I want to bring two recent mangas together in one review, since I feel they have some kinship.  The first is Usagi Drop.  Here is my back of the book summary.

Daikichi returns home to attend his grandfathers funeral, only to discover a young girl hanging around the house.  This shy urchin is introduced as the 5 year old daughter of his grandfather!  When the family argues about who should take responsibility for Rin, single working stiff Daikichi make a snap decision that he will take Rin home with him since no one else seems capable of seeing her as a person.  But is he ready to be a father overnight?

The second is Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie, or Little House with the Orange Roof.  Again, quick synopsis, this one ripped off a web page since I can’t be bothered to look up everyones name right now:

A man comes home one day to have his wife give him divorce papers. A woman comes home to her apartment one day to find a woman she doesn’t know wrapped in a towel coming out of the shower. They both get conned by the same real estate conman on the same house, a 4LDK. So now the man, his two sons, the woman, and her two daughters live in the same house.

(LDK=Living room, Dining room, Kitchen, a common style of house in Japan.  And now you know!)

Side by side, the similarities are not obvious.  But then, if they were, I wouldn’t have to blog about it, huh?

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I didn’t blog about episode 2 of the new season because it didn’t seem like there was much there. Summer memories, slice of life, all pretty cliche stuff before the new school year. I have had my faith restored in Haruhi, however, as we again see nothing is as it seems. As Kyon observes:

First clue - you’re in this anime

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Despite my lack of enthusiasm for K-On!, putting me at odds with, let’s see…everyone, I am noticing a large amount of potential with the cutsey opening and ending music videos.  You first have to be familiar with the opening, or the OP as the kids call it:

This leads to this…

I didn’t say it made sense, just that it was cool.

The ending…

Also lends itself to awesomeness…

(That’s a pretty good tour of Akiahabra to boot)

Finally, credit where credit it due:
http://www.animevice.com/news/vice-tv-darth-vader-is-moe/1323/
http://www.dannychoo.com/

I’m stuck without my home computer, so I am going to have to do a text based review of this, the triumphant return to the Haruhi world.  Adjust your reading glasses and…begin!

This episode picks up right along with the old season.  It could even be part of the old season, which, considering the time bending design of the release of the first season, could in fact be the case (OK, I actually read that the first and second season are concurrent, we’ll see if that holds up).  Best of all, this is one of my favorite type of episodes, a time travel episode!  And not because that means it’s a Mikuru-centric episode.  Despite the popularity of the female cast members, my favorite character remains Kyon, and every episode is Kyon-centric.  I love the fact that Kyon is the calm in the midst of the Harhui storm, taking whatever comes along in stride.  Need him to travel back in time three years?  Sure, why not?  Need him to sleep in a room while you adjust time/space around him?  He’s there.  Need him to walk a random road and help the first person he sees?  He’s on it.  I love that Kyon maintains a sharp mind and wit while anyone else would have the screaming heebee jeebees by this point. 

The plot is fairly simple.  Haruhi is uncharacistically excited about Tamabana, a Japanese holiday where you hang wishes on trees for the gods to read (I think - look it up).  Haruhi puts her own twist on it, concluding that the two gods that answer Tamabana prays reside on two distant stars, 16 and 25 light years away.  Thus the wishes must be for events to take place 16 or 25 years in the future.  Just a normal day in the SOS brigade.

After Haruhi takes off seeming disappointed that the gods didn’t personally come by to answer her pray, Mikuru takes Kyon three years into the past for no reason she is willing to share.  As usual, Kyon is all “sure, why not” and goes along, only to be KOed for the trip so he doesn’t learn any time travel secrets.  Mikuru then gets the KO treatment as grown-up Mikuru (from Season 1) asks Kyon to head down the road and help the first person he comes across.  This is, of course, a middle school aged Haruhi breaking into her middle school at night.  Kyon is forced to help her create the chalk alien message she became famous for (again, see Season 1).  At the same time, he ends up suggesting to an impressionable Harhui that the high school he attends may in fact have aliens, time travelers, and espers (but no sliders - whatever that is). 

I’ll skip over the filler “we’re stuck in the past, oh noes!” storyline and return to the present. Here we dissect the meaning of the trip. Kyon points out that his meeting of Haruhi may have influenced her decision to attend their high school, thus violating the prevailing theory of causality yadda yadda yadda whatever. This also leads to the fact that Haruhi admits loving Tanabana because of a pleasant memory she had during that holiday, once again re-enforcing the importance of Kyon in her world (there is no indication she realizes that middle school stalker Kyon and this Kyon are the same person). Finally, to drive the point home, Kyon plays chess with Itsuki rather than the normal go. Itsuki points out that the queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Not said is that despite this, the king is the most important piece. That, I feel, is the central theme of the show, is that even if Haruhi is a god, she is uncontrollable and unstable without Kyon, even if he doesn’t realize it. I’m hoping this season explores why.

Just a quick update on the road to the end of School Days.  It does indeed continue to suck, but I see why.  These kind of teen romance stories usually idealize everything.  The girl is shy and kind, the guy is nice but misunderstood, the situation is always staged to maximum romantic effect.  In this case, you have a main character, Mokoto, who is kind of a jerk.  I take that back - he’s not even kind of, he’s a jerk.  Not evil, not malicious, just a typical male teenage jerk.  Now throw into that the bad side of teenage romance.  The awkwardness, the doubts, the betrayal, the hormones, etc.  That’s School Days for you.  And it is pretty painful to watch knowing that the situation is going to just get worse before it gets better.  If it get’s better.  I mean, what’s the worse that could happen?

I am getting a sense of why I may have missed School Days first time around.  It’s AWFUL.

There is a lot of this…

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I am going to need someone to tell me what is going on here.  I have to continue my theme from last week where I complain about the fact that everyone except the audience and the main character knows what’s going on, and no one ever thinks to just explain anything.  In fact, this episode drops hints and clues like rain, so much so that I really didn’t follow the plot at all.

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In my day, I saw the fruition and demise of a trend that seemed to last under one year.  With shows like Myself:Yourself and H2O, you had shows that started off as lighted hearted slice of life romances, only to twist some off the wall tragedy into the mix toward the end.  It’s the ultimate emotional gut punch if you are into those sorts of thing, as I am.  However, I missed the originator of these shows:

Here is what I know about School Days - the ending is fucked up, and is the stuff of legend.  It became a verb on forums, as in “I hope they don’t School Days the plot of this one”.  But I never saw it, as it came out just before I found a reliable source for fansubs.  But thanks to my once mortal enemy Crunchyroll, the series is being featured anew on their site and I get another crack at it.  And given that there is nothing real exciting to blog this season, I think I will take a look and let you know if it lives up to it’s reputation.

So if you know School Days, you can look forward to the multiple WTF moments I’ve been promised.  If you don’t, come enjoy the shock and awe, why don’t you?

An anime about a mahjong prodigy being discovered by the high school mahjong club and yet being reluctant to join?  Never could guess how this is going to end up.  Now add the fact that mahjong is much more complicated than the match the tiles version that comes with windows (it’s like a combination of poker and gin rummy, to be honest) and you have an anime that will make my eyes bleed.

You’re secret alien language confuses and frightens me

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I know I said I wouldn’t do this, but this scanlation caught my fancy enough to mention.  It’s up to chapter 38, so there is enough meat on the story to get into it, but there is still a major shoe that needs to drop that I want to discuss.

And in an attempt to avoid spoilers, let’s dive into the world of multiple mores!

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