First Impression: Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

My first impression of this show was when I read the synopsis for the preview. I thought that it borrowed most of the ideas from Smurf and since I was once a fan, I know I will be very critical at reviewing this first episode. Lets just hope it won't disappoint me too much.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita or Humanity has Declined in English, is about this girl who deals with fairies. This show took place where food are scarce for the human. She, her assistant and an old guy went to the fairies' place to investigate how the hell they produced food. Apparently it was all synthesized shit.

I was ready to drop it after 10 minutes in but conversation with Lord Jagganath in Twitter forced me to watch this episode till the end. And so I want to thank him for that.

The bleeding loaf changed my mind, and I have seen the other incoming mindfuck shit. I liked it.

THIS!

The art and animation, except for the character designs, are pretty solid in my opinion. Although the background are pretty much static, I like how they played with the color technique. It gave this 'drawing' feels to it. The characters could look more lively to match with the background though.

Was it just me or did anyone else thought that the fairies sound annoying as hell?

I was just about to list this show as the first anishit list of the season but changed my mind after I've seen the later half of the episode. Lesson learn today: don't be too quick to judge.

Episodes: 12
Aired: Summer 2012
Genres: Fantasy, Seinen

arts & animation 7/10
story 7/10
characters 6/10
sound 5/10
enjoyment 6/10
overall 6.2/10

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First Impression: Persona 4 The Animation

Just like I am with Fate franchise, I am also a noob when it comes to Persona since I don't play the game and the only Persona I know is the anime that was aired couple of years back: Persona ~ Trinity Soul which I enjoyed a lot. Perhaps that is why I am looking forward to see this one as well, even more so now that everyone else is hyper about it too.

Lets just hope that this show lives up to expectation.

(c) Tadashi Hitoshi

Episode 1 started with the introduction of Igor and Margaret who are in the in-between realm. I dunno who the fuck are they talking to though. Then we get to see our protagonist, Yuu Narukami moving in to his uncle's house in a small village, which mean he has to transfer school as well. Ever since he set his foot in that village, something is happening to him and we all already know what that something is. He is creating a persona of himself.

He quickly makes friends: Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi and Yosuke Hanamura. He takes the first trip to the other world with Chie and Yosuke when they accidentally go inside the TV. In that alternate realm, Yuu is given a spectacle that enables him to see the Shadows. At the most critical time, Yuu awakens his Persona and he just transformed!

that megane changes everything! *faps*
(c) Mikuni

I am not crazy about the animation but there is just something about the character designs that added the realism factor for the story, except for the three tone face everyone is having. What is up with that? Did they only tanned from their chin below? The animation needs to be more consistent in my opinion. It was awful during the time Yosuke buying them dango but was great when they were being chased by the Shadows. I mean, I almost creamed my pantsu heh.

One more thing, I think they need to carefully insert their BGM so that it would not ruin the scene. It happened several times during this episode where I can't focus on what the characters were saying because the BGM was so out of place.

Somehow I feel like this show is forcing something down my throat and I am not comfortable with that. A lot of that has to do with Yosuke's supposedly comedic relief. Having said that, the reason why I want to see this show is because of the story and so far it manages to grab my attention and pique my interest.

this guy is pretty convincing ^^

Not a perfect first impression but it's a good start.

arts & animation 8/10
story 8/10
characters 8/10
sound 6/10
enjoyment 8/10
overall 7.6/10

p/s: Why don't they just stick with Souji Seta? Why did they replace his name with Yuu Narukami.

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Bamboo Blade

I remember at one particular time, I was obsessed with sports-related anime. In my craze, I picked up Bamboo Blade and was glad that I did. It even makes me interested in kendo. Too bad I'm too old to pick up a sport, or to learn martial art.

Bamboo Blade is pretty straight forward in terms of the story line. We have a struggling kendo club looking for new members to ensure that the club will not be canceled. Of course, as the story progress they managed to gather new members, including two boys. The instructor is kind of good for nothing sensei. One day he met with an old friend, another instructor at another school, and bet that his club can beat the other kendo club in a practice match. The prize is one year supply of sushi (didn't I said he's good for nothing?). Anyway, somehow the practice match leads to the final tournament. There are nice mini stories, trials and tribulations in between that completed this story.

Bamboo Blade does a fairly good job explaining what Kendo is, the strategies and the ropes of the sport. As a total noob when it comes to Kendo, I didn't get lost in the plot trying to understand what has taken place.

Each of the members have eccentrics personalities which make this show so fun to watch because they are such a riot! The members of the club is the heart of this series and totally has the best character chemistry ever. Tamaki got to be my favorite character in the series. She's small and seems to have a quiet personality but she's one of the best at Kendo. Also she's an otaku, so she wins big time. Kirino is the responsible captain of the kendo club and have a close relationship with Sayako, the hilarious red-head. There is also Satori is the timid girl, Miyako who have split personalities and is totally in love with the very eccentric, very geeky, Dan the pimp. Let's not forget Yuuji who is the only sensible male around and seems to be the closest with Tamaki (I was hoping for some romance), and their failure of a teacher, Kojiro.

Despite this being a all female cast for the most part, there is absolutely no ecchi or fanservice to the pervert, which is something that I appreciated.

Kawazoe Tamaki. She might be small but she can so kick your ass to oblivion.

While it may not be the best looking series out there, I think AIC A.S.T.A, FUNimation Entertainment and Studio Tulip did a pretty good job with the art. The characters were designed with their personalities in mind and has such versatility to them. The overall animation is well enough to catch your attention and does not come off as an over kill. Only the background is lacking in character, imo.

The OP of this series is pretty catchy and lively. It will give you a sense of happiness. It also has a sweet ED too. Both songs were done by Hirohashi Ryou (the seiyuu for Tamaki). The background music too is pretty awesome, with epic orchestral pieces to hot-blooded insect songs. The voice actors did at awesome job to add personalities to the characters. They also did well in matching with the characters' various emotion. Did you know, Kojiro is voiced by the same guy who voiced Kamina-sama from Gurren Lagaan, with the same intonations and vocal gestures. It was sheer hilarity and full of epicness!



Bamboo Blade has it all: comedy, drama, romance... all rolled up into 26 episodes. If you are looking for a fun anime with great character chemistry and amusing anecdotes, then Bamboo Blade hits the mark just right. However I can't recommend it to everyone especially if you like plot twist and a fast pace non-linear storyline.

Personally I thoroughly enjoyed this series though :)

Art 8/10
Story 8/10
Characters 10/10
Sound 8/10
Enjoyment 10/10
Overall 9/10

Torrent: TokyoTosho
Fansub: Huzzah-Doremi

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