A Drifting Life

A Drifting Life (劇画漂流) is a historical slice of life by Tatsumi Yoshihiro.  The manga was originally published between 1996 and 2005 and was collected into to 2 tankoubon in Japan and one large compiled volume in English.

    The story follows the main character Hiroshi, who is a fictional stand in for the author himself, over 15 years of his life.  The story begins in post war Japan when the young protagonist begins to submit his manga to magazines for publication.  To his surprise some of his 4-koma manga gets published and he begins to realize a career in manga.  Quickly he is drawn into more than just drawing and writing and collaborates with a handful of other artists to create a small publication to showcase their own work.  These effort attract the help of Tezuka Osamu, who the author begins a professional relationship with over the years.

    As the author see's more of his works published he begins to want to change the boundaries of the medium.  Heavily influenced by flood of foreign films and cinema in general, Hiroshi tries to convey through his art and writing manga that isn't manga.  In order to make a living he has to publish small stories for publications aimed at the profitable rental manga world.  Usually comprised of styles the editors suggest to help boost sales of the magazines.  He also publishes single volume works but wants to do something more fluid and connected, struggling for a prolonged story.  As his art matures the manga industry is plagued with criticism from school an parent organizations for being inappropriate for children.  This pushes him further to come up with manga that is recognized as something different that is meant for mature audiences, something other than entertainment, something with meaning and depth.

    This is a fantastic look at both the struggles manga authors face in regards to their creative freedom.  But most importantly this is a great lesson in a pivotal point in modern manga.  The industry as we know it now really got its start in this time and the changes that the country went through also greatly affected the industry.  Tatsumi is one of the key players in the world of respectable and mature manga, or as he preferred it to be referred to, gekiga.  The changes he was a part of helped to usher in a new way of accessing manga, helping to keep it relevant in the TV age and beyond.  He came into his own as the medium was making the transition from 4-koma sketch manga to full blown dramatic story telling.  Publishers had to figure out how to remain relevant with the decline of rental manga and to persuade consumers to purchase publications for themselves as the economy exploded.

    The artwork is what it is, Tatsumi has a classic style for his characters, a style many younger readers will be turned off by.  But his is a master in exposition and layout as the story flow smoothly from the transitions of time and location.  The strength of the series is its fly on the wall depiction of the philosophies at that time behind the medium and the things that made it change and grow into what we know today.  If you want a detailed explanation of how to be a manga artist read Bakuman.  This manga is for a historical and scholarly look at the medium and it is a great read for that.  The story will probably bore younger readers who are more interested is impressive fight scenes but if you want to know more about the medium instead of just consuming it this is a great piece to read and enjoy.

    The English version was released by Drawn and Quarterly and should grace the book shelf of any serious manga fan.

Dance Till Tomorrow

Dance Till Tomorrow (あさってDANCE) is an ecchi romantic comedy manga by Yamamoto Naoki.  The series was compiled into 7 tankoubon and originally published between 1989 and 1990.

    Terauchi Suekichi wakes up the day after his great grandfathers wake to a raging hangover and an unknown woman in his apartment.  Before he can figure out who she is and piece together how he got home he has to throw up.  When he returns from the bathroom the woman is gone.  He continues on with his day, wondering who she was.  A college student, working part time and part of a struggling theater troupe, Suekichi is hard up for money and is being pulled in multiple directions.  When he returns home he finds the woman and an older gentleman waiting for him.  The man identifies himself as Tachimi and informs Suekichi his great grandfather left him an inheritance of four and a half million dollars.  He has to meet a few requirements set by his late great grandfather first though; finish college, get a job and get married...then its all his.

    The biggest problem, aside from meeting all of the requirements, is the mystery woman.  Identifying herself as Hibino Aya her sudden and unexpected appearance could only mean she is after the inheritance.  Tachimi doesn't trust her and urges Suekichi to stay away from her.  Unfortunately for him she's taken a liking to him and continues to show up on his door step, seducing him with her body and keeping her true identity a mystery to him.  Unable to get rid of her and succumbing to his carnal instincts he can't really shake her off.  He doesn't trust her, believing Tachimi's fears about her motives.  But is that all there really is to Aya?  On top of all the requirements to inherit the money he has to negotiate through life with the mysterious woman who drops her clothes at the drop of a hat.

    This series was a turning point for me when it came to romantic comedies.  I had previously gotten to enjoy more action based stories like Ranma 1/2, but this was the first slice of life romantic comedy that got me hooked...and it wasn't all for the sex scenes, which there are a lot of.  The way the characters were written kept me coming back for more.  Suekichi is one of those characters designed to fulfill the readers desires.  He's young, ends up in what is ultimately idyllic situation and has a hot girl throwing herself at him; the kind of thing guys want.  Yet at the same time he's apprehensive, suspicious and just plain can't get his act together.  Half of his problems stem from Aya and her mischief, but the other half stems from him being unable to focus and commit to anything.

    This is a fantastic story with some great characters and at times some good artwork...other times the artwork is a little weird, but for the late 80's its pretty good.  The story is free of all the baggage romantic comedies are full of today.  He's not some inexperienced high school kids surrounded by a gaggle of formulaic female interests.  There aren't any rote story arcs or passe plot holes.  It's a light hearted and at times serious story about some flawed people, some of which like to fuck...a lot.  The ecchi isn't over bearing either, even if some chapters are pretty gratuitous, its not over done.  I may be biased as I have been a fan of this manga for a loooooong time, but most of the romantic comedies, ecchi or otherwise, don't hold a candle to this story in terms of characters, plot and exposition.

    It was originally released in North America as part of Viz's manga magazine Pulp.  They also released all of it in tankoubon format.

Black & White

Black & White (鉄コン筋クリート) is a seinen action manga by Matsumoto Taiyo.  The series was compiled into 3 tankoubon between 1993 and 1994.

    Orphans Black and White are some of the most feared denizens of Treasure Town, a land of graft, desolation and lost souls.  They prowl the back alleys and streets of the town, taking what they want, fearing nothing.  When a dangerous yakuza returns to town after being released from jail things begin to change for the worst.

    While the kids are some of the strongest and most reckless members of the underworld they try to keep away from the yakuza.  When some of their friends begin to be harassed by them Black can't contain his sense of revenge.  His progression towards animalistic rage mirrors the rapid decline of Treasure Town as a shady outside developer begins to morph the area into a more dangerous place.  Black's ability to protect the mentally handicapped White from the growing threats begins to slip.

    This was one of a handful of manga I really started to read in the mid 90's and has always had a special place in my heart.  Over the years I have become a fan of Taiyo's other works and his style in general.  This is one of his better pieces, particularly with the artwork.  It could have been a much larger piece, spanning many story arc's but thankfully it isn't.  It works best in this relatively compact framework.  The major players are developed well in the space allotted and you really get an understanding for the role they play in it.  This is a classic now in the world of English language manga and is well worth the time.

    Black & White was originally released in North America in Viz's mature demographic manga magazine Pulp.  The English language tankoubon's are readily available.

The Wind Rises

The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ) is a full length historical drama feature, the 'final' movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki.  The film is based on the manga of the same name by Miyazaki and was released in 2013.

    The film follows a fictionalized account of the life and formative years of Japanese aeronautical engineer Horikoshi Jiro.  From his comfortable childhood, dreaming of being an airplane pilot as the first world war ended.  Realizing he would be unable to fly due to his near nearsightedness, he instead turns his focus to engineering and design.  The film follows him to Tokyo to attend university.  He arrives as the Great Kanto Earthquake strikes and meets a girl, Naoko, and her handmaid, who is injured during the earthquake.  In school he questions design idea's and Japan's ability to match Western technological achievements. 

    He and a classmate are recruited to work for Mitsubishi after college and they begin working on prototypes for military aircraft as Japan is ramping up its campaign to invade Manchuria.  Jiro's intelligence and design abilities allow him to visit Germany to study their aircraft, where in turn he see's the beginning of the Nazi party.  After returning to Japan, a prototype he works on fails and he goes on an extended vacation to re-calibrate his mind.  While staying in a villa he meets Naoko again and they fall in love.  Naoko has TB and is uncertain of their future.  When he returns to work he learns the secret police are looking for him, related to a strange foreign man he met while on leave.  His boss hides him while he begins to work on the design of a new fighter aircraft that Mitsubishi will try to sell to the Navy, what would ultimately become the AMG Zero.

    Horikoshi was a real person and he did design the famous Japanese fighter plane the Zero for Mitsubishi.  He was also a known critic of war in general and the imperial government of Japan.  Yet much of the story beyond the design idea's and a few key dates is mostly fictional, some taken from a novel written by Hori Tatsuo about a woman suffering from tuberculosis.  Which brings me to the problem with this movie, it is rather disjointed and incoherent at times.  Unless you are a student of history the progression of time in the movie is rather vague and confusing.  Key historical events are mostly used to mark the passage of time, but they aren't always apparent.

    Jiro's lucid dreaming complicates things as well, causing reality and fantasy to be blurred at times.  Much of the anti-war sentiment in the movie is heavy handed.  Aside from wanting to succeed in creating an aircraft there is little motivation for the things Jiro does.  Secondary characters show up merely as a way to progress the plot, if left to his own the protagonist would undoubtedly wile away his time with his drafting tools instead of accomplishing anything remotely dramatic.  The romance aspect, while forced into existence, was quaint and cheerfully doomed and completely changed the tone of the second half of the movie.  The impact it had on the success of failure of Jiro to succeed in his job was forced and sloppy.  In my mind it really only showcased him as a caricature of the ideal Japanese worker, willing to sacrifice his personal life to fulfill his work life.

    I don't want to come down on the artwork, but the character designs in the movie were more of a regression for Miyazaki.  While not bad they seemed to show an amount of apathy towards the production of the film.  A film Miyazaki himself was convinced to make, initially not wanting to do it, stating the manga was initially to occupy himself.  There are aspects of the art that are fantastic, most notably the way Jiro's glasses distorted his face, I have never seen that done so realistically before.  But other things didn't fit, particularly the strange fantastical air craft designs from the dream sequences.  Strange designs Miyazaki seems to have a fondness for that seemed out of place in this movie.

    The last thing I want to be critical of is Anno Hideaki's voice acting.  It was rather lack luster and unimpressive.  There was little motion and little inflection to enhance the character of Jiro, making him seem rather flat and emotionless.  Anno should just stick to directing.  If you want to see why/how Miyazaki picked him to do the lead role watch the documentary on Studio Ghibli. 

    In the end The Wind Rises should have been a beautiful opus for the second most important anime director, instead it seemed like a half hearted project made only to serve the man's personal interests instead of telling a compelling and coherent story.  I was disappointed in the film to say the least.  It felt like two unrelated films haphazardly mashed together; one about a Japanese innovator and the other a tragic tale of a woman with TB.

    It is currently available via Disney in North America and features a dub with some notable Hollywood actors.

Itohen

Itohen (いとへん) is a single tankoubon slice of life series by Unita Yumi.  It was published in 2012.

    Kuwabara Nanako is a bit of an air head and currently seeking employment following graduation from college.  She stumbles upon a small alteration shop with a beautiful dress in the window.  Wanting the dress above anything else she tells the shop owner she wants it.  The owner, being skeptical, warns her that it will be expensive as its handmade and will require slight alterations to fit her properly.  She doesn't care and comes back once the dress is altered.  It fits like nothing has before, further deepening her love for it.  The bad news is...she is unable to afford it.  She strikes a bargain with the shop owner to work off the price.

    The shops owner,  Hirata Orihiko, has doubts about the girls abilities.  Nanako presses him to let her continue working at the shop once she has paid off the dress.  While she has little experience with a sewing machine she is able to convince him that she can do the job.  Reluctantly he agrees to take her on as an apprentice and begins to show her the basics as well as expose her to the slowly shrinking world of artisan clothes making.  Cheerfully she accepts his lessons and works hard to prove her abilities.

    This was a cute and quick read, more slice of life than anything, it is simple and straightforward.  The focus of the series is really about the world of tailoring and what it takes to make clothing for commercial sale.  Each chapter goes through some steps to explain various aspects of tailoring, things that are above my head as I suck as hand sewing and have never desired to touch a machine.  Either way, with the subject matter not exactly matching my personal experiences, Unita conveys an excellent and heart warming tale, with some cautionary aspects to it.

    The artwork is fantastic, some of her best yet.  Bold, simple character designs with an eye for detail when it comes to the characters outfits.  Second nature to her given her previous life as a fashion design student.  This is the first time she has really done a manga about that aspect of her life.  Typically that only comes in through the character designs.  In my mind Unita Yumi is one of the top shojo/josei artists out there and her work is steeping in the genre's style.  Panels that focus more on the characters and their interactions than the environment.  She has a way with natural dialog and interactions...always ready or more from her.

  As with pretty much everything by her this series is not available commercially in North America...sadly so.

GoGo Monster

GoGo Monster (GOGOモンスタ) is a slice of life psychological manga by Matsumoto Taiyo.  It as originally published in 2000 as a single tankoubon.

    Tachibana Yuki is an eccentric 3rd grader.  There are beings who inhabit another realm which he can see and interact with.  He see's them at school in the hidden places but no one else can.  His classmates shun him, the teachers ignore his rants and the only person on the campus he feels comfortable around is the elderly groundskeeper known as Ganz.  Ganz sympathizes with Yuki and offers him kindly advice.  Yuki isn't alone in his seclusion though, a classmate known as IQ, shuns normal participation and contact with everyone, choosing to spend his time in the schools rabbit hutch, wearing a large cardboard box over his head and torso.

    A transfer student named Suzuki Makoto befriends Yuki, who warns him that the creatures are gathering in number.  Makoto doesn't exactly believe Yuki but wants to be friends with him, sensing his deep isolation and loneliness.  Yuki struggles to understand the messages left around him and how they relate to the danger he senses building in the school.

    This is an excellent tale of childhood isolation and loneliness.  It is up to the reader to determine if the creatures Yuki see's are real or not.  It is quite possible that he has borderline schizophrenia and the condition is exacerbated by his increased social exclusion.  If you look at the supernatural aspects of the show as childhood manifestations of mental disorders then this is an excellent story about mental health.  If it is a legitimate super natural tale then it is also well done and worth reading.

    As with everything else Matsumoto has done this is in his unique style, a style unlike anyone else, which might also put some people off.  I'm a big fan of his style, it has a 70's pulp quality to it.  His imagination is large and he does well to translate that in the artwork, building an incredibly expansive world in the school grounds. 

    The manga was released by Viz and is available in a beautiful hardcover edition...I love hardcover manga.

Summer 2016 First Blush Part 3

Here is the final batch of new shows that I am checking out for the Summer Season.  Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: Saiki was born with super human abilities to odd if loving parents.  His abilities has lead to a life free of want and desire, which has made him regret his abilities.  On top of that his once loving parents deeply hate each other.

    This is a goofy comedy series about a guy who can do anything he wants and receives no joy from that fact.  Think Saitama from One Punch Man in regards to his lack of interest in anything.   This should be entertaining, especially given its length.

Available on FUNimation.

Regalia - The Three Sacred Stars: You know what, I am so tired of moe female pedo fantasy characters.  Can the industry really move on already?  This show seems like someone made that characters first then built some half ass concept around it.  Plot: I don't know, some bullshit mysterious mech's of which the powerful good ones are piloted by the characters of any generic galge.  Kudo's to the art staff for the dramatic action sequences.  The mech designs are decent but the character designs are generic and negatively affect any worth this series would have had.

Available on FUNimation.

This Art Club Has A Problem: Usami is a 2nd year high school student and part of the art club.  Unfortunately for her the club president sleeps, one member never shows up and the only other active member is an otaku obsessed with the perfect 2d waifu.

    While nothing new in the world of off kilter otaku school life comedies, this one might be worth keeping around, if for nothing more than the characters sharp tongued dialogue.  Not the best, but not the worst, just another passing series in the long running list of mediocre creations.

Available on Crunchyroll.

91 Days: A young boy is the sole survivor of a mafia murder.  As an adult his desire for revenge brings him back to the world of the Italian mafia.

    This looks like its going to be a fun, blood soaked historical piece.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Handa-kun: This is a follow up to the slice of life series Barakamon.  This prequel follows Handa as a high school student, already a respected calligraphy artist.  As in the original series, he is a person who hates interaction with other people and does everything he can to keep them at bay, especially given his complete inability to understand their actions and motives.

    This looks to be way sillier and funny than I anticipated, he really is a bit of an idiot and his small group of 'friends' are just as dumb.  Should be a good time filled with oddities.

Available on FUNimation.

Mob Psycho 100: Mob is bad a school, horrible and sports and generally low tier in the hierarchy of middle school life.  However, he retains incredible psychic powers.  These powers lead him to 'working' for a psychic detective, who is really more of a con man.  The detective uses Mob for his abilities so he can really rake in the cash.  Mob has a power meter and is his meter his 100 his powers go all Akira like.

    The next series from the creator of One Punch Man.  The show is silly, comical and serious all at the same time, much in the same manner as OPM.  The artwork stays faithful to One's style, which aids in the lunacy of the show.  This ones going to be fun...perhaps it is One's mockery of super natural battle anime, like OPM was his mockery of shonen battle anime.  Bring it on!

Available on Crunchyroll.

Peeping Life TV Season 1??

Peeping Life TV Season 1?? (Peeping Life TV シーズン1 ??) is a 12 episode sketch comedy series.  The series originally aired on TV in Japan during the Fall of 2015.

    There is no central plot to Peeping Life.  It is a series of satirical comedy sketches using a cast of characters.  Originally a web series by CoMix Wave, which is the studio Shinkai Makoto works out of.  This version however was done by a completely different company and it lacks the substance of the earlier works, sadly.

    Something was lacking in this version of peeping Life, something that made the web series enjoyable for me.  I think part of it was the focus on the Tezuka and Tatsunoko characters, which is fine and all, but they continued to repeat the same jokes.  I was hoping for more sketches from original characters like the otaku guy (who they do use for every episodes 'next episode preview' segment).  The best of the Peeping Life series are the history shorts.  So this was actually rather disappointing and it took me a long time to actually work my way through it.

    There are a few things that prevent any form of the Peeping Life from gaining larger audiences.  The writing is off putting if you are not a fan of subtle humor.  The artwork is quite low grade motion capture CG, so don't come looking for anything mind blowing.  But the crudeness and the natural feel of the Peeping Life is one of those things I really enjoy about it.  It's a shame that this version of it was weak in delivery and writing.

ReLIFE - anime

ReLIFE is a 13 episode slice of life, comedy/romance/drama series based on the web manga of the same name by Yayoiso.  The series was released in the Summer of 2016.

    Kaizaki Arata is a 27 year old NEET.  He drifts through his unemployed life, living off of his parents money and pretending he works around his friends.  One night he is approached by a man with an opportunity to change his life.  The man works for a company called ReLIFE.  Kaizaki is given the opportunity to test their new drug for a year.  The drug will make him look like he's 17 and he will be made to live as a senior in high school.  Depending on how the year works out for him he may be offered employment with the company.

    Desperate and lost, Kaizaki agrees to participate and finds himself a 27 year old man pretending to be a 17 year old.  At first he wanted to coast through the year and do as little as possible.  His plans to slack through the year derail as he takes interest in the mental and social well being of a few classmates.  The adult NEET turned high school student suddenly begins to poke his nose into his classmates private lives in order to help them overcome their problems.  Will the sudden change of heart and external realizations about others make him realize his own worth?

    I started to read the manga for this once it showed up on Crunchyroll which was also pretty close to the same time the anime was announced.  I was looking forward to the anime and it didn't prove to be a disappointment.  It followed the manga rather well and progressed through the story that it covered smoothly.  I found it easier to keep everyone straight in the anime versus the manga.  For some reason I have trouble at times remembering who is who in the manga.

    The manga is in full color so it wasn't a big stretch visually seeing it in motion.  The artwork captures the spirit of the manga well.  This is a well done slice of life high school comedy and makes up for all the pointless and repetitious moe garbage out there.  More please?  If you have not, pick up the manga as well.  At the time of this review 83 issues of that manga are available on Crunchyroll, the first 10 episodes of the anime cover that material.  The last 3 episodes take the story up to around issue 108 of the manga.  Currently there are 134 available issues in Japan.  Hopefully we will see a second season at some point in the future.  Fingers crossed.

    The series was dropped all at once on a Japanese website and to coincide with the beginning of its TV broadcast it was made available on Crunchyroll as well.  No word on any sort of physical release for this series or the manga.

Summer 2016 First Blush Part 2

Here is the second group of first blush episodes for the Summer season.  Click here for the first group.

Bananya: A cute, childish short about banana cats.  What else can you say?  It's weird and kawaii at the same time...so very Japanese.

    I didn't include this one on my list of shows to look out for because I assumed no one would pick it up commercially...color me surprised.  Its 3 minutes per episode so whatever.

Available on Crunchyroll.

D.Gray-man Hallow: Picking up where the original series, which ended in 2007, left off.  Allan and all of the other Exorcists are caught in a ramped up fight with the Millennium Earl.  Allan's past and special abilities are beginning to make him a suspicious participant in the fight and the order begins to restrict his movements.

    In an interesting move the series picks up right where it left off, even after a 9 year hiatus.  I don't think I ever ended up watching the entire original series, but went through most of it and don't feel like revisiting it.  While I have grown tired of shonen battle manga, D.Gray-man has some enjoyable qualities.  So far now I say hello to this familiar show.

Available on FUNimation.

Sweetness & Lightening: Inuzuka Kouhei is a high school teacher, recent widower and father of a young girl.  Concerned with his abilities to provide healthy and balanced meals for his daughter he cautiously accepts cooking lessons from one of his students. 

    This is one of the titles I have been waiting on.  The manga has been in my read list for quite a while now and it always entertains me. Half of the time I end up making the recipe at the end of each chapter.  This is a great series to see animated given the beautiful character designs and the emotions represented in their faces.  Aside from being about food it is also about human relations and at times the manga is quite touching and emotional.

Available on Crunchyroll.

The High School Life of a Fudanshi: A normal high school student struggles with the difficulties of being a straight male fan of BL manga.  The struggle is real and apparent but he can't understand why people don't recognize his normalcy.  He strikes out to find more like minded people to better his immediate surroundings.

    This series is short and looks to me like a silly good time.  So, it will stick around.

Available on Crunchyroll.

New Game!: Suzukaze Aoba begins working for a video game company, her dream job.  She has a hard time fitting in right away and has to deal with her coworkers personalities.

    I'm on the fence with this one.  Unlike the realism of Shirobako, this one more seems like little more than moe otaku loli fantasy land.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Click here for Part 3.

Summer 2016 First Blush Part 1

The Summer season starts off strong.  Here is a first blush as a few of the first episodes that aired.

ReLIFE: Kaizaki Arata, 27 years old, is unemployed and facing a bleak existence when his parents cut off his allowance.  A stroke of luck appears in a man working for a company called ReLIFE.  The offer is to spend a year as a 17 year old, attending high school.  After the year, which his living expenses will be covered by the company, he may be eligible for employment with them based on how he spent his time.  Backed into a corner he takes them up and after taking their medicine has the appearance of a high school student.  Can he survive a year back in the world of a teenager?

    I have been looking forward to this one since it was announced.  I started reading the manga earlier this year and have enjoyed this easy going comedy.  I had trouble at times in the manga keeping track of who is who, but that might not be the case with the anime.  All 13 episodes are currently available even though the series started broadcasting in Japan on July 1st.  It was made available in Japan at all once on a regional premium website at the end of June.  Worth the watch!

Available on Crunchyroll.

Berserk: Guts is a man pursued by evil, trying to make his way in a cruel and evil world.  Cursed by demons, traveling the land as a mercenary his life is nothing but pain and destruction.

    I am a fan of 3D CG but at times the artwork in this version of Berserk is a little clunky.  Character designs are decent but some of the camera movements in relation to the characters are unnatural and jarring.  Some characters mouth animation don't even fit the audio and reminded me of that trick they use in video games to show characters fake talking.  At times the artwork is beautifully detailed.  I tried to watch the series in the end of the 90s but wasn't interested.  I will give this reboot a spin and see how far I get,

Available on Crunchyroll.

Orange: Maho is a typical high school student.  Irresponsible, has trouble studying and has a handful of good friends.  She receives a mysterious letter on the first day of the new school year, addressed from her self 10 years in the future.  She dismisses the letter as a joke but when the things it discusses and the warnings it offers become true she starts to take it for real.  Can the letters help her to save a friend?

    I have already read this manga and have been waiting for the anime to drop, so this one will be sticking around.  So far I like the anime adaptation, it helps to give life to the manga which is quite shojo in design and exposition. 

Available on Crunchyroll.

First Love Monster: Kaho is the daughter of an influential family, due to that her life has been pampered and obligatory.  In order to escape from her parents renown she moves to Tokyo to start high school, hoping that she can experience a real life with out people treating her with undue respect.  Little did she know she would fall in love with a bi-shonen guy who saves her from being run over.  She confesses her love and the two start dating.  The bad part...her new boyfriend, who looks like he's in college, is actually 11.

    This series is sillier than I anticipated, much in the spirit of The Wallflower, Ouran High School Host Club and Gintama.  I think I will enjoy this one.  It's silly, idiotic and full of pratfalls.  Side bonus, a side character named Gin is voiced by Sugita Tomakazu. 

 Available on FUNimation.

Heroic Legend of Arslan: Dust Storm Dance: Picking up where last years reboot left off, we find Arslan poised to attack his captured home city, to reclaim his country and establish his ideal version of his ancestral country.

    I really started to get into the reboot for Arslan in the second half of the first TV series so this is a much welcome return to awesome.  The series should wrap up as the novels are about to end as well.


 Available on FUNimation.

Click here for part 2.

Honobono Log

Honobono Log (ほのぼのログ) is a 10 episode slice of life series based on the art book Fukamachi Naka Gashū Honobono Log ~Taisetsu na Kimi e~ by Fukamichi Naka.  The series was made available by NHK in Japan in June of 2016.

    Each episode is a two minute intimate snap shot into the mundane lives of love and relation.  Episodes of deep love, unspoken understanding, consolation, acceptance and resolve.  Each is made up of a few lines spoken between the characters, crafted in such a way as to show how deeply the characters care for each other.  Coupled with the characters facial expressions and body language to show a greater history between them outside of the shows time frame.

    Simplistic, very limited animation and little in the way motion, this series tells deep stories as basically as possible.  The artwork is beautiful in its own right and the stories hit the emotion buttons strongly.  This is an excellent example of how to tell a story in only a few words.  I had been anticipating it since the series was announced earlier in the year.  I was unfamiliar with the original work but was intrigued by the look of it.  For fans of true to life stories, this will not disappoint.

    There is no word on the series or the art book being made available outside of Japan.   

Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto

Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto (坂本ですが?) is a 12 episode gag comedy based on the manga of the same name by Sano Nami.  It initially aired on Japanese TV over the Spring of 2016.

    High school freshman Sakamoto has caught everyone's attention in school; admiration of the boys, attraction of the girls and scorn of the delinquents.  He spends his days avoiding traps, stealthy showing off his mental and physical prowess.  All while remaining composed, cool and humble.  Much of the show is devoted to various schemes the schools delinquents hatch to punish him for his attitude and admiration.  He easily outwits them at every turn and manages to draw admiration and respect from them.  In the end though a notorious and dangerous upper class-man sets his sights on Sakamoto and continues to push others to attack him.

    There really is little in over all plot.  Each episode is broken into a few vignettes, some of which are loosely connected, that show off Sakamoto's genius while building the personalities of the side characters.  In more than a few ways the series reminded me of Cromartie High, much to my amusement.  The characters are fantastically odd ball, and given that one of the main punks is voiced by the same actor who does Gintama's Gintoki is an added bonus.  This is a good gag comedy series and I wouldn't mind reading the manga.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll, no word on a video release but it was licensed by Sentai.  Seven Seas Entertainment is releasing the manga so I will have to look for it!

Shonen Maid

Shonen Maid (少年メイド) is a 12 episode slice of life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Ototachibana.  The series aired on TV in Japan over the Spring of 2016.

    Komiya Chihiro finds himself an orphan following the sudden death of his mother.  Before he can figure out what to do a man claiming to be his mothers younger brother, Takatori Madoka, but he is leery at first.  His uncle lives by himself is an enormous mansion, a stark contrast to the modest apartment Chihiro shared with his mother.  Madoka, who's designs clothing for a living, is a bit of a scatter brained slob.  Chihiro's mother raised him to be particular about cleanliness and valuing labor.  His habits kick in and he begins to clean the mansion.  Madoka, using Chihiro's anti-freeloader hang ups, bargains with him that he can stay in the house and work off the 'debt' by being his new house keeper.  Chihiro agrees but is sidelined when Madoka forces him to wear a frilly maid outfit.

    Thus Chihiro's life with his estranged uncle begins.  His mother had been exiled from her family when she became pregnant, so until her death he knew nothing about any family beyond her.  While strikingly different from his mother, Chihiro begins to see Madoka as family and someone to replace the void of his lost mother.  Madoka on the other hand grows fond of his nephew as he is alone and distant from his parents.  If only Chihiro could convince Madoka to clean up after himself...

    What started out as a lame premise for a series turned into a rather touching slice of life story.  The idea of Chihiro being a frilly maid makes only a small blip in the over all series, instead it focuses on the two characters learning to live with each other while growing reluctantly close.  There are some standard comedy antics and character types but they seem more like add ons than attempts to drive the show or its audience.  It could have focused on Chihiro trying to hide his maid outfit secret for the entire thing, setting him up in rote situations where his secret will be revealed, but it chooses not too.  Instead it uses plot devices to show the bond growing between the two characters, with a little help from the extra's.  The artwork is good but the character designs are mid-grade and well enough for the series.  It doesn't detract of enhance the show.  Beyond that there is not much to saw.  The show was better than I expected and worth the time.

    It was simulcast on FUNimation and we should expect a video release in the future.  There are no plans known for an American release of the manga though.

Space Patrol Luluco

Spacer Patrol Luluco (宇宙パトロールルル子) is a 13 episode sci-fi comedy created by the people at Trigger.  It aired in Japan over the Spring of 2016.

    Luluco is an ordinary middle school student, living an ordinary life with her ordinary dad who happens to be a detective for the Space Patrol.  He is accidentally frozen one day during breakfast and Luluco takes him to the local Space Patrol headquarters.  She is forced to cover for him as a member of the Space Patrol while they figure out how to thaw him.  Her first mission is to uncover crimes at her school.

    Right away her duty as a member of Space Patrol kicks in to thwart a student cheating.  As she goes to arrest him her body morphs into a giant gun, in order to deliver justice.  She is then partnered with a mysterious boy named Nova to further combat evil at her school.  The plot they uncover could lead to the destruction of the universe as they know it!

    I have never been a fan of Triggers output, I respect it for the uniqueness and creativity, but it has never done much to entertain me.  This is the first series that remotely kept me entertained but still didn't do much for me.  It is standard Trigger fair, over the top, insane and hi octane.  What they do, they do well and they deserve the accolades they earn...but it's not really my style.  I decided to stick this one out given how short it was and in the end it wasn't bad.  They hinted at a possibility of more at some point, but who knows when given the new FLCL episodes on the horizon.  If more does come out I will probably casually watch it.  The artwork is typical of Trigger, stylized, absurd and fast paced.  They are a solid company when it comes to what they do and show that portions of the industry still have the drive to produce quality work.

    The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll and there is no word on any sort of video release in the future.