Anime review: Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

The fourth season of Natsume Yuujinchou is here. But is it as good as it's predecessors? The answer is "I guess..."

Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat - Madara/Nyanko-sensei, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits. 

- Source: Anime News Network

Anime review: Ben-To

While innocently reaching for some half priced bento, You Satou finds himself beaten up on the floor of a supermarket. He soon learns that getting half-priced bento is an all-out brawl between customers. Satou is invited to the Half-Priced Food Lovers Club by one of the top fighters, Sen Yarizui (a.k.a. The Ice Witch), in order to train to compete in these battles.

Just Started: Ben-To

CHAAAAAARGE!!!

Ben-to: One day a poor freshman high school student named Satou You discovers a bento (boxed meal) on sale at half price at the local supermarket. Only to find out about the extreme fighting that breaks out over those half-priced bentos.

Expectations: Many annoyingly clichéd moments and stereotypical characters, but still filled with funny and silly stuff (hopefully at least).

First ep: Turned out to be somewhat better than that. No annoying clichéd moments, characters aren't very entertaining though, everything is silly - but not portrayed silly enough, and the humor wasn't 'lol' funny - just 'chuckle' funny.

Seems decent enough, with room for improvement.

Anime review: Another

In the spring of 1998, a 15 year old boy named Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to the countryside town Yamiyama. He soon grows suspicious of the fearful atmosphere surrounding his classroom - class 3. In particular, there is a strange girl named Misaki Mei who wears an eyepatch and is always alone drawing pictures.

Another is in many aspects a classic horror tale.The music, the setting, the mysterious and secretive inhabitants, and death. These aspects are nothing new, but used right it can result in an effective scary story.
Surprisingly, the end result turned out quite well.

The first half of the series was honestly very creepy. Now, while it wasn't actually downright scary, it is still among the scariest anime I've seen. And that is ...kinda sad actually when you think about it.

However, it's not just some creepy and gory scenes spread out over 12 episodes. There's also a mystery, a couple of romantic moments and some decent character development.

...But it's mainly creepy and gory scenes.

Just started: Another

It began with a very classic horror story vibe. Dark visuals, slow piano background music, a strange young girl, a new person in small town in the country side where the inhabitants all act secretive, and there seems to have been a horrible murder there years ago.
None of these aspects are anything new, but if they're handled right, the end result could be very good. However, horror stories usually end disappointingly, and this anime somehow seems like it's gonna fall into some "harem pitfalls". It just has that kind of appearance.

So, I'm hopeful, yet hesitant.

Anime review: Bakuman 2

Bakuman 2. the second season revolving around a pair of manga authors - Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito - and their peers, as they try to make a name for themselves in the intense business world of manga publishing.

This was a terrific choice for my "return to anime", because it's so easily digestible and thus easy to marathon. I blasted through it in two days, and it didn't feel like a chore for a single second. When a series hooks you in in such a way that you just don't wanna stop watching it, you know they're doing something right.

One of the main reasons why I love this series so much is because of it's fantastic cast. Every single character is well written. They each have their own distinct personality, no one is perfect and we constantly get to see things from their perspective. I love how characters can be complete assholes at one moment, and very likable people in the next moment. Now that's what I call life-like :)

The cast is - to be honest - one of the overall best anime casts I've come across. And I've seen quite a bit of anime - or TV series all together. That is because every character is great by themselves, but also have very entertaining interactions with each other. Even minor aspects like Miura's and Yamahisa's rivalry is very entertaining, despite not amounting to much story-wise.

As for the negatives of this season; I feel that some may consider this to be TOO similar to the first season, because there is A LOT that is very similar. Personally, I just consider it to be more of the good stuff :)

Then there's also the OPs and EDs. They're not terrible, but they are definitely boring and I skipped them nearly every time. Granted, it's not a big thing and has nothing to do with the actual story, but for a series that's all about creating stuff the public will like, they sure dropped the ball in this aspect.

Also, I wasn't very fond of the whole "Takagi might cheat on Miyoshi" subplot, but fortunately,  it resolved itself both fast and satisfyingly. By the way, this seems like a good time to mention that Miyoshi is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. While not actually doing all that much, she is one of the strongest supporting pillars in the entire show.

The biggest minus I give it is that it is very childish/cheesy at times with some overly dramatic speeches and statements here and there. It may sound like a minor thing, but it's stuff like this that makes me weary of recommending many anime to my non-anime watching friends (i.e. all my friends). This is however nothing that detracted much of my overall enjoyment of it.

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Just another day in the manga business.

I'll end with saying thatI found this season be just as good as the first season. If you liked the first season then you'll almost definitely like this one as well. If you didn't like the first season, then you may as well stay away from this one.

"More of the same" has never rung so true and yet been so fulfilling.

8/9

More Gintama!

 

THIS IS THE GREATEST NEWS EVER!!!1!11oneon!

Sket Dance "handing over the baton" to Gintama

Yes, for those who are late to get this month-old news - like me - you can now rejoice, because according to Anime News Network, Gintama will start airing new episodes on October 4th. Gintama will be returning. Sket Dance will be handing over it's time slot to Gintama.Which really makes me wanna check out Sket Dance. But this post is about Gintama!

For those who don't know about Gintama, I feel sorry for you, because the parody/comedy goldmine that is Gintama is easily the series (anime or not) that I have laughed the most and the hardest to. I must have laughed myself to tears at least two dozen times while watching this. I wouldn't call it the "best" comedy, because they do have some episodes here and there that either focus on serious action (episodes I don't like at all) or touching drama (which is really moving sometimes and really boring other times). But it is without a shred of doubt the funniest series I've ever seen with it's character's outrageous reactions, deformed facial expressions, out-of-the-blue parodies, meta jokes, toilet humor, and constant fake-outs that they're getting cancelled.

Watch to episode 25 at least, dammit!

Now, if you haven't seen it but is planning to, keep in my mind that the first 15 to 20 episodes are among the worst of the entire series. I know, it's pretty inconveniant. But the way I view it is as some sort of test: "Get through these 'meh' episodes and you'll be rewarded with over 200 episodes of pure gold".

I remember once a few years ago when I felt really blue over a certain thing and nothing seemed to help. I felt down the entire day. Then I began watching the latest Gintama episode and I didn't even make it through the opening sequence before I had a huge grin on my face. It's truly the best 'pick me up' there is :)

I usually try not to overhype things I think are really good. But I just can't help it in this case, I love this series THAT much. And if you don't like it, well that's your opinion - but it's a stupid opinion. How can you not love stuff like this?

Let's go people-sledding!

Started: Shakugan no Shana III

So I recently started watching Shakugan no Shana III. I'm currently three episodes in. While I can't really say that it's terrible so far, I don't like it. I am so sick of these characters and their childish behavior. I know characters of this sort are nothing unusual within anime - which definitely has something to do with why I'm so of them - but the fact that I've had to endure two whole seasons with these characters already certainly adds to my aggravations.

I'm pretty sure I'll still with it throughout the whole 26 episode season though, because SnS is quite a big title and I want to be able to properly chime in with my opinions in future discussions and to fill up my "watched anime of the year" list.

All I have to do now is to pray it wont get (much) worse as it goes on.