"Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru", "Maoyuu Maou Yuusha", and "Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT" Initial Episode(s) Thoughts

Well I had quite a surprised feeling after finishing the first episode(s) of Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, and Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (these anime names are getting longer and longer…). Never had I been so excited and anxious for the next release for the next episode to air the following week. Let’s talk about Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru first:

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru is from what I can tell a light drama/slice of life that revolves around the fake relationship of Masuzu and Eita. What has me so interested in this particular series is the character Masuzu. She is bold, unique, manipulative, and a whole bunch of other things. She sets the premise of the show by asking out Eita to be her fake boyfriend so that the other boys at her school will stop bothering her. At first Eita declines the invitation but when she presents a long lost book of Eita’s he quickly changes his mind. The character interactions between these two characters are so fun to watch that the episodes fly by so quickly. When you enter Chiwa (Eita’s childhood friend) into the equation you receive a very fun looking love triangle in the works. The initial two episodes do a great job of setting up the plot and introducing the characters and their intentions. I am looking forward to this anime’s future releases.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha kind of caught me off guard because I actually stumbled upon it on accident. When looking for another episode of another anime, I found this series and thought “Well one more anime couldn’t hurt”. The plot of the show starts out with the Hero confronting the Demon King. He shortly finds out though that the Demon King is actually a very beautiful and normal looking female that wants to bring peace to the world. After telling the Hero her goals, they decide to mutually help each other out. The initial premise of the show first made me think that this might be another boring adventure anime. There were also hints of early romance being instigated by the Demon King with the Hero missing a couple bites. What I found out after two episodes though is that this anime does have some good quality points. They go into detail on why the humans and demons wage war so that countries without a food source will receive financing from the government. They go into great detail on how these countries would starve and die without war. The Demon King (or should I say queen) is very knowledgeable of many useful things such as the state of the war and agriculture. She plans on helping a small village thrive in order to start her conquest of peace. I have to say that Maoyuu Maou Yuusha has started out very well and I am eagerly awaiting next week’s episode.

Finally we have Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT, an anime that I have somewhat been waiting for since finishing up its first season. Its predecessor was by no means a masterpiece but was still entertaining to watch. This season starts off pretty much where the first one left off; Kodaka, Sena, Yozora, Rika, and Yukimura are all part of a club that meets after school each day. Their club’s goal is to make friends and although you can say they are all friends, many strange events happen between each character. For one thing, one reason the show is enjoyable to watch is because each character is essentially socially awkward. Each character is either putting on a fake personality, used to being alone, ore is just plain weird. The interactions that follow are amusing to watch because the characters are always playing pranks on each other or doing something strange in public. The back and forth conversations between Sena and Yozora are especially entertaining to watch because they both are very close to being on the same wavelength. Overall the first episode follows the same flow as the previous season so basically if you want to know if you would like this show, just watch the first season first. If you skip the first season you might be a little lost.

All three of these shows started out great; I do not really know what else to add so I’ll say only this, “GO WATCH THEM NOW”.

Pokemon X and Y brings my Pokemon Trainer days to an end

So it was just announced recently that the next generation of Pokemon games will not be available for the DS. The next games will require a 3DS which has continued to let me down with horrible games to accompany the system. I have loved Pokemon since I was a child but I refuse to dish out +$200 for a system just to play one game. The new direction of the game also has me a little worried for the future of the franchise. The game will sport a new 3D environment with an isometric camera angle. This will replace the camera and animation styling of all the games that came before it. Also the title, “X and Y” (representing the X and Y axis) is clever but in my honest opinion not suitable names for a Pokemon game.

 I am sure many people are happy with the charge to the 3DS but this marks the end of my Pokemon journey. It all started with Red version then Silver followed by Ruby, Diamond, Platinum, Soul Silver (my favorite out of the bunch), White, and Black 2. It has been a great run and I thank the developer for providing a quality game for each release. I wish the best for the developer, Nintendo, and Pokemon. I will just stick with the amazing Pokemon Adventure Special manga that takes the characters and settings of the Pokemon games for my entertainment in the Pokemon universe.

Goodbye you crazy kids who enslave creatures against their will and force them to fight your battles!

Coming Soon: "K" and "Oda Nobuna no Yabou" (Anime) Reviews

Just a heads up reviews of K and Oda Nobuna no Yabou are coming as soon as I go back to school next week. I picked both of these series up on a whim a week or so ago and decided to finish them off before I leave. I was surprised at how much I ended up liking Oda Nobuna no Yabou and was astonished at the visual presentation and amazing sound of K. I have also been looking at the currently airing anime to see what might be worth picking up and so far the only ones I have decided to invest my time in are Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT, Initial D: Fifth Stage, and Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru. I am also thinking of picking up Da Capo III but I have heard a lot of negativity about its previous installments.

"Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne" Anime Review

Well now there are many ways to approach this anime review. I could review it based solely on the anime or I could compare it to the light novel and inform you what was lost in the “translation”. For the sake of giving the anime a fair shot, I will score it based only on the anime itself but I will be injecting notes on what the anime could have done better in comparison to the light novel.

Story: 4/10

So the anime does a pretty piss poor job of explaining what is going on and keeping your feelings invested towards the characters. The plot is essentially a reuniting of Akito and his sister Akiko after a long separation. They end up living in the same house along with the student council at their high school and the usual boy x girl events happen. The anime unfortunately comes across as a generic harem while the light novel feels more like a serious drama. The anime has all the typical harem scenes that we have experienced in the past; the shower scene, the mall scene, ext. I hate to say it but the anime really looks and feels as if it was put together very half-hazardly and was trying to ride on the success of the light novel. Please understand that this is NOT a faithful adaptation of the light novel.

Animation 6.5/10

The animation is somewhat a mixed bag; it looks great in some scenes but the overall quality is somewhat lower than what I would expect from a 2012 anime. The characters are visually appealing but the show lacks a certain visual aspect that sets itself apart from all the other anime. This lighting is not done very well, you see many instances where proportions do not really match up, ext. The animation just comes off as generic for eighty percent of the time. 

There are some brief moments where the show tries to parody other anime; it kind of fails at that

As you can tell the animation isn't bad but the studio's way of trying to show comedic events is not done as well as some other anime.

 Sound: 7/10

The only redeeming quality for this anime in the sound department are the voice actors' performances. Each character’s voice actor did a superb job injecting their feelings into their characters. Anastasia has a cold, monotone personality that is expressed well by her voice actor. Even the annoying and too cute Akiko’s voice actor did an amazing job making Akiko a loved and disliked character. Other than the voice acting though the anime falls pretty low on the bar as far as sound goes. The background music is forgettable and generic but the intro and ending songs are quite catchy. 

Characters: 7/10

The cast of this anime work very well with each other even if most of them are forgettable. Akito, Akiko, and Anastasia were for me the stars of the show. Akito’s strong will and intellect, Akiko’s annoying but super cute personality, and Anastasia’s cold and cool attitude created so many funny and unique scenes throughout the entire anime. My personal favorite character was Anastasia because even though her personality with held most of her true feelings from everyone else, it was easy to always tell what was on her mind.Also her interactions with Akito were the most fun to watch. The other characters however were either boring or just not appealing. I especially found Arashi just out of place and a bother to the whole chemistry of the group. The young house leader was also quite annoying and off putting. Overall the main three characters really helps make the show shine but a couple others bring it back down.

She's just too cute :P

Overall: 6.1/10

Overall the anime adaptation of Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne (what a mouthful) isjust generic. After reading some ofthe light novel a couple months before the airing of the anime, I was very excited to see the brother sister romance issue unfold with the student council. What unfortunately occurred here was taking a great drama with very thought provoking and witty conversations and turning it into another generic and barely passable harem anime. I advise that you steer clear from the anime and just read the light novel. It is much better than the anime and it will have you craving for more.    

Currently Watching Anime (Jan 2013)

It's the new year which means new anime!! So far the only new anime I have picked up is Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (man what a mouth full) but I will be researching the other newly airing anime. Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Initial D Fifth Stage, and Little Busters! are all continuing on (looking forward to Initial D and Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo but I am not sure about Little Busters though...). I have picked up Dog Days and Guilty Crown due to some recommendations by some users on Anime-planet. Hopefully they turn out to be worth the time.

Kotoura-san 3 out of ?
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai 3 out of ?
Chihayafuru 2 3 out of ?
Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi go Shuraba Sugiru 3 out of ?
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha 4 out of ?
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT 3 out of ?
Initial D Fifth Stage 4 out of ?
Little Busters! 16 out of ?
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 15 out of ?
Da Capo III 4 out of ?
Seto no Hanayome 10 out of 26
Guilty Crown 22 out of 22 FINISHED!!!
Dog Days 13 out of 13 FINISHED!!!
K 13 out of 13 FINISHED!!!
Oda Nobuna no Yabou 12 out of 12 FINISHED!!!
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 12 out of 12 FINISHED!!!
To Love-Ru: Darkness 12 out of 12 FINISHED!!!

Edit: I have now also picked up K (no idea how I missed this one last anime season...) and Oda Nobuna no Yabou which is surprisingly fun to watch.
Edit 2: Finished K, Oda Nobuna no Yabou, and Dog Days. I enjoyed all three and plan on reviewing them. Also picked up Seto no Hanayome because a lot of people have said it is uniquely funny. Kind of stalling on Guilty Crown but I intend on watching some more over the coming weekend. Just a heads up school is starting up again so there might be periods of time where I will not be able to get content out. Don't hate!
Edit 3: Just picked up Kotoura-san and Sasami-san@Ganbaranai; both look like they will be very interesting to watch. Kotoura-san especially got me hooked within the first ten minutes.

"Sword Art Online" (Anime) Final Thoughts

The last episode (for now and maybe forever) of Sword Art Online aired a couple weeks ago and after two anime seasons, I am very glad that it is ending/taking a break. The light novel that the anime was biased off of was praised for its witty and well written dialogue that helped make the online world of SAO and ALO come alive through the text. I feel it’s safe to say that the light novel deserves to be called “epic” but as for the anime…”ok” is a better way of describing it. 

So the anime is by no means a failure. Most of the characters in both the anime and light novel were a blast to learn and watch mature over the course of the story. I honestly did not like Asuna in the beginning but by the end of the first season, I was rooting for a happy ending for both her and Kirito. Many anime viewers across the internet praised how the anime immersed the viewer into the story. I do agree with this point but there is a lot more aspects that get glossed over. First off is the plot and the pacing of the show. Unlike in the first volume of the light novel, the anime decides to include the side stories of volume two for episodes 2-7 which was not a huge issue except that it completely disrupt the pacing. They included these filler episodes so that you were introduced to all the characters in the SAO universe even if some of them were uhhh useless and unneeded. So filler episodes aside, the rest of the first season did skip over some minor details but overall I did not feel as if it was rushed. The second season however was plagued with pacing and continuity issues. From the first episode of the second season, important information was left out and entire segments were either skipped or almost left out completely. The pacing was so erratic that I honestly cannot recommend watching the second season at all. The plot seemed so rushed in order to get everything in for twelve episodes that it just comes off as a decent adventure between Kirito and his sister. 

So while the plot and pacing sort of fails hard, the animation and sound is BEAUTIFUL. The world of SAO and ALO will take your breath away with their beautiful scenery. All the backdrops in these virtual worlds retain a certain level of quality throughout the entire +20 episodes. The same applies to the character models; they are all very well done. The sound also deserves some praise for being freaking awesome. The soundtrack fits the anime very well in both heavy dialogue and actions scenes. It has elements of orchestras and synths that blend well together. The voice actors did a spot on job with mending their own take of the characters with what was provided in the light novels as well. 

So while the animation, sound, and characters are spot on, the inability for this anime to outshine its source material will taint the viewing experience. I know that a lot of people would rather watch a movie than read the book but I STRONGLY recommend that you give the light novel a shot before even thinking about watching the anime. The light novel does an excellent job immersing and investing you into both the characters and story while the anime is a glorified cop out that will most likely only cater to action fans. The level of deepness the light novel had is unfortunately completely taken away in the anime. It’s good but far from amazing.

Happy End of The Year and A Free Day Off From Work (hopefully)!

Well with the year coming to a close, I just wanted to thank all the viewers of this blog. I’m sure I do not have any “fans” or returning visitors but even if you stumbled upon my blog on accident, I want to thank you for checking out my posts. It’s a lot harder to sit down and post some things while at home for the break but as soon as I get back to school I will be able to resume my original pace. There are a couple anime airing soon that I am REALLY looking forward to and also some reviews that I have been procrastinating on so check back later for some new stuff! I do not know if you celebrate Christmas but I hope you have a great day off from work!