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.

"To Love-Ru: Darkness" Episodes 3-9 Thoughts

So while I do not hide the fact that I watch anime (actively) to my friends, To Love-Ru: Darkness is an anime that I will never tell a soul (that I personally know) I watch. I sometimes wonder why I do watch the show since the main focus is well…not really the plot.

So yeah To Love-Ru: Darkness in case you somehow didn’t know is an ecchi comedy from the animation studio XEBEC. This season marks the third season of To Love-Ru and it has a running manga which the show is based off of. I shamefully raise my hand again by confessing that I have been keeping up with the manga and actually have been enjoying it. I tend to usually not want to watch or read ecchi related content but the wacky events that happen in the To Love-Ru universe are actually quite fun to watch/read.  To Love-Ru: Darkness has so far proven to be just as wacky as its two predecessors and of course has kept up with the fan’s demands for the…animation!-___-

"What?! There is inappropriate content in this show!!?

Episodes three through nine have kept the same pacing and structure as the first two. My post on the first two episodes can be found here but if you do not want to read up on what happened in the early parts of the show all you have to know is that the show revolves around a male high school student named Rito. Rito becomes involved with a space princess named Lala very early on in the To Love-Ru time line but plays more of a sideline role in Darkness. The main female protagonist for this season is Momo (Lala’s sister) who wants to create the perfect harem for Rito. Other than that, you shouldn’t fret about the plot because every episode wants to exploit two things; comedy and ecchi content. So the comedy: if you do not like slapstick type comedy then please steer far away from this anime. Everything that is considered a joke in this anime comes in very short bursts and is usually recycled themes and gags. Ecchi content: there is a lot of it and I am willing to bet that at least eighty percent of each episode shows the trademark awkward camera angles and rays of light blocking certain body parts. I will put my two cents out here and say if you are only wanting to watch this for the ecchi related content, I would wait until the Blu-ray and DVD (…people still watch DVD’s?) versions of the anime come out because there is so much censoring in this show. Every little thing has annoying rays of bright white lights coming in from no where. It has gotten to the point where it actually distracts me from the overall visual elements of the anime. It’s a shame too because the anime is quite beautiful. The backgrounds are very well defined and the characters models are amazing. All the females are visually attractive and even though the facial expressions are represented in a comedic way (sort of simplistic if that makes sense), they still express emotions fairly well. 

The characters in this anime are strangely easy to like. The show boasts a pretty large cast (not Negima!?big but pretty close) and I can honestly say that I can remember at least seventy percent of them. Each character has a pretty unique personality even if some of them sport the typical tsundere or super shy stereotypical personalities. What really shines is Momo the main female lead of the show. She sits behind a façade not wanting people to really know what her goals are really aiming for. She’s also becomes fairly vulnerable with her feelings towards Rito by episode nineish. Overall the cast is pretty well done and each of the female leads should offer you something that makes you want to see them succeed with catching Rito’s affection.

So bullet points: Slapstick comedy, overwhelming ecchi content, beautiful animation with fairly annoying censorship in the forms of blinding light, and a quality cast. Should you watch it? I say yes but wait for the Blu-Ray copies to be released. Also support the anime industry by BUYING THE DAMN ANIME AND NOT PIRATING IT. Like the gaming industry the anime industry is really struggling at the moment and every time you download something without paying for it you put the people of the industry’s jobs at stake. Please if you do not have the means of purchasing anime, please watch whatever you can find on legal streaming websites such as Crunchyroll.

Currently Watching Anime (December 2012)

This past month has been absolutely hectic with finals finishing up. Not only did they mess up my anime posts but also my life in general. I have had barely any time to work on music, play TOR, or even hang out friends -___-. But hey with 5 weeks off from classes coming up I cannot complain. Here is what I am watching at the moment:

Initial D Fifth Stage 2 out of ?
Little Busters! 10 out of ?
To Love-Ru: Darkness 9 out of ?
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 11 out of ?
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 12 out of ?
Sword Art Online 24 out of ? Finished!!!
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne 12 out of ? Finished!!!
Kamisama Hajimemashita 6 out of ? Stalled
K 1 out of ? Stalled
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 1 out of ? Stalled

Sword Art Online is starting to get a little...ehhh along with Little Busters. I have still yet to know what the main focus of Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne is and where the hell did Initial D Fifth Stage go!!?? Oh by the way Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun and Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo are amazing so go watch them now.

Winter Season Update

I'm not really sure if I have any returning "fans" or readers but the past couple weeks have been extremely busy with school, music, and job searching getting in the way so my posts have suffered. I have been keeping up with my watching schedule but I have been quite lazy in jotting down my ideas. Look for some posts on Sword Art Online, To Love-Ru: Darkness, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Little Busters, and possibly a review of Otome Youkai Zakuro this weekend.

P.S.: Finals suck -___-

Anime Currently Watching (November 2012)

Wow it's already November; this past semester has blown by so quickly. Here is a list of the anime that I am currently watching:

Initial D Fifth Stage 2 out of ?
Little Busters! 7 out of ?
To Love-Ru: Darkness 6 out of ?
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 7 out of ?
Sword Art Online 20 out of ?
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne 7 out of ?
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 6 out of ?
Princess Lover 12 out of 12 Finished!!
Kamisama Hajimemashita 6 out of ? Stalled
K 1 out of ? Stalled
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 1 out of ? Stalled

I really wanted to start watching K and Haiyore! Nyaruko san but for various reasons I have decided to put them off for now. Sword Art Online and Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun are my favorites by far while Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne may be turning into the underdogs for this anime season. Have some different posts lined up so check back every now and then for some updates.

"To Love-Ru: Darkness" (Anime) Episodes 1-2 thoughts

Ahh its here...the thing I have been dreading and for some reason, been waiting for. While I have found the manga version VASTLY superior in most cases, To Love-Ru: Darkness has me rethinking that philosophy. It is finally here in anime form and after the first two episodes, I can guarantee you will receive the same experience as the first season. To Love-Ru has always been kind of a guilty pleasure that I go back to when I am extremely bored. I began reading the manga about a year ago because I literally could not find anything else to read and I was taking a break from anime. I somehow found myself enjoying because it had:

1. Raunchy humor
2. Likeable characters
3. Great artwork

When I heard it was going to receive an anime adaptation, I had mixed feelings but overall I was looking forward to a faithful adaptation of the manga. We did receive a faithful adaptation but the anime had not given me a lasting impression like the manga did. With this new season of To Love-Ru: Darkness however, the new characters (mostly Momo) have me actually enjoying the anime more than the manga.

In case you need a refresher on what the hell is going on, Rito our male lead has pretty much wrapped every major female lead around him because he made an accidental confession to...everyone at once. Thus enter To Love-Ru: Darkness, which I can assure you retains all the raunchy humor and nice "visuals" as the previous season. Most people do watch this for those "visuals" but I find myself on the weird end of the spectrum watching the show for the humor and the general flow of the show. My favorite character Momo really steals the show in my honest opinion with all her scheming.

Visually and aurally, the anime has done quite well in the first episodes. The animation is very well done as the character models are quite refined and the background shots with the moonlight and sunlight are all very well done. Being To Love-Ru, all the weird camera angles that show the "important views" return and most things are censored due to the laws over in Japan. Most people are crying and whining about this but like I said, I'm one of those weird guys that is watch an ecchi anime for the things that doesn't make it ecchi.

I can say that as long as the anime follows the manga, I will stick with it. Fingers crossed that it doesn't turn too generic.

Anime Currently Watching (October 2012)

Its October which means Halloween is close by! I don't know about you but Halloween is the only holiday where college students have just as much fun as they did as a child. Anyways going to be watching a lot of different anime until I find some that I like that have just started airing. This is what I have so far:

Little Busters! 4 out of ?
Kamisama Hajimemashita 4 out of ?
To Love-Ru: Darkness 4 out of ?
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 4 out of ?
Sword Art Online 17 out of ?
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne 4 out of ?
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 3 out of ?
K 1 out of ?
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 1 out of ?
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity has Declined) 12 out of 12 Finished!!
Gintama (2011 season) 16 out of 51 Stalled
Hyou-ka: You Can't Escape 1 out of 22 Stalled
Yuru Yuri (season 2) 12 out of 12 Finished!!
Tari Tari 8 out of 13 Stalled
Sket Dance 2 out of 77 Dropped

I have been VERY lazy with Tari Tari and Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita because I am very close to losing interest in them and I do not know why. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita was quite funny but I feel that the complete lack of a flowing plot is making me put it off while Tari Tari is just boring. Yeah its really sweet, looks and sounds great, and has great characters but I just feel bored when watching it. No matter what though I will finish them so I can at least put my thoughts down. Please recommend any new airing anime because I really haven't research what is coming out.

Edit 1:
Dropped Tari Tari because I have literally no urge to finish it. Also the anime version of Sket Dance proved to be quite boring but the manga is very well done. Picked up To Love-Ru: Darkness, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, and Hyou-ka: You Can't Escape because they all look like they have a lot of potential to be interesting shows. In addition to these shows, I decided to start trying to finish the 2011 season of Gintama. I absolutely love Gintama but when I was watching it awhile back, I just burned myself out.