Anime Reviews: Dragon Half, Gunsmith Cats, Time of Eve, Little Witch Academia

Wherein I review a pair of old-school series, a new-school series, and an OVA that wonderfully mixes old and new styles.

Anime Review: Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.

I frequently bemoan the over-saturated and generic “high school setting” in anime, especially because it seems like easily half if not more of all shows tend to fall into this category. I understand that partly it is an audience identity thing, target demographics, and familiarity. But I don’t mind if things otherwise work well despite the lack of an original setting. Oregairu has just enough skill and style that it manages to be a lot better than it seems on the surface. It is far from perfect, suffering from a short broadcast of one cour, but what’s there is enjoyable and just refreshing enough to overcome a lot of its problems. Excellent writing and a good, tight cast of characters help make this one stand out from the myriad other high-school rom-coms.

Anime Review: Working!!

Slice-of-life shows like this are always difficult to review. They tend to attract statements like “funny, really enjoyable, and surprisingly earnest”; but rarely anything specific because it isn’t easy to put your finger on exactly what’s clicking with a show, yet you know it nonetheless. Certainly it is the great cast, the witty dialogue, excellent delivery and timing, and the rhyme and recall of jokes and themes. And yet, it’s more than that even, because behind all of that is a show that manages to have small, but real, progression. When it would be too easy to keep things static, characters and their relationships do show changes over the course of two seasons’ worth. This is important, as, like shows in the US such as The Office, it manages to give a solid core, or “heart”, to an already delicious outer casing.