Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials
From my surprise, someone felt like doing something that the Anime Blogosphere haven’t done before… an ISML (International Saimoe League) like tournament, but instead with moe female characters, now with Anime Blogs and we are listed. As they say, if you want a blog to win, you have to campaign… so this is what I’m doing right now.
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It have been awhile since I have written a long line of editorials… but I think this is a pretty good question. This topic came to attention when I saw that thread on AnimeSuki. Haven’t said that. it depends. As most know, I have been a fan of Anime for a long time since the first anime production I seen from Studio Gibli, this is when I step foot into the Anime World. as more of these shows shown on TV, my interest for it went up. It wasn’t until High School that I started watching more, so I’m not exactly a new fan of Anime, it was something that was on and off, but never loss interest in. I have never participated in any Anime Clubs while I was in High School and still continued not to after my sister joined one in fall semester in college and well, not going on well and she stopped attending. Being in the Anime Blogosphere, I have seen less of the dumb part of the fandom and more of the more intelligent bloggers for the most case like to do what they enjoy most, watch anime and write their thoughts on it. Also I participate on AnimeSuki Forums (If you see me, give me a poke…) and Melative that also has a very good amount of intelligent fans who I converse with.
The problem lies in the mainstream Anime forums. AnimeSuki may be popular, but not as much so than Anime News Network and MyAnimeList. There lays the problem as now we are given a vast amount of fans and of course, there are going to be some newbies who are going to have very narrow taste in liking only Naruto and the such and don’t give a damn about other people’s opinion. This is the main reason I do not participate on MyAnimeList forums (except to develop the MAL client) and catalog my anime (until I gotten away from it and now use Melative to catalog everything!). When they see something that isn’t Naruto, they will likely rank it down on purpose… Then again, what is the purpose of rating an anime while its airing. However, the ratings to not stick and only ratings on people who watched the season in whole at the end only counts. Maybe some dissatisfaction perhaps?
The problem I’m seeing is not the fandom as a whole, bit maybe the person. As they all say, tastes are everything and people have shows that they like the most and some they do not like. I admit that I do enjoy most of the stuff I seen, but as recent examples, I have been dissatisfied by Kampfer and Nogizaka Haruka Second Season as a whole because of excessive fanservice, which led me to think that most fanservice anime aren’t that good. Open minded view is a key of balance and giving an anime a fair chance. I have done that for the most part and enjoyed it… maybe not with the case with fanservicy anime since I have been constantly disappointed by how it was brought out. With my dislike to fanservice anime, this come to the point that tastes are different for each fan and changes over time. Say that you initially didn’t like a genre you watch and over time you realized that you actually enjoyed it.
Back to balance and open minded view, newer fans and old should be more open, give a fair judgment and don’t compare shows with other shows. The most recent example with people who are comparing Sora no Woto to K-ON and thinking it’s moeblob anime… The problem with that kind of judgement is that people are warping their view and not looking at the content as a whole. People who think it is K-ON! will probably miss the overlying plot or the complete difference in character design. This is the same who call some anime “moeshit” and all those degrading terms without forgetting it and just watch and enjoy. As long a person become nitpicky at all the flaws and not looking at whats good, it always going to bring a negative view that wouldn’t be if the person didn’t nitpick at every flaw in the title. As my friend said, “Being negative just to RAAAAGE and FFFFFF isn’t funny or clever. Balance is the key to life, and there’s something beautiful even in the ugliest of places.” Unfortunately, I haven’t lived up to that quote since I have been rather negative on other things that are not related to anime. Also, I have seen a small amount of bloggers raeg because they like to bring attention… It’s okay, but it’s pretty obvious that it will bring out the bad of the fandom by disgruntled commenters depending on the content of the post.
Fanboyism is another problem. Rabid Fanboys are annoying no matter how you look at them. They will bash the show they don’t deem to be perfect and praise every aspect of their show even though there are flaws. Acting like a fanboy sadly does not bring any good except getting people annoyed and such and this can apply to anything, not just Anime. This was apparent in the console wars between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft and Mac vs PCs and believe me, they get really ugly quickly and it is hardly open minded at all.
In conclusion, from what I have seen so far, for the most part the fandom isn’t getting dumb from what I seen. Maybe in other Anime communities and definitely MyAnimeList and ANN. However there are some controversial issues like Anime Licensing and Crunchyroll that brings out the bad of the Anime Fandom, but I tend to ignore it now since I don’t want to get involved, I buy my Anime that are licensed and I want to watch or want to own and it gets rather redundant since I don’t care where it come from, I only care about the content. Besides from that, I think it is a good thing for people to be more open minded on what they watch and stop comparing titles to other anime and write it off as such and such without getting the whole point of the plot or the gist of the whole show. Less RAEG (unless you are doing it for fun) and negativity would be a better goal of improving the fandom and also bring more intelligent discussion on what we love most, watching Anime.
Inami (Izumi or whatever) and the fear of men… Well, we have been there, but Takanashi doesn’t seem to have a like for her since she always punches him and also… a pettanko compared to the well like Popura who is well endowed… and short, something that Taknashi seems to like. Does this make him a lolicon or what… just don’t ask. Pretty much the whole episode was focused on Izumi and punching Takanashi… I don’t remember how many times she had punch him in the whole course of the episode, but with a few laughs.
The episode was slightly better, but I’m still slightly ever disappointed. The problem I’m seeing is that the jokes are getting repetitive. How many more times we see Takanashi’s lolicon tendencies or Izumi punching him ever few minutes… Well, it did work, but soon I… well, yawned. As they put it, they seem to clam way too much in one episode and as a result, all the jokes gets repeated over and over again rather quickly… If it wasn’t so packed in together, it wouldn’t get so old rather quickly. Oh well, there is always the Manga…
Also, the animation is okay but… A-1 Pictures can do a better job than this since they were able to put out really good animation in Sora no Woto… why not this? Anyways, I’ll give it a few more episodes… but I have pretty low expectations… I mean, they can do better than this so it will become more enjoyable… but I guess it is better than seeing a fanservicy series that I would otherwise be disappointed on the spot.
7.6/10
This episode is probably the most funniest one compared to the first season, thanks to Ritsu. They clean out that messy closet and they found a really heavy, pristine guitar that looked like it was never used. Actually, it was Sawako’s and she doesn’t want it anymore and wants them to pawn it and use the money for the club. They end up in the shopping center where Ritsu and Yui fools around while Mugi becomes amazed because she really wanted to go one of them (for herself being a ojou herself have never seen one for herself). They finally pawned the guitar at the music shop and they got 500,000 yen ($5,500 USD in current exchange rates) for the whole thing and the other girls except Mugi becomes obsessed on how to use to money. They clean up and Sawako comes and Ritsu lies about the money. Then, Sawako wants the reciept and she ate it until Sawako takes it out and finds out it is 500,000 yen. She takes the money back and later the club decided on buying that turtle at Azusa saw… Although disappointed at first, she finally makes it her friend and it was cute!
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Overall, this episode was alot better than the last and it had very funny moments including some boy scaring off girls with a face painted on his body, that caused him to be locked up in a room by Misaki. However, Class 22-2 proposals were too outrageous. Usui tries to convince her to do their last proposal, but the next day it gets shot down and they do a cafe. Usui comes to the cafe while Misaki was working and he seems to like the cat ears on her, but as usual, Misaki is annoyed. Also, about the guys who found out that Misaki is a maid.. well, they are her fans and she brings out this “moe moe rice omelet” and wrote annoyed on it. I was laughing by the way… While the preparations for the festival, Misaki was being too harsh to the boys and later when she was taking the trash out while she was working, Usui warned her that if she be too tough on the boys, they won’t listen and also another instance where the girls say Misaki should enjoy what she is doing in her job… This becomes a reality where she lashes out on the Class 22-2 boys which caused them to walk away and yes, Usui participated. She helps the girls who were struggling and suddenly after they see what she was doing decided to help in a appropriate manner. At the end of the festival, Usui finds Misaki and seems to have a interest in her… because, well you know…
Anyways, the whole premise of the whole episode was funny… Yes, there was somewhat less yelling, especially towards the end… but as it seems.. even though Misaki find Usui annoying sometimes, Usui seems to like her that much that he is a regular customer at this maid cafe… no matter what… and yes, she was cute with the cat ears and the maid outfit… lol… and how she lashes out was also funny, but then again… Is the second part of the episode evident that she is becoming less harsh to the boys… I don’t think it will stay once things go back to normal… Anyways… can’t wait what will be in the next episode since this is a pretty interesting story… and also funny as well.
8.4/10
Imagine yourself in a virtual reality… this what it is, except that anything that is out to kill you won’t actually kill you, although it will hurt a hell alot. This was obviously an introduction episode and from the look of it, the show is probably something that isn’t like the previous works. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty good so far. Animation is pretty good, especially on the second half, but the glass was half empty… Animation on the first half was meh until the second part where it got better. As with people are in the afterlife, they do not age and also the so called NPCs (Non-Player Character) don’t either… Damn, is this some kind of RPG or what?
Well, Yuri, wants to get rid of Tenshi, who is the chairperson of the student council and she tries to target her in the beginning of the episode… Obviously Otonashi doesn’t believe her and had Tenshi attack him. Afterwards, he agrees to join the SSS and plan this operation where they use the concert as a diversion and attack Tenshi. He takes a shot at her, but it hit her the first time, but the second time failed. Everyone else starts targeting her with their weapons and firing at her, but in the end… it didn’t turn out well as planned.
Anyways, that was pretty much the whole gist of the whole episode. It was interesting, but then again, it’s obviously different than before… Intense battle scenes with gore and stuff… As long it turns out interesting… then I’ll keep watching… 🙂
8.3/10
I was forced to watch it though a suggestion on Melative and I did so. It was decent and enjoyable, but like with my experience with Haruka, I’m weary on the fanservice on the show. Anyways, The premise of this show is of course cats and Nekomimi in contrast to Nyan Koi, this is another one of these romance comedies which could only mean one thing… Fanservice! Ugh… Okay… maybe it’s not as distracting as Purezza, but yeah…
Well the premise of this episode is well… Takumi Tsuzuki, a boy lives with her sister, Otome Tsuzuki (not blood related!). Also, Fumino Serizawa is another girl which is a violent type A Tsundere… Just make sure you don’t make her angry… and they own a cake shop that has alot of stray cats… After school, they find that cake was eaten by some cat and Fumino Serizawa and a little boy go out to find it. Meanwhile, Takumi and his friends makes the cake again… They almost find the cat, but couldn’t catch it… After delivering the cake, Takumi finds out her sister brought home a cat girl back instead…
Ok, it was decent, but not really a show I’m really in to since I’m not that into fanservice anime. Fumino is very tsundere, so much anger in her that she actually kicks people and also got angry at Chise Umenomori, a spoiled Oujo-sama who wanted to dress Fumino in a skimpy cosplay outfit… and yeah… Funny thing is that there are actually a cameo from you know… Anyways, I am still on the fence on continuing it, but not bad so far… I’ll wait and see, unless someone forces me to watch the next episode… lol…
Nyaaaaaaaa~
7.4/10
Working is one of those slice of life animes that have… well… Moe~… However, Working is sorta enjoyable and had some potential, but this episode was mediocre at best. For the first part, the animation seems to be a slight disappointment. After seeing Sora no Woto’s nice animation from A-1 Pictures, I thought they can do just as good… but not in this case… A good thing is that the animation is better than Fairy Tail, which is a big mess.
Obviously, Takanashi got a job at the family restaurant because he can’t resist Taneshima’s cuteness. Taneshima is definitely a moe~ character and really cute and all, but suffers the height problems like Kurimu did in Seitokai no Ichizon, where she is made fun of her height by Ken. The difference is, Taneshima is not a pettanko (flat chested), so no DFC here. Anyways, we are introduced to other characters and well more moe… including Kyouko… well, never ask how old a woman is, or you may suffer the consequences… and lastly that girl that is afraid of guys punches Takanashi in the face… Ouch…
Overall, Working is sorta like K-ON!, moe~ except that it’s not all girls and that it’s in a family restaurant. I enjoyed it, but not enough to keep watching at the moment. I might continue on if it gets better, but for the time being, It’s on hold…
7.3/10
K-ON is back… well, this time in widescreen… which means no more waiting for several weeks to get the widescreen edition. TBS must have learned its lesson. The five girls are back and the four, Mio, Ritsu, Tsumugi, and Yui are in the same class after Sawako pulled some strings to put them in the same class, along with Nodoka… Yes, they were crying for joy… but realized that when they graduate as seniors, Azusa will be all alone, so they attempt to find new members through all means as dressing up as animals, stalking people’s clubs and stuff, but failed. They do a performance and still… no new members, although Azusa is okay with it, but she is going to be even more stricter than before and Yui now wants a new member again…
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Well, an unexpected anime pretty much caught my attention. Traditionally, I hardly covered any shoujo anime, but heck, why not since this one has maids… Anyways, the episode was the first part was interesting, but rather slow. Misaki Ayuzawa, a rather strict president and the first female president at this school which was previously a all boys school, but now a 80% male and 20% female school (sounds like my old college I transferred from where there were mostly males and not that many females, being that it was a engineering and tech college). However, Takumi Usui, a really attractive boy with high grades and stuff catches Misaka working at a Meido cafe… and well, you know what happen… she becomes nervous and tries to drive him away, thinking that he was mocking her. One day after she was piled with alot of work was taking a break back of the maid cafe when she was caught by the three boys that she punished and… Usui saves the day and promises to keep her job a secret…
Overal, it was a okay episode, but not great since it was a little slow… Pretty amusing of course since it had maids and lots of them. However, the storyline is so similar to Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, except that it’s shoujo, no fanservice/ecchi, girl as the main character, not so lame male lead… and maids! I will probably keep watching to see what happens next, but this show will be low priority since I want to cover Angel Beats and K-ON 2nd Season first… So yeah, it’s not bad at all… Animation is ok for the most part with some… super deformity.
7.6/10
