Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (and NEXT) Anime Review

How do I start with this one? I mean intros are already enough of a thorn in my side without telling you that I really liked Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai...well that little problem took care of itself


Yeah, it has some problems, but I don't know. With piecing eyes, I finally say goodbye, as I wave and kiss my credibility farewell (been watching way too much Yu Yu Hakusho) So without a moments delay, let's dive into Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai!
 

Animation--Animation is good, but nothing to write home about. It's not bad, but let's just say that if I had reviewed this a year ago, my opinions would be very different. After seeing what A-1 pictures and Shaft are able to do with a Slice of Life, nothing really amazes. That being said it does have some nice touches. The studio behind this is AIC, the team behind anime like OreImo, Blue Gender and Strike Witches. In my OreImo review (second review I did) , I said basically the same thing as I am going to say now; Character designs are well done, but nothing too spectacular with environments. What the studio does well is small touches. Little things, like the in-between animations during breaks, or the touches to the opening during both of the season finales ooze style.


Plot-- God, I feel like an asshole. I really do like this series, guys, but I do think it has some problems; the first of which being the first season. I'll be honest, for the majority of the first season; I thought the show was mediocre at best. My main problem was the humor; or the lack thereof. It was hit or miss; Characters like Rikka and Yuukimera were pretty consistent, but others weren't. The banter between girls felt less like Infinate Stratos-esque cat fights, and more like arena matches. They weren't funny, and because the translator turned a lot of the words into swears, it wasn't cute either. That being said, for reasons I'll explain later, I don't think this is a flaw. The season finales to both seasons, however, are fantastic. In this way, it's kinda the opposite of Infinite Stratos, where the finales were too focused on action and not enough on characters. Both of the finales leave me hungering for more—especially with the second season.

 Using the second opening, becuase the first one is a bit...well let's just say it doesn't help my case.

Sound-- Once again I'm going to say that the opening and ending for both are well animated and have pretty catchy tunes. As for the soundtrack, it does its job; Nothing outstanding, but nothing too distracting either. As for the voice actors, I'm going to say that for the most part they do their job well. Unfortunately Yukkimera, Kobato, and Maria don't get much of a chance for development, so their actresses don't get much of a chance to shine. Sena, Yozora, Rika, and surprisingly Kodaka, do.


Characters--Finally! Here's where I can finally get to be positive, I love the characters in this series! Character development is stellar, being both meaningful and subtle! Not only that but relationships also evolve in a way that feels pretty natural. Remember when I said that characters’ tearing at each other’s throats wasn’t exactly a bad thing? This would be why. The whole anime is about making friends; that's why their club is formed in the first place. Therefore in the beginning, the only thing that they have in common is that they like Kodaka and want to make friends. Slowly they become friends with each other, and by the second season, the banter between them, feels more like friendly jabs and less like a grudge match. Unfortunately, this all happens in the second season.

There's also a surprising amount of development around the characters.  Emotional moments are touching in and of themselves—without resorting to some kind of tragic back-story. That being said, the moments where characters are developed is kinda few and far between. Once again referring to the first season, no meaningful development occurs until the finale. 

Has what I've said convinced you to watch the show? If so, stop reading here. If what's been said here hasn't convinced you, first skip to the romance section, read it, and if you still aren't convinced, come back here. Reading this will defiantly detract from your experience, but if there's any reason why you should watch this, it's what I'm about to say.

It didn't work?

Kodaka is the best Harem protagonist. Sorry, Ararararagi. Sorry, Ichika. Fuck you Kazuya, this guy is the best. He's a freaking blockhead, like every other harem lead, but there is actually a reason behind it. It's not something stupid, like 'I want to have all the girls' or some crap like that. What's more is the way it's executed—brilliantly. Seriously, I want to convince you guys, but I don't want to spoil it for you! Plus, it'll sound a lot more stupid coming from me--especially because it's so well executed.

Forgot about this one; She has Chuunibyou, and plays it better than any other Chuunibyou character I know...

Romance-- It's a harem anime so don't expect much...but do expect more than the average. In my Infinite Stratos Review, I likened picking the right pairing, to going into a casino. Here it's a little less unbalanced-- like beating Dark Souls. How I see it, the more development gets the more likely they are to get together with the main character. Aside from the sister and the little girl (cause that would be creepy) I see three characters who have a chance. Each of these characters has gotten enough development to be eligible. As for the romance itself...well it fares ok. Once again it hasn't really gone anywhere, so I can't judge. 

So, it all comes down to this; do I recommend it? Yeahmayno. If you like Harem anime, then a definite YES. If you can stand them, a solid yes. If you can't stand them, well that kinda speaks for itself. 

As always, thanks for reading. Follows, likes and spreading the words are all good things. Hope to see you next time!

 

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo Anime Review

There is this anime called Sakurasou. Now I'm not exactly sure what I thought of this show. Okay, this paragraph is going to be a bit of story-time, so skip to the next one if you're just here for the review. So I went through this phase. it was a bit, okay a huge bit of denial. I told myself that anime was for kids, and that I should do the totally more mature thing which twelve year-old kids with grammar as good as Justin Beiber's track record is, and play violent gory video games with the substance of a spoon. Yes, I'm still slapping myself for this, please forgive me. Last Spring, when I got back into it, one of the first anime that caught my attention was Susei No Gargantia. However the second anime that caught my attention was the Pet Girl Of Sakurasou. Keeping in mind that when I was younger I watched none of this kind of slice of life moe stuff. The closest thing that I had to moe slice of life was Higurashi, and well...So needless to say I was blown away when I first started to watch this show. Everything about it was amazing...and then episode 21. But I'll get to that later. In any case, I stopped watching it for a while. Now I finished it. The end. What the hell was the point of this? I don't know!

 

Pet Girl of Sakurasou is a 2012 anime that actually came out around October. It depicts the life and times of Sorata Kanda who is forced to live in Sakurasou Hall, a hall of what seems like...reject geniuses? I mean it's not that much of a surprise, Leonardo Da Vinci liked to cut people up, Gengis Kahn killed innocent women and children, and Charles Dickens liked to use morgues and crime scenes for inspirations. So, I don't know. Sorata is the owner of a gigantic amount of cats, and is forced to live in the dorms because of this.

Animation-- Animation is astounding. Do you want me to say more? it's developed by JC staff, who are responsible for many great anime such as; Shakugan No Shana, Familiar of Zero, Chibi Vampire, and last but not least, my favorite anime of 2013, Hentai Prince and Stony Cat. Let me put it this way. The anime does not recycle frames like it’s some kind of climate change freak who believes that they have done their part to save the world by throwing a plastic bottle into a bin, before driving off into the sunset in their gas guzzler mk. 5679. Animation is fluid for the most part. It's also surprisingly colorful, with environments being a huge highlight. Since one of the characters is actually an artist, we have some nice artception going on as well.

Insert Mirai Nikki reference here

Plot--Okay, so how is the plot? You ask me. My first reaction is to slap you in the face, point to the tags, and yell 'it's a freaking slice of life!' And yet I can't. First of given JC staff's track record, when their anime is tagged slice of life, it's never just slice of life. Shakugan no Shana, mix of slice of life, Familiar of Zero, fantasy elements, Hentai Prince and Stony Cat, no spoilers, but go watch it now! Oh and as for Chibi Vampire, the title says it all. The plot in this anime, however has nothing supernatural about it. Instead it presents some of the best drama i have seen in an anime to date. The first four episodes of the anime have more character development, more emotion, and more heartfelt moments, then your average 13 episode anime. No screw that, more than your average 25 episode anime. Actually I'm going all the way. If were talking about anime like Naruto or One Piece, then it accomplishes more character development in the first four episodes than an entire 500+ episodes. After the first four episodes, it starts to settle back down into its nice slice of life roots. It gets some nice moments from there, including some interesting romantic scenes, some comic relief, and other fun moments. Here characters don't really progress that much, and the pace of the show slows down. Don't get me wrong, it is still damn good, but it just doesn't live up to the first four episodes. Then we get to episode twelve and...Okay it seems like the author was like 'oh hey i had some character development before, so let's do the logical thing, and make shit so depressing that it would make a baby cry tears of blood.' From episode 12 all the way to 21, these characters could not catch a fucking break. Just when it finally started to get better around 21, slam! The biggest of all depressing crap happens, and we spiral back into a hole of despair. Seriously, I'm fine with having my heartstrings pulled once and a while, but this anime said screw pulling a few strings, and proceeded to rip my heart out. I mean I had to look in the mirror a few times to make sure I wasn't a midget with posture problems, whose skin was coal black had eyes as yellow as a British guy's teeth, and squiggly antennae that may or may not pick up FM.

In case you didn't get the reference to Square's homage to HL3. Actually I guess I can't say that because, unlike HL3, Kh3 actually has a freaking release date!

 At episode twenty one, I formally dropped this anime. This anime become so much of a soap opera, that it felt like I was five years old again. You say the word 'damn' once and...No! Not the soap! I didn't mean it! Stop! Please! nbwhbJGde Anyway my lame jokes aside, this really did become a soap opera. Some of you like that, and that's cool. For the rest of us... Let me put it this way, soap operas are a major source of street crime, the president of Venezuela said it himself. However, the anime made a full recovery around episode 21. Yes we all knew it was coming as soon as the heavy stuff dropped on us like Hulk Hogan, but it had just as much, no even more of an effect on me than the first four episodes.

Sound--OSTs are nice in this. Are they as good as the DA DA DA DA ost from Outbreak company, of course not. Nothing could top that utter masterpiece. It's still damn good music. It doesn't get repeated enough to that it's distracting, but just enough so that you recognize it when it comes on. Let's see voice acting. Well I have to give Yoshitsugu Matsuoka credit. You know how I feel about SAO, or maybe you don't, I still have to review it...However in this anime, he's fantastic. Yes his solution to everything seems to be shouting, so much so that you might as well call him Dovakiin and be done with it. More hating on SAO, jesus I really need to get that review out so I don't sound like an ignorant asshole with a big mouth. In SAO Matsuoka, in my opinion duh, did not get the chance to really shine. I got the calm voice, and lots of shouting, but not so much of the performance he puts on here. I can't really explain it, just watch it and you'll know what I mean. The other voice actress worth mentioning is the little sister. If you don't know all ready I feel obliged to pronounce with full fanfare whenever anything related to Hentai Prince and Stony cat comes up, soooo guess who the voice actress for the little sister is? Anyhow the only other voice actress I feel obliged to mention is Shiina's. I didn't like her that much at first. She's silent, and shows as much emotion as a wooden plank, this couldn't be to set up contrast for when she finally breaks down is it? Yeah the contrast is sharp, and by the flying spaghetti monster, is it an amazing performance. 

                                              I'm actually taking it back, these Ost are not simply nice, they're freaking amazing!

  

Characters--hold on allow me to compose myself for a very objective deconstruction of exactly what the characters are and how they fit the---JESUS GOD, THE CHARACTERS ARE SO FREAKING AMAZING! ALL HAIL HAJIME KAMOSHIDA! No really, the characters are really amazing. Due to the fact that there are too many, and I'm already running out of audience's attention span like the U.S. is money, I won't analyze all of them.

Sorata--One of the best characters I have seen in any anime period. Why? Sorata is believable. He is not the ridiculous blockhead commonly known as I.C.H.I.K.A. I wish I had an acronym for that one but whatayagonnado. The best part about him is that he is human. He is not the god who does everything right every time--to I even have to point on the contrast between him and another one of Matsuoka's other roles? He screws up, he gets angry, and he hurts people he cares about. In the end he pushes through it, even with all of his insecurities. He is not the super shonnen badass, Mr. perfect that Kirito is, nor is he the complete and utter wimp Shinji is. He is human, and therefore unique.

                                          To show you the true extent of Sorata's character

Ryūnosuke + Rita-- I love these characters. If I was doge, I'd be all WOW, Much funny, Many sugoi des, but I'm not. Unfortunately I am not a cat typing on a keyboard, I'm just a dude with a computer. This dude on this computer says that this pairing is awesome, as are both of their characters. Really, though I love male tsundere. He manages to be strong charismatic, while still delivering some really heartfelt moments. Rita is equally as good, bringing out heartfelt moments, as well as comic relief like they were a rabbit in a hat.

Romance--Very simply put the romance in this show is not over. it hasn't completed yet and therefore I cannot pass judgment on it. However, seeing as the characters feel like real, if really wacky, people, the romance here measures up to that. There are a lot of moments in this series where you will be squeeing, or if you want to keep that masculinity up, slowly nod you head in approval. 

Is this show worth watching? Yes, it very much is worth your time. Even though that depressing arch was not exactly the best I've seen in recent memory, it still had a positive effect. Even though I gripe about it, the depressing moments did hit home. Character design is among the best I've seen in an anime, art is impressive, soundtrack is very good and overall this anime is not going to be forgotten. It is not one of those watch and forget anime. It will stay with you long after you finish. A very strong recommendation from me.

Thank you for reading my review. If you liked it, or clicking the like button is somewhat of a hobby, drop a like, follow or just spread the word around. I'll siya next time!