Fall Anime 2011: Working’!!

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on November 15th, 2011

Working!! was one of the more enjoyable anime from last year, and fortunately the second season showing this season is following the same formula.The biggest difference between Working’!! (2nd season) with the first season is the color palette used.

Working is a light comedy taking place mostly in the family restaurant Wagnaria. Each member of the cast has a whacky personality, such as the main character’s obsession with anything small and cute (including his tiny senior), an air head waitress who carries around a katana (freaking out all the customers) and a cook with the most innocent looking face, but with the most evil thoughts (my favourite character!).

The second half of the first episode was rather disappointing and had me worried that the new season won’t be able to live up to its predecessor. Fortunately, it picked itself right up from the 2nd episodes onwards so for that I’m really glad!

If you’ve never watched Working before, I suggest you go back and start from the first season before starting on the new season. Even though it’s a light hearted comedy that can be easily picked up, you won’t be able to appreciate the finer, subtler running jokes without knowing it’s history.

I still think the first season’s OP was one of the best from last year and the animation sequence still heavily reminds me of Azumanga Daioh.

You can see the resemblance below:

Working!! OP

 

Azumanga Daioh OP

 

Working’!!’s OP – Coolish Walk, while is still catchy, is nowhere near the level of “Someone Else”.

 

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Fall Anime 2011: Ben-To

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on November 5th, 2011

Grudge over food can be a scary thing, and this season’s Ben-To captured that almost perfectly!

I’ve not really had the chance to start watching most of the new series this season besides Bakuman season 2, so Ben-To was an excellent and hilarious start bwahahaha!

A bunch of high school students camping at the local mart, waiting for the store staff to put on the half price stickers on the leftover bento. .

That’s when the fun starts – a battle royale suddenly erupts to decide who gets the heavily discounted packed meals!

It’s quite literally a battle anime and the battlefield is in the bento sections in the various supermarkets around town. It’s not only just between high school students, there is even an adult, dubbed as “the Boar” takes part in the race for the half priced bentos.

While the idea itself may sound absurd, it’s definitely interesting and funny. It isn’t purely just battles and fan service shots, the characters that has shown up so far are a pretty interesting bunch themselves.

There is even one female character whose face has not been shown to the viewer, only her “assets”.

Definitely a thumbs up from me. Ben-To is highly recommended watch this season!

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Usagi Drop with the Most Adorable Girl This Season

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on July 28th, 2011

Rin has got to be the most adorable girl to appear in this season’s new anime series. Shes one of those rare few characters that you can easily fall in love with at first sight.

The art style and animation will strike you as odd at first, but luckily it’s easy to adjust to it. It has that same watercolor feel like Valkyria Chronicles, although the lines are not as solid. That’s not to say that the artwork in Usagi Drop is inferior – in fact you’ll grow to love it after a while.

It’s been a while since a good slice of life series caught my attention so check it out if you’re a fan of the genre.

The pacing is slow as you would expect from most slice of life. I’ve heard that Usagi Drop is a comedy-drama, but so far its leaning more towards being touching than funny.

“Okawari!”

While Usagi Drop is already doing really well, it would be even better if the comedy part starts coming in to give the series that extra shine.

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Kami-sama Dolls, Darker Than it Looks?

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on July 23rd, 2011

Despite it’s bright and happy looking poster, Kami-sama Dolls might actually be darker than it looks. Just a few minutes into the first episode and the main character finds a bloody corpse in the elevator. If that wasn’t hint enough, it seems that while he was surprised to see a dead body suddenly appear before him, he was rather calm about it.

There seems to be a greater, darker secret that’s spinning the plot wheel from behind the scenes, one that has been set in motion long ago. The prologue suggested that something was triggered by the main character Kyohei, his sister and Aki that caused massive destruction. Kyohei and Aki also seems to have a bloody past, where Aki massacred the villagers and Kyohei tried to stop him.

It would be interesting to watch the story unfold and why past events are suddenly affecting the present. Aki doesn’t appear to be out for revenge despite his aggressive behavior towards Kyohei. There is definitely something else that is either happening, or will happen soon.

If you’re in the mood for a potentially dark and bloody anime that’s not too serious (at least not yet), Kami-sama Dolls might be just the one for this season.

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Kami-sama no Memo-chou is GOOD!

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on July 15th, 2011

Kami-sama no Memo-chou is also one of the series I had been looking forward to the most this Summer Anime 2011 season.

Was pleasantly surprised when the first episode was actually given a 1 hour time slot, and the next episode is coming out tomorrow, so hurray!

The story is basically about loli NEET detective, Alice, who spends all her time locked in her room solving mysteries and perhaps crimes. She is a charismatic enigma, gathering NEET followers and even respect from the local yakuza but at the same time full of mysteries herself.

Alice is in many ways similar to GOSICK’s Victorique (which is another awesome series btw) but set in modern day Japan and makes full use of the Internet to gather most of the information she needs in order to solve a mystery. Everything else is handled by her followers, who are an interesting bunch themselves such as the Major, who looks, acts and sounds (same seiyuu) like BakaTest’s Mutsurii~

The main character of Kami-sama no Memo-chou is actually one Narumi Fujishima, who was forcefully introduced into Alice’s circle and somehow got himself involved with the NEET detective without really wanting to.

I want her room full of PCs, monitors with several aircond units installed...

If you love a good mystery, a fan of Sherlock Holmes, Detective Conan and GOSICK, you will seriously enjoy Kami-sama no Memo-chou.

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