After being completely bored with Aoi Hana, I decided I would check if it was genre or story that put me to sleep.  So I hooked-up with this seasons Yuri title, Samameki Koto.  Here’s the standard website blurb:

Sumika Murasame is deeply in love with her cheerful classmate and friend Ushio Kazama. Ushio is openly lesbian but… she’s likes cute girls, and Sumika, top student, class representative, black belt in karate, is all but cute. Even worse, Sumika herself is terrified of endangering her friendship with Ushio and chooses to maintain the status quo, as much as it pains her to hide her feelings…

Sounds pretty standard.  But this show is so much more.

Sounds like a sound pla…WHAAAA!?!

It started strong, as you get a real feeling of the friendship and attraction between the two main characters.  But as we go on, they mix hard hitting emotion with just the right mix of goofy fun. Kazama is an absolute airhead.  Murasame attempts brings a level head to the table and fails miserably dealing with the craziness of the situations around her.  I so wanted Akemiya-kun (see above pic) to have more of a role, but I’m guessing he’ll be regulated to comic relief soon enough.  This is definitely a cast I want to see more of.

We’ll have more about this series as I play catch up, but you have to be aware, this series has it out for me PERSONALLY.

Tell me about it…

I have noticed a trend in both anime story pacing and my attention span. You usually will get 2 or 3 introductory episodes, some filler, then an ending arc. And after those first episodes, my attention takes a nose dive. This was the case with Sora no Manimani, which I dropped after episode 4. But thanks to the astronmy club theme, I revisited it this week, powered through a few episode, and found myself devouring the latest 5 episodes in one sitting. What I discovered as I reveled in the astronomy club flashbacks (which are frightningly similar to my own, minus the love interests) was that there was a decent story and some lovable characters buried in this quirky show.

Up front, this show does suffer from Main Characteritice, where the central character is actually the weakest, but the story is bolstered by the cast (see Suzumiya, Haruhi).  Mihoshi is eternally happy despite the tragedy in her life, and only ONCE in the first 11 episodes do we see a real chink in that facade.  Saku just kind of wanders through the show as things happen to him.  It’s a common male anime character trait, but none the less annoying.

Yes, she’s a Muppet

That leaves the rest of the cast to carry the show, which they do with gusto.  Starting from the bottom up, Sayo is underwritten and underutilized, but maintains the adhesion of the group thanks to being the one person who knows everything from the beginning.   I was hoping the story would focus on her at some point, but it appears not to be.

Oh, the potential

The President takes a bit to get going, but he develops into a strong personality despite the weak body.  Heck, he even seems to be the one guy who gets a girl out of all this.

Dawg is a playa, what can we say?

Hime and Edogawa are played a lot for comic relief, but Hime especially develops as a fleshed out character, and not just the foil for the main character.  She tugs on my heart strings for the simple reason that she develops into a full fledged member of the Astronomy Club after joining simple to stick near Saku.  It doesn’t hurt that the comic relief is actually funny too.

what you lookin’ at?

Fumei is the most interesting of all.  She is set up as the foil to Mihoshi, both in school activities and in romantic interests (if I believed Mihoshi had any).  Over time, she is fleshed out as a character, shown to be a real leader and friend of Mihoshi’s.  As is usually the case with my favorite characters, I’m sure she’ll be completely forgotten by the end of the series.

Get out there!

One episode remains for Manimani, the season finale.  Once I find it translated, I’ll be back to see if it changes these conclusions any.

I stopped blogging about Bakemonogatari after episode 7, because I was quickly loosing interest.  We finished with the Monkey, went on to a Snake, and touched on a Cat, all without the interest and fire I felt for the first half of the series.  It took me a bit to realize why, but it was simple.  No Senjōgahara.  She appears briefly to wrap up the Monkey story line, but is completely absent for the Snake and barely mentioned for the Cat.  It was clear that the back and forth between Senjōgahara and Araragi was what drew me into this show, and characters like Kanburu, Sengoku or Hanekawa (Monkey, Snake and Cat) just don’t cut it.

That is why Episode 12 is the most perfect episode of anime ever created, period.

SQUEEEEEEEE!

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A good anime usually has a background theme that follows along with the plot and character development.  Usually, the emphasis is on background.  The whole purpose of this show seems to be to present the majesty and wonder of the night sky, as character and plot take a back seat.  I am certain every day in this world starts out with this gag.

I wanna see Hime try to swallow her head…

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A little plot development, and little character development, a lot of actual science, and these guys:

This is the most normal looking Astronomy club I’ve ever seen

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An Astronomy Club anime?  If you knew my background, you would know this is an instant win for me.  But a good academic anime needs to come with important life lessons, such as:

A good rule

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Summer premieres continue with Aoi Hana, a slice of life anime staring the pair below, Fumi and Akira, or Ai.  And we will call her Ai from now on, otherwise I will always type the name as AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKIRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! from here on in.

Odd couple

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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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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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The characters of Toradora are falling apart.  I thought from the last episode that we were working out the personalities, but it looks like they are trying to hang on to the status quo.  And like a tectonic plate, the longer it takes for the inevitable to snap into place, the worse the shock is going to be.  And therefore, I present to you just why and how much each of these people deserve to Die…In A Fire!

Yes you are

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