Anime Review: Tonari no Seki-kun

As someone who, generally speaking, detested school and the many thousands of hours I spent waiting for the bell to ring, I can sympathize with the desire to zone out and just doodle or whatever to pass the time. Of course, in my case that’s about as far as it went; I never did try to sneak in comic books or food or even a Walkman. (Yes, I said a Walkman. Look it up if you’re that young.) Maybe I just didn’t have appropriately sized balls or simply the requisite “fuck it” attitude. And I’m not sayin’ you should do those things… but I understand.

Anime Review: Miss Monochrome

I have been a long, long time fan of Horie Yui ever since seeing (and obsessing over) Love Hina so many years ago. She’s delightfully talented in both speaking and singing roles and she’s managed to maintain that for well over a decade now (though even her great talent can’t save some series). So when I heard she was pushing to produce a short series on an original character of her own I was definitely curious. It’s rare that the world is bestowed with triple-threats like the too-charming Justin Timberlake but they do happen so… maybe Miss Horie is good at character design and synopsis too? Hell, she’s been in the biz long enough to see what works and doesn’t work, right?

Anime Review: Kaitou Reinya

As an anime and weirdo Japanophile who’s a bit long in the tooth I’ve been around the JPop block long enough. Even so, while I have long had a cursory knowledge of its existence, I can’t say that I’ve ever shown any genuine interest in Morning Musume. I thought it was a TV show for the longest time and apparently it is closer to the more recently popular AKB48, though I’m almost certain I am probably oversimplifying things and making some Momusu nerd cry somewhere. That said, when a former member (or is it current? I have no idea, they’ve churned through more members than Jenna Jameson) does a weird comedy spin-off animated short thing, well… I’m not really sure what to think because any notoriety or novelty is largely lost on me.