Tag: romance

Kokoro Connect

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life high school series… with body swaps.

Characters

Taichi, the main dude. Aside from an heavy interest in wrestling, he’s quite generic. Swaps out bodies midway with…

Iori, the fanciful and hyperactive girl. Technically the president of the “Student Culture” club (made from the 5 weirdoes who didn’t fit anywhere else), although she doesn’t act like it.

Himeko, the straight-laced girl who’s constantly annoyed by everyone else’s antics.

Yoshifumi, the casanova, and Yui, the shy girl, swapped bodies last night for a bit, which was very confusing to them both and quite awkward.

So far, nobody has a clue why this is happening or how.

Production Values

This is a lot more restrained than usual for studio Silver Link (BakaTest, CxCxC, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia), who are normally known for more showy directing techniques and artificial colour palettes. It’s still quite good-looking, and I like the effects used for denoting the body swaps.

Also, there’s refreshingly nearly no fanservice.

Overall Impression

This is a fun little series. The main characters have very good chemistry and play well off each other, which is essential for such a premise.

I was already hooked when the first half of the episode was previewed a week ago, but this confirms my initial good impression.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012 – Page 11.

My little sister is among them ! (Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Generic harem romance with heavy incest overtones. Adapted from a light novel series.

Characters

Shougo, our generic male lead. He’s the heir to a huge conglomerate, and Daddy’s will stipulated that the estate would be his if he found a girl to marry within the last couple of years of high school he has left. He even got a sweet bachelor pad to bypass the dorm regulations.

Konoe, the first girl he meets on his way there. The friendly big-breasted girl who’s fond of sweets. Also the class representative, and coincidentally sitting next to him in class.

Mana, the other girl sitting next to him, obviously the jealous flat-chested tsundere type. Very annoying.

Mei, a witch-Yuki-Nagato cosplayer who keeps stalking Shougo, and point-blank claims she’s his long-lost little sister (he conveniently has memory issues). Which doesn’t prevent her from wanting to bone him too.

Also in this episode : the airhead student council president and the level-headed vice-president, both of whom the OP present as possible marriage prospects.

Production Values

Very average. The fanservice level is a bit lower than you’d expect. (I can’t determine whether the shadows shrouding underskirt areas is censorship or just an artistic choice, but it does look better than the usual censorship tools.)

Overall Impression

Well, this is exactly what it sounded like, with no redeeming feature whatsoever. It’s dull, the characters are walking clichés with no personality, the dialogue is atrocious and the “mystery” of who’s the sister isn’t remotely entertaining. (Even if you give the show a little credit and assume Mei is lying.)

Pass your way without even bothering to check it out.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012 – Page 11.

Natsuyuki Rendez-vous

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A romantic comedy between adults, which is a rare occurence indeed. Adapted from a josei manga, obviously.

Characters

Hazuki, our protagonist. He’s taken a shine to the florist down the street, and has become a bit of a stalker. Buying a new plant every weekday, applying for the part-time job… Now, if only he had the guts to say out loud half of his snarky narration, he might have a chance.

Rokka, the florist. Frankly, she doesn’t make that much of an impression beyond “cute and sad”, as we mostly see her through Hazuki’s eyes.

Atsushi, her husband. Who casually walks around half-naked in her house just to put Hazuki off. And it would have worked if the latter hadn’t learned that the former has been dead for three years. Yep, he’s a ghost.

Also in this episode are the former part-timer (going off abroad to be married) and Atsushi’s sister, who comes around on weekends to lend a hand in the shop. But they’re mostly there to provide some gentle exposition.

Production Values

Quite good, and there’s some good visual jokes of Atsushi just floating around. Gorgeous ED, too.

Overall Impression

I was all ready to ignore the noitaminA show that isn’t about talking yeast, but this is actually quite good. Yuuichi Nakamura lends his usual charisma to our male lead, and makes for a fun double act with Jun Fukuyama. The “ghost” setup is a lot of fun too, and I like that the plot doesn’t seem to be wasting any time.

Definitely a keeper.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012 – Page 10.

Poems of Love (Chouyaku Hyakuninisshu: Uta Koi)

What’s it about ?

Remember Chihayafuru last year, about that card game based on 100 classic Japanese poems ? This is a (very liberal) adaptation of those poems. At least, the ones about love stories. Which is about half of them, so that’s plenty enough material.

(Adapted from a very popular josei manga.)

Characters & Plot

Fujiwara no Teika, the dude who’s supposed to have compiled the 100 poems, serves as our host for what is basically an anthology series. I like his sense of humour, for what little we see of it. (And it’s nice to have Yuki Kaji in snarky mode for a change.)

There are two tales here. The first one involves the lower-class Ariwara no Narihira seducing Fujiwara no Takaiko, who’s set to marry to Emperor soon, and thus doesn’t have time for such dalliance. You’ve seen this story thousands of times before, but this one works thanks to Narihira’s incredible charm and impeccably smooth technique, and Takaiko’s very genuine reactions.

The second tale is about his brother Ariwara no Yukihira’s happy marriage, and it doesn’t really go anywhere. It seems to be mostly an excuse to flesh Narihira’s backstory out a bit.

I have no clue whether we’re going to see any of those characters (besides our host) again later. I kinda doubt it, as I seem to recall the 100 poems having been written over a span of several centuries.

Production Values

This is a very good-looking series, with thick outlines and several other design choices contributing to make it look a bit like ancient Japanese paintings.

The ED features rapping. Of course it does.

Overall Impression

There is a lot to like here : it’s gorgeous, the dialogue is very well-written indeed, and the characters have a lot of life in them.

But… It’s an anthology of archetypal love stories. There’s a big risk of them quickly starting to repeat themselves. One of them this episode is already lackluster, and I really doubt this is going to keep my interest for long.

Still, I’ll at least try to stick with it for one more episode. Maybe they’ll find a way for it sustain itself for the long run ?

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2012 – Page 10.

Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Jazz in the 60s in Japan.

Characters

Kaoru, our point-of-view character. He’s a perpetual transfer student (his father kept moving around due to his job, and he’s now staying at his aunt’s), and not very good at dealing with other people. His main problem is that his anxiety often builds up and makes him nauseous… Oh, wait, he gets over it within the course of the first episode. Move along, then. Also, he’s got an actual personality : the stuck-up, bright kid that looks down a bit on everyone. He plays the piano and loves classical music, but this changes when he meets…

Sentarou, the class delinquent, the huge dude everyone’s afraid of. The kind of guy who can take on three senior students and not look ridiculous (he loses, because this is not the kind of series that lets him get away with it unscathed). He takes an interest on this puny protagonist that won’t back down, and it’s irritation at first sight between the two of them. He plays drums (often with improvised sticks on every available surface), and is a jazz fanatic.

Ritsuko, the class representative, and the actual reason Kaoru takes an interest in jazz. See, her father has this record store, and she invites him to the soundproof music room downstairs… and Sentarou’s already there, playing drums (they’re childhood friends). Cue macho posturing.

Production Values

Pretty good. And hey, if you’re going to do an anime series about jazz, you can’t go wrong with a Yoko Kanno soundtrack.

Overall Impression

There were always going to be a lot of expectations over Shinichiro (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) Watanabe’s big return. Well, this is nothing like those shows. This isn’t an action showcase at all, and you couldn’t make it more mundane and down-to-earth if you tried. The direction doesn’t do flashy at all… although there are some nice ideas such as introducing Sentarou through his music way before we actually get to see him.

What this is, though, is a love letter to jazz, played by characters who have some charisma indeed. I’m hooked, and I could see this grow on me as the season passes.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 10.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (Tasogare Otome x Amnesia)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A high school detective club who investigate ghost stories. And the club’s president is a ghost.

Characters

Okonogi, our point of view character for the first half of this episode. She seems to be the secretary of the club. She’s really, really stupid, and completely fails to pick up the numerous clues that there’s a ghost just next to her. Half of her interior monologue is devoted to how much she likes…

Teiichi, the vice-president of the club. He’s apparently got a sixth sense for paranormal events (although reading Okonogi’s thoughts is just a string of coincidences and misunderstandings). At the very least, he’s the only person who can see AND touch…

Yuuko, the club president, and a famous ghost haunting the school. It’s just that Okonogi is too dumb to make the connection. Since she’s invisible to most, she spends a lot of her time trolling people and flirting with Teiichi. She’s got some memory problems, hence the series’ title.

Kirie, the fourth member of the club. Somehow she can see Yuuko (the reason why isn’t explained in this episode, but becomes obvious once I did three seconds of research), and thus she spends most of her screentime being annoyed by her antics.

The gimmick in this episode is that you see the exact same sequence of events twice (down to the specific camera angles), first without and then with Yuuko and her dialogue. It’s not as successful as it could be, as most of it was perfectly obvious the first time around ; but there’s enough new material (especially Yuuko’s body language) for it not to feel like a waste of time.

Production Values

Impressive. The animation team goes out of its way to make even a simple corridor look cool, and the episode’s gimmick wouldn’t work without a great attention to detail and body language. There’s also some good use of colour for atmospheric effect. That said, there are some points later on where Okonogi’s hysterics devolve into SD shorthand.

Overall Impression

Hum. This is a decent setup episode ; the joke isn’t subtle, but it works. And of course, it looks great.

The problem is that, while we’ve now got a good handle on the characters, there’s no indication about where the show itself is going. Is the gang going to have random slice-of-life adventures ? Or is there a wider plot coming ? This episode doesn’t tell us, and so it’s hard to say yet whether the series can sustain 11 more episodes. (I really hope the gimmick was a one-shot, because otherwise it’s going to be bloody annoying.)

Well, at least I’m intrigued enough to check a couple more episodes out.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 7.

Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo X)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Romantic comedy (?) where the teenagers are really, really horny.

Characters

Akira, our protagonist. He’s a bit generic, with his most notable character trait being the very weird dreams he has. But then, it’s hard to stand out next to…

Mikoto, the mysterious new transfer student. I’ll grant her that : she’s weird in a way I’ve never seen before. She utterly refuses to socialize with the rest of the class and spends the breaks asleep at her desk. At one point she randomly erupts into wild laughter, to everyone else’s consternation. The only panty shot in the whole episode is to show she keeps a pair of scissors tugged in with the string.

The plot here is that Akira becomes addicted to her drool. Not because there’s anything special in it, ahah, that’d just be nonsense (OR IS IT ?), he’s just a horny teenager who’s fallen in love with her. Not that she minds, as a voice told her he would be the one she’s have her first sex with. (THAT’s why she suddenly erupted in laughter the other day.)

Production Values

Quite good. The dream sequences are especially nice to look at. The character designs are a bit retro, but Mikoto’s eye-obscuring bangs are a good design choice.

Special mention to the soundtrack, which together with the direction manages to permeate nearly every scene with a foreboding and creepily offbeat atmosphere. Even (and especially) when nothing bizarre is happening.

Overall Impression

Another well-directed “a boy and his creepy girlfriend” adaptation this season ? Okay, I’m not complaining, especially as this takes a completely different direction from Sankarea. The emphasis here is on how weird Mikoto is, especially as it’s impossible to tell whether she’s really just a normal girl who doesn’t fit in, or whether there’s something more at work here. There’s plenty to be paranoid about here… and Akira’s overactive imagination doesn’t help.

I have no clue whatsoever where this is going, but I’m hooked.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 7.

Acchi Kocchi

(12ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

Idiot hair, the anime.

Okay, not really, but it’s hard to find any actual premise here. It’s a gag series set in high school, adapted from a 4-panel manga.

Characters

Tsumiki, our central character. She’s short and very shy. Also, utterly improbable hair. She randomly sprouts cat ears whenever the show wants to make her cuter, which just looks a bit weird.

Io, her kinda boyfriend. He’s a boy of few words, and it’s hard to say at this point whether he’s deadpan or just bland.

Mayoi, their insane troll friend. She likes pranks, and the labcoat she’s always wearing makes her a technical genius, which is a dangerous combination.

Hime, their perverted fangirl friend. The kind who always gets nosebleeds when they do something cute. A bit ditzy and clueless.

Sakaki, the mandatory perverted best friend dude. Well, at least he’s more subdued and has more charisma than the norm.

Ms. Sakuragawa, their clumsy teacher with no authority whatsoever.

Production Values

Pretty scene transitions ! It’s almost a shame that these nifty geometric gimmicks don’t bleed more into the actual sketches, because they give the show most of its identity.

Overall Impression

Your token generic 4-panel gag series. Perfectly inoffensive, and most gags do trigger a smile, but the only distinctive thing about it (besides the scene transitions) is that it’s somewhat gender-balanced and centers on a romance subplot (that probably won’t go anywhere).

Eh, it looks like there’s nothing else on Fridays anyway, so I may well stick with it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 6.

Sankarea

(12ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

Romantic comedy. With zombies.

Characters

Chihiro, our protagonist. Completely obsessed with zombies : he’s got an impressive DVD collection and tons of related toys and props. And yes, he has a zombie-girl fetish. His pet cat just died, so over the last few days he’s been scurrying off to a condemned building and trying experiments from some random book he found somewhere so as to raise it from the dead. Because (1) he was very fond of it, and (2) hey, zombie-cat ! He’s perfectly aware it probably won’t work, but one never knows…

Rea, the title character, a girl who coincidentally screams into a well nearby the same condemned building in order to vent her frustrations. She comes from the very rich Sanka family (they own the local girls’ high school), and finds herself crushed by the weight of expectations. After the two of them meet and become quick friends, she makes it clear she’s willing to run away from her life with him. He turns her down ; he’s only interested in zombie girls. Well, if that’s the only problem…

Rounding up the cast are Chihiro’s family (busy priest father, dead mother, deadpan little sister, friend-zoned cousin), and his few friends at school (including the token perverted best friend, who doesn’t stand out much next to the guy with a zombie-girl fetish). The OP hints we’re also going to see Rea’s family at some point.

Production Values

Wait, did Deen hire someone from SHAFT, or is this director even ANN has never heard of just a Shinbo fanboy ? Okay, this is nowhere near the craziness of the -monogatari series, but it does copiously pick from SHAFT’s usual bag of tricks : long shots, shots from above, close shots on body parts, editing used in a way that punctuates the dialogue, a good use of shading and shot framing to build atmosphere…

Well, whatever, I’m all for techniques that make the most of the medium to improve storytelling becoming more mainstream.

Overall Impression

Hey, this is actually quite good ! I like Chihiro and his sense of humour (Ryohei Kimura’s charisma strikes again), the two leads have chemistry, and the artful direction doesn’t hurt. The setup is intriguing, with a killer cliffhanger (What did Rea actually do ?) that makes you want to come back for more.

Did someone say that out of the four “My Girlfriend is a X” adaptation, one of them should be good ? Well, this seems to be the one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 6.

Sengoku Collection

What’s it about ?

Gender-swapped Sengoku warlords thrown into the modern world.

Adapted from a cardgame app, because that’s a thing now.

Characters

Nobunaga Oda, the only girl who really shows up this episode. She’s shangaied away from her parallel world because… er, it’s not quite clear… and drops from the sky into current Tokyo. She eventually learns she’s not the only one and she’s gonna have to battle others like her to get back to her world, but most of the episode is spent on the culture shock.

She quickly shacks up with a poor random wage-slave dude, who’s somewhat bemused by this weird girl who won’t take no for an answer.

And that’s basically it for the cast this episode.

Production Values

Surprisingly good for this sort of thing. There’s a care to the animation that’s entirely wasted on such a project. (I guess Brains Base had to pay the bills and couldn’t find anything better to do…)

Overall Impression

Gender-swapped Sengoku warlords ? It’s been done already. Girl from a magical world who falls on some guy’s lap and experiences some “hilarious” culture shock ? Done to death too. This series is proof that bringing the two concepts together creates absolutely nothing of worth.

Of course, this show could have been saved through superior execution. But we don’t get that here : the characters are the same boring archetypes as usual, and there’s no spark whatsoever to this. The animation’s good, but that’s not enough to overcome the tediousness of the whole affair.

Pass along, nothing to see here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2012 – Page 6.