Welcome to Wieselheads anime corner, I never was especially good with such posts, but it’s nevertheless always fun for me. In this post I will talk about the recently aired Ao no Exorcist:  Kyoto Fujouou-hen, a show from the Anime Winter Season 2017. I always was a fan of stories about the devil and demons in general, back in 2011 there once was an awesome anime called Ao no Exorcist, a show that I would even count as one of my favorites, it left a unforgetable impression on me.

Surprisingly in 2016 it was announced that Ao no Exorcist would get another anime adaption, after 7 years, still I was overjoyed after reading the news. The first adaption was filled with lots of original content to make the anime 25 episodes long. Strangely the new anime Ao no Exorcist – Kyoto Fujouou-hen is no complete sequel and didn’t continue where the old one ended, it was more like a re – roll after the first quarter.

Okamura Rin is the son of Satan, but together with his little brother he was adopted by an Exorcist and raised in secret as normal child. After some dramatic events Rin enters the True Cross Academy, a school for Exorcists with his whereabouts officially kept secret. The old anime was a really nice show, I loved the cast and atmosphere.

Ao no Exorcist is a straight shounen show with brilliant action and emotional aspects, in Ao no Exorcist – Kyoto Fujouou-hen, one chapter of the manga has been adapted, it begins after Rin revealed his demonic form to his classmates and teachers, the truth also reached the higher ups and Rin must take responsibility, but in the end he gets another chance. Nevertheless in the first episode his classmates literally shun him and have high distrust. Rin is a little ingenuous, but actually a good boy with a big heart.

During the arc this anime is about, the class takes an excursion to Kyoto, also to solve the case of a very dangerous stolen demonic item. During their stay at the local temple, things escalate

The re roll seems to be a weird idea, but in my opinion the new one is also a great anime, it kept the good points of the old one and does certain things better than it’s predecessor. Ao no Exorcist:  Kyoto Fujouou-hen has a slower pace, but at the same time it feels more elaborately directed, be it the detailed interactions between the characters or the detailed view on their personalities, their motivation and problems.

The story had many interesting sublots, most prominently Rin must master his demon powers to win back the trust of his classmates and Suguro must deal with his weird father. A smaller part is about Shiemi, who has to find the confidence in herself again.

Kyoto Fujouou-hen makes good use of everything that is interesting about the genre called “shounen”. It has comedy, good action and most importantly it should make the viewer share the emotions of the characters in times of happiness or while they struggle in agony or against obstacles that appear larger than life. I really like the realistic portrayal of these teenagers and their problems and worries. Although it is fantasy setting these problems are quite transferable into a realistic context.

After I’ve watched over Rin and Shiemi I really could feel where they are coming from, the most rewarding moment with such things is when the characters can overcome their problems with effort and some good fortune in the end, after they walked the long road of defeat. These things are motivating. Although In the real world most things depend on luck and fortunate events, nevertheless a positive attitude and believing in the own strengths is always the first step. Such shows often have the ability to boost ones motivation and are a reason why I still watch anime.

This anime has an interestingly told overaching plot, nicely interwoven with the big and small sublots,which leads to a very powerful, action packed an exciting finale.

Haha and applause for the wonderfully made epilogue, I’ve rarely seen one like this.

Considering that they adapted only one arc so nicely in Ao no Exorcist – Kyoto Fujouou-hen, I would like to see more content adapted in the future. I hope
Aniplex and A-1 pictures still have interest to make another adadaption like this.

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is based on a mobile Game, made by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment. The anime started airing in January 2015, it is a 2 cour anime , in the post which was supposed to be a review, I’ll write about my impressions of both seasons.

https://youtu.be/n-_HcT6eRSI

When it started airing, I watched two episodes and thought “Well, maybe I’ll rather stop here”. The whole Idol hype around that time appeared rather awkward to me. Miette-chan was more excited about it, I noticed that my lack of idol knowledge started upsetting him XD. Since I also wanted to watch a complete anime anyway I decided to continue with the anime.

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is labeled as Comedy, Drama and of course Music anime.

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls game features around 190 different Idols, but of couse not everyone could appear in the anime. It centers around ~14 main idols, but there are some short guest appearance, each character gets their fair amount of screentime.

The anime centers around the big talent agency 346 Production and a newly developed project, called the Cinderella Project! “Normal girls” who are actually not considered as idol material are chosen to be aspiring idols. The first episodes are used as intro of the setting and introducing the Idols, each character gets steadily more fleshed out as the show continues.

The nameless Producer-san is in charge of scouting, managing the Idols and develop their career. He is a dilligent office man, although rather inexperienced. His outer appearance makes him look kind of suspicious, which turned into a running gag now and then.

Comedy is an essential element in the beginning, the excited and impatient Idols obviously create quite a ruckus in the office, but it gets less crazy soon. Producer-san tries his best with preparing each Idols debut, the story slowly goes on and tells more about each Idol. As the Idols and Idol groups are going to be official, each gets a nice episode dedicated to them.

The second season is more about moving on as Idol, parting ways, etc. Also an antagonist is introduced  in shape of the label boss, who strictly uses an authoritarian leadership style, which makes things slightly uncomfortable for everyone. Most episodes center about the weakness or problems of the single Idols and Idol groups some weeks after their debut.  In this aspect it feels more grown up than the other iDOLM@STER anime from 2011.

The anime has an overarching plot, focusing on the three aspiring Idol trio Uzuki, Mio and Rin, together they are New Generations. Surprisingly the happier episodes are dedicated to the more eccentric Idol characters and their struggles and adventures in the Idol industry.

Personally I have a little problem with the Idol industry by default, the Idols only stand there in cute clothes with their created image. The music and text already gets arranged before the Idol does anything or can anything decide by herself. Sure most popular pop songs weren’t written by the performer. Furthermore, I would agree that singing and dancing is already hard work enough for a teenage girl, I can’t demand that they all can write their own songs.

Surprisingly the issue of having only little influence on the music and image is also addressed in one episode, I nodded approvingly. iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls adresses the problems and circumstances of the Idol business rather openly. Although most idols mainly experience smaller hardships. Uzuki, Mio and Rin experience the really bad things.

The members of New Generations are high maintenance, it is a problem group. Their story consists of drama, the last heavy drama, made the audience suffer with a mentally stressed girl, reduced to a pile of bitter tears. I was surprised about such an heartwrenching event.

The reduced amount of happy events concerning the members of New Generations makes them look neglected, as they are ought to be main characters.

In summary

As a whole The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is a very good anime, as it is portraying the adventures of normal girls with lovely personalities, that are chosen to be sparkling idols.

Most idols are naturally enchanting, some are a bit crazy but that doesn’t make them look bad. The nervousness an anxiousness of inexperienced idols is shown very convincing. Another strong point of it is definetely variety, funny, thoughtful, dramatic or touching episodes, everything is there. The authors did a good job with the setting and making every idol, not only fit in the plot, they wrote great subplots for each girl to make them shine.

I had a few prejudices when I started to watch this show, but I quickly enjoyed this wonderfully made  anime. While a few things, like adding such an antagonist were slightly questionable. Also the main characters except Uzuki couldn’t really convince me, Rin is beautiful, but emotional she is a bit awkward and Mio… she really made things a mess, not only once. Fortunately the other idols make up for the little shortcomings of the anime.

On another point Cinderella Girls is real eye candy, it looks very appealing with it’s mainly great animation works. Music also sounds very good, quite some effort was put into it.

The appeal of animes with so many idols is, that there are guaranteed a few characters the viewer might like or can relate to. While watching the show and the especially nicely directed subplots I liked nearly every Idol in this anime and I also developed supporting feelings.

In the next paragraph let me languish over my favorite idols XD

Kirari Moroboshi was quite a surprise for me, I instantly fell in love. Kirari is extremely kind and brimming with positive energy. Kirari loves all cute things and all cute girls. I liked her great sense of fashion. She is a somehow crazy and upbeat girl, also the tallest idol. She always pitches her voice at the end of the sentence *kyahhh!*. Her size and personality and the fact that she always has a helping hand for others, make her a happy hippie older sister type.

Anastasia is the daughter of a japanese mother and russian father. She often uses russian words in her speech . Her soft, slow paced way of speaking gives me impression that she’s a thoughtful person. When dealing with other people she is very gentle and extraordinary sensitive torwards others feelings. And just look at the gorgeous eyelashes (｡’▽’｡)♡!

As group I really liked Miku Maekawa and Riina Tada. At first Miku is an annoying girl, but she grow on me, she’s actually enchanting. When put together Miku and Riina appear like an impossible combination with their totally polar interests, over time they really grow together as group and also as close friends.

And you… have you already watched The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls?

Do you like a certain Idol?

I recently watched Giovanni no Shima (Giovanni’s Island) without knowing what I would get to see.

Giovanni no Shima is a Movie that aired in February 2014 and was produced by Production I.G. and Warner Brothers, directed by Nishikubo, Mizuho. It’s partially based on real historic events, for further interest please follow this link

“When people die, they rise up into heaven and become stars in the night sky.
Those countless stars fill the sky, shining brightly and eternally, and we live our lives down here, basking in their light…”

The movie starts on the sparkling ocean with two old people reminiscing about their past onboard of a ship heading to the Island Shikotan, their direction is a class reunion from their elementary school. After the intro scene the Movie switches to the old man’s childhood on Shikotan during the last days of the second world war.

I don’t how it was for you, but in my history books from school, we didn’t pay much attention to the pacific war or Japans role in the WWII at all, So I knew nothing about the Soviet involvement in the pacific campaign, aside from a short sidenote.

The story centers on a small island, as Japan officialy surrendered, in these last days the russians still wanted to gain something and invaded some islands that actually belonged to Japan. On the island are mainly fisherman and a small community of civillians.

That gunshot was so loud, that my head was ringing *kabooom*

The russians are actually not such mean invaders as one would ecpect, I felt a bit uneasy in the first scene as they stormed the school with the young female teacher and the kids inside Well, the remaining Japanese soldiers were transported to labour camps in another country.

The island itself didn’t offer much to exploit for the soviets except a beautiful scenerery.

We experience the story from the perspective of two brothers Junpei and Kanta.

As first impression it was a bit weird that the civillians have to divide their homes for incoming russian families that take one half. Also the little school is divided in two parts for russian and japenese kids. They are forced to coexist, at first thats leads to some quarrels. For example each class tried to overpower the other class with singing their morning anthem.

After a while things turn out more positive, through the thin wooden classroom walls both classes join voices and sing the katyusha song and the japenese one afterwards. The kids also start playing together peacefully and learn a bit of the other nations language. A peaceful coexistence appears possible during the time of these events.

The boys are playing with their battery powered railway.

The two brothers Junpei and Kanta even befriend with the commanders daughter Tanja, they name themself Giovanni and Campanella because they assume that she can’t pronounce their real names. They eat together with the russian family, who treat the two boys very sincere.

This nice utopia still is twisted, the food supply is very limited for the invaded villagers, only the russian army families have some luxury. The japenese citizens are deliberately driven in a corner and forced to smuggle, when the food smuggling is discovered all citizens are forced to leave the Island without exception, it appears really unfair, but after you loose a war you’ve started it’s victor’s justice, a  prominent topic in this movie.

The first half was rather friendly, even shortly after the invasion, the things we see through the perspektive Junpei and Kanta are vivid and appear like a relatively normal childhood.

From then on the after war drama unfolds it’s really depressing clockwork. The villagers are put on a huge transport ship, actually expecting to be shipped to the japanese homeland, but the people are thrown into labour camps in another country. It’s cold and people get sick.

Junpei and Kanta get seperated from their father. When the two brothers find themselves in difficult situations they remember the story of a book their father once told them, The night on the Galactic Railroad’ (The popular novel) is their way to escape the often harsh post war world, but no magic is involved.

At the end the story switches back to the present to the class reunion celebration of both the russians and former japanese villagers. The old Japanese people who were allowed to visit the island, to receive their graduation papers.

The Movie actually doesn’t judge from a nationalistic perspective, it doesn’t blame the russians diretly for their actions nevertheless from todays view on things, it is just wrong to punish innocent civillians for a war which was started by the countries leaders in the first place. Banishment and compulsory labor this all makes me sick, generally speaking.

Maybe this is a weak point of the movie, not to blame the “invaders” a single time. I think they were directly to blame for the unnecessary suffering of these people.
Sure Japan also commited crimes back then, maybe even worse, but not these civillians!

It’s also true that you won’t create a peaceful relationship with ofsetting each sides guilt, the message of the movie is forgiving and accepting your losses to reach a peaceful relationship.
The Movie tells us about tragedies in life, that you have to accept to be able to go on.

The animation style is kept simple, but the characters are still drawn distinctive and appealing. Also the backgrounds look quite pretty with the beautiful island. The voice acting also deserves to be mentioned, the talented actors show us the beauty of the russian language.

Giovanni no Shima leaves the audience with an conciliatory end, but in a also sad silence. I felt really agiated and touched. I intentionally never watched Grave of Fireflies, because it’s sad on a rather disturbing level, but I think Giovanni no Shima is on a similar level with a more positive message, still these kind of movies are hard to digest after everything said and done.

If you are a fan of anime movies in general or like to see some ambitious post war drama, I would recommend Giovanni no Shima, it’s not all sad and partially shows humor.

The first post of 2015, today I want to talk about Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis an anime loosely based on the mobile game Rage of Bahamut, it aired from October to December 2014.

As this show started I had no opinion about it, I actually thought it was just a name rip-off like The seven deadly sins, which was not about hot demon girls. But this anime is the real thing and the games company Cygames was involved. The team of this anime project did a very good job with this entertaining dark fantasy adventure anime, I had the impression that they also targeted the audience, that isn’t interested that much in general, moe and ecchi anime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMQIGEesMV8

Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis manages to avoid all major anime custom, even the loli character isn’t generic. It’s a good and distinctive feature. It’s one of the few shows you could watch it with your siblings or friends who are no burning anime fans, without feeling embarassed about panty shots or accidently ecchi, in case they can handle subtitles.

Two thousand years ago Bahamut, a mighty giant dragon appeared on earth, which could only be stopped by an alliance of Gods, Angels, Demons and humans. Bahmut wasn’t killed but went into deep hibernation. The key that was made to seal the dragon was split in two, each half was given to the gods and the demons, the lifeless shell of Bahamut still demands administration to the present day. There is a very fragile peace between humans and demons.

The hero of the story is a guy named Favaron, a freelance Bounty Hunter with a somewhat shady personality. This show actually has two heroes, Kaisar a chivalry guy of noble birth, who also works as bounty hunter. He once was friends with Favaron, but since a certain event he blames him for his fathers death. One day a mysterious girl named Amira appears who asks Favaron for directions to a town named Helheim and so the epic “Roadmovie” begins.

I should not forget, that Amira is also a main character, at first she’s a docile person with a stoic nature. Not very talkactive, but often shows a childish stubbornness, apparently she has the habit of always searching for food. When she’s drunk, she turns into a fun loving woman.

The atmosphere is really great in this show, a little eerie, dark and with some melancholy, though there is often a light sense of humor, what can lead to hilarious situations. There is a very solid and interesting plot in this anime, Yamamoto, Sayo’s influence as episode director can be seen, she worked on Eureka Seven, Gun Slinger Girl, Michiko to Hatchin and Samurai Champloo, which Genesis especially has some similarities to.

I really liked the story of Nebelville, where Kaisar gets an really unexpected companion, Rita a big sister type in a young girls body. She’s gloomy, smart, strong and gets a big role later on. Her gothic/emo look is quite enchanting and she’s also voiced by Sawashiro, Miyuki (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡

There is a handful of demon characters, don’t expect Olivia among them. Fortunately Cerberus has some screentime, she’s a coward when it comes to fighting, but she’s adorable and I was really happy to see her animated, playing with her hilarious handpuppets.

The demons are especially cruel beings having fun with tormenting and playing with humans. Quite some physical violence is there, near the end there also one scene with psychological violence.

Still befitting for a dark fantasy anime, overall it’s really great entertainment.

I was really impressed by the visual presentation of Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis, smooth animations, great action scenes, detailed backgrounds and character models, the style is a little different from usual anime, going into a more realistic direction.

This show also has a great OST, a pushing Opening Theme and a romantic Ending Theme.

Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis, even though it was only 12 episodes long is a very good adventure anime within an interesting, cool dark fantasy setting. The main characters are awesome and very likeable. The plot is told in a consistent fashion and is addicting from the first episode. The show also convinces with a high production quality.

Go, go watching it!

Yowamushi Pedal (The Cowardly Cyclist) is a 38 episode long anime which aired from October 2013 to July 2014. It was surprise hit sports anime in this year, it was so popular that a second season has been announced for the anime autumn season . That popularity is no hype, it’s success is well deserved, I’m writing this post to tell you more about it’s qualities.

This show is all about cycling, I didn’t have the best opinion about it, but I picked this show nevertheless. The professional bicycle sport suffered badly, after former stars confessed that they were using illegal substances to increase their performance. The ambitious amateur scene is in focus of the anime, when looking back the anime changed my opinion a bit to the better.

The story centers around Onoda Sakamichi, a shy, meek boy with a small body and no real talents on first sight, who is enrolling into a new highschool. As anime otaku he wants to join the anime club. So far his only connection with bycicle sport were his regular rides to Akihabara which is 45 kilometers away from his home. His bike is a so called granny bike with basket and a wrong gear transmission, yet Onoda manages to climb the hill up and down with ease.

In the first arc Onoda meets Shunsuke Imaizumi, who is quite obsessed with cycling, he gets curious about Onoda’s way of riding up the slope with his crappy bike and challenges him to a race, later Onoda meets Naruko, a pushy character who easily manages to befriend with Onoda after they met during a trip to Akihabara. These little events help with pulling Onoda out of his rather lonely shell and he really starts to enjoy the physical exercises during riding his bike.

Steady progress is an substantial aspect of Yowamushi Pedal, Onoda who is a real klutz at first takes small steps in becoming a competitive cyclist, a way full hardships and challenges for himself. It’s true that sport makes you more self confident and believe in your own abilities, slow but at a steady pace Onoda gets stronger, mentally and physically.

Onoda and his new friends Imaizumi and Naruko, join the bicycle racing club, known as team Souhoku. The senior members have strong personalities and presence, they won’t go easy on the new members, but actually care about getting them motivated and in shape.

The characters and their relationships are one of the strong points of Yowamushi Pedal. They are especially well done with unique personalities, In 38 episodes  you have time to develop them in such a way and give them some back story and spotlight. There are examples of very close male friendship, among some of the team members and other team there is often a little rivalry, but mainly in a friendly manner, the guys want to compete with each other fair and square. Sport can also connect you with other people  like it is shown here in a very good way.

There are not many girls among the cast, there is a friendly girl, called Miki Kanzaki, but she only plays a minor role. The cast full boys, watching an anime full of bishounen is strange at first, at least for the men. I could imagine that girls would love this show, there is some light fujoshi fan fiction about it. I think Imaizumi is quite the hot bishounen, the little fangirl in me faints. Joking aside sport animes often have such a cast, it should not prevent you from enjoying the show.

In the first few episodes Onoda’s granny bike is adjusted and tuned with small parts, these events go in hand with explanations about how a bicycle works and how they develop more performance. Of course in the later episodes Onoda gets a real road racer and click pedals.

As the story continues Onoda and the team faces more experienced opponents. Onoda is not always in the focus, it is also shown what other members have on their mind. After all the training, the team is set and prepared for the upcoming Interhigh, a big event for higschools.

The animations of characters, bikes and surrounding looks top notch for sport anime standards and creates a harmonic picture. The anime plays during summer, they always have great weather and the roads and racetracks are embraced by a nice scenery of forests, mountains and blue skies, making cycling look even more appealing.

One not so good thing in the later episodes is Midousuji,  he appears as a kind of a super villain with abnormal abilities and a creepy personality. It is really annoying so see him on screen. To make things worse, he is talking so much to mock the riders next to him. I can only wonder why they felt the urge to add such a character, who should actually belong in a mental hospital.

Yowamushi Pedal is obviously very focused on the sport, especially in the last arc they seem to pedal nonstop, but there are also a lot of funny and sideline events. Also after the Ending song there will often be a comedy slice of life scene involving the characters.

The races and “fights” are really full of action and tension when they fight about every inch, once there was an episode where just a distance of 500m turned into a 20 minute battle and it was absolutely exciting. It gives you a rush when the characters, especially Onoda try to overcome an big obstacle step by step with some dramatic struggles.

The background music has some really good pieces that underline the racing events and different moods very well. the main theme for the action scenes is nicely arranged, it covers the transformation from slow start to fast parts very well-

Most of the time the racing feels natural, near the end though  we have to witness several crazy power up moments, some things are pretty hilarious, although I liked the normal way in the first episodes more. Well, it’s no dead serious cycling simulation, it produces a bridge between sport, shounen and action genre. And I believe that is part of it’s popularity.

The music in Yowamushi Pedal is quite good a choice of powerful Opening Songs performed by ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D and Dirty Old Men capture the spirit from the show perfectly. The third opening is performed by the voice actors of team Souhoku, it lacks a bit of impact in comparison.

Yowamushi Pedal is not like any other sports anime, while 20+ episodes are quite common for shows of the sport genre, the elements from shounen and action anime and also Onoda’s otaku background and how he slowly improves during the show, turn it into an refreshing and entertaining ride. It is a good package with an appealing visual presentation, interesting characters and lots of exciting competition. I can’t say anything bad about the show with it’s solid pace and well planned storyline it makes no obvious flaws with the narration.

The first season has no real conclusion and ends in the middle of the Interhigh, the second season will start somewhere in October, I will watch it for sure.

I would recommend this show, not only for fans of the sport genre, you don’t even have to like cycling, it’s a very well made show. Have you already watched Yowamushi Pedal? Before I watched  this show Ookiku Furikabutte was my favorite sport anime, what is your favorite anime from this genre?

When you think you have seen everything in anime Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! will disabuse you. SekaTsuyo is a 12 episode long  anime which aired during the Anime Fall Season 2013 from October till December. It was produced by Arms who always combine fanservice and fighting in their shows, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha might be a popular exception.

The show combines the world of women wrestling and Idol industry. Someday everybody learned that WWF and the likes are scripted events and no real tournaments where the best one wins. Also women wrestling always appeared a bit silly as far as I remember.
In SekaTsuyo they portray women wrestling like a real sport without much of fake events or much *bling bling*, it’s more honest competition than show.

httpvh://youtu.be/Yi_4R9mFeN0

Sakura Hagiwara is 17 and the heroine of this show an honest, cheerful and considerate girl who is part of a large Idol Group called Sweet Diva.  Sakura is a hard working and talented character and so she constantly wins the vote, of being the center girl, very much to  the frustration of her biggest rival and best friend Elena.

One day Sakura and Elena have an appointment in a wrestling gym called Berserk, it was planned that they should be filmed while doing some light training, but after Elena acted a bit disrespectful in the gym which calls the  ger of one of the female wrestlers, Kazama Rio. During a little quarrel between the wrestler Kazama and Elena one thing leaded to another and Kazama insulted Sweet Diva as silly bimbo idols, this offended Sakura with her honor as idol on the line Sakura challenges Kazama to an official match. A quite stupid idea.

Sakura tries her best, but never had a real chance of winning. After her quite humiliating defeat Sakura announces to take a break from Idol business, to fully concentrate on becoming an professional wrestler until she had beaten the girl who kicked her ass in the recent event and insulted  her and her idol friends. The manager of Berserk allows her to train in the gym to become a pro wrestler, but the more experienced wrestlers see her as a real eyesore.

Unwillingly a coach offers to give her some advice and coaching, but instead of starting slowly the coach treats her really rough. Nevertheless, the coach acknowledged Sakura’s potential and gives her a tough training shedule, as top Idol she already has a certain level of fitness, but some quite hard months awaited the girl.

After many months of training Sakura has a final exam or something like that before she will be allowed to participate in official matches. She has to endure a barbaric ritual and really suffered this day. I never felt so bad for a girl in an anime, the duration made it even worse, also that Sakura never complained, she blindly endured it, even though she was in pain and quite vocal about it. At this point I thought about dropping this anime, since this scene looked so cruel.

As she is allowed to take part in matches she unintentionally plays safe and just gives up the match, after she is in too much pain, that this won’t get her anywhere is no secret.

Sakura’s cute cries of agony are actually rather hot, but when you see the submission moves (which means the painful bending and stretching of limbs where the opponent can hardly escape.), you can easily feel sorry for her and start rooting for her to leave the ring in one piece.

Just from listening the show could be mistaken for an hentai, a really grim one. I bet my parents thought that I watched hentai instead of an wrestling anime.

That the fights often have a sensual sometimes arousing outcome, is made entirely on purpose. Sakura’s cries, moaning, heavy breathing can be rather exciting in combination with her  pretty body. It might have something in common with hentai, but the horny monsters are replaced with rough wrestler women XD, don’t get me wrong there is really no sexual harassment.

The targeted audience of this anime are males. Well, there are a few shower scenes, yet most of the fanservice stems from the tight, partially skimpy outfits of the wrestlers. Sakura’s outfit in particular, which seems like a tribute to Gunbuster is showing a lot of cleavage and skin.

Most of the girls look very attractive in close up or portray scenes, the animation style really shines.  They have minimal more muscles than the usual anime girl, which actually looks very hot. I think Sakura and most of her wrestling buddies look gorgeous.

The level of violence is rather mild, there is a only little blood, one broken bone. Also kicks and punches in the face are pretty rare, the worst scenes are  the submission moves, it’s so painful to watch and a Sakura in tears makes it even worse. I’m quite familiar with stretching pains and twisted tendons, it fucking hurts. Even from just watching  it, it hurt. At one point, I just wanted her to quit wrestling forever. Watching girls in pain is something I don’t really like in general.

Many frustrating, unsuccesful fights later, one experienced wrestler shows a heart and offers to improve Sakura’s fighting style, as I’ve witnessed this certain training, I felt really sick and angry.

The best moment of SekaTsuyo is the episode where Sakura finally gets rewarded for all the hardships and pain she suffered  until now in pro wrestling. The suffering before really made sense at this point, all the sympathy the viewer hopefully built up for Sakura was unloade in this moment. It is the kind of feeling wrestling or other sport fans have when their favorite overcomes a tough fight, match or whatever. It was a touching moment, I felt so proud of her.

The show does a good job in pacing the story over it’s 12 episodes, on the downside the anime is so strongly focused on the wrestling and the events in the gym. Well, sometimes it is showing what Sakura’s idol friends are doing. There was much more potential in it  than just that. Where it falls short is the portrayal of some free time activity or in telling the viewer a bit more about the other characters, but the 12 episode limitation prevented such things from happening.

 Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! has an interesting, refreshing concept of a sport themed anime, it features a charming main character with both an attractive body and a likeable personality. It was fun, often painful to follow Sakura until she gained her victory.

With attractive girls and a nice animation style the show also has some good eye candy.
When this anime would have been about males, in all honesty I hadn’t watched this show.
The wrestling moves are portrayed in a convincing way, the submission moves in particular where quite detailed. yet it appears to be more realistic than the wrestling fake on television.

When you can’t watch girls in pain, stay away from this anime, it won’t do you any good.

Non Non Biyori was a personal highlight of the Anime Fall Season 2013, it is a 12 episode long anime adaption of the manga created by Atto, the show was produced by Lantis, Media Factory and Silver Link. Non Non Biyori takes the viewer to the peaceful countryside of a random rural village somewhere in Japan. The area depends mainly on low degree agriculture, it’s a village like Higurashi, but with a little less infrastructure. The story centers about the funny everyday adventures of the elementary schoolers and middle schoolers of the village.

Such far off villages with a low population can’t afford a big school with a number of teachers, so one teacher supports pupils of different grades during the mainly self study lessons.

The  pupils of different grades are all in one classroom and also spent their freetime together, the younger ones play with older ones without complaining, they are like family to eachother.

http://youtu.be/L5nqWkr_N_4

Each episode is divided in a few short stories that portray the everyday life of 5 kids and their circle of acquaintances, some are fun, hilarious and even heartwarming from time to time.

The characters mainly consist of female characters and most of them are relatives, which is common in all villages. There are the Koshigaya siblings, Natsumi, Komari and brother Suguru who doesn’t talk. Komari is the older sister, but she is shorter than the wild and tomboish Natsumi which makes her sad sometimes. But she’s a very pretty girl, the kind of clumsy type.

Renge is a curious little girl with a slightly fuzzy and deep voice, sometimes she appears timid, but she’s actually very energetic. She is the center of the group, the others give her a lot of affection and play along, even if it’s a bit silly sometimes. Renge is like a little sister to everyone.

Hotaru moved from Tokyo  to said village, the very first episode centers about her and the cultural “shock”. She appears like a well nurtured city girl, but she’s a little shy and weird actually. She is besotted in Komari and enjoys being together with her. Another reappearing character is Kaede who owns the local Candy Store,  she often appears rather unmotivated and aloof, but has a good heart. She is quite attached to Renge since she often babysit her in the past.

It feels a bit like the everyday kids life of 2 decades ago, without much stress and sorrows. I also grew up in the countryside, the middle German lowlands might not be as wonderful as the japanese mountains, but anyway playing in the dirt or exploring the nature and parts of the village with friends was definitely fun. I’m glad that I didn’t grow up in a City for sure.

Non Non Biyori is really funny, but has no loud comedy, it’s humor comes really natural with the very well timed words at the right time and some hilarious situations placed into the stories, it knows how to keep the audience at the screen.

What makes this show special  is that it has, putting the comedy aside, something like a heart when it portrays emotional scenes, like the episode where Renge met a girl of her age and befriended her. The friend came to  the village during summer vacation to visit her grandma, but one day vacation ended Renge didn’t know that vacation ended the day before. It hurt to see the little girl with the big eyes realizing that they won’t be able to play together this summer anymore with the close up of her face and the green scenery in the back for several seconds,
I could feel the pain and loneliness in her heart. Since this  is no sad anime after all, the grandma of handed over a  nice letter from her friend, where she promised to come back next summer, Renge got back on her feet. Most of these emotional aspects are actually involving Renge.

I guess, the main selling point of the show is the entertaining and soothing character of these short stories within the peaceful and beautiful village full of healthy nature. The characters are nicely fleshed out without relying to much on stereotypes. The observatory eye can’t ignore to notice that the ways of entertainment are limited in this far off area, but these kids always find ways to have fun.

The Animation Quality of this show is appealing, the inviting scenery of the area is drawn quite detailed and is brimming with vivid colors. The characters look good and have cute faces, it is no really realistic style, it looks like in most comedy centered slice of life animes. With the pastel color palette they seamlessly fit in the surrounding. There is still anime without fanservice and that is something you won’t find in this anime, the characters are presented as the innocent girls they are.

Music is good as well, the opening song “Nanairo Biyori ” was performed by nano.Ripe, a catchy song full of youth and power, typical for this artist. The ending song “Non Non Biyori ” is performed by the 4 main characters, a bit crook, but definetely cute.

Final Words

Non Non Biyori is nothing revolutionary in the slice of life genre, but it’s attempt on portraying the peaceful country life in a small village is refreshing and nice, the short stories are diversified enough for the 12 episode long run. The characters are all interesting and like able in their own way without being exxagerated. If you’ve liked Tamayura or Minami-Ke you should give this anime a try, it’s a really good lighthearted anime with some entertainment qualities and heart.

It’s about time for a new anime review, well it’s actually more a post about my personal impressions and thoughts when watching all three seasons of Bakuman. in a row.

To tell you the truth, I’m a quite unmotivated manga reader, I really prefer to digest these stories annimated. Long  run manga series actually scare the hell out of me and I totally hate it when a story is prolonged too much just for financial interest. Sometimes it’s also hard to distinguish the characters by their looks in black and white, Sekirei is such a case XD

Not only because of my strange relationship with manga I acted a bit coyly before I started to watch Bakuman, a show about creating manga, but recently I was in the right mood for it.

The Bakuman anime started back in the year 2010, produced by NHK and J.C. Staff. It is based on the manga Bakuman. which was created by Obata, Takeshi and Ohba, Tsugumi.
This duo also worked on Death Note, yet Bakuman. is something quite different.

This anime covers the story of two male manga authors within three seasons in an overall 75 episode long run. The anime follows Akito Takagi and Moritaka Mashiro “Saikou” who try to set foot in the manga industry at a very young age. They work as a team and divide the work between writing and illustrating. Its very unusual for anime these days, but Bakuman has a real concluding end.

httpvh://youtu.be/y0M8adzh-hQ

Moshimo no Hanashi by nano.RIPE

Main characters

Saikou is the nephew of a passed away manga artist, he is a so-so student and not that smart, his biggest strength is that he can draw very well, his stubborness and that he is very passionate about creating good manga. Saikou is in charge of illustrating Takagi’s storyboards.

Takagi is an honor student, but he is not interested in becoming a businessman. His refreshing personality has a few eccentric traits, those make him popular with the girls and also fuel his creative story writing abilities. It was actually him who convinced Sakou of creating manga. Takagi takes care of  creating storyboards and the correspondence with the publisher.

Thanks to Takagi, Saikou can gather the courage to make a promise with his childhood love and classmate Miho, who aspires to be a voice actress. If one of Takagi’s and Saikou’s works ever gets an anime adaption, she should be the female leads VA and then Saikou and Miho are going to marry, that’s hopeless romantic isn’t it? Well, actually it’s a waste of youth if you ask me and the sad thing is that they also agreed to no seeing each other until that day comes and only to cummunicate via textmail, still there will be many occasions for the two to meet after all.

Kaya is an essential character, honestly Im not sure if I had liked Bakuman without her. She becomes Takagi’s girlfriend short after the start of this show, she’s an upbeat, strong willed girl with a good heart. Unlike Miho she is one of the three main characters who is always on screen and she is regularly together with Takagi and Saikou. She is cleaning the office, cooking coffee, inking pages and cheers up the boys. In the end it is a little sad to see her having the happy housewife role, while the boys have a “cool” job. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against classsic role models and Kaya wouldn’t want it any  different, but the contast between these two ways of living is very strong in Bakuman. Kaya marry me (´∀｀)♡ )

Seasons

The first season is mainly an introductional one, that shows how a weekly manga magazine works, it also gives informations about the characters whereabouts and relationships. The first small steps of Saikou and Takagi to become manga authors under the pen name Ashirogi Muto are also shown, after they met their first editor Hattori. An editor is the chain between publisher and manga authors, controlling the works that are send in are part of his job, when in charge of a certain author an editor gives suggestions about what to improve and how to increase the popularity. This job has a high level of responsibility torwards the authors.

In the second  season Takagi and Saikou are causing trouble for their magazine and editor,it wasn’t always their fault, but the viewer learns to know the No Go‘s as manga author. While Ashirogi Muto seems a little in trouble, the supporting characters, other manga authors take a bit more of the spotlight. Partially they overshadow the presence of Takagi and Saikou.

The viewer learns about their goals and motivations for being a manga author and looks at quite different editor and artist relationships. A  large number of nicely portrayed  and charismatic supporting characters are one of the strong points of Bakuman, some are weird, some timid and some are straight agressive. Supportive characters main purpose is to influence the main characters in a good or bad way, nevertheless a few of the supportive characters in Bakuman get their fair share of screentime and an own storyline. In three x 25 episodes there is enough time of such things, unfortunately new anime gets shorter and shorter these days.

The third season is a concluding one for all left plots and important sideplots, ok since I don’t intend to spoiler more than necessary in this review, its a great season, so watch it for yourself.

In these years Takagi and Saikou are totally occupied with their job as authors, thinking about new content and working on current projects eats away all their time. Kaya must be a very understanding girlfriend, but to be honest it seems that Takagi is 10% less determined and takes a break from time to time. With his perfect dream in mind Saikou draws non stop and can’t rest until he and Miho can finally be together, he’s trying so hard, you just have to cheer for him.

Important supporting characters

Nizuma – is the main rival of Ashirogi Muto, his skills are far beyond everyone else which makes him the most talented manga creator of Shounen Jump. At first he appears rather lunatic and dangerous, but he’s a sympathic person and a child at heart.

Aoki – is an innocent, polite shoujo author who dives in the shounen genre, drawing fanservice and dealing with perverts turn out as rather challenging for her, but this makes her grow as a person. The female characterdesign of Bakuman is already quite pretty, but Aoki is just beautful.

Hiramaru – worked as a busuiness man before, but landed a surprise hit as manga author first timer. He is a bit socially awkward, yet very funny. He actually has the most weird author editor relation ship, it looks more than master and slave than anything else. Well, I liked his storyline the most, especially in the last season he starts to shine.

Fukuda – a manga author with rebellious tendencies torwards his publisher, he likes to create violent mangas with rude language, he is quite a mainly character, but behind his macho fascade he is rather caring and supports his author commrades with their problems at work but also in private life.

Impressions

Before starting this show I feared that a 75 episode long anime about the life of manga authors would be boring,  but that actually was never the case, even though there are no life threatening situations or supervillains, Bakuman has the same tension and addictive appeal as any other action anime. Of course this anime has it’s antagonists, Ashirogi Muto competes with other authors of Shounen Jack over serializations, votes and sales, this rivaly isn’t turned into underhanded methods, everybody is threated with respect. The rivalry is mainly turned into positive motivation everybody is fueling anothers motivation to create better manga.

Shounen, Seishun, Romance and Comedy, Bakuman is such a strange combination of different genres,  but this is what makes Bakuman something special and surprisingly popular.

I had a kind of romantic image of the manga industry before, but I learned quite a bit about the mechanisms of manga, everything shown in  this show might be not entitrely true, but I think it’s pretty close to reality. Creating manga is not as magic as it might sound, especially in the longer run compromises have to be made, that aren’t always good for the mangas.

Being an author for a weekly magazine doesn’t feel much different from other really busy jobs, it appears even more demanding, physically and mentally. First  your work needs to compete against other works to be accepted for serialization, then you have to meet the weekly/monthly deadlines and pay attention that the popularity won’t drop. In every issues of the magazine the readers do a voting. If your ranking is too low, the manga will be canceled. I found it quite unfair to apply such restrictions to creative works, promising manga can be lost in this process.

Well, Bakuman gives you many things to think about regarding the creation of manga.

Final Words

The anime  covers 10 years in the life of Takagi and Saikou, there are numerous time skips, but overall it’s really interesting to follow the main characters over such a long period of time.

It’s is a long and bumpy road from the planned dream to it’s possible fulfillment. Good anime comes in different shapes and while I prefer stories with a non realistic setting, this is one of the best concluded animes I’ve seen so far, maybe it can be even considered a masterpiece.

While the characters are facing some hardships in their lives, this anime always keeps it’s positive attitude towards growing up and taking decisions and living in a self reliant way.

This anime has uncommonly low number of changing locations, not that there is no variety, but the characters are either in the office or in the building of Shounen Jack. Freetime activities or other locations are pretty rare in Bakuman. This actually would be my only big complain about this anime. Aside from this the show gives an interesting insight into the manga industry and give explanations why anime and manga can be either a big hit or a disappointment sometimes.

Have you seen Bakuman already? If yes, please share your opinion in the comments.

httpvh://youtu.be/x1o5y9uqBL8

parallel= by Fumiya Sashida

Today, it’s time for a new anime review, it’s about a hilarious short comedy show that I had watched recently. Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san which was produced by Starchild Records and Half H.P Studio. As part of the anime spring season 2013 it was aired from April till June.

It is based on the manga “Miss Muromi of the Shore”, in this anime we follow the daily life adventures of Takurou, Muromi and her friends. The story begins when Takurou enjoys his peaceful fishing hobby at the pier, but on this day he literally hooked a mermaid, called Muromi.

To double his surprise the green haired mermaid is able to talk. Muromi is voiced by Tamura Yukari, I actually had to look up the info about her VA, because I could never imagine Yukari with this strong Hakata accent. Muromi is quite attached to the world of humans, so she starts to speak nonchalantly with Takurou after he had removed the hook out of her mouth. Both start meeting as a daily routine, but you could say that Muromi mainly forces herself onto him.

Her age is estimated to be 8-digit but mentally she is only 18. Muromi has not the most ladylike personality. She is crazy, a little superficial and short tempered, but overall she is actaually a cheerful and not a really bad person, she is something like an idol among the other mermaids.
Muromi is a cute “It” girl and a boar with a short temper at the same time. She is quite tough, but she gets vulnerable when she is attacked by birds or someone dear to her hurts her feelings.

Because of a broken heart in the past, million years ago, Muromi is negatively biased torwards all living sea mammals. The certain episode which centers around this topic is so funny.

Muromi is an enchanting freak, on the other hand Takurou is a pretty normal main character. He is a well behaved and level headed boy, who cares about others. He is often puzzled about the behaviour and technology of the aquatic world. Even though this a short comedy show, most of the reappearing characters have a solid written and unique personality.

Each of the 13 episodes is around 13 minutes long and portrays a random adventure of Muromi and her friends, aside from mermaids her friends also consist of a Yeti, Leviathan, a Kappa and other creatures of ancient saga’s and Japanese fairy tales.

Don’t be fooled by the cute appearance of this anime, a trademark of Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san is the partly crude comedy and other kinds of humor. The normal comedy is already quite good, but the politial incorrectness is just hilarious, see it for yourself when Muromi gets badly drunk from time to time, vioaltes her friends, punches dolphins and insults whales.

If I had to make a comparison to another anime, I would say Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san is Lucky Star on drugs. There is also bit of Arakawa under the bridge feeling when looking at some of the weird characters. I found this short show to be highly entertaining and the coastal flair was refreshing. When watching comedy shows I often found myself wishing for more character development, but not here. It is not necessary for such a show to have growing characters.

The animation style is quite nicefor a short comedy show, it shows fluid animations and the female characters look very appealing in a cute way with big heads, big eyes and blush.
The backgrounds which portray the ocean and coastal regions have a picture book look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX6GHkmTCSA

here is the UNofficial opening, it works as well *lol*

If you like comedy with cute characterdesigns and a political incorrect touch you can’t go wrong with Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san. I had lots of fun

Characters   _____________   8/10

Setting   ________________    9/10     

Comedy   _______________   10/10

Animation   _____________   8/10

Music  __________________  7/10

Enjoyment  _____________  9/10

Overall Score – 8,5 / 10

Todays review is about Kanbaru Suruga from the popular anime Bakemonogatari.

I was always interested in getting this certain figure, but I didn’t order her back in 2011,
the year she was released. With Senjougahara as spearhead most of GSC’s figures from the Bakemonogatari line – up are super popular and so the figures rise in price on the aftermarket.

After a lot of thinking if I really wanted the Kanbaru figure, I couldn’t wait any longer and gort her from a friendly American, who never unpacked his Kanbaru. Not that I can really understand, but I’m happy that I got a new, unopened Kanbaru. I’ve recently seen what sick things some people do things with their figures, so I got a bit cautious of used figures :p

Kanbaru Suruga is an 1/8 scaled figure that was manufactured by GSC, after the sculpt of Tokunaga Hironori. The release happend on July 28, 2011, one day before my birthday actually. The retail price was 9333 Yen, I paid 135 $ (13872 Yen). Quite a lot more *cough* *cough*

All of GSC’s Bakemonogatari figures are based on the Blu-Ray/DVD Covers, and Kanbaru is no exception, she’s an elaborate figure, Kanbaru has an impressive base, that shows her sitting in between towers of yaoi literature with an satisfied evil expression of a smile on her face.

In the anime Kanbaru is one of the girls the main character coincidentally mets. Kanbaru is actually into girls, even though she doesn’t bother to flirt with Araragi and reads yaoi related literature. She was a bit scary at first and I actually hated her for butchering Araragi, but in the Nadeko Snake story, she became a friendly girl, still a bit perverted, but likeable. She’s not that much focused on as others in the show, but Kanbaru definitely made an impression.

Hair & Face

The figure has a tomboyish short hair style, it has rounded edges and is colored in dark with a blueish tint. A bit hidden underneath she has quite strong eyebrows. Kanbaru’s face has a nice tone and a soft looking shape. The half closed eyes create a nice expression and some kind of atmosphere, under her eyes some subtle color for the rosy cheeks has been applied like they are often shown in anime. On her mouth Kanbaru Suruga shows a satisfied wide smile, Im actually not a fan of GSC’s red lined mouths, but here it is rather acceptable and looks good.

The short hair with the bushy eyebrows and half closed eyes gives this  figure a kind of subtle wild sex appeal, I really like that about her. From the right her face looks best, from the left the stronger jaw and chin give her a slightly monkey like look, like in the art she is based on.

Outfit & Body

In contrast to the sexy look on her face Kanbaru’s outfit is the innocent standard uniform of her High School, like Hanekawa and Hitagi are wearing. Yeah it’s a summer uniform with some nice shading and realistic wrinkles, but it is nothing really fancy actually. Kanbaru has some extra details, like her bandaged arm or the basketball sport-shoes. Under the purple skirt she is wearing black biker shorts instead of panties.

The figure has a nicely articulated pose, she is sitting on her boobs books in a very relaxed manner. It is cute how she supports her tilted head with one arm, the other arm with that she holds a book, these little fingers looks quite realistic with these joints. Ah yes the book isn’t fixed to her hand.

Kanbaru Suruga is a normal healthy High School girl, there are no parts on her body that stand out especially, maybe her chest is more developed than Hitagi’s. Sitting figures have their own appeal, in terms of display and photography options they offer many possibilities. In most cases such figures can be taken off their base and placed on different things or on different places.

Base

The base of this figure is quite awesome and elaborately made, it shows Kanbaru sitting on her throne of books on green floor which slightly resembles grass. It consist of five pillars and as little accesoires there is also a potted plant and a basketball, who find their place on the base.

The different sized books are very detailed with several bookmarks and clean transitions between the white pages and the cover. A cool figure on a cool base.

Final Word

Kanbaru is a great figure, I should have made this purchase a lot earlier, but no I had to wait and payed the aftermarket price, I nevertheless think she’s worth the money. On first sight she might appear a bit unimposing on her quite elaborate throne of books, but the interesting pose and cute ,bold face expession are something that make her special. This is no T & A figure, but it’s something really nice to be put on ones shelf. Im quite satisfied with Kanbaru chan and her pretty face, she’s actually nearly as nice as Oshino Shinobu (that I bought on release *u*).

Adapting  Blu-Ray/DVD covers into figures can be a great idea, the Bakemonogatari line up was quite succesful as a whole, but sometimes it works less good, which can partially be said about the Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica figures, who stayed a little behind the expectations.