Ano Natsu was interesting in that it felt like an anime that should’ve (and had) been made years ago. It’s basically a re-make of Onegai Sensei, with the same character types (but different characters). The thing that made Ano Natsu enjoyable was that it was executed damn near perfectly. The pacing, animation, humor, etc were all great. I think the one thing it lacked was a bit of originality. I guess you can’t have your nostalgia cake and eat it, too, though.

While the show became a bit self-referential (at least to its genre and history), that was more of a fan service than innovation. I’m talking about how they went all out with the alien chase at the end, and made the “fufufu” sensei into an actual MIB agent. It reminds me of how Arrested Development went insane at the end, since they were ending the series anyhow.

Another thing they did well was the ending. Up until the last moment, you don’t know whether the two main characters stayed together or not. I was kind of guessing they’d pull a Gainax ending (a la Mahoromatic), but they played it safe, just as you’d expect.

All in all, Ano Natsu De Matteru was a nice trip down nostalgia lane. 2000s anime doesn’t get much better than this!

Sakamichi no Apollon continues with a double date featuring new hotness Yurika. Unfortunately, the couples do not match up neatly, and we are faced with a love square. Ritsuko likes Sentarou, but Sentarou likes Yurika, and Kaoru likes Ritsuko. It’s not clear if Yurika likes anyone at this point.

The boys get in an argument because Sentarou is hurting Ritsuko by being flirty with the new girl. This sorta backfires on Kaoru since Ritsuko thinks he’s jealous. But in a surprising move, Kaoru confesses his like for Ritsuko, so it’s up to her to accept or reject him.

In other news, the two dudes have a jam session on “But Not For Me,” which is quite appropriate for their current situation. Kaoru confesses to Ritsuko with “Someday My Prince Will Come,” but apparently didn’t do a good enough job (next time, seal the deal with “My Funny Valentine“)!

I’m digging the quick plot progression of this series so far. Hopefully they will keep the jazz flowing and the drama going.

I heard this anime was about jazz, so I couldn’t really pass it up. As a music (and especially jazz) nerd, I was very interested in seeing what this show is about. Turns out it’s a period piece (probably late 50s, early 60s?). This makes sense, as most kids in Japan today are probably not going to be into jazz.

The story follows a high school kid (Nishimi) who migrates from school to school and never really develops any lasting friendships. He develops a crush on the class president (Ritsuko) and finds a friend in the class trouble-maker (Sentarou). There’s a weird love triangle going on since the two aforementioned characters are childhood friends.

Anyway, the plot is really about how Nishimi learns to make friends through music. He’s classically trained as a pianist, but this doesn’t fly with Sentarou, who has a jazz-only rule. Nishimi manages to play the opening line to Moanin’ (the Art Blakey one, not the Mingus version) super square, thus eradicating his jazz cred. Nishimi then buys the record and plays along (which is what any self respecting jazz learner would do).

Eventually he catches his break and gets invited to a jam session where he does a (probably too) good job of sitting in, having probably never heard Bag’s Groove before (though it does just follow a simple blues form anyway). You don’t really go from super square to comping like that in a day. Though he actually did a pretty bad job of comping when he threw up embellishments all over Jun-bro’s trumpet solo. Know your place, dude! But I digress…

Later on, they go to a beach and Ritsuko wears a one piece bathing suit. But who cares! Let’s hear some jazz! Oh, and Nishimi judges both of his friends for being Christians (though from the sound of it they seem to be part of a cult or something). Also, Sentarou falls in love with some broad, so maybe the love triangle will be broken soon.

Episode 2 Beach episode? Let the fanservice continue!

So far the selection of music has been good. Hopefully they continue to have music segments so I can try and show off by naming songs. Okay! I think I’ve found my anime for this season! Also, random thought: Why are the OP and ED not jazz? I can understand the desire to sell singles, but still, come on, the show is about jazz! Music picker, you had one job!

(Also, if anyone wants to start an anime/jazz fan jam band, I’m up for it if you need a trumpeter)

So of course the all knowing Remon-senpai knows exactly how to manipulate all of the characters for maximum enjoyment on the set of the movie. She puts Ichika in the role of crash-landed alien who needs a place to stay… Meanwhile, the love polygon is in full swing as Tetsuro encourages Kanna to go for Kaito while he simultaneously wishes he was with her. And the useless girl (Mio) is still sort of just useless for the most part. All in all, an enjoyable episode.

One thing I’ve been wondering is what time period this anime is set in. I sort of assumed it was some time in the 70s or 80s since Kaito’s camera seems very old school. In this episode, Ichika mentioned that the camera seemed old and Kaito explained that it was his grandfather’s. So I think this pushes the timeframe forward a bit.

I saw a cd player in one scene, so maybe they’re in the mid 90′s. None of the characters seem to have a cell phone, and there’s rampant landline usage, so I’m guessing 90′s is a good call. Given the natsukashii nature of the series, I think it’s cool that it’s not set in the current time period.

State of the art

I used to be a high school student like you, then I took a sparkler to the nii-nii.

I just finished Rihoko’s arc in Amagami SS Plus and I’m pretty happy with the results. Junichi (Juiichi?) finally manned the fuck up and told Rihoko how he felt (though it was after he overheard her confession, so I guess that kind of nullifies any manliness). My main issue with the way he did it (and my main gripe about the series in general) is that he told her that he’s always loved her, and just realized it now. And he’s gonna be with her forever, blah blah blah.

Assuming the alternate universes in this world do not diverge too much, then Junichi is simultaneously in love with Rihoko and other girls! Of course, that’s possible but it kind of ruins the romance if you think about it too hard. Junichi should just make less blanket statements and be a little more realistic. He is a manwhore, after all.

Oh, and the next arc is the swimmer girl, Ai. I can’t even remember what happened in her original arc. Some kind of little brother issue? Or a dog issue? Beats me. This one will probably be boring as heck.

One show I missed during my short season preview was Ano Natsu De Matteru. Apparently this show shares the writer of Onegai Sensei and Onegai Twins. The connection between the shows is instantly recognizable since Ano Natsu shares pretty much the same trope characters of childhood friends, wise-beyond-their-years manipulatie senpai (who do the “fu fu fu” laugh), super hot wingmen and alien meganekko main love interests.

In a way, Ano Natsu De Matteru is a throwback to a time when anime plots were simpler. The cast represents a precisely honed set of love triangles and leaves things to sort themselves out. While it’s extremely predictable (and I’m guessing that if there hasn’t been a Madoka-style twist by now, there won’t be one), it’s also super enjoyable. This is like the comfort food of anime for me.

If I’m right, and this anime doesn’t take any detours (though I think it would be pretty brave and awesome if it did), I’m guessing that the main dude and alien will have a series of misunderstandings, childhood friend might gain some traction but then lose out, alien girl will arbitrarily be taken away from main dude for an episode or two, and when they’re reunited, they will end up together. All the while, “fu fu fu” senpai will manipulate the rest of the cast for maximum enjoyment. Childhood friend will either hook up with blue haired dude, or maybe even with the third wheel girl (the one with brown hair that’s kind of useless) to spice things up.

This anime isn’t rocket science, and that’s kind of good. For now I will enjoy the production values and nostalgic feelings that I get from watching this.

The last anime I watched in its entirety was Madoka, which I thought was pretty good, despite the annoying finish. I’d like to watch more new anime, but I also don’t want to get suckered into watching bad shows. If anyone has suggestions on last season’s series that were good, lemme know.

Here’s some random thoughts on this season’s anime thus far:

High School DxD

Sorry girls, but you're all way too ugly.

Moretsu Pirates

My Mother the Pirate

Nisemonogatari
I was really puzzled by this one. Then I realized it was a sequel to Bakemonogatari. I figured it started “in medias res” so it should be slightly confusing. I didn’t realize I was watching it “in medias in medias res.” INCEPTION.

Just Do What Papa Says!

Where's Chris Hansen when you need him?

Kill Me Baby

Aside from having the worst OP in the history of OPs, Kill Me Baby is actually pretty good. I lol’ed at the part where dumb girl eats the crepe instead of distracting the bear with it. Also, the Engrish “Kirru me, bebe” is pretty hilarious. I think this show could get old fast, given the low number of characters, but whatever. Maybe I’ll watch it until it bores me.

Amagami SS Plus

Cut and paste various scenes to get the hidden Miyu arc!

Round Cat is Round

Girls love round cats

Recorder and Lando Calrissian

This show is only 3 minutes long as well. But it’s also stupid as hell and I’m not going to watch it.

So that’s it for my current season views. If you have any suggestions, please hit me up in the comments!

RIP Mami... again

After last week’s sorta meh episode, we get another Madoka of awesomeness! This time, we get to see how Homura came to be a mahou shoujo. Apparently in the original timeline, Mami and Madoka became partners (since Homura wasn’t there to delay Madoka becoming a Meguka, which probably led to a Madoka/Mami assist on the candy monster). They saved Homura and she became their magical girl toadie.

The original Walpurgis Night giant witch thing ended up killing Mami and Madoka and Homura made a contract to go back in time to make things right, just like in Quantum Leap! Homura then goes through a series of resets, trying to save her friend Madoka from what seems like the inevitable: becoming a witch and possibly destroying the Earth!

Homura 1.0

It’s really cool to see how Homura used to be the most awkward of everyone, and conversely, Madoka seemed the coolest. Through perhaps years of battling witches, Homura mastered the art of using concealed weapons (her shield is a bag of holding?) to become the most badass magical girl ever. A magical girl who uses guns? Fuck yeah! And man, does she clean up well (though I kinda like her with twintails and glasses…)!

This seems to happen a lot.

It was interesting to see the reactions of the characters in other situations too, like when Sayaka the witch was defeated and Mami went all apeshit, killing all the other magical girls so they wouldn’t turn into witches themselves. I was kinda hoping for a Kyubei death montage, sort of like Bill Murray’s montage of suicides in Groundhog Day.

Cool magical girls don't look at explosions

Homura’s actions finally make sense now, given the fact that she’s lost her friends multiple times. She calls Madoka by her first name because they’re BFF and acts cool because Madoka said she should. Basically everything she does is for Madoka, her first friend. She just has to convince her not to make a contract. It doesn’t seem too difficult, given that she could just sit them down with Kyubei and have him explain the contract legalese at length? Kyubei really doesn’t seem to be averse to telling the truth; he just leaves a lot out.

The series looks like it’s leading to a pretty finale. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Madoka Magica needs more yuri moments like this!

First off, Kyubei is soooo evil! Or at the very least, very manipulative. It all makes sense now! Kyubei turns girls into witches, the girls hunt the witches and get energy but eventually lose it and become witches themselves. The witches kill humans to get energy and are killed by the magical girls. Kyubei profits!! Also, Kyubei eats his own corpse, probably to conserve energy. Just like a cat!

If you were a Kyubei and you were starving, would you eat yourself?

Next, it seems Homura really is a time traveler! Or maybe a dimensional traveler. She finally stops pretending to be cool and actually pleads with Madoka to take better care of herself (e.g. stop trying to become Meguca). It’s obvious she knows what’s going to happen. She kinda lazily tried to save Sayaka but knew it was useless (Sayaka totally saw through her poker face). Also, the shotgun blast to Kyubei was sweet, but it’s too bad his death wasn’t permanent like Mami’s was.

Of course Sayaka goes off the deep end and lets her soul gem thingy get too tainted and becomes a witch. Watching this series keeps reminding me of that quote from The Dark Knight: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

I really like Homura as a character as things are revealed. She knew that trying to save Mami was impossible, though she wanted to anyway. She knew Sayaka was going to turn into a witch the whole time, yet she couldn’t do anything to stop that either. After being aloof stopped working, she finally broke down and pleaded with Madoka. There’s a lot to her character that’s not stated.

I thought of a good way to end the show. Madoka can just make her wish that Kyubei stop making girls into magical girls! Problem solved. It probably won’t be that simple though. More realistically, Madoka will probably become a magical girl and become God. Then she might make the world explode or something. Who knows? She’s like the Luke Skywalker of this show.

Alright, that’s enough speculation. I just gotta wait until the next episode. Apparently this show is only 12 episodes long, so who knows if Madoka will even get to become a magical girl?

The whole apple biting thing kinda reminded me of Iron Chef’s Takeshi Kaga:

In other news, it looks like Sayaka is mega pissed that she’s a zombie and can’t really be with her boyfriend. I wonder if being a shell of a human prevents her from that much or if she’s just being dramatic. By the end of the episode it’s apparent that she’s flipped and is headed toward the dark side pretty quickly.

Oh, and it’s episode 7 and Madoka is not Magica yet. How many episodes is this show, anyway? If it’s 12 or 13 then I feel kind of cheated. The beginning credits sequence is so not canon now, what with Mami dead and the show definitely not as lighthearted as it was made out to be. It’s kinda funny that they haven’t changed the OP or anything to match the show’s darkness. The ED works for that though, I guess.

It’s pretty late at night so this blog post most likely is rambling, but I figured I’d just pound it out before I forget!