This is probably one of the funniest anime I have seen in recent years, it is a self aware commentary on the otters culture. Having a light novel author father and an eroge illustrator mother, Kanou Shinichi is a thoroughbred otaku. At first it runs as a comedy but later there are serious matters that Shinichi needs to face: ethnic discrimination, social problems, conflict with neighboring countries, sabotage by opposition elements including Japanese government, etc. Can he overcome the obstacles, successfully bring "Moe" culture to the fantasy world, and help the people there as well? Well to start off; Kanou Shinichi Is the main protagonist of the series. At the start of the series, Shinichi was given the position of general manager for [General Entertainment Company Amu Tech]. He was unwittingly sent to the "Holy Empire of Erdant", a fantasy-like world where otaku culture is absent. His job given by the Japanese government is to spread the "Otaku" culture so that Japan can enter its economy. By learning more about this new world, it's possible to find a good solution. It is already pointing the finger at the otaku market in a self aware manor, leading to the hilarious array of events to follow. Long ago, Shinichi confessed to his childhood friend, but was rejected immediately after for being an otaku. He was told to find a job, forcing him to to leave his Hikikomori life. He comes from a familiy of four: a light novel author for a father, an eroge illustrator as his mother and a little sister called Shizuki, that is way better than her brother. Being very familiar and knowledgeable on Otaku culture, he cannot stand people who discriminate Otaku culture, which results in him clashing with the hierarchal culture of Erdant. While generally accepting of most character archetypes, he cannot get used to the "Imouto Chara", partly due to his real life experience. I am not sure whether this series is trying to be a social commentary on Otaku addicts in general? A female Self-Defence Forces member who serves as Shinichi's escort. She has an F-cup, which causes Shinichi to often ogle at them. She is an Otaku as well, seemingly at the same level as Shinichi, and also a hardcore Fujoshi. She tends to have wild delusions of a Shinichi and Garius pairing. This is also one of the reasons why Minori entered the JSDF. Myucel Foalan is his personal assistant, really aiming for the fan service maid. At first, she hides her elf ears from Shinichi, but since he didn't mind her race even after discovering the truth, she started showing them whilst in the mansion. Due to some complicated family problems, she hasn't seen her mother in a very long time, but that doesn't mean she dislikes her. She thinks of herself as a lowly servant, while Shinichi thinks of her as a friend. Myucel eventually learns to treat Shinichi as a friend too. She thinks of herself as a lowly servant, while Shinichi thinks of her as a friend. Myucel eventually learns to treat Shinichi as a friend too. She used to be a soldier for 2 years, being able to cast a few magic spells. She treated the first handwritten Hiragana Table that Shinichi gave her with much care. From the start she planned to use it to study alone, but since Shinichi started to help her with her studies she started learning it faster. Furthermore, when Petrarca started to studying the Japanese language, her will became stronger, spurning her to learn more. Due to that, she is presently working as a Japanese lecturer at the school provided by Amutech to spread Otaku culture. But due to the coup d'etat incident, when she protected Petrarca at the risk of her own life, she started to treat her as an equal. The series I felt could have been longer in terms of expanding the universe, i really wished there was a mother season as it was really fun and hilarious. This was a surprisingly entertaining show. There are a bunch of anime stereotypes, the loyal maid, the loli tsundere empress, the large breasted beast girl, but they all fit here, because this is a story about otaku after all. Great humour, plus there was never a dull moment and the overall epic universe it creates its own place. This belongs in every Anime fans libraries. Extras: As usual Madman provides us with the credits opening and closing titles. Overall: 4.5/5
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Last month we reviewed Nisekoi False Love; it was a surprisingly good and quirky romantic series. Now this month Madman has returned to bring us Part 2 in this intriguing series. Picking up right after episode 10, Tsugumi plans a surprise birthday party for Chitoge, and invites Raku and his friends, Ruri makes Kosaki go with Raku to shop for a gift for Chitoge. Raku finds his time with Kosaki to be fleeting, but Kosaki shows Raku a scenic overlook. For example, when Raku lost his pendant once again from the chain being broken, Chitoge had secretly gotten the Beehive gang to help fix it for him and gave it back later that night. She's somewhat oblivious when it comes to love and others' love interests, like how she didn't know what Tsugumi's "symptoms" were, which was actually love. Chitoge reveals that she has a key that could unlock Raku's locket, but when they try tot unlock it, her key breaks. While Raku's locket is being repaired, Raku thinks about who might be the one he made a love promise to. As Raku comes home, Raku's father mentions he has a photo of the girl that Raku made a promise to ten years ago. Raku's father has made a reputation among many and Marika's father plans on throwing him into jail after Raku's father cut him across his face, leaving a scar. I feel as if this season really does delve more into the characters backgrounds, giving us a sense of who they are and what their purpose is. This series is a lot faster paced than the previous one, making it an easier watch. He knows that Raku, Chitoge, Kosaki, and Marika had met and played together ten years ago but knows little or nothing about who the promise girl is. The origins of some of the characters are explained too as here we learn ten years ago, Raku's father had made a promise to Marika's father to have Marika marry to Raku but forgot about it until he was told that Marika was coming over to meet Raku.aku's father is an old man and therefore has long gray hair and bushy gray eyebrows. After Raku's father tells him the location of where to find the photo, Raku discovers that the girl in the photo is someone else, and that she also has a different key. Raku's father tells them that the girl in the photo is coming to school tomorrow and that she is actually Raku's fiancée. Baffled by the fact that the girl in the photo is Raku's fiancée, the aforementioned girl transfers in Raku's class as Marika Tachibana, the daughter of the police chief. During their date, Marika bribes Raku into ending his relationship with Chitoge in exchange for answering all his questions regarding the girl and the promise he made ten years ago. Raku refuses, furthermore adding that he has no past memories with Marika, inciting within Marika her vulgar persona and bursts into a tantrum, causing Raku to finally recognize Marika. Marika has been frail since her childhood, so she went to the mountain side with her father because of the clean environment. And there she met Ichijou Raku, the two of them became friends and Raku used to visit her in the hospital room everyday and brought items for her from the forest. Movement like this are very emotional and do impact the viewer quite a bit on the sad nature of the subplots. Marika used to call Raku, "Raku-kun" and Raku called her, "Mari", because Marika's father also called her with that name. Marika also somewhat strives to be independent and free due to being secluded for a long time due to her weak body and by the time she met Raku in her childhood. However, Marika's past revealed that the latter is considered to be very vulgar and manipulative when she was able to control an entire school from the shadows. As shown during Valentine's day, she is able to craft a statue of Raku made of chocolate and, as aforementioned, currently gaining money on her own house to live with Raku. Marika is also considered to be mischievous yet cunning as she was able to devise a plot for Raku to openly shout out that he "loves" Marika which involves her pet parrot - "Raku-sama" (Master Raku). I did enjoy this season, in fact better than the last. It was faster paced, more funny and the characters really did get their identities better. Please check out this series if you like your anime dramas in general; it is a fun piece of work that should keep you busy. Overall: 4/5Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai is a light novel adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation with Ishihara Tatsuya as director. Its a new series on the block that comes to Yuuta Togashi is a boy who, during junior high school, had 'adolescent delusions' and believed that he possessed supernatural powers and dubbed himself the 'Dark Flame Master,' therefore alienating himself from his classmates. This proves to be difficult, however, as a delusional girl in his class, Rikka Takanashi, learns of Yuuta's past and becomes interested in him. Yuuta Togashi is a high school freshman and was once a "chūnibyō patient", precisely an overly self-conscious middle schooler (Evil Eye-Type). He used up most of his New Year’s savings on Dark Flame Master gear, chanted spells before meals, and meditated under fluorescent lights in the form of a pyramid at night. As Yuuta Togashi throws away his past delusions of grandeur in order to start high school with a clean slate, he encounters a curious girl climbing down his balcony. However, he is asked by the teacher to walk Rikka home, as she had only moved in with her older sister, Tōka Takanashi, who lives above Yuuta's apartment, the day before. Upon arriving home, Yuuta helps Rikka move her belongings into her apartment. Later, Rikka manages to convince Yuuta not to throw away his old belongings. The shows pacing is quite steady, it doesn't seem to be very action packed at first, being more of a character study overall. Rikka Takanashi is a "chūnibyō patient" who enrolls into the same high school as Yuuta Togashi. As shown when Yuuta convinced her to give up her chūnibyō behavior, the real reason for her chūnibyō was to "protect" herself from the reality of her father's death. Rikka Takanashi finds a stray cat, which she claims is a chimera, though she could not keep it in her apartment due to Touka Takanashi's allergy to cats, whilst Yuuta Togashi refuses to take it in himself. Meawhile, Yuuta finds himself nervous around the class president, Shinka Nibutani, which becomes more awkward when Rikka shows up. Both Yuuta and Kumin go to Rikka's apartment, filled with all sorts of oddities, though the cat turns out not to be Kumin's. Around this point we do get to know the characters quite well and they start to be come fleshed out. After Touka swiftly punishes Rikka for bringing the cat in, she asks Yuuta to get rid of it, threatening to expose Yuuta's chūnibyō behavior if he refuses. Additional plot points begin at this stage to keep us questioning the integrity of the series. As Rikka runs off with the cat, Yuuta runs off with the audio evidence and they both try to escape Touka, but are eventually caught. Afterwards, Yuuta agrees to take in the cat. As Yuuta becomes curious about what club to join, Rikka decides she wants to start her own 'Far Eastern Magic Society' club, roping both Yuuta and Kumin to join. After trying out a few other clubs, Rikka calls on her similarly delusional friend from the school's middle school department, Sanae Dekomori, to join as well. This is when the story truly begins to start picking up and the basis of fantasy elements begin to come into play. Despite lacking a fifth member, the teacher offers them a provisional clubroom on the condition that they clean it up and recommends them as a circle. As Yuuta denies wanting to join the club himself, his resolve soon falters when Shinka also decides to join the group. As Yuuta becomes curious about why Shinka would want to join the hobby group, she asks to go to his home on Sunday. We won't spoil anymore and leave it at there in terms of the magic elements . Yuuta attempts to get Rikka out of the way on that day by sending her and Sanae off on a wild goose chase. As Shinka arrives at Yuuta's home, she frantically ravishes his room searching for Sanae's book that Yuuta had in his room. Overall this series was highly entertaining and quite unusual in its overall premise. It is tightly paced and never drifts off with its story line, staying focused, engaging and overall intriguing. It has an array of colourful and liable characters and we found the series to be very entertaining. I found myself quite hooked as I had no idea where the series was turning next. Extras: Thankfully Madman do provide an array of tis bit interesting extras:
Overall: 4/5When Tsugumi plans a surprise birthday party for Chitoge, and invites Raku and his friends, Ruri makes Kosaki go with Raku to shop for a gift for Chitoge. Raku finds his time with Kosaki to be fleeting, but Kosaki shows Raku a scenic overlook. At the party, after receiving her friends and family's gifts, Chitoge asks Raku about his feelings for the promised girl and whether he recognizes the phrase "Zawsze in Love" We get to learn a lot more about Chitoge , who is very smart and completely fluent in both English and Japanese despite growing up in America, being half-Japanese. For example, when Raku lost his pendant once again from the chain being broken, Chitoge had secretly gotten the Beehive gang to help fix it for him and gave it back later that night. She's somewhat oblivious when it comes to love and others' love interests, like how she didn't know what Tsugumi's "symptoms" were, which was actually love. Chitoge reveals that she has a key that could unlock Raku's locket, but when they try tot unlock it, her key breaks. While Raku's locket is being repaired, Raku thinks about who might be the one he made a love promise to. As Raku comes home, Raku's father mentions he has a photo of the girl that Raku made a promise to ten years ago. Raku's father has made a reputation among many and Marika's father plans on throwing him into jail after Raku's father cut him across his face, leaving a scar. He knows that Raku, Chitoge, Kosaki, and Marika had met and played together ten years ago but knows little or nothing about who the promise girl is. Ten years ago, Raku's father had made a promise to Marika's father to have Marika marry to Raku but forgot about it until he was told that Marika was coming over to meet Raku.aku's father is an old man and therefore has long gray hair and bushy gray eyebrows. After Raku's father tells him the location of where to find the photo, Raku discovers that the girl in the photo is someone else, and that she also has a different key. Raku's father tells them that the girl in the photo is coming to school tomorrow and that she is actually Raku's fiancée. Baffled by the fact that the girl in the photo is Raku's fiancée, the aforementioned girl transfers in Raku's class as Marika Tachibana, the daughter of the police chief. During their date, Marika bribes Raku into ending his relationship with Chitoge in exchange for answering all his questions regarding the girl and the promise he made ten years ago. Raku refuses, furthermore adding that he has no past memories with Marika, inciting within Marika her vulgar persona and bursts into a tantrum, causing Raku to finally recognize Marika.Marika has been frail since her childhood, so she went to the mountain side with her father because of the clean environment. And there she met Ichijou Raku, the two of them became friends and Raku used to visit her in the hospital room everyday and brought items for her from the forest. Marika used to call Raku, "Raku-kun" and Raku called her, "Mari", because Marika's father also called her with that name. Marika also somewhat strives to be independent and free due to being secluded for a long time due to her weak body and by the time she met Raku in her childhood.
However, Marika's past revealed that the latter is considered to be very vulgar and manipulative when she was able to control an entire school from the shadows. As shown during Valentine's day, she is able to craft a statue of Raku made of chocolate and, as aforementioned, currently gaining money on her own house to live with Raku. Marika is also considered to be mischievous yet cunning as she was able to devise a plot for Raku to openly shout out that he "loves" Marika which involves her pet parrot - "Raku-sama" (Master Raku). |
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September 2016
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