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At least three times while reading this manga, I though I had an idea where things are going, and every time it turned out completely differently. Whether that is quality or a fault, I do not know, but the story of Totsukuni No Shoujo certainly is as unique as I've ever seen from a manga.
Though I must admit that the end had me lost a bit. It certainly is very poetic, but also, at least to me, is a bit too vague and unclear.

At least as unique as the story, the art style of Nagabe, despite differing in almost every regard from the traditional manga, ... or maybe because of that, has become one of my favourites of all mangaka I've read works of. Despite the sometimes quite minimal detail, it makes the world of the story feel real to an extend I've rarely seen in any form of drawn media.

Totsukuni no Shoujo was in many ways not what I had expected from it, but in the end, I greatly enjoyed it. I think it's a manga anyone should at least give a chance, just to experience it's uniqueness.

Tsurezurebiyori is pure joy.


Even if it might seem at times, not all Slice Of Life is all the same. Sure, more or less, the protagonists pretty much always are a group of school girls, and the story is about their more or less mundane every day life, but this "reality" usually is heightened, concentrated, an unrealistic realism.

While Tsurezurebiyori fits the standard formula of four first-year high-school girls exactly, the story is much more than the usual static daily hijinks at the core of many other manga of the genre, and much more grounded in it's telling of everyday life, with characters that are a lot ... more interesting that the usual genki girls.

But really, the slice of life story is just the backdrop, on which the relationship between our two main protagonists, Mafuyu and Koharu, develops. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll say, that the romance here is not the cyclic fizzling you get in so many Yuri manga or anime, but a very nice, if slow, arc.

There isn't much else to say, really.
Tsurezurebiyori is my favourite manga, and if you like Yuri, and especially if you like Yuri romance that actually has a bit of development and goes beyond the typical "blushing oh-but-we-are-just-friends", or just want to see the most adorable Yuri couple, then I recommend you read this manga.

The only bad thing I can think of, is that there are only three volumes. I happily could read 100 volumes about these wonderful characters.

Sorry for the shoddy review, I'm not really sure how to sell this manga, without spoiling anything.

While I do not think Umineko-sou Days is perfect, I personally am willing to look over many flaws to enjoy it for being such a different kind of Yuri manga.

The main characters are both adults, one a teacher who moved from Tokyo to the countryside and the other is the owner/manager of the inn where she moves in.
The two of them care together for the manager's 3 year old niece (adorable!) and a middle school girl that sort-of lives at the inn as well. For the most part the story focuses on the unusual family the four of them form.

If the story were simply about ... this and nothing more, I think this manga would be amazing. Unfortunately, there are some additional elements, that I personally think only take away from the core story, only adding pointless conflict.


If you are interested in reading some different Yuri from the typical high-school romance, I recommend you give Uminek-sou Days a chance.

Sweet Guilty Love Bites consists of three short stories, each focusing on a different woman from a group of cabaret girls, and the different ways they each find love.

Story 1 "Sweet Guilty"
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Individual rating: 7/10

This story is about Kyrie, who finds a woman lying on the street and takes her home, caring for her almost like a stray pet.
The focus with this story is mostly on sex, not only directly, but also thematically, with the two woman only slowly developing a stronger romantic relationship. There also is a bit of a mystery who the woman Kyrie picked up is, which gets mostly resolved over the course ... of the story.

While I did enjoy this story, it certainly wasn't my favourite, mainly due to it mostly revolving around sex, with the romance taking a bit of a back seat.

Story 2 "Guilty Love"
----------------------------
Individual rating: 11/10

Nina, single mother, on the first day of her daughter going to preschool, she meets a woman again, with whom she had had sex with once in the past, who now is her daughter's teacher. They grow close again and take care together of Nina's daughter.

Yuri couple taking care of a child... There is nothing sweeter and cuter in the world.

Story 3 "Love Bites"
--------------------------
Individual rating: 8/10

This one is about Kokoro, a university student. She is in love with her room-mate and co-worker Claire.

While the romance is probably the strongest in this one, it still goes from "crush on room-mate" to "lovey dovey" (and of course sex) rather quickly. What certainly sets this story apart though, is that we get a lot more insight into the protagonist's mind.


Overall
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Without the second story, I probably would have enjoyed this manga a lot less. The other two certainly aren't bad, but they aren't terribly interesting. And across all three, the constant focus on sex gets a bit tiring.
Still, given the unique setting and themes, I won't get too picky. Plus any yuri story revolving around adult characters gets a free bonus point from me.

(spoiler free)

Jumyou wo Kaitotte Marotta certainly isn't an easy read. At least not for me.

And not because of it's many flaws, which if you'd want to be cynical, you will find it easy to criticise Jumyou wo Kaitotte Marotta with. The art for the most part isn't too great, though there are some beautiful pages, the writing at times rather clumsy, though that might be in part due to translation. But in the end, in my opinion, these arguments kinda miss the mark. What sets this manga apart is it's story.

And the story most certainly is unique. And not just the premise, which, honestly, in ... the book is just as contrived and unexplainable as it sounds in the title. How the story unfolds from that point onwards though is where this manga shines. And while the core thread is surprisingly traditional, it is the unusual context and the rather nihilistic and philosophical musings that elevate it beyond what you usually would find in manga.

I can not promise that you will enjoy this manga, since I'm sure it requires a certain kind of mindset to really engage with. But if you happen to be this kind of person, I promise, while it might not make you directly happy, it certainly will have an emotional impact. Though if you are looking for some light entertainment or something with a clear bottom line message, I don't think you will find it in Jumyou wo Kaitotte Marotta.

(no spoiler)

Doukyuusei is in many ways an unusual anime. But in the best possible sense of the word.

First off, the visual design combines two almost polar opposite styles, a very minimalistic one, with clear backgrounds, empty faces and choppy animation and an incredibly complex one, with beautifully drawn scenery, detailed character art and intensive full frame animation. While this sort of arrangement isn't unique, Doukyuusei stands out due to the fact that it combines the two into the same image, instead of only switching back and forth based on tone. And instead of clashing, they combine excellently.

This masterful mixing of contrasts continues into the writing, ... with the tone often times rapidly shifting mid-scene, from serious or romantic into comedic and back. And while discontinuous tone most certainly is not rare in anime, in Doukyuusei for the first time ever I have seen it done really well. Instead of ripping the viewer out of the movie with an emotional moment getting interrupted by a gag, here, they managed to make these transitions almost seamless, with the humorous bits always adding to the scene instead of existing to it's detriment.

Another point of note has to be the sound design. While this of course is always difficult to appreciate as non-Japanese, most Anime have a somewhat characteristic performative style of speech, which at times greatly differs from the way people talk in reality. Unusually, in Doukyuusei, the dialogue is instead written and recorded in a very natural modern way. And even if we do not understand the words, we still can appreciate the resulting atypical sound.

If anything, the story might be Doukyuusei's weakest part. It certainly isn't bad, but rather it's quite simple, to the point it could likely be summarized in one or two sentences. I personally do not find this necessarily a point of criticism, though if you don't find yourself enchanted by the presentation, you might perhaps consider the movie somewhat boring.
That said, and while they certainly do not dwell long on setting up character motivation or conflict, the emotional core behind the love between our two main characters is brought across very clearly and elegantly.

There are many cute, comedic Slice Of Life shows, and while I enjoy them for their pleasant light-hearted nature, there always seems to be something I find irritating, be it an obnoxious character, meandering dialogue, or the seemingly inescapable trend of Moe.

So given that the cuteness saturation is near critical in Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, I did not expect much. I mean, even the teacher gets the full Kawaii treatment, both in visual design AND behaviour.

So I was very surprised how much I enjoyed the show, and how little I found tedious.

Yes, the characters all are excessively cute, but in an innocent endearing way, staying ... well clear of Moe territory. They even managed the obligatory swimming pool episode without being creepy about it.

And yes the story is not very deep or complex, but Hitori's struggle to talk to people immediately draws my empathy, maybe seeing a bit of myself in her character. The fact that there even is an overarching plot throughout the episodes is quite unusual for Slice Of Life, so it's simplicity is perfectly appropriate.

I'd say the strongest point though would be the comedy. Of course this is highly subjective, but I found the constant little gags quite entertaining. Some of them are a bit drawn out or are repeated a few too often, but I never found them tiresome.


In conclusion, Hitoribocchi is light-hearted, cute, and ultimately empty, but it is an excellent execution of the kind of show it wants to be and a enjoyable and rather refreshing addition to the usually quite repetitive Slice Of Life genre.

I love stories about parent child relationships. I am aware that they always are in some way unrealistic and idealized, but they provide me with a pure joy I do not feel with other emotionally driven stories like for example romance.

Kakushigoto's fundamental story about a single father raising his daughter is wonderful and whenever the show focuses on it, it is masterfully executed.
But Kakushigoto of course is about more than this. It is the story of a dirty comedy mangaka juggling his day-to-day work and his care for his daughter while hiding his true occupation. This takes up the majority of the show's runtime and ... is largely entirely comedic.

Unfortunately the humour in Kakushigoto largely falls flat for me and many times did I sit through an episode not out of enjoyment of the scene to scene events, but purely in hopes of getting to watch another interaction between Hime and Kakushi, to get another piece of their relationship.

Regarding the audiovisual presentation, I did enjoy the animation and character designs, particularly Gotou Kakushi. He is a very refreshingly non-stereotypical, neither "proper manly" nor "nerdy otaku", but a very likeable and relatable normal person. I can not really comment on the audio, but I loved the ending theme ("Kimi wa Tennenshoku").


Ultimately Kakushigoto suffers from the common problem with anime that try to combine a emotional/serious story with light-hearted comedy, that being a poor management of tone. When a show repeatedly flips it's tone mid-scene, it is difficult for the viewer to open up emotionally. At least that is the case for me.

The NON-SPOILERY version:

I am of two minds about Zankyou no Terror.
On the one hand, I enjoyed the show immensely; On the other hand it's story is quite the mess.
The problem is that the writers apparently couldn't make up their minds which premise to explore, so they just combined multiple good ideas without considering how they fit together.
Luckily the flawed story is carried by excellent animation, music, sound design and great scene-by-scene writing, with believable character motivation, (mostly) consistent tone and a setting grounded in reality.

My recommendation is to watch it and to enjoy the masterful execution, but take the story beat ... by beat and don't dwell too much on the overarching plot.


The somewhat SPOILERY version:

Say you are given the following pitches:

-Our protagonists are morally grey and very intelligent terrorists, bombing stuff, but trying not to kill anybody, while toying with the police. ~ An excellent story idea
-Our protagonists are escapists from a horrible government experiment and their goal is to reveal it's secrets to the world. ~ A good premise, but that was done before
-The story revolves around the conflict between two genius parties, one criminal and the other detective, challenging each other intellectually. ~ Well, that's basically Death Note
-A character, getting bullied at school and having a bad home life, runs away and gets taken in by criminals, who might take morally unsound actions, but provide her with a home. ~ Would love to see an anime explore that

Which would you choose? The writers of Zankyou no Terror went with "ALL OF THEM!". That they only had 11 episodes to go with and the question of how you would fit all these themes together were promptly ignored.

The result is a story which has one good scene after another, while none of the parts of the frankenstein plot gets fully explored. Unfortunately for the characters, besides the protagonists, they are all only really relevant to one or two of the many parts, so they end up rather shallow, with little insight and development.
Of all of them, I would say Lisa's character suffers the most. Since her story premise doesn't really get more than a few scenes, the writers tried to repurpose her for other arcs, toying with the idea of her becoming an accomplice to Nine and Twelve, which sadly gets quickly scrapped, and in the end only really using her as a damsel and device to develop Twelve's character.

Though the biggest victim of the patchwork story is the ending. Each separate thread gets an ending and individually the endings aren't necessarily bad. The problem is just that the implications of one ending gets completely ignored in another.
Take the MacGuffin of the terrorism plot, the atomic bomb the protagonists steal in the very beginning. In the end, surprisingly, it actually explodes. Sure, it's high up in the air, but the result still is devastating. The scene of all lights in Tokyo going out and the buildings glowing with the radiation of the fallout is amazing.

Unfortunately there also is the "revealing the secrets about the evil government project" plot to resolve, for which they decide to just completely ignore the fact that an atomic bomb was blow up above the city. Twelve and Nine sacrifice themselves for their goal, Shibazaki and even Lisa get each a positive, if vague, conclusion. Also by itself not a bad ending.

Then there is the ending to the "Death Note" chunk of the story. It never is really clear what Five's motivations are, so the final scene with Nine is rather confusing. It's clear what they were going for, but unfortunately it never really was set up, resulting in the emotional impact mostly falling flat.


In the end, I'd say, Zankyou no Terror should have been at least two, maybe even three, separate and unique shows, each of them would have been much stronger on their own.

After all that criticism, I have to re-emphasise that the show is great, one of my favourites even, it's just a shame that the writer's indecisiveness keeps it from being a masterpiece.