Welcome to Week 10!
If only the show looked this good all the time…
Anime
Rain Town
If you haven’t seen Rain Town before, take a quick ten minutes out of your day to watch this little gem. Continue reading
Monogatari & the Extinction of the Harem (Part 2)
If you have not read Part One of this Monogatari Series: Second Season review, please read it first.
Monogatari & the Extinction of the Harem (Part 1)
With my completion of Monogatari Series: Second Season (Monogatari), I have watched over 50 episodes of Nisio Isin’s Monogatari franchise. That’s a lot of time to spend with the same group of characters, and yet my experience of watching Monogatari Series: Second Season (SHAFT, 2013) was utterly unlike my previous encounters with Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, and Nekomonogatari: Kuro. Part of the tag for Monogatari Series: Second Season was as follows:
“Their soliloquies, confessions—and goodbyes.”
If the previous entries into the franchise were beginnings, Monogatari Series: Second Season was most certainly a story of seperations, of departures, and of change.
Spring 2014, Week 9: Highlights of the Week
Well, I guess there wasn’t really a chance that this week could live up to Week 8, which was by far the best week of the season, but life rolls on…welcome to week 9!
Assertiveness is important at all times. #AnimeLifeLessons
Nisekoi Review: Bright Colors and Shiny Eyes
I’ve said it before: I’m quite susceptible to pretty colors, cute things and fun. Niskeoi (SHAFT, 2014), based on the Weekly Shounen Jump manga by Naoshi Komi, has all of those things. Now, having all those things in your show does not a good anime make, and at times Nisekoi kind of teeters on the edge between being a good show and a not very good one. But, fortunately, Chitoge and company land on the good side more frequently than they do the other. And so, for looking pretty, being pretty and for having Nao Toyama as Chitoge, Nisekoi garners a fluffy 6/10 from me (Ranking).
One Week Friends, Episode 9
There were a lot of dangers for One Week Friends coming into this episode, and, sadly, it seems the show just couldn’t avoid all of them. As I go on here, keep in mind that One Week Friends has been in my top 4 shows of the season since week one, and so I hold it to a higher standard. I’m about to be somewhat rough with this show, and its because my expectations were not met and I felt the show got away from the things that make it exceptional, tumbling into the mundanity of the rom-com-drama genre in places.
One Week Friends just isn’t built to handle big drama, but that’s what the show tried to pull off this week.
Continue reading
One Week Friends, Episode 8
Ah, man. I cried a lot watching this episode. It started with Shogo throwing the towel in Hase’s face in one of the best reactions to a PDA I’ve ever seen, and then came the walk…but we’ll get there. Brains Base is doing fantastic work on One Week Friends, but this episode took things a step farther. The writing and direction continue to be excellent, and really the whole package of this show amounts to what Kotoura-san could have been. Parts of this episode started to remind me of Toradora! and comparing anything to my third favorite anime of all time is a huge compliment. So, about this episode….
“Oh, a beach episode? Seen one, seen them all.”
How wrong I was…
Continue reading
selector infected WIXOSS: Episode 7
Sure, there are some problems with this show, starting with the characters. But, it’s time to stop pretending that the sense of foreboding each episode creates isn’t a noteworthy feat in itself. Some shows do things better than other shows, and selector infected WIXOSS does a great job of controlling atmosphere each week, and has been doing it since the very first episode. Creating an appropriate atmosphere for your show isn’t enough to make a show great on its own, but it’s foolish to disregard a show’s good traits because not all of its parts are of equal quality.
With toys like that, no wonder Tama likes to battle.
Nyarko-san (Season 1) Review
The fun thing about re-watching shows is that it gives you an opportunity to really crystallize your reasons for why you did or did not like a show. I’ll admit; I don’t re-watch shows often, because as a relative newcomer to anime, I’m constantly feeling like I haven’t seen enough of the classics, haven’t seen enough “good” shows, haven’t seen enough of anything. And then, sometimes, I just kick all that to the curb and watch something I know will make me happy. For the last few weeks, this has been Haiyore! Nyarko-san (Xebec, 2012).
Mage in a Barrel 
