Kodaka looks as though he is being subjected to an episode of Reign.

The latest installment of the Haganai epic centers almost entirely on the Sena-Kodaka relationship, as seen by others. The episode kicks off with the beginning of filming, which would later have it’s own issues. Kodaka then runs into one of Sena’s classmates named Yusa Aoi. She assumes he is dating Sena, spouts a bunch of stuff about how the two of them are perfect while she is second best, then storms off. Kodaka later runs into Pegasus and shatters his illusion that he was dating his daughter. The next day, Sena grabs Kodaka and reveals that their fathers had arranged a marriage between the two of them and had a picture of the two of them playing together as toddlers. As Pegasus had run his mouth to numerous people, Maria ends up revealing this to Yozora and Rika, whose morale is totally shot. Finally, Kate and Kodaka talk about the movie the club is making and how she says it is similar to a cult classic. Kodaka watches that movie and finds a creepy similarity…

Oh dear, here he goes again…

There was a lot that happened in this week’s episode. I think first it would be best to start off with the insight into Sena’s character that was provided by Aoi and later Kodaka’s own internal monologue.

Kodaka’s harem grows even when he isn’t trying.

Aoi provided that commonly held view of Sena’s character. She has all the attributes that one needs to succeed. She’s intelligent, beautiful, athletic and on top of that her family is rich. In Aoi’s mind, this absolutely must mean that she is popular. Since her taste in men is well off the norm, Aoi believes that it is no wonder that she ends up with a cool guy like Kodaka. Given this massive boost of confidence Kodaka went back to the clubroom and talked to Sena while thinking more about her.

Kodaka stares longingly at the object of his desire.

I think Kodaka hit all the marks on Sena. It isn’t that Sena is much more talented than everyone else, it’s that she is able to focus entirely on anything she cares about. If she wants to be the top student, she knows she has to pay attention entirely in class because that is where the test material is presented. She doesn’t focus on any other portion of the school experience. She doesn’t need to worry about the rest of her classmates because she could spend more time on those things she cares about. Say what you will about playing galge, lusting over Kobato, stalking Yozora and spending time with Kodaka, it’s clear that she puts total effort into each of those.

That is the look of a man who knows he’s lied to so many.

The other aspect of this episode I found interesting was Pegasus. He presented the classic case of wanting something to come true and not even considering the actual truth. It’s clear from the history between he and Kodaka’s father, plus the whole arranged marriage business that he really wants his daughter to marry Kodaka. The 2 trips to Sena’s house by Kodaka in the series to date have made Pegasus happy and allowed him to connect to his old friend. Sena’s talk about Kobato only confirmed the desire in his mind to see them together. To interpret her comments as anything other than literal would destroy that illusion. In addition, he had to tell everyone he knew about it because if “everyone” knows then it must be true. So for a while, he happily lived in a world where his daughter was marrying his friend’s son and no one was questioning this. That is until Kodaka began asking.

Childhood friend + Fiance = Win?

As for the rest of the episode, there were a few other points worth talking about:

1. Have we reached the point where it is obvious that Sena “wins”? Rika and Yozora are now openly talking about how distant they are from Kodaka right in front of him.
2. Kate may be the person who saved the club from doom by watching cult teenage angst films.
3. Did they write an entirely new character just for that scene? That’s Urobuchi-esque contrivance there. At least it didn’t feel like they read a book right before writing Aoi’s character, though.
4. Pegasus. Leaping through the air.
5. Was that shot of Kobato necessary?

Quick! Someone toss a baseball.

Next week, everything gets scrapped and they just film the OP. That’s easy enough and it’s going to turn out terrible. But fun to make? Hell yes.

I’m not trying to attract attention with this picture, nope.

I never thought this recap series would make it to 30 installments. I was due for a week of shows so bad that I would be embarrassed to write about it and then I would eventually stop as it would seem like I hated anime. This was very nearly that week.

So what exactly set the stage for this. First, Maoyuu didn’t air a new episode this week, just some recap special episode 9.5 or something like that. It’s probably a compilation of Female Knight and Demon King in various states of undress trying to seduce Hero. Second, there was epic bed-shitting when it came to shows that were even mildly okay. Third, the prospect of watching live-action Anno-directed terribad was so bad that the time was spent talking about the silliness of societies based entirely around one staple food, deconstructing deconstruction and some sort of music quiz. On the plus side, you get a new show cracking my top 5 this week for the first time. I hadn’t even written more than a comment on it prior to now.

Currently Airing Top 5

It’s a little known fact that Hanakana actually possesses the power of Exodus in real life.

Zetsuen no Tempest

Tempest provided an absolutely wonderful episode this week. Aika revealed herself as the instrument to her own downfall. Why? Because she had to make sure that Hakaze wanted to destroy the Tree of Genesis after meeting Yoshino and Mahiro. The cruelty of it all gets to Hakaze and she fights in vain against Aika. At the same time, I think there are problems with the plot in general. Mainly how Evangeline managed to come up with this theory that proved correct. Plus, the motivation of testing humanity seems to be ignoring the question of why that has to be the case. The romantic storyline is fine though, but the ending may not be ideal.

“…and that’s how you bring peace to the Middle East,” Kate finished.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT

Who knew Senran Kagura possessed such character development.

Senran Kagura

Yes, I have been watching this show. Efforts to write about this at The Classiest Anime have proved a little fruitless. The issue is that this show has been too painfully aware that it’s stupid fanservice bait with little substance. That’s unlike say Queen’s Blade or Symphogear which play it completely without irony. This week’s episode was really a curveball of sorts. The dark ninjas aren’t actually that evil, they just ended up there because of each of their circumstances. Also, Hibari is still useless, but at least contributing to the plot now.

If only that question was asked a few years ago.

Senyuu.

There’s a cat. It’s a masochist pervert talking cat. That was about it for plot elements in this week’s Senyuu. Otherwise, Alba’s ribs continue to be a running joke with even meta commentary on why this was still coming up. But the best moments in this show seem to be in the introduction now where Yamakan lets it fly with looking cheap. He’s definitely not afraid to poke fun at himself.

Alice will treat you well, provided you don’t remove your pants.

Ishida to Asakura

Ishida’s work as the maid Alice haven’t been discovered yet, but he has to split time between treating Yamada as a customer and brutally killing him twice. The deep voice as Alice gets me every time. I just can’t help it. I do wonder if they are going to end this in a few weeks, they have one character left to introduce based on the OP animation, and I can’t see them coming up with something new every week even if they only have to fill 90 seconds.

The Rest of the Week

Megumi cements her status as 2nd best character.

GJ-bu

I continue to criminally underrate this show. From early on, I thought it was just a cheap looking, do nothing anime of the likes of Hidamari Sketch. This seems to do the job much better to the point of almost cracking my top 5 each week. There are certainly worse ways to pass the time than seeing Kyoro brush each girl’s hair, try to act more masculine than his character appears, Mao acting like a child despite being the oldest one in the club, Megumi being constantly insecure, Shion being adorable in that cool way and Kirara just sitting in a corner eating meat. Ok, that last one doesn’t sound so hot. It’s turned into a middle-tier show of a group of friends doing fun activities for the purpose of having fun. It does the job magnificently.

Don’t worry Amanti, Mutta won’t be killed in the crossfire between the two people he loves.

Space Brothers

With each new character that gets introduced by name, my heart sinks about this series that much further. The prospect of this continuing on for several years tests my patience. I say that because they have started the “Walk to Amarillo” arc. That’s literally the goal of this survival training. In a bit of unintentional NASA racism, the groups of potential astronauts were split into groups. Conveniently, all of the candidates from Asia ended up in one group with the rest composed of European, American and Canadian prospects. This episode was about as exciting as a walk through a desert should be.

Hiyori Mori-ed way too hard last night.

Kotoura-san

This latest arc feels as though it is dousing itself in gasoline and preparing to light a match. It’s suicidal writing of the highest order. That epilogue just made this show lose all credibility in my eyes. It’s a shame too as it looked like this was a good episode about Haruka starting to get closer to her mother. Now, I’m just starting to feel sorry for all of the people who started believing in this show early on when it did combine tragedy and comedy well. It’s just all over the map now.

Why did I fall for someone who didn’t jump on the Vocaloid bandwagon?

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

I’ll admit this episode at first made me angry at the injustice inflicted upon all of the characters in this show. After thinking about it a little, I was directing that anger in the wrong direction. It should really have been anger at the fact that these characters have no resilience at all and they continue to fall into the same melodramatic pits time after time after sweet infamous time. If society in general had the same attitude as Sorata and Jin, 90% of the world would either be raging about how talent is unfair or walling themselves off from the rest of the world. It would suck tremendously. That’s why no one makes characters like this who are supposed to be inspirational because eventually you settle for the opportunities given and trying the best you can.

Kona becomes the first person to actually meet their waifu in person.

Robotics;Notes

After slowly creeping around for a while, this is heading to an ending perfectly fitting for the Noitamina block. Hopelessly pretentious, horribly irresponsible, recklessly rushed and brazenly silly. It can all be summed up in one moment in this week’s episode. Airi has a gun ripped out of her hand by a parrot as she was firing it on herself. Let me write that again. Airi has a gun ripped out of her hand by a parrot as she was firing it on herself. If that’s not silly then you’ve probably had too many hyperoats.

Seriously, where was she hiding those?

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

There was an episode of Oniai last year that qualified for last year’s worst of year terribad special. This week’s episode of Oreshura brought back those terrible memories. So much wasted time on trying on swimsuits that it felt like the exact same thing. I didn’t even have Anastasiya to provide the only source of entertainment this time. Nope, I was left a mess having terrible flashbacks to watching that episode of Oniai last season. The only saving grace of this episode was Eita’s aunt in the epilogue. Finally, this show got kicked out of its harem comfort zone.

Riki actually learned Russian over the previous 1000 times experiencing this arc.

Little Busters!

There was a lot of crying in this week’s episode. At the same time, I was sat there with an expression that looked something like this -_-. Maybe it was the fact that Riki was inexplicably able to read Russian that made me stop caring. Perhaps it was the constant feeling that this part of the story was written by a man who never got to see his dying mother, but was badly projecting it through a girl. It just didn’t have the feeling that it should have for a tragic event having happened. It was way too introspective for its own good basically.

Minami-ke is just pandering bullshit, isn’t it?

Minami-ke Tadaima

Looks like the good run ended for this series now. The fact that they are back into fall just serves as a reminder that though the characters have developed over 4 separate iterations, time has not actually passed at all. The premise of this week’s episode is being cheap and saying its friendly for the environment. Then, doing things that aren’t cheap because it feels good. It’s almost as though moderation is a bad word to base a plot on. It never feels like the Minamis struggle with household expenses either. I guess what I’m saying is that anime shouldn’t aspire to feel like a Judd Apatow film where people lament about only being upper middle-class.

Updated Average Seasonal Ranking

This is not that kind of uplifting post.

In the course of watching a series, it’s generally good if something leaves an emotional impact on the viewer. To be honest, I am rarely moved by something I’m watching unless I see that it is making an honest attempt to make a point. To give a recent example, I would point to Older Maid Sister’s speech in the 9th episode of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. While it lacks in cultural relevance on a basic level, the point was made that all people who try to improve their lives should be treated with respect. A nice positive, uplifting message that can appeal to a wide audience.

If you are looking for discussion of episodes like that, this post isn’t for you. Instead, I’m here to lower the tone of discussion and talk about the shows that made me angry. Not just because they were bad, but because they went beyond that. I wished for terrible things to happen to the characters. I didn’t want a happy end for these characters. Admittedly, these shows worked on a level that I didn’t drop them for one reason or another. It instead became the equivalent of cheering against Duke at basketball. The show may suck, but it’s popular enough to win some fans inexplicably like Duke. And finally, Fuck Duke.

Screw the feel good ending, arrest his ass for jumping the gate.

The first series I would point to is the currently airing Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. Over the course of the 22nd episode, at various times I was hoping that the protagonist Sorata would witness the girls who had feelings for him, Mashiro and Nanami, taken from him in classic NTR fashion, I hoped he jumped into the pit at a train station, hoped that Mashiro would board a train in a sort of reverse Casablanca scenario and much more. It just served as the inspiration of this post, but I think a lot of the anger had been building up over months. Here was a character who was given two girls who cared for him, and all he did was string one along and the other he emotionally abused. All the while, completely oblivious to the feelings of other people. There’s no way he should have friends after pulling something like that.

Although starting to look like a classic compared to one of its spinoffs, ChäoS;HEAd is another great example. It’s yet another one of those harem anime with a needlessly dense and useless protagonist. But the thing that set this apart came in the first moments of the series. With the world effectively destroyed, the series looked to be quite interesting. As it panned out, I was hoping for an apocalypse to take all of the characters out with the rest of civilization.

Now it may seem like I’m just picking on harem or romantic comedy, but there’s much more to it than that. Mouretsu Pirates constantly had me wishing for any danger to the cast, and that’s a show where there’s no romance other than Jenny and Lynn and whatever token yuri shipping the fanbase could come up with. And for manga fans there’s Kimi no Iru Machi, a story that almost no one likes anymore and is nicknamed Ragemachi in some circles. Yet, it’s getting a real adaptation from the revived corpse of Gonzo. In addition, there was also Canaan which had a world traveling protagonist who was so naive that I wished she would have been forced into a deep conversation with the character called Hakkoh. If you’ve seen it, you will know what I mean.

If you didn’t remember, she inflicts unimaginable pain on people just by talking.

So what does this all mean exactly? That I watch some shows with my heart on my sleeve and with so much passion that everything that is momentarily bad should no longer exist? I don’t think I would even go that far. Maybe small things build up after a while with such frequency cause me to just turn angrily against a show. Who knows, maybe it’s possible that they are doing the job that was intended.

If you have anything that has made you feel the same way, please contribute to the comments. It doesn’t even have to be an obscure show to warrant mention. If so, is there anything in particular that makes you actively hate the characters or setting of a series?

Today, we’re going to watch a classic silent film.

This week’s episode of Haganai sees the club scrambling to make an entirely new film before the school festival begins. With Rika’s help and Sena’s spare script, they manage to get it done. Then, at the festival the rest of the group watches the silent film Kobato’s class made. Afterwards, they discover that she is in fact popular among her peers, but she struggles to make friends with them. Later, after a speech from the student council president, who is hated by Yozora for being popular, Kodaka spots Rika on the roof of the school. What starts as a friendly conversation would turn into an intervention.

Yozora: I never realized how manly you were, Yukimura.

This episode really presented three different views on relationships between people. Those come in the forms of Rika’s relationship with the rest of the club, Kobato’s relationship with the rest of her class versus the club and Kodaka’s relationship with the girls closest to him.

And here’s the album of pictures I took of you in secret.

First up is Rika. So badly has she reached out to the club to get close to all of them that she works strenuous hours trying to make their hastily made movie to look presentable. She took all of those secret pictures to make the models from the game they played in the first season. She puts in that sort of effort because she deeply cares for the people she is trying to help. That’s why she cares enough about Yozora to tell her that plagiarizing a film is terrible even if they wouldn’t have been caught. It’s why she also has to confront Kodaka at the end because eventually his actions will tear them all apart.

Symbolism alert!

Kobato is a different sort of character in that she’s almost exactly like a young Kodaka. I’ll get to that conclusion in a bit. We first see her in this episode with her classmates coming out of the AV room. It really felt like the story of the movie she was in mirrored how she is with her peers. They all reach out to her wanting to be close, but at the same time they elevate her up onto a pedestal. The fact they refer her to “Kobato-sama” is pretty similar to how Sena is viewed by her classmates. The classmate who talked to Kodaka said that they were all trying to make friends with her, but she would push away whenever they got too close to her emotionally. Fortunately, it becomes better that evening when she returns to the club and it became obvious to me that she is happy to be friends with Maria. She doesn’t need to have 100 friends after all if she has just 1 as close as her, even if they do argue all the time.

This is what Kodaka does to all of them with his ignorance.

Then finally Kodaka, poor Kodaka. He has a similar problem to his sister in being beloved by many. In the end, Rika tries to set him straight. He’s willfully ignorant of the way she, Sena, Yozora and Yukimura feel about him. Why? Because he’s afraid. He doesn’t want to have the responsibility of rejecting their feelings. He doesn’t want to have to choose one of them. He chooses to say they are fellow club members because it allows them all to be equal in his mind. Eventually, his inability to move forward will leave the rest of the club. The four girls have all developed feelings out of their quest for friendship, but without a resolution they can’t move on either. Ultimately, he needs to realize that he’s selfishly hurting more than himself by refusing friendship and the consequences that may have.

Someone’s a bit embarrassed.

As for the rest of the week’s points:

1. That wasn’t very convincing bad acting on the part of Yukimura and Yozora in that scene in the club’s film. I guess it’s too hard sometimes for professional voice actors to try to sound like hacks on purpose especially with the years of training they have had to make it this far in their careers.
2. No shameless GJ-bu level sponsorship here. Upside down arches on that bag of burgers all the way.
3. Yozora’s introduction of student council president Hidaka Hinata made her sound like a tragic character of sorts. Unable to turn down requests, used by the younger students which makes her seem popular. I’d be shocked if she didn’t somehow enter the tier below Rika and Yukimura on the Kodaka relationship chart.
4. Finally, that scene on the way to Rika’s room was dumb. The whole “this is the first time I’ve walked down the hallway with her” before she says that statement was completely scene padding.

They’re best friends you know.

Next week, it looks like the student council gets involved with the Neighbors Club. Or maybe Aoi just want to make enemies with Yozora and have her existence acknowledged by Sena. Probably something in between.

Stay classy, Key. Stay classy.

I’m not going to humor you much with tales of how my week went. Needless to say, this post will go up on St. Patrick’s Day. Most of you will know what kind of activity typically happens on that day. I will undoubtedly be engaging in a much sadder version of that, without people. That’s what I would normally say but for the fact that I’m actually feeling a bit under the weather. Sober St. Pat’s for me. In the meantime, I can still pass the time playing Pokemon LeafGreen while doing the Nuzlocke Challenge. Eleven hours in, and I’ve only killed one of the anibloggers I’m using as names for different roosters in Japanese Legal Video Game Cockfighting.

As for the anime this week, the season is beginning to wind down. Or in the case of the Noitamina block, it just comes to an end which feels like the series director was only told they had 22 episodes last week. The terribad viewing actually did happen this week as the group finally decided that hard drive space needed to be cleared after watching Anno attempt to direct real actors. And as a side note, I’m out of town attending a small gaming convention, so won’t be doing a recap. I’ll try to throw something up on next week’s conclusion of Robotics;Notes in 2 weeks.

Currently Airing Top 5

Head Maid in much different times.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

I can’t say this was a particularly great episode. It was merely a case of everything hitting the fan from an economic perspective. Young Merchant’s manipulation of prices ends up inevitably causing a strain on the Southern Nations where this story takes place which have price stability. That supply issue, corresponding with the speech Older Maid Sister gave last week will lead to a war next week where Hero will try to prevent anyone from dying. That’s a tough ask. What I did get the most enjoyment out of from this episode was Young Merchant utilizing futures contracts. Not since Spice and Wolf have I had such esoteric entertainment.

Not creepy.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT

I have not been paid for this product placement, though I wish I were.

GJ-bu

I don’t understand why this show seems to get the shameless corporate sponsorship that changes between companies that other shows don’t. Take Natsuiro Kiseki from last year, that was pretty much Lawson: The Animation at times. In this episode, McDonald’s got a whole segment of Shion eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger, McDonald’s fries and a soda from McDonald’s at the same time. But you know what, I’m willing to live with it. Why? Because I find these characters entertaining. Their inability to interpret Kyoro’s art is adorable. The two groups getting together was a little awkward from my standpoint, but it’s done enough to let me live with it.

Holy shit. He actually flipped that table.

Zetsuen no Tempest

When Megumu decided that he had to dish out emotional judgement on Yoshino and Mahiro, I pretty much lost it. Who is this no one that just showed up and happened to be the key to saving the world to tell the people who lost someone close to them how they should feel? Why is he allowed to inflict internal bleeding on Yoshino? Regardless, it looks like this series is heading to a messy ending much like the characters have described. Trying to break through a blockade of the remaining naval forces on the planet, and if successful it will cause global war on an unprecedented scale. They are just making the global elements up as they go along, aren’t they?

For being introduced late, Ai has made an impact.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

Eita’s aunt entered the story this week to shake things up. Of course, she happens to have one of those jobs that only a character in a light novel/manga/anime would have: visual novel creator. That somehow gives her the power to judge relationships between people, and what she sees is Eita and Masuzu faking their way through their relationship. That in turn leads the other girls to plot against the pair believing rightly that Eita is being held hostage by Masuzu. This isn’t going to end well. Plus, Ai’s fake relationship seems to have just vanished as a concern since she’s obviously in the harem now. How are they going to cram the angle in with Masuzu’s sister again?

The Rest of the Week

Rejection can feel like that.

Ishida to Asakura

The final character as seen in the OP is introduced. Yamada’s younger sister enters the story trying to exact revenge for the numerous times her brother has been killed. Only she ends up falling in love with Ishida, but is cruelly rejected. She vows revenge. That’s the whole episode, but in a tight 2-minute package it does the job well. Ending with the instant downpour when she was rejected was an excellent touch. With that said I still hope this series concludes quickly. There’s only so much you can do with plots revolving around the same homicide and main character being impossibly dumb.

Welcome to ‘Murica where you need one of these.

Space Brothers

So Nitta really does have a younger brother, and he appears to be full-blown hikkikomori. That’s the subtext for what will happen next week when he has to talk about his feelings with the rest of the group. This week was about a forced international competition. However, the reasoning is quite selfish in that no one wants to wait 7-10 years for a chance to go into space that may never happen if they finish last here. So the Asian group picks up speed to move into 4th on Mutta’s day in charge, before the end. The real downfall in this arc is that it’s not really entertaining, and the Nitta issue is something that surely would have been caught by now and he wouldn’t even be there. The very fact that I’m caring about these things means the show isn’t working.

Stop it pervs, she’s just checking her temperature.

Minami-ke Tadaima

It’s an episode that was Hosaka-heavy, but yet it wasn’t very entertaining. Maybe his schtick is wearing off on me finally. In this episode, he picks up knitting and then gets Hayami concerned at the fact that he is treating Haruka as a goddess. The real downfall in this episode was a dumb sequence where snowfall and breasts were confused. It would be bad enough if that happened just once in this episode, but Natsuki’s act with Hitomi was repeated in the opposite direction when Haruka showed up. The end just turned into a half-assed Christmas episode unfortunately. The fourth of these despite the characters staying the same age the whole time.

What sort of resistance group lets people dress like this?

Little Busters!

This is a Very Special™ episode of Jun Maeda’s Little Busters! this week. You see, Kud ends up embroiled in a civil war and taken hostage by the resistance movement. It doesn’t ever feel like she is in danger as she is tied up in chains and left hanging by herself. Because they don’t guard her at all. Plus, the magic that is only possible from allowing a main character to repeatedly attempt to solve all the character routes allows Riki to transport a piece of metal with his mind thousands of miles. It’s supposed to be some sort of miracle connection between the group of friends. But why did it feel like I spent hours of my life draining away watching 24 minute episode that removed the opening and ending because it was Very Special™? Maybe Key should have stopped after One.

Someone got paid to write this.

Kotoura-san

Yet, that’s all much better than Kotoura-san doing its own attempt at Very Special™. I question the very nature of this project now. Is it supposed to be a completely episodic story with the same cast? But why is there a continuous crime thriller going on in the background. Could the ending be more telegraphed if it were in Morse code? I don’t blame the writers too much for this crime of an episode. Given the instructions from the producer, they could only come up with a terrible mess after 48 re-writes.

Why?

Robotics;Notes

These last few episodes have definitely felt like there’s been no sense of pacing at all. I’m aware the source visual novel takes a long time to develop, but faithfully adapting a show shouldn’t come at a cost of cohesiveness during the transition. This week’s episode just felt like it was trying to wrap up loose ends one after another. Want Airi to meet her AI counterpart for a farewell? Let’s do it this week. Want Kai to confess to Aki and remove the other romantic angles? Let’s do that as well. Next week is the final episode, and it’s going to come down to a battle between robots. Which will probably end up meaningless as a completely unannounced thing comes in to save them all at the last second.

Hot loli character losing dentures action this week.

Senyuu.

Oh boy, Yamakan’s having to deal with plot again. We all remember what happened last time with that, and he can’t even have old people dancing again. Actually, I don’t really understand why this suddenly turned into a mess. The disc sales must be poor because now it’s feeling like an hour’s worth of story is being crammed into about 10 minutes. This episode was probably the first time the jokes felt forced. There was a serious situation that involved breaking out of the jail they’ve been in for half the series, but the jokes seem to flow in at the wrong time and without much of a punchline.

What’s missing: Sorata crying, an ugly fat man/sleazy old man to steal Nanami and Mashiro away.

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

It inspired me to write this which is devoted to watching anime while hoping bad things happen to the character. It takes a lot to do that to me recently.

Updated Seasonal Average Ranking

Terribad

A group of people standing in a circle firing guns. What could go wrong?

Cutey Honey

This is the live action version that came out at the same time as the Re: Cutey Honey OVA was made. This was also directed by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame. That’s an important element when it comes to judging the quality of this tribute to the 70s Go Nagai classic. We don’t usually watch a lot of live-action movies in terribad, the most recent was the Hong Kong Dragonball movie (terrible, but miles better than Dragonball Evolution), but at least that one had Chinese Rambo.

But enough about that, what can I say about the subject before hand? To put it quite simply, it tries to force an animation feel to the film in places where it cannot be done. There’s a definite sense that even Anno felt this was the case when brief animated scenes were inserted for back story. When the two worlds do meet during the action sequences, it looks as though the effects were made with the cheapest tools available. That may have been on purpose, but it looks absolutely terrible.

As far as the story is concerned, it tries to stick to a buddy cop action-comedy sort of feel as the lonely title character Honey teams up with the lonely detective Natsuko to try to bring down Panther Claw, the secret organization led by Sister Jill that is trying way too hard to be camp. They are after the device on Honey’s choker that allows her to transform into Cutey Honey so they can continue to do bad guy things.

The biggest problems begin with how Natsuko is wasted as a character. She’s there just for moral support at the end. What can she do when her new friend is capable of melting people. Then being a comedy, the jokes being made about the unintentional comedy should not be funnier than anything happening. Seiji, as a journalist, should not have a fancy apartment and drive a TVR. He should be dirt-poor and covering up the water damage on the ceiling of his top-floor apartment with newspaper and not living the high life (drinking it is no problem though). As for a recommendation, just watch Shoot ‘Em Up instead.

*Adds Mecha tag to Haganai*

As this second season of Haganai approaches a close, it’s clearly narrowed its focus down to one thing, Kodaka’s fear of change. The episode begins with Rika being discovered lying on the floor of her production room ill. That leads the screening of the movie to be cancelled for the reason that the group would not be able to see it together first. They eventually do watch it as a group later. The second half of the episode is a battle with Aoi over the club’s right to exist. It’s a match of knowledge of the rules as Aoi tries to get the club shut down as Yozora shows knowledge of the various loopholes that allow it to exist. When Aoi does find that sticks (Maria not actually being a sister), Sena uses her influence to get Maria hired as a special part-time teacher. With that battle over, Sena shocks everyone with a request of Kodaka.

Kodaka has told Rika there’s no Santa.

I was particularly struck by two moments in this episode. The first was as Kodaka was leaving Rika’s bedside. They had bonded over Rika’s BL doujinshi and then Kodaka’s explanation of male anatomy. As he leaves, he says it was all possible because they were club members.

Kodaka is merely acting here.

I felt pretty disgusted at this point. Here was the lone male in the club trying to dictate the terms of a relationship between them in this way: If you want to be able to have this friendly relationship, you may never view me as a friend. That’s where the comparison with Kobato from last week. He’s endeared himself with a group of people, but he is so afraid of going down the path of accepting them that he pushes them away. Life was so much easier when everyone was afraid of him because of his appearance and he didn’t have to take on responsibilities other than caring for Kobato.

Good Job destroying the club’s harmony.

Of course that selfishness came in at the end of Sena’s marriage proposal/regular confession at the end of the episode. Kodaka is just going to pretend that he never heard Sena because having to think about his own feelings is something he doesn’t want to have to do let alone provide an answer to Sena. That’s exactly the point that Rika was making last week. Eventually, relationships between people change, but Kodaka’s afraid of that. He is using the club as a way of fulfilling his regrets with Yozora 10 years ago.

Aoi is nothing compared to Sena when it comes to political power.

Finally, I should speak out on the interesting dynamic between Yozora and Sena in the clash with Aoi. I interpreted that as symbolic in what each of them can provide to Kodaka. Yozora was effectively playing the defensive role. She’s trying to protect Kodaka from any outside threats to his life within the club. She’s there to preserve the status quo as much as possible. Sena’s role is different since she has power. In a sense, her role is to change situations to better Kodaka’s life within the club. Her confession was really the best thing she could do for him. She was offering him an out where he could accept and any questions about relationships within the club would be answered. Unfortunately, he’s a coward who thinks he’s unworthy of love.

You do not argue rules with Yozora.

The other points from this penultimate episode of Haganai NEXT:

1. Sena finally uses the Move controller in a way that seems properly functional. I didn’t think that was possible.
2. I don’t see the motivation in Aoi trying to destroy the club. Really, it just seemed like a random plot created to show a larger point, but her motivation still makes no sense to me.
3. Rika’s movie of database elements made more sense from a plot perspective than many first episodes I saw this season.
4. I refuse to believe Rika didn’t know there was no such thing as a yaoi hole.

No, you shouldn’t wish for her to be sick all the time.

Next week’s episode looks like it is one of those where Kodaka will have a fateful encounter with the student council president after running away from the club and end up having her fall in love with him. At the very least, she could maybe teach him not to trample on others feelings.

I’ve always tried to make my preview posts a little different. Whether that is through projecting my own ending based on the title name, or just writing crap all over a chart, I’ve tried to make them all different from each other. To be honest, you shouldn’t really go to me for season previews since I hardly know what I’m talking about, and there are better options available. I’ll try to do my best to make this interesting since there are a small number of you out there that subscribe. Fortunately, the anime getting the most buzz is

I had to try that once. There’s no way in hell this is getting 13 comments let alone 130.

The order of this came from when I was putting together my heroic last place finish in the MAL Fantasy Anime League. My entry last spring finished with an historic result by the way. So I’m really going to preview 27(+1) shows in this preview.

Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live

This is the 3rd iteration of this franchise which as far as I can tell has never done much of note. That’s a little unfair, though. A series which sticks entirely to appealing to young girls without any sort of hook for men in their 30s won’t ever get the sort of recognition it deserves. I can’t express much of an opinion, but it’s probably done well enough as a niche genre show to get this third edition.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge

Do you ever wonder what happened to the director of such hits as Angel Links and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito? No, you haven’t. I know you don’t care about such trifling matters. Upon reading the synopsis of this, I couldn’t tell if this was supposed to be a meta-comedy mocking horribly contrived plots, or just a parody series. Unfortunately, I think this is being played entirely seriously. The title of the series is the name of a pair of scissors for cutting hair. That should tell you more than anything I can tell you.

Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties

Now I know this has to be a parody. The fact that this is being done in omnibus style will be mocked endlessly within the series itself. This would have been better a couple years ago as Amagami and Yosuga no Sora were airing, now it’s too late. The fans of the manga will be furious at the studio making this, and also for the fact that it exists. I’m willing to give it a chance. I did like a couple of the comedic set pieces from the fall edition of this franchise. The plot was absolute pants though.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince

Nothing quite like a mecha series being directed by the same guy who actually went with the incest route in a harem anime. I’m actually struggling to think of a good mecha series that I’ve watched since I’ve started this blog. It can’t be that hard, can it? I used to love that stuff, now it all seems painfully derivative, but I digress. I’ll admit I don’t know much about this series. That synopsis leaves absolutely nothing to judge it by.

Date A Live

And we have our first harem entry of the preview. Basically this is a story about a Yuji Everylead who has to go on dates with a girl who happened to wipe out most of humanity. Then there are other girls who try to stop him then fall in love with him or help him only to fall in love with him. I don’t know about that last sentence, but I’m 70% sure that’s how it will all turn out. It’s harem anime, a genre we all go to because of how predictable it all is. The director from Majestic Prince is directing this as well, so this will turn out well.

Zettai Bouei Leviathan

The corpse of Gonzo has escaped from its unmarked mass grave (next to Bandai Visual USA) and is bringing bad memories back. I read the synopsis of this and was quickly reminded of Snow Fairy Sugar based on the names of these characters. Well, just Syrup, but Sugar is pure evil. Don’t watch that shit, trust me. Anyway, I’d gather this is an attempt to recapture the Strike Witches formula again with scantly clad cute girls doing magic stuff, only with more of a medieval feel. I think Gonzo will probably not be long for this world again based on this.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride

The sequel to a show I dropped after 1 episode. I guess they had extra ink they needed to splatter over the screen for another season of this. The thing I never understood about the premise of this show was how technology never seemed to move on if the Tokugawa shogunate stayed in power. It’s not like there wouldn’t have been an invasion of the country in the late 19th century if they tried to stay closed. The simple fact I’m worrying about this detail shows how little I care about the plot of this show.

Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 2000%

I didn’t even give this a single episode the first go around. I’m sure it’s good as I have it as one of the more popular shows for the coming season. Utapri just isn’t my type of show, and I’m not so willing to throw my life away that I would trash this without seeing it. So I’m going to withhold my opinion until I end up seeing it never.

Kakumeiki Valvrave

Finally, an anime that gets to the heart of the eternal battle between good and neutral. Screw this nation trying to claim neutrality while holding on to something that’s probably as powerful as the Ideon. Just watch out for any unborn children in the area of this mecha for fear of wiping out all life in the universe. Honestly, I’m expecting this to be another Sunrise mecha series that will sell plenty of action figures with a political story that makes as much sense as the policy positions in House of Cards.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W

The thing that I think is forgotten in looking at this series was how badly it limped toward the end. The material was running dry. It was only relying on the chemistry between Nyaruko and Mahiro. What I’m really saying is that it wasn’t as good as you remember it being. That first episode was fantastic. The 10th episode was not fantastic. Keep that in mind as you start watching this second season only to find that it isn’t really satisfying your taste for comedy.

Aiura

This is a show about girls who don’t do anything in a world where nothing happens. Who the hell thought this was a good idea conceptually. I will admit the girls are better looking than I expected for a show with this sort of plot, but come on. There is still hope for this show if this trio does genuinely do funny things and it doesn’t come off as acting. But I can’t see that happening here.

Yuyushiki

At least these girls are in a club. These two shows are scheduled against each other. It’s like when they had to 2 movies out about Truman Capote at the same time. No one is going to watch both. There’s only so large a segment of the population who want to watch shows involving 3 girls doing nothing at any one time.

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san

A young boy catches an alcoholic mermaid who speaks with a strange accent. Now you’re talking. This looks like a show that would be straight in my wheel house. If I want a slice of life show, I want it to be ridiculous. It can contain fishing, but can’t be as boring as actually fishing. I think this could be one of the surprises of the season. You can let me know when July comes and this is sitting at a 5.98 with 10000 drops on MAL.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru.

See that period at the end, it’s evil. It’s there to distract from the fact that punctuation in the title is an attempt to make this stand out. This story isn’t really that unique. It’s a boy with a terrible personality who ends up in a love triangle with 2 cute girls he really doesn’t deserve. He just wanted to be by himself, but he’s coaxed into joining this club. I guess there wouldn’t be much of a show if he wasn’t thrown into this contrived situation. It can only hope to work as well as Oreshura.

Photo Kano

They make this yet there’s no LovePlus adaptation to speak of. I can already see the plot of this show. Generic male lead goes around with his fancy new DSLR and takes skeevy pictures of girls. They fall in love with him because he’s unusually attractive for someone holding a DSLR. Then the man moves on to the next girl as though nothing happened. Sign me up for this shit.

Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko.

There’s that full stop again. I’m telling you, it’s pretty much a warning that the show you are watching will not be any good. As for this one, I read a bunch of the manga on the free wi-fi they had at the airport in Baltimore last year. I didn’t particularly think it was anything special. Once it hit a certain point in the story, it then just seemed to meander into a boring love story type of deal without much of a purpose anymore. I expect much the same from this adaptation, decent out of the blocks and losing momentum fast at the end.

Suisei no Gargantia

This is one of those guy wakes up in a strange world where things are radically different and he has to survive. The danger with shows of this type is exposition. I’m talking Garupan levels of exposition where the story has to be explained to other characters in the series like they are 4. Actually reading the plot, I hope this ends up like that hopeless Kevin Costner vehicle Waterworld. Can you believe at some point in time he was a guaranteed box office star? Then he made that and The Postman.

Karneval

This is one of those series where I think the people writing the synopsis have unintentionally made the series look like a mess. I don’t think the plot is going to be so complicated that it has to be explained in 2 confusingly written paragraphs. I’m sure this series will just be okay. After all, you can trust the director behind the critically acclaimed Kodomo no Jikan. As for me, it’s probably not going to be my cup of soup.

Mushibugyou

This period piece is undoubtedly filled with realism. A portrayal of Edo-era Tokyo where citizens could submit ideas about how to keep the peace was probably real. As were the realistic battles against giant alien crabs spiders to give this series about a young shonen warrior a realistic portrayal. Yes, this has single episode drop written all over it, and I don’t think I’m alone.

Yondemasu yo Azazel-san. Z

There’s that blasted period again. Just stop it. Now. I’ll be perfectly honest about this show. It’s popular in terms of fanbase and good enough there to get a second season. At the same time, I have no clue what this show is about or what makes it special. I really have no idea as I haven’t watched any of it. That hasn’t stopped me from trying to exploit it for personal gain in a fantasy team. Maybe I should give the first season a watch some time.

Devil Survivor 2 The Animation

There is a manga of this. Devil Survivor 2 The Animation The Manga it isn’t called, but it would be hilarious if it were the case. A group of kids get granted powers after making a pact in an attempt to save Japan from aliens or something. Why is Japan so important anyway? Other than the fact that it is the country the source material is made, or the studio making it, or the primary country where people will pay money to buy this series, I don’t see it. Hell, it’s not even a good country to go after if I wanted to break the world. Now Russia, if that country went to hell then most of the world would be screwed. Why don’t you choose them you stupid aliens?

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S

Ah Railgun, how I have absolutely no positive feelings toward you despite being in the same universe as Index. I had a thought about it earlier as far as my preference between the two. Railgun just makes me feel like I’m a fan of the dominant team; always expecting to be good and bitterly disappointed when ever something doesn’t go my way. Index on the other hand makes me feel like I’m cheering for the underdog; the guy who always goes on prolonged speeches and has no power of his own with just one great equalizer. I was watching these shows the wrong way, wasn’t I?

Anata Kangatari

This has a pretty interesting premise. A world where no women are born to succeed a princess so one of the men has to try to pretend to be a successor only it goes horribly wrong. That doesn’t sound familiar to me actually. That’s genuine, believe me. That would actually make a good plot if it focused on the only men portion of this country, but I think instead it will focus itself as an action/chase sort of series. I’ll give this a legitimate shot, honest.

Danchi Tomoo

This is by the director who is also mailing in this latest arc of Space Brothers, so I can’t say this will be any good. This is entirely potential. It could be sensationally good, or it can drag on like the Nazokano adaptation. I’m willing to give this a shot in the sense that I’m willing to also give the shows about girls doing nothing a shot. Something about misadventures piling on each other appeals to me. Maybe Tomoo begins by playing an innocent practical joke and by the end of the story he is discussing with his friends where to dump the body of the hooker that overdosed last night.

Shingeki no Kyojin

Am I the only one who thinks that this series just oozes pretentiousness? I read the first chapter of the manga and it felt like it was already well aware of its own greatness. Regardless, this will probably be the popular series that I drop after 1 episode that proves to be the topic of the blogosphere. In the meantime, I will just write on another series being watched by 4 people. Because it works like that.

Hataraku Maou-sama!

I’m caught in a bad place on this one. First of all, the director did Shuffle! On the other hand, he also did Mirai Nikki, which was evidently good despite the fact I dropped it like it was hot early on. Shuffle! though, I was completely on board with that show (ED: writer’s taste is catastrophic). I think the success of this show really depends on the characters being not annoying. How many times have you seen a show with silly characters in a romantic comedy fail because there’s a gluttonous annoying character who distracts from everything else?

Aku no Hana

This is my pick for best show of the season. Zexcs proved that they could make a romantic drama that was excellent with Sukitte, and I don’t see why this flowery descent-into-hell love story can’t succeed as well.

And that’s about it for the new season. For those who think all that was too long to read, I’ll sum it up in a nice handy table.

You can always count on Rika to turn heel in the end.

Going for an ending filled with reconciliation and the like is clearly not Haganai‘s thing judging by this final episode of the season. The episode focuses early on with Kodaka helping the Student Council members Aoi and president Hinata do ordinary jobs around the school as he took a week-long sabbatical from the Neighbors Club. That ends when Yukimura confronts him to give her reasons why she still helps him. Then, Rika forces Kodaka on to the rooftop where they engage in a final battle. Yes, that’s what happens, really. Finally, Yozora creates the inevitable sequel hook at the end.

Just look at those eyes, she wants some of blissfully unaware Kodaka.

If I were to take a primary theme in this episode, it would have to be the thought of Kodaka realizing that he is the main character in his own life. There was also another aspect that felt like he had to settle for a certain lot in life.

Yukimura is basically telling Kodaka that she wants to rape him.

The latter is a fairly obvious link to make with the early portion of the episode. Here, Kodaka was going from being helpful to a group of girls who needed help to another group containing…girls who needed help. I think the point that was making is that with his personality and appearance being what they are, he will always find himself endearing to a certain type of person, but prone to misunderstanding and fear from others who wouldn’t give him the time of day.

Aoi isn’t really in the harem, is she?

As for the main character in his own life aspect, the conversation with Yukimura was important. I think she needed to tell him that the club was falling apart without his presence. Also, I think there was something that was affirming in her statement that she is by his side because she wants to be.

Poor Kodaka, he was only 2 days from retirement…

Then there was the battle scene with Rika. It was horribly contrived to extend what would normally be a short scene into a lengthy one, but it still lacked drama. It felt like it was inevitable that Rika and Kodaka would realize that they were friends. Maybe he just has to be involved in fights to realize he has friends out there. The scene also confirmed what Aoi said earlier in the episode. If Kodaka were to be dating a member of the club, it would make things awkward for everyone else. He just needed that realization that his desire to keep the club as it was actually was destroying it. The Neighbors Club is a group of friends in a club and not a group of people looking for friends.

This meeting won’t be awkward at all.

As for the end, it’s fairly obvious that Yozora would be the one who would skip out. Every other character had a chance to confirm their feelings with Kodaka. Sena of course had the marriage proposal confession, Rika had a chance to have a fight to confirm her friendship and Yukimura effectively confessed her love to him as well. Yozora, meanwhile is still stuck in the past and has seen her club to spend time with Kodaka turn into a club for girls to try to steal him away.

That’s right Yozora, you are running away because you care.

Now for some final thoughts on this season as a whole. I think it did things that few shows in the harem genre do. Rather than sticking to each of the cast as simple husks of character archetypes the audience was presented with reasons why characters acted the way they do. It was obviously Kodaka-centric, but there was enough from each character to show that they cared for the club and more importantly each other. In the end, I don’t think this installment could get away from the fact that it was transitional in nature. It’s certainly a step above the first season and one of the standout series of its genre. Bring on the journey that will be the third season.

It’s that time of year isn’t it? Though it’s too cold here to support that sort of life.

This may be the last installment of this feature for a few weeks. I’m not sure whether I should pursue a policy of continuing this in the spring as normal, or if I should do the typical thing done by aniblogs with a readership in 2 figures and write on each first episode. My most popular post (with 0 comments until I mentioned 18 months later) was from writing this way, and it also allowed me to briefly have the top Google search for a term. Damn you ABC News, damn you.

Currently Airing Top 5

The changing of the guard is complete.

GJ-bu

Very rarely does the show in the genre often considered “slice-of-life” (this isn’t) hit the right balance of finality and sentimentalism in its final episode. GJ-bu got as close as any as I can remember in recent times. Each of the graduating characters got some time devoted to them to allow the relationships between the club to reach a post-club member stage. At the same time, it felt good to be spending the final moments with these characters. Mao, Shion and Kirara will remain eccentric characters in their own way, but none of them feel stuck in a permanent state. It felt as though they would be able to move on and that the remaining members; Megumi, Tamaki and Kyoro, would keep the same spirit alive. This was my surprise anime of the season as I had fairly low expectations going in and got everything I wanted out of it. (82.81/100)

Nothing is disturbing about watching a video of someone threatening to expose themselves you before they commit suicide.

Zetsuen no Tempest

This was a more typical final episode in that it finished the final battle early then wrapped itself around trying to resolve the loose ends with each of the characters. I thought the battle was really anti-climactic. Yoshino wasn’t that badly hurt, Megumu was able to conjure up this magical sword from almost nothing and that was that. In the epilogue, Megumu ends up back with his ex, Jun gets completely ignored by Evangeline, Yoshino and Mahiro play Aika’s message which tells them all to move on, Mahiro then has this girl he found early in the show that was never mentioned again and the show ends as Hakaze and Yoshino appear about to hook up. So they went with a cock-block contrivance ending then? I’d say this was the best series of the season, but not really threatening to crack that Top Anime List that gets ignored. (84.07/100)

Season 3: Kodaka pursues the School Days “fuck everyone” strategy.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (83.61/100)

There were 4 girls in this competition who confessed their love to the same person, no one said anything.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

This was the classic harem non-ending. While the first part of the episode seemed to conclude with Masuzu winning, his aunt inadvertently pushed everything together. She told him to make the other girls not like him any longer because it would lead to conflict. Instead he succeeds in making his back story more romantic to Himeka, signing off on Ai’s marriage certificate she keeps around and kissing Chiwa. While Masuzu may actually be the girlfriend for real now, everything will continue as it was. (74.27/100)

Katsuragi is always there to provide support.

Senran Kagura

The show about ninja girls that I haven’t written enough about cracks the top five in its final episode. It sparked an interesting discussion when I was watching it with the usual group. Basically, is there something better about a show that is knowingly bad and has fun with it anyway or to be bad and still try to play it completely serious like Queen’s Blade Rebellion. I tend to side with the former personally even if it is sort of pandering post-modernism. Senran Kagura as a whole was pretty much a bog-standard coming-of-age story involving 2 sets of friends forced into conflict against each other. It did an adequate job of telling that story, so I can’t really hate on it. It won’t live long in the memory, but it knew it wasn’t ever going to be great. (67.2/100)

The Rest of the Week

Here’s the fresh meat.

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

It took 24 episodes and the entire winter season for Sakurasou to produce an episode that was more than mediocre. It was an average conclusion at best, and also very much of the characters not moving on variety. Misaki officially married Jin and moved next door, Sorata gets cockblocked by cats, Nanami still lives there and so on. If anything it was essentially a last episode that was a checklist. There was no room to disgrace itself by following the checklist. Nor was there any possibility of doing anything good either. I probably should have dropped this way back in the fall. (59.7/100)

I AM SAKURA VIEWING BOSS

Minami-ke Tadaima

The latest installment of Minami-ke signed off with about as typical an episode of the franchise as you will ever see. The only curious moment came when Makoto broke character right in front of Chiaki as Mako-chan and Kana called him out for it, but nothing happened. So it proved to be another time progressing season of family-friendly fun which recaptured some of what made the first season good. It was downhill since they introduced that sad boy who was written out of the show that one season, but the trend was reversed. I’m thinking there may be another season of this ahead as the fact that the entire cast has gone through 4 years in the same place is entirely unnoticed. (79.23/100)

Sadly, they put a lot of effort into this sequence.

Little Busters

That whole storyline about baseball begins to actually take shape for once this week. Kyousuke arranged a match against a team composed of the captains of other sports at the school and the former baseball club captain. He also suspiciously knows that they will soon have a ninth player. After that, it really turns dumb in the Jun Maeda-est way. Kengo happens to be the member; he talks to a girl who used to be in the archery club who lost an eye who then almost throws herself off the building only to fall accidentally. Kengo saves her at the cost of his arm. That’s followed by the stupidity of watching Kengo try to swing a bat with one arm and he finally does so successfully. It’s supposed to be touching, but it’s really dumb. Can they take that bus trip soon enough?

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Just look at that above. That’s what the final images of Maoyuu are. It’s not about the world that was created, or the economics and politics of trade between humans and demons. Nope, they chose to go out with Hero having his head wedged between Female Knight and Demon King’s breasts. Everything prior to that point in the episode was fine, but that epilogue was just rubbish. I also wish that the mage would have had more attention. Ultimately, I think this turns out to be the disappointing adaptation of the season. (79.86/100)

I’d say she’s more yan than tsun

Senyuu.

This was one of three episodes that wasn’t final this week because Yamakan couldn’t even fit a plot in while he rushes off to direct that Lucky Star spinoff after this. All you need to know about the plot is that Januar got taken over by parts of that tentacle girl arm. Plus, that girl in the suit of armor is tsun. She inflicts punishment on anyone who suggests she has feelings for someone. Just 5 minutes of this to go.

Opening curtains? Feel the excitement of Space Bros.

Space Brothers

An absolute filler episode if there ever was one. If you really think about it, in the week between the episodes airing, only a few hours passed in the timing of the show. They spent an entire episode just on Nitta’s younger brother opening some curtains and on watching rocks fall from the sky. I’m almost wishing the arc where they were stuck in the containers was back again, that at least had something of interest other than personal problems of someone not even there.

They are as impressed as I am.

Ishida to Asakura

What the hell did I just watch? Something about a UFO invasion being stopped twice and more of the same jokes as before. It was very much a nonsensical ending. There will be worse shows this year, but don’t be surprised if this makes another appearance in end of year terribad. (52.48/100)

Haruka and her mother engage in a Pillow Fight of Understanding.

Kotoura-san

This should have ended last week, but they felt they had to tie up the loose end with Haruka’s mother. It ends up making little sense that in the space of a single pillow fight they are able to come to an understanding. Her mother turns from absolute monster of a human being to sympathetic weak person. At least that’s what they were going for, but they made the change so fast that it’s a comically bad conclusion to make. In the end, Kotoura-san could never decide what type of show it wanted to be, so it tried to be as many as it possibly could. That almost never works and proved to be the case here. (57.28/100)

“Why was I wearing a helmet made out of PVC?”

Robotics;Notes

I didn’t get a chance to talk about this last episode, but it felt as though they finally remembered what this show was supposed to be about far too late. Kimijima was a laughably bad villain worthy of bad-70s giant robot shows, and I think that’s the spirit this series was ultimately going for. The events going around in the show are merely a distraction for the flaws underneath. Think the main character is boring? Let’s introduce some references to Steins;Gate. Wondering how Misaki was actually brainwashed? No, instead look at all the robots. Anyone who thinks about this series beyond the most superficial level will find flaws everywhere. Instead of making the next Steins;Gate, they’ve gone and made Chaos;Head look decent now (it wasn’t). (63.6/100)

Final Winter Average Weekly Ranking

Though Haganai appears the big winner for the season, it would have only finished 4th last year with an average of just under a 3rd-place vote each week. Tempest, though I thought it was the better show overall, took the hit from the middle of the series and early in the season that it did well to recover from to finish 3rd. Sakurasou went the entire winter without making my top 5. Finally, Little Busters and Senyuu won’t be counted in the spring table though they will have their final episodes counted toward the end of year ranking.

The 2nd moment this show lost credibility in my eyes.

Take a young man with an irresistible urge to cut long hair and combine it with a girl whose hair cannot be cut, and you have the premise for the start of this crime-based thriller series. The plot of this first episode is that Kiri uses his past experience and a special tool that happens to be the title object of this series to cut Iwai’s lengthy, cursed locks. When he succeeds, Iwai is very greatful and the pair of them look to go on various adventures with Kiri’s magical scissors and at least Iwai will be able to go to school.

Where this episode and series is fatally undermined is in two different ways. The first is simply the character of Kiri. He’s introduced essentially as a hair fetishist, but it takes on the form of wanting to also kill the girls whose hair he is cutting. That also takes on a further significance when one of his classmates says that a girl’s hair is her life. That theme continues throughout the episode as Kiri’s desire to cut hair becomes ever more associated with the murder of others. What really bothered me in this case was the way this contrasted with the fact that it was going for a touching moment at the end when Iwai could finally be freed from her curse. There’s no ambiguity in this show as Kiri’s flashbacks also seem to swing wildly between his wanting to be helpful and being a hair-thirsty killing machine.

On a lighter note, this series also seems to have a thing for nominative determinism. Kiri cuts stuff, the Byouinzaka sisters use hospital tools to do their killing and I’m sure everyone else that gets introduced will have something else associated with their names. It just speaks to a level of focus with these characters that a ton of attention was paid to trying to base character names around what tools they use rather than making them better written. I’m not even going to get into Iwai’s character other than to say it is a gigantic step backwards in terms of female leads in anime.

As for the production quality, it was about what you would expect for a first episode. It looked good and a lot of money went into making it look like no corners were skipped visually. The soundtrack for the show was pretty pedestrian in that it seemed well placed early in the episode, but seemed to trail off into unnoticeable territory. That’s not exactly what I want out of a suspense thriller.

Why You Would Continue: Strong potential for action coming up in the next couple of weeks with probably bloodshed
Why You Would Drop: Protagonist is impossible to identify with in most cases, silly characters who also could have been named after Megaman antagonists.

My Verdict: Dropped

Next week, the crew all eat Whoppers.

A group of talented, but collectively underachieving mecha pilot candidates are thrown into their very first battle with unexpected results. This group was well known around for failing in team battles gets disciplined for their latest failure. Before they have time to write a report on why they failed, they are called in for their very first mission. They have to buy time for a group of ships to evacuate, which they accomplish, but the appointed leader Izuru continues to fight on to protect civilians left behind.

My first take on it was a negative point on the whole idea of man management. The superiors know that this group of kids is talented, but they fail as a group. As they are less than the sum of their parts, they either would change who was in this team or they themselves would have been moved on. That they’ve been allowed to fail so often will have to be a plot point explained fairly quickly as it wasn’t here.

Second, this is a series set in space in the middle of a war. As such, there was plenty of exposition that was needed. Thankfully, it was limited just to the immediate situation the characters found themselves in. The explanation of how the new units they were fighting and how they worked dragged on far too long in my opinion. There was no good versus evil speech in this episode to explain why they were in the war to begin with, and that’s a good thing.

As for the characters, I would take them as when they are in-battle and out-of-battle separately. Izuru is curiously overpowered on the battlefield since he scared off the enemy entirely by himself, but away he was simply a hopeless dreamer of one day becoming a hero. Toshikazu was hot-headed in training and before the battle, but was timid when threatened with danger. The other 3 in the group also shirked away under threat, which was interesting as Kei seemed to be running the show when they were stalling. In fact, that’s another issue, they were each assigned positions as though it was a game of League of Legends (credit krizzlybear on that). The issue I had was distinguishing between the forward and leader position. It was like they explained the leader as uh, like the forward.

Finally, the production quality of this episode was fine. The CG was abundant as one could only expect from space battles these days, although on that point the retreating carrier ships appeared able to turn on a dime. I know it’s space, but you would think those ships had little mass by how easily they moved. The character designs were a bit dodgy in my opinion, but memories of Gundam SEED do not go away easily.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Space Battles and a main cast that is very agreeable
Reasons to Drop: SEED character designs combined with a group of pilots that never deserved to be involved in battle

My Verdict: Continuing

Some eye candy for you on this post. I’d do the same if I had watched Utapri in the other direction.

Three teenagers play around with a mobile app that will change their lives and the fate of humanity in the first episode of Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. A pair of friends, Hibiki and Daichi, mess around with a hot new mobile app that allows one to see the dying face of the person they submit a picture of. As they take pictures of each other and wait for the results, they head home and spot a girl, Io, whom Daichi wants to get familiar with. The video returns foreshadowing their deaths which happen moments later, they all wish to continue living so they have a program that allows them to summon demons to protect them force installed onto their phones. As they fight mysterious invaders on the way to Io’s home, they run into an exploding monster and a mysterious bureaucracy.

Right from the moment they started summoning their protector demons, this felt like I was watching someone play an RPG only without any sort of emotional involvement on my part. Having not played this particular game, it felt like there were odes to fans of the game that I simply would never get. The laughing demon girl in the app felt like one instance of that for example.

As for the story, it did seem a bit disorganized even given a setup involving an apocalypse. After the disaster and a crew arrived to look for survivors, they were turned away by this mysterious organization later identified as JP’s. That it ended up involving meteorology in the title of the organization (at least according to the translation) made me think that this grand secret government organization wasn’t fully thought out. It makes it absurd, basically that you would have hundreds of magic users in a secret wing of the state. You could simply use something like the Internal Affairs Ministry and have it work fine.

As far as the characters are concerned, Io isn’t a very good character to be honest. She just feels like the standard husk of a female character that the male audience is supposed to impose their own ideas on. While I’m sure that changes, it had too much “silent girl” who happens to be extraordinarily attractive feeling. Daichi and Hibiki, meanwhile, have the whole crazy/cool-head partnership going on. I think it would have worked fine with just the 2 of them in this episode.

As for production, it felt the same as the first episodes of most game adaptations. Remember ever Chaos;Head had a decent looking opening installment. What I would reiterate is that it felt like I was watching the early stages of an RPG which just happened to be animated and not interactive. It also seemed to struggle with the fact that innocent people were being killed but not giving that any weight at all. At least that small dog seemed to get away, right?

Reasons to Continue Watching: Io is an attractive character, there is no shortage of action
Reasons to Drop: Like watching a game being played, laughable conspiracy angle

My Verdict: Probably earned a second episode, but hoping this adaptation is willing to take liberties with the source material.

A promising start to a relationship

A pair of demons are defeated and battle and run away to an alien world where they struggle to survive without magic in the first episode of Hataraku Maou-sama. Demon King Satan and Alsiel run away after being defeated by the humans in battle. They arrive in modern Tokyo, now as humans and having to learn how to survive on their own. They eventually secure a place to live and the Demon King Satan, now called Maou, works while Alsiel, now Ashiya, works on figuring out a way to get their magic back. In the meantime, they are discovered by the hero who was responsible for their defeat.

This was definitely an episode with two separate edges to it. On the one hand, there was the everyday comedy bits that arise out of the situation of two outsiders trying to blend in to their new environments. The great general Maou proves to be a great henchman in his job as a part-timer at the fast-food place. Plus Ashiya’s pointing out the fact that Maou’s diet of leftover food from work is a result of his refusal to pay loans show that in some cases they are able to adapt to their new surroundings, but they can’t get rid of their pride completely.

On the other hand, I think it balances well the condition of those who are poor. Only by the amount of magic Maou had left were they able to gain an understanding of the world they were in, get identification and open a bank account. As far as the place to live, they got incredibly lucky there was a landlord who would lease to them. For all the dreams of returning back to their previous world or even conqueroring Earth, the episode did a great job of making day-to-day subsistence look incredibly hard.

As for the characters, Maou instantly becomes the hero character in this series. He’s the one who puts in all of the work so he and Ashiya can stay out of debt and also allow the latter to pursue their dream. He also happens to be damn good at his lowly part-time job. He had a tough break when the deep fryer broke, but his hard work rubs off on both his clumsy co-worker, Chiho, and his bosses who offer him a permanent position at the end of the episode. The hero Yusa shows up at the end to start playing spoiler in their lives. Which raises another point, by the end, I was rooting for someone to conquer and oppress the peoples of two worlds because he was working hard as a low-wage slave because that would make him happiest.

As for production in the first episode, in the first half most of the budget went into depicting action scenes in the old world with copious amounts of blood and fighting. A special shout out has to go to the music as well. There is a lot of contrast needed between scenes and the variation between grand background music for some scenes and light-hearted music for more ordinary situations worked. This was also the 2nd episode today without an ending animation, but I will assume they come up with something next week.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Romantic comedy ahead and the continuing struggle of low-wage workers to get by in modern life
Reasons to Drop: Some silly jokes and reference don’t work and the pace of the story will not be quick

My Verdict: I’m tempted to actually blog this episodically now. My already high expectations were well exceeded in the first episode.

“You look…so pretty.”

A young boy carrying the bracelet of a man he was fond of and a thief end up running away from a monster before becoming involved in the actions of a secret organization in the first episode of Karneval. Nai wakes up being trapped in the clutches of a strange woman before Gareki arrives to steal things. The woman transforms into a monster and through Gareki’s use of explosives they are able to escape. As they leave the city, they get involved in the actions of an organization called Circus as a hostage situation takes place on a train. Using Nai’s powerful hearing, Gareki and Hirato save the passengers from doom. However, all wasn’t as it seemed on that train.

As much as any first episode this season, it felt like Karneval was going through the motions already. There’s lots of eye candy for viewers who want to ship any of the men in this cast. The woman who turned into a monster, was supposed to be frightening I guess, but nothing was really shown of what she did to that poor henchman. There was a wasted opportunity to do something good.

As for characters, Nai seemed rather annoying in his uselessness. I spent more time wondering what those purple tufts of hair were than on his relationship with this unseen Karoku character. Gareki seemed rather useful as a character, but when Hirato got involved it seemed pretty obvious what his purpose became. Go ahead and ship these guys away, but shouldn’t you be watching Utapri and Shining Saotome instead? There were also 3 female characters. The aforementioned Mine was a monster, the young girl on the train who was useless and probably never re-appears and Tsukumo, the angry, violent fighter type. Basically, there’s no balance in any of these one-dimensional characters.

As for production type issues, the direction seemed to lack conviction. On a visual level it was pretty ordinary or should I say ordinarily pretty? There was also the train itself and the explosives being used seemed to be out of place. Relatively modern guns on a steam-powered train? The music was also not anything to write home about either. So yes, it felt mailed in even by first episode standards.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Shipping characters and very attractive looking male character designs
Reasons to Drop: Not much potential for story and single archetype characters

My Verdict: It’s really too boring for me to continue. Dropped.

This is the level of camera work you will get with this show.

A high school boy who is reasonably popular with girls gets a camera and is drawn into misadventures as he begins taking shots. Kazuya finishes off his summer vacation with doing his homework at the last minute and talks about the camera he got from his father. He then heads off to school with the camera and proceeds to take pictures of girls doing interesting things including his friend Nonoka. He is then scouted by the Photography Club to take perverted pictures and then by the Photo Club to take scenic pictures only to choose the latter. His day ends when he gets involved in a girl’s feelings.

Expectations were obviously pretty low going into this show. I was expecting a harem where the girls fall in love with Yuji Everylead with the camera. Ok, it actually looks like that only he solves these girls’ deep problems and then they go away never to be heard from again.

With this type of show, it’s best to start out with the production. For a show of this type, it looks fantastic. The budget definitely went into making the number of girls each look individually impressive. Apart from MC-kun, the boys could have been designed with my minimal artistic talent. That’s okay though because they are supposed to portray the dark side of photography. By that I mean, the stereotype of the guy taking pictures at Comiket.

As for the characters themselves, Nonoka stood out as the most interesting of those introduced, but even she didn’t have much background given. For the most part, you are left with just basic impressions of these characters that don’t go beyond their basic archetype. So apart from Nonoka, you have bicycle girl with comically improbable breasts, IMOUTO, token childhood friend, younger sister’s friend and Frau stand-in who happens to be in the perverted club.

The story itself pretty much captured the height of its ambition in the opening dream sequence. The grand target is having the girls pose in cosplay in front of a large crowd of photographers with Kazuya giving orders. Apart from that, this is clearly going to be a show of a main character solving the problems of people he happens to run into via his taking pictures.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Completely non-threatening school life setting and lots of attractive girls
Reasons to Drop: Bland characters and idealized perversion

My Verdict: I’ve managed to go the distance in Little Busters! and this looks better, so it gets at least another episode.

None of these 3 have friends.

A social outcast with no friends is thrown into a club against his will in an attempt to change his fortunes in the first episode of Oregairu. Hachiman writes a story of what his take on school life is about and that immediately gets his advisor’s attention. She puts him in a club with a girl, Yukino, who also seems to have no friends. In order to get them to do something, the advisor, Shizuka, challenges them to help more people than the other in order to have the winner order the loser to do something. The club begins activities by helping a girl called Yui to make some cookies. A love comedy breaks out.

Inevitably, the point of comparison with this show is going to be Haganai; as much as people want to throw in Toradora, it doesn’t work. To start with you have to look at it from the male protagonist’s character. Kodaka from Haganai is thoroughly likable and helps people out his appearance creates all sorts of misunderstandings. Hachiman, on the other hand, doesn’t even try to do anything to improve his situation, and his cynicism about life improbably leads him into three women who want to improve his lives. It doesn’t matter what Shizuka, Yui and Yukino do, if the main character doesn’t deserve what is happening then it all falls apart.

The direction this story is heading in is pretty obvious as well, as some sort of love triangle forms between Yui, Yukino and Hachiman forms. They will do their story of the week while growing closer all the same, before finally they come to a non-ending. All the while, Hachiman will remain a cynical bastard who pretends not to give a shit. This was never going to be the most complex example of storytelling. It’s merely, the main character lamenting about how much his life sucks and yet having all these romantic comedy moments. We should all be so lucky, that inconsiderate asshole. I didn’t even care about the conversation about talent versus effort because you are so inconsiderate of others.

As for the production quality, it was really poor here. The minimal animation budget seemed to be wasted on that wind effect on Yukino’s hair in the beginning. If it can maintain this level of quality through the end, that won’t be too awful, but given the amount of time they had to focus on the first episode, I’m expecting Akikan level animation by the middle. At least there shouldn’t be anything like an action scene in this show.

Reasons to Continue Watching: The chance at redemption for characters without friends and innocent comedy
Reasons to Drop: The main character is a cynical asshole and the scenario has no foundation in the real world

My Verdict: This is the destitute man’s Haganai, which is reason enough for me to drop it.

One of several cinematic shots in this episode.

A young man copes with everyday life and his raging hormones through the books of a 19th century French poet in the first episode of Aku no Hana. This may be one of the harder shows to put down a plot synopsis for the first episode of a show. Mainly, the only plot events were Takao’s crush on Nanako being uncovered by his friends and Sawa calling the teacher a piece of shit. As such this was mainly an atmospheric episode.

That, I believe, gets to the problem that many viewers have had with this show. It is far more cinematic than most anything you see in televised anime. The brief moments of Takao losing himself in the books are accompanied by his own isolation from the world. As a visual, it worked well to capture how he perceived the world at those moments, but its one of those moments that takes time to capture.

That timing was captured well by the music direction which was absolutely top notch in episode. It was absolutely minimalist throughout, but really captured the oppressive and sometimes romantic nature of these situations in school well.

Of course, I can’t use this as an opportunity to avoid the giant pink elephant in the room. The character designs are rotoscoped, and as such have a real life feel to them. The end result is that there are no bishoujo characters here, and even among Takao’s friends there is a guy with a thin uni-brow. By the standards of anime, these would definitely be in the tier of ugly. I guess this is where it starts getting into the territory of why I personally watch anime over any other form of visual media. The truth is that I actually don’t care. An entertaining story that is done with stick figures or puppets on sticks is much more valuable to me than an anime movie that took 5 years to make or $300 million movie that I found boring. Basically, I may like watching anime, but I don’t watch anime specifically because it looks like anime. That’s about as clear as I can make that argument. Anyway, enough about me and back to the story.

This is a fairly typical descent into hell type story. The temptation of seeing the gym clothes of the girl he likes will be much too powerful for Saeki to resist obviously and Sawa will catch him on it. What happens next will be interesting in how it’s portrayed in the next few episodes. Nothing in this episode made me think that it would be in anyway a boring journey.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Cinematic visuals and a very dark story of adolescence
Reasons to Drop: It looks pretty ugly and not much is happening

My Verdict: I picked this as my best show of the season going in, and though the MAL rating on this is epically shit, the same is true of Sengoku Collection. Of course I’m going to continue this.

Already exhausted from being in this show?

A high school boy gets involved in the affairs of a secret military organization in the first episode of Date A Live. Shido begins the first day of a new term at school by taking care of his younger sister Kotori. After promising to meet up for lunch at the local family restaurant, he goes off to school where the mysterious Origami introduces herself to him. As one of the spacequake disasters is declared in the city, Shido goes off to rescue Kotori only to be confronted by a powerful, yet sad spirit. A battle erupts and Shido is taken onto an airship which is captained by Kotori. He is then given a mission to try to save the world.

This was the most exposition heavy of the first episodes this season so far as the audience was subjected to lengthy exposition not only in what the spacequakes are and how they have altered the world in the 30 years prior to this setting, but in the ending animation which explained Shido’s mission. That mission, to make the spirits fall in love with him by taking them on dates, is where this episode has to be examined.

There are plenty of other shows that have had ridiculous premises and Girls und Panzer immediately comes to mind here. What matters in shows like this is my ability to suspend disbelief. Make it seem like it’s ridiculous within the universe of the show itself and present me with some characters I like and I can definitely appreciate it. Too often, the ridiculous concept takes itself too seriously.

So as far as the characters in this show are concerned, there were a number of good points. Shido doesn’t really standout beyond being the typical MC-kun, but Kotori’s character did an excellent job of pivoting from standard younger sister type to hard-ass commander. I was willing to go with it because the perverted stuff disappeared once that happened. As for the rest of the cast, Reine was entertaining enough. My only problem with the cast was actually Origami. The whole ending where she was deadly serious about the spirits killing her family didn’t work as well. I know they are going for dual angles on the situation; one serious conflict against the spirits and the silly dating plan, but Origami seems the wrong character to be linking the two.

As for production quality in this first episode, it was very good. Lots of time and effort went into making this episode look good. It’s probably the best looking harem series since Infinite Stratos, which will be the primary comparison with this show. I did like the way the ending was used, but it wasn’t particularly musical in nature. I would expect a proper OP and ED next week, though I’d welcome exposition being used in those parts more.

Reasons to Continue Watching: High quality action scenes and Kotori
Reasons to Drop: Weak main character and absurd premise

My Verdict: It’s giving me the same vibes as Infinite Stratos, and I thought that did an excellent job. I will be continuing this one.

Syrup arrives to cause problems

Three girls and a talkative fairy get into trouble in the first episode of Zettai Bouei Leviathan. This was a normal day in the fantasy world of Aquafall, and the troubles the trio of Bahamut, Jormungandr and title character Leviathan get into once the fairy Syrup shows up. By the end, they’ve been in a fight that tore apart a restaurant and were kicked out of town for causing trouble.

My first point of reference for this show was the Shining Hearts anime from last year. That’s mainly because the action consists of cute girls getting into various misadventures early on in the series. At least Shining Hearts got serious toward the end, even if it was to the detriment of all before. It was established pretty quickly that this will be a story about four girls getting into all sorts of trouble.

The main problem I had with this episode was the same as it was in Shining Hearts; there basically isn’t much happening and anything that does seems incredibly forced. In this episode, I was supposed to believe that the guy at the center of the conflict in this episode was so angry at being called a bad guy that he would track Syrup all over town and then cause a fight to break out in a restaurant. At the same time, he seemed rather level-headed for that to happen. I couldn’t believe in the plot in this episode and really just lost interest.

So what exactly is the point of this show anyway? Just looking at the cast list, it’s plainly obvious that it’s simply a vehicle for the individual voice actresses involved in the main cast. This first episode felt as much as free money for them after all. It’s got the whole, cute girls doing cute things vibe going on after all.

The biggest crime though was that this was the first show of the season that I’ve truly felt bored by. The fantasy setting wasn’t particularly special, the production quality was back to typical Gonzo level and these characters are just one-dimensional husks. I get it, Jormungandr is the strong one, Leviathan is the reliable one, Bahamut is the one who gets involved in too many things and Hanakana Syrup is the honest talking one who causes misunderstandings. It’s a simple formula, but there’s no heart in it at all.

Reasons to Continue Watching: High profile voice actresses and a fantasy setting
Reasons to Drop: Nothing of note happening and one-dimensional characters

My Verdict: This is a drop for the simple reason of nearly putting me to sleep.

There are no such things as seagulls, they are just gulls.

A boy named Takurou catches a mermaid while out fishing and starts engaging in conversation with an eccentric character in the first episode of Muromi-san. This was a straight forward gag comedy of 12 minutes where the story was about a few days where Takurou would talk to Maromi-san about various topics of the day. In this case it was about starfish, jellyfish, predators and the state of the economy under water among other things.

Like I said above, this is a pretty standard gag comedy, so this is relatively easy to judge. If it got 3 laughs out of me then it was a keeper, so let’s run through the jokes.

1. The opening being in a sort of death metal esque sound as the cast does ridiculous things. I have to applaud the absurdity of it, and it kind of got a chuckle out of me.

2. Muromi eats Takurou’s bait. Meh.

3. The fish that Muromi pulls out of the sea communicate their situation. I have to admit the starfish talking about how much they look like shuriken did get a laugh out of me. The jellyfish talking later, not so much.

4. Muromi getting caught on the lure that already caught her. This was too telegraphed to have an impact on me.

5. Muromi being perverted when it came to antibiotic ointment and jellyfish stings. I laughed at both. I’m weak like that.

6. The Ryuuguujou being replaced by a shopping mall run by a massive conglomerate. This falls into the category of being funny because it’s true.

7. The egg fertilization joke. It would have been funnier had it not been ripped off from an episode of Futurama.

So that was four laughs by my own count, which means that it works in my mind. There wasn’t much as far as character development other than the implied mermaid falling in love with a human angle that was presented here. I expect the jokes to become much more grand in scale as the show continues.

Reasons to Continue Watching: Tamura Yukari stealing the show and decent social satire
Reasons to Drop: Jokes aren’t consistently funny and potential for the comedy well to run dry quickly

My Verdict: It hit my minimal standard for comedy shows, so I shall continue.