Winter 2014 - A First Blush

Engaged to the Unidentified: On the morning of her 16th birthday Kobeni Yonomori finds out that she has been betrothed to a boy from a remote mountain village per her late grandfathers wishes.  The fiancee, Hakuya Mitsumini, and his controlling younger sister begin living with Kobeni's family to work towards finalizing the marriage.  Kobeni is completely against a forced marriage and has concerns for Hakuya's empty personality.  Can she break from the her grandfathers commands and can she hold on to any amount of normalcy in her life?

    I kept thinking of Ranma 1/2.  The thing that really irritated me with this show was Hakyua's sister, Mashiro's way of talking...lisping a lot of her words like a 4 year old just learning to speak.  The character designs are all mundane unrealistic anime styles, off hair colors, big eyes, etc.  Normal fair.  I expected there to be a lot of fan service, but I was happy to not run into any.  This just may be a run of the mill romantic high school comedy about forced love.  While there are a ton of these types of stories and this one doesn't appear to offer anything new, it still may be mildly enjoyable to watch.  I don't see it lasting beyond a full 26 episode season so there shouldn't be too much wasted time.  We shall see though as the show progresses.

Hamatora: A group of misfits characters in Yokohama operate a barely successful detective and protection agency.  Each member of the agency holds a special and rare ability, known as a Minimum, that allows them to attain super human abilities.  With these gifts they can competently carry out their ad-hock assignments.

    OK, this one seems kind of like a throw back to mid and late 90's shonen action stories.  It reminded me of a cross between Gunsmith cats and Eat Man.  While I don't typically find super power character stories this one may be entertaining for old times sake.  The story doesn't it takes it's self too seriously and the action sequences are full of over the top dialogue and posturing.  The animation is pretty respectable in the detail but falls into the standard anime trappings.  I guess I will keep watching this one until it gives me a reason to stop, but I don't expect to be blown away by it.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: Not being a student of Buddhist mythology I really couldn't get into this show.  It seemed too dependent on prior knowledge of the hierarchy of Buddhist and Shinto hell structures for me to really understand what was going on.  The character designs irked me and the story appeared to be pretty jumbled, with too much going on at one time...pass.

Magical Warfare:  Given that the mangaka is reported to be against the anime adaption of his work, one would know better than to actually watch it.

    So a typical high school student all of a sudden gets involved in a battle between magic users from a different world, in coming into contact with then he gains magical powers and so do a handful of his classmates who stumble upon the battle too...

    Yeah...I'm not sure how much this deviates from the manga, I assume it doesn't deviate much, and it offers absolutely nothing for me.  This really just seems to be something created to sell cosplay outfits...nothing more than that.  Don't even get me started on the fanservice...  And whats with the Leluche clone?

Nisekoi: Raku Ishijo is the heir apparent of a strong yakuza gang.  But he wants nothing to do with his families criminal heritage and is determined not to take the gang over when his father absconds the roll.  Instead he is focused on becoming a trustworthy and successful civil servant and finding a girl he promised his heart to ten years prior.  His life takes a turn for the complicated when an exchange student from America shows up and leaves a bad impression with him.  They get off on the wrong foot and quickly become enemies.  He forces her to help him find a pendant from the girl hes promised to since shes the one who caused him to lose it.  The situation makes them hate each other more but the rest of the school thinks their an item.  Things become even worse when Raku finds out shes the heir of a rival gang and to stop a war from breaking out a plan is concocted to make them look like a couple for the next three years.

    OK, nothing new, forced, unrequited love that will probably blossom into a mutual liking between the parties involved.  Plus you have the mystery girl from ten years ago.  Its pretty obvious who that girl is at by the end of the first episode.  Raku's character is pretty agreeable, reminds me a bit of Hosaka from Minami-ke.  The yakuza underlings are really funny though and the way they act around Raku is amusing.  I could see this being mildly enjoyable, a little like Seto no Hanayome.  So, we will see how this unfolds

Pupa: I have been waiting for this one since the fall...and I don't know why.  It was horrible.  Just...just ignore it and move on...there's nothing redeemable about it.  The animation is crap, the 'monster' looks like something from an early 90's hentai and each episode is only like 3 minutes long.  Yeah just skip it.

Pupipo: This is the story of Wakaba Hijime who can see and interact with spirits of the dead.  Her unique abilities make her an outcast with her peers.  Her loneliness comes to an end with the occult loving tranfer student Reiko Azuma takes an interest in her and something resembling Kirby starts to tag along with her, warding off the ghosts.

    Its only about 3 minutes in length (a lot of short series being picked up for subbing this time around!) and I'm really not sure how I feel about it.  It's not bad, decent animation...but I'm not sure where it's ultimately going to lead...

Recently My Sister is Unusual:  Yuya's dad has remarried which now means he has a younger sister.  But following an accident after the first day of school Mitsuki all of a sudden has tendencies of love for her new brother...because she is being possessed by a sex crazed ghost who wants love in order to pass on to the land of the dead.

    I shut this of half way through the first episode...once the chastity belt showed up and the ghost overtook Mitsuki's body and started masturbating I had determined I had enough.  I don't even know why I started to watch it anyways...I knew it was going to be another pointless sisterly love fantasy series.  Well, at least it isn't disappointing in maintaining my disgust for the current trends in anime.

Sakura Trick: Haruka Takayama and Yu Sonoda were best friends in middle school  In high school they decide to become more than friends to retain a special and unique relationship.

    In one way its refreshing to see an out in the open lesbian high school romance story.  But, if it wasn't done as a way to sell garage kits and fan service laden dojinshi I might appreciate it more.  There is really nothing redeemable with this poorly put together story.  Its really just fab material. 

Strange +: This is a bizarre and scatterbrained 3 minute per episode series about a group of misfit detectives as they solve crimes.  Its really just an animated yonkoma and I still am not sure how I feel about it.  Some of the characters remind me of something Go Nagai would create...weird.

Tonari no Seki-kun: Seki is an aloof high school student who spends his days challenging himself by coming up with complex ways to avoid paying attention in school.  His desk neighbor, Yokoi, distracted by Seki's past times, tries her hardest to stop him from getting in trouble.

    This series is actually kind of entertaining.  I don't really see it being able to maintain its enthusiasm for too long though...there is only so long you can keep up one joke.  But I'll enjoy it for the time being and wait to see what kind of insanity Seki-kun comes up with.  The artwork is really shitty though...but i really could care less at this point.