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.

Review: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

It’s the “Mane Six”, only in… human form? Early leaks and promotional info was met with great suspicion and doubt within the MLP community — and still is, since many in the fandom are waiting until it premiers on The Hub in September. Equestria Girls is perhaps the black sheep (black pony? is that too racist?) of the series so far in that while it purports to exist within the same continuity (in fact, it picks up right where season three ends), it remains to be seen if the humanized stuff will be used again, incorporated into later seasons, or if this really was just a one-trick pony of a spin-off. Either way, it is the theatrical debut of the latest generation and that comes with a certain amount of extra scrutiny, regardless of any humanoid gimmicks. Does it hold up on its own? Is the humanoid stuff too weird? Is it, well… good?

Anime Review: Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai: Under the Innocent Sky

As much as I am disgusted with the increasing regularity of vapid and masturbatory male-fantasy fanservice employed in more and more anime these days (especially those that spawn from visual/light novel adaptations), I don’t think it is automatically bad. Rather, it has the potential to be sexy, fun, and exciting. Rarely is that ever the case. Indeed, what you usually get is dumb, unrealistic, and demeaning to women, replacing any hope of true eroticism with face-palming juvenile indulgences*. As it turns out, that is precisely what plagues We, Without Wings, another victim of the can’t-make-up-its-mind club.

Anime Review: Angel Beats!

For a show that garners such universal acclaim, I had perhaps worked up a bit too much hope for Angel Beats! before finally sitting down to watch it. I try very hard to resist even looking at much marketing/hype stuff because I genuinely want to give shows a fair shot — at least, as much as I am able. I don’t think I was particularly all that enthused, though; rather, it was simply that the constant praise and gushing accolades heaped upon the show since its airing had not gone unnoticed to me over the months. Countless people had chimed in to say it was their favorite show, on their top 5 or top 10 lists, or “I didn’t really care about anime until I saw Angel Beats!”

Clearly, Angel Beats! must possess that rare quality, right? I figured I should, eventually, see what all the commotion was about.