Genres: ecchi, lolicon, pantsu, pettanko, boin, comedy, drama, school
Themes: face faults, abnormal social tendencies, overly accepting peronality, kawaii, moe
Studio: GANSIS
Licensor: ?
Year: 2010
Demographic: shounen
Fansubbers: Doki
Summary: Hayama Nayu is a model middle-school girl. She is energetic, cheerful, and gets the best grades in her class. There's just one thing: she has an obsession with girls' underwear. After deciding that too few people have enough knowledge of underwear, she decides to create an Underwear Club to help increase awareness. Little did she now how much of a stir that would cause!
Review:
Early on, everything seems very normal, if a little slapstick. You have the has-no-social-norms cheerful girl, Nayu, you have the jock/tsundere, Yako, and you have the large-breasted shy meganeko, Haruka. Nayu just transferred in and makes friends out of Yako and Haruka.
After lunch one day, Yako and Haruka notice Nayu having a conversation with someone on her cellphone in the hallway. Upon approaching her, Nayu's half of the conversation seems like she is talking to an older man about her underwear! Along with the incident during the opening ceremony when Nayu accidentally flashes her "adult panties" for her entire year to see, this gives the impression that Nayu engages in enjou kousai: compensated dating. Rumors abound, and eventually she is confronted with them. Apparently, her brother is a famous underwear designer and she test-drives a lot of his prototypes!
Interest is eventually piqued about Nayu's underwear obsession, and it turns out that she is extremely knowledgeable not only about the design, but also the proper way to size and wear underwear. Seeing a need to spread awareness of this very important article of clothing, she attempts to set up an Underwear Club (Shitagi-bu), regardless of the protestation of certain faculty and the incredibly prudish Handicrafts Club.
Over the course of the anime, she manages to attract more legitimate attention to the club and to the importance of underwear.
Ratings (out of 10)
Animation: 9
Art: 8
Character depth: 5
Character growth: 8
Closure: 9
Plot Holes: 10
Poignancy: 9
Predictability: 9 (not very predictable)
Realism: 10
Complexity of Plot: 3
Suspense: 4
Overall: 7
JIKAI: Ladies vs Butlers (Reidi Bato)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Genres: horror, thriller, school life, mystery, drama
Themes: moe, murder, easily disturbed, harem (v. mild), personal development, occult, mindfuck
Studio: Studio DEEN
Licensor: Geneon (FUNimation)
Year: 2006
Target Demographic: seinen
Summary:
The setting is a small village in the coutryside of Japan called Hinamizawa, in the year 1983. Maebara Keiichi has recently moved to the town from a larger city, and immediately makes a handful of close friends. Everything in the town seems idylllic, but there is a dark history hidden beneath the smiling faces.
Review:
This anime really took me by surprise. I had seen several AMVs with clips from it, so I presumed based on those that a single person outside of the main cast would be murdered and the main cast would attempt to find the culprit(s). Along the way, they would uncover secrets held by each other and by the other residents of the town. Also, I presumed there would be some fallout within the group, causing some dramatic situations.
Man was I wrong.
Higurashi opens with a young boy, soon revealed to be the main character, beating the life out of two young girls with a baseball bat. No reason is given until the end of the story arc, in episode four. Soon after revealing that the murderer is the main character, the girls who were murdered are introduced: his best friends in his new hometown. Why did he kill them?
At first, the story seems very upbeat and cute. There are face-faults, wacky situations, and general silliness. As the story progresses, though, a sort of desperate, violent paranoia sets in - a theme that continues throughout the other story arcs. The town of Hinamizawa, formerly Onikuguchi, has a long history fraught with violence, and the residents have similarly traumatic histories, none of which are fully understood or accepted by those involved. When these histories are exposed, old scars are opened, and the fear of those involved leads to a crescendo of violence and hatred.
There are several consecutive story arcs, most of which culminate in one or more of the main cast being murdered, usually by another of the main cast. Each story arc is seemingly entirely separate from the rest, and the main cast is reset to life at the beginning of each. However, over the course of the anime, the motivations of each character are exposed more, revealing a common pattern in the goings-on of this little town. At the end of the season, the final story arc finally makes good sense of why, if not how, everything keeps getting reset, and what the purpose of following these tragic stories has been (other than just watching close friends kill each other in gruesome ways). I was very much surprised at how well the final arc added an overall cohesiveness to the entire season, and, of course, the "oh shit" moment in the last 10 seconds of the last episode. If not for that last little thing Rika says, everything could have been mostly wrapped up. That girl has WAY more going on with her than she ever lets on, though, so I am looking forward to the second season, where I hope to learn more about her and why she can remember all the temporal iterations and states that the month of July will never end.
So basically, Higurashi follows the sorrows of five young people, culminating in personal revelations on the part of two of the characters, and a HUGE revelation for the audience right at the end. Really, this anime is all about the growth of the characters through emotional trauma, even though on the surface, it seems like a normalish psychohorror. I definitely recommend it! Stick with it to the end, keep your mind active in trying to figure things out, and you will not be disappointed with the ending :)
Ratings (out of 10)
Animation: 9
Art: 9
Character depth: 10
Character growth: 10
Closure: 10
Plot Holes: 9
Poignancy: 8
Predictability: 10
Realism: 9
Suspense: 10
Overall: 9.5
JIKAI: Ladies vs Butlers, Ah! My Goddess, Sumomomo Momomo
PS: If you can think of any improvements to the way I have done this review, please tell me! In particular, I think my ratings could be improved, as well as the cohesiveness of my text review.
Themes: moe, murder, easily disturbed, harem (v. mild), personal development, occult, mindfuck
Studio: Studio DEEN
Licensor: Geneon (FUNimation)
Year: 2006
Target Demographic: seinen
Summary:
The setting is a small village in the coutryside of Japan called Hinamizawa, in the year 1983. Maebara Keiichi has recently moved to the town from a larger city, and immediately makes a handful of close friends. Everything in the town seems idylllic, but there is a dark history hidden beneath the smiling faces.
Review:
This anime really took me by surprise. I had seen several AMVs with clips from it, so I presumed based on those that a single person outside of the main cast would be murdered and the main cast would attempt to find the culprit(s). Along the way, they would uncover secrets held by each other and by the other residents of the town. Also, I presumed there would be some fallout within the group, causing some dramatic situations.
Man was I wrong.
Higurashi opens with a young boy, soon revealed to be the main character, beating the life out of two young girls with a baseball bat. No reason is given until the end of the story arc, in episode four. Soon after revealing that the murderer is the main character, the girls who were murdered are introduced: his best friends in his new hometown. Why did he kill them?
At first, the story seems very upbeat and cute. There are face-faults, wacky situations, and general silliness. As the story progresses, though, a sort of desperate, violent paranoia sets in - a theme that continues throughout the other story arcs. The town of Hinamizawa, formerly Onikuguchi, has a long history fraught with violence, and the residents have similarly traumatic histories, none of which are fully understood or accepted by those involved. When these histories are exposed, old scars are opened, and the fear of those involved leads to a crescendo of violence and hatred.
There are several consecutive story arcs, most of which culminate in one or more of the main cast being murdered, usually by another of the main cast. Each story arc is seemingly entirely separate from the rest, and the main cast is reset to life at the beginning of each. However, over the course of the anime, the motivations of each character are exposed more, revealing a common pattern in the goings-on of this little town. At the end of the season, the final story arc finally makes good sense of why, if not how, everything keeps getting reset, and what the purpose of following these tragic stories has been (other than just watching close friends kill each other in gruesome ways). I was very much surprised at how well the final arc added an overall cohesiveness to the entire season, and, of course, the "oh shit" moment in the last 10 seconds of the last episode. If not for that last little thing Rika says, everything could have been mostly wrapped up. That girl has WAY more going on with her than she ever lets on, though, so I am looking forward to the second season, where I hope to learn more about her and why she can remember all the temporal iterations and states that the month of July will never end.
So basically, Higurashi follows the sorrows of five young people, culminating in personal revelations on the part of two of the characters, and a HUGE revelation for the audience right at the end. Really, this anime is all about the growth of the characters through emotional trauma, even though on the surface, it seems like a normalish psychohorror. I definitely recommend it! Stick with it to the end, keep your mind active in trying to figure things out, and you will not be disappointed with the ending :)
Ratings (out of 10)
Animation: 9
Art: 9
Character depth: 10
Character growth: 10
Closure: 10
Plot Holes: 9
Poignancy: 8
Predictability: 10
Realism: 9
Suspense: 10
Overall: 9.5
JIKAI: Ladies vs Butlers, Ah! My Goddess, Sumomomo Momomo
PS: If you can think of any improvements to the way I have done this review, please tell me! In particular, I think my ratings could be improved, as well as the cohesiveness of my text review.
Introduction
Hihi! This is a blog about my reviews of different anime. As such, there are some things you will probably find helpful.
First off, a short description of myself: I am a man living in America who discovered anime (and then manga) only a few years ago. Since then, I have been getting more and more obsessed with Japanese everything since then and have been feverishly watching anime, reading manga, and studying Japanese culture and language since. However, since I'm pretty new to the scene, I still haven't experienced a lot of stuff that the stereotypical otaku has. As such, I always welcome recommendations! They have to go on my ever-growing queue, but if it is awesome enough, I will try to watch it soon ^_^
On that note, I can describe what genres and themes I seek out in anime. As far as genres go, I generally prefer feminine stuff. I like a lot of shoujo, definitely yuri and shoujo-ai, harem, slapstick, ecchi (for the win!), romance, comedy, and drama. For themes...generally anything with a healthy dose of moe. If it is not moe, odds are, I won't like it (that goes for themes and art).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Basically this entire blog will be a spoiler, but I will attempt to put the important stuff in black-on-black blocks. There are NO GUARANTEES that I will be entirely successful! Also, anything revealed in the first episode is fair game to talk about at length outside of a spoiler block - it is the introduction.
So now that you have gotten to know me a little, I hope you enjoy or find useful my reviews!
NEXT MANGA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
First off, a short description of myself: I am a man living in America who discovered anime (and then manga) only a few years ago. Since then, I have been getting more and more obsessed with Japanese everything since then and have been feverishly watching anime, reading manga, and studying Japanese culture and language since. However, since I'm pretty new to the scene, I still haven't experienced a lot of stuff that the stereotypical otaku has. As such, I always welcome recommendations! They have to go on my ever-growing queue, but if it is awesome enough, I will try to watch it soon ^_^
On that note, I can describe what genres and themes I seek out in anime. As far as genres go, I generally prefer feminine stuff. I like a lot of shoujo, definitely yuri and shoujo-ai, harem, slapstick, ecchi (for the win!), romance, comedy, and drama. For themes...generally anything with a healthy dose of moe. If it is not moe, odds are, I won't like it (that goes for themes and art).
IMPORTANT NOTE: Basically this entire blog will be a spoiler, but I will attempt to put the important stuff in black-on-black blocks. There are NO GUARANTEES that I will be entirely successful! Also, anything revealed in the first episode is fair game to talk about at length outside of a spoiler block - it is the introduction.
So now that you have gotten to know me a little, I hope you enjoy or find useful my reviews!
NEXT MANGA: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
