psipsy

Anime review time!

No, dear readers, I have not forgotten about this. Not one bit. Now that the Fall Season is underway, I can throw some fresh material at you.

"Young Maidens in Love": Lesbians? No, IT'S A TRAP! I swear, I'm glad my grandparents weren't batshit insane or completely clueless or senile or any combination to make me pose as a girl in an all-girls school in order to fulfill their "last request", and if I ever make that kind of demand on my grandchildren, that's everyone's cue to just unplug me and shove me in the grave. Or maybe I'll do that anyway, as some sort of colossal practical joke, and when the kid shows up at the front door of the school dressed as the opposite gender, everyone will shout out "SURPRISE!" and the ghost of Alan Funt will then proceed to give the kid his/her rightful and generous inheritance. At 6' tall and almost 250lbs (and hairy), I'd make for a lousy trap. So, Mizuho, our intrepid young lad, must fit in with the class in order for this to succeed. There's a couple faculty and his childhood friend that are in on this, so it's not an absolute secret. But first he must master the mystical art of Leaving the Toilet Seat Down. He's probably thinking, "I had better be a damn BILLIONAIRE after this." Anyway, that's about the gist of this one. The ending sequence features the main characters in a unique SD mode. I may or may not continue with it; probably will anyway.

"Crescent Love": From the opening credits, I can tell this is going to be another harem anime. I just know it. The narcolepsy-inducing theme songs (that I will need to find), one guy and about a dozen girls (one of which is a maid; I'm SOLD), based on an H-game, and the character design itself, it's all there. As a bonus, they go into SD mode sometimes. Ok, the story on this one: After a particularly ugly war between the Earth and Moon, relations have cooled a bit but still touchy. The princess of the Moon is going to live on Earth for awhile to help cool things even further, and naturally it's with a boy that's about her age, and is going to be in the same class as him. On top of that, she remembers him from childhood, but he doesn't remember her. Or at least not yet. That's coming, I can tell. It's not on the same levels as "Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", "Higurashi no Naku Koroni" or "Death Note", (more like "Magikano" instead) but it's still a keeper by my definition.

"Sumomo mo Momo mo": This is about a girl that is looking for the strongest boy, in order to marry him and bear the strongest child so the lineage can continue, as planned by their parents. Except the boy wants to become a prosecutor, instead of a martial artist. Wait a minute... I've kinda seen this before. I saw this years ago when it was called "Ranma 1/2". Except back then, Akane wasn't overtly trying to have sex with Ranma. For that matter, not even Shampoo was this sexually aggressive. I'll give this show another chance.

"Kanon (2006)": I have fond memories of the original series, so when this came out I naturally had to get it. This is a remake of the original, done by a different studio, on a higher budget (and it shows), and given a longer episode run. I'm really looking forward to this. Also, I swear I saw an RSX (Integra in Japan) in the first episode.

"Asatte no Houkou": Right from the get-go, it's another "this is the story of our summer" show. Those are all well and good, but the vast majority of them are about the same thing. I don't know how far I'll get with this one; probably not far since my ADD is telling me to put something else on. If I get through this, I may watch another episode to see if it picks up. Wow, I managed to get almost to the end of this episode. Wait a minute, two of the characters switched ages? WTF? I guess I do need to watch more of this.

"Pumpkin Scissors": This show is about a post-war military unit called Pumpkin Scissors, and they go about doing post-war cleanup and relief. Certainly something I'm adding to my plate. The main character, normally somewhat of an oaf, gets all badass when in battle. But combat does change people. Flashbacks, anyone?

"Death Note": If you write someone's name into a Death Note, they die. With that in mind, if you happened across one, would you write someone's name into it? Well, our friend Raito (or Light in the English manga) tries it out and wastes no time in filling page after page after page with names of people that he feels should die. Anyone that's remotely interested in the manga is already watching this. So far I've been reading the manga, and I find it quite cerebral. It questions the moral implications of having the ability to literally decide who lives and who dies.

"Happiness": Oh boy, another trap. Admiral Ackbar, where would we be without you? Jun's antics are a little bit disturbing. That boy ain't right. Frankly, it would be hilarious to see him suddenly erupt in a supernova of testosterone. Fortunately, it looks like there's plenty of actual females to more than balance things out (and generally keep my interest).

"Lovely Idol": Cutesy mind-boggle! Something about an idol singer group that already has 12 members but they're planning to add even more. The only things this show has going for it are a cast of talented seiyuu (why any of them, including Momoi, are wasting their talents on this is a mystery) and the character designs, while attractive are still generic at best. The opening credits by themselves make my teeth hurt. Followed by my brain. Singing occurs for the first 10 minutes of the whole episode, followed by a plot that's less developed than in most hentai. What made me watch a second episode is beyond me.

"Bartender": For many people, going to a bar means getting soaked from having a good many beers and/or mixed drinks. But "Bartender" is not about the alcohol, but who serves it. Though the show does include recipes, which is something that could be handy. But I'm not one for recipes, so if I wanted fancy mixed drinks, I really would have to go to a bar. Otherwise I'd stay home and pour together some strawberry soda and Yukon Jack. Say, that sounds kinda good right about now. But yeah. Serve me up another episode of this, please.

"Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!": Well, they certainly didn't waste time cutting to the chase, where the token new kid walks into his new school, and as soon as he does, the token schoolgirl with the status of a goddess immediately asks him to go out with her. This show gets points for getting that out of the way in almost record time. There's only one other show I know of that moved that fast, and that one was hentai. Anyway. This is no ordinary private school, this is a private school for students with an ability called Beatrice. No idea yet as to why or how it was named that. But that's a minor detail for now. What matters is that this show has panty shots, a storyline that could actually go somewhere, some insane bending of the laws of physics, and decent character designs. And we certainly can't forget the panty shots. Not setting new standards like in Agent Aika and Najica, but skirts do fly up in this at times.

"Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge": Four bishounen get to live in a mansion for free if they can turn the owner's reclusive niece into a respectable lady. If they fail, the rent triples. The fact that it blends in an element of absurdity makes it fun to watch.

"La Corda D'Oro": Something about a music school, and once in awhile, a student would see the resident fairy, which is a sign that student has genuine talent. Except this time the fairy chooses a girl for the musical competition despite the fact that she really has no experience with musical instruments. Hence, conflict! And drama! But there needs to be conflict, otherwise there wouldn't be a plot. And so on. For me, this one will probably end up on the backburner.

"Kujibiki Unbalance": If you're familiar enough with Genshiken, you probably already know about this and are watching it right now. Like me.

"D.Gray-Man": Somewhere in an alternate closing of the 19th century, there are exorcists to take on supernatural weapons called Akuma, that before use, look more like kits, complete with the plastic sprue. This is actually pretty cool.

"Red Garden": Opening sequence looks like something straight from the late 60s to early 70s. The character design seems overly stylized, but I can deal with that. Supposedly this takes place in NYC, but they're all talking in Japanese. Hey, I know this is anime, but something about that just cracks my noggin. Because of that, I really couldn't get far. I just may have to wait for this to get licensed and dubbed into English if I want to continue watching this. The premise sounds good, tho. It's like, it's got a good motor, but the chassis needs tuned for this to really go anywhere.

Whoosh! That was quite a few; 16 different shows. I bet you're glad I put that behind a cut; yes? Of course.