Yes, you read the title right. A fan has actually created an otome game based off the Swimming Anime PV by Kyoto Animation! I highly recommend giving it a try, since the game is really amusing. It is still a work in progress though, and the creator will be updating the DeviantArt page as more content is added.

For the uninitiated, you can watch the original swimming anime PV below:

Additional note: “Animation Do” is a sub-studio of Kyoto Animation.

If I ever get a “smart” idea like this again, you have permission to slap me with a set fish!! This has been way harder than I had anticipated but I've pretty much reached the limits of my abilities, and collection so I really need assistance with the final push.

But as the famous catchphrase from the TV show Mastermind goes; “I've started so I'll finish…” Or at least I'll try.

On the plus side, I've managed to publish what I've collected on my own on Vimeo! Just warning you now, the video is 2 hrs long and had to be compressed quite considerably to fit into the limits of the service, so please excuse the quality.

https://vimeo.com/63050237

I'm posting the video for people to see what's been done so far and, hopefully, that may convince a few to help lead me to the missing few shows. I'd like to replace the subbed ones if possible but it's not a priority right now. And for those wondering, the video was around 8GB at the start but I compressed it to 1.5Gb before I had to go even further to fit it onto vimeo. Here's a list of the remaining shows.

Zoids Guardian force
Zoids New Century
Zone of the Enders Dolores
Transformers Micron Legend (armada)
Zoids Fuzors
Misaki Chronicles: Divergence Eve
Jinki: Extend
Bokurano
Kyoshiro to Towa No sora
Gad Guard
Tetsujin-28 Go

shows in the video which have fansubs in them are

Shin Seki den Mars
Innocent Venus
Panda-Z
Lime-iro Ryukitan X
Giniro no Olynsis
Reideen
Platinumhugen Ordian
Gundam 00 S2

After some thinking, I decided to remove Bounen no X'amd as there's no mecha stuff in it. I'm also debating the inclusion of Stellvia as well as the 2 Lime-iro series. Those 2 are basically rip-offs of sakura wars in an eroge but I'm not sure I'd count their armours as mecha…

In any case, just a little more to go!! 頑張れ、俺！！

Source: http://waa.ai/soH

We all appreciate music for various different reasons. Some of us enjoy the relaxing pace of jazz, or the heartfelt lyrics in soul, or even air guitar along to the solo guitar riffs in rock. Music opens up a whole new world previously unknown to us through the combination of melody and harmony.

However, we've all fallen to a simple, basic urge we seek within music.  That, my dear friends, is the magic of the unsung hero, the rhythm, the beat. (Case in point? I recently haven't been able to listen to a 15 second loop of Daft Punk's “Get Lucky”.)

ShibayanRecords first caught my eye when my friend introduced me to his new album, Magico Catastrofe, which was released in Comiket 83. I opened up a song with no expectations. An hour passed; I had played through the album at least three times over.

In the realm of Touhou music, Shibayan is a king of beats.

In a band, the guitar and vocals are most prominent section, which is why they are placed forward on the stage.

The piano and secondary guitar are usually not heard as prominent as the other instruments.
The drums control the pace of the song, as well as morale; they are the conductors of the rhythm.
The bass players, who honestly deserve more credit, control the groove and flow of the performance. Without them, the band would lack a fundamental beat to synchronize with throughout the performance.

Different genres provide a different emphasis on each of the sections, which is part of the reason why you might like a certain genre over another.

So why am I attracted to a simple electro-house producer? Why am I attracted to Shibayan?

Source: Magico Catastrofe album art.

Listening to Magico Catastrofe's album, you can see how Shibayan's whimsical prowess shows itself from the title to the song itself.

Three songs stand out to me as memorable:

・－・・ －－－ ・・・－ ・（Love）: Yes, you're seeing that correctly. One of the titles is in Morse Code. Translated as “Love”, this song incorporates a steady mix of vocals, guitar riffs, and powerful chorus. The song is sung by 3L, also known as Sayuri Anpo in many other Touhou music circles. (She's one of my favorite vocalists.) The chorus even refers to the title as 3L sings the prelude to the chorus as “to, zu to-to, zu-to-to to-to-to zu-to,” imitating the tapping of the title's Morse code.

Fall in the Dark : If you've ever listened to Yanagi Nagi/nagi (Supercell, theme songs for Bakemonogatari/Ano Natsu/etc), you might find her vocals unfitting for a faster paced song than the emotional, relaxed ones she usually sings. However, the catchy bass-based beginning and upbeat vocals and beats keep you in the groove.

Itsuka Mita Mono (いつか見たもの): This one is purely instrumental yet still packs quite a punch. Right from the start, it starts as simple beat, expanded by various pitched synthesized melodies, with bass both acting as rhythm and buildup to a nice up-and-down chorus.

Granted, this is a Nu-Disco focused album, but a lot of his other albums have the same flow to it.

Although I cannot provide a detailed description of each song, I will tell you that Shibayan does a great job of taking memorable beats and slowly incorporating them into his songs. Many of his songs start with an introduction, a simple beat then following with a simple melody, added to multiple flowing melodies of varying pitch. Near the middle, there is a buildup into a catchy chorus that does a great job at feet-tapping and finger-snapping. Although many other similar electro-house might do the same thing, Shibayan does it best, I feel. Not once did I grow tired of repeating certain songs. On top of this, these are great Touhou mixes with great vocals to backup his work.

Forgive me as I stumble to express music with words. You are free to search the songs on YouTube, as I do not want to get involved with copyright infringements. On the other hand, feel free to support the artist as well as enjoying this crossfade below.

Synopsis (From MAL) :

A modern fantasy based on Japanese Shinto legends. Suzuhara Izumiko is a 15-year-old girl, who has been raised and protected in a shrine deep in the Kumano mountains. She is quite shy and destroys all the electric devices she touches. When she begins to think about going out of the mountains and moving to the city, her guardian Sagara Yukimasa recommends her to enter a high school in Tokyo and forces his son Miyuki to serve Izumiko for life. Miyuki and Izumiko repel each other but their relationship begins to change when a terrifying accident occurs on the school excursion. Izumiko learns her fate as the last representative (yorishiro) of a Himegami goddess and Miyuki learns of his duty as a guardian Yamabushi of Izumiko.

This new series by PA Works has been streaming on NicoNico for the past three weeks, but I waited until a full HD version was available to do a review, since it is from PA Works and I am a scenery porn addict. I mean, why review something that has horrible resolution and gets all pixelated when you watch it full screen?

The source of the name, Red Data Girl, comes from the “Red Data Book”, which is a book about endangered species. It seems that our heroine is a girl who is an endangered species of some sort. Sounds interesting…
Review:

The first episode of RDG does what it sets out to do well. It introduces the main characters, sets a mood of mystery with a touch of foreboding, and starts the world building off the right way. In my opinion, the pacing and atmosphere of the episode are spot-on. The few main characters we have met all have some amount of mystery about them and they all seem to be very … well flawed, shall we say.

Izumiko Suzuhara, our heroine, is a mousy little waif of a third year middle school girl who doesn't seem to have much backbone, but has a desire to change her life. She also appears to destroy any electronic device she uses. However, at one point she does some seriously strange stuff with the school computers before she totally destroys them, so she seems to be far more than she initially appears. She has been raised the Tamakura Shrine, which is actually part of a World Heritage Site. Her grandfather is the priest there and her parents are AWOL. She has been sheltered and is treated like a bit of a weirdo by her middle school classmates.

Yukimasa Sagara is a “Mountain Monk” or “Mountain Hermit” or “Warrior Monk” depending on how you translate the phrase (Yamabushi). All of them are apt translations. This class of monk were basically ascetic monks that practiced a form of esoteric Buddhism. They believed that isolation in the mountains led to greater enlightenment and mystical, spiritual powers. This, in itself, gives us a good idea of what we're dealing with here…

Miyuki Sagara, our male protagonist, is a jerk. However, he is a jerk that has a jerk for a father and has been dragged out into the middle of nowhere over break with the intent to transfer him to this middle of nowhere school. It is indicated that he has begun his own training as a “mountain monk”, having spent time alone on the mountain when he was 13.

Wamiya Satorou is a classmate of Izumiko who seems to treat her better than many of the others and who she appears to have a bit of a crush on. However, he also gives off about the strongest “creepy” vibe in the world! He just seems wrong!

That's pretty much it for the characters shown in the OP. The real stars of the show are obviously Izumiko and Miyuki, with the others there as supporting characters, in either a positive or negative light.

The art in the show is absolutely wonderful! PA Works has been putting out shows with fantastic background art for several years now and this show does not disappoint in the least. The use of tone and lighting is superb, with a very deep, dark mood set by the use of dark greens and sweeping mountain vistas. One of the wonderful features of the show is their use of these great backgrounds to set the mood and keep the show visually interesting, even when all that is happening is a group of people sitting around talking. They frequently will pan out and show these gorgeous works of art while the characters are talking. This keeps the eyes moving and provides a great deal of atmosphere to the conversations.

The music used in the show is equally good. The OP, ”Small WorlDrop” by Annabel sends shivers down the spine with its swelling strings and somber mood. The ED, ”Yokan” by Masumi Itou, has a very traditional Japanese sound, with lively strings, percussion, and keyboards to go with the wonderful vocals. The art that goes along with the ED is even more special.

The incidental music may stand out more, with a heavy use of chimes and strings. The eerie quality adds to the mood, especially when things get strange.

All in all it looks to be a very promising show, with a palpable sense of a world out of balance, and a sedate, unhurried pace, yet a sense of urgency behind the calm.
Episode Highlights:

The episode opens with Izumiko deciding to make some changes in her life. She starts by cutting her bangs. As she heads to school, everyone seems to take note of her having cut her hair, with quite a bit of shock. I don't think that it is mere coincidence that the words for hair and god are pronounced practically identically. (It appears to be a case of a slightly further back in the mouth placement of the AH sound in “kami”.) On the way to school, we find out that her dad is in America and will miss a parent teacher conference, and that her dad wants her to go to a school in Tokyo for high school, but she wants to stay near home and go to a boarding school that is closer. At school, she finds that her new haircut is also the talk of her classmates.

As her school day continues, we get a feel for how Izumiko's life is, with some of the kids treating her like a weirdo, because of her shrine-maiden vibe, and even her friends making comments about how she needs to “come out of her shell” or “act more like a normal girl” and such. But it appears that there is one kid that doesn't treat her like she is strange, Wamiya.

It also seems she may have a bit of a crush going on here… hmmmmm.

Then it is time to do research for the upcoming class trip to Tokyo, so it is off to the computer lab. Izumiko has already commented to a friend that her new cell phone broke. When it is time to do computer searches, she asks that friend to help.

However, peer pressure lead her to eventually do the research herself, and we are treated to a surreal sequence with the lab filling with water, but only from Izumiko's perspective, and a spectral video chat session with her father in America. Incidentally, her father is just as concerned about her hair.

After she fries all of the computers, the man that her father sent to handle the parent teacher conference for him, Yukimasa Sagara, arrives on a helicopter causing all kinds of fuss.

He is an extremely young looking man, but has a son the same age as Izumiko. He takes her to a hospital for some tests on her brain, and on the way, informs her that the computer conversation may have been because she cut her hair! It seems that her hair is the source of her “spiritual power”. This is all news to Izumiko, who really just cut her hair because she wanted to start taking control of her own life and live like a normal girl. She doesn't seem to have any idea what kind of “power” she has or why she is special.

Back at the shrine, she runs into a boy on one of the mountain paths. This is Miyuki Sagara, the son of Yukimasa, who is here as “reinforcements” according to his father. It is clear that he doesn't get along with daddy dearest and is not too thrilled with being hauled off into the middle of nowhere on his break. He recognizes Izumiko as the mousy little girl he used to know about ten years ago because she still wears her hair in the same braids. The chip on his shoulder is practically another character, it is so large! The three sit down to talk about why Miyuki is here and the kids find out that not only is Miyuki going to transfer into Izumiko's school, but the reason for it is that she doesn't want to go to the high school that Sagara and her father chose for her. Therefore, Miyuki must move to the mountains and attend her schools.

Why? Because he is basically her manservant from birth, or so his father says. It all has to do with Izumiko being the “Himigami”, which nobody has explained yet. But, in a nutshell, she was destined to be protected and sheltered and one of the people charged with that task is Miyuki, whether he likes it or not. He gets a bit huffy, walks out on them and dad follows him outside. While they are out, Izumiko's grandfather informs her that Sagara is a Mountain Monk and it is hinted that Miyuki is also training as one, having spent time alone on the mountain when he was 13. A few minutes later, the two men return and Miyuki looks like he has been thrashed quite thoroughly.

His dad says he “fell down a cliff”, but do we really believe that? I think not! He beat him up, down, and sideways! Regardless, Miyuki is not contrite and will be transferring into Izumiko's school and living at the Shrine. That night, Izumiko sees him in the hallway in obvious pain and asks him why he is transferring if he didn't want to do it. He tells her, basically, that its better than being dead. He also mentions that Yukimasa has a screw loose, at least in Miyuki's opinion. Izumiko remembers some of the last time they met, when Miyuki was bullying her by throwing balls at her.

When she mentions it, we get one of the spots where the translation you are watching makes all the difference. In the first one that I watched, by FFF, Miyuki's response is: “There are some pretty horrible and mean children out there. I thought I'd prepare you for that.” (They were just about to start school at the time.) The Commie translation comes across as much more mean spirited and sarcastic, saying “There was this ugly, dumb girl with braids, so I figured I'd teach her some useful skills.” I can't imagine how these two translations come from the same source material, since one specifically refers to her braids and the other doesn't. If any body wants to enlighten me as to which is more accurate, I'd appreciate it. For now, I'll take the first one I saw, which suggests that, while his methods might have been flawed, even for a 5 year old, Miyuki was not entirely a jerk for his entire life. But at this point, he is not happy about how things are and doesn't understand what makes Izumiko so special. For her part, neither does she.

NEXT WEEK:

A scared Izumiko wants to hold Miyuki's hand? Looks like their frosty relationship may heat up soon!

Screenshots:

This is the 11th post of the Weekly Seiyuu Info Bits series where I try to summarise the week’s (interesting) seiyuu-related news/information.

29th Mar 2013 to 5th Apr 2013

Next week's post might be late as I'll be in Japan.

[News]

Ogura Yui‘s upcoming single's PV is out. Album cover art too. [see here]

Kotobuki Minako‘s live concert BD/DVD will be out on the 19th of June. [source]

Aimi's new single, the OP for Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge “Unmei no Ori”‘s jacket is out. [source] The image is at the top of this post.

Yuuki Aoi and Taketatsu Ayana‘s new unit petit lady is getting a radio program on 文化放送ＡＭ１１３４ｋＨｚ. [source]

魔王、笹塚に立つ | The Dark Lord of Sasazuka

I came into the show expecting some full-blown comedy thrown at me. Those epic battle scenes during the prologue was kinda shocking. However, they were pretty awesome too. The animation looks dark and grim with some bloody violence too. The narration and visual aids while those different battle scenes played out did pretty well in conveying the back story to the show.

All the battles culminated to the final showdown between the Hero and the Demon King of course. Where in his final moments, he decided to flee to an alternate dimension.

Maou-sama meirei de…

I like this series so far, if not for the comedy, for the daily life of how the Demon King adapts in this modern age. From the look of things, his encounter with the Hero in this world, might make his life troublesome. I am looking forward to how that issue is resolves next week.

A sudden encounter! See what happens next week!

Welcome to Queen Decim.

As for the premise, the show starts off with two people, a thirty year old male in a suit and an elderly male, sitting in a bar (sounds like the start of a really bad joke). It is not known how they got there but it is certain that they were being summoned by someone? The purpose of them being there is to play a game. Namely pool or billiards like the title of said show.

In between, the bartender drops subtle hints that the game might be potentially fatal to the loser of the pool match. He mentions stuff like “play like your life depends on it” or that the organ cue balls are harmless. If it was me, I would have thought the game was dangerous too with the way how the bartender says those things.

The flow of the game was with man in the suit at first. After a miss, the elderly man managed to gap the lead the man in the suit had, leaving only two normal cue balls and one 8-ball. At that point the man in the suit tries to kill the elderly man which allowed him to win the pool match undisturbed while the elderly man was motionless (still alive though… might be wrong to use that word here).

At this point it is revealed that both of them were in fact already dead. I certainly did not see that coming. Quite a minor mind screw if you ask me. The true purpose of the match is to judge people who have died at the same time. The bartender says that it is one of the many special rules that would be put into play when a person dies. With the man (quite the bastard cheating on quite a fine lady) in the suit's actions during the pool match, it may be obvious where he might go afterwards. He struggles at first but gradually accepts his fate as the bartender consoles him.

So in the end, both the elderly man and the man in the suit leaves the bar in their respective elevator shafts, as the work of the Queen Decim continues.

Looks like mannequins to me : /

So what did I think of it? Frankly, the introduction was quite jarring as we had no clue of the situation these people are in. That kinda works here as the suspense of the whole plot was part of the atmosphere it tried to pull off. I certainly enjoyed it. Furthermore, the resolution was somewhat satisfying. It gives you some closure yet at the same time, leaves you thinking of what the ending meant. A bit like the spinning top scene at the end of the Inception movie.

Aside from the plot, the animation was beautifully done. The backgrounds were well done especially the cue balls. The character designs are ok too. Not as wonderful as the backgrounds but good enough to be able to be able to move the story along. Designs that are too realistic are a bad thing. It may end up in Uncanny Valley like a certain anime that is about evil flowers.

Overall this is a show that I quite enjoy and is highly recommended. Though I have to say that it leaves me longing for something more.

See you in HELL

真陰, 開幕 | True Shadow, Now Open

*nosebleeds*

I don't know about most people but I can definitely enjoy Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride for what it is. The type of show that you can't help but smile every time

Tadaima gokujin-sama…

絶対仲間にするもん! | I'll make you my friend!

The local canon fodder has arrived!

Overall I rate the show about average. Not terribly interesting at the moment but I do enjoy the moe-ness of the various seiyuus performance. I can see myself watching this as a break from those thriller shows like Devil Survivor 2 and Shingeki no Kyojin. I don't expect the pace of Zettai Bouei Leviathan to pick up anytime soon and I would like for it to stay that way.

Best way to end the episode! With a sunset!

This week's featured song is a relatively older song which I rediscovered recently and I'll be talking about some of the Utattemita versions of the song as well.

This song is composed by Ishifuro (石風呂) who is a relatively well-known producer. His most notable song is actually this song, Yurufuwa Jyukai Girl, with over 600k views on niconico. His songs are mostly created with SF-A2 miki or IA.
The title of the song translates to “Easy-going Soft Extensive Forest Girl” literally. If you think the title is strange, the lyrics are even more so. While the sentences are coherent, the lyrics doesn't make any sense to me at least. There is probably a deep message hidden beneath all the metaphor but it's too much for my shallow brain to handle. You can read the lyrics and make sense of it yourself here.

The song itself is a very cute-sounding song with catchy and crisp beats. Sadly, Miku's vocals aren't exactly the best here. While it does fit the song, it's too high-pitched and sounds too electronic. Which is why today I'll be featuring the some of the more famous covers for this song in this post too.

First up we have Lon's cover with a rearranged version done by Suzumu and Soraru. This version is even more lively than the original and fits really well with Lon's shota voice.

Next up we have Soraru's version with his mellow vocals.

ShounenT's cover with his ikemen voice.

This is Reol's cover and it's almost the cutest thing I've ever heard. Highly recommended.

Saving the best for last, we have recog's version. Best mainly because he manages to be funny and still sound awesome doing it. Seriously, listen to it and try to catch the parts he put in himself. It's hilarious.

Enjoy!

進撃の邪神 | Shingeki no Jashin | Attack on Evil Deity

The plot this time, if you call it that, revolves around Mahiro wanting some personal space for himself. He tells Nyaruko that indirectly by suggesting that she get her own personal space of her own. No one wants to be with you 24/7 do they? She doesn't back off as usual and force a love confession on to him. In one of the lockers of the girl's locer room. Luckily for Mahiro, he was saved by Hasuta's Magic Sigil with both his virginity and sanity still in one piece. In the end, Mahiro did not get the space he wanted. Instead he got dragged along into some crazy shit whenever Nyaruko goes way overboard.

LOL Men In Black's neuralizer

There's probably some more that I had unintentionally missed out :/.

Anyways, I was pretty happy with the comedic level of the first episode. I don't think it might have hooked the first time viewers but to those who had already seen the first season, I'm sure they will enjoy this one too. Looking forward to more antics the cast will get to next. There was that mysterious phone call at the end. Knowing Nyaruko it might be nothing… OR AN END OF THE WORLD SCENARIO!!!!

Stay tuned next time: Nyarko-san Gambaranai

I guess it's time to… call it a day…

Synopsis (From MAL) :

In the latter half of 21st century, humans leave the Earth and begin to live in space. In order to adapt to the environment in space and deal with the hostile aliens in Jupiter, genetically engineered children called “Princes” are artificially raised and trained to be pilots of armed robots “AHSMB (Advanced High Standard Multipurpose Battle Device). This is a story about one of the teenage “Princes”, Hitachi O Izuru, who studies in an academic city Grandzehle.

This school, sci-fi, mecha, action series is an adaptation of a manga that is classified as seinen and serialized in Hero Comics, which is also the home of Ultraman and Soul Reviver. Watching the first episode, I can't imagine how it could be from a magazine aimed at young adult men, but I guess there are other shows that seem just as miss-categorized. (RDG has a lot of people asking if it is shoujo, after all…)

Review

Since the main purpose of most first episodes is to introduce the main characters and the world, I will have to give the series a passing grade on that. It sets up the situation fairly well, with humans under attack from some creepy green alien dudes and one of the advanced outposts about to fall.

Then we're introduced to our five man band of protagonists, to use the terms of the trope:

The Leader: Izuru Hitachi

The guy that usually gets yelled at by his classmates/fellow pilots, but also has a natural leader personality and a desire to be a hero.

The Lancer: Toshikazu Asagi

The guy that thinks he is better than the rest of these losers and wants to be transferred to a team that can keep up with his brilliance.

The Smart Guy: Ataru Suruga

A perverted know-it-all type who is a good sniper and wears glasses. (Which really shouldn't go together!)

The Big Guy: Kei Kugimiya

A quiet serious girl who lacks personality at first blush, but is rather attractive, given the limits of the character designs.

The Chick: Tamaki Irie

Air-head. Ditz. Bimbo. Guy crazy. Team mascot. Comic relief.

So, now that we know who the characters are and what their roles are based on the handy TV Tropes definitions, we can go on to other aspects of the show, like the art.

I have two words for the art: impressive and hideous! Impressive refers to the CG mecha combat and space backgrounds. Hideous would be most everything else, in particular the character designs and animation.

The character designs are crude, cartoony in a “Saturday morning” kind of way, with poor consistency from scene to scene, heavy use of SD transformations and ugly, off-model facial expressions, and downright horrible use of things like the “blush” marks on Tamaki that don't even seem to be attached to her face!

It is as if they just tossed together the characters and the character animation, rushing through it so they could spend more time on the cool space battles.

And those parts of the show are pretty cool, even if they don't really hold up in terms of realistic expectations and such non-essential things like that.

I can't really say much about the story so far, other than the fact that it seems rather standard school mecha fare, and rather implausible, and a poor starting point, in terms of potential growth of the characters.

From the synopsis, it seems that there may be more to this story than first appears, but the execution and the complete lack of concern for making the characters look remotely decent and the rather ridiculous resolution to the episode leaves me with a bit of trepidation about the prospects for this series, to say the least.
Episode Highlights:

The show starts with a human outpost being attacked by an overwhelming alien force that seems to be lead by a creepy green faced guy.

The battle is going badly, so a group of military types that are a safe distance away decide to call for a retreat and abandon the base. But how can they do it without far too many casualties? They decide to call on the MJP.
Meanwhile, a group of student at some sort of military academy are training in mecha units.

Their ability to work together is extremely poor, with one of them rushing out ahead of the others, a couple more following after, then their opponents thrashing them. In the aftermath, the “Fail Five” as they seem to be called by the other students, get to arguing, with the lancer accusing the smart guy sniper of using live ammo, the smart guy being amazed that he could be a student there an not know that the blue rounds are practice ammo and not live, the chick trying to break the fight up and falling on her face, the big guy telling her to ignore the idiots, and the future leader sketching things in his sketch book instead of actually caring about their latest debacle. They then get a thorough tongue lashing from the hot and potentially sadistic instructor, who comes complete with a riding crop. She tells them that, while none of them seem incompetent as individuals, as a team they stink. The lancer asks to be transferred to a team he can work with, and she tells them to submit a report as to why they cannot fight together, in 30 minutes. The proceed to go off and, it seems, totally ignore this order, though one or two of them mention it. However, with the news of the forward base possibly falling, they wonder on what that would mean, commenting that they probably won't be sent out to fight for a long time anyway.

Then their instructor gets called into the commander's office, who informs her that they have a sortie request to participate in the evacuation of the forward base and to assemble “Team Rabbits”, the official name of the “Fail Five”. Why the group of students with the worst combat efficiency ratings would be chosen to help with the evacuation is a mystery to me, at this point, but I assume it has to do with the whole genetic engineering thing in the synopsis…

They travel out to their departure gate with the hot teacher and have a bit of comic relief as the hentai smart guy shows he perviness while the hot teacher gives them candy for no apparent reason. Anyway, they are informed that they are going out into the combat zone and that the real combat units have already been coded with their DNA, so they should be easier to command than the practice units they are familiar with and assigned to their formation: Gunner: Smart guy; Control Unit: Big Guy; Booster Unit: Chick; Forward Unit: Lancer; and Leader: Leader. This is a bit of a “surprise”, since up to this point he seemed to be a goof-off that would rather draw pictures than take life seriously and in the practice failure, nobody seemed to take him seriously. Except that it was telegraphed by the fact that, when they were getting balled out by the hot teacher, his dossier was the one on the desk next to her, singling him out as important. However, that doesn't mean that we don't get to see each of the team members looking puzzled by this turn of events.

They then get the lowdown on what their task actually is: buy time for the forces to evacuate the forward base. Specifically, they have calculated that the evacuation will take about 3 hours and the base will fall in about 2.5 hours. They need to cause enough havoc to delay the inevitable by half an hour. Their newly appointed leader gets his first test when his quick acceptance of their mission causes the others to roll their eyes and complain about how hard this will be, don't be so quick to accept things, etc… But he asserts his leadership by saying they have to pull this off! They all realize he is right, at which point he gets all misty because it is the first time he has been taken seriously by his teammates, which prompts a new round of “This is our leader? Seriously?” from the team.

In any case, the Commander then asks them what their dreams are, to which the first two guys respond that their dream has already come true: piloting a cutting-edge unit for the GDF (something defense force?) the Big Guy says she hadn't really thought about it, the Chick acts all flustered, and then the leader looks embarrassed and says he wants to become a hero, which leads to another round of WTF from his team. The Commander responds that they are the GDF's dream!

Then it is time to prep for their mission and meet their color coded mecha units:

Leader Unit – Red

Then they are off to do combat. At first, they seem to have trouble controlling their units, then they are told that the units respond to their desires and the reason they aren't moving is that they have to, basically, conquer their fear and want to go into combat. They get into the fray and cause enough havoc for the evacuation to be complete… or is it?

They can see that there are still civilians on the platform, waiting for the next evacuation shuttle. The problem is, there aren't any more ships to evacuate them. They are ordered to return. When their leader fails to respond, giving them the order to return, the Big Guy in the control unit assesses that the only way to save those people, since there are no ships to evacuate them, is to defeat the enemy. The team tells him its impossible, but his response is:

So with this thought in mind, they proceed to go on the attack, the support staff sends out a new, better weapon for the leader. (One wonders why they wouldn't have armed him with the best weapon in the first place…) And, to everyone's surprise, they win, causing the big green face to decide this is more trouble than it is worth and retreat.

Well, perhaps not everyone is surprised:

It seems the Commander expected these untested underachievers to pull off the impossible. I wonder why? No, actually, I don't.

I will admit that, despite the predictable nature of the show, it still had a feel good ending, but it also left me wondering where they possibly think they can go from here. If they are already good enough, with practically zero training, to defeat an enemy attack fleet that the regular warships of the GDF were unable to hold off, where exactly are we headed with this little five man band? It doesn't seem that there is much room for growth, except that they will most likely continue to fumble about and fail as students and only excel when they are in their specially DNA coded combat units. Perhaps the next step is to combine their color coded mecha units into one giant fighting mecha… (From the preview, that looks like what's coming…)

In short, I'll give it a couple more episodes before a drop it, but I can't see myself lasting the whole season. Not with the horrible character animation.

…With time, the people of the earth began to build a city with a giant tower. By building the tower they wanted that to reach the heavens and also to prevent their city from being scattered. They were given different languages and were scattered across the world.

…The people of Jericho built walls around their city to protect themselves from invaders. Confident that they were safe in their haven, they mocked the people outside the walls. People blew trumpets and by a mysterious power, the walls were knocked down.

We lived in a peaceful time, walls built around our city to protect ourselves from them. We thought we were safe…

But that day…we learned of them. We learned…about the titans.

Peace does not last forever. Invisible war wages everywhere, every day. Because peace does not last forever. What might be your best friends today, might be your worst enemies tomorrow. That ride their bike with no handlebars. The main characters Eren and Mikasa, unfortunately, learn this lesson through how many others learn it, the hard way. The outside walls plagued with titans, the walls serve to keep them away until one day, lightning strikes. One giant, colossal hand finally marks the breaching of the many walls that surround the city and provide it with its' supposed “peace”.  True despair sets in when even the scouting legion fails to get any information on the Titans, and human lives were sacrificed for naught. Peace…is gone.

Everything in this show seems hopeless, from humans trying to fend off giants with mere metal-made tools. Oh well, slightly better than David and Goliath. Only layers of walls built to block them off. The darker tones and sharply drawn characters emphasize the depressing premise of the series. The background music is scarce, only hitting deep, sharp tones when something dramatic and memorable happens (usually in a negative sense, for this episode). Why then, does this series draw me in so much?

Because we learn to cheer for the underdog. Remember? “We'll show them…that the good guys always win.” There will always be humans that want to fight against the impossible, holding the precious hope that no one may have. To win. Eren is the embodiment of that. Why do we want to be frogs in a well, where the world is out there to explore?

Yes, Zephyr, you may be true.

“One day, ‘that wall’s gonna fall, and tears are gonna spill.'”

However, I can see another side to that song.

I see your star you left it burning for me
Mother, I'm here

Eyes open wide
feel your heart and it's glowing
I'm welcome home, sweet home

- Bastion Soundtrack, “Mother, I'm here”

Even through the loss of his mother, I know that Eren will find a way to beat them.  To plant a seed of hope in our hearts as we continue to watch through all the suffering. I can see it simply in his eyes. We'll find a new home. Heck, we'll rebuild it.

We'll show them…that the good guys always win.

Synopsis (From MAL): 

Kazuya, a mild-mannered high school sophomore coming to the end of a very average summer break, receives a digital single lens reflex camera as a gift. His nerdy fascination with its design soon turns to wonder when he realizes this little gadget could really give his social life a shot in the arm!

Based on a PSP Visual Novel, with multiple manga adaptations already out there, the Photo Kano game was by the same company that did the Amagami SS games. Whether the series will be formatted similar to the Amagami SS series, with separate arcs for each girl, is anyone's guess at this point. I know that one of the manga adaptations: Photo Kano: Sweet Snap, has only done the “Haruka” arc so far, in thirteen chapters. I am not sure about the other adaptations.

Review:

In any Visual Novel/Dating Sim based anime, the first question that probably comes to mind is: What are the character designs like? After all, the primary point of these products is the girls, right? (OK, occasionally one will have a story worth pondering, but that is just a bonus!) So, without further ado, let us meet them:

Kazuya Maeda– Our protagonist, Kazuya is your typical high school slacker. He doesn't belong to a club, spent his recent summer break doing precisely nothing, and generally hasn't got much going for him, other than possibly being a “nice guy”. Over break, his dad got himself a new camera and gave Kazuya his old model. He has a history of bouncing around from hobby to hobby it seems, but perhaps photography is a hobby he can sink his teeth into? Somehow he feels that this camera could change his life…

Haruka Niimi - Billed as the “main female character”, Haruka is Kazuya's childhood friend. They used to play in the park together as kids, but since, oh… somewhere around puberty I'd guess … they have drifted apart. She has become the idol of their school. Good grades, star of the tennis team, beautiful, nice… the perfect girl. He just feels distant from her. She is too far out of his league to even consider being friends, let alone more. However, it is unclear that she agrees with his assessment of the situation. His sister is also on the tennis club with Haruka.

Tomoe Misumi– A friend of Haruka's and fellow 2nd year classmate. (I presume she is also a 2nd year, since Kazuya doesn't call her sempai and she doesn't call him sempai.) She appears to be a sad girl, perhaps sad because she has a yuri crush on Haruka? Hard to say, but she looks like project number 1 for our protagonist to use his lens to peer into her heart and fix her problems.

Nonoka Masaki– A friend of Kazuya, she teases him about his lack of direction and changing hobbies, calling him Darts'un, since the hobby he stayed with longest was darts. They have a playful relationship, and are on a first name/nick name basis, which suggests that they are close friends.

Aki Muroto– A girl on the swimming team. There is no information on how she knows Kazuya yet, other than as a school acquaintance. She does berate him for running in the halls in the first episode.

Rina Yunoki– Another unknown quantity. We see her dropping a box of oranges right after Aki yells at Kazuya. We'll have to keep watching to see how she fits in. Her character design and dropping the oranges suggests that she is the girly/clumsy type.

Mai Sakura– A classmate of Kazuya's sister Kanon, she is a rhythmic gymnast and is the first girl that Kazuya takes a picture of at school. He sees her practicing in the gym and can't pass up the “shutter chance”. She hears the shutter and as they talk they discover the connection of her close friend being his sister.

Hikari Sanehara– A member of the Photo Club, she seems to be a bit of a loner, not to mention a potential tsundere or kuudere. He sees her taking pictures of the sky on the roof while he is taking pictures of the school fountain. Interestingly, there is a picture of her taking a picture of that same fountain earlier in the episode. Perhaps these two have a lot in common? Hard to say at this point.

The designs are fine, for what they are. The hair is all of natural colors, which is a pleasant touch in a harem show. The girls are relatively easy to tell apart, with different hair and body styles despite the limited range of hair colors used. There is a pleasant variety of short, medium, and long hair, with each having a distinctive style, be it pigtails, a long ponytail with short bangs, hair clips on one side, a bit of hair off to the side in a hairband, or just long flowing hair. The designs are fairly consistent, only really going off model when in the background, and the body styles are, for the most part, on the realistic side, with most of the girls having normal proportions. (The student teacher that they meet in the first sequence after the OP is an exception to that.)

As a show about photography, one would expect the background art to stand out. That is not the case with Photo Kano. While the backgrounds are serviceable, they are not outstanding in any way. However, there are times when the art steps up, frequently when the protagonist is photographing something. This is an interesting approach, which could work quite well, making his photographs stand out and look wonderful in comparison to the blasé backgrounds. These shots from the ED are good examples of the improved quality of photo images:

Story wise, the show is too new to really tell. The first episode basically presents the protagonist, his new hobby, and some of the important people in his life. It then goes into a battle between two competing photography clubs for his membership, as his snapping pictures around campus has been noticed. Next week will get more into the meat of the story, I expect.

The OP is a very nice song, with nice accompanying graphics, as is the ED. Neither really stand out yet, but they may become more hummable with repeated listening. The incidental music fits the mood but doesn't stand out in any way, and the sound effects and voice acting are all well done. I particularly like the shutter sounds used with the eye-catch graphics.

One nice touch in the ED is a shot of the seven girls, facing away, then replaced with flowers. If anyone here knows how to tell animated flowers apart, I would be very grateful for some hints as to what flowers replace each girl. I'm sure that, using the “language of flowers”, the animators have made a statement about each girl. For instance, I am pretty sure that Haruka's flower is a pink Lily of the Valley, which I know from a couple other anime shows and manga, means “Happiness will return.” Very suggestive for a flower identified with the childhood friend character, no?

All in all, a pleasant first episode with nice character designs, some good art choices, and an emphasis on a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I'll keep on watching for a while, at least.

Episode Highlights

The episode leads off with Kazuya taking photos of some cos-players or models or something.

He even has the guts to ask the top model at the event to do a pose just for him.

Then, a girl off to the side gets his attention, and is not at all happy…

It is Haruka Niimi, his childhood friend, with a bunch of other girls in bunny suits behind her. This causes Kazuya to wake up! It seems that his new camera is already impacting his life, if only in his dreams.

After the OP, Kazuya and his sister Kanon are getting ready for the first day back to school after summer break. On the way, Kazuya is approached by Haruka Nimmi, the girl who seems to haunt his dreams.

Ah, the clueless protagonist begins here! Look at her face, man! She asks him what he's been up to over break, complains that while she saw his sister, Kano-chan, at club practice, she didn't get to see him even once. Does he notice that the prettiest girl in the school is making sad eyes at him about not seeing him over summer break? Does the fact that she approached him while walking to school make a dent in his self image? Nope, not one bit.

While they walk, a outrageously large breasted bike rider comes by and comments on their walking to school together, reminiscing about how she always wished for a fun school life like that.

After this huge hint about what their relationship looks like to strangers that neither of them get, Haruka sees a friend who looks down, but before going to say hello to her, makes Kazuya promise to take a picture of her sometime, even it it is with Kano-chan. He agrees. Haruka goes to talk to her friend, Misumi (the sad one), but before they can talk, some overly energetic girls come and drag the ever popular Haruka away. As he watches her go away, Kazuya ponders their relationship. She is the ultra popular girl with top grades, a bright personality, and ace of the tennis club. When they were kids, they used to play together, but since then she has become “a distant figure.” Thinking of her asking him to take her picture, he wonders if his camera will change his life?

Oh! Who am I kidding!

Flash back to last night…. His sister Kanon, usually called Kano-chan, comes into his room, scantily dressed, looking for pencil led. She berates him about not having finished his summer homework before the festival season, and notices the camera. After fussing about the fact that dad better buy her some new cloths to make up for giving him such an expensive gift, she asks him to take some pictures of her!

She is deathly cute, even if she does look more like a first year middle school girl than the first year high school girl she is supposed to be. (Unless their private school has both middle and high school wearing the same uniforms.) To the show's credit, Kazuya doesn't leer or blush or get flustered about his scantily clad sister coming in his room, leaning over so he can clearly see down her top from the perspective he is at, and want him to take pictures of her. This is a very pleasant surprise in a world full of anime little sisters with bro-cons and anime older brothers with hard sis-cons whether they admit it or not. This is the type of interaction I would expect between siblings. She isn't trying to entice him with her body and he isn't sexually frustrated by her doing things that, if one of his classmates did, would probably cause him to turn red from the knees up. It is refreshing!

Next we're introduced to their school, Kouga Academy. A private school much like any other. The voice-over narration informs us that, if anything sets the school apart, it is “the freedom the students have and how passionate they are about their club activities.” (along with a few choice fan service shots…)

This, of course, highlights how out of touch with the student body our protagonist is. In a school full of people passionate about their clubs, he is a “go home club” member. Then we get to meet the outrageously large breasted student teacher as she freaks about being in the wrong classroom.

Now that our pointless fan service is out of the way, we can continue with the story. Kazuya muses that, while it has been 40 days since he was last at school, nothing changes. The same classes, same campus, same ol' same ol'. But then at break, he runs out to the courtyard, nearly running into one of our harem members.

Then passes another in the hall as she drops her oranges.

As he head's outside with his camera, her realizes that something has changed. Now he views everyone around him as potential photo subjects. Maybe that camera is changing something…

Hmmmm… Could our protagonist have a bit of pervert hiding inside that bland shell? But, on a more serious note, as someone that went through the early stages of becoming serious about photography, it does change your perceptions. You begin to look at the world through a two-thirds rule frame of reference, judging the lighting of your surroundings, and, yes, noticing when pretty girls (and occasionally guys) could be captured by a click of your shutter, saving those moments of pure beauty for all to see.

As he walks along, he sees a young girl doing Rhythmic Gymnastics in the gym and sees it as a “Shutter Chance”. (One quibble with the translation in the version that I watched: Why on earth did they translate his saying, in English, “Shutter Chance” as “A photo opportunity”? Come on! Use the original! GAH!)

She, of course, hears the shutter go off. He finds out that she is Mei Sakura, a first year student and a friend of his sister Kanon. She doesn't seem to mind him taking her picture, perhaps since he is a kind of good looking sempai and one of her best friend's brothers as well. But what he doesn't realize is that someone is watching him…

After nearly falling asleep in class, he goes out to take some more pictures.

Then he notices a girl on the school roof, taking pictures of clouds.

Perhaps a kindred spirit? But before he can think more on that, he is called out by a friend, Nonaka Masaki. She teases him a bit about his lack of direction and drifting from hobby to hobby, then notices the camera. She then teases him about missing his opportunity to take a picture of a beautiful young lass in the flower of youth playing softball! He teases back, asking “Where?” Eventually, he tells her to just ask if she wants him to take a picture of her. She certainly does!

But, when he lines up the shot, she gives him a silly face instead.

Rather embarrassed, he says goodbye. Then, the creepy guy that had been following him approaches.

It turns out that he is the president of the Photography Club and wants to recruit him. His philosophy is: Borderline Eroticism is art and the only thing worth taking pictures of. In short, he is a pervert.

He takes our protagonist to his club room to meet the rest of the club: A short guy that specializes in upskirt photography, a tall guy that specializes in downshirt photography, and a stealthy girl that specializes in stealth photography. 

They want him to join, but mostly because they see him as having an “in” with some of the choice young ladies on campus, in particular the school idol, his childhood friend Haruka Niimi, the captain of the softball team, his friend Nonoka Masaki, and his sister's friend, Rhythmic Gymnast Mei Sakura.

In what has to be one of the strangest parings I have ever heard of, the 1970s heavy metal rock band KISS is teaming up with Hello Kitty of all things and developing an animated series!

The tentatively titled Kiss Hello Kitty show will star “four Kiss x Hello Kitty characters living their rock ‘n' roll dreams and bringing pink anarchy to every situation they are in.” Kiss vocalist Gene Simmons would serve as an executive producer.

KISS is even a bit before my time, but they are about as far from what I think of when I hear Hello Kitty as possible. This is just too strange for words…

[Source: ANN]

Megpoid the Music# is a Rhythm / Music game, developed and published by ParaPhray, which was released in Japan in 2013. The game utilizes horizontally scrolling beats that appears in synch with the music. Depending on the accuracy of the player, a ranking of Bad, Well, Excellent or Perfect will be given. There are a total of four difficulties for each song. With each progressing difficulty, the buttons that will be used in the game will be increased.

Gameplay:
Like most of your standard rhythm game, you press the beats in tune with the music, with each fail attempt at doing so would increase the number of “miss”. More “miss” means a lower score and inevitably a lower ranking. I find that the game resembles the Hatsune Miku Project Diva game franchise by quite a lot. Though, the differences between them are quite obvious. For one the beats or notes are lined vertically on top of each other. Furthermore, they are also static as well, with each new beats scrolling in horizontally from the right.
Music:
If you like Gumi you will certainly find the game play music to be enjoyable. I do like Gumi's music in this game but I find that the amount of diversity and quantity of music is lacking. There are some optional DLC's that can be bought but I find the initial offering less than satisfying. Don't get me wrong though, the quality of the songs present is really good. I might want to scour for some of those songs later.

Misc:
Other than the main game play, there's a shop you can buy various item with the points you earn. Most of the item in the shop are accessory items for Gumi's Room. Other then that, there's also different costumes that can be unlocked and be bought later. Most of them are kinda pricey so grinding for points to spend is necessary if you want them all. Note that Gumi's attire in game will stay the same. The costume changes only applies to the main menu screen and in Gumi's Room. Multiplayer is available via ad-hoc if you want to play with some friends.

Final Thoughts:
A fun yet uninspiring rhythm game. It's initial premise of being similar to Project Diva but with Gumi instead falls quite short of it. With only a single module to play with, costumes not available in the actual gameplay and the lack of initial offering of songs, the game doesn't offer much in terms of originality nor replayability. Gumi's Room feels tacked on with the only uselful function being the gallery section. However, fans of Gumi may be able to look past these flaws and hopefully enjoy the game as it is. The gameplay is definitely enjoyable but only on the higher difficulty settings. All in all an average game for the PSP.

I give it: 6.5/10
———————————————————————————————————————

I tend to find Slice of life shows very hard to review; they tend to have very little plot (with no guarantee for humor). This one is no different – This anime talks about the story of 3 girls and what happens “when nothing is happening.” But despite its first episode being only ~ 4 minutes long ( With its OP and ED, mind you.) , I thought this one was really very refreshing and deserves a watch for fans who are into the slice of life genre.

Summary:

The first episode of this show really feels more of a teaser rather than a full episode – showing a vignette of a day of Ayuko (one of the main characters) before her 1st day of school.  She traverses around the neighbourhood, looks around at the shops and eats ice-cream in front of a desserts shop. A small comedic scene occurs as a orange haired girl ( presumably Sayaka from the OP) bumps into her and dropping her scoop of ice cream while messing around with her own friend, the yellow hair-ed girl Saki. Sayaka hastily switches the Ice cream cone in Ayuko's hand with Saki's Taiyaki before running off the screen, Saki chases her orange haired friend as Ayuko takes a bite into the Taiyaki, not knowing that it's..rather special.

Review:

I tend to have very little tolerance for OPs – and for a good 70% of the shows I've watched I really tend not to watch OPs. But this one had a wacky and frenetic OP ( which really reminded me of Nichijou and Hyadain) that really made me watch the whole thing. You could see from the OP that The artwork really had a very relaxed and “yukkuri-ish” feeling to it despite the very upbeat OP song, with a fair mixture of sketchy lines artwork mixed around especially in the background.

Alright, I'll admit that the ‘Kani' ( crab in Japanese)  and ‘ Fuwa Kani Furai' ( lit. trans: really soft fried crab) in the OP partly made me fell in love with it too. ふわ蟹フライ！

Dialogues and speeches were kept to a very minimum in this episode but what was absolutely breathtaking and awesome was the background art of the whole town as Ayuko walked around it, along the shopping streets and such. The seeming slow and quiet pace of the show was really relaxing and sets an atmosphere similar to Sketchbook ~Full Colours~ and gave me a lot of time to observe the beautiful scenes of the town in itself. The rather sketchy and hand drawn background made it feel was if I was looking at a few art masterpieces rather than an animated episode in itself. It also did a very good job on capturing the small small nuances and things in life while it was at it – and gave Ayuko's day a very colorful and wonderful feel.

The scene at the end was rather comedic and very cute. Rather good way to end the show, but it really left me hanging. Come on, 2 minutes was really way too short — Even Penguin Musume had 5 at least?

Priceless look after figuring out that the Taiyaki she got was extra Spicy ( Geki Karai). I wonder if there's really a “Spicy Taiyaki” though. Hmm.. :3 

ご冥福を心からお祈りします | 月満懐空 [pixiv]

Media Factory's MF Bunko J Editor-in-Chief Taiji Misaka announced on Wednesday that Zero no Tsukaima author Noboru Yamaguchi passed away on April 4 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 41.

(Via Anime News Network)

To Yamaguchi-sensei:

Thank you very much for creating the Zero no Tsukaima universe. The anime adaptations of the light novels you wrote were one of the first shows I completed when I first began my journey into anime. I can still vividly remember how much I loved the series back then and I always feel a sense of nostalgia when I think back to the days when I was watching it. Although we have never met, I feel really glad to have had the affinity of picking up a series which brought me to the magical world you envisioned; it was but a chance encounter, but it left a mark in my life and now has a special place in my heart.

You have delivered a beautiful world of fantasy and a great story to fans throughout the world. You have left a legacy behind, and you will be sorely and dearly missed by your fans.

You have fought strong and you have fought well in your battle against cancer. May you rest in peace and find happiness where ever you might be now. お疲れ様でした。

Yours truly,
A Fan

It's been 12 hours since I learnt of his death, but I still can't stop thinking about it. When the author of  a work that is close to your heart passes away, you can't help but feel that you've lost something as well. All I can say is “RIP, and I hope that you are now in a better place”…

勇者, 仕事優先で魔王城に泊まる | The Hero Stays at the Dark Lord`s Stronghold for Work Reasons

A true working class lady

Even with the subplot added I am really liking the show so far. It isn't your typically romcom it's much more than that. The funny moments are good too. So does the serious parts. They come hand in hand complementing one another. I hope Hataraku Maou-sama! will be able to maintain this level of awesomeness throughout its entire run.

The Hero Cries

Aku no Hana is probably the most controversial anime in the Spring 2013 anime lineup, and not without good reason. For as much flak as it got though, I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode and I shall offer my analysis and review here.

Art:

To start off, let's discuss the point of contention which divides watchers: Art.

The art in Aku no Hana would turn off viewers who are used to standard anime fare where characters are either beautifully drawn or look moe. In fact, even some readers of the original manga were unhappy about how the anime turned out. This is because the director decided to apply a technique known as rotoscopy in the anime, causing the characters to look nothing like anime at all. (You can read the interview with the original mangaka and anime director if you want to know more about what was going on in their minds to have them reach this decision.)

As someone who has checked out the first chapter or so of the manga before the anime aired though, I didn't mind the art in the anime; in fact, I thought it was great. I do admit that I was indeed somewhat surprised at the art when when I first saw people posting screenshots of the raws on twitter as it aired, but after I sat down and watched the episode as a whole I grew to understand, accept and like it.

In my opinion, once you keep in mind that the director wanted to achieve a “live action” feel with the anime, you really start to see the faces of real human actors from the art. In fact, with a bit of imagination, you'd realise that Saeki's real human actor is actually quite pretty.  That aside, I have no idea whether it was due to the lack of aesthetically pleasing character art to focus on or because the intriguing, unfamiliar art-style really drew me in – or a combination of both – that I started to actually pay more attention to other details such as voice acting and the way the story unfolded. If we were to look past the characters, the background art and animation is actually pretty up-to-standard with anime today as well. To put it simply, I found the choice of art was really interesting. It felt like I was watching a live action movie set in the dream-scape of the anime world.

Tamura Yukari could've been Saeki's real-life actor for all you know…

I won't exaggerate and say that using rotoscoped character art is the best means of supplementing the storytelling and conveying of the dark themes that this anime handles; in fact, if it had just used the same art style as the manga, I'm pretty sure it would still be able to get the story through to viewers equally well. Neither of course, will I make the mistake of calling it “avant-garde” because such standards of character art is not unseen in past anime. Rather, all I can say is that the art suits the anime and complements it to a certain extent by helping us see these characters as real people, as people like you and me.

Review:

In my opinion, this episode is meant to introduce us to the setting of the story, and that it does in great length.

Our protagonist is Kasuga Takao, a boy who lives in in what appears to be an old suburban area of Japan. He is a student and has a group of friends whom he gets along with very well. He seems to be an only child who living with parents who care about him, and he is the only one in his family who drinks milk. Like many other pubescent teenage boys Takao has a crush on a girl, and the girl in question is none other than Nanako Saeki, a girl in his class who not only has good grades but is also shown to be rather sporty. Perhaps his most outstanding point is that he is a bookworm with a vested literature, as he is always reading a book in class and visits the bookstore on a regular basis. In other words, he is what you would consider to be a characteristically normal teenager; his only defining point, if it can even be called such a thing at all, is that he has a slightly uncommon interest.

As the story unfolds, we learn that Takao is currently reading Les fleurs du mal (a.k.a. The Flowers of Evil, or as the title of this anime is called, Aku no Hana) by Charles Baudelaire. The story also drops hints that Takao views Baudelaire with high regard – as evidenced by the framed photo of Baudelaire that Takao keeps on his bookshelf – and that his love for books was inspired by his father, who appears to have a large collection himself.

We see that Takao's love for literature is matched by his infatuation for Saeki; he often turns to look at her in class – and she has probably noticed it herself as well – and we see that he is often thinking of her, be it when he is at school or at home. The most indicative sign of this is when we see imagery of Saeki being juxtaposed with Takao reciting verses from Les fleurs du mal while he is immersed in his dreamlike world.

While Takao's friends accept his passion for books despite not being able to identify with it, Takao seems to feel that his love for books makes him somewhat superior to others (as revealed in an argument with his friend about how he was “different” because he read books). He hopes that Saeki would notice that he was reading Les fleurs du mal, presumably assuming that someone who he views in such a positive light would similarly be able to appreciate the literature he was reading and thus think highly of him.

In one of the later scenes, we find that Takao's love for books does not translate to good grades for him, with him scoring 52/100 for a test (with Saeki in contrast topping the class with 98/100). However, what was particularly striking was that in that same scene, Takao's classmate Sawa Nakamura (who sits behind him) was shown to have left her exam script entirely blank, and she enraged the teacher by saying something along the lines of “Shut up, you piece of sh*t”. He was so furious that he almost hit her, but stopped short of doing it when he realised she was taunting him and considered the consequences of hitting a female student. The anime leaves it with her returning to her seat and the teacher asking her to see him after class, but gives us no indication of whether she will be a main character in future episodes.

Nearer to the end of the episode, we see images (and hear rustling, creeping sounds) of what appears to be something about to sprout, something about to manifest itself. This builds up towards the end of the episode where Takao returns to school to retrieve his prized book that he had absent-mindedly left under his table, and notices a bag belonging to Saeki fall to the ground from a cubicle. At this very moment, the ending theme cuts in in what I feel was a stroke of brilliance as Takao eyes widen.

Hana ga saita yo (The flower bloomed.)
Hana ga hana ga saita yo (The flower, the flower bloomed.)
Hidoku kaze ni obieta (It was terribly afraid of the wind.)
Daremo mita koto nai hana ga saiteita yo (Nobody had ever seen it before, and it bloomed.)

We cut to a scene where we see a Flower of Evil bloom, and the scene then fades away to the rolling end credits. This is quite a climatic and suspenseful cliffhanger I would say, and it leaves us questioning: “What is this flower of evil that bloomed in Takao's heart, that nobody had ever seen before? What exactly was this ‘wind' it afraid of?”

Overall, I felt that the execution of this first episode was good; the well cued end theme especially had me literally banging my fists on my table. With regards to the music, I felt that the background music really managed to keep the mood somewhat grim and solemn throughout the whole episode, and I really liked the opening song. The ending theme was really… something else, and the image shown after the ending credits rolled was not quite ordinary either.

Aku no Hana is a deviant. A really bold deviant, indeed.

Verdict:

End Card: The mangaka tells us “pieces of shi*t” to tune in next week too.

With it's art style, the Aku no Hana anime is one that polarises anime fans. Given that the original manga was already pretty niche, the anime is bound to result in further isolation of fans that enjoy this series as a whole in both anime and manga forms. The first episode introduces a lot of new content not present in the manga in a bid to lay out the background and setting for the story (in fact, everything is original content until we reach the last 5 minutes of the anime, which corresponds to half of the first chapter of manga), but in doing so does not make obvious the direction in which the anime is headed towards.

However, I feel that the anime hits all the right spots for me. I like the art and the method of storytelling, especially with the scenes where Takao's thoughts are juxtaposed with Baudelaire's poetry. The background music really set the mood for the anime well and the opening and ending songs are befitting of the anime. While the Aku no Hana might not be everyone's cup of tea, I will definitely be watching on for now to see how the story develops.

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