Hi fellow figure collectors, a few days ago the first Wonderfestival of 2016 happened.

The Wonderfestival 2016 [Winter], it’s a main event for figure manufacturers to showcase their upcoming and planned figures. Illustrations, early prototypes and colored samples are shown at the several booths. Even though I’ve never been there in person, it’s always a highlight for me. In this post I will feature everything that caught my interest, normal and ecchi figures. I follow Wonfes since some years now, figures got so elaborate over the years.

My personal list of interest consist of 45 items, prototypes and illustrations included.

SoniAni: Super Sonico The Animation – Sonico – Racing ver.

I desired and slightly expected to see this wonderful Sonico painted already, apparently I will have to wait a few more months. I like everything about this sweetly smiling, curvy girl.

Sculptor: YOSHI
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Top o Nerae 2! – Lal’C Mellk Mal

Mal got painted and looks really good, it’s been a little longer when I watched the anime, but I like the figures design a lot.

Sculptor: Fio
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls – Kanzaki Ranko

Whew! I really like her make up in this figure adaption, also a lovely purple dress.

Sculptor: YOSHI
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Hatsune Miku -Project Diva- F 2nd

Miku figures don’t often strike my interest, but I like this one. Vibrant colors, a super shiny outfit, a cute face … and somehow her armpit looks great.

Sculptor: Grizzry Panda
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Kantai Collection ~Kan Colle~ – Kouwan Seiki

*sob* I expected her to be painted after being introduced months ago, only the eyes received paint. Aside from that she is a super cute Abyssal girl, I can’t wait to see her with the pale skin.

Sculptor: Akimof
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Dagashi Kashi – Shidare Hotaru

This was approximately planned in advance, it’s pretty rare to see characters of the current anime season on Wonfes. I find Hotaru to be an enchanting kind of character, I love her dress, her shoes, also her proportions ;D And these vicious eyes, even though she is a friendly girl.

Sculptor: Frex
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls – Tada Riina

Before I watched Cinderella Girls, I wasn’t too interested in these Idol figures. The great anime made me a little crazy and now I really want a few of my favorites as figures ^^. One of them is definetely Riina. She looks so cool and will also have a guitar. Her close friend Miku already was listed in the shops…

Sculptor: Missile
Scale: 1/8
Releases: 2016

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia – Saber Alter – Dress ver.

That is another stunning alternative design of the Saber character, I like her dark dress the blue gradient really brings out a menacing atmosphere and these angry eyes are great.

Sculptor: Nobuta
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Love Live! School Idol Festival – Koizumi Hanayo

Hanayo looks so adorable as marine Idol, so cute ;D I like the elaborate uniform and her innocent smile. On second thought it appears a little childish and lacks megane.

Sculptor: Inagaki Hiroshi
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Yosuga no Sora – Kasugano Sora – Bunny Style

Considering the illustration, this figure is based on, Bunny Sora will be a quite attractive figure.

Sculptor: Hashimoto Ryou
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Kekkai Sensen – Leonard Watch – Sonic Onsoku Saru

I liked the anime, still I probably did not understand half of what was going on haha. A male figure in 1/7 scale is something new. I liked Leonardo’s outfit in the ending animation.

Sculptor: Nightow Yasuhiro
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Kantai Collection ~Kan Colle~ – Kongou

The queen of engrish!!! Phat really made an impressive figure of fast battleship Kongou, this is seriously awesome. The figure has nice details and will be even scaled 1/7 how cool is that!

Sculptor: Abe Koudai
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Granblue Fantasy – Io – Manatsu no Chiisana Lady

I think this figure is extremely enchanting, the girl holding a sunflower in a dynamic pose while wearing this adorable expression on her face is a great idea for a figure.

Sculptor: Itandi
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Granblue Fantasy – Yueru – Chitose o Sagasusha

Phat Company really appears to be on a good run, this other Granblue Fantasy figure, is apparently the most elaborate and challenging figure of the Wonfes 2016 Winter. A lot is going on, flying strands, swords and fireballs, additionally the character is very atrractive, too. Alltogether it looks really awesome.

Sculptor: Abe Koudai
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls – Moroboshi Kira

When I started watching Cinderella Girls, I didn’t expect to meet such wonderful and enchanting 2D waifu in the anime. This figure announcement surprised me even more. It makes me “Happy Happy!”.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

The Idolm@ster: Million Live! – Satake Minako

Promising illustration Material…

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

The Idolmaster (TV Animation) – Amami Haruka

Promising illustration Material, I like Haruka a lot.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Kantai Collection ~Kan Colle~ – Yuudachi – Kai Ni

After Shigure already turned out amazingly crafted, I obviously won’t pass on a fantastic looking Poi… ehhh Yudachi. This prototype looks so damn good!.

Sculptor: Urakawa Akinori
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls – Shimamura Uzuki – Crystal Night Party ver.

Uzuki the cute idol gets a second figure adaption.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Dimension W – Yurizaki Mira

Mira is such an adorable humanoid robot, the main character should really treat her better. …don’t ask me why the figure focuses on the characters butt, but I guess I don’t mind it.

Sculptor: Katou Gaku
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata – Katou Megumi

Might be a very pretty figure.

Sculptor: Urakawa Akinori
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Overlord – Albedo

Hmm nothing sculpted … ok…

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Original Character – Super Pochaco

The Pochako fandom still remains to be a mistery for me… Here she finally wears some actually cute clothes and surprisingly the girl looks quite sweet.  Maybe a little less belly would be appreciated, but I’m sure this will be a popular figure.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

 Original Character – Character’s Selection – Succubus-san

*Kyahhh!* Seeing this marvelous Succubus – san was a real surprise this Wonfes. This figure is so beautiful (/∇＼*)｡o○♡. The cute face and attractive soft body are totally convincing for me.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Love Live! School Idol Project – Yazawa Niko

FREEing totally surprised me with elaborate looking Love Live! girls in their school uniforms. Nico is so cute in her pink jacket and this extremely cute expression.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Love Live! School Idol Project – Koizumi Hanayo

Hanayo also is something wonderful, a cute face with glasses.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Sangokushi Taisen – Kataigou

This fine lady became colored now, the vivid colors are beautiful.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Senran Kagura NewWave G-Burst – Ikaruga – Race Queen

Two reasons make this figure a nearly fix must have for me, Ikaruga is the prettiest Senran Kagura girl in my eyes and the sculptor in charge is Osiris, who really knows how to make curvy girls look stunning.

Sculptor: Osiris
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Sengoku Bushouki Muramasa – Toudou Takatora

A flirty  buxom bunny costume warrior figure.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Aria – Aria Pokoteng – Mizunashi Akari

I guess there is another Aria anime season in the making … I like Aria a lot, it has always been something special for me. Ok the end made me cry my eyes out, but thats another story. I’m already happy about a Akari figure, thought it would be cool to have an Alicia, too.

Sculptor: Amano Kozue
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Saya no Uta – Saya

Finally a figure of Saya, it’s a beautiful characterdesign, afterall.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Houkago no Pleiades – Aoi & Subaru – Swimsuit ver.

Well, it’s obvious that the both of them look super cute and pretty. Apparently the figures of Aoi and Subaru can be ordered seperately, but with both you will be able to display them like this. I like the combination of two characters, when they can be connected this closely.

Sculptor: Arakawa Takuhiro
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Sonico

Sonico figures are probably my biggest weakness as figure collector. I like what the still unknown sculptor did. She turned out quite buxom considering Sonico’s official measurements, awww these amazing thighs. I also like the priceless facial expression, Sonico tied up with the phone is just too funny and it partially turns me on.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Parsley – Original Character

Last times illustration was turned into a beautiful prototype. Her expression is nice and her boobs are nicely shaped. It’s Native, don’t mind her swordskills ahahaha. Hmmm I kinda want that figure.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Mahou Shoujo – Kuramoto Erika

Erika also improved when turned into 3D, her boobs got smaller (no kidding!) and her facial expression totally got more appealing. I’m interested in this figure now.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/7
Releases: 2016

Original Character – Chuunyuu! Sakurako-san

It’s still not painted *AHHH!* … but it seems as if her prototype sculpting was finished. Please paint this figure before next Wonfes, it would make me so happy.

Sculptor: Brown Mansai
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Original Character – Tabby-san

A more innocent ecchi figure by Native, or to be accurate the manufacturer is Peach and Native acts as distributor. It’s cute, I like the petite maid.

Sculptor: Patton
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Original Character – Yuuki Hagure

Another prototype based on a illustration from a previous Wonfes. And again it looks much better in 3D. The character has a beautiful, expressive face and detailed clothes.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Shining Wind – Touka Kureha

A stunning sculpt of Touka Kureha, OS is quite capricious with their releases and priority of figures to finish, but someday it will be painted and probably look stunning.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Sex Life – Saotome Maria

With this turning of “illustration into prototype” Orchid Seed was rather fast, I already liked the illustration and the prototype also looks very good already.

Sculptor: Ribun
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Original Character – Swimsuit ver.

Milestone presented a lovely bikini girl, in a not so often used pose, I like it.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: unknown
Releases: unknown

Taimanin Yukikaze 2 – Akiyama Rinko – QueenTed

I’m not a big fan of the origin, but I can’t say no to such a fine ass XD

Sculptor: Pon
Scale: 1/7
Releases: unknown

Nitro Super Sonic – Sonico – Love Bomber

I can’t wait to see this funny and cute idea as colored figure

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

Aria – Mizunashi Akari

New Vision Toys also announced a Akari figure, her face is cuter and shows more emotion than the version made by Wing, it seems to be a promising figure.

Sculptor: unknown
Scale: 1/8
Releases: unknown

The plan of buying less figures than last year works so far, although it makes the hobby more exhausting, when I decide about the pro and cons of certain figures, compare them and decide against preordering instantly, instead of ordering everything pleasant for the eye.

Some more months passed after New Preorders part 25, since then I accumulated 4 orders and that justifies a new Preorder Post, it’s part 26 of New Preorders. I will talk about my preorders and other figures that appeared recently and I consider as appealing.

Ordered Items

Fate/EXTRA – Saber EXTRA

I was very much looking forward to the day preorders were opened, I saw this Saber at last years Wonderfestival as she was still an early prototype. A more curvy Saber in swimsuit is the right thing for me, I got super excited as I’ve learned that she’s scaled 1/6. I like most alternative Saber figures, I already have the Saber Maid R, which I still think is awesome. This Saber has a confident face expression and body language and appears a little teasing and dangerous, not to forget that she looks damn hot ;D

manufacturer: Alter release date: August 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 11.664 Y

Nakahara Tomoe

With a official price of 14.815 ¥, This is probably is my most expensive preorder, since Native doesn’t ship to germany and I wasn’t that determined to pay a proxy, shiping costs and customs fees, I placed my order at a german shop, Figuya.com. It’s based on a Toni Taka artwork, what I like is that sculptor applied a few changes on her face to make her look more distinctive. The figure has a rich design and looks just beautiful. As Native figure she is supposed to be a little sexy, she’s not as lewd as other Native products she shows her allure with her low cleavage and revealed legs, she has optional panties and a partial castoff feature.

The figure is sitting on a tableclothed table and also comes with a big traditional umbrella.

manufacturer: Native release date: August 2015 scale: 1/7 price: 14.815 Y

Shigure – Kancolle

In their evolved form Shigure and Yudachi are the coolest looking Destroyer Class girls. As I saw Shigure shown at the last Wonfes I literally freaked out since she is one of my favorite ship girls, if they had shown Samdare I would have probably suffered a heart attack XD

The design is based on a collector card, that is why she looks a little different than in the Kancolle browsergame, but it is no drestic difference, she’s still looking awesome. I like that she has these big guns, GSC also made them exchangeable with smaller guns, I’ve read that it is also possible to remove the gunholder at her back. The torpedo pods are rotateable.

manufacturer: GSC release date: September 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 13.704 Y

Kafuu Chino – Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?

Awww this was a warm and sweet slice of lifew anime, have you seen it? Chino is a girl who works at a coffee shop, even with her young age she is very composed and demure, still she is really cute when interacting with her friends. I was really happy about this figure announcement from Ques Q, Chino looks really adorable, I love her pretty uniform and the cute facial expression. She’s listed as 1/7 scaled figure what I really appreciate.

It’s funny that this figure is so not fitting with my other preorders this year, you can guess why. Since she comes out in the same month, I combined her order with the buxom Succubus lady, which I start to feel embarassed about, I can’t imagine myself to display the 1/6 Demon girl though I’m also looking forward to it and her beautiful face… whatever.

manufacturer: Ques Q release date: July 2015 scale: 1/7 price: 9.200 Y

 Moco – Captain Earth – Dengeki Special version

I’m a big fan of Captain Earth, it’s the kind of show I enjoy with action, friendship, romance and cool villains. At least one figure of it was announced, Moco one of the villains, not my favorite character from the show, but it’s fair enough. Yeah she’s a sensual character and her clothes are raher extreme. As special version she has some extra parts. I did not hear much praise about Embrace Japan but I can’t be picky also the prototype looks more than just good.

 manufacturer: Embrace Japan release date: July 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 10.260 Y

Interesting figures

I haven’t ordered these figures, but at least I find them overly interesting and like to list them. It’s unfortunately that most are sheduled for a July release, with 3 preorders in this month I’m already full. Nevertheless, feel free to tell my which one you like or which not, or which figure you would like to see in a review

Push!! Cover Girl

I feel like I’ve waited an eternity for this figure to reach preorder status, I was follwing the “progress” since it was a grey unpainted prototype. I was delighted to see her ready last Wonfes, but you know happened I don’t want her that badly anymore, that feels so bad.

I recently read a nice quote about her on mfc “seems like a long time since figures with this kind of art style has been made.” Well, it probably wasn’t the intention of the writer, but you can say that she as figure is kinda outdated after these three years. She’s nevertheless cute, don’t you think? I can’t help myself I hate these shoes and socks, that is no convincing beach figure…

 manufacturer: Orchid Seed release date: September 2015 scale: 1/7 price: 11.000 Y

Girls und Panzer – Yukari Akiyama

This figure is a great portray of the friendly tank otaku Yukari, Girls und Panzer was one of my top favorite animes recently and I approve of this, be it the dress, the way she is posed or her friendly and bright smile, she’s very cute and surprisingly affordable. Would be cool if all characters of team Anglerfisch would get a figure, I’m no fan of sets, but would consider to make an exception here.

 manufacturer: Kotobukiya  release date: July 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 7.800 Y

Katsuragi Nama – Senran Kagura

This Katsuragi figure has a certain feature, you can put things between her soft boobs…
I kind of like how this figure is made, her body looks great and the carttonish Senran Kagura style has been adapted faithfully. Ok the often so confident Katsuragi doesn’t look that happy, but that also has a certain appeal to some folks. She’s somehow very cute.

 manufacturer: Toy’s Works release date: June 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 10.250 Y

Mobile Suit Gundam: Sayla Mass

I don’t know this character to be honest, but I like pretty vintage space opera costumes like hers, the woman herself has a nice expression on her face and an appealing hairstyle.

 manufacturer: MegaHouse release date: July 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 9.000 Y

Bertille Althusser – Walkure Romanze More & More

I like the design of this figure quite a lot, much more than their previous bikini armor figures to be honest, since bikini and armor have a more appealing desgn. Daiki is always good with strong and buxom warrior lady’s like Bertille is and recreated her alluring body’s in a very detailed way, even better since she’s scaled 1/6. Bertille has lovey corkscrew braids, too. While we are speaking about it, does Daiki still use these cheap black bases?

 manufacturer: Daiki Kogyo release date: September 2015 scale: 1/6 price: 14.800 Y

Sinon – Sword Art Online II

A figure that portrays Sinon as an even more badass sniper that she actually already is. I like that the face goes into a more realistic direction. Also she appears very detailed and nicely made, the 1/7 makes it more interesting, the retail list price unfortunately is a bit high, even when most shops have a discount.

manufacturer: Aquamarine release date: July 2015 scale: 1/7 price: 14.040 Y

Chitoge Kirisaki – Nisekoi

I plan to watch this show in the next few weeks, Chitoge has a very distinctive appearance as character, I’m already enchanted. Alter made anbespecially great looking figure in a lovely casual outfit captured in a super dynamic, cheerful pose. I love the details of her face so much. Damn July release, hopefully I can get her later… delay, delay, Delay!

manufacturer: Alter release date: July 2015 scale: 1/8 price: 12.744 Y

Upcoming figures I’m interested in

Sansei Muramasa – Bunny version

That is probably my favorite bunny suit figure, since she looks beautiful in it. She will have a happy face and an emarassed one. The figure is still work in progress, but I assume her to be ready for preorders within the next two months.

manufacturer: Wing release date: ? scale: 1/7 price: ?

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.

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

I decided to get rid of my 9 older Drafts in these next months, Sunabouzu is the first to be published. I found it as I was searching for a “new” finished anime to watch, then a certain cover caught my interest, it was the one from Sunabouzu (Desert Punk). It is an 24 episode long post–apocalyptic sci fi anime, which was produced by Gonzo and aired from 2004 to 2005.

This anime takes place in a distant future where most of Japan turned into a desert, the story is set in the great Kantou desert. The previous civilization with all it’s high technology and social advances perished due to an unknown event, the current civilization uses and copy the things they find through excavations, like weapons and other mainly martial equipment. It’s a simple and tough life, yet It is not the stone age, but a big step backwards from the life we know.

There is a government in the Kantou desert who keeps a basic order in the area, but they can’t and don’t intend to give much support for their citizens who are spread all around the desert. The government forces are mainly present in the several oasis in the Kantou area where the people have a better life. The life of the people is quite tough, they have to make a living somehow to survive in the hostile environment of an empty desert. While many inhabitants of the desert lead an more or less honest life, there are many who make a living as criminals.

httpvh://youtu.be/6v5Ap3suQCI

These difficult circumstances and shortages on water, food and money fuel the bad characteristics of the human nature, everybody is interested in his own advantage without considering the needs of others, there is no place for the famous Japanese politeness or much kindness, the people who are living there are portrayed in a believable way, the tough living turned them into selfish persons, even though there are times where a spark of kindness is ignited. You have to know that these people aren’t evil monsters by default, it are the extreme circumstances that forces them to selfish, greedy and sometimes violent behavior.

One the most remarkable aspects of  Sunabouzu is it’s main character with all these wimpy and soft main characters of today’s anime, the contrast couldn’t be much greater. The name of the lead character is Kanta, a young man of short height who works as handymen, someone who does everything for money. bounty hunter, bodyguard and other tasks are parts of his work.

He has several gadgets and underhanded tricks to fulfill his jobs, he’s nearly as good as Batman. Kanta became quite popular and has a legendary fame as the Sunabouzu. Kanta is very smart and loyal to his paying customers, but aside from that he is a real ass, greedy, short tempered and perverted are the nicest words to describe his character. Woman with big boobs are one of his weaknesses and he is often tricked with the female charm and bouncy physical attributes.

In the first quarter the viewer is introduced to the world Kanta lives in, while following him on his mainly amusing, yet crass adventures in the desert. He randomly meets old acquaintances when doing his jobs, be it as competition or partners for a certain job. The reappearing side characters are quite likable even when they sometimes act morally questionable and get in the way of the main character. Especially Amagumo is a hilarious guy, he’s the arch rival of Kanta.

Later Kanta meets the second main character, Taiko. She’s a small girl who admires the skills of Sunabouzu, after she followed him around Kanta unwillingly agrees to her wish of becoming his students. Well, she actually tricked him by making use of his only weakness. Kanta treats her quite poorly at first, cause she really isn’t very skilled and more of a burden than anything else.

A great job was done with the creation of the setting the hot, empty desert is very convincing.
The anime is a bit like the older adventure animes of the 200x years, it is slightly compareable with Trigun, aside from the more advanced technology level, western theme and the pacifistic main character.

The anime has a number of nice comedy moments that consist of slapstic and dark humor, that made me laugh very hard. The chemistry between the characters is directed very well and brings this anime to life. What I actually liked about this anime was that they didn’t changed Kanta’s personality during these 24 episodes, he alway stayed the greedy bastard who didn’t give a damn about being a good guy. He is an exceptionally well portrayed antihero.

It’s not that easy to tell who is evil and who is not in such an post – apocalyptic setting.

Sunabouzu is a very interesting slice of life, action adventure, that shows us a fictional, but possible change in human society. The wasteland setting is great and the story is full of interesting ideas and surprises. It’s really hilarious to see how the characters trick eachother.

This show has no black and white categories and with this ambivalent characters, Sunabouzu manages to give some more believeable depth to the personalities of it’s characters.

If you want to watch an refreshing old school style adventure  anime Sunabouzu would be the right anime for you. The exceptional main character and the portrayal of the crude and selfish sides of human nature is a nice change from the always so polite and fluffy anime.

Characters   _____________   8/10

Setting   ________________    8/10     

Story   __________________   8/10

Animation   _____________   6/10

Music  __________________  7/10

Enjoyment  _____________  8/10

Overall Score – 7,5 / 10

Senran Kagura is a 12 epidode anime from Artland which aired from January till March 2013. The real origin of this anime are the Senran Kagura Games from Marvelous AQL, but this show is loosely based on the events in the manga Senran Kagura – Shoujotachi No Shinei which started in 2011. In order to prepare for my Hibari figure review I  read it till volume 3. It was a nice and entertaining read and so I was really looking forward to the upcoming anime adaption.

Even in the present Japan the need for ninja has not vanished and in a particular school, called National Hanzo Academy where girls are secretly trained to become ninjas of the light side. On the other side there is the Snake Academy for girls, who trains ninja’s for the dark side. Both parties coexist in a state of cold war most of the time without going into direct confrontation.

The story of Senran Kagura follows the students Ikaruga, Katsuragi, Asuka, Hibari and Jagyuu on their way to become good ninja’s under the advices of their instructor Kiriya Sensei.

The setting surprises with some funny creativity. Every girl has a different “Ninja Transform” outfit that totally does not look Ninja-like, but when transformed their Ninja powers fully awake. They also can summon a certain animal which support them in their fights, these summoned beings were inherited by their family for generations. Never mess with Hibari’s bunny ;D

A short look at the characters…

Ikaruga – A third year student of ninja arts who is very serious about becoming a ninja. She always acts modest and mature and shows supportive nature towards her juniors, she is somehow the leader of the bunch. At first she also appears to be the strongest of the students.

Katsuragi –  Also a third year student of ninja arts, she is the most sexy and most energetic girl out of the five. She loves to grope boobs especially the ones of her juniors. A trademark of her is a quite dirty voice (Kobayashi, Yuu) which accentuates her creepyness very well. Aside from that she is a strong fighter in search for new challenges.

Asuka – Is a second year student of ninja arts, who barely passed the practical exam. As granddaughter of a famous ninja a lot of expectations are placed on her which sometimes gives her a hard time. She is very feminine with her sweet voice (Harada, Hitomi) and in appearance.

Hibari – Is a first year student of ninja arts and actually the weakest and least talented one of the girls. Even though she’s not completely useless, you would ask yourself why she took the route of  becoming a ninja in the first place. Aside from that she is a totally cute, caring person, who is beloved by her seniors.

Jagyuu – Is also first year student of  ninja arts, she is a bit rebelish at first, but already a ninja prodigy with big talent. In the show she often shows a serious and demure side. She is a close friend of Hibari and has strong feelings for her. Jagyuu always protects Hibari from danger.

Each of the girls have an nemesis among the snake academy ninjas, the Snake Academy girls are also interesting characters, but writing about them would be too much at this point.

Setting & Story

Senran Kagura has no male lead character like you would normally expect in this kind of setting, it’s good that the viewer doesn’t have to see the girls dealing with a dense boy. The show follows the girls during their training and how they gain strength in times of conflict.  This anime is quite funny and doesn’t take itself all too seriously most of the time. Yet it knows when to play the serious card that gives insight and backflashes of characters and threir relationships.

At first it followed the manga closely, but after the third episode it has more original content that differs quite a bit at some major scenes. In the manga Hibari had a much bigger role and development. I would have really liked a 1:1 adaption, still the anime has a decent storyline that manages to keep the viewer entertained and the energetic characters make up for some flaws.

One of he major appeal points of Senran Kagura is the attractive characterdesign, the girls have sweet faces with childlike characteristics like big eyes, blushmarks and big mouths. In contrast to this they have buxom bodies with the right amount of healthy chubbyness where it matters. It’s a formula of moe and curvy sex appeal, which already works very well with the Super Sonico character. As speaking of that this show also has jiggly fanservice with bouncy boobs all around and panty shots included in the fights. It’s more a kind of cute, vanilla fanservice instead of an exploiting way, as it can be seen in other shows of this kind.

Fortunately the show offers more than just fanservice, it is funny and the interaction between the girls is nice to watch. Since the ninja theme is strong in Senran Kagura there is a fair amount of action. There are also interesting villains, who actually have a good amount of screentime and moments in the spotlight.

In every anime season there are these short shows, which has potential, but suffer from a compressed length, because everything has to fit in a certain number of 12 or 13 episodes.

Senran Kagura partially has this problem, but still manages to turn out as a decent show with a good final. Maybe there will be more of the girls from Hanzou Academy in the future, even though it couldn’t live up to my expectations I liked the setting and the characters.

It had solid production values and a fitting OST with traditional Japanese music. As already mentioned I expected a bit more from the story, but the characters, the appealing character design and the creative setting, made up for it and this anime gets a decent score as follows.

Characters   _____________   8/10

Setting   ________________    7/10     

Story   __________________   6/10

Animation   _____________   7/10

considering your anime standard this could be a show for you or not, ok Only in case you don’t mind some cute, bouncy fanservice.

Overall Score 7/10

I recently watched a very nice anime called Chiayafuru, in which I got interested in after I’ve seen a screencap of it. Without further ado I took a first look at it. Chiayafuru was produced by Madhouse Studios and VAP and the anime aired from 5th October 2011 till 28th March 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxebYxY9NXE

As you might hear it has an awesome opening “Youthful” performed by 99RadioService, not only has it a nice fresh sound, even the lyrics are lovely and captures the theme from the anime.

The story centers about Chihaya and the adventures of her high school life when she finds herself drawn to the traditional japanese game Karuta. It’s an action orientated kind of memory game for two players. A third person reads the poem out loud and then the players have to identify the poem on the cards which are placed in front of them by it’s first few words and grabs it before the opponent does. There are certain rules to it, but I won’t emberrass myself and go into detail about it, because I actually haven’t really understand it myself that well.

Karuta is a fascinating yet weird game, especially if you never seen it before, I found it rather rude how these poem cards were thrown around, but you should see it for yourself.

The Chihayafuru anime pays attention to present the karuta game as accurate as possible.

Chihaya is the charming heroine of this show, she is a cheerful, straight forward girl. She is not exceptional good at anything. In the anime it is often said that she is an airhead, but that actually isn’t the case, she’s just a bit different overall. As kid Chihaya dreamed that her sister who works as a model becomes a well known international top model. But soon she realizes that pursuing another ones dreams is wrong and she starts to find her own. Her whole family seems to be focused on her big sisters carreer and forgetting about the second daughter, throughout the show I felt sorry for Chihaya that no one in her family seems to care about her.

After a a few impressions from her present life, the story takes the viewer back to Chihaya’s elementary school past where she met her first friends Taichi and Arata and how she found interest in playing Karuta with them. The backflash episodes were directed very well with a deep atmosphere I actually got addicted to the anime quite quick because of the great introduction.

After that first arc we are back to Chihaya’s Highschool life, where she wants to form a Karuta club. Her first member is the childhood friend Taichi who she haven’t seen for a long time. Their other friend Arata moved away and plays no bigger role for once. After acquiring a room the Karuta club is starting to recruit new members and the build up part of Chihayafuru continues.

Getting new members for a niche thing like karuta turns out extremely difficult and so Chihaya’s way of recruiting members is not very sensitive. Ones she grabs one with a slightly interest in karuta she drags them all the way to the clubroom. She exceptional rough with the male candidates and gives them strange names. After the very well directed intro episodes intro episodes these new character introducing episodes were another great part of this anime. As new memers, Kanade, Tsotuma and Nishida join the ambitious karuta club. I might be a bit biased because of her enchanting femininity, but I liked Kanade the most out of these three

Kanade is a fan of traditional Japanese literature and clothes, she loves karuta poems for the thing they are and not to play a game. Actually most of the players don’t give a damn of this old poems. Kanade joins the karuta club after she made Chihaya accept certain conditions.

After hard weeks of practice, the karuta club takes part in their first national matches and don’t perform that badly for their first time, they even gained a trophy for their achievements.

It’s nice to see how passionate Chihaya is pursuing her dream to become a good and popular karuta player, but after a lot of progress in her game and several wins of matches, Chihaya and her friends from the karuta club, they also get in contact with the taste of defeat, as they face superior players, it comes to light that talent and passion aren’t enough anymore.

Since karuta is a niche sport in Japan and is also portrayed like that in this show, Chihayafuru can be partially considered as emotional sports anime, like Ookiku Furikabutte or Bamboo Blade, but on the bottom line it has more to offer like, a good balance of story, drama, comedy and character development. I enjoyed to follow Chihaya and the other characters in this show.

The animation style of Chihayafuru is very fluid and appealing, it has the look of these heavily saturated, sparkly and fluffy shoujo mangas where the characters have glossy eyes and strong blush marks on the cheeks. It strongly reminded me of the the previously mentioned Ookiku Furikabutte, Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama! and also Kimi ni Todoke.

Chihayafuru is a very enjoyable and interesting 25 episode long anime, when watching it I couldn’t get enough of it. It is a kind of Josei anime, which means that it is ought for older girls, but I would think it is watchable for both genders since it is not actually girly. And even when you are not the friend of sport related anime  in general, Chihayafuru could be something for you, since the anime does a very good job in portaying it’s characters and in presenting nice and detailed character interactions aside from the thrilling matches.

The second season of Chihayafuru started recently, so maybe this would be the right time to give the first season of this very nice anime a try. In case you haven’t already done that.