With a show like Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai that is based off a Visual Novel by Navel, you can foresee what will happen in this episode. If you guess gratuitous amounts of panty shots and fanservice, then you are correct!
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fanservice
Fractale – Episodes 4-6 (Brief Thoughts)
For the past few weeks, I was busy with some exams and papers to write. It was expected that I would delay my blogging of Fractale, Wandering Son and Gosick for a while.
To help lessen the burden, I will just write my brief thoughts for Episodes 4 to 6 of Fracale in one post.
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Taste Test Part I-II – Rio: Rainbow Gate! (SCCSAV Livewatch)
Many people in the blogosphere have been talking about Rio: Rainbow Gate, one of the shows some consider to be “so bad it’s good”. Do I agree with them? Not really since I watched the show with Roghek from the SCCSAV over Skype. Overall, my impressions about the show went south. The show was so bad it was terrible because there are so many fundamental problems with it, which I want to share.
Just to be clear, I am criticizing the show based on the two episodes I have seen, not bashing it.
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Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Episode 8 – Summer Colds and Peach Girl
In this hallucinating episode of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, the Milky Holmes girls catches a summer cold as a result from a cruel prank by tsundere Kokoro. Henriette eventually takes care of them. Ironically, she catches their cold in the process…
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Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Episode 7 – The Obligatory Beach Episode and MugiVision™
In this stimulating episode of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, the girls walk to a beach to unearth something that will restore their Toys. In the preview segment for this episode, it was expected to see some fanservice even though its not the amount most people expected.
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MM! – Episode 7 – Taro’s Painful Love Pentagon
Well, it’s the obligatory beach episode. Nothing can possibly go wrong with this episode, right?
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Amagami SS – Nanasaki’s Arc Final Review
It has been awhile since I watched Amagami SS. The reason I fell behind because I was busy with the fall anime. This is why I did not focus on writing about Nanasaki Ai’s arc in great detail, as I originally wanted to. Since I have some free time today, I took the time to finish it. After I finished the remaining two episodes in her arc, I was very disappointed for reasons I am going to explain. [1. Original Image]
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Ore no Imouto – Episode 4 – Why so Serious about the Fanservice?
Unlike the last three episodes, some people in the anime blogosphere went gaga over this one fanservice scene. I wondered about it when I watched this episode. Fortunately, I did not get the same reaction from that scene. I probably did not react to it as much since I saw the comedy value in it, not the naughty side of things.
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MM! – Episode 4 – The Date that went Terribly Wrong!
After all the drama regarding Yuuno’s dramatic past, it is time for more comedy. In this wacky episode, Mio decides to take Taro on a date to see if the myth of “love triumphs masochism” is true.
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Taste Test Part II – Yosuga no Sora
After Sora took off her dress from the cliffhanger, we expected that she is going to seduce Haruka. Unfortunately, she fakes us out and only wants Haruka to measure her for the school uniform. Cue uncontrollable rage…
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Taste Test Part II – MM!
After I watched this episode, I changed my mind about MM!. This episode like the last episode focused on the various problems the people in the club want to resolve. In this particular episode, it focused on Yunno’s androphobia that have been developed as a result of her trauma in the past.
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Taste Test Part I – Yosuga no Sora
Well, this is probably one of the strangest visual novel adaptations I ever saw so far. Yosuga no Sora is simply crazy on what they throw at the viewers in the first episode… We have this pretty white hair guy, a sister of the same age, an already made harem and of course the risque scenes[3. Because of the nature of the content, I couldn’t place that many snapshots since the blog is PG-13] of some girl doing you know what and some twin incest. Because of the rather mature content, It makes me feel so guilty when I watch this show that it could even be considered a guilty pleasure [1. A bit of an understatement], more so than Kampfer ever will be.
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Taste Test Part I – MM!
Perhaps bile fascination[1. What else would attract me to this show… Cute girls?] had driven me to watch anime that some people love to hate. If you read the show’s description, the show gives you a thought about something rather perverted. That thing is Sadomasochism, a fetish that is all about getting pleasure from giving/receiving pain. This is the central them of MM since the male lead is such a masochist.
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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 5 – Hot Springs and Fate Kicking Butt…
What is the best thing to do after you got your butt handed to Fate? Go to the hot springs to relax and try again later. However, unexpected things happened that turn the whole situation rather sour for Nanoha and Yuuno.
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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 3 – Magical Powers comes with Big Responsibilities
Dropped Anime Flashback: Kampfer or Add Moar Fanservice and Dumb Down the Characters
Ah, Kampfer… The Genderbending Anime that hasn’t been. Kampfer was a big disappointment across the board not only because of the excessive fanservice, but they dumb down the main character to intolerable levels so he would be hated just like Sakura… They did just that… They made Natsuru into a big idiot and a sucker for Sakura, who is obviously taking advantage of his female form. Also, he didn’t gave a sh** about the other girls who want the male Natsuru. Hell, probably the only sane character in this story might just be Shizuku… As I remembered, I only watched Episodes 1 and 6 before dropping this piece of crap… but I will go more in detail on why this show is a piece of crap.
Nogizaka Haruka Purezza’s fanservice may be bad, but it cannot compare to Kampfer. Kampfer is fanservice laden to beyond belief. The typical stuff from most harem anime plus clothing being ripped, more censor steam, boobs and then some. Not only that I heard they put references in completely random places. What kind of Anime does that? Oh wait…
From what I have seen from the two episodes I seen, It was a disaster. Girls randomly battling each other with more fanservice shots, Natsuru obsessing over Sakura, and girls obsessing over Natsuru and wants to dress him (or her) in outrageous outfits for example… That what I got from it and it definitely didn’t play well for me. What Purezza and Kampfer have in common is the weak male lead. Yuuto’s apparent flaw is that he let everyone else step over him and not being aggressive enough. However, Natsuru got to be the lamest, even Yuuto’s niceness can’t beat Natsuru’s pathetic life. Natsuru knows damn well that other girls in his harem (Akane, Mikoto and Shizuku) wants him, but he completely ignores them and go for the manipulative bitch called Sakura Kaede. Natsuru likes her because she is obviously the prettiest girl in the school, but you have to know that appearance isn’t everything. This can apply in real life. The prettiest girl ever can be the most manipulative bitch out there and wants you to do things for her all the time.
Not only that, the ending from reading it on various anime blogs shown to be a big disaster. What Ode to Joy have to do with anything? Funny thing is that Purezza took the same cue from Kampfer and did its Ode to Joy thing, but not nearly as lame as Kampfer. Want to power up, let’s take more clothing off… Bullshit! After that final scene, absolutely nothing is resolved… That is just bullshit. Not only that, people ask, what the hell we watched after looking at Episode 11. I wonder too, what did I watch/read about? A pile of shit!
I can go on with Kampfer, but there isn’t really much more to say. Kampfer disappointed everyone across the board. Not only that, they ruined the story by making the male lead even more of an idiot than in the Manga. It’s worth noting that not only the story is horrible, but the music too as what zzeroparticle said in his Kampfer Soundtrack Review:
Katou’s messing around with musical genres is a double-edged sword and while Kanno and Iwasaki are able to draw forth memorable music by doing so, Katou displays no such skill and ends up cutting himself badly because he’s simply not good enough to deliver wide-ranging music that consistently engages the listener.
And it shows when you listen to Kämpfer’s music. The task of composing a diverse musical portfolio taxes him to the limit and he doesn’t have a whole lot to give. In the early part of the track, there’s a glimmer of promise; the melody is solid, catchy even, and just when you enter the bridge, you come back face to face with the opening melody. Development? What development?
By reading this, you know that Kampfer is a pile of shit since it suffers from not so good storytelling, uninspiring and completely random music, an incompetent male lead and a horrible ending. From this, what do I expect out of Kampfer? Absolutely nothing, except watching it with other people for amusement on how shitty this Anime is. Nomad could have done a better job on Kampfer, but they bombed it like on the same level of Action 52… Maybe not as horrible as Action 52, but it’s still bad. So yea, Kampfer is probably the most horrible Anime I watched so far excluding the Endless Eight fiasco with Suzumiya Haruhi S2.
Notes: My plan was to originally rewatch up to Episode 6, but the problem is that most of the torrents by then were pretty much dead, so I have to use what I already know.
Mayoi Neko Overrun! – Episode 1 Thoughts and Impressions
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~
Verdict
7.4/10
Fanservice and Nogizaka Haruka, What the hell happened?
A while back in June 2009, I wrote a lengthy editorial on how fanservice can ruin the overall story of an anime. Well, this becomes a reality with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.
I have watch both seasons and the first season was far better besides a few panty shots is that they focused on the over lining purpose of the story. Yuuto and Haruka sweet romance and also her Otaku interest. However, the second season lost it’s purpose completely. Like Kimagure said on Melative, “sweetness replaced by pointless fanservice.” The second season of Nogizaka Haruka just proved what I have said in my editorial I wrote in June of 2009 that adding lots of fanservice makes the over lining story alot worse than it would without the fanservice. All I got from this is more pantyshots, boob groping and other stuff that shouldn’t be in the anime. If I want to watch a fanservice-oriented anime, I would of watched titles like Ladies vs Butlers, Kampfer or even Chu-Bra! I bet one minute that 90% of the fanservice seen in the second season is not in the Nogizaka Haruka light novels (yes, the Anime is adapted from the light novel…)
The problem with the route they taken is that it’s completely unnecessary and the story can do better without it, besides the other flaws besides fanservice. I felt that Diomedea is trying to use fanservice to try to attract more audience to the show, at the same time, alienating its viewers who liked the first season and be constantly let down by every episode. If there is ever a third season, Diomedea better shape up and not add the fanservice and bring it back to what the story is intended to be in the first place because viewers aren’t going to take this excessive, overdone and redundant fanservice and panty shots anymore. There are already enough fanservice laden titles out there already, Nogizaka Haruka is a series that doesn’t need to go down that path too. We already have other anime that does that.
sola – Special Episode 1 Thoughts and Impressions
There is more where that came from… After all, this is the ONLY fanservice episode in the series. Yep, girls in swimsuits and also the disturbing part… Well, you have to find out…
Note: Chronologically, this episode belongs after the 4th episode.
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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Episode 1
The very unlikely show I would watch, but after looking at the post about wifes and I seen her name on it and looked it up… Oh crap…
Anyways, I decided to watch it for myself and see what I thought of it… so here it goes.
Synposis
Ayase is a normal high school student who doesn’t seem to want to think about girls due to the fact of the two girls in his household. While returning the overdue magazine Nobunaga Asakura had, he sees Haruka acting strangely and after she checked out a magazine from the library, she bumps into him, which caused the magazine to drop onto the floor and him seeing it causing her to run away with tears. Days after, she started to avoid him and eventually, he said that he won’t tell anyone about her hobby, which made her happy… but one thing… the magazine was due on the same day, so they went back to school at night and finally returned it. This is when the relationship between them started.
Thoughts
Although it may be a generic moe show with moeblobs doing moe things in shows like Lucky Star and K-ON!, but this is a pretty enjoyable series from watching the first episode, although it’s light on the story aspect. As you suspect, Haruka’s qualities make you think that she is a Mary Sue, but no since her flaw seems to be her “Otaku” hobby, which in reality is looked down upon since Otakus stereotypically don’t seem to have much social skills in comparison of geeks and nerds and have a obsession of anime and video games. Haruka like you expect, is a moeblob like character and she is cute and clumsy, which is probably why some people seems to obsess over her alot…
Animation was decent, but with a few flaws.
Overall, I thought it was a enjoyable show, but I won’t expect much from the storyline… but I will keep watching unless it goes south after 4 episodes…
OP/ED
OP: Tomadoi Bitter Tune – Miran Himemiya and Chocolate Rockers
ED: Hitosashiyubi Quiet! – Kana Ueda, Mai Goto, Rina Satou, Kaori Shimizu, Mamiko Noto
Sounds decent enough…
Rating
8.3/10
Editorial: Fanservice does not always make a anime series awesome… but sometimes makes it worse.
After recently writing an editorial about Miyazaki Hayao about most anime made these days are unorginal and uninspiring… it’s because most anime are focusing too much on fanservice and less on the content to excite the audience.
The main reason I approve most anime series from Kyoto Animation and Miyazaki’s films is that… you guess it… they have minimal amount of fanservice. The problem today is fanservice is everywhere…type 1 mainly focusing on non-sexual fanservice (which I’m not against) and type 2 fanservice which involves with sexual in nature which is very common… like nudity, panty shots, etc which is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY and does not add to the story or make the series any better… I don’t mind if a anime have some fanservice, but when it gets too excessive like Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Gonzo’s version of Full Metal Panic or something alot worse like Queen’s Blade for example… this is where I find it unorginal and also annoying… While most people won’t care in the world about fanservice or some actually liking it… I for one find it completely unnecessary nor it make the series any better with it.
The problem with modern anime today is that too many are focusing on excessive, type 2 fanservice which adds no quality to the story or make it inspiring or a masterpiece. This is the main reason why most fanservicey anime series tend to fail in quality because it’s overused and every animation studio besides Kyoto Animation far I know does it. You may ask youself, how come Kyoto Animation’s adaption of Full Metal Panic is better than Gonzo’s version of Full Metal Panic… it’s because Kyoto Animation focused on the actual material which resulted in good results while Gonzo added too much fanservice which caused the quality to fall. I’m not against series because it have too many fanservice, but the type 2 fanservice is causing the drop in quality of the story and better improved if studios stop relying too much on type 2 fanservice and actually focus on the story and make it original and/or inspiring.