Review: Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

aka Daily Lives of High School Boys

Studio: Sunrise

Author: Yasunobu Yamauchi

There's not much to say about this show since it has no plot and the main point of Danshiko is self-explanatory. Why am I attracted to this show more than Nichijou is because the characters are boys and when they do video game/anime reference I can relate to them more. Why I love this show is because it's funny as hell.

Sometimes what you watch is like a waste of time, but it's worth the laugh. Perhaps if they're girls doing silly things I'd be more inclined to drop it in the garbage. I love it best when they do their 'role plays' - it kinda reminds me of my childhood (not that I am a tomboy)

They have subplots like "Literature Girl", student council, each of the character's sisters etc. But I gotta say the most annoying characters in Danshiko are the girls, especially those in the High School Girls are Funky segment. As a girl myself, and from girls school, I kinda doubt girls do such things cos I really can't relate to it (perhaps its due to the fact that I was more antisocial back then).

I'm highly recommending this anime if you're looking for something light and something to cheer you up. If you happen to have quit or bored of anime, or not even an anime fan, you should give this a try! :3

Review: Level E

Kiss me.. k-k-kiss me. Infect me with you love and fill me with your poison~

[Please be mindful of spoilers]

[image does not belong to me]

Level E, is about… Extra Terrestrials living on Earth disguised as humans. Ironically, most of these aliens are harmless and the aliens have many different races. The story starts off with a guy who switches school to train baseball there and met a strange blonde bishounen in his new apartment (OMG BL!). He also befriends a plain looking girl next door who is a daughter of an alien scientist. Apparently, some people are looking for the strange blonde guy who is actually an alien prince. The baseball guy reluctantly tries his best to protect the mischievous blonde alien from being recaptured.

["Ehh nande~?"]

Now I don’t really fancy alien looking exactly like humans, but I guess Baka Ouji is an exception *winks* (Plus it’s Namikawa Daisuke!)

The first episode ends with a suspense… the moment 2nd episode starts FARK TROLL! Then more trolling happens until the third episode… where we’d get slammed with an epic TROLOLOLOLOLOLOL scene.

[puppets that served no purpose]

Unfortunately, the rest of the episodes lost its epicness as the trolling keeps getting more and more boring. But I’m particularly interested with the colour rangers (no not because of the boys of course~) and they had to go into a video game setting to fight evil! But still it was depleting.

[COLOUR RANGERSSS]

Then comes the last 2 episodes… here I thought things are getting serious and the plotless anime of randomness finally has a plot (and climax)! It was intense! And I was finally about to believe that the aliens are indeed gonna harm our dear planet Earth but I BELIEVED in the alien prince. I believed he could find his way out with his genius mind but but but-

HE GOT COUNTER TROLLED!!!

The ending truly makes up for its mid downfall.

Moral of the story, aliens are trolls… or trolls are indeed aliens!

Ok there wasn’t really a specific story. It’s just full of trollfest. I heard the manga is better but there’s TL;DR text.

Review: Occult Academy (anime)

This goes way back to the year 1999, and there’s actually a school known as the Occult Academy due to its history of having occult stuff happening around it. One day a teenage girl returns to the Academy to take her deceased father’s place as a principal, and somehow ended up dealing with a ‘zombie’ of her father. Once that is over, a naked man descended from the heavens claiming that he came from the future just to change something in the past in order to prevent the alien invasion predicted to happen in 21 July 1999.

God, I remember nothing of 1999 that I can relate whatever I've seen in this show. I remember fangirling to NSYNC and such... anyhow, here are the protagonists:

Maya Kumashiro – is the daughter of the former principal of Occult Academy, who died and she returned to the school to take his place as a principal while spitting her absolute hatred towards occult. In spite of being a teenager, she’s quite capable of organizing school matters with the help of a smitten secretary. She plans to get rid of the occult culture of the school, yet no matter how much she despises the supernatural, she’s the most knowledgeable about the espers. Geez 2010 sure spawned a lot of tsundere.

Fumiaki Uchida (aka Bunmei aka Abe Minoru) – The man who came all the way from the post-apocalypse future whose mission is to find the Nostradamus Key and destroy it. That way he can change the prophecy made my Nostradamus, where it is predicted that something from the sky is coming to attack earth. When he was a child, he used to be a child celebrity who can bend spoons. He disguises as the history teacher and developed a shallow attraction towards a waitress at a local restaurant.

[supporting characters whom I don't remember much except for the giant wrench and portable keyboard... and also their attempt to troll Maya involving aliens]

Occult Academy made good use of the Nostradamus Prophecy and "2012". The latter disturbs me a bit, and I never like the idea of time travelling and changing history. That aside, I enjoyed looking at the various supernatural things that appear in each episode. You have mothman, chupacabra, aliens and even white/black mages (that’s as far as I can remember). Not to forget the ‘near death’ experience episode, which was rather a different way for the character to tell the truth about himself and reveal his back story.

The character development is really impressive for a series that have only 13 episodes. It was annoying to see Bunmei getting all aroused towards that waitress b1tch, who became a recurring character and emerged as a quite important character in the end. Bunmei was initially just another useless male character to compare with the strong and intelligent Maya, but he had a rather heroic end :3. Maya on the other hand, started off as tsuntsun and genuinely hated the occult as well as that useless time agent. But after the near death experience episode, she began to understand him and opened up to him, as she realized how much alike they were. Not only that, her relationship development with other characters, more particularly her father and her childhood friend, is a great lesson for us *__*

But the main highlight of the show is not the occult stuff, but the comedic elements and how excessively crazy it can get. Especially THE FINAL BATTLE. Oh my God what the helllll!!?? It’s not what I call ‘worthy’ but yes, it’s an enjoyable show nonetheless. And I still dislike the idea of time travelling.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the OP and ED. As for the seiyuu, can you believe Maya is also Mio (K-On)? D:

Review: Arakawa Under the Bridge

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

another late review. I'm so sorry but I'm on a roll now. I'm slowly closing in to the newer animes. Let me finish of my Spring 2010 first. No worries, I'm not otaku enough to watch every single anime that spawns every season.

Arakawa Under the Bridge revolves around delusional homeless people that lives along the Arakawa river (in Japan), and not too far from a particular bridge where the literally independent Kou Ichinomiya had his pants stolen. His perfect high class life as a son of a big company turns upside down when he had to become a resident of the 'village' after he was saved from being drowned by a self-proclaimed alien from Venus. This is due to his family policy of not being in debt to anyone (or else ASTHMA ATTACK), therefore he had to somehow repay the kind Venusian by becoming her lover.

The folks along the Arakawa river is not your average hobos. They're perhaps weirder than the patients in mental hospital, cos they somehow have a bit of sanity... or maybe they seem to have escaped from a mental hospital:

1. Recruit, aka Kou Ichinomiya is the man with the highest common sense and is most likely because he's a newbie. In spite of that, he's quick to accept challenges no matter how strange it is because of his ego. And he looks weirder than a clown doing those weird things in his white shirt and tie.

2. Nino, the kind Venusian who likes to fish whose name was taken from her PE clothing badge. She requests Recruit to become her lover when he insisted on repaying her good deed, but she has no idea what 'love' is really like... so expect some funny misunderstood moments involving this blonde bishoujo :3

[when the heroine saves the hero!]

3. Soncho, a man in a kappa suit... wait, he IS a kappa! My bad. He lives an immortal life and that's why he is seen as the mayor. He's responsible for giving people new names, and NO objections unless he is cool with it. And also the one organizing events, although he ends up slacking off.

4. Hoshi is the resident musician wearing a STAR mask (note that "hoshi" means "star" in Japanese) but his lyrics are lamer than those faggot Malay songs. He harbours feelings for Nino, and thus making Kou his archrival - and it's always my favourite part seeing them quarrel!

[history of Hoshi in a nutshell]

5. Sister first thing I love about him is the seiyuu (Takehito Koyasu :D), next thing is that he isn't ashamed to be dressed in a nun's costume. He's the resident preacher-cum-trainer of the village, and his teachings are obviously of another f*cked up religion. And I'm not making a typo calling Sister a "he". Just imagine a 100 times manlier version of Bridget (Guilty Gear).
6. Maria is a farmer who keeps all the milk sources for the villagers. Yeah it's a wonder why there are cows and sheep legally kept by the river. But don't be fooled by her pleasant looks, as her mouth holds a truckload of sarcasm. And THAT makes her my favourite!
7. Shiro a man who likes to walk on white lines. He brings around a white painter (the one used to paint on roads) so that he can walk on white things. If you wanna know why he's like this, you might wanna try watching u_u
8. P-Ko and I thought keeping cows by the river is strange... well, growing vegetables doesn't seem that strange but yea. She specially grows different veggies for her favourite people in her farm, especially cucumbers. Do you know what creature loves cucumber?? Almost forgot to mention that she's the Queen of clumsiness (yet one wonders how she rides the bike)
9. Metal Brothers are self proclaimed psychics and wear metal masks in fear of being tracked down by the military. They're always together and for some reason submit themselves to a little girl. Not so important, not even attractive in terms of shota =/
10. Stella is appeared as though she's Sister's foster daughter. A loli but not the kind of moe you moe-tard wants. Too bad she has a 'secret power' that destroys her cute image. Her desire to be strong is to impress Sister to the point she became an 'aniki' even to people older than her.

Save the other characters for the second season. They appear less in the first.

There isn't a definite plot in this anime, but it's just showing how a man who grew up in a family that prioritize perfection had to deal with people different from his society. And it's not about dealing with poor people, but with a bunch of weirdos living by the river... and not just his fish loving girlfriend. To be honest, I got sick of Kou still not being able to accept the weirdness of the people and culture. If I were him I'd just play along, but you see, he has his Ichinomiya family pride to uphold. Yet what makes me love this show is that how the jokes are easily comprehensive for a non-Japanese, as i know some shows likes to use too much puns and culture spoof that is hard to absorb even with subs. I have to say that I never had thoughts of dropping this anime is to see the character's pasts, but alas, there weren't much. A good reason to look forward to season 2 ne? (wait for the review then)

[imagine coming across this guy while walking by a river]

Now it's seiyuu's turn :3
Other than Takehito Koyasu as Sister, I'm delighted to hear Maaya Sakamoto acting as Nino. And also Miyuki Sawashiro not because of Maria, but her jazzy score for a special OP entitled "Think of a title yourself!". I don't really fancy the OP though it can be stuck in your head after a few episodes, but the ED. OH MY GOD the ED can make me cry (after knowing the translated lyrics). DO LISTEN: "Sakasama Bridge" by Suneohair

Arakawa Under the Bridge is one of the few animes which has an appealing and memorable background music. I dunno about you guys, but I like a few tracks like “Arakawa Ippatsu Taikai” and there's another one that seems to be missing from the album I downloaded *swt*

Well at least these hobos don't beg around the streets of Tokyo.

Review: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

I realized that it's about a year since Baka To Test to Shoukanjuu aired (short BakaTest), but I'm always late when it comes to reviews. Just don't give a fark, I just feel like writing. Anyway, before you start reading... I'm gonna have to warn you that it's a goddamn lame review :(

[disclaimer: image does not belong to me]

Studio: Silver Link
Original Author: Kenji Inoue
Literal meaning: Idiots and Tests and Summoned Beings

As the image shows, it's about a school life. And it's not an ordinary school life either cos in this school you can actually summon a chibi version of yourself to battle with others. But it's not easy to simply summon them, cos in order to have high Health Points (HP) and strong Attack Points you need to get high marks in your tests. And the story mostly revolves around the idiots of F class.

Of course, if the author had picked the A class students there wouldn't be any story, would it? Nah Special A can make it happen, and people from other classes worship them like gods. While the A class students in BakaTest are portrayed as arrogant b1tches.

Here's brief description on our beloved idiots:
1. Akihisa Yoshii - the protagonist and the main idiot of the story. He's not such a bad guy really, but IMO he needs to work a little harder. I mean, he's not THAT dumb when it comes to friendship and all. Well at least he knows how to cook.

2. Mizuki Himeji - Supposed to be in A class, but she was sick during a test that caused her to fail and be thrown into F class. When given a chance to retake a test to transfer into A class, she purposedly failed cos she wanted to stick to the F class just because the guy she likes is there. Stupid ne? Moreover, she fell in love with the guy who happened to be kind to her when she fainted. Pfff anybody could have done that! Double stupid.

3. Yuuji Sakamoto - The class representative. He's also supposedly a smart guy, but he's lazy so that's why he's in F. Doesn't really give a sh1t about being in that class either. That yandere who's obsessed with him is his childhood friend, but he is not comfortable with it. Probably cos he's gay with Yoshii.

4. Minami Shimada - An extremely abusive tsundere who has inferiority complex about her flat chest. After many years of staying in Germany, she has problems reading kanji, thus her most powerful subject is math. For some reason, she also likes the idiot Himeji likes. WHY AHH?? Anyways, unlike most typical tsunderes, she is a good cook! *_*

5. Kouta Tsuchiya - aka Muttsurini, the most perverted character in BakaTest and is not ashamed to display his perverted actions. His hobby is photography... ahem... "photography". His trademark is his tendacy to nosebleed, and his best subject is Health Education... unlucky for him not 'practically' yet.

5. Hideyoshi Kinoshita - THIS. IS. THE. LIMELIGHT. OF BAKATEST! For the first time I'm seeing moe-tards being gay over a guy. To be honest I love traps, Hideyoshi is one of my top 10 but not top 3, and he ain't the most appealing trap to me. It's funny that, he's one of the F class students while his twin sister is in A class. Though he isn't as smart as the latter, his acting skills is a great weapon to start a havoc between classes :3

And for those who have not seen him DON'T YOU DARE GOOGLE HIS IMAGE 8D.

(kinda wish he's in ISML)

The rest of the characters are from different classes, go watch the anime if you're curious about them. They're just as funny as these idiots!

[shoukanjuu DO WANT!]

Now then, as I watched this anime, I was reminded by my secondary school days. There wasn't any obvious conflict between classes, but I was aware that the lower grade classes see the upper classes as somewhat arrogant. In turn, the geniuses see them as... well, idiots. I can't remember how exactly I felt; I was in A class for long but I had a friend from each of the other classes. But one thing I remember is that, just like the classes in BakaTest, the classroom condition improves from F to A. The last two years of my school life, the top classes have their own personal classrooms, so we did not have to worry about the evening session stealing our belongings left in the desks.

Back to the story. Can't remember much though. I remember thinking "Why the hell am I watching this??" In the end I was more attracted to the theme used. Not only because of the video game influence, but also how universal it was. I mean, in one anime you can see a mixture of various stereotypes; Tsundere, yandere, trap... yaoi, yuri, brother complex, imouto-type etc, and all of them were non-canon but portrayed in a sarcastic way (at least, that was how I felt). That was actually the main reason why i liked BakaTest. Didn't regret picking it up. For those who have not, please watch this if you want something for teh lulz.

Not into the OP much but the EDs are LOVE. The sequences as well. Speaking of ED, I keep forgetting to download Baka go Home!

[oh yeah and imo Akihisa Yoshii as dress is cuter than Hideyoshi kthxbai. ]

Last but not least, "life is not all about grades" :3