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Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon overall is a fine romantic drama, but lacking any impact that distinguishes it. However, it has a lot of aspects which made me enthusiastic to watch all the way through. For one, the production value of the visuals is breathtaking. Every scene, has a high attention to detail. The setting is, while not unique, intriguing as it is set in a feudal early 1900's Japan where powerful families have unique powers - which the story does not rely heavily on at first.

Which is interesting because this story is at it's best when it doesn't rely on the fantasy elements ... and focuses on the human emotion and politics. The first 7-8 episodes were very enjoyable and i think i might recommend it to anyone purely because of that. However, they go for a full fantasy superpower arc and it feels... Dumb. New characters are introduced and motives hastily explained at the end. Suddenly all the fantasy elements are front in center instead of being a cool aspect in the background. It almost feels like a different story. To make matters worse, they basically repeat the same damsel in distress plot as the first arc which really hurts Miyo's character. In a weird analogy; it felt like one of those rushed anime original endings - the type that is thrown in to mark a dramatic end to the story but doesn't fit.

In my opinion Miyo is a good character, her backstory is well written and interactions with other characters feel genuine. However, good does not mean interesting. She is a meek character who has been abused all her life, and she plays that role perfectly the entire cour. It can get frustrating to watch her suppress even the most basic responses because she is afraid. As an introverted hermit, even i was rolling my eyes at how annoying she felt to watch. She does develop, but even when there isl development (where she opens up to the lead) at her core she is still the quiet introverted character she was at the start and it is hard to notice the difference. Somebody who is analyzing her can see it but there is no payoff for the viewer.

The other characters were fine- weird vibe that the entire show revolved around everyone being infatuated with marrying her except for Kudou and her own family. Kudou is cool, but does seem like mostly your white knight character who can do no wrong.

I would recommend if you enjoy the setting and theme, but i do have to put this slightly above average at a 6/10.

Overall summertime render is a thought provoking mystery, with a moderately decent cast of high school students and a few adults unraveling the truth about a small islands history and mystical aspects. I enjoyed the show - but as you may find if you watch there are aspects that change between the first and second cour which make it unable to stick the landing.

Per the synposis; shinpei is essentially investigating the murder of his childhood friend and connection to the "shadows." Odd events start happening which leads him to try and protect his adoptive family members and friends on the island. Throughout the first cour ... there are exciting and surprising events as well as some cool action moments. The biggest take away is the first half is more grounded in reality and is a mystery with cool twists and reveals. The characters can feel somewhat one dimensional as most anime characters do, but despite that they don't feel fake or unrealistic - they are all rational, sensible, and likeable. It's more of this character defining trait is they are the good friend character who likes girl A, or this character is the old man with the gun who is good at shooting... and nothing else.

However, to no surprise the mystery gets exposed and the murder solved at some point which results in a change of tone - no longer is he investigating now he is fighting. You feel like you have a good grasp of the fantasy aspects of the show, only for them to keep increasing the stakes and powers. For me I enjoy a good thoughtless power system - i watch a lot of isekai - but one of the greatest weaknesses in this show is the fact that it doesn't establish the limits of the "shadows." I feel like the best part about the show was when it was grounded and you were trying to figure out what was going to happen within the established limits of the fantasy elements. However, when they start playing 4D chess, literally see time travel tag, and using powers you didn't know they had it starts to turn into more of a shounen battle anime than a suspense mystery.

That being said the action in the second half is very well choreographed. I binged the first half on the edge of my seat and was mostly far back in my seat the second. All that being said - i would still recommend this to anyone. The time traveling is relatively well done, and i think any show that can pull that off deserves some attention. Despite the above i really did enjoy watching this show and definitely deserves an above average rating.

I always find it amusing to watch BL as a straight guy. While i don't relate well to the relationship it is interesting to get the perspective. To start it seemed promising it was more serious than not. Nothing wrong with suspension of disblief, but always refreshing for a mature take. However, as it started to go past the first 10 minutes i was starting to get more confused.

Having looked at other reviews i now understand that this is an adaption, and they are right that it is a very poor adaption at that. I somewhat understood what was going on, but at the ... same time there was a lot of little details missing. Combine the fact that this is a short 50 minute movie, and well... There are two separate arcs in the movie as well which felt very distinct from each other. Half way through i was asking myself if it was finally over or what they were going to do. Putting in the second arc just made it seem even more rushed.

I didn't feel anything special for any of the characters as there was not time to develop them. I appreciated the flashbacks as to why he felt he did about being gay, but overall think they didn't do a good job at fleshing out the characters. That being said the art is decent and sounds is average. Overall i appreciated the serious tone, but the story was way to incoherent for me to recommend.

Background

I first saw Ichigo 100% as an anime around 2009 when I first started to marathon shows. That first summer I watched a hundred series, good old high school days, and Ichigo 100% ended up as one of the many. After all that I still remembered it as one of the mediocre anime that I had watched. Today, after adjusting the score a few times, it has a 4/10 (bad) and a 6.95 on MAL. While I don’t normally give scores here I just wanted to put in perspective how bad the adaption was, and how much i disliked it myself even back when I ... would literally watch anything.

So when my friend told me to read the actually manga that ended the same year as the anime aired I was very… skeptical. However, I will say that my positive impression of the series doubled itself after reading through, and I actually enjoyed reading it these past three days. I don’t remember much about the actual series, but I have to say that obviously the manga must be a lot different. Without further ado, lets get to the actual story.

Characters

Unfortunately this is a harem manga, but if you look at the actual feeling of the characters, mainly Manaka, it actually appears as more of a triangle. In the early 2000′s the manga world was obsessed with harems, and as far as the story it was funny to see an era before all kids had cell phones – what they use land lines in this story? Now, for the time period of early 2000′s Manaka isn’t as bad of a character as most other male leads. Sure he causes a bunch of misunderstandings, and sometimes hurts feelings. Yet, Manaka actually has a dream! Surprising, yes I know, this is the biggest redeeming quality that he has. Not only does he have the standard kindness of the male lead and bravery to save girls in trouble, but he also always is striving to achieve his dream. This does allow him to actually mature a bit throughout the story.

The second factor is that he always understands his own feelings towards the girls. Aside from him having some sort of personality I was happy that he never questioned if he liked somebody or not – He understood he had feelings for multiple people. This was refreshing to see for once, and interesting to see how this affected how he interacted with the girls. Sometimes it could get frustrating since he still was constrained by the limits of a harem, but at least it felt more real than most harem situations.

The girls feel into somewhat typical archetypes, but who doesn’t anymore. (side note podtaku recently posted an episode about archetypes.) There are about 5 girls, maybe 6 that fall under the harem. However, I am glad that only a few of them are given any consideration by the main character. Aya has an introverted personality and shares similar dreams with the main character. Nishino appears as the popular and extroverted type, but it refreshing to she her develop positively into a hardworking individual, and coming up with her own dreams. Satsuki is the most unfortunate of the main girls because… Damn I can’t spoil anything in this section, but all I will say is that she is very honest and upfront. I think is the worst character in the entire series. Not for her personality, but the fact that she really got utilized poorly in this series.

Pacing

Graph of +/- 1 point per chapter through the entire series. (http://helurs.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/ichigo-100-manga-review/)

The best way to sense the pace of the story would be to look at the graph above. No spoilers really, but there are confessions as soon as the first chapter. The story picks up pretty fast and it tends not to be ambiguous in terms of relationships… Sort of. However, like any romance piece the pace is the biggest factor to successful execution. Romance focused series tend to draw out the plot way too long, and Ichigo 100% falls into that category.

You can see that after chapter 20 it plateaus until an arc in the late 30′s, only to slowly decline for the next 60 chapters. This means that ration of good chapter to bad chapter is about 1:1, and even lower afterwards. There were plenty of good arcs in here, but overall the plot really should have jumped almost straight to chapter 100. Of course on the other hand these filler chapters cover the first half of high school, and this does become an important set up point for the series. I am unsure how they could have possibly executed the ending as well as they did without it, but the set up felt a little too drawn out.

That all being said, after chapter 94 when the series dips to an all time low the plot just explodes fantastically. They enter their phase of cram school and studying, and pursuing dreams. Competition gets fierce on both sides of the relationships, I’m also talking about other guys, and overall the entire ending of the story is set up perfectly. There really isn’t as much drama as you would expect, but rather tension and anticipation.

Story

I am really surprised because if you think that the story progresses as you would expect you are wrong. I got fooled by/even with my experience reading and watching romance stories like these. In the end i was surprised, but also really happy. I am glad that they never create arcs where the characters get forced to do something stupid and create a huge misunderstanding. Rather while the misunderstandings aren’t exactly realistic neither does it appear as anyone’s fault. (okay maybe once or twice.) What I am trying to say is that there was only two or three times in the middle of the story when misunderstanding ‘devices’ upset me as a reader. As Jin Kobayashi once said, the key to romances like these are the misunderstandings. I think the key to this key is that it is hard to make the story not seem retarded at the same time.

I think that the addition of characters like Amachi, who gunned for Aya, or that pastry man, who appears to go after Nishino. I actually wish they were active a little bit sooner, as it takes Amachi 60 chapters to actually make an impact, and the pastry chef only affects about 16 chapters. For the most part it is just him attempting to be persuaded chapter after chapter in different scenarios, but I am glad that besides the fact that he has feelings for multiple girls he never official 2-times somebody when he actually is dating.

I actually don’t think that the ecchi in this series truly detracted from the story. They did a decent job of always making sure something plot drive would happen in at least one half of the chapter. Some chapters I would find myself annoyed by the service only to receive a nice development in the second half. I would go to score the chapter and realize how each chapter felt really long despite being 19 pages with some fan service. Of course back in this era the main form of ecchi comes from panty shots, so that made up almost all of it. The only annoying part was the over-exaggeration of the boys excitement over the hottest girls and such.

Conclusion

Definitely one of the better harem manga I have read. I think that may be due to the characters acting mostly like real people. The characters develop a lot especially in the last part of the series where stuff really happens. If the middle of this series had a more reliable performance I would probably rate this even higher than I did, but by just the ending alone I easily got extremely drawn into the story. I also am really into romance genre in general, and the filler consisted of only insignificant romance scenes. I realized that even in these chapters it still was actually focusing on the story, just not effectively.

Summary:

When Sorata enters the notorious dorm Sakurasou against he eagerly awaits the day he can leave. However, the dorm leader assigns him to take care of Mashiro his outlook on life changes forever.

This is a touching story on the difficulties of acquiring our dreams, and of acquiring love.

Initial Reaction:

J.C. Staff’s art made me thing that this would be another run of the mill romantic comedy. The title really had me on guard since I don’t know if I would name something as such unless it had an ecchi theme. The first few episode entailed Sorata dressing Mashiro, doing her laundry, and just about everything ... for her. Ahh, so that is why she is a pet. Overall, it seems mediocre at first glance.

Final Reaction:

Sakurasou overcame my expectations with ease, and left an amazing impression. As a college student myself, I could relate to the characters in the show as they struggle to get somewhere in life. The story isn’t complicated, but it didn’t have to be. The character development oozed out of every pore of this show, and I grew to love every single one of the characters.

Sakurasou didn’t take the harem route, nor focus on a single couple. Instead it picked a group of characters, gave them dreams, challenges, and feelings. At times I am surprised that more authors don’t recognize the value of having a cast of characters with equal importance.

Characters:

Kanda, Sorata (Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu):

Sorata starts off as just a run of the mill high school student, but upon seeing Mashiro chasing her dreams he questions what he wants to do. Thus, he decides to become a game creator, and works hard to pursue his goals. While the most average of the dorm Sorata plays an important part in bringing the cast together.

Shiina, Mashiro (Kayano, Ai):

Mashiro arrives from England as a well known artist. However, she desires to become a mangaka, so she ignores all advice otherwise to pursue her dream. Mashiro doesn’t really express much emotion, and also isn’t capable of living by herself. Sorata teaches her to be independent, and helps her relate to her audience.

Mitaka, Jin (Sakurai, Takahiro):

Jin is a senior who is notorious for being a playboy. However, he attempts to hide his true feelings so he won’t who he really cares about. He gives out good advice to sorata and the others all the time. He is childhood friends with Misaki, and writes scripts for her all the time. While people see him as a good writer he does not have enough talent to write scripts for Misaki.

Kamiigusa, Misaki (Takamori, Natsumi):

Misaki is a senior whom is head over heels for Jin. She always is overenthusiastic about everything she is doing, and never runs out of energy. Her animation skills are top notch, and animation studios have hired her before.

Aoyama, Nanami (Nakatsu, Mariko):

Nanami pursues her dream of being a voice actress. Her parents did not consent to her dream, so she works part time to cover costs. She acts as a voice of reason to the crazy members of sakurasou. She is under a lot of pressure to land a acting job since it is her final year of acting school.

Akasaka, Ryuunosuke (Horie, Yui):

I couldn’t even realize Yui voiced him… She did a good job I guess. Akasaka is talented at computer software, and doesn’t have to attend class since he runs a business out of his dorm room. While at first a hikikomori he evolves out of that initial role.

Story:

The viewers take the perspective of Sorata, but it never focuses solely on his part of the story. The story swings naturally between each characters current conflict, and how it relates to the focus of the entire sakurasou dorm. It sets up a perspective of successful talented people against those who are struggling to achieve their dreams. While the feelings of failure are weak at the start they increase as the characters encounter more and more walls.

At first the story evolves around Sorata getting accustomed to the craziness of Shiina who seems incapable of doing anything other than drawing. Experiencing her amazing dedication to her dream, Sorata starts to question his dream in life. The plot always heavily influences the characters which allows the amazing amount of character development in 24 episodes. The most enjoyable aspect of the show for me was that every single member of sakurasou had an equal presence in the show. Designating Sorata as the main character would be correct, but counting anyone else as side characters would not fit.

The show manages to give us Drama, without romantic mishaps, or car crashes. No, instead the story tells us the disparity of chasing our dreams, and the jealously of those who it appears to come naturally to. Nothing is worst than watching 2 people try to communicate their feelings for 12 episodes (nevermind 24), but the romance in the story progresses at a good pace, and sidelines itself the remainder of the plot.Not to mention that there are 6 people trying.

Plus side +:

The characters develop drastically throughout the show.

The characters are relateable, and their struggles touching.

Good voice acting, and animation which communicate the emotions well.

Diverse set of characters, and an appropriate level of humor mixed in.

Minus Side -:

Heavy on development. Requires attachment to the characters.

While everyone stays healthy, the story can be rather depressing to watch.

So after hearing that Symphogear will have a sequel you might be interested if the show is worth watching. I have become interested in writing a review as it was something I didn't really expect to happen. To be completely honest my impression of the show was pretty much just your average mahou shoujo show, but lets take a closer look shall we?

Symphogear was fun to watch: It had high eyecandy value. The action scenes weren't half bad, and the music was decent as it should being an integral part of the show. However, I think the fact of the matter is its lack of ... originality. The members of the cast are part of a secret organization fighting off 'Noise' a creature who randomly appears to rampage and kill. The only way to rid of them of this world is by using symphogear - song powered armor equipment. To be honest it would be an interesting concept if we also didn't have a plethora of other mahou shoujo who are the only hope of saving humanity from oddly named creatures.

That being said they did attempt to integrate interesting plot devices such as betrayal, or death. However, while a show can be good for having such things just having them isn't enough. The execution is somewhat poorly done, in that you feel as if you should be interested in what is happening, but it doesn't quite affect you as intended. To rephrase, there does exist a story, but it is too hard to emotionally connect to it. I find that as a source of entertainment anime needs to entrap our feelings so we actually care about what is going on in the show. Unfortunately, Symphogear is unable to do so.

The characters aren't bad. Hibiki after being injured in an accident (in the first few minutes of episode 1) barely escapes death, but instead becomes gifted with powers. She acts the part of the ordinary girl thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Her character is fine for the most part except for her tendency to try and befriend the opposition, although to be honest her rational is sound. One of my favorite characters has to be the section chief Genjurou as he appears to be superhuman, and his manliness was one of the most enjoyable parts of this show. Unfortunately, they don't quite explain why the hell he defies even the laws of this show, but I suppose it will be explained in season two…

Overall, symphogear is an average mahou shoujo show that tries to be more. Now I won't use the word fail, but it just didn't succeed in connecting the viewers and plot. I honestly can't say I would suggest this show to anyone because of that, but of course there can always be exceptions.

As a male sometimes it can be difficult to find a good shoujo romance. In general I find them more mature and reasonable than shounen romance, but some of the targeting affect miss the mark on me. However, Lovely Complex is one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time. In fact it was on my top 10 a year or two ago. It is a very relaxing, funny, and cute show that avoids many of the pit holes I see in other romantic comedies.

The story follows Risa and Ootani, whose nicknames are 'Amazoness' and 'chibi' (midget) in reference to their height. They are known ... in school for being a pair of comedians despite their best efforts to avoid acting as such. To this I can testify that the two of them are indeed a perfect pair of comedians. The show had a really good sense of humor: Good enough for even the serious person I am to admit it. While the show has a similar amount of drama to other shows, the comedy really helps to prevent the drama from overwhelming you by keeping the show bright and happy.

One of my favorite things in this show is that Risa is as active in the story as Ootani. I find it frustrating that many female leads in shoujo shows let the male interest take the spotlight, and do most of the 'things' to make the show what it is (this is obviously vise versa in shounen). However, this show does a good job of making both sides proactive, and letting all the characters carry weight in the show. Perhaps that wasn't well phrased so I will reword it as neither of the leads outshines the other. They are a very good fit together, and it is hard to get tired of seeing the two of them interact.

The other characters in the show play an important role as well. I felt like all the characters acted really real, aka not making really illogical mistakes, and fit into the story well. Overall, I think the characters possessed the necessary amount of depth to make the show a blast to watch.

The plot is simple, after all it is a drama, romantic, comedy. The arcs are very well executed, so that I never felt irritated at the characters actions nor felt as if the situation was dragging on too long. Being twenty four episodes long, they fit all the story and comedy together very nicely. It is hard to elaborate more than saying that I can only recall loving this show for it. The art style is pretty modest especially being made in 2007, but I think it is also somewhat unique and fits the show really nicely.

Overall, even after years I fondly recollect this show as possibly my favorite shoujo anime. I have thrown the weighted word 'shoujo' around, so I would like to clarify that was for comparison purposes. In fact, I think that this is a romantic comedy that almost anyone could enjoy, thus I suppose I should completely disregard tagging the show to a target demographic. As a very funny and cute romantic comedy I think this is a must see for those interested in a relaxing romance story.

Ano Hana is a tale of love and loss that I will never forget. I have a case of prosopagnosia which causes a headache when you experience hundreds and hundreds of faces in anime not to mention real life. However, Ano Hana is one of the few shows where I can clearly remember and recall the name of each character. Regardless of my own feelings, Ano Hana decided it wanted to grab a spot in my heart and stay there for a while: Two years and running at the moment.

Why has Ano Hana reached so many people and caught them like they have me? ... Well folks that is because this show knows how to link you to the characters. As mainly a drama, grabbing sympathy from the viewers is very important, and Ano Hana makes sure your tear ducts are ready to run at any moment. You are so deeply invested in the feelings of the characters that every individual action makes your heart ache.

However, on the reverse side it is obviously possible that you are very apathetic. Well, you might enjoy the suffering the characters experience, but there isn't much to look forward to in terms of plot. To be completely honest Ano Hana is extremely simple in terms of plot. After many years of trauma, Menma's ghost returns to haunt her group of childhood friends; although to be specific only really Jintan. The super peace busters disbanded after experiencing the lose of such a close friend, and the members all split up and lead their own separate lives. Of course, due to Memna's persuasion Jintan is slowly forced to reassemble the gang together, in addition to trying to put her to rest.

Each character has their certain regret about 'that day' that causes them to transform themselves into different people, and through reforging their bonds only will they heal themselves. In reality the idea is quite simple, but excellently executed. The characters feel like they could be real living people by acting like normal rational people. Jintan who once lead their group becomes a shut in after feeling extremely responsible for Menma's death. Anjou whom was insecure about her appearance starts hanging around with the pretty, although extremely rude, girls. Poppo escapes the town where Menma died by traveling around the world using work funds. He seems to hold a strange regret about that day, and sympathizes the most with Jintan seeing a ghost only he can see.


Overall, Ano Hana is a story of growing up with your past haunting you. At some time funny, at other times cute, but at most times sad Ano Hana is a roller coaster ride of emotions. Although I think most people should be able to relate Ano Hana it is after all a romantic, slice of life drama. I am pretty opinionated since I only give a 10 to my favorite 10 shows, but I believe that reviews are nothing but ones opinion in the end, yes? If anything I hope I have displayed what you should expect to get out of this show, and why many others like me love Ano Hana.

Ika Musume is one of the few very moe comedy shows that I have managed to enjoy. To be honest I rarely can appreciate jokes and gags in anime, so I am very harsh critic. Yet, I must admit that Ika musume had managed to tickle me pink on a few different occasions. They took a simple idea, and made it work well.

Ika musume follows… well Ika Musume as she attempts to conquer land to take revenge on the atrocities humanity commits on the seas. However, due to unfortunate circumstances she damages the frightening Aizawa Chizuru's precious shop. Thus, in order to protect herself from ... Chizuru she ends up working off her debt in their beachside restaurant.

In reality I have no issues with the deliver of the comedy, or content of the skits. While the majority of them are rather slice of life style jokes the addition of Ika Musume's ocean born naivety and abilities makes the content pretty silly. Her original purpose of conquering humanity isn't typically the focus of the skits, but they don't forget to make her act the part when she should. However, I found that the episodes at the beginning of the show were a bit boring, and that the later episodes are a decent improvement in quality as the characters build better relationships with one another.

The majority of the characters don't feel particularly distinguishable, but their relationship and interactions with ika musume is what makes them interesting. I think nobody can explain this better than Aizawa Eiko, Chizuru's younger sister. She really has no unique character traits at all, but she looks out for Ika-chan and makes sure to tsukkomi whenever possible. However, the comedy takes advantage of this 'simple' character and manages to deliver the jokes in an extremely satisfying way. The characters do have their unique way of interpreting Ika-chan whether it be something to dress up in cute clothes, an alien specimen, or a advertisement tool.

The show is a moe comedy in reality though. Take for example the 'moe' chapters of mini Ika Musume where nothing really happens except Ika being miniature size and acting cute. That being said I don't think that having a really moe segment actually makes the show better; although, i admit it can be adorable. Ika Musume is in actuality a genius (for example, a living calculator), but cannot seem to escape the short end of the stick every skit. For me it was a combination of frustration, and amusement as Ika-chan proceeded to be ruthlessly teased on throughout the show. The skits were well done, but I have always had a disdane for main characters who do everything right yet can't get a break.

Overall, I think that if you are looking for a lighthearted comedy Ika Musume does it right, and does it pretty well. My score is somewhat low due to my unusually dull sense of humor, but I won't say that this will have you laughing your ass of either. However, if you are in the mood for some strange slice of life comedies with moe squids then I don't think you have to look any further.

Princess Tutu defies all expectations by going above and beyond the meaning of mahou shoujo. I recall being very hesitant to start watching this show as I have a tendency to avoid the genre, and the fact that she transforms into a tutu wielding heroine is not what I had wanted to watch for nearly 40 episodes.

However, I quickly got into the story of Princess Tutu almost as if I was also under Drosselmeyer's control. Yes, the entire story takes place in a town that is living to the script of a famous writer Drosselmeyer, and while the characters have their own free will and ... conscious they play out the fairy tale that has been laid before them. Ahiru plays the role of princess tutu, who is trying to return the princess his heart (emotions). She must also deal with the knight, and the evil ravens who were sealed using the prince's heart.

If I have to pinpoint what drew me into Princess Tutu, it would be the characters personalities. You can see drastic changes in the characters as they develop to overcome their 'destiny' from the story: One of the favorite characters, the knight, has almost a completely different personality by the end of the show. The key point though is that this is the focus of the show, so it is not as if he wakes up and becomes a different person.

Princess Tutu does have an unusual pace though. The first 13 episodes are full length, and rather episodic. However, after the climax of the first arc the episodes are half sized. The first arc itself isn't bad, but it is also doesn't distinguish itself from any other mahou shoujo show. The story finally starts to shine after the first hill is passed, but that being said it isn't hard to get there.

I think Princess Tutu is an interesting fair tale to watch transpire. After finishing the show, to me at least, it feels like a classic anime that would be hard to forget. I think the story works well for any audience big, old, male, and female. Yes, if I showed this show to my mother even she would approve (She can accept transforming girls in tutus if it is a fairy tale). Princess Tutu should be a must try on anyone's list.