neko's thinkbox

PLEASE DON'T SAY YOU ARE LAZY DATTE HONTOU WA CRAZY

Reminds me, I still need to catch up to K-On! Later, later.

Following last week’s sudden revelation, I kind of got… busy, if you know what I mean. Never thought RL could be this entertaining. :P Meaning, my impressions got delayed quite a fair bit, and five weeks into the season, others might already expect previews on the winter season… Just bear with me. ^^;

All I can hope that like me, you haven’t gotten around to check out the Fall season yet, so you could relate to these impressions. Though, even if you ARE following any of these series, let it not hinder you to read it and tell me if it’s close to what you felt when you first watched it, and if it gets better or worse. Then again, for some series… it was quite a swift and clear verdict.

List of series in Part 2:

• Kuuchou Buranko / Trapeze
• Kobato
• Natsu no Arashi: Akinai-chuu
• Nyan Koi!
• Sasameki Koto
• Seitokai no Ichizon

Kuuchou Buranko / Trapeze

I wouldn't.

Now THAT’s a syringe. Who wouldn’t want to be stung by her? (I don’t.)

I already had heard beforehand about how colorful Kuuchuu Buranko was, but I didn’t fathom such surrealism at all. Random imagery, flat people, erratic design, chaotic colors, the whole shebang. And I thought Aoi Bungaku looked abstract, heh!
As for Bakemonogatari last season, I’m pretty wary of all the images and obscure references, but in the case of Trapeze, they feel relatively intriguing, much unlike the usual cross-referencing and widely sarcastic SHAFT perks I dislike.

Though I wouldn’t go as far as to compare this to Bakemonogatari, since I only watched the first episode of the latter anyway so I couldn’t possibly uphold this comparison. However, I might watch some more of Kuuchuu Buranko, because I find the mix of acid trippy designs and explaining and treating mental illnesses fascinating. Like the effect of a single placebo injection onto someone with stress disorder and insomnia. The overall design might seem poor and cheap (which I suppose it actually is) but it creates a nice effect I haven’t seen in a while (can’t put the finger on where I last saw real people and places in my anime).
 
Watch: Likely.
Blog: Freud, help me. – No.

Kobato

Who?

This guy actually reminds me of someone from another anime. Must be someone from another CLAMP series. I just can’t remember. It’s just that ponytail. Argh, whatever.

Well. What can I say about this anime? The main character reminded me of Akari Mizunashi quite a lot, for her innocence, her naivete and dullness, her SD faces. Her bagChirp chirp. Tweet. Chirp. reminds me of twitter. That Ioryogi dog looks like… dunno.
This anime looked so cute! And it’s (yet another) CLAMP manga adaptation, too!

However! Three minutes in, I was already dozing off, and after 10 minutes I started snoring, my head slipped off my supporting hand and fell down on the keyboard, accidentally closing the video player. Said video player refused to start ever again.
 
Dropped.^[1]

Natsu no Arashi: Akinai-chuu

Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

Perfect.

..no, not the anime.

First, I lose motivation by thinking “Well, I haven’t really finished Season 1 of Natsu no Arashi^[2] so I wouldn’t be aware of any information that might have been mentioned in the end anyway“, but then I miraculously manage to encourage myself to watch it anyway, so I would have a legitimate reason not to follow it after all.
And what happens? 30 seconds into the Opening, the video simply closes in every player I have. Though this time, it’s unintentional. Good Job SFW-Shinji, you guys just saved me yet another 20 minutes for this batch.

Because, I didn’t even like the OP song. At least in the first series, they offered a great song that got stuck in my head for quite a while, and which I still listen to today.
 
Dropped.^[3]

Nyan Koi!

Normal is sooooo wonderful.

That’s exactly what I thought too, last week… Oops, I really should stop talking about that certain event.

Surprises over surprises inya this series. Or rather, I just had the wronyang expectationyans (oh the hypocrisy). Mostly biased by the recenyant trenyand of spikinyang fanyanservice in anime, I presumed that this onye would be about some guy who would be surrounyanded by a harem of cats tranyansforminyang inyanto catgirls inya Ranyanmaesque kinyand of way. But fortunyately, it was nyot so. Anyand I’m glad it is nyot. Because I quite like Nyan Koi!

Hard to guess, I do love cats!Nyan nyan nyan nyan! Nyan!!^[4] So Nyan Koi is a show tailored for people like me. But while it would be possible to catch my attention with a bunch of cats for half an hour indeed, I probably wouldn’t be looking forward to watching cats every week. So what’s in this series for me? Comedy, cuteness, and an interesting premise.

I mean, who has never dreamt of being able to understand animal language? I’ve always loved stories that imbue human thoughts and behaviors into ubiquitous domestic animals. For instance, I always wanted to know whether my neighbor’s cat avoided me on purpose or just out of shyness.^[5]
Well figures, the one who is suddenly able to understand cats is Kousaka Junpei, a massive cat hater, who incidentally is allergic to those purring furballsQuite the sensible person, he is. too. That’s ironically funny, and if you add the sinister curse that Junpei might turn into a cat himself if he doesn’t help 100 meow-meows, it suddenly gets very interesting. Even more since his crush, Mizuno Kaede, is a big compulsive cat lover. And likes cool, violent moviesNever judge a book by its cover..
Very funny episode, I adhered to the story, liked the light jokes, and find the overall design cute. And I’m forgetting that I was surprised this anime was not what I think it was – very good stuff.

The only thing that bothers me is that the storyline seems pretty predictable to me: Junpei will help many cats, encounter more female cat lovers, cause embarrassing situations and misunderstandings, end up loving cats while losing that precious ability to understand them, and end up in some fur-licking romance with Kaede.
Still, I’m enjoying this show. And looking forward to watching more of it.
 
Watching: Yes! :3
Blogging: Give me some catnip and I will.

Sasameki Koto

Not who I thought they were...

Welcome back, Fumi and Akira! Oh wait…

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an image on twitter showing the main character of Aoi Hana next to the main character of Sasameki Koto. And I thought, “wow, they really DO look alike!” But what I didn’t know at that time was that Sasameki Koto was a show about yuri/shoujo ai as well.

The similarities are staggering. Both anime start with a veeeeeeeeeery mellow and soft tune, both have tall and a short lead couple, the main character wears glasses and has long dark hair, heck, even her name, Sumi, is reminiscent of a certain Fumi, and almost every girl swings that way. After the first few minutes, I was already annoyed that I would have to watch Aoi Hana 2.0, and while I said I didn’t mind getting a sequel, I didn’t want different characters, design, nor anything else. But after a while, I noticed the differences. Unlike Akira, Kazama IS interested in girls from the get-go. In fact, she’s a lesbian to the core. But then again, the main lead does have a crush on Ak- Kazama too though. Hmm. Oh, there are no pastel colors either. Definitely a big change.

Oh I know! There is a huge difference, and it’s the main thing that actually made me watch Aoi Hana. It’s the subtlety. You see, in Sasameki Koto, we start right off the bat with two kissing girls, marking the tempo of this series: lots of fast-paced and facetious yuri action, already drawing the unrequited love triangle drama, etc etc. Subtext? Supertext!
No, I just don’t have real peace of mind here. The music, the atmosphere, the characters, the design, the story itself… I can’t really put my finger on it, so I’d just say it’s the whole image that just doesn’t strike a chord with me.
Besides, the balance between the platonic Slice of Life and the moe Tragicomic shifted a lot more towards the latter here, and I don’t think I particularly like it in this case.
 
Or maybe it is just the simple fact that I got my fix of yuri for the year with Aoi Hana, and that I don’t need more of it for a long while to come?
Either way, I will pass on Sasameki Koto.
 
Watching: No.

Seitokai no Ichizon

Zzzzzz...

Zzzzzz… Oh hi, I just don’t know what to say here.

I don’t really know what to say about Seitokai no Ichizon.

The only thought I had at the end of this episode was, it’s trying WAY too hard to please. From countless direct to indirect references from both Studio DEEN and Kyoto Animation shows to the flashy presentation of virtually every cliché that the anime universe has to offer – from boobs to DFCs, moe to tsundere, swimsuits to wedding dresses, serious activities to H-games, otakudom – it felt as if this anime was trying to become the new Jack of all Trades of parody. Trying too hard, in fact – it has absolutely nothing to itself, except the fact that it’s making fun of itself for being an adaptation untrue to the source.

I was actually on to drop this episode midway because I just couldn’t see the point and the jokes left me royally indifferent, but after the pettanko skit which eventually made me laugh a little, I bit the bullet and watched this to the end. I couldn’t find a point. It just felt like one of those pathetic sketch attempts on those TV contests where poor, self-conscious guys pretend to be randomly funny and make fun of their situation once they run out of ideas – however in Seitokai no Ichizon, there was no idea to begin with. This episode could have passed as a one-shot, for all the variety of the content (however unfunny) it provided. What is left to be expected in the next few episodes? Anything else apart from endless repetitions of the same old gags with minor nuances?
 
Watching: No. If only it was at least a little funny…

Quite a meek batch. Hope the last batch will be any better… With Sora no Otoshimono, Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee, The Sacred Blacksmith, To Aru Majutsu no Railgun, and Yumeiro Patissiere. Am I missing any series that is not a sequel? Make sure to tell me.

Hopefully I can do that post soon-ish. Real Life is like, so distracting nowadays. :3

1. Slice of Life, fine, but please, make it INTERESTING and not just bland and boring. Awful introduction, boring jokes, generic characters and situations… Seems like moe is Kobato’s only asset. No thank you. [↩]
2. In fact I kind of dropped it. [↩]
3. Besides, I heard they’d keep hammering on that reverse trap note again, which I already thought was overplayed last season. [↩]
4. It’s the main reason why most of my nicks have a neko in it :3 Only trouble is, I could never have one, since my mum is allergic to those. [↩]
5. Or perhaps because I smell of dog, however impossible that might seem since I have no dogs. [↩]