Fukigen na Mononokean Review

Completed 12/2016

Type: TV

Episodes: 13
Aired: Jun to Sep, 2016
Premiered: Summer 2016
Producers: Square Enix, AT-X
Studios: Pierrot Plus

Fukigen na Mononokean is a manga adaptation originally by Kiri Wazawa.

I’ll give in a silver. It’s entertaining and by the last episode, I was a little sad it was over.

It’s a basic premise which is seen and a hundred different anime and this one fails to bring anything particularly new to the fray. Apart from the finale, the final arc is pretty good as far as originality goes.  A high school student discovers the world of the supernatural and has to learn to deal with it. Or in this case gets blackmailed into working for an exorcist and helps the youkai and humans alike out with their problems.

 

Help me!! 

 

The mascot for this anime is adorable, the lovely fluffy. Like many mascots for supernatural anime, he starts as an ‘enemy’ and ends up being an ally. In this case, it is more the MC, Hanae, gets attached to fluffy and vice visa so Fluffy wants to stay with Hanae. So Fluffy stays and as loyal as the dog he(?) once was. Mascot aside, the colours are nice, as is the animation. The anime is well made and a joy to watch.

For a thirteen episode anime it’s well paced but there didn’t seem to be enough time for much to happen. The story was sweet and I would like to see a second season to develop all the threads they started but I doubt it will happen. There is a lot of potential here and a lot of space for the characters to evolve into people to care about. As it was I didn’t really get attached to any of the characters like I normally do to this type of anime

As far as a sequel goes, anything is possible, with a anime like Natsume Yuujinchou getting a fifth season after a few years of hiatus, I feel like this genre is in at the moment. I have no issues with this.

 

 

New Game

Completed 12/2016

Type: TV
Episodes: 12/12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jul to Sep, 2016
Premiered: Summer 2016
Producers: Kadokawa Shoten, Delfi Sound
Studios: Doga Kobo

New Game is a manga adaptation originally by Shoutarou Tokunou.

New game is a surprisingly entertained and refreshing slice of life anime. Then again between Poco’s Udon and March’s lion my slice of life animes this season are quite dark. The anime is about a girl who after she graduates from high school joins a games company and ends up working on a game she has always admired.

 

The graphics for the game they are making aren’t half bad either.

 

So lots of anime rules in this one. It’s moe so the main character, Aoba, still looks like she’s in grade school (which is mentioned several times to her annoyance), the company she works at only has women and there are random panty shots. Not of her admittedly but of her sempai. Her boss often spends the night at the office and sleeps in her pants. One of the more different ways I’ve seen but after the first few episodes, it’s pretty much just plot based. There is one episode where it comes up again but it feels a bit like they went ‘f*** we forgot the fan service. Ok, let’s do this!’.

Storywise, the shows pretty solid. No random trips to the beach or anything like that, it keeps fairly on track as to what someone’s working life is like for the most. The problems Aoba faces as she adjusts from high school to work life is amusing, and I like the fact the show shows Aoba interacting with her best friend from school too. People don’t just disappear (well not completely) when you get a job or go to university. It’s harder to see each other but most are still about.

The emotions are more girly than I usually like but compared to some moe anime, still fairly realistic. Still moe-ified though and very dramatic. All the characters aren’t complete carbon copies of most moe animes as well which makes a nice change. To be honest that probably gives a silver on its own. Aoba’s earnest and hard working and her colleagues around all are fairly distinct and quite unique. There is an office cat as well! Just to add to the endless moe tropes.

 

I think this cat and a hedgehog are the only named guys in the whole series lol.

 

The colours! Oh this anime is pretty and vibrant and I’m a sucker for any anime who colour their character eyes so prettily. Not enough to rate it higher than I think it’s worth, though. Animation wise it was really good as well. There were no glaring mistakes when it came to the positioning of the eyes and the characters all moved really well.

So I’ll give is a solid silver and recommend giving it a go 🙂

Pani Poni Dash

Watched 11/2016

Type: TV
Completed Episodes: 3/26
Aired: Jul 2005 to Dec 2005
Producers: Square Enix, Starchild Records, GANSIS
Studios: Shaft

Pani Poni Dash is a manga adaption originally by Hekiru Hikawa.

Stone

It’s bright, it colourful, it tries to put as many jokes as it physically can in each episode and I just didn’t like it. Classroom anime’s like these are 50/50 with me anywhere because of the format but adding in the parody element meant this was never going to be my favourite of this week’s anime.

Some people love these types of anime but the humour in this one fell flat on me and I didn’t particularly like the animation style either. So I gave up. I gave it three episodes but I just didn’t click with it. I liked the concepts that aliens were watching them. Plus it wasn’t just one class of characters to deal with but two.

Good luck if you like these types of anime but it’s not for me.

Ichigo Mashimaro Review

Watched 11/2016

Type: TV
Completed Episodes: 12
Aired: Jul 2005 to Oct 2005
Premiered: Summer 2005
Producers: TBS, Movic
Studios: Daume

Ichigo Mashimaro is a manga adaptation originally by Barasui.

Gold

This anime has been described as tooth-rotting sweetness. It’s an apt description. This is about five girls, one who is 20, smokes and is in university (Itou) and four who are still in primary school and are best friends. Itou watches over the four young girls and their antics which often breed trouble. The four girls have fairly distinct personalities which mesh together well.

It’s cute, well designed and the animation is well done. I’m actually quite curious about the manga now because of the story itself. They are just silly little skits but they are very entertaining. There is a standard on about going to a festival, but there are also ones about finding jobs and losing weight.

Miu, in particular, is a strange mix of adorable and annoying. She’s extremely energetic and random. Which basically means she gets into the most trouble and is often the centre of attention. She does have a soft side too and gets lonely on occasion when the others don’t cater to her madness. Doesn’t stop the watcher wanting to strangle the girl at times but meh.

One thing which is amusing is the use of cigarettes in the programme. Itou smokes and it is an ongoing thing that she needs a part time job to pay for them and borrows money off her sister. In some ways, it makes it more realistic because people do smoke but I can’t imagine it happening in modern anime.

So it’s cute, has a good plot line and has good animation. Plus I enjoyed it lots. So Gold.

Patalliro Saiyuki Review

Watched 11/2016

Type: TV
Episodes: 26
Aired: Jun 2005 to Nov 2005
Producers: Magic Bus
Studios:Magic Bus

Patalliro Saiyuki is a spin-off of a manga by Mineo Maya.

Silver

This is basically one of the many manga retellings of the traditional Chinese story Journey to the West. With more comedy and a dose of shounen ai for good measure. Not that I mind that at all. The story is basically about a monk travelling to obtain Buddhist sacred texts in order to learn more of Buddha’s teaching. Along the way, he faces man trails and demons and ends up with a demon bodyguard who is a monkey. The monk is too divine and the bodyguard is too demon and during this journey they learn to respect each other.

In this version as well as a monkey demon we have a cat demon who seduces the monk and normal crowd which appears in this tale. The episodes are only 10 mins long as well.

This anime was actually really fun. It wasn’t brilliant but it was certainly fun to watch and a lot easier to watch than some anime’s I’ve been watching recently. The plot was well done and very funny while mostly keeping to the originals plot ideas.

The animation could be better. It not actually bad but the manga was started in 1978 and so the character designs are extremely old. This gives the show a dated look which makes it worse than it actually is. The music is pretty good but there are little to no effects. It’s clearly animated in a traditional style too. Not an anime to watch for art style for sure.

One thing I quite enjoyed about the story was the narrator. He was an amusing addition to the story to explain the things that weren’t necessarily obvious or known in the story.

Beautiful or not I do think this anime is worth a look at and for that I give it a silver.

Amaenaide Yo! Review

watched 11/2016

Type: TV
Episodes: 12/12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jul 2005 to Sep 2005
Studios: Studio Deen

Amaenaideyo is a manga adaption originally by Sogabe Toshinori.

Bronze.

It’s alright. It has its moments when its funny bit for the most point it’s just a standard ecchi show from this period of time. The boy is 16 and is your standard pervert (aka a normal 16-year-old boy) who lives with a bunch of girls as he trains to become a monk. Why? Um. Well, I guess its a family thing? Either way.

The basic premise of this show is Ikku is a pretty weak monk and as little spiritual power  but when he sees the girls naked he turns into a super-monk and can exercise any demon. I assume because to a horny teenage boy there is no purer feeling that seeing a girl’s breasts.

The situation skits themselves are pretty standard situations for high schoolers to be in, monks in training or not. Still, they are entertaining enough. The ecchi moments are easy to spot. There are no missed opportunities here, if there is a chance, the show will make a point to empathise the girl’s boobs or pantie shots. Some of the girls care more about it than normal and will punish Ikku for making any comments.Or just being there when they are angry. He gets beaten up a lot just for being the man in the group.

Poor bloke. It’s one of the trends in ecchi anime I’m kind of glad has become less common in recent years. Aka, the ‘pervert’ being beaten up for anything which happens (even when unrelated to him) because he’s a pervert. It’s one thing when he’s actually doing something perverted or making a perverted comment but another when he’s simply in the room when one of the girls is pissed.

I guess these animes were targeted at masochists who dreamt of living in a harem and getting beaten up by the girls. Not really a healthy message to send young boys while I appreciate the fact these women are strong and independent from men. Partly in this anime because they are nuns and have sworn off relationships but meh.

Once thing which did pleasantly surprise me was the ending. For one thing, there was an actual story and plot there in a show that was mostly one show stories. It was impressive given the genre. Even if it was still a fairly ecchi premise in itself.

 

Anne Happy Review

completed 10/2016

Type: TV
Episodes: 12/12
Aired: Apr 2016 to Jun 2016
Producers: Sotsu, Contents Seed
Studios: Silver Link.

Anne Happy is a manga adaptation originally by  Cotoji

Silver

Anne Happy is one of those animes which properly works perfectly well as a manga but I don’t think should have been made into anime. It’s adorable and cute and very go happy. It is basically what it says on the tin. There is a class of girls who are incredibly unluckily and are being taught to be happy. Or possibly a little luckier. Anne is ridiculously unlucky and as it typically goes, incredibly happy and genki.

 

I’m actually struggling to come up with more to say about this anime other than ‘meh’. Ok that’s a lie, it was oddly addictive. The opening song was really good and stories got more entertaining as the show continued. Not actually sure how I went from not liking the anime to enjoying it but it happened.

The animation on this one was shoddy with silver link trying to use some 3d effects which I’m pretty much most 1st-year animation student can use down to make some of the scenes more dramatic. The movements are awkward, though they do actually move the mouths in this one unlike some of their earlier works.

Not entirely sure if the lack of faces on the other students in the case are laziness from Silver link or a style choice from the original artist. Either way, it’s a little disconcerting. Forget the jokes about major characters having brightly coloured hair in anime, in this one its simply having a face.

So yeah. Originally I gave this a bronze, I’ve since updated it to a silver. Not sure I would ever really recommend this but it had a strange charm.

Hiyokoi Review

Watched 10/2016

Type: Special
Episodes: 1
Aired: Jul 30, 2010
Producers: Shueisha
Studios: Production I.G

This special is a manga adaptation by Moe Yukimaru.

 

This was a little dash of gold. Admittedly it’s only one episode so it would have been hard to mess up (but completely possible) but it was very entertaining. It’s a shame that it was only a special but there is a 3 OVA also out also which i will hunt down at some point. I only watch this because it came on after finishing  Bonjour♪Koiaji Pâtisserie.

Simply its about a very small girl starting school again after being in an accident and becoming ‘friends’ with a very tall boy. She’s a very timid character but even in this one episode there were signs she was going to develop into more. It typical shoujo but the lass, timid as she is, isn’t a complete wuss which is nice. The guy also isn’t completely 2D too.

I hope at some point it gets picked up again.

 

 

Aldnoah Zero Review

Aldnoah Zero

Completed 2015

Type: TV
Episodes: 24/24
Aired: Jul 6, 2014 to March 2015
A Manga adaptation, written by Pinakes

Aldnoah Zero is not a bad anime. But it suffers from some fatal flaws. The anime has a dramatic and sober air to it. With a plot that had potential to be something great but then something happened and I’m not sure what. It dropped. The action became generic. More generic than normal for an anime which involves one boy being able to defeat aliens no one else can. The plot as well went from very interesting, to a tale which we have all seen before in one shape or another.

The art was bland. Nothing special, the same crisp lines we have been seeing for a while. I was actually expecting it to be by the same director/designer of Owari no Serph but it is not so. There are occasional when I feel you could have copy and pasted the characters into each others stories and it would have had little effect.

Characters, like the art are your standard breed. Like someone just looked up what characters do you need in an Mecha anime. The Princess is bathed in a white dress, blonde with a heart as big as her green eyes. She loves everyone she meets but there are forces working against her. Spends much of the anime in cryogenics.

Her lady in waiting is a young girl who is naive and scared of everything. With the other girls, despite being soldiers they remain high school girls pretty much. Unable to do much, Even the main guys sister who was in the army from the beginning wails pathetically when things aren’t going right. No character growth at all. Ignoring one girl who is a plot point, but even her growth is your standard *yawn* seen it a million times.

The story is spilt between the two sides. Earth and Mars. Mars is a monarchy and as such is all proper and prim. No feeling and lot of multiplication and backstabbing. We watch as earth born Slaine finds to find his place in the Mars army to help his beloved princess. Facing discrimination along the way for being terran born. Slaine rarely showing emotion other than towards his princess and is very resourceful.

On the Earth side we watch Inaho, an emotionless boy who has fallen for the princess, fight to protect his friends and survive. All stoic and endlessly brooding. Knowing things that no one seems to understand. Either the characters nor the audience. I assure to give him some kind of mythical untouchable air. It makes a change from the cheeky rascal we are usually given except, with Slaine personally being so similar…

I only have one question for this anime. What happened to the originality we saw in the first season? This turned into another carbon copy which I would not recommend to anyone. So Bronze

Ninin ga Shinobuden Review

Ninin ga Shinobuden (Ninja Nonsense)  

Completed 2015

Type: TV
Episodes: 12/12
Aired: Jul, 2004 to Sep, 2004
Producers: ufotable, Right Stuf, NYAV Post, Toshiba Entertainment, Happinet Pictures

Ninin ga shinobuden is a manga adaptaion orginally written by  Ryoichi Koga.

A loud, brash and outright outrageous anime. I’ll give it a gold. Its animation style is bright, bold and also cartoon like. Full of gags and excellently done. And the story! Its not big, its a simple premise but ones which works excellently for the 12 episode series.Plus its got a perverted no humanoid as its mascot.

So what is the plot of this anime. Its basically about the normal girl, who accidently becomes friends with a female ninja in training and the antics that brings. Notably that Shinobu lives with basically a frat house full of ninjas, perverted and stupid antics included, and the master of this place is a perverted magic yellow ball. The ninjas themselves serve as both comedy relieve and plot devices. Often appearing when least wanted. While though out the anime they all look the same there are a couple of names which get repeated. There main thing is they are basically a bunch of hyped up young men who aren’t the smartest in the world, but follow the word of their master.

What to say about the  yellow ball which is Onsokumou? He’s an perverted idoit. He’s appearance is never really explained though at the beginning of the anime they try to exclaim he is a hawk. He claims to be the master of ninjas but it doesn’t really show any skills to back it up. He is in love with himself and also with Shinobu. And any other pretty girl. He’s a jerk, a liar and causes many of the problems. And is hilarious. It spends much of the anime getting beat up for his actions.

In summary. Good anime, very funny and keeps your attention. Silver 🙂