I think it’s fairly obvious by now that I am entirely consumed by my love and desire to watch anime. This is something I have come to terms with. What you may not know is that I have spread this affliction, much like a disease, to Cas. He’s infected. The metaphor breaks down with the fact that he’s wholly complicit in the process, but I’d like to think my influence has at least expedited his conversion.

Originally, Cas and I were going to make this a joint endeavor. Sharing some of our initial reactions to the new block of creamy anime nougat filling the chocolate-covered week. Sadly, he’s decided that consummating the marriage to his wife is more important. That guy really needs to get his priorities straight. In lieu of a coproduction, I’ll be taking the helm alone. He can supplement his thoughts once he returns to the country.

Angel Beats!

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: Mazui

Kether: Angel Beats! is easily one of the most intriguing and enthralling series of the season so far. The show takes place in the afterlife, and follows the main protagonist Otonashi, a boy who lost his memories of his life after dying. He is enrolled into the afterlife school, which exists as a Purgatory between Heaven and Earth where students learn to give up any lingering attachments they still have from life before finally going to heaven.

While the injuries or cause of death is gone, those in the afterlife school still can feel pain or other things as they did when they were alive. Otonashi meets a girl named Yuri who invites him to join the Shinda Sekai Sensen (SSS) (lit. Afterlife War Front), an organization she leads which fights against God. The student council, led by its president, Angel, is in charge of keeping the status quo and the fight against the SSS.

This series is only going to be 13 episodes long, but even after the 3 I’ve seen so far, my expectations have been greatly accelerated. The story is definitely unique; incorporating components of humor, drama, and tragedy. On top of that, the soundtrack is one I’ll definitely be interested in picking up when it comes out.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: KRAFT, Formula

Kether: Arakawa Under The Bridge tells the story of Kou Ichinomiya, a man who has accomplished many things all by himself. Ever since he was little, his father has taught him one rule: to never be indebted to another person. One day by accident, he falls into a river and almost drowns.

A girl by the name of Nino rescues him and in turn he owes her his life. Unable to accept the fact that he is indebted to her, he askes her about a way for him to repay her. In the end she tells him to love her. This is the beginning of Kou’s life living under a bridge.

If you liked Bakemonogatari, you’ll more than likely enjoy this series. The show is incredibly dialog-heavy, which seems to be SHAFT’s calling card at this point, and the delivery of the lines and humor are very stylistically similar. I really enjoyed bakemono, so I’m a fan of this one as well.

B Gata H Kei

Information: AniDB
Sub Group: Doko, CoalGuys

Kether: B Gata H Kei revolves around 15 year old high school student Yamada whose lascivious nature causes her to aspire to one day achieve relations with 100 different partners. However, her insecurities as a virgin leads her to reject every guy that attempts to make a move on her. In order to hurdle this mental barrier Yamada goes on a search for her “golden cherry”, an inexperienced boy whom she will bestow the right to be her first.

One day while perusing a bookstore for the replacement of a dictionary she had defiled by highlighting all the sexual terms, Yamada has a fateful encounter with classmate Kosuda Takashi. Believing that Kosuda is the boy she is looking for Yamada goes to great lengths to try and seduce him. All the while, she discovers the difficulties in making that first important step towards reaching her goals.

This show has awesome written all over it. Filled with awkward sexual situations, B Gata is already one of the funniest comedies of the season. I also like the somewhat counter-intuitive transposition of roles. Placing the sex-crazed teenager as a girl really adds an element to the story that I might otherwise not have enjoyed if the genders were reversed.

Heroman

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: HorribleSubs, CrunchySubs

Kether: Orphaned American boy Joey lives with his grandmother, working at a restaurant in the West Coast city of Center City, while going to school. Upon hearing of a new toy robot called the Heybo, Joey believes that getting one will make his life better, turning him into a hero to protect his friends and family. However, he cannot afford to buy it on his meager salary.

His luck changes when he picks up a broken down Heybo abandoned by a school bully. He tries to fix it, naming it Heroman, but does not have any luck in getting it to work. However, when it gets struck by a bolt of lightning, it transforms into a giant robot, just in time to save his friend Lina from impending danger. Now, Joey and Heroman are Earth’s only defense against the evil insectoid Skrugg aliens, unknowingly summoned to Earth by Joey’s science teacher.

I’m watching this series mainly because it’s a joint venture between studio BONES and Stan fuckin’ Lee. Overall, the plot doesn’t really impress me, but it does feel very comic book-y. Also, having the series set in the United States makes for a somewhat surreal, but refreshing change of pace. Ultimately, who doesn’t like giant robots? That was a rhetorical question.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: CrunchySubs, SubDesu

Kether: This story of “love, magic, and battles” revolves around Akuto Sai, a boy who aims to become part of his country’s highest order of magicians and contribute to society. On the day he is admitted into the Constant Magical Academy, his aptitude test predicts the following: “Future Occupation … Demon lord .” Thus begins his difficult school life in which he is resented by his studious female class head, desired by a girl with mysterious powers, and guarded by a beautiful female android.

At first glance, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou is a fairly common exercise in magical high school fan service, which would really be enough for me, but the show is actually really well animated excelling most in the short fight sequences and the unleashing of magical energies. I’m actually pretty interested in where the story is going to go. I don’t yet know how many episodes the series will be, but so far I’m enjoying it and will continue to watch it (especially the uncensored versions *wink*).

K-ON!!

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: CoalGuys

Kether: Similarly to Haruhi, K-ON is like a goddamn religion in Japan. K-ON!! represents the second season of the series (the first being K-ON! – note one exclamation mark). If you’re unaware, K-ON centers around four high school girls (eventually adding a fifth) who form and participate in a light music club at school.

The show is basically a slice of life anime revolving heavily around the girls and their music. It’s hard to describe what makes this show awesome. It relies heavily on its characters, dialog and humor. There isn’t really much of a story to speak of, which doesn’t detract from the show at all. I mean, it’s about high school girls in a band playing music. Say no more.

This new season basically picks up where the first leaves off. The girls are now seniors in high school. This season looks to be much the same as the previous which solidifies my excitement for its return. Mio is the best, by the way.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: Eclipse

Kether: Roughly translated as “The (Student Council) President is a maid”, Kaichou wa Maid-sama is shaping up to be one of my weekly anticipated watches. The name really tells it all. Misaki is the student council president in a formerly all boys school. Her agenda is to turn this depraved, male-dominated high school into a more suitable educational option for girls.

Misaki is incredibly aggressive, diligent, and unyielding her in aims – to the extent all the guys in the school are afraid of her wrath. Her secret? She works part-time at a maid cafe (side note: when are we getting these in the US?!) to help support herself, sister and mother who are not especially well off financially. Everything is fine until the school pretty boy, Usui, who is incredibly passive and seems to not care about his popularity, stumbles upon Misaki while at work.

This series will more than likely also be a slice of life anime centered around Usui taking an interest in the overpowered Misaki and their resulting relationship. On top of this being a silly romance, so far it has also been quite funny. If you’re into quirky, high school love animes, you should probably add this one to your list.

Kiss x Sis

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: Doki

Kether: To sum up this show in a word or phrase, I would offer: “fanservice” or “ethically ambiguous”. Kiss x Sis revolves around Keita, a third-year junior high school student and his two older twin sisters. I guess I should make the distinction now. They’re step sisters. Very important, as Keita’s older high school step sisters are in love with him and actively pursue him sexually.

I’ve been watching anime a long time now and I still don’t quite grasp Japan’s fascination with forbidden sibling love. Maybe the Japanese don’t think it’s cool either, but this isn’t the first anime I’ve seen focused on related individuals skirting that line between love and creepy. Not having a sister myself, I can’t relate. Maybe it’s super hot. No idea.

This show will likely provide 12-13 episodes of awkward glances and inappropriate touching. Frankly, I’m ok with that. To the show’s credit, they don’t bother playing coy, showing in the very first episode one sister very firmly taking a hold of Keita’s manhood. The show does provide some humor which distracts you temporarily from the uneasiness of step-sibling love triangles.

Working!!

Information: AniDB

Sub Group: Chihiro

Kether: Working!! was the first show I watched from the new Spring line-up due to a special early airing. This show’s title reinforces an apparent over-excitement and abuse of exclamation marks in Japanese culture. Ignoring this show’s crime against punctuation, the premise breaks away from a pretty common theme throughout this season’s series. Working!! takes place in a family restaurant called “Wagnaria” which sounds more like a fictitious continent than a restaurant.

Takanashi Souta is the show’s protagonist who is abruptly solicited and hired as a part-timer. The cast is filled with bizarre and eccentric characters such as the short and bubbly Taneshima Popura, the androphobic Inami Mahiru, the katana-wielding shift leader Todoroki Yachiyo, and the gruff “doesn’t like to be called old” manager Shirofuji Kyouko.

This series is a nice reprieve from the onslaught of high school based animes. While everything else feels similar, just even changing the location once in a while is a welcomed change of pace. Similarly to a few other shows I’m watching, the plot looks to be fairly episodic without really having a clear direction and focusing more on the characters and their interactions. Working!! provides another light, humorous slice of life anime to enjoy.

It’s that time of year again, where a new season of anime awaits just over the horizon and the current season of anime is quickly coming to an end. The convergence of two anime seasons is a time for celebration as the shows we’ve been watching wind down; plots are wrapped up, characters overcome adversity, you know, the usual. At the same time, there’s the anticipation of new shows to come. New ridiculous storylines, accentuated anatomy, and much more. I mean, how many young high school girls can really want to jump one dopey guy? That was clearly a rhetorical question.

The first anime I’d like to share with you is one I recently finished. As the title of this post suggests, it’s called “To Aru Kagaku no Railgun” which roughly translates to “A Certain Scientific Railgun”. Yeah – doesn’t make much sense to me either. But despite the name, this show really delivered and became one of my most anticipated watches this last season.

Must have been perusing chatroulette

The show is actually a spin-off from another anime; To Aru Majutsu no Index. This series essentially takes one of the secondary characters from the original show and creates an entirely separate storyline. It still takes place in the same city, Academy City; a city built around the goal of developing ESPers – or people (and of course since this is anime, namely young children) who have incredible psychic powers. Our heroine, Misaka Mikoto, is one of a handful of the strongest ESPers in Academy City. She has the highly destructive ability to control electricity. Her most notable attack is firing a supercharged coin at ridiculous velocities, donning her the nickname “Railgun”.

This spin-off follows Misaka and a couple of her closest friends through their daily lives. Throughout the series we see familiar characters as well as new ones introduced. A handful of times we even run into the main characters from the previous series the show is based on but usually only in a very jovial context and not part of any meaningful exchange. Kagaku no Railgun continues on in this fashion for probably half the series or so, spending maybe a couple episodes at a time with mini-story development or subplots. I actually would have been ok with the series progressing in this manner. I liked Misaka’s character in Majutsu no Index and would have liked to see more of her, which is exactly what this series delivers.

Some times you want a Dr. Pepper real bad

Eventually, the show starts to gain some momentum with more and more of the episodes following a cohesive plot line, even working in details from the seemingly random episodes from earlier in the series. The last episode just recently aired and it completely sold me on this show. The culmination of the twenty-four episodes really paid off big with an action packed finale that delivered visually as well as wrapping up the story in a way most series I watch fall far short of.

At the end of the day, I liked this series more than its progenitor. The animation quality was solid the whole series. The voice acting was superb. The storyline was both casual and serious when it needed to be and developed the characters in a fluid and believable way. I would definitely recommend giving this one a watch. The original series isn’t a requisite, but it does give you a little extra information about the characters and general plot. At just 24 episodes long, the show isn’t a huge time commitment and who doesn’t like middle school girl super heroes? That was also a rhetorical question.

Explosion of Powah!

Peace.

Before beginning this post, I was having a bit of an internal conflict. I was unsure whether to talk a little about some of the new anime series I’ve been watching, and since last writing about them, what my impressions are, based on the first couple of episodes, or spend some time finely detailing the immense pleasure I derived from playing and completing Assassin’s Creed II. I think by this point, everyone has been able to perceive the magnitude and raw voltage of enjoyment AC2 is able to generate. So, in lieu of geek ejaculating over Ezio Auditoire de Firenze, I’ll otaku ejaculate (or maybe more appropriately, bukkake) over anime.

As seems to be my undeniable compulsion when it comes to anime, I can’t control myself in terms of volume. This season, more so than any other, afforded me the opportunity to keep it light. The pressure to stock up on all the delicious morsels on offer was minimal. If this winter season of anime were a chinese buffet, I’d be the guy scraping the bottom of the silver heat tray for the last of the szechuan assholes. With that said, I won’t penetrate too deeply into the miasma and just focus on the egregious offenders.

Easily at the top of the list so far is Seikon no Qwaser. This series is basically bullshit, and this is coming from the guy who watches just about everything. In a single episode, it was pretty easy to determine that the characters are insubstantial; conforming stereotypically to established archetypes. The plot itself is theoretically cool, but might be an idea better left unexecuted. To really top it all off, the first episode – which already made little sense – made almost no sense at all with a decent amount of scenes cropped in visually strange ways or whole sequences removed entirely. This was done for censoring purposes. So basically, they took a series that will in all likelihood suck and stripped it of the violence, blood, and nudity. Awesome.

That’s funny; this is the face I made during the episode

Luckily – and I use that term pretty loosely – there was a webcast of the director’s cut of the first episode, reinserting all the juicier tidbits and restoring a small fraction of purpose. Even with the blood and sexual situations added back in, it makes the series only marginally easier to tolerate. I mean the driving force behind the plot is about legitimate nipple sucking as a means to power one’s magical abilities. Yeah, I know.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, probably the only new series I’m even remotely interested in seeing more of is Durarara!!. Based on what I’ve seen so far, Durarara!! will hopefully prove to be this season’s desperately needed guiding light. I still have absolutely no idea what the series is really about or what direction it might take. On one hand the main characters, if you can even call them that as the series is more of an ensemble cast, seem like perfectly normal high schoolers. On the other, Ikebukuro, the city the series takes place in, is filled with unique and in some cases strange personalities. Most notably, a headless biker who wears a helmet shaped like a cat head.

“I’m confident I’m better than Seikon no Qwaser”

Ultimately, Durarara!! at first glance looks stylized enough to be unique in what is otherwise a doldrum of cookie cutter shows. I’m not saying that it’ll turn out to be the next Cowboy Bebop, but it’s gotta be better than Chu-Bra!!. Peace.

We’ve officially cast off the metaphoric shackles we called two thousand nine. Herald the coming of oh-ten. I tend to demonize the previous year and lionize the new. I think this comes from the fact that old years have happened and can be judged, where as new years are brimming with potential. Sadly, if history has taught me anything (which it hasn’t), this year will probably end up much the same as the others. I’m unsure exactly what I’d like this year to be, and perhaps that’s the problem. This is quickly sounding more like a personal problem…uhh, so anime!

In accordance with my solemn duty – and my deep personal desire to talk about this shit – I present to you a few of the winter 2010 anime choices that I will more than likely be checking out. It turns out that this year the winter anime line-up is pretty thin, which ultimately is better for me so I don’t overindulge, like a pedophile at a playground; I can’t help myself. There are six shows I plan to take a peak at. Images belong to Random Curiosity’s Winter 2010 Preview.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

The story revolves around Mina Tepes, princess-ruler of all vampires, and her “protector,” Akira. Like other vampires, Mina has been in hiding with her people for many years. Seeking to end centuries of isolation, Mina gains permission to create a special district for vampires, “The Bund”, off the coast of Japan by paying off the national debt of the Japanese government. Mina then reveals to the world the existence of vampires and her desire for both races to live together. Tensions, however, run high as fearful humans and extremist vampire factions begin to interfere with Mina’s wish for peace with the human world.

Based on the previews and ignoring the nonsensical title, this series seems genuinely interesting. We’re probably suffering from vampire OD, but ultimately I like vampires so despite the Twilight’s trying to make me hate them, I’m going to watch this series and probably enjoy it.

Durarara!!

Ryūgamine Mikado is a young man who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro. Masaomi warns him about people he doesn’t want to cross in the city: a violent man dressed like a bartender, an information merchant, and a mysterious gang called “Dollars”. And to top it off, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city: the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle.

This series really interests me, mostly because it was created by the same guy who gave us Baccano!. The plot doesn’t give away too much in terms of what the general storyline is going to be like, but I hear it has the same kind of ensemble cast as Baccano! did.

Ladies versus Butlers!

This school romantic comedy revolves around Hino Akiharu, an ordinary high school student who unfortunately looks like a juvenile delinquent. He enrolls into an academy that was once a school for upper-class ladies, and he is placed in the school’s newly established servant training department. The students there are raised to be either maids or butlers, and Akiharu finds himself in the middle of the bickering cliques.

This series will probably fall under either the “guilty pleasure” or “garbage” category – It’s a fine line. With a surprisingly straight forward title, Ladies versus Butlers has a very similar character style to Kanokon which was over the top when it came to fan service and high school sexual situations pushed almost into the pornographic. I don’t really expect a lot out of this one, but it sounds weird and dumb enough I may just like it.

Nodame Cantabile Finale

Apparently the third and finale chapter in the Nodame Cantabile saga. I enjoyed the original series and the Paris Chapters. If you haven’t seen the first two, watching this one probably doesn’t make much sense.

Seikon no Qwaser

The story takes place on the grounds of St. Mihailov Academy, a Japanese Eastern Orthodox school, and draws heavily on religious references from the aforementioned religion. Here it follows the trials and hardship of two of its students, Oribe Mafuyu and Tomo Yamanobe, until the encounter with a mysterious, silver-haired, Russian boy named Alexander, or Sasha for short. This puts them and the whole school in an all-out war between the Church itself and the so-called “Adepts”, a sect of individuals wielding powers linked to the elements of chemistry. Though based on the common magical girl concept shown in series such as Sailor Moon, the story diverges in depicting extreme acts of bloodshed, brutality and perversion, and also makes heavy use of fanservice.

Not entirely sure what to expect from this series either, but after watching the preview for it, it looks like it’ll contain a lot of violence and sexual content. Whether or not it’ll be uncensored like in the preview is still to be seen. As a nice stark contrast, I enjoy watching some fucked up animes to offset shows like Ladies Versus Butlers.

So-Ra-No-Wo-To

Set in the future on a land that, after being marred by long-lasting wars, has settled into a quiet cycle of decline. Kanata Kumika is a 15-year-old girl who fulfills her dream of enlisting in the army and joins a unit of five girls who protect a fortress that looms over a little village.

Finally (as if this post wasn’t long enough), we come to So-Ra-No-Wo-To. This series is the first of the Anime no Chikara (The Power of Anime) project which is aimed at creating original anime series, as opposed to those based on manga, games, or light novels. This series seems like it’ll be very light, without anything too substantial happening. It has a very K-ON! vibe to it which makes me want to watch it, despite the plot being less than compelling.

For a full listing of this winter’s new series, please visit Random Curiosity’s Winter 2010 Preview.

Peace

It seems that the amount of reviews I’ve committed to writing is continuing to escalate. This seems to be a powerful indicator of just how many series I tend to take on at once (if you missed my tweet, I’ll probably be checking out 16 new shows this fall. Sixteen. I know). And oddly enough, most of the shows this summer season, or at least the ones I chose to watch, were around 12 or 13 episodes in length. So it makes sense they would all end approximately the same time.

Just for the sake of timeliness, I’m kind of picking and choosing which to talk about in this space. For instance, I recently finished up what is most assuredly the first season of an anime called Saki. I can sum this series up in a fairly concise sentence; Subtle high school lesbians fighting one another in epic battles…of Mahjong. Yeah, the whole series is about Mahjong, which I found out over the summer, I don’t know shit about. And after watching 25 episodes of Saki, I still don’t. Not sure I could spend an entire post talking about it, but maybe I’ll attempt it after another season.

Anyway, back to Bakemonogatari.

Oh, Senjougahara. Mwah.

Cas did an excellent job setting up the major plot point in a previous post. So no real reason to unnecessarily reiterate. Interestingly enough, the plot didn’t change much from what you could decipher after watching only the first two episodes. But be that as it may, I still found myself enjoying the series. I’ll elaborate.

To say that the style of the show was different would be a gross understatement. I can’t recall any shows that presented itself in the way Bakemonogatari did. I think this choice could be seen as both a positive and possible negative. While giving the viewer something artistically beautiful to look at for 22 mins, making you question if someone close to you may have slipped a narcotic into your tea, it also feels a little less coherent or cohesive than a more standard presentation. Each scene either consisting of almost an entirely still frame, shifting between the characters in conversation, or rapid-fire cuts interspliced with bizarre imagery including but not limited to block colors that just say “black” or “red”.

Staple in the cheek. It happens.

The show was almost entirely conversational or dialogue-based. I actually enjoyed this aspect of it. I’m a big Kevin Smith fan, so I have an appreciation for works with heavy dialogue. Bakemonogatari seems to put more emphasis on the characters talking to one another than on any overall plot or storyline. But, I think it worked for them. I found myself engaged and enjoying what I was watching despite any oddities compared to a more traditional style of animation and story-telling.

If I did have a real complaint, it would be that I would have preferred the series spend more time with the interactions between Araragi Koyomi (the main character/protagonist) and Senjougahara Hitagi, the first female case we see in the series and probably one of my new favorite anime characters, ever. The episodes that feature these two characters are easily my most cherished moments from the series.

Sexy time.

Ultimately, I would give this series a pretty high recommendation. If you’re looking for a series with a heavy plot, then you probably don’t want to watch Bakemonogatari. The series is very episodic, or bi-episodic; wrapping up shorter mini-plots within an episode or two. But, the style of the show really pops and offers something not generally seen which gives it a flavor that made my anime taste buds salivate.

The series is 12 episodes long. Well, actually, it’s 15 episodes long, but for some reason the last three are not going to be aired on television and instead put up on the official website for viewing. So, I haven’t technically finished this series yet. I’m hoping the last three episodes will be offered to me in the familiar format: Ripped, subbed and served with a side of Senjougahara.

Peace.