Back to rawrXtina's Profile rawrXtina's Profile

Sometimes, it’s nice to relax. Maybe you’ve been burned out on intense, energetic shows and need a change of pace. Maybe you’ve come from a long day of work and need something to relieve the stress. Whatever the reason, you’re looking for something a bit more laid-back that you can take in without having to pay too much attention to convoluted plots or segments with extended dialogue. This is the Iyashikei genre in a nutshell, often characterised by works like Mushishi and Flying Witch, shows in which comparatively little actually happen but which managed to be soothing through the beautiful ambience of their setting or ... through the joy of experiencing the simpler pleasures in life. In this regard, Yuru Camp is an Iyashikei through-and-through.

We’re treated to a series of gorgeous establishing shots of the scenery from the very beginning. While these shots aren’t as detailed or vivid as you might get from a Shinkai film or a KyoAni series, they’re still very impressive and immersed me in the series almost immediately. The environment is coloured with soft tones that blend with each other almost seamlessly. This contrasts with the designs for the characters themselves, which are much more vibrant in a way that perhaps reflects their lively nature, particularly for the bundle of joy that is Nadeshiko with her bright, pink hair.

The soundtrack to this anime is stellar, with many of the tracks having a style that I can only describe as being a cross between celtic and traditional japanese folk. It's a distinct sound that you'd recognise immediately upon hearing, but also low-key and pleasant to listen to. Other sound effects, such as the the breaking of sticks, fire, and even slapstick moments like Nadeshiko's face sliding down a window all sound completely authentic and help pull you into the experience.

Character-wise, you have the stoic, reserved Rin who’s most comfortable by herself, contrasting with the hyperactive bundle of energy that is Nadeshiko. It’s one of my favourite character dynamics to witness in anime and it’s almost always entertaining and incredibly cute to watch. There's a number of side characters as well, all with personalities that make them a joy to watch even if they don't get nearly as much development as the main pair.

On the surface there’s not really much of a story here, being a show about girls going camping and doing camping things. I would say that the core of the story is in how each girl develops as a person; how Nadeshiko discovers a new hobby through a chance encounter with Rin, and how Rin’s interactions with different kinds of people changes her perspective on friendship and brings her out of her cold, seemingly impenetrable shell.

This show is an absolute pleasure to watch and very quickly became the highlight of my week. Whether you’re watching this just after coming home from a long day at work or late at night before going to sleep, I think you’ll really love this. It's by far the comfiest show of the Winter 2018 season.

I can definitely see Yuru Camp becoming a new benchmark in the Iyashikei genre, much in the way Flying Witch and Aria were. Here's hoping for a second season!

When the Yuuki Yuuna franchise first appeared, it was criticised for its similarities to Madoka Magica, despite itself not being the first magical girl show to turn dark. It was seen as more an attempt to capitalise on Madoka’s success than an original story, which in retrospect I think is really unfortunate. I myself wasn’t particularly blown away by the original series because, whilst it looked and sounded great and had some incredibly cute characters, it definitely felt like I’d seen it all before in some form or another.

I never really expected this show to get a sequel and it would have never been ... my first choice, but I’m really happy it did. Whilst this is a fairly short chapter, being only 6 episodes in length, it quickly engrossed me in its rich story world, likeable characters and emotional themes.

There isn’t so much focus on the vertex battles in this chapter, although what we do get is very tasty. The challenges faced by our characters are much more internal than in the main series, particularly for Yuuki Yuuna herself, who quickly becomes the focus as a result of certain actions she took very early on. I believe this is where the chapter really shines as it puts our heroine into a difficult position that can’t be overcome simply through the power of friendship, believing in yourself or really any trope of the sort. It carries with it an emotional weight that I never got from the main series and really felt very genuine.

Everyone has needed help and support at some point in their lives, whether physically, emotionally or financially, but nothing in this world is really free. Some burdens can be too much to ask of anyone, even when you have friends or loved ones who would do almost anything for your sake. So you go on, pretending things are fine, finding some way to cope while you fight that battle and carry that weight like a hero, or so you think. But you can’t hide it forever - you knew you couldn’t, and people soon start wondering what’s up and why you won’t tell them. Maybe they think you don’t trust them, which increases your frustration and depression and only makes it harder. You know that the truth will only cause more pain, but what can you do?

I was surprised to see this topic brought up in a show like Yuuki Yuuna, but it made me respect the franchise as a whole much more and I think has made me realise how much it has matured and developed its own identity separate from Madoka or any other magical girl anime. As it turns out, being a hero involves a lot more than transforming and using magic spells to fry the big bad. Sometimes it's about selflessness and having the willingness to sacrifice everything in the name of helping others. That’s not particularly original in itself, except that it challenges that status quo by asking: is that even right? Is a system like sacrifices young, promising heros in the name of preserving life and freedom for everyone else really worth sustaining?

Aside from whatever you might take away from the story, the visuals in this series are as vibrant as ever and look absolutely stunning, especially during the climax. The soundtrack also features some of the most beautiful and emotional music I’ve heard in an anime. I’m still not sure I completely understood the ending, but it was such a sight to behold that I’m not sure it even matters. The final episode was a surreal, audiovisual experience of the like I haven’t seen since Madoka: Rebellion.

Two Car had negative reception going into the Fall 2017 season, with a lot of people dismissing it as being boring, outright bad or stating that it should never have been even been made. I definitely wouldn't call it a great show, personally, but I ended up having a lot of fun with it and do think it has merits that can make watching it worthwhile.

Through most of the first half of the show, the actual sidecar racing feels more like a dressing and a plot device than an actual focus of the series. There wasn’t a whole lot of racing besides practice ... runs, with most of the time being spent on the character arcs for each respective team in the show. Does that sound boring? I’d have thought so too, but I think this is actually what Two Car does best.

You might ask yourself: "Who the hell cares about sidecar racing? Why not something less obscure that people might actually know about?", but the answer becomes apparent pretty quickly: this is a show all about teams of two working through their differences and difficulties to be able to work together as a unit, with many of the girls effectively seeming like couples in how they go about doing this.

Each pair of racers end up having a story arc dedicated to their development, which in some cases can take up two whole episodes. The highlight of the series for me and reason I would recommend this show is for its exploration of a multitude of relationship types in close proximity, whether between rich and poor, sub and dom, identical twins, incessant romantics or your stereotypical married couple who clash over little thing like pudding. Watching all of these situations play out was enjoyable and at times, downright hilarious, especially when the comic relief moments between Hitomi & Mao appeared. At this point you could have completely removed the racing element from the show and I would have continued to come back and watch it every week, as I felt it was both entertaining and pretty interesting.

There’s some melodrama, romance and some implied yuri, but if you like that sort of thing it’s a pretty good watch. The actual racing doesn’t look too bad either, but isn’t spectacular or important enough that I’d recommend this show to anyone based on that alone.

The reason I can’t rate this show any higher than I have is because I ended up being really frustrated by how the storyline involving the main characters got handled. The first episode gives us the most cliche and childish of conflicts over a mutual love interest you could think of, and it’s a plot point that keeps popping its ugly head to the very end, even after multiple scenes suggesting they’ve matured and moved on. It’s never that interesting in itself and seems to be there for no reason other than for cheap melodrama.

Besides that, I think I’d have to say I had a good time with this show and don’t regret my time watching it.

Imagine you could take a step back for a moment, and take a long, hard look at humanity. Where will we be in 1,000 years? Are the issues we face in the present really that important in the grand scheme of things? What does it mean to live? If our civilisation comes to an end one day, will it really be that bad?

Girl Last Tour is a unique take on post-apocalyptic fiction and in my view one of the most beautiful shows to come out in a long time. The setting might seem bleak and depressing at first glance, and whilst those feelings are present, ... it’s mostly used as a backdrop for the talking points of the main characters. It might also seem like another Moe, slice-of-life show that has value in its cuteness and not much more, but it’s really much more than that. It’s an abstract journey through history and human culture through the eyes of people who never got to experience it themselves, with a perspective completely detached from our everyday lives and personal drama. It makes you think about how insignificant many of our stresses and quarrels really are in the grand scheme of things and often brings into question the meaning of why we live and do the things we do. Themes like war and human greed are brought up and criticised, just as is the importance of knowledge, keeping records and the preservation of life. In many ways this show is a harsh introspection of ourselves as a species and in many others it’s an optimistic exploration of the beauty of living and learning. More than anything, it's about finding hope for the future even when the world seems bleak and empty.

Both the setting and characters are vehicles for the social commentary of this show, and as such don’t end up being particularly interesting in themselves. There’s no grand, overarching plot or a great deal in the way of character development, because that’s not really the point of Girls’ Last Tour. It’s not a show about fictional characters, it’s a show about how we think about the world and ourselves, and it works exceptionally well.

Creativity is a weird thing, but why do we even make art? Is it simply the strive to be original and make something that doesn't exist? Is it a showcase of our talents? Is it something we do to make others happy? Maybe it's just a way of expressing ourselves. But one thing many artists have in common is their emotional connection to their work; the anxiety and self-doubt that comes when that thing you made didn't come as good as you hoped or when you spend a long time on something only for nobody to notice it, but also the sense of accomplishment ... and fulfilment when you make something you're really proud of. Maybe you're too hard on yourself and are never happy with your work, or maybe you just love creating regardless of what the end product comes out looking like.

Urahara felt to me like an expression of that creative process. It's a show which itself is amateurish in many ways, but which has that underlying charm to it and passion behind it that made me respect and enjoy it much more than I ever thought I would. If you try to judge this show from a purely technical standpoint, you'd probably conclude it's not that good; The art style is rough and the animation is anything but fluid. It looks low-budget, and it may very well be low-budget, but I feel like from a design standpoint, it absolutely works. It's an aesthetic that works wonderfully with with the premise, themes and messages within Urahara, specifically the positive view it has on the process of creating art as means of expression rather than as a laborious process to achieve a high technical standard for other people to consume.

This is a stylish and eccentric and fairly abstract show which takes a ton of risks, many of which I felt absolutely paid off. It's one of the most unusual and experimental anime I've seen in quite a while and I couldn't help but tune in every week to watch another episode. It's a show that leans much more on its general themes, light-hearted aesthetic and charming, relateable characters than on trying to tell any kind of complex story. If that sounds like your thing, you should definitely give this rather bizarre and colourful show a chance.

Comedy comes in many forms, from witty satire to slapstick, sitcom and more. Some of these subgenres produce shows which you can enjoy proudly or openly without fear of judgement. Aho Girl is not one of those shows. In fact, it might be the dumbest and most immature anime I’ve seen since Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan, which is saying a lot. That probably sounds like a bad thing, but I found this show hilarious.

As the title suggests, the show is about a girl, Yoshiko, who’s somewhat of a moron, frequently scoring 0s on tests and being pretty much incapable of functioning like a normal human ... being. But what what she lacks in conventional intelligence, she more than makes up for with her boundless energy and enthusiasm and her absurd, yet often profound reasoning that frequently criticises and questions the nature of accepted social norms, albeit completely unintentionally on her part. This is a girl who I might describe as being a cross between Mako Mankanshoku and Karl Pilkington, and the chaos she creates is a thing of beauty to behold.

The ‘other’ main character is Akutsu, the unwitting and unfortunate object of Yoshiko’s affection, who is otherwise an intelligent, if socially inept high school student. If you’ve ever seen The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, you’ll be familiar with the dynamic between him and Yoshiko, as it’s in many ways similar to Kyon and Haruhi, and it’s a formula that I feel works very well. There’s also a fair number of supporting characters whose interactions with Yoshiko and Akutsu fuel some of the funnier gags throughout the show.

Being an adaptation of a 4-koma manga, Aho Girl is very much a gag comedy, featuring a sequence of shorter sketches over the course of each 12-minute episode with only minimal continuity between them. Some of these sketches have their own, unique style independent from the rest of the show, particularly when parodying another show, something Aho Girl does a number of times to great effect.

Whether or not you enjoy Aho Girl likely depends on whether you like absurd, over-the-top slapstick humour. As a fan of that, I think this is great. If I had any criticisms, it’d be that while many of the gags are hilarious, some of them got a bit repetitive or weren’t that great to begin with, but overall I’d say this is very much worth the watch.

Netsuzou TRap is a show I initially hated, but upon giving it a second chance after it had finished airing ended up liking quite a lot.

Going into this show my experience with yuri anime was limited to shows like Sakura Trick and Yuru Yuri, where the characters tended to consist of naturally likeable, pure hearted angels who would be cute and endearing to watch, but not at all representative of actual people. These unrealistic expectations led to a pretty rude awakening upon first checking out Netsuzou TRap, and made me dislike it enough to outright drop it.

Some months later, with a much firmer idea ... of exactly what I'd be in for, I checked this show out again and feel I can actually rate this very highly.

I'd describe Netsuzou TRap as a visceral character drama about a cast of naive, insecure and otherwise emotionally vulnerable people. You have Yuma, our kind-hearted protagonist who means well but through her confusion and misunderstanding of her emotions is prone to being taken advantage of, or inadvertently causing pain for others. Hotaru knows exactly what she want, but not how to express herself in a way that's healthy or responsible. The boys of the show, a nice guy and an asshole respectively, serve more as mirrors for Yuma and Hotaru to reflect off of rather than interesting characters in their own right, but this works well and feels appropriate considering the short episodes and length of the show.

Whether or not you enjoy Netsuzou TRap will depend pretty much exclusively on whether you can empathise with the main characters, regardless if you think they're right or wrong. If you watch anime purely for the escapism, you likely won't find much value in this show. If you find character studies more interesting or like watching characters who aren't perfect and who have all the flaws and fears that real people might have, then this might be more your kind of thing.

The story as a whole is fairly tight and works its way soundly to a fairly conclusive ending that, for once, doesn't require further reading of any source material to appreciate. I personally liked the character designs and artwork, and although it didn't bother me that much I feel as if it could have done with slightly more animation and less panning shots.

In terms of yuri, there's a fair amount of it and it's pretty decent both on a romantic and sexual level, but it wouldn't necessarily by why I'd recommend the show, even though it's the reason I started watching in the first place.