Comic Review: Off*beat (volume two)

Well I had a rather charming surprise at my new local library, they have quite a bit of manga! I'm starting to think that my local library was a bit crap for having so little (that or it was so throughly spread out between the branch libraries I never got a chance to see what they really had) and this library not only has manga but it has quite a few longer running series that I had always wanted to try and some older books like this one. I didn't think I'd have a chance to read this one any time soon since, to the best of my knowledge, Chromatic Press hasn't started selling new copies yet and I'd have to wait for those to trickle down into the libraries. I will note however that for some reason this particular book was missing some pages, I don't think I missed anything terribly important story wise, I wouldn't be reviewing it if I had, but if it seems like I did feel free to chime in in the comments!

Off*beat (volume two) by Jen Lee Quick

Summary: Tory continues to try and get closer to his neighbor and classmate Colin in order to figure out what exactly is going on in Colin's sometimes mysterious life.

The Good: In the effort of full disclosure, I'm having a bit of trouble remembering where volume one ended and volume two began which in one way is a good thing, it shows just how cleanly this story flows, but does mean this is going to be a shorter review. I'll admit that I liked this volume a bit less since it felt more like build-up, being able to read chapters from volume 3 immediately afterwards was a relief especially since it showed that Quick really does have a well plotted out story in mind. One thing I do remember liking a lot about this volume is how even though Tory is absolutely convinced that Colin is part of a secret government project the story presents it in such a way that as a reader I was never sure if he was right or completely crazy. I think that presentation was on purpose and that's something that's quite tricky to pull off correctly and I thought it gave the story an extra level of interest. 

The Bad: I'm so happy I don't have to say "and then it ends forever so we have no conclusion!" since that would be a pretty big negative against the series. The third series is already being serialized in Sparkler Monthly and picks up immediately from where the second volume ends and honestly that takes care of both my biggest problem with the series and that also starts rounding out the characters a bit more which was my other large complaint about the series. People will probably disagree with me but I just found Tory and Colin a bit too flat, Colin spent the first volume barely interacting so it was hard to see what his actual personality was (other than "quiet" and "a bit sullen") and Tory is so obsessive with his stalking that it's as if that one quirk defines his entire personality. Like I said, the third volume is definitely the start of the final act so both of those problems start to fade and that leaves me with no real issues with the series at the moment.

The Art: No big changes here from the first volume, Quick continues to draw in a style that looks a little rough but grew on me over time. I also feel a bit weird critiquing it since I started out reading her later work (Witch's Quarry) so I know that all the problems I have with this work (faces are a bit too similar, backgrounds can get rather simplistic and overly reliant on screentones) are improved upon in her other works yet I hope the art for the last volume isn't too different since a radical style change would be even worse. And, in writing this review, I just realized that the CP editions have new covers and just wanted to quickly mention that I like the new ones (with new logo) better than the old TokyoPop ones, much more focused composition.

So, if you enjoyed the first volume of Off*Beat you'll enjoy this one even more and then should run over to Sparkler Monthly to read the rest. Otherwise, if you're a fan of lite-BL stories where the relationship isn't the main focus then you should give this series a shot, I was pleasently surprised to see that it was as good as I had been told anyway.

Anime Review: Antique Bakery

Sorry again for no post yesterday guys, I've just had a weirdly odd time finding tv shows/movies for me to watch, especially legally, but things seem to be in order now so I don't foresee anymore problems there.

On the other hand, there is no shortage of legal anime to watch out there and I've been rather pleased at how Nozomi has really been making an effort at putting their shows up on their youtube channel lately. I've read all of Antique Bakery before but I really wanted to see the show since it was shown on the noitaminA time slot which I (generally) adore. As is the case with Nozomi's shows, only the first couple of episodes are up now but it's enough to give you a taste for the show.

Antique Bakery

Summary: Tachibana, the only son of an well-off family, decides one day that he is bored of his office job and wants to start a bakery. His family supports this idea and gives him the money to buy a shop, get the best pâtissière avaliable (who turns out to be an old classmate of his, Ono), get an assistant to help with the baking (Eiji, a young man who can no longer wrestle and wants to pursue his other dream of making and eating sweets all day long), and his old family servant Chikage. They may all be adults but there is still character development to be had, especially for Tachibana who still has reoccurring nightmares from the time he was kidnapped as a young child.

The Good: I was rather curious how the show would be structured, not because it was only 12 episodes, the original manga is only four volumes long after all, but because each volume of manga was structured so that all the characters introduced in that volume were connected. It was really well done in the manga so I was curious how the anime would handle this, essentially the episodes were a bit less connected than their manga counterparts but the story still felt whole and conclusive in the end so it works as an adaptation. It's one of the few stories where I would prefer people to see in whichever medium they prefer, manga or anime, instead of favoring one over the other, the adaptation was that solid. Some things were actually made clearer in the anime for me, such as the reason behind Tachibana's homophobic slurs to Ono back in high school (it's subtle but there is a real reason there which is rather tragic). As with the manga I'm really happy with how Ono was portrayed, he's gay, perfectly fine that he's gay, his "gay demonic charm" is supposed to be amusing, and the characters are okay with all of this (which is the most amazing part sadly, occasionally anime makes it seem like all of Japan is homophobic). All of the characters are great but Ono's characterization stuck out to me the most. 

The Bad: Parts of this show is set on an unbelievable premise (Tachibana's real reason for setting up the shop and the fact that it works) which still continues to bug me and makes me wish that hadn't been so, over the top dramatically. Other than that, not all of the characters got equal development so if the show had had more time that would have been nice but I still feel like this was a solid story and the anime really knew how to pace itself.  

The Audio: The show made a smart move with not having a J-pop song for either the opening or ending sequence and I liked how both of them were done by male singers as well (since the main cast of the show is male it would have just been a bit odd to have a female singer in my opinion). Both songs fit the show well and Nozomi has included subtitles for both songs as well (many streamers these days seem to leave the songs untranslated so I appreciate the shows that do translate them even more now). All of the characters were well voiced and I really can't imagine the show dubbed in English, it's atmosphere is just so different from the average anime, and with much more natural voices, that it's hard for me to imagine most American VAs doing these kinds of roles*.


The Visuals: The show continues with an un-official noitaminA tradition by having an opening that isn't traditionally animated (here with animated cut-outs of characters in a mock-up of the cafe) which looks rather clever. The character designs remain mostly unchanged from their manga counterparts and the show looks fine. There are some odd moments where the animators opted to use CGI instead of traditional CGI, mostly for architecture, which shows (the show is from 2008 so it isn't terribly old but CGI gets so much better each year that it's understandable why it's obvious).

I'm not so sure I want to get the special edition of the show that Right Stuf is currently selling of the show but I can certainly see myself getting a plainer release of it some years down the line. And with this show I have now seen 19 and a half noitaminA shows (dropped Guilty Crown halfway through) so I am certainly making progress in my quest to try out (almost) all the noitaminA shows. There are a few I don't think I'll go around watching but I still have a lot of shows to look forward to!





*this is in no shape or way an insult to American VAs, I'm just so used to hearing a certain kind of acting from them that it's hard to imagine them doing something which is almost the complete opposite.

Anime Review: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2

While I had some issues with the original Sekaiichi Hatsukoi I did like many of the characters enough to check out the second series (which aired in fall 2011, bit behind here) streaming on crunchyroll.com I suppose that theoretically this second series could be watched without having seen the first series but in a series that rests entirely on it's characters and their developing relationships I can't see why you would skip the first series. I will note however that I did skip the episode that focused on characters from the original manga-ka's other work, Junjou Romantica, since I have not seen that show and don't plan on it so it just didn't hold any entertainment value for me.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2

Summary: Ritsu Onodera is still the rookie manga editor for the shojo magazine Emerald but he's starting to get a grasp on all the stuff that gets thrown his way. He's also starting to get a grip on his growing love life with his boss, Masume Takano, although progress on that front is moving even more slowly. And the second and third set of couples also reappear as they navigate the ins-and-outs of being men in love.

The Good: Ritsu actually admitted to himself in the first episode that yes, he does love Takano so all kissy/sexytimes between the two of them seem to be consensual now which clears up my big problem with the series, even if Ritsu won't formally tell Takano that yes he loves him. This made their relationship much more interesting, and less icky, in my opinion and the story covered the rest of their past which was also a nice touch.

The Bad: As mentioned earlier, there is an episode in this series that is devoted entirely to characters who aren't even in this series (although yes they do have a tenuous connection) which I frankly don't see the point of and wish had been an unconnected OVA instead. Also got bored very quickly of the tension surrounding the second couple, Chiaki and Hatori, which has devolved into a silly love triangle involving a mutual acquaintance of theirs and just didn't find it interesting at all. Likewise, I was sad that the third couple, Kisa and Yukina whom I prefer, didn't have that much screen time and their story this time was a bit stupid as well, I actually felt a bit cheated by that. 

The Audio: The voice acting was the same as the first series and still worked here, although I did have a few moments wondering how embarrassing/how many times the voice actors must have just broken down and started laughing while recording some of the lines, and it works well enough. The OP and ED were okay and I was happy that the previews were done the same way they had been in the first season, with Ritsu reading off a bunch of explanations for what goes on in the manga publishing industry super fast yet never quite managing to finish in time.

The Visuals: Same as before, this series is being produced by Studio Deen who frankly does not do very great work. A lot of stuff looks awkward, there are plenty of scenes that are just shots of talking heads (and the original manga-ka isn't very good at creating distinct looking characters which adds to the mess)  and it's just not the most visually interesting series. This time however there was actual animation in the ED which is a step-up from the first series.


This season I think was stronger for the main couple and weaker for the two other couples oddly enough but it worked. Not sure if I would see a third season of this show unless it was meant to the last, there's just a limit to how much will-they-or-won't-they I can take, but as before I would seriously consider buying this is Nozomi was to license it.  

Fall Anime 2011 Reviews: Part two!

For those who missed it, I did update the first post with my thoughts on Last Exile: Fam (what I'm most disappointed about with it is just how much the fandom for it is complaining, about having a predominately female cast, possibly a yuri hint or two, a bit of fanservice and it's not like the original show didn't have most of that as well) this post should cover everything else I've tried so far this season. Looks like I'll be watching more shows than I planned on which makes me pretty glad that I'm not watching much non-anime stuff right now (Doctor Who is done, Project Runway is almost done, My Little Pony is starting up again but that's not a bit thing, might finish up Legend of the Seeker on Netflix soon), although I do have some older anime titles I'm trying to finish up now as well, balancing all of this and school work could get tricky soon....

Persona 4
In case anyone is worried that I suddenly forgot how the alphabet goes yes I know this should have gone before Phi Brain but I only tried out this show a couple of days ago and didn't want to mess with my previous post any more than I had. In any case, I've never played any of the Persona games so I went in with only a basic knowledge of the plot and managed to keep up and understand everything pretty well. Yu Narukami is sent to live with his uncle and cousin in a small town as his parents work overseas (weird, I thought it was standard for anime characters to live at home by themselves), awkwardly meets some people, accidentally discovers his can now phase through tvs and ends up fighting some monsters with his new friends. The pacing bothered me more than anything else, it felt really choppy in the first episode (as if they were just showing the cut scenes from the game and cutting out the game play parts, I had a similar problem with Toganu no Chi last year) but the pace in the second episode seemed much smoother and felt like a better speed. I've seen some people worried about how the studio is going to compress a 80+ hour game into a bit under 11 hours but I'm going to remain optimistic for the moment. In the US this is being simulcast by Sentai/Section 23 through their site, The Anime Network but it looks like they're using the hulu player so you can also watch it that way. 

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2
Starting pretty soon after the first season left off, Ritsu is still working for the manga publishing magazine Emerald and he's now in a supervisor position so there's even more work for him now. More importantly, it seems that in two episodes Ritsu and Takano have made at least as much (if not more) progress than they did in the entire first season, I was rather impressed since I was expecting the story to continue the "will-they-or-won't-they?" story to the very end. Also happy to see they're still censoring out the sex scenes (which is just because I don't like porn of any kind that much*) although I'm sure the hardcore fujoshi fans aren't so happy. The visuals are still below average, this is a Studio Deen work so that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone and I haven't really noticed the music that much. Next week the story is switching to one of the side couples so fingers crossed that it continues to improve on the first season.
The second season of Sekaiichi is streaming on crunchyroll and you can watch the first season there as well. 

Squid Girl 2 (Shinryaku Ika Musume!?)
Squid Girl also continues more or less where the first season left off but after four episodes I'm just not loving it as much as I liked the first season. I remember that I marathoned a good chunk of the series the first time and maybe that's what I need to do now to get back into the show. It has the same set-up as before, three sketches in each episode, but only one or two of them have felt really funny to me, some were a bit amusing and others just fell flat, the humor just doesn't feel as creative anymore. The show is taking a break in the upcoming weeks (to give the stations that started late a chance to catch up) so maybe a little break is what I need. 
Like it's predecessor, Squid Girl is streaming on crunchyroll.

Tamayura~Hitotose~
I didn't watch the original Tamayura OVAs when they came out since I saw mixed reviews about them but decided to try out the tv series for a few reasons. While I normally have no interest in the cute girls/boys doing cute things kind of plot this was a story about cute girls doing photography, my thing, which was interesting and the show is being directed by Junichi Sato who did the series composition for Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth this past summer and I really enjoyed that show so I thought I would give it a try. Tamayura just didn't work for me however, while Croisée managed to have a "healing" feeling by being a very low-key, character growth oriented show it felt like Tamayura was trying too hard to capture that same feeling and came off feeling forced to me. Maybe if this series got licensed I would give it another chance but for the moment I'm not going to follow fansubs for any series I don't completely adore.

UN-GO
The other noitaminA show this fall (funny enough, the same two studios, Production IG and Bones did both the shows for the summer block and the fall block, this is Bones' show) and it's adapted from Ango Sakaguchi's post WWII mystery stories, this time set in the near future after a war. Shinjurou Yuuki is "the defeated detective" since it always seems like he makes incorrect deductions and he's accompanied by his assistant, and by far the strangest element in this show, Inga. While the mystery was nothing special (I honestly think it's harder to do a mystery in a visual medium and in serial mediums, keep meaning to write a blog entry on that) I did like how the surrogate audience character was NOT the detective's assistant for once and that she could be an interesting character later on. I didn't really like how Gosick turned out but I've never been able to find out how much of the ending was Bones and how much of the ending was the original work so I'm hoping I'll like a story that's almost all Bones a bit more.
UN-GO is streaming for multiple countries on crunchyroll.

So there you have it, 10 shows, 2 I'm dropping, 8 I hope to follow and who knows, I might even try out Fate/Zero later on when I have the time. Not now though, apologies that this entry is up so late but this week has been crazy for me and tomorrow's entry might be up really late (like, a whole day late) as well. Fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly tomorrow but I'm not counting on it.

*believe me, I've seen hardcore yaoi before, although there's a bit of a story behind that one.

Anime Review: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

I don't watch much BL but I actually do like a number of BL stories, I just don't find many of them (same goes for GL but not straight romances oddly enough). So I was interested when this show was announced for the spring season and, after first checking that there wouldn't be any sex scenes in it (I don't like hentai of any kind, no matter what genders are involved), tried it and was pleased that I actually liked it, despite having some issues with parts of it.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (World's Greatest First Love)

Summary: Ritsu Onodera is a jaded 25 year old who, after getting his heart broken in high school, wants nothing whatsoever to do with love and doesn't really have time for it anyway. He's busy switching to another publishing company (after becoming annoyed at all the rumors that he was only successful at his old job because his father was the company owner) where, to his horror, he realizes that he is now an editor for shojo manga instead of being placed in the company's literature department. And, as if his problems couldn't get any worse, then he realizes that his new boss is his ex-boyfriend from high school and the one who broke his heart in the first place.*

The Good: Surprisingly enough, the story does not drop the manga maing aspect from the story as soon as Ristu and Takano's conflict is set up (it takes up at least half of the story overall) which is nice since the story does go into a lot of detail about how manga gets made. People who hate BL but want to know how a manga is made probably won't like this (they should give Bakuman a try instead) but for people who don't mind the BL it's a surprisingly informative story. As for the characters, most of them are likable (or at least sympathetic) and it's nice to see older characters in a story. Another plus is that, while most of the characters fall under the if it's you it's okay trope, one of the characters is gay and is perfectly okay with the fact he's gay which is (sadly) unusual in BL manga aimed at female readers. Finally, that two of the three couples manage to figure things out and be happy together in a very short amount of time, which is again unusual, which sadly leads us to the problem of the first couple.  

The Bad: It's very common to have one (or both) people in a romance hate each other at first and slowly grow closer which is what the story is aiming to do with Ritsu and Takano but, even taking all the misunderstanding between the two of them into account, it's just very hard to root for a couple where one member (Takano) doesn't know the meaning of the word no and harasses Ritsu on a fairly regular basis (Ritsu does give off mixed signals but no still means no regardless of circumstances). Takano is even shown to be a fairly good guy but sexual harassment isn't a good thing at all and Hatori (from the second couple) also comes off as a controlling boyfriend which again, isn't a good thing. The anime actually cut out (or at least made it much less obvious) that there are two rape=love instances (one for each of those couples) and it's really hard to justify recommending a series that has such big problems such as these.

The Audio: There's nothing really special about the opening or closing themes here, they are catchy but they also only focus on the first couple instead of all three. The voice acting is also fairly average, solid but nothing special, except for the episode preview after the credits. At that point Ritsu starts reading off definitions for words in the publishing industry and does so so quickly that the subtitles can barely keep up, it must've taken a number of takes each time to get all of that in one breath (even if he usually gets cut off before he's done). So make sure to watch the previews twice, once for the images and once to actually read all the text.

The Visuals: This anime was produced by Studio Deen who, to put it nicely, is not know for their artistic skill. There isn't a ton of action in the show to start with but many other shows take advantage of that to put more budget into detailed scenery (such as AnoHana), the backgrounds here are a bit bland as well. There are only two faces for the guys (I have nicknamed them "the seme face" and "the uke face"^) but that problem comes from the original manga, not the anime staff as much (the rare female characters also tend to look a lot alike). 


When I was double checking how to spell names for this series I was reading though the character page on tvtropes and was amazed at just how many misunderstanding there were between Ritsu and Takano and got rather annoyed when I realized that their relationship could have gone completely differently then. Why couldn't the manga-ka have written a story where the guys have a healthier relationship and fall in love, then I could easily recommend this story to people! I do really like the third couple (even though neither the second or third couple get nearly as much screen time as the first) and that couple even shows that the manga-ka can write outside of the normal stereotypes, I want more of the please!

Currently the show is streaming on crunchyroll.com (for those who want to try it) and I think it stands a fair chance of getting picked up my RightStuf/Nozomi since they already licensed both series of the manga-ka's other work, Junjo Romance (which I haven't seen since I know it has sex scenes, which was also the whole reason why I asked about that in the first place). The manga was set to be published by Tokyopop under their BLU imprint but Tokyopop fell before the first volume could be released, although I have heard that DMP is looking at the series to see if they could bring it over instead (final note, tvtropes has also informed me that, while the first and third couple are in the manga, the second couple is from a series of light novels by another author based on the series, sounds like there are no fan translations of said series at this time).





*Since I'm going to mention all three couples I'll list them here, Ritsu and Takano (the main couple, both manga editors), Chikai and Hatori (the first is a manga-ka, the second is another editor) and Kisa and Yukina (the first is yet another manga editor, they're all in the same department, and the second is a bookseller).
 ^because, even when the couple is of the same gender, one character (apparently) must look more masculine while being more forward/aggressive and the other must look more feminine and be more emotional and passive. 

Manga Review: Antique Bakery

Well, if I forgot to review The Sacred Blacksmith for a few months I should apologize for not reviewing this, I actually read three volumes of this way back in December but wasn't able to get the fourth volume at time (this was all through my local library) so I had to hold off of it for months. Actually, I'd wanted to read this title for a few years but for some reason all four volumes were listed in the same entry in the library catalog so I had a one in four chance of getting the one I wanted (they were all at different branches too). One day I actually went ahead and emailed them about this problem and then the next day each volume had it's own entry, really wishing I had done this years ago now. 

Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga

Summary: One day, seemingly on a whim, Keiichiro decides to open a bakery in what was formerly an antique shop (hence the store's name Antique). He hires Ono, a "gay of demonic charm" who was a high school classmate of his, as his pastry chief and eventually also hires Eji, a 21 year old former wrestler, as a kitchen assistant and another old friend of his, Chikage, to help in the shop as they enchant all kinds of people with their delectable sweets. 

The Good: While the story is character focused, not plot focused, each volume has it's own larger arc with a few reoccurring characters and that's a nice thing. It's a slice of life story but a really good slice of life story won't use new characters in each chapter, rather it knows when new characters are needed and when already introduced characters will keep the story going. As for the characters themselves, it's nice to see characters who aren't high school students (the youngest character, Eji, is already 21) and it's a bit surprising since this story is shojo, not josei, and the characters really needed to be older for this story to work. The characters deal with more adult issues and choices in life, which again is a refreshing change.

The Bad: The beginning of the first volume was rather confusing since it introduced numerous characters who wouldn't reappear for a few chapters and left me flipping back and forth through the pages, trying to figure out who was who and, more importantly, which guys were the main characters. The story does something similar in each volume but it's the most confusing in the first volume, it makes the storytelling feel a bit choppy in places. Also, reading this series will give you an incredible desire to go out and eat/make pastries with each new chapter which, while not precisely bad, could be bad for your health and wallet.

The Art: The art  is rather restrained for a shojo work, a lot of panels are plain black and white drawings of the characters talking without any background art and and it doesn't go tone crazy like many shojo series do (you can see why I thought this was josei to start with). The characters look a bit similar to each other at times, especially early on in the series when a lot of characters are being introduced at once, but they all look different enough (and each one has a well established personality so they all act very differently) so that readers shouldn't be confusing them too often.


I really enjoyed this (even if I did have the constant to urge to make crazy pastries that I had no clue how to make) and would love to see the anime. The anime is licensed (and out now) by Nozomi but, since they very rarely stream anime on their youtube channel and never anywhere else, it's likely to be quite a while before I get a chance to check it out. 
  

Spring Anime 2011 Reviews, part two!

Sorry this is up rather late, today has been busy, tomorrow will be so busy that the word "busy" won't cover it and Tuesday will be just plain hectic, wheee. So, onto the other four shows I've tried out this season! And, for those curious, I only had one show carry over from the winter season and that was Gosick which I'm starting to warm up to (characters are now established and the mysterious aren't so laughably simple anymore).

Hanasaku Iroha
Initiallythis wasn't on my to-watch list since the promo art wasn't that interesting but the first episode got a lot of good reviews over on ANN and I do like slice of life so I decided to give it a shot. After the first episode I disliked almost every character in the show (which is a bit unusual for me, can't remember the last time that happened actually) and after episode two I only disliked some of them and was rolling my eyes at the idea that one girl could come into their lives and (eventually) change all of their attitudes. And then I read the reviews about the mood whiplash in episode three and decided that I'd stick with AnoHana for my slice of life story for the season. I may come back to it at some point, it's a 2 cour series so it'll be running until October, but I already have so much to watch that I don't have time for a show that doesn't grab me from the start.
This one is streaming on crunchyroll.com in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Brazil, and Portugal.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (The World's Greatest First Love)

Sometime I just want to watch fluff and for some reason, BL (boys love, shonen ai, NOT to be confused with porn^) seems to work nicely for that purpose. Ritsu, a jaded 25 year old who has recently switched jobs, finds himself somehow working as an editor for shojo manga (NOT what he wanted) and his boss seems to find him familiar, HMMMMM. So far the story still spends quite a bit of time on the manga-making business (which I find pretty cool) although the romance is a little well, your mileage may vary. My problem with it is that I really don't like the "forced kiss/sex upon one partner who later enjoys it and that makes it all okay!" trope at all, regardless of genders involved. The story hasn't done too much of that yet so as long as the romance progresses to the point where both parties are happy with the situation I'll be alright with it.
Also streaming on crunchyroll.com in North America, South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Middle East, Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia.
 

Steins;Gate
The concept of a "microwave that can send text messages through time" intrigued me when I first heard about the show (and then baffled me when i wondered how a microwave was supposed to send text messages in the first place). The first few episodes didn't grab me but by the third episode the show had found it's stride, all the main characters seem to have been introduced and the plot was moving forward. The show is also really good at making it's characters feel very human (seeing them do laundry, hacking feels more realistic than it usually does, just a lot of small details). Now I'm really curious to see where the story will go so I'll be sticking with this one for the whole run (I believe it's confirmed at 2-cour like Hanasaku Iroha).
Again, streaming on crunchyroll.com in North America, South America, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Middle East, Africa.   


Tiger and Bunny
I had zero intention of even checking this story out when the listing of spring anime came out, never been a huge fan of superhero stories and what the heck do they mean by "geared towards a Western audience," less moe more boobs? But this one also got a lot of really good reviews on ANN so I checked it out and was bemused with what I saw. A bit of a deconstruction of the superhero genre, in the city of Sternbild superheros (also referred to as NEXT, no idea if that's short for something or means "next type of humans" or such) are now saving the city on live tv for everyone to see and are sponsored by corporations (who also pay for some of the damages they cause). Kotetsu is an older superhero whose sponsor goes out a business and his only option to stay in the biz is to accept the offer from another corporation who pairs him up with a younger superhero (with the exact same powers) and they become teh firs superhero due. Hilarity ensues, from the characters simply having completely opposite personalities to hanging lampshades on all the older superhero tropes. You don't need to be a fan of the superhero genre to enjoy this (as I said, I'm certainly not) and I'll be sticking with this through the rest of it's run for sure.
Tiger and Bunny is being simulcast through Viz in the US which means it's streaming on their site, hulu.com and animewnewsnetwork.com (which I believe also has simulcasts for other countries as well but I'm not 100% sure). 

Whew so, I'll be trying to follow everything from the past two days, with the exception of Hanasaku Iroha, as well as catching up on Torchwood, finishing my Last Exile re-watch, starting a Natsume Yuujincho rewatch sometime, starting Angel and continuing the new season of Doctor Who. Oh and you know, read actual books and comics for this blog and see whatever random movies I can dig up at the local/college libraries this summer plus finish sewing three cosplays by the end of May. I have absolutely no clue how I'm going to pull this off but it'll be interesting at the very least....

*funny note, they both share a scriptwriter, Mari Okada, so it's funny to watch people make comparisons between the writing.
^I have seen yaoi porn, I didn't like it.