are occasional points in that direction, it doesn't look like it's going to be a main plot element, and I honestly hope it stays that way.
Instead, so far it's been a thorough examination of being closeted about something. While it takes the context of being a closet otaku (Otaku being a much worse word in Japan than America), with Kirino (the eponymous little sister) dealing with a father who does not approve of this sort of thing and friends who she can't reveal it to for fear of ostracism finally talking to her brother about it after her cover is blown.
Her brother, not being an otaku himself (and being a little creeped out by it) nonetheless says he'll do whatever he has to to help his sister, and so gets dragged into meeting with her new otaku friends and doing his best to help her live her life the way she wants to.
So, in short, it's going up pretty high on my list of "Series that are way better than I thought they were going to be."
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Shoujo Kakumei Utena: A
Revolutionary Girl Utena is something of a famous anime, if you grew up on anime from the late 90s and early 2000s, because you couldn't get it all legally, the license was bought and then sat on, so the only way to watch the series was on bootlegs, which circulated around my high school during my junior and senior years, so I've got a long history with this show.
I was not expecting to give it an A this watch-through. I was thinking "eh, I think it'll only make B+ this time," and "I bet it won't hold up against its younger brother Star Driver." But, to my modest frustration, it does, and I end my watching going "Well dammit, I guess I'm giving it an A."
Utena is a lot of things, as a show, but the number one thing that it is is open to interpretation. More than almost any other show I've ever seen, everyone who sees Utena walks away with a different idea of what happened and what meant what. I only watch the series every five years or so, and I've come up with different interpretations each time. And each time, those interpretations have involved me so much that I can't put the series down, especially toward the end.
Utena may also be the single most twisted show toward its characters I am aware of; there are shows that are dirtier, bleaker, more depressing, have a higher body count and a greater degree of active sadism, but I can think of no other anime series that is so personally and deliberately hurtful to its characters. It's one of the things I love.
My criticisms of Utena mostly come in the early series, and a few stick throughout. Utena is fairly heavy on clip shows and filler, and while these are both done in ways which are entertaining, in a series that is so heavily built on mystery and symbolism, you get episodes where you just go 'gaaah, give me some goddamn plot!' Secondly, Utena feels like it leaves too much to the imagination, I've often said in describing the series that the series is definitely 30% symbolism and 30% absurdity, but I have no idea where the other 40% falls on that scale. There is no way to create a theory to correlate with everything that occurs, and the series does not bother explaining itself. Finally, and this is a minor thing, Utena doesn't reverse telegraph its secrets. Watching the series when you know what's going on doesn't cause you to go 'Hey, there's the abusive relationship that I know about that but haven't seen much of.' Utena doesn't tip its hand, so you only learn secrets as they are revealed. It's a minor thing, but I like the other way.
All that said, Utena is a fantastic story about friendship, lust, growing up, idealism, wishes, truth, hatred, dependence and defiance of self, of society and of rejection. Don't let its stylized art and shoujo nature fool you, this is a story that has plenty to offer the grown-up audience... if you have the patience to unravel it.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is something of a famous anime, if you grew up on anime from the late 90s and early 2000s, because you couldn't get it all legally, the license was bought and then sat on, so the only way to watch the series was on bootlegs, which circulated around my high school during my junior and senior years, so I've got a long history with this show.
I was not expecting to give it an A this watch-through. I was thinking "eh, I think it'll only make B+ this time," and "I bet it won't hold up against its younger brother Star Driver." But, to my modest frustration, it does, and I end my watching going "Well dammit, I guess I'm giving it an A."
Utena is a lot of things, as a show, but the number one thing that it is is open to interpretation. More than almost any other show I've ever seen, everyone who sees Utena walks away with a different idea of what happened and what meant what. I only watch the series every five years or so, and I've come up with different interpretations each time. And each time, those interpretations have involved me so much that I can't put the series down, especially toward the end.
Utena may also be the single most twisted show toward its characters I am aware of; there are shows that are dirtier, bleaker, more depressing, have a higher body count and a greater degree of active sadism, but I can think of no other anime series that is so personally and deliberately hurtful to its characters. It's one of the things I love.
My criticisms of Utena mostly come in the early series, and a few stick throughout. Utena is fairly heavy on clip shows and filler, and while these are both done in ways which are entertaining, in a series that is so heavily built on mystery and symbolism, you get episodes where you just go 'gaaah, give me some goddamn plot!' Secondly, Utena feels like it leaves too much to the imagination, I've often said in describing the series that the series is definitely 30% symbolism and 30% absurdity, but I have no idea where the other 40% falls on that scale. There is no way to create a theory to correlate with everything that occurs, and the series does not bother explaining itself. Finally, and this is a minor thing, Utena doesn't reverse telegraph its secrets. Watching the series when you know what's going on doesn't cause you to go 'Hey, there's the abusive relationship that I know about that but haven't seen much of.' Utena doesn't tip its hand, so you only learn secrets as they are revealed. It's a minor thing, but I like the other way.
All that said, Utena is a fantastic story about friendship, lust, growing up, idealism, wishes, truth, hatred, dependence and defiance of self, of society and of rejection. Don't let its stylized art and shoujo nature fool you, this is a story that has plenty to offer the grown-up audience... if you have the patience to unravel it.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Hyouka
Hyouka: A+
"Hyouka" means "Frozen Treats," when translated literally. "Ice Cream" would probably be a better way of saying it.
If you want to know why this series is called that, you'll have to watch the first five or six episodes. That's one of the first mysteries the Classics Club solves.
Hyouka is a calm, slow-paced and dialogue-heavy high school mystery series that follows the Classics club at Kamiyama High School, four students who gain a reputation in the school for solving real, little mysteries: the first episode's first mystery is why the club room door was unlocked when one member arrived, but locked, requiring a key, when the second arrived.
The series is noteworthy for Kyoto Animation's heartbreakingly beautiful animation, complex, deep and thoughtful characterization of a very small cast who we have plenty of time to get to know and come to befriend, its relative lack of common anime tropes and the cultural depth of the 'old family' characters.
If you want to watch a series that is beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful and patient, Hyouka is a wonderful, gentle ride through the kind of mysteries that puzzle people. If you're interested in action, comedy or even anything particularly magical beyond maybe the birth of love, Hyouka will probably leave you a little bit bored.
"Hyouka" means "Frozen Treats," when translated literally. "Ice Cream" would probably be a better way of saying it.
If you want to know why this series is called that, you'll have to watch the first five or six episodes. That's one of the first mysteries the Classics Club solves.
Hyouka is a calm, slow-paced and dialogue-heavy high school mystery series that follows the Classics club at Kamiyama High School, four students who gain a reputation in the school for solving real, little mysteries: the first episode's first mystery is why the club room door was unlocked when one member arrived, but locked, requiring a key, when the second arrived.
The series is noteworthy for Kyoto Animation's heartbreakingly beautiful animation, complex, deep and thoughtful characterization of a very small cast who we have plenty of time to get to know and come to befriend, its relative lack of common anime tropes and the cultural depth of the 'old family' characters.
If you want to watch a series that is beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful and patient, Hyouka is a wonderful, gentle ride through the kind of mysteries that puzzle people. If you're interested in action, comedy or even anything particularly magical beyond maybe the birth of love, Hyouka will probably leave you a little bit bored.
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