Tag: protagonists in college

Moyashimon (“Yeast Monsters”)

(11 episodes, 2007)

My previous exposure

There’s a sequel airing this Summer, and since it’s on noitaminA it’d have gotten on my radar sooner rather than later anyway.

Beyond that and the notion that it’s about cute microbes or something, I knew nothing of it.

What’s it about ?

Sawaki, our protagonist, is a new student attending an agriculture university. He can see microbes (bacteria, fungi, viruses, the whole lot of them), not as what they look like under a microscope, but as cute inch-tall little critters. He’s not too fond of this talent of his, and tends to keep it secret, but it turns out to be quite useful in the world of agriculture (both with the “good” fermenting microbes, and the “bad” toxic microbes).

But this is mostly a background thread, as the core of the series is a slice-of-life story involving the ensemble cast of Sawaki, his best friend Yuuki, Pr Itsuki (an ineffable microbe specialist who takes them under his wing), angry grad-student Hasegawa, never-do-well second-years Kawahama & Misato, and various over recurring characters.

What did I think of it ?

I didn’t expect this at at all. Sure, it’s very educative about how microbes are SERIOUS BUSINESS in agriculture, and the quirky “Sawaki-vision” does a lot to liven up all this exposition… but mostly it’s just a really good college slice-of-life series. Heck, the high point of the series is that hilarious two-parter with the survival challenge, and that had nothing to do with microbes.

This was well worth watching, and I can hardly wait for the second season.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 13.

The Tatami Galaxy (Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei)

(11 episodes, 2010)

My previous exposure

It’s a noitaminA show whose OP sequence was among JesuOtaku’s “best of 2010”. Beyond that, I knew nothing of it.

What’s it about ?

Our unnamed protagonist/narrator is a young college student who has spent the last two years in a quirky club ; he thought that’d be an occasion for socializing and having a great time, but it made him miserable and the only “friend” he made was Ozu, a backstabbing asshole who even looks impish. Well, there’s also this Akashi girl from the engineering department who might be a possible prospect… but our protagonist has by this point made such a mess of his life by this point that he thinks it’s too late to make a move, and really wishes he’d joined another club and never met Ozu.

The joke is that each episode has him joining a different club as he enters college, still meeting Ozu somehow, and still making a mess of his life in a completely different way. The series plays quite a bit on the format, first in #6-8 by having him join three clubs at once (with three different endings to about the same series of events), and then by climaxing in a tale where he never joins any club and things get really weird.

What did I think of it ?

Well, this is certainly a different anime from about everything else I’ve watched. I’m reminded a bit of some of the works of Satoshi Kon, with a stream-of-consciousness kind of storytelling that leaves a lot of room to dreamlike imagery. The character designs are deliberately cartoony, which helps when the plot gradually becomes more insane. I also love the ED sequence, which can only be described as “blueprint porn”, as rooms shuffle around rhythmically and thrust into one another along the tune.

This is a very wordy series. The characters are very talkative, and when they shut up, the protagonist takes over and never lets go. It could be tiring (and it is a bit), but the series is funny enough to get away with it. There are some great gags in every episode, the highlight probably being ep #3’s Cycling Club and its feud with the Illegal Parking Brigade.

What truly makes the series remarkable, though, is that the repetitive structure works. Each episode is different enough to entertain, and through each iteration we get a better handle on the supporting cast and how they all fit together. Especially remarkable is the final reveal about Ozu : he does have a purpose and a plan beyond random mischief, and it’s actually quite endearing. The weakest link may be Akashi, who doesn’t show that much personality beyond “ideal love interest”, but there’s still enough depth in her for the romance not to be forced. (It helps that some episodes have the narrator pursue some completely different women… or approximations thereof.) The ending is a bit weakened by the obviousness of the fractal structure of the narrative being made into the actual text, but there are enough pay-offs to what initially looked like throwaway bouts of weirdness for it to work.

This is a very good show which tried to do something very different from the norm and pulled it off. And it’s a lot of fun, too.

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 7.

Honey & Clover

(1st season : 24 episodes + 2 specials, 2005 ; 2nd season : 12 episodes, 2006)

My previous exposure

None whatsoever, beside being aware that it’s an adaptation of a josei manga that aired on noitaminA. (And that there’s also been at least one live-action TV series of it.)

For those not aware, noitaminA is a well-reputed TV timeslot that’s known for airing (1) adaptations of josei (female adults) manga (which is quite rare in anime) and (2) ambitious and/or artsy series. Both of which are perfectly up my alley, so it might surprise you that the first noitaminA series I watched was… last year’s Kuragehime. Since then, I’ve made a point of at least checking out every new show of theirs, while also going through their back catalog. Hence me now watching the series that started it all… and there are more of them in my to-watch list (I’m open to suggestions).

So far, only one show has been particularly outstanding (Eden of the East), and there’s been some misfires (Fractale, [C], most probably No. 6), but even those were at least interesting to watch, and the baseline quality of what I’ve seen has been quite good indeed : noitaminA really deserves its reputation.

What’s it about ?

A group of students at an art college who share a low-rent house. There’s Takemoto, doormat supreme, our de facto point-of-view character ; Mayama, the neat-freak who’s slightly more mature than the others ; and Morita, the money-grubing asshole who shares his time between cartoony antics and being away on mysterious, well-payed but tiring jobs. Also part of the main cast are Hanamoto, a young teacher of theirs that they’ve become quite close to ; Hagumi, Hanamoto’s cousin who looks like a child ; and Yamada, a girl who pins for Mayama.

While there’s a lot of slapstick humour, the main focus is on the various romantic subplots : both Takemoto & Morita are pinning for Hagumi, but the former’s too shy and friend-zoned, while the latter doesn’t think he deserves her (and I kinda agree) ; meanwhile, Yamada’s love for Mayama is mostly one-sided, as he’s stalking Rika, a close friend of Hanamoto who never quite recovered from her husband’s death.

What may be surprising is that none of these subplots make much progress over the 38 episodes and 5 years the series spans ; sure, the characters grow up quite a bit, but none of those relationships really goes anywhere (aside from Rika partially accepting Mayama) ; and despite frequent rejections, the characters can’t really move on. (The ending scenes suggest they do move on a bit eventually, but not that much.)

I’m treating both seasons as one because they’re really the same show with a six-month hiatus two thirds in ; there’s no real point in separating them.

What did I think of it ?

Well, it’s certainly an interesting watch. The first impression is that nothing much happens, with none of the romantic subplots making much progress over the course of the series ; which is compounded by the show averaging 4 episodes per in-story year until it finally slows the heck down and devotes a third of the first season and all of the second one to the fifth and final year. As a result, it’s not a show about people slowly discovering their love for each other ; it’s a show about people in (one-sided) love getting bluntly and repeatedly rejected, and learning to come to terms with that. Only Mayama gets some level of success in his romantic pursuits, and even that’s debatable. But then, there’s something grounded and realistic in how those classic rom-com archetypes (Takemoto the Nice Guy, Morita the Charismatic Jerk, and Yamada the Violent Tsundere) fail and it’s the Creepy (But Handsome) Stalker who “wins”.

You’ll notice I’m not talking much about Hagumi. That’s because she’s mostly an object of desire for other characters. We barely ever get into her head, and our perception of her is mostly filtered through Takemoto, Hanamoto and Morita. (And I get the feeling that Morita doesn’t understand her.) Sure, we don’t get much into Morita’s head either, but he’s easier to get a handle on (especially as the second season develops his backstory), and he’s not objectified to the degree Hagumi is. I do think Morita’s a horrible human being who wrecks everything and everybody around him, but at least he mostly feels real. Hagumi doesn’t, and her way too youngful appearance doesn’t help ; the only time I manage to take her seriously is when the camera is framed to make it less obvious.

So, we’ve got a love triangle centered on a non-character, and meandering romantic subplots that never go anywhere for much of the series. Does that make the series a wash ? Well, no, because occasionally there’ll be absolutely brillant melancholic sequences that will just break your soul. Especially striking were Episode #1-05, where Takemoto’s uneasiness with his new stepfather hit way too close to home ; and #1-06, where Hanamoto explains Rika’s circumstances (but there are a lot of those throughout the series). Moreover, I’ve grown to really enjoy the company of those characters (well, mostly Yamada, Hanamoto & Mayama, however much I joke about the latter’s “creepy stalker” behavior). They do feel like a tightly-knit group of friends (plus Morita), and I’m going to miss watching them, however rote some of their slapstick and infuriating their hopeless romantic pursuits are.

There are worse ways to feel about a series, aren’t there ?

via [LTTP/WIW] Various anime from the 00s and beyond – Page 4.

Kamisama Dolls

What’s it about ?

A young man tried walking away from his village full of conspiracies and deadly man-controlled robots… but it all comes back to bite him in the ass.

Characters

Kyouhei, our protagonist. He used to be a controller for one of those big mind-controlled robots they call “Gods”… but after a traumatic event, he decided to quit it all and become an ordinary salaryman in the big city. Yeah, like that ever works. The elders let him go, but it’s made very clear they’re still in charge of his life, whatever he thinks.

Hibino, the woman’s Kyouhei’s had a crush for a long time. I’m sure that he going to the same high school and joining the same company is totally coincidental. Not like he ever works up the nerve to ask her out, though (despite numerous opportunities in this first episode). She’s from his village too, although she wasn’t aware of the whole conspiracy/robots thing. He goes to live with her and her father after his flat gets destroyed halfway through the episode (at their invitation), which is totally not awkward at all.

Utao, Kyouhei’s little sister, has taken over his former role as robot controller. She comes in out of the blue, presumably to protect Kyouhei from…

Aki, another member of the village with a God robot in tow, and a complete psychopath (if that flashback with a dozen corpses is anything to go by). He was kept under heavy lock until someone made the mistake of mentioning Kyouhei had skipped town, at which point he escaped and started stalking him (with the “randomly and gruesomely kill someone in an elevator minutes before Kyouhei steps in it” kind of stalking). He’s not actually belligerent against Kyouhei, ranting about how the village elders are the real monsters, and Utao probably overreacted when she bombed Kyouhei’s flat (and Aki inside) to kingdom come. (Not that I believed for a second that Aki’s bodybag handled the village’s MIB was any proof of his death…)

Oh, and there’s a cryptic prologue with a couple of kids fighting off… something… that I can’t make head or tails of. Presumably they’ll explain it properly at some point.

Production Values

Pretty good animation, and the abrupt mood change from “drunken office party” to “oh my god is that a corpse in the elevator” is well handled. I also like the way how the hovering robots sing whenever they move ; it’s a nice way of making them otherworldly.

Is this the first show this season with a decent OP in graphics as well as song ?

Overall Impression

Well, this first episode does a good job of raising my interest in a premise I didn’t quite care for initially. Mission accomplished, I guess. The plot has potential, but it doesn’t grab me as viscerally as, say, Deadman Wonderland did last season. We’ll see how it goes.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011 – Page 3.

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

(11 episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

A loser boy’s adventures into the world of EXTREME trading-card gaming, with fight scenes in a fancy holographic parallel world and an ethereal guide to advise him.

Characters

Yoga, our college protagonist with realistic (if messy) hair. He works two part-time jobs to make ends meet, although that doesn’t amount to much given the current economic crisis. At least he’s sensible about his expenses.

Hanabi, Yoga’s not-girlfriend who still supports him quite a bit. (But when he works up the courage to ask her out for dinner, she points towards her boyfriend, who’s waiting for her. Harsh.)

Masakaki, the supremely irritating dude who makes Yoga an Offer He Can’t Refuse and. Just. Won’t. Go. Away. The offer involves unlimited funding, with the provision it has to be spent in the Financial District… which does not look like a real place but some rather like sort of parallel digital world. Yoga eventually relents.

We spend most of the first half of the episode with the former owner of Yoga’s membership into the Financial District… and considering how he ends up jumping in front of a train, we can see the Deal does not always end well.

We also see various people in the Financial District, including a quirky cab driver, a couple of elf-like girls, and the badass dude who creams out Mr (Rail-)Roadkill in a duel.

Production Values

Impressive. The Financial District has obvious CG everywhere, but it works, as it makes it all the more otherworldly. I also like the snazzy effect when subtitles and the like are incrusted on screen.

Also, there’s some very cool Taku Iwasaki music.

Overall Impression

Umm. On the one hand, it’s certainly got some very good production values, and I like the grim description of our protagonist’s life. It’s a very atmospheric series indeed.

On the other hand… Well, the centerpiece of this episode has two characters in a glorified Yu-Gi-Oh-style duel, summoning virtual critters and launching spells to hack at each other’s life points bank accounts.

I’m not sold yet, really.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 10.

Abnormal Physiology Seminar (Hen Zemi)

(13 half-length episodes)

What’s it about ?

Slice of life about very special college course where the students hand reports about their fetishistic experiments.

Characters

Matsutaka, our somewhat prude-ish heroine, who isn’t enthusiastic at all about this course. If you’re wondering why she’s attending, that’s because it’s a way to get closer to…

Komugi, who looks and acts like a nice guy but is actually quite an irritating jerk under the deadpan façade (but since he’s voiced by Akira Ishida, you can’t quite bring yourself to hate him…). Totally unashamed about his fetishes and what the Hen Zemi does.

Pr Meshiya, the teacher/researcher in charge of the Hen Zemi. A complete creep, and one wonders how he gets away with this with the faculty.

Mizukoshi, the nymphomaniac best student. She’s into really extreme stuff (seriously, her report in this episode ? Ewwww !). Beware her slobber whenever someone talks dirty in front of her.

We get to see a few more students attending the course : the peeping tom who camps with his camera under the stairs, the ecchi manga artist and his innocent-looking sadistic girlfriend…

Production Values

Adequate. I actually quite like the stylized artstyle : it gives everyone (apart from the teacher) a look of complete innocence that contrasts very well with what they’re talking about.

Overall Impression

Quite fun, actually. I appreciate the directness of the approach, and thankfully all the people involved are consenting adults (Matsutaka can quit whenever she wants…). There’s quite a lot of mileage in the sheer weirdness of those fetishes.

But it clearly won’t be to everyone’s tastes. Some of the fetishes described here are bound to squick you out. Also, and that’s a bit more problematic, not all of the jokes are that funny. Moreover, I worry that the short format won’t give the series the time to properly gel. Still, if you have any interest in the subject matter, it mostly works.

There’s been a couple of OVA out ; they seem to have been some sort of pilot or something. It’s basically more of the same, but they aren’t necessary at all to understand this first episode (which introduces all the key players properly).

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 7.

Steins;Gate

(24 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Current day setting, but with a lot more weirdness. Our protagonist witnesses a murder that doesn’t seem to have actually happened, attends a lecture that was canceled, and somehow sent text messages into the past. Also, a satellite crashed into the place he was (he doesn’t seem worse for the wear). Despite already having a few screws loose, he’s more than weirded out by the whole thing.

Characters

Okarin, aka Rintarou Okabe, aka Kyouma Hououin. Our paranoid protagonist. Self-proclaimed mad scientist, although this might just be the crazy talking (his actual inventions are far from impressive). He heads a college research club that dabbles into weird science, such as time travel theory. He constantly babbles about a conspiracy orchestrated by something called the Agency, but there’s no real sign of it actually existing.

Mayuri, his sickeningly sweet childhood friend. She seems to have no science background whatsoever (she’s stated to be into sewing cosplay outfits), and probably sticks around because she likes Okarin. The obvious twist would be that she’s an Agency plant.

Taru, SUPA-HACKA ! and reclusive geek, the third and last member of Okarin’s research club. A welcomed source of snark to counter Okarin’s mad ramblings.

Kurisu Makise, a gloomy girl Okarin meets at a time-travel-related lecture, and wants him to explain what he meant (he has no clue what she’s talking about). He finds her bloody corpse a bit later… but she shows up perfectly fine at the end of the episode.

Production Values

A bit hard to judge, considering I’ve watched a crappy streamed version. Still, it’s quite good at setting up a creepy claustrophobic atmosphere with some weird camera angles, and Okarin’s body language is impressive.

Overall Impression

Wow, this is very intriguing indeed. The storytelling borders on the incoherent, especially with a protagonist who isn’t entirely sane, but it still manages to hang together somewhat and set up an intriguing mystery. A lot of the series’s charm comes from Mamoru Miyano’s impressive performance as the lead character, managing to perfectly convey Okarin’s delusions while still making him an engaging character.

Now, it’s perfectly possible this series could eventually disappear into its own arse when it’s time to explain what’s actually happening. But so far, I’m in.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2011 – Page 3.

Winter 2011 capsules

A few words on the first episode of the second season of Kimi ni Todoke… Well, it’s actually “Episode 0”, for an obvious reason : it’s a recap of the first season.

Now, there was a truly awful recap episode in the middle of the first season, bringing nothing new to the table and saddled with a tedious and downright bizarre Greek chorus. But this is different : after all, it’s been nearly a year since I watched all this, so I don’t mind the plot refresher.

And moreover, the whole thing is from the point of view of Ume “Kurumi” Kurumizawa, Sawako’s unlucky bitchy rival for Kazehaya’s affections. While I don’t think we learn anything new here, it’s a nice change from Sawako’s viewpoint. And I admit I loved the gag around Kurumi’s Death Note.

On the other hand, there is the slight issue that Kurumi’s such an egotist that we barely get any insight into any of the other characters… and moreover, it completely skips the whole Chizuru/Ryuu thing, in which she had no involvement. But presumably all this is going to be covered in the series proper if needed.

The new OP & ED are nothing to write home about, and certainly less epic than the originals. I did get a chuckle out of the implication of Ayane/Pin in the OP, though.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 4.

I’m not going to do a full review of the Supernatural – The Animation series of OVAs, but here are my thoughts on the first episode : it’s perfectly okay, but I’m not sure I’m going to keep watching. You can really see the “standard American TV series” setup (two brothers on a road trip investigating weird stuff in a new location each episode). The two leads have good chemistry, it’s got a decent sense of style, and it’s pretty good at what it does (paranormal thriller). On the other hand, the open-endedness of the premise (it adapts “the first two seasons of the TV show”, plus various original stuff) makes it clear there’ll be no real resolution in those OVAs.

Still, if I was more interested in the genre, I’d probably give it more of a chance, but I’m already watching too much stuff.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 28.

OVA CHECK !

I’m horribly late as is on most of this stuff, so I’ll keep it brief.

Hen Zemi #1 (of 2) (“Abnormal Physiology Seminar”) is a prelude (or whatever) to a full TV series airing next spring. The premise is that a normal college girl attends a special course about “sexual perversion” (for credit, I presume), and gets tons of ludicrously embarrassing assignments from it. And that’s without going into the six other weirdoes attending the class or the very creepy teacher supervising it.

It’s actually better than it sounds – the fanservice could be much worse, Kana Hanazawa is as adorable as ever as the lead, and I’m all for a series that doesn’t demonize bizarre sexual quirks as long as they’re consensual (in other words, it’s miles better than MM!).

The problem is that it’s “nearly funny”, which doesn’t quite cut it. I did smile here and there, but that’s it. It may yet improve, so I’ll try getting the other OVA (out within a couple of weeks) and keep an open mind for the TV series, but I’m not too optimistic.

Mirai Nikki (“Future Diary”) is a 9-minute-long trailer testing waters for a potential future series. The gimmick is that our high school protagonist finds on his cell phone a detailed diary of his next 90 days (given by enigmatic paranormal entities). Various other people were given the same thing, and the whole thing is a game, won by the last person standing.

On these grounds, I’m sold. It’s an interesting premise, the atmosphere is built appropriately (it definitely feels very creepy), and I loved how dysfunctionally the relationship with the obligatory love-interest-with-a-diary-too started off. This reminds me of the best aspects of Death Note, although it’s different enough to be its own thing.

Yuri Seijin Naoko-san (“Lesbian Citizen Naoko-san”) is a 6-minute-long adaptation of a gag manga about… I’m not sure, actually. An sarcastic alien maid stalking a high-school girl and sniffing the skirts of any passing girl because she claims that’s the only way to get good reception from the stars. Also, she can randomly summon trains in the middle of a little street.

This is a very baffling short indeed. The key thing, though, is that it’s not funny at all, and that’s what kills it for me.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri #1 (of 2) is a bridge OVA before a proper second season next summer. It’s basically the same as ever, with a “cultural festival” backdrop to riff on the usual recurring jokes. It’s good fun, and I loved the multiple endings, but don’t bother with this unless you watched and liked the first season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 29.