Durarara!

Air date: Jan 8, 2010 to Jun 25, 2010



Studio: Aniplex + Brains Base

A Love Story About Monogatari

Let me tell you a story.Bakemonogatari has been and will probably always be my favorite anime of all time.This is a story about how its second sequel lived up to and, in some cases, outperformed its predecessors.This story isfilled with spoilers (and a lot of summary too) for an extremely pivotal point in the the Monogatari series - so readers who have not seen Monogatari Series Second Season (hereon MG2) have been warned.



The main thing that MG2 does unquestionably better than Bakemonogatari is character development.That is not to say that Bakemonogatari is lacking in development, but the paradigm Bakemonogatari focused on was introducing a character, resolving their issues and using them in a supporting role for the remainder of the series (notably not as a supporting role for Senjougahara or Araragi for the series).While MG2 takes a similar approach in that it deals with characters in mini-arcs for each character, it does a fantastic job diversifying all of the characters the series previously introduced.

D-Frag!

Adapted from the manga "!" by Tomoya Haruno, this slapstick school comedy with some harem elements is also known as . The show is not like other school comedies "Seitokai Yakuindomo*" or "GJ-bu", but instead it feels like an eclectic mix of "Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku" and "School Rumble".



The story revolves around male protagonist Kenji, a self-proclaimed delinquent who is actually a nice guy, considering his kindness gets him ensared into the school's game creation club, whose members are all quite eccentric characters.

Check Out Fate Extra CCC's Opening Movie By Anime Studio Shaft

Marvelous AQL have released the opening video to Fate/Extra CCC, the second Fate game for PSP developed in collaboration between Type-Moon and Imageepoch. The anime intro has been produced by anime studio, Shaft, recognized for their work on series like Bakemonogatari and more:Fate/Extra CCC will be released in Japan for the PSP on March 28th. The game features a new storyline, along with new characters like Jinako, as well as returning ones such as Saber and Caster from the previous game. Other characters like Kotomine Kirei--who is a store clerk now--have new roles.



Read more stories about Fate Extra CCC & PSP & Videos on Siliconera.

Monogatari Series: Second Season

The bee apparition is now gone, and summer vacation where the phoenix apparition averted harm is over. Around Koyomi Araragi and the girls who started a new trimester, apparitions, or perhaps threats even worse, were creeping in ever closer. Tsubasa Hanekawa, Mayoi Hachikuji, Suruga Kanbaru, Nadeko Sengoku, Shinobu Oshino, and Hitagi Senjogahara. Their soliloquies, confessions--and farewells. 6 new stories are starting now.

Walking to school one day Tsubasa Hanekawa encounters a huge white tiger apparition at a crossroads that talks to her. The next day her house burns down. Homeless, and not wanting to stay with her family, she lies and tells them she has a place to stay, but instead sleeps in the old cram school. She's awakened by an angry and upset Hitagi Senjogahara who ridicules her for worrying her and drags her to her place to stay instead. The two of them soon discover that Araragi has gone missing and has urged them in a text message not to look for him.

I really liked Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari so it's obvious that I watched this too. Oh, and of course happy new year! It's now 2014, I was thinking about that I would write something cool to start this year or put awesome drawing here. But that drawing is ugly and I didn't know anything cool to write, so I watched Monogatari series: second season and write about it. As you know I'm bad at writing a review so I just say that, this was good and I still don't like Sengoku Nadeko B:

Bakemonogatari 2 Review

The girls of the series receive further exposition and development.



Continuing with the standard Monogatari formula, all of the girls continue to have problems with their respective apparitions, and Ararararagi must help them all. What makes Bakemonogatari 2 different from its first season is the narrative changes perspectives. Instead of being from Arararagi's point of view the whole time, each girl gets their time to really shine and actually tell their story. It's one of the best things that has happened to the franchise. By doing so it gives us full insight as to how the girls think and developing them further.

Winter 2014 Harem Hill, Week 3 ? Sort of

I mean, I won't do the whole arbitrary point system thing again, 'cause let's be honest, no one's going to beat SAIKIN, IMOUTO NO YOUSU GA CHOTTO OKASHIINDA GA (IMOCHO for short) this season. Plus, NISEKOI is harmless and I suspect that it'll stay that way for the most part. I mean, Shaft already had its fanservice jollies fulfilled with the BAKEMONOGATARI series so . Regardless, these three shows air at relatively the same time during the week, and maybe it'll be fun to bring back this old feature where we try to highlight anime's more shameless characteristics. Now, the Harem Hill posts are a little different from how I usually write about anime. These will consist of more recapping than analysis, 'cause, well, I'm watching these harem shows so you don't have to. Besides, there's not much analyze.



To take stock, IMOCHO has been about a ghost raping a poor imouto and forcing her into a salacious relationship with her step-brother. Maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe I'm not. Meanwhile, NOURIN has been busying itself with blasting unmarried women over 25 everywhere. Oh yeah, it's also a tale about kids on an agricultural farm school, and how a popular idol recently retired just to transfer in. But none of this is that important! Last -- and kinda least as far as Harem Hill is concerned -- our hero in NISEKOI has to play pretend boyfriend with the rival gang's daughter. Boo hoo for him. Oh, and don't ask me about MAKEN-KI, because I think there's a difference between it and the three shows I'm looking to highlight. The latter three, I feel, definitely aim to be romantic comedies first, silly harem fanservice second. Well, that's the theory anyway. On the other hand, I believe that something like MAKEN-KI is unabashedly fanservice first. Anyway, let's begin.NOURIN EP. 2

Anime Best of 2013: Top Female Characters

Man, this took me a while to write. Real life got really busy.



Anyway, it's time to look at the characters that made up 2013. This post will be dedicated to female characters (male characters will be covered next), so expect this post to be filled with plenty of moe. But also expect the actual list of my favorite female characters to go into actual character writing and development.

It starts again...

Um, so I started the year with a post mostly in Japanese. Sorry about that. Since I usually watch my anime subbed or raw, occasionally some of my interal reactions come out in Japanese as well. Because of that, sometimes my immediate reaction can only be best expressed in that language rather than English. And it just so happened that I was off the day I watched the last episode of OreImo so I had time to write my thoughts down.



Last year had been uneventful in various ways. Like 2012, there's only a small handful of posts. I bought a whole bunch of toys but had very little time to play with them and it also didn't help that I went back to watching anime for much of my free time.

Top 20 Seiyuu

It's been a while since I've posted my Now it's time to let the fangirl loose.



I was planning on giving reasons for each person, but I realized they'd all be the same: vocal versatility, wide variety of roles, etc. So instead I singled out a role that particularly stood out to me and talked about that.

Winter Stream: Nisekoi: First Impressions

I know another series I'm reviewing but it's honestly because legal streaming services have been able to get more series. That being said this is one I picked up simply because of the studio and Director working on it, the story itself is that of Raku the son of the leader of a Yakuza clan and his goal to not get sucked into the criminal underworld of his Father and the sham relationship with the other heir of a rival clan the curt, rough spoken, and tom boyish Chtoge to forge a peace between the two factions. While he harbors a crush on the soft-spoken and traditionally "Feminine" Kosaki Onodera, all while he still remembers the promise he made ten years ago to get married to a girl when they where both children and he has a locket that can only be unlocked by the girl's key. It's a clichpremise that's been done in series ranging from Ken Akamatsu's Love Hina where it felt unbelievable and stretched the bonds of credulity, to the visual novel Snow Sakura. In this Raku is at least believable interested in keeping the promise and even harbors doubts about whether it really still matters or not, making it if not terribly original it's at least believable and relatable. Of the two obvious love interests the more interesting of the two is Chtoge who while coming off as a classic Tsundere is also shown to have a softer side and Raku despite finding her insufferable most times is at least willing to help her out when he sees she needs it. While Onodera is mostly a cute archetype with no real personality. What makes this watchable beyond the potential character growth and the mystery of who "the promise girl" is. Would be the fact that Studio Shaft known for making such odd and challenging Anime as Bakemonogatari and Puella Magi Madoka Magica and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (who directed one of my all time favorite Anime Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha). From its use of filters and colored lighting to quick cuts and strange jarring camera angles and cuts it looks like nothing now in the stable of Shonen Jump Anime feeling inventive and refreshing in its odd use of surrealism and odd touches such as the flash back showing Raku's promise with the girls as a silent black and white movie made to look like it's running on eight millimeter film stock. As of this episode it's a very good genre piece with an adventurous aesthetic that helps make the more hackneyed character and story elements bearable.
Full Post

Learning Japanese from ANIME

so I did my learn japanese via anime. I don't believe in "learning japanese watching anime" which most people im' sure use with the connotation of binge-watching crap with english subs. you gotta do something in between otherwise you're not gonna pick up anything. So it was as fruitful as and .with all the japanese words, grammar, and expressions that I encountered. Because I like the show and I know exactly what the hell is going on and the personalities of the characters, the dialogue is memorable and a great source to learn japanese from.some of the stuff I've encountered before so my encounter with those with this series served as good encounters to really internalize and understand the



meaning and the way you use it. some stuff i ran across it for the first time ever which is really exciting when the words piques my interest.

Anime for Cancer Research, with thanks to @hanabeeofficial

As noted in the I do NOT retain review copies for personal use. If I like it enough, I'll buy my own.



That does leave me with more review copies from Hanabee that I'll be able to auction off for charity at SwanCon or Continuum. So once a month I'm going to conduct a sort of giveaway with the goal of raising money for cancer research.

Top 13 Anime and Top 13 Characters of 2013

Here is my final review for the anime that aired in 2013.Focusing only on the most excellent, most remarkable and most memorable of 2013, this review will document and explain my favorite 13 characters of the year and my favorite 13 anime of the year, too.It's been a rather exciting year of anime, especially with the recent publications of my season reviews for 2013, so let's see how everything comes together with one last look at the anime of 2013.



Just a quick note before beginning: the list is just on the television anime of the year and does not include movies or OVAs.Furthermore, it includes any anime that aired over the year regardless of when it began or when it ends, so some ofwill be appearing again.

Autumn 2013

Finally, a season review that's not awkwardly late.With the anime of Autumn 2013 still fresh in our mind, there is no better time to review the shows, evaluate their accomplishments, and assign grades before moving onto the anime of 2014.So here it is, my final review for the anime of Autumn 2013.



Every anime receives a numerical score (between 10-5 as well as a D [delayed/dropped]) and is placed in position according to how they rank against each other from top to bottom, helping differentiate position among anime receiving the same score.Each anime is paired with its own review which provides my overall thoughts and evaluation on the anime in addition to explaining my reasoning behind the score and ranking.Any questions or discussion are welcome and encouraged in the comment section.

Sakura Trick

Not only the cherry blossoms, but the lilies too are in full bloom! One of the series was looking forward the most this winter season is , the anime adapting of the yuri yonkoma manga "Trick" by Tachi.



Being a fan of the yuri genre, was anxious to finally see a series air again that revolved around a true yuri relationship at its core, like "Aoi Hana", "Sasameki Koto" or "Candy Boy". A welcome change after many shows that at most suggested yuri pairings or showed superficial yuri tinted shenanigans merely to reel in viewers, like "Yuru Yuri" or "Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya".

Seitokai Yakuindomo*

Based on the "" manga by Tozen Ujiie, a four panel comedy about the silly shenanigans of the Ousai Academy student council, "Seitokai Yakuindomo" already spawned an anime adaptation in 2010, followed by multiple OVA episodes.



This hilarious comedy finally returns for an entire season with , each episode will no doubt be filled to the brim with sexual innuendos, verbal banter, dirty jokes and other silliness by its perverted characters.

Space Dandy

It seems as though, at least from the perspective of someone who is slowly fading out of hardcore fandom, that each season has fewer shows that truly inspire. Instead, we get retreads of common scenarios intermixed with sequels filled with tired ideas. Of course, it seems like every season we get some new anime that will save the medium. This fall it was Kill la Kill, this winter it is going to be Space Dandy, and sometime in 2014 we will have the long awaited Sailor Moon reboot. I don't really know what others think of Kill la Kill, but in my opinion it is mediocre, at best. That said, Space Dandy might end up as the greatest thing since sliced bread, or it could suck. It's too soon to tell one way or the other (but I think it sucks)



And that's the problem. What if it does? What if Sailor Moon sucks? Think of all the time and money that will be going into these series for simultaneous releases. What of the long term commitment to this series, at the expense of other series for each respective studio. Surely, us anime fans don't need spectacle and flash when watching a series. God knows Bakemonogatari was relatively tame when it came to spectacle and flash. Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star made addicts of all of us, and the production budgets here were comparatively small. Of course, the expectation is that these special, well backed anime, will draw in non anime fans, and act as a sort of bridge to the wider otaku world at best, and increased profits at worst.

Saki Zenkoku-hen 1

So begins the reunion with the much beloved cast of one of the craziest mahjong anime out there. I hope to cover this series regularly, with my impressions coming out later into the week for scheduling reasons.



Did I like the opening episode? You bet I did.

Tonari no Seki-kun

Adapting the original "" manga by Takuma Morishige in anime form, looks like it will to be one of the better comedies this winter season.



The story is all about school girl Rumi who spends most of her time in class both awed and shocked at the elaborate games her classmate Seki plays on his desk. Much to Rumi's exasperation, the boy never seems to get caught by the teachers, but to make matters worse for her, she is the one who gets scolded for not paying attention instead.

Summer 2013

The Summer 2013 anime season wasn't too long ago and featured a number of wonderful anime.Since I never provided my thoughts, opinions and reviews for the anime at the end of the season, here is a late review that encompasses the entire season and provided my final reviews for Summer 2013.



Before we begin, the ranking of anime below was completed at the end of September after a majority of the shows were completed.I did complete an evaluation of these shows at the time but never created a final review.It's also worth noting that some of the shows that continued into Autumn 2013 may have different grades in that review based on how they performed in their latter half.These are only the reviews from July-September for 2013.

Six Edgy or Action Anime Set in a Normal Tokyo

Tokyo is as important to anime as New York is important to movies.Everything tends to get set there and iconic landmarks are shown again and again.It is also interesting how school based anime set in parts of rural Japan / other Japanese locations always have students go "Oooh.The new transfer student is from Tokyo," even though a quarter of the Japanese population lives in the greater Tokyo area.



Shinjuku at Night

The Very Best: Like Nothing Ever Was

Today I made the conversion over to a new layout on this site to signify the beginning of a new year and also the broadening of the scope of this blog.



Reviewing my old posts, I realized I've never really made a post about what anime I've found to be the very best - my all-time favorites.I imagine this makes it a bit difficult to understand my background and motivations.

Autumn 2012

Yes, you're reading that right.Yes, this is for 2012, not 2013.Yes, this post is OVER AN ENTIRE YEAR LATE. Yeahabout that



So, remember all those wonderful anime from 2012?All the ones I forgot to provide my opinions and reviews and closure on?Well, here it is, my final review for the anime of Autumn 2012.

Summer '13

Quick Top 5 for two seasons ago:



#1. Monogatari Series Second Season

Top 5 Anime of 2013

BEST OF 2013 POSTS!

Yeah! 2012 was sort of a washout in terms of year-end lists... so was 2011, for that matter... but 2013 is gonna be different. We're starting with anime because why not.

2013 Anime Awards

Best Anime

OVERALL

Attack On Titan

Anime Admirers 2013: Monogatari Series: Second Season

Given the raw strength of sales of the franchise in both the original light novel and anime adaptation department,the idea of thinking it finds a place in a favorites of the year least is not very surprising from many perspectives.



Indeed though, for a series that is often all about matters of character perspective, this entry has taken great strides in distancing itself from the ones that had become all too familiar.

Memories of 2013 part 9: Enemies, opponents and rivals

One thing I really enjoy about following a show closely is the language that it can teach me. The first series I remember fondly for this is BAKEMONOGATARI, . Translating a certain drama CD back in the day also taught me a lot about how love is expressed differently in English and Japanese. Now, as I'm watching more Korean dramas, I've also finding the nuances of this particular aspect of human interaction fascinating. But to return to what I found to be the most contentious term this year, Taichi's "teki" in episode 19 of CHIHAYAFURU 2; whilst the debate over what is the correct interpretation has been really frustrating for me, I'm really glad that all the research I had to do has given me a much better grasp of how 'enemy', 'opponent' and 'rival' are expressed in Japanese. Care to have a gander?



"Enemy"??

The year 2013

Oh look, is it time already?

Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new edition of my annual anime review. I know I abandoned my blog half a year ago and moved to facebook instead, but nevertheless, I'll continue my tradition of writing an anime retrospective view at the end of each year like I did in , and .