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Jan 2, 2016
"A surreal and cynically comedic response to the flaws of human nature and modern society."
STORY
The story is set a post-humanity world, wherein, unlike in most dystopian settings, humanity prevalence has slowly dwindled instead of the usual apocalyptic disaster. Although we are told almost nothing throughout the show about humanity's decline, it seems that a lot of time has passed, as the people alive now seem to living quite happily in an almost-1400s European style. However, following the fall of humanity a new species has beome the "dominant species" of the planet; the Yousei are 10cm high elf/gnome creatures who all look almost identical to eachother
...
except for their hats. They breed at tremendous rates and have almost no mind of their own, but collectively are able to reach technological and industrial levels in days, where humans would take centuries.
Now I will return to my opening statement. This sentence sums up my views on what this show stands for, and how it displays what it wants in a unique and interesting manner. The world that it is set, is one of extreme surrealism, from the minimilistic design of the village and country, to the washed-over colour palette used. However this just accentuates that everything shown should be taken as a metaphor for something else, as it makes no sense at face value. This is apparent most of all in the yousei and there (lack of) physical restrictions. In probably my favourite arc of the show (ep9) the Yousei construct a thriving civilisation from nothing in a week, but it collapses back to nothing in another. In this episode more than any other, it is plain to see that the Yousei are symbolic of humanity accentuating our perks and flaws in regards to the nature of our "progression" and our inevitable mortality. As is shown again and again through the 12 episodes of the show, when the Yousei want to do something, and only if they really want to do it, they are able to progress ridiculously quickly to achieve their goal. However, their creations always fall just as fast as they rise.
However, that is just one episode, throughout each of the show's 1 or 2 episode arcs, a different fatal flaw of humanity is investigated: ranging from the fast-changing consumption of fads to the flaws of capitalism to the innate human desire for individualism. While the Yousei aren't technically humans, they express the overreaching traits of what defines being human through hyperbole and metaphorical circumstance.
Now the main character (non-canonically named "Watashi" as we are never told her actual name) is a unique character who, although acting generally as a neutral party for the viewer to see through, is not portrayed as solely that. She is very observant, meaning that the viewer doesn't miss out on anything important and her seems to keep her relationship with people distant, except for that of her assistant Joshu. For Joshu, he is a mute boy who works as Watashi's helper in her trying to communicate with the Yousei. Although his back story isn't really explained, he is fleshed out well as a mysterious character (he plays a much larger role in the LN).
PRODUCTION
Animated by ASTA, one of the many branches of AIC, the show boasts an animation style just as surreal as that of its story. As I have stated before, the washed out colours and water-colour backgrounds work well with the tone of the story. There isn't much actually 'animation' as such, due to the slow pace of the stories and lack of action scenes, but any that is apparant is done in a toned down, but by no means bad, quality. As for the studio, the only other things I have seen from ASTA are Bamboo Blade and Sora no Otoshimono, one being too different to comapare and the other being a trainwreck.
The OST is a rather soothing collection of calm orchestral pieces consisting of over 30 tracks, more than the average TV anime. Personal favourite is Meikyuu, giving a mysterious, slightly unsettling feeling. The OP is pretty famous, and rightly so. Being a bizarre upbeat catchy song by nano.RIPE, what could really go wrong. nano.RIPE is one of my favourite anime theme composers, with the Non Non Biyori OPs being personal favourites. In my opinion the ED is even better, sung by the legendary Oranges & Lemons, singers of Azumanga's OP and ED. Both themes are un-skippable and I often like to listen to them over again.
CONCLUSION
Something else confusing about this anime is the order which you should watch it in. Personally, I think that the show needs two watches to be fully understood, and so I recommend watching it in airing order first, followed by (pseudo)chronological [10 7 8 3 4 9 5 6 1 2 11 12]. I'm not certain for the reason for the show being aired out of order, but I would think it was something to do with setting the tone of the show as a mystery one, by the end of the first couple or so arcs not much will make sense, and even by the end it doesn't tell you explicitly what the fuck is going on (*read the LNs*), requiring you to actually think with your head and work shit out.
I think that the show could be viewed as a Japanese contempory to Alice in Wonderland or the tales of Narnia, but puts much more emphasis on the morale behind the story than those stories. In fact, I think one of the main reasons the story/world's continuity doesn't make any sense is that you aren't meant to take it at face value, but should start to wonder what it all means.
As a (biased) fan of this series I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in mystery stories or like things a bit more left-field. Talking of mysteries, eps 7+8 (Time Management) has a very welldone Groundhog Day scenario that kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to know more. Anyway, I rate it high and so should you.
META
Length- 1 cour / 12 eps / 5 hrs
Release- Summer 2012
Studio- AIC ASTA
Source- 2007 LN by Romeo Tanaka
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 28, 2015
GochiUsa is the third series from my arbitrary holy trinity of shows from the modern era of moe. These three are KinMoza, NNB and GochiUsa. In my opinion, these three are the epitome of the modern time's CGDCT SoL anime, and with all three having recently had a second season, their formula seems to be working.
This is a review of both seasons of GochiUsa without any spoilers (as if they actually exits)
STORY
As is with these SoL shows, the main focus of the show is on the characters and their interactions with each other, rather than on any kind of storyline. Each episode is split into
...
three or four separate scenes, each usually playing completely separate from one another. Most scenes are comedy oriented, but most of the show's emphasis is on the characters being cute mofos. GochiUsa is set in a France-esque city full of tea and coffee shops and a load of rabbits.
The "protagonist" of the show is a young girl named Cocoa, who comes to live and work in a small coffee shop called "Rabbit House" and meets Chino, the landlord's daughter. Cocoa and Chino have almost opposite personalities, with Cocoa, being loud and energetic, acting as the fool; and Chino, a quite and shy girl, often acting as the straight-man in the comedy sketches.
The other girl who works in Rabbit House is Rize, the seemingly calm and collected twintailed girl, who has a slightly unhinged liking of military equipment and always carries around a Glock on her person. Then there is Chiya, she lives in a traditional Japanese-tea house, and acts as the mellow "Ara ara" Nee-san arche-character. Finally is Syaro (or Sharo) a blonde sensitive girl who despises Rabbits, gets drunk off coffee and is absolutely the best girl.
Another point is the etymology of the girl's names. Almost all the names in the series are some tea/coffee related pun, with personal favorites being 'Kafuu Chino' (Cappuccino), 'Tedeza Rize' (Thé des Alizés) and fucking 'Hoto Cocoa', which I'm not even going to explain.
Finally there is also Tippy, who is the soul of Chino's dead Grandfather trapped inside the body of an Angora Rabbit. I don't even know. Also go Google Angora rabbit if you want to laugh at evolution.
PRODUCTION
Animated by White Fox, the studio that can seemingly animate anything at all, the animation quality is as good as it feels necessary for such a show. The comedy scenes are in a proportionally drastically changing style, switching between the standard and deformed styles for the punchlines. One part that does stand out are the backgrounds. The notable ones are those of the traditional Germanic/French town with timber frame buildings and cobblestones streets.
There isn't too much to say about the soundtrack for the show, the two OP songs are almost identical and I'm pretty sure I developed some kind of diabetes from season 2's ED. The OST is rather short, and is full of calming piano pieces that play in the more relaxed portions of the show.
CONCLUSION
I'd say that the overall feel of GochiUsa is somewhere between that of KinMoza and NNB. It is a mix of comedy and pure SoL with most of the jokes being slapstick reactionary gags that aren't all that funny, but don't have to be because of the charm of the characters. That being said, there are some actually funny moments and the whole show is a hoard for reaction-face connoisseurs such as myself.
The whole show is comfy overload, and sometimes this can be too much. I found the first 6 odd episodes were very slow, and next to no comedy was apparent. The episodes seemed dedicated into introducing us slowly to the main cast of characters and showing their endearing sides (ie- The trope/fetish filling parts). However, the show soon comes into its own, with season 2 being a much more enjoyable watch.
Just a minor peeve here: the geniuses down at anime HQ decided it was a great idea to name the second season the exact same as the first, but with the addition of an extra "?". Great. As well as being a ground-braking and meaningful idea for the franchise, "?" is also not detectable by search engines and so a search of "GochiUsa?" will bring up the same results as "GochiUsa??". Should have been subtitled with something along the lines of: "Which Gochi would you Usa?" or "Now with more Heartburn!".
META
Length- 2 cours/ 24 eps / 10 hrs
Release- Spring 2014 + Fall 2015
Studio- White Fox
Source- 2011 Manga by "Koi"
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 22, 2015
This is a review of both CLANNAD and CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~.
Huge spoilers for both series also.
STORY
Clannad is a TV anime adaptation of a Key VN made by Kyoto Animation in 2007. After Story is a sequel to the original and aired in 2008. It has often been
hailed as the greatest love story of all time as well as the best of Maeda.
It is the story of highschool students Tomoya Okazaki and Nagisa Furukawa's love for each other and their journey into adulthood. The original series started
as your usual romcom harem anime, coming from it's roots as a dating sim VN. However it quickly
...
becomes apparant that there is really no competion in the Tomoya bowl
and Nagisa is OTP.
The story is split into arcs, each spanning over 3-5 episodes. They usually are centred around introducing a new character and how Nagisa and Tomoya interact
with them. Many will say that the first season is nothing special and Clannad's charm is only found in After Story. While I agree that After Story is better, Clannad
works nicely as a standalone show with a relatively closed ending with Nagisa and Tomoya holding hands.
For this reason the announcement of a second season so soon after the first ended was met with some opposition from fans saying that they could only make the
story worse, although I don't think they are complaining now.
Clannad After Story is a very different show than its predecessor. It focuses of much bigger themes and covers a huge amount of time. It may shock old-time
hogh school romance fans to see that the characters actual graduate and go on to get jobs, get married and even have children.
However, not everything is daijoubu in their relationship. The show's greatest feat, in my opinion, is the way it realistically portrays the struggles and
hardships of life leaving you feeling deeply depressed. It tackles the problems of morals also. What is the most important thing to you? What do you strive for most in
life? How do you cope with loss? It portrays these themes in a realistic, albeit dark manner allowing the viewer to really believe that these people could exist and it
is not far-fetched at all to want to lead a life such as their's.
The start of the second cour of After Story is where things really start to kick off and is where the most praise for the franchise is directed at. In episode
13 Tomoya and Nagisa get married, a thing that is rarely seen anywhere in anime. By the next episode she's pregnant with a baby girl and shit gets real. It shows the
couple's lives being thrown into the adult world unprepared for the reality of it. It shows just how real these things are and how they are not as far away as everyone
believes them to be and you yourself will go through these things in the near future.
The comedy in the series was also surprisingly good and uplifting. The repeated gag of Sanae's bread didn't get old, no matter how many times it was used
(Fuko's thing kind of did though). Although the comedy was not the main matter for the series, the little that was there was done in very high quality KyoAni style
(Nande ya nen!).
Of course now I must talk about the final episodes of the series from episode 16 onward. During the birth of Nagisa and Tomoya's child, named Ushio, Nagisa
dies due to her weak body, a fact explicitly stated throughout the story. The following episode is set 5 years in the future where Tomoya has fallen into depression
and care of Ushio has been put into Sanae and Akio's hands. Over the course of these 3 or so episodes we see Tomoya learning how to be a good Father for the first time
and how Ushio has been struggling without her real parents. The topic of Tomoya's Father is also finally addressed and we learn that his wife also died at a young age,
causing him to fall into a depression just alike to Tomoya, meaning that Tomoya finally understands his Father's suffering leading to the pair's reunion and
reconciliation and a very touching scene where the Father can finally feel that he tried his best and that his only son no longer despises him.
Eventually we see Ushio fall ill to the same disease as her Mother; and, at such a young age, she is unable to recover and dies at the age of five. At this
point we are told the meaning behind the secondary story of the girl and her robot. Although much of the real explanation is left up to the viewer, it is revealed that
the girl was actually the soul of Ushio, and the robot was Tomoya. Tomoya finally realises that him meeting Nagisa was truely a good thing, even though it lead to her
death. He realises that he made her life better and she made his so too. He also knows that if he had never met Nagisa then Ushio would never have been born, and
giving birth was most certainly what Nagisa really wanted, even though Tomoya though that it was completely his fault for Nagisa's death. Most of episode 22 is spent
inside Tomoya's mind as he realises these things and understands the reality of life.
Suddenly we are back at the scene of Ushio's birth, however, this time Nagisa doesn't die and recovers successfully from the birthing process. May orbs of
light are seen outside in the town, and images of all the people that Tomoya had ever come across during his life flash before his eyes. Now, I see this as showing
that due to Tomoya's perserverence and how he fought through each loss in his life and came out the otherside on top, his suffering was rewarded by the happy future he
had wished for; if it is real or if it is fake is another matter entirely, but Tomoya now gets to understand his standing in life and how so many relied on his help
and company to get by.
PRODUCTION
The animation is of a very high standard due to a large budget and a studio perfectly picked for the story. Kyoto Animation had previously animated two of
Key's other VNs: Air and Kanon; and so were well aquainted to the required screen play and soundtrack required, making this the greatest Key x KyoAni Anime in my
opinion. Being made in the mid mid-late 2000s, the CGI is as bad as to be expected. Although not over used to any extent, certain parts, such as the robot, often came
across rather jarring and didn't totally fit with the show's themes.
As for the soundtrack, many pieces stand out as iconic anime classics such as 'Roaring Tides' and 'Town, Flow of Time, People'; however the stand out
performance was the song 'Nagisa' based around the melody of the first ED 'Dango Daikazoku'. The simple melody has become synonimous to the series and can push many a
grown man to tears just from overexposure to the track
CONCLUSION
If you haven't watched this masterpiece you're completely missing out on one of the greatest stories the medium has ever told. Get on that shit, you also
shouldn't of read this review dude.
For me the series gets behind the reality of everyday life and reveals the truth of life. There is no ultimate goal in life, so living just for society and for
economic gain has no real meaning in the end. The only way to truly get anything out of life is to live your life for yourself and others.
Holy shit I went on a bit in this one, almost certain no one will get as far as to read this line.
META
Length- 4 cours / 49 eps / 19.6 hrs
Release- Fall 2007 & Fall 2008
Studio- Kyoto Animation
Source- 2004 VN by Key
RATING
Watch?- 100%
Best Character- Akio+Sanae Furukawa
Worst Character-Fuko was a bit annoying
Best Feature- 2deep
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 22, 2015
STORY
The plotline of GSNK is a very standard high school romance setting, with the main character, Chiyo Sakura, being in love with the upperclassman Nozaki; however, Nozaki doesn't know about Chiyo's love for him despite her obvious efforts to get with him. Being mainly a comedy anime, Nozaki's obliviousness to Chiyo is the stem of most of the show's gags.
The series starts with Chiyo confessing her love to Nozaki, only for him to completely missunderstand and end up giving her his autograph. We find out that Nozaki is actually an illustrator for popular shoujo manga "Let's Love"; a generic Shoujo love story acting as a
...
parody to the genre as well as a parallel to the main storyline.
Throughout the show, Chiyo helps Nozaki out with his manga along with his other school friends, each portraying a popular shoujo manga trope: Kashima is the "ouji-sama" character, who turns out to actually be a girl. Mikorin is a deredere style character, despite being male. Seo is the delinquent-style "ore" character; but, you guessed it, is female. Hori is a male tsundere who acts as a 'tsukkomi-boke' duo with Kashima. Finally Wakamatsu, a basketball jock who is afraid of Seo's aggressive strength even though he's a guy.
I would say that the show is not so much of a romcom as a parody of shoujo manga, adding twists to the character tropes for comedic effect. The show often compares the 'real' world with that portrayed in Nozaki's manga with some of the character's in "Let's Love!" being directly based on the personalities of Nozaki's friends.
A common complaint with romance in anime and manga is that it hardly ever has a good ending, with no real conclusion of who gets with who ever being reached. While this is most certainly present in GSNK, it is there as a parody of the trope and the show often mocks itself for this flaw.
PRODUCTION
The animation for this show was pretty standard for a comedy anime, with bright colours and an over-abundance of "only the mouths move" scenes. Somthing that it does do quite well is to incorporate some of the genre-mocking tropes into the animation. Many visual effects such as the "action lines" or the "fluffy backdrop" are used in bucket fulls.
There is nothing particularly interesting about the show's soundtrack, although the show's OP is some wierd jazzy song which I didn't really think fit with the show's tone, but was a nice song nontheless.
CONCLUSION
Overall the show was most definately a comedy, rather than a romance; so if you're looking for any kind of solid romantic storyline go somewhere else. On the otherhand if you are well versed in the Shoujo or romance genres then you will probably find many jokes pretty relatable.
Although I have avoided talking about the source material, it is one of the very few that I can actually I say that I read before watching the anime. It's an ongoing 4koma that has much of the same content as the anime. If anything I'd probably say that the manga works better due to the nature of mocking the very thing that it is.
It also has a wide range of nichijou-esque reaction faces, which can further your collection of images perfect for arguing over the internet.
META
Length- 1 cour / 12eps / 4.8 hrs
Release- Summer 2014
Studio- Dogakobo
Source- 2011 4koma by Izumi Tsubaki
RATING
Watch?- Yes, as a comedy
Best Character- Seo
Worst Character-No one
Best Feature- Chiyo's reactions
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 17, 2015
STATUS FILE:[ imgur.com/m0PvQNw.png ]
OTHER STATUS AT BOTTOM
THIS IS A REVIEW OF ALL 4 SEASONS: ZnT, FnK, PnR + F.
STORY
The story starts in Hogwarts with a young witch named Louise. There is a ceremony being held for the students to summon their 'familiar' who will stay with them as their servant for the rest of their lives. All the other students have already summoned their's, ranging from fire salamander to a giant diglet. However, when Louise, who is renowned for being shit at magic, tries she summons a fricking human. Even so, everyone seems to thin this is the short straw and Louise is not impressed,
...
which doesn't make sense since he is by far the most useful out of any of them. Anyone, for the rest of the anime Louise and her familiar (Saito) go on a load of wacky adventures with elves, dragons, airships and loads of BDSM.
After fucking around and saving the world once or twice the story just ends. Without closure on just about anything except that Louise is most definitely a sadistic freak. SPOILERS[Remember that fucking ring thing with the water fairy? Yeah, so do I, but the authors didn't]
However, there is a possible reason for not many people shitting all over this anime too much. The original LN author, Noboru Yamaguchi, died before writing the last two books, leaving his kouhai too attempt to finish things up. And so I guess this time it can be forgiven, as at least Saito x Louise got pretty much canon, but then again, it was from about episode 6 (out of 50).
Another, important plot point is the violence shown. Us anime viewers are well accustomed to people being shot, cut in half, and killed in many ways. However, for whatever reason I, and many other viewers, found some of the stuff in ZnT hard to watch. And it wasn't the actual fight scenes, as they were very toned down, but the sheer amount of tsundere-induced domestic violence, Saito is subject to intense uncensored whipping sessions which he doesn't even seem to mind all that much. However he does get Louise back by performing the most dramatic male bitch slaps ever to come out of anime. [youtu.be/5-ncqu5rYcY?t=25s] Glorious.
The cast is as big as you'd expect from a 4 season anime, the main character is Saito, who I'd rank slightly higher than your average MC, but still incredibly flawed. But he can fly a fighter plane so that's cool.
Louise is the main heroine and love interest, who is an A class tsundere, and extreme caution should be taken when in the range of her whip.
Saito also acquires a respectable harem, including the maid Siesta; dandere Tabitha; literal slut Kirche, oppai-elf Tiffania and Henrietta, the queen of the entire country.
There are a load of others, but honourable mention to Jean-sensei, who was the best character up to and including 'the event with him as the main part of it'. Afterwards he is just as shit as most of them.
The plot was decent, however cannot be enjoyed by anyone who remembers anything before two episodes ago or has any interest in world lore or continuity in general. Also (very) decent fanservice.
PRODUCTION
This show is a very JC-style one, with that showing in the animation. A standard, unchanging reasonable quality, albeit with slightly dodgy looking action scenes. Not much to say on animation though, it was decent but nothing special by any means.
The OST consisted of four OPs, all of which very nice. The EDs were of a higher quality than your average, with ED2, 'Suki Kirai! Suki!!!', being the best Sound Track of them all. The total track size is relatively small, but not noticeably.
CONCLUSION
If you like long romances, vanilla fantasy and tsunderes or you just enjoy yourself a good bit of BDSM, then watch it, if not then don't force yourself too. Just watching the first season is cool too, as it wraps up pretty nicely in and of itself. If you've seen similar shounen JC Staff shows like Shakugan no Shana or Railgun, then its on the same street as those.
Maybe if the author decides to make like [CENSORED] and pull some bullshit 'not dead' shit then he could Saito bitch slap that faggot who fucked up the ending. Rest in Peace.
META
Length- 4 cours / 50 eps / 20 hrs
Release- Summer 2006, Summer 2007, Summer 2008 & Winter 2012
Studio- JC Staff
Source- 2004 LN by Noboru Yamaguchi
RATING
Watch?- Nah
Best Character- Jean-sensei
Worst Character- Yaoi bait Julio
Best Feature- Top class domestic violence
FUTATSU NO KISHI:[ imgur.com/tqEUoTL.png ]
PRINCESSES NO RONDO:[ imgur.com/YLU0khz.png ]
F:[ imgur.com/esC2Ymq.png ]
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 16, 2015
This review contains coarse language and awful humour.
This review is for both Haiyore! Nyaruko-san and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W
STORY
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is a take on the Lovecraftian myths mixed with your usual ecchi harem setting. The outcome is strange, to say the least.
The protaganist is Mahiro Yasaka a cardboard-cutout, self-inserting relationship oblivious high school boy who stumbles into a world of magical crap. Sound familiar? It is. The real personalities of the show are the three side characters, all based off of Cthulu mythos malign deities.
Nyaruko is the personification of the outer god Nyarlathotep. She comes to Earth on a mission to save Mahiro, and subsequently falls
...
in love wit him. She also has one of the longest ahoge I have ever seen.
Secondly is Cthuko, the red headed Cthughan who is love with Nyaruko for whatever reason, however eventually she understands the point of a harem and starts going after Mahiro too.
Finally is the god of wind, Hastur, who's chosen form is an adrogenous boy with hair that looks like a beetle. He is also officially classed as a whiny shit. He looks up to Mahiro for tripping him up or something. Literally no one likes him, not even his own family.
There are also quite a few side characters ranging from Mahiro's Mum who turns out to be a monster hunter, a shit 'childhood friend' trope character and a space bat that can turn into a 10 year old girl.
Most episodes are isolated , with the staus quoue being reestablished at the end of each episode. Every single arc seems to go like this: SoL shenanigans for 10 mins, an alien is invading Earth or some shit and everything is serious, the only way to stop them is to throw powerlevels at eachother in an over the top fight scene while Mahiro comes along and does nothing except get in the way, it turns out the villian's motivation was really stupid and there wasn't anything to worry about anyway and so everyone goes back home and tries to have sex with Mahiro. There you go, no need to watch it, that's what happens.
PRODUCTION
Overall the quality of the animation was decent, as long as no one moved. Most of the action sequences happened when the writer's seemed to be getting bored of a serious plotline, and so, to fit in with the ridiculous situation, the animation was bad. However this didn't seem too bad, because it fits with the series' tone. Kudos to Xebec, the studio that always seems to make sub-par animation seem bareable.
On the other hand, the soundtrack was amazing. With a relatively small number of tracks, all were very well made and fitting to an adaptation of the Cthulu mythos. Also both OPs, entitled 'I want a gay Horse' and 'Sons of Bitches', are some of the catchiest songs ever made.
CONCLUSION
Overall I recommend skipping this show. It has it's highlights but is a pretty meh show in general. The story is generic, the story pacing was awful and the entire thing is drenched in references, most of which no one got. I would recommend watching the first OP and first episode, followed by the second OP and then nothing more. Also, as is with most harem anime, nobody wins, which is always annoying. However, if you are really into the whole Cthulu mythos, then ignore this show entirely, except for character names, there are no similarities what so ever.
Also remember that Xebec made Love Hina and you should watch that because it's good(ish).
META
Length- 2 cours / 24 eps / 9.6 hrs
Release- Spring 2012 & Spring 2013
Studio- Xebec
Source- 2009 LN by Manta Aisora / 1928 Novel by HP Lovecraft
Alts- OVA / 2x Manga / OVA / Game
RATING
Watch?- No
Best Character- Nyaruko
Worst Character- Hasta
Best Feature- Both OPs
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 16, 2015
STATUS FILE:[ imgur.com/KLTjiwg.png ]
STORY
The anime revolves around a group of friends who are all part of the senshadou club, a club where the girls must compete with other schools in live-fire WWII tank battles. They also live on a huge ship for some a superbly bad reason. This anime has a nice mix of SoL and strategic action, as well as tonnes of tank related fanservice.
The 'protaganist' or at least the person whose point of view we take for most of the story, is Miho Nishizumi. Although she originally didn't want to join the tankery club, she is actually a talented and experienced tank commander,
...
except for the fact she always has her head poking out of the top of the tank even when under heavy fire.
Then there is Hana Isuzu, a flower arranger turned tank gunner who's character is heavily underdeveloped and doesn't say very much, but apparantly she has some family problems and an overzealous butler.
Saori is a slut.
The tank's driver, Mako Reizei, is known for being at the top of academics and of school tardiness. Although most of her character is based on her wanting to go to sleep, she also has a nicely done episode about her love for her Grandmother.
Finally is the crew's excitable tank maniac, Yukari Akiyama, who incedentally is best girl. She fucking loves tanks. Also fluffy.
Apart from these five, there are a total of 15,000 other characters, most of which actually get a surprising amount of development considering the series' length. Honourable mention to best team, team hippo. The cast also includes a loli school president, a World of Tanks playing nekomimi, two tea-drinking brits and a hoard of cute nazis and soviets. I'm not even kidding.
Throughout the series the girls face other schools in a tournament to try to be the best tankwondo team out there. Each school they face represents a different country and it's tanks, all heavily stereotyped and slightly racist, which is always good. There's the engrish speaking Americans who are all blonde and obnoxious with cowtits; there's the polite and tea-slurping Brits who act as commentators on every battle; there's the pizza loving Italians, the vodka drinking and dancing-round-a-camfire-in-the-snow russians and a regimented and shouty Nazi team who act as the final boss.
PRODUCTION
The animation on this show was slightly hit or miss, ecspecially with the CG parts. All tank battles were done in CG, which worked most of the time, but sometimes made it look like the tanks where toys.
The soundtrack was huge, aswell as very good. Each school had there own set of songs, based on traditional songs fronm their country. Worth a mention is the song called 'Katyusha' a traditionally sung Russian folksong that is sung by the Soviet Tankjutsu'ers as they ride into battle. Fucking brilliant.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion this show was amazing, as expected from the famous Actas studio (nope I had never heard of them either), and is definately worth the watch it shines in all aspects, and it even has a movie scheduled for release in November 2015. If you like tanks then you won't be disappointed there either, it even has a set of OVAs which have fluffy explain all about each tank in the team.
Also lots of implied yuri (apparantly)
METADATA
Length- 1 cour / 12 eps / 4.8 hrs
Release- Fall 2012
Studio- Actas
Source- 2012 Manga by Ryuuichi Saitaniya
Alts- 5x Manga / LN / 2x OVA
RATING
Watch?- Yes
Best Character- Yukari
Worst Character- Fucking Sodoko and her clones
Best Feature- The massive cast
-Be warned that I am biased towards this particular anime-
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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