First Impression: Nazo no Kanojo X

This series is included in my MUST WATCH list of the season but for some reason when it was released, I have no desire at all to watch it. That is going to change though because finally I'm able to force myself to sit down and check it out.

Glo loves this series. He even changed his twitter name to the title of this series. Though I don't read the manga, he made me intrigued as to what was it that is so fascinating about this series. Well, for one, Urabe is awesome as fuck. I totally agree with Glo.

this is actually turning me on
(c) Machiko

Urabe reminded me somewhat of myself, except the saliva thingy. I know what I want and I will strive to get it, or at leas try to. Urabe is just like that. She is also sociably inept and doesn't really give a fuck what other people think of her. I liked her the moment she said no to her classmate and chose sleep over food. She's definitely not your average female character and that is always good in my book.

As for the story, it is definitely original. The fact that Urabe has that many saliva when she's happy/turn on, is a proof of that. I can't wait to see the plot with the scissors. 

I understand that the art itself is a representation of the manga but it is sort of out dated and the animation doesn't added any extra value to it. The saliva for example, didn't look real, but I guess as long as it managed to interpret what was written, it's good enough. At the end of the day, it shouldn't have mattered anyway. It's either you enjoy the episode or not and enjoyed it I did.

Episode 2 get.

art & animation 6/10
story 8/10
characters 9/10
sound 8/10
enjoyment 9/10
overall 8/10

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First Impression: Tsuritama

Surely by now you would have known that I am a fan of A-1Pictures. They didn't come out with any anime last season so I was really looking forward to watching two of their anime this season and Tsuritama is definitely one of it, especially so since it is featured in noitaminA and Tomokazu Sugita is one of the seiyuu. But then I started notice people's reactions to the show and though it doesn't dampened my excitement, it sure does rings some warning bells in my brain, just so that I won't be disappointed at the end of this episode.

Having said that, I can understand why people are whining about this show, especially you boys: it is featuring the story of four boys. If they were girls, I am sure the reactions would be different indeed.


Well, thank goodness that I didn't let others' opinions influenced me because I ended up enjoying every second of Tsuritama and dare I say it that my faith in noitaminA has been restored!

It is a show that I can't figure out how it will end after watching the first episode which is always a good thing. Predictability can be so cliche and I am not that good at dealing with cliche shit. Tsuritama starts with a tale of dragon with five heads that darkened an island with horrors and such until a goddess appeared one day from a purple sky. The dragon then fell in love with the goddess and before I knew it, there's Haru, one of the boys, who claimed himself to be an alien. He certainly has abilities of controlling people using his water pistol and communicating with fish. It looks like he was searching for something until he found Yuki, whose grandmother is quite hawt to be honest, and has some panic issue. He wants to be normal but has problem dealing with attentions. He transferred to the city by the sea because his grandmother got a new job there. The two of them are Natsuki's classmate. Natsuki is the prince of fishing - oh did I forget to mention that this show has a lot to do with fish and sea? - and has quite a cold persona, which is his charm in my opinion ♥

The first time they met, they were brought together by Haru who brainwashed them to go fishing with him. Yuki seeming has found something in fishing that might help him with his panic attack - and friends too - something that he always wanted.

But they are being watched by Akira, some sort of a prince who is always with a goose, and surrounded by bodyguards. It is still not clear who he is and what his deal is but the episode definitely got me interested in finding out more about everything.

I think Ryota Ohsaka does a really good job at voicing Yuki, given the fact that he is a novice. Yuki is not a one dimensional character and if he can carry his character well, I'm sure he has a bright future as seiyuu right in front of him. Needless to say, given the 1 minute introduction, was enough to makes me giddy of Akira simply because of Tomokazu Sugita. Haru's voice is rather annoying but I think it fits perfectly with the kind of character that he is which says a lot of his seiyuu, Miyu Irino. Kouki Uchiyama deep and serious voice makes me fall for Natsuki so yeah needless to say, I am a fan of all four :D

Everything about Tsuritama is vibrant and bizarre, starting with the character all the way to the animation and arts, which I must say, is something that I love to see in many other A-1 Pictures. It gives the feelings of watching a mix anime between SHAFT and Toei animation. Speaking of which, Tsuritama is directed by Kenji Nakamura, the same genius who directed Mononoke and C. Knowing this just makes my expectation for this show grows exponentially. It is rather careless of me, I know, because this could end up to be another Fractale but hey as long as I'm entertained, I won't complain much.

Yes, I know that I am biased as fuck. Aren't you?

Which mean I love the OP and ED too, especially the ED ^____^

Like I've said, it looks like I am most likely gonna spend my Spring watching A-1 Pictures anime and nothing else.

art & animation 10/10
story 9/10
characters 9/10
sound 10/10
enjoyment 10/10
overall 9.6/10

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First Impression: Daily Lives of High School Boys

Episodes: 12
Producers: Sunrise, Square Enix
Genres: Comedy, School, Slice of Life, Shounen

Besides Another, Daily Lives of High School Boys or Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou is the other Winter season anime that I have high hopes for for the simple reason that Tomokazu Sugita is cast for one of it's main protagonist. I am a big fan of him and he is the reason why I become a seiyuu fag so naturally I will watch anything that has him as one of the casts, no matter how small his role may be. The only recent show that he did/do is SKET Dance which he played the big role of making it such an enjoyable show for me.

So needless to say, I am super stoke to check this show out. I have a feeling that Sugita will be just as awesome as he usually is sprouting random shits that only his character can think of. Aight boys, without further ado, lets dig in =3

(c) Asuda

Less than a minute in, I knew I was right about this show; boys who ran holding bowl of soup on the way to school and met with robots flying down from the sky attacking their town. If that is not random, I don't know what is. Why? Because this is not a mecha anime. This show is categorized in slice of life genre and in our real life, there are no giants robot invading the earth. And random is always good in my book. Plus this show is directed by the same guy who did Gintama. If you didn't know how I feel about Gintama yet, you are retarded.

Danshiko (that's what this show is called in anime fandom) is a tale of three boys; Tadakuni, Hidenori Tabata and Yoshitake Tanaka who are friends and attending the same highschool. Just like Kimi to Boku, they have the serious boy and the other two who will do anything in their ability to annoy the living hell of the serious boy, in this case Tadakuni. But it wasn't always about that. We are going to witness their daily lives routines and the people they acquainted and interact with as well which added to the fun.

There are several segments in one episode that cover different topic which tickled my funny bones. I personally laughed my ass off during the skirt segments. I knew boys who actually did that, especially when there was a gullible boy around. Tadakuni fits that description to a T. These segments are even funnier because almost each of it was triggered or initiated by Hidenori. The segment of Hidenori and literary girl at the river bank was awesome too. It's quite a turning point for me personally to be honest because I realized that I found a replacement for Kyon and he even wears a megane. A crossover of Kyon and Gintoki is just the perfect man, if you know what I mean.

Some people might questioned that this is not what boys normally do in their daily lives, but I assured you that for someone who grew up around boys and is still surrounded by boys in daily life, boys really did do all these meaningless stuffs and talk about useless stuffs. That is what make them so fun to be around. Girls on the other hands are boring. They pretty much talked about cute boys and the latest fashion and being bitchy about everything. What's fun about that? For example when Yoshitake voiced his concern about the hair on his nipples, isn't that real as fuck?

what I said

Needless to say, I will probably force this one down everyone's throat. So beware. I'm maximizing my virgin power for the sake of Danshiko!

art & animation 6/10
story 10/10
characters 10/10
sound 10/10
enjoyment 10/10
overall 9.2/10

p/s: I am glad that I didn't check out the pre-air show for Danshiko ^_^

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Hatsukoi Limited

"Have you ever fell in love?"

That's the first line of this series. It made me cringed. "Oh god, not another shoujo anime please!" I said.

However, despite that dreaded feelings, I continued watching the rest of the first episode and by the time the ED song was playing, I was hooked, thank goodness.

Hatsukoi Limited (literally means First Love Limited) is a story about a bunch of teenage school girls/boys who are exploring and learning about love. Sounds rather generic, isn't it? Well it is not. Let me explain.

Hatsukoi Limited is a well executed romance anime. It involved a complex love web. The complexities of those loves, paired with the personalities of the characters are what make watching Hatsukoi Limited such an enjoyable ride despite it being only of 12 episodes. Eventhough the comedy in Hatsukoi Limited was derived from the combination of it's characters, slapstick and timing, I didn't think any of my brain cells died. Everything is done seamlessly and things never get stupid for the sake of comedy which was one of the reason I take pleasure in completing it.

Hatsukoi Limited does not begin and end each story lines within one or two episodes. It moves and develops those stories throughout the 12 episodes. Like I said it kind of complicated with such a large casts but this anime managed to pull this one by introducing them and addresses them slowly and flawlessly without the needs to stress it out.

To captured the various aspects of a first love, this anime needs a large cast. Don't fret though because it is impossible to get confused. The overall plots will adapt you to each of the major characters' development. You'll love watching them grow and mature throughout the series. I was surprised to find myself rooting for Kei-chan and Kusuda-kun and thought Yamamoto-san and Arihara-kun made such a good-looking couple. The characters are extremely likeable (even I liked characters that I usually hate). They are also easy to relate to because none of them seems too fictious or fantasy-like. I'm sure once upon a time we have all been through such similar situation.

They are all sorts of love. The typical unrequited love to brother/sister complex that borderline incest. Although I won't consider Hatsukoi Limited as ecchi, there are still some fanservice moments for the guys. So you perverted out there can enjoy this one too! As for the girls, don't worry. You will have no problem enduring those moments because it didn't feel overly forced.

The OP and the ED are catchy but nothing special. As for the voice of each characters, they fit perfectly.

Since this anime was done by J.C. Staff, a well-known animation studio, it was to be expected that the quality of the animation was quite high and there was never a point where I spotted any inconsitencies with the character designs. They did an amazing job with the adaptation leaving me wanting more and completely satisfied. It also makes me all giggly and girly, which I definitely am not!

I'll end this review with it's famous catch phrase: "Are you in love right now?"

Art and animation 9/10
Sound 8/10
Storyline 9/10
Characters 10/10
Enjoyment 10/10
Overall 9/10

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