My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU

Genre: Comedy
Age Appropriate: Preteens
Emotional Response: mild amusement
Notable Features: high schoolers, awkward kids, social navigation
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 season, 13 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Decent

"I told you we can never be friends." - Yukinoshita

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is a high school drama/comedy focused on the school's Service Club. The main character is Hikigaya, a social outcast guy who seems to like being alone. He's forced to join the Service Club after turning in a smart-ass essay to his teacher. The club only has one member, another social outcast, Yukinoshita - a beautiful girl who thinks she's a little better than everyone else, and holds back nothing in conversation. The two realize that they have something moderately in common with their inability to related to others, but have a hard time reconciling that with each other as well. Enter Yui, the first person to ask for help from the Service Club, a pseudo-popular girl who only wants to fit in. After her request is completely, she attaches herself to Yukinoshita (dubbed Yukinon), and joins the Service Club. Despite the harshness owned by Hikki and Yukinon, Yui seems to find them better friends, in some respects, that the people she'd attached to in class. 

Other characters join in during each episode to help with whatever project comes up. The series itself primarily uses the service projects as the individual plots per episode, but the real storyline is about the relationship of the three new Service Club "friends," through the eyes of Hikigaya.  As a high school drama, the storyline is generally pretty standard, with some minor plot twists, and some relational issues that could reach out to an audience. 

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My only real fandom would be attached to the adorable Saika Totsuka. I was a little in love with him the whole time, and I adored Hikiyama's reaction to him every time he was in an episode. Of, if only this was shonen-ai. I think it would've been adorable to have more episodes so I could see the cute awkwardness. Still, the beginning on my review holds true. To add more really could've ruined the series as a whole. He's just so cute!

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU was generally pretty fun to watch. I wanted a little more out of the story, but that really wouldn't have fit very well with the series. It suffered somewhat under my love for Say I Love You. It was enjoyable, though. A bit like Servant x Service, there wasn't anything particular of note in the series. I think it would only get a recommendation from me beacuse of Saika Totsuka, or for someone of a high school age looking for something like it. It certainly wasn't negative in any way.

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So Cute: Brothers Conflict

B Gata H Kei

Genre: Comedy/Romance
Age Appropriate: Adult
Emotional Response: um...omgwtfbbqlol
Notable Features: high schoolers, eros deities, wacko chicks
Language: English
Length: 1 Seasons, 12 episodes (+outtakes)
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good

"I wished for the same thing you did!" - Yamada

Yamada is a nice young lady looking to fall in love. That's a lie. Yamada is a misguided teen obsessed with having sex with 100 guys before she graduates. The catch is that she's never done anything sexual before and had no clue how, or who, will accomplish the task. The only determining factor she seems to have made is that her future partner should also be a virgin. Through a chance encounter, Yamada falls off of a bookstore ladder right onto a plain, boring looking guy - Kosuda. She has no idea who he is until they start school and he ends up being at the desk next to her. Yamada thinks that because she's the prettiest, most popular girl in school, that this should be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, while she's right about Kosuda thinking she's hot (since she really is the most popular girl in school), she frequently gets in her own way by being awkward and attempting to force situations when she has no idea what she's doing.

Yamada and Kosuda have an interesting group of friends that each have their parts in the story. Yamada's best friend suffers from constant awkward questions about her own love life, and how Yamada should proceed. Kosuda has a long time childhood friend for a neighbor who is harboring her own secret crush on him. There are boys in the class who are total dorks but often engage Kosuda in awkward boy talk. Enter the most dramatic character - Kanejo. She enters the school as a transfer student and begins a competition storyline with Yamada, only broken up by her obvious love-obsession with her own brother. Each episode shows a new step forward, or back, in the relationship between Yamada and Kosuda, and their awkward dance around the topic.

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This series didn't grab me too much when I started it, but it did do well enough for me to be interested in finishing. It had a fairly even mix between head banging shame, and tummy tightening laughter. It was just awful, but in that way that's funny and you know it shouldn't be funny, because you're an adult now, but it's funny. It had a high school class cast, so I'm inclined to say it would be funny for high schoolers, or college students, but since the content is 75% sexual, I still labeled it Adult. There is a little nudity in the last episodes, but given the subject matter, it's fairly tame. I just don't want someone letting their kids watch this without fair warning.

It really is a comedy of errors. Every time the couple in question makes a move, things go wrong. Kosuda is a typical geeky-awkward high school boy, and when faced with aggressive but ignorant Yamada, he ends up confused. I mean, no high school girls are that interested, right? At least, that seems to be his internal monologue. It doesn't help that she's completely obsessed/oblivious about how to proceed. If you're looking for a little light, but dirty, humor, then I would recommend this. It's only 12 episodes, but it really is a great fit for the series. So, go watch it for a good time. (hehe)

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I don't know if I'm ready for this: The Devil is a Part-Timer

Chihayafuru

Genre: Drama (high school)
Age Appropriate: Any Age
Emotional Response: suspense, victory, disappointment
Notable Features: karuta, high school, love triangle
Language: Japanese
Length: 2 Seasons, 50 episodes 
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good

"I know I'm greedy." - Chihaya 

When they were young, three middle schoolers found mutual fun in competitive karuta. Karuta is a poem/verse card game between two people that requires strategy, skill and speed. Chihaya knew Taichi growing up together in school. One year, she meets Arata, and stands up for him despite being a stranger transfer student. Through this connection, she finds her love of karuta. They compete together as a team, but after a short year, they are separated by different family circumstances. The series finds Chihaya, the main character, in high school, desperately trying to form a functioning karuta club. She bumps into Taichi accidentally, and through a little pressure and guilt, manages to get him to agree to help her start the club. Her aggressive, yet airheaded nature, brings in the last three teammates needed to make it an official club.

Chihayafuru refers to a specific card, that Chihaya has marked as her own. Each member ends up with something similar for themselves. In the first season, the team fights through some difficult battles, and not all of them are successes. In the second season, some new characters join up and they move together back to the finals to compete. Each character brings a specific skill set to the team - a geek, a poet, a lazy bum, the pretend hero, the love sick boy, the love sick girl and the favored airhead heroine. The rivals are not to be trifled with, either. Chihaya's goal is to meet and beat the Queen, the highest ranked female player in Japan, and this goal drives a good amount of the storyline.

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Chihayafuru was a lot of fun, and full of suspense. I found myself watching episode after episode to see what would happen next, at the detriment of my sleep cycle. It's not that the story or presentation were phenomenal, but the story was paced pretty well. There were a few times that I wished more was happening, quicker, but it worked to suck me in. In general, I'm pretty satisfied.

Yet again, I find myself in that difficult position of having to wait for a third season. I'm not sure that there will be one, but there better be. There is a lot of unresolved story that requires one, but since this season was just released, I think it's pretty reasonable to expect more. It probably won't happen until 2014 at the earliest, though. Sadface. It was exciting, and actually pushed me to download a couple of apps to practice my Japanese. Well, they're to help me learn some characters. I'm not really sure if I would recommend this to everyone. If it's something you would be interested in genre-wise, then I would definitely recommend it. There isn't any real comedy, though. It's very slice-of-life. I enjoyed it.

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Slice!: You and Me

Haganai

Genre: Comedy
Age Appropriate: Teens
Emotional Response: LOL, feel good
Notable Features: high school, social ineptitude
Language: Japanese
Length: 2 season, 26 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Definitely

"Poopy crappy hag!" - Sister Maria

A geek, perverted scientist, dirty blonde thug, and a prima donna girly-girl walk into a common room...and The Neighbors Club is formed. Kodaka is a young man in high school who has transfered in as a Sophomore. His dirty blonde hair, and stern features have created rumors around school that he is a hardened thug, with various exploits under his belt. The other students hide in fear from him, and take every situation out of context. The beginning of his friend-less salvation starts with stumbling onto Yozora, a social outcast girl, who has an imaginary "air" friend named Tomo. After a conversation about their mutual inability to make friends, Yozora creates the Neighbors Club, putting a subliminal-type message on the flyer. The point of the club is to practice being "normal" and making friends for later.

As the flyer is seen by other stranger teens, the most popular girl in school pops up, with great drama, wanting to learn how to make friends. Apparently, her issue is being so popular that no one actually wants to like her. The pervy scientist is a girl Kodaka saves from a faint, and a young man joins the club after deciding that Kodaka's reputation means he's awesome. Yozora, being the evil prankster that she is, convinces Yukimori (said young man) that in order to be more manly, and therefore closer to Kodaka's example, he must learn to brazen his manliness out through counter-intuitive actions - basically, she convinces his to dress in drag for the entire series. The club advisor, Sister Maria, is a super-genius Sister who didn't really know what she was going into, and her arch-nemesis ends up being Kodaka's younger sister who is obsessed with a vampire anime character. Haganai follows a variety of interesting situations that occur as a result of their misguided activities for being more friend-friendly, and the interactions between the group's various frenemies.

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Haganai was a feel-good, funny series that really lifted my spirits a little bit. I'm glad that I decided to give it a try. After watching the first two episodes in English, I was disappointed to find that it was seriously only the first two episodes that had been dubbed. It was funny enough to keep moving, though. The series was fully of awkward characters, and in that way it reminded me of when I was around that age. I don't think I specifically identified with any of them, but the feel was just right. The series itself didn't seem to have any major developments, or conflicts, which may make this review portion a bit boring, I suppose. It was pretty much solely focused on character development. So many high school series have odd attachments to them, and this was straight-up comedy without magic, androids, or gratuitous nudity.

There were a few great LOL moments. There is one scene where the group is on a roller coaster ride that made me cry with laughter. It was in season 2, though, so you'll just have to wait to get there. There was some incidental fan service, but after High School DxD it was practically childish. I have so many favorite characteristics for each character, but I think I really enjoyed the middle schoolers the best, probably followed closely by the cross-dressing cross-dresser. I'm not sure it's really up to a re-watch status, but I would definitely recommend it for someone looking for an easy laugh.

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NEXT!: Air

Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

Genre:Comedy
Age Appropriate: Any Age
Emotional Response: LOL
Notable Features: high school, martial arts, socially inept students
Language: English
Length: 2 seasons, 50 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good


"Your talking is getting in the way of me telling you to shut up." - Takeda

Kenichi is a young man who suffers from a condition called complete total social ineptitude, weakness and bullying. His actual nickname in school is "Weak-Knees Kenichi." The story begins with his desire to join the Karate Club at school, and his subsequent beat down from the club members. He's weak and scrawny and no one wants to take him seriously. After running into a nice young, if strange, girl, Miu, Kenichi finds himself directed to an obscure dojo with strange marital arts practioners - Ryozanpaku. The head of the dojo is Miu's grandfather, and it's revealed that some of her strangeness actually comes from being raised by him outside of a traditional family setting.

Kenichi becomes a desciple of the entire dojo. He begins with a little bit from each master, as they try to train him both traditionally, and give him a hand with little moves along the way to protect him fromt he bullies gunning from him. After he manages to survive, and win, a battle against the evil freshman lead of the Karate Club, Kenichi finds himself the target of every bad-guy bully around. His success makes him a target both because of their feelings that he's just a lucky punk kid, and their desire to make a name for themselves after beating whoever is beating up the people that want to be better than.

It becomes a viscious cycle, and his training with the strangers at Ryozanpaku is the only thing that saves him in each episode. The series covers a variety of coming-of-age issues while adding comedy to every situation. A typical high school anime drama, with awkward students and strange antagonists.

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The best way I can describe this series is cheesy. Completely, totally cheesy...in a good way (5 points if you get the reference there). It was great. It's the kind of series I would sit down and watch with my counsins. I'm pretty sure they would get a kick out of it. It also totally made me want to join a dojo and learn mixed martial arts. I won't, but it did give me the urge.

There isn't a lot of deep thinking involved, but it's a decent coming-of-age series. It's probably a little more lighthearted than some of the high school dramas I've been watching. It's very exciting, though. I wasn't jumping out of my seat, but I was definitely cheering Kenichi on - even when he's dealing with his major crush on Miu. Let's hear it for the little guy! I'd much prefer him to end up with garden-girl, but what can you do?

In general, I like something a little more engaging, but there is absolutely nothing wrong here. It's not going to be in my Top 10, but I would recommend it to plenty of people - particularly a younger crowd. As long as you ignore some of the smack-him moments from Kenichi, it's totally appropriate. Miu is even a strong kick-ass young woman, so it's probably nice for girls too, if you're looking for female role models of a sort. So, I recommend it. Decently high marks from me!

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Hmm: My Little Monster

Mini-Geek Girl

As a bit of a outcast/wierdo/freak in my early years - ok, all of my life - I've been interested in video games, sci-fi/fantasy novels, one LARP attempt and on occasion an interest in anime.
Here is where a my definition of mini-geek comes in. Of all of the above interests, I've never been creepily obsessed.

The best way I've thought of to desribe what I mean this: I know details about WOW, but likely will never play the game. I've love RPG video games, but would sometimes prefer to watch them be played than play them myself (seriously, for hours. It's like real-time TV). I appreciate Star Wars, but I don't have the number of toys, shirts, books that other people in my family have. I have an iPad that is mostly full of books. I play Diablo, but have no interest whatsoever in the auction houses. I just want to play a video game!

So, I'm a mini-geek. Almost a geek companion, I suppose. From this perspective, my previous (and current) significant others have found me to be AWESOME. ;)

I started this blog because I've recently obtained a new obsession with anime. I watch it on the internet, via apps on my iPad, and a few on DVD. Subbed or Dubbed makes no different to me, although like in most things, I have genres that I prefer.

I wanted to start a review blog. Something that reviews anime I've seen or will see, but for girls (or anyone, I guess) as new to the wide world of anime as I am. I want to look at rating things in different levels, instead of just stars. I want to present them in a way that I think some of my friends might find new series they like, and I know they'd appreciate. I might even get some uninterested people interested. So, why not start a blog and open it up to everyone?