Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

Episodes:          13

Grade:         B

How:    Amazon



Summary:        Childhood friends Arumi and Sasshi are residents of the Abenobashi commercial district in Abeno-ku, Osaka. After an accident, they find themselves transported to an alternate sword and sorcery world. Their attempt to get back to reality finds them traversing a series of nonsensical worlds built on science fiction, war, fantasy, dating sim games and American movies. Each alternate Abenobashi is a surreal manifestation of Sasshi's otaku interests, populated by analogs of the protagonist's relatives and acquaintances and a blue-haired stranger known as Eutus.  




Thoughts:   This was a fun romp around many, many worlds.  I'll admit I was a little hesitant at first, but wow..... It turned out fairly good.  Of course the show can be quite extreme at times, but never really going overboard.
       Mind you, I watched it Dubbed... The accents probably made the show that much more amusing. Not really being able to tell accents in Japanese, something may have been lost and I could have had a lessor opinion of the show.
        I'll be honest, the ending could have been better in ways. It's kind of confusing. Sasshi got everything he wanted and pretty much pushed aside how Arumi felt on certain things.

Who we have...

Satoshi {Sasshi} Imamiya- A geeky, hyper 12 year old. He's lived in Abenobashi his entire life and is now met with a huge problem, it's be redeveloped.  Everyone, including his best friend and her family are moving elsewhere.  With this and another unfortunant event dealing with Arumi's grandfather.. something is triggered in Sasshi and that something sends he and Arumi to strange worlds based on his likes.
        He's young, he doesn't want to face the reality at hand since to him the change sucks so much, Arumi being a bit more mature than he had seemingly accepted the move and such and hadn't actually found out about her grandfathers death. Sasshi wanted to save her from that, from everything.
       It turns out that Sasshi is the illigitmate grandson of Abe no Seimei, his powers came through due to his desire to not face reality. Abe no Seimei is the one who initially built Abenobashi and they end up meeting him during their jumps through the worlds, although he's going by Eutus now.
   

Arumi Asahina -   Sasshi's best friend, she seems to be a little older than Sasshi and or far more mature than him. She's kind of just along for the ride, even though she keeps yelling as Sasshi for not wanting to go back home. She never does find out exactly why Sasshi doesn't want to go back....

Eutus & MuneMune -   Eutus is apparently Abe no Seimei, he bobs around the worlds and such and is the one that helps Sasshi change reality.   MuneMune is a well endowed, hyper, insane woman who is always seaching for Eutus.
           Turns out, MuneMune is Satoshi's grandmother in ways, she was in love with Abe no Seimei before she ended up with Sasshi's grandpa.  Apparently Seimei and MuneMune met when they were younger, Sasshi's grandfather was in love with MuneMune and she was obssesed with Seimei. Lon story short, she gets pregnant, Seimei goes away and...for some reason they end up thinking it's Sasshi's grandfathers child.  I really don't remember the entire story here it felt a bit out of place.












The End:  After running through many fun and unusual worlds, Sasshi and Arumi finally find themselves back home. The home is a bit different now, due to Sasshi's new found powers.
      He made it where Arumi would no long be leaving, Abenobashi is no longer being redeveloped and Arumi's grandfather doesn't die falling from the rood of their restaraunt. Another cute little quirk is it looks like MuneMune and Abe have been "reborn" and are now together.
    Happy ending basically.  Of course it's also very unrealistic, Sasshi can't just keep using his Onmyouji powers to change things he doesn't want to face.  He's also sort of holding Sasshi back, she was read for her move and now... she'll be stuck there with him for however long it lasts.  Oh well. It was a fun.

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.

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.

Episodes:   12

How:   Amazon

Grade:   C


Summary:    Yuuta Togashi suffered from chuunibyou while he was in middle school. When he graduated, he put that dark history behind him and forgot about it... or he was supposed to. High school was smooth sailing and full of enjoyment—until the unavoidable, sad event occurs. The event that locks Yuuta into a contract with Rikka Takanashi and disrupts his desperately ordinary life.



Thoughts:  This whole show is about a group of teenagers playing make believe, some by choice and others have just been dragged into it.  It has it's boring moments, it's dumb moments and it's good moments which are mostly near the end.
        I almost didn't get past the first three episodes, but there was some part of me that really wanted to see what all the hype was about so I kept on...and on...and on... It was episode 7 when the show actually started to become less of a chore to watch.  When the group goes to Rikka's grandparents house and everything is really "revealed".
        Of course it's another, her father died and she is refusing to accept this type of story. Trying to stay in her little fantasy land so that she doesn't have to face the fact that her dad is truly dead.  Eventually with Yuuta's help she finally accepts reality and attempts to become a "normal" teenager, but really... that Rikka is more boring than the first half of the show was.
        In the end she returns to her delusional thinking, but this time in a little healthier of manner. This time it's not to run and hide from the real world,but to just have fun with her friends.

Who we have....


Yuuta Togashi-  Not really an original character, as with most main males in these types of show he's sort of just dragged along for the ride by his eventual love interest Rikka.  He'd actually be more interesting if he kept himself in the "Dark Flame Master" mode.


Rikka Takanashi- She's the nucleus of the show, she's the thing that brings all the rest of the crazies together.  There's really nothing special about her in terms of main characters, bad stuff happened to her in the past and now she's in denial.  Sure, her method of denial is a bit unusual... making up her own fantasy world and being in a constant state of Role Play; but in the end she's just another female that accepts her life and slowly finds love.


Makoto Isshiki-   Yuuta's best friend, the main male needs a dumb male to be his friend. Maybe to make him look better, I don't know. He's always getting caught by the girls doing things he ought not. Guess he's sort of comic relief...  He develops a crush on Kumin after joining Rikka's club fairly late in the game.



Sanae Dekomori-   The hyper girl, she's Rikka's friend and "Servant" she will always serve her or at least take her place.   She's younger then the rest of the group, still in middle school. Incredibly smart for being a Chunibyo though, she's top of her class.  She might just be the most insane of the party, using her pigtails for weapons which she has dubbed "Mjolnir".   Thor anyone? Heh.







Shinka Nibutani-  The hot girl trying to hide her past. In middle school Shinka, like Yuuta had an "Alter Ego" of sorts.  She was  "Forest Summer", and had a blog online.. a blog that Dekomori followed and even printed out blurbs from it and sort of made it into a tome.
       When Shinka finds out that Dekomori has her terrible past in print she decides to join the Club to hopefully destroy it once and for all.  Dekomori of course doesn't believe she Shinka is really Forest Summer and the two of them are almost constantly fighting....but not in public.
       Shinka's personality is completely different to the rest of the school, she quiet, polite and nice. The popular girl.













Kumin Tsuyuri-  Granted, she's sort of the boring character, but I really liked Kumin. Being a year or two ahead of the rest of the group she's the calm, sweet, light girl.  At first she was attempting to form a Club for Sleeping, the thing she likes to do the most. This of course didn't work to well so she was recruited by Rikka into the Far Eastern Magic Society.
        She really enjoys touching Makoto's bald head, who doesn't seem to mind..

Tooka Takanashi-   Rikka's sister, she's the "Priestess of the Deep Horizon".  Rikka believes her to be her enemy and the two of them "fight" quite often.  A ladle is Tooka's weapon and she's quite good at this "fighting" thing.
           Anyways, in the real world aspect Rikka lives with her sister who tends to be at work a lot as a cook. Tooka also likes to push Yuuta into helping Rikka with stuff.... she may have been the first to notice the two of thems relationship growing past more than friends.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai ~ Haganai.

Episodes:   12

How:   Streaming.

Grade:    B-

Summary:  {From MAL} Hasegawa Kodaka has transferred schools, and he's having a hard time making friends. It doesn't help that his blond hair tends to make people think he's a delinquent. One day, he runs into his bad-tempered solitary classmate Yozora while she's talking animatedly to her imaginary friend Tomo. Realizing that neither of them have any actual friends, they decide that the best way to alter this situation is to form a club and start recruiting. 

That is how "Rinjinbu", The Neighbours' Club, was formed, a club specifically designed for people who don't have very many friends. As other lonely classmates slowly join their little club, they'll try to learn how to build friendships through cooking together, playing games, and other group activities. But will this group of relationship-challenged misfits really be able to get along? 



How it is.....


    So, it's a show about a bunch of outcasts and awkwards coming together to make friends. The entire time they don't seem to realize that the group has made friends, each other.   They go out for karaoke, they fight, they make up, they go swimming and of course they flirt with their lone normal male member.
       It's a harem show.  Other than Yukimura and Sena's random, no name admirers, Kodaka is the only male in the entire show. All the girls {even his sister} drool and fight over him during most of the series.
       There's also a long lost childhood friend spin thrown into the mix, of course it was pretty obvious that the little boy from Kodaka's past was actually a girl....  Yozora.  It wasn't until the end of episode 11 that Kodaka makes the connection, after Yozora cuts her hair due tot he fireworks incident at the festival.  He puts it together....  she had all ready put it together, the first time she saw him and his scary face.
   

Characters...

 
   Just so when I get around to watching Season 2, I can come to this and remember things easier...


Kodaka Hasegawa;  "Pudding Head" He has a scary face and strange colored hair, this makes it very difficult to make friends in his new school and is part of the reason he joins the Neighbour's Club {the other being Yozora gives him no choice}.
            When he was much younger he use to live in the area and had a friend named Sora, some things happened and he had to move away before he could tell Sora he was leaving.  Yozora turns out to be "Sora", he seems to like Sena though...  It's a triangle!  Sort of.

Yozora Mikazuki;  Lets face it, she's mean. It's no wonder she has no friends, she's always bullying other kids and not many people could put up with that.  She and Sena have "wars" of sort that Yozora is cruel, Sena trys to stick up for herself but, just ends up crying in the end.
      The only people that seem immune to her are Rika {she's a perv} and Kobato {who she really hasn't picked on}.

Sena Kashiwazaki:  The blond with the huge breasts, extremely popular with the males in the school she still has a lot of trouble making friends.  Guys just want to do her and girls hate her because she's so pretty.
       She's the first member of the club after it's creation, Yozora didn't want her in the club but she was persistant and ended up in it anyways.
       Sena's father is the headmaster of the school, he also seems to know Kodaka's father and is the reason he was accepted into the school. She brings Kodaka home to meet her father so that he may thank him for helping him....  In the process it seems her father sort of likes Kodaka and I get the feel he wants him with his daughter.

Kobato Hasegawa:  Kodaka's younger sister, she's an Otaku of sorts... she dresses up as a character from the Anime Full Metal Necromancer and tends to be in Cosplay mode at all times.  She has a bit of a bro-con as well.... getting extremely jealous of his relationship with Maria.
       Even though she's in Middle School she joins the "Neighbors Club".

Yukimura Kusunoki;  The other male, sort of.... He comes to the club because he admires Kodaka's manlieness and wishes to learn from him.  For some reason {Yozora} he's always dressed in girls clothing....
       

Rika Shigume:   A genious basically... she spends her days inventing things instead of going to class and the school is just fine with that.   She's also quite the pervert, throwing sexual things out there at any given opportunity.
      She's a fujoshi, fantasizing about Yukimura and Kodaka quite frequently.... or in between her making sexual advances on pretty much everyone in the club.
       

Maria Takayama;  She's a rude. kind of annoying 10 year old that lives in junk food until Kodaka comes along.
        Somehow she's a nun and "teacher" at the school.  Yozora tricks....bully's her into becoming the supervisor for the Neighbor's Club.   Being just 10 years old at least she's not trying to date Kodaka, it's more of a big brother relationship that really gets Kobato upset when she finds out about her.
     

Knights of Ramune

Episodes:    6

How:    Netflix {Rental}

Grade:   D-


Summary:   {From MAL} To save the galaxy from impending doom, Cacao and Parfait are sent on a mission through time and space to retrieve the Fourth Warrior, Lamunes.

Unfortunately, Cacao and Parfait discover Lamunes at the helm of the marauding Giga Genos invasion fleet. World by world, Lamunes is determined to bring the entire galaxy under his tyrannical heel. With the help of a plicky orphan, it's up to Cacao and Parfait to stop Lamunes from taking over the world. 



How it is.....


      This show was bad, really, really bad.  The only thing saving it from an F grade is the fact that I've always been strangely addicted to the opening song. This wasn't the first time I watched this, but I must have blocked it from my mind from back when I was a teenager....  it is really THAT bad.
      Apparently the actual name for this part of the show, which is an OVA Series is VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fresh.  Yea, that doesn't sound stupid at all.  Meh.
     I'll be honest, this show completely and utterly confused me.  I won't even try to go into the show, there was basically nothing to explain anything besides the fact the two chicks who were naked quite a bit were virgin preistess for some psychopath that was trolling around the universe in a spaceship doing bad shit.  Oh, there was an insane robot woman that helped the crazy man as well...
   There was also some random orphan, captive, something or other that Parfait and Cocao picked up named Lemon that ended up being Lamune too or something... it was all screwed up and really the show was just made for Fanservice.
    Oh!  This was also one of the few shows that the voice actors really sucked for both... English and Japanese, it was as though they weren't even trying.  These OVAs should have never been released!

    Apparently there is a TV Show for this series as well, was made long,long before this piece of crap OVA. It was never licensed and really, I doubt I could find it... but if I feel bored sometimes maybe I will go poking around for it.

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.

Ninja Cadets

Episodes:   2

How:  Netflix Rental

Grade:   C-


Summary:   {MAL}During Japan's feudal era, there was a war between two ninja clans: the Byakuro and the Kabusu. One night, the Kabusu staged a fierce attack on the Byakuro castle in hopes of kidnapping the clan's infant princess. Their mission was foiled when a loyal ninja of the Byakuro flees the attack with the princess and disappears, eventually raising her to be a ninja. Several years later, six ninja trainees are given a mission to infiltrate the Kabusu-occupied Byakuro castle and retrieve a sacred scroll to complete their training. But their skills are put to the test when they encounter three members of the Kabusu, who use dark sorcery in an attempt to once again capture the princess - who happens to be one of the trainees. 


How it is.......

    The only reason this show gets a C is, I wish there were more episodes. It's REALLY incomplete and left me with too many questions...
    Really, above states it all... the six students going on their first mission get attacked by members of the Kabusu clan who are still going after the Princess.  They aren't entirely sure which girl in the princess, only going by the fact she has a scar on her shoulder or was it her back? I don't entirely remember.
    Anyways, the characters were pretty much...cliches.  Matsuri, is the hot bodied, fighter chick who is afraid of frogs: Hayashi, the quiet guy who gets bossed around by Matsuri and is talented in his own right: Pochi, the relatively useful yet young guy who hangs around Sakura: Sakura, the sword wielding, main character type girl: Kaoru, the dependable, older looking male of the bunch who is supposed to be the protecting the princess at all costs and Yume, the relatively useless, quiet girl who seems to be a better cook then anything.
    Nothing new there.

    The bad guys believe Sakura is the princess and with her use of the scrolls that they were going to get at the Byakuro Castle, who knows.. she just might be.  Yume and Kaoru are made into slaves by the main female Kabusu ninja {her name escapes me}, using some sort of spell to force the two to fight the other four and help them capture Sakura.  Which fails.
     Kaoru is not actually under the spell of course, just faking it to stay close to Yume who he seems to think is the Princess.  Uhg, I am not really sure which one is the Princess.  Sakura or Yume are both pretty obvious, but it would be a real shocker if it were Matsuri...Nah.
     The end is just the four students dragging themselves out of the rubble of what was once the Byakuro castle.  Yume, Kaoru and the bad guys are all gone and......
      Nice Start.
      Too bad there's not more.

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.

Princess Jellyfish

Episodes:   11

How:   Netflix {Stream}

Grade:   B+

Summary: {From MAL}Amamizukan is an apartment complex where no boys are allowed. Kurashita Tsukimi, a girl who adores jellyfish, lives there happily with her friends who all have nerdy obsessions of their own. Their peaceful lives gradually start to change when a beautiful woman helps Tsukimi out of a pinch.


Thoughts:  This was another one of those shows that Netflix has just been randomly adding lately, it was sort of a bust with Mermaid and Okami so I really wasn't expecting much from this show.  Surprisingly enough, I was hooked from the get go...
    In a way I guess it's pretty cliched, a bunch of unusual women living in an apartment complex together where no men are allowed.  Something happens and they are in danger of loosing their building/home so they band together with an outsider to save their building.
    This outside just happens to be a "stylish", a beautiful person that makes the women turn to stone where they stand under normal circumstances. What's worse, it's a male.... they don't know this of course they believe him to be a woman since he's always dressed in drag around them.
     Other then the other main character, Tsukimi; they are oblivious to the fact that he's a guy..  Even after his fake boobs fall off they just believe him to be a flat chested girl.  Heh.

Who we have.....

Main Characters.


Kuranosuke Koibuchi-  The beautiful woman {man in drag} that comes to Tsukimi's rescue or should I say Clara the Jellyfish's rescue one night.  He comes a long just at the right time to buy the Spotted Jellyfish that's on deaths door due to an uneducated pet shop worker,  curious about Tsukimi he/she follows her home and even stays the night.
       It's the next morning that it's revealed that she is actually a male, dressed in drag and this causes quite a stir in the apartment complex where Tsukimi lives. Barely getting him out of there without the other women realizing there's a man in the building.
     Finding Tsukimi different then what he's use to in a female he comes back to befriend the bunch, at first even in his stylish drag the women are quite shocked by him and even turn to stone.  Little by little he grows on them under the guise of Kurako and soon even Tsukimi is comfortable around him, while in drag.
       Eventually  he even gets her to allow him to give her a make over, which she cleans up rather well.. so well that his older brother sees and basically falls in love with the made over Tsukimi.
      Kuranosuke is actually the youngest son of a rich, politically powered family.  His father had an affair with Kuranosuke's mother and she ended up dropping him off at his place and never returning for one reason or another.   Kuranosuke is always looking for a phone number or address to where he can find/see his mother and her dresses... all her dresses.
     This never happens in the series, but he does nudge all the women of Amar out of their comfort zone in giving them make overs to help people take them more seriously while fighting for their building.  Which is being eyed for demolition to be turned into a ritzy hotel.

Tsukimi Kurachita-  An 18 year old Otaku who moved to Tokyo to chase her dream to be an illustrator, seems people had told her that Tokyo would eat her up since the people there are so unlike those from her hometown.  Not to mention her fear of stylish people that has her frozen whenever they are around...
     Due to her late mother, she has quite the infatuation with Jellyfish. The two of them would go to see Jellyfish Exhibits when she was just a child and that has stayed with her into adulthood. To an Extreme.
     Jellyfish, that is how she meet Kuranosuke.. attempting to save a Spotted Jelly that's in a pet store tank with a hazardous Jelly.  While trying to tell the pet store worker of the problem with the two Jellys she can't quite convey her message.  Kuranosuke shows up and buys the Jelly for her and there we go...
      She and Kuranosuke have an odd relationship, she's okay with him while he's in drag but... as soon as he's even partially out of it she freezes up and freaks out.  It's only until after he gives her a stylish make over that she's comfortable around people. {Partially due to her glasses being off so she can't really see.}
     By chance Kuranosuke's older brother Shu see's Tsukimi at their home while in the "stylish" sense and falls in love with the girl.  For some reason he can't recognize her at all when she's in her normal outfit, not believing it's the same girl at all..  She eventually falls for Shuu as well and due to some black mailing bitch woman Tsukimi's feelings get hurt and confused and all those strange emotions.
      While attempting to save the apartment complex from being sold, Tsukimi first makes hand made Jellyfish and sells them at some Peddlers type market and then soon after. Remembering what her mother said about a wedding dress that looked like a Jellyfish she starts to make dresses out of Kuranosuke's mothers clothes.
       In the end, with a push from Kuranosuke the two of them and the others from Amar start a clothing line with dresses based on Jellyfish.

The Sides...

Shuu Koibuchi-  He's a clueless fellow really, Kuranosuke's older half brother who when much younger walked in on his father and Kura's mother doing things.  This scarred him for life, at his age he's still a virgin and sort of scared of girls in general.
       He starts to have feelings for the stylish Tsukimi, but before their relationship can take off a woman working with the land developer that's trying to tear down the apartments blackmails him into believing they had sex.  If he doesn't talk his politically charged father into backing the development she'd release pictures of the two of them.   Even though they never did anything at all.
       In the end it almost looks like he starts to have feelings for the woman instead of Tsukimi, it's very confusing or maybe just opened up Kuranosuke/Tsukimi.

The Women of Amamizukan Apartments...

Chieko-  The daughter of the owner of the apartment building, she manages the building while her mother is away.  She's always dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and makes tons of creepy dolls which she completely freaked out about when Kurako suggested they sell some of them.

Jiji-  A strange woman, she's obsessed with mature men.  Mature as in father complex type..

Mayaya- Awkwardly tall woman that's obsessed with some Record of the Three Kingdoms Anime... Manga.. Something....  She's quite the loud one unless there's a stylish around.

Banba-  She has an Afro!  She's also quite obsessed with trains and can judge the quality of meat just by looking at it.  Something the house calls Banba Scope!

Juon Mejiro- She's a popular yaoi manga writer that lives in the apartments, never or rarely leaving her room. The other women of the building communicate with her by slipping notes under the door. Oddly enough, she hates men to an extreme....


The End-  Chieko's mother decides not to sell the apartments, Tsukimi has her own line of clothing called "Jellyfish" and Kurako is her model.  Shuu still has his hands full with his no longer black mailing bitch which I forgot her name, but yea...   Happy Ending?
      Kind of a sucky ending, you don't really get to see if Kuranosuke ever sees his mother again or if he ever realizes that he's falling in love with Tsukimi.  You really don't know what happens with Shuu and the other woman... The only thing you know is the Amamizukan Apartments are safe for now.
      It was fun while it lasted though.  Needs More Episodes!

Kura & His Uncle

Galilei Donna

Episodes:   11

How:   CrunchyRoll

Grade:  C-

Summary:    Three sisters, Hozuki, Kazuki, and Hazuki, are descendants of Galileo and have completely different personalities and tastes; they never meet eye-to-eye. One day, the girls are suddenly attacked by a mysterious organization. The organization was after the "Galileo Tesoro" which Galileo Galilei was said to have discovered. Still unaware of what was going on, the sisters escape on the airship they built after the sudden attack. But it won't be so easy for these three sisters to help each other out in a pinch when they're constantly at odds with each other. What is the Tesoro, and what is the organization after? And what about the relationship between the sisters? It's a threesome of cute girls, action, and mystery!


Thoughts:   The only reason I watched this show was for the gigantic goldfish airship. Yes, that's the only reason. Goldfish, Goldfish, everywhere in this show.  It was a bit entertaining and actually had what could have been a fairly good story line, but all of that went out the window the further into the show I got...
      It only gets a C- because part of the show was rather enjoyable, if you don't think about it too much. The speedy conclusion to the show really, really ruined it.


Who we have....



Hozuki Ferrari- The youngest of the three sisters, she's pretty much the main character of the show having been the one who found and built all the Galileo stuff. She's oddly the person who Galileo is talking about in his love letters on the moon sketches....

Hazuki Ferrari- The eldest sister, she's extremely protective of her younger siblings and is bit crazy. She's studying law in university and tends to go into rants when she feels the laws are being broken and such.
      She's actually fairly useless till the end of the show when the three girls are on trial for their "crimes", her lawyerish background comes into play and she sort of saves the day.  Sort of.


Kazuki Ferrari- The middle child, she's the epitome of a middle child. Useless. That was mean, but hey... She frequently looks at the image of some guy on her cell phone, this guy is never given a name or even a reason why he's there.  I can only assume she has a crush on him.
         At the end during her trial he's in the audience and she finally gets over her crush on him.
 Kazuki also freaks out quite a bit, wanting to get out of their situation by any means possible. Freak Out, Don't wanna die, BlahBlahBlah.


Anna Hendrix-  She's a Galileo Maniac, obsessed with his works and is also looking to find the Tesoro. At first it seems like she's on the girls side, helping Hozuki rescue her sisters from the crooked police and aiding them in trekking down the moon sketches.
     Anna is actually working for Roberto, seemingly having a crush on the crazy man. She's always feeding him information and then finally leads him to where they are so that he may get the Tesoro, Moon sketches and the girls.
     As with most people in this situation, she learns the errors of her ways and comes back around.. helping the girls with the trial and such.


Cicinho-  This guy could have been awesome, he's an air pirate captain type deal and he and his crew are after the Galileo Tesoro. Stalking the girls all over the place, he saves them from the bad guys on multiple occasions.
    Oh what could have been with this character, falls short. He does come in handy at the end while dressed up as a fake lawyer to defend the girls.
     He has this huge crush on Hazuki, calling her his bambina which just sounds silly since he's speaking Japanese except for that one word...

Sylvia Ferrari-  The girls mother, she pretends to have Amnesia so that she can steal information from the Adonimoon Company where she works.  The company has been stealing their own fuel and such to make the price go up...

Geshio Ferrari- The girls father, looks sort of like a hippy. He's apparently an aviation and space engineer and works at a University.

Roberto Materazzi-  This dude's an asshole, but after episode six it's sort of obvious why he's such an asshole. Roberto had very loving, kind parents that would give people on the streets their food and make less for themselves in the process... Until one day his parents died during some sort of bombings.
     Young Roberto ran out into the streets to find help in getting a giant piece of rubble off his father, but no one would help him.  Even the same men that his father had once fed while they were hungry..
    Later on, in what looks to be a hospital.. Roberto is adopted by the head of Adonimoon Company. This is why he's after the girls, he wants the Tesoro just like everyone else. The company wants the unlimited power that the Tesoro could give..
 

Grande Rosso- The greatest character in the show! Well, sort of character. It's the AI Goldfish of the Air Ship.  It tends to be comic relief from time to time...



The End:   Uhg, what an awful ending.  It was like the show was on a steady decline from about episode six onwards.  Once Hozuki went back in time to have some strange great-great-grandpa crush the show was just dead...  I mean come on.
       Then at the end when Roberto shows up and shoots his adoptive father, what the hell is with that?  No explanation.  He just kills him and gets arrested.  I guess it's nice that the girls did find the final moon sketch and the recipe for the energy source... but... Yea.  What a terrible way for this show to end up...
   So it seems, It was supposed to be a two tier show and Aniplex decided to cut it short.. Guess it wasn't getting enough attention?  This of course is the reason for the speedy, terrible ending.

Outbreak Company

Episodes:  12

How:  CrunchyRoll

Grade:  D

Summary:  {From MAL} Having a light novel author father and an eroge illustrator mother, Kanou Shinichi is a thoroughbred otaku. However he does not have any special power except for his broad knowledge, sharp insight, and impeccable instinct about "MOE" and its products, from manga to anime to games to light novel to figures. One day he found himself transported to a fantasy world where elves live and dragons fly. And he is given a task—not to fight monster or embark on a quest, but to enhance cultural exchange by becoming a "moe missionary" in this fantasy world! He meets a palace guard who has a bit of fujoshi taste, a half-elf maid, and the empress who is a little girl. He comes up with the idea of building a school. At first it runs as a comedy but later there are serious matters that Shinichi needs to face: ethnic discrimination, social problems, conflict with neighboring countries, sabotage by opposition elements including Japanese government, etc. Can he overcome the obstacles, successfully bring "moe" culture to the fantasy world, and help the people there as well?


Thoughts:  Although this show was fairly entertaining, it was incredibly stupid. The Japanese government is trying to make relations with an alternate dimension in which they accidentally found a "portal" to off in the middle of nowhere. Their idea?
     To send an Otaku to the new world and have him introduce them to Anime/Manga/Games as entertainment. This will show the people of this world that the Japanese are good and...yaddayadda.
    The idea of it is ridiculous and the twist at the end is just as much so.... Lets face it. Most the people over in this new world are exactly what the characters in the Anime/Manga are like so..yea..

Who we have...


Shinichi Kanou - The main character, at the beginning of the show he fills out an application of sorts for a job somewhere in Akihabara. Instead, he's hired and abducted by the government to act as a liaison or sorts between the Japanese and the parallel universe that they so happened up on.
     His job?   To spread the Otaku Culture through these new magic filled lands populated with elves, dwarfs, dragons and such.  He gets a sweet mansion to live in and his own lovely half elven maid, the government will supply him with whatever anime/manga/games he needs..  What do they say though?  When it's too good to be true, it probably is.
      He befriends many of the new worlds residents while teaching the Otaku lifestyle, mainly females of course with a male thrown in here and there.

Minori Koganuma-  A member of the Japanese Military, her job is to help Shinichi with his task to spread the Otaku Culture.  She too is a bit of an Otaku,  she's a YAOI Fangirl who seems to be trying to get Shinichi and Galious together.
        Once the actual plan the government has is revealed she takes Shinichi's side in things, risking her own life since she too has no one back in Japan that would miss her if something should happen.

Petralka Anne Eldante III -  The young {16} Empress of the Eldant Empire, she looks and acts much younger then she actually is and that her rank requires. Somehow she's the Empress though, she gained the Throne at such a young age because her parents and uncle killed one another to get the Throne.
      She's quite curious about the Otaku culture and Shinichi in general, seemingly having a crush on him she gets jealous of Myucel  frequently and attempts to out do her in learning Japanese.

Myucel Foaran - Shinichi's half elven maid, she's extremely skilled with offensive magic which can be seen a couple times during the series.  She can't read/write so Shinichi teachers her Japanese that she may read the Manga and speak the language.
      She too falls in love with Shinichi, since he treats her as an equal unlike basically everyone else.

Elvia Hanhaiman-  She's a werewolf and a great artist, Shinichi takes her in as his personal artist after she's caught "spying" on the Eldant Empire.

Galious En Koldobar -   Petralka's cousin, at first he's against allowing Shinichi to teach the Otaku Culture to the people but... Minori introduces him to BL Manga and he's taken quite a liking to it...  and Shinichi.  Everyone loves Shinichi!










The End:  This is where it gets pretty stupid, the reason that the military wanted the Otaku culture to be spread around Eldant is that it may control it's citizens. Once Shinichi gets them hooked, the Japanese military could start holding back on the product until their demands were met.
         Dumb.
  Shinichi is disgusted by this and falls into a depression until Myucel pulls him out of it and he comes up with a solution.  Eldants people can start making their own Entertainment!  This pisses the Military off to no end and they attempt to have Shinichi killed.
     He brings the plans to the Petralka's attention and they, her advisers and such come up with a plan that allows him to continue teaching the Otaku culture with the Japanese governments help.  Something on the terms of you help us, we'll help you and stuff.
    The show was stupid, but entertaining.

Super Maids! The Empress Guards.

Eden of the East - The King of Eden & Paradise Lost

Episodes:  2 Movies.

How:  Netflix {stream}

Grade:  C

Summary: {From MAL} King of Eden -  Takizawa prevented Japan's destruction - and then he vanished. Six months later, clues lead Saki to the Big Apple in search of her missing friend. Meanwhile, the remaining Selecao are plotting their final move. Some of them would prefer Takizawa dead and out of the way. Some might even be willing to help him achieve his goals. Unfortunately, some are prepared to destroy everything if it means claiming checkmate in Mr. Outside's puzzling game.

Paradise Lost -  The story of political and subversive intrigue in the series finally reaches endgame. Even as the law enforcement net tightens around Saki and her fellow Eden of the East associates over alleged terrorist activities, the complex web surrounding the mysterious Mr. Outside is finally untangled as the remaining Selecao attempt to outmaneuver one another. Takizawa's memories and identity are also finally revealed including his association with a former Prime Minister and his request to be the King of Eden.

How it went down and thoughts...

It's six months later, some things have changed in Japan; but not enough.  Edens people, Saki and the Neets were all held and questioned by the police about the "Air King" and the Missle Attacks. Most of them knew next to nothing and were let go.
      Eden is now a small business, Panties has some Pants now and is actually working with the Eden Group and Saki is... well... looking for Akira. A log entry points to New York and off she goes, having a bit of gun troubles once again thanks to the other Selecao she finally finds the clueless Akira near Ground Zero.
      It doesn't take much for him to believe her insane story, his memories seemingly coming back quite quickly this time. Of course it probably didn't hurt that Selecao 6 was attempting to kill the two of them while trying to make a "Movie" by blowing up his apartment. The only reason the two survived was that Selecao 11/Kuroha had been watching over Akira for most this time.
     Kuroha is actually there on behalf of Iinuma's Widow, she wants Akira to come back to Japan so that it may be made clear if he truly is the Prime Ministers bastard son. Oh, yea.. Juiz had changed Akira's name to Iinuma so that his wish to become "King" could be fulfilled. At the airport however, it's noticed that Number 1 had started to make moves again...
     Mononobe is sending missiles after the Juiz Trucks, first taking out 12, then 2's {Tsugis} trucks and then finally Kuroha moves her truck into position to be the third target. Without her phone she's out of the game so, she lets Saki go to Japan with Akira.. and that's where the first movie ends.
    During the time in New York there'd been a bit of drama with Eden, the cops poking around them due to Mononobe being in a high position and Juiz actually using Eden to find and wipe out any and all existence of Akira Takizawa.. This causes the Eden Group to shut Eden down and move back to their college club room.
                       Start Movie Two.
     Iinuma's wife and her minions meet Akira at the airport, they have no interest in Saki and just take or attempt to take Akira back to her house. It's a bit of a bugger trying to get out of the airport though since it was somehow leaked that he was coming back to Japan and the pissed off NEETS are also there to welcome him.
     Akira has other things to do though, so he talks one of the NEETS he happened to bump into in the bathroom into taking his place {by hiding his face} and going with Iinuma's wife.
   

     Points from here on out...

- Akira jacks his own Juiz truck as Number 1 has his own Truck stolen, he keeps his Juiz as close to Number 1's as possible so that he can't blow up Akira's truck without blowing up his own. He meets up with the Eden group when the driver for Juiz 1 stops for a break and gets "Sis" to steal Juiz 1, since she's the only other person who can drive that sort of truck.
     Sis then follows Akira to Mrs. Iinuma's house. Once there he goes inside and has a chat with Chigusa {Mrs Iinuma} who is a bit pissed that he ran off earlier. Not long after he arrives Number 1 shows up and the two of them have a private chat, Number 1 wants Akira to drop out of the game so that Number 1 can win.  Akira won't.
       Akira ends up sending out another message through the entirety of Japan, a message that he pretends to be a terrorist again and gives the ultimatum to change how Japan's old people handle things, let the young people give it a try...blahblah.  Then he gives everyone 1 Coin via bank transfers and... that's it.
      Mr. Ato is impressed and decides to end the game, all of them are winners!  He then gives all the Selecao's a gift of a memory wipe... all but Akira since he's done it too many times all ready.

-Saki....Saki... During most of this movie she's with Osugi hunting down Akira's mother.  That's apparently where the little dog came from, on Careless Monday Akira runs into this woman that he believes to be his mother.  She must have recognized him as her son since she ran off and left her dog...
    Saki uses Eden to find if anyone was looking for a dog and, tada... found the woman.  She denies it adamantly, but gives herself away with pictures of herself and Mr. Iinuma in NY and the fact she knows how much money she gave Akira before she left him alone in the ice cream parlor.
     Denying is to the end, the woman does get her dog back though.  Saki shows up at Iinuma's house near the end to tell Akira of her findings...and apparently to say goodbye again because he RAN OFF! Uhg.

- Hirasawa, you played a bigger roll this time. He goes after Saizo Ato or Mr Outside when there are updates on the phone pointing to where he may be.  Turns out that Mr Outside is a cab driver, a hobby maybe?   Hirasawa gets in his cab and they have a chat, seems Mr. Outside found most the Selecau while operating the cab.  He'd ask his passengers what they'd do if someone gave them a lot of money and told them to fix the country.... he chose those with answers he liked the most.
     Except Akira, he was just a paper boy who Mr. Outside bought a paper from. What words of wisdom did this young boy impart on the old man?  I forget.  It was enough to make Outside believe he was worthy of being a Selecao though.


The End:  Well, it only moderately sucked. With Akira's broadcast the NEETs took over his old Mall home and made it into a giant bazaar of sorts. All the NEETs selling different wares and such.  Eden shut down to help the NEETs , but it's apparently back up and running.   Akira, he ran off again.. no lovelove ending here. He promise he'd come back, but yea.. You don't see it.
      You do see Akira finally meeting Mr. Ato though, he gets into his taxi and they have a chat... he also wacks the old man.  Then they drive off together.


Final:  These two movies were nowhere near as enjoyable as the TV Series itself, actually... I'd probably be better off if I had just not watched the movies at all.  Oh well.   The series as a whole is certainly not on my "Buy" list, not that much stuff is.
    

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.