Love Live! School Idol Project

Episodes:    13

How:   Crunchyroll

Grade:    A

Summary:   Otonokizaka High School stands on the border of three cities: Akihabara—a pop culture mecca that's evolving by the minute; Kanda—a conservative, cultured city where history and tradition reign supreme; and Jinbo—a quiet area reserved for a more mature, sophisticated population. Amidst this culture clash, the school now faces closure due to the enrollment of fewer and fewer students.

With the school planning to close within three years, nine female students come together with one thing in mind—form a pop idol group to revive the school's popularity and keep it from shutting down. "In order to protect our beloved school, there's only one thing we can do... become pop stars!"

Their goal is simple: Become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they figure. Naturally, they're nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse their new journey has begun...

How it is.......


      So, I've never really watched any of these Idol type shows... They just never really appealed to me. I may have to rethink that stance though, this was really good.
       Three girls set out to save their school from closing by becoming School Idols.  Sounds a little corny.  It wasn't corny at all though, it was very follow your dreams and you can do whatever you put your mind to.  Yea... okay.... maybe a little corny.
        It didn't just come together for the trio though, it was like no one {a few were} in the school was supporting them at first. When they preformed their first "concert" {one song} only a few people showed up to watch them preform.  This didn't stop them though, they went on with the show and didn't let the small showing discourage them too much..
      Slowly, with hard work the three girls gathered others to join their group... first it went to six...then to seven and then finally to nine.   Nine.

Who we have...... 


Honoka Kousaka;  She's the leader, she's the glue, she's what makes the girls stick together.  It was her idea to start the Idol Group and it's her that keeps it from falling apart. She doesn't have any specific talent, but she's always the optimist and strives to do her best.
      There was a small time late in the series that she pretty much quits Muse, this caused pretty much all the girls to split up and go their separate ways. This was short lived however...
       She lives with her parents and younger sister in the back of their sweet shop, which ironically she hates red bean paste.

Kotori Minami; Honoka's and Umi's best friend, she's the kind, absent minded one that designs the girls costumes for their performances. Normally quiet, she sort of fades into the background. The big drama at the end of the first season revolves around her not telling Honoka that she'd been accepted to a fashion design school in another country.
     All packed and ready to go at the airport, she can't seem to force herself to get onto the plane. Which is good, since Honoka shows up to bring her back to Muse and the School.

Umi Sonada:  Umi,Umi,Umi.  She's the shy one, even has stage fright... but man she's a bit scary when she's training the girls stamina. Bossy,Bossy, saying "No" to her seems impossible and she'd be a great drill Sergeant.

Hanayo Koizumi:   Hanayo has dreamed of being an Idol since she was a little girl, never having the courage to go for it till her friend Rin pushes her.

Rin Hoshizora: Hanayo's best friend, she really never had much interest in becoming an idol, but she joined Muse to help Hanayo along.   She's an energetic,tom boyish girl and just seems to become friends with everyone she meets...
      A little bashful about wearing skirts.

Maki Nishikino:  This was a hard nut to crack, she can write music and sing beautifully, but since she had chosen to follow in her parents footsteps to become a doctor. She really didn't feel she had the time to become an Idol.
       At first they needed her to just write and record some music for them, but then...after some help from Hanayo and Rin, Maki joins the group.


Nico Yazawa:  This girl is annoying, you kind of want to slap her through the whole show. She's the last member of the Idol Research Club that had slowly disolved for some reason or another {Probably because Nico's annoying}.  Anyways, At first Nico can't stand Muse...stalking them, sending them failure messages and stuff.
    Then, since Muse needed to be a club and that Idol Research Club was all ready there.. they talked Nico into joining.  Uhg.

Eli Ayase:  One of the last girls to join Muse, she's the Student Council President and was also trying to find a way to save the school. Which didn't involve and Idol Group.  She's an ex ballerina, an extremely good ballerina that just didn't quite have the stuff for the big times. When Honoka finds out about this, she's all about getting Eli to teach them to dance...
       With a little push from Nozomi and a lot of annoying from the other Muse girls, Eli finally agrees and... ends up being a scarier trainer than Umi.  She whips the girls into semi-shape...

Nozomi Toujou:   This girl is fun, she's the Student Council Vice President and Eli's best friend. She's really grabby, yes...that's the main thing I remember about her. She likes to grab the other girls breasts and fondle them... it's sort of a punishment in ways.
        She's also into telling Fortunes and says the Idol Group would only work if there were 9 Girls.  Took them a while, but they got to 9.

The End:   It was a happy one, I guess.  Muse had gained enough popularity for the school to get enough Applicants to remain open, which means there was no real reason for Muse to remain together.
     There was a huge implosion after Honoka got sick and then Kotori decided to leave and all of the bad break up stuff happened.  Yet, out of the jaws of destruction it was pulled and all the girls decided to remain in Muse and sing another day!
     Well, sort of.  It was really just one of those bright, shiny, everyone is happy endings.

    I'll get around to watching Season 2 eventually.

I My Me! Strawberry Eggs.

Episodes:     13

How:   Netflix {Rental}

Grade:  A

Summary:  {From MAL}  Amawa Hibiki is a young man just out of college, with an education to be an athletics teacher. He's been having a hard time finding a job since he graduated, so all his money has gone towards living expenses. When his landlady demands his first payment to live in her living establishment upfront, he heads to the local middle school to get hired as a teacher. However, the principal refuses to hire him without hesitation. She will not hire men as teachers and makes it clear that she hates all men, saying they put no love into their passions and work. Amawa does not give up and with the help of his landlady, he crossdresses as a woman without a second thought, and gets hired, so he can earn money and also prove the principal wrong. Now, he has to keep his real gender a secret, and avoid strange situations, including the affections of his students (from both genders). 
 



How it is....




     This was actually the second time I watched this series, the first was quite a while ago and I had basically forgotten everything about it.  Well, other then Hibiki's dog always being in fear of being turned into dinner.
      At first glance this series is really a normal, school comedy with a few perverts thrown in. By the end however it was quite touching...
      After being denied the gym teacher spot at the school by the man hating principal and vice principal, Hibiki goes back to apply for the job in drag.  As a female gym teacher he proves himself worthy of the position by "coaching" the clumsiest student in the school to run a few meters.
     Her coaching has an unexpected side effect however, the student Fuko Kuzuha falls in love with Hibiki... it builds and builds throughout the episodes as Fuko ends up in Hibiki's home room, Hibiki sticks up for Fuko and helps her with other gym related things.
     It's an innocent, confusing love for Fuko, at first not even realizing it is love but... by the end she confesses to Hibiki which leaves the teacher a little...flustered.  Maybe Hibiki has also gotten a little too close to Fuko through the weeks or months of teaching.
    There's also quite a bit of other love stories going on, in the normal school based anime fashion.  Fujio likes Akira, Akira like Fuko, Fuko doesn't like Akira in that way and it's just a little messy. Also, in a normal school comedy fashion there are two perverted male adults who are always trying to get pictures of the girls in uniforms or just Fuko in general.  This show is very Fukocentric.
     In the end, after numerous attempts; the vice principal gets her proof of Hibiki being a male and exposes him to the entire school. Everyone is in shock and at first thinking he's just another one of the perverts living at the Gochiso apartments the students and everyone shun him, the male him and the female him.
     His faking the female role also fuels the Principal and Vice Principals argument that the school itself should go female only and they attempt to use the situation to get the parents and students to agree that there would be no more male students accepted to the school.  This however backfires when Fuko and the other students start to remember all the good times they had with Hibiki as a teacher, how much he cared about them and helped them with things.  The motion to turn the school into girls only is denied and...all is happy. Sort of.
     Hibiki gives a touching speech from atop of Gochiso and then he gets on a train to leave, Fuko and company chase after him and just wave him goodbye's as he goes.
    In other news, it turns out that the Principal hates males so much because she was hurt by one {go figure}. It's also hinted that the Gochiso landlady is actually the man who broke the Principal's heart.

Totoro

How:   Netflix Rental

Grade:  A+


Thoughts:   It took me too long to watch this.

Satasuki and Mei move to the countryside with their father while their mother is in the hospital recovering from some mystery illness. Mei {the younger} goes off exploring and finds a large tree god Totoro sleeping under the nearby Camphor tree.
    At first her sister doesn't quite believe her, but one night while waiting for their father's bus back from work Totoro bounds up and stands beside them.

There's really not much to the movie, it shows them dealing with their mother not being there and taking care of one another while their father is at work.  The little boy down the road seems to have a bit of a crush on Satasuki, but tries to hide it.

     The end event is Mei attempting to get into town by herself to see her sick mother who was supposed to be coming home for the weekend, but fell sick once more and had to stay at the hospital.  The entire country town is looking for Mei, Satasuki rushing all around to look for her until she finally goes to Totoro for help.
    Catbus {a giant cat/bus}aids Satasuki in finding her sister and then brings the two girls to the hospital window to see that their mother was "okay".

The movie is sweet and actually quite short, very much aimed towards little kids... but hey.. it was enjoyable. More so then many longer animated movies.

Silver Spoon

Episodes:    11

How:   CrunchyRoll

Grade:    A

Summary:  {From MAL}  Yugo Hachiken dreams of life separated from his family, so he takes the initiative by enrolling in an agriculture school. He thinks, with his talent in studying, no problems will arise no matter what kind of school he attends. He is proven wrong very quickly. Raised as a city boy, he is forced to uncover the inconvenient truth about agricultural life. Enjoy the story of Hachiken, as he tries to keep up with his new friends, farmers' heirs, who are already accustomed to the harsh world of farming. With no clear goals or understanding of farming life, how will Hachiken survive this new, cruel reality? The story of a sweat, tear, and mud-stained youth begins!



Thoughts:   This was a happy accident, an Anime about Farm life.  Never in a million years would I think I'd enjoy a show about raising farm animals and stuff, but here we are. The show has an excellent mix of drama, comedy and well.... live stock.
    In a way, I kind of wish I went to this type of school when I was in school. haha, waking up at 5 AM would have been a bit irritating at times, but... taking care of the animals looks like a lot of fun and great exercise I'd imagine.
     I spent most the show wondering why Hachiken was even at this High School, but when the older brother shows up and more of his background is established it really started to make sense.
     Glad there's a second season.


Who we have...

Mains.


Yugo Hachiken-  He may be the most lovable main character I've ever seen, the shock he exhibits with some of the ways of agriculture/farming is beyond amusing and sometimes a little sad.  Hachiken only goes to agricultural school because he wants to get away from his parents, his father is a bit of a butt head from what I've seen in the later episodes.  Making it where he doesn't even want to go home over Summer break.
      Since he has a bit of a crush on Aki, he joins the Equestrian Club even though he seems to be scared of horses at first.  Slowly he warms up to them and vise versa.  His relationship with the other students is really quite good, no one seems to dislike him and they really consider him someone they can talk to.
       Throughout the show though, he starts to realize that he has no goal in live.  Most if not all the students at this school are from farm families where they will be helping and eventually taking over for their parents. Hachiken needs to find some sort of passion in life....
     Early in the show, while visiting the pigs he falls in love with the runt of the litter.  Everyone told him not to name any of the baby pigs but... he couldn't help it.  He takes "Pork Bowl" under his wing and is constantly worried about him getting enough food...  in the end he makes sure Pork Bowl reaches an optimal weight to get a good price at market.... tearfully he ends up purchasing Pork Bowl {with the money he made over the Summer at Aki's} and makes food out of him.
     He sends some of the Bacon home to his parents, other parts to Mikage and Komaba's family and the rest is eaten by students and teachers, some for free and some purchased.

Aki Mikage-  The love interest, her family runs a small cow and horse farm specializing in Ban'ei race horses. Being the only child she's set in line to inherit the farm, but she isn't really sure she wants to. Of course, she can't tell her family this.
       She's the reason Hachiken joins the Equestrian Club, she absolutely loves horses and talks quite poetically about them.
      During the Summer break she takes Hachiken home with her to help out on their farm, for the most part he does quite well until he accidentally doesn't secure the hose to the milking machine and they loose quite a bit of milk.
      Her family is quite nice and caring, nothing like what Hachiken is use to and her grandmother may be the most amusing person on the show. Too bad she's not there more..


Ichiro Komaba-  The quiet, childhood friend of Aki.  They grew up on farms not far from each other and are quite close, this is a bit of a hot button of jealousy for Hachiken.
        Komaba helps his mother and younger, twin sisters run their small Dairy Farm when at home.  His father passed away several years ago and it's really very difficult for his mother to get by.  Komaba's hope is to become a pro-baseball player and improve the family farm.  Will this happen? I hope so.  It's looking pretty good in the first season seeing he is just a freshman and is all ready starting pitcher on the schools team.

Others....


Tamako Inada-  I love this girl, she's amusing and extremely driven.   She's also one of the only "fat" girls I've ever seen in an Anime, she's skinny for a few episodes after Summer break citing the sweating from the heat, but after the summer festival she's back at her Egg Shaped Weight!
      She too is a first year student in the dairy farming program,  she's actually rather scary obsessive about the bottom line.  Specializing in accounting and micro transactions, it's seen while Hachiken is visiting her family's mega farm that she's bent on taking over the business even before her parents want to relinquish it. Saying her parents aren't running it optimally...

Shingo Hachiken-  Yugo's older brother and once "golden child" to his parents, he was what Yugo can possibly never be.  Shingo was accepted to the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious University in all Japan...  Once accepted however he decided that was enough for him.   It made his fathers dream of having a child accepted there come true and....now he wanted to follow his own dream.  Becoming a Chef!
     It seems he has a superb since of taste, but he can't cook worth a damn.  Wandering about he finds Yugo on his parents behest {maybe?} while he's working at the Mikage farm.  Trying to be nice he nearly kills Mikage's family with his cooking and then again the students at the school during the Summer festival.
     He and Yugo don't really get along or at least it's sort of one sided, Yugo hates him and he tries to be a friendly older brother.

Pork Bowl-   Hachiken's Pig, he was the runt of the litter and was always pushed aside during meals... even when he was a baby pig he was forced to take the last teat.  He accepted his sad way of life,but Hachiken never could and always attempted to get him to fight for more food... and failed.
       In the end, he ended up a happy, fat piggy.....and then bacon and other pork  products for the school.  Poor Pork Bowl.






The End;  It wasn't really an end, there's a second season soon which is really good since it really leaves you wanting more.  Komaba gets to start in the baseball game even though he's a first year, Mikage actually admits to not being completely certain about wanting to inherit the family farm; at least the way it is now and Hachiken...well...he's still Hachiken.
    I'll miss poor little Pork Bowl, I bet he made some tasty bacon....Oh that sounds demented.  I'm really not sure if I could raise a pig just to slaughter and eat it.  At least they didn't show the slaughtering process of Pork Bowl.

Eden of the East

Episodes:   11

How:   Netflix {Stream}

Grade:  A-

Summary:  {From ANN}On November 22, 2010 ten missiles strike Japan. However, this unprecedented terrorist act, later to be known as "Careless Monday," does not result in any apparent victims, and is soon forgotten by almost everyone. Then, 3 months later... Saki Morimi is a young woman currently in the United States of America on her graduation trip. But just when she is in front of the White House, Washington DC, she gets into trouble, and only the unexpected intervention of one of her fellow countrymen saves her. However, this man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, is a complete mystery. He appears to have lost his memory, is stark naked, except for the gun he holds in one hand, and the mobile phone he's holding in the other. A phone that is charged with 8,200,000,000 yen in digital cash.

Thoughts:  This was actually my second time watching this series, the first happened while it was airing in Japan via Fansubs. Not that it aged long, but it did age well....  It's always amusing to see thousands of naked NEETs.
     This may actually be the only politically charged Anime that I've ever watched and it's certainly the only Anime that I've watched that references 9/11 on more then one occasion.  Even sort of showing the site of it...
     Anyways, 12 people are given billions of Yen to "Save" Japan. Each of these people have far,far different ideas and ways to make this happen.  Our main character you'd assume would be the winner in the end or.. yea...
    The Title of the show actually refers to a website that characters in the show have created to identify people/objects just by uploading pictures to it so that others may share what they know about said item.

Who we have...

Saki Morimi: While on her graduation trip, she sneaks away from her friends that are in NYC and goes to see the White House.  She always wanted to throw a coin in the fountain,but finds that the fountain is a little too far away and that the Police don't really like you throwing stuff over the fence.
    This is when a naked man with a gun and a cell phone "saves" her, the cops shuffle off after him and he hides and comes back to talk to her.  Chatting with a naked man, she gives him her scarf and coat and he runs off... with her passport in the coat pocket. Long story short, she finds him and they return to Japan together.
      She quickly forms a bit of a crush on Akira, even after he tells her his story of not knowing who he is and such. Thinking about it, she really doesn't do much important stuff in the entire series. Other than introducing Akira to the Eden of the East group.
       Back info,  she's lived with her sister and her sisters husband since their parents died and she has a bit of a crush on her brother-in-law. Her sister and bro-in-law run a bakery and have one child, Saki seems to feel that she's a bit of a burden now that the two have a daughter and of course the whole being in love with her sister's husband thing.


Akira Takizawa:  He first shows up naked, with a gun and a phone in front of the White House. Sort of saving Saki from the cops she gave him her coat and scarf and off he ran, he somehow talked some random man into giving him his pants as well.
    Anyways, he had his memory erased because...well...I'm still not sure why he had his own memories erased. To his phone, the operator on the line named Juiz knows what's happened and sends him to an apartment there in DC... here he finds guns, passports and what-have-you.
    Fast forward, A little more too the point.  Akira is one of the 12 people that Mr. Outside has given a large sum of money to in the hopes that they can "Save Japan".  Akira is Selecao #9 and it's believed that he is the one that caused the Carless Monday attacks and killed/kidnapped 20,000 NEETS.  In fact, he used all these NEETS to evacuate the area that he knew was going to be bombed by another one of the Selecao and then sent them all off to Dubai for their own protection.
     Through the series he meets Saki's friends, the makers of East of Eden and decides to back their project with money, he also runs into the other Selecao here and there while looking for the reason he erased his memories. It appeared that a few of the Selecao have teamed up and were planning another bomb attack, asking Akira to join them didn't quite go as planned...
    The NEETS show back up at the Mall, all 20k of them naked and tan rushing through the mall and wanting to kill Akira.  When he shows back up, he pretends to be the terrorist that is releasing the missiles and has the NEETS get their phones and connect with Eden.  Through this connection, they all write in ways to ward off the missiles and then Juiz takes a look at all the options, decides which are best and then goes from there..
     Akira with the help of the NEETS shoot down all the missiles at the end... the world thinks Akira is a terrorist still and he vanishes off after one final request to Juiz.  Make him the King of Japan.  He leaves his phone with Saki and off he goes..

Eden of the East Group.....

   They were once an recycling group, but thanks to Michon's image recognition program they created the Eden of East program.  At their school it turned into a small, matchmaking site that students could use on their cell phones.
   The group consists of...

Kazuomi Hirasawa, the leader of the group of sorts. It seems they go to him on the final word for just about everything.

Satoshi Osugi, the irritating guy that has a major and rather pathetic crush on Saki. I'm not really sure what he does in the group for Eden itself. Maybe he's just there for Saki?

Mikuru Katsuhara, Michon for short. She's the one that essentially made Eden, an incredibly shy and rather young looking female. She can be a bit blunt though....

O-Nee, the oldest of the group. I think she's just sort of the mother figure for them or something, Michon is normally seen hanging around her the most.


Selecao.....

Number 1 -  Daiji Mononobe
Number 2 - Jintaro Tsuji
Number 10 -  Ryo Yuki
       These three figure out who/what Juiz is and attempt to control/destroy her, Juiz is moved by Selecao 12 before anything too bad can happen.  Ryo is the one who launched the missiles on Careless Monday and this group is responsible for launching the set of missiles at the end of the series as well.
      Mononobe is certainly the brains behind the operation.

Number 4- Yusai Kondo -  An annoying, crooked police detective that steals Akira's phone with the hopes that he could use his money.  Dumbass didn't think about fingerprint recognition and ends up dead.

Number 5 - Hajime Hiura - A doctor that uses his money to create a place for sick elderly people to come to and live out the rest of their lives.  Also uses the money to bribe politicians to make things easier on the elderly in general...

Number 11 - Kuroha Diana Shiratori - The Johnny Hunter.- She's a major CEO by day, by night she's a serial killer. Torturing and killing evil men by chopping off their Johnny's and then using Juiz to clean up the messes.
      At one point in the series the group believe that she may have Osugi.... but she doesn't. It's some dirty rapist asshole. Overall, serial killer or not.. she's still a pretty good woman.

Number 12 - Saizo Ato - Mr. Outside - I can't remember how they figured it out, probably when he moved Juiz... but he's actually Mr. Outside.  AtoSaizo a play on his name.  Not much is made of him in the series itself.


Other...

Yutaka Itazu -  Pantsu - Undies -  A genius hacker who can no longer leave his apartment because his only pair of sweatpants flew out the window. They bring Number 4's phone to him to see if he can hack it... which he does.
      In Episode 9 after finding information on the cell phone, he is "killed" by Mononobe and friend. Hit by a car.... Later it's shown that he was not killed and that he is in the hospital recovering.
     He's the first person that Akira lets in on him being a Selecao, the game and such and the two of them really seem to hit it off.

The End:   It was sort of an end and not, two movies followed after to wrap everything up. The ending of the series was sort of like, the beginning of the Anime itself.  Akira runs off and erases his memories.
       He asks Juiz to make him "King of Japan" and she accepts the request, after that you don't know what happens really... to Saki or the NEETS... You have to watch the movies to find out.
      At least the show was entertaining, that's what I am grading on and all.. It made me laugh from time to time and think WTF at other moments so..yea.. an incomplete ending adds the "Minus" on.

Azumanga Daioh

Episodes:  26

How:  DVD  {Owned}

Grade:    A

Summary: Azumanga Daioh is about high school life through the eyes of six girls with unusual personalities: Chiyo (the 10-year-old genius), Osaka (the resident airhead), Sakaki (the shy one prone to cat bites), Tomo (the loose cannon), Yomi (the short-tempered one) and Kagura (the resident jock).

Thoughts:  I attempted to watch this show years ago and couldn't even get through the first episode, it bored me to tears.  Now, I'm not sure why... maybe my preference has changed and I like more casual and unusually amusing shows.
      Azumanga is of course a slice of life type show and it surrounds just one group of girls and a few teachers within the school, there's nothing all that magical about it {other than Chiyo's father?}and there's no fighting and really no fanservice either.
     It's just, life...for these girls.  An amusing life but still...

Who we have....


Chiyo Mihama- A 10 year old in High School, at least at the start of the show. I suppose by the end she's... 12 or 13.  She's obviously incredibly smart to have skipped from 5th grade all the way up to tenth, which of course is a bit of a running joke in the series. Seeing she's smarter then most the older students and she's just so tiny...
         Her family is also quite rich, though you never actually see her parents in the series {not counting the strange Chiyo's Father floating around.}  It's Chiyo's summer house that they spend their breaks at, including the teachers oddly.
     Her only true disadvantage is her size, making her other unconfident in the sports and physical activity area.
      At the end of the series she's the only one not taking the college entrance exams, deciding to go abroad to America where they are a little more tolerant of such a young person going into Colleges.

Tomo Takino-   The annoying, overly energetic yet lazy academically girl.  She's been best friends with Yomi since grade school and loves to irritate her. If she's on the screen she's usually doing something to cause some sort of ruckus.
    Apparently, she's not a total moron though.  For High School Entrance exams she wanted to get intot he same HS as Yomi and did.  I really think Yomi telling her she couldn't do it was what fueled her to actually do it however....  after being accepted she went back to her Knucklehead Ways.

Ayumu Kasuga/Osaka-  I love this character, she transferred in from Osaka and figuring that she'd act like a normal Osakan, Tomo nicknamed her "Osaka" which really stuck.. Even to the point of her teachers calling her it and it was in the official sheets for the school.
     Seeing as I watched the show with an English Dub, her dub actress gave her a slow, southern type sound which made her quite amusing.   She's a bit dense when it comes to pretty much everything and is a member of the "Bonkuras" or "Knuckleheads".
     Somehow, she did pass an entrance exam and get into a college.

Koyomi Mizuhara-  Yomi for short, she's been friends with Tomo since grade school and is pretty much her exact opposite.  Smart, calm...not really annoying.   She does seem to get a little annoyed that Chiyo scores better grades then her and at the end of the series has to wait the longest to see if she gets into any of her college picks.
       Yomi also has a bit of a body image problem and is constantly dieting...then falling off her diet... Tomo kind of pokes fun at this throughout the show.

Sakaki-  The mature looking one, tall and well endowed she's incredible with athletics {though she's not in any clubs} and apparently not so bad with academics either.  With her attitude rather distant most the time the fact she LOVES cute things is lost on most people.
      She's always trying to pet this stray cat, but it keeps biting her.. she's also absolutely in love with Chiyo's dog Mr Tadakichi.  It's not until near the end of the series when Sakaki finally gets a cat that likes her, an Iriomote cat gets attached to her while on the class trip to Okinawa.
     At the end of the series she decides to go to school to become a Veterinarian and since she's moving out of her parents house she can actually keep some pets.

Kagura-   She joins the main class in the 2nd year, only being shown a little during the 1st.  She seems to have been brought over so that Yukari's class would have a better chance during the Athletic contest during the year.
    She's on the schools swim team, is very athletic and has some sort of one sided rivalry going on with Sakaki.  Who tends to beat her at most everything without even trying.


Minamo Kurosawa/Nyamo- She's the gym teacher and in many ways she's the "Yomi" in the best friend relationship with Yukari {who is the "Tomo"}.  The students really seem to like her and Yukari seems a bit jealous by this.
    In one episode, during the summer beach house events she gets drunk and tells the girls about sex. Most of the girls are quite impressed by this but.. poor little Chiyo may be scared for life.

Yukari Tanizaki-  The girls homeroom and English teacher, she's a bit of a....nutjob. Yep, she's just a freaking lunatic sometimes.  She's best friends with the gym teacher Nyamo and likes to freeload off her.



The End:   The girls all get into college and I'm not really sure what the teachers end up doing, That's pretty much all there is to say about that.  Oh, They also ALL get to go to the amusement park together seeing that Yomi missed the last time due to being ill.

-Other Stuff-

The only male that really shows up in the series is Kimura, an eccentric teacher that is a bit of a pervert. Always trying to peek at the girls in the swimsuits or any other revealing outfit.  He also has some strange hangup on Kaorin.

Kaori-  Called Kaorin by her friends and the perv Kimura, she has a very strange infatuation with Sakaki. It's although she's in love with her, but Sakaki doesn't even notice.

Chiyo's Father- Although he's never seen in the series, Sakaki had a dream that he was an odd looking flying cat alien.

Chiyo's Hair-  Osaka has many dreams about Chiyo's pigtails and that they have the power to make people fly. Also, that they are controlling Chiyo and if you take them off she dies.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU

Episodes:   13

How:  CrunchyRoll
Grade:   A


Summary: {From MAL} This romantic comedy revolves around an antisocial high school student named Hikigaya Hachiman with a distorted view on life and no friends or girlfriend. When he see his classmates talking excitedly about living their adolescent lives, he mutters: "They're a bunch of liars." When he is asked about his future dreams, he responds: "Not working." A teacher gets Hachiman to join the 'Volunteer Service' club, which happens to have the school's prettiest girl: Yukinoshita Yukino. 

Opening Song:  Yukitoki  -  Skipped it most the time, Only listened to it the first episode. It was a bit "meh".
Ending Song:   Hello Alone - Better then the opening, but still nothing to listen to over and over.


Thoughts:  This was different, it wasn't a mushy school romance or a fanservice laden one which I had feared. It was... real. I actually really enjoyed the way Hachiman looked at everything, in ways I wish I had looked at things like him while in High School.



Hachiman Hikigaya- The main character, Basically. He's a pessimistic {realistic?}, friendly, 16 year old. On the first day of High School he was hit by a car while trying to save a dog, this lead to a three week stay in the hospital and time out of school.  Time that most students were making friends... He's sort of like the "new kid" without actually being the new kid.
      His future adviser sticks him in the Service Club, A club that's made to help other students with whatever problems they may have. This little action is to apparently help Hachiman see things in a different way.
        Most of the show he's getting people angry with him for saying truthful yet... hurtful things. Feeling that he's not important so may as well get them mad at him then others. To me this is rather selfless and really in a strange way he's a pretty good guy.
       By the end of the show he actually has some friends, maybe even a couple romantic choices. He's either unaware of this or is just ignoring it though.


Yukino Yukinoshita-  The leader and at one point sole member of the Service Club, an excellent student with less then excellent people skills.  She's the scary, smart, rich and still popular girl of the story really.  Her family is fairly well ranked in Japan with her father being a member of the "Diet" or part of Japan's parliament.
        Of course, every overly confident character has some sort of weakness. This is her sister, she's apparently the "perfect" one and Yukino lives in her shadow. Even at school they compare her to her sister and to her dismay her sister comes to help with the Cultural Festival.
       It's a good ways through the series when it's discovered that it was her car that hit Hachiman on the first day of school. She never makes mention of it, but when the driver comes to pick her up Hachiman recognizes the car.

Yui Yuigahama- Hachiman's classmate, She's a cheerful, bouncy girl that can be rather naive. She's the first client of the service club after Hachiman joins, She wants to bake cookies for a certain someone and isn't really that good at baking.
      Hachiman points out that no matter the condition of the cookies, a guy that would be worth it/like her would be happy with them.  This sort of blows up in his face when she bakes him cookies and he... eats them.
      After her request is fulfilled with the Service club she starts to hang out there more, Calling Hachiman "Hikki" and she even takes part in club activities.Turns out she's the owner of the dog that Hachiman rescued from the car. When Hachiman first finds this out he takes her being nice to him as just guilt, He pushes her away even.


Saika Totsuka- This guy is adorable, he's often mistaken as a girl and even Hachiman thinks he's adorable.
He's called "The Prince" by female students in his class and comes to the Service club to get help with his tennis skills.
     During the Cultural Festival he's cast as the feminine role in a shounen ai type play written by one of the female students.  So Adorable.

Shizuka Hiratsuka-  Hachiman's language teacher and counselor, She's the one who forces Hachiman to join the service club in the hopes that it'd help him have a new outlook on life.  Of course she seems a bit more damaged then he does in ways, having some major issued about the fact she's single at her age.
           Whatever it may be.

Hayato Hayama -  Yukino's friend from childhood, he's the pretty, all around loved guy of the class. Just the opposite of Hachiman really. Most people worship this guy, though something in the past caused some sort of wedge between he and Yukino that he has yet to be able to fix.
      Not that it matters,  He's nice but it just feels like a fake nice almost. Maybe he just wants to be liked too much...

Yumiko Miura-  She's the bitch, she really doesn't play a huge role in the show after a few episodes where she's going head-to-head with Yui.  She's the rich, snobby, pretty girl in Hayato's group.

Minami Sagami-   At least Yumiko seems to know she's a bitch, Sagami is a hidden bitch. She's the nucleus of the second most popular clique in the school. She seems jealous of Yui somehow, maybe because she made it into the most popular group and left her behind?
    During the end arc she becomes the event organizer for the cultural festival, which she has no business doing. In the form of hiring the Service club she really just pawns all the work off on them and the rest of the students and wants to take all the credit.
     At the festival however she has a bit of a meltdown on stage, stage fright maybe and ends up running off during the closing ceremonies. Hachiman pulls one of his cruel truths out of his brain to get everyone's disdain pointed towards him so she could become the victim and have everyone's support after she's the one that was a horrible person and...yea.. She's an awful character.

I don't remember her name..  ^^;

The End:  13 Episodes isn't enough.  It ended in a nice way though, Leaving plenty of room for hopefully a second season sometime in the future. Hachiman has grown in some ways and remained the same in others, He's no longer the friendless outcast that he started out as, but he doesn't completely seem to realize this.
      Maybe he does, but doesn't accept it...
As the series was getting closer to the end I was really wondering if there would be some sort of obvious decision of whether he would get with Yui or Yukino.  Though, It wasn't that type of show. It's like he really has more "moments" with Saika then the two girls.
        Which wasn't bad.
Anyways, Hachiman may come across rather blunt and cruel though it actually gets the job done in most cases. Of course this ends up hurting him in the end and a few of the characters actually see this {Including Hayato}.



Favorite Character:  Saika;  Adorable, Friendly, Adorable, Accepting, Naive, Adorable...Did I say Adorable?  I love these types of characters.

Least Favorite Character:  Sagami;  I thought the blonde chick was a bitch from the start but at least she doesn't hide it. Sagami was just an evil little dip-shit who should have been pushed off the rooftop in the final episode.

Random -  Hachiman's sister is something else, she needs to be in more episodes really.  She's friendly, energetic and actually seems to like her older brother. Even though she knows he's a bit strange... She seems to get along well with Yui and Yukino too.

Squid Girl

Episodes:   12
           
How:  Netflix Stream
       
Grade:   A
         

Summary:  {From MAL} Foolish land-born air breathers! Behold the terror from the depths, the tentacled conqueror of humanity: Squid Girl! With your pollution and stuff you really deserve it, so prepare for menacing, inky doom! 

Squid Girl has come from the depths of the sea to conquer humanity for its pollution of the ocean. Within moments of arriving on the surface world, our easily distracted, little invertebrate is promptly bullied into working for the Aizawa sisters as a waitress, supplying their restaurant with squid ink. If poor Squid Girl can't handle two pushy Japanese girls, how will she ever subjugate the human race? 



Opening Song:  Shinryaku no Susume - Meh, I really didn't like this song much at all. Skipped it almost every time.
Ending Song:  Metamarism by Kanae Ito - This wasn't so bad, slow... nice music. Good Song.


Thoughts:  Attempted to watch this show on CrunchyRoll before but, It just didn't do anything for me at the time.  Then Netflix gets it, It's Dubbed, I thought....maybe.   So there it went.
      Every episode is like two little episodes, Random nonsense really with some running themes. The way Squid Girl speaks got on my nerves at first but as it grew on me I found it quite amusing.  It's a relaxing show, one to watch whenever you just want to sit back and chill.
      Too bad Media Blasters won't be dubbing the second season.


Who we have....


Squid Girl -  Always snarfing shrimp, she spits ink, she glows, she has tentacles for hair, she's a math genius and she's here to take over the world! Well, At least that was the plan. From the sea she came only to run into difficulties as soon as she entered the upper world.
     The Lemon, A beach house ran by the Aizawa family and her first target for domination. Hoping to make the house her headquarters she quickly finds out that there are frightening things on dry land.  Chizuru.
After accidentally smashing a hole in the Lemons wall she is forced to work there as a waitress to pay off the repair bill.
     As the story progresses she's really seen more as entertainment than a threat, At least to most people. Day by day she learns more about the upper world through curious misadventures and actually makes "friends" with those she's trying to conquer.. sort of.  She's also quite afraid of the blow up killer whales, Seeing that the real things try to eat her in the ocean.

Eiko Aizawa -  Squid Girls babysitter, Although she'd probably never admit she cares deeply for the blue tentacled girl. Always the one bringing the others down to earth so to speak she is constantly getting irritated by Squid Girls antics.

Chizuru Aizawa -  The Older Aizawa sibling, She's normally quiet and polite but you do not want to get her angry.  Squid Girl is terrified of Chizuru due to the fact that she's a knife wielding maniac... Basically.  Throughout the series she goes into psycho mode just a few times but that's all that's needed to keep most people in check when she's around.

Takeru Aizawa -  Chizuru and Eiko's younger brother, He and his friends really tend to worship Squid Girl and will go out of their way to make her happy.   He's like her playmate.

Sanae Nagatsuki - Eiko's friend and Squid Girls stalker.. or should I say wishful lover.  At any given opportunity she is attempting to glomp on Squid Girl, Normally to be flung away by her tentacles.  This tends to attract her even more crazy, masochistic stalker girl.

Alex -  Sanae's Dog, He really dislikes Squid Girl since Sanae is so infatuated with her. Even after the two of them have a small adventure together and saved each other from a giant, ferocious dog... He still hates her.

Running Themes and Odd Things...

- Squid Girl can spit ink, like a squid. Chizuru uses this ink on the pastas at the Lemon, Which grosses Eiko out and all but apparently it's quite tasty.
- There's a Rival Beach house{Southern Winds} with an owner that's just insane. Well, Maybe not insane but he has his extremely shy daughter wear unusual gets up that tend to have giant Squid Girl like heads.
- Cindy Campbell, An American Alien Hunter.  She's in Japan with three of her cohorts looking for Aliens and she thinks Squid Girl is actually one.. A Squidian.
- Cindy's cohorts are, Harris, Clark and Martin.  They are extremely smart {sort of} MIT Graduates that want to run tests on Squid Girl.
- Someone is actually afraid of Squid Girl and believes her invasion is an actual threat, That someone? Nagisa Saitou.  She's a surfer that takes a job at the Lemon, Squid Girl loves her since she's the only one that's scared of her.
-  Unrequitted, Goro. He's a lifeguard at the beach and claims to be the protector of the sea!  He has a huge crush on Chizuru of course he can't bring himself to tell her this.  Also, Squid Girl misinterprets his protector status at first and thinks he's like her...


The End:  Time on land apparently has taken it's toll on Squid Girl, No longer does she really need her squid abilities and her body starts to evolve or maybe devolve. With her tentacles, ink and everything else not working it's decided that she should go back to the sea.
     While she's gone everyone is sad, lonely, bored and constantly looking out to sea for Squid Girl. She seemed to have been gone for the Fall/Winter seasons and then... She comes back!  Her abilities however have not.
     Now with short hair, she works at the Lemon as any normal human would. Using her hands for everything which is rather inconvenient seeing that she use to use her tentacles to carry stuff.  It's not until Eiko nearly drowns that her abilities come back to save her.. Yea.. That was a little cliched.


Favorite Character{s}- Too hard to choose, Pretty much loved them all.

Favorite Episode-  Episode 3; They are all quite good but the combination of Squid Girl glowing in the cemetery, the killer whale floats and Nagisa showing up was just the best.


TidBit; In the last episode while Squid Girl is on the beach alone, A new girl shows up. This girl tells Squid Girl she isn't alone up there with the humans and not all the humans were bad. To me she sort of looked like a Jellyfish but.. after further poking around it turns out she's probably an Octopus Kozue  Tanabe.

Ghost Hunt

Episodes:  25

How:  DVD

Rating:  5 out of 5

Summary:  While at school, Taniyama Mai and her friends like to exchange ghost stories. Apparently, there is an abandoned school building on their campus that is the center of many ghost stories. During the story, they are interrupted by a mysterious male figure. The person turns out to be Shibuya Kazuya, a 17 year old who is president of the Shibuya Psychic Research Company. He was called by the principal to investigate the stories surrounding the abandoned school building.

The next day, on the way to school, Mai passes the school building in question. While examining a strange camera she spotted inside, she gets surprised by Kazuya's assistant. Unknowingly interfering with the investigation, Mai breaks the camera and Kazuya's assistant gets injured.

Kazuya forcefully hires Mai in order to pay for the camera and replace his injured assistant. From that point on, Mai begins to learn about the paranormal world and the profession of ghost hunting.


Thoughts:  I've been in a Ghosty type mood lately, With Ghost Hunt I watched it all the way through during it's initial run. This time, With Netflix I've been watching the Dub.  Not too bad.
     The show is basically about a group of people with a certain skill set that team up and help others who are having ghost issues.  I like these type of shows, A paranormal mystery with some magic, comedy and a hint of young crushes thrown in there. No fan service either.

Who we have....

Mai Taniyama -  A 16 year old Orphan, You don't find out about her living situation till late in the series and really it plays no part in the show itself.  She has a crush on Naru or maybe it's Dream Naru she has a crush on, I am not entirely sure.
       She is not completely useless on the power side, It turns out that she has ESP abilities ranging from post cognitive dreams to astral projection. She's really rusty with these abilities but they seem to grow over time, To defend herself Monk and Ayako teach her some defensive spells.
     Sometimes during cases, When she sleeps or is knocked out Mai sees "Naru" and talks to him. He tells or shows her things that are going on and just helps her in general.

Kazuya Shibuya - Naru, The Boss. 17 years old, He's a paranormal researcher of great intelligence.  He certainly knows he's intelligent too, His narcissism gains him the nickname "Naru" from Mai.
       For most of the series it appears that Naru has no paranormal powers what-so-ever, Until the final episodes where he goes Super Saiyan and blasts a little shrine that no one else could destroy. Turns out he's an incredibly powerful Psychokinetic whose powers take a huge toll on his body when used.  Lin has taught him techniques to control these powers and gets rather angry when he uses them.

Lin Koujo -  Quite, Cold, Kinda Scary. He's Naru's assistant, It seems he's quite the powerful Onmyoji and possesses quite a number of skills {exorcisms,summoning, familiars}. Though it's never said why {in the anime}, He's quite protective of Naru.
      Later in the series, He admits that he does not like Japanese people because of their historical problems with China.  This upsets Mai since, She has always felt that Lin had a disliking for her. She tells him pretty much that he should dislike her for things that she has done, not simply because she is Japanese. He laughs at this and says someone else said the exact same thing to him... but doesn't say who it was.

Masako Hara - The annoying girl, I mean....  The 16 year old Medium. She can sense ghosts and such but, Other then that she's pretty useless.  The girly girl who has a crush on Naru and that you just wanna slap for some reason.
     Multiple times she's shown that she's jealous of Mai's closeness to Naru.  Meh, I don't like this one.

John Brown -  A 19 year old, blond haired, Catholic Priest from Australia, The Dub gave him an Australian accent though I can't say if it's a good one or not.  He's cheerful and quite helpful through the series, Doing exorcisms when needed and such..

Ayako Matsuzaki -  A 23 year old Shinto priestess, Her parents are wealthy doctors that own a local hospital. When she was younger, she'd talk to a large tree's spirit who taught her basically everything she knows. Having learned this way, Her powers are really determinant on how many trees there are around and she can't use the same group of tree's powers more then once in a six month period.
      She has a ton of self confidence throughout the series, She taught Mai a defense sutra and is sort of a motherly figure.  It wasn't till the final mystery that her true powers were really shown.

Houshou Takigawa -  "Monk"  A 25 year old, Sort of Buddhist Monk.  He left his position at Mt. Koya because they did not allow CDs, His day job is that of a Bass player in a popular band.
     He's one of the more useful people in the group, Acting as "boss" when Naru is absent and he also taught Mai some Buddhist Warding spells.  He's the "Fun" one of the group, cracking jokes and he really does play the big brother role in many of the episodes.



Favorite Character{s}:   Monk -  He wasn't useless, He was protective and caring with Mai. He was like a wonderful big brother in any other Anime.
                                    John Brown - I'm not sure if I got the same feel for him in the subbed version but, His accent in the dub made him quite the lovable character. He as positive and fun.... when on screen.

Least Favorite Character{s}:  Masako - I do not like you, You're kinda useless and way too girly. Your
crush on Naru needs to be squished and.... you're just bitchy in a quiet way.

Claymore

Episodes:   26

How:  Netflix Stream {dub}

Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary: {From MAL} In this world, humans coexist with demonic predators called Yoma. These demonic beasts feast on human innards and can blend into human society by taking on human appearance. As a counter force, a mysterious organization created half-human, half-Yoma warriors known as the "Silver Eyed Witches" or "Claymores", after the huge claymore swords they carry. They are detested by humanity however necessary.

The story begins with a young boy, Raki, who has lost everything in a Yoma attack, and the Claymore, Clare, who is generally detested by society. Throughout the series, Clare and Raki show their deeper qualities, powers and Clare's never ending devotion to the goal she swore to fulfill in her childhood.

Thoughts:  Few shows keep my interest so much that I watch 26 episode in two nights, Even fewer when it comes to dubbed shows. I'm sure the Japanese voices would probably have been better but Netflix isn't kind enough to give one an option.



Who we have....

Many Claymores who I won't get into.....

Raki:  I hate you, It's nice that you can calm Clare and prevent her from "awakening" but you're a moronic, whiny little kid.  You keep trying to attack Yoma or stalk after Clare while she's going on a mission... Why not just keep to your role as her cook.  Really.....I wish Priscilla had eaten you.

Clare: At first episode, She was just another "Claymore" sent to a town to rid it of a Yoma.  {Then Raki stalkers her and stuff} It wasn't till episode five that more of her backstory was given... As a child she was semi-rescued from a Yoma by Teresa {The Number One Ranked Claymore of her time}
        Much like Raki but less annoying she followed Teresa out of town and kept on following her even after Teresa kicked and yelled at her. Eventually Teresa softens to Clare and takes her in...  Points, Teresa ends up killing humans to protect Clare and is "put to death" for her actions.
        Being the #1 Claymore it takes an Awakened #2 to finally kill her, Priscilla. Here is Clares motive to become a Claymore, Instead of taking the flesh of a Yoma into her she takes Teresas into her.
       Anyways, For most the series she's doing her job and attempting to become strong enough to take revenge on Priscilla for killing Teresa.  Does she do it?

The End:   No, Raki gets in the way again. Many,Many battles and no closure at the end...  I wouldn't say the ending was bad.  It couldn't be a full ending since the Manga is still not finished and this show came out in 2007.  It'd be nice if it got a second season but, From what I've read about the Manga the plot gets more and more convoluted...


Favorite Character{s}: Teresa, Episode 8 was the biggest WTF moment I have had in a while. Just as she was about to kill Priscilla, Priscilla awakend and just... Lopped her head off.  >_>  I paused the episode and just stared at the screen a few seconds, Then brought it back a few frames and watched it again.

Least Favorite Character{s}:  Raki,  I hate you.